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Apr 27 2009

Browser Classics

Long before Apple took the Jaguar on Safari, Cyberdog brought the web to Mac. This week we’ll look of the original free web browsers.

NCSA Mosaic 2.0

The great-grand-daddy of all browsers, this is where the web began ten years ago. Believe it or not, Mosaic is still downloadable and functional, more or less.

Netscape Communicator 4.8

As the story goes, Mosaic’s creators go commercial and create Netscape. Before abandoning the original code in favor of the new Gecko rendering engine in version 6, communicator matured to the still loved version 4.8.

Cyberdog 2.0

My personal favorite and Apple’s first true web browser, Cyberdog integrated mail, news and the web built with customizable OpenDoc technology. Though Apple long ago left Cyberdog for the pound, you can still download it and it maintains a following on the web.

Internet Explorer

Well, I was about to go looking for an old downloadable version of IE, but I realized that it hasn’t changed all that much, so you can fire up 5.1 and have about the same experience as with the classic version.

The faces have changed, but the game is the same. With Safari, Camino and Internet Explorer vying for control of the web, it’s worth revisiting the past to see what progress we’ve made in 10 years.

Brian

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Apr 27 2009

SNES Emulation

MegaManX3 SNES Emulation


Who wants free games? We all do. How many of you remember Super Nintendo? I’m sure that most, if not all, of you do. Well, today I’ll show how to legally play your favorite Super Nintendo games and add about 300 games to your library.



First, the legal stuff. Yes, it is currently illegal to emulate and play high-tech games that are still being sold on the market. This would include Nintendo 64, Playstation 1 and 2, X Box, and MAME (arcade). However, you can legally play these games up to 24 hours. After which, you must delete the game. Notice, Super Nintendo is no longer sold on the open market and is considered a “classic”. This means that most SNES games are freely available to download, however, games that currently have their own legal protection are blocked by the IDSA. If you currently own the IDSA protected game, however, you can legally have the ROM on your computer.



Now for the emulator. I highly suggest that you use SNES9X Custom HQ. This is based off of SNES9X, of course, but features at least one thing that the original Mac version left out. If you said C4 chip emulation, you’re right. The C4 chip is the base of Mega Man X2 and 3 among other popular SNES games. If you played Mega Man X3 with the original SNES 9X, you’ll notice that the game “plays” as a black screen. However, the game runs normally under SNES9X Custom. Please note that emulation isn’t perfect. Some games still have odd bugs.



And, of course, you’ll need ROMs. The only site that we’ll be endorsing in this article is CherryROMs, due to their high legal standards. All you have to do is sign up (it’s free and they don’t SPAM) and you’re on your way to downloading all the games you ever wanted. While you’re searching for games, you’ll want to notice that “[!]” means the ROM is a “good dump”, which means that it’s “perfect”.



Now, get out there and have some fun!



Note: CherryROMs is the only site that we are endorsing in this article. Any other sites posted in the comments are subject to review and possible deletion.


This spotlight has been brought to you by MacManX.

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Apr 27 2009

Rocking with iTunes

This week we’ll look at freeware to go with the newly updated iTunes. I have tested all these on my system with iTunes 4.1, but that doesn’t mean they will agree on yours.

mu Rocking with iTunesiTunes

Here’s a no-brainer. Upgrade to the latest version of iTunes and enjoy the newest features. If you’re stuck on a PC, at least now you can groove in style.

mu Rocking with iTunesiAlarm

Start the day right with your favorite playlist in iTunes. iAlarm will also wake you up by reading news or weather headlines, a custom message or AppleScript. Simple and free.

mu Rocking with iTunesMaestro

The readme on this software was in French, so for all I know it could do anything. What I found it does well is provide a cool floating window that lets you control iTunes, including playlists that come up in a handy drawer.

mu Rocking with iTunesJacket

This visual plugin displays images that correspond to songs, albums or artists. Best of all, Jacket will pop open your browser and help you locate a graphic that goes with your song. Once found, adding the graphic is as easy as drag and drop.

mu Rocking with iTunesSofa

For those of you looking for cover art in a floating window, sit right down. Sofa downloads cover art from Amazon and displays it in a floating window on your desktop.

Now that you’ve enhanced a free app with more free apps, spend some money on tunes instead. Would you like a Pepsi with that?

Brian

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