Macs are definitely not all-work and no-play machines, and this fact is made even more evident via a nifty little application called Poladroid. With holidays coming up, nostalgia will most likely be at an all-time high and Poladroid helps you inject some into your modern pictures in a very slick way.

Not content to just provide a Photoshop (or PhotoBooth) filter, the makers of Poladroid came up with a way to electronically “develop” your photos into Polaroid-like snaps, complete with the ability to shake the film while you wait!

Simply drag an existing photo onto the application, sit back and watch the results appear – slowly – right before your eyes. The process is done when the red mark appears and you’ll find a full-size JPEG, complete with oversized white border, in your “Pictures” folder ready to add to your online or in-print collection. You can save a copy of the photo during any stage in the “developing” process by right-clicking on the film and choosing “I want a sample now”. But there is one catch…you only get to process ten photos per application launch as that was the limitation in the original Polaroid film cartridges.

I have made the full size before and after images available, but the actual source photo was much larger. Poladroid auto-crops the images, so make sure you are working with what you want your end result to be. For those that make holiday DVDs through iMovie, you could save a photo at various points during the developing process to make for a very nice transition element or just use the resultant image to mark special moments on a timeline.

If you are inclined to share outside your normal circles, Poladroid has its own Flickr group and encourages you to add your own “new nostalgia” to the mix. If you are more of a DIY-type person, right click on the Poladroid application itself, “Show Package Contents”, and drill down into “Contents/MacOS/stuff” to find a Polaroid-style frame you can use in your own creations.

Poladroid is free, and available for download and is a great example of the fun one can have with REALBasic.

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I’ve been using a program called iSquint to convert .AVI files to play in iTunes, my iPod and via the Apple TV. Now, if you have a friend’s home videos sent to you in .AVI, or you download a video from the Web in .AVI, you can get them onto your big screen.

Using iSquint to make the conversion is simple.

1) Drag the .avi file from your hard drive to the application.
2) Choose to optimize for iPod or TV.
3) Select a quality range, from “Tiny” to “Go Nuts”.
4) Check the “Add to iTunes” box.

iSquint in Action

A few minutes later, when the conversion is complete, you’ve created a brand new .mp4 file, alongside the original .AVI file, and can see it in the “Movies” section of iTunes. If your Apple TV, iPod or iPhone are set to sync, then you’ll have the video the next time you do.

While there are very likely other solutions out there, this is one I’ve found that makes the process simple. If you’re not using iSquint, what have you used to bridge the gap?

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