Fortunately for us, though, there’s hope. Here are some apps that, if the rumblings are to be believed, may see some solid releases soon:

Delicious Library 2.0
This is the long-awaited update to the library management software first released in 2004, and is easily the most highly anticipated Mac shareware app of all time. AppleInsider posted an exclusive in depth preview of the Leopard-only update to the application that spawned the “Delicious Generation.” The next version includes a brand new Leopard-style interface, as well as some great new features such as publishing your collection as a snazzy website. For more screenshots and details, check out the AppleInsider post.

AppZapper 2.0
This is the drop dead simple app that deletes applications and their related files in one fell swoop. According to developer Austin Sarner, “In all seriousness, AppZapper 2 is coming along well and I’m excited to get it out. Stay tuned.” A teaser page on the AppZapper website suggests a release this summer.

The “I Like Olives” Application
Although there hasn’t been any activity on the website since last summer, in my recent interview with Sophia Teutschler, of Sophiestication, the developer of CoverSutra, she mentioned that she is actively working on it with some Mac shareware legends, saying:
“Right now I'm very busy working on the ILikeOlives app, which I'm doing together with Wolfgang Bartelme, Austin Sarner and John Casasanta. I won't tell what the app is all about, but I can tell that it will be one of those apps you can't live without after using it.” (link to full interview)

The My Dream App Apps
No list is complete without these three elusive in-the-works applications.

What apps are you looking forward to?

The first thing you notice when you open the app is the “Miro Guide.”

This is a lot like iTunes’ front page. You see featured and popular content, as well as a list of categories to browse a bit deeper. At the moment there are 3726 channels to choose from, but you can also add any video RSS feed, podcast, or video blog. Miro also plays the video files on your hard drive, whether they’re in Quicktime, Windows Media, MPEG, H.264, DivX, or AVI format.

If that’s not enough content for you, Miro has built-in YouTube searching support. It also enables you to download the videos you find — something you can’t do from YouTube’s website.

On top of it all, Miro supports BitTorrent. Many people use this in combination with BitTorrent RSS feeds of network TV shows to automatically download every episode of their favorite shows the night after they air. Editors Note: We do not endorse the use BitTorrent (or anything else) to download copyrighted material as it is illegal. This same automatic downloading works with any source. To be safe, you can set how much space Miro is allowed to use, and it will stop downloading new videos when it reaches that point. If you want, you can also set a time period until videos expire and are automatically deleted.

Miro has some really great features, even if it isn’t the most well-designed app out there. Many of the buttons aren’t the standard interface elements we’re used to in Mac OS X, a common side-effect of apps that are offered in PC and Linux versions. All in all, though, the user experience doesn’t suffer too much; it may not be as sleek as the “true” Mac applications out there, but it’s still very usable.

The company behind it also represents a good cause. “Miro is a free, open-source software project led by a non-profit organization. It’s a platform that benefits everyone by keeping online video open. Our organization isn’t controlled by venture capitalists or stockholders, which means we always put our users first.”

As you’ve probably guessed by now, Miro is absolutely free.

The browser’s main inspiration is the iTunes sidebar. That list includes all of your tabs, bookmarks, RSS feeds, downloads, and more.

Other fresh ideas include putting web videos into a Quick Look-style pop-out window, and a Time Machine themed History interface. This is still very much in the “idea” stage, so don’t expect anything to come out of it very soon, but I post the mockups here out of interest. Hopefully they’ll become a reality in the not-so-distant future.

Clutter-free interface and pop-out video.

Time Machine inspired History viewing

To see more screenshots and to read more about this idea, check out Sebastiaan’s orginal post and his follow up. Would you use this browser? What do you see that you really like? What would you change?

Note: All images in this post were created by and are the property of Sebastiaan de With.

I tried it out, was promptly confused by the interface, and turned off by the price tag. Now Apple has introduced Aperture 2, I thought I’d take another test drive. I’m a happy with iPhoto, so I went into the free trial with a few things in mind.

• What does Aperture have that iPhoto doesn’t?
• What does Aperture not have that iPhoto does?
• Would Aperture be worth the $199?

The first thing I noticed about Aperture when I opened it up was the unique interface. Everything is tweaked from the usual OS X interface for a sleeker, grayer, more professional feel. This includeds “a custom menu color scheme (dark grey graphite-ish), a custom window bevel width, custom window controls, and a different rounded corner radius.” This definitely takes some getting used to. Not so much that things look different, but that there are lots of little buttons, some of which with functions that aren’t quite clear from looking at them.

So then I started looking at what Aperture has over iPhoto. Mainly I was looking at the editing tools, which are quite more numerous than those of iPhoto. I’m not going to pretend that I have a good grasp on all of them, but they are definitely more sophisticated. As well as many more sliders to mess around with, you can also nudge them decimal by decimal. These options are available from the left side of the usual interface, or from a different HUD window that is mainly useful for the fullscreen mode.

Another great tool is the “Loupe” that shows you a certain part of the image really close up.

Aperture definitely beats out iPhoto with its editing tools. It also has “Projects,” which you can use pretty much the same way as “Events.” iPhoto though, wins on some of the more “fun” aspects of photo management. Aperture has slideshows, but all you can do is choose from a few effects and watch it go without music. iPhoto also wins when it comes to ordering Greeting Cards, Calendars, and Photo Books.

So that brings me to the final question, is Aperture worth $199?

Sorry to be so wishy-washy, but the only real answer is: it depends. If you’re a professional, then hell yeah it is. If you’re just taking pictures of your kids at their birthday parties, then probably not. As for me? I’m going to finish out my 30-Day Trial. If I really get the hang of the editing tools and see a difference in how my photos look, then maybe I will plunk down the cash.

Are any of you photographers? Will you purchase Aperture 2? Post a link so I can see your photos as well. I’ll start it out with my Flickr page, including the example photo I used.

In just a couple easy steps you’ll have all sorts of fun new fonts to play around with, and you’ll have no more excuses to use Comic Sans or Papyrus.

Step 1:
You first have to find the fonts online to download. Dafont and Fonts 500 are two great resources for free fonts. Almost all the fonts you’ll find are in the TrueType (TTF) format, which Apple created in the ’80s and is used widely on both Macs and PCs to this day.

Step 2:
It’s a good thing I’m not paid by the word, because Apple has made this far too easy. Double click on the .ttf file and Font Book will pop open and ask you to install it. One more click and you’re done! The font will now appear in the fonts window in every program you use. On a PC you would need to restart programs like Photoshop to see the new fonts, but not in OS X, they should be instantly available.

Be Aware: Although these fonts are free to download and use for personal projects, the creators may have some restrictions on their commercial use. I put all the fonts I download a separate folder in Font Book so I’ll remember to check before I use in a way that is potentially against its terms of use.

I’ve spent a lot of time collecting fonts, and I’ve posted some of my favorites here, here, and here if you’re interested.

If you look closely there are really tons of features in this cat that got lost in the crowd. I’m talking about the little enhancements that aren’t flashy or revolutionary, but are useful, fine-tuned, or actually improve or enhance the user experience.

Right after the jump is a list of ten that you might not have come across yet.

1. iChat Recording. After getting your buddy’s permission, video and audio chats can be recorded and saved.
2. iChat Invisibility. This was the only thing keeping me using Adium. Go online and talk only to the people you want to. No more getting bombarded with chats from people you’d rather not waste your time with.
3. Preview PDF Manipulation. Now you can add or remove pages from a PDF document by simple drag and drop. Especially useful for merging several documents together.
4. QuickLook Multiple Files. Select a few files and hit the spacebar. Especially useful for videos and pictures. You can go through them like a slideshow, or click on the Light Table view to see them laid out in a grid.
5. Mosaic and Collage Screen Savers. Leopard has some great new screen savers. Core Animation has allowed them to do some crazy things with your photos. Mosaic shows you one photo, and then zooms slowly outwards from a grid of other photos that make a second photo, which in turn is part of a third one, and so on. If you don’t understand it take a look at this.
6. Drag and Drop Tabs in Safari. Not only can you rearrange tabs, but you can also drag them in and out of the window itself. Drag one away to make a new window, or into another window to add it.
7. Space Bumping. Drag a window all the way to the edge of a screen to “bump” it into the adjacent space.
8. Spotlight Calculator. Type anything from simple arithmetic to logarithms and it’ll give you the answer right below. It even knew that sin(pi)=0 and ln(log(1)) = -infinity. Also type a word in Spotlight and it’ll define it for you.
9. Autosave in TextEdit. Pick an interval to automatically save your work as you go. I can’t say I’ve ever wished I had this option as I don’t think TextEdit has ever crashed on me, but it’s certainly nice to have.
10. Scrolling in an unselected window. Position your cursor over any window, selected or not, and you can scroll through with your mouse’s wheel. This may sound trivial, but try it once and you’ll be using it constantly. I used it myself to type this article, scrolling through Apple’s page while typing in a separate window.

What Leopard gems have you found? What is the biggest change Leopard has made in the way you use your Mac?

What everyone is missing in all this however, is that the people this notebook is targeted towards couldn’t care less about any of that stuff. Let me break it down for you right after the jump.

It’s expensive and the battery isn’t removable. Are we talking about the iPod and the iPhone again? Because those products are the same way, and they were complete disasters, right? And as for the people who like to bring an extra battery with them on trips, isn’t that defeating the exact purpose of an ultraportable computer?

It doesn’t have firewire. Firewire is now only common with video cameras and hard drives. The people with MacBook Airs aren’t buying them for video editing. And the consumer-level cheaper hard drives are nearly all USB.

It doesn’t have ethernet. WiFi is nearly ubiquitous. In the 5-6 years I’ve owned a Mac, I have never once accessed the internet via ethernet. Maybe some of you have, but the few people that need it can buy the dongle.

But seriously, optical drive?! This seems crazy at first. The true downside here is using discs on-the-go. All other burning and installing can be done on the reasonably priced external drive. The only real sacrifice is DVDs. People will have to think ahead and rip them with Handbrake. But in the grand scheme of things, think back. When was the last time you used your optical drive? When was the last time you used it away from home?

Overall the reason this product is getting bashed online is because it’s not meant for the intense Mac followers (read: fanboys). It’s slimmed down and streamlined for people who just want a computer to go online, write papers, and listen to music. It is also aimed squarely at business professionals. Today I heard a group of high school seniors talking about how perfect it would be for college next year.

It may not have all the features that everyone wants, and it may be a little expensive, but it’s damn slick and enough for most people. Sound familiar? Apple is shooting for another iPod star with this notebook.

I disagree with James because I think the networks are a little smarter than they are normally given credit. It is a very good point that James makes that they would hate to have an easy way for us to get shows for free. However, they also know that everyone and their grandma already owns a TiVo, so that ship has sailed. DVRs aren’t like piracy to the networks. They are actually trying to adapt to them, rather than fighting an unwinnable war against them, a la the RIAA and MPAA. Take a look at all the free episodes available on the networks’ websites and on Hulu; no question these companies (dragging their feet or not) are changing. From their perspective, it really shouldn’t matter that one more company has jumped on the DVR bandwagon, even if it’s one that they do business with.

Digging a little deeper, it is actually a good thing for them to have Apple be the one with DVRs in people’s homes. But you say, the people who buy the Apple TV are probably the same ones that buy shows on iTunes. Now they’ll all stop buying right? Well, yes and no. Sure they won’t keep on buying each episode of a running show; they’ll record those. But as for the shows’ earlier seasons, those will still sell just as well. And putting a DVR in the Apple TV makes it a worthwhile purchase for many people who never considered buying the light-on-the-features first generation machine, definitely a major plus for Apple’s “hobby”. I know I’ll buy one the day they put a DVR in it.

So, now this new money-losing, network killing, Apple TV is in the hands of many more viewers, but guess what, it’s not only a DVR. It also has the ability to buy tv shows and rent movies. So now the networks have a great salesman in the living rooms of people across the country. Most companies’ DVRs have nothing to do with the networks, but Apple’s will actually make them money. I think that’s something they could get on board with. Think of it, if someone is sitting watching tv and there’s nothing on or in the DVR, they might just pop open iTunes with their remote, and buy an episode of a new show a friend told them about, or rent a movie. Just like that, as an offset to decreased iTunes sales where people record the shows instead, the ease of use of iTunes in the living room will bring in far more sales.

James may be right, Apple’s entanglements with the networks could prevent them from doing what customers clearly want. I do think, however, that Apple can explain to the networks why this would be a good thing for everyone. It could be the networks’ last chance to be a part of the DVR trend, rather than just try to adapt to it as an outside force.

All of my favorite tips are posted after the jump. Let’s save some power today shall we?

Screen Savings

First go to the “Energy Saver” section of System Preferences. In the second drop down box you can simply choose “Better Energy Savings” and the sliders below will shift to be more conservative about how your computer uses resources.

Your display will turn off after 5 minutes, so it shouldn’t interfere with your work, but will also start saving energy soon after you walk away. Also, the actual computer itself doesn’t doze off for another 5 minutes, so a quick flick of the mouse and the computer is instantly wide awake within a full 10 minutes of inactivity. Another point to note is that you should put your hard disk(s) to sleep when possible (check that little box on the bottom). Not only will this save energy, but it will also help your hard drive last longer. One caveat though, is that if you often come back to your computer soon after the HD shuts down, this could actually have an adverse affect when it it started and stopped frequently.

One disadvantage to this plan is illustrated by the bright yellow “!” caution symbol; you won’t have any time to display a fancy screen saver in the 5 minutes you leave your screen on. If you really like your screen saver, you could have it go for the 5 minutes before your whole computer goes to sleep, but the display is a big electricity hog, so have it turned off as soon as possible.

Unlimited Paper in a Paperless World

Have you ever printed a several-page document and thought about all the extra paper wasted? One good way to save paper is by choosing a smaller font, to minimize the number of pages needed. Also, you can choose to print in black and white, or lower the ink volume to conserve your pricey ink cartridges.

General Tips

• Turn off your Mac if you’re not using it for a few days
• Always recycle your electronics
• Don’t turn your Mac on and off every night, this wastes more energy than having it sleep for those hours
• Turn off Bluetooth and WiFi if you aren’t using them. This goes a long way in getting better battery life as well
• Email rather than Fax

What are you doing to go Green?

The best part is the new toolbar which definitely goes a long way to making the app easier to use, as the app had been quite average looking in past versions. Now form matches up with function!

Handbrake’s main strength lies in the flexibility of it’s features. You can choose exactly the frame rate and resolution if you want, as well as many other options, or you can simply choose from a list of preset options for popular devices, including everything from the iPod to the PS3. If you’ve been looking for an easy way to back up your DVD collection, or take it on the road with you, look no further. Handbrake is available for free here.

And, you know… don’t steal movies.

1. Due Dates
Putting in due dates for iCal “to-do’s” is far too cumbersome to be worth your time. Instead, create 7 new tasks with the name of each day of the week in all caps. They’ll show up with your real tasks, and you can use them as dividers to keep track of what day you need to do things. Make them in a different calendar with a black color so they stand out. Then, you can sort your tasks by putting them under the day you do them, and above the day they’re due.

2. Take a Shortcut
To get the full potential of the app, make sure you know how to quickly get things done. ⌘+K makes a new task, and ⌘+N makes a new event.

3. Get the Big Picture
Month view is the only way to go. Week view and Day view are way too zoomed in on your schedule. Is your day really so complicated that you need to see it in an hour-by-hour break down? Put the time for your event in the description, that way you can see it at a glance from the broader view.

4. Keep it Down!
If you have a pink calendar, a red calendar, and a maroon calendar, you won’t be able to tell them apart at a glance. However, if you have 28 calendars then you’re going to have to squeeze them together on the color wheel. Make only as many calendars as you absolutely need, and unless it’s something that you have things to put in regularly, just use a catch-all “General” calendar.

5. Shrinkage
iCal functions very poorly as a daily planner, but it works pretty well as a task manager. Make the window as small as you can without loosing the space you need to view your events.

What do you use as an organizer? Which is better, iCal or Entourage? Why?

And all of this is wrapped in the best interface of any browser I’ve seen. No really.

You might want to check out Jordan’s previous Shiira Review. At the time, I was very excited to finally get a supposedly workable version of a browser that showed so much promise. Unfortunately, the beta was plagued with bugs that made it unusable as a day-to-day default browser. Happily, this just meant a few more weeks of waiting. Today, I popped open Shiira once again and she auto-updated using Sparkle. The list of fixes seemed promising, as it mentioned many of the issues I was having, like Bookmark importing, and crashing randomly.

My Verdict? It seems ready! So far I haven’t had any problems at all. I’ve optimistically set it as my default browser, and barring unforeseen bugginess I’ll be using it from now on.

Note: Take precautions when working with a sick machine. By all means backup your data whenever possible before beginning.

1. Delete the Preferences: This is always the first advice people give when an app is acting up. The cause of the problem could be a messed up preference (.plist) file that needs to be deleted. You can go through looking for these files in the system folders, but the easiest way is using Spotlight. Search for the name of the problem app, and then look for the .plist file in the “Documents” section. Delete it. Your preferences will be gone, but that’s easily fixed in a few seconds using your newly functional app.

2. Repair Permissions: When deleting the Preferences doesn’t work, or if the problem isn’t associated with just one app, the next step is to pop open Disk Utility. Choose your HD from the source list, and make sure you’re in the “First Aid” tab. Then click “Repair Permissions” on the bottom.

3. Restart: This should be obvious, but many Mac users don’t think to do it. Nine out of ten times I have a problem (if I’ve even had ten problems in the few years I’ve been using a Mac) restarting fixes it.

4. Support: Once I’ve exhausted those first three steps, I cry for help. First try Google to see if other people are talking about the same issue; there may be a fix to be found there. If no one else asked though, go ahead and do the asking yourself. You could ask on any mac forums you may already be a part of, or try Apple’s Support page.

5. Go to the Source: As a last resort, going to the “geniuses” may be your only option. The guys there fix problems like yours every single day. At the very least they should be able to diagnose it. Hopefully it’ll be a quick fix, but you may have to send your Mac away for a while if it’s a hardware issue.

So there it is, any Mac issue resolved in 5 simple steps. You could be disappointed by the diagnosis, but at least you should know what it is by this point.

AppZapper is one of the sleekest apps around. Everything works exactly as it should: Drag an app onto its dock icon or into its window and a list of related files slides in. From there, you can easily check which ones to send to the trash by pressing the Zap button. All those handy features and more are fit perfectly into the tiny window. It may seem crazy to spend money on something you can do yourself for free, but if you have a few extra bucks to spend, AppZapper is a fun app to have.

Awaken is another one of my favorite little apps. Its function is even simpler that AppZapper’s, and it keeps things just as sleek too. Press the + button to add a new alarm. A sheet comes down where you choose when it goes off, whether it repeats, and what song it should play. Other than that, it hides itself neatly in your menu bar, just waiting to pop open when it’s time.

CoconutBattery does what Leopard’s new battery menu item will do. It tells you all about your laptop’s battery, from its capacity to its current charge. It even lets you save your current capacity, so you can track your battery’s health over time. It was really nice to be able to track just how fast my old iBook’s battery went off the deep end towards the end of its life as my main machine. Luckily, my MacBook shows 98%.

Twitterific is a must-have app for anyone who used Twitter. Personally, I’m not a twitterer, but this app makes me want to be one. The window is all styled like iPhoto’s black panels, and it fits all sorts of functionality in a very small spaces. Like Awaken, it can also hide away in your menu bar if you like. Newly released version 2.0 adds even more features to the already well recieved 1.0 version.

YASU, or “Yet Another System Utility” runs a bunch of scripts to keep your Mac running to the best of its ability. I run it whenever my machine gets a little sluggish; it once cleared 2 GB of junk from my old iBook, and whenever I run it things seem a bit “snappier”. There are tons of apps in this same vein, and I’m sure they all work just fine, but YASU is so simple and easy that it’s my top choice.

What are your favorite little utility-type apps? Do you use any of the ones I mentioned?

After 5 past Heists, as well as a $50 bundle sale of 10 apps worth several hundred dollars all together, the venture seems to have been a great success. As of right now, their 6th and final Heist after many months of waiting, is finally up! You may want to give it a shot…

The challenge starts here.

First off you’ll probably need an app to put your presentation together, this leaves you with pretty much two options: Keynote and PowerPoint. In my opinion, when I’m working alone and presenting it off of my own MacBook, I go with Keynote. However, you may need to collaborate with someone using Windows, and in this case PowerPoint may be your only option. Never make a Keynote show and assume you can just export to PowerPoint seamlessly. The transitions, text, and even the pictures and layout will very likely get jumbled. As a last resort you can try exporting your Keynote presentation as a QuickTime movie, a set of images, or a DVD.

Keynote has all the great themes, transitsions, and tools to create an awesome show. The presenting tools also let you see things like what slide is up next, and how long you’ve been talking.

Keynote is fine for a slide-based presentation, but what if you want something more image focused? In that case you probably want to go with either FotoMagico or PhotoPresenter. They both offer dazzling effects and transitions. PhotoPresenter has a more graphic and in-your-face approach with “Animated Slideshows” with showy effects.

FotoMagico on the other hand, offers many advanced and intricate controls for showing photos. You can choose how they pan and zoom, as well as between several great and usable transitions. It also has several options for displaying your show.

These are great for photo slideshows, but what if your presentation is more hands on? What if you need to do a demo of live software on your Mac? That’s where OmniDazzle shines. With tons of different options, you can do everything from circling things on your screen, writing on it, to finding your mouse pointer via radar.

So, what do you use to make presentations? How often do you have the need to do it? Why?

OmniWeb has all the features of the major browsers, except the extensions of Firefox. It has tabs, ad-blocking, bookmarks, and RSS feed capabilities. However, it also has some great features that aren’t quite as common. It can automatically save your “browsing sessions” to let you pick up were you left off after closing the browser. You can also save these sessions, or “workspaces” whenever you want, for easy access.

OmniWeb also has pretty advanced ad-blocking preferences that let you choose when to see pop-ups, banner ads, and even all Flash content. You can even restrict and manipulate websites individually with the “Site Preferences” feature, which allows you to change the way websites are displayed with tons of options.

All in all, I’d have to say OmniWeb is the best browser I’ve used, but not by a huge margin. The other browsers aren’t left in the dust, so it may not seem worth it to spend $14.95 on OmniWeb. In my opinion though, that price is not very much to pay for an application I use more than any other on my Mac.

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The Obvious: Check your Dock!
I’m sure all of you know this, but it’s a really common mistake made by new Mac users. Unlike Windows, closing an app does not equal quitting an app. Some apps, like Preview, are particularly stubborn in this respect. So, step one is to check for little black arrows. The best way to avoid this problem in the first place is to use ⌘+Q to quit apps, instead of clicking the red bubble. Not only does this avoid leaving apps open, it also saves time. Not all running apps are shown in the Dock; some apps may leave some processes, or “helper apps” running after they quit. Open Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities) and sort the processing by “Real Memory” and “% CPU” to see what might be taking up resources. One common problem process is “truebluenvironment”, which is related to Classic on PPC machines. Also make sure to check your Menu Bar, some apps also hide here instead of the Dock.

Clean Up! Desktop Messiness
Every folder you keep on your desktop is treated like an open Finder window. Not only that, but that kind of disorganization slows you down anyway. On my desktop, I have a folder called “Box” where I put things I’m working on. That way, instead of dozens of files clogging my desktop, I have one folder with dozens of files clogging it up.

Photo Slideshows: Just Another Slowdown
The photo slideshow desktop feature is one that many people use. I know some people that even have it changing every 5 seconds. However, look at it this way; you wouldn’t do work with iPhoto running a slideshow all the time, would you? It’s the same principle. A constant movie in the background slows things down. Change it to a less frequent time period, like 15 minutes or a half hour. You still get a new picture almost every time you look at your desktop, but your machine will run more smoothly as well.

Your Choice Holy Man: Choose Wisely
Are you one of those people that pop open MS Word for everything? Do you open an audio file in iTunes for one use, then delete it from the library? Do you do the same with images in iPhoto? TextEdit, QuickTime, and Preview are all better options for… well, previewing files. When a smaller, faster app will do the job, choose it instead of a more full-featured bloated one.

I hope these tips, although they may be somewhat obvious, help you out. What do you do to keep your Mac running at its fastest?

William: Why did you first decide to create VirtueDesktops? What were some challenges you had to get past to get it working?

Tony: First up – I didn’t create VirtueDesktops. Thomas Staller started the original Virtue project in about August 2004 (at least that’s when the project first appeared on Sourceforge). I picked up the project in late 2005 after tinkering with the source to get it working under Tiger. It had been abandoned for a while. I didn’t originally intend to do any more than get the application working, but I guess I figured that the experience of resurrecting an open source project could be quite a lot of fun (and I felt I needed the experience).

Second question: obviously Thomas faced the harder challenges of getting Virtue off the ground – he based his original work off the work that Rich Wareham (http://filecoreinuse.livejournal.com/) did with DesktopManager. I guess this is a good time to clear that up too – when I say “based off”: Rich did a lot of work reverse engineering the private CoreGraphics calls into a useable header file (CGSPrivate.h), and decoding how the calls actually worked. Virtue uses that header file, and Apple’s private APIs to create and manage virtually created desktops, but Virtue’s actual data model, application flow and features are all it’s own and not based on DesktopManager’s source.

Rich also got involved again when Tiger was released and updated the CGSPrivate header to work properly, as some of the APIs had been changed and removed. There’s a great article on OSNews that outlines how he did this (I don’t have the URL handy).

My work just involved dealing with some issues around mach_inject under 10.4 (which the inimitable Jon Rentzsch helped me understand, and ended up fixing), and then the whole change in security model on Intel-based macs that required mach_inject applications to do extra footwork. The challenges I’ve faced have been more around my own understanding of the tools, APIs and code than actual interesting reverse engineering work!

Interesting fact of the day: Apple has always referred to virtual desktops as “Workspaces” – all of the calls use this terminology, and their preliminary terminology for Spaces does as well. The CoreGraphics calls have been there for at least 2 major revisions, and I had heard unsubstantiated rumours from a very credible source that Apple has had virtual desktops working internally for longer again.

William: You’ve said that you’re “just starting out with mac programming”, yet you’ve created an application that many people swear by. What does that feel like? Did you have any idea that your app would be so well received?

Tony: Well, I guess I addressed that in my answer to the first question: it’s not really my concept or my (original) code, so I don’t feel that I deserve the kudos here – that belongs to Thomas and the original project contributors. It’s great that people find it so useful – that was one of the reasons I wanted to resurrect the project: I personally loved Virtue back under Panther.

Many people count on VirtueDesktops as an integral part of their system, alongside apps like Quicksilver and Growl. Why do you think this is? What apps could you not live without?

I think Mac users are inherently task focused – we put a lot of emphasis on how we do things, and the amount of effort that each task requires. Tools like VirtueDesktops, QuickSilver and Growl all simplify the user’s workflow in some manner, and therefore save us time. While I’m not sure that VirtueDesktops is deserving of the following comment, QuickSilver and Growl both have a certain elegance to them as well – they both address problems in an incredibly intuitive manner. Users like to feel like they’re solving problems intelligently.

What could I not live without? By day, I’m a glasses-wearing programmer for a University – it’s only by night that I put on the CodeCape – so my must have apps are a little webby:

* QuickSilver
* Growl
* CSSEdit
* Mail.app (IMO the simplest, most efficient mail client out there)
* TextMate
* Parallels Desktop
* NetNewsWire

At the very least, those are bound to hotkeys on my keyboard (as well as Xcode, but don’t talk to me about Xcode until version 3 is out!).

William: What do you think of the other Mac virtual desktop apps? (besides Spaces). What makes VirtueDesktops different?

Tony: VirtueDesktops takes the kitchen sink approach to virtual desktops. That’s a bit of a double-edged sword, in so much as I think I may have got a little carried away there for a while with superfluous features. The other virtual desktop tools are in my opinion either too simple (DesktopManager), or unpolished. VirtueDesktops addressed this by trying to organise your workflow around the three major objects that you interact with when dealing with virtual desktops: Applications, Desktops and Windows (as opposed to just leaving users with tools that didn’t tie these object together). It also had a philosophy of staying out of your way until you needed it, so aside from the tiny menu icon, you could continue to work as you normally would. VirtueDesktops was also the first to integrate motion and light sensors as triggers. Superfluous features indeed!

I think any person/company that decides to develop a virtual desktop app on the Mac has to be a little bit less than sane, or make a lot of money. There are lots of foibles that you have to deal with in Apple’s implementation, so they all deserve kudos.

William: Did you expect Apple to pull spaces out of their MacWorld hat? What was your initial reaction?

Tony: To be honest, no. I was able to attend WWDC last year (it was a blast), so I was there for the announcement – people were asking me before the keynote whether I thought Apple might do virtual desktops, but it just seemed so contrary to their approach so far. In my opinion, exposé _was_ Apple’s response to virtual desktops.

When they brought the first screen of Leopard up on the stage, I remember noticing the Spaces icon in the dock and thinking to myself “Wow – if that’s what I think it is, I can trash my voodoopad document outlining the next version of Virtue”. I was sitting with Jan Van Boghout and Nick Peelman (hi guys!) and they both thought it was fairly hilarious. I was annoyed for about 30 seconds – at least until they demoed how well Spaces worked – then I was just impressed. It’s nothing new, but it’s got that typical Apple style to it that just works.

William: What had you been planning for VirtueDesktops before the announcement? How would it have progressed had Spaces not come along?

Tony: Well, I was going to rename/rewrite it. “Foci” was at the top of the list (I still like that name – I call dibs on it). I was also going to drop the GPL and replace it with a license that would have allowed the code to be re-used. Plenty of people would like to integrate virtual desktop compatibility into their apps, but unless they too are a GPL app, the license was preventing that. Nick Jitkoff showed me a QuickSilver plugin that interacted directly with the available desktops quite some time ago, but QuickSilver isn’t GPL so releasing it would have been a bad thing.

In terms of features, I had some sketches that looked remarkably like Spaces overview mode – a grid of desktops where you could just drag your stuff about. Also, Virtue was in need of a serious overhaul – the Xcode project was one of the most complicated I had ever worked with (I spent the entire night before the keynote @ WWDC re-arranging a bevy of sub-projects into a single project file), and the application design needed refreshing. I had lots of ideas, but they would have all take quite a while to program and design.

William: What features does it have now that Spaces won’t have? What ways can you just simply not compete?

Tony: Hmmm, I have to be careful how I answer this – Spaces’ feature-set is covered under my NDA with Apple. In terms of what is public – VirtueDesktops has quite a few options that Spaces doesn’t have, especially with regards to the concept of desktop decorations. VirtueDesktops allows you to place images, colours and customised text onto individual desktops to clearly, visually indicate where you are. In the previews that Apple has given publicly so far, Spaces does not allow this – then again, Spaces is not released (or finalised) yet. Apple might decide to take a little inspiration.

In terms of competing, the big issue is likely to be the APIs – there’s every chance that I could make VirtueDesktops run under Leopard (although my NDA prevents me from divulging specifics of whether or not this is actually possible), but the fact is that VirtueDesktops uses private APIs to provide it’s core functionality – Apple can move the goal posts any time they like. Chris Forsythe, also known to the community as The_Tick (and a good friend of mine) said to me after WWDC that he considers Apple bundling any of his programs into the operating system as the entire point of starting projects like Growl, Adium or Virtue. Seriously, if iChat had all of the features that Adium has, I don’t think there be a need for Adium (although it would no longer have the simplicity that iChat is famous for) – same with Growl – I’d love to see an integrated user notification system built into the operating system. So in that light, I feel like I’ve succeeded.

I think there will still be a market for third-party virtual desktop apps under Leopard – iChat vs Adium is the example I’d use. There’s always going to be a market for enhanced versions of Apple’s applications.

Virtue’s code base is also very large, and the design of the application design is somewhat dated in terms of the technology Apple has made available to us in Tiger. It needed a rethink and a rewrite (and I had started one over the last couple of months, but never completed the work).

William: VirtueDesktops was freeware, and now it will be open source. Have you ever thought of making it shareware?

Tony: I’m not quite sure how the idea that VirtueDesktops was anything but open source got started! VirtueDesktops has always been open source – the source was available back when Thomas worked on it, and there may have been a brief period when I was taking over that it wasn’t, but even now you can go check the latest code out of subversion.

In answer to the question, no, I never considered making VirtueDesktops shareware – it simply wasn’t my call – the license was already in place, and I promised Thomas when I took over that it would remain open for as long as I was running the project. I toyed with the idea of a pay-for version of Foci – given the effort it would have required, I think that would have been fair.

William: What’s next for you? What’s your next app that will embed itself into our Macs?

Tony: Oooh. Well, I’m currently working on two projects – one of them is still under discussion, and hopefully I’ll be talking about that on my blog in the coming month (it’s going to be another “must-have” application if all goes according to plan though). The other is a commercial/shareware app I’m currently designing to help with my day job (and this is the first time I’ve spoken about it publicly). We’re currently going through a major web-site rebuild at the University where I work, and one of the really big time-sucking tasks that you have to do is an audit of what you’ve currently got up there on your site. My app aims to automate this process, report on the outcomes and look all sorts of validity issues. There is simply nothing good and reasonably priced in the application market to do this work. It will all be wrapped up in a hot mac UI, obviously. I’m aiming for a Leopard release with that app.

Other than that, just taking some downtime – running an open source project is a huge undertaking for a single person, and it takes a lot out of you. It’s hard to keep a constant level of enthusiasm for a product going forever, and I’m going to be glad not to see another private CoreGraphics call for a while.

William: Good luck with your future endeavors, and thank you so much for answering my questions!

Tony: You’re very welcome. Thanks for the interest!

As you can see, Do It doesn’t look like your everyday Mac app. The entire interface is unlike the standard Aqua, which, in my opinion, would be better. The interface is not bad though, and you can even change it to one of the 8 skins available on the developer’s site.

The interface is small, even when stretched to its arbitrary maximum, and does not support multiple lines for to-do-items. There is a small arrow to the right of each item, for the somewhat handy feature of associating a URL with the task.

My major gripe with Do It!, however, is the process of adding tasks to your list, which is done in a tiny transparent window. The box for adding a task is tiny, big enough for only 5 or 6 words, which is perfect for “Walk the Dog”, but less elegant for longer items. The date is also a pain to change, but that’s true in any app.

URL’s are hardest to add. For no apparent reason you cannot type in the address. The URL must already be in your address bar, where you can drag it in from.

For all it’s quirks, Do It is an interesting contender in the cluttered field of Mac to-do-list apps. You might find it fits your needs quite well. Me? I switched back to iCal, with it’s multi-lined tasks and Calendar features.

Nevertheless, I’m going to keep an eye on Do It, it could surprise us in future versions. However, it’s only going to get harder to compete once Leopard brings system wide To-Do’s. Grab Do It here.

When did you first start developing? How long have you used a Mac, and why did you decide to develop for the platform over Windows?

I guess my first development was on a Ti-83 calculator. I played around with it during math class because I was bored. Clearly nothing all that interesting came out of that.

I’ve used a Mac since I can remember. I used old Apple-IIe’s in school at some point. At home we had an IBM with DOS on it for a little while, but after that it was pretty much always a Mac. I convinced my parents to get an iMac (strawberry) when we needed a computer for our family. The reason I thought it would be better then a Windows machine was that I’d always tinkered around with our Macs in the past, so I knew what was going on and would know how to fix any issues with it.

My initial reason for developing for a Mac over Windows was because I didn’t have a Windows machine. My reason developing for a Mac now is because I still don’t have a Windows machine. If I did have a machine that could run Windows, I’d wipe it clean and install Linux, so I probably won’t be developing for Windows any time soon (unless it’s for work).

How did you first learn to code? What apps do you use to develop?

I first started learning how to program with higher level languages after my Junior year of high school. I always wanted to learn how to make applications for my computer, so I borrowed a C++ book from a friend and taught myself C++ over the summer. I learned Objective-C and Cocoa at the same time because I wanted to make applications that could run on my computer.

I use XCode for Cocoa applications. I don’t really like it that much, though. It leads to a cluttered work place.

I use TextMate (http://www.macromates.com/) for any other development. I love TextMate. It’s the best software purchase I’ve made to date.

How do you decide which apps to create?

I create applications that I will use. If I wouldn’t use it, why would anyone else?

If I think of a good idea, I first think about how often I would use it. If it’s not something that I would use a lot I don’t even bother to write the idea down.

What is your development process? Do you work on an app one at a time? How often and for how long do you work?

I try to work on my projects as much as possible. Being a student, though, it’s hard to find time sometimes. Generally I try to work on one thing at a time, but recently I’ve found myself jumping around a bit.

What do you think of promotions like MacAppADay and MacHeist? Are they effective? Are they a good thing?

To be honest, I haven’t heard of them. After looking them up, I realize why I haven’t heard of them. I don’t charge for my software. These sites are about giving away software at a lesser price or free. I give away free software every day.

Do I think they’re effective? Most likely. I know the reason that my applications have become popular is simply because they are free, so these sites probably help promote the applications a lot by basically giving away the software.

Do I think they’re a good thing? I think there is good and bad in them. MacAppADay’s website is ‘under new management,’ so I’ll comment on what I read from MacHeist. I use one of the applications from the last MacHeist bundle, TextMate. It’s a great application. I’m glad that I paid for it in full. I think the author deserves every cent I paid him because it’s an amazing application that has significantly increased my productivity. Of the other applications, there’s not one that I would use, so it wouldn’t have saved me any money. It’s such a random assortment of applications, that I think few people would use more than 2 of them. Another good thing is that 25% of your purchase is given to charity, which is great. I give a percentage of money generated by Fadingred.org donations to charity, too. This leads me to the bad, though. $200,000 was raised for charity, which means that $800,000 was raised. If each author agreed to give away unlimited licenses for a day (or whatever period the heist is run for) in order to make a quick $20,000, that’s still only $200,000 that MacHeist has to give back to the authors leaving them with a profit of nearly $400,000. I guess that’s not really a bad thing. It’s just not something that I support.

What do you think of Cha-Ching in regards to competition to your app Cashbox? Will you continue to upgrade it?

Cha-Ching looks like an interesting alternative to Cashbox. At this point, it looks better than Cashbox, but I have an extreme update to Cashbox in progress. Whether or not it’s better makes little difference. Choice is great for users. Users having more alternatives to Quicken and Excel is a very good thing.

Which was your favorite app to develop? Which was the easiest?

My favorite to develop is Senuti. There are a lot of challenges with Senuti. I like a good challenge. The easiest to develop is hard to say. iColors is the simplest, but it was one of the first applications that I wrote, so it was hard to me then. I’m in the process of rewriting both Cashbox and Senuti. I’m changing a lot of the code behind the applications. I’ve learned a lot since I started the applications and realize that I made a lot of poor design decisions in the past. They work just fine, but to me there is a lot of room for improvement. There’s always room for improvement which is what makes it fun!

What are your favorite apps to use?

My favorite to use is Cashbox. I use it daily. I’m really looking forward to finishing the next version and using that.

What do you think of Leopard? Will you take advantage of any of the new features for you apps?

Leopard looks neat. I’ll reserve judgement until using it. Apple likes to make a huge deal about new things. It’s hard to say anything until getting your hands dirty.

What are your favorite hobbies? You say on your website you like photography. Tell us a little about that. What do you like to shoot and what sort of camera do you have? Do you have a Flickr page?

I have a D70s which I haven’t gotten as much of an opportunity to use as I would like. It’s a little too cold out these days to go spend a lot of time outside. No Flickr page, sorry. I also like playing guitar and cooking. They’re all just hobbies, though. I’m not really all that good at any of them.

Do you have any plans for upcoming apps? Any chance you’ll give us a sneak peek?

I have plans, yes. I hope you’ll get to see some of them. Can’t give away all of my creative ideas, though.

One plan that I do have is to write a book about how to program. I don’t know when I’ll find the time to write it, but I think that there should be a free resource out there for people to learn how to program. A lot of books do a very poor job explaining the basics of programming. I also think it would be a good experience trying to put into clear, concise words everything that I’ve learned through the years.

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. For anyone interested in Whitney’s apps, you can see what he’s created here.

ArtRage 2 is different. Instead of trying to be precise and grid-like, it emulates a canvas, and does pretty well at it too. The tools and interface are a bit strange, they pop in and out as necessary from the edges, but they are pretty functional nonetheless. Choose between a collection of artistic tools: a paintbrush, a crayon, a marker, or even spray paint.

I tried out the tools myself, and my favorite was a tube of paint and the spatula smeary tool. I squirted out a little paint of the color I desired, and then smeared it around until I got what I thought looked alright. So here you go, my masterpiece.

ArtRage 2 comes in two flavors, the full featured $19.95 “ArtRage 2 Full Edition”, or the “ArtRage 2 Free Edition” with some features left out. You can see all the differences between them here.