Raiders of the Apple/Macintosh Ark #1: Best free downloads, shareware and demos
by Dr. Eric Flescher
There is a wealth of free, shareware and demo applications out there that many of you don’t know about. That’s a shame, because you could be using some great software with little or no expense and enjoy a myriad of new applications, utilities and applications for fun and profit. Some of these may let you use your Macintosh as a better, lean, mean fighting machine.
Here is the first installment of ones that I have found. If you have found a favorite, let me know.
Safari 3 Public Beta
http://www.apple.com/safari/download/ http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/features/safari.html
Now the latest version is for Mac as well as Windows! Loading and drawing web pages up to twice as fast as Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Mozilla Firefox 2 this latest version is a great browser.
Sound Studio 3.5.2 Demo
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/audio/soundstudio.html
This application is an easy-to-use and extensively AppleScriptable Mac OS X application for recording and editing audio digitally on your computer. Digitize tapes and vinyl records, record live performances, create your own mixes with cross fades, tweak the levels and EQ.
EyeTV 2.4.1 Free trial
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or later; Mac OS X 10.4.9 or higher recommended; 500 MHz PowerPC G4 processor or higher; EyeTV hardware.
This application lets you watch, record, edit, timeshift, and archive high-quality, MPEG-2 encoded television on the Mac. Has a new FireWire interface and state-of-the-art MPEG-2 video encoding. EyeTV offers a major upgrade in the quality of television you can enjoy on your Mac.
Sudoku Potions 1.1 Freeware
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/cards_puzzle/sudokupotions.html
A software for playing the popular Japanese mathematical puzzle.
Mental Case 1.0 Demo
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/home_learning/
This software is many things — a drop box for your thoughts; use the RSS for your head; an index of your knowledge — but ultimately, it’s just a fun way to remember stuff.
Picturesque 1.0.1 Shareware
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/
An Apple Design Awards 2007 Winner this is an application designed to male images look beautiful for web placement. Uses an animated drag and drop-style interface, Picturesque creates images with tasteful effects like reflections, soft glows, shadows, delicate curves, strokes, and fades.
JetPhoto 2.6.1 Freeware
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/jetphoto.html
JetPhoto 2.6.1 is a feature-rich digital photo software that creates Flash and web gallery, publishable web albums, geotag photos with GPS and more.
Image Tricks 2.3.7 Company: blight Software, LTD Version: Freeware
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/imagetricks.html
Software to edit and generate images. It uses Core Image filters that transform pictures to unimaginable extent. Various mathematical algorithms let you generate unique images. The artwork can be used as a background, web-design illustration, for print materials, and more.
Information about it includes:
- Easy to use and friendly Interface.
- 48 image effects and filters (54 in Pro version).
- 12 image generators (19 in Pro version).
- Import over 20 image formats, including TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PDF, and EPS.
- Export to TIFF, JPEG, PDF, PNG, and GIF formats.
- OpenGL acceleration supported.
- iPhoto integration.
- Universal binary version.
What’s New in this Version
- Sobel filter added (Pro version).
- Localization improved.
- Minor bug fixes. Image Tricks
iSale 4.1.2 Demo
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or later; Spotlight Plugins; System/Disk Utilities
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/isale.html
The two-time Apple Design Award winner, is the ultimate eBay auctioning tool and solution for your Mac. Let’s you style and customize your auctions to showcase your item(s) before submitting them to eBay. Track your drafted, running and finished auctions. Takes the hassle and confusion out of online auctioning. Can help increase your success and profit! Includes Quick and easy creation of eBay auctions; iLife ’04, ’05, and ’06 compatible; Import photos from your iPhoto library; Use iSight as a digital camera; Support for eBay gallery photos and supersize photos. In this new updated version includes: Issues related to eBay Stores on older Macs (PPC) have been resolved; Basic support for subcategories in eBay Stores #
Tiger Cache Cleaner 3.2.11 Shareware
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/tigercachecleaner.html
Award winning system maintenance, optimization, and antivirus.
yFlicks 2.0 Shareware
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/yflicks.html
This application is a movie player based on the Mac OS X QuickTime Framework. Watch your movies just like you used to do with QuickTime Player. But yFlicks offers the ability to play videos in fullscreen mode, organizing your videos in groups, search them, rate them, and browse them in preview mode.
Currency Converter
Widget - Freeware
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or later Universal Binary
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/calculate_convert/currencyconverter.html Company: Paolo Grifantini
Easily calculate currency conversions between more than 170 world currencies, plus all the old legacy European currencies. Among the features: automatically updated exchange rates; support for almost all the traded currencies of the world; support the old legacy european currencies (like Italian lira, Deutsch mark, French francs); support multi currencies conversions (you can add all the currencies you want to the conversion table); support multiple widget instances, so that you can keep open more than a conversion table, each with a set of preferred currencies; you can choose the desired decimal precision, from one to five decimals; localized in English, Italian, Portuguese, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Swedish, and Japanese (all the currency names are localized, too). New in this Version is : four new currencies added: CFA Franc (BEAC), Surinam Dollar, Uzbekistan Sum, Macedonian Dinar; Afghanistan Afgani and Lao Kip added to bloomberg currencies; now you can visualize on the widget currencies’s labels the currency code instead of the currency name (just check on the widget’s back); now if you place the mouse over the update badge (when it is visible) it tells you what’s the latest version available and what version you are using now; a couple of bugs fixed.
Saft 8.3.12
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macgems/?lsrc=mwpvw Rob Griffiths
This Safari plug-in, Saft ($12) is a useful safari add-on. Saft and other third-party plug-ins for Safari (and other applications) work by taking advantage of an Apple technology known by the name InputManager (Apple’s very technical documentation). InputManager is an effective way for developers to add their own code to that of another program, providing features that the original program doesn’t include.
Starry Night Widget 1.1 Freeware
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/information/starrynightwidget.html Company:Starry Night Imaginova
I’ve use Starry Night software for several years particular to find and hlp me photograph comets and asteroids. This is a tiny for of the this astronomical program called a widget that will let you see the sky (planets, constellations) for any location on Earth. Some of the nice features include: set your location by ZIP/postal code or by latitude and longitude, and the widget flips to show a view of the current sky; with a touch of a button, see the sky from all directions; it’s easy to customize your view. Select and display constellations, the horizon, the ecliptic line, and labels for the celestial sights above. This widget refreshes your sky image every few minutes so you are always looking at something new.
In this New Version is: a Space/Astronomy news ticker; a live display of location and gaze direction (altitude and azimuth); star labels to more easily identify objects in the sky; live "panning" via the arrow keys. View in any direction and tilt up/down. This widget has easier access to the full-featured web version. Upgraded server back-end for faster image return.
