Love the media browser you get with iPhoto and the other 'iApps'? Wish you could use it in other applications? Now, thanks to Sandvox developers Karelia, you can. The guys there have developed a stand-alone version of the tool that gives you access to your media libraries from any application. Best of all, it's free!

Click here to read more and to download iMedia.

Good news for Essex Apple fans. The Apple Store Lakeside will open to the public on Saturday, October 20, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. Apple Store Lakeside, Lakeside Shopping Centre, Unit 245, West Thurrock Way, Grays, Essex RM20 2ZP You'll be able to get...

We'd like to do a 'man/woman-on-the-street' podcast interview with:

(a) Someone in London,
(b) Someone who owns an iPod touch and
(c) Someone who has a WiFi account with The Cloud or T-Mobile.

If a, b and c are you then please get in touch.

We'd like to meet up with you next week somewhere in London and go through the online, WiFi experience with you in person.

You'll be rewarded for your efforts with a year's free subscription to MacFormat - so don't delay; get in touch today!

ETA: We've removed the requirement for you to have an account with The Cloud or T-Mobile; we've set up one of our own.

The new edition of MacFormat This Week for 15 October 2007 is now available for download! In this edition of MacFormat This Week... Become an iPhoto '08 power user as Kevin Wolfe shows you the key features of the updated photo editor. Graham Barlow...

To demonstrate the ease of use of the image scrolling in the iPod touch and iPhone, we present this video. The iPod apparently had a protective plastic film attached, otherwise we'd be making impressed noises about the scratch-resistance of its screen.

Ok, nothing new here, but today I got really tired of having to untangle my iPod headphones for the umpteenth time, and Mr Phin kindly pointed me towards this Lifehacker video of how to wrap them up properly.

With OS X 10.5 Leopard on the horizon (end of October is still looking likely as its release date) I was wondering how many of you are actually going to put your hand in your wallet and upgrade from Tiger?

I was reading the comments made by Simon Pickstock, editor of PC Answers, who recently switched to a Mac, as I reported in my last blog post. He can't really see much benefit in upgrading to Leopard except to ensure that Boot Camp continues to function.

To upgrade there has to be at least one "killer" feature that you can't live without. For me that feature is the new-look Finder. As you can see from the pictures here it's absolutely gorgeous, and Cover Flow is going to be a great way of browsing through my files.

What's your killer feature? Or won't you be upgrading to Leopard at all?

Sleep Deprivation
Simian Mobile Disco

It's a digital offering this week, one that reminds me of mid-90s Berlin techno and record labels like EyeQ and deejays like a young Sven Vath. I must take a weekend off to go and find my youth one of these days. I quite like this one, its not the kind of thing I'd buy but I thank them for the nostalgia. This is the Attack Decay Sustain Release 'bonus version' of the track. It's an instrumental electro track that flanges in from a fast heartbeat-like bass start and layers minimalist percussion and twiddly elements into fatter base before cashing in with euphoric strings. The tempo breaks here and there with plenty of knob noodling, panning and fading on the mixing board to give depth and texture. Its doesn't really go anywhere but would provide a good soundtrack to a night in a field or dancing around the Brandenburg Gate. Just a shame about those synth-y strings, which come across as rather obvious emotional manipulation; mind you, its meant for dancers frantically empathising with everything so perhaps it does its job.

Click here to download this week's free song from the iTunes store*.

To subscribe to our Single of the week RSS feed, click here.

About this entry
Every week, Apple gives away a song from one of the artists on its roster at iTunes, but while we like this generous bit of marketing, there are two problems. First, Apple doesn't provide an RSS feed alerting you to the free single of the week, but more importantly, there's no way or knowing if the track is any good. MacFormat is here to solve both problems with our new Single of the week category here on macformat.co.uk.

* Even though these songs are free, you'll need to have a valid iTunes Store account. You'll also need to have iTunes installed; though the link above should prompt you to install iTunes if it's not already there on your Mac or PC, you can click here to download iTunes manually.

We've been getting many emails from readers reporting that .Mac transfer speeds – particularly with the Galleries – in Europe are very poor, and research that we've carried out suggests there is indeed a problem.

Apple is aware of the issue but we wanted to gauge what you thought of the performance you're getting. We'd be very grateful if you'd click here to vote in our poll and let us know what your experiences have been. Please only vote in this poll if you're accessing .Mac services in Europe.

Here at MacFormat towers we're on the same floor as a number of PC magazines like PC Format, PC Plus and PC Answers. Luckily we sit with the 'creative' titles, like 3D World, Digital Camera and Computer Arts, so we don't have to listen to their cries of frustration as Windows keeps crashing, but our close proximity inevitably results in a bit of banter around the office about the relative merits of OS X and Windows. (That's us in the picture having a bit of banter).

However, it looks like our words of wisdom are hitting home as we've managed to successfully convert the editor of PC Answers to the Mac platform. OK, he'll probably say he came to the decision on his own, but we'll just wink and nod knowingly when he does that.

Read the story of his conversion to Mac here.

Probably to most exciting announcement from Apple Expo Paris was EyeTV 2.5, a free upgrade to the TV recording software from Elgato. It allows you to stream programmes recorded on your Mac to an iPhone or iPod touch, and while it's intended for use over a local network, you can set up your system to allow you to watch TV from your home Mac over the internet. In this short video, we show you how it's done.

I particularly like the Windows Start Up sound it makes

Welcome to a new regular feature from MacFormat!

Every week, Apple gives away a song from one of the artists on its roster, but while we like this generous bit of marketing a lot, there are two problems. First, Apple doesn't provide an RSS feed alerting you to the free single of the week, but more importantly, there's no way or knowing what the track is like. MacFormat is here to solve both problems with our new Single of the week category here on macformat.co.uk.

James Ellerbeck, MacFormat's reviews editor and resident funkmeister, will be your host, as every week we provide you with a link to the free track and tell you whether or not it's worth downloading. Take it away, James.

This is the Thing
Fink
Not much cop really. I found this an emotionally draining track that takes more than it gives. In it Fink tiptoes around being mournful about the end of a relationship, but lacks the poetry needed to plumb the subject in any depth. What's left is four and half minutes of over-produced, poorly conceived emotional piffle about whether or not his significant other noticed anything missing now that he's left. But there's no imagery offered up for us to connect with beyond this, just the repetition of this line. The arrangement offers little solace, you just get grade school guitar lazily strumming repetitive bars of nothingness, no melody to speak off and dull chord changes. But its those lyrics that really disappoint. He offers no commentary, no observation, no contact, no description of loss or new found freedom, no wisdom.

In this song Fink stares into the middle distance in a faux-fragile state, greedy for our empathy. Perhaps if I was chocked up to the eyeballs on Prozac I would give it but with my wits about me I'd just tell him to buck up. No wonder she didn't notice you were gone mate, if your relationship was anything like this song you were never really there.

Click here to download this week's free song from the iTunes store*.

To subscribe to our Single of the week RSS feed, click here.

* Even though these songs are free, you'll need to have a valid iTunes Store account. You'll also need to have iTunes installed; though the link above should prompt you to install iTunes if it's not already there on your Mac or PC, you can click here to download iTunes manually.

The new edition of MacFormat This Week for 1 October 2007 is now available for download! In this edition of MacFormat This Week... MacFormat joins you from Apple Expo in Paris! We recap the highs and lows of the show with MacFormat team members Chris...

This, folks, is Gateway's innovative new PC, designed to reinvigorate the fortunes of this once-great (or at least once-popular) computer brand. Does it remind you of anything?