Featuring 50mm drivers, these cans deliver sound that’s just as big as they look, but boldness often sacrifices nuance.

Fast Moving

The Scuderia Ferrari P200 headphones place a heavy emphasis on design, and like a truly distinct car, offer completely different looks depending on which color you opt for. In black, they call to mind a fine Italian suit with subtle pattern and crisp style defining the look. In red, the look is a little more Jersey Shore, with the carbon fiber texture standing out in contrast to the red earcup and headband accents. The effect is impressive no matter which color you opt for, though I was…

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For many, that will be the Dalide brothers’ very affordable $14.95 Pixelmator software, or Flying Meat Software’s only slightly more costly $19.95 Acorn image editor app, either of which sells for less than half of one month’s Photoshop Creative Cloud’s subscription cost. For most users, either Pixelmator or Acorn will be a perfectly adequate solution, as well as faster and less ponderous than Photoshop.

However, if you need industrial grade processing power and can’t stomach that Photoshop subscription tariff, there’s actually an even cheaper alternative.

Like, free.

That would be the oddly-named GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) open source, high-end image editing and creation software alternative to Adobe’s Photoshop and its now open-ended monthly wallet-siphoning distribution mode.

Happily, the GIMP is no longer as challenging to install, learn and use as it once was for Mac user; since version 2.8.2, the program no longer requires support of Apple’s somewhat geeky X11 environment with its distinct GUI for running Linux and UNIX applications. GIMP for OS X now demands only a simple drag and drop installation and you’re good to go. And with X11 finally out of the way, the GIMP gets a standard menu bar Aqua interface UI.

However, the GIMP does still require a fairly steep learning curve climb, especially if one wants to use its many advanced functions and get the most out of its deep feature set.

Enter Olivier Lecarme and Karine Delvare’s new The Book of GIMP from No Starch Press. The authors say the project of writing it began way back in 2006, with an original publishing target date of 2010. The goal was nearly achieved with the French language edition, but it’s taken until 2013 for the English edition to finally roll off the presses.

Subtitled “A Complete…

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Sleekon was previously featured here on AppleTell for their glow-in-the-dark cases, which served up a healthy dose of nostalgia for anyone who grew up in the late ’80s (it seemed like everything lit up after the lights went out from about 1985-1992). Move forward about a decade, and you have the inspiration for Sleekon’s latest addition: Shirts that changed color when heated (anyone remember making handprint patterns?) and endless tourist novelty items that go from white to vibrant color out in the sunlight. The latest addition to their lineup is the Sleekon Photochromic iPhone 5 case, which…

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Aluminum frame cases surround the edges of your phone like bumpers, and are usually held in place with small screws that you need to remove in order get your phone in and out. If no screwdriver small enough is handy, or if you lose the usually included screwdriver or one of the screws, you’re out of luck. Not a worry with the Just Mobile AluFrame, which uses a simple latch mechanism to open and close, as shown below in its unlatched state.

Getting it open is simple; just push the latch in and it pops free, allowing you pull…

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Knight Storm is a resource management and action game which sets you up as the young knight in his castle, ready to defend the family lands. You will need to joust and quest your way to fame and fortune, and you’ll need that fortune to buy upgrades to your castle, your armor, and and your weapons, as well as to attract followers. There are multiple methods of increasing your vital stats, including “shards” you can use…

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Tigris and Euphrates is not a casual, play-a-couple-levels-while-you’re-waiting-on-the-bus kind of game. Instead, you’ll find yourself in the ancient near east, gradually building empires on a gameboard modeled after ancient Mesopotamia. From a start screen framed by the Ishtar Gate, you are transported to an ancient world where you battle other gods while building civilizations, starting wars, and amassing points in a complex strategy game.

The basic board is a 16×11 grid, onto which you place tiles representing either traders, temples, civilizations, or farmers (who have to be placed on a tile with a river running through it). You also have leader tiles, which let you amass points from the various types of tiles you place on the…

Continue reading Reiner Knizia’s Tigris and Euphrates for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch review

Design

The Linkase at first looks like any other slim case for the iPhone 5, offering a matte, almost rubber texture that provides excellent…

Continue reading LINKASE Wi-Fi enhancing iPhone 5 case review

I’m not typically a fan of this type of case since most of them add too much bulk to the iPhone in order to accomodate the extra pockets for putting in those case or credit cards. The Q Card Case is no exception, and yet I like it. The first time I held the case, I was not immediately turned off by its looks despite recognizing that it would add considerable thickness to the otherwise thin…

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After almost 10 years of beta testing, Quicksilver finally announced “final” 1.0 status a few weeks back. Quicksilver is a launcher utility app (and a whole lot more, if you want it to be) for Mac OS X that gives you the ability to perform common, everyday tasks rapidly and efficiently.

As the Quicksilver Blog notes, “Saying that Quicksilver is an application launcher is like saying a car is a drinks holder.” Quicksilver, which I’ve been using for many of those ten years, is one of those utilities that grows on you to the point where you really don’t want to be without it.

Anyone using a computer (the Macintosh is no exception) spends a lot of time locating files and applications, and then carrying out actions on those items. The Finder is a reasonably good tool for getting a visual overview of the contents of your disk, but it isn’t ideal for quickly locating more.

Quicksilver’s primary function is that it allows you to find what you need on your hard drive quickly and easily, while keeping your hands on the keyboard. For example, if you want to launch an application buried somewhere in a folder, simply activate Quicksilver with a keystroke, type a few letters of the application’s name, then hit Return or Enter to launch it.

This is quicksilver-fast, and works for both applications and documents, which appear in a pull-down menu under the initial result. The search is adaptive, so Quicksilver will recognize which items you are searching for based on previous experience. It also supports abbreviations, so you can type entire words, or just fragments of each. When not in use, Quicksilver vanishes, waiting for the next time you summon it.

When you don’t need Quicksilver, it keeps out of your way, preserving screen real estate, yet you can summon it instantly with a keystroke.

Quicksilver’s abilities include:

• Accessing applications, documents, contacts, music and other stuff.
• Browsing your Mac’s filesystem elegantly using keywords and “fuzzy” matching.
• Managing content through drag and drop, or grabbing selected content directly.
• Interacting with installed applications through plug-ins.

To search for an item, just start typing some letters that are in the name of the item you are looking for. Quicksilver’s matching algorithm will try to choose the best option. For example, if you are searching for Preview, the letters prv, pre or prw would all find the application.

If the selected item is not the one you wanted, the chances are that you can find it in the results list that pops up automatically. Quicksilver indexes and parses selected parts of the contents of your hard drive (a process that takes a couple of minutes) in its “Catalog,” so it locates and displays the items…

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As your character runs along, you collect coins and avoid being squished by whatever falls out of the sky. This runner/platformer is all about timing. You can either speed up a bit or slow down (almost, but not quite to a full stop) to avoid the descending menace. When you are successful in avoiding death from above, your runner…

Continue reading Mr. Runner 2: The Masks for iPhone, iPod touch review