Appletell

iPresentee is at it again with more Keynote additions. This time, they have rolled out their new theme package, Motion Themes 2.0. For only $25, you can get these five new themes which iPresentee has named Money, Rain, Exercise Book, Story and Curtain.  However, you can also buy them individually for $10 a piece. The product description reads, “Each Keynote Motion Theme comes with 14 or more master slide layouts and 1024x768 pixels in size moving background graphics. Keynote Motion Themes contains everything you will need to create unforgettable presentation.”

Keynote Motion Themes 2.0 is the second group of templates iPresentee is offering for Keynote as they are already selling Keynote Motion Themes 1.0. Both of these packages require iWork ‘08 to be installed, and they can all be purchased at once for a price of $50. iPresentee offers a slew of Keynote and iWeb templates, themes, and objects, so be sure to check them out if you you want to help make your next presentation more appealing.

Product Page [Keynote Motion Themes 2.0]

iPresentee, a developer of add-ons for Apple’s iWork and iLife applications, has released free Keynote Objects, a package of images for Apple Keynote, iWeb and Pages. The package continas 100 easy to use Keynote Objects for decoration in iWeb websites, Keynote or PowerPoint presentations and Pages or Word documents.

All Keynote Objects contain background transparency, and can therefore be used on any colored background. Each image can be changed in size, rotated, increased or decreased in opacity, fitted with shadows or even overlapped with one another to create extra effects. 

Keynote Objects requires any Macintosh computer running Mac OS X with any version of Keynote, iWeb or Pages. They are also compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint and Word.

The kicker, of course, is that Keynote Objects is being offered free of charge. Samples and more information about Keynote Objects are available immediately at the iPresentee website

Product [Keynote Objects]

The Keynote may be the main attraction at WWDC, but there is always much more to come even after Steve leaves the stage. In today’s WWDC happenings, the Apple team detailed the server version of Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard. The following comes from a MacNN report.

“As with [Consumer Version of Mac OS 10.6], Server will focus on making all aspects of the OS mutlicore-ready through Grand Central, with the option of tapping into GPU power via OpenCL. Because Server will operate on a 64-bit kernel, it should in theory support up to 16TB of RAM.”

iCal, Mail and Address Book will all be receiving upgrades, increasing their speed and stability. Other highlights include the addition of Podcast Producer 2, along with native programs and templates for creating blogs, wikis, mailing lists, and RSS Feeds.

Via [MacNN]

For those with fledgling Apple lovers at home, put this in your iCal. The schedule for this summer’s Apple Camp has been announced by Apple. If you have a child between ages 8 and 12, be sure to snag one of the free (but limited) spaces for lessons on the creative aspects of a Mac, such as how to create a good Keynote presentation, how to capture, manage, and edit shots in iPhoto, how to make custom music in GarageBand, and videography tips with iMovie. 

Registration is open now, so be sure to claim a spot ASAP.  Sessions last three hours and include a shirt, field guide, DVDs and CDs of your child’s masterpieces, along with other goodies picked up during giveaways along the way. Register at Apple.

Via [TUAW]

iWork and MS Office are both great apps depending on your needs and wants.  MS Office is great for people who need to have compatibility with Windows users and iWork is a great addition to the rest of the Mac apps.  So the question is, which one should you get?  Each has its upsides and downsides, but how do you know which one will be right for you? Well, right off the bat there is a few things you can look at to help you make your decision.

1) Price. iWork comes in at a nice $79.00 whereas MS Office is anywhere between $149.95 and $499.95.  They both offer the same apps (text editor, presentation maker, and spreadsheet creator), but iWork is a lot cheaper.  However, they both offer free trials to see which one you like, but I imagine the price is enough to turn some away from MS Office.

2) Viruses. Cult of Mac has written a post stating that of 6 viruses in the wild for Mac OS X, 5 of them are exploited through MS Office.  As far as I’m concerned, this is enough of a reason to not go with the Microsoft product.  I don’t want my machine being more susceptible to attacks from simply editing a text file.

So when the day comes for you to decide between these two apps, which one is it going to be?  Have you already made up your mind?

This is part two of a series. Read Part One here.

What I Hate About Windows

1) The Taskbar - Windows users will crow on and on about the taskbar’s superiority, but it is crap. It has no one purpose, rather it is a poorly implemented strip that serves as the main control point for the computer. The place where this becomes the biggest issue is if you hide it. You may just want more screen space, or to just hide the start menu, but you have no choice. Everything goes. Your list of programs, your minimized windows, system notifications, everything, is gone. Which brings me to my next gripe. Why would all my windows be displayed in huge buttons? I can understand it if my minimized windows were, but the maximized windows are already there. No need to have them in the taskbar. The argument is that its easy switching between windows, but I don’t find it easy to try to decipher between three Internet explorer windows, or three any windows. In the taskbar they all look the same and that doesn’t speed up the workflow at all.

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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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Microsoft recently released the first update to its new Office 2008 suite - although this is a very minor update and doesn’t affect any Microsoft Office programs at all. The update simply installs a new version of AutoUpdate, 2.1.1. The update is only 2MB in size, so don’t expect any major changes to the updater application - it’s most likely minor bug fixes.

Expect to see another update to Microsoft Office 2008 not long away, as there are plenty of things that need fixing, and Microsoft is aware of this. None of the applications in the suite have managed to work with Leopard’s Spaces feature properly yet and they are a lot slower than Apple’s iWork alternative.

Via [TUAW]

iWork ‘08 has seen some steady releases of updates since its release last year, here’s the first for 2008. Keynote 4.0.2 “primarily addresses performance issues while playing or exporting presentations.” Pages 3.0.2 “addresses compatibility with Mac OS X.” And last but not least, Numbers 1.0.2 also “addresses compatibility with Mac OS X.” So there are no new features to be seen in these updates, just some performance enhancements for Intel and Leopard, along with the usual bug fixes found in software updates.

The updates are 32.4MB 29.3MB and 27.4MB for Keynote, Pages and Numbers and are available to download through Software Update. Alternatively, you can download them or see the info on Apple’s website: Keynote 4.0.2 , Pages 3.0.2, Numbers 1.0.2.

Via [TUAW]

There’s a new thread over at Apple’s Discussion Forums pertaining to bugs still present in the latest version of Keynote. Apparently, it will cause a Mac to suddenly reboot should a user press the “play” button or use the keyboard shortcut to start the presentation.

Despite being a fairly mature product that’s been in use at such great events like MacWorld and WWDC, it’s surprising to find such significant bugs lurking around. The problem seems to be isolated to MacBooks and iBooks right now; lets hope for a fix asap.

Read [Apple Discussion Forums]