May 15

Creating Mac OS X looking desktops

40 comments 2006 at 02.02 am posted by Veerle Pieters

On a regular basis I receive requests on how to create those Mac OS X backgrounds, so this weekend I played around in Illustrator trying to create a nice looking desktop using gradient mesh. This all goes well as long as I stick with 1 simple shape, some organic looking bow. As soon as I try to add other bows by adding gradient mesh points things fall apart. Using separate layers each using transparency seems to be the solution, but still this ain’t no walk in the park if you want to achieve the complexity as those real Mac OS X desktops. I congratulate and bow for the designer who made those. I gave up and resorted to Photoshop CS2 and hoped for a better result…

Jan 30

Snapz Pro X 2

5 comments 2006 at 02.10 am posted by Veerle Pieters

Many people have asked how I record those tutorial movies so much that it is probably a good idea to do an article about it. Let’s talk “screen shots” or “screen captures.”

Jan 16

Intel iMac Benchmarks

21 comments 2006 at 02.48 am posted by Veerle Pieters

I don’t know about you but I have been wondering about benchmarks for the new Intel machines. During these keynotes I’m always skeptical about the benchmarks that Steve Jobs shows. My partner Geert has been thinking about upgrading his Dual 1Ghz G4 and going for one of these new Quad models (the top line one). So I’m especially interested in seeing those benchmarks. These benchmarks were run by someone from the MacAddict forums in the Apple Store. Some of the test were done with iLife ‘06.

Jan 14

Winners and MacWorld afterthoughts

21 comments 2006 at 10.21 am posted by Veerle Pieters

Winner of de-lurking day

Let's start with a service announcement. Here are the 3 winners of an iTunes Album of their choice.

  • Kelly from Kortrijk
  • Mike from Rochester New York
  • Toriseng aka Snorre from Norway

Please send an email to veerle at duoh dot com with the correct email that I can use for sending the money through Paypal or the iTunes Music store in the case of Kelly.

Jan 10

MacWorld Live

57 comments 2006 at 10.52 am posted by Veerle Pieters

The Live coverage has been reworked into an article.

Retail Update

Like always the keynote started with a little update on the retail side. Apple now has 135 Shops around the world and those stores had 26 million visitors during holiday quarter. For the first time those stores had their $1 billion quarter this past quarter.

Dec 27

Keep Internet Explorer for Mac alive

32 comments 2005 at 02.09 am posted by Veerle Pieters

As you probably have heard Microsoft is stopping support for it as of December 31, 2005. Back in the day this was a great browser but those days are long gone and Mac users have other options like Safari, Firefox, Camino etc.

As a webdesigner IE Mac can be challenge to support and users of this browser should realize there are other better options. Hiding your CSS for IE Mac can be a solution but that’s not always possible in certain projects.

Just when we thought we are finally done with it there comes along a technology commentator called Bill Thompson who thinks it would be a good idea for Microsoft to release the code without any copyright restrictions to the open source community. According to Bill Thompson this would prove that Microsoft is a changed company and that it would confound many of their critics. Do we need another browser? I don’t think so, life as webdesigner is already complicated enough and the less browsers the better. Choice is good but “trop c’est trop”. Let the dead rest and move on. So what do you think do we need another Internet Explorer for Mac?

Dec 05

KBC Online progress update III

4 comments 2005 at 02.09 am posted by Veerle Pieters

Dec 02

Major deal between Belgacom and Apple Belgium

7 comments 2005 at 11.04 am posted by Veerle Pieters

Every so called “Teleboetiek” from Belgacom (big telecom operator) is going to sell iPods in the future. These shops are also going to play an active part in the selling of songs through the iTunes Music Store. Belgacom has about 100 of these stores spread over Belgium.

This news was confirmed by countrymanager Bernard Voglaire from Apple Belgium to the Dutch MacFan. Apparently this is only a small part of a much bigger deal between Apple Belgium and Belgacom. More details should become available later this month.

I have to think very hard to remember something of this magnitude in Apple Belgium’s history. If Apple and Belgacom play their cards right this deal could prove very lucrative. It’s another sign that Apple is doing very well and that stock is at an all time high. I own some stock that I bought at $45 and maybe I should start thinking about selling because it’s now at $71,50 ;-) Good times!

Oct 23

Quicksilver: how do you use it?

28 comments 2005 at 03.55 am posted by Veerle Pieters

One of the very handy freeware applications for Mac OS X is without a doubt Quicksilver. It seems like almost every Mac user has a copy for doing awsome stuff with it.

Oct 19

What has Apple been up to?

12 comments 2005 at 10.15 am posted by Veerle Pieters

Apple’s press event at PhotoPlus Expo 2005 has once again brought us some new toys. It wasn’t Steve Jobs but David Moody that had his moment of glory on stage. Not the usual break down of company figures but right onto the cool stuff.

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