Skip to Content

Five...no, Six useful Mac apps from Thoughtful Tree

by Steven Sande Aug 7th 2009 at 9:00AM

TUAW receives a lot of app submissions for review, both for Mac and iPhone. But it's unusual when a developer sends us individual press releases for a relatively large number of apps.

Steven Degutis is the brain behind a company called Thoughtful Tree. In his words, "I'm an indie Mac developer who writes apps that make my job easier and smoother, and then if I think they're useful enough, I share them with everyone via my company Thoughtful Tree Software. That's just how I roll."


The first application that caught my attention was one called Docks (US$10), which takes snapshots of what icons are in your Mac OS X Dock, and then lets you swap out Docks depending on what kind of work you're currently doing (see screenshot below). Need a writing Dock? Put Word, Storyist, and WriteRoom in a special Dock. Doing a lot of photo work? Create a Dock with PhotoShop, Aperture, and any other special tools you like to use. The new Docks 2.0 is now integrated with Spaces, so retrieving a specific Space sets up a custom Dock as well.

Another application that makes sense for a Desktop slob like me is the aptly-named DeskLabels (US$10). If you tend to save a lot of documents on your Mac desktop, whether by choice or unintentionally, you'll often find that things get out of control very quickly. DeskLabels allows you to create labels for your desktop (see below) to organize groups of icons without creating yet another set of folders.

Degutis has also created a Mac app that is perfect for those of us who need to take screenshots on a regular basis. As you probably know, when you take screenshots using the Command-Shift-4 key combination, Mac OS X throws a nice shadow around the windows to give your screenshot a 3-D look. However, when you're popping those screenshots into a TUAW post, the 3-D shadows are not exactly what you want to see. Fortunately, the free ShadowControl Mac app deletes those pesky shadows for you.

Next on the list of Thoughtful Tree Mac apps is TunesBar (US$5.00). Want to know what's playing in iTunes without having to flip to the application? TunesBar displays the song name and artist in the menu bar (see screenshot below), and a quick click on that information will let you control iTunes playback of your music library.

Have you ever wanted a bit more control over those Login Items that are listed in System Preferences under Accounts? The next little gem from Thoughtful Tree is LoginControl (US$10.00), which lets you set different Login Items based on location (for example, home or work), or other personal preferences. See the screenshot below for more more details.

Last, but certainly not the least important, is Modena (US$5.00). This application is a simple and effective timer for your Mac. The timer can appear as just a tiny little floating heads-up display, numbers counting down in your menu bar, or take over your Mac screen with large, bold numbers floating on a black background. You can either set the time as relative (count down two hours, for instance) or absolute (count down to 5 PM).

I hope you enjoyed this six-pack of Mac apps. All of the Thoughtful Tree Software applications listed here can be downloaded for a free 30-day trial before you decide whether or not you want to buy.


View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

OS Software Odds and ends Freeware iTunes Leopard

TUAW receives a lot of app submissions for review, both for Mac and iPhone. But it's unusual when a developer sends us individual press...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

17 Comments

Filter by:
Timothy R. Butler

I'd recommend the free Tea Timer (http://www.herwig-henseler.de/teatimer) as an alternative option for those needing a basic timer on their desktop. I've been happily using it for years.

August 08 2009 at 7:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rand

I use iController to have a scrolling display of the artist/song display in the Menu Bar. Worked really well for me and it's free.

August 07 2009 at 9:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dave

Not even joking, having a separate dock per screen in Spaces should have been included by default. Buying Docks right now.

August 07 2009 at 8:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Noah

@ars_workerbee Thanks for the tip! Just removed all the unneeded desktop icons :)

August 07 2009 at 5:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
alansky

Speaking of cluttered desktops, do Mac users know that the more stuff you have on your desktop, the more of your computer's resources are being sucked away by all the clutter?

August 07 2009 at 12:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
4 replies to alansky's comment
Poltras

You Control Tunes is showing what tunes is playing, giving you menu buttons too to next/previous/pause. It can show overlays with the album, title, etc etc.

http://www.yousoftware.com/tunes/

This is free and more powerful than the TunesBar. :)

August 07 2009 at 12:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Noah Ramon

Well, there's QuickTunes (http://www.dbachrach.com/opensoft/index.php?page=QuickTunes). It seems to be substantially the same described functionality, and given what I asked of it (JUST PUT TITLE/ARTIST INTO MENU BAR. PERIOD.) it's doing that quite well.

I kept seeing control panels and all this stuff on other iTunes assistant programs, and all I wanted was something that I could read title/artist info from without switching apps or having to otherwise break task workflow. This does that admirably.

August 07 2009 at 11:36 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
N I T E

@ Michael Levin

This one's free and pretty good. You can customize it as well.

http://www.yousoftware.com/tunes/

August 07 2009 at 11:30 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Josh

Just go with Bowtie. It's on your desktop and not the menubar but is so customizable (and free) that you'll never look back.

August 07 2009 at 10:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steven Degutis

@TUAW

Thanks for the awesome reviews! There will be more than six apps, soon, by the way ;)

@Michael

There are some apps that do similar things as TunesBar, but the closest one I've found, BravoTunes, has a scrolling effect which is not removable, and is too distracting for me to work with (the constant scrolling in my peripheral vision just made me dizzy).

August 07 2009 at 10:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Steven Degutis's comment
Izzy

Thanks for your software and look forward to seeing what else you come up with.

August 07 2009 at 12:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Hot Apps on TUAW

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.