iPhone 3G Case Reviews Part 2

FYI, we've posted the second iPhone 3G case review over in our Reviews section. This time we take a look at PDO's Sleek Crystal polycarbonate case.

RapidWeaver Plugs Releases Styled Text +

Gary Byrd of RapidWeaver Themes and Mudbug Software (maker of Webify), and Ollie Levy have teamed up as RapidWeaver Plugs and have released a killer RapidWeaver plug-in as their inaugural offering: Styled Text +. Styled Text + is a new page type that builds on the Styled Text page included with RapidWeaver by adding a dedicated header and footer area on each page. The header and footer are set up as mini Styled Text pages within the page so you have all the regular Styled Text page tools at your disposal. This is a truly sweet plug-in and RapidWeaver Plugs is selling it for the absurdly low price of $5. If you use RapidWeaver for building sites and use the Styled Text page Styled Text + will quickly pay for itself in time saved not having to fiddle with snippets or trying to decipher all the code you have pasted into your Styled Text pages. We love it here at AYAAW and are already using it on our site.

Download the demo and try it out before you buy.

iPhone 3G Case Reviews Part 1

If you remember back in October we promised to bring you the most complete iPhone 3G case review ever. That was a pretty lofty goal and we’re not sure we can live up to it. It’s the whole “ever” thing that we may have a problem with. Besides, trying to review a whole slew of cases at once, well we just weren’t using our noodle. So what are we going to do about it? Instead of all the cases all at once, we’re going to break it down a bit and spread the reviews out over the next few weeks. In the end we hope to come down to a couple of favorites and we’ll tell you why.

To get the low-down on the first case we're reviewing head on over to the Reviews page and check out Griffin Technology's Clarifi.

Numerous News Outlets Reporting iPhone Tethering Soon

AppleInsider, among others, is reporting that "AT&T Mobility chief executive Ralph De La Vega has disclosed that a carrier-sanctioned method of using the iPhone as a 3G modem for notebooks will be announced soon." The news came during an interview with De La Vega by TechCrunch's Michael Arrington. De La Vega stopped short of providing any details about the plan including pricing.

Tethering has long been a no brainer for the iPhone, after all it is arguably the most advanced device of it's kind and AT&T offers tethering for it's Blackberry customers for an additional $30 per month. Now that the iPhone is capable of 3G speeds it's only more so of a no brainer.

Earlier this year NetShare by NullRiver was pulled from the iTunes App store because it enabled iPhone tethering. AT&T sited that too many iPhone users trying to tether their laptop with the phone would overextend their network without having to pay any additional fees.

MacWorld Reporting No New Products For The Holiday Season

MacWorld's Jim Dalrymple is reporting that Apple has no plans for any hardware updates during the holiday season despite rumors stating the opposite. Dalrymple quotes Apple spokesman Bill Evans: "our holiday lineup is set". A number of Apple related rumor sites were reporting that Apple would release new iMacs and update Mac Minis. Also rumored were Mac Pros set to debut at MacWorld Expo in January.

So kiddies, looks like there won't be any updated or new Apple goodies under your Christmas tree this year. Don't let that stop Santa from leaving a new iPhone, iPod, or Mac in your stocking, however. Better get to writing that letter to Santa ASAP.

Vector Designer 1.4.6 Released

VectorDesigner 1.4.6

TweakerSoft $69.95

TweakerSoft announced today the immediate availability of Vector Designer 1.4.6. The new version includes support for the new MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air multi gesture touchpad. TweakerSoft also says that the new version squashes some minor bugs and improves performance. TweakerSoft bills VectorDesigner as "the perfect application for vector drawings, diagrams and illustrations, raster image handling, filtering and color correction. Out of the box, it offers everything users need to create professional level vector artwork."

By leveraging the full capabilities of Quartz and Core Image, VectorDesigner retains the feel of traditional drawing applications and features a wide assortment of tools, including smart shapes, rectangles, ovals, rounded rectangles, polygons, stars, bezier creation and editing, as well as raster to bezier conversion.

Combine shapes using unite, subtraction, xor and intersection boolean tools. Text can be fitted inside a shape or along a path preserving all the text editing capability of Mac OS X. All filters and composition may be applied non-destructively to shapes and images. A particularly useful feature is the integrated flickr browser; search texture and images by tags, or by color and download them directly inside the document.

VectorDesigner Features:

* Smart Shapes
* Bezier Creation and Editing
* Text inside shape
* Text along Path
* Layers Support
* Raster To Vector Conversion
* Native Core Image and Quartz Composer Image filters
* Image adjustment panel
* Booleans Operations
* iSight integration
* Scanner Integration
* Flickr Browser
* EPS and PDF import
* SVG Import (WebKit based)
* iLife photo Browser
* QuickLook Support

Minimum Requirements

* Mac OS X Version 10.4 or higher
* Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel
* G4, G5 or Intel Processor
* 900 Mhz or faster
* 512 MB Memory or higher
* 8.9 MB Hard Drive space

You can get your of VectorDesigner for $69.95 but the update is free for existing owners. VectorDesigner is a pretty slick app and we use it here at AYAAW all the time. It brings an affordable vector graphics editor to non-designers that's simple and intuitive to use. TweakerSoft also provides some very nicely done podcasts that help new users learn to use VectorDesigner. Head on over to TweakerSoft to download a demo of VectorDesigner and then get started by subscribing to the podcast.

Netfix Opens Beta Watch Instantly to Most Intel Mac Users

Netflix has opened it's Microsoft Silverlight based "Watch Instantly" option to most Intel Mac users. If you're interested in participating in the program your system needs to meet the following:

• Intel Base Mac
• Tiger 10.4.8 or later
• 1GB of RAM
• Safari 3 or Firefox 2

Netflix notes that this is a beta player and if you opt in, you may experience problems watching movies on your computer. They also point out that some movies aren't available to watch instantly (we're willing to bet most aren't available) and that if you join the beta program you will no longer be able to watch instantly using Windows Media Player. Ok that last was directed at Windows user but we figured we should probably include it anyways just in case someone out there is using Boot Camp or virtualization software to Watch Instantly on their Mac.

So, if you're into watching movies on your Mac, your options for watching streaming content legally just got a boost. Check out Netfix's blog for more details and if you want to jump in here's the opt in link.