Category: Mac

Let’s face it, Macs are expensive. They are more than worth it of course, but there’s no getting around the fact that any recently released Mac, regardless of model, costs a significant amount of money and is a gleaming thief-magnet, liable to being dropped or lost. I love my iPad and iPhone, but as a freelance writer I need a ‘real’ computer for significant work when I travel.

I need a Mac that I can lug around, collecting accidental knocks without worry, a Mac that can act as temporary backup if my MacBook Pro ever needs repair. In short, I need an older, expendable Mac that I don’t have to worry about. If you need one too, here’s some advice on what to look for!

The Alternatives

Before we embark on buying an obsolete and unsupported computer, let’s look at some more recent alternatives for your beater, backup, or travel-friendly Mac and see if you’ll be well served with an older machine:

MacBook Air – The MacBook air is a beautiful and very capable computer. However, it is also expensive and I don’t think I’d feel comfortable leaving an Air at my table in the local coffee shop while I grab a refill, or on the living room floor while my Staffordshire Bull Terrier bounds around at high speed. If you’ve got the spare cash, this would be an excellent choice of backup or even main computer. I haven’t and even if I did, I could never treat a MacBook Air as carelessly as an older, cheaper computer.

Netbook – When fitted out with a lightweight Linux flavour such as Xubuntu, a Netbook can be a great option for a travel friendly computer, but the gain in portability and weight is offset by a small screen and cramped keyboard which would induce RSI for me when typing thousands of words. I’d also like to remain in the OS X environment if possible.

Hackintosh – There are many laptops able to be turned into a Hackintosh, look here for a compatibility chart and Gizmodo has a good guide here to get you started too. A couple of years ago I ran a Dell Mini 9 with OS X Leopard and it performed flawlessly but required a lot of hacking to get up and running, along with a bigger and faster Runcore SSD. Once one has expended the time and effort needed to get this working, it stops being expendable and starts to be a computer I’d not want to leave open to possible abuse.

Though one of the above options may well suit you best, none quite work for me and that’s why I’d like to propose buying an iBook G4…

In Defense Of The Venerable PowerPC

Before Apple adopted Intel processors for their Macs and thus became capable of running Microsoft Windows too, the Motorola designed PowerPC was the engine which powered OS X. Now they are obsolete and almost forgotten in the amnesiac world of tech, but that does not mean that they aren’t still capable machines, able to perform many user’s typical day to day computer needs; word processing, basic design, Internet surfing and emailing.

Buying The Right Model For Your Needs

When considering which older Mac to buy, I like to keep one principle in mind and that is, my secondary Mac must be ultimately expendable – which to me means it costs no more than $150 and does not take too much of my time to get up and running.

When deciding which model to choose, there is a trade-off between cost and performance and it is my belief that a G4 iBook is right in that sweet spot. Any older than an iBook G4 and it won’t run Tiger or Leopard very effectively, any more powerful and it starts to get too expensive to be a Mac for throwing in a car seat, lending to a friend and leaving around clumsy pets. You’ll probably want to be shooting for around 1Ghz processor speed and 1GB RAM, or at least a Mac which is capable of upgrading to 1GB RAM.

If you can purchase your Mac in person then that’s ideal because then you can check for any obvious issues but if you’re willing to take your time and accept some risk, great deals are to be had on eBay too. After looking around for a couple of days, I snagged an immaculate iBook 1Ghz G4 for just over $100, cheap enough so that I wouldn’t be hurting too much if it turned out to be a lemon.

A couple of additional points to consider when buying your old Mac:

Some iBooks will not come with an Airport wireless card, so make sure yours does or buy one separately if you’ll be needing a wireless connection.

When Apple designed the iBook they inexplicably made it very difficult to change the hard drive, so unless you’re experienced and confident enough to do this yourself or willing to pay someone who is, your hard drive will be an important part of your new iBook.

Choosing The Right Operating System

OS X Panther is really too old and unsupported, plus a lot of good features were introduced with Tiger, such as Spotlight and Expose. A general rule of thumb when choosing between Tiger and Leopard is that if the chip is less than 1Ghz then stick to Tiger – if it’s over 1Ghz and you’ve got at least 1GB of RAM then give perhaps give Leopard a try, though be warned that if buying a pre-owned version of OS X, you should only buy the retail version, not the grey system disks which are tailored to suit one particular model of Mac.

OS X Tiger is more likely to run well with an iBook’s limited resources.

Hardware Upgrades

The iBook range tends to come with hard drives which are uninspiring by today’s standards and I’ve got a few bigger and faster HD’s lying around the house so I followed this guide carefully to swap it out – it was a fiddly job and took around 1.5 hours, in all, just about in my threshold of what I’ll expend in time for this computer.

RAM is much easier to upgrade and inexpensive too. A visit to Cruicial will soon have you kitted out. Follow this guide to get it installed.

Software Upgrades

When setting up your iBook, it’s sound practice to wipe the hard drive and complete a fresh install. This done, be sure to get fully upgraded and repair permissions. Adobe no longer support flash for PPC so in order to get the best possible performance, you’ll need to follow the link given below to grab version 10.1.

Mozilla no longer support PPC either but the awesome TenFourFox provides an optimised version of Firefox 5 for your iBook. It works like a charm and can be used with much needed add-ons like Adblocker Plus and Click To Flash in order to keep your iBook quickly loading pages.

Here are some links to PowerPC and Tiger friendly software:

• TenFourFox
• Adobe Flash Player (81.7MB)
• Adium 1.3.10
• Skype 2.8
• MSN Messenger 7

Final Thoughts

As a long-time Mac user, I was frankly very pleased by my iBook G4. It boots in acceptable time and wakes up from sleep quickly and I found that using Tiger is no hardship at all, it’s a testament to Apple’s excellent forward-thinking development that the OS is still so usable and stable. Programs take longer to load than I’m used to on my late-2010 MacBook Pro, but once they do load, they are responsive. I’ve actually grown to like the older, more springy keyboard of my iBook very much over the last couple of weeks and look forward to using it more in the future.

I know that to some extent I’m going to be preaching to the choir here and many within Mac.Appstorm’s knowledgeable readership will be well aware of the usefulness of older Mac models. For those who are new to OS X however, the above will hopefully offer an idea of just what you can get out of these old machines, for a fraction of the price that a new Mac commands.

Dropbox is a service that we all know and love. This amazing product has made a huge splash in the app industry and has gone far beyond a simple backup service and become a way for us to all share files and keep data synced between devices.

Recently, the Dropbox team updated their terms of service and in doing do caught the attention of several tech blogs and users. Rumors began circulating wide and far that the company had stepped over the line as far as file usage rights. We were sick of rumors and went straight to the source and asked some people at Dropbox what was going on. We gave them an opportunity to give us three reasons we should still trust them with our data. Below we’ll share with you what they said.

What Happened?

I’ll start this story off where I came in and screwed things up. Over this past weekend I was preparing for the holiday and trying not to work too much, but I figured I’d poke around the web and fire off a few interesting tweets for good measure. I noticed that lots of people were complaining about Dropbox supposedly overstepping their boundaries with the usage rights of the files that people choose to backup. I found an article quoting the new Dropbox Terms of Service and sent out a brief tweet about Dropbox “owning” your content with a link to the article. Here’s the quote that the article had pulled from the new Dropbox TOS:

By submitting your stuff to the Services, you grant us (and those we work with to provide the Services) worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works (such as translations or format conversions) of, perform, or publicly display that stuff to the extent we think it necessary for the Service.

Looking back, my tweet was out of line. I hadn’t really investigated and to be honest I didn’t intend to. I linked people to a hot story and let them figure things out for themselves. I wasn’t intentionally reporting, just sharing a link. Then I began receiving responses from angry customers claiming that they were going to drop the service. I realized immediately how poor my choice of words had been, but Twitter doesn’t really have an undo now does it?

At this point, I had put myself into this mess so it was time to do some due diligence. I began researching and I found that several customers were venting their frustration. I began ensuring our Twitter followers that it was likely a big misunderstanding and that Dropbox was and is a solid and trustworthy company. Meanwhile, I contacted Dropbox for comment and they gladly helped me out and answered any questions that I had.

The Real Quote

The quote above definitely sounds a little suspicious. In fact, it sounds a little like Dropbox is going to start stealing my content and using it however they see fit for personal gain!

However, before you get excited about this, you should understand that these words were taken slightly out of context. Here’s the expanded quote straight from the Dropbox TOS with a bit more explanation as to what’s going on.

We sometimes need your permission to do what you ask us to do with your stuff (for example, hosting, making public, or sharing your files). By submitting your stuff to the Services, you grant us (and those we work with to provide the Services) worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works (such as translations or format conversions) of, perform, or publicly display that stuff to the extent reasonably necessary for the Service. This license is solely to enable us to technically administer, display, and operate the Services. You must ensure you have the rights you need to grant us that permission.

Is This Permission Necessary?

With a little bit of context, this suddenly becomes a lot less ominous now doesn’t it? Let’s point out two key areas to focus on, neither of which were in the quote presented by the aforementioned tech blog.

• “We sometimes need your permission to do what you ask us to do with your stuff (for example, hosting, making public, or sharing your files).”
• “This license is solely to enable us to technically administer, display, and operate the Services.”

Here we get some clarity as to why we must grant Dropbox “sublicenseable rights” rights to our files. When we use the services, we’re asking them to host, backup, make copies and share our files with other people. Now, in order to do all of these things, they need some pretty far reaching permissions.

The terms clearly state that this permission is “solely” for the purpose of operating the service and they limit their use to what is “reasonably necessary” for the service. Granted, that term is a little vague, but if you’re really afraid that Dropbox will take your photos and sell them to Coca-Cola for an ad, you’ll definitely be covered here.

Is This Still Going Too Far?

If you find yourself wondering if Dropbox is still going to far, here’s a quote from a recent Dropbox blog post that was written in response to user feedback on this very issue.

“We want to be 100% clear that you own what you put in your Dropbox. We don’t own your stuff. And the license you give us is really limited. It only allows us to provide the service to you. Nothing else.”

There it is plain as day. Dropbox doesn’t own your content and any permission that you give them for it limits them to providing you with the services that you signed up to receive in the first place.

Is This Common?

One thing that helps provide context on this matter is whether or not Dropbox is branching out on their own with such policies or if this in fact standard operating procedure for this type of service.

To answer, this, let’s take a look at Google’s Terms of Service, which are applied to Google Docs and other content that you post to your account.

By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

Sound familiar? It should because it’s almost exactly the language used by Dropbox. In fact, if you look around, you will find that just about every service where you post content has a similar agreement that you of signed when you joined up.

Three Reasons You Shouldn’t Drop Dropbox

“Just in case you’re still not convinced that Dropbox isn’t an evil corporation out to steal your Microsoft Word Documents, I asked Dropbox spokesperson Julie Supan point blank to give us three reasons why we should trust Dropbox with our data. The responses that I received were stellar.”

1) A Promise of Security and Trust

“Dropbox is a business based on trust. The trust our millions of users place in us is the most important asset we have. We have no intention of jeopardizing that trust, and will stay focused on providing a secure way for people to store and access their data. That is the promise we make to our community, which is reflected in a practical sense in our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Security Overview.”

2) A Dedication to Transparency

“We believe we have a responsibility to help our users understand clearly the steps we take on security and privacy. This is why we recently revised our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Security Overview to make all of our policies clearer and more transparent. We have tried to make those changes clear on our blog and through direct e-mails to every user.”

3) A Commitment to Acting on Feedback

User feedback is important to us; it helps us build a better service. That is why we’re working hard to remove the “legalese” in our policies. We have always welcomed feedback from the Dropbox community. When we heard feedback regarding our recent changes, we worked quickly to address any misperceptions about our intent, which is reflected in our blog posts.

Conclusion

To sum up, this entire situation was a media storm gone bad. The truth is, there is literally nothing suspicious, malign or out of the ordinary in the Dropbox Terms of Service. Dropping Dropbox because you refuse to grant them the necessary rights would mean that you should also cease all ties to Google and just about any other online service where you post images, text or data of any kind.

I am not on the Dropbox payroll. This is not a sponsored post. I’m a user, just like you, who was initially concerned about the recent hype but has now been fully convinced that Dropbox is in fact a superb company. I won’t be removing a single file from my Dropbox account because I have just as much or more faith in their dedication to security and privacy that I did two weeks ago.

Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts. Do you trust Dropbox with your data? How about Google and other services with nearly identical TOS agreements?

Earlier this week we took a look at Postbox 2.5, the latest version of the best Mail.app alternative around. It’s loaded with awesome new features that make the experience better both functionally and aesthetically. If you want an awesome Mac email client with tons of professional features, you want Postbox.

We’re super excited to announce that we have a whopping 25 Postbox licenses to give away this week, skyrocketing your chances of winning.

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!

We’ll announce the winners one week from today on Thursday, July 14th. Good luck to everyone who enters and thanks for reading Mac.AppStorm!

The Finder and I go way back: from my family’s ’96 Performa to my MacBook Pro, I’ve used it to navigate my Mac for well over a decade. Since the initial transition from OS 9 to OS 10, I would argue that the way we use the Finder has changed very little, and a lot of what has changed is purely aesthetic. Though I now have the option to browse through my files with Cover Flow or create smart folders, I still use the Finder in pretty much the same way as I did 10 years ago.

With the recent announcement of OS 10.7, I was very disappointed to learn that the Finder won’t be seeing any  improvements, but that doesn’t mean 3rd party developers aren’t hard at work to continue where Apple has left off. Cocoatech’s Path Finder has been around for quite some time and ambitiously tries to replace the Finder altogether to create a more modern, usable means of navigating your computer. Find out if Path Finder successfully replaces the ubiquitous Finder after the jump!

Interface

The Path Finder interface looks very familiar: it has the same layout as the Finder, with the addition of Safari-style tabs and a whole lot more buttons. You can navigate through Path Finder exactly as you would in the Finder without learning anything new, or you can take advantage of Path Finder’s alternative navigation elements, such as bookmarks, breadcrumbs, and tabs. Path Finder brings all the best elements of an Internet browser right to the Finder, so there is pretty much no learning curve: if you’ve used the Finder and Safari, you’ll feel right at home in Path Finder. Path Finder adds more interface tweaks and features than I can cover here, but I’ll go over the most prominent.

Tabs

I think tabs are pretty much the best thing since the graphical user interface, and dream of a day when all apps have tabs (I’m looking at you, iWork and MS Office). Having tabs in your file browser is incredibly handy, not only can you always see which folders you have open and easily switch between them, you can also drag and drop files between tabs. I used to drive myself crazy trying to clean up my folders with multiple Finder windows open, repositioning them all over the screen for optimal drag-and-drop efficiency. Tabs simplify file browsing immensely, and I’m actually better at keeping my downloads folder and desktop uncluttered with Path Finder.

Another cool feature I just learned about (after using Path Finder for months) is tab sets. Tab sets are like custom work spaces, you can save a layout of related tabs and re-launch them at any time. For example, if I’m working on a project, I might want to have quick access to related folders, applications, and maybe downloads. With tab sets, I can have all the tabs I need appear just as I had them last time.

Options for tabs, file navigation and bookmarks are accessed from a small arrow at the right side of each toolbar.

Drop Stack

The Drop Stack simplifies the process of moving files to new directories, especially when you’re not sure where you’re taking something. The Drop Stack is like a temporary holding place, where you can keep files as you’re moving them, very handy for tasks like cleaning out a downloads folder.

Dual-Pane View

Path Finder’s Dual-Pane view splits your window into two, so that you can see two folders at once. This view is especially useful for comparing folders or moving files back and forth. Each pane acts as its own file browser, complete with tabs and breadcrumb navigation. You can activate Dual-Pane view from an icon at the bottom-left of the window.

Dual-pane browsing

Modules & Drawers

Modules and drawers allow you to display additional customized information either within the browser or in slide-out drawers. Selecting the modules icon adds a two-panelled division to the bottom of the browser that displays customizable information about the selected file or various functionalities. The default modules are info and preview, but you can use modules to view attributes, hex, iTunes browser, cover flow, permisisons, processes, recent documents or folders, selection path, shelf, sidebar, file size, subversion or a terminal window. Drawers have the same function as modules, but slide out from the browser, either to the left, right, or bottom.

Features

In addition to interface additions and tweaks, Path Finder adds a number of utilities and features that extend its functionality.

Filters and Selections

Path Finder includes powerful filtering and selection features to help narrow down and manage your files. You can filter files by keyword, extension or type from the search box at the top right of the window (which can also be toggled to do spotlight searches). If you’d like to select files based on certain filtering parameters, click the selection icon from the toolbar at the top (I have no idea how that icon represents “selection”, but it looks like a white box with blue lines). You can then select files from a folder based on name, extension, attributes, kind, and date. The selections feature is a bit like making a temporary smart folder to locate the files you’re looking for.

To make a selection based on more than one parameter, check the “extend selection” box in the selection pane.

Utilities

Path Finder includes some additional tools to perform common tasks from within the browser without opening any other apps or utilities. These utilities include a text editor, basic image editor, application launcher, and Stuffit-powered file compression. If you’re like me and always have too many applications running, it’s nice to be able to avoid opening TextEdit, Archive Utility and Preview all the time!

Path Finder as a Finder Replacement

I’ve used Path Finder as my primary file browser for several months, and it saves me a lot of time and frustration. I work from my Mac, so anything that can streamline my workflows saves me time, and Path Finder completely eliminates the time-wasting caused by looking for and organizing files. You can set up Path Finder to basically take over for the Finder, and even get it to quit the Finder for you (but you still can’t get rid of the dock icon). There are a couple of integration issues with “reveal in Finder” dialogs from some applications, for example, files downloaded from Google Chrome. I don’t know if this is fixable, but it does make it a little harder to completely replace the Finder.

Dropbox

Like many Appstorm readers, I frequently use Dropbox to back up and share files. Unfortunately, Path Finder doesn’t integrate with Dropbox as nicely as the Finder does. Path Finder doesn’t display the syncing badges on file icons, and doesn’t show the Dropbox contextual menus by default in Snow Leopard. When you update or add a file to your Dropbox, the Finder will be launched instead of Path Finder. Cocoatech has submitted a request for support to Dropbox, but unfortunately that’s all they can do, it’s on Dropbox to allow integration.

You may be able to get Path Finder to display Dropbox contextual menus by manually copying Dropbox.app/Content/Resources/DropboxPlugin.plugin to ~/Library/Contextual Menu Items, then restaring Path Finder. It worked for me!

Alternatives

Finder replacement isn’t a crowded field, there really aren’t a lot of options out there for those of us dissatisfied with the Finder. The options that do exist are quickly aging. A couple of years ago, Josh Johnson wrote a round-up of Finder alternatives, including Path Finder. He mentions a couple of free options that have some of the same features as Path Finder, but also lack some key features and suffer from clunky interface design. If you’re looking for a geekier option with a focus on speed and multiple file system support, check out Xfile, it’s a bit pricier than Path Finder at $59, but offers a lifetime “test drive” with reduced functionality.

If you’re only interested in adding tabs to your Finder experience, take a look at TotalFinder, an enhancement that brings Chrome-like tabs to Finder.

Conclusion

Though other Finder alternatives are worth checking out, in my opinion, none of them come close to being as fully-featured and seamless as Path Finder. Path Finder gives you everything you could want in a file browser, if you’ve ever wished the Finder had feature x, Path Finder probably has it.

After a hard drive failure and forced wipe of my entire laptop, I was forced to go back to the Finder while waiting for the Internet to be installed at my new apartment (it was a rough week), and I was amazed at how much I’ve come to rely on Path Finder for all the frequent tasks I have to perform on my Mac. Path Finder is not just an “enhanced” Finder, it’s a much more powerful replacement.

Going from Path Finder back to the Finder is like going from downgrading from Firefox to Internet Explorer 6: you can perform the same basic tasks, but everything takes longer and is way less convenient. Though the lack of Dropbox integration may deter some, I still say its worth checking out if you’ve ever found yourself frustrated at the Finder’s lack of functionality.

I really do hope that Apple some day takes a cue from Path Finder and seriously updates the Finder, but until that day, Path Finder is a fantastic alternative.

We’d like to say a big thank you to this month’s Mac.AppStorm sponsors, and the great software they create! If you’re interested in advertising, you can purchase a banner advertisement through BuySellAds, or sign up for a Weekly Sponsorship slot.

Thank you to the fantastic applications we had sponsoring each week during the month, all of which we personally recommend you download and try out!

• Rubbernet – A new app from Conceited Software which tracks what apps are accessing your network connection, and how much bandwidth they are using.
• Jumsoft – Jumsoft is comprised of an extremely talented team of people and is behind an absolutely stellar line of apps: Money, Relationship, Operation, Home Business Trio and Process
• Music Commander – A fully-featured menu bar utility that allows you to control iTunes from anywhere.
• SideFolders – An extremely useful little utility that gives you quick and easy access to your files from anywhere. By docking on the side of your screen and only showing up when you want it to SideFolders is never in your way but is always ready to go when you need to open something.

Finally, thanks to you for reading AppStorm this month, and for checking out the software that our sponsors create. I really appreciate it – you make the site what it is!

There are plenty of radio services out there, and most of them offer different music and/or features than the others. This makes it hard for audiophiles to remain loyal to just one radio service, and if you are anything like me, you have accounts that you use with more than one of these radio services.

Today we are reviewing an app that is called Musicality, and it works as a desktop app that can play your Pandora and Last.fm radio stations without the need of having a browser tab or window open. How good is it? Let’s find out.

Getting Started

Musicality goes for $6 dollars on the Mac App Store, but if you head over to the developer’s website, you can get a free 10 day trial. The first time you open the app, you’ll be greeted with a Welcome window where you can access a few links that will help you get familiar with the app. These will take you directly to the dev’s website, and the topics in them range from giving you a quick written introduction to the app, to helping you get familiar with using the Apple Remote with the app.

After this greeting window, you’ll be shown the main window, which is pretty empty right now. As a big fan of Last.fm myself, the first thing I decided to do was go into the preferences to setup scrobbling by giving the app my account information. But you don’t need to do that, you can just jump into the stations.

The Interface

The app itself is pretty simple. There isn’t much to see or do in it. On the top bar is where you have the drop-down menu that allows you to switch between the supported services. The main frame is pretty big, and it is where you are shown the interface of the stations that you use, once you select them. That’s about it, the app doesn’t do much for itself; think about it as an easier way of accessing your favorite radio from your desktop.

Stations

Once you select a service from the top bar, on the main window the main page of the service’s website will start loading. Musicality supports Last.fm, Pandora and Grooveshark, all of which are the main radio services in the United States. There is, however, no support for Spotify.

Basically, you are getting the exact same experience as you do in your browser. So, you aren’t exactly getting a custom interface where you can interact with all those services at the same time; you are just getting an app that is able of running those from your desktop, sort of.

Limitations

Of course, there are plenty of things that I expected this app to be, but it just falls short. I really wanted it to be a simpler way of accessing and bookmarking playlists or anything like that from different types of services. I wanted it to be a real way of merging and using all of these 3 great services, but perhaps that is too much too ask, as I’ve never seen it done in an app.

As for the reasonable expectations, I expected to see some sort of custom interface that just interacted with the API of all the services, not that just ran their web interfaces inside the app. It really doesn’t make much of a difference if you are running something here or in Musicality like this. Or does it?

Why Get It?

So then, what’s the advantage of this app? Why should you buy it? At first, it was a bit disappointing finding out that the app is just a fancy way of running the Last.fm website or the Pandora website on your desktop, but then I thought of the real advantages that the app gives you. For example, you can use Last.fm scrobbling with any of the supported services (Scrobbling and Pandora is a great duo!). You can also use the media buttons on your keyboard (if you have them) to manipulate the app, and you can even customize your own keyboard shortcuts.

There’s also support for Growl, which is way more handy than you can imagine. When I’m listening to my recommendations radio, I don’t have to switch to the app to know who’s playing, as Growl does that for me. It also works with the Apple Remote, so you can manipulate the app with it. But the main thing is the ability to run internet radio stations without having them open on your browser. With Musicality, you can just open up any radio station, close the window of the app and forget about it; you don’t even have to open the app window to manipulate the station.

Conclusion

I guess the big question here is, is it worth $6 dollars? For some, yes. As I mentioned earlier, I’m an avid Last.fm user, and I also use Grooveshark for sharing and discovering playlists. I would have no problem paying $6 dollars for an app that lets me run them through my desktop with keyboard shortcuts and all.

In fact, Musicality reminds me a lot of Mailplane, a Gmail app that we’ve featured before. It also is just an easier way of accessing the Gmail interface from your desktop, and we haven’t heard good feedback from you guys the times that we’ve featured it on our roundups.

But it’s up to you. What do you think? Is this app providing an awesome service or is it a glorified Fluid instance? Would you pay $6 dollars for it? What is your take on these type of apps that basically just let you access the web interface of a site and charge you for it?

As the official release of Lion approaches, one of the things that many of us are excited about is an overhauled Mail.app. Among other improvements, the interface has been overhauled so that it’s much more like its iPad counterpart, especially where threading is concerned.

However, here at AppStorm we’re still huge fans of one of the best Mac email clients around: Postbox, which you can download and start using today. With an all new version, Postbox is more enticing than ever as a powerful, professional alternative to the native Mac Mail client. Let’s take a brief look at what it has to offer.

My Favorite Features: Oldies But Goodies

For those of you who haven’t used Postbox before, here are a few reasons you just might love it. These features have been around for a while but are still a main part of the overall Postbox experience.

Tabs

Sorting mail windows is a pain. I’m fairly ADD when it comes to email so at any given time I’m bouncing around from message to message with three different compose windows open. Tabs are a breath of fresh air to this madness and once you start using them you’ll never go back.

Tabs aren’t just for Safari. In my opinion they should be integrated throughout OS X, especially in the Finder and Mail. Apple doesn’t seem to be interested in making either of these dreams come true so we rely on Postbox and TotalFinder to get the job done!

Effortless Account Setup

Mail.app has come a long way with account setup. However, I use some complicated accounts that require extra steps and can never quite remember how to get everything to route properly in Mail. There are lots of complicated settings and if you don’t get them just right, your email simply won’t work.

When setting up Mail.app on these types of accounts, I inevitably get frustrated and start typing in every possible solution I can think of to make everything function properly. With Postbox, I just type in my email and password and it works! Even though my Gmail addresses route through custom domains, Postbox figures it all out in a split second and gets me up and running without a single curse word.

Beautiful Replies

One of the main reasons I downloaded Postbox is because of AppStorm manager David Appleyard. Every time we started an email conversation, his emails would come in with this beautifully threaded list of past emails. They were far greater than the mess I was used to and I just had to know how he did it.

The answer was simple: Postbox. The “Summarize Mode” automatically takes care of reply and forward formatting so that anyone viewing the email conversation can instantly and easily tell who said what.

Quick Reply

How many times per day do you fire off a quick email reply with only a few words in it? With Mail.app, every reply opens a new message window but Postbox has this neat little “Quick Reply” window that sits right in the original message body that allows you to respond right away.

It’s a small feature but is once again one of those features that you come to depend on and miss sorely when it’s gone!

New in Postbox 2.5

Now that we’ve covered why you should’ve already been using Postbox, let’s tempt you even more by taking a look at some of the new features in version 2.5.

64-Bit Support

Speed is high on everyone’s list of priorities. I want a fast startup and messages that load in an instant. Fortunately, Postbox 2.5 runs in 64 bit mode so you can expect to see some pretty dramatic speed increases throughout the entire app.

Vertical View

One of the things that I’ve always really liked about Evernote is the ability to set up my panes however I see fit. The view that I landed on utilizes vertical columns rather than the stacked, item list on top, preview on bottom view that you see in Mail.app. I really like this setup always wanted Mail to have a similar option.

With Postbox 2.5, you an awesome vertical column layout, similar to Evernote’s, right in your email. Combine this with Postbox’s innovative Focus Pane and you’ve got an unbeatably efficient way to browse through your mountain of email.

Small UI Tweaks & a Major Message Thread Redesign

The entire Postbox interface has received a minor but welcome facelift. If you haven’t used Postbox in a while you may not even notice the new theme or updated icons, but what you will notice is the completely overhauled message view.

Basically, what has happened here is a simplification and realignment of all of the various bits of information within a message. They really thought through how to organize conversations in the best way possible. For instance, the layout is such that as you move from message to message, the alignment of reoccurring bits of information stays static so that there’s no jarring transition. The result is a lot less eye movement and much easier message browsing.

As always, each message in a conversation can be opened and collapsed, making it really easy to see exactly what you need to without all the clutter.

Conclusion: Worth the $19.95?

The popular trend in software right now is less, not more. Typically feature-laden apps like text editors and email clients are stripping out features and giving you a simple blank canvas to work with.

This works well for some people and not so well for others. For instance, I love the simplicity and beauty of Sparrow, a popular email client made to mimic the Twitter for Mac interface. However, my email load and feature needs are simply too cumbersome for such a simple client so it’s really not something that I can use.

In a time where professional feature sets are becoming more and more difficult to come by, Postbox is an awesome reminder that there are still developers out there committed to bringing us all-in-one powerhouse apps that really get the job done right.

There’s just so much in Postbox that I can’t get from other email clients on the Mac. For instance, how many of us would love to see Mail.app give us the ability to apply custom tags to important email as it comes in so we can keep everything organized? This is built right into Postbox along with a bunch of other features I’d kill to see in Mail.

For professionals that live in their inbox as much as I do, Postbox is well with $20 or even double that. Leave a comment below and let us know if you’ve tried Postbox before and what you thought. Have the new features in version 2.5 encouraged you to take another look?

With thousands of apps on the Mac App Store, there’s bound to be some hidden treasures. Unfortunately, there are also plenty of apps that are just containers for sales pitches or overly designed slideshows of real estate. There are a lot of apps that, quite simply, don’t belong on the Mac, and the quantity of those apps makes it difficult to uncover the true gems.

For this roundup, I searched the Mac App Store for solid-looking apps that hadn’t received enough ratings for Apple to give it an average score. I didn’t limit myself to one category. I just looked for apps that seemed to know what they were doing, despite not having an audience to do it to. I think I found some real treasures.

FocusBar

I emailed a developer friend recently, asking for an app that would cure my multitasking habit, a habit that was actually a symptom of my procrastination (’cause if you’re busy with everything, you’re working on nothing). I wanted an app that would bug me once in a while with a reminder to stay on task. It couldn’t be too annoying, because that would ruin whatever focus I happened to have, but it also couldn’t be too passive, otherwise, I’d ignore it as easily as I ignored everything else. Additionally, I said, the app had to look good and feel right.

Being a sensible individual, my developer friend asked me how much I was willing to pay him to build such an app. What he should have said was, “Go spend 99¢ on FocusBar.”

Developed by Macoscope, FocusBar is exactly what I was looking for. It’s comprised of a single, beautifully drawn, tastefully animated bar that subtly appears on your screen every thirty seconds or so to remind you what to focus on. It also shows up whenever you switch applications, as if to say, “Wait a second? Shouldn’t you be working on this instead?”

FocusBar is not a To-Do List manager. It has no list capabilities. At the start of your activity, you type the name of your task into FocusBar, and at the end of your activity, you tell it you’re done. It’s simple, it’s beautiful, and it’s only 99¢.

My only complaint is that there’s no emotional satisfaction that comes from completing a task: no box to check off, no words to strike a line through, no icon to turn into a puff of smoke. It’s not a big deal, but it would provide a nice catharsis.

Price: $0.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6
Developer: Macoscope

CleanShot

If you’re a blogger (or an AppStorm writer), then you know it can be a pain in the butt to prepare your desktop for a screenshot that you want to share with the world. You have to worry about the little menu items on the right side of your menubar, the clutter of windows spread across your desktop, and (depending on your needs) the clock in the menubar revealing that you’re taking the screenshot just five minutes prior to your deadline. Of course, there’s also your screen size to worry about (if you’re the kind of person who takes frequent screenshots, there’s a good chance your resolution is set higher than the average user).

Enter CleanShot, by Media Atelier. Like many screenshot apps, CleanShot removes from the desktop everything that isn’t your focused app, and it comes with the option to replace your normal desktop background with any image you choose.

It has a few unique features too. First, it removes all the geeky menubar items from the right side of the screen, giving you the option to leave on the battery and Airport icons (these are actually fake icons that show a 100% full battery and a 100% full wireless signal). It also lets you set the clock for whenever you want, so if you’re taking screenshots at an ungodly hour like 3:17 AM, you can change it to a more sane 10:23 AM (again, this is a fake clock, not a real one).

Lastly, CleanShot overlays a grid of resolution sizes atop your screen, helping you decide just how big you want your screenshot to be.

If you look closely at the screenshot above, you’ll see that CleanShot even moves the fake clock and menubar items to the edge of your chosen size, ensuring that the viewer thinks they’re seeing everything there is to see. It’s a nice touch.

My one complaint is that there didn’t seem to be a keyboard combination to bring it up, which means you have to find the icon every time you want it to launch. You could always use your System Preferences to set your own keyboard combo, but still, it’d be nice if it were part of the app.

Price: $4.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6
Developer: Media Atelier

MealPlanner

Every morning, right about the time I’m finishing my first cup of coffee, I get a phone call from my wife, asking me what I want for supper. I absolutely hate these phone calls, as does my wife. It’s too early for me to think about lunch, let alone dinner, but because of how busy her day typically is, it’s the only time she has available to talk about it. If we could excise this daily conversation from our lives, I think my wife and I would argue even less than Mike and Carol Brady.

MealPlanner aims to save our marriage, and all the marriages like it. MealPlanner combines a calendar app with a recipe box to give you a one-stop shop for your family’s meal planning needs.

I’m not going to lie to you. MealPlanner is rough around the edges: the developer’s default font-choices are poor (but customizable) and the process of adding a meal to your library is too mechanical (each step in the process slides open a new, fixed-width sheet). But most of the issues crop up when you’re just getting started. Once you’ve added the stable of your family’s usual meals to its library, you never have to add them again. All you do is drag and drop them to the various days you want to make them, and you’re good to go.

Along with setting up your weekly menu, MealPlanner collects all the ingredients for the meals into a single, printable grocery list. After sitting down with your spouse to plan out the week, you can generate a grocery list and head to the store.

I don’t think the current version of the app is worth its price, but it’s cheaper than a marriage counselor.

Price: $12.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6
Developer: Mohd Aika Abdullah

Quiet

There is no dearth of “focus” apps on the Mac App Store. It seems everybody and their mother has put together some slices of code that will darken your screen, highlight a window, or hide your other apps.

But what makes Quiet different is two fold: first, it gives you the option to not only drop a black curtain over your other windows or to hide them beneath your desktop, but it also gives you the option to blur out everything but your app of focus.

Granted, it takes “a powerful Mac” (as the developers say in the preferences) to have the blurring effect not crush your computer’s response time, but even on my four-year-old Mac mini, I could live with the effect without too much hassle.

The second thing that makes Quiet different is that the app will quiet down all the other distracting apps on your machine. It hides your dock, so you’re not bothered by badges. It quiets Growl notifications from popping up to disturb you. It silences iChat, Adium, Skype, and Mail. It even changes your IM status, so people know not to bug you (the default status is “I’m in The Zone,” but you can change that if you like).

I’ve used several apps in the “focus” category, and Quiet seems to be one of the better ones.

Price: $3.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6
Developer: WireLoad

Dynamic Light

You know how everyone loves that Instagram gives you a dead simple way to not only share your photos with the world, but more importantly, and more fun, to tweak your photos so they come out interesting?

Dynamic Light is kind of like that. It is basically a collection of pre-developed filters that you can apply to your photos to give them that “HDR look” (for those who aren’t photographically inclined, HDR provides a greater degree of luminance in your photos, giving the lighting effects a more accurate feel — or so says Wikipedia).

As you can see above, Dynamic Light uses a nonstandard interface for a Mac app. I’m not 100% sure what the metaphor is they’re going for, but it reminds of a HAM radio. How an old-timey radio fits in with a photo-filtering application is beyond me, but the simplicity of the app saves the UI from being too distracting.

Basically, you either drag an image right into the main area of the app or you click the load button to bring up your file browser. Then you start playing.

While you can tweak the two dials below the main image and adjust the angle of the light source, most people will probably just click the “Effects” button and go from there. Dynamic Light includes 23 pre-set filters, from simple ones such as Black & White to more stylized ones such as Old Photo. The filters are different enough to make them fun to go through, yet similar enough that they obviously belong to the same app. Kind of like Instagram.

Price: $5.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5
Developer: Mediachance

Final Thoughts

I downloaded and tested several different apps before settling on these five. Despite Apple’s control over who gets into the store, there’s obviously a lot of junk in there, and people have to be careful with what they choose to purchase and install.

But don’t let the fact that you haven’t heard of a certain developer get in the way of your app adventures. While two of these five appps (MealPlanner and Dynamic Light) don’t offer the same polish as Apple-designed apps and one of the apps (MealPlanner) is priced a bit steeper than it might deserve, all five of the apps provide solutions that might speak to your needs. There’s hundreds of more quietly good apps out there. The trick is to be open to them.

Leave a comment below and tell us about the hidden gems that you’ve found in the App Store. Which apps do you use that you’ve never heard discussed anywhere?

Today’s poll is a fun walk down memory lane. I’m very interested to know how young or old our audience is in their Mac-using lives. Leave your answer in the poll on the right and let us know which was the first Mac operating system you really used extensively or owned yourself. Did you start when it was simply referred to as “System” software or are you a newbie who only just got your start on Snow Leopard?

After you vote, leave a comment below and tell us about your first Mac. I’ll start us off. Though I really began using Macs around OS 8, the first Mac I really owned was a Blueberry iMac running OS 9. I loved all the neat little sound effects the windows made and spent endless hours poking around the system to see what I could find.

The last Windows machine I owned ran Windows 3.1 and that’s honestly the last time I really used Windows on a daily basis! Once I switched to a Mac I never looked back. How about you? Do you own and use both operating systems regularly or are you a die-hard Mac-loving PC hater from way back?

CopyPaste Pro, from the developer Plum Amazing, describes itself as “Time Machine for your clipboard” and is designed to give a much-needed refresh to this simple, yet vital feature. There are plenty of features built in which not only bring some added functionality to moving text around but also some useful little perks which may help you become more productive by helping you to save time.

Let’s have a look to see what features CopyPaste Pro gives you and how it can be a radical change to the way you work.

Time for a Change

The ability to cut, copy and paste text, images and other files has been a core component of most operating systems for decades. The term first came about in the 1970s and took its name from manuscript editing where people would literally cut out paragraphs and paste them onto a new page using glue.

In 1981, Apple implemented this function onto its Lisa personal computer using the same shortcuts we are familiar with today, Command + C, V and X, and it has been pretty much been a feature of every single operating system since.

However, ever since its birth, copying and pasting has remained a very basic tool, especially on the Mac, where you can only copy and paste one piece of information (bonus points if you know how to kill and yank text). Many people would argue that the current system of copying and pasting works absolutely fine, and stick to the old motto of “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”. But, instead of fixing it, why not improve on an existing utility?

Features

CopyPaste Pro has plenty of features built in that can not only help you to become more productive but also help you to save precious time and get more done.

Multiple Clippings

With standard cut, copy and paste you can only copy one bit of information. Any information that you copy afterwards is lost. CopyPaste Pro allows you to copy multiple pieces of information to the clipboard without overwriting anything that you have already copied.

This is a lifesaver for anyone who needs to remember several bits of information or is constantly copying different items, such as addresses or telephone numbers. It helps you save time as well as preserves your sanity – I know how irritating it can be to constantly copy the same bit of information several times!

Multiple Views

CopyPaste Pro makes it easy to search through your clippings as well. When you install the app, a discreet icon pops up in your notification bar, allowing you to easily access the in-built menu and view the list of options.

Every single clipping that you make is saved in a menu, making them easily accessible and allowing you to see what information you have copied onto the clipboard. By hovering over the clipboard icon with the H on it (which is placed onto your desktop when you install the application), a little popup window appears so you can easily select which clipping you want to use.

Clip Editing

CopyPaste Pro allows you to edit clippings already on the clipboard via Bean, a free word processor which is bundled in with the application. This means that you can quickly edit any existing clippings without having to recopy them, a useful feature if your clipping is quite long or intrinsic.

Clip Tools

CopyPaste Pro boasts an army of extra little tools and utilities which are designed to make your life slightly easier and simplify your work. You can, for example, shorten URLs, calculate sums and insert the date and time quickly into various documents – a real bonus.

Clip Archiving

If you need to copy the same bit of information multiple times, then you can archive certain clippings so as to make sure they don’t disappear when you copy a new bit of information or restart your computer.

To see which clippings are already in your archive, you can hover over the A icon on the desktop or select it via the menu in the notification bar. All your archived clippings then show up in a pop-up box.

Clip History

Hovering over the H icon on the desktop brings up a history of your clippings, meaning that you can easily see what you have already copied to the clipboard.

You can, as well, select clippings from your history to paste into documents, again allowing you to save time searching through your documents to find out what you copied!

Alternatives:

Admittedly, $30 is a bit high for this type of utility. If you’re not convinced that this is the tool for you, check out these awesome alternatives:

• ClipMenu (Free)
• RePasta (free)
• iCopy ($0.99)
• MemoClip ($1.99)
• Clyppan ($3.99)
• Pasteboard ($4.99)
• CopyPaster ($6.99)
• Clips ($7.99)
• ClipList ($9.99)

Conclusion

CopyPaste Pro is an example of a very flexible application because, unlike other productivity applications, it has so many different uses. The developers have improved on such a basic computer function and the results are genius.

The developer of CopyPaste Pro, Plum Amazing, seems to demonstrate this in its other programs – taking simple system programs and pumping them full of oomph and extra features.

CopyPaste Pro has really helped me save time and it is a joy to use – simplistic and feature-rich. Some people may think, however, that the retail price of $30 for the program is a little too much to spend on just a simple utility but you’ll discover that once you get it, you’ll wonder how you ever did without it.

We’d like to take a moment to say a big thank you to this week’s sponsor, Jumsoft Money

Jumsoft, a developer of high-quality applications for Mac OS X, has completely overhauled its most popular product, the finance and budgeting application Money. It provides small businesses and home users with a simple and remarkably effective way to track their financial records and create budgets. Among other novelties, the new Money 4 features a fully redesigned user interface, allows direct downloads from financial institutions, and institutes smart importing rules and a document-based system that allows multiple users to work with a single copy of the application.

Money was first released in 2003 and has gained wide popularity among small businesses and home users of Mac since then. Fans of Money appreciate its combination of high usability and effective finance management.

Money 4 provides a flexible way of recording financial transactions in multiple types of accounts: cash, bank, credit card, loan, investment, and asset. With Money 4, users can create a budget plan and effortlessly monitor the actual outcome. The comprehensible Portfolio feature displays a well-rounded view of investments. Managing scheduled transactions and creating straightforward income/expense reports is also refreshingly simple with Money 4.

“Whether our clients wish to keep track of their personal expenditures or create monthly budgets for their business, Money is designed for them,” says Algirdas Unguvaitis, Jumsoft’s general manager. “We have put a great deal of time and effort into the fourth installment of the application, and we truly hope our clients will be satisfied with the final result.”

Money is available for purchase on Jumsoft’s Web site and on Apple’s Mac App Store.

Keeping files synced between different computers, servers and external drives isn’t the easiest task in the world. You constantly have to compare multiple versions to see which is the most recent and spend far too much time manually copying files from one location to another. This is especially true of web developers who work locally and then have to push those changes to the web for testing.

With FolderWatch, virtually all of the work is removed from this process. After a simple setup process, FolderWatch will keep an eye on the specified folders and sync any changes automatically.

Getting Started with FolderWatch

Instead of walking through the various features in a random order, let’s go through a sample folder sync to see how it all works. Some of these apps can be quite confusing but FolderWatch makes the entire process remarkably simple.

To get started, we open up FolderWatch and find the following window.

As you can see, my folders list is empty so we’ll need to start a new sync. To do this, click the “Add” button in the top left.

Creating a Folder Pair

The entire FolderWatch process revolves around the concept of “Folder Pairs”, if you understand these, you understand FolderWatch. Fortunately, it’s pretty simple!

A Folder Pair represents the two distinct folders that you would like to keep synced together. One of these will be the source and the other the destination. For instance, lets say you have a folder full of images on your desktop that you would like to keep backed up on an external drive. Here your source would be the folder of images on your desktop and your destination would be the folder on your external drive.

Below is the window that pops up when you click the “New” button from the main screen. This is where you setup your folder pair. All you have to do is drop your folders into place or click the folder preview to choose a folder from a dialog window.

After you choose your folders, name the sync anything you want, hit “OK” and you’re ready to go! I love how easy this process is here: drag, drop and you’re done. Exactly the process you would expect from a great Mac app.

Advanced Options

As I just mentioned, the steps above are really all that you need to do to get going, but if you need more control you can certainly have it. FolderWatch has a number of advanced settings for power users, including the ability to specify file type for inclusion or exclusion.

Starting the Sync

Once you’ve got your Folder Pair set up, you’ll be taken back to the main window. The only slightly confusing thing about the entire app is that, at this point, it’s easy to mistakenly believe that you’re all done. However, your folders won’t actually begin syncing until you click the little play button next to the pairing that you just created.

Once that button is clicked, the two folders are actively synced. The play button will then become a stop button, which allows you to temporarily deactivate the sync.

Syncing Options

It’s very important to note that, at this point, we’ve set up a one-way sync. What that means is that any changes made in our source folder will automatically update in our destination folder, but any changes made directly to the destination folder won’t affect the source folder.

It’s also important to note that only added and changed files will sync to your destination folder. Deleting a file in the source folder will not by default delete the same file in the destination. To change this behavior, select “Delete extra files” in the advanced options above.

In addition to the advanced options, there are some basic actions that you can take right from the main screen. For starters, the star-shaped button sets the selected Folder Pair to automatically sync every time you launch FolderWatch. Without this selected, you’ll have to manually hit the play button each time you restart the app.

The second action button is simply a one-time one-way sync from the source to the destination folder. The third action button is, as far as I can tell, the only way to implement a two-way sync so that any extra files in the destination will be brought over to the source. I’d really like to see a way to set an automatic sync to a “sync both” option.

Log

One final helpful feature included in FolderWatch is a log that simply shows you all of the recent actions the app has taken to keep your various Folder Pairs in sync.

Worth a Download?

FolderWatch is one of the utilities that you either have zero use for or can absolutely see simplifying your life. For those constantly working with remote servers and external hard drives, this app could be a lifesaver.

At $14.99, it seems a little steep, but I can tell a lot of effort has gone into making this a high-quality professional application. It’s smooth, responsive and super easy to use. If you’re buying it for work, fifteen bucks really isn’t a substantial investment.

As I mentioned above, my major concern about the app is that, as far as I know, there isn’t a way to maintain an automatic two-way sync, which would be nice for multiple people sharing a drive or server. There is at least the one time option though so the functionality is there, it just takes a click.

Another thing that might go a long way is an optional preview of the before and after of the folder contents. Working with these types of utilities on important files is super scary. One wrong mouse click and you can lose months of important work. I’ve seen other apps implement a visual early warning system and it works great.

Conclusion

FolderWatch is an outstanding app that does one thing and does it extremely well. This app makes setting up and maintaining synced Folder Pairs is a nearly effortless task and there are plenty of professional features and options to make sure you have complete control over how the sync operates.

Go give FolderWatch a try and let us know what you think in the comments below. Have you come across any other apps that perform the same task? How do they compare?

We’ve collected the top four reviews, roundups and how-to articles from across the AppStorm network in June. Whether you’re interested in Mac, iPhone, iPad, Web, or Android apps, there’s bound to be something you didn’t spot over the course of the month. Now would be a good time to explore a part of the AppStorm Network you’ve never seen before!

Thanks for reading AppStorm, and I hope you enjoy looking over some of our favourite posts from last month!

Best of iPad.AppStorm

Best of Android.AppStorm

Best of iPhone.AppStorm

Best of Web.AppStorm

Best of Mac.AppStorm

Share Your Ideas

Is there something in particular you’d like to see on the site next month? We’d absolutely love to hear your suggestions for articles, topics and giveaways. Just let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading AppStorm!

Though Time Machine is a very useful and simple to use backup utility, it is sound practice to not put all your digital eggs into one basket. Further, when you upgrade your hard drive, cloning the old drive makes for a completely seamless transition to the new one. All of your passwords, apps, files, etc. will be right where you expect them to be.

I’d like to show you how to use the Shareware (uncrippled, unlimited demo) program Carbon Copy Cloner to back up your files. Using Carbon Copy Cloner is a little more involved than Time Machine but the benefit of making an exact, bootable duplicate is well worth the extra effort.

Evolving Media In The Digital Age

As computers have gained an increased role in our lives, the need for safely storing digital memories has grown to be more important than ever. Unlike tangible objects like photographs, letters and postcards, a hard-drive full of digital 0’s and 1’s is easily deleted or just lost track of, as technology improves over time. For instance, I still have a drawer full of floppy disks formatted for the Amiga, despite not owning that computer for years. Though it’s not impossible to get my data off them, it’s a headache and so I’ve put it off indefinitely. This probably won’t be the case with Mac OS X as it’s a far more widespread Operating System but is still worth pondering how future-proof your backup system will be in years to come.

A Two-Step Process

There’s a lot to consider when backing up your data and the best approach will depend upon your needs. Though more standard backup utilities like Time Machine are great in their own right, it is a good idea to keep an exact duplicate of your hard-drive. This way, every single file and system preference will be stored on your external hard-drive exactly as it was copied, with the added ability of being able to boot from this disk image should disaster strike and your hard-drive be lost, stolen or destroyed.

However, making the actual backup is only the first step needed to secure your data, as an external hard-drive could easily be physically damaged by fire, earthquake or flood. Ideally, you’ll be storing an archival copy of the backup at another secure location, such as an office safe or trusted family member’s house – this need not be done each day, but a monthly routine is recommended. If this is not practical, then at the very least consider an off-site cloud based backup of ‘worst case scenario’ files, such as your most treasured photos, passwords and important information. Apple’s upcoming iCloud service will soon revolutionise the way we think of online data storage, but until then, there’s Dropbox.

Follow the guide over at our sister site Web.AppStorm to get started with Dropbox.

Preparing The Target Disk

First off, we’re going to need somewhere to back up to, so plug in an external hard-drive and fire up “Disk Utility” on your Mac. Now partition your external hard-drive (The “Target Disk”) so that you have a partition with enough space to accommodate your Mac’s main hard-drive (The “Source Disk”), with a few gigabytes left over for good measure. As you can see, I’ve labelled mine CCC – short for Carbon Copy Cloner – and inserted the date. Make sure you format your drive as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)”.

It is very much recommended to back up to an external hard-drive rather than a secondary internal one as this can be physically moved away from your Mac

Getting Started With Carbon Copy Cloner

Head over to Bombich to grab a free copy of Carbon Copy Cloner and go through the simple installation process. Once installed, we can begin making our first backup, so launch the program.

As you can see, CCC’s interface is quite simple and straight forward. It is extremely important to make sure the correct “Source Disk” and “Target Disk” have been selected. So, for “Source Disk” we’re going to need to select our Mac’s hard-drive and in the “Target Disk” select the free partition previously made in Disk Utility. Finally, click the box titled “Delete items that don’t exist on the source”.

Take a moment to read through the information, especially under the heading “What is going to happen?”

Now click on “Clone” and you’ll receive one more warning, as shown below. Assuming that everything is okay, go ahead and back up your hard-drive!

The backup process will take a while, depending on your hard-drive speed and whether it’s a USB connection or Firewire. My MacBook Pro takes just over two hours to complete the backup process when using a USB 2.0 connection to a standard Western Digital 5400 RPM external hard-drive.

Booting From Your New Backup

Now that you’ve made a backup of your Mac’s entire hard-drive, you can boot into it if desired. To do this, simply switch your Mac on with the external hard-drive connected and hold down the “Option” (or alt) key right after you powering on. You’ll now see your Mac’s usual hard-drive as a boot option, along with your newly made Carbon Copy Cloner partition. Select this and your Mac will boot just as normal, albeit significantly slower if you’re running off USB.

Read The Manual

The process described above is only the most basic of backup options which Carbon Copy Cloner has to offer. The help documentation included with CCC under Help -> Carbon Copy Cloner Help is a very useful resource and gives clear instructions on how to implement incremental backups, how to schedule backups and more.

Beyond The Basics: Scheduling

Carbon Copy Cloner can make hourly, daily, weekly and monthly scheduled backups. To set-up a backup, begin the steps necessary to backup your drive as previously described, but instead of clicking “Clone” select “Save Task”.

Now the “Schedule” box appears, as seen above. I’ve set my backup to happen once a week, late on Sunday night/Monday morning. This will only happen if my external hard-drive is inserted.

CCC can even be prompted to begin a backup on the insertion of an allotted external hard-drive.

Beyond The Basics: Restoring From Your CCC Backup

A worst-case scenario situation; your Mac’s installation is ruined and many programs are corrupted. All attempts to fix the OS has failed.

You would begin by booting into your CCC backup as outlined above. Then, once your Mac is fully loaded, run Carbon Copy Cloner and choose your settings carefully. “Source Disk” should now be your CCC backup and “Target Disk” will be your Mac’s main hard-drive. Go through the warnings again and read the text beneath “What is going to happen?” again.

This restore should take a lot less time than a backup, once the process is completed, reboot your Mac without the external drive reconnected (you may have to hold the “Option” key and select your Mac’s hard-drive this first time).

Conclusion

We’ve still only covered a few aspects of what Carbon Copy Cloner can do and once you’re confident with standard and scheduled backups, there’s a lot more advanced features to get stuck into. No one backup process is perfect, but Carbon Copy Cloner can provide one aspect of your backup needs. If you find yourself using Carbon Copy Cloner a lot, consider donating some money toward (minimum $10) keeping this great software alive!

It seems like there is a sector of Mac software that can bring out the hidden enthusiast in any of us.  There are media player apps, productivity apps, finance apps, and even apps to organize and catalog all of your real-world belongings.  Sometimes, however, the most interesting apps are the ones that take an activity that we often don’t think about, and do something completely different.  Today, the app in question caters to our inner weather junkie.

Swackett touts itself as “a different kind of weather app,” a category into which it fits quite nicely.  Checking the weather before heading out for the day can be quite a time consuming task.  When you live in a place where the weather could change at a moments notice, a “Today’s High” isn’t enough to determine what outfit will be appropriate.  Swackett aims to remedy the tedium of climate calculation by presenting the day’s weather to you in terms of your wardrobe, rather than simply in degrees.

Interface

Swackett is almost entirely interface, and for the most part, it is well executed.  After launching the app and entering your zip code, you’re greeted with a beautiful, bold pane with today’s forecast.  “Today’s high” and “Will feel like” are displayed in the upper left corner, along with an icon denoting sky conditions.

The bulk of your visual information, however, comes to you in the form of a stick-figure couple (called “peeps”) wearing what Swackett thinks is appropriate apparel for the weather.  The central pane also has sliding tabs for “current conditions”, “tonight’s forecast”, and “tomorrow’s forecast.” After a few test glances over the course of a few days, it turns out that this type of informational display reduces the amount of time you need to process the weather to almost zero.  Handy indeed.

Scroll down a bit, and you’ll find a 14-hour forecast and a 7-day forecast for your area.  Again, the bold vector-style art does great things for readability.  Both outlooks are autoupdated with the time.

Once you’ve scrolled all the way to the bottom, you’ll find a series of radar maps.  These displays are also autoupdated for local, state, regional, and national weather.

Features

A menu bar across the bottom of the app contains a series of buttons for accessing Settings, Locations, Warnings and Watches, and Support.  The Settings button is the most notable, I think, because of the level of customization the app allows.

Swackett can be customized with all of the typical settings (e.g. fahrenheit vs celsius, language, etc.).  What really sets it apart, however, is the ability to suggest clothing based on your temperature preferences.  Swackett ranks temperature on a scale from ‘Frigid’ to ‘Hot.’  These ranges can all be specified to the degree by what you consider “warm” or “cold”, and the app will suggest apparel accordingly.

The Locations button allows you to set several locations that you may want to watch for weather.  The Watches and Warnings buttons open up a bezel pane map and informs you of any sever weather watches or warnings issued for the areas on your locations list.

Extras

Swackett provides a decent number of extra features that increase the usability.  There are multiple ‘editions’, which are different styles of clothing (usually from a particular historical era) that are represented by the peeps, and novelty peeps are published at random and are “guaranteed to make you smile.”  If you register for an account, you can keep your locations and editions preferences in sync with multiple platforms and devices.  The app can be linked with Twitter, allowing you to share your location and weather, and the Swackett website even has a store where you can purchase editions or real-life apparel.

Last Words

The worst thing I can say about Swackett is that it looks and functions quite like a webpage (and, indeed, the same as the new Swackett web app).  There are ads built into the app and, unfortunately, no discernible way to upgrade to an ad free version.

Aside from the aesthetic similarities to a webpage, Swackett takes a very unique approach to a weather application.  The visual weather report is very useful, and the additional functions make it easy to see the forecast for the rest of the day or the rest of the week.  It is probably safe to say that the answer to the question: “Might I need a sweater, jacket, or coat?” is Swackett.

Are you a weather junkie?  How does Swackett compare to other weather apps you like to use?