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discount code: techzany
discount code: techzany
discount code: techzany
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Photoshop Alternative: Pixelmator for Mac
I’ve been using Photoshop for years. I began using it on the PC and then purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements when I started to use Mac OS X. Recently, during the time I began designing websites and taking more photographs, I realized Photoshop Elements (Version 6) just wasn’t providing the tools and simplicity I needed. I wanted to edit photos and design basic web elements with ease.
Three months ago, a friend recommend PixelMator, an easy-to-use, powerful image editing application for Mac OS X. I decided to check it out that day and have been using it ever since. PixelMator provides everything I need from basic photo editing to graphic design. 
Pixelmator uses Core Image and OpenGL technologies that use the Mac’s video card for image processing. By doing a bit of research, I found out that Pixelmator graphic editing software was actually built upon a combination of open source and Mac OS X technologies such as ImageMagick, Automator, Cairo, and Sparkle.
PixelMator has many great features, here are a few:
- Supports Photoshop images with layers and over 100 other file types
- 16 colour correction tools
- More then 50 filters
- Over 20 tools for painting, cropping, typing, etc
- Quick file conversions and exports
- Supports Mac OS X ColorSync and profiles
- Support for OS X Lion features such as versions, auto save, full screen mode, etc
The full version of PixelMator costs just $29.99, a great price for such an amazing app. PixelMator allows you to do most things that you could do in Photoshop. With the Mac App Store’s “buy once, install on all Macs” system, purchasing this application is a no brainer. I encourage you to download the trial (or full version) today!
Try the newest version of PixelMator free for 30 days: http://www.pixelmator.com/try/
Before you decide to make the switch to PixelMator, being the Photoshop fan you are, you may ask “How does this app work? It’s going to take weeks before I learn how to use PixelMator.” In this case, you can read and watch all of the tutorials provided for FREE on the PixelMator website. There is really no reason not to try this award-winning app today!
The PixelMator team is alway trying to improve their software which means they’re constantly posting updates and information on their blog. Check it out: http://www.pixelmator.com/blog/
If you’re considering to try out PixelMator, or you’re a current user, leave a comment below. Share your thoughts!
Blackberry PlayBook Review
The Blackberry PlayBook went on sale in Canada for $300 off. I decided it was time to try out a tablet that wasn’t from the company who makes the leading tablet, Apple.
In the past, I had the iPad 2 so my standards are already quite high for a tablet. The Blackberry Playbook, although I had some problems at the beginning, is quite impressive.
Just because a tablet or even computer has better specifications then another doesn’t mean it is better or more useful. Many tablets exist with much betters specs then the BlackBerry PlayBook. I don’t want to base this review on a comparison of the Playbook and the iPad 2 but just for your information, here is how the Playbook specs compare.
| iPad 2 | BlackBerry PlayBook | |
| Screen | 9.7″ LED 1024 x 768 | 7″ LCD 1024 x 600 |
| Storage | 16GB/32GB/64GB | 16GB/32GB/64GB |
| Camera – Front | VGA 30fps | 5MP |
| Camera – Back | 720p 30 fps | 1080p |
| Weight | 1.33lbs | 0.9lbs |
| Battery | 25-watt-hour | 5300mAh |
| Price (CAD) | Wifi 16GB $519, Wifi 32GB $619, Wifi 64GB $719,3G 16GB $649, 3G 32GB $749, 3G 64GB $849 | 16GB $199 ($499), 32GB $299 ($599), 64GB $399 ($699) |
| Processor | Apple A5 1Ghz dual core | ARM Cortex A9 1GHz dual core |
| Memory | 512mb (unconfirmed by Apple) | 1GB |
| Current support for Adobe Flash | No | Yes |
| Apps | Too many | Not enough |
The BlackBerry PlayBook is positioned as a consumer device that offers the features necessary to appeal to RIM’s enterprise/business customers.
First boot setup
It took me about 2 hours to setup the PlayBook as an update I did bricked the device. This is quite unusual and doesn’t happen with many people. I think I’ll save this for another blog post.
Note: after I fixed up the software update, everything began running smoothly. Don’t let this stop you from purchasing a PlayBook.
External Hardware Design
Great
The PlayBook has a very sleek design with a great form factor and bezel. Around the PlayBook you will find four buttons (Power, Up/Forward, Down/Back, Play/Pause) and 3 connection ports (Micro HDMI, Mini USB, Power)
RIM has successfully created an elegant, thin, light, and small tablet that delivers a high quality external design.
Display
Great
The first thing I noticed about the PlayBook was it’s excellent display. The colours are bright and well saturated. It is viewable from all angles. The PlayBook’s display is quite good and one of the best out there.
Have you ever been using a device such as the iPad and you had trouble viewing it in the bright sun? The PlayBook’s display works quite well in difficult lighting allowing you to read ebooks and use your device to it’s fullest advantage no matter where you are.
Operating System: User Interface
Good
There is a lot I could say about the operating system. The layout and the design is very good.
The bezel is often used to access menus and for getting back to the home screen. A great example of this is multi-tasking. To switch to a different application you can swipe in from either side and scroll through all open applications. You can do the same thing by swiping from the bottom, the only difference is, you get the option of dragging up the main application list (home screen). 
The OS is very elegant. The way that it is divided into three sections makes accessing everything you need easy right from the home screen.
1. Top Bar: Thin, Transparent. This bar at the top of your device is shown on the home screen. It displays the time, date, and various icons including WiFi, battery, alerts, and orientation lock.
2. Middle Area: This section is only used to scrolling between open applications. The thumbnails run a live preview of the application so you can be watching two videos right from the home screen.
3. Bottom Area: Semi-Transparent. This is the area that allows you to browse through your apps. All, Favourites, Media, and Games. You can also swipe up from here to open a larger area for your application list.
I told you about multi-tasking earlier. Switching applications takes no effort at all. Unlike some mobile operating systems, the PlayBook OS allows you to have many apps running at the same times. (videos, games, etc). For convenience, a game will pause once you choose a different app to go into.
Web Browsing
Good
The PlayBook browser is based on Webkit, which is a great browser base code. The only complaint I have about this browser is the tabs. In order to switch to a different tab, you have to swipe down from the top and select one of the many squares, which are you open tabs. It’s not near as fast as switching tabs in other mobile browsers such as the newest Android OS.
The web page loading time is extraordinary. Many websites, even if they include Adobe Flash elements, load very fast.
You rarely see the loading pattern, even if you have a slow internet connection.
Keyboard
Good – Could be better
Typing on the PlayBook for long periods of time is quite comfortable and also has a very quick response time. The only thing that gets annoying is the lack of auto-complete and auto-correct features. I find myself using the oddly placed backspace button often to correct mistakes that I’m used to iOS correcting for me.
Selecting text is very easy. You can tap once to bring up two small arrows. You put the first arrow at the beginning of your selection and the second at the end. Tap once more and copy/paste/select options appear. These features are very responsive and work quickly.
Bad
There is no native email, calendar, and contacts apps in the PlayBook. I was very disappointed as I use email, and calendar constantly when I’m using a computer. In order to have full access to their mail applications, you need a BlackBerry mobile phone and must connect it to your PlayBook by way of BlackBerry Bridge. Unfortunately, I cannot test or make use of this feature.
The Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo app are good enough but I wish there was a better mail application pre-loaded on the device.
HDMI
If you purchase the BlackBerry HDMI adapter, which connects to a small port on the bottom of your PlayBook, you can view your PlayBook screen on your television or external display.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth allows you to connect your mobile phones, speakers, headsets, and other devices to your PlayBook.
Good
Unlike most tablets, the PlayBook doesn’t mount as a mass storage device. You need to download BlackBerry software from here (Mac and PC) so you can transfer music, videos, and other files to your PlayBook. This software also has a neat backup feature that works quite well.
With this software, you can transfer the photos you took with your PlayBook camera to your computer.
Need For Speed
To download additional applications to your device, you can use the BlackBerry App World. There is a lack of applications in the app world. Hopefully more developers are going to be building applications for the PlayBook when the software update comes out in February. It’s also possible for developers to port over some Android applications to the PlayBook OS. The PlayBook has a lot of potential for great applications.
Camera
Basic photo capture is quite good. The UI is very straightforward.
The rear facing camera can capture 1080p video. The video turns out very well but there seems to be no stabilization in the video or photo mode.
The rear camera shoots 5 megapixel photos at 2592×1456 pixel resolution. Overall, the quality is good but there is some small amounts of ‘noise’ in the photos.
Battery
There is not much you can say about the battery. I usually get two full days out of the PlayBook using it for general web browsing, listening to podcasts, and watching videos. By the way, the podcast application is quite good.
I didn’t expect the battery to last as long as it does. I did notice charging the PlayBook from 0% to 100% takes an extremely long time. (4+ hours)
Conclusion
I love the BlackBerry PlayBook and for $199, it’s a very nice tablet. The device form factor, size, and hardware is great. The display is also very nice.
The lack of a native e-mail, contact, calendar application along with the lack of applications in the App World make the PlayBook less attractive. I see a lot of potential in RIM’s first tablet and I hope it continues to get updates and new applications.
Overall, if you have a $200 budget, the PlayBook should be high on your list, otherwise I think it’s fair to say you should wait a while before purchasing a PlayBook due to the small amount of applications. Let’s hope to see some more applications and additional updates soon.
If you have a PlayBook or are thinking about getting one, please leave your thoughts below in the comments section. We’d love to hear what you have to say.
Please remember to share this post with you friends if you found it useful.
Budget Gadgets Review
BudgetGadgets has been in the online retail/wholesale business since 2003. They sell exactly what it sounds like, gadgets and electronics, at a very low price. There are many great looking products on their website and I must say, I’ve been very impressed with the products I’ve purchased and received to review.
First I’ll begin by telling you about their great website. There are many categories for different types of electronics, gadgets, and you can also look through their product listings by searching in price categories.
$0 – $1.99, $2 – $4.99, $5 – $9.99, $10 – $14.99, $15 – $19.99, $20 or more
Their website has a very simple and easy to navigate website. There are links on the main page to daily deals, Facebook page, Twitter, and much more.
Shipping
Shipping for any quantity of items to any location in the world is free. For most of the packages BudgetGadgets uses Airmail service by HongKong Post or Singapore Post, which usually takes 7-16 working days to arrive to most of countries.
I live in Ontario, Canada, that’s more then 12,000km away from where BudgetGadgets is in Shenzen, China. I receive my order in 10 days or sooner. Shipping is great and what more can you expect for free?
For orders over 200USD they use EMS or DHL with an online tracking number. There’s no extra charge for express shipping and they usually arrive in 3 – 5 working days.
DropShipping is also available. For more information, visit their information page. http://www.budgetgadgets.com/info.php?sub=DropShipping
Packaging
Every product I have received is packaged very well. Nothing ever gets damaged during shipping. It’s obvious that BudgetGadgets puts a lot of work into packaging. All products, including cables, manuals, and disks are wrapped very neatly. What’s worse then having a damaged product show up at your home?
Products
BudgetGadgets is always releasing new products for sale. Currently, they have everything from toy games to $300 Android tablets. The selection is amazing and there is something for everyone. BudgetGadgets is a great place to purchase gifts and seasonal items also.
Affiliates
BudgetGadgets affiliate program allows you to generate revenue for every purchase made that comes from your business or non-business channels.
You can add links to your site and access reports online so you can see how well you’re doing. This program is free to join. You earn 5% commission for any sales you make. If you refer someone and they don’t make a purchase right away, then when they revisit and purchase an item, you will automatically be credited with the sale, as long as it occurs within 180 days of the original visit.
I have been using the affiliate program since it was created and I am very happy. I have had a positive expierence with BudgetGadgets Affiliate program. My referral link: http://www.budgetgadgets.com/index.php?ref=247
Coupon
You can save 5% by using the coupon code: techzany at http://BudgetGadgets.com. Save 5% on anything and everything you buy from their online store.
Giveaway!
A $20 coupon code for BudgetGadgets.com will be given away to one of you on November 14th.
How to Enter:
- Follow @TechZany and @BudgetGadgets
-Tweet this: ” I just entered the @TechZany @BudgetGadgets $20 coupon #giveaway #TZBG20 bit.ly/bgtzgive ”
- One entry per person
On November 14th, I’ll do a search for #TZBG20 on Twitter and see who entered. Then I’ll use a number generator to randomly choose one, if you followed all rules, you will be notified through Twitter to e-mail me.
Thanks to BudgetGadgets for doing this giveaway! Good Luck!
Conclusions
BudgetGadgets sells great products at an amazing low price with free shipping. All products are packaged nicely and are delivered to your home / store within about 2 weeks. BG also has a one year warranty on most products and a 30 day money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. Save 5% by using the coupon code techzany when checking out. If you have any other questions on replacements, warranty, etc, you should be able to find your answers on their FAQ page or you can e-mail them.
BudgetGadgets is not a scam website and is very trustworthy.
So what are you waiting for? Head over to BudgetGadgets.com now and purchase yourself some new gadgets.
All giveaway details are subject to change without notice. You must follow all rules
to be eligible to enter. One winner will be randomly choosen on or around November
14th. $20 coupon is a discount for the online web store and has no cash value.
Netflix – Qwikster
The CEO of Netflix apologized as to why he separated Netflix into two separate divisons. New division, Qwikster will be the DVD rental business while Netflix is streaming only. Reed Hastings, the CEO is dealing with the negative reaction, people are angry and confused.
A guy that worked for Netflix wil nowl be working into the new company. It’s been like this forever but now it’s too the public. Two accounts, two different divisions. If you need to change anything, it’s all done separatly. Let’s say you are subscribed to both, and you need to change some of your information then you will need to do it with both.
Netflix wants to go streaming only! The problem is, all movies aren’t streamed. Some of the movies are DVD only.
They don’t want to kill the DVD business , they want to move more people over to streaming.
On the Qwikster side of things, do you think this will this idea take off? How will they promote? Will they have Kiosks, other promotional ideas? DVD express, Redbox, and others are already in this business and how is Qwikster going to compete as now, to the public, they are someone new and they don’t even have Netflix’s name to back them. No one knows really who they are.
Qwikster has video games also , at a premium like blu-ray. Pay extra for unlimited video game rentals. None of this is final so we are still waiting for details about this.
Redbox, Qwikster will die, in my opinion, they are at thier peak now. DVD business needs to get out of the way of the growing streaming business. Netflix doesn’t want to get rid of it completely though.
you might wonder who uses DVD rentals. DVD still has better quality audio and video. That is also the same with Blu-ray. They also are great if you don’t have a lot of available bandwidth.
The reactions were terrible.Netflix said they messed up. People say what they did made the company worse.
Hasting’s says they have some enhanced content coming to streaming in the near future. They need to ‘wow the customer’s and get them back on their side. We need more content on Netflix Streaming for sure.
What are your thoughts? Will you continue to use Netflix? If so, DVD or streaming? Leave your comments below.
Buying a Refurbished Mac
Apple.com offers Certified Refurbished Macs, iPods, iPads, and accessories. Apple’s refurbished pricing is usually about 15% off of the regular price of the product.
The products you are getting are completely checked out and certified by Apple professionals. As with every Mac, you get a one year included AppleCare warranty with the option of purchasing additional AppleCare.
A refurbished unit is tested and certified to work as a new machine. A refurbished Mac might even be less likely to fail then a new unit as it has been worked in and manually tested by professionals.
Some people purchase Macs and then return them for no good reason. Apple can’t resell these as new so they test them, fix them up, and then sell them as refurbished. Apple does the same with overstock products and older models of Macs.
My Experiences
I recently purchased a refurbished MacBook Pro from Apple.com. I happened to get a customized model. This means someone didn’t buy one of the base models. Before they purchased, they told Apple to upgrade certain components. I was lucky enough to get one of the SSD MacBook Pros before they went out of stock. In my experience, refurbished Macs go fast because you don’t know how many are available. If you want something you see, act fast.
To be completely honest, I got a great MacBook in great, brand-new condition for about 20% off regular price. By the way, this is the current generation MBP.
I have not had any problems with my MacBook and have loved it since the second I pulled it out of the box. I have no regrets for purchasing a refurbished Apple product.
Buying a New Mac
Buying new seems reasonable if you would like the experience of original packaging or you would like a custom configuration. (ex. multiple video cards, RAM pre-installed, etc)
Refurbished From Other Retailers
I have heard some bad reviews about buying a refurbished Mac from a retailer other then Apple so be careful and be sure to look around online before making any purchases.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you would like to save some some money, refurbished from Apple is a great no-risk purchase. If you have the extra cash and love to get a custom configured Mac, purchase brand new from Apple.
