QA Graphic
February 2, 2018

Smart Converter

Smart Converter 2 is a good media tool to use

Shedworx's Smart Converter 2 tool is a great way to convert a media file from one format to another. It's a great quick media converter that just works well.

There are two Smart Converter versions, here's the key difference between the free version and the paid version:

In the Smart Converter Pro 2 version:

  • Search Meta-Data files
  • Automatically adds meta-data for searching
  • Subtitle support
  • Supports Multiple audio tracks
  • Define a different output location (You can avoid iTunes!)
  • Disable the ability to add media files to iTunes
  • Surround Sound support
  • Folder Monitoring (Have Smart Converter run everytime a file is placed in a folder.)

Product Description

Smart Converter Pro provides a faster, higher quality conversion than every other converter:

  • It's so smart - only converts stuff that needs converting, and leaves the rest alone--this means it's very fast and maintains the highest possible quality of video and audio.
  • Simple to use - drag, drop and click convert - Smart Converter Pro looks after the rest.
  • Movie and TV Show info - automatically add key info and artwork for your movies and TV shows.
  • Folder monitoring - automatically convert movies as they are added to nominated folders.
  • Subtitles - include subtitles, add external subtitles and even load subtitles from the web!
  • Supports 100's of media formats and converts to all your favourite devices and file types, including AppleTV, iPad, iPhone, Smart TV, PS3 and more.
  • iTunes Savvy - auto import your converted movies and music to iTunes.

Smart Converter21

Quick and Easy

I like Smart Converter because It can easily convert classic media files - such as Real Media files to MP4. It's a quick way to once again access old media files. (Without Smart Converter I would have to wait for Quicktime to convert old Sorxxx codec videos)

I also use Smart Converter to extract audio from MOV files. Useful when I just want the soundtrack and not have to watch the movie.

Haven't upgrade to the Pro version because I don't have the need for all the features of going pro. If you have a lot of files that need converting, then going pro is the way to go.

My Tips and Tricks

Some video screen capture files done in Snagit will not convert well. Apparently, there's a lot of masking between shots This means that you'll see some strange views in your final output.. (Not Smart Converter problem as Quicktime will have this same issue.) I have found ElMedia Player as a good converter in these cases.

Keep in mind that the final conversation is only as good as the source. Smart Converter can't make a video compress with Sorenson Codec look better in MP4.

Some mp4 files will not convert to audio-only. Haven't figured out why this is the case. ) I use Fission to extract the audio.

If you're not able to find your audio clip in iTunes it's because iTunes thinks it's a movie file.

Supports Converting 177 Media Types!

Here are all the file formats extensions supported by either version of Smart Converter:

avi, mp4, mkv, mts, m2ts, m4v, mp3, m4a, mov, flv, mpa, wmv, wma, wav, 3gp, 3g2, 3gp, 4xm, IFF, ISS, MTV, RoQ, aac, ac3, adts, aea, aiff, alaw, amr, anm, apc, ape, asf, asf_stream, ass, au, avi, avm2, avs, bethsoftvid, bfi, bink, c93, caf, cavsvideo, cdg, crc, daud, dirac, dnxhd, dsicin, dts, dv, dvd, dxa, ea, ea_cdata, eac3, f32be, f32le, f64be, f64le, ffm, film_cpk, filmstrip, flac, flic, flv, framecrc, gif, gsm, gxf, h261, h263, h264, idcin, image2, image2pipe, ingenient, ipmovie, ipod, iv8, lmlm4, m4v, mkv, matroska, mjpeg, mlp, mm, mmf, mov, mov, mp4, m4a, 3gp, 3g2, mj2, mp2, mp3, mp4, mpc, mpc8, mpeg, mpeg1video, mpeg2video, mpegts, mpegtsraw, mpegvideo, mpjpeg, msnwctcp, mulaw, mvi, mxf, mxf_d10, nc, nsv, null, nut, nuv, ogg, oma, psp, psxstr, pva, qcp, r3d, rawvideo, rcv, rl2, rm, rpl, rtp, rtsp, s16be, s16le, s24be, s24le, s32be, s32le, s8, sdp, shn, siff, smk, sol, sox, spdif, svcd, swf, thp, tiertexseq, tmv, truehd, tta, txd, u16be, u16le, u24be, u24le, u32be, u32le, u8, vc1, vc1test, vcd, vmd, voc, vqf, w64, wav, wc3movie, webm, wsaud, wsvqa, wv, xa, yop,

Getting Smart Converter

You can get the free version on the Apple Store or from ShedWorx Website.

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January 26, 2018

ParticleShop

General review of ParticleShop

ParticleShop is a unique brush effect tool, it makes the brush come alive and adds all sorts of special effects. Basically, the brush comes alive as you apply it to the image. Based on the color/size and brush you get all sorts of unique special effects.

This is not your standard brush tool. It's a way to paint effect to your photos, such as fire, smoke and bubbles.

I originally purchased ParticleShop as part of the "Create Your 12 App MEGA Mac Bundle" from Bundle Hunt. I saw the description and thought it would be worth trying out. (It was priced at $49.99) I got the 12-App bundle for $19.99.

Description from the 'About ParticleShop' menu

Leave the physics to us; no static stamps here! Experience the strokes of grab-and-go living brushes that spring, flow, gravitate and glow based on your unique expression. Artistically enhance photos, designs, and illustrations with the realistic awe-inspiring results.

Craft your visual masterpiece with brushes that are built to perform with a pressure-sensitive tablet, touchscreen or mouse. Free yourself to create, ranter than configure by exploring an array of artistic brushes that require minimal setup and a clean and simple user interface in which to create.

Are you ready to get started? You can access ParticleShop resources online to find exciting new brushes, get help, and learn more about the product.

Demo of ParticleShop

Particle Shop Demo

Not a great artist, but I added a couple of effects to an image.

Cool Tool

ParticleShop is a cool tool, it comes with 11 brushes in the Core Pack. However, once you start playing around with it you quickly feel that 11 brushes aren't enough and you could do so much more with more brushes. In order to get new ones you have to purchase them on Painter's online store.

The prices for extra packs range from $29 to $79 - you can get the entire collection for $95. I think it's pretty expensive for my budget, but I guess if you're into brush touch up then it would be a reasonable amount of the creative brush effects that you get.

Particle Shop Brushes

At the End of the Day

I don't think I'll be using ParticleShop too much, it's a cool tool for people that spend a lot of time touching up photos and graphics files. Looks like having a pressure sensitive Wacom tablet would be practical to get the most out of the tool.

ParticleShop is a Photoshop Plug-in and does not work with Affinity Photo. Since I don't use Photoshop Elements 13 that much, I don't think that I'll be using ParticleShop.

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January 19, 2018

Quadro Sync

Quadro Sync is a cool way to integrate your iPhone with your computer

Quadro Sync is a cool way to control your computer from your Smart Phone. You have the ability to assign specific functions so that when you open up the application your smartphone screen changes to display buttons of tasks to perform.

You can customize the button assignments and button designs. Giving you full control over how Quadro Sync works.

Quadro is an excellent application to help with common tasks that you encounter every day. If you been thinking about getting an external controller pad, consider trying Quadro first.

This is a two-bit application; there's the desktop app that is always listening! and interacting with iOS! and there's an iOS app that has to be running. After a few minutes of inactivity, the iOS app will go to sleep -saving your screen and device power.

If you're just going to charge your phone at your desk, why not put it to great use?

i Phone Promo

Description from Quadro Website

Here's a description from Quadro.me website:

Power up your workstation
Control your applications with a simplified yet enhanced personal interface. Automate any recurring iteration and optimize your workflow. Reduce the gap between ideation and execution. And have fun doing it.

Personal computing, truly
Personalize any function and representation of your actions. Use color, icons and images to convey meaning and smoothen your path to action.

Automate your workflow
Direct activation is cool again, but that's not enough. Sequence any action easily to create your cross-application macros and let Quadro do the dirty work for you.

BBEdit Screen Example

I spent a lot of time in BBEdit for PHP development and text cleanup. I spent some time thinking about what tools would make sense to make a Quadro action:

B B Edit Sync

  • Zap Gremlins - Clean up the selected text.
  • Paragraph - Create HTML Paragraph from selection
  • Backup to Evernote - Quick way to backup my document to Evernote.
  • Process Lines Containing - Quick Filter
  • Find - Open up the Find/Replace dialog box
  • Remove Line Breaks - Clean up the selected text.
  • Add Hyperlink - Open the Hyperlink dialog to add a link to the selected text.

Obviously all of these commands can be performed by keyboard shortcuts. Making them as action buttons in Quadro makes it quicker to apply these actions.

For example, I am opting to backup my documents to Evernote more often because the big green button is there to remind me.

Which Devices can You Install Quadro Sync?

If you have any old devices that are just sitting in storage, you may want to dust it off and make it your new Quadro pad.

The Quadro iOS App will work on any devices that can run iOS 8.0 or newer, according to Apple these are the devices that will run on iOS 8:

  • The iPhone 4S
  • The iPhone 5
  • The iPhone 5C
  • The iPhone 5S
  • The iPod Touch fifth generation
  • The iPad 2
  • The iPad with Retina Display
  • The iPad Air
  • The iPad Mini
  • The iPad Mini with Retina Display
  • Getting the Application

    To get started, visit the Quadro website and download the application.

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    January 12, 2018

    PhotoBulk

    PhotoBulk is a good Photo Utility software

    PhotoBulk is a neat little application where you can apply four different tasks to an unlimited set of images.

    This past summer, I got the application as part of the The Next Web software package deal. In September, they came out with an update - my purchase wasn't eligible for the free upgrade. However, they will offer a 50% discount on previous purchases, which is very good.

    Photo Bulk Screens
    The screen difference between the old view and the new view.

    Watermark

    There are four different watermarks that you can apply to each image:

    • Text - Simple text, (i.e. Copyright Info) with the ability to select different font sizes and color. You can also change the opacity. You can change the angle or location of the text.
    • Image - Place any image logo in simi
    • Script - Repeat a text watermark on your image.
    • Datestamp - Add a timestamp to your image. You have the same capabilities as the text

    Resize

    This is useful if you want to transform a bunch of images to a similar size. You can change By Width, By Height, Percentage, By Max file size, Free Size.

    Optimize

    You can reduce the size of images (JPG and PNG) files. The only bad part is that you can???t tell if the compression will cause a serious quality problem with the images.

    In my test, it actually did a pretty good job optimizing. I used the mid-point, called ???opt??? and checked the files and they looked fine, I couldn???t tell any visual difference.

    Note: There is no preview functionality in the September update

    Rename

    Rename a the drop images. This is useful when you want to rename a bunch of common photos. Such as vacation photos.

    Performing Action

    When you start the action, the tasks will always create a new folder and put the new images in the folder. You don't have to worry about the original file.

    Overall View

    There are some useful functionality however, I think your better off using functiionality in GraphicConverter or PhotoScape X. These applications offer a lot more features. At the end of the day, you get more bang for your buck.

    The watermark feature in PhotoBulk is nice, but not something that I would be using frequently.

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    January 5, 2018

    PhotoScape X December Update

    Photoscape X has some new features.

    On December 20th, 2017, Photoscape X was updated with nine new features an unspecified number of bug fixes. The application is shaping up to be a very useful tool, and I certainly would recommend it as a compliment to Affinity Photo or Pixelmator.

    Here's a breakdown of the new Features released in the December update:

    Photoscape X Update
    Menus Options of the new features

    Draw Brushes

    There are now 11 new Draw Brushes. These brushes are useful to add additional effects to the images. There's a lot more capabilities in Affinity Photo and Pixelmator, including the ability to create your own brush.

    I played around with this and can see this would be a good way to quickly enhance images, especially using the Blend Mode.

    Scatter Brushes

    Nice to see scatter brushes back! This is a favorite paint feature that I am glad to see back on the Mac! I first encountered scattered brush in SuperPaint. Scatter brush is a way to display some brush strokes randomly. Usually done with a special shape brush such as Heart, Confetti, Snowflakes, Dog Prints and more.

    Photoscape X includes 11 brushes in this release. I am sure they will release some new ones in future updates. Very cool feature to use to add effects to images, such as snowflakes or adding Bokeh effects.

    Paint Bucket Tool

    The Paint Bucket tool will change a specific pixel to any color that you wish. I can see this would be useful if you have a solid color background and wanted to change it to some other color.

    I played around with this feature for a bit and don't see it very useful for photos. I think it will be good to touch up graphics files.

    Magic Color Filter

    The Magic Color filter is a quick way to brighten up your images. Now you don't have to play around with various Clarity and Brighten settings. Simply click on the "Magic Color" checkbox and instantly see the image improve.

    You can adjust the setting to better improve the image.

    I tested this feature with several images and it works very well. The images are nice and bright! A quick way to touch up an image if you don't have time to do it! This is a great tool to have and I certainly see this being used all the time.

    Touch-up Compairson

    PhotoScape Magic Touch

    In the above example, I ran the same photo through each application and selected the Auto Color Adjustment once. I didn't make any special changes to the image. I think Photoscape did a great job with bringing out the blue in the snow.

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    December 29, 2017

    Best Macintosh Blog Posting of 2017

    Top Macintosh Post of 2017

    This year I found some great Macintosh software - Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Keyboard Maestro. They all played into helping make 2017 a very productive year.

    Many of this year's post were around those applications. Next year might see a shift to more developer and video applications.

    Top Seven Macintosh Post of 2017

    In no particular order..

    You can find all the Macintosh post over on the Macintosh Blog Listing page.

    Lots of exciting Macintosh post are planned for 2018. If you have any tips/tricks that you would like to share, please let me know.

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    December 22, 2017

    GraphSketcher

    GraphSketcher integration Affinity Designer

    Have you ever needed to make a simple line chart in Affinity Designer? Wish there was a simple way to create a vector base graph?

    Thankfully there is an app for that and it's free!

    GraphSketcher is a simple, elegant tool for quickly sketching graphs and plotting data -- but you don't even need data to get started. It's perfect for reports, presentations, and problem sets where you need to produce sharp-looking graphs on the fly.

    It's really easy to create charts for whatever data point that you want. Anytime you want a quick line graph, GraphSketcher is perfect.

    Graphic Sketcher

    Integrates Smoothly with Affinity Designer

    What's nice about GraphSketcher is that you can copy the Graph in GraphSketcher and then paste it in Affinity Designer. All the objects are put in their own layers and in their respective types. So you can still change the text and points on the chart!

    This is really cool when you want to put together a quick chart and use the power of Affinity Designer to touch it up.

    GraphSketcher History

    The application was created by Robin Stewart in 2007 and refined by the folks at Omni Group. In 2014, the application was retired from the product line and the code was put into open-source.

    There's only been one update since the code was put into open-source. That was to fix a bug with comma separated values.

    Getting GraphSketcher

    Download the Binary file from GitHub and place the file into the Application folder. Double click to open and start creating charts.

    Check out all the Inspector settings and see the capabilities of the application.

    Once your done, click on the 'Copy as Image' and then paste it into your Affinity Designer document. Now you can do additional modifications to make the chart look better. (Try putting the chart on a chalkboard for a unique look!)

    Pro-Tip

    After you paste in the chart, I would recommend grouping the objects together (Command-G). That will make it easier to manage all the objects. So after you, Command-C, do a Command-G.

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    December 8, 2017

    Dealing with the Grayed out song Listing in iTunes

    A solution to that dreaded Grayed out song Listing in iTunes

    Do you manually move music to your iPhone or iPod? Have you ever encountered an issue where a song didn't get copied and you end up with something like this:

    iTunes Grid

    This has happened to me a lot and after playing around with the iTunes and the phone, I figured out why it's been happening.

    Here's the possibilities:

    iCloud song already there

    Apple doesn't want you to copy a song that you already have available in the iCloud. So the grayed out song means that the song already exists in the Cloud or you downloaded to the phone. You don't see it on iTunes because iTunes is only showing downloaded music.

    You Copied a Set of Song/Playlist and a Song Existed

    When you copy a playlist and a song exists in the cloud it will stop all the other songs that were to be copied over. You may see the grayed out song in the Playlist and not in the regular Song grid.

    Quick Solution

    I usually encounter this when I copy a playlist to my iPhone and not all the songs got copied over.

    The solution that I found to work: delete the grayed out song and try copying the other songs. For example, I would select the next four songs that didn't work or at least one at a time.

    If the grayed out song is something that I downloaded from someplace else, I found that renaming it also worked.

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    November 24, 2017

    Macintosh Cyber Deals Watch

    Things to watch for this Christmas season

    Mac T V News

    Last year I had my list of software that I was going to watch for, so I thought I repeat the "Watch List" for this busy shopping season.

    My budget is pretty tight this year. Chances are that I won't be making any big purchases on "Black Friday" or on "Cyber Monday." Here are the software and services that I'll be checking out this year:

    Software Watching

    • Belight Software - Art Text and Swift Publisher are pretty cool. Currently Belight Software has 30-70% off sale in the Mac App Store. The sale doesn't cover Art Text or Swift Publisher. I have seen Art Text in some recently announced bundle packages, but they are more than what Art Board sells.
    • PhotoStyler - Great for presenting photos online, Social Media and Blogs. (Single User license is $29.99)
    • Art Board - Didn't upgrade to 2.0, wonder if they will have a special deals. (Single License is $39.99)
    • Movavi - I think 2018 will be the year of multimedia. I am always looking for a different solution to compliment iMovie.

    Services Watching

    • Creative Market - Love all the package deals. Certainly expect to see a good teaser for this year.
    • DropBox - Great service. Currently at 60% at 6.2 GB
    • StoryBlocks - Usually have a $99 year membership sale, this time of year they discount to nearly $45.
    • Font Awesome 5 - Wonder if they will have one last sale before they go live.
    • UDemy - there are a few courses that I want to watch but they are outrageously expense. I'll be checking frequently to see if they are discounted. They currently have a 55,000+ online courses at $10 for a limited time!
    • Go Daddy - perhaps they will have discount domain name or hosting plans.

    Hardware

    Not watching any hardware deals this year. At the moment, I have enough disk space and don't really need a new Flash storage devices or cables.

    It will be interesting to see what Apple deals are announced. I suspect that they include iTunes gift card with some purchases of MacBooks and iPads.

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    November 17, 2017

    Page Curl in Graphic Converter

    I wasn't able to find any information about Graphic Converter Page Curl Effect, so I thought I write a blog post on how to use the functionality.

    Core Image Filters

    The 'Core Image Filters' actually filter that is provided in Apple Swift 3. They are available for any Developer to use. The Core Image Filter Reference has information for developers. This is not really useful for consumers since the functionality can change per app.

    Apple description:

    Core Image is an image processing and analysis technology that provides high-performance processing for still and video images. Use the many built-in image filters to process images, and build complex effects by chaining filters. For details, see Core Image Filter Reference.

    Graphic Converter Implementation

    You can find the Core Image as the first pullout menu item under the Filter menu. Graphic Converter includes all the effects in the Apple's Core Image library- which is very cool.

    You can apply the effect to the whole image, or use the Selection Tool to pick an area on the image that you want to transform.

    Simply start with one effect and the Core Image dialog box opens. Now you can easily move to a different one. It's kind of neat to see how each effect transforms your image.

    Check out all the Tile effects that can be made out of your image. This is a creative way to come up with some background ideas. The Distortion Effects are pretty cool too.

    Nothing gets applied until you click on the 'Apply' button.

    Page Curl Effect

    Using the Page Curl Effect

    In the Transition section is the Page Curl effect, which is a pretty cool tool. It does take a bit of understanding.

    To make the Target Image and Backside Image to work you need to "Drag and Drop" an image to the icon below the text. (It took me a long time to figure out how this worked!)

    Simply find an image and then drag it to the preview box under the text.

    Other Tips:

    • Target Image is the image that you see on the other side of the Curl. (Think of Page 3 in a book)
    • The Backside image is the backside of the main image. Usually, it would be the same existing image, but you can change it up to create a cool effect. (This would be page 2 in a book)
    • To be effective, both the Target Image and Backside image should be the same dimension as the front image. If it's too small then you will see a checkerboard to indicate areas where it will be transparent.
    • There is no way to alter or align the images. That is you can't adjust the position of the Target or Backside image. Your best bet is to do that in another GraphicConverter window. Save then 'Drag Drop' to refresh the results.
    • Time is how much of a page curl that you want to apply
    • Angle is which corner that you want to apply. First set the time, then move the angle to where you want to corner to appear. For the top right, it should be '-2.57' for the top left the value should be around '-0.69'
    • I haven't played with the ShadowSize and Shadow Amount values much just kept the default values.

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    About

    As someone who has worked on Macs since 1989, I will use my experience to share tips and tricks with you on Fridays. As a Mac user since 1989, I have seen the evolution of Mac software and hardware, and I know how Mac computers work. I also know how to troubleshoot and fix Mac problems that can arise.

    Check out all the blog posts.

    Schedule

    FridayMacintosh
    SaturdayInternet Tools
    SundayOpen Topic
    MondayMedia Monday
    TuesdayQA
    WednesdayNew England
    ThursdayGluten Free