Apple iMac (27-inch, 2012) Video Review

Source – CNET TV

New 21-inch iMac Available 30 November, 27-inch to Ship in December

According to TNW (The Next Web), Apple announced today that the 21-inch iMac will be available starting 30 November 2012 and the 27-inch will be ready to ship some time in December, still no fixed date yet. The new iMac will offer the option of a Fusion Drive, a hybrid of a SSD together with a normal hard drive, this and the much thinner form factor is the selling point of this 8th generation of iMac.

Let’s hope the 27-inch iMac will be ready to ship before Christmas as my three year old 27-inch iMac is long dued for retirement.

Source – TNW

Apple Red Friday Sale – Today – 6 January 2012

This is it, Apple Red Friday Sale, hop over to this link to check it out, http://store.apple.com/hk/browse/lunar_new_year/red_friday. The following are some of the hot items at a not so much surprise discounted price –

• iPad 2 starting from HK$3,888 reduced to starting from HK$3,578, savings of HK$310 to HK$410 for different models
• MacBook Air starting from HK$7,688 reduced to starting from HK$6,918, savings of HK$770 for all models
• iMac starting from HK$9,188 reduced to starting from HK$8,418, savings of HK$770 for all models

Stingy is the only word that came to my mind. Apple, thought you could do better.

Source – Apple

New Mac Photo Editor App – Snapheal

SNAPHEAL is amazing, first-of-its-kind photo application that lets you perform professional image enhancements in minutes, doesn’t require any special knowledge and comes with the rocking price.

“Snapheal Performs Complex Photo Touch Ups and Object Removals in Two Clicks” – lifehacker.com

Here is what you can do:

• Remove unwanted objects from the image
• Make skin imperfections vanish
• Erase unwanted text (watermarks, etc)
• Dramatically enhance photos with clone & stamp tool
• Lighten dark areas
• Sharpen images
• Add blur
• Adjust saturation, gamma, light levels, shadows and much more

Great App to Help Switch Between iTunes Accounts Fast

For those of you who uses multiple iTunes accounts and get fed up going through the tedious steps switching between accounts, this app, the iTunes Account Switcher (FREE) is just for you.  Macstories ran a story yesterday on this app which sits on top of your Menubar and with it, you can select which account you want to log into right there, instead of doing so in iTunes.

Basically the app is just a series of script. The only minor problem I noticed is that if I have my Chrome browser opened, it would not show up on the Menubar, could it be because my Menubar is all jammed with other apps, not sure.  Ways to work around it is to minimize whatever program I have and voila, there it is.  Another thing I also did is to drag the icon down to the dock to have fast access.

You can download iTunes Account Switcher here.

Source – iTunes Account Swticher via macstories

Best App to Transfer Pics from iOS Devices to Mac

There are no doubt a handful of apps that can help you transfer pics from your iOS devices (iPad/iPhone/iPod) to your Mac, such as WiFi photo, Pic Transfer, Transfer, Photoshare, Simple Transfer and the list goes on and on.  Some uses Bluetooth, WiFi or both but the most reliable way especially if you are transferring a lot of files is definitely via WiFi.

One great app I tried out and am sticking with is the Pics Assistant  for Mac (Free via App Store) and “Pics” for iOS devices (iPad/iPhone/iPod) (US$1.99) from Phyar Studio. The transfer is fast and it imports not only pictures but HD videos as well without losing any quality.  The “Pics” app for iOS devices act as a standalone photo album as well, a easy notch or two better than the native photo album.  The animated 3D interface is neat and resembles that of the Windows Mobile 7.  Check out the 3D interface in the video below.

Features:

• View your photos in full resolution, no compressing, no quality losing.(*)
• Very fast import photos and videos from camera roll, start organize your thousands of photos from now on!
• Import HD videos without any quality losing.
• View your photos in camera roll directly, it’s also treat as an album in App.
• Add, delete, order albums, edit album name and properties. Move, delete photos and videos.
• 4 Desktops. Organize your albums into different desktop, and you can lock the desktop instead of lock albums.
• WiFi downloading and uploading, access photos and videos in all albums including camera roll.
• Accept ZIP packet for uploading, you can upload hundreds of photos by one click! Progress indicator displayed on your device while uploading.
• Synchronously display in web browser, all your changes made on your device would update to web browser automatically.
• Photos and Videos filter inside the App and also provide for web browser, find videos much easier.
• Passcode protection for locked albums and admin operations.
• Native iPad support, now Pics is a universal App.
• P2P Transfer. Transfer photos/videos to another iPhone/iPod touch/iPad with WiFi or Bluetooth connection.
• AlbumSync with p2p transfer. Compare albums on two different devices and send photos not exist in remote album by one tap. if album not exist, Pics would create a new album on remote device to receive all photos. Your AlbumStyle settings would also be applied to remote album.
• Complete retina display support…. and more.

For those who doesn’t want to spend money on any apps, there’s a free native solution which is direct importing to iPhoto upon connecting the USB cable to the iOS device (from eHow).

Procedures as follows –

1. Launch the iPhoto application on your Mac computer.
2. Connect your iPhone to your computer using an iPhone USB cable.
3. Highlight the name of your iPhone from the “Devices” list on the left side of the iPhoto window. You will now see thumbnails for the images stored on your iPhone.
4. Click on the “Import All” button to transfer all of your iPhone pictures in your iPhoto library, or highlight specific images and click “Import Selected.”
5. Wait for iPhoto to finish importing the pictures from your iPhone and then choose whether you want to delete the images on the phone.
6. Click on the eject symbol next to the name of your iPhone, and then disconnect it from the computer.

Source – Phyar Studio, eHow

Apple to Launch New iMacs on Tuesday, May 3 (US time)

According to AppleInsider, Apple is launching the all new iMac line Hong Kong on Tuesday, May 3 (US time).  The new line will feature the second generation Intel Core i3/i5/i7 dual- and quad-core chips and a thunderbolt port.  Other sites also indicated that a 30-inch display might be introduced together with addition of 6000 series of Radeon Chip though not confirmed.

Surely excited with the 30-inch display if that’s for real.  Guess we’ll find out in a couple days.

Source – AppleInsider