shareware

Oct 25 2010

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!»

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

By RickMacMerc • announcement, apple, Featured, MacMerc.TV, Mini Video, osx, RickMacMerc, shareware, softwareupdates • 4 • Tags: application store, free application, funny thing, iPhone, iphone apps, mac apps, mac os x, macintosh applications, macs, new software, receipts, serial numbers, slider, snow leopard, steve jobs

Oct 6 2010

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.

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 • Comments Off • Tags: computer screen, computing platform, distant future, error messages, File Transfer Protocol, Flickr, free desktop application, high score, iPhoto, isight, j j abrams, macintosh, MobileMe, Oomph, perpetual beta, plasq, screen shots, screenshot, Skitch, slider, star trek, video screen, web service

Sep 22 2010

VIDEO: Windows Management with Divvy

As boring and uninspiring as managing onscreen windows is, Divvy from Mizage makes it dead sexy. I know Mac OS X has Spaces and Exposé and I was all excited about those before they came out too but, now that I have them, they drive me crazy. Spaces I just have turned off and Exposé, though it helps me every so often when I lose a window, is just not a part of my geek utility belt as much as I had envisioned.

Divvy, on the other hand, does what I need doing and does it well. I can tell it, “I want this window to take up exactly 4/7 of the left side of my screen and I want this other window wit take up the other 3/7.” Heck, I can even tell it to make them overlap a bit. All I have to do is summon Divvy’s little window, drag and draw the area on the miniature screen it shows and the window snaps into submission.Then I can save those dimensions and setups to Divvy’s shortcuts menu and reduce the whole procedure down to summoning Divvy’s window and hitting a shortcut key.

Divvy does suffer from some logistical problems with complicated application interfaces like Adobe Photoshop, where there are windows and palettes and multiple navigation bars, but it does work—you may have to adjust the grid in Divvy’s Appearance tab to get better handling around the toolbars. Divvy is fabulous and sells for $14 US.

No Flash? No problem—click here!»

Hey, someone said something about a discount code?»