Will Wright is Turning Your Life Into a Game
Will Wright
HiveMind is the name of legendary video game creator Will Wright‘s next big thing. And it sounds it’s going to send privacy freaks into a fetal position, crying for their mommies.
Best known as the mind behind SimCity, The Sims, and Spore, Will Wright always seems to find himself on the bleeding edge of video game entertainment. Many of his titles have spawned entirely new genres of gaming, and HiveMind sounds no different. According to an exclusive over at Games Beat, HiveMind will invent a new genre called “personal gaming,” where the game uses cell phones, social networks, and more to learn about you and tailor-make what sounds sort of like an ARG (augmented reality game) out of your habits, hobbies, and tastes.
According to the Games Beat article:
[Wright] noted, for instance, that there may be 50 different dimensions to a person that could be learned through data collection. Some of those dimensions could be location-based, like where you are, where your friends are, and how much money is in your wallet… Wright’s idea with HiveMind is to collect data so that the game can discover opportunities for a person to have fun, directing the person to the right place where they could enjoy themselves, based on their interests.
If HiveMind knows enough about you, it could find local events for you that you might enjoy. Wright isn’t going into great detail about the game yet, but he expects it to work on many levels, from things like matchmaking with like-minded individuals, to enhancing your fitness goals, and much more.
Wright hopes that HiveMind will “make reality more interesting to you,” by turning you into the game. The idea isn’t to distract you from real life, as most video games do, it’s to engage you in it in a way that’s more enjoyable. (One assumes that an ecosystem such as this will come with built-in security features.)
HiveMind has no projected release date yet and is still in the early stages of its production. Does it sound like something that you’d want to play?
here http://www.forevergeek.com/2011/11/will-wright-is-turning-your-life-into-a-game/ posted through Google Reader
December 2011
10 Geeky Photo Mosaics
{EAV:8d4af92a098611f7}
Geeky visuals alert! Check out these ten giant images made of hundreds (or thousands) of smaller images, aka photo mosaics.
Buy-N-Large
Buy-N-Large mosaic
The logo of the corporatized world from WALL-E, cleverly made out of brand logos. [Source]
Darth Vader
Darth Vader mosaic
Comprised of images from all six Star Wars movies. [Source]
Harry Potter
Harry Potter mosaic
Made using images from the first seven Harry Potter movies, to celebrate the eighth. [Source]
Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones mosaic
Uses only images from Raiders of the Lost Ark. [Source]
iPhone
iPhone mosaic
10,000 app icons make up this image of a first-generation iPhone. [Source]
Mario
Mario mosaic
Created using 7,000 screenshots from Super Mario 1, 2, & 3. [Source]
Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle mosaic
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first space shuttle launch, NASA commissioned this mosaic, which uses pictures of the people, projects, and technologies that contributed to the shuttle program over its first 25 years.[Source]
Star Trek
Star Trek mosaic
The new Star Trek movie’s logo made using images from the classic TV series. [Source]
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs mosaic
The late Apple CEO is recreated here using Apple logos, products, and portraits of the man himself. [Source]
Summer Glau
Summer Glau mosaic
This mosaic of the geek goddess (Firefly, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse) uses over 400 existing photos of Glau. [Source]
here http://www.forevergeek.com/2011/11/10-geeky-photo-mosaics/ posted through Google Reader
December 2011
30 More Great Apps You Won’t Find on the App Store
Apple recently announced that the Mac App Store has led to over 100 million app downloads, cementing it as the indisputable one stop shop for just about everything Mac users need or want. Today I want to place emphasis on the “just about” part, because despite these impressive numbers, there are still plenty of great Mac applications that you can’t get through this route.
Back in June, we posted an article containing 10 Must-Have Apps You Won’t Find in the Mac App Store, which included great options like the Alfred Power Pack and TotalFinder. This time we really dug deep and come up with thirty more! Some of the developers behind these great apps have simply decided not to pursue the App Store, others aren’t even allowed in due to the nature of the app. All of these apps though are definitely worth downloading and together make up a wealth of functionality and even fun that your Mac may be missing out on.
The best part? Almost all of them are free! Let’s take a look.
Internet
Adium
Adium has been around for ages and it is still one of the most popular iChat alternatives you’ll find. It’s a free, open source chat client that supports a mess of different networks including AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more.
It has all the standard features that you need like tabbed windows and file transfer as well as some cool features you won’t find in iChat such as the ability to theme the interface.
Price: Free
Skype
Skype needs no introduction, it’s the app that took casual video chat out of the geek realm and into something that everyday people use on a regular basis to communicate with family and friends.
Skype is loaded with features for text, voice and video chat and can even make phone calls if you’re a paid subscriber. Given that Skype has an iOS app on the iTunes App Store, I’m surprised they haven’t gotten anything up on the Mac App Store yet!
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Transmission
Transmission is a really slick open source BitTorrent client. Some BitTorrent apps tend to be pretty clunky and not at all what you’d expect to see on a Mac, but not Transmission. It’s super easy to use and features a simple interface that’s pure Mac.
The nice thing here is that you don’t get any funny business. There are no ads or features that you have to pay to unlock, just an awesome free BitTorrent client with a dedicated team of volunteer developers providing regular updates. You see far too few projects like this these days.
Price: Free
Transmission
Google Earth
You can never be too sure about how Google will handle new developments in the Apple world. The two companies have an interesting symbiotic but competitive relationship that is constantly a point of discussion. Google Earth is one of the first apps that comes to mind when I think of great Google products that should be on the App Store but aren’t. The app is beginning to age a bit but it’s still an amazingly fun way to travel the world from your desk. It’s definitely worth a download.
Since Google hasn’t made any real entrance into the Mac App Store yet, add to this great products like Google Sketchup and Notifier as well.
Price: Free
Dropbox
Dropbox is perhaps the single most important Mac application not on the Mac App Store. It’s one of the most used and most treasured applications on my Mac and I sincerely believe that every Mac owner should install it.
Dropbox makes it super easy to backup and share files. It creates a plain old folder in your Finder, and anything you put in that folder is instantly synced to your online Dropbox account where you can access it via any web browser. You can use Dropbox as a secure backup for anything you can’t afford to lose, as a way to make your files more accessible, and you can even share folders with friends for easy file transfer. I simply can’t say it enough, you need this app.
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Fluid
Fluid is an app that essentially creates dedicated instances of web apps on your machine that look and act like native applications. So let’s say you want a Facebook app, simply open up Fluid and enter the URL, it will then spit out an application that can sit in your dock that takes you right to Facebook.
Fluid is extremely handy for anyone that regularly works with certain sites. For instance, I use Google Docs constantly for work and used Fluid to separate this app out from my browser. Fluid is free but you can unlock fullscreen mode and other features if you buy the full version at $4.99.
Price: Free ($4.99 for more features)
Droplr
Droplr is a web service that supports apps for Mac, iPhone and even Windows. It’s very similar to Cloud.app, which is in the Mac App Store. Both apps allow you to drag items to your menu bar to instantly upload them and generate a sharing link. However, there are a few key differences. For instance, Droplr generates much shorter, prettier URLs and gives you the ability to share code snippets with syntax highlighting. However, Cloud has a cool extension system that makes it work seamlessly with many other apps.
Whether or not you think you’ll ever be lured away from the admittedly awesome Cloud.app, you should definitely give Droplr a download and see what you think.
Price: Free
Droplr
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is one of those utilities that you’ll either have zero use for or will absolutely love. Given that I’m a blogger who takes tons of screenshots, I fall in the latter camp.
What does Paparazzi do you ask? It takes screenshots of webpages. That alone sounds pretty unremarkable but the awesome part is that it allows you to automate this task. I can set up a list of 100 web pages that I’m using in a roundup, set the width and height of the snaps that I want, and have Paparazzi automatically generate my screenshots. It’s a huge timesaver.
Price: Free
Spotify
Spotify recently hit the U.S. and has gained a ton of attention. It’s an awesome service that lets you listen to whatever music you want whenever you want. Unlike services like Pandora that automatically decide what to play, Spotify gives you complete control to choose the songs that you want to hear. The Spotify app’s interface is a lot like iTunes so you’ll feel right at home.
The Spotify free plan is pretty amazing and (for now at least) offers unlimited ad-supported streaming. You can also pay a monthly fee to eliminate the ads and add mobile streaming.
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Rdio
Rdio is conceptually almost just like Spotify. It uses the same model of music streaming that allows you to choose from a huge library of songs, artists and albums. The Rdio Mac app is basically a native frame for the web-based service, but it’s still pretty slick and provides an even richer experience than the Spotify app.
Rdio has an unbelievable deal right now where you can sign up and listen to ad-free music without paying a cent. The app gives you a meter that shows you how much free music you have left in a given month (the number of streams is very generous).
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Rdio
System Utilities
Handbrake
Handbrake is an open source video transcoder. It’s popularly used for some questionable activities, but at heart it’s a simple converter. Here’s what the Handbrake developers have to say about the project:
“HandBrake is not a ripper. It converts video, it does not rip it byte by byte. It does not crack the latest DVD copy protection schemes hatched by the studios. It converts video from nearly any format to a handful of modern ones—that’s it.”
Price: Free
Quicksilver
Quicksilver is the paterfamilias of the app launcher industry. It’s been around for years, was abandoned by its original developer and eventually picked up by a hardworking team of volunteers who loved the project too much to let it die.
The project has seen renewed vigor lately with a major Lion update. Despite Quicksilver’s rough history, it’s still one of the most powerful, fully featured and useful apps you’ll find for the Mac.
Price: Free
AppCleaner
When you install an application on your Mac, it doesn’t just put a .app file in the Application folder, it spreads various support files all over your system. This means that simply dragging an application to your trash can isn’t the best way to uninstall it as this method generally leaves lots of stranded pieces.
There are lots of utilities that help you uninstall apps the right way, but AppCleaner is the best free one that I’ve found and my personal choice for deleting apps from my hard drive.
Price: Free
AppCleaner
CandyBar
CandyBar is an application from Panic, the renowned developers of Transmit, so you know it’s a quality app. The reason that it’s not in the App Store is likely that it simply digs too far into your system for Apple’s liking.
Simply put, CandyBar allows you to easily customize the look of your system. With just a few clicks you can replace your system icons and even your dock design with something that’s a little more to your liking. The best part, you can always return to the default system settings in a jiffy.
Price: $29
CoconutBattery
If you own a MacBook, you should download CoconutBattery. It keeps an eye on your laptop’s battery and gives you important information such as its overall health, the number of charge cycles that it’s gone through and more.
I really like that it gives you an easy to read visual representation of what your original battery capacity was versus where it currently stands. If you’re wondering if it’s time to pick up a new battery for that aging MacBook, CoconutBattery has your answer.
Price: Free
Cocktail
Cocktail is another one of those apps that Apple probably thinks that its best for you to go without due to the depth of its reach, but seasoned Apple veterans who know what they’re doing don’t really care!
Cocktail is a Swiss army knife of system utilities aimed at keeping your Mac in tip top shape. The functions that it performs are simply too numerous to list, chief among them being routine maintenance scripts, Spotlight index management, inactive memory purge, cache/log clearing, and IP configuration.
Price: $19
Cocktail
Sidekick
Sidekick is a really unique app that offers “geo-intelligent laptop settings,” which is a really fancy way to say that the app changes your computer’s settings and performs actions based on your location. Why would you need this? Imagine the following scenario.
Let’s say that you have your MacBook sitting on your desk at home. It’s set up to use your home network’s default printer and has the applications open that you regularly use at home: Safari, Twitter, and Spotify. Then you pack up your computer and head off to work. Once you’re there, Sidekick will automatically make your work printer the default, close Twitter and Spotify and open Photoshop and Espresso. Pretty cool eh?
Price: $29
Hazel
Hazel is an awesome personal file assistant that performs automated tasks based on a set of user defined criteria. You set it to watch certain folders and when something happens with that folder, it triggers an event like copying the files to a network drive or applying a colored label.
Hazel performs lots of great other functions as well. For instance, you can use it to properly delete apps just like with AppCleaner or automatically empty your Mac’s trash every few days.
Price: $21.95
Launchbar
Though I’ve always been partial to free launchers like Quicksilver and Alfred, Launchbar has been the favorite of many a Mac user for years. It’s extremely powerful and has all the features you could want including clipboard history, file search, file browsing, iCal event creation, calculator functions and a whole lot more.
Price: $35.00
MacPilot
Macpilot is in a strange place right now. The app is in the Mac App Store, but where you’d normally find the description, you now get this message: “Apple will not be approving the latest version of MacPilot for the App Store as MacPilot requires access to advanced and hidden features in Mac OS X. Please contact us directly with proof of purchase and we’ll issue you a free copy directly from us.”
Fortunately, you can still buy the current version in all its glory right from the MacPilot website. It’s a lot like a visual interface to the Terminal and enables you to really dig into your system and find lots of hidden functionality.
Price: $19.99
Default Folder X
When the developers of Default Folder X approached me a few weeks ago and asked if I could take a look at their app, I admittedly had never even heard of this longstanding and respected utility. However, I now can’t live without it (full review here).
Default Folder X extends your Mac’s default open and save dialog with a range of helpful features that help you quickly find the folder you’re looking for: utilize keyboard shortcuts, favorites, recently used, open Finder windows and more.
Price: $34.95
Default Folder X
Teleport
If you ever find yourself sitting in front of multiple computers, say a MacBook and an iMac, Teleport is an invaluable little utility that saves you from switching back and forth between two mice or trackpads.
Simply drag your cursor off the side of the screen of one computer to see it magically appear on the other! You can even drag files back and forth between the two and share clipboards.
Price: Free
Carbon Copy Cloner
Carbon Copy Cloner is the way to clone a hard drive. I’ve used it several times and it makes an otherwise technical task very user friendly. It requires very little setup and works like a dream.
When do you need this? Let’s say you buy a new, larger hard drive for your Mac, but you want all your apps, files, etc. from the old drive. Carbon Copy Cloner allows you to clone the old drive onto the new one so that when you fire up your Mac, the only difference you notice is more free space!
Price: Free
Bodega
Bodega was the Mac app store before the Mac App Store existed. I’m not sure if the Bodega developers choose not to be on the official Mac App Store or if it represents such a conflict that Apple wouldn’t allow it (perhaps both).
I’m not a huge fan of the quirky Bodega interface and to be honest I usually experience quite a few bugs when using the app. However, it is still a great place to find interesting Mac applications, many of which aren’t present in the Mac App Store.
Price: Free
nvALT
nvALT is a popular fork of Notational Velocity, a beautifully simple note taking application for Mac. It has a ton of great features that you won’t find in the original Notational Velocity such as Simplenote syncing (with tags), a customizable color scheme, word count, Markdown support and more.
Price: Free
nvALT
AppFresh
With the Mac App Store, you can manage all of your app updates in one convenient location. However, this only applies to apps that were downloaded through the App Store. Odds are, there are quite a few applications on your machine that don’t fit that description.
AppFresh was solving the problem of app updates long before the Mac App Store. It keeps an eye on your Application folder and lets you know if there are any newer versions of the non-App-Store-apps that you’ve installed. You can view and download all your updates in one convenient spot.
Price: Free
Design and Development
TextMate
TextMate falls into the category of “oldie but goodie.” Web developers have been using this simple but powerful text editor since 2004. It contains many awesome features such as snippets, bundles, custom commands, and even custom syntax highlighting.
It’s still a great app, but it’s in serious need of a major update. In 2009, development started on the long-rumored Textmate 2, but it has yet to be released. In the mean time, you can still download the awesome original version.
Price: $54
Espresso
Espresso is my personal IDE of choice. It’s a gorgeous, easy to use coding environment with support for tons of languages. Custom theming, syntax highlighting, lightning fast auto-complete, code folding, line numbers, reusable snippets, auto-updating live page previews; these are just a few of the reasons I absolutely love this app.
I recently reviewed Espresso 2, which incorporates the awesome features of CSSEdit and gives you an easy way to write CSS using simple visually-driven controls.
Price: $79
Espresso
GIMP
The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is the go-to free alternative to Photoshop. Though not quite as powerful as Photoshop, it packs a mean punch for a free image editor. It contains a familiar tool set and palette style capable of performing many of the complex functions that you normally turn to Photoshop to achieve.
Here’s the catch: the GIMP developers don’t actually provide an OS X version. For this, you have to hit up GIMP on OS X, which provides “easy to install application bundles of The GIMP for Mac OS X.” It’s a bit of a runaround, but you can’t beat the price.
Price: Free
Media and Gaming
Steam
Steam isn’t a Mac app in the traditional sense. Rather, it’s an online gaming platform that can be installed on both Mac and Windows. With it, you get access to the impressive and wildly popular steam game library and community of users.
Head over to this article to get the lowdown on what Steam is and how it works. Also, if you want a quick look at what’s available on Steam, check out our roundup of 14 Awesome Steam Games Available for Mac.
Price: Free
Boxer
Fans of old school gaming will love this one. Boxer is a DOS game emulator that gives you the ability to play your favorite games from years past on your Mac.
“Boxer takes your CDs, floppies and bootleg game copies and wraps them into app-style gameboxes you just click to play.” It even allows you to assign cover artwork and places your games onto an iBooks-like wooden shelf. Warning: downloading this will increase your perceived level of nerd by at least ten fold. Ignore the naysayers though, it’s pure fun.
Price: Free
Boxer
Plex
Now that FrontRow is officially dead, many Mac users are on the lookout for a good replacement app that provides users with an all in one media center. This is where Plex comes in.
Plex has a beautiful, fullscreen interface that allows you to easily browse and play your media library. With it you can take control of your music, movies and even online shows. Full Apple Remote support means that Plex is all you need to turn a Mac into the perfect media hub for your living room.
Price: Free
What Did We Miss?
Now that you’ve read our huge collection of thirty Mac apps that you won’t find in the Mac App Store, it’s time for you to chime in. Which of your favorite apps hasn’t made it to the App Store? Do you use any of the apps above? We want to know!
here http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/utilities-roundups/30-more-great-apps-you-wo... posted through Google Reader
December 2011
30 More Great Apps You Won’t Find on the App Store
Apple recently announced that the Mac App Store has led to over 100 million app downloads, cementing it as the indisputable one stop shop for just about everything Mac users need or want. Today I want to place emphasis on the “just about” part, because despite these impressive numbers, there are still plenty of great Mac applications that you can’t get through this route.
Back in June, we posted an article containing 10 Must-Have Apps You Won’t Find in the Mac App Store, which included great options like the Alfred Power Pack and TotalFinder. This time we really dug deep and come up with thirty more! Some of the developers behind these great apps have simply decided not to pursue the App Store, others aren’t even allowed in due to the nature of the app. All of these apps though are definitely worth downloading and together make up a wealth of functionality and even fun that your Mac may be missing out on.
The best part? Almost all of them are free! Let’s take a look.
Internet
Adium
Adium has been around for ages and it is still one of the most popular iChat alternatives you’ll find. It’s a free, open source chat client that supports a mess of different networks including AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more.
It has all the standard features that you need like tabbed windows and file transfer as well as some cool features you won’t find in iChat such as the ability to theme the interface.
Price: Free
Skype
Skype needs no introduction, it’s the app that took casual video chat out of the geek realm and into something that everyday people use on a regular basis to communicate with family and friends.
Skype is loaded with features for text, voice and video chat and can even make phone calls if you’re a paid subscriber. Given that Skype has an iOS app on the iTunes App Store, I’m surprised they haven’t gotten anything up on the Mac App Store yet!
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Transmission
Transmission is a really slick open source BitTorrent client. Some BitTorrent apps tend to be pretty clunky and not at all what you’d expect to see on a Mac, but not Transmission. It’s super easy to use and features a simple interface that’s pure Mac.
The nice thing here is that you don’t get any funny business. There are no ads or features that you have to pay to unlock, just an awesome free BitTorrent client with a dedicated team of volunteer developers providing regular updates. You see far too few projects like this these days.
Price: Free
Transmission
Google Earth
You can never be too sure about how Google will handle new developments in the Apple world. The two companies have an interesting symbiotic but competitive relationship that is constantly a point of discussion. Google Earth is one of the first apps that comes to mind when I think of great Google products that should be on the App Store but aren’t. The app is beginning to age a bit but it’s still an amazingly fun way to travel the world from your desk. It’s definitely worth a download.
Since Google hasn’t made any real entrance into the Mac App Store yet, add to this great products like Google Sketchup and Notifier as well.
Price: Free
Dropbox
Dropbox is perhaps the single most important Mac application not on the Mac App Store. It’s one of the most used and most treasured applications on my Mac and I sincerely believe that every Mac owner should install it.
Dropbox makes it super easy to backup and share files. It creates a plain old folder in your Finder, and anything you put in that folder is instantly synced to your online Dropbox account where you can access it via any web browser. You can use Dropbox as a secure backup for anything you can’t afford to lose, as a way to make your files more accessible, and you can even share folders with friends for easy file transfer. I simply can’t say it enough, you need this app.
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Fluid
Fluid is an app that essentially creates dedicated instances of web apps on your machine that look and act like native applications. So let’s say you want a Facebook app, simply open up Fluid and enter the URL, it will then spit out an application that can sit in your dock that takes you right to Facebook.
Fluid is extremely handy for anyone that regularly works with certain sites. For instance, I use Google Docs constantly for work and used Fluid to separate this app out from my browser. Fluid is free but you can unlock fullscreen mode and other features if you buy the full version at $4.99.
Price: Free ($4.99 for more features)
Droplr
Droplr is a web service that supports apps for Mac, iPhone and even Windows. It’s very similar to Cloud.app, which is in the Mac App Store. Both apps allow you to drag items to your menu bar to instantly upload them and generate a sharing link. However, there are a few key differences. For instance, Droplr generates much shorter, prettier URLs and gives you the ability to share code snippets with syntax highlighting. However, Cloud has a cool extension system that makes it work seamlessly with many other apps.
Whether or not you think you’ll ever be lured away from the admittedly awesome Cloud.app, you should definitely give Droplr a download and see what you think.
Price: Free
Droplr
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is one of those utilities that you’ll either have zero use for or will absolutely love. Given that I’m a blogger who takes tons of screenshots, I fall in the latter camp.
What does Paparazzi do you ask? It takes screenshots of webpages. That alone sounds pretty unremarkable but the awesome part is that it allows you to automate this task. I can set up a list of 100 web pages that I’m using in a roundup, set the width and height of the snaps that I want, and have Paparazzi automatically generate my screenshots. It’s a huge timesaver.
Price: Free
Spotify
Spotify recently hit the U.S. and has gained a ton of attention. It’s an awesome service that lets you listen to whatever music you want whenever you want. Unlike services like Pandora that automatically decide what to play, Spotify gives you complete control to choose the songs that you want to hear. The Spotify app’s interface is a lot like iTunes so you’ll feel right at home.
The Spotify free plan is pretty amazing and (for now at least) offers unlimited ad-supported streaming. You can also pay a monthly fee to eliminate the ads and add mobile streaming.
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Rdio
Rdio is conceptually almost just like Spotify. It uses the same model of music streaming that allows you to choose from a huge library of songs, artists and albums. The Rdio Mac app is basically a native frame for the web-based service, but it’s still pretty slick and provides an even richer experience than the Spotify app.
Rdio has an unbelievable deal right now where you can sign up and listen to ad-free music without paying a cent. The app gives you a meter that shows you how much free music you have left in a given month (the number of streams is very generous).
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Rdio
System Utilities
Handbrake
Handbrake is an open source video transcoder. It’s popularly used for some questionable activities, but at heart it’s a simple converter. Here’s what the Handbrake developers have to say about the project:
“HandBrake is not a ripper. It converts video, it does not rip it byte by byte. It does not crack the latest DVD copy protection schemes hatched by the studios. It converts video from nearly any format to a handful of modern ones—that’s it.”
Price: Free
Quicksilver
Quicksilver is the paterfamilias of the app launcher industry. It’s been around for years, was abandoned by its original developer and eventually picked up by a hardworking team of volunteers who loved the project too much to let it die.
The project has seen renewed vigor lately with a major Lion update. Despite Quicksilver’s rough history, it’s still one of the most powerful, fully featured and useful apps you’ll find for the Mac.
Price: Free
AppCleaner
When you install an application on your Mac, it doesn’t just put a .app file in the Application folder, it spreads various support files all over your system. This means that simply dragging an application to your trash can isn’t the best way to uninstall it as this method generally leaves lots of stranded pieces.
There are lots of utilities that help you uninstall apps the right way, but AppCleaner is the best free one that I’ve found and my personal choice for deleting apps from my hard drive.
Price: Free
AppCleaner
CandyBar
CandyBar is an application from Panic, the renowned developers of Transmit, so you know it’s a quality app. The reason that it’s not in the App Store is likely that it simply digs too far into your system for Apple’s liking.
Simply put, CandyBar allows you to easily customize the look of your system. With just a few clicks you can replace your system icons and even your dock design with something that’s a little more to your liking. The best part, you can always return to the default system settings in a jiffy.
Price: $29
CoconutBattery
If you own a MacBook, you should download CoconutBattery. It keeps an eye on your laptop’s battery and gives you important information such as its overall health, the number of charge cycles that it’s gone through and more.
I really like that it gives you an easy to read visual representation of what your original battery capacity was versus where it currently stands. If you’re wondering if it’s time to pick up a new battery for that aging MacBook, CoconutBattery has your answer.
Price: Free
Cocktail
Cocktail is another one of those apps that Apple probably thinks that its best for you to go without due to the depth of its reach, but seasoned Apple veterans who know what they’re doing don’t really care!
Cocktail is a Swiss army knife of system utilities aimed at keeping your Mac in tip top shape. The functions that it performs are simply too numerous to list, chief among them being routine maintenance scripts, Spotlight index management, inactive memory purge, cache/log clearing, and IP configuration.
Price: $19
Cocktail
Sidekick
Sidekick is a really unique app that offers “geo-intelligent laptop settings,” which is a really fancy way to say that the app changes your computer’s settings and performs actions based on your location. Why would you need this? Imagine the following scenario.
Let’s say that you have your MacBook sitting on your desk at home. It’s set up to use your home network’s default printer and has the applications open that you regularly use at home: Safari, Twitter, and Spotify. Then you pack up your computer and head off to work. Once you’re there, Sidekick will automatically make your work printer the default, close Twitter and Spotify and open Photoshop and Espresso. Pretty cool eh?
Price: $29
Hazel
Hazel is an awesome personal file assistant that performs automated tasks based on a set of user defined criteria. You set it to watch certain folders and when something happens with that folder, it triggers an event like copying the files to a network drive or applying a colored label.
Hazel performs lots of great other functions as well. For instance, you can use it to properly delete apps just like with AppCleaner or automatically empty your Mac’s trash every few days.
Price: $21.95
Launchbar
Though I’ve always been partial to free launchers like Quicksilver and Alfred, Launchbar has been the favorite of many a Mac user for years. It’s extremely powerful and has all the features you could want including clipboard history, file search, file browsing, iCal event creation, calculator functions and a whole lot more.
Price: $35.00
MacPilot
Macpilot is in a strange place right now. The app is in the Mac App Store, but where you’d normally find the description, you now get this message: “Apple will not be approving the latest version of MacPilot for the App Store as MacPilot requires access to advanced and hidden features in Mac OS X. Please contact us directly with proof of purchase and we’ll issue you a free copy directly from us.”
Fortunately, you can still buy the current version in all its glory right from the MacPilot website. It’s a lot like a visual interface to the Terminal and enables you to really dig into your system and find lots of hidden functionality.
Price: $19.99
Default Folder X
When the developers of Default Folder X approached me a few weeks ago and asked if I could take a look at their app, I admittedly had never even heard of this longstanding and respected utility. However, I now can’t live without it (full review here).
Default Folder X extends your Mac’s default open and save dialog with a range of helpful features that help you quickly find the folder you’re looking for: utilize keyboard shortcuts, favorites, recently used, open Finder windows and more.
Price: $34.95
Default Folder X
Teleport
If you ever find yourself sitting in front of multiple computers, say a MacBook and an iMac, Teleport is an invaluable little utility that saves you from switching back and forth between two mice or trackpads.
Simply drag your cursor off the side of the screen of one computer to see it magically appear on the other! You can even drag files back and forth between the two and share clipboards.
Price: Free
Carbon Copy Cloner
Carbon Copy Cloner is the way to clone a hard drive. I’ve used it several times and it makes an otherwise technical task very user friendly. It requires very little setup and works like a dream.
When do you need this? Let’s say you buy a new, larger hard drive for your Mac, but you want all your apps, files, etc. from the old drive. Carbon Copy Cloner allows you to clone the old drive onto the new one so that when you fire up your Mac, the only difference you notice is more free space!
Price: Free
Bodega
Bodega was the Mac app store before the Mac App Store existed. I’m not sure if the Bodega developers choose not to be on the official Mac App Store or if it represents such a conflict that Apple wouldn’t allow it (perhaps both).
I’m not a huge fan of the quirky Bodega interface and to be honest I usually experience quite a few bugs when using the app. However, it is still a great place to find interesting Mac applications, many of which aren’t present in the Mac App Store.
Price: Free
nvALT
nvALT is a popular fork of Notational Velocity, a beautifully simple note taking application for Mac. It has a ton of great features that you won’t find in the original Notational Velocity such as Simplenote syncing (with tags), a customizable color scheme, word count, Markdown support and more.
Price: Free
nvALT
AppFresh
With the Mac App Store, you can manage all of your app updates in one convenient location. However, this only applies to apps that were downloaded through the App Store. Odds are, there are quite a few applications on your machine that don’t fit that description.
AppFresh was solving the problem of app updates long before the Mac App Store. It keeps an eye on your Application folder and lets you know if there are any newer versions of the non-App-Store-apps that you’ve installed. You can view and download all your updates in one convenient spot.
Price: Free
Design and Development
TextMate
TextMate falls into the category of “oldie but goodie.” Web developers have been using this simple but powerful text editor since 2004. It contains many awesome features such as snippets, bundles, custom commands, and even custom syntax highlighting.
It’s still a great app, but it’s in serious need of a major update. In 2009, development started on the long-rumored Textmate 2, but it has yet to be released. In the mean time, you can still download the awesome original version.
Price: $54
Espresso
Espresso is my personal IDE of choice. It’s a gorgeous, easy to use coding environment with support for tons of languages. Custom theming, syntax highlighting, lightning fast auto-complete, code folding, line numbers, reusable snippets, auto-updating live page previews; these are just a few of the reasons I absolutely love this app.
I recently reviewed Espresso 2, which incorporates the awesome features of CSSEdit and gives you an easy way to write CSS using simple visually-driven controls.
Price: $79
Espresso
GIMP
The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is the go-to free alternative to Photoshop. Though not quite as powerful as Photoshop, it packs a mean punch for a free image editor. It contains a familiar tool set and palette style capable of performing many of the complex functions that you normally turn to Photoshop to achieve.
Here’s the catch: the GIMP developers don’t actually provide an OS X version. For this, you have to hit up GIMP on OS X, which provides “easy to install application bundles of The GIMP for Mac OS X.” It’s a bit of a runaround, but you can’t beat the price.
Price: Free
Media and Gaming
Steam
Steam isn’t a Mac app in the traditional sense. Rather, it’s an online gaming platform that can be installed on both Mac and Windows. With it, you get access to the impressive and wildly popular steam game library and community of users.
Head over to this article to get the lowdown on what Steam is and how it works. Also, if you want a quick look at what’s available on Steam, check out our roundup of 14 Awesome Steam Games Available for Mac.
Price: Free
Boxer
Fans of old school gaming will love this one. Boxer is a DOS game emulator that gives you the ability to play your favorite games from years past on your Mac.
“Boxer takes your CDs, floppies and bootleg game copies and wraps them into app-style gameboxes you just click to play.” It even allows you to assign cover artwork and places your games onto an iBooks-like wooden shelf. Warning: downloading this will increase your perceived level of nerd by at least ten fold. Ignore the naysayers though, it’s pure fun.
Price: Free
Boxer
Plex
Now that FrontRow is officially dead, many Mac users are on the lookout for a good replacement app that provides users with an all in one media center. This is where Plex comes in.
Plex has a beautiful, fullscreen interface that allows you to easily browse and play your media library. With it you can take control of your music, movies and even online shows. Full Apple Remote support means that Plex is all you need to turn a Mac into the perfect media hub for your living room.
Price: Free
What Did We Miss?
Now that you’ve read our huge collection of thirty Mac apps that you won’t find in the Mac App Store, it’s time for you to chime in. Which of your favorite apps hasn’t made it to the App Store? Do you use any of the apps above? We want to know!
here http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/utilities-roundups/30-more-great-apps-you-wo... posted through Google Reader
December 2011
30 More Great Apps You Won’t Find on the App Store
Apple recently announced that the Mac App Store has led to over 100 million app downloads, cementing it as the indisputable one stop shop for just about everything Mac users need or want. Today I want to place emphasis on the “just about” part, because despite these impressive numbers, there are still plenty of great Mac applications that you can’t get through this route.
Back in June, we posted an article containing 10 Must-Have Apps You Won’t Find in the Mac App Store, which included great options like the Alfred Power Pack and TotalFinder. This time we really dug deep and come up with thirty more! Some of the developers behind these great apps have simply decided not to pursue the App Store, others aren’t even allowed in due to the nature of the app. All of these apps though are definitely worth downloading and together make up a wealth of functionality and even fun that your Mac may be missing out on.
The best part? Almost all of them are free! Let’s take a look.
Internet
Adium
Adium has been around for ages and it is still one of the most popular iChat alternatives you’ll find. It’s a free, open source chat client that supports a mess of different networks including AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more.
It has all the standard features that you need like tabbed windows and file transfer as well as some cool features you won’t find in iChat such as the ability to theme the interface.
Price: Free
Skype
Skype needs no introduction, it’s the app that took casual video chat out of the geek realm and into something that everyday people use on a regular basis to communicate with family and friends.
Skype is loaded with features for text, voice and video chat and can even make phone calls if you’re a paid subscriber. Given that Skype has an iOS app on the iTunes App Store, I’m surprised they haven’t gotten anything up on the Mac App Store yet!
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Transmission
Transmission is a really slick open source BitTorrent client. Some BitTorrent apps tend to be pretty clunky and not at all what you’d expect to see on a Mac, but not Transmission. It’s super easy to use and features a simple interface that’s pure Mac.
The nice thing here is that you don’t get any funny business. There are no ads or features that you have to pay to unlock, just an awesome free BitTorrent client with a dedicated team of volunteer developers providing regular updates. You see far too few projects like this these days.
Price: Free
Transmission
Google Earth
You can never be too sure about how Google will handle new developments in the Apple world. The two companies have an interesting symbiotic but competitive relationship that is constantly a point of discussion. Google Earth is one of the first apps that comes to mind when I think of great Google products that should be on the App Store but aren’t. The app is beginning to age a bit but it’s still an amazingly fun way to travel the world from your desk. It’s definitely worth a download.
Since Google hasn’t made any real entrance into the Mac App Store yet, add to this great products like Google Sketchup and Notifier as well.
Price: Free
Dropbox
Dropbox is perhaps the single most important Mac application not on the Mac App Store. It’s one of the most used and most treasured applications on my Mac and I sincerely believe that every Mac owner should install it.
Dropbox makes it super easy to backup and share files. It creates a plain old folder in your Finder, and anything you put in that folder is instantly synced to your online Dropbox account where you can access it via any web browser. You can use Dropbox as a secure backup for anything you can’t afford to lose, as a way to make your files more accessible, and you can even share folders with friends for easy file transfer. I simply can’t say it enough, you need this app.
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Fluid
Fluid is an app that essentially creates dedicated instances of web apps on your machine that look and act like native applications. So let’s say you want a Facebook app, simply open up Fluid and enter the URL, it will then spit out an application that can sit in your dock that takes you right to Facebook.
Fluid is extremely handy for anyone that regularly works with certain sites. For instance, I use Google Docs constantly for work and used Fluid to separate this app out from my browser. Fluid is free but you can unlock fullscreen mode and other features if you buy the full version at $4.99.
Price: Free ($4.99 for more features)
Droplr
Droplr is a web service that supports apps for Mac, iPhone and even Windows. It’s very similar to Cloud.app, which is in the Mac App Store. Both apps allow you to drag items to your menu bar to instantly upload them and generate a sharing link. However, there are a few key differences. For instance, Droplr generates much shorter, prettier URLs and gives you the ability to share code snippets with syntax highlighting. However, Cloud has a cool extension system that makes it work seamlessly with many other apps.
Whether or not you think you’ll ever be lured away from the admittedly awesome Cloud.app, you should definitely give Droplr a download and see what you think.
Price: Free
Droplr
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is one of those utilities that you’ll either have zero use for or will absolutely love. Given that I’m a blogger who takes tons of screenshots, I fall in the latter camp.
What does Paparazzi do you ask? It takes screenshots of webpages. That alone sounds pretty unremarkable but the awesome part is that it allows you to automate this task. I can set up a list of 100 web pages that I’m using in a roundup, set the width and height of the snaps that I want, and have Paparazzi automatically generate my screenshots. It’s a huge timesaver.
Price: Free
Spotify
Spotify recently hit the U.S. and has gained a ton of attention. It’s an awesome service that lets you listen to whatever music you want whenever you want. Unlike services like Pandora that automatically decide what to play, Spotify gives you complete control to choose the songs that you want to hear. The Spotify app’s interface is a lot like iTunes so you’ll feel right at home.
The Spotify free plan is pretty amazing and (for now at least) offers unlimited ad-supported streaming. You can also pay a monthly fee to eliminate the ads and add mobile streaming.
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Rdio
Rdio is conceptually almost just like Spotify. It uses the same model of music streaming that allows you to choose from a huge library of songs, artists and albums. The Rdio Mac app is basically a native frame for the web-based service, but it’s still pretty slick and provides an even richer experience than the Spotify app.
Rdio has an unbelievable deal right now where you can sign up and listen to ad-free music without paying a cent. The app gives you a meter that shows you how much free music you have left in a given month (the number of streams is very generous).
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Rdio
System Utilities
Handbrake
Handbrake is an open source video transcoder. It’s popularly used for some questionable activities, but at heart it’s a simple converter. Here’s what the Handbrake developers have to say about the project:
“HandBrake is not a ripper. It converts video, it does not rip it byte by byte. It does not crack the latest DVD copy protection schemes hatched by the studios. It converts video from nearly any format to a handful of modern ones—that’s it.”
Price: Free
Quicksilver
Quicksilver is the paterfamilias of the app launcher industry. It’s been around for years, was abandoned by its original developer and eventually picked up by a hardworking team of volunteers who loved the project too much to let it die.
The project has seen renewed vigor lately with a major Lion update. Despite Quicksilver’s rough history, it’s still one of the most powerful, fully featured and useful apps you’ll find for the Mac.
Price: Free
AppCleaner
When you install an application on your Mac, it doesn’t just put a .app file in the Application folder, it spreads various support files all over your system. This means that simply dragging an application to your trash can isn’t the best way to uninstall it as this method generally leaves lots of stranded pieces.
There are lots of utilities that help you uninstall apps the right way, but AppCleaner is the best free one that I’ve found and my personal choice for deleting apps from my hard drive.
Price: Free
AppCleaner
CandyBar
CandyBar is an application from Panic, the renowned developers of Transmit, so you know it’s a quality app. The reason that it’s not in the App Store is likely that it simply digs too far into your system for Apple’s liking.
Simply put, CandyBar allows you to easily customize the look of your system. With just a few clicks you can replace your system icons and even your dock design with something that’s a little more to your liking. The best part, you can always return to the default system settings in a jiffy.
Price: $29
CoconutBattery
If you own a MacBook, you should download CoconutBattery. It keeps an eye on your laptop’s battery and gives you important information such as its overall health, the number of charge cycles that it’s gone through and more.
I really like that it gives you an easy to read visual representation of what your original battery capacity was versus where it currently stands. If you’re wondering if it’s time to pick up a new battery for that aging MacBook, CoconutBattery has your answer.
Price: Free
Cocktail
Cocktail is another one of those apps that Apple probably thinks that its best for you to go without due to the depth of its reach, but seasoned Apple veterans who know what they’re doing don’t really care!
Cocktail is a Swiss army knife of system utilities aimed at keeping your Mac in tip top shape. The functions that it performs are simply too numerous to list, chief among them being routine maintenance scripts, Spotlight index management, inactive memory purge, cache/log clearing, and IP configuration.
Price: $19
Cocktail
Sidekick
Sidekick is a really unique app that offers “geo-intelligent laptop settings,” which is a really fancy way to say that the app changes your computer’s settings and performs actions based on your location. Why would you need this? Imagine the following scenario.
Let’s say that you have your MacBook sitting on your desk at home. It’s set up to use your home network’s default printer and has the applications open that you regularly use at home: Safari, Twitter, and Spotify. Then you pack up your computer and head off to work. Once you’re there, Sidekick will automatically make your work printer the default, close Twitter and Spotify and open Photoshop and Espresso. Pretty cool eh?
Price: $29
Hazel
Hazel is an awesome personal file assistant that performs automated tasks based on a set of user defined criteria. You set it to watch certain folders and when something happens with that folder, it triggers an event like copying the files to a network drive or applying a colored label.
Hazel performs lots of great other functions as well. For instance, you can use it to properly delete apps just like with AppCleaner or automatically empty your Mac’s trash every few days.
Price: $21.95
Launchbar
Though I’ve always been partial to free launchers like Quicksilver and Alfred, Launchbar has been the favorite of many a Mac user for years. It’s extremely powerful and has all the features you could want including clipboard history, file search, file browsing, iCal event creation, calculator functions and a whole lot more.
Price: $35.00
MacPilot
Macpilot is in a strange place right now. The app is in the Mac App Store, but where you’d normally find the description, you now get this message: “Apple will not be approving the latest version of MacPilot for the App Store as MacPilot requires access to advanced and hidden features in Mac OS X. Please contact us directly with proof of purchase and we’ll issue you a free copy directly from us.”
Fortunately, you can still buy the current version in all its glory right from the MacPilot website. It’s a lot like a visual interface to the Terminal and enables you to really dig into your system and find lots of hidden functionality.
Price: $19.99
Default Folder X
When the developers of Default Folder X approached me a few weeks ago and asked if I could take a look at their app, I admittedly had never even heard of this longstanding and respected utility. However, I now can’t live without it (full review here).
Default Folder X extends your Mac’s default open and save dialog with a range of helpful features that help you quickly find the folder you’re looking for: utilize keyboard shortcuts, favorites, recently used, open Finder windows and more.
Price: $34.95
Default Folder X
Teleport
If you ever find yourself sitting in front of multiple computers, say a MacBook and an iMac, Teleport is an invaluable little utility that saves you from switching back and forth between two mice or trackpads.
Simply drag your cursor off the side of the screen of one computer to see it magically appear on the other! You can even drag files back and forth between the two and share clipboards.
Price: Free
Carbon Copy Cloner
Carbon Copy Cloner is the way to clone a hard drive. I’ve used it several times and it makes an otherwise technical task very user friendly. It requires very little setup and works like a dream.
When do you need this? Let’s say you buy a new, larger hard drive for your Mac, but you want all your apps, files, etc. from the old drive. Carbon Copy Cloner allows you to clone the old drive onto the new one so that when you fire up your Mac, the only difference you notice is more free space!
Price: Free
Bodega
Bodega was the Mac app store before the Mac App Store existed. I’m not sure if the Bodega developers choose not to be on the official Mac App Store or if it represents such a conflict that Apple wouldn’t allow it (perhaps both).
I’m not a huge fan of the quirky Bodega interface and to be honest I usually experience quite a few bugs when using the app. However, it is still a great place to find interesting Mac applications, many of which aren’t present in the Mac App Store.
Price: Free
nvALT
nvALT is a popular fork of Notational Velocity, a beautifully simple note taking application for Mac. It has a ton of great features that you won’t find in the original Notational Velocity such as Simplenote syncing (with tags), a customizable color scheme, word count, Markdown support and more.
Price: Free
nvALT
AppFresh
With the Mac App Store, you can manage all of your app updates in one convenient location. However, this only applies to apps that were downloaded through the App Store. Odds are, there are quite a few applications on your machine that don’t fit that description.
AppFresh was solving the problem of app updates long before the Mac App Store. It keeps an eye on your Application folder and lets you know if there are any newer versions of the non-App-Store-apps that you’ve installed. You can view and download all your updates in one convenient spot.
Price: Free
Design and Development
TextMate
TextMate falls into the category of “oldie but goodie.” Web developers have been using this simple but powerful text editor since 2004. It contains many awesome features such as snippets, bundles, custom commands, and even custom syntax highlighting.
It’s still a great app, but it’s in serious need of a major update. In 2009, development started on the long-rumored Textmate 2, but it has yet to be released. In the mean time, you can still download the awesome original version.
Price: $54
Espresso
Espresso is my personal IDE of choice. It’s a gorgeous, easy to use coding environment with support for tons of languages. Custom theming, syntax highlighting, lightning fast auto-complete, code folding, line numbers, reusable snippets, auto-updating live page previews; these are just a few of the reasons I absolutely love this app.
I recently reviewed Espresso 2, which incorporates the awesome features of CSSEdit and gives you an easy way to write CSS using simple visually-driven controls.
Price: $79
Espresso
GIMP
The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is the go-to free alternative to Photoshop. Though not quite as powerful as Photoshop, it packs a mean punch for a free image editor. It contains a familiar tool set and palette style capable of performing many of the complex functions that you normally turn to Photoshop to achieve.
Here’s the catch: the GIMP developers don’t actually provide an OS X version. For this, you have to hit up GIMP on OS X, which provides “easy to install application bundles of The GIMP for Mac OS X.” It’s a bit of a runaround, but you can’t beat the price.
Price: Free
Media and Gaming
Steam
Steam isn’t a Mac app in the traditional sense. Rather, it’s an online gaming platform that can be installed on both Mac and Windows. With it, you get access to the impressive and wildly popular steam game library and community of users.
Head over to this article to get the lowdown on what Steam is and how it works. Also, if you want a quick look at what’s available on Steam, check out our roundup of 14 Awesome Steam Games Available for Mac.
Price: Free
Boxer
Fans of old school gaming will love this one. Boxer is a DOS game emulator that gives you the ability to play your favorite games from years past on your Mac.
“Boxer takes your CDs, floppies and bootleg game copies and wraps them into app-style gameboxes you just click to play.” It even allows you to assign cover artwork and places your games onto an iBooks-like wooden shelf. Warning: downloading this will increase your perceived level of nerd by at least ten fold. Ignore the naysayers though, it’s pure fun.
Price: Free
Boxer
Plex
Now that FrontRow is officially dead, many Mac users are on the lookout for a good replacement app that provides users with an all in one media center. This is where Plex comes in.
Plex has a beautiful, fullscreen interface that allows you to easily browse and play your media library. With it you can take control of your music, movies and even online shows. Full Apple Remote support means that Plex is all you need to turn a Mac into the perfect media hub for your living room.
Price: Free
What Did We Miss?
Now that you’ve read our huge collection of thirty Mac apps that you won’t find in the Mac App Store, it’s time for you to chime in. Which of your favorite apps hasn’t made it to the App Store? Do you use any of the apps above? We want to know!
here http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/utilities-roundups/30-more-great-apps-you-wo... posted through Google Reader
December 2011
Heute auf dem besten Weg eigenen Rekord für verbrauchte Taschentücher zu brechen...
Taken at Uni Gebaude 03
December 2011
30 More Great Apps You Won’t Find on the App Store
Apple recently announced that the Mac App Store has led to over 100 million app downloads, cementing it as the indisputable one stop shop for just about everything Mac users need or want. Today I want to place emphasis on the “just about” part, because despite these impressive numbers, there are still plenty of great Mac applications that you can’t get through this route.
Back in June, we posted an article containing 10 Must-Have Apps You Won’t Find in the Mac App Store, which included great options like the Alfred Power Pack and TotalFinder. This time we really dug deep and come up with thirty more! Some of the developers behind these great apps have simply decided not to pursue the App Store, others aren’t even allowed in due to the nature of the app. All of these apps though are definitely worth downloading and together make up a wealth of functionality and even fun that your Mac may be missing out on.
The best part? Almost all of them are free! Let’s take a look.
Internet
Adium
Adium has been around for ages and it is still one of the most popular iChat alternatives you’ll find. It’s a free, open source chat client that supports a mess of different networks including AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more.
It has all the standard features that you need like tabbed windows and file transfer as well as some cool features you won’t find in iChat such as the ability to theme the interface.
Price: Free
Skype
Skype needs no introduction, it’s the app that took casual video chat out of the geek realm and into something that everyday people use on a regular basis to communicate with family and friends.
Skype is loaded with features for text, voice and video chat and can even make phone calls if you’re a paid subscriber. Given that Skype has an iOS app on the iTunes App Store, I’m surprised they haven’t gotten anything up on the Mac App Store yet!
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Transmission
Transmission is a really slick open source BitTorrent client. Some BitTorrent apps tend to be pretty clunky and not at all what you’d expect to see on a Mac, but not Transmission. It’s super easy to use and features a simple interface that’s pure Mac.
The nice thing here is that you don’t get any funny business. There are no ads or features that you have to pay to unlock, just an awesome free BitTorrent client with a dedicated team of volunteer developers providing regular updates. You see far too few projects like this these days.
Price: Free
Transmission
Google Earth
You can never be too sure about how Google will handle new developments in the Apple world. The two companies have an interesting symbiotic but competitive relationship that is constantly a point of discussion. Google Earth is one of the first apps that comes to mind when I think of great Google products that should be on the App Store but aren’t. The app is beginning to age a bit but it’s still an amazingly fun way to travel the world from your desk. It’s definitely worth a download.
Since Google hasn’t made any real entrance into the Mac App Store yet, add to this great products like Google Sketchup and Notifier as well.
Price: Free
Dropbox
Dropbox is perhaps the single most important Mac application not on the Mac App Store. It’s one of the most used and most treasured applications on my Mac and I sincerely believe that every Mac owner should install it.
Dropbox makes it super easy to backup and share files. It creates a plain old folder in your Finder, and anything you put in that folder is instantly synced to your online Dropbox account where you can access it via any web browser. You can use Dropbox as a secure backup for anything you can’t afford to lose, as a way to make your files more accessible, and you can even share folders with friends for easy file transfer. I simply can’t say it enough, you need this app.
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Fluid
Fluid is an app that essentially creates dedicated instances of web apps on your machine that look and act like native applications. So let’s say you want a Facebook app, simply open up Fluid and enter the URL, it will then spit out an application that can sit in your dock that takes you right to Facebook.
Fluid is extremely handy for anyone that regularly works with certain sites. For instance, I use Google Docs constantly for work and used Fluid to separate this app out from my browser. Fluid is free but you can unlock fullscreen mode and other features if you buy the full version at $4.99.
Price: Free ($4.99 for more features)
Droplr
Droplr is a web service that supports apps for Mac, iPhone and even Windows. It’s very similar to Cloud.app, which is in the Mac App Store. Both apps allow you to drag items to your menu bar to instantly upload them and generate a sharing link. However, there are a few key differences. For instance, Droplr generates much shorter, prettier URLs and gives you the ability to share code snippets with syntax highlighting. However, Cloud has a cool extension system that makes it work seamlessly with many other apps.
Whether or not you think you’ll ever be lured away from the admittedly awesome Cloud.app, you should definitely give Droplr a download and see what you think.
Price: Free
Droplr
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is one of those utilities that you’ll either have zero use for or will absolutely love. Given that I’m a blogger who takes tons of screenshots, I fall in the latter camp.
What does Paparazzi do you ask? It takes screenshots of webpages. That alone sounds pretty unremarkable but the awesome part is that it allows you to automate this task. I can set up a list of 100 web pages that I’m using in a roundup, set the width and height of the snaps that I want, and have Paparazzi automatically generate my screenshots. It’s a huge timesaver.
Price: Free
Spotify
Spotify recently hit the U.S. and has gained a ton of attention. It’s an awesome service that lets you listen to whatever music you want whenever you want. Unlike services like Pandora that automatically decide what to play, Spotify gives you complete control to choose the songs that you want to hear. The Spotify app’s interface is a lot like iTunes so you’ll feel right at home.
The Spotify free plan is pretty amazing and (for now at least) offers unlimited ad-supported streaming. You can also pay a monthly fee to eliminate the ads and add mobile streaming.
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Rdio
Rdio is conceptually almost just like Spotify. It uses the same model of music streaming that allows you to choose from a huge library of songs, artists and albums. The Rdio Mac app is basically a native frame for the web-based service, but it’s still pretty slick and provides an even richer experience than the Spotify app.
Rdio has an unbelievable deal right now where you can sign up and listen to ad-free music without paying a cent. The app gives you a meter that shows you how much free music you have left in a given month (the number of streams is very generous).
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Rdio
System Utilities
Handbrake
Handbrake is an open source video transcoder. It’s popularly used for some questionable activities, but at heart it’s a simple converter. Here’s what the Handbrake developers have to say about the project:
“HandBrake is not a ripper. It converts video, it does not rip it byte by byte. It does not crack the latest DVD copy protection schemes hatched by the studios. It converts video from nearly any format to a handful of modern ones—that’s it.”
Price: Free
Quicksilver
Quicksilver is the paterfamilias of the app launcher industry. It’s been around for years, was abandoned by its original developer and eventually picked up by a hardworking team of volunteers who loved the project too much to let it die.
The project has seen renewed vigor lately with a major Lion update. Despite Quicksilver’s rough history, it’s still one of the most powerful, fully featured and useful apps you’ll find for the Mac.
Price: Free
AppCleaner
When you install an application on your Mac, it doesn’t just put a .app file in the Application folder, it spreads various support files all over your system. This means that simply dragging an application to your trash can isn’t the best way to uninstall it as this method generally leaves lots of stranded pieces.
There are lots of utilities that help you uninstall apps the right way, but AppCleaner is the best free one that I’ve found and my personal choice for deleting apps from my hard drive.
Price: Free
AppCleaner
CandyBar
CandyBar is an application from Panic, the renowned developers of Transmit, so you know it’s a quality app. The reason that it’s not in the App Store is likely that it simply digs too far into your system for Apple’s liking.
Simply put, CandyBar allows you to easily customize the look of your system. With just a few clicks you can replace your system icons and even your dock design with something that’s a little more to your liking. The best part, you can always return to the default system settings in a jiffy.
Price: $29
CoconutBattery
If you own a MacBook, you should download CoconutBattery. It keeps an eye on your laptop’s battery and gives you important information such as its overall health, the number of charge cycles that it’s gone through and more.
I really like that it gives you an easy to read visual representation of what your original battery capacity was versus where it currently stands. If you’re wondering if it’s time to pick up a new battery for that aging MacBook, CoconutBattery has your answer.
Price: Free
Cocktail
Cocktail is another one of those apps that Apple probably thinks that its best for you to go without due to the depth of its reach, but seasoned Apple veterans who know what they’re doing don’t really care!
Cocktail is a Swiss army knife of system utilities aimed at keeping your Mac in tip top shape. The functions that it performs are simply too numerous to list, chief among them being routine maintenance scripts, Spotlight index management, inactive memory purge, cache/log clearing, and IP configuration.
Price: $19
Cocktail
Sidekick
Sidekick is a really unique app that offers “geo-intelligent laptop settings,” which is a really fancy way to say that the app changes your computer’s settings and performs actions based on your location. Why would you need this? Imagine the following scenario.
Let’s say that you have your MacBook sitting on your desk at home. It’s set up to use your home network’s default printer and has the applications open that you regularly use at home: Safari, Twitter, and Spotify. Then you pack up your computer and head off to work. Once you’re there, Sidekick will automatically make your work printer the default, close Twitter and Spotify and open Photoshop and Espresso. Pretty cool eh?
Price: $29
Hazel
Hazel is an awesome personal file assistant that performs automated tasks based on a set of user defined criteria. You set it to watch certain folders and when something happens with that folder, it triggers an event like copying the files to a network drive or applying a colored label.
Hazel performs lots of great other functions as well. For instance, you can use it to properly delete apps just like with AppCleaner or automatically empty your Mac’s trash every few days.
Price: $21.95
Launchbar
Though I’ve always been partial to free launchers like Quicksilver and Alfred, Launchbar has been the favorite of many a Mac user for years. It’s extremely powerful and has all the features you could want including clipboard history, file search, file browsing, iCal event creation, calculator functions and a whole lot more.
Price: $35.00
MacPilot
Macpilot is in a strange place right now. The app is in the Mac App Store, but where you’d normally find the description, you now get this message: “Apple will not be approving the latest version of MacPilot for the App Store as MacPilot requires access to advanced and hidden features in Mac OS X. Please contact us directly with proof of purchase and we’ll issue you a free copy directly from us.”
Fortunately, you can still buy the current version in all its glory right from the MacPilot website. It’s a lot like a visual interface to the Terminal and enables you to really dig into your system and find lots of hidden functionality.
Price: $19.99
Default Folder X
When the developers of Default Folder X approached me a few weeks ago and asked if I could take a look at their app, I admittedly had never even heard of this longstanding and respected utility. However, I now can’t live without it (full review here).
Default Folder X extends your Mac’s default open and save dialog with a range of helpful features that help you quickly find the folder you’re looking for: utilize keyboard shortcuts, favorites, recently used, open Finder windows and more.
Price: $34.95
Default Folder X
Teleport
If you ever find yourself sitting in front of multiple computers, say a MacBook and an iMac, Teleport is an invaluable little utility that saves you from switching back and forth between two mice or trackpads.
Simply drag your cursor off the side of the screen of one computer to see it magically appear on the other! You can even drag files back and forth between the two and share clipboards.
Price: Free
Carbon Copy Cloner
Carbon Copy Cloner is the way to clone a hard drive. I’ve used it several times and it makes an otherwise technical task very user friendly. It requires very little setup and works like a dream.
When do you need this? Let’s say you buy a new, larger hard drive for your Mac, but you want all your apps, files, etc. from the old drive. Carbon Copy Cloner allows you to clone the old drive onto the new one so that when you fire up your Mac, the only difference you notice is more free space!
Price: Free
Bodega
Bodega was the Mac app store before the Mac App Store existed. I’m not sure if the Bodega developers choose not to be on the official Mac App Store or if it represents such a conflict that Apple wouldn’t allow it (perhaps both).
I’m not a huge fan of the quirky Bodega interface and to be honest I usually experience quite a few bugs when using the app. However, it is still a great place to find interesting Mac applications, many of which aren’t present in the Mac App Store.
Price: Free
nvALT
nvALT is a popular fork of Notational Velocity, a beautifully simple note taking application for Mac. It has a ton of great features that you won’t find in the original Notational Velocity such as Simplenote syncing (with tags), a customizable color scheme, word count, Markdown support and more.
Price: Free
nvALT
AppFresh
With the Mac App Store, you can manage all of your app updates in one convenient location. However, this only applies to apps that were downloaded through the App Store. Odds are, there are quite a few applications on your machine that don’t fit that description.
AppFresh was solving the problem of app updates long before the Mac App Store. It keeps an eye on your Application folder and lets you know if there are any newer versions of the non-App-Store-apps that you’ve installed. You can view and download all your updates in one convenient spot.
Price: Free
Design and Development
TextMate
TextMate falls into the category of “oldie but goodie.” Web developers have been using this simple but powerful text editor since 2004. It contains many awesome features such as snippets, bundles, custom commands, and even custom syntax highlighting.
It’s still a great app, but it’s in serious need of a major update. In 2009, development started on the long-rumored Textmate 2, but it has yet to be released. In the mean time, you can still download the awesome original version.
Price: $54
Espresso
Espresso is my personal IDE of choice. It’s a gorgeous, easy to use coding environment with support for tons of languages. Custom theming, syntax highlighting, lightning fast auto-complete, code folding, line numbers, reusable snippets, auto-updating live page previews; these are just a few of the reasons I absolutely love this app.
I recently reviewed Espresso 2, which incorporates the awesome features of CSSEdit and gives you an easy way to write CSS using simple visually-driven controls.
Price: $79
Espresso
GIMP
The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is the go-to free alternative to Photoshop. Though not quite as powerful as Photoshop, it packs a mean punch for a free image editor. It contains a familiar tool set and palette style capable of performing many of the complex functions that you normally turn to Photoshop to achieve.
Here’s the catch: the GIMP developers don’t actually provide an OS X version. For this, you have to hit up GIMP on OS X, which provides “easy to install application bundles of The GIMP for Mac OS X.” It’s a bit of a runaround, but you can’t beat the price.
Price: Free
Media and Gaming
Steam
Steam isn’t a Mac app in the traditional sense. Rather, it’s an online gaming platform that can be installed on both Mac and Windows. With it, you get access to the impressive and wildly popular steam game library and community of users.
Head over to this article to get the lowdown on what Steam is and how it works. Also, if you want a quick look at what’s available on Steam, check out our roundup of 14 Awesome Steam Games Available for Mac.
Price: Free
Boxer
Fans of old school gaming will love this one. Boxer is a DOS game emulator that gives you the ability to play your favorite games from years past on your Mac.
“Boxer takes your CDs, floppies and bootleg game copies and wraps them into app-style gameboxes you just click to play.” It even allows you to assign cover artwork and places your games onto an iBooks-like wooden shelf. Warning: downloading this will increase your perceived level of nerd by at least ten fold. Ignore the naysayers though, it’s pure fun.
Price: Free
Boxer
Plex
Now that FrontRow is officially dead, many Mac users are on the lookout for a good replacement app that provides users with an all in one media center. This is where Plex comes in.
Plex has a beautiful, fullscreen interface that allows you to easily browse and play your media library. With it you can take control of your music, movies and even online shows. Full Apple Remote support means that Plex is all you need to turn a Mac into the perfect media hub for your living room.
Price: Free
What Did We Miss?
Now that you’ve read our huge collection of thirty Mac apps that you won’t find in the Mac App Store, it’s time for you to chime in. Which of your favorite apps hasn’t made it to the App Store? Do you use any of the apps above? We want to know!
here http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/utilities-roundups/30-more-great-apps-you-wo... posted through Google Reader
December 2011
30 More Great Apps You Won’t Find on the App Store
Apple recently announced that the Mac App Store has led to over 100 million app downloads, cementing it as the indisputable one stop shop for just about everything Mac users need or want. Today I want to place emphasis on the “just about” part, because despite these impressive numbers, there are still plenty of great Mac applications that you can’t get through this route.
Back in June, we posted an article containing 10 Must-Have Apps You Won’t Find in the Mac App Store, which included great options like the Alfred Power Pack and TotalFinder. This time we really dug deep and come up with thirty more! Some of the developers behind these great apps have simply decided not to pursue the App Store, others aren’t even allowed in due to the nature of the app. All of these apps though are definitely worth downloading and together make up a wealth of functionality and even fun that your Mac may be missing out on.
The best part? Almost all of them are free! Let’s take a look.
Internet
Adium
Adium has been around for ages and it is still one of the most popular iChat alternatives you’ll find. It’s a free, open source chat client that supports a mess of different networks including AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more.
It has all the standard features that you need like tabbed windows and file transfer as well as some cool features you won’t find in iChat such as the ability to theme the interface.
Price: Free
Skype
Skype needs no introduction, it’s the app that took casual video chat out of the geek realm and into something that everyday people use on a regular basis to communicate with family and friends.
Skype is loaded with features for text, voice and video chat and can even make phone calls if you’re a paid subscriber. Given that Skype has an iOS app on the iTunes App Store, I’m surprised they haven’t gotten anything up on the Mac App Store yet!
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Transmission
Transmission is a really slick open source BitTorrent client. Some BitTorrent apps tend to be pretty clunky and not at all what you’d expect to see on a Mac, but not Transmission. It’s super easy to use and features a simple interface that’s pure Mac.
The nice thing here is that you don’t get any funny business. There are no ads or features that you have to pay to unlock, just an awesome free BitTorrent client with a dedicated team of volunteer developers providing regular updates. You see far too few projects like this these days.
Price: Free
Transmission
Google Earth
You can never be too sure about how Google will handle new developments in the Apple world. The two companies have an interesting symbiotic but competitive relationship that is constantly a point of discussion. Google Earth is one of the first apps that comes to mind when I think of great Google products that should be on the App Store but aren’t. The app is beginning to age a bit but it’s still an amazingly fun way to travel the world from your desk. It’s definitely worth a download.
Since Google hasn’t made any real entrance into the Mac App Store yet, add to this great products like Google Sketchup and Notifier as well.
Price: Free
Dropbox
Dropbox is perhaps the single most important Mac application not on the Mac App Store. It’s one of the most used and most treasured applications on my Mac and I sincerely believe that every Mac owner should install it.
Dropbox makes it super easy to backup and share files. It creates a plain old folder in your Finder, and anything you put in that folder is instantly synced to your online Dropbox account where you can access it via any web browser. You can use Dropbox as a secure backup for anything you can’t afford to lose, as a way to make your files more accessible, and you can even share folders with friends for easy file transfer. I simply can’t say it enough, you need this app.
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Fluid
Fluid is an app that essentially creates dedicated instances of web apps on your machine that look and act like native applications. So let’s say you want a Facebook app, simply open up Fluid and enter the URL, it will then spit out an application that can sit in your dock that takes you right to Facebook.
Fluid is extremely handy for anyone that regularly works with certain sites. For instance, I use Google Docs constantly for work and used Fluid to separate this app out from my browser. Fluid is free but you can unlock fullscreen mode and other features if you buy the full version at $4.99.
Price: Free ($4.99 for more features)
Droplr
Droplr is a web service that supports apps for Mac, iPhone and even Windows. It’s very similar to Cloud.app, which is in the Mac App Store. Both apps allow you to drag items to your menu bar to instantly upload them and generate a sharing link. However, there are a few key differences. For instance, Droplr generates much shorter, prettier URLs and gives you the ability to share code snippets with syntax highlighting. However, Cloud has a cool extension system that makes it work seamlessly with many other apps.
Whether or not you think you’ll ever be lured away from the admittedly awesome Cloud.app, you should definitely give Droplr a download and see what you think.
Price: Free
Droplr
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is one of those utilities that you’ll either have zero use for or will absolutely love. Given that I’m a blogger who takes tons of screenshots, I fall in the latter camp.
What does Paparazzi do you ask? It takes screenshots of webpages. That alone sounds pretty unremarkable but the awesome part is that it allows you to automate this task. I can set up a list of 100 web pages that I’m using in a roundup, set the width and height of the snaps that I want, and have Paparazzi automatically generate my screenshots. It’s a huge timesaver.
Price: Free
Spotify
Spotify recently hit the U.S. and has gained a ton of attention. It’s an awesome service that lets you listen to whatever music you want whenever you want. Unlike services like Pandora that automatically decide what to play, Spotify gives you complete control to choose the songs that you want to hear. The Spotify app’s interface is a lot like iTunes so you’ll feel right at home.
The Spotify free plan is pretty amazing and (for now at least) offers unlimited ad-supported streaming. You can also pay a monthly fee to eliminate the ads and add mobile streaming.
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Rdio
Rdio is conceptually almost just like Spotify. It uses the same model of music streaming that allows you to choose from a huge library of songs, artists and albums. The Rdio Mac app is basically a native frame for the web-based service, but it’s still pretty slick and provides an even richer experience than the Spotify app.
Rdio has an unbelievable deal right now where you can sign up and listen to ad-free music without paying a cent. The app gives you a meter that shows you how much free music you have left in a given month (the number of streams is very generous).
Price: Free (paid plans available)
Rdio
System Utilities
Handbrake
Handbrake is an open source video transcoder. It’s popularly used for some questionable activities, but at heart it’s a simple converter. Here’s what the Handbrake developers have to say about the project:
“HandBrake is not a ripper. It converts video, it does not rip it byte by byte. It does not crack the latest DVD copy protection schemes hatched by the studios. It converts video from nearly any format to a handful of modern ones—that’s it.”
Price: Free
Quicksilver
Quicksilver is the paterfamilias of the app launcher industry. It’s been around for years, was abandoned by its original developer and eventually picked up by a hardworking team of volunteers who loved the project too much to let it die.
The project has seen renewed vigor lately with a major Lion update. Despite Quicksilver’s rough history, it’s still one of the most powerful, fully featured and useful apps you’ll find for the Mac.
Price: Free
AppCleaner
When you install an application on your Mac, it doesn’t just put a .app file in the Application folder, it spreads various support files all over your system. This means that simply dragging an application to your trash can isn’t the best way to uninstall it as this method generally leaves lots of stranded pieces.
There are lots of utilities that help you uninstall apps the right way, but AppCleaner is the best free one that I’ve found and my personal choice for deleting apps from my hard drive.
Price: Free
AppCleaner
CandyBar
CandyBar is an application from Panic, the renowned developers of Transmit, so you know it’s a quality app. The reason that it’s not in the App Store is likely that it simply digs too far into your system for Apple’s liking.
Simply put, CandyBar allows you to easily customize the look of your system. With just a few clicks you can replace your system icons and even your dock design with something that’s a little more to your liking. The best part, you can always return to the default system settings in a jiffy.
Price: $29
CoconutBattery
If you own a MacBook, you should download CoconutBattery. It keeps an eye on your laptop’s battery and gives you important information such as its overall health, the number of charge cycles that it’s gone through and more.
I really like that it gives you an easy to read visual representation of what your original battery capacity was versus where it currently stands. If you’re wondering if it’s time to pick up a new battery for that aging MacBook, CoconutBattery has your answer.
Price: Free
Cocktail
Cocktail is another one of those apps that Apple probably thinks that its best for you to go without due to the depth of its reach, but seasoned Apple veterans who know what they’re doing don’t really care!
Cocktail is a Swiss army knife of system utilities aimed at keeping your Mac in tip top shape. The functions that it performs are simply too numerous to list, chief among them being routine maintenance scripts, Spotlight index management, inactive memory purge, cache/log clearing, and IP configuration.
Price: $19
Cocktail
Sidekick
Sidekick is a really unique app that offers “geo-intelligent laptop settings,” which is a really fancy way to say that the app changes your computer’s settings and performs actions based on your location. Why would you need this? Imagine the following scenario.
Let’s say that you have your MacBook sitting on your desk at home. It’s set up to use your home network’s default printer and has the applications open that you regularly use at home: Safari, Twitter, and Spotify. Then you pack up your computer and head off to work. Once you’re there, Sidekick will automatically make your work printer the default, close Twitter and Spotify and open Photoshop and Espresso. Pretty cool eh?
Price: $29
Hazel
Hazel is an awesome personal file assistant that performs automated tasks based on a set of user defined criteria. You set it to watch certain folders and when something happens with that folder, it triggers an event like copying the files to a network drive or applying a colored label.
Hazel performs lots of great other functions as well. For instance, you can use it to properly delete apps just like with AppCleaner or automatically empty your Mac’s trash every few days.
Price: $21.95
Launchbar
Though I’ve always been partial to free launchers like Quicksilver and Alfred, Launchbar has been the favorite of many a Mac user for years. It’s extremely powerful and has all the features you could want including clipboard history, file search, file browsing, iCal event creation, calculator functions and a whole lot more.
Price: $35.00
MacPilot
Macpilot is in a strange place right now. The app is in the Mac App Store, but where you’d normally find the description, you now get this message: “Apple will not be approving the latest version of MacPilot for the App Store as MacPilot requires access to advanced and hidden features in Mac OS X. Please contact us directly with proof of purchase and we’ll issue you a free copy directly from us.”
Fortunately, you can still buy the current version in all its glory right from the MacPilot website. It’s a lot like a visual interface to the Terminal and enables you to really dig into your system and find lots of hidden functionality.
Price: $19.99
Default Folder X
When the developers of Default Folder X approached me a few weeks ago and asked if I could take a look at their app, I admittedly had never even heard of this longstanding and respected utility. However, I now can’t live without it (full review here).
Default Folder X extends your Mac’s default open and save dialog with a range of helpful features that help you quickly find the folder you’re looking for: utilize keyboard shortcuts, favorites, recently used, open Finder windows and more.
Price: $34.95
Default Folder X
Teleport
If you ever find yourself sitting in front of multiple computers, say a MacBook and an iMac, Teleport is an invaluable little utility that saves you from switching back and forth between two mice or trackpads.
Simply drag your cursor off the side of the screen of one computer to see it magically appear on the other! You can even drag files back and forth between the two and share clipboards.
Price: Free
Carbon Copy Cloner
Carbon Copy Cloner is the way to clone a hard drive. I’ve used it several times and it makes an otherwise technical task very user friendly. It requires very little setup and works like a dream.
When do you need this? Let’s say you buy a new, larger hard drive for your Mac, but you want all your apps, files, etc. from the old drive. Carbon Copy Cloner allows you to clone the old drive onto the new one so that when you fire up your Mac, the only difference you notice is more free space!
Price: Free
Bodega
Bodega was the Mac app store before the Mac App Store existed. I’m not sure if the Bodega developers choose not to be on the official Mac App Store or if it represents such a conflict that Apple wouldn’t allow it (perhaps both).
I’m not a huge fan of the quirky Bodega interface and to be honest I usually experience quite a few bugs when using the app. However, it is still a great place to find interesting Mac applications, many of which aren’t present in the Mac App Store.
Price: Free
nvALT
nvALT is a popular fork of Notational Velocity, a beautifully simple note taking application for Mac. It has a ton of great features that you won’t find in the original Notational Velocity such as Simplenote syncing (with tags), a customizable color scheme, word count, Markdown support and more.
Price: Free
nvALT
AppFresh
With the Mac App Store, you can manage all of your app updates in one convenient location. However, this only applies to apps that were downloaded through the App Store. Odds are, there are quite a few applications on your machine that don’t fit that description.
AppFresh was solving the problem of app updates long before the Mac App Store. It keeps an eye on your Application folder and lets you know if there are any newer versions of the non-App-Store-apps that you’ve installed. You can view and download all your updates in one convenient spot.
Price: Free
Design and Development
TextMate
TextMate falls into the category of “oldie but goodie.” Web developers have been using this simple but powerful text editor since 2004. It contains many awesome features such as snippets, bundles, custom commands, and even custom syntax highlighting.
It’s still a great app, but it’s in serious need of a major update. In 2009, development started on the long-rumored Textmate 2, but it has yet to be released. In the mean time, you can still download the awesome original version.
Price: $54
Espresso
Espresso is my personal IDE of choice. It’s a gorgeous, easy to use coding environment with support for tons of languages. Custom theming, syntax highlighting, lightning fast auto-complete, code folding, line numbers, reusable snippets, auto-updating live page previews; these are just a few of the reasons I absolutely love this app.
I recently reviewed Espresso 2, which incorporates the awesome features of CSSEdit and gives you an easy way to write CSS using simple visually-driven controls.
Price: $79
Espresso
GIMP
The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is the go-to free alternative to Photoshop. Though not quite as powerful as Photoshop, it packs a mean punch for a free image editor. It contains a familiar tool set and palette style capable of performing many of the complex functions that you normally turn to Photoshop to achieve.
Here’s the catch: the GIMP developers don’t actually provide an OS X version. For this, you have to hit up GIMP on OS X, which provides “easy to install application bundles of The GIMP for Mac OS X.” It’s a bit of a runaround, but you can’t beat the price.
Price: Free
Media and Gaming
Steam
Steam isn’t a Mac app in the traditional sense. Rather, it’s an online gaming platform that can be installed on both Mac and Windows. With it, you get access to the impressive and wildly popular steam game library and community of users.
Head over to this article to get the lowdown on what Steam is and how it works. Also, if you want a quick look at what’s available on Steam, check out our roundup of 14 Awesome Steam Games Available for Mac.
Price: Free
Boxer
Fans of old school gaming will love this one. Boxer is a DOS game emulator that gives you the ability to play your favorite games from years past on your Mac.
“Boxer takes your CDs, floppies and bootleg game copies and wraps them into app-style gameboxes you just click to play.” It even allows you to assign cover artwork and places your games onto an iBooks-like wooden shelf. Warning: downloading this will increase your perceived level of nerd by at least ten fold. Ignore the naysayers though, it’s pure fun.
Price: Free
Boxer
Plex
Now that FrontRow is officially dead, many Mac users are on the lookout for a good replacement app that provides users with an all in one media center. This is where Plex comes in.
Plex has a beautiful, fullscreen interface that allows you to easily browse and play your media library. With it you can take control of your music, movies and even online shows. Full Apple Remote support means that Plex is all you need to turn a Mac into the perfect media hub for your living room.
Price: Free
What Did We Miss?
Now that you’ve read our huge collection of thirty Mac apps that you won’t find in the Mac App Store, it’s time for you to chime in. Which of your favorite apps hasn’t made it to the App Store? Do you use any of the apps above? We want to know!
here http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/utilities-roundups/30-more-great-apps-you-wo... posted through Google Reader
December 2011
Moneygami: Not Your Usual Origami
Every kid had a phase when he (or she) was obsessed with the art of paper folding, or origami, as we all call it. Who wouldn’t be? After watching masters – or even those with decent skills – create magic out of mere pieces of paper, anyone would want to be able to do the same thing. Many of us probably have outgrown the origami fascination, but I just discovered a variation that just might awaken that once again: moneygami.
It’s a no brainer, what moneygami is all about. Instead of using just any piece of paper (although there is special paper used for origami), moneygami makes use of real paper money. There is no secret that money of any denomination is highly valued these days, especially with the economic situation all over the world, but I suppose that if you had a bill or so to spare, engaging in moneygami is a worthwhile endeavor. After all, your creations may even fetch more than the bill that was used!
Take a look at this koi that was created out of a one dollar bill, and tell me that isn’t fascinating.
One Dollar Koi
Don’t like fish? How about a spider made from a two dollar bill?
Two Dollar Spider
I can only imagine just how much work this little spider took! Now if you are not into animals, this battle tank made out of a two dollar bill might be your thing.
Two Dollar Battle Tank
Not to say that those moneygami pieces are not impressive, but these two are the ones that really got my attention.
Queen Elizabeth 10 Pound Bill
Lincoln One Dollar Bill
So what can you say? Do these moneygami make you want to pick up folding paper again? If you think that you need a little more convincing, check out this coverage of moneygami, and gather some inspiration for folding bills of your own currency.
here http://www.forevergeek.com/2011/12/moneygami-not-your-usual-origami/ posted through Google Reader
December 2011
Villains from all walks of life are now in...
Villains from all walks of life are now in your crosshairs thanks to Olly Moss. This video game / film / comic piece is now on sale in print form at inPRNT.
Shoot the Baddies by Olly Moss (Tumblr) (Flickr) (Twitter)
Via: gamefreaksnz
from Rampaged Reality http://rampagedreality.com/ Originally published December 02, 2011 at 10:52PMhere http://rampagedreality.com/post/13647700069/ollybaddiesinprnt posted through Google Reader
December 2011
About Me
Jensgeek, computer gamer, student, media literacy, funny, sometimes, wiki-enthusiast, very, web-citizen, movie-lover, cooking-interested, probably in that order
