Our January guide to digital picture taking and some of the cool things you may do with iPhoto drew all variety of reader ring mail . Beyond the simple thank - you bank note , many of those letter let in trace for even more picture - based natural endowment idea , including ( believe it or not ) putting a picture of you and your pooch on a miniature Milk - Bone box . What ’s the cleverest or uncanny thing you ’ve done with a digital photo ? permit us do it bysending an vitamin E - ring mail .
Old photos, new tricks
Jeff Pazen — awe-inspiring coincidence : just last night I pass about an hour cuss PhotoWorks and its cool but hard - to - enjoyment interface . ( I even went so far as to fire up my personal computer to see whether PhotoWorks worked any better on that platform . While there were some slight improvements , the interface was still troublesome . ) Then tonight I opened the JanuaryMacworldto “ Digital Photography Help Desk ” ( January 2006 ) and its sidebar about how to work photos into cards , “ In the add-in , ” and learn that you ’d had the same problems . I only hope that the outcome are ultimately as good as you say they are .
Nicholas Mack — About your trace to utilise Automator to make a bill poster out of dozens of iPhoto photographs : I sleep with that you got Automator to do the job . But I think your readers should know that this is not a new idea : Mike Matas , now of Apple Computer , posted instructions for doing the same thingmore than a year ago . His instructions also included some cool suggestions , such as inserting a panoramic photograph in the post horse for visual variety . Still , thanks for the workflow .
Stephen Cerone — Thanks for the tip about using Kodak EasyShare Gallery to get printed calendars . I get at the site on the evening of Friday , December 16 , and had my calendars in paw on Thursday , December 22 . Even secure , they ’re beautiful . They ’re the beneficial personal calendars I ’ve seen in the eight or so years I ’ve been pass this route ( in the past times I ’ve used a neighborhood print shop and Staples ) . Keep up the great work . I look forward to your cartridge each calendar month .
Dan Kiselik — I enjoyed your article about how to make gifts out of digital photos . May I make one other suggestion ? Dog lover may want to suss out out our site , www.onthepackage.com , which allows them to put pictures of their dogs on literal miniature Milk River - Bone boxes .
Noisy Power Macs
Robert Swift — As the considerably disappointed owner of a 10 - calendar month - honest-to-goodness Power Mac ( my eighth Mac ) , I could not believe your review of the latest Power Macs ( Reviews , January 2006 ): while report that the new dual - kernel models use “ the same elaborate thermal - direction system ” as their single - Congress of Racial Equality forebears , you neglected to remark the problems user have had with noisy fans in desktop Macs . Apple might have used the waiver of these previous Macs as an opportunity to fix their cooling system , but apparently it has decided to leave them the same . If that ’s the case , forget about using one of these new machine for anything that requires low ambient noise , such as dubbing vox - over for a Final Cut project .
iPod TV
Loren Finkelstein — In his followup of the new video - ready iPods ( Reviews , January 2006 ) , Christopher Breen say that when he ripped his DVDs to one of the new iPods and then see the telecasting on a TV , the character was kin to a VCR ’s . I experienced the same thing when I used the H.264 codec at a resolution of 320 by 240 . But then I tried using MPEG-4 at higher resolution , and I found that doing so leave not only in comparatively small data file ( under 1 GB for a two - hour movie ) but also in timber closer to that of the original DVD when the television is viewed on a TV or electronic computer screen .
Safer laptopping
Greg Welch — In your clause about laptop computer ergonomics , you had an illustration that made me cringe . It show a PowerBook on an airplane tray , with its screen poised to be crush by the buns in front if that seat ’s occupant decides to recline . I sense safe tilting the screen forth a little so that the tray corner wo n’t catch the screen , even if doing so compromises CRT screen quality . You also suggested resting the laptop on a pile of magazines in guild to raise its screen to an appropriate superlative . This is an interesting idea , but I do n’t hump where I ’d get such a stack of magazines on a flight of steps or where I ’d put them if I had to move the laptop temporarily ( to get into my bag , for example , or to get out of my can ) . As an alternative , I slide the laptop toward me and tilt the screen up so that when I look down , the viewing slant is good . I also repose my posterior to frown my head . ( But I check with the someone behind me first , to be sure I ’m not crush his or her silver screen . )
Bullets that don’t bite
Jim Tuttle — David Sawyer McFarland write an interesting article about sustain customized bullet using CSS ( “ CSS Tricks for Custom Bullets , ” January 2006 ) . While I ’ll tally his approach is squeamish and allows more customization , he seems to have dominate the simple
What’s not hot
Christopher Moore—“What ’s Hot ” has been on the back page for quite some metre , but I guess it ’s as entertaining as a piece of drywall . It was n’t curious when it start , and it is n’t curious now . Please use the space for moreHot Stuffitems or , better yet , a good Macintosh pundit who can make that back page a name and address in your magazine . “ What ’s Hot ” is bolt down me — and not in a good fashion .
Keep the iPods
George Petrella — It ’s human nature that people with complaint are more likely to pen a missive than those with congratulations — hence the disproportionate number of letters sound off aboutMacworld ’s coverage of the iPod . But before you go and change the content of your powder store , I want to ensure you get laid that I ’m dead happy with your insurance coverage of the iPod , as well as of digital camera , printers , and other Mac peripherals . I ’m getting a riches of information about products I buy that are an authoritative part of my Mac world .
