Filed under: Design, Fun, Photo, Features, Macintosh, Productivity, Adobe

It turns out that Madonna had it wrong: instead of living in a material world, we are increasingly moving to a digital one. One arena in which that is particularly true is photography: digital cameras have slowly replaced traditional cameras, digital images replaced real prints, and digital manipulation has replaced traditional editing means.

Today we’re going to look at six programs for the Mac, all designed to help you edit and manipulate your digital images. These programs vary widely in price, skill level, and features. Know this: whether you simply want to remove red-eye without having to pull out that felt-tip pen (we’re not the only ones who did that, right?), or would like to insert Bigfoot into a picture of scenery, we’ve got you covered.

Continue reading Have it your way: 6 programs for editing images on the Mac

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Filed under: Macintosh, Productivity, Microsoft, Commercial

The long wait is over: Office 2008 for Mac is now available for pre-order from Apple and Amazon, with a street release date of January 15th.

It seems like just yesterday that Microsoft was on stage at the 2006 Macworld keynote, reaffirming their commitment to making Microsoft applications for the Mac. At that time, Office 2004 was not a universal binary, and could only be run on Apple’s new Intel machines through the Rosetta emulation layer.

Office 2008 will be a universal binary, and it looks to be a nice leap forward (as it should be, considering that it was almost four years in the making).

[via TUAW.com]

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Filed under: Press releases, Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Marketing and advertising, Sony Corp ADR (SNE)

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) and Germany’s Bertelsmann Media Group, announced yesterday that Amazon’s new MP3 store will soon carry the label’s entire catalog. This move makes Amazon.com’s MP3 store the only digital store to offer consumer’s Digital Rights Management-free MP3 tracks from all four major labels, with Sony BMG joining privately-held EMI Group, Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG), and Vivendi (OTC: VIVEF)’s Universal Music Group.

Previously, Sony had announced a new promotion of album cards, which would allow listeners to download DRM-free MP3s, but it was limited to only about three dozen albums. The new agreement brings the entire catalog to Amazon.

The major point here is that Amazon’s store now offers tracks that are playable on virtually any platform or device, from Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)’s Zune and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)’s iPod to various off-brand players. In a press release given to Ellen Livshin of OutCast Communications, Amazon.com Vice President for Digital Music Bill Carr revealed this very fact: “Our Amazon MP3 customers will be able to choose from a full selection of DRM-free music downloads from all four major labels and over 33,000 independents that they can play on virtually any music-capable device.” U.S. Sales head for Sony Thomas Hesse echoed these sentiments and added that the label is “excited to be working with Amazon as they continue to build new markets for digital music.”

I’ve remarked before that the Amazon.com MP3 store would increase competition and drive the digital market forward, and with this announcement it seems that many predictions about the online music realm are being realized, albeit much earlier than expected. Many had pointed to mid-year as the time when DRM technology would disappear completely, but as we can now see, that timeline will be January, at least for one store.

The move is also a potentially devastating blow to Apple’s iTunes Store, which had headed up the move away from DRM but has not great success, managing to score only the EMI catalog early last summer. Whatever the case may be, the Amazon.com move will increase the competition and hopefully begin the revitalization process the music industry needs. All they have to do is promote it and get consumers interested.

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Filed under: Products and services, Marketing and advertising, Politics, Presidential elections

It sounds like a bad dream. You should up to listen to and perhaps ask questions of Mike Huckabee, a leading Republican candidate for President but first … You have to sit through a speech about what a great opportunity Amway is. Pass the puke bucket.

But that’s exactly what happened in West Des Moines, according to the Baltimore Sun: “For half an hour, two businessmen paced the stage where Huckabee would soon stump. They never said the name of the company during their talks, but afterward some members of the crowd shared with others the good news of a company called Quixtar Inc.” Earlier this year, parent company Alticor said it was phasing out the Quixtar name and rebuilding its Amway brand which it had dropped in 2000.

Huckabee denies any formal association with the multi-level marketing hucksters, but said that they were a “great group of people.”

It appears true that Alticor employees and executives haven’t been giving to Huckabee. For whatever reason, company patriarch Richard DeVos has given money to Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. But historically, Alticor has been a huge donor to the Republican Party.

Maybe Giuliani, Romney, and the GOP as a whole should do some research into the background of the company that has been one of the part’s top donors for years. They could start with this excellent Dateline special.

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Filed under: Rumors, Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL), PepsiCo (PEP), Amazon.com (AMZN), Marketing and advertising, Technology

Billboard.com announced today that Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) are set to reveal a new “promotion in which Pepsi customers can build up points by registering codes on bottle-caps and exchange them for merchandise and downloads from Amazon.com.” The announcement from the two companies is rumored to commence with a commercial airing during this year’s Super Bowl game, and the promotion will last through the end of this year.

The promotion is also due to coincide with the full launch of Amazon.com’s MP3 store, which was unveiled in a demo form in autumn. The two companies will utilize tracks and videos from three of the four major music labels, Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG), privately held EMI Group, and Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) and Germany-based Bertelsmann Media Group; Vivendi (OTC: VIVEF)’s Universal Music Group will sit out the promotion, though that label will still offer music in the MP3 store. Sony BMG joins the MP3 market with its involvement in the promotion after announcing the sale of MP3 cards earlier this week.

This promotion illustrates the continued demand for high-quality MP3 tracks free from anti-piracy technology, like Digital Rights Management (DRM), which many expect will disappear by mid-year. The full launch of the Amazon.com MP3 store gives consumers another destination for media that is playable across numerous players, acting in direct competition to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL)’s iTunes Store. Apple spearheaded the move away from DRM last spring, after securing a deal with EMI to drop the technology. The benefit of the promotion is that it will broaden the number of consumers that are aware of high-quality tracks, while increasing the competition that will occur to spur continued development in this area.

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