Archive for the 'Internet' Category

There are currently many RSS applications out for Mac, but none of them are quite like Times. Times reinvents the user interface of an RSS reader by making it look similar to a newspaper. With a simple interface, Times makes it easy for anyone to read and view RSS feeds. It also has many special effects to make it look even better.

iTunes has many often-forgotten features. Among them are the web radio, visualizer, and (what I think is the coolest) shared music libraries. iTunes users on the same wireless network can share their entire music libraries (or only specific playlists) with each other by turning on “Sharing” in iTunes’ preferences (in either the Mac or PC version of iTunes). Once both computers are setup to share libraries, users at both ends can browse each other’s libraries and stream each other’s music. However, there is no way to download the music; users can only listen.

On the Mac, there are many web browsers available. Mozilla Firefox is a great cross-platform browser, but until recent betas it hasn’t been very efficient or overall good-looking on the Mac. Apple’s Safari is simple and elegant, but lacks any official plug-ins, making it difficult to do the kind of advanced work that you can with Firefox extensions. For today, we’re going to be focusing on these two popular browsers. Many people seem to like the simplicity and integrated interface of Safari, but wish that they could have the wide array of extensions available for Firefox at their disposal.

Early last year, we compared several well-known Mac FTP clients. Though we established that Transmit was King, CyberDuck always stood out as a cheap, no-frills version.

However, that was version 2. With Leopard now well into it’s third iteration (10.5.2), CyberDuck has also been flapping it’s wings once again, but does it fly? Let’s take a look.

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.

Have you ever come up with a great domain name, and wanted to know if it’s already taken? Ever wondered who owns Internet.com? Have you tried to figure out whom to contact about the spam you keep receiving? WhoIs Analyzer Pro improves on its command-line cousin, making domain lookups easy, fast, and more useful than before.

Have you ever found yourself in the position where you need to archive an online receipt or article or web page? Instead of just copying and pasting the text, would you like it to look exactly like the web page? Well, if so, then Web Snapper is the perfect tool for you, because it does all of that and more!

Flow is an application that has been long awaited and much talked about. It was indeed billed as a possible Transmit killer by this very website. So now that it has been released, does it live up to the hype? Will it really be a Transmit killer or does the yellow and purple truck have some mileage in it yet, not to mention the many other Mac FTP applications?

I have spent a while with Flow before it was released and I have begun to build a pretty decent view on the application. It does some things differently from other FTP apps that I believe will ultimately make you decide whether you love it or loath it.

For years Firefox users have been able to enjoy the many benefits of the StumbleUpon toolbar, which allows users to experience the StumbleUpon social bookmarking site in all its glory. Now thanks to Stumbi developer Eli Kaufman, Safari users can get much of the same functionalities that have made the Firefox add-on a wildly popular download.

StumbleUpon is like channel surfing for the web. The site, which ranks in the top 500 on Alexa Traffic Rankings, lets you specify a list of categories you’re interested in, whether it be art, music, humor, technology or a slew of others, and then jump randomly between popular sites in those areas. Not uncommon for a social bookmarking site, Stumble features user profiles and friends lists. Once you start Stumbling, you may be surprised at how addictive it is.

Debates and arguments have always been brewing with regards to desktop versus web apps. While one camp will argue about convenience and having your data available everywhere, the other will side with speed, privacy and reliability that desktop apps can provide.

While I seriously doubt the holy war will end anytime soon, here’s an app that will provide some middleground. It’s called Google Notifier for OS X.

Lets face it — we all have lots of junk laying around in our garages. Most of us don’t know what to do with it, so we throw it out. Well, just throw out that mindset and say hello to GarageSale 4, from iwascoding. This app lets you trade your junk for money by helping you create auctions on eBay that potential buyers will find attractive.

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?

I’m a believer in desktop applications that enhance the online experience. I don’t think that doing everything online in a browser window is the answer to everyone’s computing problems. Instead, having a powerful desktop application that integrates seamlessly with an online service, produces the ideal experience for the user. Photonic brings the photo-sharing site, Flickr, to the desktop, in a beautiful and functional interface that makes interacting with Flickr all the better.

The TV shows aren’t going to be back until later this spring, so what are we supposed to do during this WGA strike-created television drought? Miro is an app that is designed to “turn your computer into an Internet TV.” Now it might not give you access to your favorite shows from FOX, ABC, and NBC, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a great selection of video to watch, much of it in HD. The app can manage your video files, but its main purpose is to gather video from the many sources it hooks you up to.

I’ve had my iPhone for months now and, until about two weeks ago, I was secretly unhappy with how it handled my email. You see, I get lots of email. Lots and lots, as a matter of fact, and it comes into twelve different accounts. I used to use Apple’s Mail to manage it on my MacBook, and all was good. But when I got my iPhone, I discovered that the phone’s lack of spam-filtering power made it literally unusable for my deluge of email.