Howtos, Rants, and Reviews : application

VPN+ - VPN Server for you Mac OS X

willburns1 — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 18:03:00 GMT

If you have ever wanted to run a VPN server on your Mac you will have to do one of two things, either purchase and run Mac OS X server or get a VPN application that runs on the regular OS X. VPN+ is an application that you can run on your regular Mac OS X that can allow you to create a VPN server.

Why would you want a VPN? Well because a VPN allows you to securely connect to the VPN sever's network from a insecure location. It's widely used in the business place for travailing business man to gain access to their files and email in the companies server.

With a VPN properly setup when on the road or when you are off your local network it will be like you never left. You can get access to your files and anything on your local server. Of course an application like this may require some advanced knowledge to setup properly. If you want a application the does about the same thing with little to no setup then perhaps you should try Slink, an application I have written about before. It's no longer a free application, but it worth the money they are asking it's a great program.

VPN+ - VPN Server for Mac OS X

ShiftIt – Mac Window Management Tool

willburns1 — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:18:00 GMT

There have been a lot of really helpful window management tools coming out for Mac recently. Partially due to one of the new features from Windows 7 that lets you resize your windows by dragging them to the corners of the screen. I have written about a lot of these type applications, including Twoup and Sizeup, as well as my favorite Cinch.

ShiftIt is much like Sizeup allowing you to resize your windows with shortcuts into the four corners of your screen as well as the left/right and top/bottom half of the screen. ShiftIt is free however which gives it an advantage over Sizeup right out of the gate.

ShiftIt is a very simple applications, all you have to do is install it and the application adds keyboard shortcuts that allows you to resize your windows.

The down side to ShiftIt is that you have to use keyboard shortcuts to resize the windows. With Cinch all you have to do is drag the window to the side of the screen and the windows gets resized. When you pull it off the side of the screen it pops back to it's original size. The down side to Cinch is that you can't resize windows to quarter screen size like you can with ShiftIt and SizeUp.

So it all depends on what you like if you only need windows resized to half screen I would suggest Cinch it's more streamlined for that kind of thing. If you like the idea of having windows resized to quarter screen then ShiftIt might be the free app for you.

ShiftIt Website VIA LifeHacker

ScreenSharingMunulet - Quick and Easy Screen Sharing for Local and Remote Macs

willburns1 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:51:00 GMT

If you have several Macs on the same network or even Macs on a different network you can set them up so you can VNC login to them and control their screens. This is really easy if you are on the same network because all you need is there local IP address and your in. You have to remember or know what that IP address is in order to access it and this is what make this app very handy.

What ScreenSharingMunlet does for you is put a list of local and remote computers you can connect to right in the menubar. That way when you want to do something on another machine you are but a click away. It saves you time and is just plain handy to have a around and you can't beat the price of free.

ScreenSharingMunlet Website.

Snowtape – Internet Radio Like iTunes Should Have

willburns1 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:47:00 GMT

The internet radio section of iTunes is less then impressive. They have a bunch of stations but not a whole lot of features, despite the fact that internet radio has been a part of iTunes for a long time. So if you are a bit internet radio fan you are going to love Snowtape.

Snowtape has several features that iTunes should have added years ago. Snowtape has an integrated online directory of it's stations. Users can even add radio stations to the directory if they are not already present. Snowtape allows you to play your internet radio stations through your airport express so you can listen to them through your remote speakers. You can even add ical events so you don't miss your favorite programs.

One of my favorite features is the recording feature which allows you to record songs from your radios stations and even add album art, tags, titles, and export them. Snowtape can automatically spit audio clips and title them if the station is broadcasting the titles of the songs as they are played. Snowtape comes with an audio editor so you can manually edit your recordings without leaving the application. You can even have the application take out commercials automatically if you would like.

If you are one the go Snowtape also has an iPhone application that can do pretty much everything the desktop application can do. You can listen to shows and record them right on the iPhone.

Snowtape is a great application, but is not free unfortunately. You can download the application to try it but the full version will cost you $30 bucks. If you are a big fan of internet radio this might be just the application for you and a great value.

If you are looking for something that can record your internet shows kind of like a internet radio Tivo iRecordMusic is where it's at. It lets you listen and record shows instantly or by calender event. So you don't even have to be at your computer when this thing records. It's not that user friendly and doesn't look pretty like Snowtape but it does provide a tivo like experience for internet radio.

Snowtape VIA Download Squad

Photo Magician - Batch Resizes and Optimizes Quality for Free - Windows

willburns1 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:29:00 GMT

Many photo management programs have features that will resize and optimize photos so they fit your needs. Sometimes though you don't want to go through the hassle of adding photos to these type of programs just so you can turn out smaller versions of the photos. This is where having a program like Photo Magician will come in handy.

Photo Magician is a lightweight program weighing in at just under 1MB that can resize and reduce quality of many images at once. With a easy drag and drop interface it couldn't be easier. The program also has several preset for devices like the iPhone, Zune, DS, PSP, so you don't even need to know what size photos those devices take to optimize your photos for them.

The Software is free and can be downloaded here. You will need the .Net framework if you are running something other than Vista or Windows 7, who already have it. Check it out and stop wasting time on your images.

VIA Download Squad

AllMyapps - Get free and paid apps and install them all at once

willburns1 — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:45:00 GMT

Allmyapps is a website that is going to be a kind of iTunes for applications. You make purchases and get free applications and then you can install and reinstall them all at once. It's a rather handy little website especially if you are a big fan of free software and do a lot of fresh windows installs.

The website is just starting out so most of there 200 software titles are all free anyway, but in the future you will be able to purchase software and have it in a central location so you can install it onto your computer.

All the downloads are malware-free and up-to-date and like a said most of them are free right now. Allmyapps does have some pretty cool features that some of their competitors don't have. Like the one click installing and the bundle download that allows you to install your apps offline with one install.

Allmyapps have a lot of slack to pickup from software download giants like CNET's Download.com, Ninite, and Softonic. I have a feeling that Allmyapps is going to do very well. I can see it being a one stop shop for installing software for fresh installs of Window and Linux. It would save you so much time going to all the different websites downloading and installing their applications. All you have to do is select the applications and hit the install button and the website takes care of the rest.

The new version of the website is in beta, which you can get into by going to Techcrunch's article and clicking the link and entering their invitation code.

AllMyApps

TotalFinder - Add Tabs and other features to Finder

willburns1 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:25:00 GMT

Finder is the application on the Mac used to find your files and folders on your computer. Though it's full of some great features it also is lacking in others. There have been many applications out there that have tried to replace finder or make finder better like Path Finder and the do a pretty good job of it. Though applications like Path finder are good, I am so cheap and don't want to spend the $40 on a license. So I found a little application called TotalFinder and it has some great features that make Finder just that much better.

The main feature that I like about TotalFinder is that you can have tabs in the native finder. TotalFinder will actually change the way Finder operates which allows you to use the native finder application rather than an alternative application like Path Finder. The tabs look much like google chrome tabs which can be opened and closed with keyboard shortcuts just like the browser. You can even drag a folder to the tab bar and have the folder come a new tab. Switching between tabs is natural with the same shortcuts as a web browser and they are spring loaded so if you drag a file and wait the tab will automatically be selected and brought to the front.

Other than the Tab mode you can also add a dual-panel mode, have a global Finder hot-key, stop finder from creating .DS_Store files, and show folders always on top. There are a couple of other interesting features like the ability to show hidden files among others.

TotalFinder is a free application that is currently in Alpha test. Because it actually changes the way your finder operates you might have to uninstall it if a Mac update breaks the application. Uninstalling it is easy so no harm done and is worth it to get those added features.

TotalFinder Website

LastPass – Password Management for any OS and any Browser

willburns1 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:54:00 GMT

How do you handle all your passwords? Do you use the same one for every account or do you use different ones? Well however you come up with your passwords i'm sure you could benefit from a little organization and storage. LastPass will provide a secure and simple way of storing your passwords at the same time allowing you to auto fill them for easy login.

The best thing about LastPass is that it works with Windows, Mac, and Linux as well as the most browsers like IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. If you aren't on your computer you can still get your passwords using the website and you can even use your phone as well.

LastPass has a lot of the same great feature that are offered by the 1Password app for Mac but LastPass is free to use. You can upgrade to a paid account which allows you to use the mobile apps and USB thumb drive storage for only $1 a month.

Features

LastPass has some great features and I thought I would go over them quickly. With LastPass you can Autofill forms with your real data or with another identity that you can use to protect your real information. LastPass also syncs your passwords across you different browser which is handy if you user different computers and browsers. The only password you will ever need to know is your LastPass password because it unlocks all your passwords and can let you auto fill you login credentials for all your sites. You can share passwords with friends easily and securely so you will never need to email logins again. LastPass comes with a password generator that will create secure passwords for you so you know they are safe. You also don't have to worry about phishing sites because LastPass will not auto fill your passwords into phishing website. These are just some of the great features of LastPass for more into check out their website.

I have started to use LastPass and I am beginning to really like it. Your information stays secure with all your passwords stored in an encrypted file, but at the same time allowing you to easily login to your sites with a click of a button. The ability to store your passwords offline with LastPass Pocket is a nice feature and if you have a premium account you can use sesame which adds another layer of protection for your passwords.

LastPass Website and Downloads

Netflix - Making a iPhone App? - We can only hope!

willburns1 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:54:00 GMT

Photo Credit (Hacking Netflix)

Netflix is testing out customer interest in an iphone app through a survey. The survey question asked "How likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?" Of course my answer would be “Very likely”, but that shouldn't come as a surprise to people who know me.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has expressed that Netflix will come to the iPhone eventually, but who knows when that will be. Reed Hastings also has said that it's not huge on their list of priorities. If you are thinking a simple survey isn't enough to imply an upcoming feature know that for both the Wii and SP3 they asked about interest in surveys. Netflix is coming to both those devices so we can keep our fingers crossed when it comes to the Netflix on the iPhone.

Netflix coming to iPhone? VIA Gizmodo

Choose Wisely - For Mac Let's You Choose which browser to Open a Link in

willburns1 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:10:00 GMT

If you are like many people you have more than one internet browser installed on your computer. Sometimes it's appropriate to open a link in a specific browser. For example the web page might be only viewable in a specific browser, or you might prefer one over the other. Most people stick to one browser but recently I have started to branch out and for that reason find Choose Wisely a great appliction.

Choose Wisely acts like your default browser so when you open a link in an email or in an application Choose Wisely pops up and asks you which browser you want to open the link in. This is great if you like using Firefox but want to quickly open a link in a browser that doesn't take as much time to open like chrome.

I have found this software to be very useful and I hope you do as well go and check it out its free.

Choose Wisely Free Browser Selector VIA Download Squad

Phone Disk - Mount your iPhone or iPod Touch in Finder

willburns1 — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:05:00 GMT

Back in the day you were able to mount your iPod on the desktop and use it as a storage device. I'm not sure if you can still do that with the older ipod models but with the iPhone and iPod touch you can not. If you want to mount your iPhone or iPod touch on the desktop you will need a little program called Phone Disk to get the job done. The application runs in the background and allows you to seamlessly mount your devices on the desktop and view the files through the finder. You can then copy files over to your iPhone or iPod touch for safe and convenient storage or copy pictures and other files off your iPhone or iPod touch. This is a great way to get pictures off your iPhone without having to launch an application like iphoto to export them.

The thing I like about this program is that it's small and doesn't take up that much system resources but at the same time is ready to jump into action and mount your idevices when they are connected. I have tried other iPhone viewer type applications and I prefer to have the iPhone just pop-up in finder so I can find what I want quickly.

The application is free until September 1st, so if you think you could benefit from a application like this go ahead and download it now and get the free product code.

Phone Disk for Mac - Website

And Yet it Moves - Indie Puzzle/Physics Game - Lots of Fun - Windows and Mac

willburns1 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:20:00 GMT

There are so many indie games out there but very few of them are actually really good. "And Yet It Moves" is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to indie games. The goal of "And Yet It Moves" is to get your character to the end of map without falling off the page, falling to your death, or getting crushed by objects. The controls are pretty unique, you can move left and right and jump, but you can also rotate the world as you run and jump. This allows you to accomplish a variety of moves and allows you to navigate the treacherous courses as you go up the side of trees and rock faces as you re-orientate gravity.

It's so different than other games that it has become a very refreshing and pleasurable game to play. Once you complete a level you can play it in a competition mode which allows you to race your ghost as you try and beat your best time. The game is just a cool unique game that sells for $9.99. You can get a demo and purchase the game at their website here.

Waveboard for iPhone - Google Wave Notifications and Wave Viewer

willburns1 — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:40:00 GMT

Google Wave has been described as a live conversation and collaborative tool allowing you to add photos, maps, and documents to a Wave. It's a great tool to create and share documents with other people. The only down side is you never know when you have a new Wave to view.

Waveboard is a Google Wave viewer that has push notifications so you can be notified of new and updated Waves. Waveboard is basically like pulling up Wave in the safari browser but without the navigation buttons. Waveboard offers a couple other features however, like the ability to shake to reload a Wave or logout of your account. You can also have links open up in the application so you don't have to leave the application to view web pages. The feature that makes it worth it's $1.99 price tag is the push notifications. Something that not many applications can offer, and none that I know of in the App store.

Checkout Waveboard at the App Store VIA Macworld

Boot Snooze - Restarts and then Hibernates so you don't have to Wait - Windows Only

willburns1 — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:46:00 GMT

One of the things I don't like about Windows computers is that you have to restart them more often then Macs. It's annoying when you need to do something on the computer and you realize at some point you need to restart it to accomplish it. Well what Boot Snooze does for you is allow you to restart your computer and then make it hibernate or go into standby after restarting. So when you come back to the computer the next day your computer is fresh and ready to go.

That's all there is to it really it's a free simple program that solves one of life's little annoyances. If you want to schedule your PC to shutdown on it's own you can do this by making a new schedules task. This website will explain how to do it.

If you have a Mac you can do something similar using your energy saver settings. If you go to System Preference >>Energy Saver and them click on the Schedule button in the bottom right you can schedule your computer to shutdown at a specific time and then restart at a specific time. That way your computer is always ready and fresh in the morning.

Boot Snooze Download VIA Download Squad

Easy Poster Printer – Use standard paper to make large posters

willburns1 — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:20:00 GMT

Have you ever wanted to print posters of your favorite images but don't have a large format printer to get the job done? Well you could use the little printer you have right in your office and a piece of software called Easy Poster Printer. Easy Poster Printer allows you to print images on several pages you then cut them all out and glue or tape them together making a huge poster of your image.

This process is commonly referred to as tiled-printing or rasterbation. It takes your image and turns it into little dots that when placed together looks like the original image. So you can make a large poster from an image that is not that big to begin with. It's an interesing and fun little project to do on the weekend. It also makes for great wall morals.

Easy Poster Printer is a freeware and even though you can create a tiled poster online, Easy Poster Printer gives you many options and settings that make your tiled poster easier to create and put together. It gives you the ability to set the dots per inch as well as the space between the images. You can change the paper size so if you have some legal paper laying round you could use that as well.

If you are planning on printing a very large image you might want to think about taking the file to a printer so that you don't use all the ink in your little printer. It will most likely be cheaper and faster anyway. So check it out Easy Poster Printer.

Easy Poster Printer - Windows Only