Category: Mac

There’s been a ton of great bundles already this summer, but the best one yet just might be StackSocial’s Summer 2013 Mac Bundle. It’s got tons of great apps that we’d recommend any day: Parallels Desktop 8 to run other OSes on your Mac, SnagIt to capture and tweak screenshots like a pro, Typinator to keep you from wearing out your keyboard and fingers typing too much, Boom to make your MacBook’s speakers loud enough to watch a movie with friends, ColorStrokes to make your photos even more special, and more for just $49.99. That’s quite a steal.

If you’ve been wanting those apps, we’ve got the perfect chance for you, since we’ve got two copies of the full bundle to giveaway to our readers. And, even if you go ahead and buy a copy of the bundle today (or already bought a copy), you’ll get your full purchase refunded if you win. How’s that for an awesome giveaway?

All you’ll need to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment below and let us know what app you want most out of this bundle. Then, share the link to the giveaway on your favorite social network and leave another comment with a link to your post for an extra entry.

Hurry and get your entry in; we’re closing our giveaway on Saturday, July 20th!

Envato staff or those who have written more than two articles or tutorials for AppStorm are ineligible to enter.

Ever wanted a simpler way to share files with Dropbox, Skydrive, or Google Drive? After all, with each of them, you can get tons of storage for free or cheap, and odds are you’re already using one of them to keep your files in sync anyhow. Why not use them instead of signing up for something like Droplr or CloudApp?

There’s a lot of reasons, really. For one, Droplr and CloudApp let you drag-and-drop files from your desktop or any Finder folder to directly share from your menubar, whereas with Dropbox or other services you’d have to add files to your folder first, then get a link, which is more time and steps. Then, there’s no simple way to take a screenshot and upload the file in one step.

That’s where Share Bucket comes in, with its drag-and-drop sharing from the cloud storage service of your choice. It’s not perfect, but it does make sharing files a lot quicker without CloudApp or Droplr.

Simple Screenshot Sharing, Your Way

Droplr-style file sharing, with Dropbox

Share Bucket works almost exactly like Droplr or CloudApp for simple file sharing, but with the cloud storage service of your choice. You pick from Dropbox, Google Drive, and Skydrive, then authenticate Share Bucket with the service of your choice. You don’t even have to have the service’s app installed on your Mac to use it, since Share Bucket is uploading files via the service’s API.

Then, all that’s left is to use it for sharing. Just drag-and-drop any file from anywhere (and yes, large files should work just fine, though I only tested it with files ~20Mb and smaller) to the Share Bucket icon in your menubar, and seconds later you’ll get a notification that a link for the file is in your clipboard. You can now share the link with a simple CMD+V.

There’s more, too.

Click the icon, and you’ll find something familar to anyone who’s used CloudApp: a list of your files and an option to auto-upload screenshots. Click any of the recently uploaded files to open it in your browser (though unfortunately there’s no way to directly copy the link to that file without opening it, and the browser-opened link won’t be shortened as your freshly-uploaded links are). Then, you’ll find some extras, including options to caption and annotate a picture or open the image editor directly.

Throw In Some Tweaks, Too

Basic image annotation for the smallest stuff.

Share Bucket’s built-in photo editor is very similar to Evernote’s Skitch, but tied to the cloud service of your choice. You can quickly add basic annotations to your images and save them to your computer or upload them directly. The edit options aren’t very advanced, though: you can’t tweak any of the edits after they’re added, and can’t even change the text font. There’s also no crop or resize options, but there is a handy blur tool to knock out sensitive info. Overall, you’ll likely not want to use Share Bucket to edit your screenshots and photos, but it’s a handy option to have included that could get better in future updates.

Rounding out the feature set, you’ll find a few extra settings you can tweak in the settings. You can choose the cloud storage service of your choice, of course, but then can also choose to either share the default link produced by your cloud storage service or a shortened Sharebucket.com address. The default addresses from, say, Dropbox are very long, clocking in at 97 characters, but then, Share Bucket’s shortened links aren’t exactly short, clocking in at 46 characters.

Beyond that, you’ll find an option to auto-upload screenshots, a setting to auto-delete shared files after a certain time, and an option to downscale images shot on retina displays. You’ll also find options to set your keyboard shortcuts for file upload and screenshot capture, and settings to turn off the sounds. It’s everything you’d expect in a simple app for quick online file sharing.

It’s not Perfect, Though

…well, after a quick interruption. Just once.

Unfortunately, Share Bucket isn’t perfect. There’s a number of small frustrations with the app, some of which start at first launch when you’ll be asked to subscribe to a newsletter and follow the developers. That’s not way too frustrating, though, since it only opens when you first launch the app. After that, though, if you’ve ever edited an image with Share Bucket, the edit window will open with the last image you edited when you launch the app. You can close the edit window, but it’s rather frustrating to have it open every time you launch the app, and adds a little frustration to what should be a run-and-forget-about-it menubar app.

If you can get past that, though, Share Bucket is a great way to share images and other files quickly using your Dropbox, Skydrive, or Google Drive storage. You likely won’t want to use it to edit images since even Preview is nicer for image markup, but for CloudApp or Droplr style sharing from the cloud storage service of your choice for the low price of free, Share Bucket can’t be beat.

If you've been looking for the best way to quickly edit photos and turn them into artwork for free on your Mac, look no further. Fotor, our sponsor this week, is an amazing photo editor that's 100% free, and you've got to try it out.

Fotor brings the best of photo editing basics — along with filters and enhancements that’d rival Instagram — to your Mac for free. You’ll find tools to adjust the color in your photos, crop them to the size you want, tweak brightness and contrast, auto-enhance your photos with a variety of default settings, and more. If you want to make your photos more artistic, Fotor lets you add effects, borders, and customizable tilt-shift effects to your photos. When you’re done, you can quickly share your photos to Flickr and more directly from Fotor.

That's not all. Fotor can also turn your photos into digital collages with 80 included templates or the photo shapes of your own choice. You can tweak the background, photo corners, shadows, and more to make the collage look just like you want. Then, with Fotor's next update, you'll be able to add text to your images and collages, edit EXIF data, and more.

Get Your Free Copy of Fotor Today!

Best of all, Fotor works wherever you do — on your Mac, but also on your iOS devices, Windows PCs, and Android. It even has an online version at fotor.com where you can edit photos, make photo collages, and even make eCards directly from your browser on any computer. There's no reason not to try Fotor out.

So go download Fotor for free on your Mac this week, and let us know what you're using it for. It's a surprisingly great free photo editor, one we gave a 10/10 in our recent review.

Lightroom 4 was the gigantic leap in image development that really set Lightroom ahead of the Aperture curve for many Mac users. It was a tremendous update, and just over a month ago, Adobe followed up with Lightroom 5 and is jumping ahead of the curve again.

I still use Aperture, which I find fits better into my workflow, but I always want to try the latest and greatest to see if it’s worth switching. And Lightroom 5 is tremendously tempting — check out a sample list of the new features. Let’s take a look at it to see what extra power under the hood it brings both seasoned pros and hobbyists.

Getting Started

The first thing you’re going to notice is that not a lot has changed. Visually, Lightroom 5 is still very similar to its predecessors — although the entire app has now been optimized for Retina displays. Adding photo Collections is still done in the same way, and not much has changed regarding the way Lightroom visually organizes itself (or your photos).

Same old photo viewer.

This is actually my least favourite part of the app. Compared to apps like Aperture and Pixelmator, Lightroom and its Photoshop brother have always looked like ugly step siblings. There’s a big learning curve with the program, not the least thanks to the cluttered interface. Some file interactions that take multiple clicks Lightroom will take significantly fewer within Finder, which makes it feel a little antiquated.

That being said, there are some major additions to file management within the app.

Smart Previews

Smart Previews are so ahead of the curve that it’s worth switching to the program for — in fact, I have to wonder what took so long. Smart Previews all you to view and edit your files, even if they’re offline. Yes, that means if you like to store your photos on an external hard drive, you can have Lightroom build Smart Previews of the photos for you.

It’s easy to set up Smart Previews upon import, and they can be built any other time as well.

Here’s how it works: Files are naturally compressed to a maximum width on the long side of 2450px and give a .DNG filename. They are also compressed, but still very usable. In fact, on my Retina screen, I noticed no real inconsistencies with RAW images when using Smart Previews. Compression artifacts are rare, even at a 1:1 ratio — further evidence that .DNG is one of Adobe’s most under-praised achievements.

Beyond developing your photos and making specific image adjustments, you can also export or email pictures without reconnecting a hard drive. It’s also possible to change metadata, including rating and keywords.

Comprehensive edits can still be made with Smart Previews.

Smart Previews don’t take up a ton of space on your hard drive, especially when compared to the alternative. My 12mp RAW shots took up 1GB of space on my hard drive when all was said and done, and like I said, there were 680 of them. All the more reason to praise Lightroom.

When you’re done on the road and can reconnect your Mac to your external hard drive, Lightroom is smart enough to handle the rest for you. It automatically updates the files and keeps all the metadata and changes you made in the Develop module.

I can’t understate how important this all is. Editing Smart Previews is so quick and painless that it quickly became my preferred way to work, as I made my way through a 680-shot football game. If you’re on the fence about upgrading, do it for that alone.

Standing Up Straight

Aperture also a new feature called Upright Straightening. It’s supposed to be an easy one-click way to adjust the angles of your photos so that everything is straight, which is a great idea. It works in tandem with lens corrections and adjustments, which is handy.

The shot isn’t crooked so much as my perspective isn’t dead on.

When it works, it works really well, but I found the entire thing was pretty finicky. In fact, it took me a good deal of fighting to get a picture that straightened properly.

When it works really well, it’s great. But it took me three tries to get this just right.

There are some problems with making Upright Straightening. Quite simple, it doesn’t always work. It works best with slightly off-skew vertical lines; anything horizontal in the image seemingly makes it much more difficult for Lightroom to process it.

Let the Healing Begin

The Healing brush has gotten significantly more advanced in Lightroom 5 as well. Apart from Smart Previews, I’m going to say this is Lightroom 5’s most important feature. The Healing brush can now take on any shape, much like the brushes in Aperture.

I don’t like the referee in this shot.

Instead of spot-removal, this feels like real image healing. In fact, it’s quite sophisticated.

And with one quick brush, Lightroom takes care of him and all the shadows for me.

Adobe says the underlying code is pretty sophisticated, which is a minor understatement, but suffice it to say the brush feels pretty snappy. I experimented with it and the brush within Aperture for over an hour with about a dozen images. I feel pretty good saying that Lightroom’s brush provides nearly instant good results, but if you have the patience to play with Aperture’s, you might get better ones.

What Else is New?

Well, Lightroom finally has true fullscreen support, accessible with the hit of the F key. I don’t like it as much as I like Aperture’s because Aperture allows me to activate an Adjustments pane with the H key in full screen mode, but I am impressed with how quick Lightroom responds.

Radial filtering is new to Lightroom 5 as well, which is another form of vignetting that’s leaps and bounds ahead of what the competition is doing. It’s fast and it’s convenient, but Adobe’s expertise in this realm is already so impressive that it feels like a minor change.

There’s also a new view and slider that allow you to more easily see dust and spots. If you’re having trouble finding it, click Visualize Spots below the image after selecting the Spot Removal tool. For whatever reason, Adobe has the checkmark in what I think is the wrong spot.

And that sums up what isn’t new with the program: The tremendous learning curve and the outlandish user interface. There’s a difference between simple and accessible, but Lightroom is still neither.

Is It Worth Buying?

For people who use and love Lightroom 4, if you haven’t already ponied up the relatively small upgrade fee of $79, it’s worth doing. Smart Previews alone are worth that kind of money — they’re brilliant and, typical of Adobe, way ahead of the curve.

Otherwise though, it does feel like there isn’t a whole lot new here. There’s a lot of code optimization going on in the background and the app runs pretty quick — much faster than Aperture, if you’re considering switching — but it still feels more like a 4.5 release than a 5.0.

For the most part though, Lightroom 5 could tempt those weary of Aperture’s RAM-hogging ways, and it will only strengthen the resolve of the faithful. It’s available for a $79 upgrade, $150 first-time license or as part of a $49.99/month Creative Cloud subscription.

Password managers are one of the many answers to the public’s need for higher security, particularly against account hacking and the occasional snooping around. On the Mac, Agile Bits’ 1Password 3 stands as the leader of the group with contenders like the simpler Passlocker and the free alternative LastPass coming up close.

Recently, I came across oneSafe by Lunabee Pte Ltd., a brand new addition to the list of password managers. I’ve been a 1Password user for as long as I can remember, so I was curious to see what oneSafe has that sets it apart. But more than just looking at the app’s features, I’ll evaluate how it fairs against 1Password and see if it has what it takes to become a game changer of its niche.

Security

Choose from five different passcode types.

oneSafe has several security features up its sleeve that you can utilise to fully protect your database from intruders. Besides using AES 256, the highest level of encryption, it’s got five password types to choose from:

1. A typical four-digit password, similar to that of your ATM card.
2. A visual pattern, giving you more numerical combinations to work with.
3. An alphanumeric password—go nuts with as many characters as you like.
4. A combination lock wheel wherein you’d turn the dial through a series of numbers
5. The revolutionary TRI-PIN technology where each key contains a number, a colour, and a symbol.

I obviously chose the TRI-PIN and have set it as my official passcode for oneSafe. It’s great because every colour and symbol changes position whenever I open oneSafe, and so no one will be able to remember the combination used to open the app.

You will then be prompted to choose whether to define two security questions for passcode recovery or not. If you choose not to define a security question, make sure to memorise or save your Master passcode in a private place. Since oneSafe does not save or store your entry passcode for security reasons, you will have to delete and reinstall the app if you lose it.

oneSafe offers double protection for your most valuable info.

Finally, within oneSafe is a special category called Double Protection, which is a second level of protection that you can use to secure your most valuable and confidential information with another passcode. The best part is that you can create as many Double Protection categories as needed.

On 1Password 3, I can only create an alphanumeric Master password with the option to create a hint in case I forget. It uses AES 128-bit encryption—a conscious decision made in favour of performance and portability. All that aside, I’d have to give oneSafe the gold medal here for providing several passcode options and double-layered security.

The Database

This is oneSafe’s main interface.

To compare, 1Password has several sections where different kinds of confidential information can be stored. The Vault is the safe house for all of your web logins, accounts (e.g., databases, FTP accounts, iTunes), identities, secure notes, software licenses, and financial information. Each are segregated accordingly, making it easy to locate specific items. And if you want to log in to a particular web account, you just have to double click the item, wait for the page to load on your browser, and let it autofill your login info.

On the other hand, oneSafe saves username/password accounts, wallet and admin accounts, and generic accounts for the miscellaneous (but equally important) stuff. Apart from this, you can save documents, photos, and videos by dragging and dropping it into the Document category. In this case, you now have the option to delete the local copy of the file and away from prying eyes. On 1Password, files are saved as attachments, so you’ll need to create a note, software account, or login item and attach the files to them.

Creating new oneSafe categories is also flexible, wherein you can add an icon, name, description, and select if it’s to be saved locally or on iCloud. I noticed though that categories are not strictly implemented. Clicking on the default category “Computer” doesn’t affect my ability to save a bank account or credit card. It’s the same case with the Wallet, Work, and Document categories. You would have to go the extra mile to move or copy-paste items to maintain a sense of order.

Custom templates make creating accounts and logins fun and easy.

With customisation, oneSafe stands out with its card templates feature and the ability to store additional information. With templates, you can easily create and organise your information while customising the background and preview images. By clicking on an item and pressing the gear button, you can change the background and/or click on the preview icon to fetch online and add a new preview image. Finally, you can add notes, phone numbers, email addresses, URLs, and other related info to items whenever necessary. Just click on the item, the Edit button, and the Notes tab found beside the card.

Here’s the deal breaker, though: autofill and login currently doesn’t exist in oneSafe. Clicking on the item simply opens the account login page on your browser. You will have to manually input your username and password to proceed, which is in my opinion a time-consuming and tedious task.

At this point, I’m quite torn between 1Password and oneSafe as they rise above the other at certain aspects. I love 1Password for how organised its user interface is, how detailed and specific its account categories are, and its autofill feature when double-clicking on a web login item. oneSafe’s flexible customisation, templates, and being able to drag and drop files to store in the app are impressive features as well, but since I value functionality and organisation over looks, I’d have to give this round to 1Password. oneSafe comes up really close for its Documents category.

Synchronisation

Use iCloud to sync your oneSafe data on all devices.

oneSafe gives you two options when choosing where to save your information: locally or via iCloud. The latter has a couple of advantages, one of which is easy and clean synchronisation between your Apple devices. By dragging and dropping a category under the iCloud section of oneSafe for Mac, I can immediately access my accounts and logins on oneSafe for iOS.

Items created on a Mac then viewed on an iOS device prompts oneSafe to keep it hidden until you provide the passcode used on the device where the item originated from. This is a one-time process for every new item synched on iCloud. oneSafe then generates a preview image of the item and allows you to access the account.

1Password currently uses Dropbox as its backup location and point of synchronisation, giving you complete access to your database whenever you need it. It also means I can access my information on any device where 1Password is available, including a Windows machine. Between Macs, you can use other third party file storage services as well. There are instances though when I would experience errors when synching to Dropbox on my mobile phone, but it isn’t a big problem as it gets sorted out easily after a second run.

Overall, it is a tie between oneSafe and Dropbox since both offer a viable synch solution for you to access your information on different devices. However, I’d expect my iCloud account to reach its limit in no time, considering all of that content that would be stored on oneSafe. At least with a third party file storage service like Dropbox, I won’t have to worry about clearing up space for my other iCloud-enabled apps. 1Password is at a close lead, in this case.

Important Features Still Missing

Looking at its security features and interesting design, oneSafe is certainly a notable password management and file security app for the Mac. However, it still doesn’t replace 1Password as my password manager because of one single factor: seamless browser compatibility.

I create and update web logins everyday on Chrome and Safari, so it is important that the new and updated information is immediately saved to the desktop app. On oneSafe, I would have to save each and every one of my logins manually, causing me to feel less inclined to use it for managing my passwords. It doesn’t help that the autofill and login feature isn’t available on the desktop app yet. If the developers will roll out these features soon, the app will surely be a useful and highly recommended alternative to the password management giant.

The Verdict

oneSafe locked by a TRI-PIN passcode.

So, does oneSafe have what it takes to become a great 1Password alternative? Yes, but at its current version it remains to be just an alternative. Even though it is significantly $37 cheaper than the latter, it still lacks important features like autofill login and browser extensions.

However, oneSafe deserves much praise for its tight security features and its wide gallery of account templates and customisation options. I actually feel confident that my data is safe knowing that I have different types of entry passcodes to choose from and that all kinds of information—documents and media included—can be stored and protected on the app. And because it is easy to synch these to your mobile phone via iCloud, I can keep track of my confidential information wherever I go.

If you’re simply looking for a rock-solid password management app at an affordable price, I highly recommend giving oneSafe a try. If you have used the app, do share your thoughts about it in the comments.

Back at the end of June, I received a press release from Toronto-based developers Marketcircle, the team behind the acclaimed Mac business app Daylite (which I recently reviewed right here on Mac.AppStorm), stating that Billings would be discontinued and that Billings Pro would be offered in its place. It took me a while (and a couple of reads through the e-mail) to actually process what was going on and, more importantly, what it would mean for me seeing as I was a keen Billings user.

For those of you who don’t know, Billings is a great time-tracking and invoicing application aimed towards freelancers. Not only can you keep track of all your clients (and bill them for your services) but you’ve also got access to some pretty powerful reporting tools (these are especially useful when it comes to filling out your tax return) and the app will also keep track of all your unpaid invoices, reminding you when any are overdue.

I use Billings extensively for my Envato work as, out of all the Mac applications I’ve tried, it seems to me to be the most feature-rich and doesn’t come with a steep learning curve that other similar applications seem to possess. But its discontinuation came as a bit of a surprise to me, especially as I have been using it for nearly 3 years now without any problems or complaints.

According to Marketcircle’s CEO, Alykhan Jetha, the decision to ditch Billings in favour of Billings Pro was a reaction to their customers:

As customers have become more sophisticated, most are now requesting the features already in Billings Pro.

So, before we go on, let’s take a look at what’s different in the Pro version of Billings.

What’s Different?

On the surface, Billings Pro looks essentially the same as Billings, and existing users will have no issues with migrating. The layout of the Mac application is still the same, and all the features that were present within Billings are in the Pro version as well.

Billings Pro is essentially the same as Billings with a few more added features.

What is different, though, with Billings Pro is the implementation of cloud synchronization. Now, instead of having your data sat around on your Mac’s hard disk drive, it is uploaded to Marketcircle’s own cloud service, meaning that you can access it from a variety of devices. Billings included a companion iPhone application (available at extra cost) that allowed you to sync with your Mac over the local network (and this was temperamental at times) so I do welcome the cloud sync feature across devices. You can also manage your account from any computer via their web interface and an iPad version is in the works, due to be released soon.

The iPad version of Billings Pro is currently in closed beta.

There is also tighter integration with Daylite, another Marketcircle product, as well as a variety of third-party accounting software, such as QuickBooks, MoneyWorks and Credit Card Terminal, so you can accept payments for your services from credit cards directly on your iPhone. The web-based interface means you can manage your Marketcircle Cloud account from any computer — so you can add and delete users from wherever you are.

You can manage all the users of your Marketcircle Cloud account online.

Although I can see the use of the Pro features for freelancers who work in a variety of different locations, I personally feel that they are an unnecessary expense for all those people who, like me, work from a fixed location and aren’t that bothered about having their data across multiple devices. As you’ve probably noticed, the “most” term in the quote from CEO Jetha certainly doesn’t apply to me here.

Marketcircle Isn’t Alone

Marketcircle’s transition to a subscription-based platform seems to epitomise the approach that many developers are now starting to take towards their pricing plans. Much like in-app purchases on iOS, which have both their admirers and haters, they provide developers with a constant revenue stream and makes it easier to forecast cash flow and predict future earnings.

Adobe, most notably, adopted this approach with its Creative Suite range of products (named “Creative Cloud”), with monthly subscriptions starting from $49.99, however the reaction to this transformation was both immediate and critical (it even prompted our Editor, Matthew Guay, to write an open letter to Adobe). Many users complained at the excessive cost, especially when it is considered that a subscriber is essentially “renting” the program from Adobe and not purchasing it outright, as well as the pricing differences between the U.S. (where a subscription costs $49.99 monthly) and Europe (in the UK, where I am based, Creative Cloud starts from £46.88, or $71, monthly).

Adobe’s Creative Cloud was released in May to both applause and criticism.

We are, however, seeing the future here with these subscription-based services as software shifts from the traditional home of a hard disk drive to a cloud-enabled server, with “software as a service” being the new trend for 2013. And it’s unfair to single out Adobe; Microsoft also adapted a similar approach with Office 365, although unlike Adobe it will still (as of now, anyway) will retain its desktop versions (Adobe has since discontinued them — CS6 was the last desktop release of Creative Suite).

Time Will Tell

Whether or not Marketcircle’s decision was the correct one will only be told by the test of time. Billings won’t drop off the radar yet — anyone still using the program can expect support right up till the end of June 2014 — but don’t be expecting any new updates or improvements, either. Sure, the transition is a disappointment to someone like me, upon whom the new features of Billings Pro are, in short, wasted, but I think that Marketcircle really have embraced the future now. The concept of paying for a piece of software monthly is certainly a new one, but one that I think more developers will adopt in the second half of 2013 onwards.

We pay for other things via subscription — think of any mobile phone contract, for example — so why software can’t be included with this is a mystery for me. One thing I do hope though (and in some cases I’m still longing after) is choice. Sure, all those fancy features are well worth mentioning (and, in some cases, paying for) but for a simple Joe like me, I want the basic offering without being tied down to a contract or to see my bank account drained every month. Sadly though, I may be in the minority here, and I fear that going forward, my cries will go forever unanswered.

It’s always an unpleasant surprise to find out that you’ve run out of space on your Mac’s hard drive. Just like our homes, things can get cluttered despite our best intentions to stay organized. Unlike our homes, however, the items on our computers that are guilty of taking up space aren’t always readily apparent. Old, bulky files can be hidden away in the dark recesses of your drive, and manually searching for the culprits can be a tedious process.

A few years ago, Software Ambience released the wildly popular DaisyDisk app to help us visualize what’s hogging the precious space on our drives. Now, the developers are set to release the much-anticipated 3.0 update to Daisy Disk, loaded with new features and improvements. What does the 3.0 version bring to the table?

What is DaisyDisk?

For the uninitiated, (and for users who haven’t fired up the app in a while), it’s worth reviewing what the current 2.x version offers. After opening the app, you’ll see a simple visualization of usage on each of your connected drives. You can then scan a drive, and DaisyDisk will analyze what is taking up space. This information is presented in a circular chart that allows users to hover over certain areas to get more information.

DaisyDisk’s graphical display helps users understand what’s hogging hard drive space.

Color-coded categories help organize the data, and clicking on a category refines the report. A file path helps you jump back to higher levels in the file system. Once you’ve identified files that can be safely deleted, you can drag them to the bottom of the window and quickly delete them.

Visual Improvements

The first change that most users will notice are the design tweaks. Following the growing trend of using darker colors throughout app interfaces, DaisyDisk 3 now has a almost-entirely black window.

The updated version (top) has a dark window and button.

There are several other design changes that help make the app feel more polished. For example, the icon that indicates that files have been moved into the trash can has been changed from the slightly confusing radiation symbol (traditional designating files ready to be burned to an optical disk in OS X) to a spinning, glowing wheel.

The developers have touched up several details, including the icons.

The 3.0 release also includes full Retina support, so MacBook Pro with Retina Display owners will now be able to see DaisyDisk’s beautiful visualizations in sharper detail.

New Features

The developers focused much of their effort on performance enhancements and upgraded the app to 64-bit. This modernization speeds things up, but also means that 3.0 will require OS X Lion or higher. They have also included support for Thunderbolt drives, to keep up with the next generation of high-speed peripherals.

Speed improvements are subtle but noticeable.

In my testing on a MacBook Pro running Mountain Lion, the 3.0 version took 33 seconds to scan the 200 GBs of data on my OCZ solid-state drive. That clocked in at a modest eight seconds faster than the current version. While the difference seems small, the improvement becomes much more apparent when scanning larger drives. Beyond scanning, the app does feel snappier and it seems to open more quickly.

Notification support is a great new addition.

DaisyDisk includes Notification Center support, which alerts you when a scan is complete. I found this to be a useful new feature, as scanning larger external USB drives took a few minutes, and I navigated away from the app while I waited.

I’m generally cautious when it comes to deleting a files that I can’t identify, but with previous versions of DaisyDisk, as well as other drive utilities like CleanMyMac, I have gotten overzealous with the delete key. Now, DaisyDisk gives you a warning when you are about to delete a system file or anything whose sudden disappearance could potentially harm your computer.

You can also rescan individual folders, which allows you to save time by not having to rescan the entire drive if you’re only interested in a particular area.

Room for Improvement

All of the changes to DaisyDisk’s 3.0 beta are welcome ones. However, there are a few areas that either were unadvisedly left unchanged or that were addressed but need more work. Oddly, color palette used in the data reports has gone unchanged. I never had a problem with the old colors, but a few of them (including the dull yellow) could use a revision.

You can launch Disk Utility from DaisyDisk, but as there isn’t a shortcut, you might as well stick with your preferred app launcher.

Having menu access to Disk Utility makes sense, but as there is no shortcut, it doesn’t really save that much time.

The app preferences pane for the current version is as meager as they come, with only a toggle for a congratulatory message when you clear out at least 5 GB. The 3.0 release still has that option, and adds automatic updates option, but nothing else. A utility like DaisyDisk doesn’t necessarily need an abundance of customization options, but an update like this seems like a fantastic opportunity to introduce user-controlled shortcuts, color preferences, CleanMyMac-style automatic scans at preset intervals, etc.

I’d love to see some more customization options in the preferences pane.

Conclusion

I think everything that the developers have done with the 3.0 version of DaisyDisk is a marked improvement from it’s current offering. However, none of the new features are revolutionary, and enhancements such as Retina-support are expected of all apps these days. The under-the-hood speed bump is noticeable, but casual users who open DaisyDisk infrequently might not care about a few seconds getting shaved off the scan time.

Most of the changes are simply a matter of bringing the app up to date with current hardware and software capabilities. Consequently, the update will be free to all existing users. As I tested the beta version, there is a good chance that the developers address some of the issues I brought up, and might even introduce a new feature or two. Keep an eye out for the update in the near future.

Need to convert videos and audio to different formats often? The latest version of MacX Video Converter Pro just might be what you need — and it’s for free until July 25th. MacX Video Converter Pro lets you convert video in over 320 formats to the exact format you need, so your videos will look perfect on any device. Plus, it can record your screen or your FaceTime camera, giving you an easy way to make a screencast. The latest version is faster than ever, so you won’t have to worry about your videos taking too long to convert.

All you’ll need to to get your free copy is head over to the MacX Video Converter site, download a copy, and activate it with the following key before July 25th:

AY-VJVNJIJT-BOPPEP

If you happen to have a Windows PC, you can get a copy of it from their Windows site as well. And enjoy!

This time, the giveaway’s open to anyone — Envato staff, writers, Mr. Scrooge, and anyone else who needs to convert videos!

If you’re worried about security, you might be wondering if you should stop syncing files via Dropbox and other cloud services. But then, who really wants to give up the convenience of having your files synced between all of your devices and seamlessly shared with others?

That’s why many — and even Dropbox itself — suggest encrypting your files before saving them on Dropbox if you’re worried about snooping eyes seeing them. And while that might sound like too much trouble, SafeMonk claims to provide an answer by merging the convenience of Dropbox with pre-upload encryption so that no one other than you can read your files even if they can get a copy of them.

Turning Your Files into Coded Messages Only You Can Read

Encryption uses a private secured key to modify your files. Without this key, the files appear to be random gibberish. Recent versions of Mac OS have included a method of encryption for external and internal drives in FileVault and FileVault 2. In these native encryption methods a password is required to unlock and decrypt the contents of the drive.

SafeMonk brings a similar process to your Dropbox files. Before they are uploaded to Dropbox, SafeMonk encrypts each file so no one without the key can view or read your documents. All you’ll need to do is download the SafeMonk app to your Mac or PC, create an account, and fire it up.

The SafeMonk Folder is created within your Dropbox folder.

During software installation a recovery key is created and presented. This is a very important item, as if you forget your username and password, it provides the only way to regain access to your encrypted files. Once installed the program adds an item to your menu bar and asks you to log in. SafeMonk does not encrypt your entire Dropbox folder, but creates a folder within your Dropbox folder named SafeMonk. Everything you store within this folder will be encrypted and kept protected.

Here you can see the encrypted file that exists on Dropbox (on the left) and the same file within SafeMonk and readable on my computer on the right. Notice the computer cannot preview the encrypted file.

The files are encrypted on your computer before they are synced to Dropbox meaning unencrypted data never leaves your computer. In fact if you go to a computer without SafeMonk installed or the Dropbox web site and access the file you’ll see it cannot be read. When used locally the file encryption works transparently as long as SafeMonk is running and you are logged in.

Sharing Encrypted Files

Beyond synchronizing files between computers, another valuable feature of Dropbox is the ability to share files to another user. SafeMonk supports sharing your encrypted files with others users almost as transparently as unencrypted files. The other person does need to have a SafeMonk account and also have the program installed. When you share a folder you are required to approve the sharing through SafeMonk after which the appropriate keys will be shared with the recipient along with the folder.

You can only approve the share from a computer and not from the web site. If you are not at your computer when the notification arrives, you will need to have the server re-send the notification from the SafeMonk web site. The web site also provides a list folders that you’ve shared along with folders shared with you. You can also remove someone from a share through the web site. Currently SafeMonk can only share folders and not individual files.

How Secure Is It?

You must log into SafeMonk to access your encrypted files.

The question then is how secure is SafeMonk. In their FAQ SafeMonk states:

Even if we really, really, really wanted to – we couldn’t access it [your private key].

All key generation is done on your computer and not on their servers. A separate key is generated for each folder protected by SafeMonk. This key is protected with your unique private key protected by your password. Each file within a folder is protected by a separate key that is protected by the folder key. Each subfolder is also protected by the key of the folder its contained within. This means that without your SafeMonk password there should be no way to access any file. Since each folder is protected by a separate key, then sharing a folder provides no information about other folders protected by SafeMonk.

Conclusion

Ultimately SafeMonk appears to do a good job of balancing convenience and security. Since your login password provides the primary unique protection, the security will only be as good as your password. The company seems to understand encryption and security and uses standard and tested techniques and software. As a free service, though they do offer an enterprise version, there could be a concern on how SafeMonk plans to stay in business and if enterprise will be enough. Since you’re putting a lot of trust in the system to protect your data and do what the company says, ultimately it comes down to if your trust SafeMonk to do what they claim. From what I’ve looked at they appear to do so now and I’ll likely be using it going forward.

There’s more to-do list and project management apps out there than you can even reasonably list in one article, and most of us could list a half dozen we’ve tried off the top of our heads. But when you get into collaborative project management, with tasks listed in a calendar flowchart, alongside notes and files for the project, with everything synced with your teammates, there’s relatively few apps that can fit the bill.

One of the best apps to fit the bill is Pagico, a Mac, Windows, Ubuntu, and iOS app that is great for managing your own personal projects or working with a large team on collaborative projects. We liked it when we looked at Pagico 3 years ago, and it’s better than ever today. Here’s what’s brilliant about one of the few cross-platform project management apps on the market.

Everything for Your Projects Together

Pagico’s headline feature is its cross-platform apps, but even if you only want to manage projects on a Mac, it’s got everything you could want. Pagico lets you add todo lists, notes, and files to your inbox — the default place for new things in Pagico — or into projects where you can organize your data to keep you focused on your work. Projects and the Inbox can have as many task lists as you want, and tasks include comments, start and due date, and options for recurring tasks and as many reminders before they’re due as you’d like. Notes can include rich text, and files can be opened in Finder, edited, and saved back to your Pagico database to keep everything in one place.

You can add comments to anything in Pagico, move stuff around on a project or between projects, and even print out a project or export it as HTML to keep track of it elsewhere. You can even link related projects together to quickly jump to them and keep common info together, and manage your contacts in Pagico right alongside your projects. In short, it’s got everything you could want to manage your projects.

The Best Features in Pagico

Talking in-depth about the main features we’d expect in a project/task management app, though, gets redundant fast, since at the end of the day there’s dozens of tools out there for scheduling your tasks. Pagico has several special features that make it nicer to use than you might expect at first. Here’s the best:

See Everything at a Glance

Tasks, notes, due dates, and more, all together for you to take on

Pagico does a great job at pulling everything together, no matter how scattered your tasks are between your inbox and projects. Just head over to the Dashboard, and you’ll be able to see your tasks plotted on a week calendar, with the tasks that you must do and might do listed below. You can add new tasks, complete them, or dive into their respective projects for more details in one click, so for the most part, you can just work right from the Dashboard. It’s your one-stop-shop to make sure your work is on track.

Automatically Find Important Stuff with Smart Collections

Find related notes and tasks, with or without tags.

Smart filters aren’t anything new, per se, and yet they’re very nice to find in Pagico as “Smart Collections”. You’ll just add the keywords you want to look for, and any tasks, projects, or notes containing those keywords will automatically show up in the folder. You can then add those words as tags purposefully to your tasks, or just write normally, and Pagico will find the stuff you need. It’s simple, and brilliant.

Everything’s Actionable

Select text anywhere in Pagico to Google it or turn it into a task or project

One of the very nicest extras in Pagico is the popup menu, reminisce of PopClip, that opens when you select text anywhere in Pagico. It gives you quick options to Google the text you’ve selected in your browser, or create a task, project, or contact from the selected text. It’s a little thing, but it, along with the move popup that lets you move stuff to any project, just makes Pagico that much nicer for keeping your projects completed.

Sync if You Want to

Most apps offer an all-or-none sync solution. Even OmniFocus, which lets you sync to your own server or the OmniGroup’s sync server, doesn’t have a way to sync only parts of your database. There’s good reasons for this, since it makes sure you’ve got all your data everywhere, but everyone doesn’t need to keep all of their projects and tasks synced all the time.

Pagico has an interesting sync solution that’s perfect whether you want to sync everything, just some stuff, or nothing. First off, with a free Pagico account, you can keep your Inbox synced between all of your devices. You can sync your own entire Pagico database on your own via Dropbox or other personal sync tools. That works great if you, say, use a Mac and a PC and need your projects on both, but we’d suggest not syncing this way if you need to use Pagico on two machines actively at the very same time.

Subscribe to Pagico Workspaces — or join an existing workplace – right from the app

Then, though, there’s Pagico’s Workspaces. Custom-designed to let you share and sync just what you need, Workspaces cost $15/yr for personal use (with up to 100Mb of cloud storage and 4 synced devices — with 1 year included for free if you buy Pagico Plus for iOS) or for teams (starting at 1Gb of cloud storage and 8 synced devices for $4.99/month). Once you’ve subscribed or joined a workspace, you can create projects inside your workspace or move existing projects to the workspace, and they’ll be shared — completed with tasks, notes, and files — with everyone you’ve invited to your workspace. Best of all, you can join multiple workspaces at once, so you can keep up with, say, your business and personal projects in one place. It’s everything in Pagico, shared with your team members right from your Mac or PC without having to open a browser.

All together, this is a bit more confusing than direct iCloud sync between personal devices, or a web app where everything’s automatically shared. But, it is a nice combination of cloud and local, shared and private, that should work nice for most users.

Cross Platform That Really Works

Pagico’s at home in Windows or Ubuntu, too.

We’ve been conditioned as Mac users that cross platform apps usually offer a mediocre experience to each platform, and Macs usually get the worst end of the stick. Firefox still doesn’t have modern scrolling and zoom on the Mac, Mac Office typically lags its Windows counterparts in features and performance, and OpenOffice/LibreOffice looks like it got hit with the ugly stick on Windows and even more so on the Mac.

Pagico is a rather refreshing difference, as a cross-platform (and web-based — the app’s UI is HTML and CSS based) app that feels perfectly at home on the Mac, but equally so on Windows and Ubuntu. It’s fast everywhere, with a UI that leans more towards Cocoa design sensibilities without feeling too foreign on Windows. It’s got a menubar app for quickly adding tasks, and even is integrated with Alfred 2. It is somewhat more sluggish than you might expect from most Mac apps, perhaps on par with older versions of Evernote, and the text formatting keyboard shortcuts are Windows-styled (ctrl+b for bold, for example) where all other normal Mac keyboard shortcuts work fine. Otherwise, though, you’ll find very little to complain about with Pagico on the Mac.

Conclusion

Pagico feels like a Mac app, and is a great project and task manager even if you don’t need cross-platform compatibility. But if you do need cross-platform compatibility, or if you need to collaborate with others on your projects, Pagico is practically unparalleled aside from web apps. I left the app impressed by what they’ve pulled off, and can’t wait to see how Pagico continues to improve going forward.

Last month we took a look at The Walking Dead, a post-apocalyptic adventure game that offered up an enticing narrative worthy of the full 10/10 score that we awarded it. Now, developer Telltale Games has released 400 Days, a DLC installment that brings a new story to The Walking Dead universe while we wait for a full-on second season release.

The Walking Dead: 400 Days is canon to the storyline of the first season of The Walking Dead but, aside from the odd cameo and reference, it is an independent experience, presenting the tales of a new group of survivors. Make sure you’ve checked out our first season review, then join us for a look at 400 Days.

Setting the Scene

400 Days features a completely independent storyline to the first season of The Walking Dead, split up into the stories of five characters: Vince, Wyatt, Shel, Russell and Bonnie. Each of these character chapters focus on one point in the immediate 400 days following the zombie outbreak, although all of them are based in and around a truck stop on a Georgia highway. There is crossover between the stories, naturally, but they’re largely independent. Given that the five stories are told in one episode, this can sometimes leave the game without enough time to properly develop events and leave you feeling rushed.

400 Days introduces five new stories with a new cast of characters.

However, there is also some minor background cameos and references to the canon of the main game, which still lets you feel like you are, in fact, continuing the story within the same universe. With choices and decisions you’ve made in the main game not having an upfront role in the presentation of 400 Days, it’s nice to feel like this isn’t some random demo or waste of time. Rather, it’s the opposite and I certainly smiled when I hear one group reference “the guy with the moustache”.

Storytelling to the Max

Telltale’s ability to execute amazing storytelling is both the most significant pro and unfortunate con to 400 Days. Even in the short time you’ll spend with the new cast, the game still allows you to connect with the stories of each character and encourage that decisions shouldn’t be made lightly. This is very evident when you’re forced to make several difficult choices in Shel’s chapter, which manages to mimic the group dynamics of the main game, when she’s holed up in the truck stop with her sister Becca, friend Stephanie and others. Some chapters are more preferable than others, although the storytelling is consistently above-par.

Multiple-choice decisions remain the lifeblood of 400 Days.

However, you’ll notably find yourself “playing” the game very little. While the whole series has been more about the storytelling than action-fueled gameplay, 400 Days takes this to a new level with most chapters offering challenge only in the form of small mini-games, such as moving left-to-right in Bonnie’s chapter to avoid being seen by flashlights. If you enjoyed The Walking Dead, it shouldn’t matter too much, but you might find yourself getting a little unsatisfied with the slow-paced nature of the game.

Short, But Sweet

400 Days is over quite quickly. I managed to get about 90 minutes of time recorded in my full playthrough session, which is about a half an hour shorter than I was averaging for the full episodes of season one. However, one must also consider that 400 Days is split further into five very distinct chapters, which do make the game feel shorter than it actually is.

The five stories of 400 Days eventually wrap up into one, potentially setting the scene for season two.

Value-wise, the $4.99 asking price for 90 minutes of gameplay is not an awful deal, and fans of the series will appreciate something to maintain their interest in the wait for the second season. However, there’s a bunch of indie games (and even some excellent bigger titles) available for around that price point if you’re strapped for cash. If you are a fan of the series and already own the first season, though, go for it! While the first season is brilliant in its own right, it’s not an investment i’d make purely for 400 Days.

Final Thoughts

400 Days is fun, but it’s more of a tribute to an existing fandom than a fresh new game you need to pick up ASAP. It’s a welcome way to pass the time waiting for season two but, in some ways, I’m somewhat disappointed this wasn’t season two, with each story extrapolated out to a full-length episode, as the “400 Days concept” is really enticing.

Yet, in the face of feeling rushed at times, 400 Days replicates Telltale’s successful storytelling from the first season and presents it in a both beautiful and enticing manner. If you’ve played The Walking Dead, it’s worth picking up and giving a go. If you haven’t, it’s well worth checking out the full first season first and then continuing with 400 Days when you’re done. And if OS X isn’t your console of choice for The Walking Dead, the DLC is available on Steam for Windows, Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network for PS3 too.

Google Reader’s demise has left us scrambling for a new — and hopefully better — way to keep up with the feeds from our favorite websites. There’s tons of new online RSS services, NetNewsWire has come back from the brink of death, and the read-later app ReadKit has emerged as the best Mac app if you want to sync with the best online RSS reading services.

But that doesn’t mean that there’s not room for competition for RSS readers on the Mac; quite the opposite, in fact. There’s so many new online RSS services, we had to trim down the our list considerably to feature only the best Google Reader alternates. On the Mac, the two apps mentioned above are almost all most people would think of for RSS reading on the Mac.

But there’s another new app that is easily one of the top contenders: Caffeinated 2. Our former editor Josh Johnson declared the original Caffeinated beta “a fresh Google Reader app that you’ll love”. Now, just over 18 months later, the same is still true if you replace “Google Reader” with “standalone RSS reader”.

Built for Reading

Caffeinated was originally designed to sync with Google Reader and show your articles in a nice Mac interface, just like most RSS readers were prior to 2013. Caffeinated 2 retains the nice interface touches that set it apart originally, but this time relies on its own sync engine to get your articles to your Mac. And it works good: Caffeinated can import your Google Reader export and sync all your unread articles in seconds, likely faster than older versions (or other apps) ever synced your Google Reader feeds. Just as I noted when reviewing NetNewsWire 4 beta, local syncing can be really fast, and Caffeinated proves this again.

Beautiful themes and settings to make them your own

Reading your feeds on your Mac should be nicer than on the web, of course, but Caffeinated goes out of its way to make your reading experience just like you want. You can pick from 5 included themes to customize your reading experience, or make your own HTML and CSS based theme for Caffeinated. Then, you can tweak further by right-clicking in the article view, where you’ll find font and formatting options that let you tweak everything from the font face and size to line height and font smoothing. The only thing keeping it from being a perfect reading experience is that you can’t close out the left two columns — but then, with RSS reading, that shouldn’t be too big of an issue.

Settings for everything you could want

Caffeinated’s settings are another place where you’ll find options for almost anything you want to set. It uses Google Reader-style j/k shortcuts for reading by default, but you can tweak them and any of the other keyboard shortcuts to anything you want. You’ll also find options for everything from icon color, sync speed, unread count, notifications and more. It’s perhaps the most tweakable Mac RSS reader yet, and if you’re picky about how your dock looks and how often your RSS reader sends you notifications, this is a definite plus.

Everything Under One Roof

Save and share the way you want to

If there’s one area Caffeinated truly excels, it’s at sharing and saving your favorite articles. It has a built-in option to star articles, which keeps them in Caffeinated’s Stared list, but it also is integrated with almost every other tool for saving and sharing articles you can think of: web services like Evernote and Instapaper, local Mac options like Safari Reading List and the OS X sharing options, and more. You can queue up Tweets in Buffer from Caffeinated, bookmark an article on Pinboard or Delicious, and share it everywhere — even on Google+. Sending full articles to Evernote works surprising well, and you won’t even have to sign into your account since it works directly with Evernote for Mac. These options truly set it apart, and make it one of the best tools if you want to do more with your feeds than just read through them.

Designed for the Mac.

Caffeinated is one of the best choices for RSS reading on the Mac if you just want to sync your RSS feeds on your Mac and couldn’t care less about signing up for another online syncing service or reading feeds on other devices. A lack of sync services is really the only thing you could point out as a “missing feature” in Caffeinated, and yet, that’s only a loss if you want to read RSS feeds on multiple devices. It may get Dropbox-based Mac-to-Mac sync in the future, according to its developer, Curtis Hard, but it’s main aim is being the best native Mac RSS reader.

And that’s fine. As Bret Simmons of NetNewsWire fame pointed out, “sync” often really means multiple versions of the same app on different platforms that all work together. That’s nice, but surely we can’t rule out apps these days just because they don’t have iOS versions. And even as nice as many of the new online RSS tools are, if you really only do your reading from the Mac, there’s no reason you should have to keep syncing with an online service.

So, if you just want to read your feeds on your Mac, you can’t go wrong with Caffeinated. It’s fast, customizable, and integrated with enough services that you’ll likely never have to switch to another app to save or share anything you read. Plus, it’s half the price of NetNewsWire 4, and 1/4th of its price post-launch — and you’ll never have to pay for a sync service since it’s just local on your Mac.

Plus, a Giveaway!

Best of all, we’ve got 3 copies of Caffeinated to giveaway to our readers. If you haven’t found an RSS reader for the Mac you like yet, leave a comment below and tell us what you’re most excited about in Caffeinated. We’ll pick 3 random winners on Friday, so hurry and get your entry in!

Envato staff or those who have written more than two articles or tutorials for AppStorm are ineligible to enter.

The Mac App Store has become the default place to find and install apps on your Mac, and for the most part it's been a great boon to OS X. It's made it easier for indie developers to get an app published and noticed, and has made it simpler for new Mac users to find the great Mac apps they've heard about. In OS X Mavericks, it's getting even better, with automatic background update installation and options for subscriptions, say, for an Evernote Pro upgrade.

But for many, that's not enough. The Mac App Store works great for selling the first version of an app, but after that, there's no way to sell an upgrade version without releasing it for free, or releasing it as a new app. That takes away the old upgrade incentive of being able to pay less to upgrade to the new version. There's no way for developers to cross-promote their own apps, either, or offer discounts to students and others as they might have in their own online stores.

So what do you think Apple still needs to change about the Mac App Store? And are you excited about the new automatic app updates and subscription options in Mavericks? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

It’s so easy to get your Mac cluttered with duplicate files, ones you’d likely overlook or never even know existed when you need to free up space on your Mac. That’s why you need MacPaw’s beautiful duplicate file remover Gemini, our sponsor this week.

Gemini scans your entire Mac — including your iTunes and iPhoto libraries, your download folders, and more — and finds all of your duplicate files. It then makes it simple to select the files you want to remove with the brand-new selection toolbar that lets you choose to remove the newest or oldest copies, and lets you select multiple duplicates at once for removal. You can even make it work just like you want, by setting file extensions and folders to ignore, so it’ll only find the duplicates you want to remove. It’s simple and fast, and makes it as easy as possible to get rid of the duplicates on your Mac.

We loved Gemini when we reviewed it last year, but since then it’s gotten even better. The latest version will also scan your Mail downloads folder, somewhere most of us wouldn’t think to check for duplicate files. It also makes it easier to remove multiple pairs of duplicates at once, can identify empty folders, and includes a brand-new tutorial that’ll help you get the most out of it. It’s the app you need to get rid of your duplicate files.

Get Your Copy of Gemini Today!

Ready to get rid of all the duplicate files on your Mac and reclaim the space on your cramped SSD? Then head over to MacPaw’s website, and download a free trial of Gemini today. You can then buy a copy from the MacPaw Store or from the Mac App Store for $9.99.

There’s so many music streaming services, but good old fashioned radio is still one of the best ways to listen to music online. It’s free, curated by professionals, and isn’t locked down to specific countries as most online music services are. That’s why Radium 3 is one of my favorite tiny Mac apps. It lets me listen to internet radio right from my Mac’s menubar while I’m working, and makes it easy to discover new stations and songs.

We gave Radium 3 a high rating in our review, and continues to be the way I and many others on our team listen to internet radio. It’s gotten even better since its release, and now includes higher resolution album art and options to buy songs on Amazon in addition to iTunes. Combine that with its catalog of over 6,000 radio stations, AirPlay support, the Smart Equalizer, and a wish list of the songs you’ve heard and want to buy, and you couldn’t ask for a better Mac radio player.

Radium 3 usually costs $9.99 on the App Store, but we’ve got 3 codes to giveaway to our readers. If you don’t have Radium 3 yet, here’s your chance to get your own copy for free. Just comment below and let us know why you’d love to have a copy of Radium 3 to enter the giveaway. Then, share this page on your favorite social network and comment again with a link to your post for a bonus entry.

Hurry and get your entry in; our giveaway is closing on Monday, July 15th!

Envato staff or those who have written more than two articles or tutorials for AppStorm are ineligible to enter.