Category: Mac

“Fast” and “Mac” are words that get used together pretty frequently. Macs, in comparison to Windows computers, don’t tend to slow down over time – at least not in a noticeable way. But there are things that might prevent your Mac from running quite as fast as it did when it was new, and developers know this.

That’s why there are a lot of apps that can help you “clean” your computer and get rid of logs, files, and caches that you don’t need and that are only using up your memory. The app that we are reviewing today is called MacCleanse, and it claims to let you find and delete these useless files to make your computer fast again. But does it deliver, and how does it compare to similar solutions?

Getting Started

Once you download MacCleanse, you’ll be guided through the installation process by a very Windows-like setup. You’ll be shown the release notes, you’ll have to agree to a license agreement, and then choose whether you’d like to buy the app or try it for 15 days.

The app is $7.99 on the App Store, and it is on sale right now as it usually goes for $20. A few more settings later, and you’ll finally be able to access the app.

Using MacCleanse

The first time you access the app you’ll see a sidebar and a main frame. By default, you’ll be shown a small introduction to the app that pretty much tells you all the wonders that it’s capable of. Here you can also suggest a new feature to the developer, which I thought is a great idea that should be implemented by other software as well.

You also have a small toolbar on the top which is pretty empty, other than the “Scan & Delete” button, which you do not want to click, as from what I’ve heard (I wasn’t going to try it myself), it will just start deleting files without asking you anything… On the sidebar you have two subcategories, “Search” and “Cleaning”, which we’ll get to next.

Cleaning

“Cleaning”, as the name suggests, is where you’ll find everything you need to clean up – delete – the files that you don’t need. One of the most important options in this category is the “Favorite Sets”, which are essentially bookmarked locations that you can load. To create a new one, you have to go into the “Search” category and check all the items that you want to add to the set, then click the “+” sign under the “Favorite sets” menu.

Other menus include: the “Purge Locations”, which are items or folders that will always be erased, and you can add and configure each of them to delete just the contents of the folder or the folder itself everytime. The “Activity Log” is pretty self-explanatory, and the “Scan and Delete” menu is where you can scan everything that you added to the set that you have loaded, and delete them.

Do not, I repeat, click on the “Scan and Delete” button, as it will just delete everything that it finds on that set instead of asking you. This is a major oversight, and something that the app really shouldn’t do.

Search

“Search” is the category where you’ll find every option that you need to add to a set. Under it you’ll find options like “Archives”, which lets you delete disk images, compressed files, and other types of odd formats that you might need. “Caches” lets you select caches from different apps, while providing you info on what each of them does. “Downloads” allows you to check the downloads folder of several apps, including your system’s downloads folder.

“Instant Messaging” lets you clear up chat logs and user information that you might not need. “Languages” allows you to delete languages on your system that you don’t need. “Web Browsing” lets you clear everything that might be related to your browsing, including history, caches and cookies. “Logs” lets you check what logs you want to check everytime, and “Miscellaneous” includes every other setting that might not fit into any of the other categories mentioned above.

There’s also a “Recent Files” category that allows you to clear up databases and caches of recent files. Along with all of these, you can also add the Trash folder to a set and files that have been unused for more than a certain amount of time.

What Does It Delete?

As you can see, everything is fairly well-organized and there are a lot of options that you can choose from. If you can’t find the option that you are looking for, you can always create it by yourself by selecting a folder or item that will always be deleted.

When you have everything that you want for your set selected, you can then go under the “Favorite Sets” menu and add a new one. Let’s say I want a set called “Chat Logs”, where the only thing that will be deleted is the information of my contacts on Skype and the chat history.

After creating the set, whenever I want to delete these items I selected, I just load the “Chat Logs” set and click the “Scan & Delete” button. Be careful with that button, though. You don’t want to delete stuff that you didn’t know was in that set, so you better just click “Scan”, check the items, and then click “Delete”.

A Quick Comparison

I like to use a very popular app called CleanMyMac for this kind of task. It’s very simple, pretty and easy to use. It’s also very fast and it lets me select everything I want to delete everytime, and while it doesn’t allow me to create “sets” like MacCleanse does, it remembers my settings and they don’t really change much.

MacCleanse is definitely more technical and requires more work (at least initially) than CleanMyMac. CleanMyMac pretty much tells you everything that you don’t need, and gives you the option to erase it, while MacCleanse needs you to specify what you don’t need. It’s for people who know what they are doing and want more power and a wider range of settings than CleanMyMac offers.

Conclusion

MacCleanse is a reasonable app, but it doesn’t really follow with the simplicity that most Mac apps go for. All the time it feels like an app that you might find in Windows – it’s filled with menus, submenus and options and it gets really confusing.

I’m also fairly disappointed that the application has the ability to automatically scan and delete folders without asking for any confirmation. Whenever a piece of software is removing things from your system, you need to have the ability to confirm the action and double-check what’s about to happen. This is a major oversight, and something I expect to see fixed in a future release.

There are so many buttons, windows, and gadgets that can distract you when working at a computer. Have you ever tried to sit down and write something while an icon bounces away in your dock? It’s a frustrating experience. Minimalist, full-screen writing apps are great for keeping these distractions out of the corner of your eye, providing a simple, clear environment where you can let your mind roam free.

Before highlighting our collection of these apps, I’d like to point out two things. First, choosing a new writing application won’t make you a better writer, nor will it magically motivate you to write. These two qualities need to come first.

Second, if you’re spending time researching new minimalist writing apps in the time you should actually be writing, some priority adjustment is in order. Send today’s article to Instapaper, and come back to it after you’ve met your writing target for the day!

With that out of the way, let’s move on to take a look at a few simple applications that might help to make writing a more distraction-free process…

Byword

Byword recently caught my eye after being featured on AppStorm last month. At $7.99, it is an excellent option and its price is easily justified once you start using it. The writing environent is super-simple. The background is a very light grey tone that is quite easy on the eye, and there are no buttons whatsoever (other than a small greyed out search and expand button). The ideal use for the app, just like with most of the apps in this category, is in full-screen mode.

There aren’t many features to explore, for the most part it’s very basic. There’s a focus setting that is supposed to bring attention to just a single part of the text, and there are also keyboard shortcuts for everything.

There’s even a small text-edit toolbar that you can bring up with a combination of keys, so that you don’t lose concentration by quitting full screen and going into menus. Byword is one of my favorite apps on the category on account of the subtle, beautiful interface design.

Writeroom

WriteRoom has been called the best app in this genre for quite a while now, and it surely deserves its fame. Think of it as Byword on steroids, with the same basic functionality, but also with many useful additions. These include autosave, font selection, background color settings, and word count. These are all small details, but they make quite a difference.

Even though WriteRoom has plenty more features than apps like Byword, it manages to keep the writing environment clean and tidy. Just don’t head into the settings too often – you might be a little overwhelmed!

It has a slightly beefier price tag of $24.99, but the extra features and long-standing reputation may make this worthwhile for you.

Clean Writer

Clean Writer is one of the cheapest options in the genre ($3.99), and while it’s not quite at the level of the past two apps, it does deliver on providing a simplistic and distraction-free writing environment. You can choose from a few options of font size, font type and theme (basically, the background), but that’s about all you can do with it.

It also works full-screen and it even has a spell checker. Clean Writer isn’t as pretty as Byword, and it doesn’t have as many options and features as WriteRoom does, but at its price, it’s the app that offers the most value for your money.

Writer

Writer is a super-basic text editor. Just like Clean Writer, it is very cheap ($2.99), and very, very bare-bones, much like Byword, except not quite as visually appealing. It has all the usual features – full screen, font selection and word count – but it also adds some useful additions like statistics (time worked, WPM, etc.) and a “pin” feature, where you can make the writer window float on top of any other window.

Grandview

Grandview takes a step away from the minimalist writing apps that we have seen so far. While not exactly a “text-editing” app, it does provide you with a “minimalist” writing experience. Basically, it is a hot-key activated app that allows you to watch full-screen, each word that you type as you are writing, one word at a time.

So, you write something in the full-screen view mode, and then when you are done, it will automatically be copied to your clipboard so that you can then put it in your text-editor of choice.

It isn’t exactly the most convenient app out there, but it is interesting to try out, at least for a little while to see if you like it. Apps don’t get any more minimalist than Grandview. You can try it out for free on the developer’s site, or buy it for $4.99 on the Mac App Store.

OmmWriter Dana

With a slogan like “welcome back to concentrating”, you can’t go wrong with OmmWriter. It seems like a clear winner in many aspects: it’s cheap in comparison to Byword and WriteRoom, it looks amazing, and it offers some unique characteristics.

What you’ll first notice about it is that it doesn’t give you any plain or black backgrounds. No, it actually gives you dynamic backgrounds that are “specifically designed for your concentration and creativity”. To some, this will be an immediate turn-off. Fiddling with backgrounds and sounds is clearly a huge distraction from just getting down to writing. To others, this environment might be very beneficial when set up. I’ll leave that for you to decide…

Dana is the only app that is available free. Well, sort of… Dana I is free, which gives you a few backgrounds and sounds. Dana II has a greater selection, but it goes for $4.99 on the Mac App Store.

Conclusion

There are plenty of apps to choose from in this genre. There are free apps like OmmWriter that give you pretty much all the functionality you may need, but there are also more intricate apps such as WriteRoom that go for quite a hefty price. Personally, I really like Byword for its thoughtfully designed interface.

Have you tried any of these? Do you use a different one that we didn’t get to cover? I’d be interested to hear whether you find them particularly useful.

Now get back to writing!

With Microsoft splashing out a few dollars on Skype this week, the communication platform has once again hit the headlines. The numbers are impressive – 207 billion minutes of voice and video conversations in 2010 is nothing to be laughed at, and it’s clear that this medium is growing in a big way.

Although Apple has had a foot in the door with iChat for several years, FaceTime has been their major foray into video communication – initially on the iPhone, and now also on the Mac. It’s been almost a year since the technology was announced at WWDC 2010, but I believe that FaceTime still has a long way to come – as does the whole concept of video communication – before it becomes a pervasive technology.

The Problem With Video Chat

Although video chat has long been pegged as the future of communication, it has an inherent problem that can be very difficult to overcome. Unlike audio or text-based communication, video is completely invasive. Wherever you are, and whatever you’re doing, it’s all on show to the person on the other end of the line.

In principle, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I often find myself multi-tasking while on the telephone – checking email, Twitter, or wandering around my apartment. This is all too easy to do with audio communication, and something that I’m sure is blatantly obvious to the person I’m talking to. It’s easy to tell when you don’t have someone’s full attention, and it’s a very frustrating experience.

The idea of sitting down and talking to someone face-to-face is appealing, but it isn’t always appropriate. This is why Skype works well. The option of audio-only chat is the default communication medium (it’s by far the most common use of Skype for me), and you can enable video as you see fit.

With this in mind, FaceTime isn’t competing with Skype across the board, but focusing solely on the video call aspect. The advantage of this is immediately obvious when looking at the interface of the two apps:

Free of the bells and whistles required for instant messaging, audio chat, a credit balance, and everything else that comes with Skype, FaceTime is able to offer a wonderfully simple experience. It does one thing well.

I’m not going to delve into the issue surrounding mobile access and data usage, though it is an important consideration. FaceTime uses around 3MB of data per minute, and it would to be ongoing battle with carriers – and cell technology – to make using it on 3G a possibility.

Who Can I Call?

But this strive for a minimal experience causes me a headache whenever I come to use the application. The problem is that I have 274 contacts showing up in FaceTime for Mac, of which I would estimate – at most – 20 actually have a FaceTime capable device.

This is a fairly major stumbling block, and it means that I simply don’t know who I can or cannot call using the service. There’s no way to quickly determine whether a person has FaceTime, or has it turned on at present. Some sort of “available” indicator would be phenomenally useful for showing not only who has a FaceTime device, but also whether they can be contacted at the current moment in time.

But even if this was added, I encounter another problem. Unless you know someone phenomenally well, calling them for an immediate video chat feels like a social faux pas. At the very least, you’d want to have a quick chat on IM with them first to see whether they’re free.

Sure, FaceTime offers a dialog to accept or reject a call as it comes in, but this isn’t really the same thing. It’s an accept/decline decision, and doesn’t give you a chance to explain why you’re rejecting their call, or let the caller know that you’ll ring back in five minutes. Although you have the same situation with a regular telephone, it’s less of a problem because the method of communication is less invasive.

It also doesn’t help that the pop-up response you receive is the same whether your call was actually declined, or just not responded to.

Open It Up!

For FaceTime to take off in a major way, it needs to become more than just a niche communication platform for Mac and iOS users. Although I do have several tech-savvy friends using the latest Apple devices, the huge majority do not.

Right at the outset, Apple had a plan to overcome this problem – by making FaceTime an open platform. This means that other developers could incorporate FaceTime communication into their software, breaking away from it being an exclusive network for Apple customers. It would be a public standard that anyone could work with, no longer restricted to software developed by Apple.

The problem is that it’s a year since Apple made this promise, and we’re yet to see any sign of FaceTime becoming “open”. A few people have written about this recently, highlighting the long wait.

If there’s one thing that we have learned about Apple over the years, it’s that they would always prefer to wait to release a perfect implementation of a system, rather than rush out an unfinished product. It was the case with copy-and-paste on the iPhone, the development of the iPad, the original iPhone App Store, and the list goes on… It would be foolish to assume that Apple is simply no longer working on opening up FaceTime. They have made a significant investment in the platform, and undoubtedly want it to succeed. Maybe this is something we’ll hear more about at WWDC – I certainly hope so.

A Magical Future

Ever since we saw the first iteration of group video calling in iChat AV 3, it was clear that Apple (and quite possibly Steve Jobs in particular) wanted to make a commitment to video communication. The key to its continued importance is that video chat has the ability to look and feel magical, a word that Apple has latched on to in recent years.

Video takes communication to a completely new level, and makes for a futuristic experience. But at the same time it introduces a major new set of challenges and expectations. I’m thrilled that Apple is moving into this niche with such gusto, but feel that FaceTime still has some way to come before it offers strong competition to Skype, or becomes a viable communication platform that I use on a daily basis.

What do you think? Would you agree, or do you think that FaceTime is already a very useful communication medium? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Today’s interview is with Kirill Zorin, the developer behind Catpig Studios. The company is well-known for their excellent app – Radium – a menu bar radio player that supports a variety of different services.

We’ll be talking about the origin of the company, a typical work day, the benefits of developing a single app, how the Mac App Store is affecting developers, and hearing how the company came to be called “Catpig”!

I hope you enjoy the interview.

First things first, where did the name Catpig Studios come from?

We initially had two co-founders (myself and a friend). In our little group of friends, for whatever reason, his nickname was “pig”. We both liked cats, so instead of going with something boring like “Tangent Research”, we decided to call it “CatPig”.

It’s easy to pronounce and sounds amusing. The “Studios” suffix was just a tongue in cheek thing we added later, but it stuck. Government employees and accountants always look at me funny when I tell them my company is called “CatPig Studios”.

What does a typical day look like for you? Walk us through your usual schedule and activities!

We don’t like to have rigid schedules, because it removes the spontaneity and fun from our environment. We like to work on whatever we feel like at the moment, including things that aren’t strictly “fun” (such as figuring out why Radium is doing something wrong for 3% of users). The human brain demands variety, so we like to mix and match to make sure that we’re having fun and producing high quality work. Doing it any other way would be depressing for us.

Sometimes we’ll do a 16-hour stretch and finish at 3AM, sometimes we’ll work for 15 minutes and take the rest of the day off (not often…) Whatever feels best at the moment, unless, of course, some kind of emergency happens and a customer needs a reply right away. We always check our mail.

We keep our long term plans on a whiteboard on the wall, because it’s always a good idea to be explicit about where we’re going. Otherwise we just mix and match.

What inspired the original idea for Radium, and how did the application come about?

Radium existed for a good few months before we started the company. I wrote it back in university so that I could listen to Sirius/XM without having to use the browser-based player. After having used the app for a few months it became clear that others would be interested in it as well.

We rolled up our sleeves, made it “shippable”, and Radium 1.0 came out. At the time I was still working on my university degree, so it was pretty hectic. It immediately became clear that we should support other radio stations, and over time we adapted Radium to do just that.

Are there any benefits to developing a single application as a company, rather than working on several different pieces of software?

The main benefit is that we can focus on making one app great, instead of making several apps great. It’s not really a matter of coming up with ideas (everybody has them!), but a matter of execution.

The most important aspect of running the show is to match our ambitions with our resources, so that we don’t stretch ourselves too thin. We’d rather people “love” us for one app than “like” us for five.

Another facet of this is that when we do release another app, it will inevitably be measured against Radium. There is much more pressure to do it “right”, since in the eyes of the public you’re only as good as your last release.

What’s the one thing you love about developing for the Mac?

The thing we like the most about the Mac is UNIX. Instead of inventing some kind of ridiculous abomination of a system API, Apple did it right (the second time around…) and implemented a popular, stable, decently designed one

Sure, there’s always something to whine about, but the Mac’s plumbing is essentially 80% great, which is a fantastic achievement on Apple’s part. User interfaces come and go, but a solid system core is much more difficult to do properly.

Emacs keybindings in all standard Cocoa text fields are a big bonus =)

Is developing Radium a full-time job for you, and if so, how long did it take to get to the stage where it could support you financially?

I develop Radium full-time now, and I was recently joined by my lovely wife. She happens to have a Master’s degree in Computer Science, which is convenient! It took about 18 months for it to make a livable amount of money.

What type of sales and customer response have you seen after launching your apps on the Mac App Store?

We’ve had an extremely positive response, especially in European markets, and we’re very happy with the experience overall. The app approval process can get a bit daunting, but it’s never easy to deploy a large software repository to many users, so Apple is still ironing out the kinks. It’ll get better over time, and it’s certainly well done for a “1.0″ release.

Some developers complain that Apple’s 30% cut may be too high, or that the Mac App Store encourages a “race to the bottom” pricing model, but the reality is that it gives indie developers a rare opportunity to reach millions of users and really make a difference in the Mac software ecosystem, if they can. We say, either play the game or don’t.

Which websites, Twitter users, and magazines do you follow in an effort to stay up-to-date with the activities of other developers, and the Apple eco-system in general?

We don’t do too much “blog surfing”, as such. We communicate directly with any Mac developers we’re “friends” with, and otherwise dig through the Mac App Store to discover new apps.

We generally don’t read “Apple News”, since any breaking news usually reaches us somehow anyway. We like to spend most of our time at work!

Do you have any interesting updates or apps in the pipeline that you can give us a sneak peak at?

Nothing we’re comfortable previewing at the moment. We don’t like to announce things too early, to avoid disappointing ourselves and our users in case something doesn’t work out.

Thanks, Kirill!

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and experience with us. I really appreciate you taking the time to contribute, and we wish you all the best with the future success of all your apps!

I have to admit it: I’m a American Top 40 junkie. I spend too munch money on songs that get overplayed on the radio and eventually get ignored in my library. The $1.29 charges start to add up, and soon I’m spending $20/month on music.

I figured that there has to be a better system that doesn’t require me to waste that much on music each month. That’s when I ran across Rdio and their new application for the Mac.

So far, I’ve been really impressed. Read on to find out how it works!

What’s On the Rdio?

Rdio is an online music streaming service, similar to the UK/Europe’s Spotify. Just type in an artist and within seconds you have access to all of their songs. There aren’t any ads, and they have an accompanying iPhone app. You can even set up a ‘collection’ which is similar to an iTunes library, except the music is streamed to your computer.

Their freely available Mac app brings the best part of this web based service to your desktop. The app is one part SSB (site specific browser) and one part iTunes replacement. It has all the basic Play/Pause/Foward/Back buttons as well as a very iTunes-esque interface. When you first sign up for the service, you start with an empty collection.

Rdio helps you jump start your collection with a matching service. It brings in all of the music from your iTunes library and adds it to your Rdio collection. It works pretty well, and doesn’t take much time.

Unlike similar service Grooveshark, your music isn’t being uploaded. Instead it’s going through your iTunes Library Database and finding songs that are available on Rdio that exist in your old iTunes library.

One of the neatest features is how the the Mac app even takes over control for the media buttons on the top of your keyboard.

While Rdio’s library is huge, it isn’t all-encompassing. Sometimes certain artists, like one of my favorites: Owl City, will be lacking an album or two due to licensing issues. Instead, it will let you ‘Preview’ the songs. Otherwise, Rdio has most of the music you’d even care to listen to. I’m also a huge fan of the way they organize the music in both your collection and when you’re browsing around.

Similar to Last.FM, you can add friends to a personal network. This is similar to Twitter’s follow system. Follow friends and people who’s music tastes you like and their activity will appear under the ‘Your Network’ tab. Alternatively, you can track your own personal taste. In either view, you can create on-the-fly radio stations with one click.

Rdio also offers a strong recommendation engine. It watches your listening habits and makes recomendations based on artists and songs. I’ve found it to work pretty well, on the whole. Rdio also shows some neat graphs that represent the artists you spend the most time listening to. It’s actually very interesting and useful to see the circles change over time.

Features I Wish Were in iTunes

A Queue

One of the features I find so intriguing, beyond the ability to listen to songs without paying a per-song fee, is their Queue system. I often find myself browsing my music collection while listening to a song or two.

In Rdio, I just add things to the queue for them to played next. It works flawlessly. Even better, their corresponding iPhone app can pick up the queue that you create. This is a super easy way to make custom playlists before you head out of the house.

Wireless Sync

iTunes doesn’t offer any way to synchronize your iPhone or iPod touch without plugging it in. Rdio allows you to click on any song or album and tell it to Sync to Mobile. The next time you open the iOS app it will download (“sync”) the music that you told it to over the air.

Playlists and your entire collection, history and recent activity also sync wirelessly to your mobile. Rdio’s iOS app also lets you store music for offline listening as well. That way, when you’re in the plane or out of coverage, you can listen to your favorite tracks.

A Few Downsides…

Within the Mac app there are just a few little issues I found. One problem is that the app requires Flash to be able to work. I had to download Flash since I had eliminated it from my Mac. At first, I didn’t understand why the app wasn’t working, then I got the “please install Flash” pop-up. I wish it was more like Chrome, bundling in Flash so it wouldn’t ‘contaminate’ the rest of my computer. Second, the media key ‘takeover’ means that it prevents iTunes from seeing the keys when iTunes is quit. If iTunes is open, alongside Rdio, the keys will work for both. This is a bit confusing and dumbfounded me for a bit why everything was playing at once! Finally, the Mac version doesn’t allow for offline sync, so if you’re on the go with your laptop you’ll be without music as long as you’re without an internet connection. However, nowadays that amount of time seems to be shrinking quite rapidly.

Rdio works on a subscription model. While it does let you buy songs for $1.29 each to keep permanently, if you stop paying for the subscription you essentially lose access to your Rdio music collection. The subscription, at the time of writing, costs $4.99/month for Web and Mac access.

It costs $9.99/month for “Rdio Unlimited” which includes the mobile apps and offline sync features.

It should also be noted that Rdio is currently only available in the United States. Those in other countries should check out Spotify, as well as Grooveshark. Neither has an official US based iOS app. Spotify’s app is only available in European markets and Grooveshark’s is only available via the Jailbreak (Cydia) app store.

Wrap-Up

I really, really like Rdio. I’ve been using and happily paying for the service for three months now. I’ve found some amazing bands and tried music that I would have never tried if I had to pay to download an entire album or on a per song basis.

I couldn’t imagine a better service for listening to the latest music without buying each song. Give it a try with their free 7 day trial on their website. Rock on!

Language learning has traditionally been quite a mundane task involving dense, boring textbooks and pointless grammar and vocabulary exercises. People only really learnt a language simply because they either had to at school, or because it was required by their employer.

However, last week I went into my local bookstore and I thought to myself that the demand for language learning must be there. There was a whole corner of the bookstore devoted to language learning, from Afrikaans to Zulu and the more popular languages such as French, German and Spanish often had whole bookcases to themselves – there must have been at least 5 different kinds of courses for each language.

People must obviously want to learn languages; otherwise bookshops wouldn’t be filling up their shelves with courses. But is learning a language out of a book now history? Can a computer really help us with some conversational Spanish before that trip to Madrid? Or maybe that big meeting with those investors from Germany?

Well, Rosetta Stone believes it can. It uses a technique called dynamic immersion, which is an intuitive new way of learning a foreign language and one that is radically different from all other programs.

It has certainly got a loyal fan base: NASA and the European Union both use it to teach foreign languages and the company offers a six-month risk-free guarantee on all their products, meaning you can return them within six months of purchase without any problems if you’re not completely satisfied with the results.

Rosetta Stone teaches a foreign language in the way babies start to learn talking: by listening to their parents and repeating every word they say and by relating words to pictures, much like during infant development. This method may seem a bit dumbed down for us adults, but I gave the Russian version of Rosetta Stone (a language which I had prior to this write-up absolutely no idea about) a go to see what the results were like. Read on for my full review.

Introduction

With Rosetta Stone, you have the choice between around 30 different languages, from the more well-known ones such as French, German, Spanish and so on to some rather more obscure ones (conversational Pashto, anyone?), so it really depends on what you fancy.

There are 3 levels to each language (some even have 5), meaning you can really start from the basics and work upwards. In terms of where it’ll get you: Levels 1-3 will bring you up to CEFR Level A2 (a description of the different levels can be found here) and levels 4-5 will take you up to CEFR Level B1.

The Mac version of Rosetta Stone runs on Mac OS X 10.4 onwards (PowerPC and Intel processors) and to really enhance your language learning experience, a microphone or a headset with a built-in mic is ideal (I’ll explain why later). The application is relatively simple to install and once you’ve gone through installing it and the relevant language pack(s) you’ll be asked to give your name (multiple users are also possible) and what kind of course you want to do.

Rosetta Stone allows you to select different types of course depending on what skills you prioritize. If you are simply wanting to brush up on your skills before you go on holiday, for example, then you can select a shorter version of the course which focuses on, say, speaking (however seeing as the course costs about the same as an average return flight to Europe from the UK, I doubt you’ll be using it for just that).

For the best language learning experience (and to get the most out of the product), you’re best selecting the whole course which takes you through everything. Once you’ve selected your course you arrive at the home screen.

Course Layout

Each level is divided into 4 units, which are each subdivided into 4 lessons. Each unit covers various subjects, such as the basics, greetings and introductions and work and school life and each lesson is split into different sections: Pronunciation, Vocabulary, Grammar, Reading, Writing, Listening, Listening and Reading, Speaking and Review.

The later lessons repeat what you learnt in the previous ones, so you don’t forget the new words and phrases you learnt. This can get a bit repetitive after a short while, however it is all part of the Rosetta Stone learning experience, making sure you certainly don’t forget anything you’ve learnt.

Reading

The reading section involves matching up words or phrases to images and vice-versa. Again, this ties in with Rosetta Stone’s teaching methodology, as it believes associating words with pictures is the best way to learn quickly and without forgetting. You also have the task of filling in parts of a dialogue, which is later tested in the listening and speaking sections.

Writing

In the writing section you are asked to spell whole words and sentences that are read to you, as well as fill in certain parts in a dialogue, which is then tested on in later sections.

For any languages in a non-Latin script, a native keyboard comes up (see the screenshot) which allows you to type in the foreign script (this is the same for languages with accents, such as French and German).

Speaking

Now, here’s where the microphone comes in handy. Each lesson has a speaking part, whereby you are asked to repeat key words and phrases you’ve learned in that section as well as thinking on your feet a bit by filling in parts of a dialogue.

The application has accurate in-built speech recognition that matches your intonation and pronunciation to a native speaker’s.

You can set the precision of the speech recognition depending on how strict you want the program to be with your accent, however if you really want to perfect your accent then obviously put it on the highest possible setting. A high-quality microphone is required, as the application may not recognize any poor quality voice recordings, however I found that the built-in microphone in my MacBook worked absolutely fine and recognized my voice without any problems.

Grammar

Rosetta Stone attempts to cut out the boring, mundane grammar drills that puts so many people off learning foreign languages and tries to deliver it in bitesize, non-technical chunks.

There is a grammar section in every lesson that tests you on things such as nouns, adjectives and gender. In the Russian edition (and indeed for any language in a non-Latin script), there is also a dedicated section to learning the alphabet.

I have one slight complaint about the grammar section though. Although it does teach you the basics and helps you recognize the patterns in the language, it is not technical enough. I would find that if I carried on learning Russian by more advanced means, I would struggle getting my head around the grammar, as it doesn’t explain why the grammar is as it is – it just teaches you to recognize it and then reproduce it.

This may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but in my opinion, to progress towards proficiency in a language you really need to understand the mechanics of the language and why it does what it does; Rosetta Stone is unfortunately a bit sketchy in this field. I would suggest buying a grammar tuition book to work with alongside the course so you really get to grips with it.

Conclusion

Private tuition aside, Rosetta Stone is probably the most expensive way to learn a foreign language, however it really does work. I found myself remembering almost everything I had learnt without much difficulty and although the course is a bit repetitive, it does drum it into you and impregnates it into your long-term memory.

I found that as I progressed through Level 1, I could still remember the basics (like ‘man’, ‘woman’ ‘child’ and so on) even right at the end. The program is even fun and you don’t have to do it all in one go: you can always start where you left off. Each lesson takes on average 90 minutes to complete and with 16 lessons, you’ll certainly have plenty to do.

Rosetta Stone is certainly a very polished product – hence the commendable 9 rating – however the one major drawback to it is the price. If you are going to pay nearly $400 for a language course, then you really need to be serious about learning the language.

I am by no means a linguist or expert in language learning so I obviously cannot judge how effective the program is from a scientific point of view, but from an average Joe’s (i.e. me) point of view the program does work.

It is a slight pity that the application isn’t within everyone’s budget seeing as Rosetta Stone’s method of teaching one of the best methods of learning a foreign language quickly and without any dull textbooks. But if you are really serious (and you’ve got a spare $400 knocking about) then I would seriously recommend it to anyone.

The app that we are reviewing today is a very unique concept. It’s one of those apps that makes you think, “Wow, that’s cool; but do I really have a use for it?” It’s impressive, and it makes you wonder how it works, but it doesn’t immediately stand out as something that you’ve always been longing for.

It’s called Seamless, and makes it easy for you to transition songs from your Mac to your iPod without losing track of where you were in the song or podcast. Sounds cool, but how well does it work? Let’s take a look.

Getting Started

This app is brand new – coming out just a week or two ago – and it’s free on the Mac App Store. You do need, however, to buy the companion app for the iOS, which goes for $0.99 (and without it the app doesn’t really do anything).

Once you’re set up with the Mac app and its mobile counterpart, you’ll need to sync them up in order to be able to transition songs from one to the other. Let’s see how that works.

Installation

You would expect the installation of this app to be different from any other app, as you have to sync it to your device. I was expecting this to be a fairly long, intricate process – but it’s actually very simple, although you receive almost no guidance through the installation.

After installing the app it will ask you if you want to run it every time you login. After that, it just opens up a little icon on your menu bar. No introduction, no settings, nothing. Even on the menu of the app there isn’t anything particularly helpful. It just says “Ready to transition (song playing)”. Perhaps too simple?

You have to go back to the description of the app in the App Store to understand how it works. There it says that you need to download the iOS app in order for Seamless to work. Oh. I first thought this was going to work without having to open an app in my iPod.

How It Works

After you purchase, download and open the app on your iOS device, you’ll be asked to “Add a Mac”. The app will search for a Mac online and will display its name on your device. Click it, and a message will pop up in your Mac asking you if you want to allow your iPod to connect. Then you are done.

Now, every time you open the app on your iOS device, it will automatically connect to your Mac and check if you are listening to something. If you are, it will show the artwork of whatever is playing, with a button that lets you transition the track to your iPod, or back to your Mac. Everything works nicely and with an amazing speed. It even fades the sound in and out of each device, which is a pretty cool effect.

Limitations

I like to listen to albums. In fact, most of the time I’m listening to either albums or playlists. I never play just one song. I was expecting this app to work with albums, but it just doesn’t. Whenever you transition a song, the song will play inside the app of Seamless, but if you quit it and go over to the Music app, you’ll notice that when you transition a song, it will play it in a shuffle playlist along with all of the other songs in your library. So, when the song is over, you’ll get a random song from your library. There is no way of fixing this, at least not right now.

I really don’t see myself using this app without it being able to work with albums. I expected it to function very much like the Music app on my iPod works, although I guess that would be pretty hard to do from a developer point of view. This app is pretty much worthless to me like this.

I want it to allow me to transition the song playing to my iPod Music app, and keep playing the following tracks of the album or playlist I was jamming to. That feature was what made me excited for the app, but it doesn’t seem to exist.

Conclusion

The app works as advertised. In the description of it and in the video that’s on the dev’s web page it says that it’s for when you are playing a song on your computer, but have to leave and don’t want to interrupt the song and go look for it under your mobile device’s library. I get it, it works and I think it’s certainly an impressive concept.

But then, I don’t think it would be so hard to get the app to work with playlists and albums. What if I am playing a full album and don’t want to interrupt it when I leave my computer? If you could get that to work, I’d be very happy with the app.

As of now, the best use I find for this app is for podcasts, because they usually are pretty long and it can be annoying scrolling on your iPod to the place where you left off in your Mac. For songs, I don’t think it’s quite as useful.

Despite these initial problems, I am excited to see what the next releases bring. What about you? Would you find Seamless useful in its current state?

Since transitioning to an SSD earlier last year, I’ve become accustomed to dealing with a smaller amount of hard drive space in my MacBook Pro. Moving from 256GB down to 128GB felt like a risky thing to do at the time – the last thing I wanted was the constant headache of a hard drive that’s full to the brim.

The reality is that I absolutely haven’t noticed the decrease in size. I trimmed down my Applications directory, moved all my iMovie content off to an external drive, and started a new photo library in Lightroom (my old Aperture library was becoming an out of control nightmare to manage).

These few changes freed up over 100GB of space and, by being mindful of what I download, save, and store on my internal drive, this space is still more or less completely free.

Downsizing to a smaller drive hasn’t once caused me a problem – I’ve found that when it comes to internal drives, bigger isn’t necessarily better. But would you be happy to sacrifice all those extra gigabytes? Let us know in today’s poll, and share your thoughts in the comments.

Many people have bandwidth limits with their ISPs, and with the amount of tempting content on the web these days, it can be hard to stick within these limits. Software such as SurplusMeter is great for tracking your bandwidth usage, but there’s no way of seeing what is using up your bandwidth.

Enter Rubbernet, a new app from Conceited Software which tracks what apps are accessing your network connection, and how much bandwidth they are using. If some third-party software is accessing your network without your permission, you can find out and try to stop it.

Not only is this useful for monitoring bandwidth usage, but it can be used to detect any software which might be secretly sending out personal data of yours. A great concept for an app, but does it work in practice? Let’s take a look.

Getting Started

Rubbernet is available as a free trial, so you can determine if you like it before you fork out €29.99 (around $45). At 11MB, the DMG will download relatively quickly, and the installation process is pretty straightforward – just drag the app into your Applications folder, as you would most other apps.

Upon first opening Rubbernet, you will be greeted by a panel asking what device you want to monitor (it’s possible to install the RubbernetDaemon on other machines and monitor them remotely. However, despite being wirelessly connected to my iMac via AirPort, Rubbernet couldn’t find it from my MacBook Pro, so I had to settle with installing the daemon on the MacBook.

Interface

Having looked at several of Conceited’s apps, there is no doubt that their designers are of the highest quality. It’s clear that they put an awful lot of time into the interface, and that certainly pays off, as it is very intuitive to use.

It doesn’t try to be anything more than it is, and sticks to the tried-and-trusted sidebar format, known well to anybody who has ever used Finder, Mail, or countless other apps.

What sets it apart from the rest, however, is the details – the beautiful black patterned background displaying the main details, the pixel-perfect, vibrant icons, the simple-but-effective graphs. It’s impossible for me to fault this very polished design.

Network Dashboard

This is the first place you will be brought to when you open Rubbernet, and provides a nice summary of what you need to know – what apps are connecting to the internet, and at what rate they are doing so. You can also see the individual connections, which are constantly fluctuating in speed.

If nothing else, it can be quite interesting to see what actually connects to the internet – you’d expect your browser, Twitter client, and mail client to do so regularly, but the system itself connects more often than you might think.

My main issue with the dashboard is that it shows the connections in real-time. This is excellent, but when it’s most active will be when you are using another app, and therefore won’t be looking at the Rubbernet dashboard. A great feature would be a panel which displays all of the day’s connections, so you can see all of the apps which have connected throughout the day, and not just those which currently are.

For example, occasionally, whilst looking at the dashboard, I’ll see Notational Velocity pop up, syncing with SimpleNote. Within 30 seconds, it’s gone, with no trace of it ever being there. If that was something I didn’t want connecting, I might never have noticed it.

Individual App Activity

You can also see the connections by individual app, which can help you to figure out what specific connection is wreaking havoc on your bandwidth. You are given the IP addresses of each connection, which might look like it serves little purpose, but enter the IP into an IP lookup service online and you can find out exactly what is connected.

Were an IP lookup feature possible, that would be an excellent addition to the app, as I found looking up IP names much more useful than a sequence of numbers.

In addition to the list of connections, you are provided with a couple of nice graphs to show you exactly how much it has been connecting, and at what speeds. This is actually very useful, and it can be interesting to see graphs such as the regular intervals in Mail.app’s mail checking, or your browser’s sudden surge whilst you were streaming a video.

Another handy use for it is determining the upload/download speed of an app. For example, I can check how quickly Dropbox or CloudApp uploads my files using Rubbernet. If you like graphs, you won’t be disappointed.

Remote Monitoring

As I said earlier, I was unable to get this feature to work. This could be a hardware issue (although I doubt it), or a fault of my own. As there is no documentation for this app, I couldn’t find a way to make it work. However, I’m sure it works for some people, and could be very useful.

One potential use is to monitor your child’s network usage – make sure he was researching fossils on Wikipedia rather than playing World of Warcraft, etc. There are more possibilites than you might think.

Conclusion

Rubbernet does a few things very well, there’s no doubting that, and I never came into any issues with performance. My main problem with the app is that what it does, well, isn’t much. To me, it feels like a great feature of a bigger app, rather than an app in its own right. Are you willing to spend $45 on a feature? Personally, I’m not.

That said, this is only v1.0, and I hope Conceited will bring more features to the app. If they manage to combine SurplusMeter and Rubbernet, I would snap it up without a second thought. The two apps feel like they belong together: seeing how much data you’ve used throughout the month, but also what apps have used that data.

So, while Rubbernet doesn’t really do anything wrong, it just hasn’t done enough right for me to buy it just yet. I’ll hold out for 2.0.

I know that many of our readers are big fans of TextExpander, and rightly so. It’s a wonderful application that can save – quite literally – days of your time over the course of a few years. Although we usually focus exclusively on Mac software here, today I’d like to take a few moments to introduce you to TextExpander’s mobile counterpart.

TextExpander touch aims to replicate the text-expanding magic on your iPhone or iPod touch, and it does so surprisingly well! You can store snippets, then quickly retrieve them to send to Mail and Twitter clients, or use them in any other app via copy-and-paste.

In addition, you can use your TextExpander touch snippets directly in over 80 apps that support it, including Twittelator, TwitBird Pro, Osfoora, Elements, Simplenote, WriteRoom, Nebulous Notes, Pocket Informant, Things, and Todo (you can see a complete list here).

For more information, take a look at our review, or grab your own copy from the App Store for $4.99. It’ll be one of the best five bucks you spend this year.

Let’s face it, passwords are a hassle. Everyone advises against using the same ones over and over again, but it’s just so very convenient only having to memorize a couple of them. Recently, a lot of apps have come out that promise to get rid of this problem by helping you remember all of your passwords, but most of them aren’t very convenient to use.

The app that we are reviewing today, Concealer, isn’t very different from the competition, but it does add a few unique features. Check them out after the jump!

Getting Started

Concealer is a password manager app, but more specifically, it is an all-round security app. It can help you generate random passwords that will be stored in the app, which you can only access with a universal password; but that’s not all, it can also help you store folders, files and notes securely.

And the best of all: this is all done through a very Mac-friendly, simple and neatly arranged interface. You have the menu bar on top where you can add new accounts and notes as well as lock the app, and right below the menu bar you have filters that make the app easy to navigate. On the main frame you have your cards shown with various pieces of information.

Concealer has two versions: Lite and Commercial. The lite one is super-simple and it pretty much works as a trial mode for the app, even though it isn’t really advertised as a “trial”.

It will only give you availability for 5 accounts, 3 notes and 1 storage (we’ll get into what that means later). The paid version will give you unlimited number of any of those, and it sells for $19.99.

Setting Concealer Up

The first time you run Concealer, you’ll be shown a few videos that will help you learn your way around the app. These are a bit long, but they do a great job at getting you clued up with every feature in under 10 minutes. Right after the videos you’ll be asked to create your universal password, which you’ll use to access the app every time you open it.

As the videos warn you, you shouldn’t check the “Remember in Keychain” box, as this will defeat the purpose of the app by giving anyone logged into your account access to your stored passwords and files. So, when you create your password just leave the box unchecked.

Accounts & Notes

An account is basically a “card” where you can store information on any bank accounts, credit cards or memberships that you have. You can open a new one by clicking “Add Account” on the toolbar and a small window will pop up where you can enter all the information like the bank name, home page, ID, account number, and more.

You can also choose categories and sub-categories for each of your accounts, such as finance, internet, software, and more. These are useful for sorting and filtering.

All this information will be stored in a small card in the app where you can check it and copy it whenever you want to use it. One handy feature about this is that the app has its own password assistant that can help you create secure passwords.

The notes are pretty similar to the accounts, but in them you can input any information you’d like to without having the required fields that you have on the accounts.

File Storage

The storage feature is very interesting. It pretty much lets you create a password-locked folder on the app where you can keep files secure and away from anybody who shouldn’t be looking at them.

You can create a storage with the “Create File Storage” on the toolbar. You will then be shown a window where you can select the password for the storage, the encryption method and the size limit.

The size limit will make sure that your folder doesn’t exceed a certain amount of space. You can save files to this secure storage by opening the folder and dragging any file into the folder. Once you have your super secret files in the storage folder, you should delete the original copy.

How You Should Use It

Ideally, once you have set up all of your accounts and secret files, you should lock down the app by clicking on the lock icon on the left upper corner. This will bring you back to the main screen where you need to put in your password to access the app.

In order for Concealer to work, you should always lock down the app after you are done using it. If you leave it open, anyone will have access to your precious information and unimaginable disasters could occur!

So make sure you click on the lock button after you are done. Or, if you know you are going to forget locking it down, you can set an auto-lock clock in the app’s preferences.

Conclusion

I’d been looking for an app that had password-locked file storage for a while now, and Concealer sure seems like a keeper, especially because of that storage feature. I’ve been using the free Password Pad Lite for storing passwords, but Concealer seems like a better option as not only a password solution, but a complete security app.

Is it worth the $20 dollars, though? If you’ll use more than the offered features for the lite version, then of course it is. I might stick with the lite version for a while to see if it fits my needs.

What do you think? Would you put a price tag on your digital security?

Evernote is one of my favorite apps. It’s simple, useful, and the take it has on “notebook” apps is pretty unrivalled by any other piece of software.

Recently it caught my attention that everyone who uses the app often does so for a complete different reason. I know I have my own very specific use cases, and today I’d like to offer them as suggestions for our fellow Evernote-loving readers. And so, without further ado, here are some of the most useful functions I’ve found for Evernote!

What is Evernote?

We’ve reviewed Evernote before, and today we are giving you some of our favorite tips for getting the most out of this very useful app.

If you don’t know it yet, Evernote is a “freemium” app that can help you store and organize notes, and keep them in sync with a multitude of devices. The app lets you tag and store your notes into “notebooks”, which we’ll cover fairly extensively in this article.

Recipes

With the healthy eating trends going on lately, I’m sure some of our readers have started cooking for themselves instead of eating out. I know I have, sometimes. And I have also found out that Evernote is an excellent companion for storing your favorite recipes.

You’ll always have them available on your phone, whether you are at the supermarket shopping for ingredients, or at the kitchen crafting your delicious meals. I keep a notebook under my Evernote called “Recipes” where I store my favorite ones and those I use the most.

Going Paperless

This is a big one, and it could really make a difference to the clutter in your life. I haven’t done it myself, but I’ve heard from many people that have successfully. “Going Paperless” basically means scanning every important document that you have (receipts, bills, confirmations, statements, etc.) in your Evernote account and arranging them in tags and notebooks so that they are always readily available for you to check.

Evernote has a very good text recognition feature, which makes any sort of writing in your pictures searchable, so storing your important files is very convenient as you can always look them up while you are on the go.

Keeping important documents in Evernote is a little risky for this, since Evernote doesn’t have any sort of password or encoding features (at least not yet). So, just be careful with the documents that you scan, and you should be fine.

Inspiration

Do you ever get great ideas while you are out of your house and away from your computer? It happens to me a lot, and that’s why I keep a notebook called “Inspiration”, where I write down anything that has to do with new ideas – or perhaps a quote that I liked. Anything that I find inspiring and that I’d like to keep for posteriority goes into this notebook.

Recording Anything You’d Like to Keep

Many people don’t know that Evernote – through both the mobile and desktop version – allows you to record sound. This is probably the feature that I use the most when I’m on the go, because if you are driving and you remember something that you want to write down, you can’t really type it down on your phone, so I just usually pull up the voice recorder and start talking to my device.

This is also great for recording classes, conferences, music that you’d like to look into, or even for hearing yourself talk when you have a big presentation coming up. What also makes this great is that you can file your recordings under notebooks and tag them so that they’re always organized.

Lists

As you’ve probably seen already, I like to keep track of things and have everything organized. Well, I also like to keep track of things like the books I’ve read, my favourite music of the past year, films I’ve watched, and similar things. So I also keep a “Lists” notebook on my Evernote, where I type in everything that could take the shape of a list.

Some of my note titles in this notebook are, among many, “Books I’ve read”, “Thing I want to do”, “Things I want to own”, “Bands I’ve seen live”, and so forth.

Grocery Lists

This is a pretty obvious, but useful one. Before heading out to do my grocery shopping, I type everything that I need down on my computer and organize all the items so that they are arranged into the ones that I find first when I enter the supermarket, and the last I find when I’m about to leave.

This not only saves an amazing amount of time, as you don’t need to run up and down when you forget something at the market, but it also saves you money (if you know what you are going in for, you don’t find yourself lingering around and picking up a bunch of things you don’t need). Once I’m done writing up my list I just sync the list and load it on my mobile device.

Book Important Points

Whenever I read a book about anything informative, I like to mark everything I find important and that could help me remember the book without having to read it again in the future.

Let’s say you are reading a book about management. While reading, you mark down important notes, quotes, data, and whatever it is you think is relevant to you. Then when you finish the book, open up a new note on Evernote and type down a summary of all those important parts you read.

This way, whenever you need to remember something that you learned in the book, you can just go back to your summary note, instead of having to read the book again. I keep a separate notebook called “Books” just for this. And it doesn’t need to be just about non-fiction books, I also keep track of my favorite quotes and ideas from fiction books.

Swapping Files Between Your Computer and Phone

This is also a feature that I use a lot on my iPod. Whenever I need information from a document that is on my computer, I just open up a new note on Evernote and paste it there, and then access it from my iPod.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve done this, with everything. Addresses, presentation notes, important numbers and data, and more. It’s very useful because iOS devices can’t really open .doc files, at least not without using any intricate third party apps.

Resolutions and Goals

I usually like to motivate myself by setting up yearly resolutions or temporary goals for myself. Keeping track of them before Evernote was very annoying, as I usually never even knew where the documents I typed up ended up by the end of the year.

But in Evernote it is pretty easy and convenient to keep up with them on a regular basis, as I just open up a new notebook to store all of them.

Even at the end of the year I get to use the “check” or “to-do” feature to see which resolutions I completed and which ones I conveniently forgot about.

While it isn’t that big yet, Evernote has a “notebook” sharing feature, which work much like Google Docs does. You could also take advantage of that to get creative around Evernote.

Conclusion

Evernote is truly a great app. It isn’t the only one in this genre, but it surely is the best one, as it’s free, easy to use and has plenty of features – as well as compatibility with an impressive list of devices. Today I’ve outlined some of my favorite uses for the app, but why don’t you tell us some of yours?

Everyone has different needs and I’m sure my take on the app may differ greatly from those of our readers. What do you use Evernote for?

If you’re not already familiar with it, Kickstarter is a website through which you can crowd-source initial funding for a business idea or concept. Anyone can contribute a small investment in your idea, and receive something in return – the more you contribute, the better the reward is.

If a project meets the total investment target set, it goes ahead. If not, everyone gets their money back. People have different opinions about whether Kickstarter is a good idea. Earlier this year, Frank Chimero generated over $100,000 in funding for his new book – something that sparked a discussion about whether Kickstarter is appropriate for creative projects such as this.

Personally, I think it’s a fantastic idea. But why bring Kickstarter up in the context of AppStorm? Read on to find out…

Introducing Dialoggs

Dialoggs is a new social network concept – coupled with a beautiful app – that is currently looking for funding over on Kickstarter. Drew Wilson, the creator, is aiming for an investment of $15,000 and currently has over $3,000 pledged at the time of writing.

It’s certainly an interesting concept, aiming to fill the gap between Twitter, iChat, and Tumblr. It’s “more than just status updates, and it’s much more than a static blog with comments”. Dialoggs aims to offer realtime communication that is permanently stored and (optionally) publicly available.

I’ll let you head over to the site and watch the video for a full explanation of what Drew is aiming to do. He has some lofty goals, but the general idea is certainly an interesting one. I’d love to give Dialoggs a try if it ever comes to be!

Other Apps & Products on Kickstarter

Although Dialoggs caught my eye recently, it certainly isn’t the only product you might be interested in checking out on Kickstarter. Here are a few others to pique your interest:

• Taposé – Taposé brings the once hyped Microsoft Courier functionality to the iPad. It’s a fun-looking app!
• “Full Metal Jacket Diary” – iPad App – An effort to turn the Full Metal Jacket Diary into an immersive experience on the iPad.
• Bendi – An iPad Stand Exactly Where You Want – Bendi allows you to position your iPad however you want, using a strong suction system. Flexible!
• iPad 2 Smart Shell: A Case Compatible w/ Apple Smart Covers – A sleek looking protector for the rear of your iPad 2, designed to work in conjunction with a smart cover.

Would You Back an App?

Using Kickstarter to fund the development of an app is an interesting concept. Embarking on a software development project isn’t something to be taken lightly – it takes time, money, and lots of expertise. Not to mention the risk that demand may not reach your expectations after you unveil your creation.

I’m all in favour of developers using platforms such as Kickstarter to get a head start on a new project. It gives them a chance to test the market demand for their app, receive initial feedback from potential users, and fund the time and expense require to embark on the development journey.

But would you back an application before a single line of code has been written? Obviously there’s an inherent risk that the software may never see the light of day, or that it may not live up to your expectations.

Of course every individual project should be judged on its own merit, but I’d say that this is a worthwhile risk on the whole – especially if you’re only pledging a few dollars. The chance to support a developer embarking on a new application is an exciting one, and something definitely worth considering!

Would this be something you’d think about doing? If so, why/why not? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

If you’re anything like me, your downloads folder is a huge mess of disorganized PDFs, Word documents, Keynote presentations and text files with uninformative names like form.doc and scan0111.pdf.

To clean up this mess, Ironic Software developed Yep, promising iPhoto/iTunes-like management for your documents

I’m a die-hard Alfred fan, and when I’m being good and giving my documents appropriate names, it’s a huge help. However, when I’m downloading and reading dozens of documents on a short deadline, all my good habits go out the window with my to-do list.

Yep claims to be the document organizer for the lazy and forgetful among us, find out if it delivers after the jump!

Getting Started With Yep

When you first open Yep, you’ll be prompted to import your current documents into Yep. I used the “auto-import” feature, and then found I couldn’t go back and check out the custom option… So I can’t report on that!

It took quite a while to import all my documents, and I only had about 300 on my new laptop. I found Yep’s handling of my current documents the clumsiest part of the interface, I felt like I pretty much had to start from scratch organizing my new documents and leave the old ones in disarray.

It would have been extremely helpful to be able to assign smart tags to documents with certain parameters, for example, automatically add the tag “essay” to anything in my essay folder, or add the tag “form” to any pdf with “form” in the title.

The Yep Workflow

Once you’ve got your old documents into Yep, managing new documents is significantly easier:

Downloading & Tagging Documents

To get documents into Yep, download normally from your browser/email client etc., and then reveal it in the finder

To tag the new document, simply drag it to the side of your screen and drop it into the box labeled “tag”. Next, enter your desired tags and hit enter. Your document can now be accessed through Yep using the assigned tag, but remains in your downloads folder and has not been copied.

One minor thing that bugged me about the tagging interface was that after entering one tag, you can add another by hitting “enter” or “space”, whereas other apps have made me used to hitting “tab” after adding a tag.

Filing Documents

Instead of simply tagging your documents and leaving them where they are, Yep gives you the option of having your documents automatically filed.

When you drag a document into the “file” box in the screen-side interface, it is filed into a directory in your documents folder called “Filed Documents” which is organized by year, month and date.

I didn’t understand what they meant by “filed documents” at first because it didn’t tell me where exactly they were being filed to, but now that I’ve figured it out, I file all my documents.

Navigating Yep

The Yep interface is designed to be iPhoto/iTunes-like, but I found it more like the Finder if it were organized by tags. On the left, there is a tag cloud, and at the top, powerful filtering options (by rating, date, type, location). Like the Finder, you can choose to view your documents in list or thumbnail view

One crucial feature I enjoyed was the integration of Quick Look into Yep. Since Yep has allowed me to be lazy with document names, I need the Quick Look preview to know what I’m looking at

In addition to the tag cloud, you can also display your folder structure to navigate as you would in the Finder

Other Organization Options

Ratings

In addition to the main tag-based organization method, Yep includes an iTunes-like rating system. You can give a document 1-5 stars, and then filter through your documents with rules like “less than 4 stars”.

I personally never use rating systems for organization, and it seems just to be there for the sake of the iTunes analogy, but some people might find this useful.

Bookmarks

You can also create browser-like bookmarks at the top of the window that are basically saved searches. Select any of file type, location, tag, and rating and save the search to a bookmark, and you can have quick access to, for example, all PDFs in the documents folder with the tag “forms”.

Test-Drive Results

I tested out using Yep as my primary means of document management while in the midst of my spring essay marathon this semester, since writing essays involves juggling notes files, source material, assignment instructions, and various drafts at once.

The rules were: I had to try to always use Yep for the first essay, but after that, if I reverted to the Finder/Alfred I would let myself.

After a bit of confusion on the first day of using Yep (where are my files going? What does “filed” mean? How do these bookmarks work?) I quickly grew accustomed to the workflow. As long as I remembered to tag a document as soon as I downloaded it, everything stayed well organized.

Being able to use Quick Look and launch documents directly from Yep allowed me to navigate through various studies, assignments and notes without leaving the Yep interface. I also appreciated how easy it was to rename documents without the awkward slow-double-click of the Finder.

Now that the essay marathon is over, I still use Yep, so I’d say it stands up to real-world scenarios.

Scanning and Creating Documents

Another major feature of Yep is scanner integration. I was unable to test this feature since my scanner is broken, but it promises faster scanning than Preview or the bundled software that came with your scanner.

Yep creates PDF files from scanned documents and lets you add tags and a description right away. I’m sure this would be an appreciated feature, I always hated my scanner’s software with its sloppy interface and TIFF file creation.

Yep can also create text documents from dragged text and images, just drag selected text or an image to the Yep dock icon, and it automatically creates a .txt file or an image file and files it away in its chronological filing system. This feature is especially useful for clipping text and images from webpages without having to bother with any “save as” or “new document” dialogs.

Conclusion

I started writing this review thinking it would turn out more negative than it did. All the issues I had starting out with Yep weren’t really about the usability of the app, but more about the confusing way it was presented on the website. It took me a while to figure out the download-drag-tag process, which could have been easily demonstrated on the website.

My biggest issue with Yep was the importing process, which was a one-shot affair that I couldn’t re-try with different settings or apply smart filters.

Since I already had a lot of documents on my computer, and have a limited attention span for organizing my computer, only the documents I’ve downloaded since using Yep are tagged. Yep would be much more useful to someone starting out on a new computer than someone with a hard drive filled with years of documents.

That being said, Yep certainly did save me time digging around for documents while writing essays, and would definitely be worthwhile for people who deal with a lot of PDFs and Word documents – like students, teachers, researchers, writers and anyone who wants more organization for less effort.

Is it worth $20? Hard to say. If you spend a lot of time working with documents, especially for work, then Yep could be a huge timesaver. If you’re responsible enough to name your files properly, you probably don’t need it.

The role of the interface designer is not one that should be taken lightly – Without a great interface, chances are that you wouldn’t be using the apps you currently are. If the Safari address bar was hot pink and created in MS Paint, would you still use it? Probably not.

Luckily, it isn’t, and you can use your Mac in pleasure, thanks to countless UI designers working tirelessly to perfect their application designs.

There are numerous wonderful mail clients for Mac OS X, and everybody has their own preference, for whatever reason. However, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody who doesn’t marvel at the Sparrow interface – It really is something else.

Today, we’ll be chatting to Sparrow’s designer, Jean-Marc Denis, about his work, inspirations, and the interface design scene.

Tell us a little bit about the Sparrow team – where are you based, how many of you are there, and what motivates you as a company?

Sparrow is a French start-up founded by Dinh Viêt Hoà and Leca Dominique based in Paris. I joined the team after the launch of Beta 1 where no real design has been applied.

Beta 1 was more a proof of concept at this time and we quickly got down to work. I have been in charge of designing the application since then. I live in Toulouse, in the south of France.

Our motivation is quite simple. We want to give Mac users a solid alternative for a unique mail experience.

How did you get into design, and, in specific, UI design?

As far as I remember, I always have been fascinated by graphic design. I really started to digitally get in when I saw some democoders friends work. From Deluxe Paint to Photoshop, there is quite a gap!

It might sound strange but I felt in love particularly with UI design when I started modifying the look of Microsoft Windows and the applications I was using. I released freebies and was part of online communities such as GfxOasis, Neowin, deviantArt, etc.

After buying the first iPhone I made some icons, themes, and modifications for iOS and more recently, for OS X. In the same time I read books, online articles or forum topics about UI/UX. Once I realized it was a real job I decided to offer my services.

Where do you get inspiration from?

Everything! From real life items to any platform applications – I tend to analyze them all with a curious eye. I like to look for computer or user interfaces in movies or tv-shows, especially the science-fiction ones, as they often present interesting ideas.

Community websites such as Dribbble are a fantastic source of inspiration. I am always amazed by the quality and the detail of the work you can see there.

How do you approach a new project?

I listen to the client project then ask some questions about why, how, etc… After that I use good old pen and paper to sketch what the client has in mind. We discussing both his/her view, and my view, and try to keep the best of them.

When the final sketch is approved I render it with pixel perfect obsession and start polishing it until the final render reflects what we aimed at. At this point I try to test the static interface with people close to me by asking them simple questions “What do you think you can do with this application ?” “What will you click first?” “If I ask you to do <related application action>, how would you do it?”. Sometimes it helps me to point out an obvious action I missed.

After the release, users are always giving feedback about problems they might encounter or features they’d like to see. No project is ever static, and my work is to smoothly implement the features without disturbing the existing and the future user experience.

Apple are starting to introduce iOS-based interface elements to the desktop, and many of these you have also implemented in Sparrow – Do you feel that this is the way forward for Mac apps?

Since many people step in the Mac world after using an iPhone, I think most of these changes make sense. I like the hidden scrollbars because they push minimalism without disturbing the user experience.

The gestures are a big plus for faster interaction. Since Apple released the Magic Mouse, the Magic Trackpad and MacBook are a top seller, Apple’s move in this direction looks logical to me.

Developers are expected to constantly take feedback and update their software – Do you think it is the same with designers, or do users prefer less change in an interface?

I think so – we are in the same loop, close to the developers and the users. People ask for features or propose ideas and sometime they make sense, sometime they don’t. You can’t please everyone unfortunately.

Sometimes the 1.0 interface is too limited to integrate new features effectively, but you don’t have to worry about starting from scratch again.

Why do you think that the Mac has such a wonderful standard of UI design compared to other platforms such as Windows and Linux?

All platforms have their pros and cons. I like Linux UI, and the new GNOME looks good! They have an active community and brilliant artists like Jimmac.

Apple knows that UI and UX is phenomenally important for the end user. Apple HIGs are very descriptive and detailed, they do care about the look and feel, that’s why Apple designers opinion counts.

What’s your Mac set-up like? Do you try to keep your hardware up-to-date?

I am using a 2011 Macbook Pro 15′ plus SSD REV3 minus DVD drive. I am connecting an Apple Cinema Display 27′ to it and a Magic Mouse or a Razer Orochi depending on what I’m working/playing on.

The hardware is a little bit excessive for Photoshop but it’s my main computer. I try to keep it up to date because I am something of a tech nerd!

What apps do you use for interface design work, and what is your general workflow when crafting a new interface element?

I mainly use Adobe Photoshop CS5. I can’t say it’s the best of all applications in the Adobe suite but that’s the first application I used and it fits my needs (even if it lacks of some important features…).

Although I often want to give Fireworks or Illustrator a try, I end up coming back to PS for Interface design.

For someone interested in interface design, where would you suggest they start?

First of all, I’ll say watch everything around you and pay attention the mechanic, to the details. Try to be curious about every application you use – even real-life things. Why do people choose a certain option more than another? How could you improve it and make the user think less? Most of the time it’s all about common sense.

Another point – you will need to choose an application and try to master it by practicing again and again. Use keyboard shortcuts to make your flow as fast as possible so you can focus on the pixels, not the menus. I’d also recommend to read books, articles, RSS feeds or whatever is related to the domain.

And last but not least, try to take part actively in a community to get feedback on your work. You’ll learn a lot from what other people have to say.

Can you reveal anything about Sparrow updates in the pipeline?

Since our last big release (1.1) we are working on pushing the mail experience a step forward. We listened to all of our users feedback, ideas and wishes. I’m not very good for teasing, but you can look at the attached photo and let your imagination run wild 🙂

That’s a Mac AppStorm full exclusive, it’s the first time it goes public. As a sidenote, that will be 1.2 and we’ve already had the mockup for 1.3 since a few months ago – I just can’t wait to push it out to the users. We are polishing it again and again and it’s going to be a huge step for Sparrow.

Thanks Jean-Marc!

Thanks so much to Jean-Marc for talking to Mac.AppStom, we wish him and Sparrow the best of luck in their future developments. We always love chatting to members of the Mac community, and Jean-Marc was no exception. We really appreciate his contribution to the site.

If you’re looking for a new mail client, definitely give Sparrow a try, and if you’re looking for a UI designer, give Jean-Marc a call. It’s easy to forget about the people behind the buttons and menus, but without them, our lives wouldn’t be the same!