Category: Mac

Mac system maintenance utilities are a popular item these days and we’ve taken a look at quite a few newcomers in the recent months.

Today we’ll take a step back and review an application that’s been around for a few years but is still a strong competitor. MainMenu is a super fast maintenance application that performs a plethora of powerful commands and is conveniently located in your menu bar. We’ll go over the basic functionality and give some feedback on what works, what could be better and whether or not you should give it a shot.

The Gist

MainMenu is a Mac maintenance utility that can perform a ton of useful actions. This application is targeted towards power users who really know what they’re doing so be warned that you probably shouldn’t go running actions if you’re unsure of the result.

As you probably guessed from the name, MainMenu sits in your menu bar. Clicking the icon will open the menu below.

As you can see, the actions are divided into six categories: Batch tasks, System, Network, User, Applications and Disk Utility. Our basic overview of the application will include a brief look at each of these sections. Since Batch Tasks uses the other actions, we’ll save it for last.

System

Under the System menu you’ll find seventeen powerful commands to help your Mac run smoother. The first option in the list is “Repair Disk Permissions.” I was quite happy to find this included as a prominent command as just about every maintenance utility I’ve reviewed in the past somehow managed to leave this feature out entirely.

Though Repairing Permissions is easy enough using only OS X, the fact that it’s such a useful command (when all else fails, repair permissions) makes it something that every maintenance app should throw in.

The other options here help you free up disk space by clearing caches and logs, removing temporary files, etc. When you click on an action, MainMenu takes off and performs it for you with little to no interaction on your part.

The commands here that are particularly interesting are the automated maintenance tasks which are split up into three types: daily, weekly and monthly.

If you watch the log (shown above) as you run these commands, you can see what they’re doing. However, since I’m not smart enough to know what any of this stuff means, I had to do some digging. Here’s a breakdown of what each action does in English.

Daily Maintenance

• Cleans and rotates log files older than 60 days
• Removes scratch, temp, and junk files
• Cleans system messages

Weekly Maintenance

• Updates the locate database
• Updates the whatis database
• Rotates longer-term log files

Monthly Maintenance

• Performs login accounting
• Rotates even more long-term log files like wtmp and fax.log

Network

The Network actions are surprisingly limited. Here you have the ability to restart your Airport, turn it off, or flush your DNS cache. I would definitely like to see some better options here. Suggestions include Network Diagnostics or a command for examining the networks in your area (similar to iStumbler).

User

Unlike the Network section, the User section is quite robust with lots of powerful features here that you won’t find in most other maintenance utilities. Everything here is targeted at either freeing up hard disk space or improving system performance.

User caches can grow big fast so it’s a good idea to periodically have MainMenu clean these out. You can even target the caches and history on specific browsers for emptying (or hit all browsers at once).

You can also perform a number of Finder-related tasks such as restart and quit. The options for relaunching the menu bar, cleaning out dashboard caches and verifying preferences are awesome and I’ve never seen them in other applications (though I’m sure they’re in a few).

Applications

The Applications section features two options: Force Quit and Force Restart. Under each option is a list of currently applications. Simply select an option and an application and the action will be carried out immediately.

Though force-quitting is simple with the default OS X commands, restarting any application is a really useful feature.

Disk Utility

The Disk Utility section provides you with a list of your current disks with the options to repair or eject the volume. Keep in mind that you don’t need to make a practice of repairing volumes that aren’t broken so you should only access this command as needed.

It’s definitely useful to be able to eject a disk from the menu bar so you don’t have to leave the currently active application to bring up the Finder or desktop.

Batch Tasks

Since MainMenu performs so many actions, it can be quite tedious to routinely run through those that you need to perform on a regular basis. Fortunately, MainMenu addresses this with the ability to run a single command that executes a number of actions.

The window above shows the options available for batch commands. Checking an action will add it to the list of items that will run when you click “Execute Batch Tasks” under the Batch Tasks window.

Batch Tasks really provides some much needed functionality. It’s incredibly nice to be able to perform so many actions with a single click. However, it would be nice to see a bit more done with this functionality. For starters, the list should be more extensive and include options for Daily Maintenance, Remove Temporary Files, etc. that are currently missing. Further, there really needs to be an option to set up multiple batch tasks so that you can create different groups of actions that all run together.

Overall Impression

When I first tried MainMenu I expected it to either replace other maintenance utilities, such as Clean My Mac and MacKeeper, or be replaced by them. Oddly enough I found that neither was true.

There are several features in traditional maintenance applications not found here, such as the ability to scan your hard drive for the largest files or properly uninstall an application. However, as I pointed out above, MainMenu holds its own by providing several actions that you just don’t see in other utilities.

It was actually really nice to try out a maintenance app that isn’t trying to compete with the same old tricks. MainMenu is far quicker and easier to access than a full application and occupies a nice little niche for advanced users. Overall, I loved the application and can be confident in recommending that you give it a shot.

Conclusion

In summary, MainMenu is an awesome menu bar app that enables you to perform advanced system maintenance tasks easily and efficiently. You can repair permissions, clean logs and caches, and even restart applications all from your menu bar.

Despite the minor complaints that I listed throughout the review, MainMenu is a solid application that I highly recommend to any techie. If you’re an experienced enough Mac user to know what all of these tasks are then you need this application. And $19 is not a bad price tag when you weigh it against the $40 that you’ll pay for competing apps.

Leave a comment below and let us know what you think of MainMenu. Also be sure to tell us about any other maintenance utilities you either currently use or would like us to take a look at.

We’ve collected the top five reviews, roundups and how-to articles from across the AppStorm network in April. Whether you’re interested in Mac, iPhone, or Web apps, there’s bound to be something you didn’t spot over the course of the month.

Now would be a good time to explore a part of the AppStorm Network you’ve never seen before!

Best of iPhone.AppStorm

Best of Web.AppStorm

Best of Mac.AppStorm

Share Your Ideas

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

Ever heard of Usenet? If you haven’t, you’re not alone. Even many people that have heard of it either don’t understand it or just can’t get into it because of the lack of modern clients.

Today we’re taking a look at Unison, an app that seeks to change the complicated and enigmatic nature of Usenet by providing you with a user friendly interface that makes it easy for even a complete beginner to dive right in.

What Is Usenet?

Last week in our Colloquy review we examined what IRC chat was and how, despite it’s age, it is still an active protocol with thousands and thousands of daily users. Today we’ll again turn back the clock to a web technology that dates all the way back to the 80s. Yep, in turns out they did in fact have networked computers even before Marty and Doc Brown took a spin in the DeLorian.

Usenet, not to be confused with Skynet, is a complicated network of “newsgroups” all devoted to specific topics in much the same way that chat rooms are in IRC. However, where IRC is a live discussion system, Usenet is a threaded messaging system in which users post and reply to different messages over an extended period of time. So where IRC was the predecessor to browser-based chat rooms, Usenet was the predecessor to web forums.

Accessing Usenet

In order to access Usenet you first need a newsreader client. This is where Unison comes in. The second thing you’ll need is a service provider. While many ISPs once provided free Usenet privileges to their customers, this trend is in rapid decline and the ISPs that still offer this service are rapidly decreasing.

Fortunately, the good folks at Panic (the creators of Unison) also provide a service plan for anyone that needs access.

As you can see, for $9/month you get 300 days of binaries and unlimited transfers. Just in case you’re not sure whether it’s worth it, Unison comes with 24 hours of free access to Usenet.

Getting Started With Unison

Because it’s from the same people that make Transmit (an awesome FTP client), Unison is predictably one of the best Usenet clients available for the Mac. The Interface is so good that even someone who knows nothing of Usenet can get up and running in minutes.

When you open up Unison for the first time you are presented with a friendly welcome message and three simple options: use your existing server, sign up for service through Panic, or take Usenet for the 24 hour test drive that I mentioned above.

If you select the free preview option, all you need to provide is a username, password and email address. Once you click the link in the confirmation email, Usenet will automatically configure your free account with zero effort on your part. Keep in mind that it’ll take about five minutes or so for everything to activate and content to start loading.

Using The Directory

The most attractive feature of Unison is the Directory. Here the mass array of newsgroups are filtered into easy to understand topics. Whether you like gaming, music, Mac stuff or even animals, there’s a mess of newsgroups waiting for you.

When you click on a topic, an extensive list of newsgroups pops up for you to browse. Some of the newsgroup names are descriptive of what you’ll find inside while others are a little more cryptic. At this point it’s basically a trial and error game; try a few out and see if you can find some you like!

Browsing All Groups

If you’re a bit more familiar with Usenet, the directory might not provide you with enough browsing flexibility. These users should check out the “All Groups” section where you can find a more exhaustive listing of all the groups available.

The groups are listed in a column view just like that of the Finder. Each category drills down to something more specific until you reach the newsgroup you’re looking for.

Interacting With A Newsgroup

Double clicking on a newsgroup from either of the views shown above will insert that group into your sidebar and open it up in the main panel (control click to delete it from your sidebar).

When you open up a newsgroup it’s a lot like viewing threaded messages in Mail.app. The main panel contains a list of posts that have been made. When you open the little arrow next to a post you can see all of the various replies.

On the bottom there are options for sorting the results based on the post type. You can choose to see all posts, only written messages or only file uploads.

There are several email-like controls at the top of the window. From here you can refresh the listing, get more listings, reply to a post, create a new message, etc.

When you reply or post a new message, again the email metaphor is strongly present. Panic isn’t seeking to ripoff Mail here, instead they’re presenting you with a familiar interface so you feel comfortable posting and replying in Unison right from the outset with zero learning curve.

As with online forums, the types of posts you’ll come across vary widely depending on the newsgroup you’re in. You’ll find everything from nerds providing tech support to adults engaging in the kind of activities they’re prone to engage in when anyone provides such a forum.

Wait, Files?

If you’ve never heard of Usenet until today, there’s a little devil sitting one your shoulder saying “I wonder what type of files people upload?” The kind that you’re thinking is exactly right.

Though there are legally legitimate file sharing activities happening here, Usenet is also home to a vast network of pirated content available freely to anyone willing to click the download button.

As an example, the screenshot above shows one of the many groups dedicated to distributing Mac software. I can’t help but find it very amusing that it’s conceivably quite easy to use Unison to pirate Unison.

It’s not just software either. Pretty much any intellectual property that you’re in the mood to steal is easily obtainable with very little effort. This includes media files such as music and videos. You can even preview media files before you download.

Since it can be tedious to locate specific items by searching individual newsgroups, there’s a built-in global search that helps you quickly find any application, song, video, or document you want.

Is it Safe?

Can you start pirating content from Usenet without any moral or legal implications? Probably not. More important for many of you though is the question of whether or not you’ll get caught.

The popular arguments online currently suggest that Usenet is currently one of the safer havens for pirates. The advantages over torrents are numerous. Among these is the fact that it’s not a true P2P file sharing network. Users download files from a server and aren’t forced to become sharers themselves. The government “usually” spends their time tracking down the distributors of the content rather than individual downloaders scattered across the globe.

There’s actually a raging debate over whether or not it’s illegal to download pirated content. Since copyright laws clearly state that it’s illegal to “reproduce the copyrighted work” many claim that a loophole exists for those that merely download and use the content without themselves distributing it to others.

However, it’s interesting to consider that merely clicking the download link creates a digital reproduction of a copyrighted work that you haven’t paid for. Further there are laws in place against buying goods that you know are stolen. If we as a society have deemed “purchasing stolen goods” as unlawful, then it could be seen as hypocritical to deem downloading pirated software as a legally legitimate action.

However, morality and legality aside, the most interesting reason that Usenet is said to be relatively safe at the moment is simply because most politicians, lawmakers, media personnel and law enforcement employees either don’t know is exists or don’t understand it in the least. “Torrent” is a hot buzzword and so popular torrent sites are being shut down left and right, but Usenet is an obscure secret entirely off the radar of many people in power.

As an example, most of you knew what a torrent was long before today but a large chunk of you had no idea what Usenet was before reading this article. As further proof, run a Google News search for “bittorrent” and check out the tons of articles that show up and contrast that with the content that shows up when you search for “usenet.”

Unison: Closing Thoughts

Though a large portion of this article was dedicated to Usenet, the intended focus here is actually Unison. I’m admittedly no Usenet expert, but Unison is by far the best client I can find (most seem terribly outdated). Before coming across Unison, I didn’t really have a grasp of what Usenet was or how to get to it. Unison makes the whole process easy to understand and makes it really simple to jump in and get involved.

The Unison interface is excellent and the functionality is flawless. Whether you’re looking for a way to wrap your mind around Usenet for the first time or are a seasoned expert looking for a great Mac client, Unison is the way to go. Check out the free trial for both the app and the service if you’re not convinced.

If you’re looking for a few alternatives check out Nemo, MT-Newswatcher, SABnzbd, and Hogwasher.

Leave a comment below and let us know whether you had ever heard of Usenet before today, whether you or not you use it (and how) and what you favorite Mac client is.

Embedding this MacTastik strip elsewhere? Please provide a link back to this post and to NCWinters.com

There are a number of mammoth picture editors that can do just about anything with an image. Then there are a few very effective smaller-scale apps that have a lot of power while remaining simpler to use – a personal favourite is Acorn. But if you’re someone with only needs to work with images now and then – a blogger looking for attractive embellishments for your texts, or someone maintaining a personal website – even Acorn might seem complicated.

That’s where Acqualia software’s Picturesque comes in: it’s super-simple to use, and delivers excellent results without requiring much knowledge about design, or prior experience of working with graphics.

Working with Picturesque

When you start up Picturesque, its interface is as simple as can be:

Drop any images you want to work with into the main window, and it expands to its full size:

The top ribbon holds miniature versions of the images you’ve opened; the main part of the window displays the image currently selected from that list; and the bottom row lets you pick from the available effects. That’s right, Picturesque can only do five things with your images: adjust perspective, add a reflection, a shadow, curved corners, or an outline.

The other buttons in the bottom toolbar allow you to adjust the background colour of the main window (useful if you want to see how an image would look against the background colour you’re planning to use it with), to crop the image, and to open the presets window.

Let’s take a look at each of the available effects…

Perspective

This tool lets you manipulate the rotation and elevation of an image – in other words to tilt it on its x and y axes:

You can make subtle changes here, or go to town and really twist things up! Of course you probably wouldn’t want to make so dramatic a change to an image, but I want to demonstrate the extent of the alterations possible!

Reflection

Now it’s easier than ever to add lovely reflections to your images:

You’ll notice, too, that I’ve changed the background colour here so that the reflection shows more clearly. Simple slider controls let you adjust the Length, Opacity, and Offset of the reflection so that you can get it looking exactly as you want it.

Shadow

Shadow lets you quickly add subtle shadows to your images, so that you can make them appear to float above the background.

As well as adjusting the Blur Radius and Opacity, you can set the shadow’s colour, and drag the shadow in that small square to set the Angle and Distance at which it falls. The ‘Glow’ checkbox lets you reverse the effect so that your image appears to float above a backlight:

Curve

Here you can quickly add curved corners to any image, simply by clicking checkboxes in the corners to which you want the effect applied, and using the slider to set the Curvature:

Stroke

The final tool lets you quickly add a border to any image. You can choose whether the border is placed around or within the outside edge of the picture, or set it to be centered between these:

Putting It All Together

Add a few of these effects together, and it’s dead-simple to get some great effects. You can toggle effects on and off by clicking on their titles in the toolbar, and when you’re ready, click on ‘File’ and then ‘Save Image’ and select whether you want to save under a new title, save to the Desktop, or replace the original image (there are keyboard shortcuts for each of these options). Picturesque will then apply your effects and save the image to the location you’ve specified.

Here’s what that slinky cat looks like after just a few minutes of clicking and moving sliders:

Now, to an educated eye that might look a right mess, but my point is to demonstrate how someone without much training in working with images, and with little experience of picture-editing software, can very quickly apply some professional-looking effects.

Batching

Once you’ve set up a set of manipulations that you’re happy with, you can save them as a Preset and so apply them to future images; or you can immediately add them to any other images you’ve already opened.

Even better, using the Batch Save command, you can quickly save all the currently open images with these effects applied, as well as resizing them along the way, so that you can quickly blaze through a folder full of images in a few moments.

Even if all you wanted was to resize a number of images, applying no other effects, Picturesque would be worth having for the job…

In Conclusion

Picturesque is one of those apps that demonstrates the power of constraints. It doesn’t try to be everything to everyone, but rather limits itself to a few functions that it does extremely well and simply.

Like Acqualia’s other great app, Soulver, Picturesque achieves its ends with elegance and simplicity.

It’s unlikely to take the place of Photoshop in a professional designer’s toolbox, but for anyone who now and then needs to improve the appearance of an image, or a bunch of images, it’s very hard to beat.

We’d like to say a big thank you to this month’s Mac.AppStorm sponsors, and the great software they create! If you’re interested in advertising, you can order a slot through BuySellAds.

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CleanMyMac – CleanMyMac represents a sophisticated all-in-one-suite utility that helps keep your Mac clean and healthy.

Billings – Billings’ simple workflow and intuitive interface makes quoting, invoicing, and time tracking effortless.

MiniBooks – A handy iPhone app from FreshBooks that lets you track your time and invoice your clients while you’re away from your computer.

Daylite Touch – Daylite Touch is a business productivity manager for the iPhone and iPod touch, winner of a 2009 Macworld Best of Show award, designed as a companion to Daylite on the Mac.

App4Mac – Makers of several different Mac applications, including CheckUp, SecretBox, Sequence, Projector, FlexTeam, and Delegate!

iPad Max – 4Media iPad Max for Mac is a must-have tool for Apple iPad and Mac fans to help them backup and transfer movies and audios from iPad to Mac, from Mac to iPad, and from iPad to iTunes.

ImTOO Video Convertor – Looking to convert all your media files on your Mac to just about any format you fancy? Look no further than ImTOO Video Converter for Mac. This versatile Mac video converter can convert between nearly all HD/SD format videos.

Raskin App – Inspired by Jef Raskin, our zoomable user interface shows you all the stuff on your computer on a single surface. Using zoom and pan to view, arrange and open documents feels so right.

iStat Menus – iStat Menus keeps you informed with exactly what’s going on behind the scenes of your computer – CPU/memory usage, disk space, battery life – you name it, and you can keep track of it with iStat. All through a beautiful interface.

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Have you ever tried to hunt down technical information about your Mac? This can be quite the daunting task to someone who isn’t particularly familiar with Macs. But fear not, whether you own a brand new MacPro or a 1997 Apple Quicktake 200, today’s app will tell you everything you need to know about it.

Below we’ll introduce you to an awesomely helpful application called Mactracker. You’ll get to see what it does and learn about why you should download it today and never delete it.

A Magic Application

What is the serial number on your Mac? When was it manufactured? What type of RAM does it take? What graphics card does it have? Did that Blueberry iMac that’s collecting dust in your basement come standard with an Airport card?

Whether you’re a serious techie or you have no idea what all those questions even mean, you should be able to find out the answers. The reason is that these mundane facts become vital information when it comes time to upgrade or repair your Apple products.

In an ideal world, there would be some magical Mac application that knows just about everything there is to know about almost every Apple product ever created. This application would be free to download and easy for even non-nerds to use. Wouldn’t that be something?

As it turns out, this fantasy app is actually a reality, and it’s called Mactracker.

Meet Mactracker

Despite its seemingly mystical existence, Mactracker is a pretty plain looking Mac application. The interface is split up into two primary sections: the navigation on the left and the list of models on the right.

Clicking on “All Models” will show you a list of every Apple product that Mactracker has information on. As you can see in the screenshot above, mine currently has data on 520 models.

At the bottom of the window, there’s a search bar that allows you to quickly filter the results. To see more information about a specific model, simply double click it to open that model’s dedicated window.

As you can see, each window contains a small image of the product in the upper left and a number of different sections for the available technical information.

These tabs make it easy to quickly locate specific types of information for the model in question. Here you can see everything from benchmarking stats to historical data. One particularly great feature that nerds will enjoy in this window is the old startup and death chimes for Macs dating all the way back to 1984. Clicking the buttons shown below will play the audio clips.

The included timeline of Apple product releases is another excellent nostalgia-producing feature.

Finding the Right Information

To illustrate how to use Mactracker, let’s go through a typical example. Let’s say we want to upgrade the RAM on my 2007 White MacBook.

The first thing we want to do is locate the right model in the library. If you actually happen to be on the Mac you want to find information for, Mactracker is smart enough to help out with this search.

Simply click the item on the left that says “This Mac” to see a list of possibilities. As you can see in the image below, Mactracker knows I’m on a Macbook but isn’t quite sure if it’s the 2006 or 2007 model.

Fortunately, I know I’m on the 2007 model so I can just double click that model to open the info window.

Alternatively, if you’re not sitting at the Mac you want to look up, you can just use the categories to find the proper model. The categories are broken up into Desktops (iMacs, Mac Pros, etc.), Notebooks (iBooks, PowerBooks, MacBooks, etc.), Servers (XServes), Devices (Mice, Keyboards, iPhones, iPods, Apple TVs, etc.) and Software (operating systems only). Each of these is then expandable into subdivided categories as shown below.

Once you drill down far enough that the list of models becomes manageable, you can then select your specific model.

Model Information

Now that we’ve found my Mac we need to identify the tab that contains the info we’re looking for. Since we’re upgrading the RAM we’ll go to the Memory/Graphics section.

As you can see, I have two slots that take 200-pin PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMM RAM. Now I can use this information to search for RAM on the web.

You can option-click on text in Mactracker to copy it to the clipboard. This makes running a Google search for the info above super fast.

My Models

Another neat feature in Mactracker is the ability to create a list of all the Mac’s that you routinely work with. This is perfect for small businesses or IT departments that need to keep track of a list of products.

To add a product to your list, click on “My Models” on the left then hit the plus button on the bottom. This should bring up a window like the one below.

Here you can fill in specific information about a Mac. To auto-fill this content from the current machine, hit the button on the bottom that says “This Mac.”

If you enter your Mac’s warranty information, Mactracker will keep your models divided into three categories: those in warranty, those leaving, and those out of warranty. This is an awesome feature for quickly checking to see if a failing product is covered.

Smart Categories

Mactracker allows you to extend the categories section by creating your own “Smart Categories.” These function just like most Smart Folders inside of OS X: you simply create a few criteria and it does the rest.

Mactracker allows you to choose from a large list of criteria that includes all kinds of hardware and software options. You simply drag these criteria from the list to the area below and then the enter the specific text of the attribute you want.

For instance, in the example above I created a category that searches for Macs containing Firewire 800 ports whose default OS was 10.6. This is helpful if you need to quickly see which of your machines has an Airport card, Bluetooth support, etc.

Comparing Models

One final feature of Mactracker that I only just found while writing this review is the ability to quickly compare two or more models. To do this, select as many models as you want from the list and hit Command-K.

This will bring up the window below showing a side-by-side list of the specs for each model. If you want something simpler, in the preferences menu you can change this list to only show the differences between the models.

Closing Thoughts

Though Mactracker might not sound like much to a casual user, it’s a nerd’s dream come true. As the default tech support guy for my friends and family, I use this application all the time to quickly check out the specs on everything from flavored iMacs to new Mac Pros.

One thing that I really appreciate about Mactracker is how easy it is to use. Everything is completely intuitive and lightning fast. There are plenty of features to play with when you have the time but when you need a quick answer it’s nice to have all the info you need accessible in a matter of seconds.

One thing I would like to see integrated into the app is the ability to type in a serial number and have the app instantly recognize information about the product. This functionality is found on Apple’s support site and would be a great addition to Mactracker. Other than that, the app is excellent just how it is and I wouldn’t change a thing!

Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. What features are your favorite? What would you like to see added?

Everyone knows about the big guns in the graphics field. Adobe is pretty much the unchallenged master of image editing with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks. Adobe’s InDesign shares the digital publishing field, albeit grudgingly, with Quark’s QuarkXPress. Serious graphic designers find themselves stuck between these two large corporations, due in part to format lock-in and in part to features that other pieces of software just don’t have.

For those of us who don’t need things like the ability to switch from right-to-left text to left-to-right text with one click of the mouse, or even more obscure features, there are a number of other third-party applications out there that may meet our needs.

They range from cross-platform open source programs with more power than beauty, to applications with innovative user interfaces developed by pillars of the indie Mac developer community. One thing is true in all of them: they’re less expensive than the Adobe alternative!

Raster Image Editors

Raster image editors are similar to Adobe’s Photoshop. They’re often great for making small alterations to an image, adding notes or other features to it, or creating an image of a certain limited size. They can’t create images that can be infinitely scaled up, but if you don’t need to do that anyway, no harm done. In alphabetical order:

Acorn

Acorn

Developed by Gus Mueller of Flying Meat, Acorn subverts the ‘palettes everywhere’ design that several other raster image editors have inherited from Photoshop. Everything you need is there in one drawing window and one easily hide-able tools window. It even boasts excellent Applescript support and a built-in hex colour-picker, which is extremely handy for web designers.

It opens .psd files (Photoshop documents), but can only save out to its own proprietary format, Adobe’s FXG, or any common flat raster image format.

Price: $49.95

DrawIt

DrawIt

Pieter Omvlee of Bohemian Coding, also known for the excellent application Fontcase, created DrawIt to look like an iWork application and behave like a vector image editor. The result is a simple, beautiful raster image editor with lots of vector features. Unfortunately, it uses its own file format, lacks the ability to open .psd files, and exports only to JPEG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, or ICNS.

Price: €29, or about $38 at current exchange rates

GIMP

GIMP

The free and open source GIMP (standing for GNU Image Manipulation Program) is the standard hardcore image-editing program on Linux—the nearest thing that exists to an open source Photoshop. While it has many powerful features, it’s built to use X11, which makes it feel very out of place on a Mac.

There’s an experimental native version, but releases run behind the official version and it tends to be very buggy—even more so than the normal version. GIMP can open and save more file types than perhaps any other image editor, including saving to ridiculous formats like ASCII art and C source code. When you truly need power and don’t have tons of money to spend, GIMP may be the way to go.

Price: Free

Opacity

Opacity

Opacity is a developer’s image editor at heart. It can import from most common formats, including .psd and .svg (a vector format), and save out to all the standard raster formats as well as several kinds of source (including code for the iPhone, Mac, and the HTML canvas element).

It allows you to set up “factories” that remember the different formats you export to and automatically export a new version on save, and all number value fields respond to math (i.e., it understands 256/2 as 128).

Jon Hicks found it to be nearly a replacement for Adobe Fireworks in his testing (which also included Acorn and DrawIt), and used it to create all the new graphics for Opera 10.5. Definitely worth a look if you’re bored with the same old.

Price: $89.99 for the full version, $39.99 for Opacity Express

Photoline

Photoline

Photoline is billed as able to handle both raster and vector graphics, as well as desktop publishing and layout and exporting Flash and GIF animations. It runs on Windows as well, so if you’re looking for something you can use on both platforms, Photoline is worth a closer look. It reads and writes most major raster graphics formats, including .psd.

Price: €59, or about $78 at current exchange rates

Pixelmator

Pixelmator

One of the best-known Photoshop alternatives for Mac, Pixelmator sports a lickable HUD-like interface that’s otherwise very similar to Photoshop. It lacks a number of features commonly used by professional designers, but it’s more than capable of what most normal users will ask of it.

Pixelmator is under constant development, so if it lacks a feature you need right now, keep an eye on future releases. It supports most common raster image formats and reads and writes .psd files.

Price: $59

Seashore

Seashore

Seashore is a GIMP-inspired free and open source native Mac image editor. For several years, the project had lain dormant at a stable but unimpressive 0.1.9 release. In June, the project quietly released an updated and much improved preview version.

While still not as feature-rich as Photoshop or GIMP, Seashore now sports a Mac-like interface and the ability to read and write GIMP’s native .xcf format. It can’t currently read or write .psd files, but that’s high on the list of features to add. Provides free basic image-editing capabilities with a native feel and a few rough edges.

Price: Free

Vector Image Editors

Vector image editors are similar to Adobe’s Illustrator. They create images that can be scaled infinitely, because they use—in the words of Wikipedia—”geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygons, which are all based on mathematical equations”.

This means they’re often better for creating images for print, as well as icons that may later need to be reproduced at a higher resolution. Unless otherwise indicated, all the applications in this list can both import/open and export/save vector PDFs. In alphabetical order:

Inkscape

Inkscape

Inkscape plays Illustrator to GIMP’s Photoshop. It’s a very capable vector image editor, but requires X11 to run on a Mac and is best suited to larger screens. Like many of the other free and open source applications listed here, it isn’t well-integrated to the Mac way of doing things, but offers broad import and export capabilities and depth of features at the expense of an attractive and intuitable interface.

Unlike GIMP, there’s no publicly available native version, although a technically knowledgeable and patient Mac user may be able to build a native (but still ugly) version from source. Inkscape can read and write several common vector formats, including .svg (the de facto open standard) and .ai (the de facto-er Adobe standard), and can write (but not read) .eps files.

Price: Free

Intaglio

Intaglio

Intaglio claims to trace its ease-of-use heritage back to MacDraw, improved by the addition of modern Mac OS X features like Quartz and CoreImage.

For the most part, it feels very at home on a Mac, and it reads and writes all common vector formats (.svg, .ai, and .eps) as well as its own proprietary format, although there are occasional odd artifacts when importing .svgs.

Price: $89

Lineform

Lineform

The winner of a 2006 Apple Design Award, Lineform bills itself as the “clear modern Mac alternative to Illustrator” with “all of the most popular tools, including everything from freeform gradients to compositing effects”.

It supports importing from .eps and .svg (but not .ai), and can save out to its own proprietary format or export to .eps, several raster image formats, and .svg (after registration).

Price: $79.95

VectorDesigner

VectorDesigner

Featuring an iWork-like appearance and workflow and nifty, easy features like text inside a shape (or along a path), raster-to-vector conversion, iSight and Flickr integration, and QuickLook support, VectorDesigner fits in well on a Mac.

It can import from .eps and .svg files and open .ai files, export to EPS and a number of raster formats, and save to its own proprietary .vdesigner format. It’s not the most powerful app in this list, but it’s fairly capable for most purposes, tightly integrated, and boasts perhaps the most intuitable interface out of all Mac vector apps.

Price: $69.95

ZeusDraw

ZeusDraw

“A new vector drawing program with a fluid, graceful interface, great brushes and a host of other features.” ZeusDraw’s interface is the least traditionally Mac-like of the Mac-native applications in this list, but at least one very thoughtful user has come to the conclusion that that’s actually for the best.

His comparison also considers Intaglio, Lineform, and VectorDesigner, so it’s worth a read for those still on the fence. ZeusDraw can import but not open .eps files (not .ai or .svg files), and can save to its own proprietary format and export to Postscript and a number of raster image formats.

Price: $90

Others

GraphicConverter

Graphic Converter

If it even resembles an image file (raster or vector), GraphicConverter can probably open it. GC supports Photoshop plugins, features Applescript and Automator support, and includes many image-editing features.

If you need to process a large number of images in similar ways, there’s a good chance GraphicConverter is what you’re looking for. Truly the Swiss Army knife of Mac image applications.

Price: €29.95, or about $40 at current exchange rates

Picturesque

Picturesque

Another Apple Design Award Winner, Picturesque is great for adding reflections, changing perspective, and putting some curves on a photo (among other nifty effects). It’s also designed to be useful for batch-processing a whole folder of photos and adding the same effects to all of them.

Price: $29.95

Prizmo

Prizmo

Prizmo offers perspective, distortion, and curvature correction, allowing you to straighten out a hastily-snapped photograph so the poster you wanted to show your friends is a little bit more readable. More importantly, it boasts OCR, or optical character recognition; in other words, it can see words in an image and output them to a .rtf or .pdf file.

While the transcription is nowhere near perfect (especially when dealing with old, uneven text), it’s a very handy tool to have in your arsenal at one tenth the cost of Acrobat, Adobe’s OCR offering.

Price: $49.95

Conclusions

Unless you have a specific need that can only be solved by Adobe applications, the apps on this list are definitely worth checking out. My personal favourites at the moment are Pixelmator and VectorDesigner, but Acorn and Opacity are very capable raster editors, and I’m looking forward to giving DrawIt and Seashore some further testing.

Which of the graphics tools on this list do you use and love (or hate)? Did I miss any? Do you subscribe to the rumour that Apple may release an image editing app with iLife ‘11? Let us know in the comments!

Photoshop is the undisputed king of image editing, but it also has a huge price tag and an even bigger learning curve. If you don’t make a living as a designer, the time and money necessary for professional photo editing software is hard to justify. Further, some free options like GIMP are much more than many users will ever need.

So what should a Mac owner use for casual graphics editing? One option is Seashore, a free image editor that’s easy and fun to use. Below I’ll walk you through the basic functionality and tell you what I thought of the application.

Meet Seashore

Seashore is a simple but effective image editing application. The basic interface is quite similar to Google SketchUp with a bar of large buttons running across the top representing your tool set and a main image area below that.

Rather than messing with a million palettes as in Photoshop, Seashore integrates nearly all of its functionality into a single window. The one floating palette you have to deal with regularly is the color palette, shown above at left.

The layers are shown on the left, the context-sensitive tool options are shown under the toolbar, the foreground and background colors are at the top right and the zoom options are on the bottom.

Working with Layers

Layers work pretty much how you’d expect. You can add, delete and rearrange them using controls on the left side of the interface. Clicking the info button on a layer will pop up a menu that allows you to name the layer and set various options such as opacity and size.

I was pleasantly surprised to find blending modes in here. You can use many of the popular options from Photoshop, including multiply, overlay, screen, and more.

Tools

The tool set here is pretty standard. You have some basic selection options, including rectangular marquee, elliptical marquee, lasso, polygonal, and magic wand.

Next up is the art section. Here you have a pencil, brush, text tool, eraser, paint bucket and gradient tool. You have a number of options for customizing your brushes including several presets, spacing options, textures, fade out and pressure sensitivity.

Your toolbar also has an eyedropper, crop tool, magnifying glass and move tool. The most fun set of tools though is the set in between those we’ve already looked at.

Here you have a smudge tool, a standard clone tool, and then this crazy effects tool that lets you do all sorts of fun stuff. When you grab this tool you can choose between a number of blurs, distortions and transforms and then click on specific places on your canvas to apply them in different ways.

I found the motion blur above to be especially nice as it produced much different results than the same tool in Photoshop.

Effects

Located under the selection menu is a number of effects that are similar to filters in Photoshop. These are broken up into Blur, Color Adjust, Color Effect, Enhance, Generate, Halftone and Stylize.

Each effect comes with a unique set of controls (usually simple sliders) for varying the application. As you experiment with different settings the controls fade out so you can have a decent view of the entire image.

Using effects you can easily create noise, make a photo black and white or sepia tone, or posterize an image.

How Is It?

As a graphic designer, it’s hard to give Seashore a proper analysis. Since I live in Photoshop, I definitely found Seashore to be very limited and even frustrating at times. For instance, the type tool is abysmal and works in a very indirect fashion and the document color options are limited to grayscale and “full color” whatever that means. Also, there are a few big feature holes such as layer masking capabilities or layer effects like drop shadow, outer glow, etc.

However, that being said, I was surprised by how much fun I had with the app. Seashore has a lot of tricks up its sleeve and even does a few things better than Photoshop. As an example, the halftone effects are much closer to something you could actually use in a design.

Bottom line, it’s not a professional graphics application. It neither claims to be nor tries to be. If you want to be a professional, learn Photoshop and maybe even Pixelmator. if you can’t afford these, use GIMP (Seashore is based on GIMP but is simpler). Everyone else, download Seashore.

Conclusion

Seashore is free, lightweight, has a low learning curve and is perfect for a much larger audience than more powerful and expensive alternatives. It’s definitely not for professionals but it does have some impressive functionality.

If you’re not an avid Photoshopper, go grab the free download and let us know what you think. Are there any features you’d like to see added or tweaked? How easy was it for you to pick up and use? Leave a comment below.

The world of IRC is an interesting one. Despite a large and extremely active user base, most people have no idea what IRC is and how it’s different than the type of instant messaging we’re used to today.

Today we’ll give you a crash course in chatting using the IRC protocol and take a look at one of the most popular Mac IRC clients around: Colloquy.

What is IRC?

For many Mac users, including myself, “chatting online” implies cracking open iChat or Skype and calling up a buddy. In this mode of communication you generally chat with a single person at a time or invite a few people to join in for a small group chat or video conference.

So what is IRC and how is it different from the instant messaging protocol that you’re used to? The answer can be quite techie, but I’m ill equipped to provide a lesson in server protocols so we’ll keep it simple.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is basically group-focused Internet chat that uses channels of chat rooms as opposed to a list of specific buddies (though buddy lists are still possible). Yep, you read that right. Chat rooms didn’t die out in 2002, they’re still around and contain plenty of active users.

There are chat rooms for just about every kind interest and hobby you can dream up. So if you’re an avid Mac geek and want a place to chat with other Mac geeks or a JavaScript developer looking for some help with a script, IRC chat might be worth checking out. IRC is also a popular way to share files, often of the questionably lawful variety.

What is Colloquy?

Colloquy is one of the most prominent free IRC clients available for the Mac. In addition to IRC, it supports SILC, XMPP and ICB chat (more server protocols).

Colloquy is open source and impressively extendable so be sure to stop by the website (shown above) and grab the latest build.

Getting Connected

When you fire up Colloquy for the first time you’re going to see two windows (shown below). The window on the left lists your current connections and the window on the right creates a new connection.

Typing in a “Nickname” will essentially provide you with a screen name that you can use as an identifier inside a chat room. Obviously, it’s best to try to choose something unique to avoid confusion.

Next you choose your desired server protocol, in this case we’ll go with IRC. Finally, you can choose a chat server via the dropdown menu.

After you connect to a given server, it will show up in your list of connections.

Joining a Chatroom

Once you’re connected to a server, select it from the list of connections and hit the “Join Room” button. This should give you the option to view all the chat rooms associate with a given server.

Chat room titles generally begin with “#” and are either quite descriptive or completely indecipherable. The goal here is to scroll through the list and find something that interests you.

You can use the filter feature on the bottom left to quickly find a given chartroom. For instance, type in “osx” to see a list of rooms dedicated to discussions about Mac OS X.

Chatting it Up

The main chat window contains a list of all the chat rooms that you currently occupy. From here you can click on a room and see the conversation that’s happening within.

As you can see, each comment is listed along with the nickname of who is speaking. The bottom of the window contains a simple text field for you to join in the conversation.

Using the “Style” menu, you can change the appearance of the conversations. Colloquy comes with nine built-in theme options and the ability to customize further from the preference menu.

There are a couple of other useful features here such as the ability to clear the conversation and add the current chat room to your favorites.

Clicking on a nickname will open up a private dialog with that user and allow you to add them to your buddy list so you can keep track of when they are online and what room they are in.

Preferences

The Colloquy preference window contains a ton of customization options including options for how the interface functions, basic appearing settings, alert customizations, word highlighting, file transfers and more.

In true open source style, Colloquy really gives you the freedom to structure your chat experience however you please.

Extending Colloquy

To further the customization options available with Colloquy, you can check out the Extras section on the Colloquy website to find various plugins and themes.

The sizable plugins library will allow you to add all kinds of features such as the tweeting, Wikipedia links, and language translation.

Conclusion

IRC definitely isn’t for everyone, but for those who still enjoy the chat room format Colloquy is definitely the quintessential free client for the Mac. The feature set is quite powerful right out of the box and there are tons of customization and extension options.

If you’re looking for a few free Mac IRC alternatives, check out MacIrssi, LimeChat and Conversation.

Leave a comment below and let us know what IRC client you use and how it stacks up to Colloquy.

Today we’re going to look at Hazel, an app that can help keep your Mac nice and tidy with everything in its place.

Below we’ll go over exactly what Hazel is and how to install it. Then walk you through a handy little workflow that you can setup to cleanup your Mac a little right away.

What Is Hazel?

Hazel provides an easy way to automate tasks on the contents of any folder on your hard drive. By setting up rules you determine specific actions that are to be taken on files that meet a certain criteria.

For instance, say you want to apply a certain color label to .jpgs, move files older than a week, or automatically backup any newly inserted files to another folder, all of these actions are fairly simple with Hazel.

Download and Installation

To try it out, visit the Hazel website and download the 14 day trial. It’s not limited in any other way but time so you’ll get to play with all the features unhindered.

The file you download is actually not an application but a preference pane. To install a preference pane, all you have to do is double click (right click on the preference pane to remove it).

You should now see a Hazel icon in the lowest portion of your System Preferences window.

The Basics

The window below shows the primary Hazel interface. Basically what you do is add in a folder to watch (far left), then add rules that perform certain actions on the contents of that folder.

To add a folder, you simply click the little plus button on the left. To add a new rule, click the plus button on the right.

Below is the window that pops up when you add a rule. As you can see, the interface here is almost exactly like setting up Smart Folders in Apple Mail.

First, you choose a condition such as when the file was added, what color label is applied or what extension the file has. Then you choose the action to take on the files that meet that criteria. The actions available are shown below.

That’s it! Now Hazel will continually watch that folder and make the indicated changes when necessary.

A Practical Example

For me one of the most interesting ideas for how to use Hazel is to create droplets to process files. We all have lots of clutter in our downloads folder and/or scattered across our Macs and creating a droplet can be a great way to quickly archive specific files.

To set up this test, create a series of empty folders somewhere on your hard drive. Label one of them “PDFs,” another one “Archives,” and continue to add any for the specific file types you want to keep together.

Also create a folder that you can use as a droplet. Place this folder anywhere you like on your hard drive but be sure to drag it to either your dock or your Finder’s sidebar as seen below.

Now go into Hazel and add this folder. Then create a series of rules that match the folders you just setup. For instance, create rule for PDF’s, a rule for archives, and a rule for Music (point this one at your iTunes folder).

For each rule, designate the desired type of file and the folder you want to move it to. Make sure to apply all of these rules to your Droplet folder and set the destination of the move to the folder where you want to send the files as seen in the screenshot below.

When you’ve setup all the folders and rules you want, you’re ready to use the droplet. Any time you find a file in your hard drive that’s out of place, simply drag it to the droplet folder and Hazel will automatically determine what type of file it is and then move it to its proper location! This makes the mundane and meticulous task of file sorting a breeze.

Other ideas include automatically emptying out your Downloads folder once per week, putting files that you’ve never opened all in one place and adding color labels to certain types of files that you use often.

Why It’s Better Than Saved Searches and Folder Actions

OS X currently has a number of features for sorting through your files quickly built right in. One of the easiest and handiest is Saved Searches. Any Spotlight search can be saved as a quickly accessible Saved Search in your Finder’s sidebar.

For instance, you can run a search for files with the extension “pdf,” save the search and easily find all your PDFs by clicking on the shortcut in your sidebar.

However, unlike Hazel, this is not an organization solution. Saved Searches do not move your files or affect them in any way, they simply provide an easy access solution.

A more powerful option is Folder Actions. This allows you to setup specific scripts that watch folders and react automatically when files are added to that folder. This solution provides much of the same functionality you’ll find in Hazel at no charge to the user.

Unfortunately, Folder Actions are reserved for only those users already familiar with automation techniques such as AppleScript and Automator. AppleScript has a high learning curve but scripts are easy to attach to folder actions. Automator has a much lower learning curve but it’s a bit trickier to apply an Automator workflow to Folder Actions. I plan on doing an in-depth Folder Actions tutorial some time in the future so if you’re interested in this feature stay tuned.

Ultimately, there’s nothing in OS X that does what Hazel does as easy as Hazel does it. It’s an excellent app that can really save you tons of time if implemented properly.

Conclusion

Hazel is a great little app that can save any messy Mac user from the clutches of digital clutter. For the most part, the app ran just fine for me without a complaint. I did however encounter one or two glitches as I used it.

For instance, when I applied rules to my Mac’s default downloads folder, they all seemed to act weird and unpredictably (sometimes having the exact opposite effect that I intended). I fully understand how to use the app and implemented rules successfully on other folders, it just doesn’t like my downloads folder for reason (this is likely an isolated incident).

Otherwise Hazel is an awesome app and I recommend it to anyone in need of some automated organizational aid. Download the trial version, give it a shot and leave a comment telling us what you think. There are tons of potential uses for Hazel so also be sure to tell us any clever workflows you dream up!

For four years the Envato Marketplaces have helped authors around the world earn an income selling their digital wares. Along the way we’ve grown from one marketplace to seven, with more on the way. We’ve gone from hundreds of members to hundreds of thousands. Items from our marketplaces have appeared in projects for companies big and small, all around the world. And most importantly of all, we’ve had thousands of authors cash out earnings, ranging from a bit of money for a big weekend to sums in the tens of thousands of dollars a month!

It’s been an amazing ride, and here at Envato along with our commitment to growing AppStorm, we are completely committed to making our marketplaces the best around. That’s why I’m very excited today to announce that as of the end of September we are rolling out some dramatically improved rates for all our exclusive authors!

As the sites have grown, so has our revenue. As we increase in volume and size we’re able to push back more and more to the authors. This is in fact our third rates increase now, and it’s always a really happy day when we get to make the changeover and start putting more money in author’s hands.

50-70% with a $75k scale

The new rates, which go into effect at the very end of September, will see new exclusive authors get 50% of every sale out of the gate, with their commission rising up to 70% as they sell more. The volume of sales needed to get to 70% has been dramatically reduced from the old $300,000 mark, down to just $75,000. While that’s still a lot of money, it will mean dozens of our existing authors will suddenly catapult up to the highest rate and every author will see a big increase to their earnings.

If you’re wondering just how much people sell on our marketplaces, perhaps a stat will help. Our top seller across the marketplaces has sold just shy of a whoppingly huge half a million dollars in gross sales! That’s an enormous amount of money, most of which happened in under a year.

Lest you think that’s just for the biggest marketplaces, in fact on every single one of the seven marketplaces, we have authors whose take home earnings are in the four figures each month! So that’s authors selling not just on ThemeForest, our marketplace for websites, but also the marketplaces for graphics, video, audio, 3D, Flash and code and scripts.

How much could you make selling your work?

Envato Notes – new Community Blog!

You can get the full details of the big Envato Rate Increase on our brand new Envato Community blog – Envato Notes.

Notes, which launched just last week, is going to be the hub of the entire Envato / AppStorm community with news about our sites, interviews of people who work on our sites, tips, giveaways, competitions and much more.

If you haven’t seen it already, I highly recommend heading over to Envato Notes and subscribing to the feed!

Happy Birthday Authors!

So on the fourth anniversary since our first marketplace FlashDen first hit the web, I’d like to take a moment and say Happy 4th Birthday to all our authors. Thank you so much for choosing to sell with us. Thank you so much for being a part of our amazing community. Thank you for helping us make the Envato Marketplaces what they are.

One More Thing …

With the Birthday Bundle now finished, our massive rates change announced, well … to borrow a line from Mr Jobs, there’s just one more thing. Next week, I’ll be back with a very exciting announcement – a whole new Envato Marketplace! Yep it’s one heck of an August for us here at Envato, so stay tuned for even more big news!

Woohoo!!!

Changing desktop icon sizes on the Mac.

Find an empty space on the desktop and right click or “control + click”.

Scroll down and select “Show View Options”

Here you can adjust your desktop icon size. Move the dial left for smaller icons or move it to the right to make the icons bigger.

How to add applications, programs, files or folders to the Dock on the Mac.

Add items you use the most onto the Dock for maximum work efficiency. A general rule of thumb is all your apps/programs on the left hand side and files/folders on the right hand side.

Locate the item you want to add to the Dock. It can be applications, files, or folders from the Desktop or somewhere in your directory of folders.

Click and drag the icon to the Dock.

Another way to add an application to the Dock is when you’re using the program simply right click (or “Control” and click) the icon on the Dock then scroll to “Options” and “Keep in Dock”.

How to remove applications, files, and folders from the Mac dock.

Find the icon you wish to remove from the Dock.

Click, hold then drag the icon away from the Dock towards the desktop and then release the mouse button. The icon will be deleted with a puff of smoke.

Another way to remove an icon from the Dock is to right click (Control+Click) on the application icon and go to “Options” and “Remove from Dock”. You can also get to that menu by clicking and holding the icon for about 2 seconds.

*Applications being used cannot be removed from the Dock.