Skimming through the RSS feeds earlier I came across this from Microsoft – the Surface.

The full article with pictures is over on the Daily Telegraph site so take a minute and pop over for a read.

And ….. tell me what you think!

For someone that ‘talks’ a lot with their hands and likes a ‘tactile’ experience when creating or brainstorming I have to say this looks really cool and useful. Now before you think I am losing any credibility I may have gained by switching to Macs, although this is a Microsoft product it was developed by the XBox team so I would assume that isn’t a sin in the Mac world?

I have been spending a lot of time on 9rules recently. I “joined” some time ago but spent a lot of time just observing. In the past I have been guilty of diving right in, thrashing around a bit, and then losing interest.

That is not something I wanted to do with 9rules as its reputation is excellent and it hard not to admire so many of the contributors.

Get everything in Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 software and more with Photoshop CS3 Extended, which enables you to edit 3D and motion-based content and perform image analysis.

Opening Photoshop CS3 Extended ($999) for the first time for me was like standing on the high diving board a week after learning to swim. I was really excited, but apprehensive, nervous and more than a little daunted by the prospect.

Why the analogy? Well not only was this my first time with Photoshop, but I am hardly what you could call an expert when it comes to photo editing.

I posted recently about the Lightroom Presets from Andie, and over the weekend I bought the full set. I wanted to check them out and as Monday is the day that I generally change my desktop picture what better time?

Now the weather is usually good all year round in Almerimar, but if we get anything not so good it is generally strong winds – and that was the case this weekend. Couple that with all the work I wanted to do on my blog and the new Almerimar Life blog and I just didn’t get out with the camera.

I have had a really constructive weekend working on V3.0 of the blog. I don’t want to give too much away (obviously) but I do want to share some things with you, not least because you will (hopefully) notice a few changes to the current site as I try a few things out.

I am doing two sets of ‘testing’ – I have a hidden site that I am doing the vast majority of the development on, but at the same time I need to see how certain things work on the actual site.

I wanted to draw your attention to these “presets” that Andie has produced and is giving away FREE!!!

brought 2 u by the letter a: Lightroom presets are done!!!!

If you use Lightroom trust me – they are great and well worth emailing Andie and asking for the free samples

I’ve just taken a look at the new version of Horizon ($29.99), a finance management system. As a user of Quicken for Macs, I doubted that this product would be for me, but I was interested in what it had to offer. The latest press release is below:

“Lucerne Systems announces the immediate availability of Horizon Version 1.1, a unique calendar-based personal financial management system. A patent has been applied for the concept of Horizon because it is so novel. Horizon’s calendar-based interface, coupled with a powerful calculation engine, lets you get a clear, simple picture of where your money comes from and where it goes. Horizon has been designed exclusively for Mac OS X, and uses many features unique to OS X 10.4 (Tiger).”

I had wanted to look at 1PASSWD ($29.95) for some time, especially as it seems like nearly everyone that I ‘talk’ with on a regular basis either uses it or has reviewed it at some stage. Of those that have I think that Glenn and in particularly Darren have done a great job reviewing it.

“What is 1Passwd?
* The most widely used password manager for Mac (according to MacUpdate, VersionTracker and iUseThis websites).
* The only password manager with integrated Anti-Phishing technology.
* Automatic form filler with support for credit cards and multiple identities.

“DiskLibrary 1.5 is a fun and easy to use media cataloging application for Mac OS X .
DiskLibrary is indispensable if you have a lot of media to keep track of. DiskLibrary catalogs not just your complete file structure, it also creates thumbnails, and stores metadata, for most popular media formats.”

My personal pick of UK news stories for all things to do with the Mac, for the week ending Friday 18th May 2007. This weeks morsels: The Fab Four, I like iPod’s in my car and Brighton & Hove Albion 8 – Chelsea 0.

Last week was a bit light on the UK mac news front. To be more precise it was dead! But I don’t make the news. I’m purely a messenger, delivering the more interesting morsels to you the discerning MyAppleStuffer.

DoorStop X Security Suite (from $79) falls into the “hard to review, easy to like” category. Why? Well as a security application it runs behind the scene, so once you have set it up (easy), it runs effortlessly behind the scenes doing exactly what you want it to do – perfect!

I received this from Phil Soo and thought I would share it with you. I am not sure how this works! On one hand Gore is a director at Apple and a friend of Steve Jobs so it is expected that he is an Apple user. On the other hand he is trying to save the planet so all that paper and screen real estate seems a little at odds with that philosophy?

Still an amazing set up – and an office that makes mine look spotless!!!