Picturesque’s new interface is no longer a tiny window, with a bunch of pop out windows; it is now one main window, with most of the tweaking tools within. With that being said, the presentation of all of the tools is amazing with the use of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard’s new Core Animation technology, but for Tiger users, that means Picturesque 2 is not compatible.

Some of the best new features in Picturesque 2 include its innovative cropping feature, the media browser is now integrated, and it now carries better performance when dealing with batches of images. You can take a look at all of the new features in Picturesque 2 on Acqualia’s website.

Picturesque 2 has been completely rewritten, which is why Picturesque 2 is not a free upgrade to Picturesque 1 customers. However, Picturesque 1 customers get a discounted purchase price for version 2 - $12.95. New customers can purchase Picturesque 2 for $34.95. Finally, Acqualia has offered a free trial, which you can download from their website.

Times is another Mac RSS reader, but Times is very different from its competitors. Times has the viewing format of a newspaper. Times allows you to select your favorite RSS feeds, and drag them onto a dropbox area on the main interface. From then on, you’ll see your favorite RSS feeds in newspaper format. If you click on a headline, Times will fold down just like a newspaper to show you the full article.

Times takes full advantage of Mac OS X Leopard’s beautiful core animation, allowing it to have a stunning user experience. You’ll notice every little action you perform in Times will have a super cool animation associated with it. Neat!

Times might not be right for everyone, though. For example, I personally subscribe to about 350 feeds, and Times focuses more on a few feeds, not a few hundred. I’m one of those people who will be sticking with their current RSS reader.

Times is available from acrylicapps.com, and there’s a demo available. If you’d like to purchase Times, it will run you $30 Canadian, but if you’re still running on Tiger, you’re going to have to miss out because Times is Leopard-only.

Previous versions of Fusion would not back up virtual machines correctly with Mac OS X Leopard’s Time Machine. This was a problem encountered when Time Machine would try to back up a running virtual machine. However, Apple has fixed this issue in Mac OS X 10.5.2, making it possible to back up your virtual machines with Time Machine. Keep in mind, virtual machines are generally very large files, so you might want to consider disabling automatic Time Machine back up of those virtual machines in Time Machine’s system preference pane.

VMware has also addressed two issues with the MacBook Air. In previous versions of Fusion, the MacBook Air would crash if a disc was inserted using the MacBook Air’s remote disc functionality. Also, version 1.1.2 allows MacBook Air users to burn CDs or DVDs using the MacBook Air’s separate USB Superdrive.

The Fusion team has also added Simplified Chinese to the localized languages that VMware Fusion ships with, and they added support for Windows XP SP3 bootcamp partitions.

VMware Fusion version 1.1.2 is a free update for all VMware Fusion customers. If you don’t already have a copy of VMware Fusion, you could buy it for $79.99.

[via Team Fusion]

1Password now includes support for a number of additional browsers, the password generator has been improved, their is a new change password function, and provides anti-phishing. Let’s take a closer look at all of these new features.

1Password has always supported the most common browsers. However, when those browsers get updated, and as new browsers rise in popularity, 1Password needs to update to function correctly with those web browsers. Agile Web Solutions has added supports OmniWeb 5.7, Camino nightlies, Fluid, and Firefox 3 in this release.

1Password has an integrated password generator that will automatically generate a strong password for you. In this new update, their is now multiple password generation methods, including hash-based passwords, and pronounceable passwords.

In 1Password 2.6, there is now an option to help protect yourself from phishing scams. Simply open up version 2.6, navigate to 1Password > Preferences > AntiPhishing and enable the preference.

One of the greatest new features in 1Password 2.6 is the change password function. If you decide to change your password on a certain website, 1Password will detect the change if you use 1Password to fill the “old password” box, and the password generator for the “new password” box. This makes it simple to change all of your passwords from weak ones you’ve created, to the extremely strong ones that 1Password can generate for you.

1Password 2.6 is a free update for registered users, unless you are a holder of a “Mac Gem promotional license.” If you’re the holder of a Mac Gem promotional license, you’ll need to purchase a new license for this version.

[via 1Password]