Useful MAC Apps and Hardware [Ongoing Updates]

Edson · 27 Feb 2010, 09:53

i recently came across Freeway (http://www.softpress.com/index.php), a web design app for people who do not wish to learn coding. i had a look at their videos and got the impression it is better than iWeb and RapidWeaver, the two apps that do the same. there are two version, express and pro, as well as educationnal licenses.

i apologise for quoting myself but i just wanted to report that i bought freeway and used it to revamp my website. it is all we thought it was and more. it is extremely easy to use, their support is great (videos, forum and tech team) and there is a good number of outside developers who produce add-ons for it. i could not be happier with it.

Edson · 27 Feb 2010, 10:32

@unknownuser said:

A really cool free app that is very useful for SCF users!
Skitch
http://skitch.com/

It basically grabs your screen, or selection and then has a great set of tools to annotate these images.
Check out the video, it does more than I mentioned and seems to be a very cool piece of software.

dylan,

very cool indeed.

chrisjk · 27 Feb 2010, 11:00

I looked for ages to find a decent file comparison tool (for editing purposes) and then found DiffMerge which is free and works very well.

A good freebie editor with syntax highlighting is Smultron and although the author is not developing it further, it's still available here.

driven · 4 Mar 2010, 13:45

@chrisjk said:

I looked for ages to find a decent file comparison tool (for editing purposes) and then found DiffMerge which is free and works very well.

A good freebie editor with syntax highlighting is Smultron and although the author is not developing it further, it's still available here.

Hi Chris,

Thanks for posting

I've been looking for something like Smultron to use learning Ruby for SU for ages... it looks a to be perfect replacement for Xcode.

Do you use it for SU rubies? and if so would you mind sharing your settings (as there's so much choice)

The main things I'm not sure about is the Encoding Pref's, I don't fully understand their role

do I just leave as default or can 'Saves' be made more Mac/PC/SU 'friendly'?

john

Mike Lucey · 4 Mar 2010, 14:00

The MacHeist nanoBundle is finally here!

7 Top Mac App for $ 19.95 reduced from $260

MacJournal

RipIt

Clips

CoverScout

Flow

Tales of Monkey Island

Rapidweaver

http://www.macheist.com/

chrisjk · 4 Mar 2010, 14:12

Hi John,

I have only started playing a bit with Ruby - when I get the time, I am following a couple of basic primers. I have used Smultron for this but I also have Textmate and tend to use that (it's not a free editor however).

Like most editors, you can change the syntax colours as you wish, I find it useful to change the colours to match those used in whatever textbook/example I am trying to learn from. There is apparently a Ruby standard but I haven't found too many folk using it! The Syntax definitions are picked up by Smultron according to the file extension unless you wish to override this by picking the "always Use" and one of the many language choices. I use the automatic choice setting and it works well for me.

The Encodings is similar in usage to Syntax definitions - let Smultron do its thing or tell it to always default to some particular encoding. I just use the default setting. Unicode UTF-8 is understood and displayed correctly by most modern programs, web browsers etc. and that is the fall back if Smultron can't figure out which encoding is in use. The default settings will work fine for all the SU plugin rubies, web pages in html etc.

tfdesign · 4 Mar 2010, 14:47

I had to slip this one in, if it hadn't already been mentioned;

404 Not Found

(www.sis.si)

It's for iPhone rather than Mac, but I'm finding this app rather useful at the moment!

dylan · 6 Mar 2010, 14:07

@tfdesign said:

I had to slip this one in, if it hadn't already been mentioned;

404 Not Found

(www.sis.si)

It's for iPhone rather than Mac, but I'm finding this app rather useful at the moment!

Got to thank you for that one Tom.
What a fantastic App. Simple, but a great idea and so well executed

tfdesign · 6 Mar 2010, 14:30

Cheers Dylan.

I noticed the VLC player was mentioned a few times. Personally I'm not a fan of the VLC, I much prefer Chroma, which is far more slick!

http://chromaplayer.com/

driven · 7 Mar 2010, 01:53

@tfdesign said:

Cheers Dylan.

I noticed the VLC player was mentioned a few times. Personally I'm not a fan of the VLC, I much prefer Chroma, which is far more slick!

http://chromaplayer.com/

I agree on VLC, and not just because it's french, chroma does look very good...

I give this site a  rating it saves a lot of digging......
http://www.usingmac.com/2009/7/29/85-useful-free-mac-apps-for-designers
this is one of many useful pages
http://www.usingmac.com/2009/1/15/unveiling-hidden-os-x-shortcuts

john

tfdesign · 7 Mar 2010, 12:41

I've recently started using MacDraft again, so I've really got to champion MicroSpot's MacDraft Pro once more. I bought this MacDraft some years back, and never really used it, because I was lazy and didn't want to use a single button mouse again. But MacDraft really is something special, and it is very cheap too (at the moment, if bought from other distributors). MacDraft is very fast in Snow Leopard too.

There is also a Windows version too- which is very useful!

http://www.microspot.com/products/macdraft/index.htm

http://www.microspot.com/products/pcdraft/index.htm

driven · 8 Mar 2010, 00:28

If, like me, you look at the ruby code this is fantastichttp://www.usingmac.com/2008/10/29/time-saver-quicklook-plugins

it's from the same site I posted yesterday but is so fast and useful I thought it was worth highlighting

maybe it's been mentioned before, but I haven't seen it...

john

wind-borne · 8 Mar 2010, 04:14

@tfdesign said:

I've recently started using MacDraft again, so I've really got to champion MicroSpot's MacDraft Pro once more. I bought this MacDraft some years back, and never really used it, because I was lazy and didn't want to use a single button mouse again. But MacDraft really is something special, and it is very cheap too (at the moment, if bought from other distributors). MacDraft is very fast in Snow Leopard too.

I use MacDraft regularly but can't give it an enthusiastic thumbs up cause I can't find any way to set up keyboard shortcuts for the tools themselves, only menu items. Dragging open each tool after having to click in the first place is a drag.

Am I missing something?

tfdesign · 8 Mar 2010, 10:08

@wind-borne said:

Am I missing something?

No, and I agree, MacDraft in this area is a bit of a pile of shite. I'm championing MD, because apart from a few minor problems, like key commands, MD is actually very good. I just wish the developers would get their act together and improve it. Like I suppose Engineered Software have done for PC8 (it's now a Cocoa app). It's like Microspot don't really care for 2D anymore, despite that in the 'real world' 2D is still very much prevalent (In my experience anyway).

Mike Lucey · 12 Mar 2010, 15:28

I'm having a look at this app.

The blurb says,

WindowFlow makes organising your application windows a breeze.

http://windowflow.com/

Mike Lucey · 25 Mar 2010, 02:37

Just discovered BumpTop, downloaded the free version and brought the Pro version for $29 after 20 minutes! It's the type of DeskTop organiser that I have wished for. Check it out here, http://bumptop.com/mac/

rickgraham · 25 Mar 2010, 13:15

being a fairly new Mac user, I scanned through your list and found it to be very helpful. I will sit down and read each one later when time permits.

I bought this program and find it to be invaluable as far as what all you get: Mackeeper (http://www.zeobit.com). It is one of the best $40 I have spent.

Also, if you are not already aware of them, Macheist and Macupdate have some good bundles on (although the current one I have almost all the apps. I still might get it though to get the one or two apps that seem really good).

And Techsmith SnagIt for Mac is under beta. I've been using it for a while and love it! I use the PC SnagIt at work and was lost. But then again, I also have Voila and Little Snapper.

Someday I will make up my mind and start clearing house!

Rick

chrisglasier · 1 Apr 2010, 11:55

Those who downloaded the Mac version of cgScenes should have seen something like this on opening:

Unfortunately, I understand you actually saw an empty dialog with a small red square.

Not an auspicious start to getting the first web dialog based plugin to work on Macs as well as PCs.

But you know the reason was John ["driven"] who made the conversion also was keen to get it working on an iPhone and left a link to one of his local testing files. (Aside - think about manipulating a Sketchup display from a phone!). The upshot was that his testing of the plugin we published went fine on his machine with the linked file but not of course for anyone else.

So if you would like to download the new version (with sample model) please go here, and please don't remain silent again, be good enough to post any problems; it just might benefit the community.

tfdesign · 18 Apr 2010, 21:50

I really loathe Adobe Flash. So I've decided to sack it 99% of the time. Now my browser is flying!! No crashes today at all. No fans all on at all pelt, and no Activity Monitor telling me that Flash is sucking 1gB of memory out of my computer! Hooray!

All because of this little freeware gem;

http://clicktoflash.com/

The installer doesn't ask for a password, which is a bit strange. It can't be a security hole? Can it? Dunno, but clicktoflash is working really well. It seems highly configurable, so it comes highly recommended!

pbacot · 9 May 2010, 00:14

@mike lucey said:

Just discovered BumpTop, downloaded the free version and brought the Pro version for $29 after 20 minutes! It's the type of DeskTop organiser that I have wished for. Check it out here, http://bumptop.com/mac/

Yes, check it out. They've been acquired by Google and the product snuffed out.