Mac ReviewCast
Freeware of the Month
by Tim Verpoorten
This past month, we looked at a ton more freeware for the Mac. I am always amazed at the sheer number of programs written that authors are giving to Mac users free of charge. It just goes to show you that Mac users are like one big family.
The best part of having all this freeware available is the quality of the applications. When I look at freeware on the MacReviewCast (www.macreviewcast.com), we only talk about the best, but there are many programs that should have been mentioned, and we just run out of time. You can thank your lucky stars that you own a Mac. Now let’s see what freeware I found for you this month.
VLC-RAR Loader
http://vlcrarloader.jjabba.com
This utility is very specifically designed for a small group of users. This application will let you play RAR-compressed movies using VLC without extracting them first. Make sure you have a copy of VLC installed, (http://www.videolan.org). Download and mount the VLC-RAR loader on your desktop and drop the archived file onto it and watch the video. I think that everyone needs VLC on his or her Macs for those odd type videos that you may want to watch. If you do a lot of downloading from the newsgroups, you'll know that rar is the archive format of choice, so you can see where this utility has a very useful function for a specific group of users.
Imagewell
http://www.xtralean.com/IW.html
The most asked question I get on Mac freeware is, “What's available for image editing software that's free for the Mac?” and here's a great program that will take care of most of your imaging needs. ImageWell is the popular image editing software for quick manipulation and upload to an iDisk (.mac account), FTP server or other web server. Whether you are adding images to your documents, editing offline images, or posting photos to the web for others to see, ImageWell will do the work for you. Drag images in and out of the well, resize, crop, shape, rotate and add a watermark, border, or drop shadow. No need to launch multiple applications to add text, labels, arrows, circles and squares to your image. Add a thought cloud or talking balloon. A few simple clicks, copy, paste, and send them off to your web server instantly. At the click of a button the image is sent and a handy URL is copied to the clipboard.
Just like that. It doesn't get any easier! Don't want to send the image to the web? You don't have to; it's not the law. Edit your image, give it a name and file type, and simply drag and drop the image to the desired destination on your computer to save it there. Or drag and drop it into another document or presentation. If you do any work with graphics or photos, check out imagewell.
Quickscale
http://www.mammoetsoftware.com/quickscale
Speaking of image editing, here's a program that does one thing, but does it very, very well. Want to scale one or a large number of pictures? Now here's the solution: QuickScale, it's simply the best way to scale pictures, very useful for publishing photo's on your website, wallpapers for your cell phone or as an avatar on a forum.
Besides (of course) jpg support, QuickScale also supports importing and exporting .gif, .bmp, .tiff, .psd and more.
KeepAnEye
http://www.daedale.com/products/keepaneye
KeepAnEye is a multipurpose monitoring and notification utility. It has been designed to help you to stay informed efficiently by tracking an unlimited number of data sources. Do you need to frequently consult some information? KeepAnEye provides visual representations, which can be freely organized on the screen like stickies, in the menu bar like Menu Extras, and in the Dock. You can watch the evolution of the data source in real time. What type of data you ask? RSS feeds, pictures, stock quotes, eBay auctions, software updates, IP addresses, disk usage messages, sounds, e-mails and AppleScripts. KeepAnEye supports numerous kinds of data sources and notifications. It takes advantage of a flexible architecture where each data source and each action is handled by a dedicated plug-in. New features can easily be added by installing new plug-ins. Now you don't need to run 5 different programs to watch 5 different data streams, one program can do it all.
MediaCentral
http://equinux.com/us/products/mediacentral/index.html
MediaCentral turns your Mac into the ultimate home theater system. With support for numerous audio, video and multimedia formats, MediaCentral brings it all together at the push of a button. MediaCentral goes far beyond the functions of a DVD player. In addition to playing your favorite DVDs, MediaCentral uses spotlight integration to deliver all your video content to one place including any Video_TS files (DVD Backups) you may have saved on your computer. MediaCentral plays DVDs, Video_TS files and much more including: QuickTime H.264 with AAC (excluding FairPlay protected files) and AVIs. MediaCentral also supports: AVI DivX DV Files Xvid MP3 AC3 codecs MPEG1 MPEG2 MPEG4.
For your viewing pleasure, MediaCentral searches your computer for VIDEO_TS files saved on your local hard drives and displays these as DVDs. Additionally, all those video files in your "Movies" folder will be automatically available in MediaCentral's "Movies" menu. How are these files found? Via the integration of Mac OS X "Tiger's" lightning fast search feature - Spotlight. You now have instant access to the most current movie trailers. This ever-expanding list will keep you up-to-date with the latest previews. You can even view the movie posters as you scroll through the countless movie trailers.
And yes, there is more . . .Most trailers allow you to select your preferred resolution. Sit back and enjoy these films in HD (up to 1080i). Don't worry about selection; MediaCentral has access to over 100 different trailers.
MediaCentral incorporates a beautiful photo gallery that pulls all your favorite images directly from iPhoto. Start a slideshow by simply selecting an image and tap the space bar. Your slide show will automatically start with the selected image. Equinux have even added a very smooth transition to accentuate your MediaCentral experience. There's so much more, but you'll have to go over to the Equinux website yourself and check this wonderful piece of freeware out for yourself.
Now there are several more freeware media center programs that have similar functions to MediaCentral and I want to make you aware of them today and ask that you take the time to check them out and pick the one that works the best for your specific needs.
CenterStage
CenterStage is the Media Center Application that allows you to use the digital content stored on your Apple Macintosh computer and plays it in a more comfortable environment such as your living room using any standard television set.
iTheater
http://www.itheaterproject.com
The iTheater Project was founded on January 12, 2005 by Ed Wolf (digitalducktape) and Greg Jurman (mahi). The goal of this project is to create an application that acts a media center for any Macintosh computer. iTheater is an aesthetically pleasing way to manage, play and share your photos, movies and music.
mMedia
Here's another program that allows you to watch movies, listen to iTunes songs, view photos from iPhoto and change the appearance of the program with built-in skins. It also works well and is worth your time to check out.
WebPhoto
http://www.ionize.org/webPhoto/
webPhoto is a Java web application that reads your iPhoto Library and presents an interface similar to iPhoto via a web browser so that anyone on any platform can view your photos. WebPhoto is perfect for multi-platform homes and businesses that have an iPhoto library they would like to share. You then just upload them to a website or server such as .Mac and you have an online duplicate, but I do not think Brian wanted to that as much as he wanted a simple backup. Again, I think a manual backup with Apple's backup program, or others would be my only thought. Let me know what you think.
Linotype Font Explorer X
http://www.linotype.com/fontexplorerX
With the new FontExplorer X, font management, font sorting, font shopping and font discovery are simple and fun! FontExplorer X gives computer users all the functionality they ever dreamed ñ easy to use with an elegant style. Organize your fonts just like your media files ñ using a library, folders, tags and even smart sets. You want direct access to all typefaces from a certain foundry? All italics? Or all fonts tagged with a certain keyword? FontExplorer X makes this easy! All fonts and formats are recognized automatically and can be managed in a comfortable way. You decide whether FontExplorer X should take control over the folder structure, or if you want to leave it untouched.
Ever wanted to browse through fonts you want in the same way as the fonts you already have? Try Linotype’s FontExplorer X and its integrated shopping solution. Whenever you are looking for a particular font, you will find it here. And the best part: you can try it and play around with it before you buy it. Examine and compare fonts inside FontExplorer X’s online store as if they were installed on your system. If you found your favorite, add it to your shopping cart and purchase it with only a few clicks.
FontExplorer X shows virtually every bit of information a font file can contain. You can examine the complete character set, inform yourself about the legal stuff or just see a few sample paragraphs to know how a font looks like in real-life context. FontExplorer X is a complete solution for organizing, exploring and buying fonts. It’s feature-rich and easy-to-use at the same time, so you simply have to download it and test it for yourself.
Let's look at some simple, easy to use and functional utilities, the first is:
QuickAccessCM
http://free.abracode.com/cmworkshop/quick_access.html
QuickAccessCM is a contextual menu plug-in for easy access to frequently used folders, documents and applications. It can be used as a launcher, file commander or installer. QuickAccessCM plugin provides the following independent modules: " Quick Access" with items for quick opening, "Move To" with folders into which you often move things, "Copy To" with folders into which you often copy things, "Make Alias In" with folders in which you collect aliases. If you want fast and easy method to move, copy, open, or create files and programs, QucikAccessCM is for you.
Next let's look at a couple mounting utilities:
FlashMount
http://www.liquidnexus.com/?page_id=2
FlashMount is a small utility to mount disc images at a much faster rate than Apple’s Disk Image Mounter in OSX. No more waiting, your images mount almost instantly.
One word of Caution: For the sake of speed, FlashMount will automatically accept any embedded End User License Agreements that would normally be displayed.
By using this software, you automatically agree to any of EULA ís that would have been displayed. It just works...
The next freeware mounting utility is:
Automount Maker
http://jm.marino.free.fr/Software/Mac/AutomountMaker/introduction.html
AutomountMaker is an OS X native, simple tool to mount filesystems such as AFP, FTP, http, NFS, SMB. In other words, networks and shared volumes. If you use always the same shared volume on your desktop, AutomountMaker is easier to use than the OSX "Connect to Server" Another advantage is the ability to mount your favorite volume automatically when you open your session. So if you find yourself constantly mounting the same volumes over and over, Automount Maker is for you.
Here's another unique little utility, it's called:
SurplusMeter
http://freespace.virgin.net/jeremy.dronfield/skoobysoft/utilities/utilities.html
If you have a broadband Internet service with a monthly download limit, you may find SurplusMeter comes in handy. It measures the download and upload traffic on your Internet connection and keeps a record of your traffic volume. It gives you all kinds of useful output statistics, like daily allowance, average daily usage, accumulated surplus, and more. Statistics are presented in three ways: simple bytes in/out; summaries of megabytes used and remaining, and graphic meters which display at a glance when you're getting close to exceeding your limit. SurplusMeter runs invisibly in the background most of the time, but can present its interface on demand. SurplusMeter measures only the volume of traffic on your connection. It does not look at the content of data in/out or record where it comes from. Also, SurplusMeter is completely passive; it does not send any information to anyone.
iChat Extender
http://improvpastence.com/programs/ichat-extender
Here's another simple little utility that does one thing, and one thing well. iChat Extender will allow you to truly customize iChat. You’ll be able to change the formatting of the iTunes Now Playing status, disable Smileys, change Group divider style, personalize incoming bubbles and login away. If you use iChat a lot, you'll love this little application.
Next we look at a little application for all you poor souls, like myself, that have to work in a Windows environment with your Mac.
WinShortcutter
http://www.lobotomo.com/products//WinShortcutter/index.html
Do you work in a windows dominant environment? Are your network drives packed with Windows Shortcuts that point to directories and documents? Are you tired of starting a windows machine just to change your windows domain password? Do you want to copy path names to an email? Here is the answer: WinShortcutter!
WinShortcutter is a collection of small and useful utilities that are primarily focused at people working in a windows dominant office environment with a weak Mac support.
A listener wrote into me this week about their favorite browser on the Mac and it happened to be updated this month, so let's look at it now, it's called:
Shiira
Shiira is a web browser written in Cocoa. It uses the KHTML rendering engine provided by Apple's Web Kit. Since this is the same rendering engine used by Safari, HTML content rendered by Shiira will look the same as in Apple's own browser. However, Shiira has enhanced many features of Safari to give Shiira its own feel. The search engines search field on the toolbar is fully customizable, and tabbed browsing is very flexible, enabling users to, for example, reorder tabs by dragging, or select an option to refresh tabs when they are clicked. Shiira also takes advantage of Cocoa programming to provide users with a customizable drawer extending from the left or right of the window. The drawer contains bookmarks (which launch based on a user-programmed preference of one or two clicks), history, downloads (to avoid cluttering the screen with additional download windows), a unique page holder to access myriad links while surfing other sites, and an RSS reader. Shiira natively supports in-browser PDF viewing. The browser is of comparable stability and speed to Safari, making it among the fastest and most functional browsers for users of Mac OS X. Moreover, its rate of release during 2005 was rapid, making users hopeful for its continued development.
PureFTPd Manager
http://jeanmatthieu.free.fr/pureftpd/
PureFTPd Manager is a simple Cocoa frontend to PureFTPd, "a free (BSD), secure, production-quality and standard-conformant FTP server based upon Troll-FTPd", for Mac OS X. PureFTPd Manager's goal is to integrate nicely PureFTPd on Mac OS X client and server. A startup item that loads PureFTPd while booting your system is provided as well as Rendezvous support so your server is instantly visible to everyone in your local network.
To help you set up your server, an assistant will be pop up first time you launch PureFTPd Manager. If you need a feature rich FTP server to share files with friends or for a business, this is a great little program, easy to setup and easy to use.
Printwindow
http://www.searchwaresolutions.com/products/printwindow
Ever since Apple introduced Mac OS X, users have been complaining about the inability to easily print a file listing from directly within the Finder. Enter Print Window.
Print Window offers the ability to print a file listing from directly within the Mac OS X Finder. No more taking screenshots of window or setting for text-only printouts of filenames only. Print Window provides the works: icons, file information, sorting and more! Print Window provides you with the ability to fully control what your printed listings look like. You can decide whether or not to include icons, file information and page headers. You can pre-sort file listings by a variety of criteria. You can even print your file listings in multiple columns on the same page!
Scroll Switcher
http://www.fixamacsoftware.com/software/ss
One of the first things I noticed about the Mac OS when I switched was that the scroll bars in the finder windows were different form what I was used to in Windows. It took me a while to get used to them, but if I would have had Scroll Switcher, I would have been able to make the scrollbars work anyway I wanted them to work. Scroll Switcher is a small utility designed to allow the user to quickly and easily change the scroll arrow configurations in Mac OS X. There are 4 different arrow configurations to choose from:
* DoubleBoth: This setting is not normally available in the Finder. The full set of scroll arrows are placed together at both ends of each scroll bar.
* DoubleMax: This is the default setting in Mac OS X. The scroll arrows are placed together at the bottom and right of the scroll bars.
* DoubleMin: This setting is not normally available in the Finder. The scroll arrows are placed together at the top and left of the scroll bars.
* Single: In this mode, the scroll arrows are placed separately at the ends of each scroll bar. Once a setting is chosen, Scroll Switcher directs the Finder to quit and relaunch to apply the new setting.
CamiTools
http://www.nadamac.de/camitools/index.php
The browser Camino is a mozilla.org-based browser that many folks have used for a long time. The CamiTools are a Preference Pane for Camino 1.0. They provide you a wide range of options to adjust Camino to your demands:
- a toolbar search engine editor for Camino
- an image and script blocker for Camino
- Flashblock for Camino
- configure many aspects of Camino
- it lets you switch the appearance style (Aqua, Unified or Metal) and hide the status bar
- open your existing Camino profile or create a new one
- define your own styles for the pages you're visiting
- sync your bookmarks with an ftp server
If you use Camino, you really need this app.
VitaminSEE
http://www.elliotglaysher.org/vitaminsee
VitaminSEE is an image viewer for OSX that focuses on interface responsiveness and speed. It offers a clean interface and fast load times. VitaminSEE will automatically thumbnail your images, optionally saving them with the files. VitaminSEE allows you to quickly organize your pictures into different directories with its integrated Sort Manager. It also allows you to tag your pictures with keywords. This is a very fast alternative for viewing your pictures and organizing them, along with other features. Check it out.
Sound Source
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/freebies
We've talked about this before, but it's such a handy little utility that I want everyone to check it out. It's from the Mac developers that give us Audio Hijack and Nicecast.
SoundSource is a tiny tool for OS X enabling you to switch your audio input and output sources with a single click. And with the System setting, you can transfer system beeps to a secondary audio source so you won't be disturbed.
Exif Untrasher
http://www.bluem.net/downloads/exif-untrasher_en
Have you ever deleted images from your digital camera's memory card and needed them afterwards? Exif Untrasher is a tool for rescuing JPEG photos that were deleted from digital cameras' memory cards or memory sticks. It can even be used to recover images from cards that have been formatted. You will only be able to use this application if your camera's storage medium is mounted as if it was a regular Mac volume. If this is not the case: Some cameras (for example my Nikon Coolpix) allow switching the protocol/interface used for communicating with a computer—if your camera is capable of doing this, you should try to set it to “Mass Storage”. As an alternative you can use an external reader as well.
That’s it for April. I’ll be back to you in May with more fantastic freeware for your Mac.
