Afloat from Infinite Labs was one of my favorite SIMBL plugins, until it was broken by Leopard. It adds some clever features to windows in Cocoa applications, including a mode where the window remains always visible, "floating" above all other windows, an overlay mode where the window floats but clicks fall through to the windows below, and adjustable transparency (including a very nifty mode in which a window will be translucent until you mouse over it and then it pops into an opaque mode).
Thankfully, Afloat 2.0 now works with Leopard. In fact, it works so well with Leopard that OS X 10.5 is now required to run Afloat. The free download includes the Infinite Labs PlugSuit SIMBL plugin manager, but it is not necessary to run Afloat if you already have SIMBL installed.
I have to be honest, as a browser, Safari, on its own, does very little for me. In my pre-switcher life I loved Firefox, in large part because of its plug-in structure - and although Safari is certainly more stable than FF (on my system at least) - it's not the same. Luckily, a number of good plug-ins for Safari DO exist. Unfortunately, many of those plug-ins have not been updated to be fully compatible with Safari 3 (which was previously in beta) or Leopard. In fact, because of the way Input Manager was changed with Leopard, there was a lot of speculation that plug-in development for Safari would become obsolete.
That's where PlugSuit from Infinite Labs comes in. PlugSuit is a Leopard compatible plug-in manager that will work with many popular Tiger plug-ins like Inquisitor and SafariStand without changing a thing. Infinite Labs also makes the great free plug-in, Twicetab (that allows users to open up a new tab simply by double clicking on the tab bar, a la FireFox or Opera), and users even have the option of downloading and installing PlugSuit and Twicetab together. Plus, it's free! It's important to note that that plug-ins that were not designed with Leopard in mind may still have some problems or not function correctly. Infinite Labs says that most that were developed for the latest Safari 3 beta should work, but double-check with the plug-in developer to ensure compatibility.
And unfortunately, it may be the last version-- Dave Watanabe, the creator, writes on his blog that the rumorssay Input Manager, which is the construct that Inquisitor uses to work the way it does, may be eliminated in Leopard. And that would leave a lot of plugins, including Inquisitor, out in the cold. It's not guaranteed yet-- some say that while Input Manager may be disabled by default, it'll still be allowed to be enabled when a plugin tries to use them-- but Watanabe says that if Apple ditches it completely, it would mean the end of Inquisitor.
Supposedly Apple claims Input Managers are a security risk, but Watanabe is asking Inquisitor fans to send them feedback asking to keep the construct in Leopard. Then again, Apple isn't really a company that takes advice on how to update its software, but losing plugins like Inquisitor would definitely be a shame.
Attention all ye Facebook and iPhoto users: you may feel free to begin using iPhoto '08, now that Facebook has updated their Facebook Exporter plug-in. We first found this plug-in back in March, and while I'm definitely not the most active Facebook user or photo uploader, I don't think anything else is new. However, I just noticed a really cool feature that allows you to click anywhere on an image in the well on the right to create an outlining box around it, allowing you to name or tag whatever you're highlighting.
Facebook Exporter for iPhoto is provided for free by Facebook.
Considering the graphical nature of the web, I'm surprised more features and plug-ins haven't appeared to solve the problem of downloading images from sites as well as iPlace does. Operating as a SIMBL plug-in for Safari (including the 3.0 beta), iPlace allows you to specify multiple locations on your Mac for downloading images, but that's not all. It then gives you a contextual menu item when right-clicking an image or a web page that will allow you to instantly download any image to one of your specified locations, or - and here's the kicker - bring up an image downloading window that shows you each image on the page, along with your download locations provided as drag and drop wells in a sidebar on the left. Opening this window on I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER, for example, brings up the long list of images you see above, all ripe for efficiently dragging and dropping wherever I want.
In a word: iPlace is awesome. There are of course enhancements I would like to see, such as the ability to scale these images up and down to make it easier to view more from the page at once, but for a spankin' new product straight out the gate, this is a really handy plug-in.
Adriaan Tijsseling, developer of the Mac OS X version of the ecto blogging client, has been teasing us with sneak peeks and development details for some time now, but he's just posted another more revealing screenshot of ecto3, along with more details and a basic roadmap. Adriaan has touted ecto3 as a complete rewrite from v2, ushering in a new plug-in architecture that should make the app far more extensible.
Also on the notable changes list is the replacement of the rich text editor by Editable WebKit, a new, more WYSIWYG feature of the engine that is used to power Safari, many other browsers on Mac OS X and even HTML rendering in Apple Mail.
While Adriaan doesn't have any kind of ETA for a shipping version or even a beta just yet, it does sound like development is wrapping up well. Since support for different blogging platforms has moved to the plug-in format as well, he still has to build support for the latest Blogger (yes, it'll be in ecto3) and WordPress. As a final note, it's always nice to hear a developer using their own product, as Adriaan is using ecto3 "heavily" to try and catch as many bugs and problems as he can before unleashing it in one form or another on the masses.
Since I solved a number of the issues plaguing my Mail account setup - including a workaround to kinda use Gmail over IMAP (more on that soon) - I have sunk my teeth back into Apple's excellent email client. Now I'm pretty happy with using a few plug-ins like Scott Morrison's stellar MailTags 2 and Stefan Schüßler's Mail.appetizer (which we have previously mentioned at length here and here), though I am continually surprised by the number of plug-ins that endow Mail with everything from better support for Windows Office attachments, to creating events from messages and even more fine-toothed Smart Mailboxes for your Address Book contacts. One only needs to run a search for Mail at MacUpdate to see what I'm talking about, but I figured I could round up a few of these plug-ins just to give you an idea.
This must have slipped under our radar back in March, but iConcertCal, the both clever and useful iTunes plug-in that scans your artists to find local concert dates, has updated to v1.2. In addition to "greatly improved" concert listings in both the US and UK, iConcertCal can now export calendars to an iCal format (note: this isn't exactly 'iCal syncing.' Hopefully that's on its way). For those shows that might still slip through iConcertCal's fingers, the plug-in allows you to edit its calendar and add shows you just gotta keep track of.
Also on the list of changes is the ability to chose which iTunes library to monitor for artists and show dates, an "easy way" to list shows from artists that aren't in your library and city + date venue info now placed in the header information. Amazingly, iConcertCal is still free and available for both Mac OS X and Windows.
First there was FlickrExport for iPhoto, and it was good. Then its developer, Fraser Speirs, asked us whether we wanted him to make a FlickrExport for Aperture, and the answer to that question was also good. Now there is FlickrExport Lite for Aperture, and as a free product, it looks pretty sweet. Previously known at Flickr as the Flickr Plugin for Aperture, Fraser has re-named the plugin and brought it home to be displayed alongside its bigger brothers, complete with a feature-comparison page that breaks down the major features of all three FlickrExport products. If you've been on the fence between using iPhoto or Aperture and want to upload to Flickr, these plugins are where it's at, and I actually learned a few things from this feature comparison page, such as the fact that the Aperture plugin can add geodata before uploading, add tags after uploading and even replace existing photos on Flickr. Looks like this blogger is going to have to give Aperture a more thorough run-through.
Oh, almost forgot: all the FlickrExport plugins have been updated with bug fixes and one big new feature: the ability to set the moderation level on the photos you upload.
TUAW reader Neil points out that this means that at least some of the .NET framework must have now been ported over to the Mac. You can read more about the introductory post here on Tim Senath's Microsoft blog and Neil's .Net on Mac analysis here.
AwkwardTV has just posted this video demonstrating a new Apple TV 'meta plug-in' that retrieves and installs other plug-ins from around the net. Developer Alan_Quartermain built this brilliant tool that displays a list of third party items from the AwkwardTV site and allows you to select which one you want to install. It's currently in a private beta. If you'd like to test it, you may want to hang out over at the #awkwardtv IRC channel.
Awkward TV has posted this video showing a custom Apple TV plug-in in action. The post mentions that this is the second known custom plug-in (you can see the first in action here), and that it allows you to play .AVI files located on the main disk (rather than the iPod-esque Media library). For now those files are hardcoded in, as this is primarily a proof of concept. They did not provide a link for downloads, and there probably won't be a public release for a while.
We mentionedBox.net, an iDisk-like online hard drive service, back when we could begin mounting them on our Macs. To simplify uploading files to your Box.net account, Daniel Ryan has created an Automator action that not only lets you upload with a simple right click, but it also takes care of changing any spaces in file names to underscores, making them much more web-friendly. It isn't difficult to set up or use, but be sure to read Daniel's instructions at Automator World, as the action depends on you having mounted your drive with Mac OS X (which creates a Keychain item to store your password). If Box.net isn't much more than a file repository for sharing (perhaps via their blog-friendly widget), this action should streamline your efforts.
Like me, there are probably a lot of fresh new TextMate users out there in the audience thanks at least in part to MacHeist, so I thought it would be pertinent to point out a few helpful resources Allan Odgaard (TM's developer) maintains at macromates.com. Of course the searchable mailing list and IRC channel are handy for getting your discussion on, over which TM user Brett Terpstra just shared a WordPress templating bundle he's created - quite possibly a good addition to that theming workflow we just blogged.
Another powerful resource is the TextMate wiki, which houses a plethora of learning tools and resources such as a bundle repository if you're looking for some features or a language not included by default, as well as an RSS feed for bundle changes. Of course, what text app would be complete without user submitted themes? Last on my resource roundup (but by no means the end of what's available) are a few TextMate plugins, including a WebMate plugin that turns TM's Web Preview into a full-fledged WYSIWYG HTML editor based on WebKit.
There's a lot more from where all this came from, so dive in or simply get your feet wet with this swiss army knife of text editors.
As if he wasn't already busy, what with being the music legend and all... Peter Gabriel's playlist construction kit The Filter, already available free for iTunes for Windows, is now entering 2.0 alpha test for Mac users. The Filter automatically loads your iPod with custom, mood-relevant playlists and explores your music collection for those gems gathering dust in the corners.
I have to be honest, as a browser, Safari, on its own, does very little for me. In my pre-switcher life I loved Firefox, in large part because of its plug-in structure - and although Safari is certainly more stable than FF (on my system at least) - it's not the same. Luckily, a number of good plug-ins for Safari DO exist. Unfortunately, many of those plug-ins have not been updated to be fully compatible with Safari 3 (which was previously in beta) or Leopard. In fact, because of the way Input Manager was changed with Leopard, there was a lot of 
Inquisitor
Since I solved a number of the issues plaguing my Mail account setup - including a workaround to kinda use Gmail over IMAP (more on that soon) - I have sunk my teeth back into Apple's excellent email client. Now I'm pretty happy with using a few plug-ins like Scott Morrison's stellar 
First there was 
At this year's NAB, Microsoft has revealed 
We 
Like me, there are probably a lot of fresh new TextMate users out there in the audience thanks at least in part to 
