WhatSize: Helping Nerds Overcompensate Since 1992
Don’t try to hide it — we know you brag about your huge Downloads folder to your online buddies every single day. You know exactly how many gigabytes you have, and probably how many actual bits that translates to. But you want to know more, you say? Well, WhatSize can help.
WhatSize is a neat little tool that can tell you exactly what’s taking up so much space on your hard drive. Starting from a screen that looks very similar to the column view in Finder, you can drill down and see how big each folder and file on your disk is. This can actually be quite daunting, but WhatSize uses a color-coding system to indicate the comparative size of the files and also sorts them with the biggest ones at the top.
VisualHub: More Codecs Than You Can Shake a Stick At
With the Internet moving more and more towards a full multimedia experience every day, it’s understandable that one of the biggest things people want to spread for the world to see is video. Sure, there are sites like YouTube or MetaCafé that let users easily upload videos, but they don’t offer a lot of control over video size and quality. The real solution for pros is to encode your own video. One great solution for doing this on the Mac is VisualHub.
Drive-in: Give Your DVD Drive a Rest
I remember that moment after I got my first iPod when it suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t have to lug around a huge binder full of CDs in my car anymore. Since that time, every time I buy a CD, it gets ripped to my computer and then put away. That kind of revolution is what made the iPod what it is today, and many people have tried to take that concept and apply it to DVD movies as well. Flip4Mac, the creators of the Windows Media codec for QuickTime, have created the application Drive-in to attempt just that.
FotoMagico: Slideshows Made Easier
I’ve been editing video for a long time in various forms, and more recently I’ve been employed by several family members and acquaintances to make photo slideshows for events such as weddings and birthday parties. While not a particularly difficult task, it can be frustrating if you don’t have the right tools. Way back when I was on a PC, I used Pinnacle Studio video editing software to do the job because it was cheap and relatively easy to use. Now that I’m on a Mac, I’ve found that iPhoto and iMovie have roughly the same level of customizability: very little. That’s where FotoMagico from Boinx Software comes in.
HandBrake 0.8.5b1 Released
A while ago, we did an exclusive report about the development fork of the DVD ripping/encoding app HandBrake forking back into the original codebase. At the time, this app was known as MediaFork, and we reported that the next version of the app would soon return under the original HandBrake name. That time is now.
The dev team at HandBrake have packed a slew of new features into this beta release, including surround sound and AppleTV support, among many others. Along with these fancy new features come a ton of minor tweaks to make the app just that much better. The devs also report that we should expect to see an updated 0.8.5b2 version shortly with even more features.
Speed Download: Just Like in 1997, but Better
Remember the Internet ten years ago? Remember dial-up? Remember when you had to use a download manager to effectively get two files at the same time? Luckily, those days are over. For the most part, we’re all using modern browsers on high-speed internet, so we don’t need download managers anymore… right? Suffice it to say, there are still some out there, including Speed Download from YazSoft.
The Gems of Apple’s Development Tools
One of the greatest things about OS X is how fun and easy it is to build applications that can do some amazing things. Apple makes this very accessible with Xcode and their other development tools freely available to anyone who wants them. But even if you’re not a developer, there are some really cool things buried within the Apple Development Tools. Here are a few of those little gems that I found while poking around the in the Developer directory:
Showdown: Desktop Weather Apps
Ah, the weather. For many of us, the fascination of what the weather will be like today, tomorrow, or next week can drive our entire day. For this reason, there are dozens of weather websites and a handful of weather widgets out there. But what about those of us that want weather information right on our desktop at all times, even without having to pull up Safari or Dashboard? Today I present for your reading pleasure a showdown of desktop weather applications. Read on…
Call Recorder: Cheaper, Easier Skype Recording
If you want to record, for example, a podcast or an important phone call over Skype, you’ve probably looked at either WireTap Pro or Audio Hijack Pro. These apps are great and powerful for much more than just Skype, but if you want absolute simplicity and all you really want to do is record both sides of a Skype conversation, Ecamm’s Call Recorder for Skype, just upgraded to version 2.0, may be the best option for you.
TuneFlex AUX: The Road to In-Car iPod Bliss
Ever since the iPod became “the next big thing,” people have been looking for more and more ways to use them. With more than 70% of cars produced today having iPod capabilities, it’s clear that people are beginning to use the devices more in their cars than they do with headphones—that’s certainly the case with me. But what if your car isn’t iPod–ready? There are four issues to deal with to make it happen: playing your iPod through your car stereo, keeping your iPod somewhere safe and secure, controlling your iPod without taking your eyes off the road, and keeping the juice flowing to keep your tunes playing. Griffin’s new TuneFlex AUX brings a solution to all four of these problems.
