Sick of blog posting on the internet ? Why not Blogo a bit ?

Easily publish text, images, videos, slideshows and more. With a simple, intuitive interface and support for WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, Typo, Drupal, Joomla, and Expression Engine, Blogo is the best way to maintain your blog and spread the word with Twitter, Ping.fm and other supported services.

More Stuff :
Intuitive interface

Blogo’s interface is designed to let you take your mind off the details and just write.

Post images effortlessly

Lay out your photos in less time than it takes to open your image editor. Just drag, crop, choose the size of the thumb and go on writing.

No-hassle preview

Blogo creates a template for your blog based on a real post so you can be 100% sure you’re ready to publish, even when you’re not online. No surprises.

Post videos, widgets and more

Use snippets from the web the same way you work with images: just paste or use our bookmarklet in your web browser. Once
you’ve added, just drag, drop, and post.

Powerful editor

Format your text using bold, italics, citations and more, without touching your blog’s code. Create lists, change alignment and even add footnotes. Blogo’s editor lets you work with Rich text and edit HTML.

Intelligent microblogging

Follow your friends, search all of Twitter or spread the word with Ping.fm. Blogo can even update your status whenever you post a new article to your blog.

Ping news sites

Enable the default sites, or add your own. Blogo will notify the directories on your list whenever you post a new article.

Update all of your blogs

Multiple accounts with support for WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, Typo, Drupal, Expression Engine, Twitter, Ping.fm and more.

No distractions: fullscreen mode

Instant messages flashing? 984 unread emails? Forget everything else and focus on your post by switching into fullscreen mode.

Offline mode

With offline editing, you can use all of Blogo’s tools and even save your articles to post later.
No wifi? No problem.

ON TO THE REVIEW :

Blogo is an extremely useful application used by millions over the web. With it’s impressive capacity of posting multiple posts to multiple services such as Blogger (Google™) and WordPress and more… This application is appreciated by many… It has been Leo Laporte’s MacBreak Weekly Pick of the Week and also an Apple Staff Pick !! With two simple sections within the services…

The “New” Section :

This is an attractive section where it simply allows you to post a new post to your blog. With three little areas you can really easily post a new message. There is : The Title,Body and the Image Dropbox area.

The “Edit” Section :

This section allows you to edit all the posts that are present on your blog as well as drafts and suspending posts !!

So you can see this application is a real help and a really nice piece of software to use for blog posting !!

My Review Mark for this application is 9.5/10 or 19/20 or even if you extend it more to 38/40 !!

So thats all folks for this week !!

Next week will be my thoughts on the coming OS… Mac OS Snow Leopard and also maybe a little discussion on the friction between Microsoft and Google and maybe Google’s new planning Operating System !

Thanks,

With best regards,

Mac Maestro
Host/Editor
Mac Maestro’s Mac Tutorials
www.macmaestro.c.la
my_mac_mail@yahoo.com.au

My Return….And why AppZapper is useless !

Hey there guys !! I have returned to my blog and plan to do a little more posting… I have been sick recently so it is a bit hard for me to post while snuggled up in bed !!

My Plans : Try and post a review or critic of an application each week and if you have any requests just contact me below !

Email Me Here

So today i have a little critic…

Why is AppZapper useless ?
Disclaimer : I mean no mental or physical harm towards the creators of AppZapper and am just expressing and sharing my opinions and those of others

So what is AppZapper ? Well it is an application that deletes the application that you drag and drop into the application. The only thing this application does do good is that it most of the time picks up a file that is hidden but has a meaningful size! Another thing that AppZapper does is… A nice zapping noise.

NOTHING ELSE !!

Because what AppZapper really does is that it just deletes the files and moves them to the trash… And it takes longer to do this process in AppZapper than it does manually… Remember that AppZapper says that it fully deletes the application dragged into AppZapper… But it does not as such do that…. It simply moves the application to the trash…

But i have to admit… I love AppZapper and you know why ? Because it is much more exciting in deleting apps instead of just dragging the app file to the trash. A nice zapping sound !!

Basically i give this application a 10/20 (Half Good Half Bad)

Next time it will be an app review on Blogo… And maybe a little critic hihi !

With best regards,

Mac Maestro
Host/Editor
Mac Maestro’s Mac Tutorials
www.macmaestro.c.la
my_mac_mail@yahoo.com.au

Word of the People Episode 1 : Skype

Word from the people audio clip !!

Skype Talk of the People

Screenflow from Telestream Review

Well ScreenFlow is one of the best Video Recording and editing software for Mac that exists !! With professional and HQ exporting this application really enhances screen casting !! Used by many professional podcasters such as Don McAllister. I will have a look at each section and effect by writing one by one just like in my CheckUp review !!

So a general idea on what screenflow is :

Record. Edit. Share.

Capture the contents of your entire desktop at the same time as your video camera, microphone and computer’s audio. Sophisticated editing tools allow you to create incredible screencasts in no time. The finished result is a QuickTime movie, ready for publishing to your website or blog..

Copyright Telestream

Features :

The Best Capture
ScreenFlow has the best screen capture available. Using a custom multithreaded SSE & Altivec accelerated, 64-bit enabled compression system, ScreenFlow can handle everything from capturing DVD video & audio to fast moving Keynote presentations.

Record Everything
You don’t need to pick an area of the screen for capture, ScreenFlow has advanced algorithms that only encode areas of change on your screen. The application is powerful enough to simultaneously record from your iSight or DV camera at the same time as your screen (and your microphone and computer’s audio!).

Highlight
During your screen capture, ScreenFlow tracks where your mouse cursor is, when you click and when you press a key. This allows you to add mouse click effects (both visual and audible), an overlay showing your key strokes and even lets you zoom the mouse pointer up & down.

Edit
Once your screen capture is complete, you’re transported to the ScreenFlow editor. Using a familiar timeline interface, ScreenFlow lets you easily add zoom & pan effects, trim clips, add drop shadow & reflection, adjust audio levels etc. You can even combine existing media into your screencast.

Callout
Callouts let you highlight & focus in on the mouse or frontmost window. Want to circle the area around the mouse? What took an experienced user minutes or hours in Final Cut Pro or After Effects is now a couple of clicks away.

Motion
ScreenFlow introduces actions to the editing interface. These make it very quick & easy to modify parameters of your screencast over time. For example, adding a video action lets you put zoom & pan effects on your clips, while the audio action lets you adjust volume at different points in your screencast.

Export Quality
When resizing high resolution screen content into a QuickTime movie, ScreenFlow uses custom GPU algorithms to give your finished movie the best possible quality. You’ll find even small text suddenly becomes legible for your viewers.

Leopard Only
ScreenFlow was built for Mac OS X Leopard. It makes extensive use of the best of Mac OS X technologies: Core Animation, QuickLook, Spotlight, QTKit, Quartz Composer, OpenGL, Core Image, Automator, Core Data and many others.

Copyright Telestream

So onto the Screenflow Effects and Editing Sections !!

Video Properties :

Now i am very impressed with the scaling,rotations and the opacity. Though i think that the opacity could use a little more internal look with maybe putting so much opacity that it is completely white !! Because for some effects this could be very useful !! The reflection is a very interesting and powerful effect to use for images. The disappointing bit of this section is the shadow effect…On many several occasions the shadow did not work… Even with the color white on a pitch black background !! (and vice-versa) It just doesn’t work so i am wandering what the hell is happening.I restart screenflow with the recording file on the desktop and the shadow still doesn’t work !! I think telestream and vara software should really re look this option !

Audio Properties :

The volume settings are not that powerful and deserve a good look because the lowering of the volume doesn’t really work and isn’t very effective. The effects are so good !! They have some of the best effects that exists from Echoing halls to bandpass to a presence !! With the modifying of the amount of the effect you wish to have. The amount still does have to have a look with giving it more juice.

Not much to talk about in the audio properties because there isn’t much in it !!

Screen Recording Properties :

Now i am not a great user of the mouse pointer effects because i use Mousepose (Review coming). But still in the newest version you can edit the mouse pointer to a square,circle or your image that you wish to have !! The keyboard effects is the same… I use mousepose for the key effects so not much to say about that !!

Callout Action :

Mousepose is the main application i’d use for callouts but if i miss a few bits id use Screenflow’s callout integration which really does help me and is really powerful… Editing the build effect,zoom up,the border and the color. Changing between a foreground window and mouse cursor callout you really have lot’s of power over concentrating your viewers on one single area !

Text Options :

I am impressed with the different properties that you can use and change for your text with a very big variety of fonts and when you install new fonts Screenflow will automatically refresh its font database. A nice filling setting with color,image or gradiant. Very nice Outlining effect that you can change with the size of outlining !! A very nice backdrop effect with margin integration.I still think some of those options could use some looking at and correcting a few bugs that i sent them reports !!

Media Center :

Very nice drag and drop system either into the timeline or straight away into the media center. You can simply click Add Media.. And then browse for your media file. You can also add a screenflow file with the recording in it and easily double-click to add the media into the timeline and to delete the media simply right click and click delete media !

In Conclusion this application is a very useful application and i give an overall notation of 19/20 !! I love this application. I use it for every single one of my screencasts on Mac Maestro’s Mac Tutorials !! So next review will be on Mousepose 3 from Boinx Software !!

Thanks,

Friendly Mac User

BoinxTV from Boinx Software Review

Boinx TV is one of the most popular,powerful and attractive applications ever made on mac ! As popular as RapidWeaver….As powerful as LiveType…. And as attractive as Pixelmator ! Though i still think…. it could use some more templates !!

I love the design with the easy recording and “live” buttons. Very useful layers and an easy to use drag and drop system. I think that the controlling panel to move the different layers such as images,etc… is to complicating for the first eye and could put off the user from using this application. They really have made the application attractive but haven’t really thought about applying useful settings that could improve the facility of using this application ! The X and Y coordinates could be confusing to some people and i find that it could be easier to just have a simple square with another square of a different color that represents the object in movement that you can move to the location you wish it to be in !! Very nice interface and easy to find yourself around from preview to stage to live preview to setting of layer or object. They have some really nice different layers i think they should give more accessibility to creating your own layers,i know you can customize the settings of where your lower thirds and images can be placed but it would be nice to have customized presets !!!  Boinx TV really does improve the way of making TV shows,beginning and end of films,shows or screencast. But it is certainly not for video editing ! BE WARNED !! It can be used for adding headers or effects but not for professional editing if you wish to do professional editing you should really use something like Final Cut Express or Pro,Screenflow or Avid DS ! In Conclusion my overall scoring of Boinx TV is to give it a big thumbs up with a friendly 16/20 also known as a B+ or B !!!

BoinxTV is one of the best video enhancer of all time !! At quite a price you will be surprised by the result !! Even just try the trial or if you are the bad type you may go and try and find a cracked version of it that remember is against the law and could be prosecuted by Boinx Software !! Be warned about pirated versions you may end up with a bad surprise ! If you are a usual Mac App bundle buyer and you have currently followed the MacHeist they have included Boinx Tv in their bundle at the amazing price of 39.00$ with the other 11 top mac apps !! Sadly the MacHeist has finished so if your lucky you may find another bundle or coupon code to purchase this software at a quite discounted price !! Remember that these reviews are not sponsored or endorsed by any software company (unless the company agrees to a contract of course i will write to say if any review has been sponsored though !! ) Boinx Software do offer quite a lot of different software and are partnered up with the Coding Monkeys who make great apps so why not go check out Boinx Software to see the vast amount of software they use and make with some impressive screencast’s !

Links:

http://www.boinx.com/

http://www.boinx.com/boinxtv/overview/

http://www.boinx.com/boinxtv/screencast/

The next review shall be on the amazing application Screenflow so stay tuned in to my blog and you may find something interesting !!!

Thanks For Reading,

Friendly Mac User

CheckUp from APP4MAC Review

Now i have been using Check Up for some time now !! It has really helped me in controlling my temperature,speed of disks and memory !! With its powerful Growl notification integration you can really know and understand very easily what is happening to your personal mac !! The way i will write this review is looking section by section of this application !!

First Section Profile : What i find nice about this section is showing you your mac,type (power-pc,intel)Size,speed,running system. Really useful part is showing your serial number !! If you have check up running in the background you can easily access your personal information about your mac. The different features include:Serial Number,Operating System,Processor,Memory,Startup Disk,Capability,Boot Manager,IP Address,Running since,Mac address and the user bandwidth !! Now the running since worried me a bit at sight because i thought that it meant how long have you had your mac !! And when i saw 13 hours and 4 minutes…. I was scared !! But it actually means how long has your mac been on !! That is a little default in that section !!

Second Section System : I don’t often use this section because it does have a friendly environment but it looks complicating !! It does tell you the amount of : Applications,Fonts,Drivers,Internet Plugins,Preference Panes,Login items,widgets and operating systems you have on your computer !! I suppose it does give you easy access to your computers different components !! The fonts gives you an idea of what the writing looks like ! The application icons are beautifully presented… But i still think they should give more information about the applications regarding the location,size,etc….

Third Section Processors : I love this part !! This is the most attractive part of the application !! Its beautiful Processor meter with active speed percentage about the speed of your processors !! With the trial you can only view one processor but the bought full version you can view as many processors as your computer has !! Its magnificent graph showing the speed and power that your processors are using by switching between two different types : Seismograph and Classic Graph you have power over what you prefer to view as !! You can view the graph for the past 5 minutes or the past week giving you a full view about what your mac has been using !! You can view the processor meter in a separate window if you wish !!

Forth Section Memory : Not much to say on this section. Boring. Good information about your disks…. But not a favorite !!

Fifth Section Disks : Same as the memory but still gives you extremely good information about the space left in your disks !! A nice friendly blue bar informing you of your used and left disk space !!

Sixth Section Network : Very powerful section !! Giving you information about your network activity with In and Out !! Same as the processors you can choose between Seismograph and Classic Graph… View the past week or 5 minutes !! Nice images to view in comfort !

Seventh Section Processes : Good powerful source to view the amount of usage and space each application that you are using ! With regular “Check Up” or refresh it will view the current usage of each application !! A good source as well to view what applications are running to see if you could free up some space !!

Eight and Last Section Documents : Not a personal favorite but a really good place to find all the different formats that are present in your computer and what application is related to and can run those type of formats !! Giving the current icon for each application it gives a powerful way to find more about your macs supported formats and formats used and what application can run them or give information about !!

Preferences :  A nice and friendly way to customize your own application CheckUp !!

As i said at the beginning about the notifications integration with Growl !!

Thats my personal review on CheckUp !! An overall rating is 17/20 !! A personal favorite and i recommend this application to everyone !!

Thanks for reading !!

Friendly Mac User

Hello world!

Hey there !! My First blog post !!! My posts will be much longer than this of course !! I will be posting reviews,critics,recent news about Friendly Mac User and recent news from apple with their hardware software and of course third-party software !!