Utilities Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Daily Mac App: Keka

by Samuel Gibbs (Dec 6th, 2011)

Great free archive utilities are pretty hard to come by on the Mac. Keka is the exception. If OS X's built-in compression utility doesn't do enough for you, Keka could be the answer. Keka's been around since 2009, but only recently made it into the Mac App Store. Unlike Growl, Keka is ...

Daily Mac App: Quick File Renamer

by Samuel Gibbs (Dec 2nd, 2011)

Bulk renaming files can be a time consuming pain without the right tool. If it's a problem you face often, you've probably already got a favorite batch-renaming app residing on your Mac, but if not, Quick File Renamer might be a good place to start. It has a user-friendly interface with ...

Daily Mac App: Brightness Slider

by Samuel Gibbs (Dec 1st, 2011)

Using a Mac laptop at night is great thanks to automatic-brightness controls and a backlit keyboard. Trouble is that sometimes even the lowest setting is too bright for midnight screen gazing. That's where Brightness Slider comes in. It's a menu bar utility that lets you adjust the screen's ...

Daily Mac App: Memo

by Samuel Gibbs (Nov 30th, 2011)

I've written about quite a few note-taking apps in my pursuit of the best one. Most shy away from the Post-It note paradigm because OS X comes with Stickies, a pretty decent representation of the repositionable note, but Memo takes it head-on. Memo is basically Stickies with iCloud and ...

Alfred 1.0 offers enhanced global hotkeys, URL handling, more

by Dave Caolo (Nov 29th, 2011)

One of my favorite Mac utilities, Alfred, has been updated to version 1.0 with a long list of super new features. The biggies include greatly enhanced global hotkeys and my favorite, an option to remember URLs for quick use in the future. Note that the new features require the optional Powerpack. ...

Daily Mac App: FormatMatch

by Samuel Gibbs (Nov 28th, 2011)

Copying and pasting text is something everyone does. In OS X you have two choices by default -- copy and paste, which retains formatting; or paste and match style, which strips out the source formatting. If you're like me, you almost never want the source formatting. Cmd+V is the shortcut for ...

Daily Mac App: Starred

by Samuel Gibbs (Nov 22nd, 2011)

If you're a Gmail user who leverages more than the simple mail potential of Google's email service, you'll know how valuable labels, stars and other organizational features are. Trouble is, to take advantage of them you normally have to resort to using the Gmail web app in its various guises, ...

Daily Mac App: iZip Archiver

by Samuel Gibbs (Nov 21st, 2011)

Simple handling of compressed archives is a breeze on a Mac, simply secondary-click and hit "Compress". Likewise opening a zip file is as easy as a double-click. But what happens when you want to get a bit more advanced with your compression archives? That's where something like iZip Archiver ...

Daily Mac App: Quick Note

by Samuel Gibbs (Nov 18th, 2011)

Lots of people still use notepads to jot down quick reminders, even when they're in front of their Macs. Quick Note is a note taking utility that gives you the simple, quick writing experience of a pad of paper on your desk, but on your Mac. Simplicity and speed are key in this kind of app ...

Daily Mac App: Snap App

by Samuel Gibbs (Nov 14th, 2011)

Taking screenshots on Mac OS is easy thanks to its decent built-in capture utilities, but taking nice ones is not as simple as you might think. App Snap is a developer-orientated screenshot utility that makes taking screenshots for app display a bit easier to manage. It's not just handy for ...

Daily Mac App: Gelatin

by Samuel Gibbs (Nov 9th, 2011)

Some tasks need a really simple, straightforward, no-nonsense app to get the job done. Combining PDF files is one of those tasks, and Gelatin is the app to do it. Preview can do a similar thing, but it's certainly not as straightforward as Gelatin. The app offers a window to drag-and-drop the ...

Daily Mac App: App Tamer

by Samuel Gibbs (Oct 25th, 2011)

Last week we covered BatterySqueezer, an app designed to throttle browser processes when backgrounded. Today we'll take a look at App Tamer, a similar non-Mac App Store app that takes things further. App Tamer goes beyond throttling and will actually put applications into suspended animation. ...

Daily Mac App: Disk Speed Test

by Samuel Gibbs (Oct 24th, 2011)

You've got a shiny new SSD-equipped machine, but you're wondering just how fast that SSD really is. Disk Speed Test from Blackmagic will give you a quick, straightforward answer. It's incredibly easy to use. Disk Speed Test writes large chunks of data to your chosen disk and then reads that data, ...

Daily Mac App: BatterySqueezer

by Samuel Gibbs (Oct 17th, 2011)

Modern Macs have pretty good battery life, but there are times when you can't get enough juice to keep working without a power adapter. BatterySqueezer promises to help you extend your battery by throttling process that are running in the background. The idea is that by reducing the amount of ...

Daily Mac App: DropCopy

by Samuel Gibbs (Sep 30th, 2011)

Mac OS X Lion introduced AirDrop, which offers zero-configuration, Wi-Fi file sharing between Lion users. DropCopy offered a similar service when we wrote about it in 2007. Today, DropCopy still deserves a place on your Mac, as it does a few things that AirDrop doesn't. For one, DropCopy ...