http://www.snapfiles.com/get/safepstbackup.html

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Diskeeper Pro 2010 automatic disk defragmenter

Diskeeper is a fully automatic defragmentation engine that replaces the standard Windows defragmenter. Diskeeper constantly monitors and maintains your system's maximum performance, using the fastest defrag engine. The program includes a unique "Set It and Forget It" functionality that uses "InvisiTasking Technology" to automatically defragment your computer in real-time, without interrupting your work.Furthermore, Diskeeper's "IntelliWrite" feature can prevent up to 85 percent of fragmentation from occurring by writing contiguous files, providing faster access with less system overhead and reduced fragmentation risk. Additional features include boot-time defrag, priority settings as well as the ability to defrag multiple disks automatically and simultaneously while your system is in use.

Free Trial $59.95 to buy

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File Scavenger

File Scavenger is a Windows file undelete and data recovery utility for NTFS and FAT/FAT32 volumes. It can recover files that were damaged by virus or accidentally deleted from Windows Explorer, the Recycled Bin, command line window, or a network share along with original folder names and file Create and Modified dates. It supports reformatted volumes or broken hardware/software RAID volumes as well as file compression, dynamic disks, alternate data streams, sparse files, Unicode file names and more. With the trial version only 64KB or smaller files can be recovered. File Scavenger offers 3 different search modes, one for quick access to recently deleted files, one for exhaustive search and also a defunct volume search that can even recover files from compromised striped and RAID volumes. We tested the product on a machine that was reformatted a few days ago, and safely recovered some of the files, old desktop shortcuts and more. File Scavenger can be installed or used in portable mode.

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WinDirStat

WinDirStat is a visual drive space manager that uses treemaps to represent each file as a colored rectangle, allowing you to instantly visualize file distribution across an entire drive or folder. In...more

More details about WinDirStat    Download WinDirStat now

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Thanks to Our Weekly Sponsor: Courier

Sponsoring the site again this week is an increasingly popular app from Realmac Software – Courier. This fantastic piece of software makes it easy to quickly share files, images, photos, movies, and more with all your favourite online services – including Flickr and Facebook.
It’s wrapped up in a functional and beautiful interface, and seven built-in plugins mean you’ll be able to start sharing in under 30 seconds. With Amazon S3, Ember, Flickr, Facebook, FTP / SFTP, Vimeo and YouTube support, Courier has the most-requested services in the bag!
Courier is now a completely Mac App Store exclusive application, and has seen a huge reduction in price to $9.99. This is a great deal, and well worth checking out if you’re looking for a piece of software to make sharing all your social content easier!

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How To Run Your Own Professional FTP Server with Rumpus

Internet

Thanks to the hundreds of one-click file sharing websites online, the use of FTP for casually sharing files has drastically reduced. The protocol is all but relegated to just uploading and downloading files to a server. But as simple as file sharing websites are, using them means giving up a lot of control over the data you have uploaded.
If you want to retain this level of security and control, FTP is still the way to go. Now you might say, Mac OS X comes with a built in FTP Server, so why would anyone want to pay for a third party solution? Read on after the break to find out how and why Rumpus is a better solution for creating your own server.
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8 Apps for Radio Listening and Recording on your Mac

Radio is a technology that has evolved a great deal, and it doesn’t seem to show any sign of disappearing. It’s very convenient to just turn on the radio and get a continuous stream of music for hours, without having to choose anything yourself. It’s very practical, and a brilliant wat to find new music!

However, local radio stations aren’t usually very good. Sometimes you want to listen to a station that plays a certain genre, or a specific talk show that isn’t aired on your local radio stations. That’s where online radio comes in.
There’s an amazing number of online radio stations out there, and plenty of variety to choose from. But of course, you’ll need something to listen to those stations. Today, we present you some of our favorite software picks for radio listening and recording.

iTunes

You might not be aware of iTunes’ radio capabilities. They’re not particularly impressive or in-depth, but they work well. You might have to go into your iTunes settings to activate this feature. Once you do you’ll see a “Radio” tab on your library. If you click it you’ll have access to a bunch of categories, where you’ll have plenty of radio stations to pick from.
As far as functionality goes, the iTunes Radio player is lackluster. You can add your own stations, even though iTunes already comes with an impressive number of radio stations. But unfortunately there’s no way to mark stations as “favorites”, you can’t record what you are listening to, and you can’t even search for keywords within stations.
It’s simple, but not very useful. If you already use iTunes, you might as well stick with it for your radio listening, unless you want a more complete app.
Price: Free
Requires: iTunes 2 or higher
Developer: Apple

Radium

Radium is a simple menu bar app that allows you to listen to pretty much any radio station you desire. You can import stations from iTunes, or from a URL, or you can just search a keyword, such as “indie” to bring up a handful of radios that meet that keyword.
Once you are listening to a radio station, it will bring up a Growl notification every time a new song starts. There’s a history log of every song you’ve listened to, and you can share your songs with Twitter and Facebook.
You can even add subscription radio sites, like Last.fm and Sirius. The best part is that everything is managed through your menu bar in a very simple manner.
Price: $24.95
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or higher
Developer: Catpig Studios

Last.fm

Last.fm is one of my favorite websites. It’s a music social network that also has a radio, and can keep track of everything you listen to (making for some fascinating statistics).
Last.fm also has a Mac client that has various purposes. One of them is to “scrobble” (send to their website) what you listen to, another is to interact with the songs you listen to (love them, tag them, share them, get info of them, etc.). But the most useful feature is probably the radio.
Last.fm’s radio is very different from any other app. It gathers info from what you listen to, and only plays tracks that you might like based on what other people with a similar music taste listen to. It’s a great tool for discovering new music that you will actually like. The only downside is that if you are not in the US or the UK, you have to pay for the radio service.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or higher
Developer: Last.fm

Snowtape 2.0

Snowtape is one of the most complete radio players I have ever seen. It’s full of features: it can record audio, it can schedule radio programming, it can add pretty much any station you tell it to, it can send your recordings to iTunes, it can scrobble your plays, and it comes preloaded with an impressive amount of radio stations.
Its main feature, like its name says, is that it can record the music that you listen to (and it does a great job of it). It lets you edit your music and find artwork for it. The downside: the price. It’s very expensive, but it’s also great. It even found nearby stations to my location.
Price: $33
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or higher
Developer: Vemedio

Pulsar

Pulsar is exclusively a satelite radio player, meaning you need an account and a subscription to a satellite radio service like Sirius in order to take full advantage of it.
It has a nice iTunes-like interface, along with support for features like “Favorites”, pausing, and Growl support. The negatives: it only supports satellite radio, and it can’t record audio. This is pretty much a desktop solution to streaming Sirius on your browser.
Price: $20
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or higher
Developer: Rogue Amoeba

Pandora One

Pandora is similar to Last.fm; a radio service that plays music that you might like based on your music taste. Pandora One is a deluxe service that you can pay for in order to get a bunch of extra features.
One of those extra features is access to a desktop app that allows you to use Pandora from your desktop. This app runs on Adobe AIR and doesn’t do much other than give you the Pandora experience on your desktop.
Price: $36/year
Requires: Adobe AIR
Developer: Pandora

FStream

FStream is a free alternative to all the pricier options we have listed above. It’s very barebones, it barely has an interface. It doesn’t come preloaded with any stations – you’ll have to look for those by yourself.
Once you add a source, it’ll keep it in its log, so that’s good. It also lets you record songs and it has an equalizer. That’s about it. It’s super basic and it doesn’t do much, but it’s also free!
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.4 or higher
Developer: Source Mac

Radioshift

Radioshift is made by the same people that make Pulsar, and they’re both very similar, except that Radioshift is not focused solely on satellite radio services.
It has a very simple iTunes-like interface, and it’s really easy to get used to it. You can search radio stations or you can browse the popular ones provided by the app. Various types of recording are possible, but they’re not quite as easy to use as several of the other applications featured here. You can also easily favourite stations, and subscribe to them. It has a solid interface, and it’s easy to understand, but it’s a fairly expensive option.
Price: $32
Requires: Mac OS X 10.5 or higher
Developer: Rogue Amoeba

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Notificant: Just Another Reminder App

Task management applications are becoming just another part of our electronic lives as we find evermore convoluted ways to deal with our increasingly busy existence. One important aspect of managing all of our tasks is getting that occasional poke when something needs to be done. We do forget sometimes!

Notification features built into GTD apps, though probably essential to most, can become a pain to deal with and are often unreliable. Notificant attempts to alleviate this problem somewhat, while also providing some other handy features that aid in not forgetting important things.
It’s an interesting thought, but do you really need another application to manage reminders? Read on to find out.

What is it?

The name of the software makes this fairly evident, but Notificant is a notification system. That alarm setting you use on your task manager has basically been separated out into a separate application.
There are absolutely arguments against using yet another application to help keep our everyday lives in order, but Notificant does a couple of simple taks very well and it is easy to see why it may be worth it.

Installation

Notificant is available on the App Store so installation is a breeze. As with all App Store downloads the app will be stored in your Applications directory and you’ll see an icon in the Dock.
Notificant will also install as a menu bar item. The Dock icon can be hidden via the system preferences, but you’re stuck with the menu bar icon which really is the best way to use the app anyway.

Get Notified

The main goal of Notificant is to make sure you get notified of a reminder no matter where you are. Task manager or calendar alarm systems are often restricted to a single device, or are not very easy or reliable across devices.
This application will enable you to get notified on any of your Macs and also via email. It is even possible to choose what devices (email is considered a device) get notified for a specific notification.

Notification dialog box

Creating a notification is very simple. Click on the menu bar icon and pick New Notificaton. The New Notification dialog box above will appear. Type the text for your notice in the text box, adjust the time accordingly and choose the devices you’d like the notice to go to.
There is a 160 character restriction on the notification text. I don’t see this as an issue. If your notification can’t fit into 160 characters it probably belongs in more than one notification.
There is also a url shortener available within the New Notification dialog box. With the character restriction in place, this is a welcome feature. Url in notifications may not be that common, but you could for example, set yourself a notification to read a particular article later in the day. This way you won’t disrupt your current work and also won’t forget about it.

Notificant URL shortner

When a notification is executed, the devices you selected for that particular entry will be notified. The main Mac notice is a small box that shows the text of the task. It will remain on the top of all of your open windows until you actually close it.
It’s almost impossible to lose it in the shuffle of your other work. You’re forced to interact with it to get rid of it (probably a good thing).

Notificant notification

As mentioned, an email notification can be used as well. There are no surprises here. At the time of notification execution, a basic email with the notice text will be sent to the connected email address. It’s very basic, but it is all that it needs to be.

Notificant email notification

Web App

Notificant’s core operation is from its web app. In fact, you will need to create a Notificant account to actually use the Mac application. Storing your notifications in the cloud is what will allow multiple machines to be synced.
It is also a way to make sure you don’t lose important notifications in the event something happens to your Mac and gives you a place to see/change/modify your notifications should you ever be away from your primary computer. The notifications are stored in the cloud so they are not at the mercy of any of your hardware.
The web application is beautifully designed. There are many very subtle details that make it really shine. You can tell that time was spent desiging this interface. I doubt you’ll spend a ton of time here, but it is certainly nice to have a web app this well designed to be able to use if need be.
The same functionality exists here as with the Mac app, but there are a few additional features worth noting. First off, this is the place where you will go to view all of your notifications. They will just stack in the order that they are scheduled to execute.
You can see the full text, time and also are able to edit each notification. Notifiction creating and editing within the web app use a lightbox effect as seen below.

Notificant Web edit

The web app also has an Archive section that will show past notifications. Not necessarily essential for everyone, but it is good to know you can look back should the need arise.

Conclusion

Notificant is a very well-polished, simple, inexpensive notification application. As you’ll find with a lot of applications, the simple ones that do one thing really well just stick out. Notifcant is no exception.
Unfortunately, there is no iPhone application to accompany as of right now. This seems like a complete no brainer and I’m guessing we’ll be seeing one at some point. Being able to include mobile devices as options to send notifications just makes sense. This is really the only complaint I have.
Having notifications stored and accessible via the cloud is really the core feature of the application. Multiple machines can be synced and the web application can also be used on machines where the app isn’t installed.
There are a ton of possible great uses for Notificant. It could arguably take over your task management. If all you require is a bit of text and a notice then this is absolutely ideal. Is it worth using as an addition to your full blown task manager? Yeah, I’d say it is.

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Yum: Organise, Share and Discover Recipes

Yum from Austrian developers Incredible Bee aspires to be the “cooking companion for your Mac.” To achieve this, Yum offers a combination of recipe management, cloud-based recipe sharing, shopping list creation and a free supporting iPhone app.
There’s quite a choice of recipe management software available for these platforms, so this review will look at how well Yum meets its aims to help you decide if it merits a place in your kitchen.
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Easily Create Stunning Slideshows with FotoMagico

We make slideshow presentations for all kinds of occasions, and it’s often important for them to look smart and professional – be it to keep an audience interested or to present something to a client. Coupled with the Mac, iPhoto and iMovie both offer slideshow functionality, but both are pretty limited in what they can do.

If you find yourself needing to make slideshows fairly regularly, FotoMagico from Boinx Software may be of interest. FotoMagico is a very intuitive and professional application, perfect for putting together great looking slideshows with photos, video and audio.
I’ll be reviewing the Pro version of FotoMagico, but the standard version is much the same with some features removed. Read on to see what FotoMagico can do for you.

Overview

Upon first opening FotoMagico, I was able to work out how to add photos, transitions, animations, audio, and adjust settings in about 5 minutes without having to read any manuals. This is because FotoMagico has been designed to make sense – nothing seems hidden away and everything happens as you would expect it to.
The interface is split into three main compartments; the Stage for adjusting the position, rotation and zoom of images, the Storyboard for arranging clips, audio and text, and the Sidebar for setting clip attributes, transitions, and for importing media.
FotoMagico works perfectly via drag and drop for importing media for slides and can also access your iPhoto, Aperture or Lightroom library from within its sidebar.

FotoMagico interface

Animations

One of FotoMagico’s strongest features is the ability to quickly and easily animate images, much like the Ken Burns effect. If the ‘Pan & Zoom’ button is toggled on, then the Stage displays two versions of your slide – one at the start position, and one at the end.
FotoMagico then gives you control over position, rotation and zoom of the slide over time which allows you to produce some nice and smooth animations to add a little life into a still photograph. The zoom/rotate controls are well implemented as draggable wheels. These animations can be applied to movie clips and text.
Another great feature is the ability to apply and adjust ease in/ease out. Also worth mentioning are guides which pop up so you know where your final position rests in relation to the start.

Animate slides quickly and easily

Transitions

FotoMagico offers a great range of transitions, all of which maintain excellent image quality throughout. Transitions are edited in the Sidebar simply by clicking the small transition icon between each slide in the Storyboard. From there you can set which transition to use and its duration.
It can be all too easy to become carried away, apply every transition, and create crazy animations, but if you use the tools wisely, the result can look very professional.

Choose from a range of transitions

Audio

In the Storyboard you can use up to three different audio tracks for music, sound effects and narration. Audio can be dragged from the sidebar, or recorded from within FotoMagico. If you want the slideshow to run for the length of a song, slide duration can be matched to the audio, and vice versa.
Ducking is also available, which means that other audio tracks will be lowed in volume by a specified amount when narration comes on for example.

Make use of up to three audio tracks

Exporting

Once you’ve completed your slideshow, there are several ways to present or share it. The easiest way for presentations is to simply play the slideshow from within FotoMagico, which works well with an external display or projector.
There is also a great range of export options to choose from. Slideshows can be exported as a Standalone application, to DVD, for the Web, YouTube, any of Apple’s various devices, or as a Screen Saver. FotoMagico offers useful information on playback and quality of each format.

Plenty of options for exporting

Conclusion

FotoMagico is a superb application for producing slideshows. Its ease of use is a huge plus and it offers enough great features to create a professional looking presentation, without being overwhelming. FotoMagico offers a 5 day free trial, which is worth giving a go if it looks of interest. I can find very little to fault it on.
I reviewed the Pro version of FotoMagico in this article, but it comes in two separately priced versions. The standard version is priced at $29, and the pro version at $149, which is a significant jump, but worth it if you plan to make good use of it. View the differences between the versions here.
Feel free to share your slideshow experiences with us, along with any thoughts on FotoMagico!

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Essential Software for Mac Switchers: 23 Must-Have Apps

If you recently made the switch to Mac from a Windows computer, you might be a little “lost” regarding what software is supposed to replace your old setup, or what apps are particularly worthwhile to own on the Mac platform.

One of the great things about having a Macintosh is the amazing range of beautiful apps available, many of which have the potential to add a great deal to your computing experience.
Today, we’re taking a look at some of the apps that we find vital and very useful, as well as software that makes using a Mac much easier than Windows!

Wine Bottler / Parallels

Once you make the switch from Windows, you might miss some software that you used to have there. These two apps give you the ability to run those few Windows apps on your Mac, with little to no effort.
Wine Bottler is an open source project that gives you a free solution to doing this task. It won’t run every app out there, and it might feel slow at times, but then again, it’s a free solution.
Parallels is a popular app in this category, and it is also an expensive one ($79). It guarantees a simple experience, and it says that it works even for complicated tasks like gaming. I’ve heard from a lot of users that it really is an excellent app and that it runs Windows apps fast and with little effort.
You could always dual boot into Windows using “Boot Camp”, but this isn’t such a simple solution if you’re wanting to easily switch between Mac and Windows apps.
Why it’s essential for a new user: Sometimes, especially right after you make the switch, you’ll run into apps that don’t have a Mac version, and that only run on Windows. These two apps are made for those few occasions. I’d suggest you give Wine Bottler a try, and if it doesn’t cut it for you, go for Parallels.

Office for Mac ’11 / iWork

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Midnight Inbox: Definitely Getting Things Done

The Getting Things Done methodology has an almost cult following, but generally trying to figure out the best way to manage our busy lives has an even larger following. Midnight Inbox is an application that helps you to get things done, very much inspired by the GTD methodology.
If you’re already a die-hard follower of this task management process, you’ll probably know immediately whether or not Midnight Inbox is for you. But what does a non-GTD’er think of this application? Read on to find out.

Installation

Midnight Inbox can be installed from the Midnight Beep website with relative ease. There is a free, full featured 14 day trial version that is available as well.
This is very welcome, as Midnight Inbox (“Inbox”) is a fairly complex piece of software. It’s certainly one of those that you’ll feel better about buying after you make sure it is for you.

Getting Started

Midnight Beep does something very helpful to help get you off the ground running. Inbox installs with a basic set of data – basically like you’re looking over the shoulder of someone else’s installation. There are a series of example tasks and other items that are very helpful to get an overview of how the application works.
Inbox is based heavily on the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. Coming from experience I will say that it is not essential to have a great understanding of GTD. In fact, it doesn’t matter if you’ve never even heard of it.
Inbox takes the GTD functionality and helps you work with that method in mind. You can actually set it to almost force you into that GTD process, making it a great choice for learning and practicing GTD.

Design & Interface

The GTD process for, well, getting things done, isn’t necessarily the simplest routine. Inbox has done a good job of designing an application that harnesses that methodology in a way that makes sense and works well.

Midnight Inbox full application view

The design is about as clean and organized as it could be. There’s a lot going, but once you explore the application for a few minutes it doesn’t feel overwhelming. The stock data the application comes installed with helps out considerably for getting a feel for everything.
The window is split into three main sections. First up, there is a navigation menu in the left side bar. This is the area that allows you to navigate through the software, housing the core aspects of the GTD methodology. All sections are expandable and use a nicely designed icon as well. The Collect icon will even change (the inbox will appear fuller as you add more items) depending on the number of items you have to deal with.
The main window is the area where you’ll see the items available in the current selection. For example, if you’re in the Work section you’ll a list of all of your Work projects and actionable tasks listed.
At the top of the application you’ll see something that looks like a timer. Here you’ll be able to kick off a timer while you’re working on a particular item (time frame can be defined per item). Inbox calls this the Yak Timer. You’ll get notified when the allotted time has expired and be presented with a couple of options to either tell it to leave you alone (for 20 minutes) or to give you another two minutes to complete what you’re working on.
The functionality falls right into the GTD methodology and is one aspect that can really force you into that process. The option can be turned off as well. It’s could easily be either an annoying or very helpful feature depending on how you look at it.

Processing

I’m certainly not an expert in the Getting Things Done method so please bear with me here, but I would say that Midnight Inbox does an excellent job of coaxing you through the actual process. Processing different actions and projects (which can be customized) and then allowing for regular review of your progress is at the core of what Inbox is designed to do.
I think the easiest way to demonstrate what Inbox does is to go through a basic example. A project can be set up to pull your Mail items into the application. There will be a corresponding process for that collection.
A process can then be run on that collection which will essentially work you through that collection and force you to act upon each item in some way. The end goal being to get your Inbox to zero, with every item being addressed.

Midnight Inbox processing messages

When a process is activated, the processing window will appear. The processing will march you through the collection you’re processing one by one (it is also possible to process all items in all collections). You’ll be required to act upon each item in some way.

QuickLook

Within the processing window you’ll have the ability to view a preview of the item. If the Enable QuickLook option is checked a preview window will appear. If you’re taking action on an email you’ll see the email in the window. This is a very useful feature to make sure you’re fully aware of what you’re taking action on.

Complete In 2 Minutes

One concept of GTD is that if you can complete something in two minutes you should go ahead and take care of it right away. There is an option when processing that let’s you do this. You’ll see a two minute countdown timer with a button to mark the item as done. When clicked, processing will proceed to the next actionable item.

Create a Future Action

If an item can’t be taken care of immediately, it may need an action item created that can be worked on at a later time. This can be done right here and can also be assigned to a particular project, added to a new project or as a stand alone action item. Projects you have already created will be available in the drop down field

No Future Action Required

If the item that is being processed doesn’t require any future action, it can be disregarded and filed way in a particular area. If you’re processing your email messages you’ll no doubt run into messages that don’t require any action, so this is a helpful function to just flip through to the next item in the collection

Review

Another core method with GTD is the need to regularly review your progress with your projects. This can be automated with Inbox, and custom reviews can be defined and assigned to projects and other items.
As with processing, I think the best way to illustrate how this works is to go through a couple of possible scenarios. You may have a large project defined that you are working your way though.
The due date could be months out, but you can set up a weekly review that will take you through all the action items associated with that project. You’ll be forced to either check an item as complete, or update the action settings. Either way you’re forced to act upon it.

Midnight Inbox review

Reminders can be set to let you know when it is time for a review. For example, if you have a weekly review set for a particular project, you’ll get a notification when a week has elapsed since your last review. It is also possible to run through a review of any project whenever you feel it is necessary.

Quick Note & Quick Action

In everyone’s work day, things will pop up suddenly – whether it be a thought or a new task. Sometimes we are in the middle of something else and don’t feel like completely stopping to organize that item.
Inbox has this covered with the ability to create a Quick Note or a Quick Action. Buttons for each are housed at the bottom of the application window. Clicking on a button will bring up a small dialog box that will allow you to quickly jot down a note or create an action item.
Notes will just appear as an item at the top of your Work list. Actions can be defined with a context (can also be customized), project and estimated time frame.

Midnight Inbox quick note

Midnight Inbox quick action

Archive

Inbox has a built in function to quickly clean up your Inbox. Archiving will clear out all of the completed projects out of your active Inbox.
The items can be saved in custom archives that can be referred back to if needed. It is nice to be able to clean up completed items but still have the ability to look back at them if the need arises. This function fits that bill perfectly.

Help and Documentation

Something that is often overlooked with applications is the educational aspect – making sure users actually understand how it works. Some apps obviously aren’t in the same need of such information, but more complex ones like Inbox are.
This can be a downfall for some applications, but Midnight Beep provides a series of excellent resources for you to learn how the software works.
The example data included with the first installation is a nice feature, but the help files within the application are also excellent. There is even a lengthy screencast available on the Midnight Beep website that walks through all of the application’s functionality.
I was initially worried abut the complexity of the application but that was quickly mitigated with abundant, well executed help documentation.

Cost

A single user license for Midnight Inbox is $35. This is a very well built application that comes with a lot of functionality, so this cost seems right in line to me. A free upgrade to Inbox 2, which is slated for release later this year, is currently included as well. A free 14 day trial version is also available.

Conclusion

Though this application is very much inspired by the Getting Things Done methodology it is by no means only for those that follow those processes. Inbox can be tuned to very closely model the specific GTD functionality, but also just has some very helpful organization and general work functionality.
Like I mentioned, I’m only somewhat familiar with the GTD methodology. With what I knowl I can say that I can get on board with some of the method, but not necessarily all of it. Some of it just doesn’t fit with my current work environment. However, I will say that Inbox’s functionality has made me seriously consider modifying some of my processes.
The idea of being able to work through all new items making sure that anything that needs to be addressed is addressed and then having a method for making sure progress is being made is just an excellent general way to attack your work. Inbox does an excellent job of helping you better understand that basic process, and provides a fantastic interface with which to do so.
Also worth noting is that there is also an iPad version of Inbox along with a soon to be released iPhone application. Syncing between all devices will be included in the next release. This is great news for those of us toting around multiple devices, always connected and trying to get things done!

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15 Free Alternatives to Popular Mac Software

There’s a huge range of amazing paid software out there, but more often than not there is some form of free alternative. For those of us who can’t afford to spend up on every great app we desire, gathered here are 15 great free pieces of software that achieve much the same purpose of a popular but paid application.

Of course – nine times out of ten you get what you pay for, and the paid applications are usually going to do the job better, look nicer, or have more features than any free app. But that doesn’t mean free applications are worth overlooking, as they will often be more than functional enough for your needs.

Join us after the break for a look at some great examples…!

Photoshop Alternative: Seashore

Photoshop is without question a brilliant piece of software, but at a whopping $700, most people looking for a general photo editing application might want something a bit more modest. Pixelmator is well worth a try at $29, but as far as free photo editing apps go, Seashore might be perfect for those on a tight budget.

This open source image editor is based off GIMP, but runs in a clean and simple interface with enough features to keep modest users happy.

Seashore handles layers, alpha channels, and has a decent tool set.  Within the Menubar are a number of effects and image editing controls to play with including basics such as contrast and hue sliders.  These sliders fade after each adjustment, which is a convenient feature to see the effects of your changes. Well worth a look.

Seashore

AppZapper Alternative: AppCleaner

AppZapper ($13) is a great application for properly deleting applications, widgets, preference panes and plug-ins. When you drag an application to AppZapper, it finds all the files that relate to that app so that you can delete the whole application without leaving odd bits scattered around your hard drive.

AppCleaner from Free Mac Soft is an incredibly similar application, but it’s free.  Like AppZapper, cleaning up apps is as simple as dragging one from the Finder to the AppCleaner window.  Once dragged, AppCleaner will instantly identify all the files that the application has created across the system, which can all be trashed by clicking ‘Delete’.

AppCleaner

Files can also be found from within AppCleaner under three different categories and searched for.  There is a bug within the application which means that as you search, the list updates live but the icons remain where they were which can cause a bit of confusion.

AppCleaner boasts a few features that AppZapper doesn’t have.  A very nifty feature is ‘SmartDelete’, which means that when you drag an app to the trash, you will be asked if you would like to also delete related files.  This even works when AppCleaner isn’t open.

You can also drop in specific apps to protect from deleting with AppCleaner. Of course, AppZapper has its own special features, including a license and serial storage space for your own apps and stunning animations.

AppCleaner Preferences

Parallels/Fusion Alternative: VirtualBox

For those of you on Mac who still need to run Windows, the first names that you’d hear would be Parallels and VMware Fusion (each $80), both of which are powerful and highly praised Windows virtualization tools.  But there’s also a third player out there which you may not have heard of; VirtualBox.

VirtualBox is an open source application which, whilst missing some of the features and performance of the commercial apps, stands up very well for those looking to use Windows for tasks which don’t tow too heavily on the processor.  VirtualBox is definitely a viable alternative to Parallels and Fusion if you’re happy to put up with what it lacks in comparison.

VirtualBox

Also don’t forget Apple’s own Boot Camp, which comes pre-installed on Macs, but requires you to reboot the computer each time you want to change operating system.

Linkinus Alternative: Colloquy

Linkinus ($20) and Colloquy are IRC (Instant Relay Chat) clients which allow you to connect to a chat room on a certain topic to chat with like-minded people around the world.  Both applications do a great job, but as an open source app Colloquy is well worth a look and has a great user base.

Colloquy is a reliable and well designed application which can be customized to suit your style.  It has a great range of features (including growl notifications) and has plenty to play around with inside the preferences. I also personally really like the set of sound effects included for the various alerts.

I’d recommend giving Colloquy a go if your looking into an IRC app that works well and is easy to use, but with plenty of more advanced features for regular users.

Colloquy

Transmit Alternative: Cyberduck

Transmit ($34) would be one of the most popular and publicized FTP clients for Mac, and for good reason.  Cyberduck may not pack the same feature set and flair, but it is a great open source alternative.

From my experience it always works perfectly for connecting, uploading and downloading files from FTP servers.  Of course it doesn’t only support FTP and can connect to a whole heap of different servers, as well as letting you edit any text files directly from the server.

The interface of Cyberduck is easy to use and navigate for those with little experience surrounding FTP, and it’s certainly worth checking out.

Cyberduck

Concentrate Alternative: Isolator

Concentrate ($29) is a fantastic application to help you get rid of distractions on your computer so that you focus on the task at hand. It can do a whole heap of tasks such as quitting applications, setting chat statuses to ‘away’, running AppleScripts, and blocking websites such as Facebook.

Isolator is a free application that aims to solve the same problem, but does so in a completely different manner. Basically, it ‘isolates’ the current active application and dims everything else in the background.  Isolator sits in the menu bar and can be activated by keyboard short cut.

Within the Isolator preferences, you can adjust a whole range of settings.  In terms of appearance, you can change how opaque the background is made, and even blur out the background windows using a number of effects.  This app also works seamlessly with Spaces.

Isolator

InDesign Alternative: Scribus

InDesign ($700) is a professional page layout tool for designing print projects such as newsletters.  If you gawked at that price then it might be a good idea to take a look at Scribus, an open source desktop publishing application.

The interface leaves a bit to be desired, as it is a little confusing at first. To counter it’s interface though, Scribus has all the features you’d expect and a few more for good measure, such as vector shapes. It comes with fantastic documentation which walks you through all the things it can do, and the website has a wealth of more information and tutorials.

If you’re prepared to give Scribus some time then it could be a great desktop publisher for you.

Scribus

Pages Alternative: OpenOffice

Pages ($20) is the word processing part of the iWork bundle from Apple. It is a brilliant application for writing and basic page layout, but it too has a completely free, open source alternative; OpenOffice.

OpenOffice runs natively in OS X, (rather than in X11 like it used to) and is smooth and fast. It’s easy to use and looks more or less the same as any other word processing app. Like most free vs paid apps, it may not pack all the bells and whistles that Pages, or even Microsoft Word has, but OpenOffice should fit the majority of peoples needs.

OpenOffice is actually a full office suite and includes Presentation, Spreadsheets, and even Drawing applications alongside the word-processor, so can replace the entire iWork or Microsoft Office suite.

OpenOffice

CoverScout Alternative: Album Artwork Assistant

CoverScout ($30) is a wonderfully designed application that makes applying and editing album artwork in your iTunes library a pleasure. Album Artwork Assistant doesn’t have the same wow factor and features, but if you’re looking for something free to apply album artwork to your music without doing everything manually, this might be just for you.

Album Artwork Assistant isn’t completely automated.  You have to go into iTunes and select all the tracks from albums that you want to add artwork to.  Then AAA will load those tracks up and as you click on each album, it will do an image search across the internet for artwork.

You can Quick Look images, and even browse the web if AAA doesn’t yield the right pictures.  Once you’ve got the right one, you just click ‘Add Immediately’ and it will be applied to the iTunes tracks.  It can be a little buggy in selecting tracks to search but overall is worth giving a go.

Album Artwork Assistant

Also, you may not be aware that iTunes has a built in Album Artwork finder.  It will only work for tracks with the correct labels and only if iTunes has them in it’s store, but here’s how to go about that… Within iTunes, click ‘Advanced’ in the menu bar, then ‘Get Album Artwork’.

CoverSutra Alternative: Bowtie

The Bowtie Bowlet, which sits on the Desktop

CoverSutra ($5) is an app which gives you easy access to search and controlling iTunes, as well as displaying album artwork and information directly on the Desktop.  Bowtie is a very similar, but is a free application which also does a great job.

Bowtie places a small Album icon on your Desktop which you can drag around and place where you like.  Clicking on it brings up song information and iTunes controls including ratings.  The themes can be customized, and more can be downloaded from an ever-growing selection.

Last.fm scrobbling is supported, and you can set up a huge variety of keyboard shortcuts to control Bowtie and iTunes.  A really nice app to use to enhance your iTunes experience.

Bowtie Preferences

MainMenu Alternative: IceClean

MainMenu ($19) is a great system maintenance tool which sits in the menu bar.  IceClean performs many of the same functions as MainMenu for a zero dollar price tag.

IceClean contains an abundance of features stored throughout various menus, which include repairing disk permissions, routine maintenance scripts, clearing caches, looking up network info and force ejecting CDs/DVDs.  This utility is well worth a download if you’re an advanced Mac user and understood what all the features above meant!

IceClean

DaisyDisk alternative: DiskWave

DaisyDisk ($20) offers a beautiful visual representation of where your hard drive space is being used up, so that you can then go about and free up space by deleting large and unimportant files.

DiskWave lacks the charm and visual charts of DaisyDisk, but if your looking for a free, functional application to discover what is hogging up all your space, it could be all you need.  You start off by selecting a drive to scan.  Once it’s finished searching through your drive, all of your files will be displayed as they are in the finder, but ordered from largest to smallest and color coded based on size.

It’s then fairly straight forward to work your way through the layers of folders to find troublesome files, which can be deleted from within the app by pressing the ‘Delete’ button.  There are also buttons to Quick Look the files or reveal them in the Finder. DiskWave is still under development according to it’s site but is fully functional as it is.

DiskWave

Illustrator Alternative: Inkscape

Illustrator ($600) is the go-to drawing application for vector work, and it works wonders.  But as with all Adobe products, the price tag is a bit frightening for many.  Luckily Inkscape, an open source vector drawing application exists.  Inkscape is easy to use, especially if you’re familiar with Illustrator, and packs a great range of features that will get you through most projects.

Unfortunately it is not a native Mac application and requires Apple’s X11 app to run but this is only a small downside.  If you’re wondering if Inkscape is capable of producing stunning looking work, you only need to take a peek into the Inkscape DeviantART page to see what it’s users are creating.

Inkscape also has fantastic support for importing Illustrator files and I was very impressed at how even complex files were imported flawlessly, ready to be edited. If you can’t afford to fork out big bucks for Illustrator, Inkscape is well and truly worth a look and may suit you perfectly.

Inkscape

TextMate Alternative: TextWrangler

TextMate ($55) is a powerful text editor, which is great for editing all sorts of code such as HTML.  A wonderful free alternative to TextMate is TextWrangler, from Bare Bones Software.  This application packs a huge selection of features, mostly tucked away in its menu.

It excels in areas such as find and replace, syntax coloring for many various coding languages, code folding, FTP opening and saving, and much much more.  TextWrangler is very straight forward to use and the interface is simple and clean. It’s perfect for programmers, but also serves the needs of basic text editing as well.

TextWrangler

Coda Alternative: Aptana Studio

Coda ($100) is a wonderful web development app from the team at Panic which brings all the main elements of website creation together into one window.  The interface looks great and is a joy to use, but if you’d like an app which can do much of the same stuff for free, Aptana Studio is a great place to start.

Aptana Studio is excellent for editing HTML, JavaScript, and CSS and offers Live Previews in any web browsers you have. There is outline view of all elements, and full validation is included.  There’s also support for FTP access and publishing. Overall, it has a very sturdy feature set – so much so that the Preferences are somewhat of a nightmare to work through!

Aptana Studio is cross platform so not specifically designed for Mac, but it is a very powerful web development application that is definitely worth looking into whether you are an aspiring or experienced website developer.

Aptana Studio

Conclusion

Hopefully you’ve discovered a few new apps, free of charge, which can replace other, more popular apps which cost money! There’s a lot of great stuff out there for the Mac which developers kindly release for free.

Of course, whilst we’ve been throwing the word ‘free’ around a lot in this article, many of the developers of these apps ask for donations. If you use and like a free app, be sure to support the developers who put their time and effort into making it.

Let us know what you think of any of the free applications mentioned above, if you think there is a better alternative, or any other great free software that replaces popular paid applications out there!

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