Mailplane for OS X
Posted by admin | Filed under Apps
I use Gmail for all my personal email, mainly for the spam filters and quick searching. I do sometimes miss the feeling of a desktop application for working with my email though. I also do a lot of website development in firefox, which gets bogged down with extenstions.
Enter Mailplane. At its core, it is a stripped down safari displaying Gmail, which makes it really fast to open. Toolbar buttons and hotkeys turn Gmail into a real application. Receive a new message and you are notified through Growl and with a count of new messages on the dock icon.
As well as the application “feel”, Mailplane has some features that can only be done with a desktop app:
- The screenshot feature opens grab with the selection tool active. Drag around what you want to email and it is captured and attached to the email as a JPG. No messing around with menus in grab.
- Multiple accounts are displayed in an account drawer on the side of the window, allowing for many, many accounts to be managed.
- iPhoto integration lets you browse through iPhoto and choose photos to send to Mailplane
- Even Google Talk is supported, and in a new window
The only drawback I’ve found so far is not being able to use greasymonkey hacks to customize the gmail interface. You can however create your own stylesheet for Gmail.
The program is currently in private beta and available only for Mac OS X, but I highly reccomend it.
Tags: Apple, gmail, leopard, mac, OS X
Mac RSS Reader Hunt: Newsfire Wins
Posted by admin | Filed under Apps
I’ve long been a google reader fan, mainly because no matter which computer I was on, I could continue reading where I left off. Lately though, I’ve been using a Macbook Pro almost exclusively and had a gaping hole in my news reader. The king of search, Google, has no search function in Google Reader. There are of course hacks to implement search, but if you switch to a different browser or have to reinstall, its all gone. So I decided on a desktop client for reading RSS feeds.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Apple, leopard, mac, newsfire, OS X, rss
Flock 0.9 Beta Observations
Posted by admin | Filed under Apps
Flock has just released the next beta, based on Firefox 2.0. I’ve been testing it out for most of today and have to say the graphics don’t make up for the features advanced users are accustomed to. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Freeware, mac, Software, Web Apps 2.0
Locationbar for Firefox
Posted by admin | Filed under Apps
Tags: add-ons, firefox, free, mac
Strip the DRM, add your ID
Posted by admin | Filed under Apps
[Follow-up to iTunes 7.2 brings DRM-free music]
With the release of “DRM-free” music on iTunes, people might feel compelled to share said music using torrents or other services. Before you do, you might like to know that your account information is embedded in every “DRM-free” file you download. This is obviously an anti-piracy move, with the goal of identifying and stopping the free music providers.
The idea behind DRM-free music was to allow you to take those files out of the Apple world and onto other devices you own (although they have to support AAC). The improved quality is said to be unnoticeable to the untrained ear.
As I live in a mac world right now, and I can’t discern much difference between 256 and 128-bit compression, I’ll continue to buy the $0.99 tracks. This move was also influenced by all the problems users are having trying to download these “plus” tracks – I couldn’t even preview one, whereas the DRM version played instantly.
Update: Check out JHymn to remove the personal information from iTunes plus music
Tags: Apple, Apps, drm, itunes, mac, mp3, OS X, privacy, Windows
iTunes 7.2 brings DRM-free music
Posted by admin | Filed under Apps
The big news some weeks ago was how EMI was going to be releasing its music DRM-free on iTunes at a slightly higher price, and higher quality (bitrate). Well that day has finally come, as seen in this screenshot.
Upgrades here in Canada cost $0.40/song, 30% of the album price, and $0.80/music video (We still don’t have access to tv shows or movies). Buying iTunes Plus songs without already owning it is $1.39 per song.
An iTunes Plus option allows you always see the higher-quality, drm-free version of a song when available.
Another new option is Complete My Album, where you receive credit for songs already purchased when buying an album.
With these new features, I’m noticing delays on the store as everyone flocks to the site to upgrade their music. I can’t even preview a “plus” song, but the old one previews fine.
More screenshots of the new iTunes
Via TUAW
Coda – Streamlined Dreamweaver
Posted by admin | Filed under Apps, Web
I’ve been coding in Dreamweaver for several years now, and while it worked fairly well, it always felt like I was using a sledgehammer when a screwdriver would do. I never use the database connections, and as a coder I rarely use design view. The built-in ftp is by no means advanced, and it was slow to boot.
Panic’s new app for the Mac called Coda is rapidly becoming my favorite environment for developing. I hate reading long paragraphs, so I’ll split this up…
Pros:
- Split a window up to 4 times horizontally or vertically, and different documents, previews, css files, terminals, and reference books in each pane.
- My newest favorite feature: a function index. Some php scripts can get very long, so it is great to have an index pane.
- Changes made to a site are tracked so you know which files were changed before uploading
- Edit remote files directly – great for fixing that typo before the client sees it
- The file browser is a real file browser where you can create folders, rename files, open with a specified app, etc.
- Its easy to forget all the possible css properties, so Coda organizes all the properties into groups and drop-downs. As a coder I prefer CSS Edit for CSS, and Coda even lets you right-click a file and edit in your favorite editor
- For the people who know *nix, there’s a built-in terminal for ssh connections
- The preview window uses WebKit and adds javascript and DOM inspectors
- Code hints as you type as well as syntax highlighting and code snippets – even shared editing over Bonjour.
- The trial only counts days you open the program – very nice!
Cons:
- Find and replace only works in the current document. There are times when I rename a folder and have to update all files with the new path, which currently cannot be done with Coda.
- The excellent reference manual requires an internet connection. Believe it or not, I don’t live online. I run a local web server to develop sometimes – the internet can be distracting.
- I’ve had issues with ftp uploading all files to the root folder of some web hosts, though a reply to my support request says this is fixed in 1.02 with a publish command.
Hints:
- If you’re used to coding in Dreamweaver like me, you may remember selecting a block of text and pressing tab to indent it all at once. In Coda, the shortcut is CMD-] to indent or CMD-[ to reverse it.
- Explore the menus and preferences for hidden options and features.
Take a look at the website for visuals and download.
Tags: Development, mac, Shareware
Gagdets to Widgets
Posted by admin | Filed under Apps
There are many widgets created with the purpose of being copied and pasted onto your myspace or personal website, and now those can live on your Mac’s dashboard too. I’ve created a few widgets from Google Gadgets with Amnesty Generator and it works pretty well so far. Amnesty Widgets makes a few other useful tools for widgets, though not all free.
http://amnesty.mesadynamics.com/GeneratorMac.html
Tags: Apple, mac, Macs, Software
Apollo ushering in the next generation of apps
Posted by admin | Filed under Apps, Web
[Apollo is now named Adobe AIR]
I’ve always like the web for its interaction; the ability to make everything interactive. I’m not talking drag and drop, but more working with databases and such – the things we expect of desktop applications. Finally the ultimate “mashup” of technologies is in alpha and it allows web apps to behave like a desktop program.
One of the benefits of having a desktop program installed is interacting with the filesystem on your computer. Forget about the malicious side of that and think of the possibilities. One sample application called Maptacular will read vcard files (contacts) from your computer and plot them on Google Maps.
More sample applications include an RSS reader, a webpage structure analyser, and one that lets you draw over anything on your screen.
Adobe’s Mike Downey did a demo of an eBay-branded Apollo application. It showed a nice interface for browsing, integrated webcam support, and even creating auctions offline which are posted when you reconnect. [Watch it here]
One of the biggest benefits is there is only 1 browser to code for, which happens to be the same one used by Apple’s Safari, WebKit. Apollo will be supported on Windows and Mac, and behave the same on both, with Linux support coming a bit later. Web designers and developers are always struggling to get the site working in all major platform/browser combinations, but eliminates that problem, saving time and money.
My first thought is a CMS for client websites. Imagine giving the client a CD which just works. It doesn’t matter if they still have IE 6 or if they have a Mac.
For me and I’m sure many others, it will be fantastic to be able to create applications which don’t require learning more programming languages like C++ or Java. I could use just HTML and JavaScript, although flex looks to be well supported in Apollo.
Not only is this runtime going to be free, Adobe plans to contribute back to the WebKit open source project with any bug fixes and developments they can.
Now it is still in alpha, which means it could be changing before being released (first half of 2007), but you can find all the details and downloads at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/apollo/. After you’ve installed the runtime you can download some sample applications from http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Apollo:Applications:Samples.
Tags: Freeware, mac, Software, Web, Web Apps 2.0
Firefox 2 Add-Ons
Posted by admin | Filed under Apps
When Firefox 2 launches in a day or two, hopefully we’ll steal some more people from Microsoft’s stranglehold on browser market share. Looking for a reason to switch? Here are some of the Add-Ons I use all the time:
Adblock Plus
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1865/
Most website have realized that everyone has pop-up blockers and sites with popups are frowned upon. So what’s the next step? fill the screen with flashing banner ads of course. That’s where Adblock comes in. It blocks any external content that acts like an ad. It could be an image or link coming from a blacklisted website, an image with “/ads/” in the address, or even an annoying flash animation demanding that you punch the monkey. I’ve been using this Add-on for the last two years and I can’t go without it now. It offers subscriptions so the author can keep you protected, but you can also right-click any offending content and adblock it.
IE Tab
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/
Some websites just won’t leave the stone age and work in anything but Internet Explorer. Most of the time it’s because of special software or security that was too tricky to do in more than one browser at a time. With IE Tab you don’t have to leave Firefox, just click the IE tab button and Internet Explorer will render that tab instead of Firefox. You can even tell it to always show certain websites with IE.
StumbleUpon
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/138/
For all those times when you’re bored online and don’t really know what you want to do, StumbleUpon can take you to a random website you might enjoy. I’ve found many interesting websites even if some of them were unexpected flash games.
Web Developer
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/60/
If you do any work on websites, you need this one. It’s like built-in diagnostics that lets you control the rendering of a page. Turn off Javascript, css, outline divs, show the ID’s of elements, and all that good stuff.
Download Statusbar
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/26/
After using this one for a couple years, I find the downloads window annoying. With this Add-on, downloads appear across the bottom of the browser instead of in a pop-up window. You can keep tabs on all the downloads you have going, double click to run, and it’s smart enough to remove images after a few seconds.
Performancing
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1730/
If I don’t have my normal blogging tool, BlogDesk, Performancing is the best browser-integrated blogging tool. It acts similar to a frame across the bottom of the screen so you can browse while composing a post. It’s one of the few that supports categories and multiple blogs as well as technorati tags.
HTML Validator
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/249/
Another tool for web developers that validates the source of every page you visit. This is especially useful with large websites where it can be a pain to go through every page with the w3c validator. Instead you can just browse the site and watch for errors.
ColorZilla
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/271/
This one is for any designers out there. If you know what the eyedropper tool is, you’ll appreciate this. This add-on lives in the statusbar and lets you grab the color codes for any pixel in the browser. Great for matching the theme of a new page with the rest of the site – if you didn’t create a style guide that is.
MeasureIt
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/539/
Again for designers – this one will measure the size of any object in the browser in pixels. Just lasso a square around something and it will tell you the size. I use this most often for finding the width of a fixed layout or the content area after padding and margins.
del.icio.us Complete
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2354/
I’ve been using del.icio.us for almost a year now with Flock but when in Firefox I used to feel cut off from my bookmarks. Not anymore – this is one of the best add-ons for delicious, especially with the tag cloud.
Roboform
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/750/ or http://www.roboform.com
Everything you could want in a password manager. It works with almost every browser, know which fields to fill, and has some of the best encryption out there. While it’s not free for more than 10 passwords, it’s very easy to use. I have the portable version on my USB flashdrive and always have all my passwords with me. Also, the billing support is fast and friendly. Well worth the money for peace of mind.
