Archives for May 2013

Since Apple dumped the RSS reader in Safari I’ve worried that news readers might become a dying breed. I certainly hope not. Despite the popularity of Flipboard and other news aggregator apps for iPhone and iPad, nothing is better than a solid, dependable, standalone RSS news reader. Here’s a free one that you’ll like. … Read More »

Coffee isn’t my thing but I’m definitely into coffee breaks to help remove the mundane and increase anticipation. CoffeeTime isn’t just for coffee drinkers. It’s a break timer app which lets you set breaks throughout the day for coffee, bathroom, or any other activity which gets you up and away from slaving over a … Read More »

For most PC users, Wi-Fi networks are a royal pain to setup and maintain. For Mac users and Airport owners, it’s a bit easier thanks to Apple’s famed user friendly interface. What if you want to scan, monitor, map, and troubleshoot a local Wi-Fi network? What’s the best way? All you need is the … Read More »

It isn’t often I run into a very useful Mac utility which also has a very clever name; a play on words. That’s the case with the Mountain utility which lives in the Mac’s Menubar and gives you an easier way to mount and unmount volumes attached to your Mac. Instead of using the … Read More »

How many files are on your Mac? Most of us don’t care, and unless we run an app that scans and counts files we’d never find out. What’s the advantage of knowing how many files you have? Not much, but knowing how many files and where they are will give you a better understanding … Read More »

Nearly every card carrying adult, male or female, has a wallet or something that resembles a wallet. It’s the little mobile device that carries money, identification, credit cards, and for some may also cause problems with the sciatic nerve. I’m beginning to think that we need a different name for wallet. Why? Because everyone … Read More »

When it comes to naming an app I prefer those that are descriptive, those that are clever, or those that are memorable. Apple may do it best. Mail is email. Contacts are address book. Calendar is the calendar app. Others are descriptive but obvious. iTunes. iPhoto. iMovie. Even Garageband evokes the minimalist digital recording … Read More »

Through the years I’ve tried about every audio recording app for the Mac– from ProTools to Logic, from BIAS to Audacity and plenty in-between. Even now my collection of audio recording apps is larger than what actually gets used. The latest addition is sBlaster which does more than some recording apps. All it takes … Read More »

If there’s one thing I don’t particularly care for about Apple’s keyboards– iMac or MacBook– it’s the lack of easy-to-implement customization options. Thankfully, other Mac users, particularly those with development experience, have the same problem. If you’d truly like to remap your Mac’s keyboard (any Mac, not just MacBook models), then the free experience … Read More »

It’s just not true that photo enhancement apps for the Mac are a dime a dozen. Sometimes they’re less expensive. There seems to be a race between app developers to cram the most features into each photo app and charge less than the competition. Sprout FX is one of that new breed which costs … Read More »

Whether you use Calendar or Reminders on OS X, it’s something of a love hate relationship. We love to populate Calendar with events and put up reminders in Reminders. What we usually hate is the alerts when something is due. Snooze is a handy feature but not exactly customizable. What we need is SnoozeMaster, … Read More »

There are some apps we use everyday on our Macs. Mail, Safari, Calendar. Then, there are others that are used often. iTunes. iPhoto. iMessage. And, then, there are apps that are seldom used but very useful, nonetheless. Dupe Away falls into that category. It’s a Mac and Windows PC app that finds and cleans … Read More »

Emptying the Trash can on a Mac is one of the earliest things we learn. Drag a file or folder of files to the Trash can. Select Empty Trash from the Finder menu. Quick. Easy. Painless. It’s been that way since way back in the last century so it must be the right way … Read More »

When it comes to applications the real danger is feature creep. That’s a technical term for what happens to an app over time. Features continue to creep in until the app becomes difficult to learn, uncomfortable to use, complicated and expensive. That sort of describes Microsoft Word, doesn’t it? The latest trend in word … Read More »

The standard tools for professional designers and illustrators come from Adobe in the form of Photoshop and Illustator, both of which will cost you plenty of coin, and guarantee a hefty learning curve to become useful apps. Or, you can use Acorn on your Mac. It’s the inexpensive image editor that blends a little … Read More »

Most of the modern class of computing device users have one thing in common. We use our fingers to communicate to our newfound overlords of productivity– the Mac, a Windows PC, an iPhone or iPad or any equivalent. Each requires a finger touch or even 10 fingers, as in typing on a keyboard. My … Read More »

When I look back on my education I see only a handful of classes that actually made a difference in my adult life. Very high on the list was learning to type. As a student, I wasn’t a particularly fast typists, or as accurate as my typing teacher would have preferred. Compared to girls … Read More »

When it comes to using keyboard shortcuts I’m decidedly not an old school Mac user. True, I cut my computing teeth on WordStar running on an Osborne CP/M luggable, but I’ve just never managed to master much beyond the basic keyboard shortcuts that make any computer user more productive. Instead, I rely upon a … Read More »

There’s something about a webcam that fascinates both Mac and Windows PC users. Maybe it’s the voyeuristic aspect of watching what’s on someone else’s camera. Whatever it is, there’s also an element of convenience in a personal webcam. These are the utilities that can be used to capture photos and videos from your Mac’s … Read More »