I finally got to try the push notification service of iPhone OS 3.0. I upgraded my iPod Touch to the 3.0 software last week and downloaded AIM for the iPhone. Being the cheapskate that I am, I just got the free version.

AIM for iPhone and iPod Touch

One of my biggest gripes before with instant messaging on the iPod Touch was that I always had to have the application on or else I would be disconnected from the service. If I’m waiting for someone I can’t do anything else on my iPod Touch. Hence I didn’t really use my iPod Touch much for instant messaging.

Push service finally comes and I think it’s an answered prayer. I tried it and it works. I could do other things with my iPod and receive notices when messages arrive. Cool. Yup until I encountered one problem. I’m still unsure if it’s just my particular set up or this happens to others as well.

I connected with AIM on my iPod Touch and it was working well. One thing I forgot was to sign out on my iPod Touch, I got so used to being signed out upon exiting the app that it didn’t cross my mind. So I transfer to my laptop and use Adium. I’m connected to AIM and I’m able to send messages. Unfortunately I wasn’t getting any replies. I just see the icon change to a “writing symbol” but I don’t get the replies of the person I’m talking to. I found out that the messages were being sent to my iPod Touch. It doesn’t go to both.

So now I have to constantly remember to sign off on my iPod Touch or I won’t get my messages. That’s quite a drag…

Panic Software, makers of popular Mac software such as Transmit and Coda is having a 3 day sale. Transmit, Coda, CandyBar and Unison are 50% off. The sale period is from 12:01 AM PST May 27th to 11:59 PM PST May 29th.

I took this opportunity to buy Coda. I’ve tried this out before and generally like this software except for the $99 price tag that it carries. So now with the chance to buy it for $49.50, I snapped it up.

Hurry Mac users and avail of the 3 day sale!

The cover of this week’s “The New Yorker” magazine was made through an unlikely tool: an iPhone. Yes, you read it correctly! Jorge Colombo, a Portuguese born artist created the digital artwork using the Brushes app on his iPhone. It’s a $4.99 application that allows you to create drawings on your iPhone or iPod Touch using your fingers.

Brushes screen shot

In the hands of a gifted artist such as Jorge, the results of this application is short of amazing. You’d never guess that the cover artwork was done with the iPhone.

The great thing about drawing with an iPhone as your tool is that you can draw in the dark. The backlight makes it easy to draw under dim or low light situations. The draw back is that it’s harder to draw under sun light.

The Brushes application can simulate several brushes, as well as a host of colors including transparencies. Brushes also saves your strokes in the file and you can actually use the Brushes Viewer application for Mac OS X to view the step by step process of what you just did. The viewer application is free. You can export them as QuickTime movies.

Check out the story at the New Yorker blog. More information about Jorge can be found on his web site. Download the Brushes application here and visit the official web site here. Watch how the cover for “The New Yorker” was made below.

Spurred by my recent battery problems, I stumbled upon this little app from Sonora Graphics. It’s called Battery Health Monitor. It’s a free app that allows you to monitor your MacBook Pro, MacBook, PowerBook and iBook’s battery life.

Battery Health Monitor Screen shot

It shows you the original capacity, current capacity, current charge, charge cycles, voltage and some more info. From this you can see how your battery is doing, if you need to change it, etc.

Granted these information can be found through System profiler, I just like it better when there’s a GUI to look at. Plus what am I gonna fill up my hard disk with but with tons of Mac apps. Right?

Download Battery Health Monitor here. It’s a free download.

I tried Pixelmator before but didn’t really use it much ever since. Probably, because I never really had enough time to play with it. The makers of Pixelmator recently released a new version and a new learning section in their web site which aims to teach and showcase the powerful editor that Pixelmator has become.

Bokeh Effect Image created with Pixelmator

The Colorful Bokeh Effect tutorial was the one that caught my interest. I like these types of images and saw it as a great opportunity to learn how to create one. So I downloaded a copy of Pixelmator again since the last copy I downloaded was an older version and the trial had expired. After installing it I proceeded with the tutorials. I honestly thought that it would take longer but I was over and done in less than 10 mins. It’s really easy in Pixelmator.

Not only was I surprised at how easy it was to do the image but the quality of the resulting image was great. For this tutorial I got to use the gradient tool. All I can say is that the gradient tool was great because you can see a live preview of the gradient you’re creating. Pixelmator makes use of the Macs GPU and produces quick filters and tools.

For $59 bucks, Pixelmator is a great buy. It has most of the features that everyday people will use. Sure Photoshop is still better but it also comes at a price. Most people won’t need that. Pixelmator makes it affordable for people to start and improve their image editing skills.

I would seriosuly recommend this app.

I stumbled upon this simple yet great sketching or scribbling tool. I was following a link to a software for twittering when I saw Scribbles in the same web site. Ironically, Tweetie, the software I was itching to try was yet to be launched. I ended up downloading and trying out Scribbles.

Screenshot of Scribbles

Scribbles won’t be challenging software like Sketchbook Pro but for amateur sketchers or doodlers, it’s ok. The interface is simple and intuitive. There’s not much clutter to distract you. There’s good eye candy when you play with the various tools. Some great features include an infinite canvass, 3D interface and 1-click sharing.

One neat feature I like is the “Tracing Paper”. When you switch on this option, it makes the window translucent, thus allowing you to trace what ever’s beneath. Acting like, well a tracing paper. Pretty nice.

I’ve only been using it for awhile, there’s still a lot to explore. Unfortunately as the article image shows, I’m not really that good of a sketcher or a doodler. Oh well. That’s life.

Check out Scribbles here. Download a trial copy and see for yourself.

BBEdit was one of the first HTML/Text Editors I used when I switched to the Mac platform. I used it for a short time before making the switch to TextMate. The main deal breaker for me was the price. Currently BBEdit is priced at $125. Its price is slightly more than what I’d normally pay for a Mac app, except for Adobe apps. For a text editor it is quite expensive.

BBEdit 9

BBEdit now is on version 9 and along with it come new features and improvements from previous versions. Improvments such as Projects, a way of organizing files related to each other, Completion, it completes your codes as you’re editing or with a key stroke similar to what Typinator does. It also has integration with MobileMe so you can synchronize your settings, preferences across multiple machines. A whole lot of other new features and improvements are introduced in BBEdit 9. Check out the web site for the complete list.

It’s no debate, BBEdit is a robust text editor with a whole lot of bells and whistles. However similar to my pet peeve with Microsoft products, BBEdit offers just so much features that I’d probably use only 10% of it, leaving 90% of it’s features untouched.

So while BBEdit is a great text editor with a whole lot of muscle I feel that it’s just too much for me. At $125 it’s just not worth it for me. Now, price it the same as TextMate then that’s a different story. But that just won’t happen right?

Power users will find BBEdit an indispensable tool in their arsenal but for people like me who are just your average joes, TextMate will do just fine. It’s a whole lot cheeaper.

[Image courtesy of Bare Bones ]

MacHeist 3 Bundle

MacHeist is a great way to get Mac apps on the cheap. Bundles such as MacHeist give good value for money. In this particular bundle, what interests me the most is Kinemac, a 3D animation software valued at $299 and Espresso, a new web editor. Espresso will be unlocked if the MacHeist targets are met.

Another great thing about MacHeist is that they’re giving 25% of each bundle purchase to charity. You’re getting a good deal and you’re helping people as well. How great is that?

So if you want to save money as well as try a bunch of great apps get MacHeist now. As of this writing there’s only 9 days to go before MacHeist ends. Even if you do end up only using 2 or 3 of the 12 apps, it’s already worth it. At $39 you can’t lose. Check it out now!

I came across this list of 25 Free Mac Apps for Freelancers from Designer Daily . A lot of the apps listed are apps that I use, because I’m a freelancer as well and they do help a lot and don’t cost a dime.

Most of the apps listed are also very useful to the everyday Mac user. Apps such as Adium, Skype, Firefox, Handbrake, Quicksilver and Transmission should be essential tools for most Mac users as well.

Some of the apps on this list that I’d like to try for myself are AppCleaner, as a replacement to AppZapper. Another app I want to try is DeepVacuum, an app that will allow me to download local copies of web sites. This will come in useful if I want to try and deconstruct a site that I’m trying to learn from.

So if you’re a freelancer or a Mac user at that, try out the apps listed on this article. Most of them are great and best of all free.

Head’s up for MarsEdit users, they just released the 2.2.3 update. Here are the improvements with this release.

MarsEdit 2.2.3
Improve networking compatibility by always encoding XML “>” literals
Fix a bug in the preview window that could cause it to stop updating
Fix a possible crash when closing the enclosure sheet before URL finishes loading
Fix a bug that caused media manager upload choice to be out of sync with post
Fix a bug that prevented some 10.4 users from toggling table column visibility
Improved accessibility of the check for updates dialog