MacDesign

I'm thrilled to write about the announcement of MacDesign, a new blog focused on graphic design and video production on the Mac. MacDesign will feature daily tips, reviews, and tutorials on applications that will speed up your workflow and give you great results. The MacDesign forums offer a place for professionals and newbies alike to share their own tips and ask questions of others.

Be sure to check out the latest MacDesign article on VoltaicHD, a video converter/manager for Mac.

The PlayStation Phone

Cinch for Mac

Cinch, developed by Irradiated Software, is an elegant, mouse-driven solution to window management. Inspired by Microsoft's Windows Explorer, Cinch is based off the idea of "hot-zones". Once you drag a window into one of the zones (either left, right, menubar), an outline of your resized window will appear on the screen. Just drop the window into the hot-zone and the application window will be resized. Cinching to the right or left side of the screen will resize the window to exactly half the screen's resolution. The top hot-zone resizes to will the entire screen. Dragging a window away from its cinched position will restore the window to its original size.

Drag a window to a "hot-zone" to see a preview of the resize.

Cinch automatically resizes your window to the desired length (determined by "hot-zone").

You can download the free version (occasional pop-up), or purchase a license for yourself over at the Irradiated Software store. I will be posting a video review of Cinch on my YouTube channel, which can be found here.

The Icon Portable Battery from IPEVO

Ever run out of battery while using your iPod touch or iPhone; making a phone call, only to realize your battery is dying and you have to cut the conversation short? Well, IPEVO has heard your call and they now offer a very portable solution to this. The Icon is the universal symbol for charging your Apple products. They took a very unique idea and made it happen. This portable external battery works on any iPod touch or iPhone, including the newest versions. I have been using it for a bit now and I am very pleased with how it works. To check it out or to get one for yourself visit IPEVO.com, or go to the link below.

http://www.ipevo.com/The-Icon-Power-Pack-for-iPhone_p_95.html

iTunes Won't Back Up iPhone 4

iTunes 10 (or 9) may not be backing up your iPhone 4. A lot of people have this problem but they don't notice it until they have to restore their iPhone and all their data is lost. To see if you have this problem, connect your device and iTunes, right click on it, and see if there is an option to back up your iPhone. If there is, your fine. If not, close iTunes, open terminal, copy and past: [defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool false] (without the brackets) and hit enter. Open iTunes with your device connected, right click on it and you will now see an option to back up.

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