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Although Dashboard received a huge amount of attention when it was originally released, it has since become a fairly standard feature of OS X. Thousands of different widgets are available – some far more useful than others.
Today I’ll be taking a look at 10 widgets that really stand out from the crowd, and have something unique and interesting to offer you in your day-to-day computer use. I hope you find a few of them useful!
With the inclusion of Spotlight in OS X Tiger, searching on the Mac became a fast and enjoyable process. It’s simple to find files that match a term you’re looking for – either within the file name, or inside the file itself.
But that’s not always enough. If you’d like to associate a particular keyword with a document, it can be difficult to do so quickly (short of including it in the file name, or navigating through the “Get Info” window).
This selection of tagging utilities make adding “tags” to files on your Mac a straight-forward process. Some are free, and others are more powerful, commercial tools for organising your files. Using tags may not be for everyone, but it can offer a thoroughly useful way to stay on top of all the photos, documents, emails and websites stored on your machine.
The Finder is an excellent file browser that keeps getting better and better with every new version of OS X. However, many Mac users find OS X’s default file browser to be lacking in a few essential features like tabs, a dual window view, fast loading image previews, etc. As a result, several third party file browsers have sprung up bringing a lot of innovation to the table.
This article will briefly introduce five alternatives to the Finder. I’ll go over each app’s unique features and shortcomings so you can decide which solution works best for you.
Following our recent introduction to Quicksilver, we have rounded up a list of ten fantastic plugins to extend functionality and allow you to achieve more with the utility. All the plugins are completely free, and can be installed through Quicksilver itself.
They range from actions for manipulating images through to interacting with the terminal or changing your screen resolution. Prepare to find a bunch of useful new functionality, all accessible right from your keyboard!
Everyone generally agrees that having some form of backup solution in place is vitally important. Hard drives are far more reliable now than ever, but they’re still prone to fail from time-to-time. Many people consider Time Machine to be the de-facto backup solution for the Mac, but you’d be surprised how many others are available.
This roundup will take a look at a new way to customize Time Machine, a variety of different drive cloning utilities, and a few online backup tools. I hope you find something new, and however you choose to go about it be sure to backup your data!
Have you ever deleted an application from your Mac by simply dragging it to the trash? It turns out there’s more to most applications than what you see in the “Applications” folder. Many apps spread system files all over your hard drive that can be a pain to track down. This means when you simply throw an app in the trash, you’re leaving behind associated content that unnecessarily eats up space on your Mac.
Fortunately, there are several third party solutions that save you the work of hunting down and deleting all these stranded files. Here’s a quick rundown of six of them, let us know which ones you use!
For many Mac users, taking screenshots is activity performed several times per day. Having the right tool for the job is vital and can save an enormous amount of time. Today we’ll be taking a look at 8 excellent examples of screenshot software for OS X ranging from simple utilities, through to fully-blown applications for organizing and sharing a vast library of images.
Much of the software on offer is not only great at capturing screenshots, but also at allowing you to quickly and easily share them online. We have previously covered a range of different screen recording applications, so please feel free to delve into the archives if you’re looking for a video solution.
I’m sure many of you have been let down by your trusty alarm clock at one time or another – don’t you wish there was a better way? Fortunately, there is! It’s easy to leverage the power of your Mac to help you be more punctual and productive.
Depending upon your budget and requirements, there are plenty of applications which function as feature-rich and good looking alarm clocks. All of the following programs have free trials, so you can try them out to see what features you need in your perfect alarm clock application.
Video tutorials seem to be appearing everywhere at present, and recently I’ve been researching the best ways to record and process screen recording videos on a Mac. There are plenty of recording and capturing tools out there, but they vary in their functionality. Some only capture images, others record the screen and some of them listed below additionally record sound.
If you’re looking for a tool to simply take screenshots, two I would recommend are LittleSnapper and Skitch (or the in-built utility in OS X).
In the past days I’ve tried a few different applications – some are good and some not, but I’ll show you the ones I think are useful. Please note that some of the applications aren’t freeware, but pricing information and links to the developer sites are provided. Without further ado, let’s delve into the world of screen capture software – we’ll start with free applications with fairly limited functionality and gradually work up towards the more expensive players.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published at FreelanceSwitch, but has been moved here since it makes more sense on AppStorm!
For one reason or another, a lot of freelancers use Macs. It may be the raw power, the stability or they may just look rather – cool? Well, both of us know why that really is. It’s the apps! The software that makes the hardware bling, and it’s not necessarily thanks to Apple. Aperture and iCal may be nice, but often we rely on the smaller, even more useful applications. Here’s a list of great little applications that the Mac-powered freelancer should consider.
1. Text Expander
is a great little application for all those little snippets of text you need all the time. Writer? Typos can trigger Text Expande. Developers? No more code library needed. Designers? Well, we can always add signatures to email, right?
2. Quicksilver
is a world of its own. Unlike most launchers, the best thing about Quicksilver is that it’s not only a launcher. As probably the best productivity application on the Mac, it’s something you need to learn how to use in order to master it.
3. Backdrop
is very simple. Just fill in a color or image and hide the desktop clutter. Need minimalistic? Now you have it… (more…)
