LostInTechnology

Sous Chef: Mac App for Cooks and Cook-Challenged

Posted on 12. May, 2009 by Luis Sandoval.

Today’s society has become an instant gratification society. We consume content, food, information, anything we can get our hands on, quickly, entirely, and we move on. Of course the speed of progress and the changing world help influence these changes, but what about taking the time to cook an well planned meal?

Impossible you say?

Well perhaps for some of us that are used to microwaving just about anything we can, it’s an odd concept to wrap our heads around. A great number of us have not left our college days where our diets included three main staples, pizza, Ramen noodles, and a “beverage” of choice. These habits have carried over into our professional and personal lives after college as we move from place to another, one meeting to the next, with little attention being given to where we are getting our daily intake of food.

For those us Mac users looking to unleash the chef inside all of us, or perhaps for those of us that already know how to cook but looking for more diverse recipes, Sous Chef for Mac is what you have been waiting for.

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Independent Gaming: World of Goo

Posted on 04. May, 2009 by Luis Sandoval.

It’s not often that a game is released that challenges all aspects of our physical being. Sure there are great blockbusters like the Halo series, or perhaps the latest in a longstanding franchise like Mario or Zelda series. But on the surface most of these games are visual and entertaining. There is limited need for cerebral innovation on the gamers part, and engagement is limited, yet we have a passion for these games and rightly so. While those games have a place in my heart and perhaps my entertainment set, there are other games that are simply…majestic. World of Goo is one of those games.

World of Goo engages the mind, the eyes, your ears, and sends sensations running through you that are simply epic. The game is massive in scope and design and riddled with the simplicity of use. The key to this game being able to wrap your mind around the countless puzzles that come your way, but chances are you’ll be so enraptured by the design that you’ll quickly forget you’re actually doing work.

This game was first announced as a Mac application but is now cross platform. As a Mac user, I find the gaming categories rather limited, but as I stated before, there are time when real gems make it our way, and this is one of those rare gems.

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Picturesque: Photo Edits for Mac that Trump Photoshop

Posted on 21. Apr, 2009 by Luis Sandoval.

There is no doubt that Photoshop has become the heavy hitter with photo edits and graphic creation. Adobe has laid it’s dominance down for quite sometime, and with the acquisition of Macromedia, there is little out there to offer competition enough to change the tide of popularity. Several open source applications have risen up to tackle the behemoth, the most popular being GIMP. GIMP has acquired quite the following but even those followers admit that Photoshop offers a bevy of choices that GIMP still does not offer.

But what about the casual user who just wants to touch up photos? Photoshop can have a steep learning curve for those not familiar with the product, and more time will be spent learning the applicatoin then actual work. So where is the happy medium for a user where an application is both easy to use, and quick to make the edits necessary? The answer comes in a small Mac application called Picturesque.

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iSale: eBay Auction Application for Mac

Posted on 14. Apr, 2009 by Luis Sandoval.

When eBay launched it was the second coming. Millions of people flocked to its services in order to be the first to sell this, or the first to acquire that. There was no doubt that the online world was never the same. Whether it was ready for it or not eBay would become an online merchant phenomenon that would go global.

Shortly after, came the evolution of eBay stores that would save the uninitiated and simply take items, sell them on eBay for people and in turn take a percentage off the top before paying the owner of the sold item. Seemed like a lucrative business, and for awhile it was, but ultimately the concept faded away and fewer and fewer of these strategies seemed viable.

Today, there is a great application that brings back the simplicity of letting someone else sell your stuff on eBay.  It’s called iSale!

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30+ Apps Making Facebook Your Business Tool

Posted on 27. Feb, 2009 by Luis Sandoval.

For the great many companies that are making the transition to social media tools as an opportunity to evolve their brand from the status quo and involve the expertise of the customers, thank you. Unfortunately, there are still a great many companies out there that look at social media tools as time wasters, or platforms to share drunk pictures of yourself in college.

While the above may all be true, what lies in store for the independent, the freelancer? The opportunities to utilize current social media platforms as a jump off for your business ideas exist, you have only to tap into those potentials and build on the network you’ve spent your entire life expanding.

Mashable recently posted an article on 30+ Business Tools for Facebook that truly delves into the customization of this tool to benefit the entrepreneur whose funds are already limited.

Everything from blog promotion, business networking, business communications, and audio visual tools for sharing all listed here to provide the most abundant way to maximize your Facebook profile.

Check it out and perhaps leave some comments here on some of the tools you’ve embedded into your Facebook profile to help get the word out on what you do!

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Backup Your Mac with SuperDuper

Posted on 23. Feb, 2009 by Luis Sandoval.

As a Mac user I am protective of my information and understand that while Macs might have the myth of “never getting a virus” around them, it’s not always true. Infections can indeed attack a Mac, and they are also just as susceptible to hardware failure over time as a standard Windows machine

Because of these facts, I like to take precautions with SuperDuper, a great backup software for Macs.

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Free Mac PDF Reader: Skim

Posted on 19. Feb, 2009 by Luis Sandoval.

As an avid Mac user, I’m sharing with the Lost in Technology audience some very cool tools that I have come across thanks to recommendations, deep research, and pure blind luck. I’m typically pretty open to find ways to do things better if not easier. Anything to make my digital life easier will attract my attention and probably deserves a download. I try very hard to give every opportunity to the applications I download, and while not all of them are successes, I do enjoy the ones I keep.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some of my favorite Mac tools that you should check out for yourself. I won’t say that you HAVE to have them only because I know Mac users are individuals all with their own tastes, but I think you’ll like some of the apps that I post up here. If you know of an app that you’d like mentioned, let me know.  Leave it in the comment section, and I’ll be happy to highlight it for you and the audience.

Enough with the introduction, let’s get into our first recommended Mac tool, Skim PDF reader.

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Screen Share on Your Mac with Glance

Posted on 09. Feb, 2009 by Luis Sandoval.

I was recently introduced to Glance, a light weight screen share application brought to life by Glance Networks. The application takes the screen share idea and simplifies it for individuals and small to medium businesses. Unlike its competitors, there are no heavy handed restrictions, complicatd controls, or confusing errors that leave you frustrated.

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