tools posts

Filed under: Hardware, Software, Freeware, Friday Favorite

Friday Favorite: Mactracker

by Dave Caolo (RSS feed) on Aug 7th, 2009

Another Friday Favorite, our weekly opportunity to gush over one of our favorite apps.

This week's favorite is a must-have reference for all Apple fans. Mactracker has been around for as long as I can remember and is indispensable. It provides exhaustive information on every Apple product, from the latest Xserve to the QuickTake 100.

The iTunes-like UI keeps machines in categories like desktops, notebooks, devices, etc. Click any to reveal a chronological listing of hardware, sorted by folder. Finally, select any piece of hardware (or software) to receive a tremendous amount of information. Processor, RAM, release date, benchmarks and on and on. You can even listen to the startup chime where applicable.

You can make smart folders and even keep track of the hardware you own. I love the built-in timeline, which lets you browse hardware by year of introduction. Best of all, as new hardware is added, Mactracker is updated.

This great piece of freewawre is availabe for the Mac and iPhone/iPod touch [App Store link]. For me, it's indispensable.

Tags: freeware, hardware, mac reference, MacReference, mactracker, tools

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Internet Tools, Podcasting, Software Update

Call Recorder 2.3 released

by Christina Warren (RSS feed) on Feb 13th, 2008

We use Skype for the TUAW Talkcast and recently, our host and podcasting guru (OK, not guru, but he is the host and we like him), Michael Rose, has been looking at possibly using Ecamm's Call Recorder 2 plugin as an option for recording our weekly talkcasts. I actually have used it to record both audio and video chat for the Squadcast and really think that it is a fantastic, fantastic add-on.

For anyone unfamiliar, Call Recorder is a great little tool that adds a recording window to Skype. This makes it easy to record incoming and outgoing calls (audio and video). The files are saved in the QuickTime format and they can be converted to MP3 or split into separate tracks.

With the release of the latest version of Skype for the Mac, Ecamm has updated Call Recorder as well. In addition to the latest Skype compatibility, Call Recorder 2.3 also includes a new two-track video recording option (so that you can have a separate stream from each side of the conversation) and enhanced video recording quality.

Call Recorder 2 is $14.95 (for $7 more, you can also get Conference Recorder, which adds the same functionality to iChat, and unlike the built in iChat recorder, doesn't require both users to have Leopard) and a free demo is available if you want to try out the tool.

If you want a simple, hassle free way to record Skype conversations, give Call Recorder a shot!

Tags: audio, call recorder, CallRecorder, recording, skype, tools

Filed under: Software, Beta Beat

Beta Beat: Photonic adds Leopard goodness to Flickr

by Brett Terpstra (RSS feed) on Feb 8th, 2008

I am, admittedly, a fan of desktop apps that keep me from having to wade through immense websites, especially when said desktop apps are significantly better looking than said websites. Photonic, which was just released as an open beta, is one such application. It brings beauty and class to Flickr and, at least for me, makes it more enjoyable.

We covered another cool Flickr app recently called FlickrFinder, which I fell in love with for its simplicity. Photonic raises the bar by adding an uploader that is as good or better than Flickr's own Flickr Uploadr, and decidedly more Mac-like. Meanwhile, the alluring interface and a dash of Core Animation make it a pleasure to use.

My raving aside, it's definitely still a beta. I had a few strange problems with the upload date that resulted in an image getting lost in the pile, and fairly frequently entire streams came up as "currently unavailable" pages. But I'll put up with a lot of growing pains for a tool this cool.

You can download the beta at the Photonic website.

Tags: flickr, photo, tools

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, Developer

Torque Game Builder 1.7 helps indie game developers

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jan 31st, 2008

Good news for indie game designers on OS X -- GarageGames has released version 1.7 of their Torque Game Builder, which allows programmers to create games for almost any platform from within an OS X interface. This latest release improves the editors for link points and collision polygons, as well as a new editor for vector objects and new t2dSceneObject methods. If you know what all that means, then you could probably program a better game than I could.

But the good news here is the one of the cheapest and best tools for game developers is now better than ever. Demos and trials of the tool are available on GarageGames' site, and licenses are as cheap as $100 for independent game developers. You've got the tools-- now go make us some great Mac games!

[Via Macminute]

Tags: demo, development, game, garagegames, indie, methods, programming, tools, torque-game-builder

Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, UNIX / BSD, Leopard

Cocktail Tiger edition goes to 4.0.1, Leopard edition 4.0.2

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jan 26th, 2008

Just in case you haven't yet upgraded to Leopard, but still love using Cocktail (that crazy mix of Unix functions for OS X), Maintain has released version 4.0.1 of their Tiger edition. They've fixed some compatibility problems with QuickTime, and added support for clearing font caches in Microsoft Office 2008. The update is now available from their website, and is, they say, "strongly recommended" for all Cocktail (Tiger edition) users.

Cocktail's Leopard edition is at version 4.0.2-- that update fixed these same problems last week, as well as fixing a network optimization bug for DSL (PPPoE) users.

[Via MacMinute]

Tags: cocktail, download, leopard, software, tiger, tools, unix, update, version

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Apple, Leopard, Developer

An overview of Leopard for developers

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Oct 29th, 2007

If you haven't seen this roundup yet, Matt Gemmell's huge list of everything Leopard can do for developers is pretty amazing. It's a bit on the technical side, but worry not-- about 1/4 of the way down the page you'll think that this is a list only for developers, and if you keep scrolling you'll start to see that (somewhere around the "HUD windows" part) Apple has broken open almost all of their interfaces to developers of all makes and models. Everything from menus to date formatting is updated in Leopard's developer applications, and there's lots of "freebies" that will make even smaller programs better-- icons and images, an image editor, and a built-in grammar checker can all be easily implemented in any Leopard apps.

As hot as this operating system is (and yes, despite the problems that folks are having with it), the really good stuff is yet to come. When talented programmers and designers get their hands on these tools, then we'll really see why it's so great to be a Mac user.

Thanks, Tony!

Tags: awesome, developer, icons, image-editor, leopard, list, matt-gemmell, overview, tools, xcode

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Hacks, Open Source, iPhone

iPhone hackers create open source unlock

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Sep 11th, 2007

Well despite the fact that some hackers claimed they weren't working on an open source iPhone unlock, it appears it's happened anyway. iPhone hackers have released a free software unlock for the iPhone.

Apparently there are two solutions-- the one above is part of a script based on ieraser, and the other is called iUnlock (Engadget says that one "appears to be in a more complete state"). We aren't yet sure what these do-- whether they're an actual unlock, or simply a reverse engineer of the iPhoneSIMfree unlock released the other day.

Either way, it doesn't much matter (hope iPhoneSIMfree made their money while they could). Even if these solutions (both of which seem to be straight code at this point-- there's still no simple "userfriendly, automated tool" available) aren't exactly what people need to use any SIM in their iPhone, a free, open source solution is likely just around the corner. Until Apple changes the firmware, that is.

Tags: engadget, hacking, iphone, open source, OpenSource, tools, unlock

Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, Internet Tools

BBEdit version 8.7 released

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Aug 7th, 2007

BBEdit 8.7, the latest version of the triple-A HTML editor, has been released.

Update: OK, so the reason I originally thought that all the "new" 8.7 features sounded familiar is because I actually was looking at the release list for version 8.5. The 8.7 release notice is here, and it includes Lua programming support, an option to remember which documents and browsers are open after closing BBEdit, and a Python language module and lots of other fixes and improvements. Sorry about the mistake, and thanks to all our commenters (and to Bare Bones Software themselves) for the heads up.

8.7 is a free update for 8.5 and 8.6 customers. If you haven't picked up BBEdit yet, you can try out the free demo here.

Tags: bbedit, bbedit87, clippings, editing, editor, html, ruby, rubyonrails, tools

Filed under: Software, Freeware, Internet Tools, Open Source, MacBook

KisMAC dev calls it quits

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jul 30th, 2007

Reader Andrew dropped a note that Michael Rossberg, developer of KisMAC, the wireless network sniffer based on Kismet, has declared the project discontinued. I can't get the project's website to load (most likely because it's been Slashdotted), but apparently the reason Rossberg gave was that a change in Germany's laws would make it dangerous for him to continue working on it. The law apparently makes it illegal for anyone to sniff out a password that "allows access to data", and since that's a big part of KisMAC's function, Rossberg is calling it quits.

But he is asking for interested parties to continue his work, in the EU or the US, so if the site ever returns, feel free to grab the source and check it out yourself.

Of course, from what Slashdot commenters are saying, this isn't much of a loss anyway-- the program hasn't seen any real updates in a long time, and apparently it didn't even work with the new MacBooks. In terms of network finders, there's lots more to choose from (including iStumbler, which I didn't mention in the other article), but in terms of cracking WEP and WPA keys (legally, of course), are there any other OS X specific options out there?

Update: Clarification: the program will run on MacBooks, but it doesn't do anything but find networks, which is just a fraction of the intended functionality.

Tags: diagnose, encryption, kismac, network, sniffer, tools, wep, wireless, wpa

Filed under: Retail, Software, Productivity, Deals

Typinator 2.0 35% off at MacZOT today only

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Jun 21st, 2007

It hasn't even been two weeks since Typinator went 2.0, and now it's on a 35%-off sale at MacZOT for $12.99 (regular price: $19.99). This handy typing and snippet manager is a great tool for helping you work faster with text, and a deal this good is both rare and virtually impossible to beat. If you're looking to try before you buy, head over to ergonis software's Typinator product page to snag a demo, but do it quick: MacZOT's sales are one-day-only affairs. When it's gone, it's gone.

Tags: maczot, manipulator, productivity, snippets, text, tools, typinator, typing

Filed under: Software, Productivity, Tips and tricks, TUAW Tips

TUAW Tip: Preview has basic text, cropping and editing tools

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on May 29th, 2007

We sing the praises of plasq's fantastic private beta Skitch tool for making it dead simple to capture, edit and share screenshots with a good variety of online communities, but Mac OS X's own Preview app for viewing images and PDFs isn't without at least a couple of these basic tools. These definitely are not on par with Skitch's capabilities, but as you can see, Preview offers text and oval circling annotation tools, and that Select Tool can help you crop an image (or even multiple pages of a PDF). As far as getting your work out of Preview and off to wherever it's going, the best you can do is save a new copy of the image and manually move or upload it, but hey: if you don't need all the features Skitch has to offer at it's yet-to-be-set commercial price, Preview just might do the job for you.

Tags: editing, preview, skitch, tools

Filed under: iLife, Software, Productivity, Internet Tools

FlickrExport Lite for Aperture, new versions all around

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Apr 20th, 2007

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.

Tags: aperture, flickr, flickrexport, images, iphoto, lite, pictures, plugins, tools, utilities

Filed under: Software

Another way for switchers to make new files

by Michael Rose (RSS feed) on Mar 27th, 2007

Regarding Mat's post on a cool QuickSilver-based approach to creating new files at high speed, a fair number of commenters -- and, it turns out, the original poster at lipidity.com -- made mention of NuFile, a combination contextual menu plugin and preference pane. One quick (free) download later, I'm a believer. A right-click gets you a customizable list of blank file templates; throw in a .webloc document to open new pages or blog posts, or just about anything you want.

For switchers looking to find a close match to the Windows "New File" contextual menu, NuFile is a pretty good solution.

Tags: nufile, quicksilver, switcher, tools

Filed under: Software, Productivity

Trampoline: the quickest route to the tools you need

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Feb 26th, 2007

Application launchers are diversifying in big ways, and it's great to see the market expanding. After discovering LaunchBar then switching to Quicksilver, it was obvious how useful these apps are and how important it is that there be a wide variety of them. A new launcher I just found, called Trampoline, definitely adds a new flavor to the mix.

Trampoline bills itself as "the quickest route to the tools you need," and it fits the bill pretty well. Unlike other similar app launchers and file manipulators, Trampoline offers what I would call a 'circular Dock' that can be toggled via a key or tied to a mouse button. Users can add their favorite and most-used apps to this on-call Dock, and it appears underneath your mouse, wherever that may be.

As a unique alternative to other comparatively 'bloated' app launchers (though I say that with love as I cannot work without Quicksilver), Trampoline offers a simpler, more direct approach to keeping your beloved tools right at your fingertips.

A demo is available from Old Jewel Software, and a license costs $19.95.

Tags: apps, launchbar, launcher, productivity, quicksilver, tools, trampoline

Filed under: Software, Productivity

John Gruber releases BBColors 1.0

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Oct 9th, 2006

John Gruber has released a command line tool called BBColors which allows BBEdit and TextWrangler users to save, reload and even share customized color schemes. BBEdit, like many code-friendly text editors, has offered a coloring system for some time, but it still doesn't allow users to save and swap out schemes for, say, different languages or simply different days of the week. John's free utility not only brings color swapping to these app's tool belts, but he also posted a few examples to help get your feet wet. DeviantART, eat your heart out.

Instructions for installation and usage can be found on Mr. Gruber's project page for BBColors.

Tags: bbedit, color, colors, daring fireball, DaringFireball, john gruber, JohnGruber, layout, layouts, schemes, textwrangler, tool, tools, utilities, utility

Tip of the Day

Use Spotlight as a reference tool. Type any word in the Spotlight box and one of the top entries will be a definition. Click on it, and it will bring up the dictionary application to check the word in either the dictionary, thesaurus, Apple database, or Wikipedia.

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