Developer: Topaz Labs
System Requirements: Intel Mac, Mac OS X v10.4 or later, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or iPhoto/Aperture/Lightroom through FusionExpress (free download)
Review Computer: 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook, 4GB DDR2 RAM
Price: $79.99 standalone, $179.99 as part of the Topaz Photoshop Plug-In Bundle
Availability: Out now
Demo: Download

Digital imaging involves a constant tradeoff between size and picture quality. The higher quality the picture, the larger the file size, which has obvious storage implications for memory cards and bandwidth requirements for serving up images to web browsers or email clients.  Any photographer who has ever made the tradeoff between fitting more images onto a card and shooting at a lower compression ratio will find an appealing way to undo some of that damage using the DeJPEG plugin from Topaz Labs.

Like all of the Topaz PS Bundle, DeJPEG is simple to use.  Invoked from either the Filter menu in Photoshop or the standalone Fusion Express application (for iPhoto, Aperture, and Lightroom users), DeJPEG launches with a standard 3-column window layout.  To the left, simple presets are available based on the amount of JPEG compression on the incoming image.  An additional preset exists for fixing the edge color of a high quality JPEG; JPEG compression typically causes most artifacts to appear at the edge of objects, so this is a great option for cleaning up images that are almost perfect.  The center of the main window is a large-scale preview of the image, while to the right is the advanced options gallery. 

Two categories of choices exist in the advanced gallery: Main and Advanced.  The main controls allow fine-grained control over artifact reduction, as well as smoothing/sharpening in the image.  The advanced controls include adjustments for luma/color noise, edge parameters, and an option to Add Grain (offsetting the smoothing that is part of the artifact removal process results in a more natural-looking image).  Simple sliders exist for each option allowing for control over the numeric values of each control.

Photographers will appreciate Topaz’s DeJPEG for smoothing out any JPEG artifacts from an image prior to printing (or, in cases where picture quality is reduced because you run out of room on a memory card at the end of your vacation!).  Most cameras produce prints that can be printed up to 8x10 without noticeable artifacts, but if an image has been cropped or straightened, the compression artifacts may be more noticeable.  The solution? Just run the image through DEJPEG to clean up any artifacts!  This example image shows a macro shot of a tulip shot in RAW, then exported to JPEG several times. The final panel is the application of the DEJPEG preset for ‘Highly Compressed JPEG’:

Of course the process is not perfect. Data that has been lost in compression can never be recovered, but the effects of the compression can be minimized:

Digital artists will appreciate DEJPEG’s ability to recover details in images that are beyond the artist’s control—whether they be provided by clients or other sources.  In addition to removing obvious artifacts such as blocks or jagged lines, DeJPEG excels at transforming gradients from jagged color steps to smooth gradients.

Lossy compression algorithms like JPEG are a simple fact of life for digital photographers.  Advanced JPEG compression rarely results in noticeable artifacts, except in extreme circumstances like printing posters or banners.  For photographers or digital artists working with older, lower-quality JPEG files, Topaz’s DeJPEG restores detail to your images and removes image artifacts inherent in the compression process.  The result is a more natural looking image and higher quality in the final results.

Be sure to check out reviews of the rest of the TopazLabs Photoshop Bundle here on Appletell in the coming weeks, and try out the free demo copies of all the Topaz software.

Also see:

• Appletell reviews Topaz Labs DeNoise 4 Photoshop plug-in

Full Story » | Written by Aaron Kraus for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Photo editing, manipulation and management
Format: Retail
Developer: Adobe
Minimum System Requirements: Intel processor, Mac OS X v.10.5 or v10.6, 2GB RAM, 1GB of available HDD, 1024x768 display (or better), CD-ROM
Price: $299 ($99 for upgrade)
Availability: Now

Lightroom 3 is Adobe’s newest update to their amazing photo-developing application. Its tools and features can help you ensure your photos are at their best, whether you start with great pictures or even ones with numerous problems.

I want to preface this review by saying that I have not reviewed any previous versions of Lightroom, nor Apple’s competing product: Aperture.  I’ll be looking at Lightroom 3 as a first time user, not necessarily a user looking to upgrade from a previous version.  That said, you may find my comments to be sufficient in this regard as well.  Also, Lightroom 3 is packed with features; I simply cannot cover them all.  I’ve chosen to highlight the most useful and notable features, in my opinion.  Alright, let’s get to it.

While Adobe makes both Lightroom 3 and Photoshop, they are very different applications for different purposes.  Photoshop is a tool for doing work on images individually.  It’s also great for creating images from scratch.  Lightroom 3 is not.  Lightroom is the perfect tool for a photographer who wants to take images (of varying levels of quality) and make them great.  That’s not to say that they can’t work together, because they’re made to.  You just have to take photography a little more seriously to see the value in Lightroom.  Adobe markets it towards the “advanced amateur or professional photographer.”  So if you aren’t concerned with White Balance, ISO, DOF, Aperture etc, you might as well move along.

The first thing you’ll notice when working with Lightroom 3 is that its interface is top notch.  I simply love the dark theme that makes your images the center of attention, rather than the tools.  Tools reside in drawers that can be pulled out or tucked away.  This is a fantastic feature that anyone who’s used to iPhoto will fall in love with; tools, here, never cover up your image, unlike in iPhoto.  After all, the whole app is a tool to transform your images to greatness, not clutter up your view or detract from the images in the first place.

To get started, you’ll need photos.  Importing those photos is simple.  If the import window doesn’t automatically pop up when you plug in your camera or memory card, you can start importing by selecting Import from the File menu.  You can import from any directory on your computer (including directly from cameras or memory cards), but importing from iPhoto will be a pain as you’ll have to export your images first.  Unfortunately, you can’t use iPhoto to import, sort and store your photos, which is a pretty big bummer to me.

To import your photos, select the source and destination locations.  If any of your images are RAW, then you’ll also have the option of importing them as DNG.  DNG is Adobe’s standardized RAW format.  Honestly, I’m not sure that it matters, but converting to this format may make your images easier for others to view and edit.  That’s likely not something that you care about anyway, because you’ll be exporting these photos in a different format before printing or sending them along, anyway.

There are other tools, as, well inside of the import dialog that can help streamline the process of developing your images.  Things like auto-renaming, avoiding of duplicates, applying preset effects and editing metadata.  I prefer to skip most of these because I think most images need to be handled individually, and I don’t like to apply effects in batch.  Your specific image set may be different though, so it’s nice to have the option.

Now, after you import all of your photos, you’ll want to actually start editing, or developing them.  This is where Lightroom 3 really shines.  Obviously, the better your original content is, the better your end product will be.  But you might be surprised just how much Lightroom 3 can fix.

There are two ways to go about developing your images, and it depends on a few things.  If your images don’t need a lot of help, then you can just use Quick Develop.  This gives you access to the most commonly used tools, including white balance, tone control, exposure, clarity and vibrance.  You can also add keywords, comments or edit metadata.  Quick Develop isn’t really my style, because I really like to edit each image that I think is worth pursuing in great detail.  That said, this is a great tool for quickly modifying images, and many times you don’t need the full set of tools.  You can also use this to touch up an image that has already been developed, in case you see something that needs to quickly be adjusted.

If you’re anything like me, and I’ll assume you are, Develop is where the real fun is.  Nearly everything you could possibly want to do to your images is available here.  You can crop, remove red eye, adjust levels, apply saturation and vibrance, sharpen, reduce noise, apply lens correction and perspective correction, apply a curve, brighten, adjust contrast and black levels, change exposure…you get the “picture.”  Some of these features are brand new, and some just need more detailed descriptions, so let me cover them in more detail.

• Noise Reduction - Noise is generally much more of a problem with lower quality cameras (point and shoot).  But if you’re taking photos at high ISOs, you just can’t avoid it.  The noise reduction built into this application is superb.  You can really smooth out noise in a natural looking way with this app, sometimes to the point of rescuing an unusable photo.  That’s a real godsend for images of scenes that will never take place again.  Neither Adobe, nor I, promise that it will fix everything, but it’s certainly not an off-limits slider anymore.  You might even be comfortable enough to use it much more often to improve the quality of your images, which is something I wasn’t comfortable doing before Lightroom 3.  Hopefully, you won’t need this tool, but it’s there if/when you need it.

• Color - Why stop at White Balance and Saturation?  Well, you don’t have to.  Lightroom gives you much more control than something like iPhoto.  It actually makes iPhoto look broken in comparison.  You can individually edit color channels (there are 8) for hue, luminance and saturation.  This kind of fine grain control really allows you to do some amazing things.  If certain colors in your image are too bright, or their color seems to detract from the overall theme or focus of the image, adjust them.

• Lens Correction - Most lenses produce some sort of distortion.  You can fix things like geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting.  This happens based on a profile that you can either create or download for your specific lens.  Correcting for these common distortions is now as simple as a few clicks, which will either save you some time or make you realize that your images have been distorted without you even realizing it.  In the example image, you can see just how much this correction can do.  The “after” image is much more lifelike.

• Perspective Correction - This feature is crazy.  Now you don’t even have to take your image at the correct angle.  Okay, that’s a bit of an overstatement.  But you can change the perspective of your images to a certain extent.  Generally, this will be useful when you want a straight on representation of something of which you’ve take a picture from a slight angle, such as a whiteboard, sign etc.  Not as useful as Lens Correction, but you’ll be glad you have it when you need it.
• Multiple monitor support - Lightroom can really take advantage of extra monitors.  There are a ton of options and configurations available.  You can do things like edit in one monitor and view the image full screen on another, or display a slideshow on another monitor.  I really like that there are options specifically built to take advantave of extra monitors because many of us are working with this kind of setup already, and native support is best.
• Nondestructive editing - This means you can reset any or all of your changes at any point in time.  If you’ve been editing for a few minutes and decide that you liked the image better five minutes ago, scroll down the history toolbar and click on previous edit save points.  That’s one of my favorite features since it gets used so often.  There’s also a before and after view mode that makes it dead simple to see just how much Lightroom has changed your image from beginning to end.
• Curves - I’m actually a little surprised to find out that Lightroom 2 didn’t have curves.  In any event, they are here, alongside their older equivalent, sliders.
• Tethered shooting - If you have a supported camera, you can actually take images directly from inside Lightroom 3.  This is useful in very specific scenarios, but definitely a cool feature if your camera supports it.  Mine does not.  If you have a recent Canon or Nikon, you’re probably ready to go with this one.
• Photoshop integration - Sometimes you just need Photoshop.  That’s fine.  Now you can open an image in Photoshop from Lightroom, do your edits, save, and see the output right away in Lightroom.
• Watermarking - While exporting, you now have the option to apply a watermark to your images.  Quite a handy feature.
• Flickr - Just like iPhoto and Aperture, you can now upload your finished images straight to Flickr.  Still no official Facebook uploader, but you can add one through a plug-in.
• Plug-ins - You can actually download tons of plug-ins for Lightroom 3.  Most commonly, plug-ins are packs of effects that you can apply to photos, but they can be more sophisticated, as with the Facebook uploader, for example.
• Slideshow - Automatically output a slideshow complete with music.

So what kind of results can you really expect?  That’s a pretty tough question to answer, really. Here’s one of the images I recently took and developed with Lightroom 3.

Each image is different, so your results for each will be different.  Also, the longer you use this application, the better your images will turn out because you’ll get a better feel for all of the tools and what works the best.  Lightroom 3 will astound anyone who’s used to using iPhoto.  The tools that are available are just so much better and more refined than those available in iPhoto or other lesser image editors.

The only real downside that I’ve found in this app relates to features that really shine in Apple’s iPhoto.  iPhoto does a really great job of making it easy to publish your photos to Flickr and Facebook.  It also makes it easy to organize your photos based on location, events and even faces.  Plus, syncing images between iPhone and your iDevices is dead simple.  The same can’t be said for Lightroom 3.  I don’t know that these features are necessary inside of Lightroom, and honestly, you don’t have to use Lightroom for all of your photos.  I just wish there was a good way for them to coexist.  The best solution is to export your finished images and import them into iPhoto.

Overall, Lightroom 3 is a seriously powerful tool for photographers.  The amount and effectiveness of the tools available truly make it possible for you to transform images that may have previously been labeled as garbage into very usable—if not amazing—images.  But you have to start with great composition and source material.  While Lightroom can fix things like noise, brightness and other things, it can’t fix what you took a picture of, from what general viewpoint it was taken, or any number of other factors that simply aren’t fixable.

But you’re a great photographer, right?  Then Lightroom 3 is the tool you need to touch up your photos into greatness.  Sadly, though, if you use this application correctly, anyone who sees your end results should never know you did a thing in the first place.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Developer: Topaz Labs
System Requirements: Intel Mac, Mac OS X v10.4 or later, Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or iPhoto/Aperture/Lightroom through FusionExpress (free download)
Review Computer: 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook, 4GB DDR2 RAM
Price: $79.99 standalone, $179.99 as part of the Topaz Photoshop Plug-In Bundle
Availability: Out now
Demo: Download

Photos looking a little dull in the details? Less than exciting around the edges? Not crisp from corner to corner? Topaz Labs’ Detail plug-in takes otherwise flat images and gives digital photographers complete control over enhancing contrast and sharpness while providing a powerful tool for intensifying image detail. In addition to the edge enhancement, a complete range of color and tone tools are also available. Overly soft focus, details burnt out by lighting, or images that are simply not as visually exciting as they could be can benefit from Detail’s ability to enhance contrast and sharpness detail without introducing edge artifacts into the image.

Detail, like all the Topaz plug-ins, uses several presets as a starting point, depending on the desired adjustment. Presets range from common adjustment tasks like a black and white high contrast filter to a soft look filter to a skin smoothing and brightening filter. The danger with Detail and its closely related plug-in, Adjust, is that many of these adjustments can quickly devolve an image from genuine art into a kitschy Photobooth-esque snapshot.  The soft look filter, applied in the right circumstances, can add a dreamlike quality to photos, but a fine line exists between dreamy wedding shots and second rate glamor shots á la Napoleon Dynamite.  Judicious use of the soft looking filter in combination with some edge softening and desaturation lend an old South feel to this shot of Paula Deen’s restaurant in Savannah:

The advanced options in Detail provide the user the ability to more precisely manipulate the detail parameters the program uses to identify edges. Images are broken down into small, medium, and large detail regions, and the advanced options give fine grained control over the presence of each detail size, as well as a boost/suppression option for controlling the detail intensity.  Landscape photographers have several options for increasing the level of detail available in their images, ranging from micro contrast enhancement (which makes grass and leaves pop), to a Deep Blue Sky preset, to a Spring Green filter.  In this urban example image, small and medium detail was increased, while large detail was suppressed.  This served to enhance the clouds and brick walkway while softening the look of the water.

Detail excels as an all-around portrait photographer’s tool.  Wedding or family photographers will appreciate the plug-in’s softening capabilities, which can add that sentimental haze or remove harsher details. On the other end of the spectrum, Detail can provide photographs with the kind of gritty high-contrast images that Dorothea Lange was famous for (Google “Migrant Mother” for the iconic example).  The ability to specifically target a level of detail is this tool’s greatest strength; rather than meddling with contrast or exposure for the entire image, it is possible to apply settings to just the desired details.  Even impromptu portraits can get a dash of zing, like this example which benefited from the Color Jump filter and some additional small detail boosting to bring out the grass and clouds.

Whether used for serious detail enhancement or kitschy photo effects, Topaz Labs’ Detail plug-in is a winner all around.  When it is not possible to get the perfect shot, Detail can save a mediocre shot with simple presets configured for a variety of different effects.  When it is possible to get the perfect shot, Detail can make it even better by allowing fine-grained control over three levels of image sharpness and color/tone balance.

Also see:

• Appletell reviews Topaz Labs DeJPEG Photoshop plug-in
• Appletell reviews Topaz Labs DeNoise 4 Photoshop plug-in

Full Story » | Written by Aaron Kraus for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

In a rather quiet manner this morning, Apple has launched one of (I think) their neatest little products yet: the new Magic Trackpad. Selling for $69.00, this is basically the trackpad you’d find in any MacBook Pro removed from the enclosure and made a standalone peripheral. Rumors of the Magic Trackpad were floating around a while back, but had fallen silent until now. Regardless, I’m quite glad Apple has created such a product, as the trackpad on my MacBook Pro is far better than any mouse I’ve ever used.

You can buy the Magic Trackpad from the Apple online store. As of now, it runs on two double A batteries and it only appears as if this device will work on Mac OS X running version 10.6.4 or later. I’d love to see this device rolled out to Windows machines, as well, as I think it could be a great step for people into buying an entire Apple laptop.

Product [Magic Trackpad]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Alongside the existing extension galleries that Chrome and Firefox already have, Apple has now launched their very own website to display extensions Safari developers are creating. We new this was coming based on Apple’s Safari extension submission request, as well as the fact that once you add extensions to Safari it only makes sense to promote them.

As you’d expect, extensions.apple.com is written in clean and beautiful HTML5 as well as all the other latest web standards…save Flash.

Some of the extensions Apple is highlighting include Twitter for Safari (official from Twitter, Inc.), Bing Highlights (another stab at Google?), MLB Toolbar, the NY Times, eBay Manager, and Amazon Wish List. On top of that, there are also plenty of other galleries that have made their way into Apple’s web page. If you’re a Safari 5 user, I’d highly recommend checking it out.

See [extensions.apple.com]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Assembling your family tree has never been easier, thanks to genealogy software like Synium Software's Mac Family Tree. The latest update to the application, version 6, adds several new features and a revamped interface to make it simpler than ever to trace your roots.

(Image courtesy of mattters.com)

Sure, we received a new iPhone, totally new device in the form of an iPad, as well as countless other goodies this year from Apple.  But what our 'ol friend, Mac OS X.  Well, a new job posting at Apple might give us some insight into what might be to come, according to 9to5 Mac.

"Are you looking to help create something totally new?  Something that has never been done before and will truly amaze everyone?  Are you excited by the prospect that what you helped create would be used every day by millions of Apple customers?  Then come and work on with the Mac OS X software engineering team to help build a new and revolutionary feature for Mac OS X."

"An exceptional candidate will also have up close and personal experience with the HTTP protocol as well as other protocols atop it, have participated in or lead the architecture of large web scale systems, have shipped multiple "platforms" for use by millions of users."

So if this meets your resume credentials, you may want to give Apple a call.  Also, any ideas as to what this new and revolutionary feature might be MaclLife readers?  Feel free to leave some comments below!

Follow this article's author, Matthew Tilmann on Twitter

We are looking for a senior softwa...]]> Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:16:51 +0300 http://appleunofficial.com/news/1098495


Apple - IPhone - Shopping - Operating Systems - X11]]> Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:10:00 +0300 http://appleunofficial.com/news/1098483 Apple is working on a "revolutionary" feature for Mac OS X, a new job listing claims. The company is hiring a software engineer for its Santa Clara Valley offices, who must be experienced with Mac, Objective-C and Unix development. "We are looking for a senior software engineer to help us create a revolutionary new feature in the very foundations of Mac OS X," the listing mentions. "We have something truly revolutionary and really exciting in progress and it is going to require your most creative and focused efforts ever."...


Mac OS X - Apple - Unix - Operating system - Mac OS]]> Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:05:00 +0300 http://appleunofficial.com/news/1098390 Apple has posted a very interesting job position to their jobs website which details the future of Mac OS. Apple is looking for a novice software engineer to be apart of a team which is creating the core Mac OS's future. This core is totally new and revolutionary, as described by Apple, and has "never been done before."

"Are you looking to help create something totally new? Something that has never been done before and will truly amaze everyone? Are you excited by the prospect that what you helped create would be used every day by millions of Apple customers? Then come and work on with the Mac OS X software engineering team to help build a new and revolutionary feature for Mac OS X."

"We are looking for a senior software engineer to help us create a revolutionary new feature in the very foundations of Mac OS X. We have something truly revolutionary and really exciting in progress and it is going to require your most creative and focused efforts ever." 

"An ideal candidate will have a degree in Computer Science (or equivalent), five years of professional experience developing C / C++ / Objective-C libraries or frameworks for use on end user systems, experience with developing for Internet technologies and services, and a passion for doing “really hard” things that have never been done before."

"An exceptional candidate will also have up close and personal experience with the HTTP protocol as well as other protocols layered atop it, have participated in or lead the architecture of large web scale systems, have shipped multiple “platforms” for use by millions of users."

Umm.. what can this revolutionary and never done before feature be? A fully multi-touch-optimized desktop OS?! FaceTime for everyone?! Let us know what you think in the comments. Keep in mind that Apple "invented" mobile phone video calling and multi-touch technology.

Also, too bad they didn't describe it as magical!

via AI

Microsoft announced today that they will begin a video series showing off the various new features in Office 2011. The first video, which was just placed online, shows the Outlook Conversation View and the new Template Gallery that launches when you open an application.

The Template Gallery enables you to pick a template with built-in designs and several thousands to choose from online, while the Conversation View allows you to sort emails with ease. The new database, which is Spotlight-friendly, also enables for a quick search through your files.

In addition, Outlook 2011 is Time Machine capable, allowing you to backup files with ease. There's also a new Ribbon feature that is an evolution of the bar that was created in version 2008. This feature was met with some uncertainty from PC users, so it'll be interesting to see how Microsoft manages to implement it into Mac OS X.

You can see the video on the Mac Mojo blog (embedded below). This is the same place where more videos will be posted in the future.

Apple has updated its browser Safari 5, turning on Safari Extensions and introducing the Safari Extensions Gallery.

Apple has updated its browser Safari 5, turning on Safari Extensions and introducing the Safari Extensions Gallery, something which competing browsers Firefox and Chrome have offered for some time. Extensions allow developers to bring new features and functionality to Apple’s browser, and the company has teamed with some big name institutions including Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, Twitter, The New York Times and Major League Baseball.

Apple today introduced Safari 5.0.1, the latest version of its browser which introduces the Safari Extensions Gallery. (Oh look, Google, Bling is among the highlighted extensions, there's a big surprise!) The release also patches last week's nasty Address Book bug.

(Which likely puts paid to the short career of Safariextensions.org).

Apple introduced extensions support in Safari 5 in June so developers could begin creating extensions with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript web standards.

Safari Extensions Gallery lets users find the extensions they want, from toolbars that display live web feeds to sophisticated programmes that filter web content.

“Safari 5 has been a big hit, and user response to the innovative new Safari Reader has been fantastic,” said Brian Croll, Apple’s vice president of OS X Product Marketing. “We’re thrilled to see so many leading developers creating great extensions and think our users are going to love being able to customise Safari.”

The Safari Extensions Gallery is accessible from the Safari menu or at extensions.apple.com. Users can download and install extensions from the gallery with a single click, and there’s no need to restart the browser. Extensions can be automatically updated and are easily managed within Safari. Users can enable or disable individual extensions, or turn off all extensions with one click.

Safari Extensions are built with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript web standards, and can have all the power and functionality of advanced web applications. Every Safari Extension is signed with a digital certificate from Apple to prevent tampering and to verify that updates to the extension are from the original developer. Safari Extensions are sandboxed, so they can’t access information on a user’s system or communicate with websites aside from those specified by the developer. For increased stability, Safari Extensions run solely in the browser.

Industry comments below (from the Apple PR):

“Millions of our customers already use Amazon Wish Lists to store items they want to buy for themselves or receive as gifts,” said Gianna Puerini, vice president of Worldwide Design and Community at Amazon.com. “With Safari 5, we were able to quickly build the Add to Amazon Wish List extension that lets customers add items from any website to their Amazon Wish List with the click of a button.”

“We’re excited to continue working closely with Apple to bring visually compelling Bing experiences to Safari,” said Jeff Henshaw, general manager of Bing User Experience. “The Bing Extension for Safari brings Bing search intelligence to everyday browsing with Safari. When a user selects text in Safari, Bing instantly recognises what they might need and pops up helpful, informative tips, from real time maps and driving directions to real time translations to direct web search results.”

“Using web standard technologies and Safari’s extension builder, we developed an MLB.com extension to give fans another way to consume up-to-the-moment baseball content, including live look-ins to games, right from the Safari toolbar,” said Noah Garden, executive vice president, Commerce and Sponsorship at MLB.com.

“Our extension for Safari is a great way for readers to get all of the latest breaking news and all the important stories, blogs and columns they want to see,” said Denise Warren, general manager, NYTimes.com at The New York Times Company. “While you browse other sites in Safari, our extension checks for updates and slides in new headlines and thumbnails, so you won't miss a thing.”

“Creating our Twitter extension in Safari couldn't have been easier,” said Jason Goldman, vice president of Product at Twitter. “By providing features like the ability to tweet about a page and view trending topics, we've created a simple way to deliver relevant, interesting content to people regardless of where they are on the web.”

Safari 5 is available for both Mac OS X and Windows as a free download at www.apple.com/uk/safari.

If you thought Apple had exhausted its goody bag for the week with new hardware on Tuesday, think again. Wednesday morning, Apple made available a Safari 5.0.1 update, with the major new addition being a Safari Extensions Gallery and a whole lotta third-party extensions from major players like Twitter, Bing, eBay and more.

Apple has had a busy week, but Safari lovers haven’t been left out of the fun. Run (don’t walk!) to your Software Update and you’ll discover the yummy goodness of Safari 5.0.1 awaits you. A short restart of your computer later, and you’ll find the Cracker Jack “surprise inside” -- the Safari Extensions Gallery is now open for business, and its shelves are stocked with something for everyone.

“Extensions are a great way for you to add new features to Safari 5.0.1,” Apple’s Safari Extensions Gallery web page boasts. “Built by developers, Safari Extensions use the latest HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript web technologies. And they’re digitally signed and sandboxed for improved security. You can install extensions with one click -- no need to restart Safari.”

Among the first extensions out of the gate are Twitter for Safari, Bing Highlights, breaking news updates from The New York Times and Fox News (how’s that for bipartisan?), 1-Click Weather from The Weather Channel, eBay, Amazon Wish List and a whole lot more.

The full change log for Safari 5.0.1 reveals some other hidden gems and bug fixes as well:

• More accurate Top Hit results in the Address Field
• More accurate timing for CSS animations
• Better stability when using the Safari Reader keyboard shortcut
• Better stability when scrolling through MobileMe Mail
• Fixes display of multipage articles from www.rollingstone.com in Safari Reader
• Fixes an issue that prevented Google Wave and other websites using JavaScript encryption libraries from working correctly on 32-bit systems
• Fixes an issue that prevented Safari from launching on Leopard systems with network home directories
• Fixes an issue that could cause borders on YouTube thumbnails to disappear when hovering over the thumbnail image
• Fixes an issue that could cause Flash content to overlap with other content on www.facebook.com, www.crateandbarrel.com, and other sites when using Flash 10.1
• Fixes an issue that prevented boarding passes from www.aa.com from printing correctly
• Fixes an issue that could cause DNS prefetching requests to overburden certain routers
• Fixes an issue that could cause VoiceOver to misidentify elements of webpages

We don’t know about you, but we like seeing the words “more,” “better” and “fixes” so many times in our change logs. Safari 5.0.1 is available to download now from the Apple website or via Software Update and requires Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.2 or later or Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8 or later. It’s also available for your Windows-loving friends, so go get it!

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter

TUAWSoftware Update: Magic Trackpad and Multi-Touch Trackpad Update 1.0 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.