Developer taptaptap has released their new iPhone app Voices at an introductory price of just $.99. Voices transforms your voice on the fly so that one minute you sound like a chipmonk and the next a robot. It is a fun little app and is available HERE.

To celebrate taptaptap has paired up with MacHeist to make copies of their Voice application for Mac free. You need to Tweet about it but after that it is free. And it is fun… let’s take a look at both apps.

It seems Apple is quietly updating things and not making a big bang out of it.  First it was the firmware update to the new line of iPod Nanos, now its a new way for customers to view iTunes content without having to launch iTunes.  Its called iTunes Preview.

Instead of the usual links that iTunes generates that made users computers open up the iTunes application, now it redirects them to a web page that allows users to browse the selection, see track-listings and get user reviews.  It will be a great way to email recommendations of music to friends and family.

You still need to have iTunes installed on your PC in the end to actually download the music, but now, you can web browse before you buy.

Thanks AppleInsider and Macworld for the info!

Vestax, one of the industry leaders in professional DJ equipment has partnered up with djay to release a brand new controller called Spin that enables Mac users to use their own iTunes libraries to mix, scratch and play music just like a real DJ.

The bundle is available exclusively in Apple stores nationwide, and delivers the entire DJ experience to any music lover, whether novice or professional.

The package is available from Apple.com for a price of $249.99.

You can watch a video demo of it in action below.

MacHeist has just revealed a nanoBundle of 6 Mac apps. The apps have a value of $154. Five are available immediately, and the last will be unlocked at 500,000 “purchases”.

What are the apps and how much is the bundle? Read on…

The aps in this bundle are…

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I’ve been using various voice to text solutions for a number of years. I began using Nuance’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking when it was back in version 7 or 8. Unfortunately, back then it was often more proof of concept than useful tool. The process of transcribing text was slow and the accuracy was not all that good. Over the years two things have changed. First, the power of our devices has grown exponentially. My iPhone is, on many levels, as powerful or more powerful than the computer I was using just a few years ago. And my iMac and my MacBook Pro have power and speed that I couldn’t have dreamed about a few years ago. Second, the speech to text technology has improved significantly. It just works better. Often, so long as you’re speaking properly — meaning slowly and clearly — the process of speaking and having your words transcribed can now approach 100% accuracy.

That’s what this new series is all about. “Look Ma no hands — Voice Recognition Technology Today” will be an opportunity for me to look at the various tools available on multiple platforms and how to make the best use of them. We’ll look at desktop applications that allow you to speak and create text and will also look at the emerging, and incredibly powerful, devices and technologies available on handhelds.

First up will look at the granddaddy of them all — Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

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I love MacHeist- it is an online game with a virtual community of players, it is a great way to get applications for free and, at the end, it always offers a fantastic bundle of Mac application for pennies on the dollar.
Thanks to MacHeist I have gotten and use application like LittleSnapper, Picturesque, WireTap Studio, World of Goo (LOVE IT!), AppZapper, 1Password and more. Looking back on the first three MacHeists I now realize that many of my favorite applications came through their bundles. Even better, in the past (and hopefully this time as well) 25% of sales was given to charity.

Well, a new MacHeist is revving up. I’ve already gotten DaisyDisk for free and it helped me free up valuable drive space on my MacBook Pro. For details jump on over to the MacHeist site.

We wanted to let you know about a new tool we’ve added to the Gear Diary web site.

Mac users can now download a Gear Diary Dashboard Widget.  If you don’t know it already, Dashboard Widgets are mini-applications that are opened by clicking the Dashboard icon in your dock or by completing a keyboard short cut.

These applications open all at once and generally help you complete every day tasks or provide you with very target specific information.

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I love Mac application bundles. It is one of those “Mac-things” you rarely if ever see if “You are A PC”. Mac bundles bring together any number of programs from independent Mac developers and offer them as… well, as a bundle… for pennies on the dollar. No, you often don’t get upgrade rights, but the price is still fantastic.

One bundle site, MacBundle Box is launching a new site- MacDailyBox. The new site will offer daily deals on a variety of great software.

We, of course, will let you know whenever there is something we recommend grabbing, but you can also jump over to the preview site and sign up for daily notices.

Autograph from Ten One Design is one of those Mac applications that you definitely don’t need but at just $6.95 it is definitely worth a look. For just a few dollars it adds some unique functionality to your MacBook Pro. Simply put, Autograph is a signature capture application for MacBook Pros and a variety of Waacom tablets. With it you can add a signature using one of the company’s Pogo Stylus or Sketch devices. While a finger will work, the Pogo “pens” allow you to actually add your initials or even a signature with a fair degree of accuracy.

Let’s take a look…

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Apple has released a “perfomance upgrade” for its Snow Leopard operating system.  According to the support document released along with the upgrade it’s supposed to addresses intermittent hard drive related pauses reported by a small number of customers.

The hardware possibly effected by the issue includes:

I wrote about the Mac application EventBox back in July. It’s a nice little application that allows you gather together a number of your different social media and keep it in one place. For example, I use it for my Google Reader feeds, and to keep track of both Twitter and Facebook. At the time the application was described in this way

Do you use many social services? Annoyed that you have to run 6 different applications? Enter the new revolutionary social app, EventBox. All your services in one place, integrated.
When you are busy doing your work, you don’t want anything to disrupt your focus. But you still want to read that message which just came in. This is where the HUD window comes in handy.

Well, it turns out I wasn’t the only one who was keeping an eye on application. The folks at RealMac, the people behind RapidWeaver and LittleSnapper (two of my most frequently used Mac applications) were as well. They liked it so much, in fact, that they purchased it and are renaming it Socialite. Continue Reading

I’m a huge fan of Mac application bundles. They are a great way to legitimately get premium apps for pennies on the dollar. They are a super way to try new applications that you might otherwise overlook. And, they are perfect for the new switcher who is out to build their collection of great Mac applications.

A new MacFriendly Bundle is out and for $49 you get a host of top quality applications. Continue Reading

I have used database programs for quite a while to keep track of things like my music collection and favorite wines.  Sure, I could do that with a spreadsheet, but having the data organized in a database makes it easy to sort and view records. I’m relatively new to Bento, just picking it up with version 2, but found it very easy to learn and use. This week, FileMaker released Bento 3, a major update to their user-friendly database software for the Mac.

Bento 3 offers a number of new and improved features, which are largely directed toward incorporating graphics better and adding security options, including:

• iPhoto integration

• Grid View – view any library in the new Grid view to show a grid of images or thumbnail views of your forms

• Related data field – now with image thumbnails

• File List – now with image thumbnails

• Table view with media cell

• Simple list field type – add a freeform table to your forms for quick list tracking

• Library Folders – save space in your Libraries pane by grouping like libraries in a single folder

• Library Icons

• Image box – add a static image, such as a team logo, to any of your forms

• New security options

• Multi-user sharing – share your Bento libraries with up to 5 other Bento users on your local area network

• Group emailing – send one email to multiple recipients through Apple Mail with a few clicks

• Improved Theme Chooser

• New option to print blank forms

• Print a blank version of any form, great for surveys and sign up lists

• New option to copy forms within a library and between collections

• 10 new pre-designed templates

In addition, FileMaker released an update to their iPhone app this week to improve compatibility with the Bento 3 desktop software.

Bento 3 is available for $49.00 from FileMaker’s website.  For existing Bento users, FileMaker is offering an instant upgrade rebate of $20 (offer expires January 28, 2010).

I was excited to see the release of Blackberry Desktop Manager for Mac a few hours earlier than expected. Of course I immediately downloaded the application which is relatively small — the DMG file is just 28 MB. And they did a great job with it!

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Believe it or not there are Mac users who also use BlackBerries   It’s been a long wait, but today October 2nd  BlackBerry Desktop Manager for Macs went live. That’s right, as of today you’re not going to have to mess with use a third-party solution like PocketBerry — or rely on VM Fusion, or another virtual machine setup, to run Windows on your Mac just to use BlackBerry Desktop Manager.

If you’re unfamiliar with Desktop Manager (or simply, “BBDM” for the ‘Berry heads), this is the software you can use to backup your ‘Berry, sync your (DRM-free) iTunes playlists to your BlackBerry, sync contacts, calendar appointments, notes, and install software/updated BlackBerry OS’s onto your device.

So jump on over to the Blackberry website and and download Desktop Manager for Mac NOW!!!

[BerryReview]