UGN InfoManager

TweakerSoft VectorDesigner -- a very cool resolution independent vector graphics application for Mac OS X.

Posted by Fred Showker at 11:15 AM |

Many applications call home on a regular basis. Do you know who they are? Little Snitch 2 can tell you when it happens and which ones are calling. Of course most of the connections are needed, but you should be aware of what is happening.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:15 PM |

Most applications for the Macintosh currently are shipped as Universal apps. This means that they contain code to allow us to run them either on PowerPC machines or on Intel machines.

Xslimmer will delete unneeded code as one way to get back space on your hard drive.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:42 PM |

The OS Files is a one stop portal for all operating systems that run on the x86 platform. This includes Windows, Windows Server, DOS, DR-DOS, Unix (including Darwin, Mac OS X, Solaris, etc.), Linux, and others.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:40 PM |

Agile Web Solutions just released AllBookmarks 3.0, a major upgrade to the free Bookmark Manager that provides access to all your browser bookmarks in one place.

Posted by Fred Showker at 8:20 AM |

I first came across the issue of port forwarding when I was still somewhat active on AOL and tried to use AOL's client for MacOS X. I couldn't get the client to connect via my router.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:34 PM |

I may have mentioned this site in the past. But I just came across it again and was reminded how user friendly it is. Of course, it talks about Mac Freeware.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:40 PM |

The folks over at lifehacker.com have put together a list of "free" applications as an alternative to the MacHeist $49 bundle. (Which of course is already a good deal.)

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:25 PM |

Many of us were sad to see Mac|Life quit being MacAddict and dropping the monthly CD of software. For some time, they have had a library on line for all its readers.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:46 PM |

I have listed several sites with free and open source software. About.Share4VN.com has one of the best. It also has a number of applications that I did not know.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:01 PM |

Probably the least used menu in Mac OS X is the Services menu. (Found under the application menu item.) But there are a lot of features in that menu, some of those may not be useful to you.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 8:06 PM |

This article comes from CIO magazine, which would seem to be an odd place to show rebellion from the Wndows standard.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:11 PM |

Jeff Carlson, wrote this article for TidBITS. The vulnerability of iCal to spamming was recently announced by one of the anti-virus vendors. Jeff says that he actually had an unexpected morning even called "Hello Dear".

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:50 PM |

This is a blog article about how Mac's Trash can is a one size fits all and some files need to be more completely deleted.

He recommends using an Apple Script to deal with a second trash that does multiple write over to make sure it is truly gone.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:48 PM |

Best of the Web has the article with the above title. Some of the list we have heard of repeatedly in the past, but there are a couple of new ones.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:03 PM |

This opinion piece by Ryan Faas has been published in Computerworld.
His idea is to talk about the "hidden" features that we may not have heard about or even noticed.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:30 PM |

As many of you know, i Sync has been not only the premier solution for syncing data with cell phones, in many cases, it has been the only solution. Now there has been an update to iSync to allow new phones to be synced with Macs. Cell phone owners can use the iSync plugins from nova media. The new 6.0 version adds 13 new plugins for phones from Nokia, Samsung and Motorola.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:40 PM |

Apple has announced the session schedule for this year's WWDC. The World Wide Developer Conference is June 9-13. It is the premier event for developers of Macintosh, iPhone and X-Serve.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 8:21 PM |

As we noted earlier, we had some concerns about the parental controls not being completely effective on this site. I was able to get a response from them that unfortunately was buried in my "Junk" folder until I went through it this afternoon. It was actually emailed to me on March 12th.

It would appear that they are trying to cover this subject, but user should be aware of the issue. The response follows:

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 2:11 PM |

I just came across this web site that aims to keep the cost of software for students to an economic level. The list here is a little dated as it was put out in September 2007, but it seems to have a lot of good software and you can update with current versions using VersionTracker for either platform and/or MacUpdate for Macs.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 1:14 AM |

Ed Dale's Blog, TubbyNerd has an article with the above title. To demonstrate, he has a YouTube video and an HD video posted.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 12:49 AM |

Many Tricks has released yFlicks 3.3, an update to its movie manager/viewer for Mac OS X. With yFlicks, users can download, tag, organize and of course view their movies. This update adds coverflow for browsing your movies both in window and fullscreen mode, lets you access your iTunes movies from yFlicks, improves downloading from video communities such as YouTube, and features a lot of other small improvements.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:50 PM |

On March 18th, Apple patched 10 vulnerabilities in Safari for OS X and 3 in Safari for Windows. Computer World discusses the flaws and quotes a security analyst.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 12:22 PM |

Zevrix Solutions announces the release of WordOutput 1.0, its new powerful solution to automate output of multiple Microsoft Word documents to printer and PDF on Mac OS X.

Posted by Fred Showker at 4:00 PM |

Everyone needs a little excitement in their dull computing life... come and get it...

Posted by Fred Showker at 10:00 PM |

Macgamestore and Gogii Games have teamed up to announce the release of Escape The Museum, a new puzzle/hidden object game from the creators of Hidden Secrets: The Nightmare.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 12:42 PM |

baKno has announced the release of SpacePig, an entertaining cartoon style 3D game for the Mac.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:26 PM |

Miglia, a leading brand in digital media products, today announced the release of the Mac only TV Mini HD Express for US "free to air" digital television users.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:14 PM |

Fortunately, Joe Showker studies these things better than I do. He discovered that this software is at high risk for "adult" material and other objectionable content.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:59 PM |

LifeHacker has presented this article as an alternative to "Back To Your Mac." Of course, "Back To Your Mac" is a feature of Leopard that requires a dotMac account. But any long time Mac user can tell you that there are a number of alternatives that while more difficult and not as feature rich available.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:03 PM |

You've heard us rave about WireTap in the past -- and this new "Studio" is the best product yet for recording and then editing any audio your Mac produces. (Pandora, or any of the music videos on YouTube) Now they've upgraded with some nice new features, and the upgrade is free!

Posted by Fred Showker at 8:39 PM |

Wouldn't be nice to have the ability to add notes to other documents. The notes could be aimed to yourself or other people. With Paperclip 1.2 you can do just that. It is kind of a sticky note application that attaches to other files. (And it now works with Leopard.)

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:14 AM |

I have been using Miro to select videos from the web. This application does some of that and some things it doesn't. It locates, vies and downloads videos from YouTube, Veoh, BlipTV, Eyespot and photos from Flickr, Picasa, Webshots and Photobucket.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:43 AM | Comments (0) |

MacBreak Weekly, one of Leo Laporte's many podcasts, mentioned this piece of software. Actually just called "Secrets", is very much in Beta and is very dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:08 PM | Comments (0) |

By now you have probably heard one story or other about how a couple of guys wrote Graphic Calculator for the PowerMac when the PowerMac was underdevelopment at Apple.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:50 PM | Comments (0) |

SheppyWare's web site is subtitled: "Software for the Apple II, Mac and BeOS. (Only they use all caps.) I found it by reading an article in Computer World about an Apple IIC that was recently sold on eBay for $2600.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 8:42 PM | Comments (0) |

We've said many times that A Better Finder Rename is the most comprehensive file renaming solution for the Macintosh ever made. Now it's gotten better... you need this!

Posted by Fred Showker at 6:35 PM |

CheckUp is a new way to monitor the activity of your computer. It's like the dashboard of your car.

Posted by Fred Showker at 11:22 AM |

Bill Westerman wrote this article last year, but it seems to be pretty up-to-date.
He gives 10 points about malware on the Mac.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 8:27 PM | Comments (0) |

Now includes the AES-128 encryption for journals to keep them safe from prying eyes, and a lot of other improvements.

Posted by Fred Showker at 11:18 AM |

Serious about making movies? Keep reading...

Posted by Fred Showker at 11:45 AM |

Synium today announced the public beta 5.1 of MacFamilyTree. MacFamilyTree is one of the most popular genealogy program for the Mac.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 12:00 AM |

Ambrosia Software has rolled out the latest release of iToner. This update of the highly popular iPhone custom ringtone transfer tool offers improved support for iPhone OS 1.1.3, along with other bug fixes and improvements.

Posted by Fred Showker at 6:00 PM |

Macware's FontLibrary is a collection of great fonts in both TrueType and OpenType format for commercial use.

Posted by Fred Showker at 11:30 AM |

In classic Mac OS I used TypeIt4Me to handle reproduction of text that I used frequently. I ran an Excel class on AOL using it and even used it to order AOL disks for distribution to my MUG so I could get free time. It was great for filling out the form.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 12:12 AM | Comments (0) |

Searchware Solutions has announced Print Window 4.0 for Mac OS X, the latest version of their window printing utility for the Mac.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:57 PM | Comments (0) |

As you undoubtedly know, Mac OS X can read text for you. So how about program that uses AppleScript to convert text to audio files so that you can listen to your e-mail on your iPod or iPhone?

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:15 PM | Comments (0) |

One of the new features of Mac OS X Leopard is QuickLook. QuickLook of course gives you the ability to look at files without using the application that created it.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:14 PM | Comments (0) |

Berbie Software TrailRunner is the outdoor oriented route planning and journaling software for Mac OS X.

Posted by Fred Showker at 8:40 AM |

Are you ready for the ultimate war game?

Posted by Fred Showker at 5:00 PM |

Freeverse Neon Tango, an original game for the Mac. Neon Tango is a psychedelic arcade shooter with thrilling action, eye-popping visuals, and a spoonful of retro sprinkled on top.

Posted by Fred Showker at 7:42 AM |

Limit Point Software's MenuMinder 1.3 lets you create quick, simple alert, email and SMS Text Message (mobile phone) reminders using the system-wide menu that can be accessed from any application.

Posted by Fred Showker at 11:30 AM |

Eternal Storms Software HierarchicalDock version 1.2, is donationware which allows for hierarchical menus for folders in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)'s Dock.

Posted by Fred Showker at 4:46 PM |

It looks to me that this widget would be useful for the next MacWorld Expo to help us get around the Bay area.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:42 AM | Comments (0) |

DiskLibrary is a fun and easy to use media cataloging application for Mac OS X. DiskLibrary is indispensable if you have a lot of media to keep track of. DiskLibrary catalogs not just your complete file structure, it also creates thumbnails, and stores metadata, for most popular media formats.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:36 AM | Comments (0) |

Macgamestore.com and Encore Software today announced the release of Jeopardy! Deluxe as a digital download on its web site. The game was previously available in a boxed format only.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 12:08 AM | Comments (0) |

I found this listed I believe on MacObserver and the article claimed that it was the first Basic help site for the Mac OS. One of the comments said MUGs have been providing this kind of information since 1984.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:11 AM | Comments (0) |

I personally prefer playing strategy and puzzle games over the arcade games. POV, or Point of View is just such a game.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:49 PM |

I don't know how many of you have used 1Password for your Mac OS X system, but version 2.5.10 now extends the password abilities to the iPhone.
1Password is a highly secure database that keeps track of web site logins, notes, identities, credit cards, bank accounts and software registration info.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:30 PM | Comments (0) |

Are you a switcher? To Mac that is. Apple has instituted a new series of video and text training articles on their web site.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:44 PM | Comments (0) |

We have all been familiar with what started life as the iPod and later became iLounge.
Here is a web site that aims to provide forums and other support for the MacBooks in general and the MacBook Air in particular.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 8:38 PM | Comments (0) |

You Control's menu bar software for iTunes provides us with the ability to control iTunes while it is hidden. This means that you can skip to the next song or select a different one using a menu added to the menu bar.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 2:31 PM | Comments (0) |

Earlier this week, it was reported that Microsoft's New Office for Mac 2008 incorrectly assigned full read and write access to a nonadministrative user if the Mac was set up with multiple accounts.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 1:12 AM | Comments (0) |

Scribbles is a neat, simple drawing program. The tools are extremely simple but the coolest part is...

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 6:58 PM | Comments (0) |

Maintain has announced the release of Cocktail 4.0.4 (Leopard Edition). It adds support for clearing Microsoft Office 2008 font caches and address compatibility issues with QuickTime 7.4. It also fixes a bug that kept network optimization from being applied for DSL (PPPoE) connection type.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 8:29 PM | Comments (0) |

So you have a calendar you want to share. Or perhaps you are looking for a calendar of particular events.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:07 PM | Comments (1) |

According to an article in InformationWeek IBM is looking to work more closely with Apple. This includes porting its Informix "Cheetah" database to Leopard and introducing a version of its Lotus Notes e-mail client for the iPhone at Lotusphere conference next week in Orlando.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 8:24 PM |

Aimersoft Studio has released the best Mac DVD and video Converter software for Mac users; it includes two mighty Mac converters: Aimersoft DVD Ripper for Mac and Aimersoft Mac Video Converter.

Posted by Fred Showker at 9:26 AM |

MineSweeper is an attempt at taking over a Mac through the web.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 6:21 PM | Comments (0) |

iLabel X 2.0, a completely rewritten version of the label-making application, has just been released. This application can also be used for many repetitive printing tasks, such as printing barcode sheets, parcel labels, enveloppes or business cards.

Posted by Fred Showker at 8:56 AM |

NetNewsWire 3.1.1 is the latest version of my favorite RSS/Atom newsreader.
It uses a three-paned interface, similar to Apple's Mail. It fetches and displays news from websites and blogs.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:51 PM | Comments (0) |

Maintain has announced the release of Cocktail 4.0.1 (Leopard Edition)

Posted by Fred Showker at 4:12 PM |

Last week we lamented that there was no good pinball program for OS X. Several readers wrote and recommended the baKno MacPinball widget. We downloaded it and -- although a bit problematic installation -- are having a good time with it. Still not a full featured pinball game, but lots of fun anyway...

Posted by Fred Showker at 12:11 PM |

Robert Pritchett has released the newest issue of macCompanion Magazine. This of course is her pre-MacWorld Expo and has its predictions for 2008.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:45 PM |

This web site will help you get more our of your iPod, no matter which one you have or which computer platform you are using.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:29 PM |

Synium Software announced iFinance 2 on January 5th to be available as final release. After about a year's development including extensive beta and public beta testing, the popular personal finance tool goes live with many new and improved features...

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:43 PM |

This blog by Chris Kerins was published last spring, but most of the 10 tricks are still available today.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 7:35 PM |

Ergonis Software has announced the release of Typinator 2.1

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 4:14 PM |

Freeverse have announced a launch of new games have been added to their game portal: Demos of games can be downloaded immediately...

Posted by Fred Showker at 5:40 PM |

It has been awhile since I have mentioned open source software for the Mac.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:41 PM |

Earlier today, the Netscape group at AOL announced that they were going to shut down their development work.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:20 PM |

Here you will find a collection of various gaming emulators available for use on your Macintosh.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 6:24 AM |

Here is away to actually get to those few web sites that require Internet Explorer to access them.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 7:09 PM |

pop-pop is the pulse-quickening action arcade game that pits you against a dazzling color world with fierce action. And now there's a new version

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 8:30 AM |

Travel through the beautiful city of Venice, one of Italy's most intriguing cities, and solve an ancient mystery before Venice sinks into the water.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 8:19 AM |

Cynical Peak Software has updated Cyndicate 1.1, their next generation RSS/Atom aggregator and content management application for Mac OS X. Version 1.1 brings better Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard compatibility and adds a number of new features.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 8:13 AM |

Life isn't easy when you're a 12 pound ball of tar ... Gish suddenly finds himself in the subterranean sewers of Dross, a long forgotten city filled with twisting corridors, evil traps and some of the most demented creatures imaginable.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 7:52 AM |

Norrkross Movie offers lots of tricks to make video editing smooth

Posted by Fred Showker at 5:38 PM |

20MacApps Announces Bundle of 20 Apps for 40 Dollars with No Repeats

Posted by Fred Showker at 11:34 AM |

Now you can find what you're looking for!

Posted by Fred Showker at 8:45 PM |

Tis the season for some cool holiday graphics. It's not too late...

Posted by Fred Showker at 11:40 AM |

app4mac's CheckUp Preview 1 is an innovative tool to check the health of a Mac computer.

Posted by Fred Showker at 8:45 AM |

Isn't it a pain in the wazoobie trying to print envelopes? Now, the excellent folks at Ambrosia have fixed the problem.

Posted by Fred Showker at 4:45 PM |

On December 18th, Intuit announced that it had fixed a problem with an update that caused files to be deleted from the users hard drive.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:04 AM | Comments (0) |

Last Wednesday, SWsoft announced that it would change its name to Parallels, that will be more in line with its primary product. This name change will occur early next year.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 8:46 PM | Comments (0) |

There have been 40-45 MacWorld Expos held in the United States. I have attended 3 Apple Fests prior the the Mac being introduced and nearly one half of the Expos. So, I got to thinking back to what I would have done differently and what would make it a better experience.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 10:53 PM | Comments (0) |

Notae 2.2 brings significant improvements over the previous version of the popular advanced notebook software

Read the full article

Posted by Fred Showker at 11:15 AM |

I have long wanted to learn REALbasic. This looks like a perfect opportunity to get instructions at a inexpensive cost. The publisher of REALbasic Developer magazine is offering all five years of back issues.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 9:51 PM |

As you probably know, Leopard introduced Automator 2.0. It has several new features. Including Starting Points, Recording & Playback, Command-Line Utility, Workflow Variable, Workflow Looping and new Automator Actions.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:45 AM |

It would seem to be a work around, but Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac's PowerPoint will let users port PowerPoint presentations to iPhones and video-equipped iPods.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:45 AM |

Freeverse has long been a developer of Mac Games. They recognized that Mac people want to play on line games and there has been a limited amount available. With Macfun.com Mac users can play against other Mac users.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) |

BusySync: Multi-User Calendar Sharing for iCal - Designed for families and small workgroups,

Posted by Fred Showker at 11:34 AM |

TidBITS has published an article with the above title. By now you have probably heard about the announcement from the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team concerning a vulnerability in Quicktime on both Macs and PCs.

Posted by Lynn Wegley at 8:50 PM |

Yummy Software has released Yummy FTP 1.7 for Leopard -- an FTP, FTP SSL/TLS, and SFTP client that combines all the best features available in other file transfer solutions

Posted by Fred Showker at 8:22 AM |

a new version of the popular consumer product with a high quality raytrace renderer and built in modeling tool