MacFreeware -- Keep your freeware up to date.

OS X 10.4 | Freeware

This little applet keeps your freeware up to date. Just run the app and choose which applications to update. It's not flawless, but it does work most of the time. Here are its main features.

Mac OS X MacFreeware Update works on Mac OS X Tiger 10.4 or later Interface A real Mac OS X utility looks-like User-friendly Simple of use, any Mac-users can use it Cube & Flip Nice, beautiful, Widgets-like, MacFreeware Update uses CoreGraphics for animations like Cube and Flip. Keep Cool Updates can be automatically checked thanks to a Daemon Updating Want updates ? Just click Downloads Just click, and all updates that have been found will be downloaded Auto-Installations When updates are downloaded, they are also automatically installed on your Macintosh

AOL Radio

Freeware | Universal

AOL Radio is one of those true gems that isn't available for Windows users. AOL Radio is a free player for AOL and XM Radio stations over the internet. My personal favourite is Classic Rock.

The player streams music at 64 kbps in a compressed format whose sound is CD quality. The AOL Radio also shows artist and album information and allows you to save up to 5 presets.

The only thing you need is an AOL user name. But you can forgo this if you don't want to save your presets.

QuickTime necessities

QuickTime has the ability to play many file formats, even windows media formats.

The freeware program Flip4Mac WMV does this trick and even integrates into browsers.

Perian (also free) adds playback for:

• AVI and FLV
• 3ivX, DivX, Flash Screen Video, MS-MPEG4, Sorenson H.263, Truemotion VP6, and Xvid
• AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio using A52Codec, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3

Other components for QuickTime are available, such as XiphQT that adds Ogg Vorbis playback functionality to QuickTime and iTunes.

Delete unused applications with AppDelete

I am trying out new applications I come across frequently. AppDelete allows me to delete applications and their associated preference files and even folders from my Mac.

I keep AppDelete in the bottom right corner of my desktop and drag an application to it when I want to get rid of it. AppDelete asks for confirmation and then moves the application and its files to the Trash.

This is a super handy application that anyone who has a bloated Applications folder must have.

AppDelete Version 1.1

5/1/2007

New Features:

• Log only feature with Log/View button on the main window
• Can now delete widgets, preference panes, and plugins in addition to applications
• Can now delete items by dropping onto icon in main window or byselecting in main menu
• New auto-update feature to check for latest version
• Log now records entries at top of page instead of bottom in /Library/Logs folder
• Improved searching and more accurate in finding associated items
• Reorganized main window/error windows to make more user-friendly
• Possible to "right-click" an item in the Finder and use the
• AppDelete Automator workflow (not possible with Panther)
• Now removes empty dock icons
• Other minor improvements

Basic Operation:

• Purpose is to delete an application (widget, preference pane, or plugin) and the files related to its operation
• Drop an application (or supported item mentioned above) onto the AppDelete icon or choose one from the main menu
• You will be asked for confirmation to Log or Delete these items in the main window
• Items will either be logged only if you click "Log" or they will be moved to your trash if you click "OK"
• If you change your mind you can click "Undo" on the main window or select "Undo" in the main menu
• Results can be viewed in your log by using "View" on the main window or selecting "Show Log" in the main menu

Undercover - Protection and recovery of your Mac

Commercialware ($39 USD) | Universal | OS X

I love my Macbook Pro. To protect my investment I use Undercover, from Orbicule. Undercover runs in stealth mode to protect your Mac if stolen or lost. Just report your Mac stolen and Undercover does the rest.

Undercover

Undercover is capable of recovering any stolen Macintosh. It works by transmitting the internet location of the stolen Mac, and by sending screenshots, in order to easily locate the Mac. We will then work with local police and/or law enforcement to recover the stolen Mac. If things go wrong, Undercover switches to plan B and simulates a hardware failure, forcing the thief (or someone who bought the Mac) to return it to an authorized reseller. To alert the reseller, Undercover will start displaying full-screen messages and it will shout that the Mac has been stolen.

If you can't afford Undercover, Theft Sensor offers some protection for your Mac.

Introducing TheftSensor

TheftSensor is a brand new application that makes it easy and fun to protect your MacBook. Simply press the play button on your Apple Remote and TheftSensor will be activated. From now on, moving your Mac will trigger a loud alert. Pressing the mute button won't help a potential thief as TheftSensor disables it. The same goes for closing the MacBook's lid: this will trigger the alert as well. Of course, you can still use your MacBook without launching the alert: simply press the play button again to disable the alert. View the video and see TheftSensor in action. Or - if you are lucky enough to own a MacBook - download the free public beta.

Also, try JackSMS.

JackSMS helps protect Mac laptops. Features include:

• Moving your mac laptops, closing lid, or disconnecting power cord will trigger the alarm.
• Send mobile text message when alarm goes off.
• Email iSight captured picture to user defined address when alarm goes off.
• Apple remote support (hold menu, left or right button) to turn on/off JackSMS.
• Option to lock screen while JackSMS on.
• Adjustable alarm duration and sudden motion sensor (SMS) sensitivity.
• Designed to work on iBook, PowerBook, MacBook, or MacBook Pro with built-in SMS.
• Applescript support to work with Salling Clicker or BluePhoneElite.
• Growl support for JackSMS status notification.

The Unarchiver - Answers the call for all your unarchiving needs

Freeware | Universal | OS X 10.3.9

While most long time Mac users are familiar with the .sit archive format and with the venerable StuffIt Expander, The Unarchiver, from Dag Ågren, fills nearly the same role.

I have always found StuffIt Expander to be quirky. Even now it sometimes crashes on my MacBook Pro C2D. The Unarchiver, on the other hand, is rock solid. And it supports a plethora of archive formats.

I keep this little app handy in my Dock and have it set to decompress all file formats.

I still keep StuffIt Expander installed -- The Unarchiver doesn't handle that pesky .sitx format.

The Unarchiver v1.6

The Unarchiver is a much more capable replacement for "BOMArchiveHelper.app", the built-in archive unpacker program in Mac OS X. The Unarchiver is designed to handle many more formats than BOMArchiveHelper, and to better fit in with the design of the Finder. It can also handle filenames in foreign character sets, created with non-English versions of other operating systems. I personally find it useful for opening Japanese archives, but it should handle many other languages just as well.

It is very simple to use and install - simply copy it into your Applications folder or whereever you prefer, and then set archive filetypes to open using it. This can either be done the usual way, or by double-clicking the icon to show The Unarchiver's preferences.

Supported file formats include Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, Rar, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt and many other more or less obscure formats. Support for so many formats is achieved by using the libxad unarchiving library.

NeoOffice - Native Intel/PPC OpenOffice suite

Freeware | Intel/PPC Versions | OS X 10.3

NeoOffice is a freeware office suite built from the open source OpenOffice project.

NeoOffice is fast. It is compiled natively for either Intel or PPC and is nearly identical to OpenOffice, but offers some native Mac OS X features. It opens documents created in either WordPerfect Office X3 or Microsoft Office 2007. It even has an ODF plug-in filter.

It opens and displays WordPerfect, Word and Excel files very reliably. Macros and scripts in Excel are also translated and functional.

It has the following office functionality:

• Text
• Spreadsheet
• Presentation
• Drawing
• Database

NeoOffice is a must have, even for users with Microsoft Office 2004 installed. The added compatibility with Office 2007 is a huge bonus.

Features in NeoOffice 2.1

NeoOffice 2.1 is based on the OpenOffice.org 2.1 code. As a result, if there is a bug in OpenOffice.org 2.1, the bug is almost guaranteed to also be in NeoOffice. So, what features does NeoOffice have that are not in OpenOffice.org 2.1? Here's the list:

Feature	Description
Handles Microsoft Office 2007 Word Files	NeoOffice includes the ODF Add-in for Microsoft Word. The ODF Add-in is an open source project that makes it possible for NeoOffice to open, edit, and save files in the Office 2007 Word format. This feature is not available in current Mac versions of Microsoft Office and will not be available until Office 2008 for the Mac is released.
Handles Macros in Excel Files	NeoOffice includes the Excel macro support developed by Novell's ooo-build project. The ooo-build project is an open source project that continually develops feature enhancements to OpenOffice.org.
Aqua	Unlike OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice has native Aqua menus, file open and save dialogs, print dialogs, buttons, scrollbars, and many other native Aqua user interface elements.
No X11 software required	NeoOffice uses the Java technology that is built into Mac OS X. By using Java, there is no need to download and install the X11 software that OpenOffice.org requires.
Integrated with Finder and Mail	The Mac OS X Finder will automatically launch NeoOffice and open OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office documents that you double-click on. Also the Mac OS X Mail application will open OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office attachments in NeoOffice.
Uses Mac OS X fonts	Unlike OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice uses the same fonts that all of your other Mac OS X applications use. This means that NeoOffice will handle reading and writing of Western European characters (e.g. characters with accents, umlauts, circumflexes, cedillas, etc.) and some fonts will even handle Japanese, Chinese, and Korean ideographs. Also, NeoOffice is able to use any fonts that you install using the /Applications/Font Book application.
Handles international keyboards	Unlike OpenOffice.org, NeoOffice will use any keyboard layout that you use. Also, if you switch your keyboard layout while NeoOffice is running, NeoOffice will automatically switch as well.
Native printing support	NeoOffice supports printing using Mac OS X's native printing functionality. Like other Mac OS X applications, you can use NeoOffice to print, preview, or save a document to a PDF file.
Native copy and paste support	NeoOffice supports copying and pasting using Mac OS X's native clipboard so you can copy and paste text and images between NeoOffice and other Mac OS X applications.
Native drag-and-drop support	NeoOffice supports native drag-and-drop so you can drag and drop text and images between NeoOffice and other Mac OS X applications.

Bugs in NeoOffice 2.1

Since all NeoOffice development and testing is done by volunteers, there are some missing features and bugs. This is by no means a complete list but it should give you a sense of what still needs to be implemented to make NeoOffice a full-featured office suite. Here's the list of missing features and bugs that we know about:

Missing Feature or Bug	Description
Image resolution is limited to 300 dots per inch when printing	Due to the way that the underlying OpenOffice.org and Java code handle images, printing of high resolution images is limited to a maximum of 300 dots per inch. This limitation only affects high resolution images and does not affect printing of text, lines, or shapes.
No video, plug-in, or applet support	We haven't had time to implement these features.

Torrent Application

Give Transmission 0.72 a try.

It is simple and fast. What it lacks in features, it makes up with raw power and usability.

Transmission has served me well with these necessary and convenient features, like:

• Tight OS integration
• Growl notification support
• Pause and resume
• Dock icon animation with download/upload speeds
• Auto addition of torrents from watch folder
• Ratio and bandwidth management
• TCP Port configuration
  

And did I mention its FREE!

Read what MacUpdate has to say:

• Transmission page on MacUpdate
  

Transmission has been built from the ground up to be a lightweight yet powerful BitTorrent client. Its simple, intuitive interface is designed to integrate tightly with whatever computing environment you choose to use. Transmission strikes a balance between providing useful functionality without feature bloat. Furthermore, it is free for anyone to use or modify. Transmission is open source (MIT license).

These days, bandwidth is a precious commodity. Transmission allows you to ration this commodity efficiently. You might want to queue your torrents for maximum performance. Or throttle their speed during peak periods. Transmission easily lets you do both, and thus only works its hardest when you want it to. Support for Growl notifications and dock badging keep you updated with what's going on so you can get back to doing more important things.

If you are interested in helping out the Transmission project in any way, we encourage you to head over to our development page. The current developers welcome anybody who is interested in implementing new features, documentation, or translations.

WHAT'S NEW

Version 0.72:

• Reset download/upload rates when sending "started"
• Fix rare XML parsing bug

REQUIREMENTS

Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

MyMacApps

I love my Mac! [Gush, gush!]

I love the simplicity and elegance of having all my applications in one place and, for the most part, self-contained in one file.

My Applications folder is full of applications that I use every day, frequently, once in awhile, maybe someday, or never.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
This is my quest to organise my Applications folder and to share those application I find indispensable, useful, cool, or just plain gotta have!

How do you organise your Applications folder?

I tried creating category sub-folders, but this lead to various problems, like duplicates and not being able to find an application I thought I had.

I love Spotlight and QuickSilver.