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Oct 25 2010

Bodega: The Mac Apps Store for the rest of us

featured 318x122 Bodega: The Mac Apps Store for the rest of us

If you were watching the “Back to the Mac” presentation by Steve Jobs1last week, you heard about the upcoming Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and the announcement of a Mac Apps Store. Jobs suggested that people like the iPhone Apps Store and how it’s so easy to find new software and buy it all from one place. And he’s right.

But what people don’t like is Apple restricting their access to the applications with the functions they want and refusing developers who don’t create applications that are in keeping with what Apple wants for its hardware.

People might want an application store for Macs, but they may not like Apple being the go-between in their search.

The funny thing is, we’ve had an Macintosh applications store available to us for some time. It’s called Bodega and it has been brought to you by Fresh Code. Bodega offers a great selection of applications and, when you choose to make your purchase, you’re directed right back to the developer who created it. All of your application (all of them, not just the ones purchased through Bodega) are listed in the Applications section of Bodega from which you can see if you have any updates to apply—you can even revisit your receipts and serial numbers there.

This free application serves to fill the need for a Mac Apps Store and it’s available for free right now for Snow Leopard.

Bodega: The Mac Apps Store for the rest of us
No Flash? No problem—click here!»

  1. if you missed it, here is it really fast [↩]

By RickMacMerc • announcement, apple, Featured, MacMerc.TV, Mini Video, osx, RickMacMerc, shareware, softwareupdates • 4 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Oct 6 2010

VIDEO: Screen Shots to the extreme with Skitch

skitched 84 318x122 VIDEO: Screen Shots to the extreme with Skitch

Last time we looked at taking screen shots on your Mac using just your Mac’s built-in powers of awesomeness. This time we take it up a notch.

Skitch is a free desktop application and web service1 from Plasq that allows you to easily take the same kind of screen shots you can take on your Mac right out of the box, but adds more functions and extremely useful features like intuitive scaling and cropping, iSight snaps, timed screen shots, the ability to sketch and type to annotate your images, a saved history, a variety of file types and sharing options including FTP, Flickr, MobileMe and a My Skitch page that comes with your sign-up—it also allows you to dig into that “Kitteh” gallery in your iPhoto library for quick and simple LOLCat creation!

No Flash? No problem—click here!»


VIDEO: Screen Shots to the extreme with Skitch

As stated in the previous post, a screen shot is basically a digital snapshot of your computer’s screen at the time when the screen shot was taken. They are really handy when you are trying to show someone what’s on your screen when you can’t get them to come over and look for themselves. Common such situations are taking screen shots of error messages or warnings that you’d like to show someone offering tech support, taking screen shots of websites when you’d like to show someone on another browser or computing platform what the site looks like on your end or taking screen shots of a wicked high score on a game you’re playing.

Skitch takes that ability and gives in extra oomph. What if your computer screen is a bit cluttered and it isn’t obvious what you are showing people. In the video below I demo how to take a timed screen shot as I reveal a hidden item in J. J. Abrams‘ Star Trek that proves that even in the distant future, some innovations of the twentieth century simply cannot be replaced or improved upon. Watch the video and see what I’m talking about.

  1. free at the time of this posting, but the app has been in perpetual beta, so that may change if it ever get officially released [↩]

By RickMacMerc • Featured, Graphics News, graphicstips, MacMerc.TV, Mini Video, osx, productivity, RickMacMerc, shareware, tips, tutorial • 0 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Oct 4 2010

VIDEO: Capture Screen Shots on your Mac

VIDEO: Capture Screen Shots on your MacThis is a tip I’ve known about for years and I thought it was common knowledge until I was reminded by my friend, @Daynah , that not everyone has been using Macs for as long as us dyed-in-the-wool Mac-heads have. There are a lot of switchers who need to know the basic awesomeness and it’s our job to welcome them in and bring them up to speed.

So, @Daynah , this one is for you.

How to take a screen shot (or how to a “Print Screen”) on a Mac

In case you’re unfamiliar with screen shots, a screen shot is basically a digital snapshot of your computer’s screen at the time when the screen shot was taken. They are really handy when you are trying to show someone what’s on your screen when you can’t get them to come over and look for themselves. Common such situations are taking screen shots of error messages or warnings that you’d like to show someone offering tech support, taking screen shots of websites when you’d like to show someone on another browser or computing platform what the site looks like on your end or taking screen shots of a wicked high score on a game you’re playing.

There are basically 3 ways to take a screen shot on a Mac:

  1. Command-Shift-3 gets you a shot of the entire screen saved as a PNG to your Desktop.
  2. Command-Shift-4 gets you a crosshair cursor you can drag around the area you want captured which is then saved as a PNG to your Desktop.
  3. Command-Shift-4 …and then Space turns your cursor into a camera that you can position over windows to capture them as a PNG to your Desktop with a single click.

The extra added bonus to this is that if you add the Control key to any of those 3 shortcuts (i.e. Command-Control-Shift-4), the screen shot is NOT saved to your Desktop but instead copied to your clipboard from which you can simply Paste it into an email. This gets the screen shot into use without cluttering your Desktop with files you’ll have to sort through later.

No Flash? No problem—click here!»



cb customize 01 318x1731 VIDEO: Capture Screen Shots on your MacIf you watch the video, you’ll see I make reference to CandyBar. This is not needed for taking screen shots, but offered me something super awesome to shoot for the the demonstration. CandyBar is a great application for your Mac that allows you to download icon sets in iContainer format from Iconfactory.com and apply them to individual files or your entire system (including the Trash). You can even use it to change your Dock appearance to match some of the icon sets. The original system icons are always easily restored again should the new look prove too exciting for you. CandyBar sells for $29 US.

VIDEO: Capture Screen Shots on your Mac

By RickMacMerc • apple, Featured, graphicstips, MacMerc.TV, Mini Video, News, osx, poweruser, productivity, productivity, RickMacMerc, tutorial • 4 • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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