I have been considering using the SOC blog as more of a blog and posting all of my programming related posts there and leaving this one as more of a general blog. I have some posts coming soon for programming related things and I’m trying to figure out what makes more sense: posting them here where they’ll get a few more eyeballs, or posting them on SOC where the site is all about programming — albeit a programming podcast that hasn’t seen an episode since late 2009.

In short, the future is muddy. Hopefully I’ll be able to shed some more light on things as the next month or two roll on.

What I’m wondering is if you folks find any value in me re-posting this stuff on the blog?  Shoot me a note in the comments.

To help keep the show length reasonable, the Mac Lab report for this show is a quick one.  The inspiration comes from a post by Tim Cox over at MacApper.  This is a collection of Automator scripts which will help to keep your downloads directory clean.

These scripts provide methods for managing your Internet downloads for everything from music files (Tunes to Trash), disk images (Perfect Dismount) and zip archives (The Zipper).

Overall the tools do a decent job of keeping things tidy and are a great example of a practical use for Automator for the everyday user.

fseventer
First off this week is a tool from FernLightning called fseventer.  This app gives you new visibility into just what files on your hard drive are modified by the tools you use every day.  It was quite remarkable to me to start fseventer and just allow it to run while I wasn’t using the computer.  In a matter of seconds my “idle” computer had performed dozens of operations and written to lots of files.

The tool presents the information in a variety of ways not the least of which is the uber-cool tree view.  This app seems to do a pretty good job of finding all of the changed files, but I haven’t tried doing ay specific research with the tool.

Warp
Warp is an application that uses mouse gestures to control switching between your OS X Spaces.  I realize that I’ve been on the anti-mouse bandwagon for some time now, but some things are so slow and unproductive that you can fix them with mouse gestures.

The application installs an OS X preference pane to control Warp which is tied to the existing Spaces panel.  When you activate warp it also verifies to ensure that Spaces is active.

Warp is a great shortcut for those who use the mouse alot and don’t want to memorize keyboard shortcut; or for those who simply prefer *shudder* to use the mouse.

Download Warp by Kent Sutherland.

Teleport
If you’ve ever wanted a great way to control multiple macs in your house from one keyboard & mouse the AbysSoft‘s Teleport just might be the solution you’ve been looking for.  This gives you much of the same functionality that you’d get from using a KVM switch, but without the unnecessary hardware.

Teleport provides a single interface for controlling other Macs that have teleport installed.  In some ways it behaves like Spaces, but with each space being a separate physical machine.  I really wish I’d had a chance to try this one, but with only the one Mac in the house, that makes things a bit difficult.

Teleport a great way to make use of existing network infrastructure to reduce your cable load and make your digital life that much easier.

Licensed
This next application is one that should be in everyone’s utility toolbox.  Licensed by Amar Sagoo is designed to one things, and one thing only: keep track of your software licesnses.  Licensed has a quick to learn and easy to use UI and takes no time to learn

Licensed falls into the category of tools that most good freeware and open-source applcations are famous for: simple applications that do what they say they will.

One thing I would suggest is a prompt on the delete button.  Not a big deal, but usually a good practise to avoid accidental loss of data.

Front Row “Remote Control”
Last up this week is Bert Ramakers’ software-based Front-Row remote.  This app allows you to control Front-Row over the network on other machines that are Front-Row enabled (Tiger and later).

It’s not clear whether this application will work with other applicances like the Apple TV, but its a creative remoting solution nonetheless.

Thats it for me this week.  Due to the trouble with the TPN servers there will be no show again this weekend, but we’ll have another one out as soon as life and fate permits.

http://bertramakers.com/?page_id=19

And if that’s not enough twitter for you, here’s the Common Craft segment Twitter in Plain English.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o]

This week the Global Geek Podcast releases it’s 80th episode!  Wow!

I decided to take this opportunity to talk about the iPhone and iPod Touch SDK releases since I don’t plan on talking about them again in the near future, probably not until WWDC in June.  So let’s get down to it.

Some have hailed the iPhone SDK as “the second coming of the Jesus phone“, I see it more as a naturally evolutionary step for a mobile computing platform. What company in today’s world of user-contributed social networks would release a computing platform and limit the ability for developers to create “killer apps” for the device?  Nobody.  And so Apple released their SDK for the iPhone and the iPod touch last week.

However, Apple’s not giving up control of their devices to the open-source community.  They will control the ability for developers to launch new applications to the devices by way of the Apple App Store.  Yes, that’s right.  You can’t just download your favourite new iPhone gadget, you’ll have to download sanitized “Apple Approved” gadgets.  Great.  Thanks Steve.

Not all the news is bad, though.  Venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers has come forward with a $100 M fund to support the development of new and innovative applications for the next-generation media devices.  I’m glad to see some investment that will help non-professional developers get their ideas heard.  The firm has also pledged to provide support with business expertise and startup information.

Finally the SDK announcement came coupled with a few others.  The biggest among them is that Apple has inked a deal with OS rival Microsoft for the use of it’s ActiveSync technology finally allowing the iPhone to synchronize it’s mail, calendar and contacts applications with Microsoft Exchange.  This is a major coup for Apple because one of the major problems preventing the device from gaining widespread acceptance in enterprise environments was the lack of connectivity with the 800-pound gorilla of the office.  The next few months will be interesting indeed, particularly if the 3G iPhone drops in June as most expect.

I’ll be sure to have a raft of applications up for the next GGP.

I only had a couple of resources to review this week partly because of content and partly because of time.  This week Cait’s away recovering from surgery so I’m back again to help Dave hold down the fort… hey, it’s almost like I’m a regular co-host!     On that note, let’s get down to it.

Neon Tango
The first up this week is a really cool game I found called Neon Tango.  This is a top-down shoot ‘em up like so many classic games before it (dating all the way back to Asteroids if you wanna go back that far ).  The action is super fast and the soundtrack is amazing!  The graphics are all line/vector based, no fancy skins on the objects, but they’re still really really good line and vector-based graphics.

The catch: the $25 price tag for the full version.  A three-level playable demo is available from the website, give it a try and consider picking up Neon Tango.  ((Even if you don’t want to buy it, download the trial and listen to the soundtrack!))

Switcher Keyboard Shortcut Guide
The folks over at My First Mac have put together a keyboard shortcut guide for windows switchers.  This is a great resource to learn how to navigate OS X more effectively without having to take your hands off the keyboard.  This is an excellent resource for anyone who uses both Macs and PCs or has recently switched from one platform to the other.  I learned at least one new shortcut for each platform reading this tutorial.

Give the guide a try: Ultimate Switcher Guide: Windows PC to Mac Keyboard Shortcuts.

This week I tried out a solution to my audio problems with a new headset.  Give it a listen and let me know what you think.  I am still evaluating other options.

Handbrake
Solutions for <ahem> archiving your DVDs have been covered on occasion on the GGP, and this week I’ve got a great option for those of you running OS X.  Handbrake allows you to rip archive a DVD to a digital format that can be stored (and played back) on devices other than a DVD player.  Handbrake will allow conversion to more than a half-dozen different file formats.

Download Handbrake.

Houdini
Houdini is a simple application that allows you to simply manage hidden files and folders.  If you need to hide files or documents from someone else who is not overly technical Houdini can help (though I don’t recommend using hidden files as a security mechanism, but that’s a rant for another post).  Through a simple GUI you can manage your hidden files and folders and change the from hidden to visible on command.

Give Houdini a try for basic hidden folder management.

PTHVolume
Finally this week a menu-bar add-on for controlling the volume of your various audio outputs independently.  This application is restricted to OS X 10.5 (Leopard), but does work pretty well.  It provides an extra level of control over a system-level function which is something that Apple doesn’t often provide out of the box.

For a wee bit more control over volume, download PTHVolume.

Join Dave and I again this coming week for the next installment of the GGP.

Regular listeners to the Global Geek Podcast will know that the microphone I use for my segments isn’t the greatest.  To be truthful, it’s a four-year old cheapie that I bought at London Drugs back when I used to actually play games.  :wink:

So I’m now on the lookout for a replacement… the question is what to get?  I’ve been using this headset-based version for some time now, but I’d really like to get something with decent quality.  I know Dave has a higher-end setup with a mixer and stuff because he needs to edit the show together.  While I don’t think I need to go quite to that level (yet), I haven’t ruled out the idea of a good, standalone USB mic.

I’d like to come to a decision in the next couple of days and try to pick up a newmic before we record this week’s show.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

LiteIcon
First up this week is FreeMacSoft’s LiteIcon.  This is a great application for helping you manage the system icons on your Mac.  Apple has a tendency to dumb-down everything for their systems hiding the guts behind nicely designed UIs… most of the time.  Icon management is something that they’ve never gotten right.

LiteIcon will allow you to swap out your  icon set for OS X, and more importantly, swap them back to the originals.  The only thing this doesn’t include is icons for you to use.  You could always get some icons from a site like InterfaceLIFT to pimp out your mac.

LiteIcon is a freebie.

Flash Video Downloader 2
The second app for this week is Tesseract Software’s Flash Video Downloader.  This app will allow you to point any website URL to the tool, and it will scan the source code for the page and find any flash video links and it will automatically download the .flv files.

The app works fairly well and allows you to download batches of files at a time, and has some other “batchy” features like a notification beep, or the ability to shut down the computer afterward.

The only catch with this tool is that it won’t allow you to convert the files from the .flv format.  But for a freebie, not too shabby.

VisualHub
It’s been a long time since I did an app that wasn’t a freebie, but in my search for a really good conversion tool I came up empty in the freebie department.

Techspansion’s VisualHub is an app that will take any format in, and push any format out.  There’s support for pretty much every video format on the market including H.264, DV, PSP, AVI, and the ever ellusive FLV.

The only downside is that the app costs about $25… but like the Techspansion dev team says: “justify it by thinking of the cost per frame.”

And that wraps up this weeks Mac updates.  Join us again next time for more mac apps, and more GGP goodness.

iPhoto Batch Image Enhancer
This application gives you the ability to make changes to large batches of your iPhoto images. This is a standalone application and doesn’t integrate into iPhoto, but it is fairly lightweight and runs at a reasonable speed. There are a couple of little quirks that make it so that you really shouldn’t do much else while you run the batch, but it’s a good free option for set-and-forget operations.

Download iPhoto Batch Enhancer from the feroXsoft website.

Oxidizer
Oxidizer provides you the ability to build your own background… but not just any background: A fractal! I’ve always loved fractals, but the majority of the fractal programs out there require you to enter weird commands from the command line, and/or have a masters degree in mathematics. Oxidizer allows slaps on a fairly usable GUI and allows you to build some interesting fractal images.

Oxidizer is offered as an open-source project.

Download Oxidizer.

DockDoctor

DockDoctor is yet another in the series of OS X Leopard “tweaker” apps. This one is geared specifically toward adjusting settings of the Mac OS X dock, and does so from the Dashboard. I’ve covered apps like this in the past, so I won’t spend much time on it. Suffice to say the widget has options for a 2D or 3D dock, and a button to automatically restart the Dock application.

Download DockDoctor from Inner Mind Media.

iTimeMachine

First up this week is iTimeMachine.  This application allows you to connect your computer to network disks to perform TimeMachine backups.  Even with the announcement that Steve Jobs made at MacWorld about the new TimeCapsule, there are still some advantages to using an app like iTimeMachine.

Obviously, the freeware application is a good deal cheaper than the $500 1TB TimeCapsule, particularly if you already have the drive.  The other huge advantage is that iTimeMachine also allows the use of AirDisks, something that isn’t currently supported even by TimeCapsule.

iTimeMachine is a simple one-button application that works as advertised.  Definitely something to try out if you’ve got a spot in your house to stick one of those 1.5TB MyBook drives…

Twhirl

Twhirl is a Twitter client that runs on the Mac, as well as Windows and Linux.  The cross-platform nature comes from it’s use of the Adobe Air framework.  Air provides a simple mechanism for installing and setting up the application.

The biggest selling point for Twhirl is it’s ability to handle multiple twitter accounts.  This really sets it appart from its peers like twitteriffic.  Twhirl uses the Adobe Air Beta 3 platform.

LeopardMod

LeopardMod allows you to tweak settings in OS X that aren’t readily changeable by other means.  For the most part it’s a really nice UI to handle command-line plist changes (like this).

There are over a dozen different settings that this application can change.  It will allow you to tweak settings in Safari, the Dock, the Menubar and more.

And if you hadn’t figured it out yet, LeopardMod only works with OS X 10.5 “Leopard”.

Caffeine

Caffeine is kinda like a double-shot of espresso for your Mac.  When using this program you’ll never again have your screen blank out while you’re giving a presentation (or staring at something).

This application allows you to disable power-management features for your Mac by overriding the default settings and preventing the computer from going to sleep.

The application can be run manually, or set to auto-start in your menu-bar (getting crowded by now if you’ve installed all my great Mac freebies… lol).  The menubar icon can be clicked to toggle between normal, and “caffeine” modes.

I was able to meet up with the geeks to join them for the recording of the 74th edition of the GGP. We covered a ton of stuff in this week’s show, and as promised here’s the details for this week’s Mac Lab Update.

Net News Wire
This was huge news this week. With NewsGator releasing all of it’s personal products as free downloads (FeedDemon, NetNewsWire and a few others) they have taken a huge step towards monopolizing the RSS agregation client market. As regular listeners of the GGP already know, Dave is a bit of an RSS afficianado and he highly recommended I check out this app as soon as it became available.

So on Thursday I downloaded and installed it, and gave it a run through it’s paces. Though it caused me a few headaches as it imported the sixty or so feeds that I had in my Google Reader OPML file, over the next few hours it became less finicky and seems to be working as advertised now.

Using a client instead of a web interface is often a more visually rewarding experience, and NNW doesn’t disappoint in this department. The UI is clean and easy to use, and there are enough options available to make organizing and browsing the articles in your feed a breeze.

Net News Wire is (now) a free application.

MAMP
This item came to us from GGP listener Eric Searle. MAMP (Macintosh, Apache, MySQL & PHP) is the OS X implementation of the classic open-source development stack LAMP (Linux).

MAMP is a one-stop shop that brings the Mac usability experience to open-source development. Though it’s possible to install and configure all of these components from source code as is done on other systems, the MAMP package provides a quick and easy way to get a PHP development environment running on your Mac.

The open-source MAMP stack, are free applications.

gDisk
gDisk is an OS X utility that gives you the ability to mount a drive to your system that will save files to your GMail account. This is a great way to move relatively small files between different computers or locations, with a backup copy stored in your GMail account.

It’s a simple utility that does exactly what it claims.

gDisk is a free application.

FolderSplitter
The first application this week is FolderSplitter written by Micheal over at QTSync.com.

FolderSplitter allows you to split one large folder into several smaller ones. It’s ideal for backups where you’re going to burn files to CDs/DVDs or media where storage space is limited.

Multiple splitting options:

• Maximum size of dest folder
• Maximum items in dest folder
• Copy or MOVE files
• Include hidden folders?
• Keep files alphabetical, or minimize number of dest folders

It’s a fairly simple application that does what it claims.
The only thing I think I’d have changed is size presets for CDs, DVDs and maybe the business-card CDs (I can never remember how big those are).

FolderSplitter is a free application.

SharpShooter
Second on the block is my Killer-App pick for this week. It’s by developer Isaac Wankerl and it’s called SharpShooter.

This is an OS X menu-bar application that is automatically launched any time you use the Cmd-Shift-3 / 4 screen capture commands built into OS X.

SharpShooter does three things, and does them very well:
- Preview screenshots
- Rename Screenshots
- Trash crappy screenshots

The application also has multiple monitor support including compositing (stitching) frames together.

I’ve only had this app for about a week and it has already worked it’s way into my regular-use arsenal. Between all the above features, the auto-start feature and direct integration with the OS X desktop Sharpshooter is a killer app and it’s a free application.

Lastly today three programs I’m dubbing the Sudden Motion Sensor Time-waster three-pack

These should work on any mac system with a sudden motion sensor (macbook, macbook pro, and some ibook variants.) There are also some iPhone rumours, but hell I’m in Canada where we’re not allowed to own and operate the toy of the year legally…

Tunnel (download)
Tilt from side to side, don’t hit the walls or you die.
- low-res graphics
- no sounds
- saves your high score

LiquidMac (download)
Particle generator, behaves like liquid
- tons of adjustable physics
- full screen mode
- does kinda look like digitized liquid.

MacSaber (download)
<yoda>Seen this before, we have.</yoda>
- Tilt move the macbook around to get light-saber sounds
- sharper movements produce different sounds
- don’t DROP your mac
- Jedi certification not included.

Three MacSaber videos on YouTube.

ScriptSaver
First up this week is a Screen Saver application called ScriptSaver by Matt Swann.  I call this a Screen Saver Application because though it’s launched by your OS X screen saver, it allows you to add an AppleScript to be run at Activation or Deactivation of the screen saver.

This will allow you to perform maintenance tasks, launch applications, automate some job while you’re away or any other myriad activities all by simply doing nothing.

The application will also allow you to select a screen saver to run while Script Saver is active.

Here are a few links to some applescript resources for those of you who aren’t inclined to write your own:

• Doug’s Scripts for iTunes
• Apple’s AppleScript resource site
• Automator World
• MacScripter.net

Give ScriptSaver a shot, and make better use of your down time!

Isolator
Isolator is a simple OS X application which helps you to focus on your active window.  It works by placing itself one layer below the active window so that it hides everything on your desktop (dock, icons, widgets etc. etc.) and leaves only your working window in focus.

Isolator integrates itself into your menu bar and can be controlled from there, or from an activation/deactivation hotkey that you set yourself.

I’m planning to give this a good test run for my school work over the next couple of months.  I’ve got a bit of a tendency to procrastinate (hence why this post is almost a week late!!)

Versatile Unit Converter
Last up this week is the Versatile Unit Converter widget.  This was put together by a group at the university of Geneva.  This widget will allow you to convert between various units of measure.

VUC will takes in an initial value and allows you to output it into different formats by specifying the mathematical or scientific symbols that make up the different units of measure.  Converting things like temperature, energy, mass and distance just got a whole lot easier.  Now I can explain more easily that where I come from, 32 degrees is well above freezing.

That’s it for this week.  I’ll try and make sure the post for next week is on time… Maybe I’ll use isolator to help me focus!

DMGConverter

As the name suggests this tool will allow you to convert all sorts of disk image files between various image formats. These include three ISO formats, CDR, Mac DMG image files, and others.

This application that will also help to create disk image files from folders on your computer. You can use this to create a burnable disk image like an ISO for easy distribution across platforms, or a downloadable DMG file so that your Mac buddies can download and mount the image on their systems.

This application will also support several Mac and PC file systems, including the new Extended file systems and FAT16 & 32. There currently is no support for NTFS.

This is a great tool for anyone who needs to distribute large quantities of information, or needs to make copies of any type of existing disc (legally of course!).

Where I see this for myself is creating image files and using them to archive things like photos, or music and podcasts that I’ve finished listening to.

DMG Converter is a free application.

Secret Notepad Plus

SecretNotePadPlus is a dashboard widget created by Japanese developer N. Wajima that will allow you to make and keep notes on your OS X dashboard the biggest difference between this widget, and many other similar ones is, you guessed it, the secure part.

SNP allows you to password protect the widget so that its secrets can be kept hidden away from the world, and would be particularly useful in one-mac homes where the computer is shared among many different people.

Yes, there are many other ways to do this, and storing the information in this way isn’t the _most_ secure mechanism available. Where this might be useful though, is keeping a list of your frequently used ID’s and Passwords for various websites. It’s easily accessible, and can be quickly hidden once you’re done your session.

Finally, SNP makes use of keychain to store its own password information as well as the notes and text. So this is a fairly secure method of being able to write this information to the disk. While you’d never write your latest novel, or the secrets to cold fusion technology in SNP, it’s great for quick notes.

SecretNotepadPlus is a free application.

AirPort Radar

The folks over at MacWireless.com have put together Airport Radar, a simple wifi scanning tool which shows you the networks in the area as well as the strength of their signals. Airport Radar performs it’s scanning magic from your OS X dashboard. This is a good way to troll for networks in those cases where you just _have_ to download the latest episode of the GGP and can’t make it home to the comfort of your regular broadband connection.

The scans are done at a user-configurable interval; the default is just under two seconds. The widget will display any networks it detects. If a network drops off, or drops below a detectable level it will remain on the screen in a ‘greyed out’ state, and will stay on the screen for a set number of scans (default is 5).

While not the most full-featured wifi scanner around, it’s a pretty good little tool. It should be noted that it only searches for “Infrastructure” networks, or access points. It won’t detect the wifi connection on other wifi ‘client’ devices like laptops, xboxes, ipod touches, psp’s, cell phones… well you get the idea.

Airport Radar is a free application.

XBox 360 Controller Driver

Last up this week is something kinda fun that I just had to share. For any of you who own an XBox 360 and have always wanted to use the controller in your favourite Mac games, I have the solution for you! Developer Colin Munro has created a driver package for the 360 controller to allow it to be used on the Mac.

For me there’s just something deliciously ironic about using a Microsoft controller on an Apple computer. The 360 Controller driver is also a freebie.

While I’m sad to see Tim go, he’s moving on to new challenges and I think we’ll see him around from time to time…  I’d like to extend a personal thank you to Tim for his help with my budding podcast career.  Looking forward to seeing the next big thing!

Off the top, I’m going to start with a couple of Mac security items.

Trojan.Mac
The first is a new Trojan affecting Mac OS X. OSX.RSPlug.A is a trojan that buries itself in your OS X installation and redirects you to porn and phishing sites while you’re browsing the net. This is done by forcing your computer to read DNS information from some less than reputable sources.

This is far from the nastiest trojan I’ve ever seen, despite some mac-pundits who seem to feel that “This is really bad. Really.” It doesn’t damage any files, and only messes with some settings that can be relatively easily restored.

The second is the report on the McAfee Avert labs blog stating that several other fake codec sites have been popping up with the Puper family of malware. This fake codec that messes with your system settings has been plaguing Windows since 2005, but is now making it’s way to the Mac Platform.

Now, far be it for me to get up on my soapbox… aw who am I kidding.

<rant>
This is the latest in a series of examples of people who are starting to dabble in the Mac Exploit business. Is it true that only a minuscule percentage of threats against desktop computers can hurt the mac? yes. But lets keep in mind that only a minuscule percentage of all the threats created are _targeted_ at the mac. As the popularity of the mac platform increases, and more vulnerable targets are created, mark my words: We _will_ see more Mac Exploits in 2008.
</rant>

Add to this a story that broke this week with regards to the firewall that ships along with the new package. A review on by Heise Security in the UK pointed out several significant flaws in the setup, configuration and default settings that come with OS X Leopard. The final verdict of this review is that “Mac OS X Leopard firewall failed every test.”

So for those of you who think that the Mac is invulnerable, you may want to reconsider relying on Security by Obscurity.

OpaqueMenuBar
Last week, during our Leopard overview, I mentioned that the Leopard Menu Bar is now semi-transparent resulting in some extreme cases, in readability issues with menubar text. Eternal Storms Software has put out a quick little application called OpaqueMenuBar to take care of this annoying little “feature”. I tried this one out and it did perform as promised… but I removed it in a heartbeat. Why?

1. It’s a TSR. Terminate and Stay Resident. It doesn’t just change the menu bar and terminate, it sits there and runs in the background. Ew. I feel like I’m back in the DOS days.
2. When I double-clicked the program it didn’t appear to do anything… I had to go and change my background for the change to take effect.
3. The solid menubar that it enables isn’t the metallic-grey colour of the rest of OS X… it’s WHITE, with black writing. Welcome back to the B&W version of Mac OS System 7…

DockDoctor
The other issue I discussed with regards to the new Look of Leopard is the new 3-D Glass-Shelf dock. Last week I already wanted to get rid of it, and apparently I wasn’t the only one. I found no less than a half-dozen dashboard widgets and applications to swap your 3D-Dock for a 2D version. I even posted the command-line fix to my own blog last week.

Intermind Media’s DockDoctor is an example of one of these. Pick a dock, and do the restart. This really could have been done as a single button, but maybe that’ll be adjusted in a future version.

Here are some of the other iterations of this idea that I found this week:

• DockSwitcher
• Dock Enhancer

Last up this week a non-Leopard item. iVol is a utility that allows you to adjust your system volume by sliding the scroll wheel on your mouse. To adjust the volume up or down on your computer, click the wheel on the mouse, and then scroll it. There’s also an option to Shift-Scroll option as well. To toggle the mute function you can also double-click the wheel. iVol is a free application for both Mac OS X and Windows.

It’s time again for this week’s edition of the GGP, and with it the latest update from the Mac Lab Rat.

Leopard
This week was of course Leopard launch week. I’ve put up several ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5]) posts on the subject over the past week or so, and don’t have a ton more to say about it. It’s quick, solid and works basically like Tiger. It’s got a couple of very nice upgrades (Time Machine for one), that I haven’t been able to use yet.

PortableApps for the Mac
There’s been lots posted about the concept of Portable Applications — software that you can load on a USB key and run without needing to actually install it on the computer. This week I’ve rounded up a site with OS X compatible versions of many popular programs including Firefox and Thunderbird. If you work cross-platform like I do, the portable Firefox will work particularly well with another GGP featured service Quick Bookmarks. If you use a Mac, or particularly if you use more than one, check out Portable Apps for the Mac.

Coconut Battery Monitor
I really like this application. I was running it on my Macbook before the Leopard upgrade and will probably get it back on there this week. Coconut allows you to monitor not only the stock information about your battery (power remaining, charge cycles) but also provides information like the current max charge vs. the max rated charge (ie: is your battery still charging to capacity). It gives some great insights into the true health of your battery. If you’re running a Mac notebook Coconut Battery Monitor is definitely worth a look.

Spark
Last up this week is Spark, an application that will allow you to assign a keyboard shortcut to pretty much any action your Mac can do. Not only can you launch applications and open files, you can also tie a shortcut key to application specific functions and AppleScripts! I’ve already got a few different key combos set up and there will be more to come as my Windows-based keyboard-centric tendencies continue to shine through. Spark will save you time!

The first application for the week dead.licious by Malarkey Software. This is an OS X application for validating the bookmarks stored in your delicious account. It provides an interface for reviewing and testing the bookmarks you have in your account, and identifies those that are broken or otherwise invalid. At that point it will allow you to either fix or remove the dead link. Dead.licious provides support for Del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia & Simpy.

The application is offered as Freeware, but there is a donation nag box every 5 times you use it. It’s important to note though that this isn’t criple-ware, and won’t stop working if you decide not to contribute.

You can download dead.licious from the Malarkey Software website.

The second application this week is Pres Butan from developer Brian Kendall. This is a little OS X application that will let you open files or applications by pressing the enter or return key. This is a feature that makes OS X behave more like Windows or Linux, and will undoubtedly help many of the folks out there who are switching from one of those platforms. After a quick installation, I tried it out and used it to launch Garage Band when I was recording this week’s segment.

One thing that did bother me is that the application requires the “Assistive Devices” setting to be turned on in the System Preferences panel. So anyone who installs it will have to turn on that setting manually. I’d like to see the system provide a mechanism for turning that feature on all by itself, or with a prompt to the user.

Download Pres Butan from the developer’s website.

Next up this week, I have an update on a product that I covered back on GGP #62. Moodblast is an application that allows you to update your ‘mood’ or status messages on IM applications like iChat or Adium and microblogging services like Twitter and Yappd.

The update is that FaceBook support is back for MoodBlast. The new version integrates with Facebook’s new “remember me” features and allows you to use MoodBlast to update your status message. It does make you log in about three times before it will successfully remember everything, however once that’s done it won’t bug you again.

A nice bit of silliness to end off this week.  Have a look at Lobster Petting.  I really can’t say much about this.  It’s a picture of a lobster.  You pet it with your mouse.  It squeaks.  ’nuff said.

Check out the Lobster homepage to download.
Enjoy!

This week’s first tool is a Dashboard Widget called Delivery Status that will allow you to track packages from over a dozen different companies. This quick and dirty widget allows you to quickly hunt down that pesky new Wii, iPhone or eBay package that you’ve been waiting for without having to remember which website you need to find to look it up.

Some of the packages it can track are:
- US Postal Service & CanadaPost
- Posten in Sweeden & Norway
- FEDEX
- Apple
- Nintendo
and several others…

Not all services are are available in all countries, but it’s a really good start. There’s even compatibility with Growl to notify you when a package’s status changes.

Download Delivery Status from Mike Piontek‘s website.

Second on the block this week is a set of scripts for Apple’s Mail and Address Book apps. The scripts were written by Andreas Amann and are a collection of AppleScripts that are used in conjuntion with the standard OS X mail application to add many new features, and enhance some existing ones.

The API available to AppleScript and Cocoa developers for most of the built-in apple applications provides a myriad opportunities for elements of the applications to be scripted, or to combine them together.

Some of the scripts provided by “Mail Scripts” are:

- Add addresses: Not just the sender, but any email address contained in the header of the message (to, from, cc etc…) (Integrates with Address Book to store contact information)

- Create new Mail rules based on the selected message. this saves lots of tedious data-entry

- Schedule Mail Delivery for a later time/date. This allows you to write and pre-send a message, and then let the Mail application deliver it to its target at the appointed time. (integrates with iCal for scheduling)

There are several other scripts as well. If you’re a regular Apple Mail user, and find it lacking any of these capabilities, download Mail Scripts.

Third up this week is SketchBox, developed by Germany’s OMZ:Software. Sketchbox is a desktop-sticky application for the Mac which allows you to either draw or type notes to yourself. The sticky notes have two separate layers, a drawing canvas and a text input box.

The stickies can be deployed on your desktop, and will each occupy a space like a separate window, and can be managed while the main window is closed. The application will also allow the stickies to have alarms set on them, but they’re set in a timer format. You set the number of days, hours & minutes until the alarm goes off, instead of setting a specific time. At the appointed time, a cell-phone like ring will remind you of the task at hand.

Finally, Sketchbox provides support for tablet devices, allowing you to sketch to your heart’s content without even reaching for a keyboard. It’s in this context that the pull-slider interface for the alarms makes the most sense.

I’ve never really been a fan of Stickies type applications, and in some ways there’s quite a bit of polish missing from SketchBox. I’d love to see this type of functionality implemented as a dashboard widget instead. Still, the freehand drawing ability is pretty cool and I recommend at least taking a look at Sketchbox.

Last up this week is some tips for making use of a great built-in OS X feature called Aliases. This is a blog post from MyFirstMac.com which outlines some “killer-app” possibilities for what most consider at first blush to be a pretty innocuous feature of an OS.

The tips range from simple productivity gains for automatically reconnecting Network Drives, to workarounds for FrontRow’s limitation of not finding content outside of your Movies folder.

There’s a discussion started after this post with a few bonus tips as well, definitely worth a look for any Mac-Switcher’s out there, or those who just want to learn all they can about their mac.

Go and check this post out!