Tag Archives: App

Collections: Desktop Viewer & Editor For Google Docs & Instagram [Mac]

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Google Docs and Instagram are two amazing services. Google Docs, although accessible from your Desktop (provided you have the Google Drive app installed), does not provide an editor, and Instagram, while developing its web interface, is still best used from your iOS or Android device. Collections is a free Mac app that supports both Google Docs and Instagram. While it is just a viewer for your Instagram feed, on the Google side of things, it is a desktop editor that allows you to edit, update and save changes to files in Docs. You can access documents, presentations and spreadsheets and edit them using the same tools available on the online version of the suite. For Instagram, the functionality this app provides is pretty much the same that you get from the web interface, but as far as great Instagram browsers for your desktop go, this app is a good contender. Read More

Send Links From Desktop Browsers To Chrome For iOS Without Jailbreak [Mac]

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With the recent release of some of the most popular desktop web browsers for the Android and iOS platforms, users have been looking for ways to to efficiently manage browsing websites between desktops and mobile devices. We recently told you how you could send links from Safari in iOS to the Chrome app that was recently made available, and quickly became one of the top apps in the App Store. Web2Go is a free Mac app that works with a $0.99 iOS companion app and lets you send links you’re viewing on your Mac to your iOS device. The transition isn’t direct, i.e., the Web2Go iOS app acts as a mitigator and sends the link to the browser. The catch, or rather, the slight shortcoming, is that you cannot send links in bulk. The app only reads the current tab you are looking at, and sends it to your iDevice's Chrome app. Read More

Droplings: Upload Files To Dropbox Public Folder From Mac Menu Bar

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Of the many reasons behind Dropbox’s popularity, its desktop client is possibly one of the more obvious ones. It simplifies uploading files and makes it so much easier to work on an item on your desktop, and still be able to save the changes directly to your cloud drive. For users who just can’t be bothered with uploading a file using the web interface of a service, Dropbox is a welcome solution. A while back, the little Dropbox folder on your system would have been the most amazing thing ever, but now, many services (like Google Drive) have created similar desktop clients, some even better than the former. Granted Dropbox’s desktop folder that syncs is still impressive, but in an OS like Mac, where users are accustomed to making better use of the Menu Bar, it sometimes feels like adding files to Dropbox is a bit of a drag (no pun intended). Droplings is a free Mac app that lends better functionality to your Public Dropbox folder by way of the Menu Bar. Files that you drag & drop on to this app’s icon are automatically added to your Public folder, and you can easily retrieve the public link. Read More

Launch Multiple Apps & Websites With A Single Keyboard Shortcut [Mac]

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App launchers and shortcut creating tools are some of the best types of apps to use if you’re trying to organize the way you start work, simplify launching apps or maybe impress any onlookers when you’re working on your Mac. Either way, apps like these are very popular and occasionally pricey, and, sometimes, ugly and complicated, too. Launch it! is a free Mac app that lets you launch apps with shortcuts you add yourself for each one. You can record URLs to open as well and when the associated shortcut is pressed, the website is opened in your default browser. If the browser isn’t running, the app will launch it. Launch it! runs in the Menu Bar, has no Dock icon and is perhaps one of the easiest apps to configure. You can add as many apps and websites as you like. The app will not warn you if you record a shortcut that is already in use by the system and will override system shortcuts. Read More

ReFind: A Bookmarking App For Your Frequently-Accessed Folders [Mac]

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App launchers aren’t uncommon for Mac, and many of these will allow you to mark folders as favorites for faster access. For the most part, these apps carry a price tag, and their free versions are often limited. Many simpler solutions exist; you can create and add a folder to the Dock and add aliases (shortcuts) for your favorite folders to it. The end result is a quick launch folder for all your favorite directories. The process is rather long, takes up space in the Dock, and is mostly manual. ReFind is a free Mac app that lives in the Menu Bar and allows you to bookmark folders that you frequently visit. Provided you access folders through the app's folder browser (which works entirely in the Menu Bar), the app learns which folders you access the most on its own. If you feel ReFind is cluttering the Most Popular category with too many folders, you can Bookmark a folder and access it from the app’s bookmarks. Read More

Math & Physics Equation Creator That Saves Output As Text And Images

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Not everyone has to deal with mathematical equations, statistical symbols or complex units. For the select number of people who do work with them on a daily basis, one frequent annoyance is the lack of symbol support in common text editors. While you might find some support for common symbols if you’re trying to write an equation that will be viewed across different platforms and in different programs, you are likely to find no support for these characters. Daum Equation Editor is a free Mac app that offers considerable support for writing equations. It is an equation editor that doesn’t just provide you basic symbols, but rather the correct equation format that you would use if you were to write it out with pen and paper. Take, for example, a scenario where you want to express 0.5 as an equation, you can write 1 over 2 using the divide symbol, but Daum Equation Editor lets you express it in the actual fraction format. The app lets you save your equation as either text or an image so you can later add it to a text editor. Read More

Music Player That Connects With iTunes & Tweets The Songs You Listen To [Mac]

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Both independent media players, and those that work with your iTunes library, focus on making it easier to listen to your music. Free apps that you find in this regard are functional, but the interface is rarely good, and when you pay for such an app, you will get a few more features and a shinier interface. MUSIC Pub is a Mac app that is available in the Mac App Store for $4.99 (definitely on the pricier side) that is a music player built for your eyes. The app plays audio from music and video files in your iTunes library, and at the core, is an alternative controller for iTunes. Its interface, however, is what sells it. Unlike your typical player that rests in the Menu Bar or is a boring window, MUSIC Pub looks like a tall glass of foaming malt (or beer, or whatever). Shaped like a glass, the music player cleverly uses its aesthetics to incorporate its functions, which include a rating system, play/pause, next/previous song, volume, lyrics panel and Twitter controls. Read More

Unlock Your Mac With A Swipe Gesture On Your Keyboard Or Mouse

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Customizing your lock screen is something you’re more likely to do on your phone, but since desktop systems are also locked, there is no reason why you shouldn’t have fun customizing that particular area of the operating system. We’ve covered quite a few lock screen apps for Mac, like Screen Vault, which lets lock your screen behind an alphanumeric password or a drawn pattern. The common thing among these apps is that they lock your screen, mimic the iOS lock screen and allow you to swipe and unlock your system, but they require you have a track pad. If you’re on a Mac Book, it’s no big deal, but for users who bought an iMac or Mac mini and didn’t go for a track pad, there is Lock Screen Plus - a Mac app worth $1.99 that gives you pretty much the same features as other lock screen apps we’ve reviewed, with the added advantage of unlocking your screen via a swipe gesture across your keyboard. Like all good screen locking apps, Lock Screen Plus has a keyboard shortcut for quickly locking your screen. You can choose which input device (mouse or keyboard) will unlock your system, and skip setting a password if you like. Read More

Capture Screenshots On Mac, Edit Them & Upload To Cloud

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Screenshot tools have been covered by us in abundance for multiple platforms and devices in the past. Mac screenshot tools have the default screenshot utility to compete with, and usually have one feature that will outdo the default Preview app in Mac. Monosnap is a free Mac app that takes screenshots, uploads them online to a cloud server and has a built in image editor for cropping, blurring, drawing and annotating the image. If you compare it to recent Mac screenshot tools that we’ve covered, it amasses most features into one app. Screenshots can be taken of a custom area on the screen, the entire screen or a 10 second time delayed capture of the entire screen. Monosnap requires you to signup using your Facebook account, and has customizable hotkeys for taking a full or area specific screenshot. Read More

Right Zoom Mimics Windows’ Maximize Button Behavior In Mac

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OS X is a great operating system, and Apple is very particular about how things should be done. It isn’t very likely to change a feature or function to mimic how other operating systems work. For those of you who once used a Windows PC and later switched to a Mac, or continue to use both, you will undoubtedly have noticed the unconventional behavior of the maximize/zoom button in OS X. This green button that you will find on all types of windows in Mac, when clicked, maximizes a window such that the content is visible at its original size. It does not maximize the window so that it fills all available space on the screen, as the sme button in Windows does. Right Zoom is a free Mac app that allows you to change this behavior of the green traffic light button, and mimic the maximize function in Windows. The app lets you choose which app windows the change will effect, and once you’ve set the new behavior of the zoom button, you can exit the app.

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Popular iOS Twitter App Tweetbot Now Available For Mac In Public Alpha [Review]

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Tweetbot is one of the most popular Twitter apps available for iOS, and quite possibly second to only the official Twitter app. The developers of Tweetbot have just launched a client for OS X. The Mac app isn’t just new, it’s bleeding raw. Taking advantage of their existing user base, the developers have launched the app in a public Alpha. They’ve given users fair warning that bugs are to be expected, and have also provided a list of things they know are missing and will eventually make it to the final version. The alpha version is free, and the app will remain so until version 1.0 launches, after which there will be a price tag on the app, even for alpha users. As per the official site, the app aims to be as similar to its iOS counterpart as possible, and that has been the core focus for the developers. This review not only explores how the app itself works, but also compares it with the iOS app to see how well the developers have succeeded in mimicking the experience for Mac users. Read More

Air Snapshot: Send Photos From iPhone/iPad To Mac Over WiFi

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If you’re an Apple fan, a loyalist or just a believer in the concept that software companies should make their own hardware for better results, then it’s possible you own both a Mac and an iPhone. Both are superb devices, and their respective OSes work as well as you would expect. Like all software and hardware, there exists with Apple products a disparity between how a device works and the way you want it to work. Apple products follow a certain pattern, and while you may not always like how things get done, it doesn’t necessarily mean there is something wrong with the product itself. Of the many things that Apple is rather adamant about, the method of moving files between a Mac (or a Windows PC) and an iPhone via iTunes is one of the more commonly known and faced constraints. iPhone owners don’t really have to care much for this, since there are many apps available for utilizing the space on an iPhone. Then, another rather annoying behavior (to some users) is that when you connect your iPhone to your Mac, Image Capture will always load and ask to import your pictures. If you disable it, you will have to use iTunes to sync photos, and that, too, gets complicated. If you’ve ever wanted to end your dependency on an app for transferring photos from your iPhone to your Mac, you need, ironically, another app for that. Air Snapshot is a free Mac app that works with an iOS app of the same name (worth $1.99 in the the iTunes App Store). It is nothing complicated and requires both devices (iPhone/iPad and Mac) to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network in order to transfer pictures. Read More

Launch Apps Or Run Scripts On Mac From The Bottom-Left Hot Corner

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Hot Corners in Mac are one of the more convenient ways of launching common system features like the Screensaver or Launch Pad. While the feature itself is great, it might not be practical to assign a function to every single corner of your screen. Not only is it hard to remember which corner does what, but the choices for what you can do are limited. BIG Red Button is a Mac app worth $2.99 in the Mac App Store that allows you to launch any five apps or run Apple Scripts. Unlike the default Hot Corners feature in OS X Lion, it gives you the freedom to choose which apps or scripts you want to run, and lets you set an app to run on default when you click in the bottom left corner. Read More

Transfer Files From Mac To iPhone Over Wi-Fi Without Using iTunes

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The iPhone is easily one of the best things that Apple has ever made, but there are certain things you have to accept about an iPhone. One of them is that you cannot use the iPhone as a mass storage device. You literally have a considerable amount of storage on your phone that you will have to fill with audio, video and image files. iTunes does have a file sharing option, but since you can only authorize 5 systems to sync with your phone, it is far from a universal solution. There are, however, apps available to make this file transfer easier, and if you’re a Mac user, File Storage Companion is an app that, coupled with its iOS client File Storage, lets you transfer files from your Mac to your iPhone over Wi-Fi. The Mac app is free and available in the Mac App Store, whereas the iOS counterpart costs $1.99. The iOS app isn’t just a means of transferring files, but is also a fairly good file viewer that can create directories (folders) and open zipped files. Read More

Monitor Up To 4 Different Websites In An Ad-Free Interface [Mac]

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A web browser, at its core, is a feature rich app for viewing websites. It is, however, meant for more than just viewing websites and browsing cat pictures. Modern browsers are smart, support add-ons and extensions, provide developers tools for creating web portals and many now exist for both desktop and mobile platforms (Safari, Inter Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Opera). For simpler web viewing needs - ones that might not require multi-tab browsing and are more focused on monitoring a site - smartView is a free Mac app that can step in. Free throughout July and available in the Mac App Store, smartView normally costs $0.99. The app is meant for segregated viewing of up to four websites. Each site appears in its own window and is free of ads. At its core, smartView is a web viewer; however, it is suitable for monitoring web pages, for opening your frequently visited websites, keeping them separate from your browser and easily switching between them. Read More

TapSocial: View Twitter Feed & Monitor Hashtags In A News Ticker [Mac]

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Different Twitter clients for any platform come with varying interface and purpose, and Mac is no exception to the rule. Some make it easier to monitor your tweets, letting you keep up with what everyone’s say without getting distracted, while others may be there to properly fuel your Twitter addiction. Some of these may work from your Mac's Menu Bar, others via Growl notifications, and still others may have their own windows. TapSocial is a Mac app that’s gone temporarily free (originally priced at $4.99). It’s a Twitter client that works like a news ticker. A bar is added to your desktop that you can reposition to any part of the screen. Your Twitter feed appears within this bar, much like the news ticker you see on news channels. The appearance of the tweets can be modified in terms of the font and background color. You can also change the feed animation from news ticker to flipping (similar to the flight schedule at old airports). Read More

Create Playlists For QuickTime With Up To 10 Items Per List [Mac]

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QuickTime player, Mac’s native video viewing and editing app, does everything except supporting Flash (obviously) and creating playlists. For some reason, this otherwise feature-rich and sophisticated app doesn’t let you create playlists, and there is no work around to it, at least natively. If you want to create playlists for movies, you will have to forget about viewing them in QuickTime and use iTunes instead. One alternative, although a limited one, is to use Playlist Lite, a free Mac app that lets you create playlists for QuickTime and for iTunes. Although for iTunes, you don’t really need an app like this, but Playlist Lite nevertheless aggregates from iTunes as well. The functionality is pretty straight forward, and as the name suggests, this is a "lite" version, hence limiting the number of items you can add to a playlist to 10. While this is indeed restricting, it appears that the Upgrade option won’t work either, and you are left with just the limited version. The app itself is only 2 days old at the time of writing, so, it’s probably just a bug that will (hopefully) be fixed soon, and allow users to upgrade. Read More

Run An AppleScript When A Bluetooth Device Goes In/Out Of Range On Mac

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A couple of months back, we reviewed Bluetooth Screen Lock (detailed here). The app allows you to lock your screen whenever a specific Bluetooth device paired with your Mac goes out of range. It is one of the best ways of ensuring you never forget to lock your system when you leave. Bluetooth Proximity Tasker is a Mac app worth $1.99 in the Mac App Store and developed by the same developer who made Bluetooth Screen Lock. The app works on the same principal, except that it allows you to run a AppleScript when a Bluetooth enabled device comes in or goes out of range. Unlike the previously covered app, this one allows you to perform different actions for when the device is in range and when it leaves range. You can run one or several scripts for each action. Although slightly pricier than the previous app, it offers more functionality. Read More

Create Hyperlinks To Any Part Of An iTunes Song, Video Or Podcast [Mac]

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iTunes is more than just a media player; it’s a media manager, lets you listen to and download podcasts, keeps your movies and music collection organized and backs up & transfers files to and from your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. TunesLinker is a Mac app worth $1.99 that will help you get more out of iTunes than you would have thought possible. The app lets you create hyperlinks to any part within a song, a movie or podcast. While it doesn’t sound terribly useful if you only have music in your iTunes library, it provides a way for you to ‘bookmark’ portions in a podcast or a movie. These bookmarks, or hyperlinks, can be saved to any text editor and played from any app that supports the link format. Read More

Take Pixel-Precise Screenshots In Mac OS X

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One of the very basic features of an image cropping tool should be to allow very precise control, i.e., users should be able to decide how many pixels they want to trim from any of the four sides. Such a crop tool is difficult to come by for Mac, and will likely have a bloated price tag. For users who need this specific functionality for screenshots, there is Precise Screenshot. It is an excellent Mac app priced reasonably at $1.99 and available in the Mac App Store. The app comes with screenshot size presets, but also allows you to trim the screenshot area by the pixel. A red frame that you can position anywhere on your screen outlines the screenshot area, and you can choose to either use this frame or capture the full screen. Precise Screenshot also has a time delay feature for taking screenshots (both full screen and area specific), and once captured, they can be stored as files in PNG, TIFF or JPG formats, or copied to the clipboard for pasting. A number is appended to successive screenshot files, and they can be saved to any folder of your choice. Read More