The OS X boot image epitomizes the simplicity and elegance of the operating system itself, showing a basic Apple logo set against a light grey background. I’m a huge fan of this simple layout, but was very interested to hear about BootXChanger, a tiny application that can alter the boot image to anything you’d like.
BootXChanger [...]
Earlier this month, Dare to be Creative announced MainMenu 2.0, an update to its system maintenance utility for OS X. This lightweight application allows you to clean up your Mac, improve system performance and free up hard disk space — all directly from the system menu.
The new release offers a range of improved functionality, an [...]
Since last year, Apple has allowed all iPhone developers to request 50 promotional codes for their application when first added to the App Store, a policy that makes it easy to offer free applications for trial, review or a competition. It allows easier initial promotion of an app, removing the need for a more complicated [...]
Aperture is a great photo management application, but may not be suitable for everyone. I recently made a decision to move back to iPhoto in order to use some of the features in the latest release. Several of these, such as face recognition, are not present in the current version of Aperture.
This decision posed a [...]
Although Safari improves with every version released, it remains difficult for one browser to cater for everyone’s needs. Firefox has successfully approached this problem through the use of Add-Ons, but Safari continues to lack any widely promoted form of plugin or extension functionality.
Despite this, I still remain a huge fan of Safari’s simplicity and speed [...]
For both iPhone users and developers, a new service from Amazing Mail pushes the envelope — quite literally — of what a mobile device is capable of. The on-demand printing company is offering an integration service for iPhone developers, allowing for the creation of applications that are able to send physical postcards or printed photos.
Two [...]
Laptop stands are widely heralded as a great solution for a more ergonomic workstation and better positioning of your computer. They come in all manner of shapes and sizes, from the downright awful to very slick and stylish.
I recently took the plunge and purchased the Rain Design mStand. This particular stand is designed specifically for [...]
As a fan of the Terminator trilogy, I’m fascinated to see how the new movie will fare. I was equally intrigued to take a look at the iPhone game released to accompany the fourth installment in the movie series. Gameloft announced the release last week, and Terminator Salvation is now available to download (iTunes link) [...]
“Top Gun” is widely regarded as a classic film, one which seems to retain a sense of timeless prestige as the years pass. Fans of the film — or iPhone games in general — will be pleased to know that a “Top Gun” game is now available for the iPhone. Fast-paced and action-packed, it is [...]
Today, FileMaker announced the release of Bento for the iPhone and iPod touch, a companion to their popular personal database software. Priced at $4.99, the mobile application can synchronize directly with Bento 2 running on your Mac to keep information up-to-date.
If you’re unfamiliar with Bento, our review is a good place to start. Essentially the [...]
If you’ve ever been interested in what goes on behind the scenes of a shiny new MacBook, you may be familiar with iStat Pro and iStat Menus. These two widgets for OS X allow you to monitor system performance and resources — either through Dashboard, or your menu bar.
A fairly new counterpart to these apps [...]
OS X is a remarkably versatile platform, with a huge range of software on offer. Whether you’re a designer, musician, journalist, scientist or running a business — there’s a tool to meet your needs. To help you wade through the mass of software and pick out the best bits, we’re starting a new series called [...]
If you’ve ever suffered from fraud on the Internet, you’ll know how important it is to use decent passwords, keep them safe, and watch out for phishing activities. Unfortunately, a simple password isn’t always the best way to protect yourself online. Many banks are now starting to use two-factor authentication, a system requiring a dongle [...]
Ever since I owned a Sony Ericsson phone which connected to my Mac via Salling Clicker, I’ve been fascinated with controlling OS X remotely. The iPhone created a fantastic device for taking remote control to a new level, and a search for “remote” in the App Store illustrates how popular the idea is.
A relatively new [...]
For anyone who’s ever designed a web site on a Mac, you’ll know that one of the biggest headaches is testing your design on Windows browsers. Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer have a nasty habit of displaying the same web site in very different ways, and constantly swapping between XP, Vista and OS X can [...]
There has been a reasonable amount of speculation surrounding JavaScript speed improvements in iPhone 3.0. Testing carried out on the iPhone Simulator bundled with the SDK didn’t lead to a conclusive outcome, but benchmarking done by Wayne Pan would seem to suggest that iPhone 3.0 handles JavaScript 3x-10x faster than iPhone 2.1.
Last year the WebKit [...]
Today, MacHeist announced the contents of their latest application bundle, providing the opportunity to purchase software to the value of $558 for the bargain price of $39. A huge range of applications are included, ranging from eBay companions to professional 3-D animation tools.
Over the past few months, various ‘missions’ have given regular readers the chance [...]
Elgato is a company synonymous with television and video hardware products for the Mac. Today they announced the availability of Turbo.264 HD, a hardware conversion tool that offers a fast way to encode video between formats or move video off your HD camcorder.
Many different software tools exist for converting video on the Mac, ranging from [...]
As someone who manages a few different web sites and Twitter accounts, I do find that it’s easy to waste a decent chunk of time checking all their various statistics. I often browse to the different websites from my iPhone, logging into each account sequentially to view the latest number of visitors or news feed [...]
Much has been said about the new iPod shuffle. Its size has been praised, lack of buttons grumbled about, and — as with most new Apple products — has caused a little controversy. I wanted to try the product out for myself as I’ve been needing a small MP3 player for exercise. My iPhone is [...]
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