Although we still think it’s a great app, Overflow has been said to have become somewhat obsolete with the introduction of Stacks in Leopard, so make sure you read our post from yesterday Is Stacks competition for Overflow?

Now onto the winners…

Cory Klingsporn, Emilcar, and XScout! Thank you all for commenting on the article for a chance to win – we have passed your email onto the developer so expect to here from them soon. Also be sure to subscribe to our feed here at MacApper so as not to miss out on any free OS X apps.

One feature that makes Thunderbird stand out is its support for RSS. It is nice to have all of your RSS feeds where your mail is, although I’ve not found this feature to be all that useful for me. I didn’t like the way it organized my feeds, and I just didn’t have the time to sort it all out. Checking my e-mail is something that usually should be done quickly. Having feeds there was a bad idea for me as getting sidetracked is usually inevitable. I now use Google Reader instead, because I prefer reading feeds while I am wasting time on other things on the internet.

Most of the e-mail features of Thunderbird aren’t too different from Mail’s; I just prefer the subtle things they’ve added to make it much easier. For example, when you’re creating an account, you can choose your account from a preset list, or you can and enter it all yourself. In my case, I used the Gmail preset that was available, so there was no need to enter all of the POP/IMAP information. Just this little option sped up the process substantially, and made it all that much more enjoyable. Though from what I have read able Mail.app in Leopard, it will do the same sort of thing. Also, I prefer seeing a progress bar when I send an email, instead of having to wait to hear that plane taking off in Mail.

Another great feature for users with overflowing inboxes: Thunderbird’s filtering system allows you to prioritize your emails based on certain parameters like the sender, subject, etc. This is definitely something that will come in handy. Depending on the filter you chose, Thunderbird can move the messages into a special folder, star the message, delete it, etc. There are many options available for this great feature. If you’re a very busy person, this will probably be one of the main reasons for you to switch from Mail. Thunderbird’s filtering system is similar to Mail’s rules.

The best feature of Thunderbird, however, is the plug-in system. Just like Firefox, if you are looking for something that you don’t have, it can be fixed via plugins. Although the selection of plugins is not nearly as wide as what Firefox offers, it’s still very respectable. Just the other day, I was looking for a way to archive my emails similar to how Gmail does. I managed to find Buttons!, which does just that and more. You can also customize the theme if you wish, just like Firefox.

I do have a few gripes though, such as the sounds. When you first start using it, the sound for new mail sounds like a regular Mac OS X alert, which is somewhat confusing. You can change that sound to the one used in Mail, but that seems to be the only sound you can modify at the moment; I couldn’t find a plugin for the other sounds. Just something minor, but do look out for it.

Overall, I recommend Thunderbird over Apple’s Mail. Although Mail is fairly decent, I believe Thunderbird makes things easier, and also packs more features. So, if you are looking for an alternative to Mail, this is where you should go. Our good friends at Mozilla make not only great browsers, but e-mail clients as well. Go download Thunderbird now; its totally free and open-sourced as well.

Overflow and Quicksilver have the same ideas to begin with, but once you look deeper in, they go their separate ways. Quicksilver is “a unified, extensible interface for working with applications, contacts, music, and other data as quoted from Blacktree's website. While Overflow, on the other hand, is designed solely to launch apps, which is why it is much better than Quicksilver.

If all you need is something to make it easy to launch applications and reduce clutter from your dock, this is Overflow, nothing less, nothing more. Overflow lives up to its application launcher name, and so does Quicksilver, but too much. Quicksilver is like the overachiever of app launchers, it does too much, to the point where sometimes it would just be easier to open up the program than do what you are trying to figure out in Quicksilver.

Overflow goes well with the Mac experience, fades in and out elegantly, with a nice reflection under the applications on a slightly transparent black background. Everything is very smooth, and does not interrupt until you want it to. You are able to have categories for each set of applications you have, or you can have all that you need under one category, and hide that menu, like I do. It is also able to be resized for the amount of applications you want it to hold in the window, and very easy to add, remove, and move around apps. All you have you do to is hit the edit button, move things around, drag an application out if you don't want it, and hit the edit button again and you are done. Application icons also have the option to be resized which, depending on which way you go, will make the window bigger or smaller. This can make it very accessible with big icons, or very small and out of your way with small icons.

Go give Overflow a try, and if you enjoy it, it will run you $14.95, which is a little steep for an application like this, but I have not run into any bugs or problems, it does its job well.

If you are still looking at the price of Overflow and feeling a little down, no worries! The amazing people from Stunt Software have given us 3 licenses to giveaway. To win, drop us a comment about what app launchers you use, and how Overflow would help to aid you in your workflow.

One of my favorite features is the transparency effect; it doesn't need a window behind it, but you can still resize it based on your preference. You can put an image on the back of the cards if the default blue gradient doesn’t float your boat. Overall, the game is very well done, and should be packaged with Mac OS X. Add this to your list of freeware Mac games.

Unfortunately, it does come with a couple of faults. While playing sometimes, a bug in the game will prevent you from moving a card somewhere, or clicking on something. You can usually get rid of the problem by clicking another card or something else. This is somewhat annoying because there’s no proper fix for it, especially when you’re close to winning.

A couple of other gripes are that when making the game very small, the cards seem to be cut off, making it look unnatural. Also, I wished it would come with more choices for the backs of the cards; there’s only one option, although you can also add your own images.

But do not let any of these things get you down, it’s still a game of Solitaire that’s very well done, and definitely something you will continue to use in your spare time. There’s no reason not to check out Solitaire XL.

It is definitely on its way to becoming a great game and there was a huge tech leap between the last version and this one. New textures, sounds, levels, less bugs, and more. I guarantee, once you start playing, you can’t quit until you have played at least 30 minutes. X-Moto sucks away your time, but it sure is a fun ride.

The Gameplay is roughly the same concept as other games such as the old Dirt Bike Game, that only works on older macs, and not the new Intel chips. The game is 2d, and you’re basically riding a motorcycle, trying to make it over hills and other obstacles. The goal of the game is to collect all of the apples (or sometimes other things in user created levels), and then to get to the flower, which will complete that level. The game is certainly not that easy though, because of the sensitivity of leaning back and forward, it is more about using the gas and brake to keep balance.

X-Moto is almost endless, and it comes with over 100 levels right out of the box. Also if you enable the downloading of user created levels you will have about 800+ levels immediately on hand. Having all of those levels gets frustrating though, because many of them are very hard to complete! I have only completed 54 out of 889 levels. Sometimes it will make you want to pull your hair out, but you can just move on to another level, and get back to the fun. That is what makes this game sticky for me, being able to skip a level, and do something else, and come back to it at another time.

The game is open-source, so you are able to download the code for the game and change it if you desire. There are also different themes, and hundreds of user created levels and mods for it. There is a level editor, but sadly there doesn’t seem to be a version for Mac. If you decide to download this game, which is free, make sure you get the newest version, there really is a huge difference between the last version, and the new one. Having said all of that there are still many bugs to work out with this game, and I had many problems trying to make the new version of it work, but I believe it had something to do with the video settings I had set.

Overall, X-Moto is a great game for race gamers or platform fans. Definitely check it out, here.