Category: Mac

This post is part of a series that revisits some of our readers’ favorite articles from the past that still contain awesome and relevant information that you might find useful. This post was originally published on April 5th, 2011.

Dropbox is one of those tools that spends most of its time sitting in the background, and yet has become an essential app for users on just about every platform. Dropbox as cloud storage, as a syncing solution, and even as a way to host a website is an incredibly useful tool.

That utility isn’t lost on app developers. Software that works with Dropbox is springing up everywhere — sometimes as a built-in function, and other times as a user hack. Either way, it makes life among many gadgets easier to have certain files accessible anywhere, anytime.

Here are some apps that you can start using to take advantage of cloud storage even more.

Word Processors

Dropbox integration in text editors and word processors has become common in recent times, and it’s all thanks to the iPad. Given that users aren’t able to look around for files on the iOS filesystem, making sure documents are easily available for later use requires developers to come up with their own solution.

Often, that solution is Dropbox. Here, we look at OS X apps that sync to Dropbox for the sake of working with iPad apps, and iPad apps that use Dropbox to sync back to the computer.

iA Writer

Writer is an iPad app created by iA, a firm that specializes in user experience design. Writer is an app written to make focusing on the writing easy.

Like many iOS apps, Writer has built-in Dropbox support to get around the constraints of the operating system’s file system and make sure it’s easy to get to your work.

Setting up Writer to sync with your Dropbox account is easy. Simply tap on the folder icon in the app’s top left corner, and then tap the “Link Dropbox” button at the bottom of the window that pops up. Follow the prompts from there.

Remember to synchronize when you’re finished writing so that your work is up-to-date in Dropbox.

PlainText

PlainText is an iPhone and iPad application for text editing that is designed to emulate working with paper.

The application is minimal and the developer intends to keep it that way. Building the app around simple Dropbox synchronization rather than working with other, messier ways to sync certainly helps keep the app loyal to the minimalist philosophy.

To set up PlainText with Dropbox, tap the cog button to enter Settings, then tap Dropbox. Here you’ll need to specify the folder you want PlainText to sync to before you link your Dropbox account, and then it’s simply a matter of tapping “Link to Dropbox Account” and filling in the blanks.

Notational Velocity

Notational Velocity is sort of like an Evernote-lite for the Mac. It features a very simple interface, half of which can be seen on the right side of the image above, and can synchronize natively through Simplenote or with a bit of a workaround using Dropbox. You can configure the Dropbox sync to work well with PlainText and iA Writer.

To set up Dropbox sync, go to Preferences and select the Storage tab. Under “Store and read notes on disk as” select any option except for Single Database–most likely you’ll want Plain Text Files, particularly if you want to sync with PlainText or iA Writer. Then, drag your Notational Velocity data folder from ~/Library/Application Support/ over to your root Dropbox directory. Notational Velocity will know where you’ve moved the folder, and will be able to sync with other computers once you set them up.

To set up other computers, configure the Storage preferences exactly as you did on the first computer, and then go to Notes tab in the preferences window. Once there, click the “Read notes from folder” dropdown and choose Other. From there, select the Notational Velocity data folder in Dropbox and click OK.

Scrivener

Popular novel writing software Scrivener 2.0 supports a few types of sync, including a folder sync that’s appropriate for use with Dropbox. Scrivener uses text files for this, rather than the app’s own format, so that you can work on your Scrivener projects from the plethora of Dropbox-based text editors for iOS like those covered above.

Go to the File menu and, under the Sync sub-menu, select Folder Sync. Select the Dropbox folder you want to use to sync a particular project with and use your own judgement to set the remaining settings.

To-Do

Task managers have been around as long as personal computers have been, but the expectations are quite different these days. If a task manager doesn’t sync to your many devices and multiple computers, it’s considered as good as useless — and let’s be honest, the way we use technology these days, that’s a fair call.

Unfortunately, some of our preferred task managers don’t have sync features built in. Below, we’ll show you how to set up those that do, and work around those that don’t.

Things

Things doesn’t really work with Dropbox–not in the sense that there’s built-in support for Dropbox-based sync. But, since Things hasn’t released any syncing functionality in its years of existence, enterprising users have used Dropbox as a syncing workaround.

Create a folder in Dropbox where you’ll put your Things database. Go to ~/Library/Application Support/Cultured Code and you should see a file called Database.xml. Copy (don’t move, in case of problems) this file to the Dropbox folder you just created. Now, hold Alt/Option as you open Things, and you’ll be asked to select an existing database. Navigate to the file in Dropbox and select it, and you’re good to go on the first computer.

For additional computers, start from the last step–hold Alt/Option while opening Things, navigate to the right place in Dropbox, and select the file as your database.

The downside: you can never run two synchronized instances of Things at once, and you can’t open Things on system startup as Dropbox won’t have time to sync.

The Hit List

Setting up The Hit List‘s Dropbox sync trick is pretty much identical to setting up Things. Navigate to ~/Library/Application Support/The Hit List and move The Hit List Library.thllibrary to a new location in Dropbox.

Hold Alt/Option while opening The Hit List, and you’ll be asked to specify a new location for the app’s library. Navigate to Dropbox and select the file, hit Okay, and you’re good to go. Repeat this process of holding Alt/Option and selecting the file for each computer you’ll be working with.

As with Things, you need to quit the program before using it elsewhere, and you need to let your Dropbox folder sync on startup before you open The Hit List.

OmniFocus

Dropbox doesn’t know what to do when you’re editing a file from two locations at once, which is what makes Dropbox sync for Things and The Hit List a fiddly hack that requires you to remember to close the app before using it elsewhere. Fortunately, productivity stalwart OmniFocus has built-in capabilities for handling cloud synchronization.

In OmniFocus, go to Preferences and head over to the Sync tab. There are several options here, including MobileMe, Bonjour, Disk and Advanced. You want to choose Disk. Click the Choose button next to Location, and navigate to Dropbox, preferably in a folder you created specifically for OmniFocus.

Press Sync Now to get started. For additional computers, the setup process is the same. With this approach, you won’t need to close the app on other computers before you can use it–OmniFocus takes care of conflict resolution for you.

Media

If you like to enjoy all your media on the move, most solutions are either expensive or tricky. When I upgraded to the iPhone 4, it was because the 16 gigabytes on my old 3G was infuriatingly insufficient (that’s an example of expensive).

Dropbox can alleviate some of that. You’re not going to want to sync huge media libraries this way, but if you’ve got a good connection and enough time, it can be done with smaller libraries.

iTunes

If you’ve got a small media library or you’re paying for one of the Pro plans that gives you 50-100GB of data storage, you can actually sync your iTunes libraries by hosting them on Dropbox.

Unfortunately, iTunes handles libraries on Windows and Mac differently, so if you’re a multi-platform user you’ll have to pick one for the synchronization to work.

Copy your iTunes library folder over to Dropbox, and then go on vacation for one or two weeks. I’m mostly kidding there, but how long all your music and movies take to upload will depend on the size of your library. Mine would probably take longer than that if it could even fit, but this might be more practical for you.

Launch iTunes while holding Alt/Option so that it gives you the option to specify a new location for your library, and direct it to your iTunes folder on Dropbox. Now you can log in to your other computers and take another vacation while they grab the files from the cloud, and the redirect them to the new library location.

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to use iTunes on more than one computer at a time. Fortunately, for most situations where you’d want to do that, iTunes itself now has you covered with features like media sharing and AirPlay.

iPhoto

Like iTunes, your iPhoto library can be synced through Dropbox. The process is largely the same. Copy the library, located in ~/Pictures, to your Dropbox folder. Hold Alt/Option while opening iPhoto so that you can point the app towards the new location, and rinse and repeat for each computer you want to sync.

The golden rules apply here: never have iPhoto open on more than one computer at once, and always make sure Dropbox has an up-to-date sync before opening the app.

You can follow the same process if you’re an Aperture user.

Information

Information managers are the apps where we keep our most important data — the serial numbers for expensive software, passwords, perhaps even your spouse’s birthday, just in case. This is the information that Dropbox is most often used to keep available everywhere we go. Here’s how to set up Yojimbo and 1Password.

Yojimbo

Yojimbo is an app for storing and organizing information — a bit like Evernote, but with better organizational tools. Unfortunately, the app has been left behind a bit by the developers in comparison with Evernote thanks to the lack of a sync feature and lackluster iOS versions.

To get our work-around Dropbox sync going, make sure Yojimbo is closed and run these Terminal commands:

mv ~/Library/Application\ Support/Yojimbo ~/Dropbox

ln -s ~/Dropbox/Yojimbo ~/Library/Application\ Support/

In short, that’ll move your Yojimbo library and tell Yojimbo where to look for it in the future. Test Yojimbo to make sure everything’s working and you’re ready to set up other computers — after Dropbox has finished syncing on those, of course.

You’ll run that second command on each computer you want to sync up with the original library:

ln -s ~/Dropbox/Yojimbo ~/Library/Application\ Support/

And then you’re good to go! Unlike other apps where we used workarounds, you don’t risk corrupting your library by using the app in two places at once — only because Yojimbo will refuse to launch when the library is in use elsewhere.

1Password

Popular password manager 1Password makes keeping unique, super-strong passwords for all your accounts easy. But what happens when you’re out of the house and you can’t get into an account because of those super-strong passwords? Though never re-using passwords and keeping them all as long as possible with a mixture of letters, numerals and punctuation marks is best for security, it can make getting into accounts without 1Password a problem since you won’t (and probably can’t) memorize the passwords.

Dropbox is the perfect solution to this problem. With 1Password, it’s also incredibly easy to set up.

Go to Preferences, and on the General tab you’ll see a button labeled Move to Dropbox. Click that button, and it’ll take care of everything for you.

On the computers you want to sync with, it’s as simple as going to your Dropbox folder, ensuring everything is synchronized and up-to-date, and then double-clicking your 1Password file. It’s usually called 1Password.agilekeychain. No need to ensure that only one instance of 1Password is in use at a time — the developers have taken care of the quirks of Dropbox syncing for you.

Back Up Before You Proceed!

As you’ve no doubt noticed, there are just as many unofficial, risky ways to sync your data via Dropbox as there are supported features that the developers intended. It’s very likely that you’ll lose information while you’re playing with those DIY methods. I lost a huge chunk of my Things library this way when I first tried the method a few years back. It was stupid and unnecessary, so do yourself a favor and learn from my mistakes.

Get your data backed up before you proceed, for all of these apps, but especially for those where the methods are unsupported work-arounds. You’ll hate yourself for it if you don’t take a few seconds to make copies.

Conclusion

Dropbox has made it so much easier for millions of people to work between multiple computers with minimal disruption. Even the free plan provides more than enough space to do away with a whole bunch of daily inconveniences.

There are more and more great apps that support Dropbox synchronization coming out all the time. Let us know about your favorites in the comments!

Have you ever worked on a larger project and at some point wished that instead of a giant box of notes you had some shorter, more accessible overview of the entire thing? The run-down of a lecture series, the step-by-step process of realizing a website overhaul, the hierarchical overview of customer requests?

Whatever challenge you face, an outline can save the day. It allows you to quickly see a structure or find a detail which can get lost in regular notes. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at five outliner apps for Mac and their respective benefits and shortcomings. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but I’m sure it will get you started.

OmniOutliner – The Godfather of all Outliners

If OmniGroup makes an app, they get serious about it. Probably best known for their GTD app OmniFocus (which we have reviewed in detail here), they’ve also developed an outlining app which has a very exhaustive feature list.

The most basic feature of an outliner is of course a list; that’s all an outline is at its core. It gets interesting when you create nested lists (different levels of indentation) or want multiple columns to a list, with functions being performed dynamically.

OmniOutliner excels at that, even though the learning curve is rather steep for beginners. To ease you into the app, there are onscreen-help resources and the user manual to walk you through all the steps. Even better, though, are the included templates, which provide a hands on experience without you having to come up with something right away.

The app is much too complex to cover every feature, so here are the ones that stood out for me:

• Multiple Columns: OmniOuliner not only allows you to create simple or nested lists, it allows you to add columns to a list (reminiscent of Numbers/Excel). That’s especially useful for the representation of complex information, which can’t be forced into a single list.
• Mathematical Operations: You can perform basic spreadsheet functions. For example, calculate totals for your monthly budget proposal. That’s great if you don’t want the complexity of a full blown spreadsheet application but a quick list of your numbers.
• Individual Formatting: You can style the way your lists are displayed as well as the text within them. That allows for highlighting certain content to draw attention and help even more with structuring your notes (great for lecture notes in college). The text editing options could be more comfortable; there seem to be no real shortcuts and I had to resort to the templates to figure out how to accomplish what I wanted.
• Inline Notes: I found that in the meetings I attend I often create outlines that are too detailed because I can’t put all the information where I want them. With OmniOutliner, you can create a bullet point and then add an inline note to it. It’s a great way to keep your outline clean and still have all the relevant information at hand.
• Attachements: Have a photo, another document or a video that fits with the content of your outline? Simply drag them into the app. They can be appended to any bullet point, be their own bullet point or even go into inline notes. It’s a great way to keep all the information together without having to search for them in separate folders or apps.
• Audio Recording: Yep. You can record audio while you create outlines. Imagine the benefit in class or in business situations. No need to fear that you miss something important anymore.

Overall, OmniOutliner can do quite a bit for you if you’re willing to invest some time to familiarize yourself with the app. Not everything is intuitive, but after spending some time with the templates and getting to know the keyboard shortcuts, the app will be of great help to you. The steep learning curve and the price are the only downsides I can see for this app. You can read an in-depth review of OmniOutliner here.

Price: $39.99 (Standard) or $69.99 (Pro)

Tree – Change Your Perspective

We are used to thinking of outlines as lists that start at the top of a screen or piece of paper and then run down vertically. It appeals to our sense of sequence. But what if you change your perspective slightly?

Instead of having sub-levels to a bullet point appear indented, imagine them popping up to the right of the main list item. So instead of reading an outline top to bottom, you’re reading it left to right. Confusing? See how it works here:

Tree offers you both your traditional list view, but also its name-giving tree view of an outline. It takes a little getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, it’s an awesome way to utilize any larger screen and actually see most of your outline at any given time without having to scroll.

Apart from this attractive feature, here are the aspects I liked most about Tree:

• Extremely Intuitive: There is basically no learning curve at all with Tree. Granted, for some stuff you have to look up a keyboard shortcut, but you can start using the app right away. Simply start typing, hit enter or tab and your outline creates itself almost on its own.
• Inline Notes: As with the above OmniOutliner, Tree also supports adding notes to an entry and they can also be hidden (to save space, for example, or to unclutter the view).
• Easy Text Formatting: Contrary to OmniOutliner, formatting text is a breeze. You simply select it and change it’s color, font or size as you would in Pages or any other text editing application.

I wish Tree would support styles as Pages does, though. That way I would only need to define the format of a level 3 heading once, for example, and it would be applied to all other heading of the same kind. But that’s a minor aspect to criticize.

Also, there is a “Label” function that allows you to assign a color label to everything, but all it does to change the color of the level indicator (the triangle or the bullet). It doesn’t change the color of the text that follows, which makes me doubt its usefulness. The color change is so small, it’s hardly noticeable. Also, attachments are not possible with tree. I tried to include a photo and it either links to where it’s saved locally or includes a link to a website, but not the actual file itself.

Apart from these three aspects, Tree is a wonderful application, which will appeal especially to those who can make use of the innovative tree view on large screens. Its ease of use and virtually non-existent learning curve are great for beginners and advanced users alike. You can read more about Tree in our in-depth review here.

Price: $14.99

Process – The Everything-In-One Application

Jumsoft is a well-known maker of Mac applications, among them Money and Relationship. For our article here I’m taking a look at their outliner app Process. I gave it a try a couple of years ago and wasn’t too impressed, but it has matured and become a real contender.

As with Tree, you can start using the application right away, the basic functions are intuitive and provide immediate results, even though not everything works as expected and I was forced to resort to mouse-clicks a couple of times instead of being able to use the app entirely via my keyboard.

To utilize all the power of Process, you’ll need to consult the help or at least read through the feature description on the app’s website. A template file or at least some sample data would go a long way to help a new user get started; maybe that’s something that Jumsoft will incorporate in the future.

The thing is, Process is quite powerful, but you don’t see it right away. Of course, it can do outlines, but there is so much more:

• Color Coding: To make long and complex outlines more readable and find important information quickly, you can color code entries by priority or simply assign them a label. Priority colors appear in a separate column, while labels color the entire row of an entry.
• Styles: Even though the styles don’t work automatically (set a style for a certain level of an entry and have it automatically use that style), it’s nice to have them at all. There are six presets which change the color and/or font of an entry, but you can’t change a style itself. You have to work with what’s included.
• Project Management: Process is quite adapt at managing projects; it allows you to assign a start and due date for each entry as well as an alarm. More than that, you can actually share your project with others on the same network. If you work within  a team, that might just speed up your workflow.

The most awesome thing about Process is the Sources Panel, though. It holds all your notes and source files. For example, if you want to add additional information to an entry instead of using inline notes as in Tree or OmniOutliner, you’d put them into the sources panel as a note.

You can add pretty much any file there, too. I’ve tried it with video files and even a Markdown file and it shows them flawlessly in the preview window. Even better, you can add URLs and the entire website is being previewed in the sources panel as well. It’s really an awesome way to keep all your documents in one place, so far only rivaled by OmniOutliner.

Overall, Process is a pretty neat application that can do a lot more that is obvious at first glance. In my eyes, it’s geared mostly towards project management needs, even though other types of outlines are possible as well (story boards, for example, will work fine in here too).

Price: $38.99

Circus Ponies Notebook – It can do outlines, too

Notebook by Circus Ponies is a very powerful application, which is aimed at replacing your analog paper notebook with something more powerful and digital. It can be used for virtually anything that you can do with pen and paper, but the option that interests us today is of course the outline function.

It utilizes the traditional way of outlining by creating a top to bottom list of your items. Through the usual keyboard strokes – enter and tab – you can create indents and thereby nested lists. It’s easy to start with, but if you want to harvest all the power of NoteBook, you’ll need to do some exploring, which won’t take long, but it will enable you to do the following:

• Checkboxes: Add checkboxes to your entries, either to all of them or to just some, to mark tasks as complete or parts of your lists as done.
• Assign Priorities and Due Dates: It’s not the most beautiful or elegant approach to task management, but if you need those information, NoteBook offers to include it.
• Add Address Book Information: If an entry can be linked to a person or organization, simply drag an address book entry to it and you get a small sticker to the left of the entry. By clicking it, all the contact information is revealed and you can even send emails from right within NoteBook.
• Highlights: Use different colored markers to highlight a word or an entire entry. It helps to structure your outline and make certain entries stand out more.
• Audio Recording: Just like in OmniOutliner, you can actually run an audio recording while working in NoteBook.

Now, that alone is already pretty nice for an app that doesn’t specialize in outlining. But what’s really great is the summary option of NoteBook which can pull all of the above information together and display them on separate pages.

It’s called the “Multidex” and it dynamically searches your notebook for highlights, attachments, to-do items or Due Dates. That comes in handy if you have these information scattered across several pages, like you’d have in a normal, paper notebook. Every meeting brings to-do items and due dates, but they are on separate pages. Instead of leaving through the entire notebook like you’d have to do with paper, NoteBook by Circus Ponies pulls those information together.

NoteBook is especially useful for those who don’t need or want an outliner-only app but are looking for an integrated approach. NoteBook can be used for class notes, meetings or pretty much anything else with the added benefit of the outliner function paired with the powerful Multidex.

Price: $59.99

TaskPaper – It’s Just About Your List

Do all the other apps look great, but all you want is something rather simple with preferably no learning curve and not too many options? Well, of course there’s an app for you as well.

Hogbaysoftware is known for its minimalistic apps, especially WriteRoom. But it also has a fantastic app called TaskPaper, which is a wonderful down-to-earth list app that can be used perfectly for outlining.

The benefit of TaskPaper is that it doesn’t require you to learn anything at all. It also won’t distract you with a ton of buttons or context menus. When you open it for the first time, you’ll see a short explanation of how the app works and how you can use it exclusively through the keyboard. There are about three or four keyboard strokes to remember and that’s quite manageable for pretty much everyone, I think.

TaskPaper is really just about lists, but you can structure them by using styles for entries. Headings can be styled as “Projects”, tasks are always leading with a dash and Notes can be added anywhere and they are slightly grey. Of course, color doesn’t really matter since you can apply different themes to TaskPaper (there are some included with the app and others can be downloaded from the website).

I’ve been using TaskPaper a lot in meetings and I found that its lack of options has been extremely helpful. It allowed me to type very fast, use less than five shortcuts to format entries as I typed them and have a ready-to-mail-around document by the time the meeting was done.

Of course, there are no capabilities of including attachments, setting due dates or formatting text, but if you only need an app that allows you to focus on what’s going on around you instead of worrying about how to write down what’s important, then TaskPaper definitely is worth your attention.

Price: $29.99

Verdict

As I said in the introduction, this article is by no means a complete list of outliners out there. But the ones I compared here have all their own strength and weaknesses, are all perfect for certain purposes and less optimal for others. I hope we were able to give you an introductory glance at what outliners can do for you in your educational, business or private environment.

Have you ever used an outliner before? What are your experiences? What is it that you look for most in such an app? Let us know in the comments.

You’re surely no newcomer to the fad of vintage photography, led most notably by the iOS app Instagram. I’m a big fan of the app and the ease with which it lets you share cool looking pictures to all of your social networks in a matter of seconds. However, the fact that it’s only available for iOS makes it kind of a bummer, as I’m sure people without any iOS devices have felt left out (don’t worry though, it’s coming to other popular devices soon).

We’ve shown you ways to navigate through your Instagram feed from your Mac before, but we haven’t shown you just how to make your photos look as cool right from your computer instead of having to go through your phone. That’s what the app that we are reviewing today, Instant, is for. Care to check it out?

Getting Started

Because Instagram is by far the most relevant app in the category, I’m sure some people might confuse Instant as being kind of related to it (even its name sort of resembles it). Make no mistake though, the only thing that this app shares with Instagram is that they are both used for manipulating photos through select filters. Instagram, however, is much more of a social network, as it has features like sharing, following, loving, and much more.

Instant is not like that at all. It can take images from your hard drive and apply any filter you’d like to them so that they look like pictures taken from a Polaroid, but that’s about it. All the sharing and uploading must be done on your side. Aside from that, there’s no relationship at all between the two apps.

Instant is currently on sale for $4.99, although the developer says that it’s only a temporary 60% discount.

Interface

The coolest thing about this app (aside from the pictures you end up with), is the interface that you use to modify your pictures. It actually looks like a classic Polaroid camera, as if you were looking at it from the front. A lens and a few buttons stand out, although they don’t really have any specific function.

Double clicking anywhere in the camera will bring up a Finder window where you can select the picture to be used, or you can just directly drag it inside the app. After you have selected your picture, it will be unveiled on the bottom of the camera, as if it were actually coming out of a real Polaroid camera. From there you can tweak your pictures, which we’ll get to next.

Handling Photos

After your picture has been unveiled, if you hover over it you’ll notice a few icons on the bottom of the frame, with which you can modify the filters (we’ll get to these later), add a caption to your picture, share it to Flickr or just simply save it.

The “text” feature is very well-implemented, as it makes you pictures look like they’ve been signed just like you might have done with an old Polaroid picture. The fonts available even resemble handwriting, and you can also change the colors, alignment and size of the fonts. Although you are probably more interested in hearing about the filters.

The Filters

Instant has an amazing variety of 28 filters, and most of them don’t disappoint. They’re divided into a few categories, which are “Polaroid Photo Mania” and “Viva La Vintage”. Both are quite similar, although the vintage ones have a lot more color effects.

The best thing about them is that all of them are sort of customizable, as after you have selected a filter you can play around with the intensity, vignette and emulsion of the filter, and even set a blur layer, all of which can make your pictures look very original and cool.

Worth It?

Playing around with this type of apps could surely be fun for a little while, but without the discovery factor that social networks add to the experience of making and sharing cool pictures of what you’re doing, I’m afraid this app could get lost in your folder after playing around with it a few times.

It’s also quite evident that this isn’t the only app of its kind available for the Mac, as the “vintage” fad has gotten massively popular. It’s not even the cheapest of the bunch, but it is way more original and easier to use than similar apps like Analog or Photo Effects.

Conclusion

Instant might not replace social apps that let you broadcast cool-looking pictures of what you’re seeing, like Instagram or Path, but if you don’t have access to a smartphone and instead would prefer to play around with your pictures directly from your computer, this app can help you do just that.

With the increasing popularity of vintage pictures, Instant surely isn’t the only app of its kind on the Mac App Store either, but it has proven itself to be a worthy competitor, as it differentiates itself from the rest by adding the Polaroid gimmick. What do you think?

In this great age of computers, typing is an absolutely necessary skill. Only being able to peck away at keys greatly inhibits any efficiency you might have, whether you’re typing a document for work, a term paper or even just an email. Luckily, there are a number of apps out there to improve your typing skills, from lessons for beginners or games that work with advanced typers to continue improving your WPM.

These programs encompass a wide range of functions. Some of the programs are very full-featured, including lessons from the very basics, games, tests and drills. Other apps come at a much lower price, and they tend to focus on only one type of exercise, whether it’s lessons or a typing game. Read on to check out some  great Mac apps dedicated to improving your typing skills.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the apps out there, but they encompass a broad range of the types of applications you’ll find in this arena. If you are a brand new typist, I would recommend the Mavis Beacon program as it provides the greatest feature set and teaches well for any level of typing skill. Advanced typists would be more suited to the less pricey alternatives, whether it is a game like Tooyan or the speed drills in the Typist app.

These are some of my top choices, but I’d love to hear yours. What apps do you use to learn basic typing skills, or what kinds do you like to help increase WPM?

Until now AirPlay has been a way for you to stream music from your iTunes to wireless speakers, or video from your iOS device to an Apple TV. However, with Reflection you can now connect your iOS device to your Mac wirelessly using AirPlay and mirror your screen.

Head past the break to see how Reflection holds up.

Setup

Getting this up and running is so simple it needs almost no introudction. Simply download the Mac app from the website – $14.99 or a free 10 minute trial version – and you’re good to get streaming with your iPhone 4S or iPad 2. There’s no installation on your iOS device, you must only activate the AirPlay feature on the device.

Once you have turned AirPlay mirroring on and connected to your Mac (the Reflection app must be open at this point), the screen of your iOS device will automatically apear on screen.

Customization

Despite setup being very simple, there are a few changes to make to optimize the mirroring for your device and to get it how you’d like. As you can see in the shot above the app allows for different inputs such as optimizing the screen for retina devices. While playing with the app I noticed that there was some lag, but having the correct device selected reduced that sort of lag significantly.

There are various other options such as adding a frame around the screen for a more realistic approach and setting it to launch into full-screen mode automatically.

Practical Use

There have been many efforts in the past to get what’s on your Mac onto your portable device, and quite rightly so. Being able to move seamlessly from one device to another is something that could prove to be very interesting and something it seems Apple is working on with features such as iCloud. There are apps that emulate your Mac’s display on your iOS device such as Splashtop or even allow it to be used an extra display Air Display, while some are aimed towards designers, letting them preview their work on the device such as the recently released Skala preview. However there have been comparatively few efforts to go in the opposite direction and attempt to get what is on your iPhone onto your Mac.

We have not yet reached the point where our devices can run so smoothly with each other, but this is a step in the right direction. While some may see this as purely a gimmick, there is potential for some great use of the app. Apps that embrace AirPlay and work well with it, such as Real Racing 2 really shine when it comes to Reflection. In the example of this game you can have your iPhone as the controller and view your car on your Mac. Sure there are limits here that it is not full screen and thus maybe isnt the best experience – but I believe that is a shortcoming that could be addressed fairly quickly. Note: yes the sound does come via your Mac speakers.

Skype, Facetime and other such video calling apps can work with Reflection. You could place the iPhone window on your Mac’s display and continue working on whatever you are doing without having to be distracted by having to look at your iPhone. While is just a small example, and may not be the best thing since sliced bread, it demonstrates the capabilties of the app and how you can use it in many different ways.

Perhaps more useful for iOS app developers (and reviewers) is the screen recording potential. Due to there being no way to record the screen of your iOS device without Jailbreaking, this could open new ways for developers to create demos of their apps.

You could simply fire up Reflection and create a new screen recording, with an app like Quicktime or Screeny, and from there easily record session to create easy and complete demos of how your app works. Other similar circumstances such as demoing your app at conferences or investors is now significantly easier that show then a video or screenshots. This isn’t yet a flawless method as the screenrate can stutter from time to time, nothing to cause you to not use the app, but something developers certainly wouldn’t want to show up in their application demo.

You can not actually use the device with your Mac’s mouse, it is only reflecting what appears on your iOS device’s screen.

Conclusion

Overall there is great potential with this app if small things such as the screenrate are improved for flawless playback on your Mac. Another welcome addition would be for a full screen mode such as when you connect to an Apple TV. This would be hugely beneficial as it would make playing games and videos from your device infinitely better on your Mac.

Probably my biggest concern for this app is the price, at $14.99. This is a high price for an app that copies the functionality meant for Apple TV playback and ports it onto the Mac. No doubt many hours went into this, but I feel a slightly lower price around $7-8 would be much more appreciated and get many more people using the app and enjoying its feautres. It’s a fun app that has a long way to go before we can call it perfect, but its well under way and at the moment still fun to use with some great functionality.

Both the iTunes App Store and the Mac App Store have given developers a great place to easily distribute their software to customers. While some developers may feel lost in a sea of competition, others find ways to stand out and become overnight success stories.

Though the two platforms are similar, it’s interesting to note the differences. For instance, it seems free apps abound on the iTunes App Store but developers seem more prone to charge for their work on the Mac platform, which isn’t a bad thing at all. Through AppStorm I’ve met lots of hardworking developers and am more than happy to drop a few bucks for a great app to help make it worth the developer’s time.

Today I’m curious about how far you’re willing to go to get your hands on an awesome app. What’s the most that you’ve ever paid to download an app from the Mac App Store? Answer the poll to be counted and then leave a comment below telling us about the apps you’ve purchased at this price point.

For countless years the use of vinyl dominated the DJ market. In the late 90s the use of CDs became more widespread as Pioneer launched the very successful CDJ CD player which offered many of the advantages of vinyl without quite so many drawbacks. In recent years the use of digital DJ software has become much more prevalent as more and more of the CD faithful turn their backs on the format and embrace digital software.

There are many options out there, from Serato Scratch Live vinyl emulation software to Ableton Live down to open source alternatives such as Mixxx which I reviewed in a previous article. In this article however I will comparing two front runners of the digital DJ world – Atomix’s Virtual DJ Pro 7 and Native Instrument’s Traktor Pro 2. If you only choose one, which one should it be? Read on to find out.

Features

Both Virtual DJ and Traktor Pro boast an impressive range of features, in fact I think you’d be hard pressed to find a similar software package that offered more. However, for many DJs thinking about moving into digital DJing, the choice between these two options can often be very difficult. Both offer a straightforward way to move from CDs or Vinyl while retaining the same level of functionality. On the surface both options offer a very similar level of features, for example (the now standard) automatic beat matching, automatic looping, the use of effects and automatic BPM detection, with Traktor perhaps just edging ahead when it comes to number of features. When you dig a little deeper there a number of differences between the two.

Virtual DJ has always been very compatible with a large number of external controllers and mapping a controller to Virtual DJ is a relatively pain free process. This makes Virtual DJ one of the easiest software options to begin using, in many cases controllers can be simply plugged in and away you go. The same cannot be said for Traktor Pro, which supports fewer controllers (it does still support a great deal) and in my own experience has been quite difficult to map to a controller, however Native Instruments do produce their own line of controllers (Kontrol X1, S2 and S4) which when purchased guarantees complete compatibility with Traktor.

Both Traktor and Virtual DJ offer the ability to record your mixes directly to your hard drive, a useful feature for up and coming DJs who might wish to upload their mixes to YouTube, burn to a CD to hand out to friends or more importantly promoters and club owners. A well liked feature in Virtual DJ that is excluded from Traktor Pro is the ability to download and use custom skins. While the ability to do this makes no difference to the functionality of the software, many users like to be able to customize the look of their software. In my opinion though, the unquestionable stability of the Traktor Pro code when performing certainly makes up for any lack of customization.

When directly compared, both software options naturally have pros and cons. Traktor surpasses Virtual DJ on the level of features and stability, yet Virtual DJ is easier to use and start using straight out of the box as well as including the ability to change and customise skins.

Interface

For me, this is where the major differences between the two products lie. Quite simply Traktor Pro looks so much more professional than Virtual DJ, the default interface for Virtual DJ looks positively amateurish compared with Traktor’s clean cut look. That being said I firmly believe that Virtual DJ is easier to work with, especially for new DJs or those new to digital DJing. Beat matching itself is much easier for beginner DJs with the layout of Virtual DJ as the waveforms of both tracks sit above each other (as shown below).

Both options keep the traditional layout of decks above the media browser, which is now more or less standard for a number of DJ software solutions and works great, allowing the next song to be found quickly and easily.

Personally I prefer Traktor Pro’s interface over Virtual DJ’s default skin, but this is down to individual preference so don’t let the look of either dissuade you from trying them.

Conclusion

While Virtual DJ and Traktor both do pretty much the same thing, in my opinion it is the way in which Traktor does things that allows it to pull ahead of Virtual DJ as being the better option for those wishing to move to computer DJing. A quick look at the interfaces side by side and it’s easy to see that Traktor is positioned to a higher market than Virtual DJ. Even the name ‘Virtual DJ’ leaves something to be desired.

Another gripe with Virtual DJ Pro is that there are so many other versions of the software (such as LE, Home or Pro Basic) out there, each adding a little bit more functionality than the last version. This gives me the sense that they probably could include more features in each version, but don’t because it would interfere with their pricing strategy. Speaking of price, Virtual DJ Pro 7 Full (what a mouthful) is currently retailing online at $299 or €240 whilst Traktor Pro 2 is on sale for €199 (roughly $260).

Given the price difference, the professional look and feel of Traktor over Virtual DJ as well as the increased stability. If I had to make the choice I would almost certainly go with Traktor Pro. That being said if ease of use and compatibility with a larger range of controllers is important to you then I would suggest trying Virtual DJ. But if you plan to DJ professionally then Traktor Pro is the better option of the two.

This week saw some pretty big announcements in the world of Mac software, especially with the release of Photoshop CS6 beta on Thursday with a completely revamped interface and tonnes of new features aimed at making editing photos an absolute breeze.

However, Adobe news aside, let’s take a look at what else has been going on this week.

TweetDeck 1.3 released with list management and new tabs

When I wrote about the new version of TweetDeck back in January of this year, it was clear from the general consensus that this “new” version took away many of the features adored by TweetDeck users. TweetDeck 1.3, which was released on Thursday, is an attempt by Twitter to claw back some of those loyal users who abandoned the app for another third-party Twitter client.

New features include list management, activity and interactions tabs (like on the web version of Twitter and in the official smartphone clients), inline image and video previews and a redesigned “edit and retweet system”. Although there are plenty of features from the old version of TweetDeck still absent in this release (such as more customisation options), it does seem that Twitter are listening to those endless cries from users and bringing more functionality to the app.

TweetDeck 1.3 is available as a free update from their website or from the App Store.

Angry Birds Space released for Mac, iOS and Android

After several months of development, Finnish game developers Rovio Mobile released a new version of their evil green swine-destroying game Angry Birds, however this time the birds are off to space in a whole new reincarnation of one of the world’s most downloaded apps of all time.

The gameplay mechanics are radically different in this version, with gravatational fields and new birds with their own destructive capabilities, including a laser bird and “space eagles”, which can be earned either by playing the game or via an in-app purchase. For a look at the gameplay itself, head over to Kevin’s review of the app over at our sister site, iPhone AppStorm.

The Mac version of Angry Birds Space is available on the App Store, priced at $4.99 and is also available for the iPhone, iPad, Android devices and Windows.

Skitch for Mac now features Evernote support

After being purchased by Evernote back in August 2011 for an undisclosed amount, Skitch, the popular screenshot editing software now boasts full Evernote integration, allowing you to share your doodles with your Evernote account with one click.

Your Skitch doodles can now be viewed on all of your devices that support Evernote (for example, iOS and Android devices) and owing to Evernote’s web-based system, you can access them no matter where you are (as long as you have a computer!).

Skitch for Mac can be downloaded from the App Store for free.

Xcode 4.3.2 released with new SDKs

Xcode, Apple’s own development environment, got a small update up to version 4.3.2 on Monday with support for Mac OS X 10.7 and iOS 5.1 software development kits as well as a few other little fixes, such as the ability to digitally sign applications using your OS X Developer ID.

Since the release version 4 back in March 2011, Xcode has been free to all Mac users and can be downloaded from the App Store (warning: the download size is around 1.5 GB), however you’ll have to be enrolled in Apple’s Developer Program (subscription fees start from $99 yearly) to be able to submit your own Mac and iOS apps.

If you already have Xcode installed, then open up the App Store where the update should be waiting for you.

If you have your computer set up near where you sleep, and you have it hooked up to a nice sound system, you might prefer to use it as your alarm clock instead of using your cellphone or a conventional clock.

We’ve presented many alarm clock apps to you before, but today we’re here to tell you about a very pretty and affordable one that we thought you might be interested in. It’s called Wake Up Time, let’s get to it!

Getting Started

Alarm clock apps seem to be all over the place. There are plenty of options, some way too expensive (but with plenty of features), and others that go for free but don’t offer much. Wake Up Time differentiates itself from the competition because it’s a very affordable alternative and it doesn’t leave behind important features, but let’s see just how much it offers.

At the time of writing this review, Wake Up Time is for a limited time free offer.

Interface

The main thing that this app has going for it is that it looks great, and it is very easy to get familiar with. Its main window looks like an actual, wood-framed alarm clock with its classic LCD display. The simulated LCD will display the current time as well as the day of the week.

Below it you can find a few more buttons and another display with the time for the next programmed alarm. The wood frame on the right is collapsable, clicking on it will bring up the settings panel, which we’ll get to next.

Setting Up Alarms

You can setup new alarms by going to the “drawer” on your right. In there you’ll find a few options, like the desired time for the alarm that you are setting up, the volume at which it will go off to, the sound you’d like to be played, a preview for the alarm, and a “Fade” option that will make sure the alarm turns on gradually.

While this app still doesn’t let you select sounds from your library, the developer has said that this feature is coming soon. Right now you can only select from 3 pre-selected sounds: a classic digital beep tone, a forrest clip, and a “cosmic” tone. Honestly, aside from the default one, the other ones kind of suck.

When the Alarm Goes Off

Once an alarm goes off, the sound that you selected will be played and some instructions will appear on the secondary display. Depending on your settings, the volume of your computer will raise or lower just for the alarm, and if you click anywhere inside the app, the snooze feature will activate. If you’d like to stop the alarm, you have to click the cross below the display after you have set off the snooze mode.

You have to be careful not to close your lid (if you have a laptop), otherwise the alarms won’t go off. The app by default has its own “Sleep” button, which works as sort of a “rest” mode for your computer. It won’t put it to sleep per se, but it will turn off the screen until the alarm turns on. If you’d like to use alarms while keeping your Mac in a real “Sleep” state, you’re going to have to install the Helper.

Helper and Other Features

Keeping your Mac active all night long is not ideal, especially if you care about the power consumption in your house. That’s what the Helper is for, it’s kind of an extra add-on for the app that allows it to make your computer go to sleep and then wake it up when an alarm goes off. The Helper has a few shortcomings, though. It still won’t be able to wake up your Mac if the lid is closed, or if you have a password set up.

Under the settings for the app you will also find a few more goodies, like the ability to change the snooze time, keep the app on top of everything else, change the LCD from a 12-hour display to a 24-hour one, and make the app adjust the system volume and then restore it after an alarm goes off.

Shortcomings and the Competition

Alarm apps are about as common as they come. Wake Up Time stands out from the crowd because of its price and its beautiful interface, although it is missing some key features like the ability to have more than one alarm active, to play sounds from your iTunes library, and perhaps even a sleep timer. All of these are said to be coming in a future update, but for now they are what makes the competition stand out.

A quick search for “alarm” on the Mac App Store will show you lots of apps that do the same thing. We’ve also done plenty of roundups on the category before. Few of those apps, however, are as affordable and yet functional as Wake Up Time is. Apps like Alarm Clock Pro, Alarms and Aurora might fill in the gaps where Wake Up Time falls short, but at $20, €12 and $15 respectively, you have to wonder if those few features are worth it.

Conclusion

Using your computer as an alarm requires much more than just an app, it needs to be setup specifically to be more comfortable than using your phone or any desk clock as an alarm. I can see why some might prefer using their computer as an alarm clock, if they have it close to where they sleep and they want to wake up to their iTunes library, or perhaps they don’t find the alarm volume of their phone to be enough to wake them up (I can relate to that).

Wake Up Time might not be able to do everything that some competitors can, but for its price, it really is the best value I have seen for any app under this category. What do you think? Do you use any alarm apps in your computer, and which ones?

DVDs get scratched, broken and ruined in many ways. Unfortunately, this is a simple fact of life. Luckily, there are a number of programs that exist to help rip and back up DVDs. One of these programs, and the focus of this review, is Mac DVD Ripper Pro (MDRP).

This app exists not as a jack-of-all-trades application but rather as a master of (just about) one. MDRP decrypts and rips DVDs to your hard-drive. These rips can then be stored, played, burnt to a back-up DVD or even exported as a .mp4 file to play on a variety of mobile devices. Read on to learn exactly how it all goes down.

How it Works

MDRP exists to rip DVDs for the purpose of creating back-ups on your hard-drive and to create copies playable on mobile devices and via iTunes. Basic ripping is a very simple process. You simply insert the disc, launch the program, choose a destination folder and let it rip. You are also able to select an option to rip all the disc content, including menus and special features, or you can choose to rip just the main feature. MDRP decrypts as it rips, so all DVDs may be used.

If your goal is to create a burnable image, this is also a simple process. If you’d like, you can select the “full disk image” at the main screen to create a file playable in DVDPlayer that is also burnable. If you want to burn immediately following the rip, simply select “full disk image and burn a copy” and the program walks you through all of the steps necessary.

At the beginning of the process you can also choose the “rip and convert” mode. This mode allows you to rip the DVD, and then MDRP automatically converts the file. The file is converted to a .mp4 format which is for playback in programs like iTunes and on devices like the iPhone or iPad. To speed up the process, older iOS devices are not automatically supported. If you want to optimize the file for an older device you just have to check the box in the preferences menu.

Playback is a simple process if you have chose the rip and convert option. If you chose the option to just do a general rip or to rip a full disk image, playback is not always so simple. Those files are playable through DVDPlayer which can read .dvdmedia files. If the file is an .iso file it must be mounted for playback with DVDPlayer.

Limitations

What MDRP does, it does really well. It does, however, have a few mildly frustrating limitations. The first is that the program does not support Bluray discs. While this isn’t a common feature for many programs, it’s still frustrating given my mix of Blurays and traditional DVDs.

Another limitation is that, while the program can rip just the “main feature” from a disc, it cannot rip individual episodes. When ripping a DVD of a television show, I would really like to be able to rip the episodes into individual files.

Finally, the application can take an excessively long time if the DVD you’re ripping isn’t a popular DVD. MDRP has a database of popular DVDs that speeds up the ripping process, but if your DVD isn’t in that database the rip can take a few hours rather than half an hour or so.

Final Thoughts

Mac DVD Ripper Pro does a great job of what it is intended to do. It is able to easily rip any DVD and provide you with a file to play on your computer, burn to a DVD or even to convert and play on any iTunes device. It is a master of this trade, with only a few minor limitations.

At twenty dollars for a license it is a fairly comparable price given the other software out there. There is also a free trial with five free rips, so give it a try today. As always, share your thoughts below. Have you tried MDRP or do you have another app that you prefer?

There are so many among us with a ton of ideas for the next Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. But, ideas are practically worthless unless you have at least a prototype in place. If you think it would be a good idea to entrust someone to make your vision for the app to come true, you are definitely mistaken.

If you are a designer by profession, then you already know the importance of a prototype. Prototypes help build a minimum viable product quickly and lock the user interface down without any ambiguity. Antetype is one of the market leaders in Mac prototyping apps and after the break let us check out how to make it a valuable part of your design workflow.

Overview

Antetype is a rapid prototyping app that offers a range of layout modes that allow you to create highly flexible and dynamic layouts. The widget library included with the app provides you with a complete set of ready-to-use widgets to get you started quickly with your prototypes.

User Interface

Antetype comes with a split window interface. The canvas to the right is larger and the all powerful widget library is located to the left. The layout is clean and even with so many design elements, it doesn’t overwhelm the user at first glance or while designing a prototype. You can resize and close out each of these windows as you please.

Antetype is fullscreen capable and in this mode the canvas fills up the entire screen with the widget library floating to the left of the screen.

Getting Started

To make things easier, Antetype comes loaded with templates for the popular design platforms – Android, iOS, Windows 7, Mac OS or a regular wireframe. Each of this template has all the design elements in the style that is signature to the platform. You are not restricted to these templates alone.

You can easily create a new template from scratch and mix and match widgets of your choice. I decided to try my hand at creating a iOS app prototype for this review.

Creating a Prototype

To start building an iPad app we need two main elements – a toolbar at the top and a menubar at the bottom. Both these elements had a couple of buttons already to make things further easier for us. In the case of the menubar, I tried to copy and paste the menubar button multiple times. I was successful at creating duplicates of the menubar buttons, but wasn’t able to space them out as I wished.

I dragged and dropped a single menubar button from the widget library and was glad to see that I was able to place it wherever I pleased. The icon and text of the buttons can be changed by double clicking on them.

From background texture to buttons, sliders and labels, I played around with almost every aspect of iPad design and I was able to put together a prototype (a rather ugly one, I agree!) within a few minutes. I loved how the buttons and labels wrapped around if the text spilled from the original size.

Every single pixel of the design can be customized from the Style Inspector. And once you chisel a widget to your tastes, you can lock the design and alter the gradients as whole. For those working on complex designs, the stacked layout mode will help overlay your elements on top of each other and lets you control their alignment to boot.

Sharing the Prototype

Sharing the prototype with team members or clients for feedback is a vital part of the design workflow and Antetype offers a few brilliant choices. In addition to letting you export the design in PNG format, the app assists you to create the web viewer version of the design for people who don’t own a Mac.

The presentation mode is perfect if you plan to showcase the design fullscreen via a screencast or a projector. All elements of the design work together in tandem like a real world app in this mode.

Final Thoughts

I am not a designer by trade. But, I do have a few ideas (worthy and otherwise) for both mobile apps and the web. It would absolutely suck for a design novice like me to give exact instructions to a professional designer. Even if I did, I’m sure I’ll land on this blog, for so many pointless suggestions! When I had the chance to review Antetype, I decided to evaluate the app based on how easy it is for a design illiterate like myself.

Based on their short video demo and the clearly explained descriptions in the homepage, I was confident that Antetype won’t be very difficult to use. And after a couple of hours not only did I get a grasp of the functionality, but also really enjoyed creating mockups just for fun. Since it takes very little time even for a newbie to start cracking, I have no doubt experienced designers would find their productivity increase exponentially with Antetype.

The one thing that I could point out as a shortcoming is the price. At $289, the app isn’t cheap but the full featured demo version should help you determine if the app is worth the price or not.

 

Just 5 days after we wrote about the fact that Adobe was putting the finishing touches on Creative Suite 6, which promised to be their biggest update to the software package yet, Adobe has released the public beta of Photoshop CS6, the first of the new programs to hit consumers. The beta, which can be downloaded for free from Adobe’s website (you’ll have to have an Adobe ID, though, to download and register the demo), clocks in at just under 1 GB and runs on all multi-core Intel-based Macs with 1 GB or more of RAM installed (click on the image below to be linked).

Winston Hendrickson, the vice president of products at Adobe Creative Media Solutions called Photoshop CS6, ”a milestone release that pushes the boundaries of imaging innovation with incredible speed and performance” and judging by the beta, there are plenty of new and improved features worth shouting about.

Let’s take a look at a few in a bit more detail.

An All-New Interface

One of the most striking features about Photoshop CS6 is the all-new, pro-looking black interface which has been completely redesigned for a ”more immersive experience”. If you still long after the old light grey interface from previous Photoshop releases, you can alter this in the Interface section of the Preferences panel). The tool icons have also been touted up slightly, giving them a more professional air.

Photoshop CS6 still keeps the same tabbed design like in previous releases such as CS5, which is useful if you want a quick overview of all the images you are currently working on but can be a hassle if you are trying to look at two or more images at the same time.

A New Rendering Engine: Adobe Mercury Graphics

Adobe has beefed up its rendering engine for this new version of Photoshop, allowing for near-instant results from editing tools such as Liquify, Transform and Lighting Effects. Gone are the days where you were staring at that grey and white checkerboard waiting for your images to pop up on the screen – with the new engine your images will render noticeably faster (if not instantly in some cases).

Content-Aware Technology

The all-new Content-Aware technology in Photoshop CS6 means that you can get your images exactly the way you want them to without too much additional hassle and fuss. The Content-Aware Move feature (which is a new feature in CS6) allows you to move an item from one part of the image to other without any trace of it being there in the first place – no empty gaps or white spaces. And if you’ve got any empty spaces in your image, the Content-Aware Patch tool will know exactly how to fill up that gap cleanly and professionally. This is a real advantage to any amateur photographers who haven’t mastered Photoshop as it means you can edit your images like the pros without giving too much away!

Mini Bridge & Built-In Video Editor

Adobe have also included a version of their file explorer, Mini Bridge, in this release making it a lot easier to find media on your hard disk drive. Another little feature of Photoshop CS6 is the inclusion of a mini video editor, allowing you to process short bits of video. It’s no Final Cut or Premier, but if you just want to touch up and edit a bit of video, it’s pretty good for that (and means you don’t have to drop a few hundred extra dollars on separate video editing software).

I Want More!

As someone who uses Photoshop quite a lot, I am really excited about this update and although there’s no official comment from Adobe, we can expect the final version of CS6 to hit our shelves sometime this summer. Even if you aren’t a big Photoshop user (or haven’t even tried it yet), it is worth grabbing the beta for yourself and having a play around with it. This news piece really just is the tip of the iceberg and you’ll soon discover that there are plenty of other surprises in Photoshop CS6. Be aware, though, that beta software is never fully tested and some bugs may prevail, so don’t go uninstalling CS5 in high hopes just yet.

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts about this new release. Was it everything you were expecting? Or was just another mundane update? Share your opinion in the comments section below!

In some ways, the built in Mac OS X Address Book wears like an old pair of sneakers – comfortable and familiar. What it lacks in style and features, it makes up for in dependability. Over the years, updates to Mac OS X have brought numerous improvements and enhancements. Yet despite these changes, the Address Book has remained largely the same. A facelift here and there, some improved syncing capabilities, but not much to get excited about (in fact, the Lion overhaul was largely protested).

Seeing the opportunity for real feature improvement in the realm of contact management, the team at Cobook have created a unique, innovative app that breathes some life into the Address Book. If you’re looking to give some more muscle to your Address Book, Cobook will take care of the heavy lifting.

What Is Cobook?

Cobook “cohabitates” alongside the Address Book and runs locally on your computer as a native application. Under the hood, it seamlessly integrates with the built in Address Book – what you see in Cobook is being synced directly with your Address Book data. At its core, Cobook is a contact manager with an emphasis on workflow and ease of use.

Clicking on the Cobook menu bar icon opens a simple, elegant drop down menu showing a list of all your contacts. Hovering over a contact opens a slide out window revealing all the specific details for that contact. This seemingly basic functionality is something sorely lacking in the built in Address Book. However Cobook’s feature set doesn’t stop here. In fact, after spending some time with Cobook, you may never want to open the Mac Address Book again.

Need to add a new contact? Simply type the name of your contact in the Cobook’s search field. Not recognizing the name from your current list of contacts, Cobook will prompt you to add this person as a new contact. With your newly created contact, begin typing any of the contact’s details like a phone number, email address or birth date and Cobook will accurately identify this piece of information and prompt you to add it to the proper field within the contact. All of the fields available from within the Address Book can be accessed and populated by Cobook.

Social Integration

Because much of our contacts’ information is spread out across different social networks, Cobook is designed to pull in this information and organize it all from within the application. Cobook can match and fetch your contacts’ profile information from Facebook and Linkedin as well as grab tweets posted on a contact’s Twitter feed. If you have social network contacts that aren’t currently in your Address Book, Cobook can be configured to import their profile data as new contacts.

A recent update to the application now includes integration with Google Voice. Right click on a contact’s phone number and select from one of several connection methods including Google Voice, Skype and Apple’s new Message app. In fact, Cobook integrates nicely with other apps – click on any URL in a contact and the default browser will open. Clicking an email addresses will open a compose window (Kudos for Sparrow support).

Of course, to take full advantage of Cobook’s social network integration, you’ll need to give it permission to access this content. But here again, all of this data is being stored locally on your computer.

There is a possible downside to using Cobook’s social integration – whenever someone’s Facebook or Linkedin profile is updated, this content will automatically update your local contact data as well. Currently there is no ability to turn off or override this feature. Though most would likely want this information to be kept current anyway.

Will Cobook work with Google Contacts? According to the developer, the answer is “yes” but with the following limitations:

• It’s not possible to sync the same contacts with both iCloud and Google
• Contact tags are not synced
• Social profiles are not synced

Managing and organizing groups is made easy with the use of tags. Contacts can be assigned multiple tags to different groups. Cobook can send out tag-based group emails as well. Need to clean house and tidy up your contacts? Cobook has automatically created tags for those contacts missing pertinent information (#no email, #no phone, etc.)

If you need to edit a contact’s information, this can be accomplished directly from within Cobook in edit mode – updated information will automatically sync to the Address Book. Want to rearrange your contact’s details? Simply drag and drop them.

Privacy Concerns?

The recently discovered privacy leak in the iPhone’s contact application giving other apps unfettered access to this data has once again raised concerns about how our personal contact information is handled. So how does an application like Cobook handle your personal data? Regarding your data’s privacy, here’s what Cobook has to say,

Cobook cares about privacy. All your data is stored locally on your computer only, we don’t have any access neither to your data nor accounts. In fact we don’t even have any servers, except for a component that collects bugs.

Conclusion

Cobook is currently in public beta and is available as a free download. It is in active development and as of this writing, is in it’s twelfth beta build. Kaspars Dancis, cofounder of Cobook stated in an email that an initial release of Cobook will be available sometime in April. It will be available in the Mac App Store, yet there is currently no pricing information available for Cobook’s initial release.

As a beta build, Cobook seems stable and reliable. All of its features work as stated and I have not experienced any crashes or hiccups. Of course, as with all beta software making a backup of your data (in this case, your contacts) would be advisable before proceeding with installing and using Cobook. Also note, this app runs on a 64 bit system only.

For active users of the built in Mac Address Book, Cobook looks to have its sights on becoming the “go to” app for contact management. Social Network integration on top of quick information access from the menu bar makes Cobook a versatile tool for all your contact needs.

This post is part of a series that revisits some of our readers’ favorite articles from the past that still contain awesome and relevant information that you might find useful. This post was originally published on March 31st, 2011.

It’s a problem we’ve all faced. You’re happily listening to a podcast or song when the phone rings or someone interrupts you. The track is paused, you deal with the distraction, and then get back to work. Only half an hour later do you realise that you never hit play again!

Although this isn’t an earth-shattering problem, a simple utility to combat this seemed like a great idea to me – especially one produced by the super-talented Iconfactory team.

Their Take Five application has been available on the iPhone for a little while, and today makes its debut on the Mac platform. Let’s take a look and see how it works.

In Your Dock or Menubar

After downloading and installing Take Five from the Mac App Store, it initially shows up both in your dock and menubar. Both of these locations include functionality, but you’ll find that this is predominantly a menubar app.

If you’d rather not have Take Five showing up in Dock, you can turn this off in preferences – something I did straight away!

Functionality-wise, this is a remarkably simple affair. If you’d like to pause the track you’re currently listening to, just click the menubar icon and then hit the big pause button. This will automatically pause your track for the pre-defined “default” length of time (five minutes).

Alternatively, you can click and drag the slider to change the pause duration if you want to choose something other than your standard default.

After clicking away, the menubar icon changes to a subtle countdown timer that ticks off the seconds until your music is due to start playing again. This is done in a way that isn’t visually distracting.

Ten seconds before the track commences playing again, the Take Five window will appear. This is an incredibly thoughtful design decision, and it’s vital to receive a short warning before your music starts. This gives you the option to extend the length of the pause if you’re still busy.

It’s Beautiful

As with anything that comes out of the Iconfactory doors, Take Five has a gorgeous interface. It’s an absolute pleasure to use, and makes the occasional popup a delight to see rather than an annoyance:

Tweaking the Preferences

Despite the fact that this is a very simple app, there are a few preferences for you to take a look at:

First up, you can change the “Default Timer Duration”. Your needs may vary, but I found a five minute window to be perfect – almost always enough time for me to deal with a distraction and get back to work.

There are also various key combinations to control the app – you can show/hide Take Five, start/stop the timer, play/pause your music, or show and hide iTunes. Some of these aren’t directly related to Take Five itself but are very useful nonetheless.

Plays Well With Others

When this review was first published, Take Five only worked on iTunes, which was its biggest downfall. However, the functionality has been expanded remarkably and now includes just about every major Mac audio app you could hope for. Here’s a complete list:

• iTunes
• Spotify
• Rdio
• Ecoute
• Sonora
• Pulsar
• Radium

On Sale Now!

Take Five will typically run you $3.99 but it’s temporarily on sale for only $0.99! Be sure to stop by the Mac App Store and download your copy before the price shoots back up.

Even if you’re new to all things Mac, you’ve most likely already realized that your computer comes packed with a great selection of built-in applications designed to cater to most people’s basic needs. However, it’s when installing third-party apps that the fun can really start and there’s a massive amount of software available for OS X, much of it free or priced competitively.

It would be impossible to cover every single app in one article but we can make a good start here, so with this in mind let’s take a look at ten apps which should be considered an essential download or purchase for every new Mac user.

Conclusion

Hopefully these ten great apps have given you a good head start on some awesome Mac software to get installed on your new Mac. Naturally, no such list can be definitive and the choices no doubt reflect this author’s own tastes but there should be something there for everyone, with plenty more suggestions to get stuck into on Mac.AppStorm.

No doubt I’ve missed plenty of other great apps which are suitable for new Mac users, so if you’ve got any particularly compelling top picks then please let us know about them in the comments!