Archive for September, 2007

With Apple’s stock at record highs and critics showering the iPhone and recent iPod updates with praise, it almost seems as if nothing can go wrong for the company. Almost. On September 26, Amazon announced the immediate release of their MP3 download store, a clear competitor with Apple’s iTunes Store. But here’s the catch: Amazon’s store has no DRM whatsoever. That means you can play the tracks you download just about anywhere: Mac or PC, iTunes or Windows Media Player, iPod, Zen, or (god forbid) Zune. The Amazon store also has the upper hand on pricing: most songs are 99 cents, the same as iTunes, but they offer the top 100 tracks for a reduced price of 89 cents each. At a glance, it appears that the Amazon store trumps the iTS in just about every aspect. So let’s take a closer look at how Amazon’s new MP3 download store stacks up against the iTS.

How in the world do you share out your iCal to other people in your local network with full Read/Write privileges? For me this has been one of the biggest issues as a Mac-based Network/Systems Administrator. Up until today the workarounds have been spotty at best and haven’t always delivered the desired result. Now thanks to BusySync from BusyMac, all your problems have been solved - or at least those related to iCal.

To sweeten the deal, not only will BusySync share your iCal calendars, it also features an automated backup system that saves your calendars daily and keeps the last 10 backups for easy restoration.

Here at MacApper there are more than a couple of independent software developers who willfully donate their time writing about their experiences working with Mac. Today one of our writers (and all around good guy) Daniel Greg from the UK, showed me an application he has been hard at work on and it really knocked my socks off. Daniel, who’s just 18, told me his security tool BitClamp would change the way people do encryption on Mac, and from what I have just seen I know he is right.

RAGE software is a an experienced (since 1999) Mac software company specializing in web development and SEO tools for OS X. Last week I reviewed RAGE Button Design and it seemed a lot of you had some experience with the tool. In the review I had asked you what features you would most like to see - with the best five being picked out for a free license. With 20 commenters and 5 licenses being given away the odds are 25% on this one. Not bad!

It was a tough call to pick out just 5 of you, but here are the winners, in no particular order.

So there I was in a chat with several Mac enthusiasts having a lively discussion when I commented about the coverage for the Mac OS X and OS X Server in the business community. I still to this day can not believe how lacking the coverage is. In the chat, I decided to provide a quick history lesson which I will repeat here. While we are used to one company dominating the business desktop/server market, it has not always been that way. It comes as a surprise to many non-Mac users, but Apple actually outshines the other players in this market. Even to Mac users, it may be surprising at how much more Apple’s servers outshine the competitors than they do with their desktops.

In good old Macapper fashion we were able to get our hands on three licenses for LifeShaker thanks to the great people over at FunkyCloud. In order to be eligible to win, you must have posted a comment on our LifeShaker Review article telling the developers what you would most like to see in the next version of LifeShaker.

The results are in. RavenCub, Toni, and Chris A are the lucky winners and have each one a free license for LifeShaker. You all should be receiving an email from the developers at FunkyCloud shortly. Stay tuned as usual for more great reviews and giveaways, and be sure to subscribe to our feed so you don’t miss out!

As a UNIX administrator, I appreciate the BSD underpinnings of OS X. Many of the tools I use in my every day work are included in the OS, and can be managed in the same way as any of my Production servers.

The casual OS X user may not have intimate knowledge of the inner-workings of the terminal and may need to run any of a number of maintenance tasks or scripts that require access to the terminal and a knowledge of the structure of the filesystem. Enter Mac Janitor.

Last month I remember salivating heavily when TUAW unveiled a really detailed screencast of Pixelmator in action. If you hadn’t heard Pixelmator is a layer based image editor for OS X that promises to be a real thorn in the side to everyones favorite Adobe product, Photoshop. While that may or not be the case, Pixelmator attempts to hedge the gap between complex image manipulation tools like Photoshop, and, well, everything else. Does it get it right? Read on for my first impressions.

With the advent of digital music and podcasts, many people have stopped using their radios. While it is convenient to listen to what you want when you want, what ever happened to listening to your favorite DJ to learn about new tunes? Also, while podcasts have replaced talk radio for many people, there are still some great talk radio programs on the airwaves. Radioshift , which was just released yesterday by Rogue Amoeba, does all this and more.

Radioshift provides a user-friendly interface for finding, listening to, recording, and time-shifting internet radio. If you have a Griffin RadioShark Radioshift also provides these features for AM/FM radio.

Rogue Amoeba makes great Mac software to take care of all your audio needs. Some of their products include Fission, Airfoil, Audio Hijack, and Nicecast. Fission is for lossless audio editing (see our review). Airfoil allows you to send any audio to your AirPort Express (look for a review when version 3 is released). Audio Hijack Pro allows you to record any system sounds and Nicecast allows you to broadcast your music over the internet. I was lucky enough to get an interview with the CEO of Rogue Amoeba, Paul Kafasis.

We just love the close friendship between our dear friends Apple and Google. They keep giving us neat collaboration like the Google Maps iPhone App. Today’s reason to love the love comes to us from a post on Big G’s Official Gmail Blog. The Google Calendar team has worked with the Mobile team to create a custom tailored interface for mobile Safari users that makes checking out your Google Calendar dates and events easier than ever from your iPhone or iPod touch. This is certainly becoming a growing trend in the Web 2.0 scene and it’s great to see Google jumping on board.

Creating a minimalist home has its significant advantages. Not only does it reduce your stress levels and provide less distractions, it can also be more visually appealing. Hey, it’s also easier to maintain and keep clean too!

You might be wondering: what’s that nonsense got to do with Mac apps? Be patient; I’m getting there. Turns out, your Mac can be used to do a lot of nifty things other than browsing the worldwide intertubes. One such app is Alarm Clock Pro, which transforms your humble Mac into a capable bedside alarm.

We all know OS X has many tricks up its sleeve, but the built-in Apache web server is often overlooked. With a bit of fiddling, you can make your Mac host its very own website in just a few clicks.

Apache is the most common web server used on OS X. It is the industry standard and is actually the most widely used web server software available. While the nuts and bolts of Apache are out of the scope of this article, I’ll show you how to quickly set up the server, as well as make it internet accessible with an easy to remember free domain name.

If you’re like me, organization of tasks does not come easy. Luckily for us Mac users there are a plethora of organizational apps including LifeShaker from Funky Cloud. LifeShaker is unlike any other to-do application and makes remembering to do things easy with its fun and clean interface.

The application allows you to create goals and steps that must be completed for that goal to be accomplished. These goals are then divided into categories that are each given their own customizable color.

How often do you find yourself lazing around on a lonely Sunday just wishing you had pursued your high school dream of being a comic book artist? Okay, obviously the ability make killer comics on your Mac might not be for everyone, but if the need arises isn’t it nice to know there is one killer app to get the job done. Focusing on functionality and ease of use, Comic Life gives you numerous ways to explore your creativity - spice up your vacation snaps, tell a goofy story, or even create some great visual how-to guides.