Mac360's Rob McElfresh recently took a look at BoinxTV as a solution for creating a Mac360 video series. Here's just a sampling of what he had to say...

"Boinx does a good job of describing the video effects tools with a series of video examples on the company website. You'll need them. Video production may be digital point and click, but dozens of elements, preferences, and settings are floating onscreen at the same time, so start slowly, build a simple video, then progress to more comples productions."

"Also useful are BoinxTV's export options. Most of the QuickTime movie settings are available, as is a single-click option to upload your production to YouTube. And, it covers a wide spectrum of usage, from a simple single video source, to multiple video sources. Add a live Skype video stream to the production."

"BoinxTV is more than a fun app or toy. It's capable of serious quality production, but requires plenty of time to master..."

Read the complete review here!

Mac 360 recently ran an article entitled, "How the Cheap Pros Make Photo Slideshows," featuring our very own PhotoPresenter as an "inexpensive Mac App that does photo slide shows like a pro, but without the pro price tag." Ron McElfresh of Mac 360 says, "It's one thing to put photos in a sequence and call it a slideshow. It's something else to add animation, themes, and drop in both audio and video into a presentation - that's what PhotoPresenter does. All point and click, drag and drop." He rounds out his review of the software by saying, "It's hard to beat the quick and dirty slideshow results in PhotoPresenter."

Read the complete article on PhotoPresenter here!

A non-governmental, non-profit organization, Beachwalker is a unique social network popping up on shores all over the world. Beachwalker's primary mission is to protect and clean the planet's beaches and shores, aiming to educate and motivate people to behave voluntarily and proactively in an environmental sound manner. A graphic artist and photographer for the german publishing industry, and avid environmentalist and nature lover, Dirk Rappold started the Beachwalker initiative in 2007 after being struck by the amount of pollution on the shores of his favorite beach in Kenya. One afternoon, he simply asked the many tourists and locals sprinkled along the beach to help him collect the rubbish scattered all over the shore, and with everyone's combined efforts, it took less than one hour to clean up one kilometer of the east african beach. It was that afternoon that Beachwalker was born.

Continuing his mission to clean up our shores, Dirk will soon begin a bicycle journey along the coast of Germany, from the Netherlands to Poland, approximately 3660 km. During his journey, Dirk will be documenting the pollution along the shores through photographs, interviews with locals, marine biologists, coast dwellers, tourism companies, and more, as well as through a regular podcast about the status of his findings via BoinxTV running on a 17" Macbook Pro, two Sony Bloggie Cameras, and Final Cut Pro. He will podcast from the beach as he investigates the status quo of sand/water quality, as well as the general state of the beaches.

I recently caught up with Dirk before he leaves on his Beachwalker expedition to discuss his use of BoinxTV and his hope for the journey...

When did you first hear about BoinxTV?

I remember seeing a boxed version of BoinxTV some time ago in one of the Apple stores in Germany, but it was more recently brought back to my attention thanks to the Mac App Store. When I had a closer look at the software and its capabilities, I thought it might be great for my podcasts.

What benefits do you think BoinxTV has over other video production software? Why do you choose it over other options?

Prior to using BoinxTV, I always used Final Cut Pro and Motion (and even Avid Studio in earlier days) to make my podcasts. However, BoinxTV makes it much easier to set up a toolbox of necessary elements, such as lower thirds, logos, and backgrounds, in advance. Then all you need to do is layer everything together in the appropriate sequence and start/end each element with the push of a button, which is very cool. BoinxTV has a very uncomplicated user interface, which makes it easy to understand and achieve the results you want. The integration of the iSight camera/external camera is also very interesting and useful for me, as it enables me to combine prefabricated footage with live-elements.

Can you walk me through your workflow with BoinxTV a bit?

Absolutely! Before I even leave home, I will create some nice lower thirds, titles, logo animations, and alpha transitions in Motion, and import them into BoinxTV so that my podcasts are nicely branded and ready to go.

The bicycle I will be riding along the coast is equipped with two videocameras - one on the handle bar and one on the luggage-holder in the back which can be moved anywhere on the bike and trailer. There is also a third camera that can be fitted with interchangeable lenses from my DSLR and Leica-m cameras. The plan is to ride the bike along the coast during the daytime, stopping every 5 kilometers to take samples of the sand, measure the water quality, and document polluted stretches of beach. Of course, I will be taking photos and filming as I go. I also want to meet and interview beach-relevant people like biologists, hotel owners, tourists, fishermen, etc. Then, in the evening, I will transfer the resulting files to my laptop and sit in front of the campfire or my tent and bring the prerecorded sequences/images together with some live footage and comments on my findings. This will all be done via BoinxTV and recorded to disk.

From there, I will publish to the warehouse folder of my webserver via my iPhone or, depending on location, public WiFi. From the webserver, the podcast will be integrated into my project's webpage. Finally, I will send out newsletters inviting my audience to have a look at my findings and reports on the status of our shores.

Dirk invites everyone to be a part of the Beachwalker initiative by visiting the website http://www.beachwalker.org/ to find out what beaches need cleaning, keep up-to-date on news and data about the quality of the sand and water on any given beach, and keep track of upcoming beach cleaning events in your area. As the organization grows, Dirk hopes to connect with local media to get the word out about the status of our shores, as well as take his findings to schools and museums with hands-on labs and exhibitions. Beachwalker is a global mission to clean up our shores for future generations, and here at Boinx we are incredibly pleased and proud to be a part of such an immense cause. Stay tuned for updates on Dirk's travels and his podcasts via BoinxTV!

Photo Copyright © 2011 www.beachwalker.org

TopTen Reviews - whose motto is "We Do the Research So You Don't Have To" - recently presented FotoMagico with the Bronze Award for Top Mac Presentation Software Apps. "This is great software for creating movie-style presentations," says TopTen Reviews. "This Mac presentation software has an added bonus that lets you add copyright information, presentation title, author and other information. This info shows up in Spotlight for easy searching on your computer, and it also serves to let other know that your creative work was your own."

Ranking FotoMagico 3rd in a list of impressive Mac-based presenation software, TopTen Reviews says, "FotoMagico can serve as a nice backup option if you're not interested in more-common Mac presenation software. It is also a great option if you want to create movie-style presenations, rather than slideshow-style presentations. Its solid feature set and support options make it a definite contender among Mac presenation software." Read the complete review here!