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Mac Users: Some Share/Freeware and New Stuff

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by Jeff, Oct 7, 2004.

  1. Jeff

    Jeff Clutch Crew

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    Just found a few things that really rock Mac guys might like...

    Radio Shark - $60

    This allows you to listen to AM/FM signals over your Mac, but more. It pauses live radio (a la Tivo) and will even record stuff for you for playback later. Lot of cool features. I could see this as a big deal for sports folks like us.

    Ovolab's Phlink - $150
    Phone Valet - $200

    Phone answering using your computer. Delivery via email and tons of voicemail and AppleScript options. MacWorld favors Phone Valet with a 4.5 mouse rating while they gave Phlink only 3. I've read others who prefer Phlink, but they both work great.

    Color Designer - freeware

    I love this thing. It helps you group together colors with similar characteristics to create palettes for design. I'm not good picking colors that go well together so this is super helpful.

    MyMind - freeware

    Basically, a really small outline to flowchart creator. Really handy if you are trying to put together a simple flowchart and don't want to mess with bigger software.

    Snapz Pro - $29/$69 shareware

    This is my new best friend. It is a MONSTER screen capture utility that allows you to choose the output format, portion of the screen to capture, what to do once you saved the file, etc. That's just for the $29 version. For $69, you get one that will actually capture small movies into .mov format. REALLY handy if you need to show someone something on your screen but they aren't in your office or house.

    iSeek - $15 shareware

    Another program from Ambrosia that basically puts a small search tool on the menu-bar of the Finder allowing you to search the entire web at any time easily. It even has subject-specific searches like Dictionary, CNN, etc.

    Mail.appetizer - freeware

    If I used Mail on Mac, I would abuse this little program. It doesn't work for Entourage, unfortunately, but if you use Mail and your mail checks automatically for you, you'll love this. Each time you get a new email, a little window pops up and shows you the subject, From and a little of the message so you can look at it or choose to ignore it without having to look at Mail. Really helpful when working on an important post on the BBS and an annoying email from your boss comes in. :)

    Geek Tool - freeware

    Allows you to place multiple items on your desktop from images to calendars and calculators and a wide range of other things. You can adjust the opacity so it doesn't get in your face. One example they give is to put a radar photo image from the web and have it update automatically every few seconds. If you know Unix, you can do a LOT of extra stuff with it as well.

    WebDesktop - freeware

    Puts a web page on your desktop and refreshes it if you like. Basically makes it a background image but you can adjust the opacity when it is active and when it is inactive. Pretty cool if you want to keep track of a specific site in the background while working on other stuff.

    If you guys know any more, pass them along.
     
  2. Deuce

    Deuce Context & Nuance

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    Great thread Jeff! Interesting stuff I will definitely check out! :)
     
  3. rhadamanthus

    rhadamanthus Member

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    Here are some more I use all the time on my mac:

    Adium - Multi-protocol IM client
    http://www.adiumx.com/

    Byte Controller - Good itunes hotkey/menu pager applet
    http://brainbyte.digitalhybrid.net/

    Camino - Nice mac based gecko browser.
    http://www.mozilla.org/camino

    Colloquy - Webkit based IRC client. not too newbish.
    http://www.colloquy.info/

    Cyberduck - SFTP/FTP client for os x
    http://cyberduck.ch/

    Desktop Manager - Multi desktop app for os x
    http://wsmanager.sf.net/

    Apple X11 Server - Apple's integrated X11 server. you'd want this for the next two items
    http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/x11/download/

    Fink - UNIX software for your mac (this rocks)
    http://fink.sf.net/

    Gimp.app - decent free photo editor
    http://gimp-app.sf.net/

    Handbrake - DVD to mpeg4 ripper
    http://handbrake.m0k.org/

    iTerm - Multi tabbed terminal
    http://iterm.sf.net/

    Mplayer OS X - This app will play just about any media format in existance
    http://mplayerosx.sf.net/

    DVDBackup - Great for backing up DVDs
    http://www.wormintheapple.gr/macdvd/DVDbackup.html

    WireTap - Save an audio file of any sound being played on the Mac by any other application. (very cool)
    http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/freebies/

    I think these are all free too.

    Cheers.
     
  4. pippendagimp

    pippendagimp Member

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    Anyone here know how this Virtual PC software works? I'm wondering if it would allow me to load and run something like MS Office (PC version) on a Mac...
     
  5. Mulder

    Mulder Member

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    Entourage 2004 has this feature built in.
     
  6. edc

    edc Member

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    It works like any other application. You double click the App, point it at the file which has a Microsoft OS (or Linux) installed, and that's it. Best to think of it as the equivalent of a two-year old PC. Windows, Office, and Explorer (PC versions) run fine in emulation, but are slower than most folks like.
     
  7. CBrownFanClub

    CBrownFanClub Member

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    I just installed VP 7, Windows XP and Office 2003 today, gave it a ton of memory, it works great.
     
  8. Jeff

    Jeff Clutch Crew

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    In the newest version or the last one??? How exactly? I know you can bring the entire app to the front when an email comes in, but does it really have a small window come up???
     
  9. Jeff

    Jeff Clutch Crew

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  10. VesceySux

    VesceySux World Champion Lurker
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    When you get an email, a notification box fades in on the bottom right of your screen and tells you who emailed you and the subject title (plus a symbol for deleting the message). After about 5 seconds, the box fades out. Quite cool.

    A few other apps:

    DragThing
    Cocktail
    GetTunes
     
  11. rhadamanthus

    rhadamanthus Member

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    One more:

    I literally use this all the time. If there is one thing that I don't like about OS X, it's trying to find the right app without digging through the finder.

    Quicksilver makes this a breeze.
    http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

    This program is basically a pre-made form of Tiger's (10.4) Spotlight. I press cntrl-space, type in the first two letters of the app I want and quicksilver finds it. Sweet.
     
  12. TraJ

    TraJ Member

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    I'm a Windows guy, but I'll give you one that has a Mac version as well. It's based on Mozilla stuff, and the code is going to be handed over to the Mozilla folks when everything is said and done and compiled. It's an open source Web editor/site manager that produces HTML 4.01 compliant markup, although I'm sure it will eventually produce XHTML. Still, HTML 4.01 compliant markup would be a step up for many, many Web pages. It is primarily being developed as the HTML editor for Linux (which will be obvious when you look at the Web site), but there are also downloads for Windows, and Mac. And, as I said, the code will eventually be handed over to the Mozilla folks. It's still a litte rough right now, but it's only at 0.41 right now (with 0.50 due at any moment).

    www.nvu.com
     
  13. Mulder

    Mulder Member

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    Correct. The latest one in Entourage 2004 go to Entourage Menu -> Prefs.
    In prefs menu go to Notification first check box: "When new mail arrives" Radio button says "Display message subject and preview."
     
  14. Jeff

    Jeff Clutch Crew

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    Yeah, I don't have 2004 yet. Thanks!
     

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