Archive for January, 2008

I remember way back in the olden days (circa 1999) driving into the city meant an hour of sitting in traffic in the back of a taxi, likely spending some quality time reading a good book or magazine. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good read, but enduring that commute can be a lot less boring when you throw podcasts into the mix. Best of all there is some really amazing stuff out there, including some very professional video based shows, and of course I needn’t mention that all of this is completely gratis.

We’ve covered Leopard modifications and mods many times before, (culminating in the Ultimate Leopard Customization Guide) but LeopardMOD is worth posting about, even almost 3 months after Leopard’s release.

For those of you who haven’t seen it before, LepardMOD is basically a preference pane for those “hidden features” in Leopard. LeopardMOD is the ultimate leopard customization app.

It does everything that the smaller apps do, only all together and in one place. It doesn’t just change the dock from 3D to 2D, it also does other common and not-so common modifications to the Finder, Dashboard, Menu Bar, and more. Here’s what LeopardMOD does:

We have reviewed a few different RSS readers here at MacApper before, like NewsFire and Cyndicate, but the one that many people tout above all, is NetNewsWire. NetNewsWire v3.1 is a very mature application, and has a few features that set it apart from the competition. We have mentioned NetNewsWire a few different times on MacApper, but this time it is more of a full review.

Very recently, NewtNewsWire 3.1 was released free for all Mac users. If you have been using a free RSS reader up until now, and had been eying NNW, this is as good a time as ever to give it a spin.

I like to obsess over things. As soon as I find something interesting enough, I’ll invest a good ninety percent of my time just to get the hang of it. Old school Gillette razors, chess, hold ‘em and Jeet Kune Do have all had their share of my attention over the past few years, but this Christmas I avoided a disaster.

If you can feel where I’m going with this click the jump.

I’m Joel Falconer, a musician and writer and of course, Mac user. I was recently signed on at MacApper to provide you with news, up-to-date information and practical tips and tutorials for musicians who use the Mac.

Late last year Apple released Logic Studio 8 and we’re all still getting to know it, from the upgrade of the audio workhorse Logic Pro, to the newest app, MainStage. What better way to start off this column than by discussing Logic Studio’s newest features?

Impatience seems to be something of a virtue to many an iPhone or iPod touch owner in this day and age. Constant demand for new “JailBreaks” to the new software updates is another step in the somewhat endless cycle of new updates that break JailBreaks, and then finding the exploits necessary and re-JailBreaking again. Well, it seems as though the latest iPhone/iTouch update has indeed been broken, and until now its been super difficult to do, but today that has changed for the better.

One of the most anticipated simulation games in years will have a place on the Mac when Electronic Arts releases Spore later this year.

EA announced the Mac release at MacWorld last week along with a demo on display at the expo, and it somehow slipped under the radar.

Spore is a simulation game on steroids. Will Wright, the game’s chief designer, is a pioneer in the genre, having developed the city planner’s dream game, SimCity, and the bestselling life simulator, The Sims. Spore lets you craft a universe. From creating life, watching it evolve and building civilizations to customizing entire planets, players have full control.

Sometimes digital devices can get in the way of your creative ability. When you want to paint or draw on your computer, often it is tedious and cumbersome, and the results are mediocre at best.

It is just too hard to find an application that accurately makes digital painting as easy as painting in real life. That is, until I found ArtRage.

Recently we did a review and then later a giveaway for 2 licenses of Drawit by Pieter Omvlee. Drawit is a vector based image editing and drawing application with a really intuitive and Mac’ish interface.

We got a good response to the contest so first of all thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion. This time around we actually got the developer to choose the winners, so without further adieu, the winners of the licenses of Drawit (valued at €29/$42 each) are…

Superdotman (comment #12) and Patrick (comment #19).

Macs don’t have many games, I think that’s a fact that we all can agree on but Fastforward Software is changing that with their new game Galder, a gem matching game with a really unique twist unlike any out there!

Gem games are a dime a dozen now and I’m sure most of you are thinking, “What exactly could you do to make a gem game any different that the gem dropping, color matching games of the past?”

Not too long ago, Transmission, the best torrent client for Mac OS X, hit version 1.0. While a bunch of new features were added into the mix, one of the large ones missing was a web interface for the client.

Windows (and Linux, if you know what you’re doing) torrent client, µTorrent, has had this as an optional feature for quite some time now. Now, thanks to Clutch, you can control your bittorrent downloads from just about anywhere.

It’s the New Year, and I’m sure many of you reading this have gone through the routine of setting those familiar resolutions to improve yourselves in 2008.

One of the most common of these goals is to ‘get fit’ with many people setting a target such as running the London Marathon or completing an Iron Man challenge.

Unfortunately, the hardest part of sticking to these self-promises is the ability to stay motivated. After running the same 10-mile route for three weeks it’ll end up being as mind-numbing as the commute to work. Sometimes you might find a little shortcut or diversion that keeps the exercise interesting, but more often than not you’ll never record it and revert back to the boring route the next time you exercise. Berbie Software has a solution to this dilemma, with the excellent TrailRunner; now at version 1.6.

As businesses and schools move more and more into the digital age, presentations and lectures are more commonly being recorded and stored electronically for future use.

I personally attend many presentations at work where someone is at the back of the room with a video camera running to capture the presenter, his/her presentation on the overhead and the delivery that goes with it.

While this adds immense value for reuse of the presentation, the quality is often poor, and in many cases, the presentation itself is illegible. ProfCast, from Humble Daisy, is a great application for capturing live presentation content and audio in a format that can be easily published and distributed via a number of open channels.
ProfCast is able to record either PowerPoint or Keynote presentations in-time with the presenters audio.

I love to cook; I also love to have my MacBook in the kitchen with me when I’m cooking. I have a bunch of recipes bookmarked on del.icio.us and I usually just prop my MacBook up on a chair while I cook.

Unfortunately, I hate going back and forth between what I’m doing and my laptop, because I’m afraid I’ll spill something on it. Recently Doc Logic here at MacApper covered Measuring Cup, a free recipe manager for OS X.

Since we previously put the MacBook Air in perspective, it was high time we talked about the price. Starting at $1799, the MacBook Air may not float in everyone’s boat.

Yes, the Macbook Air is quite sexy. I think that a lot of the Apple products get instant “wow” power, based on great design, and ease of use. But in the long run, is the Macbook Air a laptop that YOU would buy? Is it powerful enough for your tasks?

Let’s take it to the polls to get an idea.