Your Files, Now with Less Pulp! File Juicer Reviewed
About a month ago the fine folks at Echo One updated File Juicer to version 4.9.8. File Juicer is a deceptively simple application that purports to extract, or juice, everything from anything. Simply drop any file onto the running application (or it’s Dock icon) and away it goes. For the most part, File Juicer is file agnostic. It really doesn’t care what you drag onto it. File Juicer examines the file and looks for common formats for images, audio, video, documents, or even plain text files inside.
File Juicer then saves the contents of the file to your desktop or to any other location on your Mac.
Apple Beware: Amazon Music Store
Many of us are dependent on Amazon for everything from books and video games to batteries and toilet paper. Nearly six months ago the online shopping behemoth launched their MP3 store amidst hopes of topping Apple in the music download arena. Besting Apple may prove an uphill battle, however. In the months following the Amazon MP3 store launch, iTunes became the number 1 music retailer in the US.
Despite iTunes’ big lead, Amazon still has a lot going for it. If you haven’t yet made a purchase via the Amazon MP3 store here is what you’ve been missing out on: Amazon sells high quality, non-DRM MP3 downloads for less than a buck each.
PhotoPresenter Giveaway Results
Last week I reviewed PhotoPresenter, the premiere slideshow creator on the Mac, and promised our readers a chance to win 1 of 3 software licenses. Without further ado, the winners are Richard, Henry, and rmaspero. The fortunate 3 will receive further instructions via email.
Congrats to the lucky few, and a big thank you to all of our readers who participated in the giveaway! I’d also like to thank Simon from Arizona Software for kindly donating the licenses. PhotoPresenter is one of the biggest bargains available on the Mac. Even if you didn’t win, buy a license today for only 8 bucks from the PhotoPresenter download page.
iShrink Giveaway Results
Last week I reviewed iShrink, a promising file compression app, and committed to reward our readers with the chance to win 1 of 5 licenses. Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? The winners are Sathya, Louis, Oleksander, Joe Turner, and dex. Congratulations! The lucky 5 will receive further instructions via email. A huge thank you goes out to Mark and the crew over at CodeFuzion who graciously provided the licenses for our giveaway and to everyone else who chipped in their $0.02.
Even if you didn’t win, you can purchase an iShrink license from CodeFuzion for the very reasonable price of $15. Happy shrinking!
PhotoPresenter 3.3 Review and Giveaway
Slideshows sure have come a long way. As a kid, I remember whenever my dad hauled out the old Kodak Carousel – it was a guaranteed trip to Snoozeville. From vacation photos to pictures of my 5-year-old’s dance recitals, I’ve become guilty of the same heinous slideshow crimes as my dad. Thanks to PhotoPresenter, however, this doesn’t have to be the case.
PhotoPresenter, from Arizona Software, allows you to easily create dynamic slideshows from your photos, movies, and music. With PhotoPresenter you can browse the contents of your hard drive for media to use in your slideshows. However, where PhotoPresenter really shines is with its built-in iPhoto integration. Choose photos and videos by their Events tag or from those you’ve tucked carefully away in albums, or even from existing iPhoto slideshows.
iShrink, Therefore I Am
For as long as hard drives have been bogged down by large files, file compression apps have been there to help reduce the size of the clutter. New from developer CodeFuzion comes iShrink 3.03 and it is ready to reduce the size of your files and free up some disk space.
At first glance iShrink sports a clean and simple drag-and-drop interface. Drag any file you want to compress onto the app and voila–instant shrinkage! Because iShrink supports batch jobs, you can drag multiple files onto to the app at the same time and each file will be compressed individually. Conversely, you can drag one or more compressed files onto iShrink and the contents of the archive will be extracted.
Caffeine 1.01: Now with Improved Menubar Icons!
Freshly brewed from developer Lighthead Software comes the Caffeine 1.01. It wasn’t all that long ago that we first highlighted Caffeine here at MacApper, but I assure you, this app is so great it warrants another mention.
Caffeine is one of many simple, little apps available for the Mac that does one thing and does it well. In this case, Caffeine prevents your Mac from dimming your screen, activating your screensaver, and going to sleep.
Old School Gaming on the Modern Mac with ScummVM
ScummVM version 0.11.0 (â€Your Palindromeâ€) was released recently for Mac OS X. What is ScummVM you ask? Well, simply put, it is a collection of several gaming engines all wrapped up in a tidy package that enables you to play yesterday’s classic adventure games on today’s modern systems.
Back in the days when DOS still ruled the earth, adventure Games like The Secret of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle captured my imagination, captivated my sense of humor, and challenged my noggin. Characters in adventure games were funny, quirky, and often a little nerdy (I’m looking at you, Bernard). As a future geek myself, it was much easier for me to relate to the affable Guybrush Threepwood than it was to the grim nameless marine of Doom.
Final App Added to MacHeist 2 Bundle: VectorDesign!
Yesterday, TweakerSoft’s VectorDesign was revealed as the final app for the current MacHeist 2 Bundle. As Pixelmator is to Adobe PhotoShop, VectorDesign is to Adobe Illustrator. For those of us who want to be able to create and edit vector graphics (.svg, .eps, etc.), but don’t want to spend several hundred dollars, VectorDesign looks to fill the void.
MacHeist aims to bring the best shareware from the brightest independent Mac software developers to the masses. We’ve already highlighted the contents of the bundle, but since then all of the original apps have been unlocked – Speed Download has been included, and two games from FreeVerse have been added as well. So now VectorDesign has been included as well.
