Netflix has opened it's Microsoft Silverlight based "Watch Instantly" option to most Intel Mac users. If you're interested in participating in the program your system needs to meet the following:

• Intel Base Mac
• Tiger 10.4.8 or later
• 1GB of RAM
• Safari 3 or Firefox 2

Netflix notes that this is a beta player and if you opt in, you may experience problems watching movies on your computer. They also point out that some movies aren't available to watch instantly (we're willing to bet most aren't available) and that if you join the beta program you will no longer be able to watch instantly using Windows Media Player. Ok that last was directed at Windows user but we figured we should probably include it anyways just in case someone out there is using Boot Camp or virtualization software to Watch Instantly on their Mac.
So, if you're into watching movies on your Mac, your options for watching streaming content legally just got a boost. Check out Netfix's blog for more details and if you want to jump in here's the opt in link.

Tags:video, beta, announcement

Mudbug Software announced on Wednesday the immediate availability of Webify beta. Webify is a basic image editor aimed at simplifying the process of producing quality, web-ready images for use on the web.

Webify's Effects panel includes options to:

• Flip images horizontally or vertically
• Rotate an image on its X or Y axis (this is very cool)
• Apply a Sepia Effect
• Adjust Exposure, Gamma, Saturation, Sharpness, Contrast and Brightness

Webify also includes a crop tool and you can save your image as a GIF, JPEG, JPEG 2000, PNG, PhotoShop, PDF or Tiff formated image.

I've been playing with Webify for a couple of days and find it to be a very capable little image editor that's lightweight and easy to use. It launches immediately and I find myself launching PhotoShop Elements 6 less and less for images I'm using on the web. It really is a great little app and the developer has stated that the final 1.0 full version will also include a reflection option as well as additional batch processing features. Developers will also appreciate a public SDK included in with the final version that will allow the creation of plug-ins that add functionality to Webify.

To experience all this image editing goodness you'll need to fork over $10. Mudbug is only offering the beta as a paid beta but in return you get the app for $10 rather than $20 when the final version is released. Webify is a nice app and does exactly what it's intended to do. Gary Byrd, Webify's developer and RapidWeaver theme developer extraordinaire, is good people so don't hesitate to jump on this deal. If launching PhotoShop just to do a couple minor edits on a web-bound image has got you down give Webify a try. You'll be glad you did.

Joe Henry

Tags:image editing, beta