Mac Cool Freeware
Wednesday, April 25, 2007

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Wallsaver
Mac OS X has so many great screensavers. This app lets you run the screensaver as your desktop image. Its very simple. One button to activate and one to Restore to normal.

This is great. Now I can run my favorite screensaver all the time.

Download:here

ToDo

As the name implies, ToDo is a simple to-do list application that keeps you on track.

ToDo is a small application to manage categorized to do lists. Each to do item can be linked with a file on your computer, a URL, such as the address of a website, or a contact from your address book. The linked item can be opened directly from the ToDo window. ToDo items can also include notes, priorities and deadlines, which can be set as reminders in iCal.

ToDo is applescriptable, includes plugins for Address book to quickly set contact reminders and a plugin for Quicksilver to allow rapid creation of ToDo items from the Quicksilver interface. ToDo can import iCal to do lists, and export lists from to do to import into iCal. You can set your ToDo deadlines as events in iCal with a single click. You can sync your ToDo lists on multiple computers using

Download:here

Snjor

Wow, Snjor is a very interesting application. It runs in the background but not in the background at all. You start it up and snow begins to flutter down your screen. If you leave a window open, it will slowly start to pile up on the top of the window. To me, this is a great example of how a simple fun app can be a thing of beauty on the Mac.

Download:here

Huevos

From the same people that brought us NetNewsWire Lite comes a handy Internet search application. Simply press the assigned shortcut key while in any application to bring Huevos to the forefront. Type a query, use the up and down arrows to select a search engine, and hit enter. Your search is then performed in your browser.

It comes pre-configured to work with Google, Yahoo, Mac OS X Hints and several others, but you can add more.

Download:here

Photopolis


On FreeMacPhoto I wrote about turning your panoramas into planets and now this app will let you change your whole photo collection into a city. The screenshot below shows my city, Stukville.

Photopolis is a new way to experience your photo collection. Photopolis extracts the date you took your photo. Then it assembles the photos that were taken in a week as a house. Out of 4 houses, a month is created and so on. The result is a checker-board arrengement of houses in a city. The straight streets represent years, the cross streets months. Because of this arrangement you can for example view your Christmas photos of all the years by walking along the December street.

Download:here

Fentres Volantes

Fentres Volantes French for flying windows is an awesome screensaver that causes all of your open windows to fly around the screen. If you use your screensaver to lock your screen while you are away, then this is not for you since it allows passers-by to read what is on your screen but the effect is really cool.

Download:here

Wraparound

Wraparound liberates your mouse cursor. When the cursor reaches the edge of the screen, it can now wrap around to the other side and keep going. It can work horizontally, vertically, or both. Wraparound can also ignore the corners so Expos will continue to work.

Download:here

iLike

iLike is an iTunes plugin that helps you find new music you might like. After installing iLike, you all see a new pane on the right side of iTunes. As you listen to music, the pane will display titles and artists you might like based on your musical tastes. The coolest thing about iLike is that it recommends both music on the iTunes music store AND free indy music. Within just a few minutes of using iLike I was able to find several free songs that I like.

You can also view what your friends have recently listened to, view each other is profiles, and send messages between each other.

Download:here

Klondike Forever


Klondike Forever is a great solitaire application with some very nice features. It may be the best Solitaire app for the Mac. (No offense to Solitaire XL. I love that clean look too.)

There are many types of Solitaire, but Klondike is the most popular by far. I love this version because it makes it fast to play the game. Instead of dragging the card to where it needs to go, just click it and it will fly to its place. Also, whenever a card is ready to be stacked in the four ace piles, it will fly up on its own. (As a bonus, it would not fly up until it is used completely in the bottom. Thats smart.)

Oh, you all know how to play Klondike, just go give it a try. You all be surprised how nice its done. (And it can go full screen.)

(If you want to try 100 other types of solitaire, try the developers Solitaire Forever.)

Download:here











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Mac Organization Freeware
Thursday, April 19, 2007

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AppFresh

AppFresh will check all the applications, plugins, widgets, etc on your machine and check to see if they are up to date with the latest version available. The setup is simple and easy to understand and this application has the potential to save you a ton of time.

Right now, AppFresh does not replace your apps. It just downloads the new version and places it on your Desktop. Then, you are able to do the updates that you want.

With all the applications that I download for FreeMacWare, I had a lot of updates to do.
turns out that you can do more than one at a time, but you have to select them all and then hit the Update button.

Download:here

Balance

Balance is a simple and effective way to keep track of your personal finances. It is really as straight-forward as it can be. It offers your different accounts (checking, investments, savings, etc) and lets you list your deposits and charges/withdrawals. It also keeps a nice chart to reference quickly.

It is always a good idea for every person to track their expenses for at least a month. Even if you cannot do it for longer than that, you should be able to see how your money is spent and where you could save better. For example, my wife was working full time. Because she was quite tired each day after work, we did usually go to eat at a restauraunt three or four days a week. After tracking that amount we spent, we figured that it would actually be less expensive for her to work just 30 hours a week and then get home two hours earlier to cook a good, healthy dinner. So she rolled back her time at work, we are better off financially and as a bonus we both feel healthier.

Download:here

Skim

Preview.app does a good job at opening PDF files, but I end up printing a lot of my PDF files out because I like to mark them up and jot down notes. Now Skim lets that marking happen in my digital work flow. Skim is a PDF Reader and note-taker for OS X.

You can create circles, notes, highlights and read it all in full screen.

Download:here

Shindler


Shindler makes it easy to keep track of what is on your external hard drives and USB devices. Just drag and drop a folder or or drive on the app is icon and it will create a text file that lists all the files by their location.

I have been looking for a way to do this for free since Touvaly went the way of the almighty dollar.

Download:here

Think

We previously reviewed Writeroom (no longer free) which provides a distraction-free writing environment. Jon Udell has written about the clarity and flow that comes from working without distractions, and though Mac OS X is far less distracting than Windows, we can always do more to minimize attention-grabbing Dock icons, windows, and alerts.

Think helps you minimize distractions by dimming or completely hiding background windows. For example, if you are working in Mail, your Safari and Calendar windows are dimmed out so as not to distract you. You can easily switch between applications, but focus on one at a time.

Download:here

xPad


When it comes to organizing your stuff, xPad is a pretty good way to go. xPad is the ultimate notepad, TextEdit and Stickies replacement for Apple’s OS X. With a simple, easy-to-use interface and powerful multi-document features, xPad will quickly become your daily text editor of choice.

This app used to cost $12.95, but the developer has decide to let it take the freeware ride. Now you have no reason not to check it out.



Download:here

Books


This free and open source application for managing your books is awesome! You can create lists and smart lists of books, and each book entry can contain the title, summary, author, ISBN, and much more information. One cool feature is the ability to type in a title and click QuickFill. The app will look up the title on Amazon.com and fill in all the information, including an image of the book cover. It even works with music on Amazon. You can also import and export in several formats.

Download:here

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Mac Plugin Freeware
Wednesday, April 11, 2007

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iGTD

David Allen wrote the book on Getting Things Done, which has some great principles for increased productivity. For a summary see the Wikipedia article or Merlin Mann is 43 Folders.

iGTD brings David Allen is workflow to the Mac, including an inbox, projects, contexts, pending, maybe taxes, and waiting for tasks. You can drag tasks between contexts and projects, and you can drag Address Book entries into iGTD.

It also comes with a Quicksilver plugin so you can funnel stuff through Quicksilver to the iGTD inbox.

I wish I could list tasks in multiple contexts and simultaneously in projects, but overall iGTD facilitates the GTD workflow pretty darn well.

Download:here

iConcertCal


If you are into music and enjoy a good concert, this is the plugin for you.

iConcertCal is a free iTunes plug-in that monitors your music library and generates a personalized calendar of upcoming concerts in your city.

I just fired it up for my hometown of Las Vegas and sure enough, there are all kinds of folks playing here

Download: Here

Forget Me Not

Forget Me Not is a Safari plugin that helps you reload tabs or windows that were accidentally closed.

There is nothing worse than opening up a bunch of articles to read and then pressing Command-Q instead of Command-W. Just like that, Safari quits and there fos all of your reading opportunities. Forget Me Not will make it so when you open Safari back up, all the tabs will come back as well.

It also works when you accidentally close a tab or window as well. Just hit Command-Z and it pops back open.

(PS, This is only really helpful if you decide to enable tabbed browsing in Safari which you really, really should do.)

Download: here

FlickrBooth

FlickrBooth is a plugin that brings Flickr and Apple is Photo Booth together.

Once installed, you all have the option to upload your goofy crazy scary Photo Booth photos straight to Flickr complete with tags, description, and privacy.

One fun feature is that the app automatically adds the tag flickrbooth to your photo. This makes it possible to chack out the tag on flickr and see all the Mac users in their natural habitats.

Download :here

SafariStand

Do not judge this app by its icon. This is an awesome Safari plugin that adds a ton of extra functionality to the browser. With SafariStand you can do the following:

  • Save groups of bookmarks
  • View thumbnails of all your open tabs
  • Cause links that open in a new window to open in a new tab instead
  • Do quick Google searches by typing the letter g and your search
  • Create any number of quick searches
  • Automatically close the Download window
  • Block GIF animations
  • Turn the Debug menu on and off
  • Colorize the HTML in View Source
  • and more.

Be sure to check out the screenshot on this one.

Download :here

Last.fm
Like Pandora, Last.fm is a free online radio where you get to choose the music. You can choose, for example, to play music similar to Jason Mraz or any artist. You can also search by keyword.

Last.fm also has an iTunes plugin that will pay attention to what music you listen to in your own iTunes library and tailor your radio station
to include similar music.

(If you are looking for good, hand-selected music, check out freemacmusic.com.)

There is even a Macosxhints.com hint about how to get your Last.fm radio station into iTunes.

Download:here

Cocoa Gestures
Here’s a time-saving plugin that allows you to create gestures. Gestures are mouse movements that do something. For example, you can set up a gesture down-left to mean minimize this window or down-right-down to mean hide this application.

This reminds me of writing on someone is back with your finger, hoping they all guess what you are writing, but with Cocoa Gestures it really works.

You all probably set up an activation button (such as your middle mouse button) to precede your gestures so your random mouse movements don’t do unexpected things. Then once you memorize a bunch of gestures, your mouse will be even more powerful than before.

P.S. This only works with Cocoa apps (e.g. Safari and Mail but not Excel.)

Download:here

Tweak Freak
If you have ever wanted to personalize your Mac, Tweak Freak will probably allow you to do it. It gives you options with the dock, more with Unix, changes with Finder. (The freeware will allow you to add a Quit Finder to the Finder Menus allowing you to squeeze out the last bit of CPU when you are rendering movies and need every last drop.)

Take a look on the site for more examples, then launch the program to triple the list. (You’ll find Tweak Freak at the bottom of the list.) There is a lot of power, and very simple to use all of it.

Download:here

Do Something When

Do Something When is a system preference pane that allows the user to watch for drives mounting and un-mounting, allowing them to launch or quit applications, when these events happen.

I have found this freeware quite useful. For instance, recently I got my first SLR camera so all of my image files have increased in size. I now keep them on an external hard drive. When I plug that drive into my Powerbook, Photoshop starts up automatically. The same can be set up for iTunes to launch when your music filled hard drive is mounted.

Also, I have it set to open Safari when I open NetNewsWire Lite. This saves that hesitation the first time I open a feed.

Download:here

iAlert

iAlert sends you alerts when particular events occur in other apps and lets you interact with them. For instance, when new mail arrive, iAlert can notify you and let you interact with Mail.app. Or it can monitor a website and let you know the page has changed. My favorite is being alerted when a new buddy signs in or out of iChat. I don’t have to listen for iChat is login/logout sound and manually check the list to see who came or went.

iAlert comes with plugins for Mail, iChat, iTunes, and Safari. You can also build your own alerts. (See the included instruction manual.)

Note: Growl is a lot like iAlert, but I like iAlert more. iAlert was easier to set up and use, though Growl can be powerful too.

Download:here

Dashboard Starter

Dashboard Starter…starts Dashboard.

The first time you activate Dashboard on your Mac after a restart, each of your widgets has to go thru its start-up sequence. This can take a while. With Dashboard Starter added to your Login Items, each time you start or restart your Mac, Dashboard will be triggered in the background so that all the widgets can get up and running and be ready for you.

When you first run Dashboard Starter, it will ask you if you would like to add it to your Login Items. After that you all never notice it again and you’ll appreciate how responsive Dashboard is.

Download:here

savescreenie,

One of my favorite features of Mac OS is how easy it is to grab screenshots. With Command-Shift-3 you can grab a picture of the whole desktop and with Command-Shift-4 you can select parts of the screen. Each version of the Mac OS has a default file type for the captured image — Pict before OS X, PDF for 10.0 to 10.3, and PNG for 10.4.

With savescreenie, you can choose which kind of file type to use for screen captures. You can choose any of the common file types, and you can always revert back to the default file type.

Download:here

Galerie

I love using iPhoto, but it is weak for exporting photos to a website. The built-in export feature works, but it does not offer much customizability. Galerie, on the other hand, gives you several options to choose from:
  • The ability for your viewers to leave comments
  • The ability to include movies and music in the gallery page
  • A visitore count
  • Great looking templates

If you regularly post your pictures for others to see, this is a must have.

Download:here

Smart Crash Reports

We here at FreeMacWare.com are obviously big supporters of software developers. Since you are here, you probably are too. I do not have great development skills, but I do like to help.

Smart Crash Reports is an enhancement to the CrashReporter Application. Normally when an application crashes, you are given a chance to send a report to Apple. Smart Crash Reports will allow the same crash report to be sent to the software developer as well. It works with any software, freeware or otherwise, if the developer sets up his/her app to receive the crash reports.

When you get a minute, install this freeware on your Mac so the developers of the world can get better feedback and eventually release more stable software.

Download:here

Inquisitor

Inquisitor is a great plugin for Safari that enhances the web search field. As you type, Inquisitor offers search suggestions. For example, typing ban will return bank of america banana republic, and bandwidth test. These suggestions come from your personal search history and from the search history of all Google users, and it is done in an animated and slick way.

This is already a great plugin, and it should get even better in future versions.

Update: It did indeed get better with future version, but it has also left the wonderful world of freeware. There is now a mandatory donation.

Updatex2: It is now freeware again. Yeah Freeware.

Download:here








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Mac Blog Freeware
Sunday, April 1, 2007

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Slideroll Gallery AV

Gallery AV creates great-looking, customizable Flash photo and video galleries. Simply drag and drop your photos and videos onto the creator. Then you can put the result on your server and show off your photos. It’s very useful and easy to use when you want to put up some photos for friends and family.

They offer a nice batch of sample galleries to see what this program is capable of doing.

Download:here

TabStop


TabStop does just one thing. It warns you if you are going to close a Safari window that has more than one tab open. No more accidentally quitting a browser that has a hundred great articles open and ready to read.

If you have tabbed browsing enable in Safari, you will appreciate this app.

Download:here

Thumbscrew

Thumbscrew is a handy little tool to give your photos some personality.

When you drop an image (or a folder of images) on Thumbscrew, it will rotate the image, add a nice little border, and resize to your liking. This is a great way to make a thumbnail if you are going to post the picture online.

It’s fast too.

Download:here

NetFixer

Netfixer will allow you to take a screenshot of a website page. Not just what you see on your screen, but the whole thing.

Paparazzi is a freeware app that will do a similiar thing, but Netfixer has an extra option that I really like. They offer a bookmarklet that you can drag to your bookmark bar and that makes it really easy to take the shot. When you are on a page that you want to grab, just click on the bookmarklet and the program will open up VERY quickly with the URL already filled in. That makes it simple.

Also, NetFixer will let you decide the dimensions of the screenshot.


Download:here

iPhotoToGallery

Gallery is a popular open source package for hosting photos. If you have your own website, you can install Gallery and put all your photons online. Your web hosting company may, in fact, have Gallery pre-installed or easily installable.

iPhotoToGallery is an iPhoto plugin that makes it easy to put your photos on a Gallery site. Simply choose “Export” and then choose the “Gallery” tab (see screenshot below.) Easy as .Mac!

Download:here

Changes Meter


Changes Meter will keep an eye on any URL and let you know if the content on that page changes.

You know that we are big fans of using RSS feeds to keep up with websites. But not all sites offer feeds. With Changes Meter, you can enter any url and you’ll be notified if the page changes.

You can use the incredibly useful menu bar icon or you can keep an eye in the roster window.

Download:here

File Mutation


File Mutation is a File Conversion Application for a fast solution to converting File formats of graphic and image file formats. Preview.app does a pretty good job at this as well, but it’s so fast and convenient with File Mutation.

File Mutation can read “Convert From” These File Formats: PICT, BMP, GIF, JPEG, JPEG2, SGI, TGA, PDF, PNG, TIFF, TEXT, QuickTime Image, MacPaint, Photoshop, PSD.

File Mutation can write to “Convert To” PICT, PSD, BMP, JPEG, PNG, TIFF.

(I’m always bummed when a well programmed app doesn’t have a nice icon. A nice icon seems like such a easy way to add more credibility to your app. Oh well, this is still a good app.)

Download:here

Espionage

Apple Computer is known for their secrecy, this app lets you join in on the fun.

Espionage will take any text, and change it into a secret code. You can then send the code to a friend in an email (or the built in iChat integration) and they can decode the message on their end.

There are quite a few different codebooks included, but perhaps the coolest part is that you can build your own code book and distribute it only to those you want to be able to decode the messages.

Good uses for this app:

  • Be sure that your boss can’t read the emails that you are sending from your computer.
  • If you are on a connection that is not secure, but need to send your credit card info thru iChat just encode and send
  • You can write love poems about one girl, and not be afraid to let a different girl use your computer for a paper.
  • Post a message to the readers of your blog and don’t worry if Google picks it up.
  • If you have a good memory, I suppose you and your friend can be the only two people in the world to speak a coded language.

Have fun. Don’t break the law and just for kicks, [Hp Fq,/~ YXp ~Y ~pVV Wp &H:~ ~Hq/ Wp//:Gp /GJO3023/ &qVV Gp~ : y?h #qF~ bp,~qFqn:~p ~Y ~Hp ]^ q[K^j-r`W<>

Download:here

AOL Radio

Whether or not we like to admit it, a lot of us rely on AOL for their AIM service. I don’t think that iChat would have been successful without it. So, since most of us have logins already, we might as well check out the other goodies that AOL offers for free, including AOL Radio.

With AOL Radio, you just put your AOL or free AIM username and password in on login and you get access to some great channels. I know that iTunes has this too, but what I like about AOL Radio is they also give you access to some of the great channels on XM Radio. I LOVE XM radio!

On a side note, XM Radio is where I find a lot of great tunes. My two favorite XM channels are offered with this freeware. (The Loft and The City) If you want an idea of the great music found on The Loft, check out the latest post on FreeMacMusic.com. The tune is Designed To Fade by Shane Nicholson. It’s a winner…and I heard it for the first time just today on XM’s The Loft.

Alright, back to the freeware. This is a good free app. Enjoy

Download:here

Zoomify EZ

Zoomify makes high-quality images fast and interactive on the web using just HTML, JPEGs, and Flash. When you post a large image using this app, you’ll be able to zoom in and out on the image. It is much like the way that you interact with Google Maps. Of course, this is nice because you can upload a really large image that can bee seen all in one page, but you can still zoom in to see the detail. There is a great example of this freeware in use here.

So, get a good hosting service, a trusty FTP client and upload those images for the world to see. ( And let us know about it too…we always like to check out a good photo.)

Download:here




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