DownloadSquad posts

SnowChecker will help you make the jump to Snow Leopard

by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Nov 2nd, 2009

Most of us here at TUAW jumped aboard the Snow Leopard bandwagon immediately after receiving our upgrade disks -- and I mean immediately. We didn't bother to check out what apps would or wouldn't run, and could have cared less about compatibility with scanners and printers or anything else important like that. No, we just dived into the lake before determining whether or not it was shallow, full of piranhas, or contained hydrochloric acid. That's just us, though -- we like to be able to tell TUAW readers what to expect, good and bad, when a new OS version is delivered. Our friends at Download Squad, however, must still be a little queasy about making the leap, since they posted a quick app review today for SnowChecker.

SnowChecker is a free Mac application that does one thing -- it tells you whether or not your applications will run under Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. SnowChecker performs a scan of your hard disk for apps, then compares the list of found apps against compatibility info stored at snowleopard.wikidot.com. It displays the the results, noting which apps are OK, which might have slight compatibility issues, and which will be totally hosed under Snow Leopard. SnowChecker uses a simple green, yellow, red color scheme to pass along the information to you, and often provides quick notes telling you about workarounds or updates that will help get all of your apps working smoothly.

If you're a bit on the shy side when it comes to doing upgrades, SnowChecker can make you feel a lot better about making the jump to Snow Leopard.

Tags: compatibility, download squad, DownloadSquad, lifehacker, snow leopard, snowchecker, SnowLeopard

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends

Get seasick with Liquid Mac

by Lisa Hoover (RSS feed) on Jun 13th, 2008

You know that sudden motion sensor that's buried in your Mac to protect your hard drive? Want to have a little fun with it? Then check out Liquid Mac, a neat little app that makes your laptop's screen look like it's filled with colored water.

Once you've downloaded the app, select the color and response sensitivity you want, then gently tilt your laptop and watch the fluid splash around the screen. It's oddly soothing, actually, unless you slosh it around too fast and make yourself nauseous.

When you tire of making waves, adjust the settings to represent beads and watch it rain on your screen. To see Liquid Mac in action, check out this cool video.

Tags: downloadsquad, fun, liquid-mac

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS, iTunes, Podcasts, Apple

"Podmaps" concept patent sought by Apple

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Feb 15th, 2008

AppleInsider has uncovered news of an Apple patent application for a software concept called a "podmap," which is more or less what it sounds like -- a series of maps or driving directions accompanied by an audio version of the same, downloadable into a portable media device. The way I understand it, think of it not just as downloadable directions, but also a kind of real-world tour. There is even mention of episodic content delivered via RSS.

Like many Apple patents, there's no indication (or even suggestion) that anything like this would ever see the light of day, but it does tell us that Apple is looking at doing more with marrying their hardware with maps software, just like the great improvements we saw in the iPhone's 1.1.3 update. Hardly a surprise, too, that a company so strongly turning towards portable computing is thinking about the needs of portable users. But a cool idea nevertheless, and it also confirms that Apple sees the iTS's podcast model as a strong and easy way of quickly distributing content of all kinds.

Tags: apple, apple-insider, directions, downloadsquad, iphone, ipod, itunes, model, patent, podcast, podmaps, rss, text-to-speech

Use Pingie to get Macworld alerts from TUAW on your mobile

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (RSS feed) on Jan 9th, 2008

Next week is going to be a busy one for the Mac blogosphere and TUAW is no exception. Sure, you can watch our Twitter feed for goings-on (we'll be reporting our location regularly), or subscribe to our Macworld 2008 tag feed, but what about keeping tabs while you jog? Enter Pingie. As Nik explains over on Download Squad, Pingie takes RSS feeds and sends SMS messages whenever something new pops up.

You can put in pretty much any feed you like, but Dan over at UNEASYsilence was nice enough to create a hot little landing page for TUAW's Macworld feed. Just put your email and phone number in, and you're ready to get updates as we publish them. Please be aware that you're gonna want the unlimited text messaging from whatever carrier you're with-- we don't want iJustine-style bills going to anyone.

To unsubscribe from the Pinged feed you can text "Ping Stop" to 95495. Let the pinging begin!

Tags: downloadsquad, feed, macworld08, pingie, rss, uneasysilence

Filed under: Odds and ends, Freeware

Check out Check Off for a simple to do list

by Lisa Hoover (RSS feed) on Oct 29th, 2007

Check Off is a free little tool that sits discreetly in your menu bar and pops open with a single click to display a basic to do list. I wasn't a big fan of Tiger's native to do list so I started using this a few months ago and it's been a pretty handy little app. Though it looks like Apple finally got its act together by incorporating a to do list into Mail.app, but I don't think I'll give up Check Off entirely since its bare bones functionality has come in rather handy sometimes.

Check Off is mainly for jotting down quick notes on tasks you need to complete so don't expect it to do a lot of heavy lifting. If you just need something to keep you on track or are looking for another way to send a to do list to your iPod, though, then Check Off is just the thing. It's also somewhat tweakable -- you can drag and drop to sort folders, color-code your entries, and attach notes to each to do, if you're so inclined. Version 3.7 has just been released with Leopard compatibility and a few bug fixes.

[Thanks Justin!]

Tags: basic, check-off, downloadsquad, lightweight, productivity, small, to-do-list

Filed under: Internet Tools

School days: Firefox Campus Edition

by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on Sep 10th, 2007

More back-to-school suggestions; this one has the advantage of being free. If you haven't already downloaded Firefox for your machine, it's a good idea to have it handy for those occasional sites that aren't Safari-friendly. If you're interested in a few extra plugins with a student-friendly bent, then you might check out the Firefox Campus Edition, which is simply the current Firefox build plus the FoxyTunes, StumbleUpon and Zotero plugins in one convenient package.

FoxyTunes (for controlling your music player via the browser) and StumbleUpon (social bookmarking for interesting/useful sites) are both fine, but the real power tool here is Zotero: this research tool, file manager, PDF bucket and citation editor is a boon to anyone working on research projects with Firefox. Given enough practice with Zotero, it might replace a local note manager like Yojimbo or other online tools like Google Notebook.

Of course, if you already have Firefox, you can download these plugins (or scores of others) separately, and all three are free.

via PaulStamatiou.com

Tags: back to school, back-to-school, BackToSchool, downloadsquad, firefox

Filed under: Internet Tools, Open Source, Software Update

Adium update fixes memory leaks and Safari bugs

by Lisa Hoover (RSS feed) on Sep 4th, 2007

The folks behind Adium, the fantastic free and open source instant messaging client for Mac, have released a recommended upgrade that fixes 26 bugs and a bunch of other issues. Update 1.1.2 resolves a memory leak while viewing tooltips and AIM mobile contacts now display correctly. Several issues when using Safari 3.0 Beta have also been fixed, and libpurple has been upgraded to 2.1.1 to add limited MSN support.

If you're disappointed that the upgrade doesn't offer any cosmetic changes, you could always dress up the dock duck on your own.

Tags: adium, downloadsquad, free, im, instant messaging

Filed under: Internet Tools, Software Update

Mailplane 1.51 adds iMedia browser and support for more languages

by Lisa Hoover (RSS feed) on Sep 4th, 2007

A new update for Mailplane, an email client for Mac that's dedicated to Gmail, was released today. It sports a handful of bug fixes, integration with the Mac address book, and support for six new languages. An "iMedia browser" was added that allows users to drag and drop pictures, music, and movies right into an email without opening the associated iApp. You can even create a new Gmail account right inside Mailplane, and if you download a lot of files via Gmail, you'll also like the new feature that cleans up the download window at the touch of a button.

Though Mailplane is still in private beta, you can apply to be a tester.

Tags: downloadsquad, email, gmail, mailplane

Filed under: Odds and ends, Internet Tools

Five widgets for football junkies

by Lisa Hoover (RSS feed) on Aug 25th, 2007

As I write this, there are 12 excruciatingly long days until the start of the 2007 NFL football season. This year, the best-dressed Macs will have spiffy new dashboard widgets to help us follow our fantasy picks, favorite teams, league stats, and every game nuance we can think of. Here are the top five widgets every football fan needs to have:

NFL Kickoff 2007 Countdown 4.0 - If you need to know right down to the nanosecond how long it is before kickoff, this widget is for you. Okay, it doesn't offer quite that much detail, but it will get you within the minute range. The rest you can figure out on your own.

WagerWidget - If you like a friendly bet to go with your game, the WagerWidget gives you point spreads, odds updates, and other tips you might need to know before you make that call to Johnny NoFingers.

Apple's widget directory - There's all sorts of goodies lurking here, like news feeds for the Cowboys and Raiders.

Fantasy Control - If you've got a fantasy football team of your own, than this you need this. It offers real-time news and analysis for teams all across the league. (NOTE: Requires the Yahoo Widget installer for Mac)

Football Widget 1.1.2 - The granddaddy of all widgets, this cool tool keeps you up to date on everything you need to know: Current scores, previous weeks' results, conference standings and more.

Sky Sports Football News Widget - In the interest of fairness, this one's for the Brits among us. I hear your teams play football with their actual feet. What's up with that?

Tags: dashboard, downloadsquad, football, nfl, sports, teams, widgets

Filed under: OS, Software, How-tos

How to use MacFUSE

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Jan 16th, 2007

Remember MacFUSE? The filesystem that Google's Amit Singh ported over to OS X? Yes, that's the one. Sure, you read about it here on TUAW and thought to yourself, 'That sounds cool but I have no idea why I should care or how I would go about using it.' Fear not, loyal TUAW reader, Jay Savage at Download Squad has got you covered.

Jay wrote up a lengthy How To on getting started with MacFUSE. Be warned, if delving into the Terminal frightens you this tutorial is not for you.

Tags: download squad, DownloadSquad, google, macFUSE

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends

Download Squad running '12 days of holiday downloads'

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Dec 4th, 2006

On Friday our friends at sister blog Download Squad began a new series titled 12 Days of holiday downloads, rounding up holiday and Christmas-themed downloads for both Mac OS X and Windows. Day 2 was posted today, and so far it looks like a neat series for those of you who like to get their Mac (and Windows PC) into the holiday spirit. Day 1 covered Snö, an app we've mentioned before, can create a snowfall on your desktop (though, as of this writing, Snö's site seems to be unavailable). Day 2 for Mac (today) covers X-MasTree, which we posted about a few days ago.

Frivolous, cycle-wasting apps? Sure. Fun, holiday spirit nonetheless? You bet. Stay tuned to Download Squad for the rest of their 12 Days of holday downloads series for more ways to get your Mac in the holiday spirit.

Tags: christmas, download squad, downloads, DownloadSquad, holiday, holidays, sno, x-mastree

Filed under: Audio, Software, Cool tools, Productivity, Tips and tricks, iTunes

iTunes song tagging redux

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Sep 30th, 2006

We reported a method for tagging iTunes tracks and creating on-the-fly playlists way back in January. However, it involved using Quicksilver and a couple of home-grown scripts, but we can dig it if some of y'all aren't down with a tool as broad-reaching as Quicksilver. Fortunately for the rest of you, a web designer and developer named Steven Campbell has written up a basic method for tagging iTunes tracks and creating playlists based on those tags. It more or less involves revealing the comments column in the song list for easy access, and using a simple system of comma-separated words to get your iTunes tagging on. This can work wonders for Smart Playlists, and Steven offers a few examples in his post.

For those still interested in the aforementioned Quicksilver scripts and tools, the author has issued a bit of an upgrade and a new script since we first reported them. First of all, the scripts now live at their own domain name, TuneTag.com. The scripts still allow you to tag the song you're listening to on the fly and create on-the-fly playlists from those tags, but the author also added a new script that lets you select any number of tracks in iTunes and tag them all in one fell swoop. As a Quicksilver fan I'm already in love with the power of these scripts, but either method should work well for bringing the web 2.0 tagging craze to iTunes.

Tags: dls, downloadsquad, engadget, itunes, itunes7, quicksilver, script, scripts, tag, tagging, tags, tool, tools

Filed under: Software, Open Source

BitRocket walkthrough

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Sep 6th, 2006

Just yesterday we wrote about BitRocket, a new open source BitTorrent client for OS X. We also wrote about the fact that some people think that something is rotten in the state of BitRocket, however, after looking at the code myself I can rest easy recommedning the app.

Some of you, I am sure, were craving a few more screenshots than the one that I included. Our very own David Chartier has posted a very nice walkthrough of BitRocket on our sister blog, DownloadSquad. Head on over there for a step by step look at BitRocket.

Tags: BitRocket, bittorrent, dls, downloadsquad

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Audio, iPod Family, iTS, iTunes, Bad Apple

Comparing iTunes to diet soda

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (RSS feed) on Jun 30th, 2006

Mr. Linspire himself, Michael Robertson, posted a little ditty about his love of diet soda. He then compares the short shelf-life of diet soda (Aspartame, in particular, doesn't last long) to the potentially limited life span of any DRM'ed music. His case is mycokemusic.com, which just went away once the iTunes invaded the UK. But he predictably turns his gaze to iTunes, the juggernaut of online music. The logic goes, DRM limits you, forces restrictions, which could hamper or completely invalidate your music collection someday. Right now, if you purchased a bunch of songs on iTunes and wanted to switch from an iPod to something else (people tell me others do in fact make portable music players), you would have to burn and re-rip your music as a bunch of MP3's. Or re-buy them all. Sounds like fun, huh? About as much fun as me copying the giant boxes of audio cassettes I have in the garage onto my hard drive, splitting up the tracks, labeling them, and storing them indefinitely. Always nice to see technology making life easier for us... The eternal question: DRM good or DRM bad? If Michael had his way, we'd all be rockin' to MP3's sans restrictions. But then, I don't see a lot of music labels knocking on his door...

Tags: download squad, DownloadSquad, drm, linspire, michael robertson, MichaelRobertson

Filed under: Humor, Software, Odds and ends, Freeware, Widget Watch

Grow a Chi Pet in your Dashboard

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (RSS feed) on May 19th, 2006

Ah, the little plant/potter geegaw known as the Chia Pet. I don't know what meteor the plant came from, but aren't those planters cute? Relive the cuteness with Chi Pet (not affiliated with the Chia Pets of Joseph Enterprises) in your Dashboard. This little widget provides a couple of days of fun as you click the droplet to "grow" your pet's fur. Neglect the pet, and the plant dies. Nobody said life was easy, even for a bunch of pixels. To be honest, the growth cycle isn't that great.

[From CoolOSXapps]

Tags: chia pet, ChiaPet, downloadsquad, fad

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