Recently, I’ve come across a very cool and useful Mac application known as GrandPerspective (yes, the URL is intentionally misspelt), a utility that scans a chosen area of your hard drive and outputs an illustration of how your hard drive space is being used. This can be particularly useful if you’re running low on disk space or have large unused and/or unwanted files hidden away that are taking up a lot of your free space.

To operate GrandPerspective, you simply choose a directory for the app to scan. After a few seconds (or minutes, depending on the size and amount of files and folders within), you’ll be greeted with a nice graphical representation of how your hard drive space within that chosen directory is being used. From there, you can browse through all of the files in that directory. If you find something you’d like to delete, you can click the Reveal button to see it in your Finder and move it to the Trash from there.

The many squares and rectangles you’ll notice after you complete the scan are a visualization of file sizes on your hard drive (yes, bigger squares/rectangles means a larger file size). For those smaller squares and rectangles that seem quite minuscule in comparison to the others, you can use the built-in focus tools to zoom in on them and find out exactly what they are, or you could do the opposite if you’re only interested in files that are eating up the most free space.

Overall, GrandPerspective is a great, simple tool that allows you to monitor how your hard drive space is being used. And with a price tag of free, you can’t go wrong. GrandPerspective is only available for Mac OS X, but Windows users can check out WinDirStat.

Product [GrandPerspectiv]

Full Story » | Written by Patrick Lutz for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Secure USB file storage and transfer
Developer: Verbatim
Minimum Requirements: Mac OS X v10.4.11 or v10.5 and above, PowerPC or Intel based Mac, USB port
Price: Around $29.99
Availability: Out now

At a recent meeting with my colleagues, some of the guys were showing off USB drives that were barely larger than an iPhone SIM card. These things were tiny, almost not even there, and they still held 8GB worth of content. My colleagues were impressed, I was not. How small does a USB drive really have to be? Can something that size be safe from breaking? From being lost? From being eaten by my cat. Not likely, so give me the Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go USB Drive for Mac OS X any day.

It’s important to highlight the “for Mac OS X” part, because this USB drive actually does contain features only for Mac users. Specifically, software included with the drive allows you to set up a security zone. This is a separate area, hidden away from view when you plug in the drive. To access it, you have to first set up your private zone. You can individually determine the format of the public and private zones, then assign how much of the 8GBs you want to give to each.

Once your drive is formatted, you have immediate access to the public zone. You don’t see both drives when you plug in the Store ‘n’ Go, you only see public. This prevents from you accidentally dumping files into the wrong zone, and it also completely hides the private zone from view; people you hand the drive to won’t even know it’s there.

Instead, to access the private zone, you have to launch V-Safe software that you install on your Mac. The installer for the software is always accessible on the flash drive, of course, so you can install it on another computer if you need access to your private files.

Upon launching the software, you click the drive icon to log into your private zone, then enter the password you assigned at set-up. V-Safe then unmounts the public zone and makes the private zone available to you. When done, you can log out of the private zone to go back to public, or you can simply eject the drive. When you plug it back in, public will return by default.

It’s also worth nothing that public zone data can be accessed on any Windows 2000, XP, or Vista equipped PC when using the FAT format option.

So, that’s all pretty good, but the construction of the drive itself deserves some accolades, too. It’s about the size of a pack of chewing gum with a piece or two missing. It’s designed to match the aluminum styling of the MacBook and iMac, and is beveled near the USB dongle. Unfortunately, it’s too wide to fit in a MacBook USB port of if there’s anything else plugged in near it, so keep that in mind when travelling. The top contains a clip that can be affixed to a lanyard or keychain, but it’s oddly wide and work with the clip in my laptop bag.

Compensating for these shortcomings is a retractable USB dongle. There are no caps to lose here, but the dongle isn’t left unprotected, either. When you’re not using the drive, simply slide the dongle back inside the case, and there you go.

The combination of the software and the hardware makes the Verbatim Store ‘n’ Go the most useful and reliable USB flash drive I’ve used. It may not be as fancy as some, and it’s certainly not the smallest, but with everything you get for under $30 (including 8GB of storage, in case I haven’t made that clear), it could be the best value.

And I’ll never need to worry about the cat mistaking it for a bug.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for July 8, 2009:

Macintosh

• Cynical Peak Software has announced the release of Rivet 2.2. Rivet enables users to stream video, music, and photos from Mac OS X to an Xbox 360 or PS3 over their home network. Users can now easily enjoy all of their media on their big screen TV from the comfort of their living room. Version 2.2 adds movie thumbnail and music album art support, expanded metadata, and performance optimizations.
• publicspace.net has announced A Better Finder Rename 8.23, an update to its popular file, music and photo renaming utility. A Better Finder Rename is a sophisticated tool that caters for the full range of file renaming tasks encountered by the modern creative professional. The new release extends the existing music file renaming features of the tool with new capabilities.
• DEVONtechnologies has released updates for the popular freeware utility EasyFind and the menu bar application and file launcher XMenu. The updates add a number of useful features to the freeware utilities EasyFind and XMenu and fix a few minor bugs. EasyFind finds files, folders, or contents in any file without the need for indexing. XMenu adds one or more global menus to the right side of the menu bar.
• MacTI, BoxOffice Tickets and the WebObjects Community Association are pround to announce WOWODC East, a two-day conference about WebObjects, the Object Oriented Web framework from Apple. WOWODC has two tracks : a complete 15 hour track for people new to the platform, and a advanced track with advanced sessions and labs. WOWODC East will be held held on August 29th and 30th in beautiful Montreal, Canada.
• Eternal Storms Software has announced the immediate availability of flickery 1.1.1, a unique desktop flickr client for Mac OS X Leopard. flickery combines the flickr photo-community with the ease-of-use and elegance of Mac OS X. Easily upload photos to Flickr photostream, organize photos in photosets and groups, browse Favorites and more. Version 1.1.1 features sharing of photos on websites by providing the HTML source, interface and speed-improvements and more than 30 bug fixes.
• Macvide has announced iPod Converter 2.7, an update to their video to iPod mp4 conversion utility for Mac OS X. Developed specifically for Mac users, iPod Converter allows conversion of video files to mp4 iPod video. All of the most popular formats are supported, and helps bridge the gap between many video standards. iPod Converter offers an easy-to-use interface that guides the user through the conversion process.
• QuickerTek has announced the Apple Juicz Lite External Battery for the MacBook and MacBook Pro computers. This new version is both smaller and lighter, as well as less expensive than the original Apple Juicz line. Users gain up to five hours of additional battery power~beyond the power of the built-in MacBook/MacBook Pro battery. The Apple Juicz Lite External Battery charges the internal battery of the MacBook or MacBook Pro while in use. Tekserve is the exclusive stocking reseller.
• SkypeCap has announced SkypeCap for Mac 2.1, their Skype video and audio session recorder for Mac OS X. With a focus on ease-of-use, SkypeCap for Mac allows recording of audio and video conversation from Skype to video and audio files. SkypeCap for Mac saves your Skype sessions so that you could hear and watch them again later or share them with someone else. It fully integrates the process into the Mac experience by allowing human interaction during recording and conversion.
• LaCie has announced that its LaCinema Rugged multimedia hard drive is now available in High Definition: LaCinema Rugged HD. The LaCinema Rugged product range has the most compact, reliable, and mobile multimedia players on the market. Now, with enhanced HD capability, the LaCinema Rugged HD is the first multimedia player in its class, to allow users to store and play High Definition content—on any HDTV in Full-HD 1080p resolution.

iPhone/iPod

• Robosoft Technologies and Virtual Programming have announced the release of Pipe Mania for the iPhone. The game is considered as one of the most successful puzzle games ever. Introduced in the year 1989, the game quickly made its way through several platforms such as the PC, DS, PSP, and Wii, and now it’s on the iPhone.
• About Objects has released a new set of iPhone 3.0 developer examples as free, downloadable Xcode projects. The example projects form a progressive series designed to take developers from the rudiments of iPhone programming through the development of sophisticated iPhone productivity apps. Developers are free to use the examples for their own learning, and can even use the example code in their own projects if they so choose.
• The Crumpery has released an update to DinnerDate, their restaurant and meal organizer for the iPhone. DinnerDate allows you to work from two different starting points: the restaurant (or other eating establishment) you want to go to and the meal you are having or plan to have.
• Candywriter has announced the immediate availability of Word Solitaire 1.0, an iPhone and iPod touch app that combines word creation and classic solitaire. Word Solitaire cards are dealt just like the popular solitaire variant of Klondike but with a unique twist: instead of traditional playing cards, each card represents a letter of the alphabet. Each of the 25 levels in Word Solitaire progresses slightly in difficulty, with more challenging letter combinations featured on the higher levels.
• No longer do you need to type the name of a sought-after product into a search field. For the first time, it is possible to compare the price of an item using a photo. Imagine standing in front of a discounted DVD rack and wondering if the “super-slashed sale price” really is a true bargain. Anyone looking to compare prices has had to either pound the pavement or shop around online. Spontaneous comparisons were not feasible. However, times have changed: one of the leading Swiss websites, price comparison engine comparis.ch, now enables iPhone and Android users to compare prices by taking a picture of the requested item. kooaba’s image recognition technology recognizes the product and triggers the comparison at comparis.ch.
• M.O.C. Interior Designer has announced Mark On Call 1.3, a major update to their popular interior design and customization tool for iPhone and iPod touch. Users can create accurate custom-sized rooms, access and re-size 156 furniture and architectural elements, lay down surfaces, and render fabrics chosen from a palette of preset options or custom-created using the phone’s camera or photo library. Version 1.3 has been completely redesigned resulting in overall increased ease-of-use.
• Advenio has announced the release of Cloudburst 1.0 for iPhone and iPod touch. Cloudburst: it’s your quick and simple weather, all in a single glance. Cloudburst shows you the current weather conditions, including temperature, wind, visibility, etc. for your favorite locations. In the same view, you also get the current weather radar picture and the four day at-a-glance forecast. Weather conditions and radar in an instant.
• WebIS Inc. has announced a major update to its Calendaring/To Do application for the iPhone, Pocket Informant. This release offers improved performance and stability, more robust synching, more complex recurrence options, shake to sync, To Do grouping/sorting, and much more. Pocket Informant offers Calendaring and To do management in one easy to use application and is the premiere Personal Information Manager for iPhone, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry devices.
• SkyZone Entertainment, Inc., a leading provider of premium mobile games, content, and services with strong deployment capabilities, today announced three best-selling mobile titles now available on the iPhone and iPod Touch: Extreme Hangman, Jewel City, and The Rise of Atlantis. Available at the Apple App Store starting at $0.99, all three titles landed on the iPhone and iPod Touch after very successful runs on traditional mobile channels.
• planning NYARO has announced an updated version of one of Japan’s top selling iPhone apps: Indicator Maniacs (ver 1.5). Indicator Maniacs is an iPhone/iPod Touch app aimed at fans of sci-fi, which features a variety of customizable indicators (such as a microphone meter, vibration meter, warp switch, and more), with designs and animations inspired by Japanese anime.  You can choose your favorite indicators, customize their position and color, and even skin the background with pictures from the Photo Album.
• Moblyng Games has released its newest social mobile game, m:Vampire. The cross-platform title for Facebook, Android/G1, iPhone, Nokia 5800 and Nokia N97 is the first vampire-themed role-playing game (RPG) that allows players to add and challenge friends from Facebook and a variety of supported smartphones, making it the only truly social vampire experience of its kind.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Auto-fill/placement of frequently used text strings and images.
Format: Download
Developer: SmileOnMyMac, LLC
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.4
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: $29.95
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 2.6.2
Demo: 3.6MB .dmg

I really need to start trusting the kids these days. When fellow Appletell writer Gaecke told me at Macworld Expo 2009 to check out SmileOnMyMac’s Text Expander because it’s, like, “... the greatest utility ever,” my thought was, “Yeah, well, this guy liked the new Star Wars movies.” After using TextExpander for a while now, I’ve determined that although Jake’s taste in science fiction leaves a bit to be desired, his opinion on Mac utilities is dead on. TextExpander is, like, the greatest utility ever.

It functions basically like your standard keystroke shortcuts in various software programs. You now how hitting Command+B will make your type bold? TextExpander does the same thing, only with much more power and compatibility. Also, it mainly focuses on content, not formatting…although you can certainly use it to format, too. For instance, my main use for TextExpander is within my Appletell templates. See the software spec formatting above? Before TextExpander, I would find an old review from which to copy that content, paste it into a new document, delete the outdated info and add the relevant info. Not ideal. I eventually switched to a text snippet, which I would just drag into the new document. Better, but I still had to hunt it down in my Appletell resources folder. Now, I just type “aRevSoft” and it appears. That’s it. Doesn’t matter if I’m in BBEdit or Safari or what have you. It’s the same with the rating formatting at the bottom of this review. All of that appears by typing “aRate5.”

You can see a pattern, right? This is because to use TextExpander to its best capabilities, you need to remember your codes. I use the lower case “a” to represent Appletell (and because I’m not likely to start a normal word with a lowercase “a” followed by a capitalized second letter). From there, you can figure it out.

There are a couple of ways to get your content into the TextExpander database. The “te” menu bar icon allows you to automatically create a snippet from your clipboard or highlighted text. Selecting either automatically opens the TextExpander System Preferences panel, and displays your selection in the content area. Simply assign a label to it, then, more importantly, the abbreviation. You need to choose carefully here, as it should be something you wouldn’t normally type without needing your snippet, but that is easy to remember when you want it.

If you forget, though, no worries. You can always just select your snippet from the menu bar icon if you can’t recall the abbreviation:

Being able to automatically insert long strings of text and code—and even images and PDFs—would be enough for me to completely recommend this app. Anyone working on anything with set formats will immediately benefit from TextExpander. But it doesn’t stop there. If you like having the ability to autofill web forms but aren’t satisfied with the security of web browser autofills, you can keep that info in TextExpander. You can also have it automatically correct your most common spelling mistakes and typos. Add “udpate” to the snippet library so it’s replaced by “update,” and you’re all set. And if you don’t have time to add every possible common spelling mistake, don’t worry about it; SmileOnMyMac offers a library of such snippet files ready to download.

Before I close, there are a few other features I want to point out. First, TextExpander can automatically insert the correct date and time. On our daily Macintosh/iPhone software update roundup, for example, I just type in “aRoundup” to pull in the headline, along with “%B %e, %Y.” That code becomes “June 22, 2009,” with the appropriate info, of course.

Second, your snippets can be synched up via MobileMe. Whether I’m working at the office or at home, I know all of my formatting snippets are always available to me. If you don’t have MobileMe (or don’t want to pay for that second TextExpander license), you can simply save your snippets to a file, then import them into your other computer’s TextExpander system prefs.

And finally, you can control in which programs TextExpander works. The default is “all applications,” and that’ll be fine for most users. If, however, you don’t want TextExpander’s functionality in certain programs, you can set it to work in “all applications, except…” or “only these applications…” which you control with check boxes.

There’s more that TextExpander can do, but that’s enough for here. If I haven’t already sold you on this wonderful utility, then find someone who will, because anyone who does a good degree of writing and coding on the Mac needs TextExpander. That’s right…needs. The developers are so sure of this, they even offer a 90 day money back guarantee. If you still don’t believe me or the folks at SmileOnMyMac, ask Jake Gaecke. But don’t ask him about the Star Wars movies. I don’t want his opinion there to taint your view of his credibility.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Jealous of friends who have a newer MacBook or iMac with the new NVIDIA graphics? Do you feel less able by comparison, what with that sad old Intel GMA chipset sported by your earlier model? Never fear, there’s hope for you yet! Enter a new tool called GMABoosterX. 

GMABooster is a tool that allows you to up the clock speed on the Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) graphics chip included in your Mac Mini, MacBook, or iMac, resulting in faster graphics performance.  The chip itself is capable of operating at 400MHz, but most systems throttle it down to 133/166MHz to save power.  In highly unscientific tests, the program did bump the graphics capabilities of the GMA of a late-2006 MacBook (1.83GHz with the GMA 950), though not as much as the claimed 2.4x increase. Game play in Feral Interactive’s Lego Batman went from a clunky and often stuttering experience to a smooth one, with minimal stutter (and then, only when there was lots of action on screen). 

Even if you’re not a gamer, general system performance is much snappier with the GMA running at full speeds. Quartz Compositor, the Mac OS X technology responsible for graphics in the operating system, can handle much more with the higher GPU speed. After running GMABoosterX, Exposé effects with lots of windows (45, Exposéd in slow motion) were smooth and crisp, without visual artifacts or jumping. Google Earth, when run in OpenCL mode, felt snappier and zoomed about with less stopping and redrawing. Are you running Vista in parallels/bootcamp?  GMABooster comes in a Windows version, as well! 

So it’s all fun and games, right? Well, not quite so (graphically) fast; there are two minor drawbacks. In order to use GMABooster, you will need to download and install Apple’s CHUD Tools. Once CHUD is installed, you can run GMABoosterX, but be ready—it’s command line only. Granted, the commands are very easy to follow; just double click, then follow the directions. But for us spoiled Apple folks, being forced into the command line can be a bit disconcerting.

Product [GMABoosterX] Via [Bit-Tech.net]

Full Story » | Written by Aaron Kraus for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

So we’re going things a bit differently this week. We started out covering the week’s news and other articles on Appletell.com, but this week we have an interview with Rich Siegel of BareBones Software.

BareBones Software just released a new piece of software called WeatherCal. It’s a super simple utility that resides in the System Preferences. The only thing it does is add an all day event to each day of the week in iCal with some weather data. Nothing super detailed, just the basics that you need like the high and low and sky conditions. I’ll let you listen to the podcast for the rest of the details, but it’s a great utility, and something to think about for those of us who can’t live without a calender.

As an added bonus, I just couldn’t help but ask Rich about his opinion on Macworld 2010. I think we can all agree it will be different. And what about Macworld 2011? I’m doubting I’ll see you there, but we’ll see.

You know the routine, subscribe to us in iTunes already, would ya?

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

This week’s show is a bit abbreviated, but still full of reviews, free apps, and who knows what else? We’re also giving away some iPhone cases with headphones from Dermis. But I’m sure you knew all of this already if you subscribed in iTunes to the Appletellcast. This would mean you just came here to check the show notes, which is also a good idea. Here they are.

• Appletell Reviews IPEVO TR-10i
• Appletell Reviews NeatReceipts for Mac
• Appletell giveaway: iPhone 3G skins and headphones from Dermis
• Free Apps Roundup for March 27th, 2009

If you subscribe to the Podcast, the new episode will be automatically delivered to your iTunes account. If you’re not subscribed and can’t see it in iTunes, you can instead download Appletellcast directly.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

As I am writing this, the MacHeist 3 Bundle is about to be revealed. Last year, many were disappointed with the MacHeist bundle, as it had many apps that had been seen in the previous year, and no really spectacular app. This year, that was acknowledged, and a much better bundle has been promised.

Right off the bat, Eventbox is free just for showing up at the live unveiling. It will likely be added to your loot even if you didn’t tune in, but that’s another maybe. At a $12, it’s already a $12 savings. Great way to begin the night.

After a bit of a late start (what’s 10 minutes among friends?), Lisa, Veronica, and Chris chatted for a bit, went totally dark for an antagonizing minute, then introduced the first app: iSale. Not terribly impressive, as if you don’t use eBay, it’s useless. But it’s the first app, and I have a feeling we’re only going up from here. iSale is a $40 value.

Next up? The Apple Design Award winning Picturesque. Picturesque is an image-enhancer. You can get those Apple-style perspective/reflection images, put shadows, strokes, and more. Great for desktop publishing, it’s a much easier way than Photoshop, worth $35. It’s getting excited!

Now they announce that the first 25,000 buyers of the Bundle will get Big Bang Board Games for free. For those who didn’t get it free with their Mac, this is a great extra, and worth $25.

Sous Chef is the next app in the list. Though of no use if you don’t cook, it’s a great, and very pretty way to keep your recipes organized and share them with friends. Sous Chef is a $30 value.

Now we get a game! World of Goo is a physics based puzzle and construction game in which you drag live globs of Goo to build bridges and towers and other things to get them to safety. It actually looks really cool. This is one I’m excited about. Plus, it’s valued at $20.

And now, PhoneView. PhoneView provides desktop access to the content on your iPhone, a disk mode to store files on your iPhone or iPod touch, and much more than probably should be included in iTunes. It’s priced at $20 as well.

Next up is LittleSnapper, a brilliant screenshot app, much like Skitch, that has integration to their own web service, FTP, Flickr, etc. If you’ve ever wanted to scribble on your desktop, now you can. (It has more useful uses as well.) A great app, which would normally cost $39.

Acorn is the next app on the agenda. It’s another image editor, so it’s questionable given how Picturesque is already part of the bundle. To be fair, Acorn is more about touching up a photo, whereas Picturesque is about stylizing them. Still, a bit of a stretch. It costs $50 normally.

Still no huge apps at this point, but the next app is Kinemac, a $300 app. That’s exciting in and of itself. Kinemac is a 3D real-time animation and presentation software, with the simplicity of a 2D tool. It’s like Motion, but not confusing as all-get-out. The only problem with Kinemac? I have a feeling it’ll drive up the bundle price. Once again, it retails for $300. Wow.

Now we’re getting to the unlocks. These are the apps that are part of the bundle only after a certain amount of bundles are purchased. After $100,000 is raised for charity, Wiretap Studio will be unlocked. Wiretap can record any combination of audio feeds together at once. It’s pretty cool, but definitely not an exciting app. It retails for $70.

Three more apps to go now, and the next app is available as an unlock (the required charity level wasn’t mentioned.) It’s BoinxTV, a fantastic app that turns any recent Mac into a live TV studio, allowing you to add lower thirds, cut between cameras, and much much more all live. It retails for $199 normally. Now that is exciting.

The Hit List is the next app, part of the “Mega Unlock” where two apps are unlocked at a certain charity level. The Hit List is a GTD app to organize tasks in your life. With a simple and easy to use design, it might just be the To-Do app I’ve never been able to find. We’ll see. The Hit list retails for $50.

The other half of the “Mega Unlock” is Espresso, a web development app that combines editing, real-time previewing, and publishing in one window. It has a sleek UI and intuitive interface, and it retails for $60.

All together, these apps cost about $900, according to Chris Pirillo’s math. Chris asks us how much we’d expect to pay? $500? $250? No? $100? Still high? $50. Okay. $50. That’s it, right? What? Lower?! What’s a good price then? $39!

That’s right. $900 worth of software, including Live TV software, 3D animation software, and much more. For $39. Plus, if you’ve been doing all the heists, you have an $8.00 bundle discount. That means, for $31, you can have $900 worth of software. My writing skills are going out the window as I scramble to add money to my PayPal account.

Check out and buy the bundle at MacHeist.com!

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Upload pictures wirelessly
Developer: Eye-Fi
Minimum Requirements: SD compatible camera, Wireless Network, USB
Price: $129.99
Availability: Now

Eye-Fi makes a very unique product. It’s a 2GB SD memory card, and I’d be surprised if you didn’t already know it has a wireless chip in it, as well. With it, you can upload your pictures straight from your camera to your computer or to places on the web—like Flickr—without the need for any pesky cables. But you already knew that, all you want to know now is if it works.

How do you know when you’ve just purchased something really cool?  By the box of course.  Apple has always had amazing box design, in my opinion, and Eye-Fi certainly thought a little bit differently with their unique box design.  You pull on one side, and a drawer containing the card is pushed open on the other side.  It’s really cool, and will have you saying, “How’d it do that?” In fact, you’ll be saying the same thing about the card in a few minutes.

To set it up, you just take the card and connect it to your computer with the included card reader.

Wait, what!?  Connect it to my computer?  Yeah, I know, but this might be the first and last time you ever do this, so hold on for a few more seconds.  After you do some installation and configuring, you’re instructed to remove the card and slam it into your camera.  Then, take a picture of yourself.  Here’s a little known secret, you don’t actually have to take a picture of yourself, you can take a picture of anything!  But God will know what you have done, and you’ll have to answer for your sins at some point.

After you’ve taken your picture, you’ll witness how it is that your pictures will be uploaded to your computer.  A little drop down window appears in the top right corner of your computer screen with a thumbnail of the currently uploading picture.  Watch it now and enjoy, because the idea is that you’ll never have to see this.  But you probably will, because you’ll more than likely end up using this while sitting next to your computer anyway.

After the pictures are uploaded, they can be distributed to various places.  You’re computer, obviously, but other places such Flickr, Facebook, SmugMug, Picasa Web, MobileMe etc.  This works great if you’re that type of person who takes perfect pictures every time without need for adjustments, or who likes to have everything uploaded anyway.

Now, Eye-Fi makes numerous cards, and I had the opportunity to test out the Eye-Fi Explore card.  That’s the one that geotags your pictures in addition to uploading them wirelessly away from your home network.  This is great, and it actually works…provided you are within range of a wireless hotspot.  No hotspot = no geotag = no upload. So that’s kind of a bummer.

Sure, wireless hotspots seem to be everywhere, but you can’t connect to them all.  Your home network is pretty much the only one you’ll be able to store a password for.  So you’re kind of restricted to open WiFi networks outside of home base.  Thankfully, while you’re working on your figure at McDonald’s, you’ll be able to upload some pics, too.  The Explore card (or Share with $15 per year) supports all Wayport Hotspots, which account for over 10,000 hotspots across the US.

And then there is uploading.  Maybe I’m impatient, but it’s slow.  You have no way of knowing that the camera is connected to a wireless network, and the pictures take a decent amount of time to transfer.  You can tell Eye-Fi is working hard to fix this problem, but there’s only so much you can do with a memory card.  They give you options, like having an email or text message sent to you every time you start and/or complete an upload.  That’s great, but there’s still no indication if you’re connected to a hotspot or not (for geotagging or uploading).  And who wants to sit around and hope that they aren’t waiting in vain at a spot without open internet?

I really wish there was a better way of knowing that you are connected to a WiFi hotspot than constant emails or text messages.  I honestly have no idea if there is room for a tiny little noise device in there, but a beep every so often is the best idea I can come up with to remedy this situation.

Is it an awesome product that makes you say, “Wow that’s cool!”?  Yes, indeed.  Is it necessary?  Quite obviously not.  Your camera was designed to work with a cable in the first place.  So you have to decide if the cool factor is worth it for you.  Will you actually use this anywhere other than your home?  If so, then get it, because it’s awesome.  If not, then just remember that you’ll eventually have to plug your camera in for power anyway, and what’s another cable?

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Security with fingerprints
Developer: Upek
Minimum Requirements: Mac OS X v10.3, v10.4, or v10.5, USB, 150MB free hard-disk space for installation
Price: $48.00
Availability: Now

Do you have nightmares about people logging into your account on your Mac and accessing your personal data? Well, Upek has a product for the paranoid types, and it could prove useful for others in the coming days, as well. It’s called the Eikon To Go, and it keeps your user account secure without requiring you to memorize a War and Peace length password.

The Eikon To Go is a fingerprint scanner that connects to your Mac just like everything else: USB. Its form factor is intended to make it more portable than the desktop version. It also comes with a short extension cord to facilitate for cramped USB ports or desktop use.

After you install the software, all you have to do is take a quick tutorial on how to properly scan your fingerprints, and then scan your fingers in. You can scan up to 10 fingers per account, so if you have more, tough luck.

Scanning your fingers is easy, and it’s accurate. I logged all ten of my fingers just for fun, and they all work in place of my password for my user account. You also have options on how this functions. You can set your Mac to require the password and a fingerprint, just a fingerprint, or either a password or fingerprint. If you set it to either of the first two options, you can use the Eikon To Go as a real USB Key. If you take the device with you, no one will be able to log into your computer since a fingerprint would be required.

To be completely honest, unless you’re both super worried about your personal data on your Mac and confident that a good enough password would keep someone out, then this doesn’t really do that much for you. The real power will come when 1Password support is added. Soon you’ll be able to swipe your fingerprint to access 1Password. This allows you to have super crazy long and complicated passwords that you don’t even need to remember since you will always have your fingers…I hope. Just remember, you’re kinda screwed if you loose this thing, or get sick of 1Password.

Overall, it’s a good product for those who are worried about security. It’s great for putting your computer into lockdown, and nice for not having to enter passwords. And most importantly, it actually works.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Product: Cataloging software
Format: Download
Developer: Delicious Monster
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.5
Price: $40
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 2.7

Delicious Library is the app that started the Delicious Generation, or recognition of the importance of the GUI among software developers. It takes cataloging your collections of stuff and makes it easy, fun and beautiful with its amazing user interface. It will keep track of your music, movies, books, games, toys, electronics, tools, and clothing. Soon, you’ll be scanning and cataloging your entire collection of stuff while loosing track of time as the hours pass by.

Sadly, Delicious Monster is not a 100 pound fried chicken. According to Wikipedia, “The company’s name is based on the name of a plant that grows in the rainforests of tropical America, Monstera deliciosa. It is colloquially known as the Swiss cheese plant.”  While you can’t eat it, you can take consolation in the fact that Delicious Library makes the most visually delicious application available for the Mac.

Delicious Library is all about making a record of your collections, and doing it in style.  Its scanning technologies make this task simple and fun. You can either purchase the bluetooth scanner and make Wil Shipley mad (more on this later), or you can use the built in iSight on your Mac in a similar fashion. I think Delicious Monster really describes this whole process beautifully.

“Wait, I just hold a CD or DVD or video game or book or whatever up to my webcam, and it magically reads the UPC and downloads that item’s cover and all pertinent information about it, and displays all my stuff on photorealistic shelves? I’ll take it! Right now! This is why I bought a computer in the first place!”

Ok, so maybe you didn’t buy a Mac just to keep a record of your huge DVD collection, but it is a great use of your Mac.

Delicious Library attempts to identify your products based on the barcode scanned.  It takes this barcode and checks for product information on Amazon.  If it finds the item, all of the details are filled in, saving you tons of time.  Plus, it will give you product reviews and recommendations straight from Amazon.  So, truthfully, you can automatically add anything to your library that is available for purchase on Amazon. If you can’t scan your possession, you can do a keyword search for it. If it’s not on Amazon, you’re not completely out of luck, it will just be a more involved process. You’ll have to enter in all of the information by hand, and take a picture of it too.

I think most users have a desire for an increased database of items for DL to reference from. But the fact is that the developer is not interested in an application that doesn’t work the way it’s intended At the current time, other databases are just not acceptable to Delicious Monster. Maybe in the future, but who knows?

If you purchase Delicious Library mainly for insurance purposes, then you’ll definitely want to go through the process of manually adding everything you own. And it’s really a good idea to do this even if you don’t need the insurance record. I know I could have used this record on my iPhone the last time I went shopping. I honestly couldn’t remember what colors and patterns of ties I already own, and almost bought the same one twice. If I had the record in my pocket, I wouldn’t have had to guess.

And the process of adding items to your Library is actually quite an enjoyable experience (as long as you’re just scanning). I had completely forgotten about numerous movies and games in my collection, and it’s likely I’ll be watching and playing some of those again soon.

I got a chance to talk with Wil Shipley about DL and he mentioned that several things were in the works. There are a few apps coming to the iPhone that will integrate with the desktop application. The obvious app is the one that will allow you to access your library from an iPhone, and I cannot wait for this app to become available. You’ll be able to carry your entire Library and interact with it. I’ve played with the app and it’s very nice. One of the other apps that will hopefully be coming out, code willing, attempts to replace the bluetooth scanner with the camera on the iPhone. There’s a story here, and I’ve just got to tell it.

While I was talking with Wil, we came on to the topic of the bluetooth scanners. Apparently, Wil hates selling the things. He doesn’t really want you to buy them, largely because Delicious Monster doesn’t make them. Huh? Well, you see, a problem with a scanner is not really a problem with Delicious Monster/Library, but a user might view it that way. Hopefully we’ll have that iPhone app soon that will use the iPhone to scan barcodes, just like the iSight, only wirelessly. Then everyone can be happy, even Wil (not that he’s not happy…he’s a happy guy).

Personally, I was hoping that these apps would be consolidated into one app. I have too many apps as it is on my iPhone, so having one DL app instead of two or three sounds great to me. I’m not sure if it’s a performance concern or a personal choice, but I really wish these were going to be part of the same app.

I’m not entirely sure on the details of the scanning app for the iPhone, but how great would it be if you could also use it to take pictures of your items. The whole point here is to scan your stuff that’s not close to your computer. So to me it makes perfect sense for you to scan or search for the product, and then immediately take a picture of it for your records. Then later, when you’re at your computer, you could enter in any more information that is required. In my idea, the picture wouldn’t necessarily need to be displayed as the product picture on your digital shelves, but it could be useful to store it for records.

Now, up to this point you might think that Delicious Library is absolutely wonderful and flawless. Well, it’s close. There are only a few problems that I have with it. First, the background detection of product pictures is less than optimal. Throw an iAnything at it and the white plastic against a white background will give you garbage almost every time. It’s not really the app’s fault, but it looks bad. And with an application that’s marketing its own beauty, that’s a problem. Thankfully, when I talked to Wil, he said that he’s working on allowing users to select the “polaroid” option (as seen in the Apparel section) for other sections like gadgets, toys, etc. I like this idea, and maybe it could even be improved. How about having a few picture frame-like options for your product pictures? That way they could still go on a shelf. Perhaps even make them customizable!

The only other problem here is that the digital collection looks better than my real collection. Now I need to spend time and money buying wooden book shelves and organizing my stuff so that my real life can stay consistent with my digital life. Or I could just hide it…say, under the bed.

If you have a sizable collection of movies, games, books, clothes or anything really, then this is a must have app for you. It becomes even more useful with it’s tracking features if you lend out your stuff. You’ll also have a record for taxes, which is useful. Just be sure to back it up elsewhere, like in the cloud. One way to do that is to use the webpage feature and make a website. Plus, this has the added benefit of making it even easier for you to push your totally ginormous collection of stuff in your friends’ faces.

Don’t believe me? Take Delicious Library 2 for a spin on your own machine. You can download the app and test it out for free before deciding to buy.

By the way…make sure you add at least one Star Wars movie to your Library…just trust me.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Say what!?  You haven’t heard of Growl?  And you call yourself a Mac user.  Don’t worry, I’ve got the why and how on Growl.  Before you know it, you’ll have the feature that Apple left out running on your machine.

So what is Growl?  Growl is a centralized notification system for OS X.  It allows your computer to alert you when certain events take place.  I know this doesn’t sound all that exciting, but it’s extremely useful.

Use spaces a lot?  Maybe you have iTunes running in its own space while you browse the net in another.  That’s fantastic, but what happens when the song changes and you can’t name that song in 3 seconds?  Well, normally, you’d have to switch to iTunes to find out.  Lame.  How about status changes in your Buddy List?  Are you seriously going to try and watch everyone like a hawk all day long, waiting to swoop in on your friends and talk them to death?  Doubtful.  How about when you get a new message in an IM window, or your downloads/uploads finish?  How are you supposed to know all of this stuff without being a peeping tom?

Growl can solve all of these problems and more.  In fact, Growl may prove so useful that you soon won’t know how you lived without it.

There are four main reasons to use Growl, as outlined on their site:

• Control - you get to choose which applications get the priviledge to notify you
• Ease of Use - in true Apple fashion, it just works.
• Consistency - the style of your notifications is determined by a theme.  This brings consistency to all of your apps across your system.
• Powerful - you have more options that just notifications, like spoken or emailed messages.

To install Growl, just download the package from their site (link below), mount the image and double click the installer.  After you’re done installing, go to System Preferences, Other and Growl.  Make sure you check “Launch Growl at Login” and then pick a display style (my fav is Music Video).

Applications that already support Growl include: Adium, Firefox, Cyberduck, Transmission, Dropbox, Skype, Twitterific, and so many more.  If your favorite app isn’t on the list, there is still hope.  There are plugins, scripts and apps that can help applications that aren’t supported, such as iTunes and Mail.  There are plugins for Mail and Safari included with Growl, so you’ll want to install those.

One of the best applications that you can download to help out Growl is OmniGrowl.  It adds support for things like iTunes, iCal events, Weather, RSS feeds and so much more.  If you like Growl, then you’ll like OmniGrowl.  It’s shareware, with a suggested donation of $10, but you can use it for free.

Basically, Growl allows your system to notify you of events without taking you away from what you’re doing.  So you can keep browsing or working on your paper, but still be aware of Twitter, or your buddies on IM, or whatever else.  Then, when you have more time, you can investigate all of that stuff later.

It’s really a mystery to me why Apple hasn’t already bought out Growl and incorporated it into OS X by default.  I think of it as OS X’s missing feature.

Products [Growl, OmniGrowl]

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

There is certainly no shortage of GTD apps in the OS X shareware world. Active developers, who respond well to community feedback, have proven to create healthy competition between apps. Just as Cultured Code released version 1.0 of their lauded app, Things, the Potion Factory has struck back with a free beta version of their own GTD app: The Hit List. The Hit List, at first glance, is similar to Things in its simplicity, as the novice can use it immediately.  There are, however, other advanced features, such as a tagging system that helps you organize tasks by category/topic.

What I like about The Hit List is that it is made to be used with the keyboard; a really nice option for those who enjoy using the keyboard rather than the mouse. Additionally, The Hit List organizes tasks into cards (much like the old hipster PDA) and folders, which can be tabbed, a great option. Overall, those who enjoy Things may want to give The Hit List a chance before they lay down the $50 needed for Things.

Finally, looking at the preferences, The Potion Factory says they are indeed planning on releasing an iPhone version of The Hit List, one that will sync with the desktop version.

A free public beta is available.

Product [The Hit List]

Full Story » | Written by Indraneel Purohit for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

At Macworld Expo today, Mariner Software, announced the acquisition of ReceiptWallet, Mac OS X software that allows the user to scan, store and manage receipts and documents. The application will make its public debut under the Mariner brand in the near future, but will first be renamed.

With ReceiptWallet, users scan receipts and other varieties of paperwork and view the data right on the screen, email it or simply save the scanned paperwork as PDFs. ReceiptWallet’s powerful search functionality helps users organize receipts and documents into collections, making paper copies redundant for routine tasks such as record-keeping and bookkeeping.

With ReceiptWallet one can:

• Organize digital copies of receipts and records
• Track expenses for tax purposes
• Create expense reports and manage business and personal expenses
• Create searchable PDF files for owner manuals or important documents

ReceiptWallet will be available in English in the near future for $49.95USD ($44.95 download). Support for more languages is expected in the near future. ReceiptWallet requires Mac OS 10.4 or higher.

Via []

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Screenshots seem to be all the rage nowadays; Realmac Software realized this and started building an app designed specifically for screenshots, LittleSnapper. Although the app was in beta for a good amount of time, LittleSnapper seems to have had (most) of its bugs fixed and has been released to the public in a 1.0 non-beta version. LittleSnapper isn’t used just for screenshots of your desktop, it’s used for screenshots of web pages and other windows with important information in them. Plug-ins aren’t required for taking screenshots of web pages; simply hit a keyboard shortcut or the menubar icon, and done, the web page has been fully captured in a screenshot. You can also capture the code of webpages for archive use, use a DOM selector, apply quick edits to images, and organize screenshots in the application itself. Once captured, images can be upload to any FTP server, Flickr, or QuickSnapper, a new service specifically designed to work with LittleSnapper.

Sadly, this utility isn’t going to run you cheap. Single user licenses are up for grabs at $39.99, which include free upgrades until version 2.0.

Product [LittleSnapper] Via [TUAW]

Full Story » | Written by Alec Feld for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

In quite possibly the stupidest move Apple has made since the hockey puck mouse, Apple has now removed a Knowledge Base page that advised Mac users to have Antivirus software installed on their machines.

Macworld reports:

“We have removed the KnowledgeBase article because it was old and inaccurate,” Apple spokesman Bill Evans, told Macworld. “The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box.”

Yeah, so does Windows, and look how well that worked for them.

The page, which has apparently been giving sensible advice for years, has recently become a hot topic on the web because it seems to contradict Apple’s marketing message that Macs are less prone to viruses than Windows. Which they are, but they’re not immune. A fact with which, and this is where it gets really confusing, Apple seems to agree, because Evans then goes on to say that having antivirus software “may offer additional protection.” No kidding.

Macs have recently been gaining marketshare, leading some to speculate that as the computers become more popular, they may become targets for malicious programs.

Via [Macworld]

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Black Friday is now plaguing Europe, it seems. Sorry, guys. Hate to put you through this, in addition to the way our mortgage/banking crisis is crippling your economy, too. But, your loss is our gain, as evidenced by Houdah Software offering a discount of 50% on all its Mac software products on Black Friday, November 28, 2008. To get HoudahSpot and HoudahGeo today! Coupon code: BLACK08. The discount applies to single user, single household and single student licenses. Moreover ACTPrinter for iPhone and iPod Touch is free for today only.

About the software:

HoudahSpot is Houdah Software’s best-selling file search tool for the Mac. Unleash the full power of Spotlight to find, manage and clean up your files.

• Keep frequently used files within reach
• Retrieve the files you didn’t know you still had
• More precise than Spotlight: pinpoint files using myriad criteria
• More detailed than Spotlight: show any number of file attributes
• Fully customizable: set your preferred criteria, columns and sort order
• litzSearch: the ease of use of Spotlight, the power of HoudahSpot

HoudahGeo is a pure software solution for geocoding photos with latitude, longitude and altitude information. Just like a GPS camera, HoudahGeo can store this information right within the image file - invisibly with no loss of quality.

Unlike a GPS camera, HoudahGeo allows you to export your photos directly to Google Earth or Flickr! More features, more flexibility, more control. Lower price tag.

Products [HoudahSpot and HoudahGeo]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Freeverse understands that Thanksgiving is a time for visiting with family and giving thanks for your bounties. And what better way to give thanks than by totally ignoring your family and playing some pretty good games on your Mac? To help you along, Freeverse has knocked 50% off every Mac product they sell. That’s 30+ titles, including games such as Winguts 2, Burning Monkey Solitaire, Heroes of Might and Magic V, and Big Bang Brain Games. Their productivity apps and utilities are included, as well, so you can pick up titles such as Sound Studio, Lineform, Periscope and Comic Life for half the normal price.

Remember, though, the sale ends November 28th with the conclusion of Black Friday, so take advantage of this opportunity before you’re too stuffed with food to make it to the computer.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Security firm and software creator Intego has announced this week that a new trojan for the Mac is on the loose and is known as RSPlug.D, a different form of the RSPlug.A trojan. How does it work? First, you must go to a malicious website, particularily some porn sites. Then, when the “Video ActiveX Object Error” comes up and asks you to install a ActiveX object, you must do it. This will download a disk image file from a remote server which will then be able to automatically open its contents on your machine and get to work.

Although it’s interesting to see there is another trojan out there for the Mac, I still don’t think this one is practical at all. For one, it can be easily avoided by simply not going to suspicious websites (of which most browsers are aware anyway). Also, users must agree to install something they may not be so sure about, which is a problem on the end user part, not the operating system. On top of those, even if the trojan does get on your system, it isn’t all that dangerous and can be easily found with a malware program.

Nice try, bad guys, but looks like Mac OS X comes on tops once again.

Via [MacNN]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

The Mac is easily one of the best choices you can make if you want to edit and store home videos. It was practically built to consume media, and movies are no exception. But what if you want your videos to have easily accessible chapter markers like scenes in DVDs? It’s not really that hard, and you have a couple choices, though the built in way is not obvious. Heck, who would have thought to use Garageband enhance a video?

Macworld has a great article detailing the process of adding chapter markers to any videos you may have. It works great if you have your own podcast, recorded television or even if you just want to have a record of those funny things that happen at family events. I mean really, it never gets old watching people fall down. They made an entire show out of it…America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Back to the point. Adding these markers is really simple. Just edit your video in iMovie or other program if necessary, and export the finished product. Just make sure that wherever your video comes from, that it’s finished. Open Garageband, and drag the video into a new music project.

Select that movie track in the timeline and a chapters area appears below. Move the playhead to a place where you’d like to add a chapter, click the Add Marker button at the bottom of the window, and in the Chapter column enter a name for the chapter: Opening, Pie Fight, or Rude Bit, for example. Don’t bother entering a URL title or URL.

Then, after you are done adding chapter markers to your heart’s content, just click Share in the menu and Send to iTunes. You’ll get some choices for quality level, and then click Share to complete the process. The movie is automatically added to your iTunes library, which is great if that’s final destination. Now your video has chapter markers, and feels that much more professional!

It should also be noted that you can also add chapter markers with a program called HandBrake, which, if you are into editing videos, you probably already have. In HandBrake, under the Output Settings, go to the Chapters tab. Just remember that you only want to add chapters to a final video. If you edit it again with iMovie, it does something really dumb; it erases them. Someday, Apple will fix this, I’m sure, and probably add the chapters functionality into iMovie where it belongs. But until that day, at least you have a couple options.

Via [Macworld]

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Hyperspaces is a new app that aims to add in some features to Apple’s Spaces that are in many other virtual desktop programs. It offers custom space names, different desktop backgrounds for different spaces, on-desktop labels, color tinting, and more. While it offers quite a few ways to differentiate spaces, it doesn’t quite seem worth the RAM space it takes up yet.

Personally, I would only use Hyperspaces for a little bit of spice in my Spaces experience. I find it pretty easy to stay oriented within four spaces. For others with upwards of six spaces, this could turn from UI-sparkle into a really useful app. The desktop labels are really customizable—from font, style, size, and color to position on screen. Unfortunately, when moving from a labeled space to an unlabeled one, it renders an animated exit for the label which is both distracting and choppy. I want the label to slide out along with the desktop, as if it was just a part of the desktop picture.

Hyperspaces also eats up quite a bit of RAM and really doesn’t blend in seamlessly, because it is a little slow and choppy. With luck, they will fix this with version 1.0.

You, yes you, can download the free public preview now.

Product [Hyperspaces]

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Perhaps underscoring the phasing out of Firewire on Macs, Apple has added the Migration and DVD/CD Sharing Update to Macs (OS 10.4.11 and 10.5.5) using the Software Update feature.

The software, previously available with the Macbook Air and as a separate download, allows users to migrate from one Macintosh computer to another using not only Firewire, but Ethernet or a wireless connection. The latest Macbook, part of a consumer series that Steve Jobs declared the best selling Macintosh ever, is shipping with no Firewire port at all, and the Macbook Pro ships with only a Firewire 800 port.

This update is recommended for all users and provides enhanced customization capabilities and improved performance for migration over FireWire, ethernet, and wireless networks.

The software also allows a computer on which it is installed to act as a remote optical drive for a Macbook Air.

From the release notes:

For Mac OS X 10.4.11, this update installs:

 
• Migration Assistant 1.0.6  
• Mac OS X Remote Install 1.1 (located in /Applications/Utilities)  
• DVD or CD Sharing (located in the Sharing System preferences panel)

For Mac OS X 10.5.5, this update installs:

 
• Migration Assistant 1.2.3  
• Mac OS X Remote Install 1.1 (located in /Applications/Utilities)  
• DVD or CD Sharing (located in the Sharing System preferences panel)

Product [Migration and DVD/CD Sharing Update]

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

If the two criteria for Mac-ness are “it just works” and being “insanely great,” then Skitch has to be the most Mac-like program I’ve seen in quite some time.

Skitch is a screenshot program, and while there’s nothing wrong with the screenshot capabilities built into OS X (other than it’s deliberately disabled when DVD Player is running), Skitch does everything Grab does, does it better, then adds labeling features you’ll wonder how you ever lived without, along with built-in sharing features that “just work” to allow you pass your pictures on via e-mail, web, and chat.

Currently a free beta from the mad geniuses at Plasq (best known to Mac users as the creators of Comic Life, a program I admire but haven’t found much practical use for), Skitch is a small program that waits in the background until you need to take a screenshot and/or do simple editing to a photo.

To take a screenshot, just click on a button in the Skitch floating panel, or use the shortcut. You can also use Skitch to take a webcam photo (much like Photo Booth). Once you’ve got your pic, you can add text, lines, arrows, boxes, or whatever you like. Now, the neat thing is that Skitch keeps these marks in layers, allowing you manipulate (or remove) them at any point. Skitch also allows you to crop and edit the photos using a simple process; if you pull the outside of the Skitch window, you can resize the photo; dragging the inside part of the window (the edges of the picture) crops the photo.

From there, you can save the photo (as a Skitch file), export it as a JPG, PNG, PDF, SVG, or TIF to your desktop, or upload it using the built-in Webpost feature to your (currently free) webspace on Skitch.com or .Mac (or MobileMe or whatever the hell they’re calling it this week). From the Skitch page, you get a series of links for a variety or purposes: embedding in a web page, sharing via e-mail or chat, or directing people to your Skitch page. You can also set the privacy options for the photo.

For simple screenshots and photo editing, Skitch might be the most intuitive program around. You can register and download the free beta, and watch a video that further explains how the program works.

Product [Skitch]

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

A few days ago, we brought you CampTune from Paragon Software. This group of software manufacturers offers some really interesting tools to help you improve the whole Mac user experience.

When it comes to recovering from a crash, you have many options and paths to take. It will always depend on the kind and source of trouble you encounter. One of my favorite options to recover from a classic crash (as in the Mac-won’t-start-after-an-update crash) is to connect a Firewire cable between the healthy Mac and the sick Mac, start the troubled system with the T key pressed on the keyboard, and try a few things like re-installing the problematic update, going backwards to a restore, or just backing up my data and reinstalling the system.

You have many options, and today we’ll introduce a very nice one. Rescue Kit is a recovery system for the Mac, based on a bootable CD that will allow you to save your computer from some major crashes, and, in some cases where you won’t be able to fix it (like a hardware failure), at least you’ll have a chance to save the most important asset of a computer: the information.

After booting your Mac with the rescue disk, you will be able to use all the necessary tools to keep your Mac alive with intuitive and efficient handling through a user-friendly interface.

Paragon Rescue Kit for Mac supports all Intel-based Macs, providing the possibility to easily back up your Windows, Linux or Mac OS and data partitions to any media you have (USB and Firewire drives, or network) with high performance and minimal system overhead.

Since it’s still at a pre-release stage, just like CampTune, the software is completely free. You can go now to their website, download the rescue kit, and burn a bootable CD that could save your life at any moment.

Don’t leave it to chance; it’ll just take a few minutes and a blank CD. It’s better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

Product [Rescue Kit for Mac]

Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzalez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

A few months ago, we reported on the release of CheckUp 1.0 from app4mac, a health monitoring application for our Macs. Now, we bring you good news with the most recent version of this useful program.

For those of you who already know the application, the first two features to notice are the refreshed UI (User Interface) and the price drop. When it came out, CheckUp cost $49; a reasonable price for a well-designed application created to help you keep your Mac in shape, which is not an irrelevant task for anyone who appreciates his computer.

Now, we’ve found an updated version for just $29. It’s a nice price drop, which makes it even more desirable for those of you who wanted to wait, or just decided to pass the first time it came out. 

Some of the new features of this app are:

• New Wi-fi-Network detector with signal level
• Updated user interface
• Bug fixes
• English, French, Chinese, Italian versions
• Lower price (now $29 for two computers instead of $49)

The top 10 features of the application, according to its website, are:

• Uses a very simple interface to browse your Mac’s technical information
• Surveys your Mac’s health and your disks in real time
• Monitors the used and available space on your disks
• Uninstalls unused applications and related files to save space on your hard disk
• Checks the memory and teaches you how to improve your Mac’s performance
• Displays detailed information about all processes and can pause on terminate them
• Monitors each processor’s usage
• Sets up alerts for the processors, the disks and the network
• Displays a graph to help you visualize the amount of used network bandwidth
• Wi-fi network detector integrated with signal level

As with back-ups, monitoring the health of your computer is always an important activity to do, yet most of us never involve it in our user habits. With CheckUp, you can take care of your Mac like a professional, with most of the important technical areas covered in an easy-to-use interface. If you add its low price to the equation, CheckUp is a must-own, and I hope we see improved versions of it in the near future.

Product [CheckUp 1.2]

Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzalez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

If you’ve ever found yourself in the position where you need or want to install Windows (natively) on your Mac, you are probably familiar with Apple’s Boot Camp software. Boot Camp allows you to set a native Windows installation on your Mac easily. The application takes care of everything, and makes the process of creating a target partition, beginning the installation process and installing the right drivers, a very simple task.

But, if you are a Windows user on a Mac with Boot Camp, you may also be familiar with a common problem involving disk space. As soon as you begin installing software (productivity apps, games, antivirus, antispam, and general utilities), you become aware that free space will be eventually gone, forcing you to take action and solve the situation.

The only choice you have so far to deal with this is to back up the Windows files, remove the partition with Boot Camp (and every effort of OS tuning and customization), re-launch the Boot Camp to create a new (and bigger) partition, install Windows from scratch, and finally restore the previously backed up files. This method will solve your problem for sure, but it’s not a pleasure to do and it won’t prevent the same situation from occurring in the future.

The guys at Paragon Software have come with a solution for this problem—a real solution, that would make us forget the days where adding a few more gigabytes of space to our Windows (or Mac OS X) partition meant hours of tedious and risky duty.

The application offered by Paragon Software is called CampTune. It reminds me of my days as a Windows user, when I learned to love Partition Magic. CampTune makes it possible to resize the partition without having to delete it, and gives us the chance to increase or decrease hard disk space with a few clicks.

The way it works is really easy. You’ll have to create a bootable CD guided by CampTune. Then, you’ll have to reboot your Mac and boot through the newly created disk. As you do with Boot Camp, you’ll select the desired size of the new partition, then just click the Apply button.

It’s just as simple as it is useful. The CampTune creators also assure that resizing your partition with its software is as secure and stable as you could wish, stating the unprecedented high level of stability achieved in their latest products.

So far, it’s a complete, free-of-charge app you can download as a part of their beta program.  If you’re convinced by its performance, you can decide later to buy it for your home or office systems.

Product [CampTune]

Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzalez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Today the subject of backing up your computer is hot again. We’ve always known that if our information is important to us, we need to somehow find a way to make it safe and available for recover in case something goes wrong. After all, accidents happen.

Backing up, like so many other important tasks, has been one of those “I know I have to do it, but I’ll do it tomorrow” activities that we haven’t been able to include in our daily habits. 

Some of us have been using every kind of method to backup our computer’s information. From the floppy disk through to dual layer DVDs, the industry always had some option for home users. If you’re part of an organization, maybe your data resides on a huge corporate hard disk, or even the magnetic tape drive of a few years ago.

Nowadays with the dropping price of the external hard disks and flash memory in general, the topic is in again, and many companies are bombarding the market with interesting proposals in order to make us reach that wanted status of “responsible user.”

One of those proposals is MozyHome for Mac. Mozy—an EMC Company—offers the Mac community the possibility to easily back up each computer’s information with just a few steps, and at a low price.

Once you’ve signed up for an account at Mozy’s home page, the steps to start backing up are very easy to follow:

• Download and install the software (version 1.0 for Mac users).
• Select files to be backed up (with a very sleek and “sexy” interface).
• Let MozyHome for Mac do the rest.

Some of the features of this attractive service are:

• Backing up of documents no matter if they’re open or closed.
• 128-bit SSL encryption (as any bank will do to protect communications).
• 448-bit blowfish encryption for files.
• Automatic scheduled back up.
• Change detection on files.
• Incremental backup (just like Apple’s own Time Machine).

MozyHome requires Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5. As metnioned, a MozyPro for Mac is being developed for corporative clients. If you’re looking for a backup option outside of you home or office, this one is worthy of consideration.

Product [MozyHome for Mac]

Full Story » | Written by Juan Gonzalez for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Mac app RiftVault has come out of pre-release for its full public 1.0 release. RiftVault allows you to store your important personal information using encryption to ensure the safety of your private information. RiftVault is designed to hold credit card information, passwords, banking info, and even files that you want to be secured (using the very clever Safe Deposit Box feature). This new and awesome app for Mac OS X will only cost you $39.95, and there is even a free 30-day demo so that you can test it before you buy it. However, you are required to be running Mac OS X Leopard to be able to use RiftVault.

Everything stored in RiftVault is encrypted using 256-bit AES encryption, which is so secure that the U.S. government adopted it as a standard for protecting its own confidential information. When you open an item in RiftVault, it is unencrypted and cached for fast access, and is erased from your Mac’s RAM as soon as you close the item.

Try RiftVault free for 30 days, or buy it for $39.95—you won’t be disappointed in its amazing encryption abilities.

Via [TUAW]

Full Story » | Written by Patrick Lutz for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

IconFactory makes a great universal tool for designers called xScope — for people who constantly use this kind of tool, it’s a worthwhile investment. But, a new app now gives you similar functionality — for free. Rulers provides a subset of xScopes useful features in an easy-to-read format. Photoshop-style rulers appear at the side and top of your screen for accurate positioning, and the HUD gives precise cursor coordinates with a magnifying glass option.

Rulers also has the capability to take screenshots and auto-measure — similar to the “Dimensions” mode on xScope. You can quickly determine the size of anything on-screen by using this. When Rulers is the active application, holding Command+A will bring up the cross-hairs and measurement for the area surrounding the cursor.

This useful app, that delivers almost all the features and functionality of xScope is completely free. An excellent tool for those wanting to get into web design on a low budget. You can download it from Omnidea.

Via [TUAW] Product [ Rulers ]

Full Story » | Written by Stephen Chinnadorai for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Looking for a deal this summer? Indie Mac Software has what you need. From July 7th until the 15th, you can get 20% off select software by using the coupon code of DF2008. The companies involved in this deal include Azure Talon, Lucerne Systems, M Cubed Software, Wonder Warp Software, and You Software. These five companies are offering a total of nine different applications for you to choose from, so head on over to the site and help them out.

Azure Talon
Exces - Using the strong AES encryption standard, this application allows you to quickly and easily protect your data.

Lucerne Systems
Horizon - Sporting a calender based interface, this software is the “...easiest way to manage your finances.”

M Cubed Software
Code Collector Pro - This software allows you to easily store and share code snippets and is integrated with codecollector.net.
Minim - If you podcast or create music, this is for you. It simply organizes all of your audio and keeps track of the metadata.

Wonder Warp Software
ShoveBox - This application allows you to keep track of all those images, text snippets, and URLs that you don’t have time to deal with but want to look at later.
SimpleChord - This “part tool and part toy” application allows you to look up chords and create your own progressions.

You Software
You Control - This application allows you to easily create menus to extend your Mac’s usability.
You Control: Desktops - Working sort of like Spaces, this application simply gives your more room by creating a virtual desktop.
You Control: Fonts - Keep track of your fonts with this simple WYSIWYG font menu.

Products [Indie Mac Software]

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Altomac, “the natural software company,” wants to help you get work done with their new application, Speedy Mac. Speedy Mac is a “little innovative utility” that allows you to “...quickly open everything you need for your everyday work: documents, folders, applications, and sites.” To name a few features, Speedy Mac can keep a log of all your recently opened documents and application for easy access, and it can also hide and show multiple applications at one time. If this isn’t enough, you can even download more tasks for the application.

Speedy Mac requires Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher and is universal binary, meaning it will work with both PPC and Intel based Macs. It costs $27.00 for a single license, $37.00 for a five computer license, or $84.00 for use on up to fifty computers. It sounds like a great little menu bar application to help speed up your work flow, and we always love to see new applications being developed for Mac OS X. If you end up getting this, let us know how it is.

Product [Speedy Mac]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Limit Point Software has released a new utility for the public that they are calling PhotoTiles. This donationware application allows you to create a tiled image of images. Furthermore, it allows you to alter the dimensions and sizes of the images and of the array. You can even choose whether or not you want it to show the file names. Once you have these variables set, simply drag and drop the images you would like to use and let PhotoTiles do all the work.

Head on over to the product page for a nice how-to and a bunch of helpful screen shots. Since the app is universal binary, it will work on both PPC or Intel based iMacs that are running Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. If this app isn’t for you, you can check out some of the other applications and utilities they offer. They have quite a few to choose from, so they are bound to develop something that will be helpful to you.

Product [PhotoTiles]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Hendrickson Software Components’ popular spam tracing and reporting utility, Sp@mX, has been retired and officially turned into Purify.  In HSC’s words, “...after many years of faithful service, the venerable Sp@mX has been officially retired, and its servers taken off-line.” Although the name has changed, HSC still promises the same quality from Purify. Version 2.1.1, which deals with malformed e-mails from “newbie” spammers, just came out on July 3rd and development will continue.

For those of you who used Sp@mX, you can email HSC for an upgrade link. If you want to try out Purify and figure now is the time, it will cost you $29.95 for a new license. If you hate spam, that money will be well worth it. Purify offers plenty of features to help rid of those annoying e-mails. With Leopard and Applescript support included, Purify allows you to report spammers to their ISPs and filter your e-mail by images, country of origin, etc. It works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, so be sure to check it out.

Product [Purify]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Swedish software maker Maintain today announced the latest version of their popular Macintosh maintenance utility, Cocktail. Version 4.1.3 adds support for OS X10.5.4, the most recent Leopard update, and includes multiple bug fixes:

• prevents reversion of Firefox 3 bookmarks to an outdated version when clearing Internet caches
• fixes an issue whereby Cocktail may stop responding when clearing user caches
• corrects behavior in which the utility would fail to properly reset UDP default settings when running the Cocktail uninstaller

As a utility, Cocktail offers a GUI to many of OS X’s hidden features, including Unix maintenance scripts, Force Empty Trash, advanced network card settings, and extensive Dock/Finder/Menu Bar customization. Most of the settings available in Cocktail are accessibile from the OS X Terminal, but many users are either uncomfortable or completely unaware of the powerful command line interface available to them. In addition, Cocktail can perform several general maintenance tasks, such as clearing log files, deletion of .ds_store files created by OS X, and deletion of caches such as internet histories/cookies, QuickTime caches, and font caches.

Cocktail 4.1.3 is compatible with both OS X 10.5 and OS X 10.5 Server versions, and has been tested on both systems. For users of older OS X versions, Cocktail is available in version 4.0.2 (for OS X 10.4.x) and version 3.7 (for OS X 10.3.x). As a shareware application, Cocktail is available free as a limited demo; a single user license is available for $14.95 (all versions).

Product [Cocktail]

Full Story » | Written by Aaron Kraus for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

iSlayer is at it again with another widget for your Mac’s Dashboard. Dubbed Organized, this widget features a calendar with events, world clocks, notes and to-dos.  What makes it even cooler is that the calendar and to-dos use Mac OS X’s built-in databases, so they’re always in sync with iCal and Mail. This widget requires Mac OS X Leopard and is donationware, so be sure to help the developers over at iSlayer out by giving them a few bucks if you like it.

iSlayer has four other other widget options available. If you like to stay on top of the hardware in side of your machine, be sure to check out iStat Menus, iStat Pro and iStat Nano. Also, to add some funk to your Dashboard, try out I Love Lamp. As of the writing of this post, iSlayer’s site says they have 11,059,433 downloads, so their widgets must be pretty good. Go check ‘em out!

Product [Organized]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Bains Software has announced the release of ShareTool 1.2, an update to its unique remote access solution for Mac OS X. ShareTool lets users access all of the Bonjour services on their home network from anywhere in the world. This includes iTunes Music Sharing, Screen Sharing, File Sharing, and more. With ShareTool, users can listen to their entire iTunes music library at work, control the screen of any of their home computers, or grab that important file they forgot to bring with them.

This version adds automatic compression of network traffic, a much improved interface, and several bug fixes. ShareTool requires Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later.

ShareTool is $20 shareware and will only allow users to access their services remotely for fifteen minutes at a time in trial mode. Users can purchase a license by visiting the Bains Software website.

Product [ShareTool 1.2]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Although finding an overclocking application for Windows is as easy as finding a car in a parking lot, the same thing couldn’t be said for Mac OS X… until now. ZDNet has solved this problem by creating the cleverly named ZDNet Clock that will overclock your processor and memory. For the current version, 1.0, all you need is an Intel based Mac running Mac OS X v10.5 or higher. They claim to have tried their application on three different machines, and it works on all of them.

Even more exciting is that ZDNet reports that the “improvement in performance is quite remarkable.” For example, the cheapest Mac Pro, which has a 2.8GHz processor, was able to run faster than the 3.2 GHz model by simply increasing the CPU frequency and the main memory clock speed. On top of all this great news, ZDNet also “plays it safe when overclocking.” They add, “ZDNet Clock does not use any voltage increase for the CPU, the front-side bus (FSB) or the memory modules.”

Could this get any better?

Via [ZDNet]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

A new Mac utility, aptly called SpeedyMac, has been recently announced by Altomac. What the SpeedyMac utility does is speed up the process of opening documents, folders and applications, and even the loading times of webpages. Altomac brags about SpeedyMac taking a “totally new approach” when creating lists of recently visited webpages and documents where favorites are grouped by site and documents according to the applications used to create these documents.

In addition, SpeedyMac also provides quick access to common workflows involved when quitting applications, creating new folders and ejecting removable and external hard disks. Users can quickly access all of these in a “task” menu, and they can even create their own tasks and share them with other users of the Mac utility. To allow quick access of documents, SpeedMay has a “current item” menu where the location of the documents are listed.

For a $27 license fee, you can have this nifty application installed in your Mac running OS X v4.11 or higher. If you just want to take this utility for a spin and see how it works on your machine, you can download a 30-day trial installation.

The shareware utility comes with a “current item” menu that lists exactly where a user’s document is located on the hard drive, for quicker access. Speedy Mac requires Mac OS X 4.11 or higher and a 30-day trial version is now available for download. Licenses cost $27.00

Via [MacNN] Product [SpeedyMac]

Full Story » | Written by Arnold Zafra for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Apimac has just released new versions of its Compress Files utility, which allows compressing, archiving, and encryption of files. Along with some of the other features, a notable addition is support for AES-256 encryption for zip files.

Compress Files allows users to create a compressed file in any of the following formats: Zip, TAR, Gzip, Bzip2, Xar, 7zip and Compressed Disk Image (DMG). The encrypted formats are: Zip, DMG and 7zip. Version ‘08 release 2 brings:

• Xar version 1.5.2.
• Crypted Zip files now use AES-256
• Improved AppleScript dictionary for automated e-mail and archive actions
• Customisation in contextual menus
• And, of course, bug fixes

Since 1996, Apimac has been developing award-winning software for the Mac platform. Some of their best software includes Mac Notepad, Clean Text, Apimac Slideshow and Secret Folder. Compress FIles costs around $27 for a single user license from their website. They also have a free trial version available.

Product [Compress Files]

Full Story » | Written by Stephen Chinnadorai for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

PublicSpace, makers of the popular applications MacBreakz, The Big Mean Folder Machine and A Better Finder Attributes, has officially announced version 7.9.9 of their application A Better Finder Rename. 

A Better Finder Rename is a tool for people who need to rename files of all different types en masse. Whether it’s a bunch of pictures from a vacation, some MP3s from a disc, whatever, it can be handled and renamed by A Better Finder Rename. The application provides users with a full Cocoa interface, detachable instant preview window, drag and drop installation, file renaming (no matter what the complexity), and Unicode support for international use.

The main feature in the update is the addition of support for UTF-16 ID3 tags in MP3 music files.

A Better Finder Rename requires Mac OS X v10.4 or later, Universal Binary support for PowerPC or Intel Architecture, and 5 MB of Hard Drive Space. A single user license is priced at $24.95, and Business and Enterprise licenses and forever-upgrade options are also available.

The only question is, why buy $25 worth of software when you have Automator?

Product [A Better Finder Rename]

Full Story » | Written by Mark Rowland for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »