Hasta La Gadget!

Apple has updated iTunes to version 9.1 to offer support for the iPad release on Saturday. The headline features are iPad syncing and support for books, and there is also some tweaking to the Genius playlist options.

The iPad syncing obviously won’t do anything until you plug in an iPad this weekend, but you can test out the books support right now. Take any EPUB-format book you may have on your computer and drop it into iTunes. It is automatically added to the new Books section, which replaces (and includes) the Audiobooks section. If the book already has metadata and cover art, these are preserved. You can also sort by category, title and author.

Only EPUB will work, and I converted mine using the cross-platform freeware application Calibre, itself a kind of iTunes for e-books. Dragging a MOBI file does nothing. PDF files can still be added, but they end up in the main library as before, not the Books library.

Once the books are in iTunes, what can you do? Right now, nothing. They don’t show up in the list of syncable content for an iPod Touch, nor can you view them in iTunes itself, despite the option to “play” in the pop-up, right-click menu. We hope that the iPhone gets its own version of the iBooks app, if only so you can read from multiple devices, Kindle-style. We doubt the Mac will get iBooks, though. That’s what the iPad is for.

There’s one other takeaway from this early release of iTunes. Normally Apple updates iTunes on the day a new product ships, and this usually makes downloads painfully slow, and often means you can’t use your new device right away. Either Apple has learned its lesson, or it is expecting to sell rather a lot of iPads on Saturday.

iTunes [Apple]

See Also:

• IBooks
• Apple's Tablet E-Book App Rips off Indie Dev's Creation
• iBooks Store Loaded with Project Gutenberg Titles at Launch …
• Apple iPad Raises the Stakes for E-Readers

This article was written on December 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

Most of you know by now that Paint.NET is one of my favorite image and photo editing solutions.  Of course it’s free which is part of the reason, but the big reason it ranks high on my list is because it’s basic yet offers some advanced, more powerful editing features.  To boot, it’s easy to understand and to use which is important. Yesterday they launched Paint.NET version 3.20 (no beta) with several new features, and of course the typical bug fixes. You can get it one of two ways – if you already have a version of Paint.NET installed, you go go to the Help menu in the program and click “Check for Updates.” If you don’t have it installed, you’ll want to go to www.getpaint.net and download it there.

The last beta release that we mentioned was version 3.10 which came out back in August. At that point, they introduced new features like the “soften portrait effect” and the “ink sketch effect” which makes a photo look like it was sketched by someone. Between then and now, they must have been working pretty hard because there are yet more new features to add to the list. Here’s what you’ll find in this final version:

• Choose between a fixed ratio or a fixed size when you use the Rectangle Select tool
  
• Look for the selection combination mode which is accessible from the toolbar
• “Flood mode” for the Magic Wand and Paint Bucket tool are accessible from the toolbar (continuous or global)
• Effects menu has been reorganized and all effects are classified under sub-menus
• Enhanced “frosted glass” distortion effect
• Enhanced “twist distortion” effect
• and more…

The list of changes is actually quite long and if you’re interested in seeing exactly what all has been changed, just check out the Paint.NET blog. While this release adds all kinds of new features, I’m most excited for Paint.NET version 4.0 which is still a long ways away.  They say it’ll be released maybe in early to mid 2009 but it is going to be completely rewritten which according to their site “should enable such features as layer masks, adjustment layers, effect layers, composite layers, effect and adjustment chaining, soft selections, scripting and recorded actions, a completely new brush system,” and more. I can’t wait!

Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:

Daily Downloads: Process Explorer, Paint.NET, and MoreDaily Downloads: Paint.NET, Songbird, and DivXDaily Downloads: Paint.NET and FastStoneDaily Downloads: CDBurnerXP & Paint.NETHalf of Firefox Extensions Not Compatible with 3.1

Continue reading Sharp’s Snapdragon-powered, Android-running IS01 MID gets a hands-on (updated)

Sharp’s Snapdragon-powered, Android-running IS01 MID gets a hands-on (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 03:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Android Community  |  Akihabara News  | Email this | Comments

Ace is teaming up with Lawson to sell a new brand aimed at office ladies (OLs) in their twenties and thirties, the first time the bag-maker has collaborated with a convenience store.

The new brand, Jewelna Rose, will be on sale at its own store, to open in Harajuku from May. For those of you who can’t wait, Lawson will be selling promotional mini tote models from April 12, priced 1000 JPY (c.$11), far cheaper than the bags in the regular range.

Ace is well-known for its suitcases and travel bags, but the recession has led to a decline in consumers traveling overseas or going on business trips. Forced to seek out a new consumer base, they are gambling on this new girly style and collaboration to rescue their sales.

Unfortunately there aren’t any photos of the Lawson bags online yet but you can see what the other products in the catalog look like below.

Ace has gone all out for its target here, gleefully mixing luxury and cute. Apparently the Lawson bags are in white and blue stripes, with “Love” written in pink on the back. You can’t get more girly than that, I guess! They also tapped the promotional power of popular idol Aki Hoshino to appear at a “debut exhibition” event in February and are even writing a blog for the brand on Ameblo, complete with the customary, feminine emoji.

Admittedly, we were a bit hesitant when Cisco contacted us with jubilation over a router, but now we can kind of see why. The company has pulled in design experts from its recently-acquired Flip for what it’s banking on is a much simpler and friendlier user experience, from the packaging to the set up and maintenance menus, with a new lineup of routers it’s calling Valet. The hardware itself is not too shabby — it’d probably be quite inconspicuous in a Tomorrowland exhibit — but the internals are nothing mind-blowing. Both the Valet and Valet Plus offer 2.4GHz Wireless N, while the latter model boasts a longer range and a quartet of Gigabit ports (the standard only uses 10/100).

Eschewing the usual CD installation key is what Cisco’s calling the USB Easy Setup Key. Similar idea to the other routers, just plug in and install the software. After two clicks of the menu, it auto-located our Valet and connected to a newly-minted, protected wireless service (in this case “BusyFish”) with the password saved in our keychain. Adjusting guest access and parental controls are easy enough, and nice part of the USB key is that you can write the settings onto it, letting you simply plug it into another computer and auto-load the settings. Manual controls are still available and should be fine for most readers. Nothing mind-blowing, but for the audience Cisco’s targeting, it’s definitely a step in the right direction. According to Cisco, availability is “immediately” and prices are $100 for Valet and $150 for Valet Plus. Press release and oodles (yes, oodles) more pictures after the break.

Continue reading Cisco’s Valet routers take a cue from Flip’s design department

Cisco’s Valet routers take a cue from Flip’s design department originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments