Appletell

Have you ever wished you could create your own cookbook using the same software you use to create your delicious cooking recipes? I have, and now I can. Mariner Software has released MacGourmet Deluxe 1.0. This application allows you to keep track of your recipes and wine collection in one convenient application. But what I really like is the fact that “create your own cookbook” feature.

I love cooking, so naturally I downloaded the software to my 17” MacBook Pro. I’ve used many recipe applications in the past, and it’s similar to a few of them I have used. MacGourmet Deluxe allows you to whip up your own recipes, edit them, share them with your friends and family, and post them on the web. Free recipes are also included with this application. If you’re a meal planner, MacGourmet has you covered. Not only do you have the option of creating your own meal plans, you also are able to integrate them with iCal.

More features after the break.

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Today at WWDC, Steve kicked off the keynote with iPhone 2.0 talk. 4,000 people in enterprise and higher education had the opportunity to participate in beta testing for the new firmware. 35% of Fortune 500 companies participated. Steve started off the day by showing a video of company heads talking about how useful iPhone 2.0 is doing in their environments.

Some new features we saw on the keynote both in the video and demoed by Scott Forstall are:

• Contact Search
• Exchange Support
• Location-Based Services via Core Location
• Push email, contacts, calendar, etc.
• Open GL (Games, anyone?)
• Full iWork and Office Document support
• Bulk delete and move messages
• Ability to save images
• Scientific calculator mode
• Many more language inputs, especially Asian language support, including one that you draw the character into the phone.

The release date has been pushed back to early July. While free for iPhone users, it will be $9.95 for iPod Touch users. Apps under 10 MB can be downloaded over cell networks, WiFi or iTunes, and ones over 10 MB can be downloaded via WiFi or iTunes. Apps will be FairPlay wrapped. No pirating.

Enterprises can now make applications that work only on authorized iPhones, and can be distributed any way they want, including over ethernet.

Check our WWDC live blog for updates.

If you’re looking for a nifty software for recording your screen’s activities, Araelium Group’s Screenflick might interest you. Screenflick captures your screen in a smooth, fluid motion of up to 60fps. It can record any portion of your screen and you can even record audio narration at the same time as you are recording your screen’s activities.

Already a good screen capturing program, Screenflick gets even more powerful with the release of Screenflick 1.6. It boasts of 30 new features in addition to the already good features that it used to have.

The 1.6 version’s major enhancements now enables you to; record/compress using a toggle switch at the top left of the window, rename recorded movies in the sidebar, play movies using the compression pane’s movie preview, toggle the camera mode between fixed and follow, fast start movies during compression, among other useful improvements.

The Screenflick 1.6 software runs on Mac OS X 10.4 or later and requires QuickTime 7.2 or later. You can get it installed on your Macs for $30.

Via [Macnn] Product [Screenflick]

Mac OS X financial management software, iBank, has just added some new features. If you’ve been using the personal and small business finance software, the 3.1 version will now let you preview direct downloads to match your current transactions. You will also be alerted if ever duplicate transactions occur when you are importing to iBank. Likewise, you’ll be alerted when the software found no matching transactions in your financial statement.

Additionally, iBank’s internal browser was also improved. It now loads faster whenever you log-in to your online accounts and more Banks have been included in the update as well. iBank 3.1 has also improved its Smart accounts, capital gains reports, forecasting, importing of OFX files with non-U.S. characters, loading of historical prices and localization and printing transactions.

If you have previously installed iBank 3.0, you can have a free upgrade of version 3.1. While new users will have to shell out $59.99 to get the application. It requires Mac OS X Leopard or later OS X to make it run on your Macs.

Via [Macworld] Product [iBank]

Sybase announced that it would be launching a new software for the iPhone that will let users access their email in a secured environment. This new program will be similar to the ones used in BlackBerry and Palm Treo handsets and will be made available to iPhone users sometime before the end of this year.

Although there are not to many details given by Sybase yet, one thing was confirmed though regarding this new program, “It will be secure enterprise grade”. And perhaps this is more than enough reason to anticipate this new program as it was what made RIM’s BlackBerry devices and Palm Treo’s popular among business mobile phone users.

Sybase has been known as a reliable business software maker not only among these two smartphone manufacturers but with other smartphones running on Symbian OS and Windows powered mobile devices. Adding the same secured mobile email program to the iPhone would certainly elevate the iPhone into the ranks of business oriented smartphones.

And so now we wait for the exact date when this made for iPhone program will be launched. Sybase says it will be soon. In the 3G iPhone perhaps?

Via [I4U News]

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]

Safari has recently made the news quite a bit, but not for reasons Apple should be proud of.  First, back in February, Safari was caught red handed using undocumented API’s that were not yet available to third party developers.  These frameworks were said to give Safari a speed edge over other browsers and sparked a minor controversy stating that Safari was “crippling” other browsers.  Then, in March, iTunes users on PC’s received a nice little surprise in the Apple Software Updater.  What was this?  Apparently, Safari 3.1 was included with the iTunes update, causing Windows users and the Mozilla’s CEO to accuse Apple of “forcing” the download on their customers.  Not to shortly after, also in March, a MacBook Air was the first to fall in this year’s Pwn2Own hack contest.  How did this happen?  The hacker, Charlie Miller, achieved access of the system through a Safari security bug that involved opening a port the hacker could telnet through.  Soon after this, in April, some Firefox users ran tests with the new Firefox 3.0 beta 5 and found it to be faster than Safari 3.1, just shortly after Apple claimed Safari was the “fastest browser.” That’s three bad months in a row.  Get it together, Apple.  If you claim Safari is, “[T]he world’s best browser,” on your site, make sure it is.  Right now people are really upset with it and that’s no way to get its market share up.

However, despite all this bad news, Safari is still a great, functional browser.  Getting a 100/100 on the most recent Acid 3 Test proves one of Safari’s strong points, web standards.  This is great for web developers and really eases the process of making a website.  Another area Safari is glowing is the mobile browsing marketplace as it is the most popular mobile browser in the US. So come on Apple, you can do better.  I love Safari, so give me more reasons to stick with it.

Apple released an update today for Final Cut Studio 2.0, its professional video editing suite of applications for Macs. According to Apple’s changelog, Pro Applications Update 2008-01 includes Final Cut Pro 6.0.3 and Compressor 3.0.3.

The new update for Final Cut Pro resolves five issues including one that would warn that a project file was unreadable or too new for that specific version of Final Cut Pro. A problem with images being scaled when exported from the application has also been fixed; still images are now exported at their native export ratio.

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Yesterday, Apple released yet another update to iTunes: 7.6.2. The latest version brings no major new features, but as usual, bug fixes to “to improve stability and performance.” If you haven’t already, you can download the software update by going to Apple Menu>Software Update. Alternatively, you can download it directly from Apple’s website. Previous updates have shown that they come before iPhone & iPod Touch firmware updates - this could be a sign of a new iPhone firmware soon.

On another note, QuickTime has been updated to 7.4.5, and Front Row to 2.1.3 - again, these updates bring no new features, but bug fixes and performance enhancements. The iTunes and QuickTime updates are available for Windows users too, but obviously not the Front Row update.

Via [TUAW]