If you're looking for some Lightroom adventure, and you have what it takes, then I have some good news for you - Adobe has just released Photoshop Lightroom 2 for Mac, finally ending the Beta stage of this version. Designed to help professional and enthusiast photographers in photo management and post production work, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a very good solution for viewing, editing, and managing digital photos, including those located on backup discs. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 Beta was advertised in official Adobe emails back in April 2008, and today...

...we got the final version, packing a bunch of new features and fixes, such as
- Local adjustment brush
- 64-bit processing support for latest Windows and Mac OS X versions<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->
- Flexible print packages
- Improved organizational tools
- Streamlined Photoshop CS3 integration
- Enhanced nondestructive photo editing
- Multiple monitor support
- Capability of extending the feature list by using plugins
- Volume management
- Enhanced batch processing
- Improved output sharpening

To run Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 on a Mac, you need a computer with a PowerPC® G4 or G5 or Intel based processor, Mac OS X v10.4 or later, 1GB of RAM, 1GB of available hard-disk space, a minimum display resolution of 1,024x768, and a CD-ROM drive.

The software is currently available in English, French, German, and Japanese, for $299, but if you're upgrading from version 1.x, you'll only have to pay $99. If you're new to Lightroom and you don't want to purchase it yet, you can try it for free for a month. Sounds good enough, don't you think?

When new computing platforms go public, their success is highly influenced by their adoption in the software world. As time goes by, more and more companies join "the club," making it all more popular, but this is a vicious circle - if you are not having a good start, big companies won't come, so you won't become notorious enough to draw attention. Anyway, the iPhone is far from being "just another smartphone," and the creators of the Doom franchise are ready to jump in!

Before moving on, I think it's enough to remind you that Doom is being considered by a lot of people(including myself) to be one of the most important titles in the history of gaming, if not even "the most important game of all time," and it's enough to mention that GameSpy labeled it as the "#1 game of all time" after conducting a poll among over 100 game developers and journalists, back in July 2001. So, would you like to see id Software coming up with some iPhone games? I am sure you do, so here's the story...<-250x250 Square - right->

According to John Carmack, id Software's mobile division is looking to find the resources available for creating a title iPhone-exclusive, and the fact they didn't have anything ready when the new smartphone from Apple was released is simply something caused by scheduling and lack of resources at that time.

While the hardware of the iPhone is considered to be as powerful as a PS2 or a Xbox, the games released so far aren't that great, and Carmack says "The graphics are a little lower but the RAM is a lot higher. You could easily spend $10 million on an iPhone game, but the market just can't support that yet."

Unfortunately, they won't show up with something big in the first place but, as the market grows, we may see some interesting surprises coming from id Software, even a MMO game for cellphones. Obviously, some time must pass until then - "I want to go step by step -- where we do a multiplayer game, then multiplayer with some persistence, then maybe further," concluded the mastermind behind Doom and Quake.

Do you remember "Black Beauty," the notorious TV series? Well, if you missed the chance to see it until now and have some time to spare, I suggest you to go ahead and, if you can find it, watch it, because it's better than most TV series I see running these days. Anyway, this was just a side story, because we're not going to talk about black horses today. The good part is that we still have a black beauty to talk about, but one iPod black beauty. Its real name is iBLIK RadioStation, and comes as Revo's "ultimate one-box radio and iPod docking system."


Just as that beautiful black horse in the TV series was one of a kind, the iBLIK RadioStation is the first product to bring together Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Internet and FM radio reception, as well as iPod docking capabilities. Basically, you get a radio station with alarm clock packing an impressive amount of features, including the following:

- High sensitivity DAB and DAB+ digital radio
- Compatible with current and future DAB standards
- Advanced internet radio with Wi-Fi and wired LAN connection
- Easy access to over 11,000 internet radio stations<-336x280 Large Rectangle - right->
- iPod docking functionality with full control and charging
- FM radio reception with RDS
- Stream music from your PC or MAC
- Digital alarm clock with sleep and snooze
- Large black LCD screen with icons
- Eight favourite station presets
- Includes compact remote control
- 3.5mm headphone connector
- Stereo RCA line-out connectors
Apart from the "iPod black beauty" known as iBLIK RadioStation, the package also contains a remote control, a selection of dock adaptors to fit most iPod models, M-Port cable to connect other MP3 players to iBLIK, and a 240v power supply. Obviously, you'll also get an operating guide and a warranty card, but those are included with almost any electronic device, so...

Expected to drop in mid August on the UK market, the iPod black beauty will be priced at £180 (about $360), and you will be able to find it on Apple stores(offline and online), as well as on Revo's web store, but if you're really in a hurry, you can preorder it now, and you'll only be charged the day your black beauty is being shipped.

I don't know about you, but no matter how much I love black gadgets, I have a long list of items queued on my shopping list, and an iPod docking system is not there, so unless they figure out how to make the iBLIK capable of cooking and cleaning the house, I am not buying it!

When I hear about "top 10 something," I usually end up with a big disappointment. Why? The answer is sad, but true, and the worst part of it is that it happens this way in most cases with these tops. For example, let's take hardware - a magazine receives hardware samples to review, but one of those companies entering the review run is also providing prizes for a certain contest held by that magazine. No matter what, its products will surely get a better ranking than the average of previous reviews! I am not giving any names, I am thinking mostly about some local IT magazines here, but I know this is happening everywhere. Anyway, the idea is that, considering this, I thought about a "top 10 iPhone programs" that can't be accused of being unfair, simply because we'll have a "top 10" full of losers!

I know "losers" may sound a bit harsh, especially since there's always room left for certain people to claim the opposite, so you can take this as you want - simply "top 10 iPhone programs," "top 10 boring iPhone applications," or "top 10 useless iPhone apps." Applying a label to this top is not the most important part - the important part is to know the applications you should avoid, unless you are extremely bored, or you simply had the incredible amount of time required to check all the other iPhone programs. OK, these being said, let's see what we have here today, shall we?

First of all, we have PhoneSaber, an application that claims to be able to turn your iPhone into a lightsaber! Don't ask what is a lightsaber - I am sure you must have seen Star Wars! About the "turning" part, it seems this application is able to recreate the sounds of a moving saber, including deflections and battle crashes, while running in full screen. Humm...I think I would rather play Solitaire!

Well, it gets even better(or worse, depends on how you take it) than the above! Scratch is a program for the iPhone allowing you to perform "scratches" with your audio files like a real DJ. Why not use a turntable, like every serious DJ? :|

Cube Runner is one game requiring you to pilot a ship and avoid running into one of those giant boxes spread across the landscape. Why boxes? Because the graphics are pretty bad overall, and adding some decent obstacles was not at hand. The funny part is that...I know, it sounds strange, but Cube Runner can prove to be quite addictive!

One of the features I loved most in Nokia 1100 was the flashlight, but they removed it in latest 11xx models, unfortunately. The iPhone doesn't have such a feature, but myLite Colored Strobe and Flashlight gets you almost there. Why "almost?" Well, instead of a decent flashlight, you get to be able to play a strobe effect, apart from using the screen of your iPhone as a "flashlight" using any solid color. Thank you, but I'd better get a flashlight that was build to be a flashlight, or at least a Nokia 1100, and not the iPhone!

Colored flashlight? That one is nothing, compared to Banner Free, a program that's able to turn your Apple phone into a personal LED name badge, scrolling through any crazy message you type in. Not really smart, if you ask me...

At last, although I had less than 10 apps here today, let me tell you about More Cowbell!, a software for the iPhone allowing you to play the only instrument Christopher Walken wants to hear - a cowbell, obviously! If you're not going to do it, you'll keep hearing him say "I’ve gotta have more cowbell."
Right, and I had enough of this! :)

I know, I know - these were not 10 iPhone programs, but some of them are really worth two times their unworthiness, if I can put it this way. Please share your impressions with me below, while I am going to find a cowbell somewhere around here...

Did you ever take some time to think about the impressive amount of things that could be connected somehow with the iPhone? I am not talking about wireless connection or any type of physical connection, because there's something even more interesting - the idea of a bond between the iPhone and something that doesn't have to do anything with it, at least at first sight. For example, look at the iPhone cake, but that's not all! Ever been a scout? The keyword is "pinewood derby," and the connection to the iPhone is really interesting, as we're going to see right away...

Basically, the idea of pinewood derbies is to work on your car and develop your wood crafting skills, but the usual result was a wooden car...looking like a car, of course. I don't know if having a pinewood derby car that looks like an iPhone breaks any rules, but that doesn't really matter, since the one you can see above entered an event held by the Columbus Society of Communicating Arts for adults, and not for boy scouts.<-125x125 Button - left->

For me, the pinewood derby and these cars are something new, but I must admit the sudden crush I had on them, and this is not limited to the iPhone car. The reasons can be found in the full Flickr gallery of the event mentioned above, but if you are really in a hurry and want to see the iPhone car and then move away, then you should check one of these pictures: from a side, behind, and in the crowd, but this is not all!

If you are really missing those older Apple mices, you should also take a look at this picture. "My preeecioussss...must have..."