Author Archive

Back in February, we reviewed an application called Freeze Frame, from Elgebar Studios. A few days ago, a program by the name of Bokeh (which is replacing Freeze Frame) was released by Ollie Wagner and Geoff Pado. While we here at MacApper have have reviewed apps that cause a computer or a person to complete tasks faster, we have never reviewed an application that can do both. Bokeh is that program.

Last year there were rumors being spread about the end of InputManagers in Leopard. The rumors contained horrifying details about the end of InputManager and SIMBL. One developer, Emanuele Vulcano, developed PlugSuit, a new way to apply SIMBL InputManagers. This guarantees that these plug-ins would not meet their demise. Although the rumors turned out to be false, this development ensures the existence of application plug-ins for years to come.

The DMG file format dates as far back as Apple System 7. In Mac OS X 10.3, Apple “wow”ed the world, including me, by creating a faster way to mount disk images upon one’s desktop. As of not so long ago, Apple released Mac OS X 10.5, but this almighty revision of the Mac operating system did not include any faster ways to mount disk images, so a developer at Liquid Lunch decided to take matters into its own hands. He created Flashmount for this generation of “multi-taskers” and “speed demons”.

With the release of Leopard came over 300 new features. Some of these new features includes Time Machine, Screen Sharing, and Quick Look. I find Quick Look to be the most useful addition to Mac OS X. Upon installing Leopard, Mac users had one gripe — they complained that Quick Look could not handle all of the file extensions that they used in their daily lives. To solve this problem, developers created plug-ins for Quick Look in order to make it more compatible with different file extensions.

Recently I published an article describing all of the cool things one can do with Apple’s built-in “Grab” application. The article included the majority of the modifier keys available while taking a screenshot, and I also described what uses there are for taking screenshots. The one explanation I did not go into enough detail about is the fact that screenshots can be used to teach someone far away how to complete a task on their Mac. GrabUp makes screenshots one hundred fold easier to share.

Being a blogger for MacApper gives me the chance to become skilled in the art of using Apple’s “Grab” feature. This mighty feature allows its controller to take screenshots of any part of the computer. With Leopard’s arrival, more interesting features have come to grab, assisting my fellow knowledgeable bloggers. We would like to share with you the shortcuts necessary in order to get the best screenshot possible from your Apple computer.

AppZapper is a great program for all Mac users. Before AppZapper, people always complained that there was never enough room left on their hard drives. When deleting a program with AppZapper, the program is deleted along with its preference files.

This task is not performed without a price. Some people, myself included, do not like to buy one-click applications. I would like to introduce to you the free AppCleaner and AppTrap.

iPods are the one device that define today’s generation. As we all know, iTunes is Apple’s application for organizing media and importing it onto an iPod. When I bought my first iPod, I quickly realized iTunes was lacking some easy tools for batch tagging my MP4 videos. After time, without proper tagging, the MP4s in your iTunes Library can become disorganized and impossible to find when imported on the iPod. The command line program Atomic Parsley fixed this problem, but was unusable by some less intense computer users. After time, different GUIs were created from “Atomic Parsley”, all with slight differences in features. Today I will explain MetaX, vID Infiltr8, and Lostify.

Recently, a member of the Macintosh community who goes by the name of twenty08 released a new version of QuickShareIt (QSI). This version has been completely redone from the ground up and offers many more cool new features. If you didn’t know, QSI is known for its drag and drop file upload system. All one needs to do in order to upload a file is to drag the files onto the QuickShareIt dock icon and wait for the upload to complete. Files are uploaded to QuickShareIt’s servers and a link to the file(s) is copied to your clipboard.

Websites like Rapidshare and MegaUpload are used all over the world. They allow people to upload files for anyone else to download. This can make it easier to share home videos and pictures with family and friends.

While this is great, some online sharing services, like Rapidshare for instance, limit upload file size. MacHacha is a very useful utility that can solve that wee problem.

Diaries are used by people of all ages to keep track of what they have done in their lives. In this era of technology, everything is becoming digital, so why should your diary be stuck in the stone age? Mémoires is the diary of the new age.

With Mémoires, keeping track of your past is easy. After selecting a date, all one needs to do is push the plus button, and begin writing. After time, all the entries begin to add up.

In order to stay on top of society, you need to be organized. Face it, the more organized you are, the better you can handle what ever life decides to throw at you, whether it be apples or lemons.

For as long as I can remember, people have tried to create solutions for the world’s chaos and disorder. Daily planners are great for staying organized, and one of them happens to be Check Off.

I, like many other Apple computer users, buy a lot of third party software. These wonderfully useful programs made by all sorts of people make using my Mac a real pleasure. Developers need some kind of compensation for their work, so they charge a little for their programs. The creators normally use a system involving license keys. While this system does help protect against software hackers, it creates a “key” that has to be kept safe somewhere. After buying several programs, the serial numbers start to add up. Enter RapidoSerial.

When .Mac was first released, it was something that some were wishing for. After purchasing it, you received special promotions, an email address, your own website, and many other neat things.

One of the many great perks that came with getting a .Mac account is the iDisk. The iDisk can be thought of as a virtual hard drive. Dragging files into the iDisk creates a backup by moving them to a server based hard drive, keeping your senstitive data not only centralized but safe from local disk crashes and other folly.

What do you do if you’re too cheap to buy a .Mac account?

1Passwd is the single best password manager for Mac. Said manager contains many useful features that improve the Internet experience. With easy access to this program (via plugins) from Safrai, Firefox, Flock, Camino, OmniWeb, DEVONAgent, and NetNewsWire, the possibilities are endless. If 1Passwd’s great functionality can save me time while surfing the Web, I’m positive it can do the same for you.