Filemark maker can convert any PDF, text, MS Word, Excel, or high-definition picture file into a bookmarklet. (There is a 6mb filesize limitation). Just drag-and-drop any file onto the Filemark Maker application droplet and Filemark Maker lets you bookmark that file from within Safari. So the next time you sync your iPhone’s bookmarks, all of your files you saved into Safari are now accessible on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

In case you are wondering, these special bookmarklets work by converting the data stored in the file into a javascript statement. Filemark Maker composes the javascript and allows you to save it in the form of a Safari bookmark, which can be synced to your iPhone or iPod Touch. Since all of the data needed is stored in the bookmark, the iPhone is able to render the file on-the-fly without the need to load any information from a server. What’s great about bookmarklets is they don’t require a user to hack or jailbreak their iPhone or iPod touch. It’s an efficient and secure way to store and view your static documents on-the-go.

There are some other bookmarklets out there that utilize javascript that enable an iPhone or iPod Touch user to do other cool stuff with MobileSafari. There’s a handful of them available at LifeClever, including a “find on this page” function. PixelSpread has created another awesome bookmarklet that allows you to override a site’s iPhone webclip icon and replace it with one of your choice.

Filemark Maker is freeware and is available for download from the Monkey Business Labs website.

Previously with iLife ‘08, making a fully-customized Ken Burns DVD slideshow was impossible. The closest you could get to a fully-customized slideshow involved making an iPhoto slideshow with custom Ken Burns effects and audio, exporting it to a QuickTime file, and importing it into an iDVD project. However, it was impossible to add and mix multiple audio tracks into the slideshow and iPhoto’s user interface made customizing each photo’s effects awkward. The entire slideshow production workflow just wasn’t thought out very well by Apple.

Thanks to the iMovie code rewrite, photo slideshows are now fully customizable and easy to produce inside iMovie. iMovie is no longer sluggish when importing and encoding photos, start-and-end Ken Burn frames are now easy to manage, and managing multiple audio tracks and transitions are more intuitive than before. iMovie ‘08 also has much-improved transition management.

But on the other hand, Apple’s new iMovie rewrite has left a few features out that many will miss, such as movie themes and video effects. Fortunately, the iLife ‘08 installer does not remove the previous version of iMovie, instead moving it inside a directory within the Applications folder named “iMovie (previous version)”. Hopefully Apple is already working on implementing the various features they left behind with iMovie ‘06 into the new iMovie in a future software update, because once iMovie has those great features back it will once again become the easiest-to-use, most stable, and most fully-featured movie production application.

The features in this productivity suite really do make it a fierce competitor with Microsoft Office. The new innovative features, user interface, and Apple-designed templates raise the application suite to a whole new level of productivity, compatibility, and functionality.

Key points from the website include:

Pages

• Two independent application modes, one for word-processing and another for page layout
• Easier text format manipulation
• 80 new Apple-designed templates
• New graphic tools, including “instant alpha” (removing backgrounds from photos)

Keynote

• New transitions and effects
• Voice-over recording
• Automatic “smart builds”
• 35 new Apple-designed templates

Numbers

• Complete compatibility with Microsoft Excel
• A number of Apple-designed templates and chart textures
• Advanced manipulation of tables, canvases, layouts, charts, maps, grids, etc.
• “Interactive Print View”. Scale and arrange layouts before printing.

The user interface on these new applications are stunning and fresh, and it truly does seem to be the biggest update to iLife ever.

Key points from the video include:

iPhoto

• Integration with .Mac’s Web Gallery
• New “Events” Library organization
• Themed-printing features
• New iTunes-eque UI

iMovie

• Supposedly recoded
• Brand new UI, project workflow
• Supposedly faster, easier
• New formats
• Export to YouTube, iPhone, iPod, .Mac
• Additional format support (video promotes AVCHD)

iDVD

• Ten new animated themes
• Improved slideshow features
• Improved performance

iWeb

• Integration with Google AdSense
• Integration with YouTube videos
• Integration with Google Maps (creating and sharing custom map views)
• Improved support for iWeb hosting on non-.Mac servers
• Better photo navigation and viewing

Garageband

• An automated song generator with custom interments and genres, featuring an innovative UI
• Improved track and sound manipulation (EQ, effects, etc.)

An overview of ROM images

To clarify, an “emulator” is an application that acts as the game console, that actually loads the ROM image and emulates the data as if it is the console. ROM images are data images that store the game data. ROM images can be created from downloading the data off of a cartridge via a USB device or simply downloaded online from ROM directories. Like DVD ripping, ROM images are sort of like a legal “gray area”. Most believe if you own the game or are using the image to preserve the game’s data for historical purposes, using ROM images are legal and safe. Any other use of ROM images can be questionable, so please be warned!

I will not provide a specific link to downloading ROMs, so in order to find such a directory you will need to search for one yourself. ROMs will most likely be zipped in a .ZIP file, and sometimes these .ZIP files need to be unzipped in order for the emulator to read the ROM image. Be cautious when you download these files, because any public online file directory can potentially contain malicious code or files.

Sixtyforce

Sixtyforce has been around for quite some time (even since OS 9 days), and is definitely the greatest Nintendo 64 emulator for the Mac platform. The application’s developer, Gerrit Goosen, has continued to develop and update Sixtyforce since, offering additional compatibility and features with every update. The latest update from March 2, version .9, offers the greatest compatibility with Nintendo 64 game ROMs yet. Sixtyforce also offers gamepad plug-in compatibility and an assortment of other gaming preferences and features. Sixtyforce is available as a Universal binary and is shareware. The full version will run you $16, but in registering, you will be supporting further development and activating an assortment of features. Also with registering, Gerrit promises free updates for life as well as continued support.
An overview of Sixtyforce’s main features (with the full version):

• Full-screen playback
• Game-freezes and autosaving
• Customizable graphic, audio, and controller functions
• Powerful performance (although varies by system)

Connecting Gamepads (including Wiimote and XBOX controllers)

Due to the immense popularity of the Nintendo Wii console, developers have taken advantage of the Wiimote’s Bluetooth and infrared technologies to use the controller on 3rd party systems. Mac OS X’s most popular Wiimote utility, Darwiinremote, has taken enabled Mac users to control their Macs with their Wiimote. The open-source project lets users customizes the function of each button and use the Wii’s infrared bar to control Mac OS X’s mouse-pointer. After initial setup, the Wiimote can then be synchronized (manually by the user) with the controller preferences in Sixtyforce.

Other supported various USB gamepads, including XBOX and XBOX 360 controllers, can be setup right within Sixtyforce’s controller preferences with minimal hassle. A full list of supported USB gamepads is available from Sixtyforce’s game controller support page. Gamepads also allows for multiplayer gaming with your friends.

Bitpim has long been an open-source project built on the Python framework, providing cross-platform support for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. However, the Bitpim dev. team never managed to release a Universal version of their Mac binary, but Intel Mac owners could use the PowerPC build in Rosetta (however suffering a major performance decrease).

On the Bitpim homepage, they explain that they can no longer serve any updates to the Mac binary until they get a new Mac.

Although we continue to support BitPim running on Mac OS X, we have recently lost the capability to build Mac binaries (we need a Mac computer to do the builds.) We’re working hard to resolve this issue, but until then, Mac binaries will longer be available for download starting with BitPim release 0.9.12.

The last “stable” Bitpim release, version .9.10, is available for download from their website. Parallels and Boot Camp users may want to think about using the latest Bitpim releases for Windows and Linux platforms to connect their Macs to their CMDA phones.

Appleology recently started serving a custom version of the Mac Bitpim binary with a few resources replacements to “aquify” the Bitpim user interface. The last build hosted on the Appleology server was version .9.11, which was later pulled from the official website as being claimed as “unstable”. However, some Mac users (including myself) disagree and believe .9.11 is in fact more stable than version .9.10. So, as an option for Mac users, .9.11 will continue to be available for download from the Appleology Downloads page, bundled with the custom set of icon, resources, and splash screen replacements to aquify the Bitpim user interface.

If you think version 0.9.11 is unusable for your Mac, I suggest you download the 0.9.10 binary from the official Bitpim website. Unfortunately, as newer phones are released, these phones will most likely not be compatible with the Bitpim Mac binary until the developer team decides to start updating the Binary again.

Another benefit to Afloat is that it is served as a System Preferences pane, rather than a background or menu bar application. Afloat requires the SIMBL framework, which can be installed via the Afloat preference pane once installed. Afloat is a Universal Binary and is compatible with Mac OS X 10.3.9 and higher (including Tiger). Pre-Release v3 of Afloat 1.0 is available as a free download.

Make your windows float above all others, make them transparent at the scroll of your wheel or in a single keystroke, and move them without having to go search for the title bar. All of this, for most Mac applications, in just a few clicks.

If you have never tried out UNO, I suggest you give it a try and see how you like it. Current UNO 1.3 users are recommended to update to version 1.3.1.

The update includes:

1. Support for iTunes 7.
2. Fixed a bug that would prevent UNO from applying to Firefox and Thunderbird on some system setups.
3. Spotlight and Apple menu items are now back to default size (due to massive request).
4. Fixed a very notorious UI glitch found on Microsoft Word, Printer Setup Utility and Extensis Suitcase (Open/Save Panels and Alerts’ background was not themed).
5. Fixed a rendering glitch on Adobe applications like Photoshop, ImageReady, Illustrator.
6. Italian and French localizations.

BitPim saved my LG VX8300 and me from Verizon’s crippled OBEX. BitPim doesn’t exactly have an iApp interface, but it does have potential. Setting up my phone on BitPim wasn’t necessarily “simple”, but it was possible. Here are the steps I took to pair the phone and my Mac with BitPim via Bluetooth:

1. Check to see if your phone is compatible with BitPim.
2. Open the Bluetooth preference pane in System Preferences.
3. Turn on Bluetooh.
4. Click “Set up new device…” in the Devices tab.
5. Walk through the Bluetooth Setup Assistant and pair the phone with your Bluetooth-capable Mac.
6. Download the latest version of BitPim.
7. Open BitPim and access the BitPim settings.
8. Select “Phone Wizard” and select your cell phone carrier, manufacturer, and cell phone model.
9. Click next and choose either “auto” or one similar to “/dev/cu._________-BTDIAG-1″.
10. Click “Detect Phone” to test the connection. Passed means BitPim found and communicated to your phone. If BitPim does not detect the phone, click back and choose another Bluetooth port. *Make sure your phone has Bluetooth powered on.
11. OK it.
12. Be amazed.

Uploading ringtones was really easy with BitPim, because all of the editing capabilities needed to make the MP3 file compatible with your phone is all in BitPim. When uploading MP3 files as ringtones, I suggest using only a 30 second clip of the song with a 7-9 db volume. Uploading wallpapers and pictures are also easy, with editing capabilities within BitPim to upload your wallpaper at the correct resolution for your phone.

BitPim also lets you download your pictures from your camera phone with ease. After downloading to BitPim, you can export your pictures to the Finder or iPhoto. But make sure when you upload your files to be careful not to select “Replace All” or all of the files could be erased either on your phone or BitPim.

BitPim also includes functionality with other important features, such as calendars, digital phonebooks (vCard), memos, SMS, to-dos, call history, etc. Some phones do not work with some of these features, visit the BitPim website to check if your phone is compatible.