Ryan Lusvardi

Check out the article over at Lifehacker.

Handbrake is an excellent software tool to make a backup copy of a DVD on your MAC. Christopher Breen over at Macworld.com has an excellent article on how to use Handbrake. http://www.macworld.com/article/142301/2009/08/beyond_handbrake_defaults.html.

Looking for Office 2008 for you Mac?  If you don’t need Exchange email support this is the best version to buy.

Get it here

CustomGuide provides some of the best reference guides for applications that use everyday.

Check it out here: CustomGuide

Ever scan a document to a PDF and it turned out really big? There is a great software tool that allows you to compress that PDF. Check it out here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/compresspdfworkflow.html

Have you ever had the problem where Entourage on your Mac is not syncing properly?  For example maybe you are no longer getting incoming mail in Entourage but you are getting new messages on your iPhone or Blackberry.  This is most likely do to the fact that the cache in Entourage is messed up.  Follow these instructions to correct the problem.

Fix Entourage Cache

A great way to colloborate and share MS Office docs.

Set this screensaver to scan your iPhone library for Originals and sit back and watch it fly.  Very cool! Get it here: http://davidmcnerney.com/MovingPhotos3D/index.html

Evernote has a good thing going: Cross Platform (Windows and Mac) note syncronization with mobile access from iPhone, Windows Mobile, Web OS (Palm Pre), and Blackberry.  Very convenient and very easy to use.  They have both a free and a paid version depending on what your needs are.  Check it out here.

Airfoil is one of the coolest apps invented.  It allows you to take sound/music from your computer and pipe it to any Windows, Mac, or iPhone on your network or in your house.  This allows you to play the same music on all your computers throughout your workplace or home.  This is one of the least expensive ways that I know to have a whole house music system.  Use this in combination with your iPhone remote and you can have a great setup.  There is a small charge assoicated with this software $25 (Single License) but it is well worth it.  Check out Airfoil here.

I constantly get asked the question, “is there anyway to convert this PDF back to word?”  Yes there is and Adobe Acrobat Pro is probably the best way to do it. However, that software is very expensive. Here are a couple free online options. Your results may very. Give them a try and see how they do. Leave feedback in the comments if one worked better for you than another.

Quicksilver is one of my favorite Apps for the Mac.  Here is a description from the blacktree website: “When opened, it will create a catalog of applications and some frequently used folders and documents. Activate it, and you can search for and open anything in its catalog instantly. 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.”

As promised in a previous post here is my Quicksilver Tutorial Series.  Make sure you have Quicksilver downloaded.  You can download it here.

Tutorial 1: Getting Started With Quicksilver
Tutorial 2: Quicksilver The Guide from the Apple Blog

More advanced tutorials to follow shortly…