Software

It’s Magiq! Plasq’s new comic book creator

Posted on May. 8, ’08, 11:37 AM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Software

Plasq makes some great stuff — like the famous Comic Life comic-creator that was pre-installed on consumer Macs, and my favorite, Skitch, a unique and amazingly-handy screen shot app. And they’re pushing the limits of imagination again with Comic Life Magiq, a new, more in-depth and flexible approach to comic-booking, wrapped in a beautiful and — dare I say — fun to use interface.

It isn’t really an “upgrade” to their original Comic Life, but a more Pro-like version of the concept with a slew of comprehensive and creative imaging features: professionally-designed templates and comic graphics, more-advanced comic object manipulation, Vector brushes, bezier paths, masking tools, an integrated image editor, and a bunch more.

But the interface is arguably Magiq’s best quality — it’s cartoony itself, harnessing Magiq’s myriad of features in a simple, intuitive, and pretty-looking design. The whole construction of the app makes you want to use it…like making a comic book would be fun or something.

Comic Life Magiq is available for the limited-time price of $40, with a cross-upgrade for $20 for owners of the current Comic Life. Check the site for more details and a 30-day demo. (Note about the demo: When I downloaded it, Safari added a “.bz2” extension which made the file unusable. Simply remove that extension — leaving the .dmg — and open the file. An image should mount that contains the app.)

OpenOffice 3.0 beta finally embraces Aqua

Posted on May. 8, ’08, 5:20 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

OpenOffice 3.0 has reached public beta status. They’ve actually taken the Mac community’s criticism to heart and this is the first version to sport an all new Aqua interface.

With Version 3.0, OpenOffice.org is now able to run on Mac OS X without the need for X11. Thus, OpenOffice.org behaves like any other Aqua application. The cool thing is, while the market leading office suite vendor dropped VBA support and the Solver feature, OpenOffice.org recently introduced limited VBA support and includes a powerful Solver component. In addition, OpenOffice.org integrates well with the Mac OS X accessibility APIs, and thus offers better accessibility support than many other Mac OS X applications. Finally, people like OpenOffice.org 3.0 for Mac OS X because of its very good stability and performance. Reportedly, some Mac users have switched to OpenOffice.org just because of its extremely good stability.

Ouch, ouch. Microsoft must be searching for its cup right now. I still remain skeptical that dropping VBA support in Microsoft Office for Mac was the right move. At any rate, this is a way to get even rudimentary support.

I’d also like to suggest that the OpenOffice folks lay off the use of the word “good”. While “good” is superlatively good, it’s not jaw-droppingly good. A thesaurus is our friend. OpenOffice has one, right?

Anyway, the download is now available and I expect some expert reader commentary on the new interface. I’ll be sticking with iWork. Turns out it has everything I needed.

The Search for a Free Spanning Sync: Part…eh, who’s keeping count?

Posted on May. 7, ’08, 3:34 PM PT by Aaron Freedman

Category | Software

For more than a year now, I’ve been on the hunt for a free alternative to Spanning Sync, the paid application for bi-directional syncing between Google Calendar and iCal. Recently, a new alternative to Spanning Sync has entered the fray, one that is actually a branch-off of a previous app I wrote about – Calgoo.

This new app is called Calgoo Connect. As its name suggests, Calgoo Connect is made by the same people that make Calgoo, a desktop calendar app that can sync with Google Calendar and 30 Boxes. The difference between Calgoo Connect and its older sibling is that Calgoo Connect is not a standalone calendar app but instead a service for bi-directional syncing between iCal and Micorosft Outlook and Google Calendar, 30 Boxes, and Calgoo Hub, Calgoo’s own online calendar sharing service.

While this may seem like the perfect app for iCal-gCal syncing, especially if you have a Windows machine with an Outlook calender, there is one major downside – price. Calgoo Connect will run you $30/year, $5 more than what Spanning Sync costs. Of course, those extra five bucks get you more calendar services for syncing, but for someone who wants simple, two-way syncing between iCal and Google Calendar, Calgoo Connect just won’t cut it. But, if Calgoo could release a free, “lite” version of their Connect app, it may be just the program I’m looking for.

CrossOver 7.0.0 hits beta

Posted on May. 7, ’08, 1:20 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi

Category | Windows

Since we talked about running Windows apps on the Mac yesterday, here’s a piece of news I missed — CodeWeavers last week announced the first beta release of CrossOver 7, the next version of its tool to run Windows apps on the Mac…without Windows.

CrossOver 7 includes an up-to-the-minute version of Wine which means greatly expanded application support. Newly supported applications include Photoshop CS and many of the programs within MS Office 2007. There are many additional features and functions which should greatly improve unsupported application behavior as well.

The advantage of CrossOver over apps like Parallels or Fusion is the ability to run Windows programs without having to run Windows itself in a separate environment. There are many compatible programs that work near-flawlessly — and many that aren’t listed that work just as well.

This beta represents a comforting sign that this form of pseudo-virtualization is still making strides, despite the public’s seeming lack of recognition of its benefits. That’s why I keep writing about CrossOver — when it works, it works great, and is a very ideal alternative to running basic Windows apps without the hassle of launching another OS and the resource requirements of running two at the same time. (Plus, you eliminate the overhead of Windows itself, in terms of stability and performance.)

Check after the bump for a more detailed changelog, and hit up CodeWeaver’s site to get some more details about CrossOver. Give it a try — who knows, it might fill That One Need you didn’t know you…needed. Or something.

Many Tricks says it’s okay to Leech

Posted on May. 7, ’08, 10:16 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

Ever need to download a bunch of files at the exact same time? Wish you had a little more control than that offered by your web browser? The clever folks at Many Tricks, the creators of the popular Butler, have released a new download manager called Leech that allows you to do just that.

Firing up Leech presents you with a rather standard looking Downloads window, adorned with an inviting “Drag URLs Here” placeholder. You can do just as the window suggests, or you can paste your URLs into a dialog box summoned with command-O (or chosen from the File menu). Once you’ve got your URLs loaded up, Leech allows you to pause and resume your downloads, and its handy dock icon tells you not only how many files you’re downloading, but also shows you the rough overall level of completion.

Leech is full of other options, such as specifying download folders, letting you decide whether the app should quit when it’s done, and more. If you’re a frequent voluminous downloader, it’s probably worth a look. It’s a Universal Binary and it’ll cost you just &eur;9.95 (~US$15). You can grab a 25-launch demo version from the Many Tricks site, above.

[via Macworld]

Time Machine backups and Aperture are like oily water

Posted on May. 7, ’08, 9:25 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

For you Aperture users out there who have noticed particularly heavy disk usage during a Time Machine backup, here’s the explanation for those woes: according to an Apple knowledge base article, if Aperture is running when a Time Machine backup occurs and the Aperture library is included in the backup.

Turns out Time Machine doesn’t really like that, so it will exclude your Aperture library from the backup. Instead, it’ll wait until you quit Aperture and then back up your entire library, not just the changes since the last backup.

Not terribly convenient, but then again, neither is Apple’s workaround, which involves disabling Time Machine’s automatic backups and then backing up manually when you’re not running Aperture. In fact, the doc goes so far as to say “Avoid performing backups or restores while Aperture is running.” Great.

I’m not an Aperture user myself, so I haven’t run into this—how about you guys?

Times RSS reader makes headlines

Posted on May. 5, ’08, 11:29 AM PT by Aayush Arya

Category | Software

Dustin MacDonald, the developer behind Wallet, recently released Times, an RSS feed reader that behaves like no other application in its category. Instead of showing you your feeds in the form of emails, like we’re accustomed to, Times displays them in a time-honored format for news-reading: the newspaper.

Powered by Core Animation, the application is rife with beautiful animations and effects. The scrollbar, for example, seems to have been inspired by the one on the iPhone, appearing only when you scroll and then getting out of your way.

But it’s not the graphical goodness that would make you want to pay $30 CAD for it. What we’re looking for is functionality and, in that department, I think the application sorely disappoints.

Sure, I like the fact that I can read all the headlines at a glance and customize the layout according to my needs. But when I’m looking to plough through hundreds of unread stories each day, this is just not the ideal method. Scrolling down to the end of a newly read entry and hitting the spacebar again doesn’t even take you to the next unread item. That, in and of itself, makes the application pretty much useless for me.

However, if you’re more the newspaper type, i.e. you like to see all the new stories spread out before you and be able to pick and choose which ones to read, then it just might be the right fit for you. Grab a free time-limited trial copy from the Acrylic Software website and give it a run.

Your Xbox Live buddies are only an F12 away

Posted on May. 2, ’08, 9:52 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Software

The power of the Internet continues to amaze me—much like the power of cheese. A few months back, my longtime friend and partner-in-crime Jason complained on the blog my friends and I share that he was disappointed with all the existing Mac solutions out there for keeping track of one’s Xbox Live gamer buddies. And the Internet, my friends, answered.

Our friend Jacob mocked up a solution, which was then taken up by the industrious Andrew Baldwin. The result is a very handy Dashboard widget that lets you add the Xbox Live friends (or, potentially, enemies) you want to keep tabs on; it’ll then display their gamertag, gamer icon, and online status (or when they were last online). Now I can see how many of my pals are deeply ensconced in GTA IV.

I’ve been using beta versions of the widget for a couple months now, and I have to say that I find it to be the best thing since sliced cheese. If you’re looking for an easy and Mac-friendly way to keep track of your Xbox 360 buddies, give it a try (download link).

Mozy hits 1.0, no more beta backups

Posted on May. 2, ’08, 7:22 AM PT by Derik DeLong

Category | Software

We’ve talked about Mozy before. It’s a backup service that allows you to save your files to an offsite location. Using this software/service combo, you can keep your vital files saved to a place safe from disasters such as a fire in your home. Offsite backup is a part of any complete backup strategy (because all of you have that, right? right?).

Up until yesterday, the service was in beta, but no longer. It’s in final, supported form. If you’re interested in trying it, you get a free 2 GB of data space to back up to (more than enough to save most of your vital documents). Should you decide you like it, $4.95 per month will buy you unlimited back up space. I hope you have a net connection with fast upload should you choose to back up all your data this way.

Software Update sneak boosts Safari share

Posted on May. 1, ’08, 9:59 AM PT by Dan Moren

Category | Windows

Er, so remember that whole thing back in March with Safari and Software Update on Windows? I know, I thought I’d seen the last of it too, but it turns out that there’s actually been some interesting fall out from it. According to the Net Applications, which tracks information like market share via Internet browser traffic, Safari’s share on Windows tripled after the update fiasco.

Safari 3.0 had been holding a pretty steady 0.06-0.07% share in the previous months, but after the Software Update incident, the share of Safari 3.1 (the version installed by the updater) jumped to 0.21%. Now, my understanding is that in order for that information to register, one would presume that those Windows users need to be actually be using Safari on a regular basis. What that makes me wonder how many of those people actually tried Safari intentionally and how many of them are just wondering why Internet Explorer looks so different all of the sudden?

I’m still not condoning what Apple did—even with their most recent changes, I think it’s an icky precedent to set. But apparently not all Windows users see things the same way.