Category: Mac

I’m pleased to let you know that we’ll be giving away five free copies of Screeny for Mac. We recently reviewed Screeny and found it to be an excellent screenshot/screencast utility.

Comment To Enter

Entering the competition is really simple – all you need to do is leave a comment on the post. That’s it! The winners are selected randomly so you don’t even have to suck up so we’ll pick you!

The competition will run for one week, and I’ll pick five winning comments at random on Wednesday July 6th. Best of luck, and be sure to check out Screeny in the meantime!

In the five hundred years following Johann Gutenberg’s invention of the first practical printing press in 1447, the methods through which people have received and digested news saw little change. The story of man has been chronicled by newspapers for generations and the tangible product of paper and ink faithfully recorded revolutions, inventions, tragedies, and triumphs for countless people.

Fast-forward to a mature Internet age and things are most definitely different. Newspapers still have an important place in society, but the patience required for reading each page is slowly dwindling, in favor of news as it happens. The continued adoption of the Internet as a medium of reporting has made the press more free than ever before, but the trade-off has been a perceived loss of quality in the reading experience. Pulp aims to change this by delivering an RSS App that combines the pleasing user experience of Gutenberg’s venerable creation with the speed, portability, and breadth of content only available in the Internet age.

Getting started

First impressions are important and Pulp clearly understands this, as it has an icon and sign-up screen that are clear, concise, and in-keeping with what one expects from a high quality Mac App. Getting up and running is very simple. You will need to create a quick (and free) Pulp Sync account first, but all that’s required is an email address and password.

Create Pulp Sync Account

The App itself is very attractive and the layout is split into three scrolling columns which can be added to, deleted, and adjusted in width, according to taste. There is a selection of pre-loaded feeds which are organized into four categories – Technology, Science, Arts & Entertainment, and Lifestyle – though most users will probably wish to add their own. I did this manually and found it to be less laborious than I had first assumed, thanks in part to an effective keyword input which seeks out desired feeds, e.g. typing ‘Guardian’ brought up each of the newspaper’s available feeds, such as Sport, World News, etc.

Synchronicity

The Mac version of Pulp synchronizes fully with its iPad counterpart using Pulp Sync. In this way, changes are even pushed to the iPad so no refresh is required. Unfortunately, Pulp is unable to sync with Google Reader at present. According to Acrylic Software’s FAQ, this is due to both Google Reader’s lack of public API and Pulp’s own incompatible data model. For these reasons, it seems support is unlikely to be added in the near future. This is but a small gripe for me, but it could potentially be a deal breaker for those users who are tied to the service. 

Pulp also has the ability to import feeds from Google Reader, Safari, Mail, and OPML files. In addition to emailing a link, Pulp can share articles to Instapaper, Readability, Read It Later, Twitter, and Facebook. 

Using Pulp

Once feeds are imported, categories decided, and settings adjusted, the day to day use of Pulp is a pleasure. This elegant App makes full use of screen space, with unobtrusive buttons providing easy navigation and access to preferences.

I rarely needed to click any button more than once to adjust a setting or use a feature, and as an enthusiast of minimal, distraction-free writing Apps, I appreciated the uncluttered, minimalist layout which brings to focus the desired article with a click. Indeed, the interface promotes undisturbed reading so successfully that normal Internet browsing in Firefox seemed positively clunky and distracting in comparison.

Using Pulp

Despite the fact that I have just recently begun to use Pulp, I was surprised to see my browsing habits already changing. I now spend less time casually scanning websites in favor of consuming news and blogs in Pulp. I did experience a handful of minor crashes (App closing, no beach ball, or freezing of the Mac) while testing Pulp over the last few days, but these were too infrequent to prove any significant stability issues conclusively. 

On the Shelf

Pulp’s method of saving articles for later reading is characteristically neat. In order to do so, a click of the square button reveals the ‘Shelf’ – a hidden toolbar which stores articles with a drag-and-drop or another click of the + button. Each piece is given a thumbnail representation which reacts well and provides a heading when it is hovered over with a cursor. 

On The Shelf

Just Like Magic

It is an annoyance when an RSS feed shows just a couple of opening lines, requiring the reader to leave the App in order to read the article fully (as with BBC News). Pulp seeks to remedy this with its Magic Reader feature. A click of the magic wand button will deliver the text, transplanted in full, to Pulp’s immersive scrolling display. 

Magic Reader

I tested Magic Reader using various feeds and it worked quickly and very well each time, even on a poor Internet connection.

Conclusion

There are already many choices open to RSS enthusiasts with strong apps such as NetNewsWire and Reeder. Where Pulp sets itself apart from the competition however, is in the outstanding implementation of its streamlined features and a novel user interface that provides a user experience that is unmatched within its field.

Perhaps the only thing missing is an iPhone/iPod version, but the fact that Acrylic Software hasn’t rushed out a small-screen port may suggest that the iPhone and iPod have screens that are too small to allow it to work perfectly. Still, correspondence with the developers suggests that the possibility may be explored in the future. 

Providing you can live without the ability to synchronize Pulp with Google Reader, the reasonable price of $9.99 (a 7 day trial is available from the Acrylic Software website), clever features, and pleasing interface may well change your news reading experience for the better. It certainly did so for me.

Once It’s Gone, It’s Gone…

We’ve seen a fantastic response to the Freelance Mac App Bundle over the past week, and thousands of our readers have taken advantage of the awesome deal we put together. If you haven’t picked up your copy already, there isn’t long left! In 24 hours time, the doors will close and we’ll stop accepting any more orders.

Just as a quick reminder, for the next 24 hours, you can get your hands on all the following for the rock-bottom price of $49:

The Apps

We’re featuring eight awesome applications that can make your life easier, and more enjoyable, as a freelancer. These are:

• Billings – Powerful time billing and invoicing for anyone (Usually $39.99)
• TextExpander – Save time and keystrokes with frequently used “snippet” abbreviations (Usually $34.95)
• WriteRoom – The best distraction-free writing environment (Usually $24.99)
• Radium – The easiest way to listen to internet radio on Mac (Usually $24.99)
• Arq – Online backup built especially for the Mac (Usually $29)
• LittleSnapper – Build up your own versatile design scrapbook (Usually $29)
• 1Password – Have you ever forgotten a password? Never again (Usually $39.99)
• Alarms – Prioritise and track your daily tasks (Usually $16.80)

Marketplace Resources

In addition to the above apps, we’re also throwing in a few fantastic Envato marketplace items:

• Highlight WordPress Theme (Usually $35)
• Ultimate Client Manager (Usually $20)
• Translucent Business Card Template (Usually $6)
• Rockstar Freelancer eBook (Usually $29)

And a Free eBook!

Even if the bundle isn’t for you, anyone can grab a free copy of Smashing Magazine’s Successful Freelancing eBook, worth $9.95, just for sending out a tweet about the bundle! Head over to the bundle page to find out more, and grab your free eBook.

Don’t Miss Out! Grab the Bundle Today

This awesome offer will only be available for 24 hours, and we’d hate for you to miss out. After the timer hits zero, you’ll never see another offer of this magnitude again – don’t be kicking yourself when you realise the bundle is no longer available tomorrow!

Today’s discussion is a classic one: are Macs really impervious to the malware threats so rampant on PCs? Due to the rapidly changing nature of technology and the ever-increasing acceptance of Macs, this is a question that needs to be periodically revisited.

We’ve recently seen Apple’s bulletproof security claims become quite tarnished in light of threats such as MAC Defender. Read on to see if you should be concerned.

MAC Defender: The First Major Mac Threat?

At the start of May, one of the first major viral outbreaks on the Mac platform was detected, prompting many users of Apple’s OS to re-question its security and protection.

MAC Defender was a program that acted and looked like a real spyware removal client and through SEO poisoning, meaning that the program would show at the top of most major search engines, unsuspecting users clicked on the website, automatically starting the download and installation of the software onto the user’s Mac.

Although the program looked professional and genuine, it was far from this. After installation, it displayed regular notifications of “threats” to your computer and prompted you to purchase a “license” if you wanted to remove the fake threats from your Mac. It sounds all well and good, but now your credit card and personal information are in the hands of the hackers, giving them open access to your bank account and your hard-earned funds.

MAC Defender and the fake threat notifications

Although Apple did respond to the threat quickly by releasing a security update for Mac OS X to patch up this issue, the hackers quickly found a workaround and many Mac users were left questioning the overall security of their computer and whether the MAC Defender threat was an isolated issue or one that could be repeated in the future. Macs have always been noted for their security and reliability, and seeing as only around 15% of all of the computers on the home market are Macs, hackers traditionally focused on writing viruses for Windows, which has a greater dominance.

The feature on the Mac page of Apple's website, advertising its security

However, given the rise in popularity of Macs in recent years, especially since the transition to Intel, are we going to see more threats to a platform that was traditionally seen as invincible against viruses? The answer, unfortunately, is most probably. The recent MAC Defender attack highlighted weaknesses in Apple’s platform, and although a security update has been released, hackers are known to be extremely persistent and they did indeed try again (and succeeded). Although the program was relatively easy to remove, it still bypassed Apple’s supposedly rock-solid security measures.

Apple released Security Update 2011-003 at the end of May, which detected and removed the MAC Defender threat

Chris Clymer, a consultant at SecureState, fears for the Mac’s security. With regards to OS X, he stated:

…there’s actually a lot of things that have not necessarily been developed as well as on the Microsoft platform. It’s probably more vulnerable in many ways.”

Many Mac users do not run anti-virus software or anti-spyware software, unlike most Windows users, who generally run a commercial anti-virus software such as Norton or McAfee (many which come bundled with the purchase of the computer) along with an anti-spyware program, such as Windows Defender. Apple does not do this and only sells a limited range of security software.

Do I Need Anti-Virus?

In my opinion, yes. The recent MAC Defender threat has highlighted the fact that Macs aren’t as invincible as people think, and for an extra $50 or so, it is worth having piece of mind and splashing out on some decent anti-virus software and keeping your Mac nice and clean.

What Are the Options?

There has been a recent rise in anti-virus software released specifically for the Mac platform. If you walked down the aisle of any computer store a few years ago, you would have been greeted by purely Windows-only software but now developers of such software such as McAfee and Norton are broadening their horizons and releasing Mac versions of their popular anti-virus software.

However, before installing any anti-virus software, you should check a few basic things to make sure your experience online is a secure one.

1. Regularly check for software updates for your Mac; Apple does release them on a regular basis so do check to make sure you’re not missing out on an important security update.
2. Make sure your in-built firewall is turned ON – this prevents anyone from gaining unauthorized access to your computer without you knowing (and in Snow Leopard it isn’t turned on by default). If this doesn’t give you enough piece of mind, then consider investing in Little Snitch (€29.95) – which aggressively monitors all outgoing and incoming connections on your Mac.
3. For extra security, consider encrypting your Home folder, and thereby any sensitive personal information through FileVault (accessed through Security in System Preferences). Depending on the size of your Home folder, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, but using it means that hackers cannot access your Home folder.
4. When online, be wary about what sites you visit and never give out credit card or other information to insecure sites. Remember: if the sites looks dodgy, then it probably is.

Here are 4 of the best ways to keep your Mac squeaky clean and free of any infections.

 

ClamXAV

ClamXAV is a free, simple to use virus scanner which scans your hard drive and flags up any errors. You can quarantine any infected files and folders or remove them completely. The virus database is updated regularly ensuring constant protection.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 and above

 

VirusBarrier X6

The developer of VirusBarrier X6, Intego was the company that actually originally discovered the MAC Defender threat. Their anti-virus software, although a little on the expensive side, also includes anti-spyware and an additional firewall, as well as featuring an easy-to-use interface and additional monitoring tools.
Price: £47.78 (around $78) for the anti-virus software; the complete internet security package costs £71.70 (around $119)
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 and above

 

Sophos Anti-Virus

Sophos is a popular anti-virus solution for Windows users, however now Mac users can indulge in its benefits. Sophos runs discreetly in the background and allows you to scan your Mac for any viruses and threats (even those designed for Windows). The virus database is regularly updated and allows you to quarantine or delete any threats you find.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 and above

 

Norton Anti-Virus for Mac

Norton’s popular anti-virus software has been ported to the Mac and its features are much the same as what is offered in the Windows version: real-time protection against any incoming threats. It is, however, a little pricey for the features offered.
Price: $49.95
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 and above

Conclusion

To sum up, as Apple products increase in ubiquity, the promise of the platform being a safe haven for those tired of malware threats may be coming to a close. I think it’s essential to pick up some good protection software for your Mac, even if you think a legitimate threat is a remote possibility.

If you want to find out more about Mac security, then read MacWorld UK’s excellent article on why Mac OS X may actually be more vulnerable than Windows.

This is a guest opinion/advice piece and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the AppStorm team. Feel free to debate away in the comments if you disagree with James’ claims!

As a final “bundle bonus” for all our awesome Mac.AppStorm readers, we’d like to give you the chance to get your hands on a copy of Fantastical, completely free of charge! We have 25 licenses up for grabs (with a total value of $500), so your odds of winning are pretty great!

To enter, all you need to do is post the following tweet about our Freelance Mac App Bundle (which now has just over 24 hours to go…):

There are just a few hours left to go in the Freelance Mac App Bundle. Get $350 of awesome software for just $49! http://enva.to/jzU1Ne

We’d love to have your help with spreading the word about the bundle in the final few hours – After you’ve posted your tweet, leave a comment below with your Twitter username. That’s it! The competition will close when the bundle countdown hits zero…

About Fantastical

We’d like to say a big thank you to Flexibits for providing these licenses for the giveaway. They’re an awesome team of developers, doing a brilliant job!

Fantastical – if you haven’t heard about it before – is a wonderful menu bar calendar for your Mac. It uses a natural language system to make adding events super easy, all through a beautiful interface. You can read our review, or download a trial copy and give it a try today!

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System was a phenomenally fun console that successfully ate up a large portion of my childhood. There are so many classic games from this era that have long been forgotten. If only there were a way to download and play those 16-bit masterpieces on your Mac. Oh wait, there is.

Today we’ll flood your memory with enough digital nostalgia to make you teary eyed by showing you where you can grab these games and play them today. Be sure to read the fine print though as emulating old Nintendo games on your Mac is risky business!

Is This Legal!?

In our article Attack of the Mac Emulators: Retro Games on OS X, we outlined a hot debate on the legality of emulators. There are three sides to the debate, each fiercely held by many individuals and each with valid points.

The argument that partially condones the practice says that if you actually own the original version of the game, there’s no harm in downloading a ROM. You did in fact legally purchase the game so who cares if you want to play it on your Mac instead of the dusty SNES your wife makes you keep in the attic?

The argument you won’t like comes directly from Nintendo. According to them, it’s illegal to download and play these ROMs regardless of any other circumstances. No two ways about it, having this software on your Mac is a prosecutable violation of copyright laws. People downloading Nintendo ROMs are no better than music and software pirates (in all honesty, Nintendo is probably spot on here).

The third argument comes from a number of commenters on the article mentioned above. These intrepid souls pretty much say that Nintendo has long forsaken some of these titles and won’t be making money on them any time soon, so there’s absolutely no reason we shouldn’t breathe some life into their legacy. Surely it can only be good for Nintendo for us to remember how much we love their games right?

Download at Your Own Risk

Today I’m avoiding the debate and simply pointing out that, legal or not, these games are in fact out there and easy enough for anyone to get their hands on. I will assure you one thing: Nintendo has better lawyers than you. Regardless of which opinion you subscribe to, if Nintendo says this is an illegal practice, and you for some reason get caught, you’re likely screwed.

If you want to be safe, read the following as a list of links to avoid. If you do decide to proceed, you can’t say that you have not been warned! Also, be sure to check out Emulator Zone for a collection of supposedly legal ROMs that are less likely to make the FBI knock on your door.

Snes9x

While we’re discussing things that you shouldn’t download, make sure you don’t grab Snes9X, which is what people use to play these games on their Macs.

The Games

Once again, it’s probably best if you just avoid this whole ROM business altogether. And to help you with that, here’s a convenient list of games that you definitely shouldn’t download.

Super Mario World

Super Mario World

Super Mario World was a dramatic and welcome update to the beloved series. An awesome and immersive two-player experience, this game stuck with the level map idea of Mario 3 but introduced a ton of new items and abilities such as a cape for flying and a friendly ridable dinosaur named Yoshi.

In each section you progress by defeating a new member of Bowser’s dysfunctional family until you reach the final showdown with the main koopa himself in a bizarre flying machine. We all absolutely loved this game the first time around and the replay value is quite high.

Super Mario All-Stars

Super Mario All-Stars

Super Mario All-Stars was a Mario fan’s dream come true. All the original NES Mario games reborn in 16-bit glory and a new bonus game: Mario Lost Levels.

You know you’re dying to revisit the wacky drug trip of Mario 2!

Super Mario Kart

Super Mario Kart

No collection of SNES Mario games would be complete without Super Mario Kart. This amazingly addictive racing game has spawned a remake on every Nintendo console since the SNES!

The entire Mario gang, both good and evil, goes head to head in a go-kart race filled with killer turtle shells and slippery banana peels.

Super Metroid

Super Metroid

Like Mario, Metroid debuted on the original NES. It was awesome, but it was also wicked difficult. Super Metroid featured a boost in graphics, awesome new suit powers and while still being difficult enough to be interesting, it elicited far less curse words from players.

By any measure, Super Metroid was a fantastic game that defined the space-aged platform jumper genre for years to come. If you’re looking for a classic hardcore SNES gaming experience, this is it.

Zelda – A Link to the Past

Zelda – A Link to the Past

After experimenting with a new side-scrolling format in “The Adventure of Link” for NES, the Zelda series returned to its roots in this top-down-view game.

A Link to the Past was proof that the Zelda series wouldn’t fade into oblivion. For those of you just old enough to remember how amazing it was to play “Ocarina of Time” for the first time, us old-timers had that same feeling when we got our hands on this game. In fact, many of the elements that you love from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask (the hookshot, spin attack, world hopping, etc.) were born right here on the SNES version. To this day it’s one of my favorite Super Nintendo games.

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy III in the U.S. was really Finally Fantasy VI in Japan, but that’s confusing and doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that this is one of the best video games of all time and by far my favorite installation of the Final Fantasy series.

You can have Cloud and Sephiroth, I’ll take Sabin and Edgar any day. If the words “bum rush” and “Magitek”make you smile, you know exactly what I mean.

Donkey Kong Country

Donkey Kong Country

At the time, Donkey Kong Country had some of the best video game graphics I’d ever seen. It’s laughable now but back then those textures and lighting effects were stunning!

This game wasn’t all eye candy though. With two-player tag team mode and a goal of collecting lots of spinning yellow things, it was a lot like the SNES version of Sonic The Hedgehog. My brother and I could think of no better way to spend a weekend than to take on the roles of Donkey and Diddy as we blasted from barrel to barrel, eating bananas and defeating those evil crocs!

Mega Man X

Mega Man X

Mega Man X didn’t reinvent the wheel. The same boss-driven level selection built up your arsenal of weapons as you pursued the evil Dr. Wily. It felt a lot like its NES counterparts, just smoother, prettier and yes, a little bit easier. I mean, have you played the original Mega Man lately? How did we ever even get past a single level!?

In other news, the Mega Man series seems due for a revolutionary update on par with Metroid Prime doesn’t it?

Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat

This game was right at the heart of the early video game violence debates. In fact, Mortal Kombat was so cool that my mom literally didn’t want me playing it. This of course meant that I escaped to my friend’s house every chance I could for a little one-on-one tournament fighting goodness.

Though Scorpion gets all the attention with his classic “Come here!” grab, I was always a fan of his blue counterpart Sub-Zero.

Street Fighter 2 Turbo

Street Fighter 2 Turbo

You simply can’t mention Mortal Kombat without following it up with Street Fighter 2. This game was a complete departure from the typical “roam and punch” style fighting games for NES and was the primary pioneer in the one-on-one combo button mashing fighting genre.

What true Nintendo fan hasn’t spent hours perfecting the d-pad swirl necessary to successfully launch the Hadouken attack?

Star Fox

Star Fox

If you think that the first time Fox had to save that whiny frog Slippy from certain death was on the N64, you are sadly mistaken friend. The whole Star Fox gang began their battle against Andross right here on the SNES in a surprisingly awesome 3D pilot shooter for its time.

True nerds will remember that this game was completely revolutionary. It featured the Super FX chip that fueled the signature polygon graphics. Released in 1993, it was the very first 3D Nintendo game!

Super Castlevania IV

Super Castlevania IV

Long before Twilight ruined vampires by turning them into pubescent heartthrobs, the bloodsucking vermin and their leader Dracula were the arch enemy of the Belmont clan. Dracula had a nasty habit of rising from the dead and this family was dedicated to making sure he stayed in his coffin.

I absolutely adored the entire Castlevania series and was always at the rental store the day they got ahold of a new version. In Super Castlevania IV Simon Belmont is at it again, this time with a much more impressive whip that can go in all directions and even latch onto things for an Indiana Jones-style swing across a chasm.

Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts

Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts

Super Ghouls and Ghosts was a lot like a lighthearted Castlevania. The gameplay was quite similar but had a humorous lean to it that often resulted in you losing your armor and defeating zombies in your underwear.

F-Zero

F-Zero

F-Zero was beyond cool. This high speed futuristic hover racing game had every kid in America begging their parents for an early Christmas gift.

Though I probably spent even more time battling three friends in the N64 sequel, the original represents one of the best racers you’ll find for the SNES.

Battletoads & Double Dragon – The Ultimate Team

Battletoads & Double Dragon – The Ultimate Team

Was it an absolutely shameless attempt to make some quick sales by awkwardly mashing together two popular NES franchises? Yes it was. Did it work? Absolutely!

Battletoads and Double Dragon were both classic “beat ‘em up” brawlers and this game incorporates the best (and worst) of both. You probably won’t spend more than ten minutes with it but it’s good for a quick laugh.

Earthworm Jim

Earthworm Jim

I had this game for Sega Genesis but it was pretty much exactly the same for SNES, evil Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt and all.

Earthworm Jim won’t top any best games of all time lists, but it was flat out fun. Your gun shot a million bullets a minute, you could swing around using your wormy body or go mucus bungie jumping and Jim was constantly yelling as you played. It was everything a nine year old could ever want.

Kirby Superstar

Kirby Superstar

Most people today know Kirby simply from the Smash Bros. series but he used to be the star of his own fairly popular video game series. Kirby completely took the platform jumping genre and turned it on its head. He was a cute, cuddly blob who had limited flight abilities and an awesome talent for eating enemies and stealing their powers.

If you’re a Kirby fan, also be sure to check out Kirby’s Dream Land 3.

Madden NFL Football

Madden NFL Football

The Madden NFL series needs no introduction. It’s one of the most popular game franchises of all time and a pioneer in releasing a slightly altered version of a game every single year to be purchased immediately by sports fans with too much money (now a time-honored video game tradition).

It all started right here. The graphics might be better in today’s Madden games, but the heart of the series is alive and well in the original and you’d be surprised how much fun it still is to play.

Mario Paint

Mario Paint

Dear Nintendo, I’m still waiting for a Mario Paint sequel. This was probably the most original game ever to be released on the SNES. Instead of using a controller, you used a computer mouse! As the name implies, it starts off as a simple MS-Paint-Style game with colors, patterns, markers and stamps to choose from to create your masterpiece (the sound effects were awesome). It didn’t stop there though. If you needed a break from drawing you could play the awesome flyswatter game or create a musical masterpiece by placing Nintendo characters on an actual music staff (my favorite part).

I can’t begin to tell you how much I loved this game. It’s definitely no surprise that I went on to become a Photoshop addict and subsequently a professional graphic designer!

NBA Jam Tournament Edition

NBA Jam Tournament Edition

There were basketball games before NBA Jam, but this one is the only one any of us remember. The game was defined by outrageous ariel acrobatic slam-dunks, no-foul opponent shoving and an unforgettable announcer who made you feel like a super star.

If you’re a fan of the original, go here, I personally loved the Tournament Edition for the expanded rosters and hidden unlock-able characters.

Ninja Gaiden Trilogy

Ninja Gaiden Trilogy

Technically, these Ninja Gaiden games were NES titles, but just like Super Mario All-Stars, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy compiled the games onto one cartridge (sadly, the graphics didn’t get a boost).

Ninja Gaiden is the Castlevania of the ninja game genre. These games were difficult but extremely fun and contained mind-blowing animated cutscenes.

Paperboy 2

Paperboy 2

Everyone loves Paperboy! You’re a kid on a bicycle who must successfully navigate his route despite angry dogs and other nasty creatures trying to stop you. Your goal is to toss the papers into the mailbox, at the front door or even at the garden hose to make the sunbathing lady angry.

Paperboy 2 was one of those in-between titles that appeared on both NES and SNES so before you leave a comment and insist that this was an NES title, get your facts straight!

Pilotwings

Pilotwings

Pilotwings was a flight simulator without the violence of dog fights. This game was relaxing, beautiful and tons of fun.

The object of the game was to earn your pilot’s license and to do so you had to master not only flying a plane, but skydiving, piloting a rocketbelt and hang gliding as well! Passing a challenge typically involves flying through rings or perfecting a landing.

SimCity 2000

SimCity 2000

SimCity 2000 was actually the second installment in the SimCity series but it was the first SimCity that I ever played. The Sim series has been around for decades now and still sees plenty of success with each new launch.

Interestingly enough, SimCity 2000 was originally a Macintosh game! There’s definitely some irony in playing a Mac port of an SNES game that was really just a port of a Mac game!

Super Bases Loaded 3 – License to Steal

Super Bases Loaded 3 – License to Steal

When I think of old school baseball games I think of RBI and Bases Loaded, both classic titles that kept me indoors instead of playing actual baseball in the backyard.

Super Bases Loaded 3 was the peak of the Bases Loaded series and definitely worth a play for the nostalgia.

Super Black Bass

Super Black Bass

I’m not sure who decided to try to sell a realistic fishing simulator to kids, but it worked. I loved fighting monster fish in all of the Black Bass games.

It was one of the few games I could convince my dad to play with me! Maybe that was the marketing strategy all along.

Super Punch-Out!!

Super Punch-Out!!

Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! is definitely near the top of my list of favorite NES titles. Super Punch Out!! was a solid follow up with nicer graphics, trickier opponents and a cool transparent fighter effect.

Overall, the gameplay is pretty much the same as the original. Try to learn each fighter’s patter as you dodge their punches and counterattack until they stop getting up!

Tetris 2

Tetris 2

How do you follow up Tetris? It was in interesting question that had us all on the edge of our seats almost twenty years ago. The answer, according to the television commercials that I remember, was simple: bombs. You know that grabbed my attention!

This game was basically a cross between Tetris and Dr. Mario where the pills were Tetris pieces and the viruses were bombs. Match the colored pieces to the colored bombs to clear the level.

X-Men Mutant Apocalypse

X-Men Mutant Apocalypse

X-Men Mutant Apocalypse was in truth, a little rough around the edges. However, it allowed you to take control of all of your favorite X-Men heroes, each with his or her own special mutant abilities so it was still pretty cool.

If I remember right the gameplay allowed you to instantly switch between the characters as you faced different challenges within a level.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Zombies Ate My Neighbors

Imagine an old school zombie horror movie turned into a cartoon where kids with squirt guns are the heroes and you’ll understand how amazing this game is. Need I say more?

What Are Your Favorites?

To sum up, Mac SNES ROMs are a moral gray area of the Mac gaming world and shouldn’t be downloaded without some serious thought towards what the potential consequences. However, for now, you can in fact find them all over the web and today’s article merely seeks to point this out.

Leave a comment below and tell us about your top three favorite SNES games. Are you a Mario geek, a Samus Aran fan or a Final Fantasy addict?

We recently published an article titled “iCloud: What It Isn’t” that walked through what we all expected to see from iCloud and how that significantly differed from what we actually got.

Basically, the gist is that everyone expected a browser-based music player but Apple delivered a way to keep your music and data synced in a native environment. To some, the reality is actually way more useful than the expectation. Others may be disappointed that their music isn’t really being stored in the cloud for access from any device. I myself have a Google Music Beta account but can’t for the life of me think of when I’ll use it.

Today we want to know your opinion. With plenty of us toting around a MacBook, iPhone, iPod and/or iPad, is there really a reason to have a Google-Music-like cloud player for all your music? Are there significant amounts of time where you don’t have access to your music collection? Vote in the poll on the right and leave a comment below explaining your thoughts.

Music, I think it is fair to say, is a large part of most people’s life. Many of us listen to music whilst we’re on the computer, and, being on Mac, this will probably be through iTunes. But if you want to change the song, pause it, or anything else, you don’t want to disrupt your workflow and open up the bulky musical hub that is iTunes. You could set up a few keyboard shortcuts, but what if you want more functionality?

That’s where Music Commander comes in. Music Commander is a menu bar app, available exclusively in the Mac App Store, which allows you to control certain elements of iTunes from your menu bar, so you can get back to work instantly.

Read on to see how it fares when put to the test.

Getting Started

As previously mentioned, Music Commander is only available from the App Store, which, with the introduction of Lion, is something we will undoubtedly see more of. Priced at just $0.99, it’s a tiny price to pay.

Music Commander in the App Store

If you’ve never installed an app via the App Store, it couldn’t be simpler – Purchase the app, and it will download straight away. Once it’s in your menu bar, you can quickly start controlling iTunes. There is no configuration required.

Usability & Interface

Music Controller has more functionality than most menu bar iTunes controllers, although it’s all accessed via a drop-down menu, rather than any kind of visual controls. For example, if I want to simply pause iTunes, I have to bring up the drop-down menu, rather than use a few controls that are right on the menu bar itself.

This may not be the best system, but it works. It would be nice to have the option to bring up the menu and navigate it with the keyboard.

Another issue I had with the usability of this app is that if you click on an option from the drop-down menu, the drop-down will then disappear as the action is performed. So, if I want to turn shuffle on and also turn repeat off, I have to go to the menu bar twice.

Music Commander's Interface

As far as the interface in concerned, there are a few control icons that are nice and simple, as well as a large album artwork preview. The only issue I have with the interface is the section that tells you what’s currently playing. This section of the app doesn’t quite seem to fit in with the rest of the clean interface. Aside from that, however, it’s a basic but effective interface.

Controlling Music

Music Controller works just as you’d expect it to – If you press the “Pause” button, iTunes pauses the music, if you change the volume, iTunes changes the volume. There’s no noticeable delay between you acting and iTunes reacting.

What I like about Music Commander is that it doesn’t just have play, pause, next and previous, you can also control a few more iTunes details. For example, if you’re somebody who enjoys rating songs, you can rate them directly from Music Commander. You can also change the playlist you are listening to, and change the shuffle and repeat settings.

Music Controls

I have only one suggestion when it comes to features. It would be nice to have a progress bar that shows at what point in time you are in the song you are listening to, as that is something listeners use with relative frequently.

Social Media

Music Commander doesn’t just command your music, it can also handle social media in order to add extra functionality to your iTunes library. For example, you can connect to Last.fm, the popular online radio service. Connecting is as simple as entering in your username and password. Then you can choose to scrobble a song from the menu, or turn on Auto Scrobble which will send any music you play on iTunes automatically to Last.fm. This is a feature I was very impressed with, and one which iTunes doesn’t have.

Last.fm in Music Commander

This app will also connect to Facebook. Doing so is very easy. All it requires you to do is authorize the app and you can then get straight into posting to Facebook.The link in the post links straight to the iTunes Store entry for that song, which is really handy. Altogether, this facebook feature is another nice perk that Music Commander offers.

A Facebook post from Music Commander

The third and final social network you can connect with Music Commander to is the ever popular Twitter. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to connect to Twitter using this app. When I would try, it would open up a window, at which point I would hit “Authorize” and then be given a string of digits to enter somewhere in Music Commander. Much to my dismay, I couldn’t find anywhere to enter this number in the app, so I was not able to connect to Twitter. The fault here may very likely lie with Twitter, as this site is notorious for frequently changing how apps connect!

Conclusion

I came into this review expecting Music Commander to be another one of those apps that was developed simply because the App Store has made it easy for anyone to distribute their apps.

However, after using this app, I have been pleasantly surprised and I now stand corrected. Music Commander’s use of social media connectivity certainly serves a purpose, and I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending it to somebody. It has faults, like all apps, but does what it sets out to do quite well. And at just $0.99, what’s stopping you from snapping it up right now?

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

SideFolders is an awesome 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.

We reviewed SideFolders back in April and the latest version (1.5) has even more to offer including a great new interface, the ability to browse folders right in the app, a configurable delay to prevent accidental flyouts and a customizable show/hide global keyboard shortcut!

At a mere $4.99 on the Mac App Store, this is an incredibly useful tool that can really speed up your workflow. I was skeptical myself at first but as soon as I started using it I realized that I’d probably never want to be without it. The developer is very devoted to the project and continually turns user suggestions into great features. Check it out for yourself today!

There is quite a bit of screenshot functionality built right into OS X. Using global shortcuts, you can grab the entire screen, a specific area or even a specific window and place it either on your desktop or into your clipboard. Also, with QuickTime, you now have the ability to record everything on your screen to a simple movie.

Despite all this functionality, there is definitely room for improvement. Apps like LittleSnapper and Screenium give you tons of professional functionality, but will cost you a whopping $30. So where’s the happy medium of an affordable utility that still packs plenty of great features? Screeny attempts to do just that. Read on to see how it fares.

Screeny Controls

Interestingly enough, Screeny doesn’t seem like it’s trying to replace the default screenshot functionality in OS X. You can’t simply select a window to grab and you can’t grab images to the clipboard. Instead, it focuses on improving the way you take shots of select portions of the screen with a simple set of controls.

Screeny Controls

As you can see in the image above, there are three sections to the Screeny controls. The first is a set of two buttons that allows you to choose whether you want to snap an image or record a screencast.

The fields at the bottom allow you to quickly enter a preset size for the snap area. This is immensely helpful and is probably my favorite feature in the app. AppStorm reviews like this one always require me to take screenshots at 620px wide so it’s very helpful to immediately be able to set the box to this size. This is much easier than trying to nail precise dimensions in a default OS X screengrab.

The middle section of the Screeny Controls allows you to choose a preset size rather than entering your own. In addition to six specific pixel dimension presets, you’ll also find an option to grab the entire screen.

Using a Preset Size

Snapping an Image

When you want to snap an image of the screen, hit ??C to bring up the controls and the preview box shown below (??2 takes the screenshot). The transparency of this box can be set in the app preferences.

Snapping an Image

In addition to selecting a size from the dropdown menu or entering one into the fields manually, you can also use the controls on the preview box to resize the screeshot area before you snap.

Having an area that you can adjust live on all sides is far superior to the “draw a box” method that OS X implements by default. This gives you much more control and makes fine tuning easy.

Another thing that I really like is that you can move and interact with the windows on your screen even while the screenshot controls are up. This allows you to make adjustments to the composition on the fly without exiting Screeny.

Once you’re ready to go, simply hit the screenshot button and the file will be saved to your desktop. You can change this location to another folder in the preference menu.

Recording a Screencast

To record a screencast, follow the exact same steps as for a screenshot, only this time hit the large record button instead.

It’s really great to be able to only record a specific portion of your screen. This not only helps focus your viewers to the right content, it limits the output file size.

Once you hit the record button, the Screeny controls will disappear and a box will appear on the screen to show you the area of the screen that is being recorded.

Recording a Screencast

Utilizing the Screeny menu bar options, you can start and stop the screencast at any time in addition to accessing other controls and preferences.

Menu Bar Options

Once you’re done recording, the movie file will automatically appear on your desktop. Screeny boasts lossless quality screencasts at a higher frame rate that QuickTime so if you’re concerned about quality, you can’t go wrong here.

Worth a Download?

If you work on your computer and regularly utilize screenshots and screencasts, Screeny is definitely worth a download. At $14.99, it’s not amazingly cheap but the app makes up for it in production quality.

For screencasts, the functionality in Screeny is simple, effective and clearly better than what you get from QuickTime. For screenshots, there are admittedly a few improvements that could be made. I’d love to see the option to create my own reusable preset sizes, the lack of a copy to clipboard option is significant and some control over the output file type would definitely be nice.

The developer promises that Cloud App and Quixly integration are coming soon in addition to Lion support so you can definitely expect to see plenty of improvements soon.

Conclusion

Overall, I’m quite impressed with Screeny. It’s one of those apps that successfully pulls off a minimal approach in a really slick way that feels just about perfect rather than lacking.

If you want a feature-rich utility that will conform to your every whim and completely change the way you work, Screeny and anything else in its price range are likely not it. However, if you want a nice little boost to the built-in OS X functionality for under $15, you should definitely give Screeny a shot.

Today we’re going look way back to the beginning and see a platform and a company that was defined by breaking the mold and breaking free of restrictions and uniformity.

We’ll contrast this with a critical look at the direction that Apple is headed in today. Do their current goals reflect the anti-establishment personality portrayed in the infamous 1984 commercial or have they become the establishment?

It’s Good to Be Back

For those of you who’re faithful enough to read both sites, you may have noticed that I’ve actually left my post as the iPhone.AppStorm editor and taken over for David Appleyard here at Mac.Appstorm. My entire web writing career, now a full-time venture, started right here so I’m thrilled to be back writing about the Mac.

Aside from nostalgia, there are quite a few other reasons that I’m glad to be back. For starters, I love writing about the Mac as a platform for amazing development. Despite the fact that I absolutely love my iPhone and iPad, being a Mac nerd has been ingrained into my identity for well over a decade.

Having spent so long focused on iOS, it actually feels quite liberating to come back and write about Macs. The primary reason for this is that we’re “allowed” to do so much more with our Macs. Apple keeps such tight reign over iOS and its accompanying apps that one can’t really dig in and poke around without going rogue and ending up in a ceaseless back and forth battle with Apple (aka jailbreaking).

This line of thought has me wondering about Apple’s new direction for the world of software and whether or not it ends well for us.

Freedom

I absolutely love digging into my Macs as soon as I get them. I run custom terminal commands, set up shell scripts to run Geeklets on my desktop, break into and customize dashboard widgets and install applications that may slightly alter certain parts of the core OS. In short, I make the computer my own.

This is tricky enough that most consumers never attempt it and in reality don’t even know that half of it is possible, which keeps the experience shiny clean for them. On my end though, it’s always been one of the main things that I love about Macs; they have a rock solid architecture but can in fact be taught plenty of great tricks.

It’s important to note that none of this has ever really felt like I’ve done something wrong that Apple would condemn me for. Jobs and Woz are hackers from way back and fully understand the need to play around and see what can be done with a system. Shoot, AppleScript and Terminal are tools that have been provided just for these types of folks.

Regulation

Contrast this with iOS. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the system, but the way that Apple has set it up is quite different. Here, in the place of freedom, we have an assumption that developers and users will screw stuff up if you don’t keep a close eye on them.

Instead of providing us with fun tools that allow us to bend the rules and stretch the possibilities, Apple spent millions attempting to literally make it illegal to hack your iPhone (fortunately, they failed). Jobs the hacker has suddenly forgotten who he was thirty years ago and wants to turn kids that act like he did back then into criminals.

All of this under the sacred religion of providing a better experience. Give people freedom and iOS goes down the tubes. An interesting argument given the impressive number of Jailbreak features that keep finding their way into the official version of iOS.

Where Is the Mac Headed?

Earlier this week we published an article containing ten apps that you won’t find in the Mac App Store. Interestingly enough, several of the apps mentioned simply aren’t allowed in, despite being on just about everyone’s list of “must-have” Mac applications.

iStat Menus is one of the most notable examples of this. In short, iStat digs into deep system files that Apple doesn’t like people screwing around with, so they won’t approve it. It’s an amazingly useful app, we all use and own it, but the fierce dictators at Apple wag their fingers in disapproval.

Fortunately, at this point, it doesn’t matter whether or not Apple approves an app for sale on the Mac App Store. iStat was popular before the MAS and can go on living without it. We’re all free to download and install any Mac apps we see fit to live on our machines.

I can’t help but wonder if the dictators are scratching their heads about how to fix this in the long term though. Will Mac OS always give us the freedom that we now enjoy or will we start seeing that freedom slip as the iOS framework slowly starts making its way over? How long before a version of Mac OS launches that only allows for apps to be installed through the App Store? How long before Apple starts a campaign to make it illegal to Jailbreak a Mac?

Even to me these start to sound like the paranoid delusions of a madman. “Apple would never…” is my response. The truth is though that Apple already has, and they seem to be loving the control. iOS is widely praised as the future of computing in this “Post-PC” era and I can’t help but wonder if that era will be defined by only those applications and utilities that our gracious protectors have deemed appropriate for us to have. I can’t help but wonder if Apple is on the road to playing the part of Big Brother in the 1984 commercial while the Jailbreakers and hackers take up the symbol of the heroine hurling the hammer.

What Do You Think?

At this point all I have is questions. Please feel free to chime in on any and all of them.

Will Apple continue to tighten their control over developers? Is the regulation that we see in iOS making its way to the Mac? Is Apple using App Stores to launch an “Information Purification Directive” that will result in a big brother scenario? Does the scene in the famous 1984 commercial bear a strange resemblance to the WWDC of the future?

It’s very easy to make your own iPhone ringtones with GarageBand. Those who already know their way around Apple’s beginner-friendly Digital Audio Workstation will be able to breeze through this guide with a few quick glances, but for Mac users new to GarageBand, the seven steps below will guide you along the way.

Step 1: Choose A Song

Selecting A Song In iTunes

First we need to choose a song to use as a ringtone, so browse through your iTunes library and find a song you’d like to use. I’ve chosen Manchester post-punk band, The Fall, with their cover of Victoria. Once the song is decided, we’re finished with iTunes for the time being.

Step 1 can be skipped if you’re comfortable importing songs with GarageBand’s media browser

Step 2: Launch GarageBand

Launching GarageBand

Now launch GarageBand and you will be presented with the launch screen. Selecting “iPhone Ringtone” from the left window pane will bring up the screen shown above. Click “Example Ringtone” and “Choose”.

New Project

You will now be presented with the above dialog box. Though important when creating a song from scratch, the settings can be safely ignored for our purposes. All that is needed is a title (song name with ‘ringtone’ added is a good choice), so leave all the other options as default and hit “Create”.

Step 3: Introducing GarageBand

GarageBand

Depending on your version of GarageBand, you should now be presented with the above screenshot, or something similar. I am using GarageBand’s latest iteration from iLife ’11, but these instructions should still suffice for older versions with some slight tweaking.

It’s worth taking a few moments to familiarize ourselves with GarageBand’s basic interface. Keeping our gaze toward the bottom center of GarageBand’s window, we can see a set of self-explanatory buttons for play, pause, skip and record. Moving to the right of these, there is a timer and further right still, the “Cycle” button (which should remain highlighted), “Metronome” and “Volume Slider”. Hovering the pointer over a button for a moment will present a brief explanation of its function.

Though this guide is catered toward iPhone ringtones, it should be useful for any phone which is able to accept custom ringtones

Step 4: Getting Started

Track Audio

Keeping our gaze in the center of GarageBand’s screen, but now moving upwards, there is a track of music already inserted. This is labelled ‘Jingles’ and the blue graphic to the right of this is a visual representation of the music it contains. Click play to hear the jingle.

Now we need to free up the space currently taken by the jingle, so click on the blue graphic and choose ‘Edit’ from the menu, then ‘Delete’ to clear our track of its audio. We’ve now got a nice clean track (still called ‘Jingles’) ready for putting our would-be ringtone into, as shown below.

Blank Track

Arrange GarageBand’s window so that you can see iTunes and your chosen song is selected. Click and drag the song into GarageBand’s main window, directly where the previous blue graphic was. If you miss the correct place, your song will be inserted onto a new track – if this happens, simply click and drag onto the correct one. Now would be a good time to save your progress.

Step 5: Editing Ringtone Start

GarageBand has now imported our song as you can see on the screenshot below.

Cycle Region Unchanged

You will notice a small yellow bar above the audio graphic, this is called the “Cycle Region”. The Cycle Region specifies what length our ringtone will be and it can be dragged left or right to stop and start the audio where we choose, so any point in the song can be converted into a ringtone.

Cycle Region Edited

Victoria begins with a drummer tapping a four bar intro. That doesn’t really fit with how I want my ringtone to sound, so I’ll adjust the Cycle Region with a click and drag to the right until the song begins in the right place. This may take a bit of practice at first, depending on the song choice, but as you can see above, my ringtone now begins as the music kicks in. Clicking on ‘Play’ will confirm this. Our next step is to perform the same process for our ringtone’s end point.

Step 6: Editing Ringtone End

iTunes will only allow a maximum ringtone length of 40 seconds, so, staying in our main window, press play and listen for a good place to end the ringtone. When listening to the song, you will notice that the audio only plays as far as the Cycle Region bar is set, which is currently 17 seconds or so into the song. The Cycle Region should now be extended to the right, to the point at which you want the ringtone to end, making adjustments when necessary.

In this case, I have chosen to stop right at the moment before the vocalist starts singing the chorus.

Cycle Region End

Play the song once again and take some time trying to make the ending as smooth as possible. This may take a little while if you do not have experience editing audio.

Step 7: Exporting Your Ringtone

This is the final step.

Make sure to save in GarageBand. Then have one last listen to the ringtone. If you are happy with the beginning and end points, simply click “Send Ringtone to iTunes” – which is located on GarageBand’s menu bar, under “Share”. Your ringtone should now be available in iTunes under the “Ringtones” pane – if this pane is not there for whatever reason, go into iTunes’ preferences and enable its view.

iTunes

Now the above process can be repeated again with whichever songs you like. With some practice and the correct song choices, it should take only a few minutes to get each ringtone made and exported into iTunes.

All Finished!

Wasn’t that easy? You should now be equipped to create tons of custom ringtones for your phone. Leave a comment below and let us know if there are any other tutorials that you’d like to see from the iLife suite.

Although we usually spend our hours reviewing applications from others here at AppStorm, next week we’ll be doing something slightly different! We’ve developed a delightfully simple app for freelancers, called “Unwind”.

Unwind encourages you to take regular breaks from working at your machine, with a simple countdown timer and a relaxing environment to enjoy during your time away from work. We have some soothing music, and beautiful photos from Envato’s upcoming photo marketplace.

It’s a fun little utility for Mac-using freelancers, and we can’t wait to share it with you next week. To secure your copy, all you need to do is join the AppFanatix newsletter! We’ll be sending out an email to all our subscribers on Monday with details on how to download their free copy of Unwind.

AppFanatix is already enjoyed by over 6,000 people, and it’s the best way to stay up-to-date with the latest developments at AppStorm, receive fortnightly deals on fantastic software, and hear about promotions such as our Freelance Mac App Bundle!

Subscribe now, and secure your free copy of Unwind!

Don’t Forget to Grab the Freelance Mac App Bundle…

We’ve now sold over 1,000 copies of our awesome bundle, that contains every essential Mac app for freelancers: Billings, TextExpander, LittleSnapper, Alarms, Arq, Radium, WriteRoom, 1Password, and much more. Time is ticking away, so don’t forget to grab your copy before it’s too late!

I’ve been using Reeder since the very beginning, since back when it was just a wee little app with no subscription management or automatic refresh.

Since that first public beta, reeder has grown from a buggy iOS port to a fully-featured, beautiful Google Reader client. There’s no shortage of Mac RSS applications, and many have developed loyal fanbases across many niches. In this crowded market, can reeder really offer something new?

Layout and Design

Reeder features a richly detailed, iOS-inspired design, with many customizable options, allowing you to browse through your articles as you please. The default layout is a typical three-column affair with columns for subscription list, article list, and preview/browser pane. You can also browse Reeder in a minimized, two-column layout, which only shows full articles when double-clicked.

You can customize the details of Reeder’s appearance, from color and texture to font size and contrast. My only minor complaint here is that the app window is dimmed when you’re customizing the appearance, so you can’t really tell what the color looks like.

Reeder interface with "classic" layout and "standard" color options

"minimized" layout and "iOS" color scheme

Reeder’s interface is well-designed and straight-forward: the reduced layout features only the bare minimum of buttons, allowing you to view starred, unread, or all articles. By default, clicking the “mark all as read” icon (the checkmark) has a confirmation prompt, which is a little annoying, but can be removed in preferences. Reeder’s interface is customizable to the point that that you can change pretty much anything you don’t like about it to suit your own preferences.

Reading preferences

Multi-Touch Browsing

Without a doubt my favourite feature of Reeder is the customizable multi-touch support. Without setting any preferences, the multi-touch interactions work pretty intuitively and are really a joy to use. Use three fingers to scroll through unread articles, swipe with three fingers to view an article in minimized layout, or view an article in the built-in browser in the classic layout. I have gestures set up to open an article in Chrome when I pinch open, and send to ReadItLater when I pinch closed.

“Swipe to Navigate” has to be enabled under System Preferences / Trackpad or Mouse for full multi-touch support. Full support currently only works for multi-touch trackpad, and ther is limited support (swipe left and swipe right) for Magic Mouse.

Multi-touch support is completely customizable, I have it set up so that I can browse my articles without a single click or keystroke. It feels super futuristic.

Customizing multi-touch gestures

Keyboard Shortcuts

If you’d rather go the keyboard route than the multi-touch route, Reeder’s keyboard shortcuts feature even more options than gestures. Reeder uses simple keyboard shortcuts without the cmnd prefix, which will be familiar to users of Google’s web apps.

Customizing keyboard shorcuts

Integration with Services and Other Features

Reeder supports integration with a slew of bookmarking and offline reading services, including Readability, Instapaper, ReadItLater, Pinboard, Delicious, Zootool and Twitter. You can customize which services appear in the toolbar, and which ones are activated with specified gestures or keyboard shortcuts.

Saving an article to Delicious

Readability

Reeder features full support for Web and Mobile web reading app Readability, which functions much like apps like Instapaper or ReadItLater, but with direct browser integration that allows you to view any article on the web in a clutter-free environment. Readability charges a monthly fee for accessing their “read it later” feature, and 70% of your fee goes to writers and publishers to compensate them for allowing content to be viewed without ads. Within Reeder, you can use Readability to filter out ads in RSS posts (though I found this feature inconsistent) and to pre-load full articles from partial-feed posts (allowing you to get around feeds that only let you read a “teaser” from your RSS reader). I found the “toggle readability” feature a bit confusing and couldn’t always tell what it was doing. You can also send articles to your reading list as you can for similar apps.

Google Reader Features

Reeder supports Google Reader features like sharing and notes, shared articles and those with notes can be viewed in the “all articles” view, and notes appear at the top of articles. After adding a note, however, I found it didn’t always show up right away.

iPhone App

Reeder syncs with the original iPhone and iPad apps app, which are also wonderful apps. Check out Jonas Wisser’s review of the iPad app over at iPhone Appstorm.

The Little Things

Reeder excels in attention to detail, from the smoothly animated interactions to the unread article count displayed on the side of the icon. Though there may be other RSS readers with more powerful features (like more fully featured subscription management) I think the beautifully designed details more than make up for it.

Conclusion

Using Reeder is like interacting with the future of Mac applications, the developer has taken all the best parts of mobile development, including a gesture-based, simplified interface, and seamlessly integrated them with the power and flexibility of a desktop application. The result is an intuitive and enjoyable experience with all the functionality you need in an RSS reader.

In this crowded category, Reeder sets itself apart in a number of ways. The multi-touch interface is probably the most unique and innovative element of Reeder, but its seamless integration with all the major bookmarking services gives it a broad appeal to all types of users. Reeder’s extensive customization options allow you to read your news as you please, without having to learn a new set of keyboard shortcuts or gestures.

I had largely given up on RSS a couple months ago, using Vienna felt more like checking my email than keeping up with the latest news. As we transition away from traditional news sources like newspapers and magazines, there is room to craft a new user experience of the consumption of current media, and Reeder feels very much like a big step in this direction. Without falling back on a predictable newspaper-inspired interface, Reeder offers a truly enjoyable way to keep up with your favourite content in a way that feels engaging and new, and is not merely an attempt to replace traditional media with a close digital analog.

Though Apple have long attracted creative computer use, in the decade since the purchase of Logic Pro from German company Emagic in 2002, Mac has become the premium platform for sound design, recording and studio work, to the point that Apple have become almost synonymous with high quality audio.

Below I hope to make the case that, when it comes to making music with the aid of a computer, a Mac is by far the best choice currently available.

Stability

Compared to Windows, OS X offers a more stable platform overall, which is probably the single biggest reason to use a Mac for audio work. By keeping such complete control over which hardware to support, Apple can offer a highly reliable environment, enabling the user to keep the focus on creation, rather than maintenance.

In addition, though Macs are not completely immune from malware, viruses and trojans, they are still far less likely to contract such problems than their PC counterparts. When setting out for a gig or hosting a session in the studio, musicians, DJ’s and recording engineers need to be able to work with the confidence that their gear is absolutely dependable. You can’t very well stop mid-performance to reboot your computer or install a driver.

Aesthetics

Admittedly this argument is contentious, but I would still like to make it. While taste is subjective, one may reasonably assert that most other computers are simply not as beautiful as your average Mac. There is an experience often felt when using Apple’s products which is difficult to put into words, but important nonetheless and it is a mistake to dismiss this experience as shallow.

For the same reason that some musicians will spend hours cleaning and polishing their 1970′s era Les Paul or carefully consider every shade of finish on their Fender Stratocaster, a beautifully crafted machine like a MacBook Pro will inspire one to create. After all, even the legendary Dieter Rams has cited Apple as the only company currently designing major products according to his principles.

GarageBand

GarageBand

Often cited by musicians as a key reason in favour of making the switch to Mac, GarageBand has enabled a legion of hobbyist musicians and podcasters to create high quality audio recordings with a minimum of fuss. As each new version is released, developers strive to add extra features and flexibility without sacrificing GarageBand’s core strength; its intuitive UI, which hides a wealth of loops, synthesisers and accurate approximations of real world instruments, in addition to an excellent host of lessons from recognised artists, broken down in easy to digest segments.

GarageBand Lessons

There is simply nothing quite like this on any other desktop platform and with iOS now hosting a version of GarageBand, full seamless integration is surely on the horizon. Once the beginner has learned the basics with GarageBand, they can then move on to Logic Studio if more power is needed, finding the same basic principles at work in the powerful and flexible suite of tools.

Logic Studio

The pro choice for music creation, Logic Studio is an unmatched Mac-only suite of tools which includes Mainstage, WaveBurner, the entire five flavours of Apple’s Jam Packs and, of course, Logic Pro itself.

Logic Pro

Though more complex to navigate and use than GarageBand, Logic Pro still does conform to Apple’s UI norms and somebody familiar with GarageBand will be able to begin recording basic tracks with Logic in a very short time. This is just a small percentage of what Logic Pro is capable of though and the software is particularly adept at handling midi controlled soft-synths when compared to other DAW’s on the market – perfect for scoring soundtracks and the like.

Logic Studio's WaveBurner

Also of note are Logic’s on-board software effects, which challenge preconceptions of what a computer is capable of recreating. Software translations of classic 1970′s Marshall stack driven Rock, 60′s Merseybeat and reverb-heavy 90′s Shoegaze tones are all available and more besides. Once one considers these features along with others such as Logic’s Flextime, its advanced mixing and Varispeed, in addition to Mainstage for live performance, it is clear that Logic Studio has the capability of being a one-stop suite for your audio needs.

Logic's Pedalboard

Lying somewhere in-between GarageBand and Logic Studio is Logic Express, which offers much of Logic Pro’s features, but at a more affordable price

Time Machine

While I can’t quite bring myself to get excited about a digital chore as mundane as backing up files, Time Machine at least makes the process simple, with its easy to use system of archiving. Every musician who uses a computer as part of their creative process dreads a catastrophic hard-drive failure wiping out a song, or even and entire album, but responsible use of Time Machine should prove a cornerstone of your backup routine.

Support

Help and Support

Praiseworthy customer support is not unique to Apple but you would be hard-pressed to find any other computer hardware or software company which provides such resources for helping users get the most out of their machines. Free workshops are available from your nearest Apple store, offering advice on managing data and safely backing up files. Though expensive, the extended Apple Care coverage is an excellent warranty and repair service.

Conclusion

The above should not be taken as a dismissal of other hardware and software options. Windows is also host to software which is only capable of running in the Windows environment (such as Fruity Loops Studio) and there is also something to be said in favour of adopting a more widespread OS for your music creation.

The leading Linux flavours, such as Ubuntu, offer a more ‘Mac-like’ computing experience and also come with a very knowledgeable online community, with the additional bonus of having a commitment to staying open and free. However, though the Linux music software scene is burgeoning and may well prove to be a competitor in its own right, the platform isn’t quite there yet in terms of quality audio software.

So, why should you choose a Mac for making music? Any one of the reasons above might not be enough to convince you and may not even sound truly unique among computing platforms. However, when taken in as a whole package, these features together comprise a strong argument for using a Mac as your ultimate music hub. I’ve yet to meet a musician who has made the switch and regretted it!