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Utilities
With the introduction of OS X Lion, Dashboard widgets seem to be on their way out of the OS for good. While many of us still use them everyday, lots OS X users rarely do — some of them don’t even know about Dashboard widgets. That is quite a shame, though. Dashboard widgets can be very helpful when you don’t want to fire-up a bigger app just to get one single and simple task done.
For those who still use widgets as well as those who don’t, we have a sweet list of formidable widgets you can download today. They are small, useful, and some even look really, really good. Give them a chance if you don’t already have them installed.
Have you ever admired how professionals get stuff done so incredibly fast on their Macs? It’s often hard to follow what they’re doing because they never stop to grab their mouse or use their tablet. They keep hammering away on their keyboard, controlling apps via shortcuts in a way that makes us wonder how they ever memorized them all.
If you want to take your skills on the Mac to the next level as well, a tiny utility will now help you find you all the shortcuts you need to be a pro. Readers, meet CheatSheet.
This post is part of a series that revisits some of our readers’ favorite articles from the past that still contain awesome and relevant information that you might find useful. Though, over the past year, a few things have changed, so check for the updates below, too.
This post was originally published on June 21th, 2011.
Like most Mac users, I have mixed feelings about the Mac App store. For app users, the App Store makes it easier to find and manage apps all in one place, but largely eliminates the flexibility of free trials. New developers probably enjoy the increased visibility of being in the App Store, but likely lament about the slow acceptance process and numerous restrictions.
Though it seems like most Mac app developers are following the crowd to the App Store, there are still some real gems out there that haven’t made the switch. In this round-up, I’ll go through an incomplete list of fantastic apps missing from the App Store that are worth straying to the browser for. (I’m not including free apps or popular, well-known software like the Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Suites.)
I’ve got a bit of an OCD issue: I hate cords and cables of any kind. So naturally, when Apple announced AirPlay I was ecstatic, and ever since I’ve been an avid user of this awesome wireless streaming tool. Unlike many of Apple’s other products, AirPlay is both relatively open and extremely easy to hack.
That openness in the AirPlay platform has led to a whole host of cool and unconventional uses for the technology. In this article I’ll show you five different things you probably didn’t know you could do with AirPlay; and you’ll see that AirPlay is no longer just for iTunes videos.
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This post is part of a series that revisits some of our readers’ favorite articles from the past that still contain awesome and relevant information that you might find useful. This post was originally published on June 14th, 2011.
Your Mac comes prepared with its own widget for you to check the weather, and it works just fine, but sometimes you want something more accurate, with more features, or perhaps that works through your menu bar or your desktop instead of in your widgets.
Today we are presenting you some of the most popular weather apps available for your Mac. These will range from simple menu bar apps to real pieces of art with animations and other visual flair. Take a look!
By accident or by design, Growl is most likely installed on your machine; if it isn’t, you should probably look into it. Many applications offer support for it and some even come bundled with it. Growl is one of those applications that one thinks should be native to OS X, but sadly, it isn’t. Though as Mountain Lion rolls out its own notification system, the future of Growl seems to be precarious. We’re still huge fans though and thought you’d enjoy a nice big dose of Growl goodness.
Here we have a group of sexy, sleek, and shiny Growl themes ready for you to download, install, and use at your discretion. At the bottom of the article, there are a few extra Growl notification styles that have not been coded. You can use these as inspiration. If you keep an eye on them, the designers may end up coding them.
This post is part of a series that revisits some of our readers’ favorite articles from the past that still contain awesome and relevant information that you might find useful. This post was originally published on May 17th, 2011.
The “utility” software niche is one that is extremely active in the Mac application community. There is an abundance of fantastic utilities currently available, and that list is ever changing. We love this type of software at AppStorm, regularly reviewing different apps that let you tweak and tune your computer.
With the area changing so fast, we decided to take a look at some of the best and most useful Mac OS X utilities that are available right now. What you’ll see here is by no means an all-encompassing list, but rather a collection of utilities broken up into some basic groups that I found to be very useful to a lot of people.
I hope you discover some applications that will be helpful for you!
There are so many options out there – freeware and shareware – that it’s often hard to find the quality applications. Some applications luck into a great deal of publicity, but too often great apps do not get the attention that they deserve.
This article has five utility apps that I use just about every day but haven’t ever read or heard much about. The apps range from a screenshot application to a great touchpad tool that I love. Read on to learn about five of my favorite free apps that you should check out today.
Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t deny that Apple’s family of mouses (mice?) have come a long way since the dreaded Hockey Puck, and provide a dramatically different experience than almost any other mouse on the market. The entire line up of peripherals feature multi-touch gesture support, which can be modified (along with tracking behavior) quite extensively from the preference pane built in to OS X.
But why should it stop there? The mouse is the primary medium through which we interact with our computers, so it stands to reason that it should be an implement with almost limitless power. I’ve wrangled up seven great apps that extend the functionality of your mouse, whether you’re using a Magic Mouse, the external Magic Trackpad, or the built in trackpad. Heck, most of these even work with third party mice.
Podcasting is all of rage these days. Podcasts are professional and fun, and have become easier to create with the right apps. The Mac has always been a creative tool and with the apps in this roundup, it can become your own radio headquarters and production studio.
To make the process as easy as possible, we recommend taking a look at these five apps, which perform all kinds of tasks from recording audio and screencasts to adding live sound effects. So get ready and read on because, your’re on the air!
