We recently mentioned Freeverse's Think, a little utility for helping you concentrate on one task by hiding away all the other windows besides the foreground application. Apparently somebody else liked the basic idea, but didn't quite like Freeverse's somewhat involved execution and so has whipped up a similar but more stream-lined utility called Isolator. Isolator sits in your menubar and, like Think, will isolate the windows of the foreground application by hiding all the others and bringing up a solid color shade over the desktop (though you can adjust the transparency of the shade and even set it so you can sill access the desktop icons). You can also set a hotkey to turn Isolator on and off (F8 by default). I like the idea of a menubar utility of this sort, but if there's anything I don't like about Isolator, it's that when you turn it off the applications it hid are still hidden.

Isolator is a free download, but the developer is requesting donations.

[Via MacApper]

Applications that offer 'full screen' modes are all the rage now a days. The idea is that if you run one application in full screen mode you won't be distracted by all those other things that fight for your attention on your Mac.

The good people at Freeverse are savvy to this, but they figured why bother creating individual applications with a full screen mode when you can create an app that'll let any app have a full screen mode of sorts. Thus Think was born.

Think has a very cool Illumination Panel that allows you to pick from any of your currently running applications. As soon as you pick an app, Think throws up a backdrop (the color is up to you, though it defaults to black) that covers up the rest of your desktop (on your main monitor as well as any secondary monitors you might have) though the Dock remains visible. Think goes one step further and displays the icon of the currently focused app in its Dock icon, just in case you forget.

It is obvious that Freeverse spent some time thinking about this application. Now, what would you expect to pay for such an application? If you said nothing, not only are you cheap but you're also correct! That's right, Freeverse is giving this gem away (Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later is required).

Check out the gallery below for some screenshots.

I'll admit to being just as interested in what Apple has up their sleeve as the next guy, but I've always harbored a chip on my shoulder towards the rumor sites. The constant 'anonymous' sources who wind up all too often being as clueless as they are nameless have always irked me, and James R. Stoup at Apple Matters decided to take Think Secret, one of the largest rumor mongers out there, to task to see just how accurate they've actually been.

Mr. Stoup did the math that was a long time coming and surveyed Think Secret's reports on Apple products between January 05 - September 06. You should really check out the results, as he did a bang-up job detailing everything he found, but to summarize: James found that Think Secret's accuracy can get pretty black and white; either they nail it or they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a wrecking ball. He also discovered some patterns in terms of which kinds of products Think Secret typically nabs correctly, concluding that they have a fairly good batting average with Mac hardware and iPods, but their 'inside scoops' on software tend to represent that aforementioned wayward wrecking ball.

Take a look at James' post for the real (and thorough) details of his findings, but don't think he's trying to bash the rumor gurus, Think Secret or otherwise. After all, what Apple fan doesn't hold at least some place in their heart for rumors of what shiny new thing Apple might have coming up? I think James' investigation should serve at least as a reminder that rumors are exactly that: rumors, and not much more. One is merely rolling the dice when reading these sites and building up hopes of a fancy new [insert name here] or a product revision.

With that said, we'll be sure to stay on top of the latest gossip to make sure y'all can decide whether the latest iPhone or media center rumors could be worth that extra wait.