MacMerc

There's a new USB television capture stick that threatens the dominance of Elgato's Hybrid. The equinux TubeStick adapter paired with The Tube software package offers an interesting alternative for television on your Mac. So, how does this new contender compare? Check our review, and find out if it is time for a new PVR for your Mac.

[read more at MacMerc.com]

Big thanks to Mat Lu for writing about this little gem. The Related Mail plugin for Mail.app is almost like getting Google's contextual advertising in your email, except instead of feeding you links to related products based on the message you're reading, it links you to related emails in your various mailboxes. It's awesome for getting a quit overview of emails you have on a similar...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

From the description in their own FAQs; Pandora is a music discovery service designed to help you enjoy music you already know, and to help you discover new music you'll love. It's powered by the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken, the Music Genome Project: a crazy project started back in early 2000 to capture the complex musical DNA of songs using a large team of...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

This morning the classic board game of all classic board games was released for the iPod--Monopoly. As a dyed in the wool, "no money for landing on Free Parking," Monopoly purist, I have yet to find a computerized interpretation of this real estate conquest game that comes anywhere close to the sense of nostalgia that comes with the ritual of rolling the dice, buying up properties and hoarding...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

That's right, the "on again, off again" aTV Flash is on again. What was once sold as a device is now offered as downloadable software for you to install yourself on a suitable USB flash drive. Instead of a pre-made flash drive being sent out, you will receive the software itself and simple instructions on how to create your own aTV Flash using your own flash drive. This allows you to being...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

Rather that offering help for those weak to the siren song of free fonts, Blambot is in fact taking advantage of this addiction on a monthly basis. This month, their free font is and electrically charged creation entitled Shock Therapy. It has sharp, lightning-bolt edges and comes with upper and lowercase characters. Available in TrueType, Postscript1 and OpenType, Shock Therapy comes in Regular...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

From our friends at iLounge comes The Free iPod + iPhone Book 4. Over 20 world exclusive Sneak Peeks. Complete tutorials to all things iPod, iPhone, iTunes, and Apple TV. Beautiful reader-submitted art and photos. And big announcements from iLounge's publisher and editors. It's The Free iPod + iPhone Book 4--the latest edition of our multi-million-downloaded Book! The book is available for...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

Considering Apple makes a big deal about the security of their products as well as that they are so simple to use they don't need to be accompanied by manuals, it might seem a little ironic that they have issued this 240-page manual entitled "Mac OS X Security Configuration for Version 10.5 Leopard". (Even the title is cumbersome!) I brief glancing over of the guide reveals that the guide is...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

Just in time to cancel my order, AppleCore LLC has made the aTV Flash temporarily unavailable. The aTV Flash is a device we wrote about earlier this week that allows your Apple TV to play several video formats, browse the internet, read RSS feeds and be accessed via SSH. AppleCore LLC explains it this way: Due to questions arising regarding the fair use of a particular file present on the aTV...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

Toon Boom Animation Inc. and educational publisher FableVision today announced the release of Animation-Ish, a program that allows people to unleash their creativity through easy, "do-it-yourself" animation. The program is hosted by New York Times Bestselling children's book author/illustrator and creativity advocate Peter H. Reynolds, FableVision's founder and chief executive officer. The...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

Apple put the questions to rest of when Mac OS 10.5.3 update is coming out by dropping it on Leopard users today. The Mac OS X 10.5.3 Update and Mac OS X 10.5.3 Combo Update are available via Software Update or by visiting the support page and downloading. Either way the download will be a rather hefty 420 MB package. The update boasts over 70 changes and fixes to the system, Mail, iChat,...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

People like screen savers. Computers don't need them nearly as much when the first screen savers were introduced, but people like them anyway. They are like ringtones; they offer an outlet for self expression. That said, the top 5 list that follows represents the 5 screen savers that satisfy this blogger's need for self expression and may not do the trick for you. Personally, I like a screen...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

Adobe is giving a sneak peek at three applications from the next release of Adobe Creative Suite. The company released public beta of new versions of Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Fireworks and Adobe Soundbooth as free downloads on Adobe labs. Once downloaded and launched, the betas will be active for 48 hours after which time only Creative Suite 3 customers will have an extended ability to use the...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

Status Screen Saver lets you notifies you of your unread emails in Mail, new tweets in Twitterrific and new news items in NetNewsWire all while leaving your Mac's screen display any other screen saver of you choice. The developer, Logan Rockmore, has also made it easy for you to add support for other applications as long as they allow Applescript to check on their status. Status Screen...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

If you're one of those people who has the minerals to install non-Apple software on his Apple TV, you may be interested to know that the USD$59.95 aTV Flash USB drive has been upgraded to version 2.2 . aTV Flash allows your Apple TV to... Play most video formats (DivX, Xvid, AVI, WMV, RMVB + more) Play DVD files WITHOUT converting them Sync, organize and watch non-iTunes video files Browse the...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

From the people who brought you Tangerine and Voice Candy comes a little Menu Bar item called I Love Stars. It allows you to assign a star rating to the song currently playing in iTunes right from the Menu Bar. My first reaction when I read about the app was "It sounds handy, but, geez, like I need one for icon on my Menu Bar!" and sure enough, if you look at the screenshot at right, it does...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

If you're a font addict like I am, but don't use any kind of third-party font management software, a peek inside your Fonts folder may overwhelm you. And, if you ever suspect that an installed font is giving you system problems, you may need to sort through your collection and get rid of some typographic dead weight. The problem is, it's hard to tell which fonts might have been installed by Mac...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

Fast Icon has released Web 2 Icons, a collection of 23 freeware icons designed in iPhone-like style, includes icons for Blinklist, BlogMarks, Delicious, Digg, Diigo, FaceBook, FeedBurner, Flickr, Furl, Google, Magnolia, Misterwong, Myspace, Newsvine, Netvibes, Reddit, Simpy, Stumbleupon, Technorati, Twitter and YouTube. Web 2 Icons are available for download as standard Mac or Windows icons as...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

HBO and Apple made the big announcement today that shows like "The Sopranos,""Sex and the City," "Deadwood" and "Rome," are now available for purchase and download on the iTunes Store. Personally, I'm more excited about grabbing episodes of "Flight of the Conchords" and "The Wire" ...or at least I would be if they were available in Canadian iTunes Store. Television shows purchased and...

[read more at MacMerc.com]

Do you have Ts to G D? If you do and you're looking for a new GTD system that allows you to gather all your "things" in one place and lets you "get" at them no matter what device or platform your on, Evernote might be just what you're looking for. It's the latest "does anyone have a spare invite they can send me" app that makes your gathered information searchable at anytime, from anywhere. If...

[read more at MacMerc.com]