Category: Mac

One area where I still prefer the old way of doing things over a computer is in scribbling and doodling to reach an idea. As much as some may argue, writing in a computer just isn’t quite up there with paper and pen in terms of creative freedom, and doodling freely to form an idea is a practice that many of us have.

The app that we are reviewing today sort of tries to bring this practice to your Mac. It’s called DoodleDesk, and it pretty much does what its name says. Let’s check it out!

Getting Started

DoodleDesk is exactly what you would imagine from the title, it’s an app that gives you a whiteboard on your desktop so that you can freely draw, doodle and write in it. You can get it from the App Store for $5.99, and once you open it for the first time, it will automatically run as an icon on your dock where you can quickly access the whiteboard. Let’s get a little bit deeper into the details.

 

How It Works

Despite what you might think at first, DoodleDesk does not work directly through your desktop. Everything that you doodle will be displayed as your background, but you will not be able to directly doodle into the desktop background. To do that you need to open up the “editor”, by clicking the DoodleDesk icon on your dock.

 

Once there, you’ll be shown a white-ish background and a small sidebar with some tools on your right. There you can find different pen colors (black, blue and red), an eraser (and its size modifier), a stickies button, and a button to exit the editor. We’ll get into this next.

Doodling

Once you have your pen color selected, you can draw right into the background that’s not covered by the dock, the sidebar or the status bar. You can switch colors and erase as much as you’d like. Everything you write or draw will automatically be updated in your desktop background, so that you can have quick access to it. However, it will only be shown in one of your spaces, the other ones (if you have them) will keep their old background images.

 

The “stickies” button will add a new small post-it to your doodle, where you can write in and then move it around. You can add as many stickies as you’d like. And if you want to keep the thing that you’ve drawn, you can save it as a “.dood” file so that you can open it again later; but you can’t export it as another image file type.

What You Should Use It For

Some people work differently than others. I usually have a notebook with me where I like to write and draw to get some thinking going. If you are the same way, you might find this app useful, especially if you use a lot of graphic elements in your doodles, like mental maps and things like that. I usually just stick to writing a lot, so this app doesn’t exactly fulfill my needs, but it’s still nice to have it around for when you feel like drawing something.

 

It might not replace image editors or conceptual map makers, but it’s a nice way to quickly jot down an idea that you might have, or organize your thoughts around something. It’s also nice to have the ability to quickly erase anything, which makes it much less wasteful than using tons of paper to doodle stuff that you won’t end up using. Another cool thing is the fact that whatever you draw can be quickly seen in your desktop, which might make your workflow faster.

Where It Falls Short

I was very intrigued by the idea of this app, and for the most part, it delivered on my expectations. I’ve always had bad experiences with apps where you are supposed to use the mouse/trackpad for drawing or writing, and this wasn’t any different. That’s not the fault of the app, but it does make the experience a bit less enjoyable. If you have a tablet and you use it with this app, then you are going to love it. Otherwise, it might become a little frustrating after a while.

Also, some more tools could be useful, like a button to quickly clean everything in the screen, some sort of undo/redo functionality, the ability to export images in useful formats, and perhaps a more intuitive way of handling the tools and colors.

If you’re in the market for an alternative, check out Desktastic from Panic. This app is in its third iteration and has a more robust feature set, but it’s also pricier ($12.95).

Conclusion

Overall, I feel like this is a very interesting concept for an app, and for the most part the execution is done right. For me, I think this is something that is gonna end up in the Apps folder without really being used much, but maybe you might find it more useful and adapt it better to your workflow.

The price is perhaps a bit higher than I would be willing to pay for an app like this, but if you’re gonna give it tons of use then maybe you could justify it like that. What are your thoughts?

This was the week Apple publicly followed up in on its announcement that iCloud would be pivotal throughout the next decade. The release of Mountain Lion reaffirming their intention to make the user experience more consistent across every device, with iCloud as the centre. James Cull’s piece on the convergence of iOS and OS X outlines the changes announced so far, and inspired a lively debate into whether this is really a step forwards!

This is the fourth episode in a feature series called ‘What’s Hot’ that will look to give you something interesting to chew on at the end of the week. We’ll look at any great new Mac apps (including editor and reader favourites), interesting pieces of news, and other miscellaneous artifacts…

This week has been considerably more eventful than last week, with a surprise announcement that was unique in its timing and, almost as interestingly, its delivery. Before we dive in it’s more than worth reading James’ post on the announcement of Mountain Lion, and don’t skimp on the comments – the debate following the announcement is fascinating in itself!

Five Things

1. Mountain Lion

It sure feels soon for another Big Cat. But there it is, Apple is already readying the next version of OS X for testing and moving them in to a clear one-year product cycle. This is a pretty contentious in itself, raising questions over the quality and substance of future updates.

The bigger question, however, is over the general direction of OS X. I’m all for cohesion, but there’s little love for the idea of an iOS-style interface for the Mac. I think it’s very unlikely Apple will go too far in that direction, but it’s unnerving to think they might.

Jeremy made a great comment on James’ article that sums up the way we’re hoping it goes;

I don’t mind Apple “blending” iOS with OS X at all. There is ONE requirement though. Do NOT take away OS X features to make it fit into iOS. I don’t want my Mac to become a big iPad. I do, however, like having iOS features added to OS X.

The thing I’m really excited about with this release is the idea that everything will work effortlessly with iCloud. I can’t wait until my Mac is seamlessly integrated with iCloud the way that my iPhone and iPad are, right now it feels like it’s lagging behind, trying to keep up with the features that iOS devices take for granted. It shouldn’t have to be that way around, and Apple appears to be fixing that.

2. A New Way to Announce

One of the interesting things about the announcement of Mountain Lion was the nature of the release. No fanfare, no live text feeds, no on-stage demonstrations, just a selection of journalists given a presentation in a 1-to-1 setting. Jon Gruber’s piece on the experience is worth a read, if only because he seems more intrigued by the nature of the presentation than by the content.

I do understand why Apple has gone in this direction, but it’s still pretty fascinating. Mountain Lion will get full coverage at WWDC, and Apple is reluctant to bring on a case of event-overload ahead of their pivotal iPad announcement in March. What do you think about their decision to present Mountain Lion to journalists rather than hold a stage event?

3. Messages

We’ve had a day or so to try out the new Messages app that Scott took a look at on Friday, what’s the verdict?

It’s great to have Apple release Messages into the wild in order to satiate people’s ravenous appetites, but is it anything more than a moderately useful feature that feels like a given?

There are some distinctly useful ways to use Messages on your Mac, quickly sharing photos being one of them, but really we’re just happy to have all of our chats (and video calls) in one place.

4. 10 Mac Apps That Your Kids Can Use

This roundup post is the first part of a three-part series of roundups dedicated to finding apps for your home and family life. We all know how useful an iPad or iPhone is for amusing small people, but there also are some great Mac apps available to occupy their attention. If you have kids you should already be there!

5. App Prices Are on the Rise

I loved reading this piece by Matt, mostly because it exemplifies my feelings about paying for apps. Do you find you have a strong paying bias?

I find the direction of the App Store to be seriously encouraging for the state of software on the Mac, it’s becoming a more mature market. I’m willing to pay for quality software, but there needs to be a good balance. It’ll be interesting to see where the average price of an app settles in a year or so.

Your Thoughts

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts – simply post a comment below! Are you a developer for OS X, are you excited or frustrated at the prospect of having yearly updates to contend with?

We go through a lot of apps here at Mac.Appstorm. We review a ton of applications and we research and test even more. A fair amount of time is spent on trolling the App Store as well as the web searching for applications worth a review.

I’ve become increasingly more aware that I’ve developed a bias toward paid applications. I don’t think I’m alone with this viewpoint. I see people in my circle more interested in paying for apps now than more than ever. What does this mean? Is the market maturing?

A Paying Bias

When the iOS App Store was launched there was some dissent about the low pricing of the applications. The argument for a $0.99 application was that it would, with the help of Apple’s ecosystem, sell on a much larger scale than otherwise possible. More people would be enticed to try out the application at that price as well. For the most part I’d say it’s pretty evident that that idea was true. A lot of developers have done very well selling $0.99 applications.

When the Mac App Store launched the pricing wasn’t as big of an issue as there was already some precedence to application pricing in that world. But, there were plenty of free options available as well. It’s hard to say exactly what a developer’s strategy would have been with a free app, but possibly to get some notoriety in a new marketplace (6Wunderkinder used Wunderlist to build up to the premium Wunderkit).

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve noticed a recent bias with myself concerning paid applications. I know it’s not always correct, but they feel like the safer bet to me. If an application is free I’m immediately skeptical. What’s the catch? Ad bombardment? Half the functionality? There has to be something. Sometimes there is no catch, but most of the time there is. It’s fairly difficult to find a truly free application (fully functional, no ads, etc.) that isn’t connected to some other overarching service (i.e. DropBox, Google, Facebook). I’m just not that interested in all that comes along with a so-called free app so I typically avoid them.

Prices are Going Up

Along with realizing my own feelings about this I’ve also noticed the prices of applications going up in general. Like I said, we spend a lot of time researching apps and I am definitely finding fewer free ones and fewer of the super cheap ones. Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray released a report this summer that clearly illustrates the increase in app store prices. There was a dip in overall pricing in 2010, but 2011 saw a 14% increase. I think the market and the consumers are maturing.

I don’t think I’m the only one with the paid app bias and I think that developers are very well aware of it. When I research an application I’ll search for it both in the App Store and throughout the web. I’ve noticed some instances of app price contradictions. I’d read about an application from a few months ago mentioning one price and then go to the App Store and see another. There could be several other factors involved here of course, but the instances I’ve seen lately are always price increases. Either from free to paid or a raise in the cost.

Final Thoughts

This definitely isn’t a bad thing. I think a vast majority of the prices developers are asking for their apps are completely reasonable. In fact, there are probably still many instances where apps are actually underpriced. What I think has happened is that people have realized the value in applications and the developers are rightfully capitalizing on it.

It’s really more of a shift in the direction the App Stores should be in. I think we’d all (developers excluded) love a world where we could download any app we wanted and not pay a dime, but that’s not how a retail market works. People are becoming increasingly more willing to pay for the apps they want and need and that’s great for the entire ecosystem. Developers get what they deserve and continue to innovate and we as consumers are happy to compensate them for it. That’s the way it’s supposed to be and it’s cool to see us moving in that direction.

Does it still bother me a bit when I see an app I want to review has gone from free to paid? A little. But in the end I think it’s better for everyone. Consumers get better apps and the developers get compensated for them. Everyone wins.

When iTunes was first released, it quickly impressed users with its intuitive interface and extensive feature list, soon becoming the standard music app not only for Mac users, but many Windows users as well. Though it started out strong, the constant addition of new features and subsequent decreases in performance have left many dissatisfied users complaining of sluggishness and feature bloat.

Enqueue is one of several new apps attempting to offer an alternative to iTunes for frustrated Mac users, offering a simplified experience, better performance, and improved features. Let’s find out if it delivers!

First Thing’s First:

Enqueue is not a replacement for iTunes: it won’t sync your music to your iPod, it won’t connect you to the iTunes store, it won’t support AirPlay or iTunes Match, and because Apple keeps these features to themselves, you’re stuck with iTunes if you want them. Enqueue is an app purely meant for playing music on your Mac, and I’ll evaluate it as such.

Getting Started with Enqueue

Since we all manage our music through iTunes, we’re going to need to grab songs from the iTunes library. When you first open up Enqueue, you’re offered the option to import your music from iTunes, add files manually, or ‘watch’ folders. The iTunes import is surprisingly quick and painless, and can be updated at any time from Preferences.

Monitored folders is also a handy feature, it allows you to set a folder destination for your new music, and Enqueue will add new files from this folder to its library. Again, you can add new folders to be monitored at any time from Preferences.

Interface

Enqueue features a customizable browser that allows you to browse your music by genre, artist, album, or title, and gives you an option of two main browser layouts: the default has a three-pane drill-down browser at the top, or you can switch to a 2-pane browser where the left panel lists genre, artists, albums or composers, and the right panel lists tracks (you can also choose to show tracks by album). All these options can be configured from the View menu. Enqueue also has an option for full-screen mode in Lion if you’re into that.

Queue it up

Unlike iTunes, where you select one track, album, or playlist to listen to, Enqueue lets you create a queue of the next tracks you want listen to with a simple drag-and-drop interface. You can drag a track, album, artist, or genre to the queue panel on the far left of the interface to add it to you lineup, or double-click a track to add the entire list it is displayed in to your queue (e.g. the ‘Pop/Rock’ genre or a specific artist or album). A music queue, created on the fly without the commitment of a playlist, is a simple, intuitive idea that’s been adopted by a number of new music players, and once you’ve used it you’ll wonder why iTunes never came up with it.

 

If you’ve created a queue worth keeping, you can save it as a playlist from the gear menu at the top of the queue.

Listening to Music

Enqueue features a smaller mini-player showing only the queue and playback controls (Shift + Cmd + M) and you can also control playback from any app using customizable global keyboard shortcuts. I liked the default Ctrl + Alt + Cmd shortcut prefix because you can hit it with one hand and minimal accuracy. As you go through your queue, Enqueue will display growl notifications when the track changes so you know where you’re at.

Enqueue gives you equalizer control with the option to save your custom settings, though it doesn’t have many useful pre-set equalizer settings.

Keeping Track

You can take a look at your listening history from the History tab, where your top artists and songs, and recently played or added songs are displayed in a subtly attractive table.

You can also keep track of your listening habits using last.fm by connecting your account through Preferences. Last.fm integration is seamless, and doesn’t require you to download the client.

Conclusion

Enqueue isn’t alone in the field of minimal music players, but its intuitive interface and customizable view options make it a strong competitor. Sonora shares the queue feature and minimalism, but I find the focus on browsing by album to be inflexible. Ecoute is an iTunes-integrated, standalone app with a very minimal interface, but lacks the queue feature that makes Enqueue and Sonora so handy, and the interface can seem a bit ‘dumbed down’.

My biggest grippe about Enqueue (and about an increasing number of apps theses days) is that it’s exclusively available on the app store, meaning there’s no free trial, and there’s more pressure on me to write a thorough review! So here’s my conclusion: Enqueue does what it does very well. It does not, and never will, sync with your iPod, or support iTunes Match or AirPlay. However, if you regularly play your music from your Mac, and are looking for a more streamlined and efficient experience than iTunes can offer, I can confidently recommend Enqueue. It’s a solid app with a well-thought-out experience and enough flexibility to suit most users.

How do you play music on your Mac? Are you happy with iTunes or are you losing patience with each update? I’m sure I’ve missed plenty of alternative music players, let’s hear about them in the comments!

If you saw our post earlier, then you know that Apple dropped a bomb on us with a sneak preview of the upcoming Mountain Lion update to OS X. James touched briefly on the handful of new features that Apple announced, all of which are exciting and intend to bring an even more iOS-like experience to your Mac. However, because I’m particularly interested in communication, I’m going to go a little bit more in depth with one particular feature of OS X Mountain Lion: Messages.

Messages is the new Mac app that replaces iChat, and the beta is available for download today. I’ve been toying with it all morning, and I have to say that I’m very pleased with it. Hit the jump to see what it’s all about.

It’s All About The Unified Experience

I’ve been absolutely crazy about the things that Apple has done with iOS. I loved the announcement for iMessage, and I thought that the re-imagined FaceTime was great. What always concerned me, though, was the widening gap between the established methods of communicating on the Mac (iChat, and it’s A/V features) and the new technologies that were being implemented across the board. Sure, I downloaded the FaceTime app, but I didn’t see why I’d ever use it for Mac-to-Mac when I can make video calls in iChat. Similarly, having a messaging service that allowed iPhones and iPads to talk to each other, but left Macs out seemed to further widen that gap.

If the Messages beta has shown me one thing, it’s that this is what Apple has been moving toward since they began reinventing these services. It completely unifies the experience of communicating on an Apple product, beginning with the interface.

You can see straight away that the app was designed to mimic the feel of using Messages on the iPhone or, more specifically, the iPad. All the way down to the details, including adding recipients to a message, the service being used displayed in the input field, the blue dot next to an unread message, and even the “…” icon denoting that the other person is typing, Messages feels much more like using an iOS device than using iChat.

Messages also behaves in certain ways that make the communication experience more seamless between devices. Conversations are synced in full between devices, so that no matter where you are you can pick up where you left off. Chat windows support multimedia, as well.

Perhaps best of all, the unified feel of the Messages experience extends to FaceTime. Starting a video conversation with a friend is as easy as clicking the FaceTime icon and selecting a channel.

Now that FaceTime is the premier option for Mac-to-Mac, it’s nice to be able to use the same app, regardless of whether my friend is using his iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Integrated Services

The biggest downfall, I think, when Apple released Messages for iPad was that it was only going to work with other iMessage users. I have a lot of friends who use Apple devices, but not all of them do.

Messages for Mac retains all of the functionality that iChat had, including AIM, Jabber, Bonjour, and Google Talk support. So now you can chat with your AIM friends, and your iMessage friends, in the same unified window. You can even seamlessly switch between communication channels.

One more thing I’d like to note here is that, as far as I can tell, the search bar in Messages’ combined window will actually search any of your saved iChat logs, and pull the results up in Messages format. As someone who enjoys having, and saving, in-depth conversations with people online, having this feature built in is exceptionally handy, allowing me to quickly reference anything from any conversation, without having to remember which day of the year that conversation took place.

Final Thoughts

Messages doesn’t perfectly meld all of my Apple devices together into a flawless communication and productivity fleet. Aside from certain identification issues, such as being able to bind my iPhone number to each of my devices, or to communicate with my AIM friends through Messages on my phone, I noticed that Twitter user @shawnblanc captured my biggest complaint quite nicely:

The fact that incoming iMessages now buzz on 3 devices is proof we’ll never get Calendar alerts to buzz on just 1. Sigh.

— Shawn Blanc (@shawnblanc) February 16, 2012

 

I think that Messages is a step in the right direction, and probably the most exciting of the upcoming apps that Apple could have chosen to release in beta today. It, and Mountain Lion in general, introduces some interesting (and for some, exciting) changes to OS X. Some of you, however, might still be harkening back to the days of System 6, and can take or leave all of this iOS business. Let us know what you think about this crash course between iOS and OS X!

Tumblita, is an extremely fast and easy way to post all of your content to Tumblr. This awesome app is available for both Mac and iOS and today we’re super excited to announce that we’ll be giving away five copies! Each winner will receive App Store codes for both the Mac and the iOS version.

Tweet to Enter

Entering is simple, all you have to do is click the link below and send out the resulting tweet (or just copy and paste), then leave a comment below with a link to your tweet. That’s it!

We’ll announce the winners one week from today on Wednesday, February 8th. Good luck to everyone who enters and thanks for reading Mac.AppStorm!

Just over 6 months after the current release of OS X was released, codenamed “Lion”, Apple is already teasing us about the next major update to its default operating system, Mountain Lion. The preview of OS X 10.8 was released today to registered developers with Apple, with summer touted as the general release date to the public.

It seems like this release of OS X is trying to bridge the gap between Apple’s Mac range of computers and their line of iOS devices, such as the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. New features for Mountain Lion include a Notification Centre, Reminders, full native Twitter integration and iMessage (all of which came along in the last overhaul of iOS).

Let’s have a quick peek at what we can expect come summer.

Notification Center

OS X Mountain Lion will feature a notification centre similar to the one currently found on devices running iOS 5, however instead of swiping to bring it down, it will appear on the right-hand side of your screen. You will be able to choose exactly which notifications you want and the Notifications Centre will be available from any app, including full-screen ones (you simply have to swipe to the right to reveal them).

Although OS X has a pretty decent notifications system already in the form of Growl, it seems like native notifications will help you keep up to date with what’s happening across all your programs, ensuring you don’t miss out on anything.

Messages

iMessage is a free and easy way of keeping in touch with all your friends who have got an iOS device – and now it’s heading over to OS X. Touted as “Apple’s BBM”, it uses either your phone number (if you’ve got an iPhone) or your e-mail address (if you’ve got an iPad or iPod touch) to allow you to send chat messages and pictures.

As with iMessage on iOS devices, the program syncs all your chats, so you can leave a conversation on your Mac and carry it on on your iPhone, meaning that you don’t miss out on anything.

If you can’t wait for Mountain Lion to be released, then you can download Messages Beta from Apple’s website, which will replace iChat already installed on your Mac. Messages also works with AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk and Jabber accounts and also integrates FaceTime directly from the app.

Native Twitter Integration

Like iOS 5, Mountain Lion will feature native Twitter integration from apps such as Safari, and will allow you to tweet links, photos and comments directly from any supported app. You’ll also get instant push notifications if someone mentions you in a tweet or sends you a direct message, something which is missing from the default Twitter app for Mac.

iCloud

The new release of OS X also integrates very tightly with iCloud, which was released along with iOS 5 last October. With native iCloud support, you can rest assured that your documents, photos, contacts and e-mails are synced across all your iOS devices. So, if you’re editing a document in Pages on your iPad on the way home from work then it will be ready and waiting for you on your Mac when you get back.

Excited?

Although no concrete release date has been announced as of yet, we can expect Mountain Lion to be released sometime this summer (maybe to tie in with that MacBook overhaul and the iPhone 5 launch) as a paid update via the App Store. And with a whole new range of features expected in this release, along with the chatter of the iPad 3, iPhone 5 and iTV, it seems like 2012 is going to be Apple’s strongest year yet.

Please do let us know what you think about this announcement via the comments section below. Are you excited? Or do you think that Apple is just trying too hard to integrate iOS and OS X? Should they keep them two completely separate operating systems? Share your thoughts below!

There was a time when I read a lot more actual books than is possible for me to read these days. I work a full time job, I have a daily commute, I have a family, and I have to try to get some exercise in. It all adds up to make me a little short on “sit down and read” time. Thankfully, I have in the last couple of years discovered an alternative. Audiobooks have been a great way to satisfy my appetite for a good book and still fit into my schedule. I most often listen to books on my commute, or when exercising.

But obviously the best way for me to listen to Audiobooks is on my iPhone since that is always with me. Some of my audiobooks are on CD, and of course I could rip them like any CD and they would appear in my iTunes library, split up awkwardly into different tracks, and mixed in with the rest of my music. But there is a much better way.

Audiobook Builder

The solution to this problem is the application Audiobook Builder which will import an audio source, allow tracks to be organized into chapters, and — as the name indicates — build that into the iTunes Audiobook format, .m4b. This format has obvious advantages over a standard rip of a CD. Most audiobook CDs have the chapters split into several tracks. Sometimes chapters span CDs, and most annoyingly, it’s hard to figure out where you left off last time you listened. The iTunes audiobook format takes care of these problems.

Note

I purchased Audiobook Builder back before the Mac App Store existed and so consequently that’s the version I’ll be working with. But as far as I can tell, there does not seem to be a difference between the two versions (except that there’s no “check for updates” menu item in the Mac Appstore version obviously). They have been updated synchronously and if you click “Buy Now” on the Splasm website, a popup gives you the option of buying on their website or purchasing through the App Store.

The Interface

As we have come to expect from good Mac apps, the interface of Audiobook Builder is simple and easy to understand. When you first start up the application, this is what you see:

Obviously, the two things you might want to do when you fire up the app are:

1. Create a New Project
2. Open an Existing Project

And those things are front and center. Creating a new project will present you with a save dialog box. Much like Garageband, Audiobook Builder Projects are also a container for all the audio files you add or rip. This is why creating the project file is necessary from the start rather than on first save as most apps do.

Book Info

One a project has been created, you will want to enter the appropriate book name, author, and genre. Also be sure to click the “More…” button if you would like to fill in the Narrator field, as well as a few other fields not available on the first screen.

I usually just do a Google Image Search for the cover. Once the image is downloaded, it’s a simple drag and drop in Audiobook Builder. And it will pretty much take any image given to it and make it work.

Importing Media

Now we’re ready to import some audio tracks to work with. If you already have audio tracks that you’ve ripped (pretty much any common audio format) then you can drop them right in. Or you can directly import a CD.

If you have iTunes open when you insert the CD, iTunes will automatically grab the CD title and track names and that information will be available to Audiobook Builder. This can save you a ton of work and guessing. Often, the title of each track that iTunes finds will include chapter information, making things easier when you get to the point of sorting out your chapters.

Organizing Chapters

Now, remember all those tracks, often several per chapter? Well, this is where we solve that problem. Audiobook Builder has a nice chapter building interface. You can drag multiple tracks into a chapter, or drag a track out to create a new chapter. You can also play tracks by click the “Show Details” disclosure triangle to show the track information and player. Chapters can also be given names which will be used in iTunes, or on iPods and iPhones.

At any time you wish, you can always save the project, close it, and come back to it right where you left off.

Building The Audiobook

Once all the chapters are organized and named properly, clicking the right arrow at the bottom of the window will take you to the final step. Most of the time, the default settings will be fine and you can simply click “Build Audiobook.”

When the book is finished building, and it can take a little while if it’s a large book, it will automatically be added to iTunes for you. Audiobook Builder will add it to a “Audiobook Builder” playlist, but it will also show up in the “Books” section of iTunes.

Conclusion

Audiobook Builder is a great application and I found it very easy and intuitive to use right from the start. It fits a very specific function and solves the problem I was having with just importing Audiobook CDs. I can’t imagine any way in which I would improve this app. I highly recommend it if you are in to audiobooks and have, or will be getting audiobook CDs and would like to import them into iTunes.

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 1st, 2011.

So you’ve just bought a new Mac, perhaps even switching from Windows. As you’d expect, your friends come over to marvel at your new computing behemoth. So what do you show them? The way Safari expertly renders CSS drop-shadows, or how easy it is to make a sumptuous scatter graph in Numbers?

Of course not. You want to show them the fun, pointless stuff which will make them recoil in awe.

This post compiles 10 of the best apps, easter eggs and tweaks which serve little purpose but to inspire and amaze you and others. You won’t use these apps every day, but there’s no harm in knowing about them as a fun party trick…

Delicious Library

This is probably the only useful application on the list, but also one which will impress you an awful lot. Delicious Library is an app for cataloging your possessions, from books and software to clothes and toys. This may not sound like the most exciting app, but it has a little feature which brings it to another level.

Using your iSight camera on your Mac, you can scan books, games, music, etc. simply by holding it up to the camera. It will detect the bar code and search Amazon and other databases for the product, providing you with cover art, a description, production details, reviews and recommendations, all in the app.

It won’t find everything you put in front of it, but it does a pretty good job nonetheless.

Developer: Delicious Monster
Price: $30

FluidTunes

Remember the EyeToy, that Kinect precursor that plugged into your PlayStation 2 and allowed you to navigate the PS2 interface ridiculously slowly? Well, imagine an app that allowed you to do the same thing to control iTunes. That’s FluidTunes. Once again, this works via your iSight, and enabling you to browse your media library via waving your hands wildly in the air and hoping for the best.

Unfortunately, you can only select a song through a CoverFlow view, and stop it. No pausing, no skipping, no volume adjustment, nothing. In addition to this, your music is bunched in with podcasts, audiobooks, and even iBooks, so your Beatles mix might suddenly be interrupted by Ricky Gervais at any time. As an app, it’s pretty terrible, but as a novelty piece, it works pretty well.

Developer: MagicJungle
Price: Free

MegaMan Effect

Isn’t it great how quickly apps open in OS X? Well, what if they didn’t? Wouldn’t that be amazing? MegaMan Effect plays a fullscreen introduction to your app in the style of 80s classic NES game Mega Man, complete with retro 8-bit music.

This is fun the first time you use it, but gets old pretty quickly, especially if you forget it’s on and try to open an app in a hurry.

Developer: Clickable Bliss
Price: Free

PhotoBooth

No “useless but fun” app list is complete with PhotoBooth, everybody’s favourite timewaster. If you don’t know what PhotoBooth is, it allows you to take pictures with your iSight camera (yes, that again), and add plenty of “fun” features and effects along the way. These range from the relatively sensible “Black and White” and “Sepia” to the utterly pointless “Thermal Camera” and “Twirl”.

PhotoBooth is one of the few on the lists that you can return to and be vaguely amused by, so don’t delete it just yet.

Developer: Apple
Price: Free (Comes with OS X)

GarageBand Auto-Tune Feature

Auto-tuning is a system where the pitch in vocal and instrumental performances are corrected. You hear Auto-Tuned vocals every 5 minutes on the radio these days, but the full software, developed by Antares, costs $649.

Never fear, as GarageBand has some very basic Auto-Tuning features built-in. It won’t make you the next Lady Gaga (not that you’d want to be) but it’s certainly a noticeable change, and quite fun to play around with.

iTunes Visualisers

I’m guessing that everyone will know about these, but it’s still a great feature of iTunes. Hit Cmd + T to bring up the visualiser in iTunes, and sit in awe whilst you listen to your favourite songs.

Probably the most pleasing visualiser is the default “iTunes visualiser”, but  there are plenty of other great ones around the web, such as these.

Invert Colours

Strictly speaking, this is a feature for accessibility, but is equally useful (and I use the term “useful” very loosely) for anyone. All you have to do is press Cmd + Alt + Ctrl + 8, and all the colours on the screen are inverted.

You can see a black and gold Facebook, a black Finder, and a grey and orange Mac.AppStorm. In fact, iTunes visualisers, mentioned above, look great in negative too. To get out of it, simply press Cmd + Alt + Ctrl + 8 again.

Freeze Window Minimisation

In theory, this is basically crashing your Mac in a very minor, fun way which is easily fixed. It does, however, require a bit of a tutorial…

1. Firstly, open Terminal, and type in “killall Dock” (without the quotes), but don’t enter it yet.
2. Go to another app, and hold Shift whilst hitting the minimise button. This will, as you may well know, cause it to minimise in slow motion.
3. Whilst this is happening, switch back to Terminal and enter that “killall Dock” command. This will freeze your window halfway through minimisation, with all of the features still working fine.

There are a number of apps that this works well on – My favourite being an app with a long list of things you can scroll through, such as Twitter for Mac or NetNewsWire. You get a great, 3D scrolling effect.

To return to normal, press minimise again and bring the window up again.

ASCII Star Wars

Everyone loves ASCII art, right? And everyone loves Star Wars too, right? Well, imagine, if you will, an ASCII version of Star Wars Episode IV, right in Terminal. Guess what – It’s real, and can be accessed by typing “telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl” into Terminal (without quotes).

You’ll need an internet connection, however, but that’s not exactly a huge ask these days. Then just sit back and enjoy some Sci-Fi entertainment.

Games in Terminal

I would imagine that almost everyone reading this has played Snake, the classic arcade game, at least once. Now, you can play it again – this time in Terminal.

To do so, type “emacs” (as always, without quotes) into Terminal. Then, hold Esc and press X.

You are now free to type any game you wish to play into Terminal. You can try “Angry Birds” or “Call of Duty”, but you probably won’t be successful. Try “Snake” or “Tetris” instead, as they certainly work.

Conclusion

So there you have it, ten apps, tricks and features which make your friends sit back and applaud your new computer. Or at the very least, they’ll smile.

Some, you may want to use again and again (Delicious Library, PhotoBooth, Terminal games), and some you may never want to see again (FluidTunes, MegaMan Effect).

Hopefully this post will provide you with a bit of enjoyment, and then you can get back to your all-important alphabetically ordered histogram in Numbers.

As smartphones have advanced over the last few years, their storage capacities have grown by leaps and bounds. All that space means more apps, music, and movies to use while on the go. However, transferring large amounts of media files can be a tedious and time-consuming task, (particularly if you sync over WiFi).

Fortunately, a simple solution exists that allow us to stream our media to phones, tablets and laptops, thus eliminating the need to sync to our various devices. But does the convenience of personal streaming outweigh the limitations inherent to such a solution?

The Problem

When it comes to my music, I hate having to cope with storage limitations on my iPhone. Even with the 32 GB model, I can’t bring my whole library with me. iTunes Match solves that to a certain extent, but it isn’t a true streaming solution. That’s why I’m a fan of the subscription model of digital music. It doesn’t mean I don’t still buy music that I love, but it does allow me to listen to whatever I want while I’m out of the house without picking and choosing what I want to listen to during a daily sync.

The same concept applies to me when it comes to my ripped movies and TV shows. I don’t want to stick just a couple of them on my phone, (which takes an unbearable amount of time to transfer). I want to have access to all my media, all the time. Netflix, Hulu, and similar services will stream some content to you, but their libraries are far more limited than digital music services.

Streaming Your Content

Here is where ServeToMe comes in. It’s a lightweight app that sits in your menubar, and allows you to stream your movies, music and more to your phone or to another Mac. This means that while you’re waiting for your flight, sitting on the train, or neglecting your duties at work, you can watch whatever you want from your collection without ever having to sync it to your phone or laptop.

Once you install ServeToMe, you choose what you want to stream. I keep all my ripped music, movies and TV shows on an external drive connected to my wireless router. After selecting that volume, I was greeted by a few other options. Perhaps the most important one to consider is the streaming quality. I mostly rip DVDs that have a 480p resolution, so I was fine with using that setting. However, if you want to rip your Blu-Ray collection, you can stream at 720p, (though not 1080p). If you have an old computer or a slow internet connection in your home where your server will be running, you can choose lower quality feeds (320 and 240).

Performance

Since ServeToMe is the app that will be doing the transmitting, you will need to have a computer, (either a desktop, laptop, or Mac Mini), which will be running while you are out of the house. You need to install the StreamToMe software on whatever you plan to do the watching/listening.

I began with streaming my music first to my Mac then to my iPhone. For both the audio and video tests, I went to my neighbor’s apartment and connected to his WiFi to make sure everything was transmitting across the Internet and not just my home network.

The ServeToMe software delivers everything very quickly, but is limited by whatever hardware it has to deal with. For me, that meant that I had to wait while my external drive spun up, because I use a drive designed for storage rather than one meant to be a media server. I certainly can’t fault the app for that, but it is worth being aware of. Once it spun up, changing songs was quick, but the delay was still longer than if the songs had been stored locally on the computer.

I was pleased with music streaming, but I didn’t start using ServeToMe for audio – I wanted to stream video. I navigated over to the movie folder, and made a selection. The quality on my Mac was excellent. The audio and video were both equal to what the original file looks like. I sat through a full 90 minutes of a film and did not experience a single hiccup in the stream.

Mobile Devices

In searching for a solution for my video streaming needs, I was primarily interested in watching these things on my iPhone during a commute. I was very pleased with the streaming experience on my Mac, but wanted to see how everything would go on my phone. The StreamToMe app, which is the aforementioned Mac app necessary to view on your computer whatever it is that ServeToMe is streaming to you, is also available on the App Store for your iPhone and iPad, (it is universal, so it will work for both).

For music, iPhone performance was also very good, though the interface on the mobile app is a bit on the ugly side. Cover art will be displayed, but the navigation isn’t exactly on par with the native Music app. For video, I was very surprised that the quality on 3g was just about as good as it was when I tried it on WiFi. I started off streaming at the normal 480p, then worked my way down. The lower resolutions looked fine, considering that the iPhone’s screen is so small that any pixelation would go mostly unnoticed.

The one place where the app ran into some problems was when I tried jumping around to different points in a movie. The first jump or two was fine but it started to choke when I tried just scrolling to a different place in the movie rather than selecting a specific point.

Competition

The main competition to ServeToMe is called AirVideo. If you want a review of AirVideo, well, you just read it. These two apps are just about identical (when it comes to streaming to your mobile device). However, ServeToMe has the advantage of being able to stream from a Mac to another Mac, whereas AirVideo only goes to mobile devices. Additionally, AirVideo cannot stream audio, only video.

Limitations

Perhaps the biggest problem with this over something like Pogoplug is that you have to leave whatever computer awake that you want to act as the server. If you are not familiar with Pogoplug, essentially what it does is take a drive you have and make it accessible in the cloud. This is nice if you are interested in viewing and editing documents, or doing anything beyond just viewing content. Plus, as I mentioned, you don’t need to leave a computer on all day to stream things to you.

Another potential limitation is that it doesn’t convert video on the fly. That means that if you have some video in a format that the iPhone or iPad doesn’t like, it won’t be able to convert it to a more friendly format (apparently it was just my installation that is buggy with this feature, the app does indeed have this feature). Quite frankly, however, you really should be in the habit of converting your video to a widely used format anyway. If you are planning on ripping DVDs just for viewing on your phone, many programs like Handbrake have presets for encoding just for iPhone, which will save space on your drive by using a smaller resolution.

Perhaps the most important limitation isn’t directly related to the app, but to this solution as a whole: bandwidth. Remember that if you are using this to stream to your phone over 3g that you are eating into that monthly data limit, (and when it comes to video, you’ll see that data disappear quickly). I am lucky enough to be grandfathered into an unlimited plan, but who knows how long that will last? Another bandwidth concern should be your home Internet. Many ISPs have limits on both the download and upload transfers for a household in a month. If they have separate limits for data up and down, you may be surprised by how much some ISPs limit data that is sent up, (which is what any of the stuff you are using ServeToMe for would be considered).

Pricing

ServeToMe is a free download. The apps you will use to receive content vary. If you are planning on watching your video or listening to your audio on another Mac, you can get StreamToMe for free from the Mac App Store. If you are planning on using it on your iPhone or iPad, it will cost you 3 bucks.

Conclusion

This is the kind of app that just does exactly what it claims to do, and does it very well. It isn’t overly complicated, and what extras it does have are very welcome, (such as allowing you to password protect your drives so no one else can access your content). Performance for both audio and video were excellent, and the ability to choose the quality of the streams gives you the perfect flexibility you might need if you have hardware limitations.

ServeToMe (the server app) and StreamToMe (the stream receiving app) are both free on the Mac, which makes whatever minor interface complaints I had just about irrelevant. The iOS app is $3, but considering that it works so well and is universal makes the price quite reasonable. I have no reservations about recommending this app to anyone who wants to stream their movies, tv shows and music straight to their phone, tablet, or laptop.

When you’ve been working hard, it’s always great to take a break. Some like to check Facebook, others like to read a real book. I’m a big fan of playing a quick game of some sort. Usually, I play a game on my iPhone. It’s fast, the games load in no time and there are tons and tons of games that are really easy to only play for 5 minutes at a time. Lately, however, I’ve been leaving my phone in a different room or turning it off so I’m not distracted by calls when I need to work. As a result, I decided it was high time I found some games for my Mac that are worthwhile to play for just 5 minutes at a time.

During my search for games, I had a few requirements for each of the games. They had to boot quickly, be entertaining, easy to pick up and to put down, and I wanted free games. I’ve put together a collection of 15 of my favorites (although there were at least 15 more that I thought about including). These games meet all of my requirements, and while they’re not always the most attractive games, they’re free and generally addicting. Read on for a few classics and several games you’ve probably never played.

 

How Do You Kill 5 Minutes?

I’ve introduced you to 15 great, free time-wasters. It’s nice to have games like this around, to take some time to decompress and relax for at least a few minutes. There are a variety of games in this article, so I’m sure you’ll be able to find at least a few that suit your likes and desires.

That being said, I’m curious to know what you play if you only have a few minutes. Is it one of these games or do you have your own personal favorites? What games do you think are worth paying for if you’re only ever going to play for a few minutes at a time? Let me know in the comments below.

Since Alfred was released last year, it’s become an essential timesaver for pretty much every single Mac user, as it allows you to launch applications and find files quickly and easily. Now, the Cambridge-based company have pushed out an update to this popular app, Alfred 1.1, adding several improvements and a few new goodies.

If you’ve chosen to pay for the Powerpack (which is available for the measly price of £15 – around $24), then the update adds an Address Book contact viewer, which allows you to search for your contacts and display all the information saved about them directly in Alfred, rather than having to open them up in OS X’s address book. You’ll have to enable this feature first though (go to Preferences > Features > Address Book) for it to work properly. The contact viewer also allows you to integrate with your contacts a lot easier – for example you can dial your friend’s number via Skype or send him an e-mail directly from Alfred – a real bonus and timesaver for a lot of people.

The update has also added several subtle improvements and has fixed a whole list of bugs (for the full change log, see here). To grab hold of this brand spanking new update to a simply fantastic productivity app, head over to the download section of Alfred’s website to get it. The update has not yet been pushed out to those who have purchased Alfred from the App Store so in the meantime hold your horses or manually download it from their website.

As always, please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below. Are you impressed with the new update? Has this made Alfred simply better for you? Let us know!

The market for DJ software has never been bigger, as more and more bedroom DJs shun purchasing traditional equipment such as turntables and CDJs in favour of the more accessible and cheaper software option. As a DJ who got into the hobby through the use of software, I’m always on the lookout for new programs that boast an impressive range of tools, while still remaining affordable for newcomers to DJing.

Mixxx, an open source digital DJ app that started life way back in 2001 as a university project has recently become a hot topic among computer DJs following the 1.10.0 release in December, which added a number of features that until recently were only found on more expensive DJ software such as Traktor and Virtual DJ.

I decided to download Mixxx for myself and thoroughly test it out to see if it truly was a replacement for my current favourites, Traktor and Virtual DJ. Read on for my thoughts.

Interface

On opening the application, I was surprised at how professional Mixxx looked: clean and relatively simple but with every feature a beginner or intermediate DJ would need to get into the world of DJing or simply build on the skills they already have. The default skin (there are a number of skins to suit different tastes) reminded me alot of the more expensive Traktor Pro, following the tried and tested layout of placing the virtual decks above your library of songs.

This layout allows for easy browsing of the songs you want to play, which makes life much simpler both in the comfort of your own bedroom or when under pressure in a live environment. It also allows you to focus all of your energy on creating the perfect mix, rather than wasting time searching high and low for the ideal song.

The number of skins available for Mixxx means that you really can tailor the software to your individual needs. The default interface in my opinion is best suited to beginner DJs who simply need to learn how to mix two songs together. Other skins (such as the one below) are much more suited to DJs who are interested in scratching and turntablism.

When you start using Mixxx I would suggest spending an hour or so trying out all the different layouts and finding one that suits you best. It may be that you prefer a certain colour scheme (admittedly the default skin is quite dark) or you would simply like to have some of the buttons in different places. Every DJ is different in what he/she likes to work with and luckily Mixxx allows you the freedom to find the perfect layout for you.

Features

The list of features that Mixxx boasts is seriously impressive, especially when you consider that it is completely free. With the latest release of Mixxx I was surprised to see features that were only previously found on higher end DJ software options. For example, quantized looping, which automatically loops the track for you to avoid any looping disasters. Hot cue support is also included, allowing more experienced DJs the chance to drop the beat exactly when they want.

Automatic BPM (Beats per Minute) detection is an essential tool for the beginner DJ, which makes beat matching much simpler and with the BPM displayed to two decimal places you should never face a problem matching up the BPMs of your tracks. There is also a sync feature which automatically matches the BPMs of the two tracks for you, ensuring your songs are always perfectly beat matched (even if they become slightly out of time, simply hit the sync button again and Mixxx will instantly nudge the tracks back into sync for you). The sync feature is a great inclusion as it allows first time users the chance to make some excellent sounding mixes without much practice.

Another feature that I love is that Mixxx is compatible with a huge range of MIDI controllers, which allows you much more control over the software instead of using the mouse and keyboard, allowing you to try more experimental things within your mix. I tested the software out with both my old Numark MixTrack Pro controller and my Pioneer CDJ – 350 setup and it worked equally well.

Some other cool features are the inclusion of EQ kill buttons, enabling the highs, mids and lows to be cut from the song at the click of a button. When used creatively, this can be a great way to build energy within your mix and keep the crowd dancing long into the night.

An unfortunate exclusion I feel, is the lack of some sort of visual aid to help with counting the bars of the songs you are playing, this is a feature that can be found on some of Mixxx’s competitors such as the free version of Virtual DJ – an aid that, when I started DJing, I found to be extremely useful in helping me make sure my mixes were perfect. The waveform display in Mixxx is relatively helpful with this, but to be 100% certain that the bars on each track match up, you have to manually listen to the tracks and count the bars out yourself. Whilst this may seem like a trivial matter to experienced DJs, counting bars can be one of the more difficult aspects of DJing for the beginner who is new to the hobby.

Conclusion

Overall, Mixxx is a very impressive piece of software, the fact that it is free is even more astonishing. The features and usability of Mixxx are on par with other DJ software packages, many of which you have to pay for. To answer the question posed in the title of this article: yes – Mixxx is, in my opinion, a serious contender to both Virtual DJ and Traktor.

However, I believe that it is best suited to beginner DJs due to its ease of use, the fact it is free (therefore meaning no outlay for those who aren’t sure they want to take up DJing as a hobby) and because more experienced DJs will most probably have already purchased a software solution – be that Virtual DJ, Traktor Pro, Ableton or one of the many other software options out there for computer DJs. From beginner to professional I doubt Mixxx will disappoint.

This post is part of a three-part series of roundups dedicated to finding apps for your home and family life. In part one, we’ll focus on fun and educational apps for your kids.

So you’ve bought your shiny new Mac, and you’ve got it all set up on your desk, ready to go. Even the kids can sense the wonder and awe emanating from behind those office doors. Surely you can find some time in between all of those important projects to let them play, right? But what will they do? You don’t want to set them loose on the vast expanse of the Internet, but something tells you that they’ll find your Numbers spreadsheets a bit less than exciting.

Fortunately for you, I’ve rounded up a handful of fun and productive apps that your kids will enjoy using on your Mac, and I will introduce them to you in this first part of our series on Mac apps for your home and family. Disclaimer: I assume no responsibility for children hogging the family computer.

Cerebrally Stimulating Games

It’s probably safe to say that most kids are primarily attracted to fun. So why not start with some games that are not only enjoyable, but will also help get that gray matter pumping?

Apps For Learning

Arguably, playing any game is better for your child’s development than a less engaging activity like watching TV, but that’s a topic for another discussion. Before gaming, your kid should probably do his homework.

 

Creative Skill Building

Your child is surely well on his/her way to having substantially developed academic skills, but what’s a well-rounded child without some form of creative expression?

Conclusion

Well there you have it. Sometimes, in order not to appear selfish, we all have to let our children use the computer for just a little bit. Hopefully you’ve learned about some apps today that will give them something more constructive to do than haphazardly reorganizing your bookmarks.

Do your kids (or any kids you know) use Mac apps I haven’t mentioned here? Let us know!

There’s been a lot of discussion in the past couple of years in the Mac community about the level of importance OS X and the Apple desktop experience has in the overall hierarchy at Apple. For instance, PCWorld recently posted a piece boldly titled, “Mac OS Dwindles in Importance to Apple.”

Our poll question today is aimed at getting your opinion on this. Do you feel like OS X development and progress has taken a backseat in Apple’s eyes to the newer and more exciting iOS platform? Cast your vote in the poll and let us know.

Once you’ve voted, answer an even more important question in the comments: is this a good thing? There’s perhaps an inherent bias in the question that assumes that putting less attention towards OS X in favor of iOS is somehow negative. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. If iOS truly is the future of Apple, then isn’t it good that they’re diverting so much time, effort and resources to that project?

However, many of us still work on a Mac desktop for 40+ hours per week and therefore might not be too happy at the thought of Apple putting our beloved operating system on the back burner. Then again, maybe this argument is void and Apple hasn’t slowed their progress on OS X in the least. What do you think?