Microwarehouse Philippines: Apple Of My i Photo Contest

[UPDATE 10-April-2006]:
1. You can check out some of the "Apple Of My i" photo contest entries at microwarehouse.com.ph/appleofmyi and find out how you can win a brand new iPod Shuffle.

2. Microwarehouse Philippines will have the "Mac of My Life" exhibit on May 6-7, 2006 at the Powerplant Mall, Rockwell to showcase selected entries from the "Apple Of My i" photo contest.

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[UPDATE 10-Feb-2006]:
The deadline for submission of entries has been moved to 05 March 2006. Hooray! So hurry now and get those pictures taken for the chance to win a brand new Mac!

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Microwarehouse Philippines has launched the Apple Of My i photo contest. Open to both professional and amateur photographers, this contest aims to showcase various images portraying Apple enthusiasts with their fabulous Apple gadgets and/or computers. You can participate either as a photographer or as a subject, so you don't have to own an Apple product to join. You can participate as a photographer, take a picture of somebody who owns an Apple product, and send in your entry. Or if you own an Apple gadget or a Mac, and feel that your face is fabulous enough to win the judges over, then have your picture taken and join the contest. The 1st place winner (photographer) in each of the two categories will receive either an iMac G5 (PowerPC) or an iBook, while the subject will receive either an iPod Nano or an iPod shuffle. Wow! Visit Microwarehouse.com.ph for more details.

Win A Wicked New iPod Nano From The British Council Philippines

"Fancy" a new iPod? The British Council Philippines is giving you the chance to win one. Just head on over to their website and take the iKnow UK online quiz for the chance to win a "wicked" new iPod Nano. Looks "easy peasy". Most of the answers can be found by looking around their website (for everything else, there's Google). So what are you waiting for? Quit "fannying around" and take the quiz.

*The contest runs from 05 Dec 2005 to 28 Feb 2006.

[UPDATE 24-Jan-006]: Apparently, it's not as "easy peasy" as I thought it would be. You have to get ALL the questions right to earn a raffle entry. But they do allow you to go back and change your answers until you get everything right.

Online Poker For Mac Users

Poker's getting pretty big here in the Philippines. Its growing popularity has, no doubt, been influenced immensely by the Celebrity Poker Showdown which started airing on local cable channels last year. So for those of you who are into the game and are looking for online poker sites that are Mac-friendly, head on over to MacOnlinePoker.com. They've got a short list of online poker websites that are compatible with the Macintosh platform, as well as reviews on each of their featured websites. About.com also has an article entitled Top 5 Mac Online Poker Sites. The article mentions two online poker sites that aren't featured in MacOnlinePoker.com. So what are you waiting for? Go get your credit cards ready and dive into the world of online gambling. Don't worry, you can always join Gamblers Anonymous if things get out of hand - Mac and Windows users welcome.

Mac OS X 10.4.4 Update Now Available

I haven't checked my software updater for quite some time now, and today, I saw that the Mac OS X 10.4.4 update is now available (it was posted about 10 days ago). New items include security improvements and an iChat update that allows the program to detect if you're using a bluetooth headset as your audio device. That last one's pretty cool. Click here to learn more about the update.

Widget World: Word of the Day

Do you aspire to gain an extensive vocabulary? If so, then "Word of the Day" is the widget for you. This dashboard application references Dictionary.com and displays the current word of the day for your learning pleasure. Make a daily habit of viewing it and soon enough, you will be using the words anacoluthically, nebulous and perspicacious all in one sentence.

Levi's Announces iPod Jeans

Levi's announced its upcoming line of RedWire DLX Jeans designed for the iPod. It has a docking station. Yes, a docking station! It should be in one of the pockets, where you attach the iPod to and there will be a "joystick" which will most likely be located somewhere that's easily accessible (hmmm...). This joystick will allow you to control the iPod so you won't have to take it out of your pocket. The jeans also feature retractable earphones. It should be available worldwide around September 2006. Although from what I've read, it will retail for about $200 which is over Php 10,000. Now, you see, if I bought one, then I wouldn't have enough money left to actually buy an iPod. Oh, and the jeans are also machine washable. But, of course, you have to take the iPod out first.

Google Earth Now Available For Mac!

A beta version of Google Earth is now available for Mac users (Mac OS X 10.4 required). Yey! It's a pretty amazing application. You get to "fly to" different places all over the world and view satellite image captures. You also get all sorts of information displayed such as road names, 3D renderings of various building structures and even dining information. I took a glimpse of famous places such as the Eiffel Tower and Saint Peter's Basilica. The images are very impressive. It makes you feel like you have your very own hi-tech worldwide surveillance equipment.



And then I went to visit Manila, Philippines which is where I live, and this is the image that I got:

It's kinda like looking at bacteria under a microscope...

Get Google Earth for Mac.

MacWorld San Francisco Keynote 2006: WOW!

Wow. Intel-based iMacs and PowerBooks (called MacBook Pro). I'm both surprised yet not surprised at the same time. You see, for those of you who are unfamiliar, the months leading up to the Keynote is always filled with Mac pundits throwing out predictions left and right as to what new things Steve has to offer the world. And for this one, so many people were expecting either Intel-based iBooks and/or Mac Minis. So like a little sheep, I happily ate grass with my flock. And yet... VOILA, Apple gives us new iMacs and MacBook Pros powered by Intel Core Duo processors! DUO! As in two, dos, deux, dalawa! Two processors in a single chip for twice the computing power. Wow. So, obviously, I was jouyously surprised. Yet I was also not surprised because I was already expecting to be surprised. I was surprised with the new Macs, yet not surprised that there was a surprise. So I was both surprised and not surprised. Or prehaps both NOT NOT surprised and NOT NOT NOT surprised, and so on. You know... just like heinous, non heinous, non non heinous, non non non heinous etc... You might remember that from the critically acclaimed movies, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. Plus, the MacBook Pro (like the new iMac G5s and the new Intel-based iMacs) also comes with built-in iSight - only the coolest webcam ever. Totally EXCELLENT, dude! Please do forgive me for getting all 90s on you.

You can check out the new Macs at Apple.com. Other new stuff include iLife '06, iWork '06 and an iPod wired remote control that also lets you listen to FM radio on your iPod Nano or iPod Video.

Widget World: MailPop

Gmail is such a great email service. I love the features and how the storage space they give you increases virtually every second. All for FREE! Free! Free! Free! Nooninooninoo...

MailPop is a handy widget that tells you if you have any unread messages in your Gmail inbox. Unlike alot of Gmail checking widgets out there that simply tell you how many unread messages you have, MailPop also provides you with the sender's name, subject and the first few lines of the actual email message. You also have the option to receive audio alerts for new messages even when the widget is hidden. But I usually turn those things off because they startle me.

MacWorld Conference & Expo!

Ofcourse I will not be there. I can barely afford new underwear, let alone the conference fees and a plane ticket to San Francisco. But I'm still excited :-D It's like Christmas all over again. Steve Jobs is my Santa.

"They know that Santa's on his sleigh... He's loaded lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh..."

Oh Santa Jobs, what toys and goodies shall you surprise us with this year?

Automator Tutorial: Rotating Images

Rotating an image is a fairly easy task. A simple photo program can help you do this in just one click. But this simple task can become very tedious if you need to apply it to a number of photographs. If you have 50 pictures, then you would have to open all those files and rotate them one by one. Enter Automator - your own personal assistant on a Mac. This article provides step-by-step instructions on how to use Automator to rotate a group of image files. Instead of having to rotate each file one by one, the handy Automator will allow you to accomplish this tedious task with just a few clicks.



Step 1
Go to Finder and select all the image files that you would like to rotate (NOTE: in this tutorial, all the files you selected will be rotated towards the same direction/angle). Then, right-click (or ctrl-click if you have a one-button mouse) on any one of the selected images. A menu will appear. Click on Automator >>> Create Workflow. This will launch the Automator assistant.

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Step 2
In the Library column to your left, expand the Applications folder and select the Preview application.

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Step 3
In the Action column beside the Library column, double-click on Rotate Images. You will then be prompted with a message that says: "This action will change the image files passed into it. Would you like to add a Copy Finder Items action so that the copies are changed and your originals are preserved?" If you click on "Add", Automator will create copies of the originals, and rotate those copies so as to preserve the original files. If you click on "Don't Add", Automator will rotate the original image files without creating any copies. You may choose any of the two options. But for this tutorial, we will choose "Don't Add". Choosing "Add" creates an extra step. We will only be rotating the images anyway, so it is not that imperative that we keep copies of the original. But you may choose "Add" if you wish to.

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Step 4
The right side of your Automator window will display the list of actions you've added so far. For this workflow, you should have two actions: (1) Get Specified Finder Items and (2) Rotate Images. In the Rotate Images section, use the drop-down menu to choose which direction you'd like to rotate your images to. You will have three choices: left, right and 180 degrees.

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Step 5
Click the Run button, which can be found at the top right corner of the Automator window. This gives Automator the go signal to perform the task.

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You will have to wait awhile depending on the number of images you chose to rotate. You will see the phrase "Workflow Execution Completed" at the bottom right corner of the window, once Automator finishes the task.

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I hope you find this useful!

Happy New Year!!!

2006 has finally arrived and it seems that there are already quite a few interesting things that Apple enthusiasts from all over the world can look forward to. First off, there's the MacWorld Conference & Expo which is set to kick off in just a little over a week from now (09 Jan 2006). Every year, it is perhaps the most anticipated event by the Mac community, where, among other things, the latest innovations for the Macintosh platform are introduced. Also, expect the new Intel-based Macs to come out very, very soon. While Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" may, quite possibly, make an end-of-2006 debut. These are just a few things to watch out for. As always, expect Apple to come up with a few surprises. Very exciting indeed!

So from everyone here at PinoyMacLovers (which would just be me, actually): Happy New Year!!!