Apps
Mailplane: Better Gmail for Your Mac
Matt Cone July 30, 2007
When we discussed Google applications a couple weeks ago, we mentioned several applications that allowed you to check your Gmail account from your Mac’s Desktop. But these are only good insofar as you can see that you have new email messages waiting to be read. To actually read the email messages, you still have to open up a web browser and long into Gmail. We’ve also discussed how to use Gmail with Apple’s Mail, which works great if you only use your Gmail account on your Mac.
Using Quicksilver's Clipboard
Matt Cone July 23, 2007
One of Quicksilver’s many handy features is the Clipboard module. When activated, it can keep track of the items that you have cut and copied, and let you see what is currently on the clipboard- what will appear when you paste. It can store rich formatted text and images just like the regular clipboard. First, check to see if the Clipboard module is installed. Open Quicksilver’s Plug-ins menu from the Preferences menu, the dock menu, or by typing the keyboard shortcut ⌘-Shift-’ when Quicksilver is open.
Back to School Apps for Your Mac
Matt Cone July 20, 2007
It’s that time of the year again. Time to think about breaking out the books, looking sharp for all the attractive members of the opposite sex, making new friends, and hopefully learning something. We’re talking about school, of course. Let us tell you: There’s never been a better time to take your Mac into an educational environment. Free and low-cost programs can help you turn your Mac into the ultimate learning device, and prevent it from becoming another glorified MySpace machine!
First Look: Safari 3 Public Beta
Justin Busch July 16, 2007
Apple recently announced a new version of its Safari web browser for Windows PCs. They also created a new version for Macs, too. You can try out the Safari 3 Beta by going to http://www.apple.com/safari. Download and mount the .DMG. Double-click the installer. After installation is complete, restart your Mac. (There is an uninstaller included in the .DMG that will allow you to revert back to the previous release of Safari if you run into problems.
Top Five Firefox Extensions
Matt Cone July 13, 2007
Mac users are extremely fortunate to have several web browsers to choose from. There’s Safari, Firefox, Camino, OmniWeb, SeaMonkey, Netscape, iCab, and many others. Safari is currently the winner when it comes to installed user base, and there’s nothing wrong with that - it’s a fine web browser! But you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t at least try another web browser like Camino or OmniWeb. Firefox is one web browser we strongly recommend you install.
BBEdit’s Code Folding Cleans Your Work Space
Justin Busch July 9, 2007
If you haven’t noticed, we’re big fans of Bare Bones’ BBEdit around here. We use it for just about everything, and if you ask us, it’s about as close to text-editing perfection as you can get! New in BBEdit 8.6 is Code Folding. Code Folding literally collapses all of the text and/or data between two predefined entities in a specific computer language to reduce complexity of the content in the editor window.
Turn Your Mac Into a Telephone
Matt Cone July 6, 2007
So, there was this phone thing last week, right? And we weren’t lucky enough to get in on it, even though we really wanted to. The iPhone is just too friggin’ expensive for us. Maybe you’re in the same boat: You can’t quite bring yourself to pay more than $2,000 over a two-year period for a cell phone. Or maybe you live outside of the United States. Or maybe you own an iPhone, but still want to be able to take and receive phone calls on your Mac.
A Beginner's Guide to Quicksilver
Matt Cone July 3, 2007
Quicksilver is a freeware application launcher and productivity program for Mac OS X. With a couple of keystrokes, you can quickly and effortlessly start applications, open files and folders, move things around on your Mac, and even navigate your iTunes library - all without using your mouse! Quicksilver integrates seamlessly with Mac OS X and most popular Mac applications. With a little practice, using Quicksilver will become second nature, and you’ll be using it without even knowing it.
Validate HTML Files in BBEdit
Justin Busch July 2, 2007
Validating HTML documents is an important step in web development that can sometimes be overlooked in the hasty attempt to publish web pages. Validation checks your HTML against the formatting standard developed and maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium. Valid HTML markup ensures that a web browser will be able to correctly interpret what you have coded. Thank goodness BBEdit, one of the best Mac web development applications, can do this right out of the box!
Must-Have Mac Maintenance Apps
Matt Cone June 29, 2007
According to Murphy’s law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This holds especially true for mechanical and electronic devices. If you don’t change your car’s motor oil, your engine will eventually seize up. And if you don’t perform regularly scheduled maintenance on your Mac, your computer could be in a world of hurt. Mac OS X is based on the Darwin operating system, which uses many FreeBSD components. In plain English, this means that your Mac has lot of UNIX-like stuff under the hood - stuff like system logs, cron jobs, system cache, and much more.