Free For All

Block Internet Ads with Safari AdBlock

mcone — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:15:38 +0000

Matthew Cone
Friday, December 14, 2007

It seems we here at Macinstruct discuss blocking pesky Internet ads at least every couple months. There's a good reason for our ad-blocking articles: Advertising is more distracting and pervasive than ever before. Flashing banners and animated graphics can prevent you from focusing on what's really important -- the content.

Fortunately, there are ways to block the nasties. Several months ago, we talked about how to use Privoxy to block ads. Then we discussed PithHelmet for Safari and Adblock Plus for Firefox. But now there's a new ad-blocking kid on the block, and this option looks better than all of the other solutions. Safari AdBlock is a free plug-in Safari users.

The nice thing about Safari AdBlock is that there's nothing to configure. You just download the installer, install the plug-in, and then restart Safari. The webpages you visit will automatically be cleansed of flashy banners. Not of the all textual ads disappear, however, which fine by us. (Some of the Google AdSense text ads are actually useful.)

What a different an ad-blocker makes! A Mac website before (left) and after (right) with Safari AdBlock enabled. Notice the two main banners -- one on the top and the other on the sidebar -- disappear.

So what are you waiting for? If you're a Safari user, go download Safari AdBlock for free! Install it today and start surfing the web without advertising.

Meet Your Macinstructor

Matthew Cone is a technical writer living and working in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In his free time, he does the desert rat thing and hikes and road bikes around the Southwest. The rest of the time, he studies straw-bale houses, reads Anarchist philosophy, and pretends to not be working. You can email him at: matt@macinstruct.com

Mac System Monitoring Apps

mcone — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 07:20:57 +0000

Matthew Cone
Friday, August 3, 2007

There are millions of car owners out there who will probably never look under the hood and see their vehicle's engine. They don't care whether or not their engine is overheating or their oil pressure's jacked up or their car battery is about to conk out on them. As long they can drive, they're good to go. And in the same vein, many Mac users don't care about their computer's inner workings.

Which is a shame, when you think about it. Knowing what your Mac is up to and help you keep it in tip-top shape. MacBook Pro users can use the information to keep their portables cool, and the rest of us can locate processor hogs and RAM leaks. Fortunately, there are a number of great applications out there that can help us with this mundane (or should we say geeky?) task.

iStat

Free (Donations Requested) - http://www.islayer.com/index.php?op=item&id=25

This free application is far and away the best in its class. Use iStat to keep an eye on your processor and memory utilization, your network status, your Mac's uptime and load average, the temperatures and fan speeds, and even your battery's health. All of the information can be configured and tweaked to fit your Mac lifestyle.

iStat's geek lust factor is off the charts. The nerds are going to stare at this program for hours, but there's a lot here for Joe Sixpacks, too. And if you like iStat, be sure to check out the other stats applications on iSlayer's website. They're the Mac stat kings!

GeekTool

Free - http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/

If you've ever wished that you didn't have to drop into Terminal every time you wanted to run top, GeekTool is for you. This free application lets you run Unix commands and display the output transparently on your Desktop. It's pretty much a must-have for the Systems Administrators among us, but everybody can find something here to love.

To be honest with you, this application requires quite a bit of configuration. You'll have to spend some time fiddling with the settings to get it the way you want it. But once you get it right, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.

MenuMeters

Free - http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/

We're big fans of this one: MenuMeters is a small, unobtrusive application that sits in your menu bar and provides easy to read stats. What more could you ask for? We'd like to be able to customize the display a little bit more than we can, but that's a minor issue. This is a great freeware gem that no nerd should be without.

This bad boy evens supports multiple processors! The Mac Pro users among us should get a real kick out of that.

Activity Monitor

Free - Included with Every Mac

This has to be one of the most under-used applications in Mac OS X. The Activity Monitor is on every Mac running Mac OS X, just waiting in the Utilities folder (inside Applications). Discussing all of Activity Monitor's features is beyond the scope of this article, but we will that you can see every process running on your Mac, check your memory, see your disk activity, and even keep tabs on your processor.

The best part? Activity Monitor lets you turn its Dock icon into a CPU stat chart. Just look for the option under the Window menu!

Meet Your Macinstructor

A Greenhorn's Guide to the Mac Web

mcone — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:07:22 +0000

Matthew Cone
Friday, July 27, 2007

Google and RSS feeds have fundamentally rewired the Internet in recent years. Instead of visiting our favorite websites on a daily basis, we search for content and sift through it in our RSS readers. But if you're looking for the most up-to-date content from sources you trust, there's still no better way to get it than visiting the actual websites. Which websites should you visit? That's a good question.

Until now, we've resisted the temptation to provide a links section on Macinstruct. Today, we'd like to share our personal favorites with you. This is by no means a comprehensive guide to all of the Mac websites out there. The list could literally go on forever if we tried to list every single Mac website out there! We had to narrow things down, and this is how we did it:

Is the website frequently updated? We need to see at least a couple articles per week.
How good is the information? We're looking for quality, not typos, technical errors, and irreverent information.
Is the format fun? Is it easy to find information? Excessive advertising and click-throughs just kill some websites.

So, without further ado, here are our favorite Mac websites.

Macworld

http://www.macworld.com

This publishing powerhouse commands a small army of websites, such as Mac OS X Hints, MacUser, Playlist, and iPhone Central. Even with all of those websites, Macworld itself is still the best. They publish some of the highest quality Mac news articles, tutorials, and reviews on the Mac web, and they publish a lot of information. You're likely to find ten to twenty new articles there on any given day.

Macworld's healthy balance of news, views, and how-tos is refreshing. This is one site that you'll want to stop by every day of the week.

MacSurfer

http://www.macsurfer.com

This staple of the Mac community was around long before Macinstruct was born, and it'll be around long after many of the copycat news websites bite the dust. MacSurfer collects and displays links to all of the day's interesting Mac articles. And when we say all articles, we mean all. You name it, and it's probably on MacSurfer. They have links to news blurbs, tips and tutorials, and even blog postings on obscure websites you've probably never heard of.

If you only go to one Mac website, make it MacSurfer. The managing editor tells us that they'll have a completely new website "very soon, probably to a public beta." RSS feeds and "loads of customization possibilities" are coming for paid subscribers.

TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog)

http://www.tuaw.com

Blogs are all the rage these days. If you had to just read one, you'd want to make it TUAW. Sure, they're owned by AOL and can be a little pretentious at times, but there are some real gems on their website. Look to be bombarded (in a good way) with quality news articles, shareware reviews, and short tips and tricks. We're especially in love with their tips and tricks, and the unpredictable nature of their posting schedule makes the whole website that much better.

Their coverage seems to fair and balanced for the most part: They'll give most applications and websites a plug. And don't miss the full RSS feed - a major TUAW plus! [Suggested by Macinstructor John Farr.]

TidBITS

http://www.tidbits.com

This free weekly web publication has been covering everything Mac since 1990, and their content is second to none. Most of the TidBITS editors and contributors are published authors and editors at Macworld magazine, so it's no wonder the all-star lineup pumps out a great newsletter that can be viewed online, sent to your email box, or viewed with your RSS reader.

We can't believe it's free! Even if you don't read every issue, there's no reason not to be subscribed to TidBITS. Get on it!

RhythMac

http://www.rhythmac.com/

We stay up to date on our Apple rumors. That's why we use RhythMac, a website that collects rumors from all over the web. Websites like MacRumors, AppleInsider, and ThinkSecret are represented there, and the clean ad-free design means that you'll find your rumors faster.

There's no RSS feed, unfortunately, but we'll take what we can get. The RhythMac website is handy enough as-is. [Suggested by Macinstructors Max Leepson and Wayne Linder.]

My First Mac

http://www.myfirstmac.com/

If you don't know where to start with your brand spanking new Mac, you better head over to My First Mac - a new website designed for new Mac users. The site is still wet behind the ears, but judging from the quality content and organization of My First Mac, we can tell that this site is going to be one great resource. As of this writing, the website is ad-free and run by volunteers.

Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of content there for seasoned Mac users. If you're on your fourth Mac, you can safely pass over this link. [Suggested by Macinstructor Erik Kulvinskas.]

MacApper

http://www.macapper.com/

Part of the fun of using Macs is all the great freeware and shareware software available. To get the skinny on great applications, make MacApper one of your daily stops. This website has information about all sorts of Mac programs, as well as some news and tutorials. And, because MacApper has a very aggressive publishing schedule (usually posting two or three articles per day), you'll learn a heck of a lot more, faster.

MacApper's full RSS feeds are a tremendous asset to any Mac user's RSS feed collection.

Apple Support

http://www.apple.com/support/

The very best Mac, iPod, and iPhone support website is published and maintained by Apple. Their technical writers often complete dozens of FAQ and How-To articles every day of the week, and the website contains literally thousands of articles to help you solve whatever problem you might be having. Some of the real gems on Apple's Support website are the comprehensive tutorials, like Switch 101.

Spend some time familiarizing yourself with this website. It's an invaluable resource, and one every Mac user should frequent. The forums aren't half-bad, either.

Michael's Mac

http://www.michaelsmac.com/

When Mac customization website ResExcellence shut down for good last year, Mac gear-heads were left with nowhere to go. Sure, there's MacThemes, but the publishing schedule is a little flaky, and the focus is kind of narrow. Fortunately, ResExcellence founder Michael Coyle is back online with a new website called Michael's Mac.

Michael publishes several new tidbits every day of the week, so be sure to visit his website for links to new desktops, icons, and tutorials around the web. Also be sure to visit the IconFactory, another long-time icon staple of the Mac community.

MacNN

http://www.macnn.com

Mac news websites are a dime a dozen these days. Which one is the best? We're not sure, but most of here rely on MacNN for our daily news. This website writes a lot of their own articles instead of rehashing previously published material. Plus, they really keep on top of things - MacNN is one of the most up-to-date Mac news sites.

Other fine Mac news websites include MacInTouch, MacMinute, and MacDailyNews.

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Back to School Apps for Your Mac

mcone — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:05:18 +0000

Matthew Cone
Friday, July 20, 2007

It's that time of the year again. Time to think about breaking out the books, looking sharp for all the attractive members of the opposite sex, making new friends, and hopefully learning something. We're talking about school, of course. Let us tell you: There's never been a better time to take your Mac into an educational environment. Free and low-cost programs can help you turn your Mac into the ultimate learning device, and prevent it from becoming another glorified MySpace machine!

If you're attending the University of New Mexico, you'll inevitably find yourself at the Frontier Restaurant - an Albuquerque staple for over thirty years. While you're there, you can upload some pictures to UNM's Flickr website, which is where we found this one.

As with any investment, it's wise to protect your Mac and do some homework before you start using it at school. Here are some general tips for those about to take their Macs into the wild:

If you're going to be using an Apple portable at school, buy a lock and use it when you're in public areas. (Yes, this includes your dorm room.) We know it's a pain, but it can prevent somebody from walking off with your fancy MacBook. It happened to our PowerBook G4 a couple years ago, and it can happen to you, too. Don't risk it!
Look into purchasing insurance for your Mac. If the unthinkable happened, at least you would be able to purchase another computer.
Most colleges provide computer recommendations for incoming freshmen. Some even go so far as to say that Macs won't work with their networks and technology infrastructures. Don't believe them - you can make your Mac work with just about any network and group collaboration package!
There are several websites out there designed to help you use your Mac at school. Macversity is one such website. This handy little blog provides real world tips and tricks from somebody in trenches! [Thanks to Macinstructor Matt Hoult for this tip!]

Now, on to the must-have school applications...

Software for Starving Students

Free (Donations Requested) - http://softwarefor.org/

There are a lot of Mac applications out there. If you don't know where to begin, Software for Starving Students is a great place to start. This package includes dozens of free applications that no Mac user should be without! It comes loaded with a complete office package, instant messaging applications, a web browser, multi-media programs, and of course plenty of academic tools.

Sure, you could just download each of these applications individually. But most of the students we know are too lazy... err, busy to do that. This package allows them to install a bunch of great applications in one fell swoop. [Thanks to Macinstructor Max Green for this tip!]

Task List

Free - http://idisk.mac.com/gonfunko/Public/tasklist.html

You're going to school and you have lots of homework and reading. Then there are the labs, group assignments, and tests to keep up with. How do you keep track of it all? You use Task List - a free application that help you keep track of homework, tests, projects, grades, notes, and more.

The best part? Task List allows you to create "Classcasts" to keep in touch with your professors and classmates. Plus, you can export to iCal, iPods, web pages, and even RSS Feeds. Hot! [Thanks to Macinstructor Max Green for this tip!]

Schoolhouse

Free (Donations Requested) - http://www.loganscollins.com/schoolhouse/

If Task List isn't quite your style, try Schoolhouse - another free homework manager for Mac OS X. Macworld recently reviewed this application and gave it four out of five mice. Personally, we miss Task List's export options, but we really dig Schoolhouse's Mac-like look and feel - it's just about perfect.

Give it a whirl and see if it works for you. If you don't like either Task List or Schoolhouse, try out yet another free Mac homework manager: iProcrastinate. It's pretty slick!

iFlash

$14.95 - http://loopware.com/iflash/

How many decks of index cards have you gone through to make your flash-cards? If you're like us, you've gone through too many. Get ready for iFlash - a program that helps you create virtual flash-cards on your Mac. This handy application lets you print your flash-cards, export flash-cards to your iPod for last minute study sessions, attach images to your flash-cards, and even download over 900 pre-made flash-card decks from other iFlash users.

This application is a must-have for anyone studying stuff that requires a lot of memorization. Foreign language courses and Chemistry come to mind.

Library Books

Free (Donations Requested) - http://haroldchu.id.au/index.php?q=node/2

You check out books to do research and leave them in your dorm room for weeks on end. When do they have to be returned to the library? Use Library Books to find out! This free menu bar application connects to one of the supported libraries to identify the books you have checked out and tell you when they're due.

Not every library is supported, but you can email the author of Library Books and ask him to add support for your library. Pretty soon, there won't be any excuse to not return your books on time! [Thanks to MacApper for telling us about this application.]

ProVoc

Free (Donations Requested) - http://www.arizona-software.ch/provoc/

Are you trying to learn a new language? You've got to get ProVoc, a free vocabulary trainer that makes learning a language easy. Just download the application and a vocabulary pack, and you'll be ready to learn!

ProVoc allows you to export to iPod, so you can learn on the road. You can also print flash-cards, use the free Dashboard Widget, and listen to the audio pronunciation of words. [Thanks to Macinstructor Justin Busch for this tip!]

Google Docs and Spreadsheets

Free - http://docs.google.com/

Group projects happen. When you get hit with one, turn to Google Docs and Spreadsheets. This free service allows you to turn your web browser into a fully-fledged word processor and collaborate with your peers. You can save your work in just about any file format, and you can also publish it on web pages. We love how you can track revisions!

The bad news? As of this writing, Google Docs doesn't support Safari! Talk about a major oversight. Bad Google.

Facebook Exporter for iPhoto

Free - http://developers.facebook.com/iphoto/

School isn't all about work, right? You need to be able to have a little fun. Enter Facebook Exporter for iPhoto, a free application that makes uploading your photos to Facebook easy. You can upload just one photo, or all of them at once.

Just select Export from the File menu in iPhoto, and then select the Facebook tab. It's as easy as that! You can even tag people in the pictures right in iPhoto. How cool is that?

Mozy

Free (2GB) - http://mozy.com/

It's bound to happen: You'll be working on a paper at 4 AM (due at 8 AM, of course) and Microsoft Word will decide to conk out. Easy the pain of the "Oh s**t!!!" moments with Mozy, the free online Mac backup solution. Mozy does its work in the background automatically while your Mac is idle. And since every is stored securely on Mozy's remote servers, your stuff will be there even if something happens to your Mac.

The free version of Mozy provides 2GB of storage space. You can upgrade to a lot more space than that for a small monthly fee.

WiFind

$8.00 - http://www.tastyapps.com/

If you're toting an Apple portable around college and Internet cafe environments, you're going to want to beef up your AirPort menu. WiFind shows you wireless network signal strength, encryption status, and more - all in the AirPort menu! Think of it as the missing menu for AirPort.

After a couple days with WiFind, you'll wonder how you ever lived without this bad boy. Give it a whirl!

Meet Your Macinstructor

Top Five Firefox Extensions

mcone — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:31:27 +0000

Matthew Cone
Friday, July 13, 2007

Mac users are extremely fortunate to have several web browsers to choose from. There's Safari, Firefox, Camino, OmniWeb, SeaMonkey, Netscape, iCab, and many others. Safari is currently the winner when it comes to installed user base, and there's nothing wrong with that - it's a fine web browser! But you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't at least try another web browser like Camino or OmniWeb.

Firefox is one web browser we strongly recommend you install. It's free, and it's better than Safari in many respects. Firefox's plug-in architecture, for example, is simply amazing. Anyone can write a cross-platform extension that plugs into Firefox, and hundreds of people have done exactly that. The dozens of free Firefox extensions available provide a compelling reason to switch from other web browsers.

It could take days to download and evaluate all of the Firefox extensions available. That's why we've assembled this list of our ten favorite Firefox extensions. Read about them here and then try 'em out on your own. It's free, and kinda fun.

How to Install Firefox Extensions

Mozilla, the non-profit organization working on Firefox, has done a great job of making extension installation a breeze. Here's how to do it:

Visit the Firefox Extensions website. Browse around for an extension you'd like to add.
Once you've found an extension worthy of your time, click the Install Now button.
Firefox will ask you if you're sure you want to install the extension. Click Install Now.
Firefox will automatically install the extension - you don't need to do anything else. After it's installed, you might have to restart Firefox to load the extension. To do that, click Restart Firefox.

Growl Notifications

Free - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4634

Once you've started using Growl, the free notification system for Mac OS X, you'll wonder how you ever managed to live without it. You'll also start trying to integrate all of your applications with Growl! That's why Growl Notifications for Firefox and Thunderbird is so cool. This official extension from the Growl team finally links Firefox to Growl.

Growl will feed you notifications about Firefox downloads and provide general information as well. A must-have extension for Mac users.

Adblock Plus

Free - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865

Sure, Firefox comes with a built-in pop-up blocker, but it doesn't always work and it doesn't block all of the other advertisements you'll run across these days. That's why we use Adblock Plus. It catches nearly all of the nasties and wipes them off our screen! And, unlike other ad-blocking software, it works really well without any additional configuration.

There are several ad-blocking extensions for Firefox, but the thoughtful features Adblock Plus builds into Firefox puts it head-and-shoulders above the rest. Give it a try - you won't be disappointed!

Fasterfox

Free - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1269

Firefox isn't the fastest Mac web browser, but Fasterfox can help speed it up. This performance extension "allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay." Truth be told, it works pretty well straight out of the box.

What does it do? When your Mac is idle, Fasterfox pre-fetches web pages you might visit before you even visit them. Then, when you click a link, the web page loads super fast. It's apparently the bane of webmasters' existences, but a boon for everyone else.

Gspace

Free - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1593

Do you have a Gmail account? Are you using all of your 2.8 GB Gmail file space? If not, you should look into Gspace. This amazing extension allows you to use your Gmail account as an online drive. Upload files from your hard drive and store them on Google's servers!

Obviously, this extension is not sponsored or sanctioned by Google, so use it at your own risk. The people who created Gspace suggest that you create a new Gmail account just for this purpose, and we second that idea. Nobody wants to have their email messaged erased just because they uploaded a file or two.

Web Developer

Free - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60

A must-have for anyone into website design and development. Once you start using Web Developer, you'll never go back. It just integrates so well with Firefox! You can view CSS and HTML information on the fly, and you can even edit the local version of website to see what small changes would look like.

We're not really fond of the huge toolbar Web Developer adds to the top of the Firefox window, but hey, you can't have everything, right?

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Turn Your Mac Into a Telephone

mcone — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 09:10:27 +0000

Matthew Cone
Friday, July 6, 2007

So, there was this phone thing last week, right? And we weren't lucky enough to get in on it, even though we really wanted to. The iPhone is just too friggin' expensive for us. Maybe you're in the same boat: You can't quite bring yourself to pay more than $2,000 over a two-year period for a cell phone. Or maybe you live outside of the United States. Or maybe you own an iPhone, but still want to be able to take and receive phone calls on your Mac.

That's what this little article is all about. We're about to introduce you to free (or nearly free) software that can help turn your Mac into a telephone. Some of these applications allow you to call other people on their Macs. Other applications allow you to call people's phones. And some applications add silly and sophisticated features to your existing cell phone service.

Note that none of these applications are a substitute for a real telephone. You cannot make emergency phone calls to 911 with any of these services, so don't disconnect your land line or cell phone just yet.

Skype

Free - http://www.skype.com

Some people call it a revolutionary voice-over IP service. We call it an instant messaging client on steroids. In reality, Skype is probably a cross between the two. You can use it to make free Skype-to-Skype computers calls, hold video teleconferences, call any phone in the world, and even chat (in good-old text) with friends online. And, because Skype is owned by eBay, you can sleep well knowing that it's not a fly-by-night outfit.

Not everything about Skype is free. You'll have to pay to call other people's phones, and you'll also have to pay for other niceties like voice mail, headsets, and a real phone number that can be used with Skype. But the prices are low, the quality is excellence, and the application is about as Mac-friendly as it gets. We used Skype to call a friend in Kenya last weekend, and the quality was flawless.

Gizmo

Free - http://gizmoproject.com

If Skype is the Coke of Internet telephone applications, Gizmo is the Pepsi. We've got to admit that this application is pretty slick! Like Skype, Gizmo lets you make free computer-to-computer phone calls and acts as an instant messaging client. You have to pay to call friends with phones, but Gizmo's rates seem to be slightly cheaper than Skype's.

With features like call recording (good for podcasts!) and integrated Google Maps, Gizmo is obviously trying to lure people away from other voice-over IP options. But with no built-in support for video conferences, they might have a tough time!

iChat

Free - http://www.apple.com/ichat

Surprisingly, iChat is still the best application for talking to other Mac and PC users. You can talk to anyone using iChat or AIM with a microphone (all new Macs come with them built-in). The sound quality is usually pretty good, and the video chat isn't half-bad either.

You'll know you can talk to your friends when you see the green telephone next to their usernames. Just click on that phone icon to the start the voice conversation! Unfortunately, there's no way to use iChat to talk to people on their phones. And there's no support for iChat on the iPhone, either. Bummer!

Callwave Visual Voicemail

Free - Apple Downloads

This nifty little Dashboard widget allows you to add iPhone voice mail-like functionality to your Mac. After you create a free Callwave account and start forwarding voice mail to Callwave, you'll be able to access new voice mail messages right on your Mac. And you can listen to the messages in any order, just like you can on the iPhone!

Activation is fast and easy (Callwave works with nearly every cell phone service provider), and you can start using it in a matter of minutes. Coolest feature: Callwave can try to use voice recognition technology to send your voice mail messages to you as text messages. Highly recommended!

Zfone: Encrypted Phone Calls

Free - http://zfoneproject.com/getstarted.html

Some voice-over IP phone applications, like Skype, have built-in encryption to protect your privacy. Other programs come up short in the security area. iChat and Gizmo don't encrypt conversations by default, making your conversations accessible to anyone with the proper eavesdropping applications. Fortunately, there's a free application that can be used to secure your calls: Zfone.

Installation is a breeze, and set up is pretty easy too. The only problem is that your pals have to have Zfone installed on their computers, too. It can sometimes be a pain coordinating that sort of thing, but hey, security is security!

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Must-Have Mac Maintenance Apps

mcone — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 08:21:58 +0000

Matthew Cone
Friday, June 29, 2007

According to Murphy's law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. This holds especially true for mechanical and electronic devices. If you don't change your car's motor oil, your engine will eventually seize up. And if you don't perform regularly scheduled maintenance on your Mac, your computer could be in a world of hurt.

Mac OS X is based on the Darwin operating system, which uses many FreeBSD components. In plain English, this means that your Mac has lot of UNIX-like stuff under the hood - stuff like system logs, cron jobs, system cache, and much more. If it sounds like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, that's because it is. In fact, most Mac users will never need to delve into the UNIX side of their Macs. But there is a very important UNIX aspect of Mac OS X that concerns every Mac user, and that is background maintenance tasks.

Forcing Background Maintenance Tasks

According to Apple, every Mac running Mac OS X is supposed to perform maintenance tasks in the background. But if you don't leave your Mac turned on at night, the maintenance tasks may never be performed:

Mac OS X periodically runs background tasks that, in part, remove system files that are no longer needed. This includes purging older information from log files or deleting certain temporary items. These tasks do not run if the computer is shut down or in sleep mode. If the tasks do not run, it is possible that certain log files (such as system.log) may become very large. These tasks are scheduled for 03:15 to 05:30 in your computer's local time zone.

You could just leave your Mac turned on every night. That's a sure-fire way to run the background maintenance tasks. But it's also a waste of electricity. A better solution is to reschedule the maintenance tasks to run while your computer is turned on.

We'll show you how to do that with a third-party application. It turns out that there are quite a few Mac maintenance apps you can use to get the job done, so we'll introduce you to some of our favorites.

Oh, and in case you're interested, you can manually force the background maintenance tasks to run by typing some commands into the Terminal. See this excellent article for more information on that.

OnyX

Free - http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx_tiger.html

This free application is the Rolls Royce of Mac maintenance applications. It would take several articles to discuss all of the features included in OnyX, but its maintenance features alone make it well worth the download. OnyX allows you to run all of Mac OS X's maintenance scripts from within the application, but it also allows you to reschedule the scripts.

It took us about five minutes to install OnyX and reschedule our maintenance tasks, which isn't bad when you consider that we only have to do it once. Just make sure to schedule the tasks at a time when you know your Mac will be turned on.

Cocktail

$15 - http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php

This shareware application was recently updated with a slew of new, powerful features. The press is raving about Cocktail, and we like it too. Its Pilot scheduler feature provides some really cool scheduling options for maintenance scripts, cache clearing, and repairing disk permissions (we love this).

Cocktail's features more than justify its $15 price-tag. If you're looking for a handy maintenance application packed with features in a clean, streamlined interface, look no further.

MacJanitor

Free - http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_hill/macjanitor.html

Unlike OnyX and Cocktail, which are packed full of features (many that you'll probably never use), MacJanitor is a one trick pony. It's a small, light-weight application that allows you to run the daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance tasks manually. Just start the application, verify that you're an administrator, and click one of the buttons to run a series of maintenance tasks.

MacJanitor doesn't allow you to reschedule maintenance tasks, which is a real bummer. But if you're looking for a free, simple maintenance application that won't take up much space on your hard drive, MacJanitor might be for you. Just don't forget to run it every once in a while!

Macoroni

$9 (Free 35 day trial) - http://www.atomicbird.com/macaroni

Macoroni is perfect for new Mac users. Just download and install - Macoroni will take care of the rest. This little "application" isn't an application at all, but a pane in your Mac's System Preferences. The most amazing thing about Macoroni is that it schedules maintenance tasks right out of the box.

It's the little features that make Macoroni well worth the measly $9 price tag - Macoroni doesn't perform maintenance tasks unless your Mac is idle, and it also won't perform the tasks if your Mac portable is running on battery power. Highly recommended!

Anacron

Free - http://members.cox.net/18james/anacron-tiger.html

Anacron is an invisible background daemon that requires no configuration, set up, or attention. It monitors your Mac to make sure that the maintenance tasks are run, whether you turn your Mac off at night or not. Anacron does come with a nice installer, which makes it easy to get started.

Would you ever know if Anacron stopped working? Probably not, since there's no graphical interface. That's a pretty serious drawback in our opinion. Nevertheless, if you're looking for a small, transparent application to ensure that the background maintenance tasks are performed, Anacron might be your ticket.

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Must-Have Google Mac Apps

mcone — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 09:00:12 +0000

Matthew Cone
Friday, June 22, 2007

There's a lot of information on the Internet these days. In fact, according to one report, there are now over 11.5 billion web pages. It's anybody's guess how we're supposed to find the stuff we're looking for - it's like finding a needle in a haystack! Fortunately, there are some excellent tools at our disposal, like Google, the company that links us to information.

You could, of course, simply use Google's website to search, manage your Gmail account, and add events to your Google calendar. But that's so old-school. All the cool kids are searching Google from their desktop and managing their Gmail from a widget - without even opening a web browser!

What follows is a list of our favorite Google applications for Macs. This list is by no means exhaustive - we're just sharing the cream of the crop!

Bay - Google Reader Notifier

Free - http://troelsbay.eu/software/reader

Still visiting all of your favorite websites on a daily basis? It's time to look into RSS and get news items delivered automatically! If you use Google Reader to manage your RSS feeds, you should check out Bay, a free app that lets you access your unread Google Reader articles from your Mac's menu bar.

It's simple, effective, and free (donations are requested, however). If you're addicted to RSS and you use Google Reader, this is a must-have application!

Google Notifier

Free - http://toolbar.google.com/gmail-helper/notifier_mac.html

Gmail and Google Calendar are great, but they're even better in your Mac's menu bar. Thanks to Google and its Google Notifier application for Macs, you can check your email and events without ever opening a web browser! (Of course, to actually do anything, like read your email or change events, you'll still have to visit Google's website.)

If you have a Gmail account, you'll quickly wonder how you ever lived without Google Notifier. This is one application that stays on our menu bars. In the unlikely event that you don't like Google Notifier, be sure to give GmailStatus (free) a try.

Google Dashboard Widgets

Free - http://www.google.com/macwidgets/

Google has three beautiful Dashboard widgets for your downloading pleasure. These bad boys allow you to check your Gmail account, post to your Blogger blog, and sift through your search history.

These widgets don't provide a whole lot of functionality, but the recently updated Blogger widget really is the cool! And it is nice to be able to search and sort through the email messages in your Gmail account.

Google Desktop

Free - http://desktop.google.com/mac/

This new application allows you to search for stuff on your Mac and the web, but it isn't nearly as revolutionary as some of the hype might lead you to believe. (Be honest here: Do we really need another application to help us search our Macs?) While Google Desktop is neither necessary or all bad (and it's also no replacement for Spotlight), we'll keep it around, if only to search the web from our Desktops.

Try it out and see what you think. It's not entirely to our liking, but it may be to yours. One thing's for certain: Google Desktop certainly looks like a Mac application. They got the look and feel right!

Google Earth

Free - http://earth.google.com/

Everyone should have this free application full of 3D maps and satellite imagery. It's like Google Maps on steroids! You can get directions, see your house, and help tag geographical landmarks.

This application is pretty resource intensive, so don't leave it running all the time. (Unless you have one of those new Mac Pros. In that case, just disregard everything we said about it being resource intensive.)

Spanning Sync

$65 - http://www.spanningsync.com/

If you use both iCal and Google Calendar, you'll be happy to know that there's now a way to synchronize the two. Spanning Sync is a transparent application that plugs into Mac OS X's system preferences and uploads and downloads calendar changes while you work. It's bidirectional, so changes you make in iCal will be reflected in Google Calendar, and vice versa.

It's hard to rock Spanning Sync's $65 fee for lifetime support (or $25 per year). Another option is gSync, a less polished application that is still in Beta testing. Get it while it's free!

SketchUp

Free - http://sketchup.google.com/

Well, this is a weird one. Google acquired a 3D sketching program in 2006, and they've released a free version of this application for Mac OS X. While it's typically used by landscape designers and architects, you can use it for other things, like creating desktop images. If you take time to learn how it works, it'll provide hours of fun!

SketchUp might not be a must-have application, but it's cool nonetheless. Plus, it integrates very nicely with Google Earth!

Better Gmail - Firefox Extention

Free - http://lifehacker.com/software/gmail/lifehacker-code-better-gmail-firefox-extension-251923.php

If you have a Gmail account and you use Firefox, Better Gmail might be for you. This free plugin adds loads of functionality to Gmail, including the ability to "skin" the Gmail website in a very .Mac-like way.

Is installing this plugin worth the inevitable Firefox slowdown? You be the judge.

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Free Flickr Apps For Your Mac

mcone — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 08:45:17 +0000

Matthew Cone
Friday, June 8, 2007

If you have a Mac and a digital camera, you probably know a thing or two about managing digital photos. Of course, iPhoto is a wonderful application that does a great job of managing photos on your Mac. But when it comes to sharing your photos with friends and family members, iPhoto comes up short, especially if you decided to forgo the expensive .Mac subscription.

What application or website should you use to share your photos? There are literally dozens of websites that can collect your photos, but we're going to recommend Flickr, a free online service that lets you upload and share photos. It may not be the best photo-sharing option out there, but it's certainly the easiest. Thanks to Flickr's killer API (Application Programming Interface), developers can incorporate Flickr into their own applications and websites.

You can, of course, upload photos through Flickr's website. But there are quite a few Mac applications out there that can help you manage your Flickr photos. Here are some of the best.

JetPhoto

Free - http://www.jetphotosoft.com/web/home/

We'll be honest with you: We delete most of the applications we try out. Some aren't useful, some are cumbersome, and some are just plain ugly. JetPhoto is definitely a keeper! In fact, every Mac user with a digital camera should have this application. It allows you to upload pictures to Flickr, but that only scrapes JetPhoto's surface.

Check out these other cool features:

Seamless iPhoto and Camera importing.
Create Flash Movies.
Make cool Lightbox web galleries.
Make cell phone wallpaper.
Generate web albums.
Geo-tag your photo with built-in Google Maps
And more!

To upload your photos, simply import them from iPhoto into JetPhoto, and then select Upload to Flickr from the Web Album menu. You can resize your photos before you upload them and even see how close you are to reaching your Flickr upload limit.

If you take advantage of JetPhoto's advanced features, you'll want to upgrade to JetPhoto Pro ($25).

FlickrExport

Free to try, then about $25 - http://connectedflow.com/flickrexport/

If you'd prefer to upload photos to Flickr directly from iPhoto, we have just the solution for you. FlickrExport is a nifty iPhoto plugin that integrates so well, you'll think it was just a part of iPhoto!

FlickrExport does allow you to title and tag photos directly in iPhoto, but there aren't many other advanced features. (Stuff like geo-tagging is noticeably absent.) Of course, FlickrExport's Growl integration is pretty nifty. And there's also a FlickrExport plugin for Aperture, which is way cool. Unfortunately, the annoying authentication bugs and the $25 price tag really drag down this otherwise stellar iPhoto plugin.

Flickr Uploadr

Free - http://www.flickr.com/tools

You're using their website. Why not use their application? Flickr Uploadr was made by the people at Flickr, and they got this thing right. It's a simple, easy-to-use application that does one thing well. You can drag and drop pictures into Uploadr from the Finder or iPhoto, tag them, and then upload the whole bunch. We only wish it was a little more integrated with iPhoto.

Another problem with Flickr Uploadr is that it has not yet been released as a Universal binary. People with Intel Macs are going to watch this application crawl. But hey, at least it integrates with Growl, right?

1001

Free - http://kula.jp/software/1001/

More of a Flickr browser than an uploading application, 1001 allows you to keep track of your friend's photos. Watch uploads in real-time with a cool pop-up window that displays new photos! You can configure 1001 to watch everyone on Flickr, or just certain users. It's up to you.

You can also upload photos with 1001. There aren't any fancy uploading features, but if the Flickr browsing features are enough to convince you to stick with this application (and they should be), the upload option is right there waiting for you!

jUploadr

Free - http://juploadr.org/

Uploading photos to Flickr doesn't get any easier than jUploadr. This idiot-proof application is so simple, you can't help but fall in love with it. Just open the application, enter your Flickr account information, and start dragging and dropping photos into the jUploadr window.

If you're looking for a bare-bones application that will upload your photos to Flickr, look no further. jUploadr is your application!

Flickr Finder

Free - http://gragsie.com/FlickrFinder/

Want to navigate Flickr in a window that looks a lot like a Finder window? Flickr Finder might be for you! This free Universal application does a great job of bringing Flickr to a very Mac-like interface. Just add your friends to Flickr Finder and you'll be off to the races. In fact, you may never have to look at the Flickr website again.

While Flickr Finder doesn't allow you to upload photos, you'll probably discover that it's a useful application to have around all the same. Spend a little time configuring it, and you'll be rewarded with a very Mac-like and efficient way of accessing Flickr.

PictureSync

Free ($15 for full version) - http://picturesync.net/

We totally fell in love with this application. Everything about PictureSync just feels right - the friendly interface, the iPhoto and Aperture import options, and the awesome full screen editing mode. If you use Flickr, you've got to have PictureSync.

The best part is that PictureSync works with nearly every web-based photo service. It really is a one-stop shop for online photo collecting, and it's worth shelling out $15 for.

Gleam

Free - http://www.coalmarch.com/products/gleam-flickr-desktop-application.php

The interface of this photo collection and Flickr upload application is gorgeous. But it's a real resource hog. In fact, Gleam slowed our Mac down so much that we could hardly stand it. But maybe it was just us experiencing the slow-down. It's such a pretty application that we hate to not recommend it just based on speed (or lack thereof).

Give Gleam a try - it just might be the Mac Flickr application you're looking for.

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Twenty Must-Have Mac Apps

mcone — Fri, 25 May 2007 09:47:44 +0000

Matthew Cone
Friday, May 25, 2007

Every Mac you can buy these days comes pre-installed with powerful and practical applications. You get the amazing iLife suite as well as other applications like Safari and Mail.app. In fact, Macs include so much software that you could probably do practically everything you need to do without ever downloading or purchasing another application.

But if you did that, you'd be missing out on dozens of freeware and shareware applications that can help you do much more with your Mac. There's another world out there, and it's just a download away.

In this article, we'll share our software favorites. We've scoured the Internet for the most useful, user-friendly, and inexpensive Mac applications available. These are the must-have applications that no Mac user should be without!

Adium

Free - http://www.adiumx.com/

We're huge fans of Apple's iChat, but it only works with AOL Instant Messenger and .Mac accounts. If you or your friends have Yahoo! Instant Messenger or MSN Messenger accounts, you're out of luck. Enter Adium, a free instant messaging application that connects to just about every messaging service out there.

Adium is easy to install and configure, and with a very active "xtras" website, there literally hundreds of ways you can customize it.

There's no question about it: This application will help you stay in touch with friends and family in a way that iChat just can't. The biggest bummer? Adium doesn't support audio or voice chat, so you'll have to call on iChat or Skype for that stuff.

TextWrangler

Free - http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/

We said it before, and we'll say it again: TextWrangler is the best Mac text editor out there. You just never know when you're going to need this application to take notes, edit Mac OS X system files, or perform a search and replace on a large chunk of text.

TextWrangler can be used for web-editing and programming, but you'll quickly outgrow it if you're using it for those purposes. More advanced applications like BBEdit and Textmate provide powerful features that TextWrangler lacks. Unfortunately, both of those applications are expensive and too sophisticated for the average Mac user.

VLC

Free - http://www.videolan.org

VLC is a free, cross-platform media player that supports nearly every video and audio format you can imagine. You can use VLC to watch DVDs and DIVX CDs, play hard-to-watch Windows Media Player files, and even stream media onto the Internet! And, since the player resembles applications like iTunes and QuickTime, you'll feel right at home.

CoverSutra

About $20 - http://www.coversutra.com/

iTunes plays your music, but if you're like us, you don't keep the iTunes window maximized all the time. It's a real shame, because all of our album cover art is stashed away in there, hidden from view. No longer! CoverSutra displays your album artwork on your desktop and lets you change songs without messing with iTunes.

Click on the album cover to control iTunes with CoverSutra's cool transparent window.

Plus, if you listen to the free Last.fm Internet radio service, CoverSutra will automatically log every song you play in iTunes.

HandBrake

Free - http://handbrake.m0k.org/

iTunes lets you rip CDs you've already purchased, but what about the DVDs you own? How are you supposed to get those movies onto your Mac? You'll use HandBrake, a free application that allows you to copy DVDs to your Mac.

HandBrake lets you tweak virtually every aspect of the importing process, ensuring that you'll get the right file size for your Mac or iPod. Start storing movies on your Mac today!

Aurora

Free - http://metaquark.de/aurora/

Aurora turns your Mac into an alarm clock, but it also does much more than that. This free application will turn your Mac on in the morning and start playing an iTunes playlist or any TV or radio channel from EyeTV.

At night, before getting into bed, you can set Aurora to play songs for a certain period of time before putting your Mac to sleep. This application takes Mac automation to a whole new level.

RapidWeaver

$49 - http://www.realmacsoftware.com/

Sure, there are plenty of applications that can help you build a website. There's Apple's iWeb for newbies, but it's too inflexible to be really useful. Then there is Panic's Coda for those who know how to code in HTML. What's everybody else supposed to use?

Take a look at RapidWeaver, a cheap and powerful website creation application. It's easy to get it working with .Mac or another hosting-provider. With plenty of hip pre-made themes and templates to choose from, you'll have a website online in no time!

Vienna

Free - http://vienna-rss.sourceforge.net/vienna2.php

The RSS revolution is upon us, and you should start downloading feeds to your Mac. But which application should you use? We'll recommend Vienna, a free RSS reader for Macs that blows away the expensive competition.

Vienna lets you access RSS feeds and load web pages directly into its built-in web browser.

Twitterrific

Free - http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific

Do you know about Twitter? It is, admittedly, a completely irrelevant way to send text messages over the Internet. It sounds stupid, but you'd be surprised at how addictive it can be. Twitterrific is a free application from the Iconfactory that brings Twitter right to your Mac's desktop.

This little application looks sexy and does a great job of getting you hooked on Twitter! Twitterrific makes it so easy to send and receive messages that you'll be addicted in no time flat.

Delicious Library

$40 - http://www.delicious-monster.com/

You collect books, movies, music, and video games. Now it's time to use your Mac to catalog, browse, and share them. Delicious Library helps you do just that. It's easy to enter items into Delicious Library! Using your iSight camera, you can scan the barcode of the item you want to classify. Delicious Library will search for the item and automatically add its information to your library.

This has to be one of the most incredible and useful Mac applications of all time.

xPad

Free - http://getxpad.com/

The Mac note-taking and organization application market is very, very crowded. There are many fine applications to choose from, including Yojimbo, Mori, and Journler. To be honest, all of those applications probably appeal more to power-users in niche markets.

Unsurprisingly, the application that stands out in this market is the simplest of them all. xPad is a free notepad that allows you to take notes, make lists, and jot down ideas. You can even export your notes to your iPod! There really is something to be said for doing one thing, and doing it well. Good job, xPad!

Transmission

Free - http://transmission.m0k.org/

Say you need to download a file - any file - from an Internet source. What application are you going to use? Transmission would probably be your best bet. This free BitTorrent client lets you download files quickly and easily without the hassle or the wait.

You will, of course, still need to find the files to download. Use something like The Pirate Bay, and don't tell anybody we sent you.

AppDelete

Free - http://reggie.ashworth.googlepages.com/appdelete

One of the problems with Mac OS X is that it doesn't really remove all parts of an application when you delete it. There's usually a bunch of junk left behind - stuff like preferences and associated documents, which will all continue to take up space on your hard drive, even though they won't be used in the future. AppDelete is a free application that will seek and destroy everything associated with the application you're deleting.

Cha-Ching

$40 - http://www.midnightapps.com/

Financial gear-heads have Quicken and QuickBooks. For all the rest of us, there's Cha-Ching. It's a simple, up-and-coming money manager that can track your finances, notify you about bills, and help you craft budgets.

We know it's expensive. If you can't rock the $40 price tag, take a look at Buddi, a free budget application that isn't quite as strong as Cha-Ching.

WriteRoom

$25 - http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/product/writeroom

Someday, when you're writing and need to escape your Mac's distractions, you'll need to use WriteRoom. This simple application blacks out everything on your screen except text, so you can focus on writing. Think of it! No iChat alerts. No email notifications. No RSS feed updates. Just you and your prose.

If you're not a writer, or if you want to concentrate on something other than text, check out Freeverse's Think. It's a free download, and a great application!

Quicksilver

Free - http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

This free launcher application appeals to power users and newbies alike. With a couple of keystrokes, you can launch applications, open and move files, control iTunes, and perform just about any other application-specific task without ever touching your mouse.

All this power comes at a price, however: You'll need to practice to make Quicksilver part of your routine. It's kind of like learning a new language. It's difficult at first, but if you can get over the Quicksilver hump, you'll be able to perform tasks a lot faster!

Graphic Converter

$30 - http://www.lemkesoft.com/

Whether you're creating simple graphics for your blog or editing clipart, you're going to need a graphics application. You could, of course, buy Adobe Photoshop. It's only $650. For those of us who don't want to sell our cars just to buy an application, there's Graphic Converter.

It has a lot of the same features as Photoshop, and it costs a lot less. Plus, the unregistered shareware version has nearly all of the same functionality as the registered version.

NeoOffice

Free - http://www.neooffice.org/

A word processor is something new Macs don't ship with. Apple's Pages and Microsoft Word don't come cheap, either. Fortunately, there is a free alternative. NeoOffice is a port of OpenOffice to the Mac. We'll be honest with you: NeoOffice is a little slow and buggy for our tastes. But hey, it's better than nothing, right?

Xtorrent

$20 - http://www.xtorrentp2p.com/

Xtorrent's website claims it can "get anything," and we believe it. This peer-to-peer application scours the web for music, movies, applications, and other things you probably shouldn't be downloading. Xtorrent just makes it so easy to find and download stuff.

Any old application can download stuff, but Xtorrent really shines when it comes to iTunes integration, ease of use, and speed.

Comic Life

$25 - http://plasq.com/comiclife

Life without comics would be an intolerable insult. That's why Comic Life is such a great application - now anybody with a Mac can create their own comic strip! It's as easy as inserting a picture and adding some text.

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