There are plenty of recipe applications for the Mac, and at first glance SousChef is like most of the others. However, it does have some fine-tuning and refinement that sets it apart from the pack. The thing I like most about SousChef is the ability to use your Mac to view recipes while cooking, without ever having to waste paper printing each individual recipe. This is accomplished through a Front Row-esque interface that lists your ingredients, and the cooking instructions -- It will even read your instructions to you while you are cooking. You can control the speech through a heads-up display that appears when you mouse over the bottom portion of your screen. You can also control this "10-foot mode" with your Apple or Keyspan remote.

SousChef interacts with an optional online database of other SC users to allow you to share your culinary creations. Each time you enter a new recipe, it can be sent to the database where others can look it up and create the same dishes you do. If you have a collection of secret family recipes, you can turn off sharing. It would be nice if this were available for each recipe, instead of affecting your entire library.

You can search through your recipes by ingredient; this allows you to find only the recipes that you can execute using the items you have on hand, without a trip to the store. You can search using multiple ingredients, and if you find an ingredient that you don't have, you don't need to make another shopping run -- just use SousChef's built-in substitutions. The application ships with several substitution suggestions, but you can also add your own in the preferences.



Read on for more ...

If you're one of those people who maintains a huge collection of business cards, you're going to love this product.


CardScan has come out with a Mac version of their CardScan Executive scanner and software, and it looks like a winner. The US$259.99 package includes the small (3.5" x 6.4" x 1.6") scanner seen above, a CD-ROM with Mac and Windows versions of CardScan's contact management software, and a USB cable. What? No power brick? Nope -- it's bus-powered so you can eliminate one more power plug. The scanner worked fine for me plugged into a USB 2.0 hub.

Installation is simple -- put the CD-ROM into your drive, then drag the application file to the Applications folder. The final step? Plug the USB cable into the scanner and an available USB port on your Mac, and a light on the CardScan lets you know you're ready to start entering business cards. That light glows red when you first hook up the CardScan, then turns blue the first time you fire up the CardScan software. Read on to see how this all works.

Flight simulator applications are not only great entertainment, but a good way for would-be pilots to hone their skills without burning fuel or booking time in a "real" flight simulator. X-Plane 9 from Laminar Research is currently the most impressive flight simulator for Mac, with hundreds of different types of planes, thousands of airports, and very realistic weather.

Laminar Research recently ported X-Plane 9 to the iPhone and iPod touch (click opens iTunes). While it doesn't have the extensive feature set of the Mac version, X-Plane 9 for iPhone and iPod touch is an impressive effort that shows off the sheer power of the iPhone and iPod touch both computationally and graphically.

The app is a slender 7 MB and as you'd guess, you're giving up a bit of the Mac version's capabilities with the iPhone port. Instead of the entire world, you now have a 1,600 square mile area centered near Innsbruck, Austria to fly around in. There's only one airport, four aircraft types, less accuracy in terms of the flight models, no cities to fly over, and no navigation aids such as VORs. Is X-Plane 9 still a worthy iPhone app? Read on...

Cosmovox by Leisuresonic is an intriguing iPhone app; the kind of app which immediately looks appealing to me. Essentially, it's a theremin hopped up on music-theory steroids. While it does a decent job of emulating first-gen Star Trek sounds -- using the iPhone's accelerometer to translate vertical rotation into pitch with a continuous tone -- it ups the ante with a very complete set of scales: Major, Minor, Harmonic Minor, Major Bitonal, Pentatonic ... even heading East a bit to Okinawa and Hirajoshi (in case you want to play a digital koto) scales. All total, there are over 30 scales available, as well as a set of controls for adjusting modulation, beating, vibrato and doing other fine-tuning.

Here's the thing, though. It's a lot of fun to play with by itself, and my head immediately filled with ideas for incorporating the sound into a composition. I was going to make a video demonstration with a breakbeat and B4 accompaniment, but try as I may, I found it too difficult to really make music with it. I attribute this in large part to a lack of practice and, quite possibly, skill; I can find my way around an array of instruments but this one is truly a challenge. For as simple as it seems once you set the scale (you can't play a wrong note, right?), attaining any kind of consistent melody or rhythm can be an uphill struggle. The best results I got were from layering Cosmovox tracks (recorded through a microphone, Cosmovox has no built-in recording abilities) with other Cosmovox tracks and chopping them up in post to cut out the mistakes. Thus, my efforts yielded no (bearable) movie. The demo video in the FAQ is far more impressive than my feeble attempts anyway.

My thoughts: Cosmovox is a fun app for musicians of any caliber, with a far-reaching landscape of space-age sounds to explore. If I can find the free time, I'm hoping that enough practice will allow me to do with it what -- at this point -- only my imagination is capable of.

Last I checked, Cosmovox was only $1.99USD at the App Store. A more-than-fair price for hours of wavering, warbling fun. Beyond its practical applications, it makes a great soundtrack for any occasion which kicks off with the words, "Captain's log: Stardate ... ," too.

You've heard about the controversy surrounding Podcaster -- it's the iPhone app that was turned down by Apple for "duplicating the functionality of iTunes." The developer, Alex Sokirynsky, is now distributing his native podcast stream receiver app via ad hoc distribution.

The iPhone development world & the Mac blogosphere (not to mention the mainstream press) is still loudly debating Apple's decision, but not much is being said about the application itself. Alex was kind enough to provide a review copy of Podcaster to TUAW, so we gave the app a workout. Read on for our review of this controversial and useful application.

Released today, iTunes 8 is the most recent and advanced iteration of Apple's media management and playback software. iTunes 8 includes a new Genius recommendation engine, new visualizers, a new grid view, and new terms and conditions.

The Genius engine recommends other songs you might enjoy, based on a song you've selected in iTunes. If you have a diverse range of music, iTunes does a pretty good job of finding the "mood" of your selected song, and generating a playlist of songs that fit with that mood. Plus, it kicks off the playlist with the song you selected.

When you first use the Genius system, you must agree to its terms and conditions, and then it gathers information about the songs in your iTunes library. This took about three minutes on my 2.8GHz Intel iMac and my 2,100-song library. It then sends that information to Apple and builds a profile based on your likes and dislikes. You can then use the Genius Sidebar, which appears to the right of your playlist.

TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for high school & college-level help.

I covered a few good research tools for students in my last post. Before I dive into some of the excellent writing tools and packages available, we're going to take a look at some methods and applications for putting thoughts, notes and references together in a format that makes the actual writing part much easier.

Whether you're taking notes as you research, collecting documents or actually mapping out the first draft, these tools can be vital for organizing research, overcoming writer's block and making sure that things flow smoothly once writing begins.

TUAW's going Back to School! We'll be bringing you tips and reviews for students, parents and teachers right up until the bell rings in September. Read on for high school & college-level help.

At any level of schooling, you eventually have to do a little research. There are probably those who caution against doing any of that research on the web, but if you're aware that faulty (and downright false) information exists and take the extra steps to ensure that what you're citing is verifiable, the net can be a treasure trove of information.

Hyperlinks and full-text search of a massive amount of information make the electronic frontier an ideal research tool. But you've heard all of that before, so read on as we look at some research tools specifically for Mac users (and we'll try to stay within a typical student's budget).

MobileMe, the successor to Apple's lackluster .Mac service, is poised to bring subscribers into the realm of "cloud computing," one of those nauseating phrases that's been around for a while, but nobody has a better term for.

MobileMe provides email, calendaring, contact management, photo sharing, and online file storage to Windows, Mac, iPhone, and iPod touch users for $99. A family pack subscription is also available for $149, which adds four 5GB accounts to a standard-sized 20GB account (making 40GB of storage total).

Users can also add 20GB or 40GB of storage to their account for $49 and $99, respectively.

MobileMe got off to a really rough start last week, but we still don't know exactly where the hangup was during the transition. I know I'm interested to know what happened, but for now, let's just all be glad that it's working, and have us a look-see at what's new.

After the jump, join me for an in-depth look at MobileMe's features, and how they compare to .Mac and other free services available elsewhere on the web.

When the App Store first launched last Thursday, I saw Pandora and AOL Radio and immediately wondered if they would work on my first generation iPhone using EDGE. The quick answer is yes, however, you do make some sacrifices in one of the applications. Read my full review below to get the full details.

About Pandora (Download Link)
Pandora is a part of the Music Genome Project and allows you to create "stations" of your favorite artists. Pandora then pairs those artists to others you might like and plays an unlimited playlist based on your favorite artists. Pandora tracks your likes and dislikes and will play songs based on those results. Pandora lets you find new music for free, and who can argue with that?



About AOL Radio (Download Link)
AOL Radio is a CBS Radio partner that provides online streaming radio stations. Unlike Pandora, AOL Radio is a true streaming radio station in the sense that you can play local stations which support in-audio advertising. AOL Radio can use the location feature in order to find CBS affiliate stations that bitcast near you.



User Interface
Both Pandora and AOL Radio follow a similar user interface design: they both look like the iPod feature on iPhone/iPod touch. Both of the interfaces are nice, however, I have the same gripes for both. The volume controllers in both seem to be independent of the iPhone's volume controller. This can cause the audio to be distorted if you turn it up too much in the applications themselves since you can use the volume buttons on the side to control the audio volume as well.

Secondly, I would love to be able to quit the application and have the audio keep playing (I know, this is an Apple/SDK restriction, but it would still be nice). You can, however, lock the phone and keep the audio playing (which is a nice feature).

Both applications allow you to purchase the currently playing song from the iTunes WiFi Music store. AOL Radio also provides a link to find out more about the currently playing song on AOL Radio's site.

WiFi (or 3G) vs. EDGE Use
When you are playing the music over WiFi (or the 3G cell network), you get awesome audio quality. Both applications seem to provide audio quality that matches that of purchased iTunes songs. On EDGE, however, AOL Radio falls short by providing very low quality audio (I would guess 56k audio). However, Pandora on EDGE seems to maintain good audio quality when you have a signal that is greater than 2/5 bars.

So, who wins?
Since both of these applications are absolutely free and have equal pros and cons, I would recommend downloading both to see which one fits you the best. If you are on a 3G iPhone, both will work well no matter where you are (assuming you're within 3G coverage). However, if you have a 2G iPhone, you might prefer Pandora because it provides better audio quality over EDGE. You can download both applications by clicking the download links above.

Disclaimer: The Unofficial Apple Weblog and AOL Radio are both owned by AOL.

In regular David Pogue style, he has published a half-comedy, half-review of the iPhone 3G. In the video, he shows a side-by-side comparison of the loading speeds of EDGE vs. 3G. It took only 40 seconds for a page to load on 3G, while to took over 3 minutes for the same page to load over EDGE. He also swings by the 5th Avenue Apple Store to speak with the people waiting in line.

You can view this comical video review of the iPhone 3G by David Pogue on the NewYorkTimes video website. In addition, be sure to take a look at our summary of the top technologist's iPhone reviews.

While most people are waiting in line for their soon-to-be new friend, pal and everyday communications device, the world's top tech reviewers have already been playing with the long awaited device. Below is a summary of their findings along with links to their full reviews of the iPhone 3G.

Walt Mossberg (Wall Street Journal)

• Pros: Faster cell network data speeds, GPS
• Cons: Weaker battery life due to 3G/GPS
• Bottom Line: If you don't already have an iPhone and can live with the weaker battery life, then you should go ahead and buy; otherwise wait out for the 2.0 firmware update (hmm... I think I've heard this advice somewhere else)
  

David Pogue (New York Times)

• Pros: You can talk and access 3G data network simultaneously, cheaper, improved audio quality
  
• Cons: 3G isn't wide-spread, AT&T pricing,
  
• Bottom Line: "iPhone 3G is a nice upgrade," 2.0 firmware update will make your original iPhone in most ways similar to the iPhone 3G
  

Edward Baig (USA Today)

• Pros: Faster data network, cheaper, GPS, Visual Voicemail
  
• Cons: Slow EDGE speeds when not in 3G area, no video, no memory expansion
  
• Bottom Line: "The Sequel, is worth the wait," he also shows a side-by-side comparison between EDGE and 3G speeds
  

As an interesting note: David Pogue says that the iPhone's GPS antenna is too small to provide you with turn-by-turn directions in Google Maps -- this is something that Apple has failed to note until now.

Boingo Wireless, the global market leader in Wi-Fi hotspots, has just released a new version of its GoBoingo! client for Intel-based Macs running Tiger or Leopard (Powerbook users can use the client in Tiger). The GoBoingo! client makes it super easy to connect to any of the more than 100,000 Boingo partnered hotspots throughout the world. Boingo powers hotspots in bookstores, airports, hotels, retail stores and restaurants. They have access plans available in daily or monthly increments that provide unlimited access to all Boingo hotspots (in either North America or internationally).

The GoBoingo! client is cool because not only can it automatically connect you to a Boingo hotspot (meaning you don't have to go to the login page and enter in some really long username and password), but it also gives you access to tons of Boingo-partnered hotspots that would be otherwise be inaccessible from Boingo.com.

For instance, if you are at the airport and you buy a Boingo Connect Day pass (which is $7.95 for US & Canadian access, $9.99 for international access) and then later that day, go to a McDonald's with Wi-Fi, you don't have to pay a separate fee at McDonald's, because they have a roaming agreement with Boingo. Boingo has a romaing agreement with AT&T as well, meaning that you can soon use your Boingo account at Starbucks.

The client is designed to be lightweight (the download is less than 1 MB) and it runs in the background, only popping up when it detects a Boingo network. After you have entered your account information once, you just have to click "connect" to login. I tested the client out at a few places in my neighborhood today, one that I knew was a Boingo-powered hotspot (because it always brings me to the Boingo login screen) and two that were Boingo roaming-partners and I was able to connect to all three easily and without any excess typing (or even better, money).

The GoBoingo! client is available now.

Be sure to enter our NEAT Receipts for Mac giveaway! See details at the end of the article.

A few weeks ago, the NEAT Receipts team announced an Advance Release of their receipt scanning and text recognition package for Mac. A few days later, FedEx delivered a small box containing the shipping product, and I've been feeding NEAT Receipts a steady diet of receipts and any other paper I can get my hands on ever since.

While the $179 Advance Release doesn't have the full functionality of the Windows version, such as a business card module or the ability to export receipt information to financial software, it is a very good first attempt at a Mac product. The scanner is a tiny piece of sculpture that can be easily carried along on business trips to capture expense information - it's that small and light.

As you have probably surmised, NEAT Receipts for Mac Advance Release is more than just a slim little scanner; it's also a powerful and adaptive piece of Mac software that performs intelligent optical character recognition and automates the process of moving receipt information from paper to digital format. Read on for the full review and be sure to check out the gallery below for photos and screenshots.

Installing and launching

The NEAT Receipts software must be installed prior to attaching the scanner for the first time, and it comes in a standard Mac .dmg file. Installed, the application takes up 237 MB of hard drive real estate. As soon as the software installation is complete, your Mac reboots.

Immediately after launching the software for the first time, I was notified that a newer version was available. Instead of entering the license key, I shut down the installation and let Firefox download the 122.2 MB updater. The update required yet another restart, which was a bit annoying - what do they think this is, a Windows application? ;-)

Upon launching the updated application, I was greeted with a very neat and clean Welcome screen (see gallery for a screenshot). According to the Getting Started pamphlet, it was time to connect the scanner and calibrate it. The scanner is a tiny device, only 10.8" x 1.6" x 1.3" (27.4 cm x 4.1 cm x 3.3 cm) in size, with its own carrying bag -- a very nice touch. It's also very lightweight, weighing in at a svelte 10.6 ounces (300 grams). NEAT Receipts requests that you calibrate the scanner before using it, and they include a calibration card to get everything aligned properly.

Scanning receipts

The first couple of receipts I scanned were from OfficeMax and had fairly high contrast, so I expected them to scan well and was not disappointed. The receipts were scanned in about 10 seconds each, followed by a 20-30 second recognition sequence. When that was done, I had not only a fairly decent scan of the receipts, but NEAT Receipts had filled in information about the vendor, date of purchase, amount, and payment type (i.e., Visa, cash, check, etc...) in a small form on the right side of the screen. The receipts didn't have a field called "Sales Tax", so that field wasn't filled in. However, when I double-clicked the image, I found that I could drag the Tax line of the receipt image to the Sales Tax field to populate it. In fact, every line of text that had been recognized was highlighted on the image in a light yellowish-orange tint, and each one could be individually dragged to the form if I needed the information. Very cool.

I went to my completely unorganized receipt drawer and grabbed a handful of receipts to scan. Many of these receipts were crumpled from living in my wallet, some had faded, some were in color (movie ticket receipts), and they were from a variety of vendors. NEAT Receipts surprised me in many cases with its accuracy and uncanny ability to "know" what category of vendor a receipt belonged to. For instance, when I scanned in a receipt from Red Robin (a burger chain), the category was automatically set to Meals/Restaurant.

Next, I started feeding in receipts that were hard for me to read. For instance, one was about two months old and quite faded, but the results were still fairly good. While it didn't bring in the name of the restaurant automatically, it was able to let me drag what it thought was LiV Ricci's (actually Lil' Ricci's) into the Vendor slot of the data page and correct it. Not bad!

Did it recognize 100% of the receipts? No. The receipts that weren't recognized were usually so badly crumpled, ripped, and faded that I could barely read them, so it's unlikely that any optical character recognition (OCR) software would do any better.