Category: Mac

Disk Utility is an application that’s built into OS X that can perform lots of useful and even scary actions. Experienced users find frequent need of this handy tool but those newer to the Mac experience are often cautioned to steer clear, for good reason.

Today we’re going to take a very brief look at what Disk Utility is, when you should use it and how to avoid erasing important information while doing so.

Where Is Disk Utility?

The first confusing thing you’ll notice about Disk Utility is that it can be hard to find. Open up your Applications folder and it’s no where in sight. Instead, you have to dig a little deeper and open the Utilities folder, which is found inside the Applications folder.

In here you’ll find a whole bunch of awesome little goodies that are worth checking out. There are tools for everything from color management to graphing data.

To quickly launch the Utilities folder from Finder, just hit Command-Shift-U. You can launch the Applications folder with a similar shortcut: Command-Shift-A.

Getting Started

Once you find Disk Utility, launch it and you should see a window something like the one below. As you’ve probably guessed by the app’s title, this is a tool for working with hard disks. Any drive connected to your machine, internal or external, should appear in the menu on the left.

If you select a disk from the list, the bottom of this window will update with information about that item. You can see in the screenshot below that my internal drive is 500GB, but I’ve already used over 300GB of that.

Unfortunately, Disk Utility won’t give you a breakdown of how this storage is being used. For that, you’ll need a third party utility like DaisyDisk.

Fixing Disk Problems with Repair Permissions

Mac users that have been around for a while have a saying, “When all else fails, repair disk permissions.” This action is sort of a magic cure all that addresses all types of various untraceable issues. From problems starting up to frequent crashes and stalls, you’d be surprised just how many problems are prescribed a permissions repair.

So what are disk permissions, why do they get screwed up and how do you fix them? The simplified answer is that OS X automatically assigns various files on your computer an owner and further decides the level of interaction other users are allowed to have. Certain user accounts have different access privileges to certain files.

When many things are installed, OS X writes a secret file in /Library/Receipts that tells the System what the permissions should be. Over time, various installations, un-installations, upgrades and the like can wreak havoc on the permissions of certain files. When you “repair disk permissions” you’re essentially telling your system to take a look at that secret receipt and fix any files whose permissions don’t line up with what they should be.

To do this, click on a disk and then select the “First Aid” tab near the center of the window. From here you can click “Verify Disk Permissions,” which will run a check to see if there are any problems.

If permissions problems are found, you can click “Repair Disk Permissions” to have your Mac automatically fix any of the issues it can find.

How Often Should You Repair Permissions?

Despite the anecdote above, repairing permissions really isn’t the end of your problems with OS X. In fact, it’s likely a very rare case when this will actually address your problem, which is why I typically take the “when all else fails” approach.

Upon hearing that it’s a good thing to do, you might be tempted to think that you should be repairing your permissions all the time, some even swear by performing this action daily. However, most users can get by just fine by putting this action with a frequency of “rare to never.”

More informed users who are more familiar with the kinds of actions that cause permissions issues might run the action once every few months or so during a troubleshooting scenario or just to keep things running smooth. Though I wouldn’t go this far, some even claim that repairing permissions is “useless 99.9% of the time!”

Erase, RAID and Restore

The other tabs in the center section of Disk Utility are much more self explanatory: Erase, RAID and Restore. These tabs are the tricky ones though and tend to be where people get into trouble by clicking on things they don’t understand!

Erase

If you’re fairly astute, you can probably guess that “Erase” clears hard drives of their data. Beware, you can’t Command-Z something like this. If you erase a hard drive, it’s gone (unless you’re familiar with advanced data recovery procedures). My advice: don’t even click on this tab unless you fully intend to erase something. If that’s the case, make dang sure that you’ve selected the right drive before proceeding.

RAID

Next up is the RAID tab. Here you can use multiple drives to set up a Mirrored RAID or a Striped Raid. The former is for backup, the latter for performance.

Mirrored RAID simply duplicates the contents of one drive onto another. It’s a standard automatic backup so that if your primary drive fails, you don’t lose any data. This is crucial for anyone who can’t afford to lose their work.

Striped RAID is a little different. According to Apple, a Striped RAID Set “stores files in segments (‘stripes’) across all the disks in the set. Stripping improves the performance of applications that use large amounts of data.”

Restore

Restore is a bit of a misnomer. To understand what this tab is for, imagine that it says “duplicate.” Basically, the Restore feature allows you to copy the complete contents of a hard drive to a different location.

It’s a pretty simple tool with almost no options: just select your source and your destination and click “Restore” to initiate the copy. If you’re looking for something a little more robust, check out Carbon Copy Cloner.

Disk Images

Another great use of Disk Utility is to create disk images. The term “disk image” simply refers to a single file that contains the entire contents of a drive. You can create a disk image of a desktop drive, portable drive or even a DVD. This is typically the format used to create a clone of a hard drive and to distribute software.

To create a disk image, simply click on the desired drive on the left and then hit the “New Image” button. Here you can name the image and set both its destination and encryption.

To read more about creating disk images with Disk Utility, check out our article on this very topic.

The Button Strip

The last thing we’ll discuss about Disk Utility is the most prominent: the strip of buttons along the top.

Verify
The first of these is “Verify” which is basically just a quick way to check on a disc. Your Mac will take a quick look and report any problems that it finds.

Info
Next up is “Info,” which is essentially an extension of the basic information we saw at the beginning of this article. This button pops up a window like the one below.

Burn
The “Burn” button will take a disk image and burn it to a CD or DVD. This is useful for making backup disks of various software. You can even use it to make a Lion Boot Disc.

Unmount/Eject
If you’ve spent any time at all using external drives, you’re familiar with mounting and ejecting. When you plug a drive in, it automatically “mounts” to your desktop. Before unplugging it, it’s recommended that you “Eject” the disk by either hitting “Command-E” or dragging it to the trash. Unmount and Eject are functionally the same for external drives, the main difference is that “Eject” will kick out a CD or DVD.

So what happens if you accidentally eject a drive before you’re done with it? Do you have to unplug it? This is where the “Mount” button comes in handy. Once a disk is ejected, it becomes unmounted (it doesn’t appear in the file system or on the desktop). Hitting “Mount” simply gets it back! Sometimes you’ll plug in a drive and nothing will happen, in this cases, pop open Disk Utility and try mounting it.

Enable Journaling
The last button we’ll discuss is “Enable Journaling.” To help explain what journaling does, I had a look around Apple’s help pages. This is their brief and informative description:

“Journaling is a technique that helps protect the integrity of the Mac OS Extended file systems on Mac OS X volumes. It both prevents a disk from getting into an inconsistent state and expedites disk repair if the server fails.” (source)

Journaling keeps a continuous record of changes for a given disk so that if a problem does arise, you can return to a previous “safe” state. This is mostly used for servers, which need to avoid downtime as much as possible. It’s particularly suited to improve the situation in the event of a power failure.

Conclusion

That sums up the basics of Disk Utility. I hope this guide has given you a good overview of what is possible with this utility, when you should consider using it and what to avoid when you do use it. Like most built-in tools, there are often better utilities for several of the functions that Disk Utility performs, but you’ll find that it’s the perfect general use utility to quickly address all types of disk related activities and problems.

Leave a comment below and let us know how often you use Disk Utility. Which operations do you find the most useful?

The great folks at MacPaw have hooked us up with five codes for Ensoul and five for MacHider. Because we think our readers are awesome, we’re giving them away to you!

Tweet to Enter

Entering is simple, all you have to do is click the link below and send out the resulting tweet (or just copy and paste), then leave a comment below with a link to your tweet. That’s it!

MacHider

MacHider is an innovative product intended to put out of sight your confidential information from third parties or other unwanted eyes. Hide your financial information, private photos and videos, and all the sensible information you want to keep to yourself.

Ensoul

Meet your iPhone’s new stylist equipped with an amazing set of graphic tools and effects! Create bigger, better and more beautiful Contact Photos, wallpapers and homescreens with ease.

We’ll announce the winners on Tuesday, October 4th. Good luck to everyone who enters and thanks for reading Mac.AppStorm!

The great folks at MacPaw have hooked us up with five codes for Ensoul and five for MacHider. Because we think our readers are awesome, we’re giving them away to you!

Tweet to Enter

Entering is simple, all you have to do is click the link below and send out the resulting tweet (or just copy and paste), then leave a comment below with a link to your tweet. That’s it!

MacHider

MacHider is an innovative product intended to put out of sight your confidential information from third parties or other unwanted eyes. Hide your financial information, private photos and videos, and all the sensible information you want to keep to yourself.

Ensoul

Meet your iPhone’s new stylist equipped with an amazing set of graphic tools and effects! Create bigger, better and more beautiful Contact Photos, wallpapers and homescreens with ease.

We’ll announce the winners on Tuesday, October 4th. Good luck to everyone who enters and thanks for reading Mac.AppStorm!

The great folks at MacPaw have hooked us up with five codes for Ensoul and five for MacHider. Because we think our readers are awesome, we’re giving them away to you!

Tweet to Enter

Entering is simple, all you have to do is click the link below and send out the resulting tweet (or just copy and paste), then leave a comment below with a link to your tweet. That’s it!

MacHider

MacHider is an innovative product intended to put out of sight your confidential information from third parties or other unwanted eyes. Hide your financial information, private photos and videos, and all the sensible information you want to keep to yourself.

Ensoul

Meet your iPhone’s new stylist equipped with an amazing set of graphic tools and effects! Create bigger, better and more beautiful Contact Photos, wallpapers and homescreens with ease.

We’ll announce the winners on Tuesday, October 4th. Good luck to everyone who enters and thanks for reading Mac.AppStorm!

If you enjoy sports and workout regularly, you might already be keeping track of your exercise with one or more of the excellent online services available to you: Runkeeper, DailyMile, Garmin Connect among them. These services are great: they can really help you to gain insight into your performance, and to plot and plan improvements.

Some of us, though, prefer not to upload all our data online; it might be that you’re not particularly interested in the social networking benefits these services offer; or you’re concerned about possible privacy issues (you might not want the maps of your runs available to anybody). And so you might prefer to find an option that keeps the information local, storing it on your Mac. If that describes you, you’ll be interested in hearing about rubiTrack, a mature app that does an excellent job of recording and tracking your workouts.

Join me after the jump for a walkthrough of its main features.

Getting Started

I’m mostly interested in running, so that’s what I’ll talk about here, but rubiTrack can be used to keep track of all kinds of activities.

The first question might be how to go about getting data into rubiTrack. Perhaps you’re already tracking your exercise with an iPhone app – a couple of great options reviewed recently on our sister site iPhone.AppStorm are Runkeeper and iSmoothRun. Another good choice is Runmeter. All three of these provide ways for you to export your workout information in formats that can be imported into rubiTrack (in the case of Runkeeper, you have to do this via their website – instructions here – but Runmeter and iSmoothRun both allow you to email yourself the files you’ll need from within the app).

rubiTrack has a triad of iOS apps that interface directly with the desktop app, too. At the moment, I’m sticking with iSmoothRun, and I’ve also been using a Garmin Forerunner 110 GPS Sports Watch, which I’ll say a little more about below.

Main interface

rubiTrack’s main window is full of information.

You can use menu commands or menubar buttons to hide or show most of these elements if you want to simplify things, but I quite like the wealth of data on display. The interface divides into four main areas: down the left hand side is a set of headings by which you can refine which workouts are displayed – by Location, by Date, by Rating, by Distance and Duration. Beside that is the display of your individual activities, shown here in Activity Collection View (the other views are List and Calendar, which are self-explanatory): this mode has a card-like display for each activity, which lets you see all the important information at a glance. Click on any activity, and the Track appears to the right of it, and the Chart underneath.

In the Tools menu, you can choose between different map providers (Google, OpenStreetMap, or VirtualEarth), and between map or satellite views:

(This was a particularly great, and slightly convoluted, run along the English North Norfolk coast back in Spring.)

You can also specify what information is displayed along your routes. The color coding alongside the green route map gives more information about various markers of your performance – here it’s showing my Speed.

This information is also reflected in the Chart:

On this day, I was using the Runkeeper app, which only records your Speed and Elevation – other apps and equipment can record more information.

Again, from within the Tools, you can choose to highlight different aspects of your performance. Clicking on any of the columns selects it, and highlights (in purple) the related section of the map.

Nice touches

I’ve already covered the main functions of rubiTrack, and you could stop there – what I’ve outlined so far would probably be enough for most users. I’ll just run through a few of the app’s features that add a little polish and value.

Weather

Some apps record weather conditions when you exercise, so this information will automatically be included in the record of your run. If not, you can click on the cloud icon at the top-right of the activity’s card, which will display a weather dialogue:

This shows that no weather conditions were recorded at the time of the run, and then shows the current weather at that location. Click on the Past button, and rubiTrack tries to find a record of the weather on the day of your run. Sadly, the nearest weather station I could find with a record of that day was 10 miles away, but that’s likely to have been about right:

I’ve clicked on the gear icon and selected ‘Copy missing’, and that’s populated the conditions on the run card. Great!

Equipment

The Equipment window keeps track of your exercise kit:

So I can see that after this morning’s outing, I’m nearing 350 miles in these shoes. When you specify which equipment is used for an activity, this is dynamically updated here. On the card you can see the overall time spent using these shoes, the total distance so far, the number of outings, the date I bought them, the price paid and the name of the retailer.

Workout summary

Call up the Workout Summary (by keyboard shortcut or menubar button), and you can display the history of your exercise by various measures:

You can see here the history of your Speed, Pace, Duration, Distance, Climb, Rate of Climb, or several other options.

There are other features available, including an Athlete Log that helps you keep track of your fitness by weight, BMI, and other metrics.

Other Tools

rubiTrack will interface smoothly with a wide range of other sports tracking tools so that you can easily get your data in – you can see a list here. As I said above, I’ve used a Garmin Forerunner 110 for the past few weeks, and it works just great with rubiTrack. When I get back from a run, I connect it via a USB cable to my MacBook, then click on the sync button, and it downloads my workout straight into rubiTrack.

The Forerunner 110 is an excellent device, and I’ve been really happy using it. It’s lightweight, has a small form factor, and tracks enough information for my needs. More experience athletes, or those training for longer distances, might need a more complex watch – and Garmin has plenty of those available – but for a casual runner wanting to keep track of his or her performance, the Forerunner 110 does the job simply, straightforwardly, and with no fuss. Paired with a heart rate monitor, it’s proving to be a very good tool in improving my performance.

Conclusion

After years of using online exercise tracking services, I’m very glad to have my information securely stored on my Mac. Every webapp at some point suffers downtime, and some come and go in time – I would hate to have my information trapped in an online ghetto where I couldn’t access or use it.

That said, there’s a lot to like about a number of these services (including Garmin’s own exercise community, Garmin Connect, which I’ll be reviewing on our sister site Web AppStorm soon). I’m continuing to use Runkeeper alongside rubiTrack, because I appreciate some of the social aspects it offers – I find it motivating seeing how my Street Team members are getting on.

rubiTrack is a polished, well considered app – it has the feel of an application that’s been real-world tested, as if the developers have really listened to the community of their users. And, perhaps more importantly, they have actually gone out on the roads themselves, and they’ve built their app around exactly the things that they would find most useful. It feels like its built on solid experience – and that’s something aspiring athletes can benefit from enormously.

If you enjoy sports and workout regularly, you might already be keeping track of your exercise with one or more of the excellent online services available to you: Runkeeper, DailyMile, Garmin Connect among them. These services are great: they can really help you to gain insight into your performance, and to plot and plan improvements.

Some of us, though, prefer not to upload all our data online; it might be that you’re not particularly interested in the social networking benefits these services offer; or you’re concerned about possible privacy issues (you might not want the maps of your runs available to anybody). And so you might prefer to find an option that keeps the information local, storing it on your Mac. If that describes you, you’ll be interested in hearing about rubiTrack, a mature app that does an excellent job of recording and tracking your workouts.

Join me after the jump for a walkthrough of its main features.

Getting Started

I’m mostly interested in running, so that’s what I’ll talk about here, but rubiTrack can be used to keep track of all kinds of activities.

The first question might be how to go about getting data into rubiTrack. Perhaps you’re already tracking your exercise with an iPhone app – a couple of great options reviewed recently on our sister site iPhone.AppStorm are Runkeeper and iSmoothRun. Another good choice is Runmeter. All three of these provide ways for you to export your workout information in formats that can be imported into rubiTrack (in the case of Runkeeper, you have to do this via their website – instructions here – but Runmeter and iSmoothRun both allow you to email yourself the files you’ll need from within the app).

rubiTrack has a triad of iOS apps that interface directly with the desktop app, too. At the moment, I’m sticking with iSmoothRun, and I’ve also been using a Garmin Forerunner 110 GPS Sports Watch, which I’ll say a little more about below.

Main interface

rubiTrack’s main window is full of information.

You can use menu commands or menubar buttons to hide or show most of these elements if you want to simplify things, but I quite like the wealth of data on display. The interface divides into four main areas: down the left hand side is a set of headings by which you can refine which workouts are displayed – by Location, by Date, by Rating, by Distance and Duration. Beside that is the display of your individual activities, shown here in Activity Collection View (the other views are List and Calendar, which are self-explanatory): this mode has a card-like display for each activity, which lets you see all the important information at a glance. Click on any activity, and the Track appears to the right of it, and the Chart underneath.

In the Tools menu, you can choose between different map providers (Google, OpenStreetMap, or VirtualEarth), and between map or satellite views:

(This was a particularly great, and slightly convoluted, run along the English North Norfolk coast back in Spring.)

You can also specify what information is displayed along your routes. The color coding alongside the green route map gives more information about various markers of your performance – here it’s showing my Speed.

This information is also reflected in the Chart:

On this day, I was using the Runkeeper app, which only records your Speed and Elevation – other apps and equipment can record more information.

Again, from within the Tools, you can choose to highlight different aspects of your performance. Clicking on any of the columns selects it, and highlights (in purple) the related section of the map.

Nice touches

I’ve already covered the main functions of rubiTrack, and you could stop there – what I’ve outlined so far would probably be enough for most users. I’ll just run through a few of the app’s features that add a little polish and value.

Weather

Some apps record weather conditions when you exercise, so this information will automatically be included in the record of your run. If not, you can click on the cloud icon at the top-right of the activity’s card, which will display a weather dialogue:

This shows that no weather conditions were recorded at the time of the run, and then shows the current weather at that location. Click on the Past button, and rubiTrack tries to find a record of the weather on the day of your run. Sadly, the nearest weather station I could find with a record of that day was 10 miles away, but that’s likely to have been about right:

I’ve clicked on the gear icon and selected ‘Copy missing’, and that’s populated the conditions on the run card. Great!

Equipment

The Equipment window keeps track of your exercise kit:

So I can see that after this morning’s outing, I’m nearing 350 miles in these shoes. When you specify which equipment is used for an activity, this is dynamically updated here. On the card you can see the overall time spent using these shoes, the total distance so far, the number of outings, the date I bought them, the price paid and the name of the retailer.

Workout summary

Call up the Workout Summary (by keyboard shortcut or menubar button), and you can display the history of your exercise by various measures:

You can see here the history of your Speed, Pace, Duration, Distance, Climb, Rate of Climb, or several other options.

There are other features available, including an Athlete Log that helps you keep track of your fitness by weight, BMI, and other metrics.

Other Tools

rubiTrack will interface smoothly with a wide range of other sports tracking tools so that you can easily get your data in – you can see a list here. As I said above, I’ve used a Garmin Forerunner 110 for the past few weeks, and it works just great with rubiTrack. When I get back from a run, I connect it via a USB cable to my MacBook, then click on the sync button, and it downloads my workout straight into rubiTrack.

The Forerunner 110 is an excellent device, and I’ve been really happy using it. It’s lightweight, has a small form factor, and tracks enough information for my needs. More experience athletes, or those training for longer distances, might need a more complex watch – and Garmin has plenty of those available – but for a casual runner wanting to keep track of his or her performance, the Forerunner 110 does the job simply, straightforwardly, and with no fuss. Paired with a heart rate monitor, it’s proving to be a very good tool in improving my performance.

Conclusion

After years of using online exercise tracking services, I’m very glad to have my information securely stored on my Mac. Every webapp at some point suffers downtime, and some come and go in time – I would hate to have my information trapped in an online ghetto where I couldn’t access or use it.

That said, there’s a lot to like about a number of these services (including Garmin’s own exercise community, Garmin Connect, which I’ll be reviewing on our sister site Web AppStorm soon). I’m continuing to use Runkeeper alongside rubiTrack, because I appreciate some of the social aspects it offers – I find it motivating seeing how my Street Team members are getting on.

rubiTrack is a polished, well considered app – it has the feel of an application that’s been real-world tested, as if the developers have really listened to the community of their users. And, perhaps more importantly, they have actually gone out on the roads themselves, and they’ve built their app around exactly the things that they would find most useful. It feels like its built on solid experience – and that’s something aspiring athletes can benefit from enormously.

If you enjoy sports and workout regularly, you might already be keeping track of your exercise with one or more of the excellent online services available to you: Runkeeper, DailyMile, Garmin Connect among them. These services are great: they can really help you to gain insight into your performance, and to plot and plan improvements.

Some of us, though, prefer not to upload all our data online; it might be that you’re not particularly interested in the social networking benefits these services offer; or you’re concerned about possible privacy issues (you might not want the maps of your runs available to anybody). And so you might prefer to find an option that keeps the information local, storing it on your Mac. If that describes you, you’ll be interested in hearing about rubiTrack, a mature app that does an excellent job of recording and tracking your workouts.

Join me after the jump for a walkthrough of its main features.

Getting Started

I’m mostly interested in running, so that’s what I’ll talk about here, but rubiTrack can be used to keep track of all kinds of activities.

The first question might be how to go about getting data into rubiTrack. Perhaps you’re already tracking your exercise with an iPhone app – a couple of great options reviewed recently on our sister site iPhone.AppStorm are Runkeeper and iSmoothRun. Another good choice is Runmeter. All three of these provide ways for you to export your workout information in formats that can be imported into rubiTrack (in the case of Runkeeper, you have to do this via their website – instructions here – but Runmeter and iSmoothRun both allow you to email yourself the files you’ll need from within the app).

rubiTrack has a triad of iOS apps that interface directly with the desktop app, too. At the moment, I’m sticking with iSmoothRun, and I’ve also been using a Garmin Forerunner 110 GPS Sports Watch, which I’ll say a little more about below.

Main interface

rubiTrack’s main window is full of information.

You can use menu commands or menubar buttons to hide or show most of these elements if you want to simplify things, but I quite like the wealth of data on display. The interface divides into four main areas: down the left hand side is a set of headings by which you can refine which workouts are displayed – by Location, by Date, by Rating, by Distance and Duration. Beside that is the display of your individual activities, shown here in Activity Collection View (the other views are List and Calendar, which are self-explanatory): this mode has a card-like display for each activity, which lets you see all the important information at a glance. Click on any activity, and the Track appears to the right of it, and the Chart underneath.

In the Tools menu, you can choose between different map providers (Google, OpenStreetMap, or VirtualEarth), and between map or satellite views:

(This was a particularly great, and slightly convoluted, run along the English North Norfolk coast back in Spring.)

You can also specify what information is displayed along your routes. The color coding alongside the green route map gives more information about various markers of your performance – here it’s showing my Speed.

This information is also reflected in the Chart:

On this day, I was using the Runkeeper app, which only records your Speed and Elevation – other apps and equipment can record more information.

Again, from within the Tools, you can choose to highlight different aspects of your performance. Clicking on any of the columns selects it, and highlights (in purple) the related section of the map.

Nice touches

I’ve already covered the main functions of rubiTrack, and you could stop there – what I’ve outlined so far would probably be enough for most users. I’ll just run through a few of the app’s features that add a little polish and value.

Weather

Some apps record weather conditions when you exercise, so this information will automatically be included in the record of your run. If not, you can click on the cloud icon at the top-right of the activity’s card, which will display a weather dialogue:

This shows that no weather conditions were recorded at the time of the run, and then shows the current weather at that location. Click on the Past button, and rubiTrack tries to find a record of the weather on the day of your run. Sadly, the nearest weather station I could find with a record of that day was 10 miles away, but that’s likely to have been about right:

I’ve clicked on the gear icon and selected ‘Copy missing’, and that’s populated the conditions on the run card. Great!

Equipment

The Equipment window keeps track of your exercise kit:

So I can see that after this morning’s outing, I’m nearing 350 miles in these shoes. When you specify which equipment is used for an activity, this is dynamically updated here. On the card you can see the overall time spent using these shoes, the total distance so far, the number of outings, the date I bought them, the price paid and the name of the retailer.

Workout summary

Call up the Workout Summary (by keyboard shortcut or menubar button), and you can display the history of your exercise by various measures:

You can see here the history of your Speed, Pace, Duration, Distance, Climb, Rate of Climb, or several other options.

There are other features available, including an Athlete Log that helps you keep track of your fitness by weight, BMI, and other metrics.

Other Tools

rubiTrack will interface smoothly with a wide range of other sports tracking tools so that you can easily get your data in – you can see a list here. As I said above, I’ve used a Garmin Forerunner 110 for the past few weeks, and it works just great with rubiTrack. When I get back from a run, I connect it via a USB cable to my MacBook, then click on the sync button, and it downloads my workout straight into rubiTrack.

The Forerunner 110 is an excellent device, and I’ve been really happy using it. It’s lightweight, has a small form factor, and tracks enough information for my needs. More experience athletes, or those training for longer distances, might need a more complex watch – and Garmin has plenty of those available – but for a casual runner wanting to keep track of his or her performance, the Forerunner 110 does the job simply, straightforwardly, and with no fuss. Paired with a heart rate monitor, it’s proving to be a very good tool in improving my performance.

Conclusion

After years of using online exercise tracking services, I’m very glad to have my information securely stored on my Mac. Every webapp at some point suffers downtime, and some come and go in time – I would hate to have my information trapped in an online ghetto where I couldn’t access or use it.

That said, there’s a lot to like about a number of these services (including Garmin’s own exercise community, Garmin Connect, which I’ll be reviewing on our sister site Web AppStorm soon). I’m continuing to use Runkeeper alongside rubiTrack, because I appreciate some of the social aspects it offers – I find it motivating seeing how my Street Team members are getting on.

rubiTrack is a polished, well considered app – it has the feel of an application that’s been real-world tested, as if the developers have really listened to the community of their users. And, perhaps more importantly, they have actually gone out on the roads themselves, and they’ve built their app around exactly the things that they would find most useful. It feels like its built on solid experience – and that’s something aspiring athletes can benefit from enormously.

That’s a pretty bold title, isn’t it? I didn’t really mean for it to be. I’m not a fan of shameless link bait. And it’s not my intention to be hyperbolic. I chose that question as the title because it’s the reason I’m writing this right now. That question has been rattling around in the back of my mind. And instead of continuing to ignore it, I thought I’d try and solidify my thoughts into a cohesive essay.

I’m not making any claims to brilliance here. I don’t think I’ve stumbled upon any insightful or revolutionary ideas here. I’m not even really trying to prove a point. I’m just trying to give a voice to this ever present feeling of dread that’s crept into my thoughts when they drift to the future of Apple. And I’m sharing these thoughts with a community of people who will hopefully understand where I’m coming from, and what I’m trying to say.

Steve Jobs has left the helm of Apple. And while he’s still at the company in what amounts to an advisory role, everyone knows that the Jobs’ era at Apple has ended. Sure the ripples of his presence there won’t subside immediately. David Pogue thinks we’ll need to really start worrying in about two years. But we’re all wondering what this will mean — Apple without Steve. None of us knows for certain. The only way we’ll know is to wait, and watch, as time goes by. The question isn’t so much, will Apple change? It’s, how will Apple change?

First of All, Why Do You Care?

That’s another question I’ve been asking myself recently. Because I’m pretty sure that the reason I care about Apple and its future is closely linked with how I’ll measure their success going forward.

Apple’s products extend beyond simple functional tools. They elevate the computer, and related computing technologies, to an art form. They care about each and every component that goes into the machine, carefully planning and crafting how it will interact with its peers, how they’ll all coalesce to form a cohesive whole.

I think Alan Kay said it best:

“When the Mac first came out, Newsweek asked me what I [thought] of it. I said: Well, it’s the first personal computer worth criticizing.”

So it’s that attention to detail, that culture of craftsmanship, that’s attracted me to Apple’s products. I understand what Apple is striving for. They’re a kindred spirit, to me and to anyone else who values something that’s well-thought out and well designed.

As Kay puts it, they’re worth criticizing, and that’s because they’re the only ones in the realm of consumer electronics aspiring to something higher than practicality and utility. These are qualities and ideals that Steve Jobs possesses. He’s done everything in his mortal power to instill them into Apple. But the doubt remains in my mind, can they live on without him being there?

So Why Are You Still Scared?

If Steve’s done his best to build Apple, the company, in his image, why am I still worried about Apple’s future success? Well, I’d like to blame John Gruber of all people for planting that seed of doubt in my mind. On a recent episode of The Talk Show, when asked by Dan Benjamin if Tim Cook was the next Steve Jobs, Gruber replied quite flatly, no. That the next Steve Jobs wasn’t even at Apple. People like Jobs don’t work for companies. They go out and build their own companies.

I think he’s right. Actually, I’m almost positive John’s right. That’s what worries me. I don’t know who that person is.

Now, is that a ridiculous fear? Yeah, probably. But it’s the emotional connection I, and others like me, feel toward Apple that makes it a fear in the first place. I said we’re kindred spirits. Apple is a company creating the type of products that I would want to create if I was in their position. It’s why they’re such a joy to use. The things that I value about Apple are emotional, human traits. Apple is a company now. Technically they always were a company, but now that the human face of Apple has gone, all I’m left to stare at is that company. And it somehow feels different, a little bit colder, a touch more impersonal.

What Am I Looking For?

I figured I should pose at least one question that I actually have an answer to. Just what am I looking for out of Apple in the years to come?

I’m looking for Apple — the new Apple, under Tim Cook — to continue to exhibit the same traits as Jobs’ Apple. I want them to continue striving for perfection in their hardware and software, to continue sweating the details. Because the details matter to me.

I want them to continue to be fearless when it comes to innovating. Blazing trails and taking risks, not being afraid to stick stubbornly to what they believe in. I want them to keep their collective sense of good taste, that inherent ability to know when something feels right, and following that sense.

I want Apple to continue to change, but always for the better. Or at least collectively for the better. They can have failures. But they have to recover from those failures with skill, dignity, and grace. I want them to continue to produce things worthy of criticism. I want Apple to continue to chase new successes, rather than defensively guarding the ones they’ve already had.

That’s a lot to ask, isn’t it? I know it is. But at the same time, I know it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility. Because that’s exactly what Apple has been for nearly a decade and a half. They’ve been all of those things under Jobs. All I’m asking if for them to continue to do it.

So, What About Your Title Question?

Ok, so what about that opening question? The one that probably got you to open this article in the first place. Do I think the golden years of Apple are behind us? Honestly, I’m still divided.

I don’t think they have to be. I think the fate of Apple rests squarely on its own shoulders. They have the map, they know the direction to lead the company in. They just have a new leader. Let’s see if they can keep going on the path they’ve been traveling down.

But what if they can’t? What if the Apple of the future stops taking revolutionary risks, and retreats to milking past successes? Then I’ll be sad. I think a lot of people will. It’ll mean that Apple Steve Jobs taking the lead really was something special.

I hope that doesn’t happen. I hope the golden years of Apple aren’t behind us. But whether they are or not, the stage is set for the next Steve Jobs. The next bold and brash innovator, with a keen sense of style and a sharp vision for the future. I don’t know who that person is yet. But I look forward to finding out.

What Do You Think?

This article represents a brief opinion piece submitted by one of our frequent contributors. Here at AppStorm we represent all sides of this debate. For a more positive post-Jobs outlook, check out this article outlining the leadership in place at Apple and why they’re fit to fill Jobs’ shoes.

Leave a comment and let us know about your outlook for Apple in the next five years. If you were given the opportunity to invest in the company now with the hope of a favorable future return, would you take it?

That’s a pretty bold title, isn’t it? I didn’t really mean for it to be. I’m not a fan of shameless link bait. And it’s not my intention to be hyperbolic. I chose that question as the title because it’s the reason I’m writing this right now. That question has been rattling around in the back of my mind. And instead of continuing to ignore it, I thought I’d try and solidify my thoughts into a cohesive essay.

I’m not making any claims to brilliance here. I don’t think I’ve stumbled upon any insightful or revolutionary ideas here. I’m not even really trying to prove a point. I’m just trying to give a voice to this ever present feeling of dread that’s crept into my thoughts when they drift to the future of Apple. And I’m sharing these thoughts with a community of people who will hopefully understand where I’m coming from, and what I’m trying to say.

Steve Jobs has left the helm of Apple. And while he’s still at the company in what amounts to an advisory role, everyone knows that the Jobs’ era at Apple has ended. Sure the ripples of his presence there won’t subside immediately. David Pogue thinks we’ll need to really start worrying in about two years. But we’re all wondering what this will mean — Apple without Steve. None of us knows for certain. The only way we’ll know is to wait, and watch, as time goes by. The question isn’t so much, will Apple change? It’s, how will Apple change?

First of All, Why Do You Care?

That’s another question I’ve been asking myself recently. Because I’m pretty sure that the reason I care about Apple and its future is closely linked with how I’ll measure their success going forward.

Apple’s products extend beyond simple functional tools. They elevate the computer, and related computing technologies, to an art form. They care about each and every component that goes into the machine, carefully planning and crafting how it will interact with its peers, how they’ll all coalesce to form a cohesive whole.

I think Alan Kay said it best:

“When the Mac first came out, Newsweek asked me what I [thought] of it. I said: Well, it’s the first personal computer worth criticizing.”

So it’s that attention to detail, that culture of craftsmanship, that’s attracted me to Apple’s products. I understand what Apple is striving for. They’re a kindred spirit, to me and to anyone else who values something that’s well-thought out and well designed.

As Kay puts it, they’re worth criticizing, and that’s because they’re the only ones in the realm of consumer electronics aspiring to something higher than practicality and utility. These are qualities and ideals that Steve Jobs possesses. He’s done everything in his mortal power to instill them into Apple. But the doubt remains in my mind, can they live on without him being there?

So Why Are You Still Scared?

If Steve’s done his best to build Apple, the company, in his image, why am I still worried about Apple’s future success? Well, I’d like to blame John Gruber of all people for planting that seed of doubt in my mind. On a recent episode of The Talk Show, when asked by Dan Benjamin if Tim Cook was the next Steve Jobs, Gruber replied quite flatly, no. That the next Steve Jobs wasn’t even at Apple. People like Jobs don’t work for companies. They go out and build their own companies.

I think he’s right. Actually, I’m almost positive John’s right. That’s what worries me. I don’t know who that person is.

Now, is that a ridiculous fear? Yeah, probably. But it’s the emotional connection I, and others like me, feel toward Apple that makes it a fear in the first place. I said we’re kindred spirits. Apple is a company creating the type of products that I would want to create if I was in their position. It’s why they’re such a joy to use. The things that I value about Apple are emotional, human traits. Apple is a company now. Technically they always were a company, but now that the human face of Apple has gone, all I’m left to stare at is that company. And it somehow feels different, a little bit colder, a touch more impersonal.

What Am I Looking For?

I figured I should pose at least one question that I actually have an answer to. Just what am I looking for out of Apple in the years to come?

I’m looking for Apple — the new Apple, under Tim Cook — to continue to exhibit the same traits as Jobs’ Apple. I want them to continue striving for perfection in their hardware and software, to continue sweating the details. Because the details matter to me.

I want them to continue to be fearless when it comes to innovating. Blazing trails and taking risks, not being afraid to stick stubbornly to what they believe in. I want them to keep their collective sense of good taste, that inherent ability to know when something feels right, and following that sense.

I want Apple to continue to change, but always for the better. Or at least collectively for the better. They can have failures. But they have to recover from those failures with skill, dignity, and grace. I want them to continue to produce things worthy of criticism. I want Apple to continue to chase new successes, rather than defensively guarding the ones they’ve already had.

That’s a lot to ask, isn’t it? I know it is. But at the same time, I know it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility. Because that’s exactly what Apple has been for nearly a decade and a half. They’ve been all of those things under Jobs. All I’m asking if for them to continue to do it.

So, What About Your Title Question?

Ok, so what about that opening question? The one that probably got you to open this article in the first place. Do I think the golden years of Apple are behind us? Honestly, I’m still divided.

I don’t think they have to be. I think the fate of Apple rests squarely on its own shoulders. They have the map, they know the direction to lead the company in. They just have a new leader. Let’s see if they can keep going on the path they’ve been traveling down.

But what if they can’t? What if the Apple of the future stops taking revolutionary risks, and retreats to milking past successes? Then I’ll be sad. I think a lot of people will. It’ll mean that Apple Steve Jobs taking the lead really was something special.

I hope that doesn’t happen. I hope the golden years of Apple aren’t behind us. But whether they are or not, the stage is set for the next Steve Jobs. The next bold and brash innovator, with a keen sense of style and a sharp vision for the future. I don’t know who that person is yet. But I look forward to finding out.

What Do You Think?

This article represents a brief opinion piece submitted by one of our frequent contributors. Here at AppStorm we represent all sides of this debate. For a more positive post-Jobs outlook, check out this article outlining the leadership in place at Apple and why they’re fit to fill Jobs’ shoes.

Leave a comment and let us know about your outlook for Apple in the next five years. If you were given the opportunity to invest in the company now with the hope of a favorable future return, would you take it?

That’s a pretty bold title, isn’t it? I didn’t really mean for it to be. I’m not a fan of shameless link bait. And it’s not my intention to be hyperbolic. I chose that question as the title because it’s the reason I’m writing this right now. That question has been rattling around in the back of my mind. And instead of continuing to ignore it, I thought I’d try and solidify my thoughts into a cohesive essay.

I’m not making any claims to brilliance here. I don’t think I’ve stumbled upon any insightful or revolutionary ideas here. I’m not even really trying to prove a point. I’m just trying to give a voice to this ever present feeling of dread that’s crept into my thoughts when they drift to the future of Apple. And I’m sharing these thoughts with a community of people who will hopefully understand where I’m coming from, and what I’m trying to say.

Steve Jobs has left the helm of Apple. And while he’s still at the company in what amounts to an advisory role, everyone knows that the Jobs’ era at Apple has ended. Sure the ripples of his presence there won’t subside immediately. David Pogue thinks we’ll need to really start worrying in about two years. But we’re all wondering what this will mean — Apple without Steve. None of us knows for certain. The only way we’ll know is to wait, and watch, as time goes by. The question isn’t so much, will Apple change? It’s, how will Apple change?

First of All, Why Do You Care?

That’s another question I’ve been asking myself recently. Because I’m pretty sure that the reason I care about Apple and its future is closely linked with how I’ll measure their success going forward.

Apple’s products extend beyond simple functional tools. They elevate the computer, and related computing technologies, to an art form. They care about each and every component that goes into the machine, carefully planning and crafting how it will interact with its peers, how they’ll all coalesce to form a cohesive whole.

I think Alan Kay said it best:

“When the Mac first came out, Newsweek asked me what I [thought] of it. I said: Well, it’s the first personal computer worth criticizing.”

So it’s that attention to detail, that culture of craftsmanship, that’s attracted me to Apple’s products. I understand what Apple is striving for. They’re a kindred spirit, to me and to anyone else who values something that’s well-thought out and well designed.

As Kay puts it, they’re worth criticizing, and that’s because they’re the only ones in the realm of consumer electronics aspiring to something higher than practicality and utility. These are qualities and ideals that Steve Jobs possesses. He’s done everything in his mortal power to instill them into Apple. But the doubt remains in my mind, can they live on without him being there?

So Why Are You Still Scared?

If Steve’s done his best to build Apple, the company, in his image, why am I still worried about Apple’s future success? Well, I’d like to blame John Gruber of all people for planting that seed of doubt in my mind. On a recent episode of The Talk Show, when asked by Dan Benjamin if Tim Cook was the next Steve Jobs, Gruber replied quite flatly, no. That the next Steve Jobs wasn’t even at Apple. People like Jobs don’t work for companies. They go out and build their own companies.

I think he’s right. Actually, I’m almost positive John’s right. That’s what worries me. I don’t know who that person is.

Now, is that a ridiculous fear? Yeah, probably. But it’s the emotional connection I, and others like me, feel toward Apple that makes it a fear in the first place. I said we’re kindred spirits. Apple is a company creating the type of products that I would want to create if I was in their position. It’s why they’re such a joy to use. The things that I value about Apple are emotional, human traits. Apple is a company now. Technically they always were a company, but now that the human face of Apple has gone, all I’m left to stare at is that company. And it somehow feels different, a little bit colder, a touch more impersonal.

What Am I Looking For?

I figured I should pose at least one question that I actually have an answer to. Just what am I looking for out of Apple in the years to come?

I’m looking for Apple — the new Apple, under Tim Cook — to continue to exhibit the same traits as Jobs’ Apple. I want them to continue striving for perfection in their hardware and software, to continue sweating the details. Because the details matter to me.

I want them to continue to be fearless when it comes to innovating. Blazing trails and taking risks, not being afraid to stick stubbornly to what they believe in. I want them to keep their collective sense of good taste, that inherent ability to know when something feels right, and following that sense.

I want Apple to continue to change, but always for the better. Or at least collectively for the better. They can have failures. But they have to recover from those failures with skill, dignity, and grace. I want them to continue to produce things worthy of criticism. I want Apple to continue to chase new successes, rather than defensively guarding the ones they’ve already had.

That’s a lot to ask, isn’t it? I know it is. But at the same time, I know it isn’t beyond the realm of possibility. Because that’s exactly what Apple has been for nearly a decade and a half. They’ve been all of those things under Jobs. All I’m asking if for them to continue to do it.

So, What About Your Title Question?

Ok, so what about that opening question? The one that probably got you to open this article in the first place. Do I think the golden years of Apple are behind us? Honestly, I’m still divided.

I don’t think they have to be. I think the fate of Apple rests squarely on its own shoulders. They have the map, they know the direction to lead the company in. They just have a new leader. Let’s see if they can keep going on the path they’ve been traveling down.

But what if they can’t? What if the Apple of the future stops taking revolutionary risks, and retreats to milking past successes? Then I’ll be sad. I think a lot of people will. It’ll mean that Apple Steve Jobs taking the lead really was something special.

I hope that doesn’t happen. I hope the golden years of Apple aren’t behind us. But whether they are or not, the stage is set for the next Steve Jobs. The next bold and brash innovator, with a keen sense of style and a sharp vision for the future. I don’t know who that person is yet. But I look forward to finding out.

What Do You Think?

This article represents a brief opinion piece submitted by one of our frequent contributors. Here at AppStorm we represent all sides of this debate. For a more positive post-Jobs outlook, check out this article outlining the leadership in place at Apple and why they’re fit to fill Jobs’ shoes.

Leave a comment and let us know about your outlook for Apple in the next five years. If you were given the opportunity to invest in the company now with the hope of a favorable future return, would you take it?

Remember how useful those kitchen timers where, the ones that you had to spin around to get them counting? They could be used for a lot of things outside the kitchen, and they were very fast and easy to setup. It seems like we haven’t been able to get the same thing working for a computer app, where you can just quickly set an alarm in a few seconds without a million options or setup steps to get in the way.

Today we’re reviewing an app that wants to your go to fast timer and alarm app. It’s called ChronoSlider. Does it deliver?

The Beginning

This is probably the easiest app that you could pick up, you surely will only need to spend 3 seconds to figure it out. The first time that you run it, your whole screen will be sent to the background and a semi-transparent screen with a notable timer in the center will appear with a few instructions on the sides. The instructions will be arranged into short sentences located in specific parts of the screen (the top, bottom, center, left and right sides).

The instruction in the top will say “click in this area if you want to set an alarm for up to 120 seconds”. The other ones will be the same thing but broken into ranges of 1 hour, 12 hours, “daytime” and cancel. We’ll get to these next.

The Alarms

So let’s say you are cooking something and you need to be reminded of when to turn the heat off. You can set ChronoSlider on by using the customizable shortcut, or by going into the menu bar icon of the app and clicking on the “Add Alarm” button.

The screen that we mentioned before will come up with the instructions (the instructions will go away after a few times that you access the alarm-setting thing, though). As you hover or slide your cursor over the different sectors of the screen, the timer in the center will change. So let’s say, if you are in the “0-1 hour” sector, as you hover over the area the timer will be changing in between minutes, starting at 1 and ending at 60. It’s not the most precise way of choosing a time, but it’s fast and it saves a lot of time.

The sector of the 120 seconds range will switch between seconds; the 0-1 hour range will switch between minutes and the 12 hour range will switch between hours. The “daytime alarm” area is the most interesting one, because it lets you set an alarm for any minute within the next 24 hours. This is the one you would use if you wanted to set an alarm that wakes you up in the morning or reminds you of an appointment you have the next day. There’s also a “cancel” section in the top, in case you don’t really want to set an alarm or timer.

Messages, Chronoslings and More

After you choose the time of your alarm or timer, the timer in the center will switch to a message saying “Slide!”. If you slide, a few messages will appear, such as “Feed the cat!”, “Go get the bus”, “Play iTunes” or just a plain boring “Alarm”. These are the messages that will appear on your screen once the alarm sets off, and you can only choose one per alarm. There are some default messages that come with the app, like the ones I mentioned, but if you go into the settings you can make your own and delete the factory ones.

There are also “Chronoslings”, which are basically Applescripts that you can set to certain alarms. There are already some of them built in to some factory alarms, like “Sleep” and “Pause/Play iTunes”. You can make pretty much anything you want with these, but you need to have some knowledge as to how to use them properly (the app won’t tell you how, but this article can).

There are also some useful hidden things like the ability to play sounds, dimming the screen once you set off the app, and setting a global keyboard shortcut to set off the app. By going into the menu bar icon, you can access the settings, view your current alarms and refresh or cancel them.

The Bad

Surprisingly, there really isn’t much to complain about in this app. When I first heard about it, I thought it would be too basic and that it would sacrifice a few features in order to make the app simpler and faster, but that really isn’t the case. However, sometimes it feels like you need to work your way around (perhaps) complex AppleScripts to get at what you want it to perform, like maybe play a song from your library, but the functionality is there.

The End

We’ve had roundups of alarm apps before, and they usually break down into two categories: the ones that are meant to work on a short range of time, like something that you need to be quickly reminded of within an hour or so; and the more complete and complex ones that are meant to be used within a larger range of time and do more complex stuff like wake you up using your iTunes library or play slideshows.

I think this app does a good job at balancing both of those. It’s simple enough that you can set a new alarm in just a few seconds, but also useful enough that if you want it to perform something complicated, you can most likely do it through the AppleScripts. All the features that you could want are there, they’re just not as “out” there as they are in other apps. I think for the price, you couldn’t really get something as useful and simple as this app, especially when the competition is really overpriced. I know I’ll be using it instead of my “Minutes” widget from now on.

Remember how useful those kitchen timers where, the ones that you had to spin around to get them counting? They could be used for a lot of things outside the kitchen, and they were very fast and easy to setup. It seems like we haven’t been able to get the same thing working for a computer app, where you can just quickly set an alarm in a few seconds without a million options or setup steps to get in the way.

Today we’re reviewing an app that wants to your go to fast timer and alarm app. It’s called ChronoSlider. Does it deliver?

The Beginning

This is probably the easiest app that you could pick up, you surely will only need to spend 3 seconds to figure it out. The first time that you run it, your whole screen will be sent to the background and a semi-transparent screen with a notable timer in the center will appear with a few instructions on the sides. The instructions will be arranged into short sentences located in specific parts of the screen (the top, bottom, center, left and right sides).

The instruction in the top will say “click in this area if you want to set an alarm for up to 120 seconds”. The other ones will be the same thing but broken into ranges of 1 hour, 12 hours, “daytime” and cancel. We’ll get to these next.

The Alarms

So let’s say you are cooking something and you need to be reminded of when to turn the heat off. You can set ChronoSlider on by using the customizable shortcut, or by going into the menu bar icon of the app and clicking on the “Add Alarm” button.

The screen that we mentioned before will come up with the instructions (the instructions will go away after a few times that you access the alarm-setting thing, though). As you hover or slide your cursor over the different sectors of the screen, the timer in the center will change. So let’s say, if you are in the “0-1 hour” sector, as you hover over the area the timer will be changing in between minutes, starting at 1 and ending at 60. It’s not the most precise way of choosing a time, but it’s fast and it saves a lot of time.

The sector of the 120 seconds range will switch between seconds; the 0-1 hour range will switch between minutes and the 12 hour range will switch between hours. The “daytime alarm” area is the most interesting one, because it lets you set an alarm for any minute within the next 24 hours. This is the one you would use if you wanted to set an alarm that wakes you up in the morning or reminds you of an appointment you have the next day. There’s also a “cancel” section in the top, in case you don’t really want to set an alarm or timer.

Messages, Chronoslings and More

After you choose the time of your alarm or timer, the timer in the center will switch to a message saying “Slide!”. If you slide, a few messages will appear, such as “Feed the cat!”, “Go get the bus”, “Play iTunes” or just a plain boring “Alarm”. These are the messages that will appear on your screen once the alarm sets off, and you can only choose one per alarm. There are some default messages that come with the app, like the ones I mentioned, but if you go into the settings you can make your own and delete the factory ones.

There are also “Chronoslings”, which are basically Applescripts that you can set to certain alarms. There are already some of them built in to some factory alarms, like “Sleep” and “Pause/Play iTunes”. You can make pretty much anything you want with these, but you need to have some knowledge as to how to use them properly (the app won’t tell you how, but this article can).

There are also some useful hidden things like the ability to play sounds, dimming the screen once you set off the app, and setting a global keyboard shortcut to set off the app. By going into the menu bar icon, you can access the settings, view your current alarms and refresh or cancel them.

The Bad

Surprisingly, there really isn’t much to complain about in this app. When I first heard about it, I thought it would be too basic and that it would sacrifice a few features in order to make the app simpler and faster, but that really isn’t the case. However, sometimes it feels like you need to work your way around (perhaps) complex AppleScripts to get at what you want it to perform, like maybe play a song from your library, but the functionality is there.

The End

We’ve had roundups of alarm apps before, and they usually break down into two categories: the ones that are meant to work on a short range of time, like something that you need to be quickly reminded of within an hour or so; and the more complete and complex ones that are meant to be used within a larger range of time and do more complex stuff like wake you up using your iTunes library or play slideshows.

I think this app does a good job at balancing both of those. It’s simple enough that you can set a new alarm in just a few seconds, but also useful enough that if you want it to perform something complicated, you can most likely do it through the AppleScripts. All the features that you could want are there, they’re just not as “out” there as they are in other apps. I think for the price, you couldn’t really get something as useful and simple as this app, especially when the competition is really overpriced. I know I’ll be using it instead of my “Minutes” widget from now on.

Remember how useful those kitchen timers where, the ones that you had to spin around to get them counting? They could be used for a lot of things outside the kitchen, and they were very fast and easy to setup. It seems like we haven’t been able to get the same thing working for a computer app, where you can just quickly set an alarm in a few seconds without a million options or setup steps to get in the way.

Today we’re reviewing an app that wants to your go to fast timer and alarm app. It’s called ChronoSlider. Does it deliver?

The Beginning

This is probably the easiest app that you could pick up, you surely will only need to spend 3 seconds to figure it out. The first time that you run it, your whole screen will be sent to the background and a semi-transparent screen with a notable timer in the center will appear with a few instructions on the sides. The instructions will be arranged into short sentences located in specific parts of the screen (the top, bottom, center, left and right sides).

The instruction in the top will say “click in this area if you want to set an alarm for up to 120 seconds”. The other ones will be the same thing but broken into ranges of 1 hour, 12 hours, “daytime” and cancel. We’ll get to these next.

The Alarms

So let’s say you are cooking something and you need to be reminded of when to turn the heat off. You can set ChronoSlider on by using the customizable shortcut, or by going into the menu bar icon of the app and clicking on the “Add Alarm” button.

The screen that we mentioned before will come up with the instructions (the instructions will go away after a few times that you access the alarm-setting thing, though). As you hover or slide your cursor over the different sectors of the screen, the timer in the center will change. So let’s say, if you are in the “0-1 hour” sector, as you hover over the area the timer will be changing in between minutes, starting at 1 and ending at 60. It’s not the most precise way of choosing a time, but it’s fast and it saves a lot of time.

The sector of the 120 seconds range will switch between seconds; the 0-1 hour range will switch between minutes and the 12 hour range will switch between hours. The “daytime alarm” area is the most interesting one, because it lets you set an alarm for any minute within the next 24 hours. This is the one you would use if you wanted to set an alarm that wakes you up in the morning or reminds you of an appointment you have the next day. There’s also a “cancel” section in the top, in case you don’t really want to set an alarm or timer.

Messages, Chronoslings and More

After you choose the time of your alarm or timer, the timer in the center will switch to a message saying “Slide!”. If you slide, a few messages will appear, such as “Feed the cat!”, “Go get the bus”, “Play iTunes” or just a plain boring “Alarm”. These are the messages that will appear on your screen once the alarm sets off, and you can only choose one per alarm. There are some default messages that come with the app, like the ones I mentioned, but if you go into the settings you can make your own and delete the factory ones.

There are also “Chronoslings”, which are basically Applescripts that you can set to certain alarms. There are already some of them built in to some factory alarms, like “Sleep” and “Pause/Play iTunes”. You can make pretty much anything you want with these, but you need to have some knowledge as to how to use them properly (the app won’t tell you how, but this article can).

There are also some useful hidden things like the ability to play sounds, dimming the screen once you set off the app, and setting a global keyboard shortcut to set off the app. By going into the menu bar icon, you can access the settings, view your current alarms and refresh or cancel them.

The Bad

Surprisingly, there really isn’t much to complain about in this app. When I first heard about it, I thought it would be too basic and that it would sacrifice a few features in order to make the app simpler and faster, but that really isn’t the case. However, sometimes it feels like you need to work your way around (perhaps) complex AppleScripts to get at what you want it to perform, like maybe play a song from your library, but the functionality is there.

The End

We’ve had roundups of alarm apps before, and they usually break down into two categories: the ones that are meant to work on a short range of time, like something that you need to be quickly reminded of within an hour or so; and the more complete and complex ones that are meant to be used within a larger range of time and do more complex stuff like wake you up using your iTunes library or play slideshows.

I think this app does a good job at balancing both of those. It’s simple enough that you can set a new alarm in just a few seconds, but also useful enough that if you want it to perform something complicated, you can most likely do it through the AppleScripts. All the features that you could want are there, they’re just not as “out” there as they are in other apps. I think for the price, you couldn’t really get something as useful and simple as this app, especially when the competition is really overpriced. I know I’ll be using it instead of my “Minutes” widget from now on.

It’s hard to believe that we’re coming up on a year since the Mac App Store was first announced. It seems like only yesterday we were itching to get our hands on a marketplace full of great utilities, games and other goodies all custom tailored to the Mac platform.

While categories like Games took off dramatically right from the start, the offerings for designers and developers got off to a much slower start and are just now starting to really take off. Below is a collection of over thirty useful Mac App Store apps for designers. I’ve intentionally left out obvious favorites like Pixelmator and tried to keep the list more towards hidden gems that you may not have tried yet. Take a look!

Measuring

Sizewise

Sizewise helps you quickly test your designs on a number of resolutions. You can enter in your own size or use one of the built-in presets. Sizewise can simulate a menubar, Dock, and desktop to provide a realistic replica of what users will see.

Price: $4.99

xScope

There are lots of tools that allow you to measure things on your screen but xScope easily stands out as one of the best. The on screen rulers can measure items, grab the distance between two items, span multiple monitors and even measure rotation. It’s a little pricey but justifiably so as it provides a lot more functionality than many of its competitors.

Price: $29.99

Guideliner

In addition to measuring objects on the screen, this app allows you to drag guides out over any content similar to how you would in Photoshop. There are some nice customization features as well.

Price: $19.99

Pixelstick

Pixelstick is much cheaper than the two previous options and has a pretty unique interface that helps you quickly grab distances and angles or copy colors to your clipboard.

Price: $6.99

Art Director’s Toolkit

Art Director’s Toolkit took the idea of a standard screen ruler and expanded it with a number of other utilities such as character palettes, fractions/decimal converters, color tools, and scaling calculators. Art Director’s Toolkit has been around for a number of years and is definitely a top-notch tool for designers of all kinds.

Price: $19.99

Design

Aurora 3D Maker

If you’re not into 3D modeling, it can be difficult to successfully generate accurate three dimensional graphics. Anyone can use Aurora 3D Maker to easily create extruded text, logos and more, rotate them in 3D space and apply different colors, textures and lighting setups.

Price: $29.99

ExportTools Professional

ExportTools Professional is a super powerful exporting tool for InDesign and QuarkXPress that allows you to quickly transform multiple documents into multi-page PDFs. You can also have Exportools Professional periodically scan a watched folder where you move or copy files. Every time a scan is performed, new files will be automatically added to the queue ready for processing.

Price: $99.99

Templates for Pages

This isn’t so much an app as it is a collection of 250 extra templates for Pages. If you’re not quite at the level of designing from scratch in Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign, Pages provides a great entry-level alternative. This set of templates will expand your options and provide great starting points for posters, brochures and more.

Price: $16.99

Scopeworks

This one is a silly and fun utility for generating kaleidoscope images and animations. However, the results are often fairly interesting patterns that any designer could definitely find some legitimate uses for!

Price: $7.99

Icon Slate

Creating icon files can be a pain, this tool lets you easily compose, import or export icons in many formats : Apple icns, Microsoft ico, CandyBar iContainer, image (png or tiff). You can drag in multiple images, customize your background color, even view a quick preview in the dock!

Price: $4.99

Branch Designer

Every designer loves some good organic graphics, but they can be a little tricky and time consuming to pull off, especially if you’re a beginner. Branch Designer gives you the tools you need to generate custom branch graphics. The user defines the main trunk using a vector path, the offshoots and the leaves are then generated according to a set of parameters, that can easily be changed.

Price: $19.99

Prototypes

This is a really great little tool for anyone designing for iOS. You can turn your still mockup images from Photoshop, Illustrator or Fireworks into a tappable prototype that runs on iPhone or iPod Touch. There’s no coding required, just drag and drop to build your test app workflows.

Price: $39.99

Page Layers

This is a fantastic little tool that allows you to enter a URL, the contents of which will then be converted to a full-layered Photoshop file. Page Layers renders every element on the whole page to a separate, transparent layer. It’s sort of like a PSD to HTML tool in reverse!

Price: $11.99

VectorPro Color

VectorPro Color is an affordable autotracing tool that transforms bitmap images into high quality, scaleable vector files. This version allows you to trace black and white, grayscale and even color images, adjusting the number of colors used along the way.

Price: $19.99

PSD Localizer

If you’ve ever worked with designers from other countries then you know that localizing a Photoshop file can be quite the process. This app claims to automatically convert the file so that any text automatically appears in the language indicated.

Price: $4.99

Patterno

Patterno helps you create attractive patterns that tile seamlessly and therefore make perfect backgrounds for websites and other projects. The simple but effective toolset makes it easy for anyone to create tiling backgrounds by compiling multiple graphics files. Just choose your resources, adjust the parameters and you’re ready to go.

Price: $19.99

iArt Pro

iArt Pro is a sharp looking, super simple graphics editor for Mac. It’s a good starter app for anyone looking to do extremely basic photo editing, drawing or painting. The toolset is pretty standard and will provide a decent stepping stone to work your way up to something much larger like Photoshop.

Price: $7.99

Griddle

Griddle is a custom grid generator that can be used for all types of design work. You can adjust all kinds of settings including the size, origin, number of lines, line color and more. The resulting file has a transparent background so you can easily toss it on top of whatever you’re working on.

Price: $1.99

Artboard

Artboard is an impressive vector editing application with all kinds of powerful features: layers, built-in styles and clipart, bezier drawing and editing, pen tablet support, text to outlines conversion, masking and a lot more.

Price: $25.99

Layers

This app is just like Page Layers above but instead of capturing the items from a web page, it captures every item on your screen and outputs a layered PSD. This is extremely useful for designing custom screen mockups.

Price: $24.99

Developer

Sprite Monkey

When creating a web design, many designers and developers prefer to combine multiple images into a single document, which can then be essentially cropped via CSS to be placed as all the various individual images. This little tool will help you quickly compile your images into a single sprite sheet. Just select a folder of png images and then select what you want to save it as.

Price: $2.99

Hype

With the recent popularity of CSS3 and HTML5, web animation has reached an entirely new era. With Hype you can create complex, beautiful HTML5 animations in a user friendly WYSIWYG environment that saves you hours of coding time and frustration.

Price: $29.99

Fonts & Typography

Fontographer

Fontographer is a serious professional application for font designers. With it you’ll have access to a full suite of tools that will help you create new fonts from scratch, customize and add to existing fonts or even fix issues with poorly constructed fonts. If you’re looking to get into custom typeface design, this is an awesome place to start.

Price: $399.99

Fontcase

In the world of font managers, OS X’s built-in Font Book utility ranks pretty low and leaves many professional designers feeling less than impressed. Fontcase is one attractive and functional alternative that has become quite popular in recent years. The strength here is in the interface, which provides beautiful font previews and even tagging so you can quickly and easily find the font you want and move on. I’ve heard that some Lion users are experiencing some issues, but I’m sure the developers will have it patched up in no time.

Price: $29.99

Glyphs

Glyphs is a slightly more affordable alternative to Fontagrapher above. It has many of the same features, including the ability to create custom fonts or edit existing fonts. The interface looks pretty slick and definitely packs a major punch of functionality.

Price: $299.99

Font Catalog Creator

If you’ve got a million different fonts, and every designer does, it can be difficult to sort through them, keep them organized, or offer your clients a few choice selections. With this handy utility you can create awesome printable catalogs of your entire font library. You’ll love the ability to physically browse through your fonts and see them in a new light.

Price: $19.99

Art Text 2

Art Text 2 is a tool that helps you convert plain boring text into impressive logos, banners and the like. The interface is based on preset styles and shapes so you’ll be creating awesome pieces of art in only a few clicks. The results vary from super cheesy to fairly stunning, it’s all in who is using it!

Price: $19.99

Color

Colors

A simple but effective little color loupe that helps you capture any color on your screen and copy it to your clipboard.

Price: $2.99

ColorChooser

ColorChooser is a menu bar utility that helps you create and grab colors. You can select colors using the standard built-in Mac OS X color pickers, or use the magnifying glass tool to pick up a color from your screen. You can then copy and paste the color using a number of different supported formats.

Price: $3.99

ColorPalette

Rather than grabbing individual colors from your screen, ColorPalette helps you build attractive color schemes by using a popular designer’s trick that involves sampling colors from a photograph (which tend to have very nature palettes). Simply drop in a photo, tweak the settings and it will be reduced to a basic grid of colors.

Price: $1.99

ColorSnapper

ColorSnapper is another menu bar color grabber app, this time with a few cool tricks like a global keyboard shortcut and the ability to see recently grabbed colors.

Price: $4.99

Pochade

One last menu bar color utility, this one with a unique UI and some powerful features like building custom collections of colors for quick access. If you’re a serious color fan, this may be your best bet.

Price: $9.99

Image Compression/Conversion

JPEG4Web

Need to optimize a big batch of JPGs for web use? JPEG4Web has you covered. It allows you to compress, resize, crop and add watermarks to your images. It also includes live preview and final file size information.

Price: $9.99

ConvertIt

This little utility makes for lightning fast conversion of images into one of eight formats: PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF, GIF, ICNS, BMP, ICO. Just drag a group of images to the ConvertIt icon, choose the file type and you’re done.

Price: $0.99

Imagexy Batch Photo Resizer

Imagexy Batch Photo Resizer handles really large image sizing batches with ease. Throw thousands of images at it and just watch it work. You can even resize psd’s in addition to the typical jpg, gif, png and pdf.

Price: $9.99

Snap Converter

A super simple drag and drop file converter. Convert bitmap graphics, Mac and Windows icons, Camera RAW images, Photoshop documents, and many other formats. You can even create multi-image Mac icon files from a single image.

Price: $4.99

PNGPress

To be honest, I don’t usually give much thought to my file size for web projects if I’m using JPGs, but as soon as I start bringing PNGs into the picture then I definitely seek to keep things as small as possible. This app will help you make your PNGs as tiny as possible for web use.

Price: $0.99

RightClickImages

This one is a unique spin on image conversion. You simply right click on an image or folder of images and choose between the popular format choices, the app then jumps into action and performs its task. Quick, easy and intuitive!

Price: $4.99

Tell Us Your Favorites!

Now that you’ve seen our list of awesomely useful Mac apps for designers, leave a comment below and tell us about your favorites that aren’t listed. Are there any apps that you’re surprised haven’t made it to the Mac App Store yet?

While you’re at it, let us know which of the apps above you’ve tried and what you thought of them. I’d love to hear about your experiences with each.

It’s hard to believe that we’re coming up on a year since the Mac App Store was first announced. It seems like only yesterday we were itching to get our hands on a marketplace full of great utilities, games and other goodies all custom tailored to the Mac platform.

While categories like Games took off dramatically right from the start, the offerings for designers and developers got off to a much slower start and are just now starting to really take off. Below is a collection of over thirty useful Mac App Store apps for designers. I’ve intentionally left out obvious favorites like Pixelmator and tried to keep the list more towards hidden gems that you may not have tried yet. Take a look!

Measuring

Sizewise

Sizewise helps you quickly test your designs on a number of resolutions. You can enter in your own size or use one of the built-in presets. Sizewise can simulate a menubar, Dock, and desktop to provide a realistic replica of what users will see.

Price: $4.99

xScope

There are lots of tools that allow you to measure things on your screen but xScope easily stands out as one of the best. The on screen rulers can measure items, grab the distance between two items, span multiple monitors and even measure rotation. It’s a little pricey but justifiably so as it provides a lot more functionality than many of its competitors.

Price: $29.99

Guideliner

In addition to measuring objects on the screen, this app allows you to drag guides out over any content similar to how you would in Photoshop. There are some nice customization features as well.

Price: $19.99

Pixelstick

Pixelstick is much cheaper than the two previous options and has a pretty unique interface that helps you quickly grab distances and angles or copy colors to your clipboard.

Price: $6.99

Art Director’s Toolkit

Art Director’s Toolkit took the idea of a standard screen ruler and expanded it with a number of other utilities such as character palettes, fractions/decimal converters, color tools, and scaling calculators. Art Director’s Toolkit has been around for a number of years and is definitely a top-notch tool for designers of all kinds.

Price: $19.99

Design

Aurora 3D Maker

If you’re not into 3D modeling, it can be difficult to successfully generate accurate three dimensional graphics. Anyone can use Aurora 3D Maker to easily create extruded text, logos and more, rotate them in 3D space and apply different colors, textures and lighting setups.

Price: $29.99

ExportTools Professional

ExportTools Professional is a super powerful exporting tool for InDesign and QuarkXPress that allows you to quickly transform multiple documents into multi-page PDFs. You can also have Exportools Professional periodically scan a watched folder where you move or copy files. Every time a scan is performed, new files will be automatically added to the queue ready for processing.

Price: $99.99

Templates for Pages

This isn’t so much an app as it is a collection of 250 extra templates for Pages. If you’re not quite at the level of designing from scratch in Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign, Pages provides a great entry-level alternative. This set of templates will expand your options and provide great starting points for posters, brochures and more.

Price: $16.99

Scopeworks

This one is a silly and fun utility for generating kaleidoscope images and animations. However, the results are often fairly interesting patterns that any designer could definitely find some legitimate uses for!

Price: $7.99

Icon Slate

Creating icon files can be a pain, this tool lets you easily compose, import or export icons in many formats : Apple icns, Microsoft ico, CandyBar iContainer, image (png or tiff). You can drag in multiple images, customize your background color, even view a quick preview in the dock!

Price: $4.99

Branch Designer

Every designer loves some good organic graphics, but they can be a little tricky and time consuming to pull off, especially if you’re a beginner. Branch Designer gives you the tools you need to generate custom branch graphics. The user defines the main trunk using a vector path, the offshoots and the leaves are then generated according to a set of parameters, that can easily be changed.

Price: $19.99

Prototypes

This is a really great little tool for anyone designing for iOS. You can turn your still mockup images from Photoshop, Illustrator or Fireworks into a tappable prototype that runs on iPhone or iPod Touch. There’s no coding required, just drag and drop to build your test app workflows.

Price: $39.99

Page Layers

This is a fantastic little tool that allows you to enter a URL, the contents of which will then be converted to a full-layered Photoshop file. Page Layers renders every element on the whole page to a separate, transparent layer. It’s sort of like a PSD to HTML tool in reverse!

Price: $11.99

VectorPro Color

VectorPro Color is an affordable autotracing tool that transforms bitmap images into high quality, scaleable vector files. This version allows you to trace black and white, grayscale and even color images, adjusting the number of colors used along the way.

Price: $19.99

PSD Localizer

If you’ve ever worked with designers from other countries then you know that localizing a Photoshop file can be quite the process. This app claims to automatically convert the file so that any text automatically appears in the language indicated.

Price: $4.99

Patterno

Patterno helps you create attractive patterns that tile seamlessly and therefore make perfect backgrounds for websites and other projects. The simple but effective toolset makes it easy for anyone to create tiling backgrounds by compiling multiple graphics files. Just choose your resources, adjust the parameters and you’re ready to go.

Price: $19.99

iArt Pro

iArt Pro is a sharp looking, super simple graphics editor for Mac. It’s a good starter app for anyone looking to do extremely basic photo editing, drawing or painting. The toolset is pretty standard and will provide a decent stepping stone to work your way up to something much larger like Photoshop.

Price: $7.99

Griddle

Griddle is a custom grid generator that can be used for all types of design work. You can adjust all kinds of settings including the size, origin, number of lines, line color and more. The resulting file has a transparent background so you can easily toss it on top of whatever you’re working on.

Price: $1.99

Artboard

Artboard is an impressive vector editing application with all kinds of powerful features: layers, built-in styles and clipart, bezier drawing and editing, pen tablet support, text to outlines conversion, masking and a lot more.

Price: $25.99

Layers

This app is just like Page Layers above but instead of capturing the items from a web page, it captures every item on your screen and outputs a layered PSD. This is extremely useful for designing custom screen mockups.

Price: $24.99

Developer

Sprite Monkey

When creating a web design, many designers and developers prefer to combine multiple images into a single document, which can then be essentially cropped via CSS to be placed as all the various individual images. This little tool will help you quickly compile your images into a single sprite sheet. Just select a folder of png images and then select what you want to save it as.

Price: $2.99

Hype

With the recent popularity of CSS3 and HTML5, web animation has reached an entirely new era. With Hype you can create complex, beautiful HTML5 animations in a user friendly WYSIWYG environment that saves you hours of coding time and frustration.

Price: $29.99

Fonts & Typography

Fontographer

Fontographer is a serious professional application for font designers. With it you’ll have access to a full suite of tools that will help you create new fonts from scratch, customize and add to existing fonts or even fix issues with poorly constructed fonts. If you’re looking to get into custom typeface design, this is an awesome place to start.

Price: $399.99

Fontcase

In the world of font managers, OS X’s built-in Font Book utility ranks pretty low and leaves many professional designers feeling less than impressed. Fontcase is one attractive and functional alternative that has become quite popular in recent years. The strength here is in the interface, which provides beautiful font previews and even tagging so you can quickly and easily find the font you want and move on. I’ve heard that some Lion users are experiencing some issues, but I’m sure the developers will have it patched up in no time.

Price: $29.99

Glyphs

Glyphs is a slightly more affordable alternative to Fontagrapher above. It has many of the same features, including the ability to create custom fonts or edit existing fonts. The interface looks pretty slick and definitely packs a major punch of functionality.

Price: $299.99

Font Catalog Creator

If you’ve got a million different fonts, and every designer does, it can be difficult to sort through them, keep them organized, or offer your clients a few choice selections. With this handy utility you can create awesome printable catalogs of your entire font library. You’ll love the ability to physically browse through your fonts and see them in a new light.

Price: $19.99

Art Text 2

Art Text 2 is a tool that helps you convert plain boring text into impressive logos, banners and the like. The interface is based on preset styles and shapes so you’ll be creating awesome pieces of art in only a few clicks. The results vary from super cheesy to fairly stunning, it’s all in who is using it!

Price: $19.99

Color

Colors

A simple but effective little color loupe that helps you capture any color on your screen and copy it to your clipboard.

Price: $2.99

ColorChooser

ColorChooser is a menu bar utility that helps you create and grab colors. You can select colors using the standard built-in Mac OS X color pickers, or use the magnifying glass tool to pick up a color from your screen. You can then copy and paste the color using a number of different supported formats.

Price: $3.99

ColorPalette

Rather than grabbing individual colors from your screen, ColorPalette helps you build attractive color schemes by using a popular designer’s trick that involves sampling colors from a photograph (which tend to have very nature palettes). Simply drop in a photo, tweak the settings and it will be reduced to a basic grid of colors.

Price: $1.99

ColorSnapper

ColorSnapper is another menu bar color grabber app, this time with a few cool tricks like a global keyboard shortcut and the ability to see recently grabbed colors.

Price: $4.99

Pochade

One last menu bar color utility, this one with a unique UI and some powerful features like building custom collections of colors for quick access. If you’re a serious color fan, this may be your best bet.

Price: $9.99

Image Compression/Conversion

JPEG4Web

Need to optimize a big batch of JPGs for web use? JPEG4Web has you covered. It allows you to compress, resize, crop and add watermarks to your images. It also includes live preview and final file size information.

Price: $9.99

ConvertIt

This little utility makes for lightning fast conversion of images into one of eight formats: PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF, GIF, ICNS, BMP, ICO. Just drag a group of images to the ConvertIt icon, choose the file type and you’re done.

Price: $0.99

Imagexy Batch Photo Resizer

Imagexy Batch Photo Resizer handles really large image sizing batches with ease. Throw thousands of images at it and just watch it work. You can even resize psd’s in addition to the typical jpg, gif, png and pdf.

Price: $9.99

Snap Converter

A super simple drag and drop file converter. Convert bitmap graphics, Mac and Windows icons, Camera RAW images, Photoshop documents, and many other formats. You can even create multi-image Mac icon files from a single image.

Price: $4.99

PNGPress

To be honest, I don’t usually give much thought to my file size for web projects if I’m using JPGs, but as soon as I start bringing PNGs into the picture then I definitely seek to keep things as small as possible. This app will help you make your PNGs as tiny as possible for web use.

Price: $0.99

RightClickImages

This one is a unique spin on image conversion. You simply right click on an image or folder of images and choose between the popular format choices, the app then jumps into action and performs its task. Quick, easy and intuitive!

Price: $4.99

Tell Us Your Favorites!

Now that you’ve seen our list of awesomely useful Mac apps for designers, leave a comment below and tell us about your favorites that aren’t listed. Are there any apps that you’re surprised haven’t made it to the Mac App Store yet?

While you’re at it, let us know which of the apps above you’ve tried and what you thought of them. I’d love to hear about your experiences with each.