Parties can sometimes be boring, but with a Mac with an iSight and an Apple TV, you can liven up any party! In this how-to, I am going to show you how to create an Automator workflow that will take pictures at specified times and sync them over to your Apple TV, all without you ever lifting a finger. This Automator workflow is fantastic when you have people over for a party they can head over to your Mac, take a crazy picture of themselves and have it synced over to the Apple TV in the living room.
Continue reading to learn how to make this Automator workflow.
Photon, the speedy digital photo workflow app and labor of love from Mike Bernardo's Green Volcano Software, has been updated to v1.1.
Photon differs from Aperture, Photoshop, and the like by focusing on the front end of the photography workflow. Importing RAW images from DSLRs is fast, and Photon's stacking feature simplifies sorting and culling your photos. The update includes:
An overhauled caching engine to improve import speed and responsiveness
A "Discards" stack for unwanted image files that provides a direct route to Trash
A "File stack" feature for moving existing files to a new spot on your hard drive(s)
Improved memory card download performance
The ability to save and recall stacks when re-launching the app.
The update is free to registered Photon users, or you can buy Photon for $69 (Universal Binary). Thanks to Mike B. for the tip!
Don't have time to read that Word, Pages, or TextEdit document at your desk? Why not listen to it on your iPod instead? In this Automator how-to, I am going to show you how to create an audio file using text that you have in an open document, then sync that using iTunes to your iPod or iPhone.
Creating the workflow For this workflow, you need the following Automator actions (placed in the same order):
Get Contents of TextEdit Document
Text to Audio File
Import Files into iTunes
Continue reading to learn how to build this workflow.
A few people commented on my first Mac Automation post that they didn't understand Automator. This post will clear that all up.
AppleScript is very powerful, but it has a learning curve. When Apple set out to make Automator, they tried to make an automation environment that not only gave the user flexibility, but also power. Apple includes several actions that programs can use; they also include a plug-in type model for developers of Mac software to add even more actions.
I'm going to tell you a secret, that I hope we can keep between us: I am a big fan of blogs and blogging. I love to write and I love to read, so blogging is a natural extension of that (and I hope my level of enjoyment makes its way into my posts here). WordPress is the hottest blogging tool out there. It is open source, dynamic, and all the cool kids use it. Sadly, while content is king, people also love a pretty face.
Circle Six Blog has a great post up that outlines Brett's workflow for designing WordPress themes locally on his Mac. He lists a number of useful apps that we have covered on TUAW and includes some good general web design tips.
Aperture is Apple's tool designed for professional photographers who take lots and lots of pictures. As such, handling metadata is an important part of any workflow involving Aperture. James Duncan Davidson has some tricks to help you get the metadata you need into Aperture as quickly as possible. I'm sure this will save someone some time out there.
Ben Long has released a v2.2 update to his most excellent set of Photoshop Automator Actions, a collection of over 70 workflow-enhancing actions for automating everything from switching color modes to cropping images and even archiving them to a disc. New in v2.2 is Intel Mac compatibility (some actions simply wouldn't work) and two new actions - Filter by File Type and Assign Custom Profile. Of course, there are the obligatory bug fixes and enhancements, so check out Ben's announcement post for details on this excellent action pack, and scroll down quite for details of this specific v2.2 release.
Aperture Tricks is devoted to, shockingly, tips and tricks for everyone's favorite photography workflow solution made by Apple. If you are obsessed with Aperture news, or just want to get the most bang for your photogenic buck then Aperture Tricks is the place for you.
"Show
off your latest feat of programming genius," says the Apple Developer Connection email announcing the call for
entries to their 11th annual Design Awards. Recognizing "technical excellence and outstanding achievement in
developing Mac OS X software," there are eight award categories into which developers can submit their apps: Best Mac OS X Developer Tool, Best Use of Mac
OS X Graphics, Best Widget, Automator Workflow, User Experience, Game, Scientific Computing Solution and Student
Product.
As far as what winning developers receive for all their hard work, Apple's going all out this year.
Each category winner receives two 15-inch MacBook Pros, two 23-inch Cinema Displays, an ADC Premiere Membership, a WWDC
2006 E-ticket, and an exhibitor space at Macworld 2007. The Student category winner will receive one 15-inch
MacBook Pro, one 23-inch Cinema Display, one 60GB iPod, an ADC Student Membership, and a WWDC 2006 Student E-ticket.
Does anyone else find it odd the non-student members don't receive an iPod? And how about the lack of PowerMac
prizes?
The entry deadline is June 16th, and the winners will be honored at WWDC in August.
As we Mac fans
and users must concede, we do still live in a Windows world. For those of who also work in a Windows world (including
banging your heads against a wall), I've found a site that could help Windows and OS X shake hands and (dare I say it)
work together better: MacWindows.com. Need to learn about using a Mac with Active
Directory? How about using Mac OS X Server with Windows clients? Cross-platform file sharing, Exchange server and
applescripts for converting file names - it's all here. This site gets pretty in-depth on a lot of these topics, and it
looks like the best one-stop resource I've seen to help with all those OS X Windows-related headaches.
A post yesterday at MacSlash asking how useful Automator really is inspired me to bring the question to the TUAW audience: do you use Automator? Do you find it useful or useless? I know plenty of workflows make their way through the TUAW postings, and I'm personally a huge Automator fan and user for some of my daily work, but I'm wondering about the rest of you. Have you already deleted the application, or are there workflows with a reserved space in your startup items? Sound off in the comments.
Creating actions with Tiger's Automator is fun, easy for most users and certainly useful. If you're like me, you already have more than a few custom workflows floating around. "More than a few" can become an unwieldy crowd quickly, which is why I like Automatic so much. Automatic is an Automator action that lists all of your existing workflows and allows you to launch any with a single mouse click. Automatic also includes a dock icon that offers similar access to all your workflows. Pretty nice.
Parties can sometimes be boring, but with a Mac with an iSight and an Apple TV, you can liven up any party! In this how-to, I am going to show you how to create an Automator workflow that will take pictures at specified times and sync them over to your Apple TV, all without you ever lifting a finger. This Automator workflow is fantastic when you have people over for a party they can head over to your Mac, take a crazy picture of themselves and have it synced over to the Apple TV in the living room. 
A few people 
I'm going to tell you a secret, that I hope we can keep between us: I am a big fan of blogs and blogging. I love to write and I love to read, so blogging is a natural extension of that (and I hope my level of enjoyment makes its way into my posts here). 
Aperture is Apple's tool designed for professional photographers who take lots and lots of pictures. As such, handling metadata is an important part of any workflow involving Aperture. James Duncan Davidson has 
Ben Long has released a v2.2 update to his most excellent set of Photoshop Automator Actions, a collection of over 70 workflow-enhancing actions for automating everything from switching color modes to cropping images and even archiving them to a disc. New in v2.2 is Intel Mac compatibility (some actions simply wouldn't work) and two new actions - Filter by File Type and Assign Custom Profile. Of course, there are the obligatory bug fixes and enhancements, so check out Ben's announcement post for details on this excellent action pack, and scroll down quite for details of this specific v2.2 release.
"Show
off your latest feat of programming genius," says the Apple Developer Connection email announcing the call for
entries to their 11th annual Design Awards. Recognizing "technical excellence and outstanding achievement in
developing Mac OS X software," there are eight award categories into which developers can 
As we Mac fans
and users must concede, we do still live in a Windows world. For those of who also work in a Windows world (including
banging your heads against a wall), I've found a site that could help Windows and OS X shake hands and (dare I say it)
work together better: 
A post yesterday at 
Creating actions with Tiger's 
