Archive for the 'Home & Personal' Category

Some people have a hard time keeping track of where all their money goes. Cents, from MacMage, is a very simple application that helps you do just that! You can add different purchases to Cents and it will tell you how much you have spent. Cents is a very simple app, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t useful.

My wife and I had been pretty happy with the copy of Quicken that came with our computers. All that changed a few weeks ago, when she told me that Quicken was no longer sufficient for our needs. As she is a professional accountant and I am just a writer, I didn’t question her. So started the search for a new finance program/service.

A lot of the time, most of us are completely busy with work and other daily activities. It can take a lot out of you, and sometimes we need a way to regain energy during the day in a short period of time. There are not very many Mac applications that can help you do this, but there is one that stands out amongst the rest: Pzizz.

As if the social networking arena weren’t crowded enough, make room for newcomer Net4Mac, a network catered specifically to Mac users. You can connect with thousands of Apple lovers by joining any of the more than 700 user-created groups, each containing a forum and a comments section similar to the Facebook Wall. A network-wide chat room, a section for classified ads and a personal calendar are among the features in Net4Mac’s premiere release.

It’s here. Finally. You’ve heard the rumors, seen the video, now purchase the retail bundle. Available online for a limited period of time, the bundle contains 12 apps at a bargain price of just $49.

As usual, the MacHeist guys have done it again, with a bundle that consists of finance software, a word processor, an organizer as well as a handful of games for your Mac. Yea, lovely games.

Recently at MacApper, Emily did a comparison of YummySoup! and Connoisseur. Since HungrySeacow Software has given us three licenses to giveaway, I thought I would outline a few of my favorite things in YummySoup! with a video tribute.

One of the features that sold me on YummySoup! was the Automatic Import feature that supported the heavy hitters of online recipes. I’m not one to create a recipe, but I definitely know how to mooch. Thus, recipe management software that can automatically import is a must.

If you use your Mac for almost everything, why can’t it also replace your alarm clock? There are two great alarm clock applications, Aurora 4 from Metaquark and Awaken 4 from Embraceware. With these apps you can wake up to your own music, or with Aurora, a favorite TV show using EyeTV. I’d like to see your bedside alarm clock do that. They are both easy to use and pretty cheap, but they do have their differences, so which one is right for you?

The first application is Aurora 4. This app just recently went from freeware to shareware, but it added many features in the jump.

I have this desire to become a consultant of sorts. I would love to be paid outrageous hourly rates to give a nod of approval or tell someone they’re doing whatever they’re doing totally wrong. At this point, I don’t have much to offer as a consultant. But when I become a guru of micromanagement, I know that all my billing needs will be taken care of.

TaskTime4 is a straightforward and simple to use Client/Project manager from ToThePoint Software. By generating a client list imported from Address Book, TaskTime4 allows the user to easily manage multiple projects, print or email custom invoices, and export projects to text or Excel as needed.

Although it used to be considered “odd” or “weird” to speak to your computer, the increased availability and accuracy of voice recognition software has encouraged the practice for more and more people. Up until now, though, it has been difficult to find a solid option for Mac OS X. However, with the introduction of MacSpeech Dictate at Macworld 2008, the game has truly changed. This program not only does the obvious service of speech to text, but it does a whole lot more. Read along to see what else this very powerful application can do.

Recently, professional photographers around the world rejoiced in unison when Apple released version 2 of its acclaimed Aperture software — the one-stop photography management studio software. When we reviewed Aperture 2, it was inevitable that comparisons would crop up between it and its less-iLife-friendly competition from Adobe — Lightroom. The conclusion seemed to be that, while both solutions offered a slew of impressive editing features, Aperture was ultimately better suited to managing larger photo collections.

I’ve been moving around a lot lately due to telecommuting. It’s nice to escape the cubicle, but this need to wander means that I occasionally have to mess with the location settings in my network pref pane, depending on which WiFi network I’m on.

I’m not sure of your reasons for more than one location setting, but I have an answer that will let you set it, and forget it!

In a world where the vast majority of your contacts will be busily communicating with MSN, Yahoo, AIM, and ICQ, it’s hard to imagine that there’s much of a market for alternative chat clients. After all, what kind of advantages could they possibly offer over these massively-funded, professionally-scripted corporate mainstream clients?

If you have ever owned a fish tank, you know what kind of hassle they can cause. Always having to clean them, fish dying, fish dying because they are getting eaten by other fish etc. Serene Screens solves this problem by bringing the fish tank to the virtual world in the form of Marine Aquariums.

Marine Aquariums is meant to be a Screen Saver, but you can also use it as a desktop app if you wish. You customize your aquarium in the preferences of the desktop app, and the changes you make will then be reflected in the Screen Saver.

Some time ago my uncle developed Alzeimers Disease and as a result suffers from extreme memory loss. As any good family does, we all got together and discussed options on how best to deal with the situation at hand.  During one of these discussions my uncle revealed his own fear of forgetting the important people around him.  It was this fear that prompted me to compile a family tree, something that could be used time and time again to explain to him who a person was when the time came.

Last week, I reviewed Pomoto, which is a service for uploading and sharing your photos right from your Mac. Thanks to the awesome guys over at Pomoto for giving us 3 one-year subscriptions to give away.

Also, a big thanks to all who participated in the giveaway. The winners of the four licenses are: Jason, Rusty, and Gwen. Congratulations! You guys will be receiving an email with instructions shortly.

Be sure to download the trial version of Pomoto, and pay for it if you find it useful. Stay tuned to the MacApper RSS Feed for more giveaways, or subscribe to the MacApper Podcast to see more video reviews.