Tag Archives: App

Candles: Import Birthdays From Address Book As iCal Reminders [Mac]

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Facebook isn’t just for sharing pictures and playing meaningless virtual games; it serves another great purpose - remembering birthdays! Facebook handles this fairly well and might even be credited with keeping our social lives on track with its little birthday reminders, but the fact is, not everyone uses Facebook to keep track of birthdays. Shocking as it may seem, a lot of people have a favorite app for reminding them about important events. For Mac users, that app might just be iCal, and if that’s the case, Candles is another Mac app that you might want to download. This simple Mac app extracts birthdays from the Address Book and adds them as reminders to iCal. It lets you customize how soon you want to be reminded of an upcoming birthday, and lets you set sound alerts accordingly. Read More

Secret Delivery: Protect Files & Folders On Mac With Unique Passwords [Paid]

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Encrypting files and folders on a Mac is possible but it isn’t easy. You will have to create disk images of the items you want to protect, and mount them each time you wish to access the contents. This sounds neither fun nor convenient. Alternative ways to protect files is to use the FileVault utility that will create an encrypted disk on your system where everything, every-little-thing, will be encrypted. A simpler solution with a small price tag is Secret Delivery. It is a Mac app available for $1.99 in the Mac App Store that both encrypts and decrypts files. The app has a simple drag & drop interface and uses AES encryption standard to protect your data. Read More

View & Access “Notifications for Facebook” From The Menu Bar [Mac]

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We’ve covered several Facebook clients for Mac in the past, like Facebox and Social Lite, both of which are feature rich and let you interact with your account. Both apps effectively let you keep up with what’s happening on Facebook without having to open a browser window. While these apps let you stay in touch with what’s happening in your virtual life, it is somewhat counter productive. The fact that you have easy to access Facebook means you will be even less tempted to work. Notifications for Facebook is a free Mac app that lets you balance it out. The app, as the name states, lets you view your Facebook notifications only in menu bar. It regularly checks for new notifications and opens them in your browser when you click on one. The app lets you enter a shortcut of your choice that will toggle the notification window. Read More

PhotoTime: Add Over 30 Live Effects To Images Taken With Webcam [Mac]

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You’ve no doubt come across a lot of web apps that let you add color effects to your images. Some will also let you connect with your webcam and apply the effects live but often the quality is low or the apps are not very responsive. PhotoTime is a free Mac app that lets you add over 30 different effects and lets you combine two or three of them in a single image. The app uses your system’s webcam and previews the effects live. Some effects can be customized using mouse movements. In addition to the usual sepia, black & white and Kaleidoscope effects, the effects include Rainbow, Pencil, Tunnel, Line overlay, Pixelate and Edges effect. The app has a delay timer that you can customize and also an on-screen flash that you can set to any color your like. Read More

QuickMailer: Quickly Send Emails With Auto Complete From Mac Menu Bar [Paid]

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The default Mail app on Mac may or may not your idea of what a desktop mail client should be. Whether you use it because you like it or because it’s free and already on your system with Apple’s seal of approval, whenever you open it to send an email or switch from one folder to another, the spinning beach ball tells you you’re in a for a bit of waiting. If you’ve got a slower system, then switching to the Mail app can take even longer. QuickMailer is a simple Mac app available for $0.99 that lets you send emails form the menu bar. The app uses the primary account you’ve configured with the Mail app, supports auto-complete for recently emails contacts, lets you type in all basic email fields - subject, body and attachment - and send the email from the menu bar. You will need to keep the Mail app running in the background, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be open or active. Read More

OS X Mountain Lion’s New Messages App [Feature Review]

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If you’ve been following the buzz around Apple’s latest OS X release (no longer to be called Mac OS), then you know that it’s got a slew of new features, one of which is Messages. The beta version of Messages is available for download and will run on OS X 10.7.3. Messages is by far one of the more talked about apps there is, and will replace iChat. According to Apple, the noteworthy features of this app are sending unlimited messages to any Apple device (Mac, iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch), transferring files between your devices, and AIM, Yahoo, Jabber, Gtalk account support. Here is a step by step break down of how to get started with Messages, set up your account and understand the interface. Read More

MenuBar ReArranger: Define An Order For Menu Bar Icons On Mac [Paid]

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Do you favor apps that will add icons to the menu bar as opposed to the Dock? If yes, then no doubt you save plenty of precious space on the Dock and trade it out for a little clutter on the menu bar. For many users this isn’t a bad trade off, but what can be a little annoying, to downright counter productive, is the order these app icons appear in. Every time you start your system, all apps that you've set to start at login rearrange themselves on the menu bar. It is makes it utterly pointless to remember which icon was where, and means you will need to take a good squint-eyed look at the menu bar each time you want to launch an app. MenuBar ReArranger is a very useful Mac app available for $4.99 in the Mac App Store that can solve this problem forever. The app does what you would expect to be native behavior in Mac (but isn’t), and lets you re-order the icons on the menu bar to suit your needs. Read More

DropDownloadURL: Batch Download All Files From Any Link [Mac]

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You’ve probably come across a lot of file downloaders; some are forma specific, i.e., apps that download videos from YouTube, while others are more general. DropDownloadURL is one such app for Mac that allows you to download just about anything from a given URL. Depending on the type of link you enter, the app can download software, web pages, videos, images etc. If you’re wondering what the point of using an app like this is when you can download via your browser, this app allows you to queue multiple downloads and leave your system to do its work. It is useful in the event that you have to download lots of files but have limited bandwidth and would prefer to download files one by one. Read More

Sequenzetto: Affix Numerical Sequence To Folders & Files [Mac]

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In the past, we’ve covered multiple apps that make it easy to rename files in bulk. Files are normally renamed on a given pattern or syntax that the app defines and where the user enters the variables. What most file renaming apps do is change the entire name of the file altogether. We recently recommended FreshBatch to replace a word or character in a file name with one of your choice. Sequenzetto is a Mac app that lets you add numbers to all files or folders, within a folder. It retains the original file name and simply adds numerical prefixes to each item. Read More

ShortStop: Avoid App Keyboard Shortcut Conflict In Mac [Paid]

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Keyboard shortcuts add convenience to how we use an app and our system as a whole. Many users, who need to work on different projects and use multiple apps at the same time, will use a combination of  mouse and trackpad gestures and keyboard shortcuts just to get things done faster. It is for this reason that many of us have a soft spot for app that support keyboard shortcuts and get butterflies if we can edit a shortcut to our own liking. While these shortcuts are great, they sometimes end up conflicting with other apps and more power apps might even conflict with universal shortcuts. ShortStop is a simple Mac app available for $2.99 in the Mac App Store that allows you to toggle between apps and their enabled shortcuts. You can set the system to ignore shortcuts that are associated with an app, and enable them as per your requirement. Read More

Syrinx: Twitter Client With Keyboard Shortcuts & Tweet Filters [Mac]

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Just a couple of days ago, we covered Itsy, a simple Twitter client with a clean interface and growl notification support. Syrinx is a Twitter client for Mac that doesn’t have as great an interface as Itsy, but supports keyboard shortcuts and allows you to filter out tweets that contain a particular word. The app lets you edit tweets before retweeting them, show the number of unread tweets on the Dock icon, bookmark new tweets, favorite them, send and view messages, change the text, row and background color and enable Growl notifications for new tweets. You can choose to either bookmark or open a new tweet when you click its Growl notification. Read More

Color Splash Smart: Add Color To Selected Parts Of An Image [Mac]

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Late last  year, we reviewed Big Aperture, a Mac app worth $ 9.99 (Currently available for $1.99) in the Mac App store that allowed you to add depth of field, lighting and bokeh effects to any photo. Color Splash Smart is a free Mac App from the same developer that changes an image to black and white and allows you to define any region where you want to retain color. Comparable in functionality to InstantPhotoColor, this app is far richer in features. It allows you to adjust the brush size, softness and opacity, and you can adjust the degree of luminance, contrast and saturation when color is added back to the image. Additionally, the app has the same color effects as did Big Aperture; both apps have a similar interface and you should be able to navigate it without a problem. Read More

Air Media Server: Access Mac Files From Your iOS Device [Paid]

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There are a multitude of apps that let you control and/or access your Mac from your iPhone. For the true Apple fan, uniting an iPhone with a Mac must be something like an Apple device marriage. Regardless of your sentiments for the concept, it is pretty useful, to say the least. Air Media Server is a free Mac app that lets you access all files on your Mac from your iPhone. You will need to install the iOS app which costs $1.99 in the Apple App Store. Both iOS device and Mac have to be on the same Wi-Fi network for you to be able to view the files. The files aren’t just a preview, if you have the correct app installed, you can modify them from your iOS device, as well. Read More

Safebox: Encrypt Files Before Uploading Them To A Cloud Service [Mac]

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Dropbox is essentially a great service; cloud storage and cross platform sync sum up what makes it so useful. If you aren’t a fan of Dropbox, you might like one of the other and equally popular cloud storage services like SkyDrive, SugarSync, Box etc. Safebox is a free Mac app that compliments Dropbox and other cloud storage services by making sure important files are encrypted before being uploaded to the cloud. It is most conveniently used with Dropbox, as it adds a separate folder in Dropbox, visible on your local drive. All important files are first added to the Safebox folder, which, in turn, syncs with the cloud service, encrypting the files and uploading them. It is worth mentioning that the app only encrypts your data, and does not decrypt them. Read More

Reinstaller: Backup & Recover Deleted Apps To Your WP7 Account

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It might not be a very common occurrence for Windows Phone 7 users, but there are times you are forced to wipe out all data from your device (by performing a factory reset). With the release of custom ROMs for WP7, it has become more likely that many people will opt to lose all their data in order to get a taste of the customized versions of Mango. Fortunately, you don’t have to lose your apps at least, because there is the amazingly useful app named Reinstaller out now. Even if you weren’t using the app before you wiped your phone, you can still recover all your apps via Reinstaller later. Sounds unbelievable? Read on to learn more. Read More

Cashculator: Income/Expense Manager For Planning Monthly Finances [Mac]

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Money management is one of those things that everyone should do, but it’s also what makes a person bury their head in the ground in hopes that things will just work themselves out and nothing bad will happen. While optimism will probably help you lead a healthier and longer life, when it comes to money, you should put your ‘realist’ hat on and start crunching a few numbers. Cashculator Free, as the name signifies is a free Mac app that helps you record your source of income and your expenses on a monthly basis. It isn’t exactly what you’d use to map out your life’s financial path, but if you you have no idea where your expenses are going, and not sure just  how much money you are making, this is a great way to reconcile your finances. Read More

Itsy: Simple Twitter Client That Supports Growl Notifications [Mac]

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TweetDeck is an extremely popular Adobe Air based Twitter client, with both a Mac and Windows PC version. TweetDeck is feature rich, and perhaps, an avid Twitter user’s dream; however, if you’re looking for something simpler, Itsy might be the answer. Itsy is a free Mac app that is perfect for the passive Twitter user. It supports Growl notifications, lets you view images, retweet tweets, favorite them, reply to them, view direct messages, mentions and search Twitter. The app regularly refreshes and checks for new tweets. It sits quietly in the menu bar, and while the window can be hidden by closing it, Itsy will continue to run and can be reopened from either the Dock or Menu Bar icon. Read More

Cobook: Mac Address Book That Imports Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter Contacts

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The Mac Address Book isn’t nearly as popular as some of its other default apps, like iCal and the mail client. This is one of those apps that doesn’t universally wow Mac users, and many have one or two general beefs with it. Cobook is a free Mac App that is a viable alternative to the default app, the app lets you import contacts from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The app can not only work as your default address book, but also integrate with the Mac Address Book if you’d still rather use it and sync contacts via iCloud. The app is easily accessible from the Menu Bar, and allows you to view all the information added for a contact. Since information is coming in from different sources, i.e., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, it combines the contacts into one. Read More

You Control: Feature Rich iTunes Controller For Mac Menu Bar

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iTunes controllers that sit in your system menu bar aren’t hard to find; you can find both paid and free utilities that will do nothing more than adding media controls and perhaps the song name to the menu bar. The point of these apps is to provide easy access without having to switch back to the iTunes app window, since it can be slow. You Control is a similar Mac app with two great qualities; it is feature rich, and is free. It gives you the usual media controls and song name displayed in the system menu bar, but the menu bar controls give you access to pretty much your entire media collection in iTunes. From the menu bar, you can access favorites, albums, artists, recent tracks and playlists. Controls like play/pause, stop, Next Track, Previous Track, Volume and shuffle can also be used. Read More

Gemini: Scan For Duplicate Files & Folders On Your Mac [Paid]

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Do you often keep duplicate files on your system on purpose? Some people might do so to ensure they always have a copy of a file in its original format while they play around with the duplicate. Others might just accidently end up downloading the same file again and again and saving them to a different folder each time. Clutter creating habits aside, even the best of us end up with duplicate versions of the same files, and it is hard to track them down. Gemini is a Mac app worth $4.99 in the Mac App Store that is a superb duplicate finder. It doesn’t automatically remove files; rather, it allows you to decide which ones to remove. The app can detect duplicates based on the name, and even if a file name is appended with (1) to avoid overwriting an old version, the app treats it as a duplicate as such. Read More