If you buy or sell on eBay, you know the importance of great photos. They can literally determine whether your item sells at all, and directly influence the price you’ll get. But while you want photos to be large and clear, you don’t want to create overly flattering pictures, or buyers may be unhappy when they receive their merchandise.

Some professional auction photo advice from BetterPhoto.com:

• Use Natural Light or External Flash -- Your camera’s built-in flash will likely create white reflections on your item, and can easily overexpose. Two external soft lights or a bounce flash are best.

• Keep Your Subjects Sharp and Close -- Every important detail in your product should appear crisp and clear. Use a tripod and Macro mode if needed.

 Read the article on BetterPhoto.com

According to the Seattle Times, the top 10 ringtones of all time are:

10. “Jetsons Theme,” Hoyt S. Curtain
9. “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Theme,” Will Smith
8. “Sandstorm,” DaRude
7. “Mission: Impossible Theme,” Lalo Schifrin
6. “The Next Episode,” Dr. Dre
5. “Halloween Movie Theme,” John Carpenter
4. “Super Mario Brothers Game Theme,” Koji Kondo
3. “Sweet Home Alabama,” Lynyrd Skynyrd
2. “Stairway to Heaven,” Led Zeppelin
1. “In Da Club,” 50 Cent

A: If you have a network-enabled Series 2 TiVo or better, Toast 8 or Popcorn 3 are all you need to transfer and play back TiVo recordings on your Mac, record them to DVD, or convert them for your portable media player. You can even automatically transfer shows to your Mac as they are recorded on your TiVo. This way, you’ll always have the latest shows available for viewing or exporting.

To use the Toast 8 TiVoToGo feature, make sure you enable it on installation (or enable it later using the Toast Setup Assistant), then choose it from the Toast Extras menu. You’ll need your TiVo’s Media Access Key (under Account & System Information in your TiVo DVR).

Once you’ve used the TiVo software to transfer shows to your Mac, they will appear in Toast 8’s Media Browser. From there, you can burn them to DVD or export them to your iPod or PSP just like any other video files. To play them on your Mac, use Toast’s Video Player, available under the Tools menu.

 Learn more

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From the Editor
Ah, the smell of autumn leaves, fallen apples...and fresh Popcorn, piping hot! Yes, Popcorn 3 is here, with dozens of fresh features that streamline the copying and conversion of DVDs for portable players, as well as brand-new support for TiVoToGo and Elgato EyeTV recordings. Now you can manage all your portable video and DVD copying with one handy tool. Don’t miss this month’s feature article with the full scoop on Popcorn 3. Also don’t miss our special instant $20 rebate, for registered Toast 7 and 8 and Popcorn 2 users!

Tip of the Month: Are you having coaster problems? The culprit is probably your media. Stick to top brand names, and record at a slightly lower-than-maximum speed for the most error-free burns. And don't skip the verification process!

If you’ve tried to move a large video collection onto an Apple TV, Xbox 360, or even an iPod, you know how time-consuming video encoding can be. Copying DVDs alone can take longer than they take to watch.

Now there’s a better way, with Popcorn 3. Popcorn 3 includes revolutionary pause/resume and batch processing features that take the pain out of video encoding. You can literally queue up your entire collection for conversion, and then just pause and resume the job at your convenience it until it’s done. Other time-saving features include optimized presets for most popular devices, such as iPod, iPhone, AppleTV, PSP, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and more.

Of course Popcorn still includes the flexible Fit-to-DVD copying features it is famous for, including the ability to make DVD compilations from multiple source discs. New in version 3 is support for TiVoToGo and EyeTV recordings, which can be burned to DVD or converted for your media player. If you have an Elgato Turbo.264, Popcorn will use it to encode H.264 video, dramatically speeding up encoding times and freeing up your Mac CPU. A handy Video Quality Preview feature also lets you check what your converted video will look like with specified video quality settings, ensuring that you've always chosen the optimal quality before beginning a long project.

 Read the Popcorn 3 Tutorial

If you only print photos on paper from the same vendor as your printer, Macworld’s Rick LePage says you’re missing out big-time. And he’s not just talking about saving a few pennies with a cheaper brand. There’s a whole host of interesting print surface possibilities, from fine-art paper to fabric. Resin-coated (RC) paper is similar to that paper you get from a photo lab, fiber-based papers like rag paper are great for black-and-white shots, fine-art papers are available in a variety of textures, and even fabrics like silk, rayon and poplin come in printable sheets. Learn the ins and outs of exotic print surfaces, and who makes them.

 Read the full article

 Paper sources

Think you know everything there is to know about iTunes? Think again! Become a true power user with these tips from Macinstruct.com. You’ll learn how to use the equalizer and miniplayer, control iTunes from the Dock, rate songs by mood, how to break through the 5-computer limit for store authorizations, and much more. Our favorite tip is to use iTunes DJ-style crossfade and shuffle capabiliities to make perfect party mixes.

QuickTime can’t do it, but Toast can—encode videos in DivX format for DivX discs or Web uploads. DivX is the popular video format that allows for much greater compression than standard DVDs, while maintaining very high image quality—even 720p HD video! DivX makes it easier to create downloadable videos for viewing on your TV set, as well as single-layer DVDs that hold entire movies. Lots of DivX content is available on the Web as well.

DivX CDs or DVDs can be played in set-top DVD players with DivX support, and can hold 10 times more video than a standard DVD-Video disc. Of course they can also be played back on your Mac, with the free DivX player included with Toast or available at DivX.com.

Toast has DivX encoding built-in, so you can burn DivX discs or convert video to DivX format right in the Video project window. Just drag in your video files, then choose "DivX Disc" from the list at left. Click "Export" to convert the video to DivX format and save to hard disk. Or click the Burn button to record a DivX Disc on CD or DVD media.

 Learn more about DivX on the Mac