Appletell

We all suspected that Mac OS X would one day support a multi-touch interface, similar to the iPhone’s - but not from a third party company. Lux is currently an experimental framework that brings multi-touch in full screen to Mac OS X. Christian Moore has managed to get this entire multi-touch system running on Apple’s low-end MacBook laptop. He claims that his framework can in fact run on any platform. The gesture recognition and animation of the interface are comparable to that of Jeff Han or the Microsoft Surface. Lux is scheduled to go public in June. See the video after the jump.

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GhostReader, a nifty text-to-voice conversion software has been updated with the 1.5 release for the Mac OS X. The new release added some natural-sounding Czech, Polish, Swedish and Finish voices as well as some enhancements to the existing voices that the software has. In addition, a pronunciation editor was also introduced to help in modifying/editing the way a word is pronounced, including abbreviations. Even more sweet is the software’s ability to directly export documents to iTunes.

Additionally, the GhostReader 1.5 is now compatible with DOCX and ODT documents. The export to iTunes features also runs in the background, so you won’t get disturbed while doing other things. Aside from these, GhostReader 1.5 is now more responsive when you are speaking selected text and it even works in floating windows now.

If you’re a registered user of the previous version of the GhostReader, you can upgrade to the 1.5 release for free, while those who will use the software for the first in their Macs will need to shell out $39.95. The software works with Macs running OS X v10.4 or later.

Via [Yahoo News] Product [GhostReader]

You may be familiar with Plasq’s popular Skitch screenshot-sharing application, and their comic book application: Comic Life (which was pre-installed on many Macs). Plasq have just released another amazing application called Comic Life Magiq. It sports a brand new interface, which aims to be more easy to use and even fun to use. This is not an update to the original Comic Life software that most of us are familiar with, but rather a “Pro” version of it - with more features and a newer-looking interface. Some of it’s unique features over Comic Life include: Professionally-designed templates and comic graphics, advanced object manipulation, Vector brushes, masking tools, a built-in image editor, and more.

I tried the demo myself and was very impressed by the user interface. It doesn’t feel like a typical Mac application, yet it works in a way that you can use it without prior knowledge - unlike Photoshop, for example, which can be frustrating for new users.

Comic Life Magiq can be purchased for the low price of $40, current owners of Comic Life can get a discount of $20 (includes Mac pre-installs). See Plasq’s official site for more details and a 30-day demo.

Via [MacUser]

Developed by Hanwang.com.cn, HWPen is a new third-party application availible for jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches.  This handwriting recognition app can understand both English and Chinese language input, but it is still in beta so I imagine more language support will be coming as it progresses.  You can find a full forum discussion about this app at modmyifone and can install it by adding “iphonecake.com/src/all” as a source on Installer.app.

I’m sure you all remember Apple’s infamous Newton product that came with handwriting recognition, and I’m guessing the service is a lot better on an iPhone than a Newton.  At least I hope so because I don’t think we want another Simpson’s episode about the iPhone.  Let us know what this application is like if you have installed it and whether or not it is worth downloading.

For those of you who couldn’t wait, VoIP is now available on the iPhone.  Coming from an Israeli startup, Fring can be downloaded via Installer.app on any Jailbroken iPhone.  This applications supports a variety of services, such as Skype, MSN Messenger, and AIM, making it perfect to help keep in contact with people.  TechCrunch has a nice video up and points out that due to the high amount of minutes on most phone plans, this app’s real strong point would be for international calls and IM on the go.  As you would expect, the VoIP only works with Wifi due to the amount and speed of data needed.  Right now it is still in beta, but the company points out, “The special pre-release version will enable iPhone users to get an early taste of fring and discover the freedom of being able to take their fring contacts and buddies from their other favorite online communities mobile on their iPhones.”

One part Apple may not like about this is the fact that the app is always on and connected to give the user real time feedback on their contact lists which goes against their no background processes policy.  However, since it comes from Installer.app, there isn’t much Apple can do.  If you have already downloaded this or plan on it, let us know how it is.  We’re interested in what the interface and call quality are like.

Would you use VoIP on you iPhone?

A while back, Cisco’s WebEx division (WebEx Meeting Center, WebEx WebOffice, etc) began to support Mac OS X.  Again, some more good news has arrived.  They will now be extending this support to not only Mac OS X Leopard, but Safari 3.1 as well.  Why?  Well, according to Ilan Kasaan, director of product management, “You can’t deny that the Apple Mac is becoming more prevalent in businesses; in fact, we have seen Mac usage double in last year.” Cisco is really driven on getting WebEx to work just as well for Macs as it does for the PC and has recently began paying close attention to multi-platform support.  This is definitely a step in the right direction.

With this added support users will experience, among other things, better sharing performance and increased launch speeds.  More specifically, there will be better VoIP sound quality when broadcasting and improved 3D animation in Keynote documents.  This division of Cisco has slowly been releasing new updates and improvements over the past few months with, hopefully, no intention to stop soon.  Keep it up guys!

Via [MacNN]

For those of you who missed out on the downloadable MacHeist Bundle, MacHeist recently announced that a hard-copy version will be for sale soon.  At MacHeist.com, there is a teaser video, showing a vault with the Bundle in it getting robbed, and a line at the end that tells you to buy it before the time runs out.  Below are more info on some of the apps with which I have had personal experience:

Cover Sutra:  When paired with iTunes, Cover Sutra acts as a control for your music from the Desktop.  You can customize its great UI to your preferences, making this a good looking, though fairly pointless, app all the better.

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The mEgg Hunt, “brings seasonal fun” where Mac users will surf a Mac developer’s site and try to find an egg. Once they find an egg they’ll receive a code towards 20% off the purchase of the software. The Easter mEgg Hunt just revealed the list of participants, so once you see them, get hunting! (Then reading Apple news)

Read the full list after the jump!

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According to a study done by Duke University and the University of Waterloo, it can.

The study, which is to be published in April, found that exposure to well-known brands, even for a second, can cause us to behave in ways similar to the traits of the companies. 341 students took part in the experiment which consisted of flashing either an IBM or Apple logo so quickly, that the research subject was unaware what logo they had just seen. They were then asked to list all the uses of a brick beyond building a wall. The results? The students who were shown the Apple logo came up with more unusual uses for the brick, as opposed to those shown the IBM logo.

If the researchers are correct in saying that we can be influenced by advertising even when we are not aware of the fact, these results are not surprising. Anyone who is reading this blog right now knows that Apple has long since associated itself with creativity, and innovation. IBM on the other hand is almost the opposite of Apple in brand recognition.

The whole article is an interesting read, and I’m sure there must be a way for us to use this sub-concious recognition to our advantage…

Read [PhysOrg]

Smile On My Mac has updated its PDFpen application to version 3.4. The new latest version brings a number of new improvements, including: The performance of adding imprints to large files, as well as speed the opening of documents within Mac OS X 10.4.11 and 10.5.x. Stability and speed in general has also increased in this version, along with a number of needed bug fixes. I discovered this app a few weeks ago, when I needed to edit a PDF document from UPS - it’s a very handy app if you need to do things like that - and don’t want to pay the huge price for Adobe Acrobat Professional.

PDFpen costs $50, and PDFpen Pro costs $95.