collection

Apr 27 2009

Yahoo! Konfabulator is Free

Now at version 2.1, Konfabulator boasts more than a thousand widgets and a strong cross-platform user base. Konfabulator now represents the only free solution for running desktop widgets for users of pre-Tiger OS X and Windows.

So, whatever your OS (provided it is not Linux) you can join in the celebration of desktop eye-candy. If you previously downloaded Konfabulator (whether you purchased it or not) all you will need to do is download and install a current version to rid yourself the the shareware nags.

Now, once installed I anticipate that you will tire of the built-in widgets – exciting as they are. The first place you’ll want to go shopping is widgetgallery.com. Part of Konfabulator’s own site, this is by far the biggest collection of Konfabulator widgets around.

For a small set of Konfabulator widgets intended to replicate the default widgets in Dashboard, stop by osx-e’s Dashboard Widgets. Studio Widgets also sports a widget directory compatible with Konfabulator.

While there are plenty of widgets to sift through, here are a few of the must-haves:

pimoverview Yahoo! Konfabulator is Free

Don’t miss the built-in PIM Overview. It shows your current calendar items and tasks from iCal and isn’t active by default. Find it stashed in your widgets folder.

systemDashboard Yahoo! Konfabulator is Free

To keep track of all your system stats, you’ll want to grab Justin Pulsipher’s polished systemDashboard widgets. If subtle is more your style, try out Ricky Romero’s compact series.

GasWatch Yahoo! Konfabulator is Free

Adrian Gonzales has a pair of very useful widgets. His Gmail notifier can hide until you have a new message. He also has a money saving widget, GasWatch, that will guide you to cheap gasoline, by zip code.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are widgets you can drag files to to upload them, widgets to monitor your POP and IMAP email accounts and even widgets to notify you of voicemail messages in your Vonage account.

With the Yahoo acquisition expect more widgets to come and be sure to join me next week for more free downloads.

Brian

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Apr 27 2009

Media on the Go

We are beginning to see the world of pro-level Open Source media applications mature. As they become more popular, the benefits of their free source code are becoming evident. This week we have a collection of new portable versions of some Open Source’s best applications. As a bonus, we have a couple previews of good things to come in free multimedia applications on the Mac.

Portible Apps

Through the ever cheaper phenomena of Flash memory, the following applications can be installed to a pocket-sized drive and used on any OS X Mac without being installed on the Mac. These apps are content to live and run right from removable media, making any Mac you can get your USB drive in to yours.

Portable Gimp is one of the best-loved Open Source media applications. Now you can take it on the road, however the Mac you’ll run it on must have X11 installed. Ditto for Portable Inkscape, Gimp’s vector drawing counterpart.

We know about Portable Firefox and Thunderbird. Now you can enjoy XULtastic web designing on the go with Portable NVU.

But of course, if we what to cut to the heart of media, we want video and audio. Watch and listen to a plethora of media formats with Portable VLC. For recording and mixing on the closest Mac you can find, grab Portable Audacity.

Coming Soon

Yesterday Google announced a free 3D authoring environment (for PC, Mac version coming soon). If you don’t want to wait, you can download a free 8 hour trial of the Pro version of Sketch for the Mac.

NeoOffice is a OS X-friendly rework of OpenOffice. NeoOffice 1.2 is based on the 1.x version of OpenOffice, however an early release of the 2.0 version is available now – for a fee. The free download comes at the end of next month. Of course, you are welcome to compile the source yourself now, for free.

You can forget reinstalling all your favorite apps on each Mac you touch. Ahh, the freedom.

Brian

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Apr 27 2009

MacManX’s Picks

Well, I’m proud to start the first of our personal picks this week. I’m sure that my collection is probably the most eclectic, but I find all of these freeware apps very useful.

mu MacManXs PicksMenuMeters

MenuMeters is a collection of menu extras, featuring easy, graphic monitoring of CPU, disk, network, and RAM usage. MenuMeters is simple, easy to use, and valuable. If you can’t seem to find a practical use for it, at least the CPU graph is pretty neat to watch.

mu MacManXs PicksVLC

VLC is a powerful multimedia player that can read a variety of formats including DVD, VCD, MPEG, and DivX. For those of you who are depressed by Apple’s lack of support for more than 2 channels with its DVD player, VLC is your solution and features support up to 5.1 channels. Currently, VLC’s GUI is more advanced and intuitive than MPlayer and unlike the current version of MPlayer, VLC tells you when and why it can’t play a certain file, rather than just quitting.

mu MacManXs PicksTux Paint

Do you have small children? Have you made the move to OSX? Do you and/or your kids miss KidPix? Then I strongly recommend that you try Tux Paint . Tux Paint is a paint application that is aimed towards young children (similar to KidPix). Tux Paint features basic drawing tools, designs, colors, and a downloadable stamp set.

mu MacManXs PicksCocktail

Cocktail is an undeniably valuable tool for every OSX user who is either afraid of the terminal, or just doesn’t have the time to bother with it. Cocktail takes control of nearly every terminal command available and presents it in a very easy and intuitive GUI. SOme features include prebinding, Cron scripts, delete archived log files, delete caches, and customizing the look and features of the Finder and Dock.

mu MacManXs PicksFreeSnap (fka, Snatcher)

FreeSnap (fka, Snatcher) is an easy to use and powerful screen shot application. It features the ability to take screen shots of the entire screen, window, or selection. FreeSnap also features AppleScriptability, scaling, timed screen shots, 10 different formats, global key combos, a completely invisible mode and more.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my picks for this week and find some of them useful. Have a great week!

James

mu MacManXs PicksDownloads provided by MacUpdate ??

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