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Archive for the ‘Software Reviews’ Category

TubeTV - A Handy Little App for Saving Your Videos

Written on March 19, 2008 by Jethro Jones and 6 people have commented

Chimoosoft created this fantastic little donationware app called TubeTv. With this app, you can save video files from YouTube and other sites and make them playable on your Mac, iPod, or Apple TV. There are of course other ways to do the same thing, but a standalone app that grabs your URL from your default [...]

Quick & Secure Network Filesystem Access With ExpanDrive

Written on February 26, 2008 by Bob Rudis and 6 people have commented

Magnetk – makers of SftpDrive for Windows – have brought their secure, remote filesystem magic to OS X with version 1.0 of ExpanDrive.
If you have a blog/site hosted on any flavor of Linux or BSD (including OS X) or do any amount of cross-platform management or development then you know how useful ssh is for speedy [...]

A Look at Native KDE 4.0 for OS X

Written on January 25, 2008 by Bob Rudis and 11 people have commented

This week Slashdot (and many, many others) reported that KDE 4.0 has been released for Windows and OS X. KDE (K Desktop Environment) has been a popular GUI for *nix systems and there have been ways of getting it to run (mostly) on OS X prior to this native port if you were willing to [...]

Bento: Big On Ease, Style & Stretch

Written on January 21, 2008 by Sue Anderson and 2 people have commented

FileMaker’s new personal database, Bento is big on style and ease. Watch the tutorial movie and in less than five minutes you will be comfortable using Bento’s main features.
Bento comes with a set of libraries (databases) that relate directly to OS X’s Address Book and iCal. Whatever changes you make in these Bento libraries — called, not [...]

CoverSutra

Written on January 16, 2008 by Stephanie Guertin and 7 people have commented

I love iTunes (and my massive music library); if my MBP is open, there’s a 98% chance that it’s got music coming out. Using it all day long like this, I wanted some hot keys for it.
Man oh man, did I find some. After trying a host of options - including Quicksilver - [...]

1Password Review

Written on January 10, 2008 by Arvin Dang and 15 people have commented

For those of you who have far too many sites to log into and far too short of a memory to remember them all, this program will save your life. 1Password is a simple, elegant system that incorporates itself into most browsers and like Keychain, will save and place your information accordingly.
Browser Compatibility
For a full [...]

Papers

Written on January 02, 2008 by Stephanie Guertin and 11 people have commented

Contrary to some belief, Macs are not just heavily used by designers, photgraphers, and other creative types, they’re heavily used by scientists as well. (As a scientist and computer tech in an all-Mac lab, I love my Macs.)
If you’re a scientist - and even if you’re not, so don’t stop reading, O Non-Scientists - [...]

iSquint Gets .AVI to Apple TV, iPod

Written on December 31, 2007 by Louis Gray and 13 people have commented

The Apple TV and iPod are often maligned for being proprietary. Designed to work with all the content you’ve acquired and ripped into iTunes, they work primarily with music, TV shows, and films you’ve acquired from the iTunes store, or with your iPhoto library. But step outside these file formats and you’re pretty much out [...]

Sapiens

Written on December 04, 2007 by Gareth Jordan and 9 people have commented

Like me you may have tried out various application (and/or file) launchers now and then and possibly none have grabbed you enough to make them a regular part of your Mac life, what with their sometime idiosyncratic design philosophy and all.
If have somehow missed out on the whole launcher family of apps; if you, [...]

Xslimmer

Written on November 28, 2007 by Matt Radel and 22 people have commented

Hard disk space can be extremely valuable, especially for notebook owners. I find myself constantly auditing the contents of my disk, usually with tools like GrandPerspective and WhatSize to find the gremlins that are munching on my available space. Of course my Applications folder always pops up as the biggest offender, but there’s nothing [...]

CandyBar 3 Review

Written on November 27, 2007 by Stephanie Guertin and 2 people have commented

No sooner do I write about how I miss CandyBar then lo and behold it appears! CandyBar 3 was released today, available at Panic. It’s $29 for a license, and there’s a free 14 day trial if you want to take it for a spin first. A discount is available to registered [...]

Your .mov’s Flattened

Written on November 26, 2007 by Gareth Jordan and No one has commented

If you do a lot of work with video files you will eventually want to share them with Windows toting friends, family or colleagues and maybe post them somewhere on the web.
It can be frustrating when starting out with your Mac to find the Quicktime (QT) files created by many Mac applications are not [...]

iAlarm Wakes Me Up to iTunes

Written on November 25, 2007 by Louis Gray and 9 people have commented

As far as getting up in the morning goes, there are all sorts of unpleasant ways to make the transition - blaring alarm clocks, AM radio interrupted by static and of course, the barnyard rooster. One more inviting way to start the day is to hear your own music from iTunes, and a shareware application, [...]

The World Is Your…Desktop

Written on November 25, 2007 by Louis Gray and 8 people have commented

Click for Larger Image
What’s on your desktop? Pictures of the kids? Your dream car? Maybe one of the stock images Apple provides with every new system?
The way someone organizes and presents their desktop can say a lot about a person - whether they are the cluttered, messy type, or someone who likes cleanliness and order, [...]

Spaces Review

Written on November 05, 2007 by Stephanie Guertin and 23 people have commented

I’ve been using multiple virtual desktops for years, in just about every operating system imaginable. Since sometime in 2004 I’ve used them in OS X, generally in the form of the now-mostly-defunct Desktop Manager. It’s a fairly good program, but lately I kept noticing an error reading: “: The function `CGSUniqueCString’ [...]

xScope: Web Developer’s Toolkit

Written on November 04, 2007 by Brandon Eley and 6 people have commented

xScope, from the guys at IconFactory, is a suite of on-screen tools for web and creative professionals that includes Rulers, Screen overlay, Loupe, Guides, Frame, and Crosshairs. The tools are meant to assist in the design and testing process, allowing you to measure and inspect your website or software program on-screen in real-time.
Rulers
Rulers let you [...]

LifeShaker

Written on November 02, 2007 by Todd Baur and No one has commented

I am so insanely inundated with work that I was happy to see we had a review for a different approach to task lists and reminders. LifeShaker’s approach is to avoid the list-based approach, in favor of grids and boxes. There are color coded categories, which are assigned to goals. The largest area of [...]

(Re-)building the dream home with Live Interior 3D

Written on October 23, 2007 by Billy Halsey and 1 person has commented

Although I’ve been fortunate, many of my neighbors here in San Diego are now finding themselves without homes because of the wild fires raging through Southern California. Live Interior 3D is a great tool for floorplanning and interior design, whether you’re rebuilding the home you just lost or you’re converting a spare bedroom into an [...]

LifeBoat Review

Written on October 23, 2007 by Stephanie Guertin and 5 people have commented

LifeBoat, from Martian Technologies, is a really cool idea. Automatically back up particular files to USB drives whenever I plug them in? Oh yes, please! However, in execution - well, it was a bit problematic.
Let me talk, first, about what it does, and does well.
You, the user, plug in a USB key. [...]

VMWare Fusion On Mac Delivers My Best Windows Experience Ever

Written on October 09, 2007 by Louis Gray and 27 people have commented

There’s something a little messed up when the most anticipated and intriguing application I’ve used on my new Intel-based MacBook Pro is one that lets me run Microsoft Windows, but it’s an absolute fact. 24 hours into my VMWare Fusion experience, I can easily say I’ve never been so excited to use Windows, to send [...]

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