Currently Browsing
General
The market for download managers has always been small and shady, at least for the Mac. I’ve never really needed one, although I am also not entirely happy with how the downloads are managed through the Downloads folder. However, for people who spend a lot of their time downloading huge files, sometimes the few extra features that download managers offer could come in handy.
While the market for these type of apps isn’t very big, here we’ll present to you some of the best options we could find. Why would you need a download manager? Which one suits your needs? Let’s find out.
Last week while researching an introduction to Disk Utility I came across some extremely varied arguments regarding the usefulness of repairing permissions (check out that article for a discussion of what repairing permissions actually does).
I’ve personally long seen “Repair Permissions” as a nice little troubleshooting tool that I turn to when nothing else seems to solve a given issue. If something isn’t working quite right and I can’t hunt down the source of the problem, I repair my permissions to see if the situation improves. Sometimes it does, many times it doesn’t. Either way, it’s always worth a shot!
In my research, I came across tons of other people who seem to share this sort of “cure all” mentality towards repairing permissions. Some go so far as to recommend repairing permissions as part of setting up daily maintenance scripts.
On the other side of the argument though there are folks that don’t see much, if any, value in this action. There’s an old blog post on the Unsanity site actually titled “Repairing Permissions is Useless,” which makes a very informed case against the idea that repairing permissions is a solution to a wide variety of problems, though the author does in fact accept that it should be tried as a last resort.
Today I want to know what you think. Help me decide whether or not to keep repairing permissions on my list of go-to strategies for troubleshooting. Vote in the poll and let us know how often you repair permissions, then leave a comment below with your argument for or against the action!
Our sponsor this week is Finch, an amazing time tracking tool from Touch Studios.
Finch is an app that takes all the effort out of time tracking. If you can open it, you can use it! With virtually zero configuration, Finch sits quietly tucked away in your menu bar and collects data throughout the day. It monitors what windows and apps are active on the screen at any given time.
After reporting your usage for the day Finch will present you with a bar chart clearly displaying how you spent your time, or alternatively you can export straight to CSV to get control of your data (it’s yours after all).
Whether you are measuring your work hours in order to bill clients, trying to keep your time spent on Facebook under control, or just interested in seeing your usage habits, Finch is by far the best tool to quantify your activity.
Keep Your Data Private
Competing apps have a habit of uploading your content to their servers. Touch Studios, the authors of the app, will never have your data as it is stored locally on your own machine. Finch does not require an internet connection and is completely private.
Go Get It!
Finch is available on The Mac App Store for only $8.99. Go grab your copy today and start automating your time tracking activities!
Great news! We’ve chosen ten winners in our awesome MacPaw giveaway! A huge thanks to everyone who entered, check back daily for more great giveaways.
If your name is listed below, you’ll be receiving an email shortly with information for how to claim your prize.
Ensoul Winners
MacHider Winners
If you enjoy sports and workout regularly, you might already be keeping track of your exercise with one or more of the excellent online services available to you: Runkeeper, DailyMile, Garmin Connect among them. These services are great: they can really help you to gain insight into your performance, and to plot and plan improvements.
Some of us, though, prefer not to upload all our data online; it might be that you’re not particularly interested in the social networking benefits these services offer; or you’re concerned about possible privacy issues (you might not want the maps of your runs available to anybody). And so you might prefer to find an option that keeps the information local, storing it on your Mac. If that describes you, you’ll be interested in hearing about rubiTrack, a mature app that does an excellent job of recording and tracking your workouts.
Join me after the jump for a walkthrough of its main features.
That’s a pretty bold title, isn’t it? I didn’t really mean for it to be. I’m not a fan of shameless link bait. And it’s not my intention to be hyperbolic. I chose that question as the title because it’s the reason I’m writing this right now. That question has been rattling around in the back of my mind. And instead of continuing to ignore it, I thought I’d try and solidify my thoughts into a cohesive essay.
I’m not making any claims to brilliance here. I don’t think I’ve stumbled upon any insightful or revolutionary ideas here. I’m not even really trying to prove a point. I’m just trying to give a voice to this ever present feeling of dread that’s crept into my thoughts when they drift to the future of Apple. And I’m sharing these thoughts with a community of people who will hopefully understand where I’m coming from, and what I’m trying to say.
Steve Jobs has left the helm of Apple. And while he’s still at the company in what amounts to an advisory role, everyone knows that the Jobs’ era at Apple has ended. Sure the ripples of his presence there won’t subside immediately. David Pogue thinks we’ll need to really start worrying in about two years. But we’re all wondering what this will mean — Apple without Steve. None of us knows for certain. The only way we’ll know is to wait, and watch, as time goes by. The question isn’t so much, will Apple change? It’s, how will Apple change?
Last week we published an article that got a lot of meaningful discussion going about menu bar apps. In it we outlined the all too common problem of the overflowing menu bar for MacBook users and discussed whether or not the best solution to the problem was to tell users that they are being overzealous or present developers with the request to give us more control over whether a given app appears in the menu or dock.
Today we’re following that up with a poll that simply asks how many third party menu bar apps you typically run at any given time. Are you picky about what earns a spot in your menu bar or are you a menu bar app addict who simply can’t get enough? We want to know!
After you vote, leave a comment below and let us know which menu bar apps you currently have open. Don’t cheat and take the time to open or close any, just take a gander at the top of your screen and give an honest account of what’s currently up there. Which are your favorites? Which do you think you could live without?
Our sponsor this week is Studiometry, an amazing professional project management tool from Oranged Software.
Studiometry is a powerhouse of professional organization tools that’s been serving the industry for over eight years. Whether you’re managing contacts, generating estimates, tracking work, or billing clients, this one app has you covered in a single beautifully cohesive workflow.
Small businesses, freelancers, large organizations, all types of professionals from every industry can relate to the incredibly practical suite of tools in Studiometry. Unlike simple todo apps, which are a dime a dozen, this is a genuinely useful and fully featured productivity tool that can help you manage almost every aspect of your company.
I particularly like the invoicing capabilities with Studiometry (customizable templates that are edited with a built in WYSIWYG editor) and the fact that the whole suite of tools syncs seamlessly with Studiometery Touch so you can take your work everywhere you go and aren’t necessarily tethered to a laptop.
Go Get It!
Studiometry is available on Oranged Software’s website for $199.95 (multi-user packs also available). If you’re interested in giving it a shot, check out the Free Trial.
There’s a lot to like about both of Apple’s most recent operating systems: Snow Leopard is stable, fast and mature enough to ensure that any significant bugs are probably fixed by now, while Lion brings new trackpad gestures, additional eye candy, new ways of managing and launching apps, along with a slick iOS-influenced user interface.
If you have a recent model Mac and don’t rely on Snow Leopard’s Rosetta support, it’s probably going to be relatively easy to make up your mind to upgrade or not. However, if your Mac is older, this is a more complex question. Let’s explore it further…
Great news! We’ve selected the thirty winners for our Translate Tab giveaway. If your Twitter handle is listed below, you’ll be receiving an email shortly from the developers with your promo code!
A huge thanks to everyone who entered, keep an eye on our competitions section for more great giveaways!
- ebda3club
- ziogaschr
- szmergiel
- lostalpinist
- guye
- anakeretapi
- haragog
- leob_foto
- squiter
- Mr_Teban
- ikhallad
- ChrisKlapheke
- amazing_AG
- kaz_frog
- tamasgal
- kevincastillo
- RomeoLab
- CoolCrackerz
- gustaoo
- orainer
- nataliav
- lazyrivr
- BlameItOnJoe
- craigcpaterson
- sickmonkeys
- onliner112
- arfannaeem
- ondrz
- bagahunda
- stefgonzaga
