Useful MAC Apps and Hardware [Ongoing Updates]

Mike Lucey

Here are a few more. These I use all the time.

Sticky Windows (A nice way of slapping windows to one side)
http://www.donelleschi.com/stickywindows/

KEEP AFLOAT (very handy for keeping a window floating on screen also allows tran)
http://millenomi.altervista.org/Afloat/
NOTE I first used Afloat on Tiger and it worked fine. When I moved to Leopard it did not work. I had to remove the installed SIML file and replace it with an updated version then reload Afloat 3. Worked fine after that. I notice that there is a Beta 4 on the guy's site now!

Doodim(It dims or turns black all but active program)
http://www.lachoseinteractive.net/en/products/doodim/

Viou ( Useful utility for sticking program 'icons' on folders
http://perso.orange.fr/prime/Pages/Viou/SoftViou1.html

Stickies 1.png

Stickies 2.png

Doodim 1.png

Doodim 2.png

Viou .png

jeff hammond

sticky windows looks great... that's right up my alley.. the download is crazy slow (75kb/sec) but i'll try it again later..
thanks.

Mike Lucey

Hi Jeff, I would be lost without Sticky Windows. I'm sure you will find it useful.

Mike

Mike Lucey

This is also quite a useful utility that I use quite a lot now. After taking a Screen Shot the .png is saved to the Desktop with a number. While there is a thumbnail of the image its not easy to figure out what is what on a high res screen. Sharpshooter comes to the rescue as it offers the option to rename the Screen Shot before saving to DT, very handy indeed.

Sharpshooter http://www.iwankerl.com/Software/Sharpshooter/

PS: The app is free and won't let the rude site name put you off

solo

LOL@ I wanker

Mike Lucey

Cunning Fox also from http://www.donelleschi.com is a very quick way of switching off the running apps when you want to get maximum processing power from your Mac. Its also a quick way of killing apps.

The icon is tiny and sits on the bottom left corner of the screen, a little yellow box with a 'C'. I having been using this some some time now with no problems.

Cunning FOX http://www.donelleschi.com/cunningfox/

Mike

Cunning Fox.png

Mike Lucey

@solo said:

LOL@ I wanker

Just noticed the guy's full name is Isaac Wankerl. I'd imagine the 'l' is very important
to this guy. (Also I think the 'W' is pronounced as a'V' as it looks like a German name). As is the 'e' in Lucey to me! I suppose we all have our burdens to carry

Here is Isaac's pic. He's from Texas .... I wonder it Todd has every bumped into him in his travels down there. The guy should place a PayPal Donate as the utility is VERY useful, I'm using it all the time.

Isaac Wankerl.png

todd burch

Don't know him.

In the handy Mac app category, I've purchased SnapzPro. Awesome. It will do a screen capture video, plus all manners of still screen capture, way above and beyond what comes with OS X.
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/

I'm also running with a beta version of Skitch. I think it's in public beta right now. It's very handy for marking up / annotating a screen grab in fun, artsy ways. Skitch is from the same folks that produce Comic Life.
http://plasq.com/skitch

I'm considering springing for Fission and Audio Hijack Pro too from Rogue Amoeba.
http://rogueamoeba.com/

And, of course, Handbrake for ripping DVDs to my iPod.

Todd

Mike Lucey

Thanks for adding to the list Todd, much appreciated. Must check those apps out

I'm wondering if we should make this a 'Sticky' as I'm sure it would be of interest to many Mac users.

Also, It probably would not be a bad idea if a similar thread was started by one of the Win guys that is interested in checking out new Win programs. Any takers ?

Mike

Mike Lucey

Bean is a simple to use free word processor that I use ALL the time
as it meeting my needs and requirements.

Bean: a macOS word processor

(www.bean-osx.com)

Mike

tim

Looking in my applications folder I see
Image Tricks (http://www.belightsoft.com) - filters and transforms on images
ImageWell (http://xtralean.com) - image edit, crop, resize, annotate, web previewy stuff
Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org) - drawing etc. Uses X11 and looks horribly like a windows app but is pretty good otherwise
LineForm ( http://freeverse.com/lineform/) - I paid actual money for this. Can even read pdfs and 'parse them' into graphic entities so you can edit them.
Picturesque (http://www.acqualia.com/picturesque/) - does pretty things to images

Aside from LineForm they're all no-cost.

Glenn at home

Thanks for the list all, as a new comer to OSX is there a freeware theme changer? Something like ShapeShifter?
TIA

Mike Lucey

@unknownuser said:

Thanks for the list all, as a new comer to OSX is there a freeware theme changer? Something like ShapeShifter?
TIA

Here is one, Cricket1
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Utilities/Cricket1.shtml

Also you might check out this list,
http://www.softlookup.com/category.asp?ID=513

Mike

Glenn at home

Thanks Mike, I'll check into those.

Mike Lucey

Hi Guys,

I've had Corel Painter Essential 2 for a while. It came as a freebie with something that I bought, can't remember what BTW I did not like the GUI.

I've just learned that Corel has now launched Painter Essentials 4 for both Win and Mac. I've downloaded the demo (60 days!) and had a very quick look araound and liked what I saw.
It is a major improvement over pervious versions. Its the 'lazy man's' ideal tool for trouble free quick painterly effects. Just upload the photo / picture and try the various options.

I think with a bit of time it might be possible to achieve the 'Dennis Effect'!

The demo can be had here, http://www.corel.com They require an account setup but I think its worth the effort. Or try here http://www.download.com/3001-2187_4-10747944.html

Here is a little YouTube presentation, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UeI07Y6FdA
Corel Painter Essentials 4

My efforts attached.

Mike

View 1.jpg

Corel 4 Essentials Output.png

Edson

let me add my 2$.

Jing (http://www.jingproject.com/ very nice and useful free screen capture/annotation app. it allows you to record videos too.

Rita (http://www.frykholm.se/rita.html "Rita is a paint program for MacOS X that attempts to be limitless, flexible and easy to use. Unlike traditional paint programs Rita does not restrict you to a particular image size or resolution. Instead, it uses an infinite canvas. You can make the image as big as you like and zoom in as much as you want without ever encountering any big blocky pixels."

Shindler (http://www.1802.it/shindler.php drag any folder on this app and it will produce a text list all its contents.

Justlooking (http://chipmunkninja.com/article/justlooking2 no-frills image viewer

VLC (http://www.videolan.org/ media player that supports a large number of formats. whenever quicktime refuses to go vlc does the trick.

Mike Lucey

Hi Edson,

That JingProject is a useful tool to have in the arsenal. I have downloaded but was disappointed to see that the ScreenCast site is currently down. However I did sign up for a Flikr account. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

Mike

Mike Lucey

Hi Guys,

Here is a useful 2D Allpication, QCad. It has both Win and Mac versions and is very low cost. http://www.qcad.org/qcad.html

Mike

Mike Lucey

Hi Guys,

If you are half as unorganised as me you must be looking
for a good To-Do list maker, one that works!

I've tried a few and the 'list' system simply does not help
that much.

I've come across LifeShaker, a graphical slant on the To-Do
list maker. Check it out here,
http://www.funkycloud.com/lifeshaker/features.php

BTW, I was very impressed with the producer's web site and
tutorial videos, very entertaining in deed

Mike

Edson

have a look at MacBreakz (http://www.publicspace.net/MacBreakZ/), an application devised to help you prevent RSI. i have been using it for some days and it feels really good to take short breaks and stretch in the middle of a work session.