Freeware of the Month
Tim Verpoorten
The freeware of the month for March is a real mix of Mac applications. They all do a particular job, and they do it well. Let's take a look at some of the best freeware to come out of the Mac community this last month.
You've heard me say many times on my podcast that what makes Mac software so special is its developers. We have wonderful folks that develop for the Mac and they love to give back to the community. Here's another example. Michael Tsai, from C-Command.com is a great developer with powerful applications like SpamSieve and EagleFiler. He's given back to the community with a freeware application that works with Affrus, BBEdit, Mailsmith, MS word, Script Debugger, Smile, Tex-Edit Plus and Text Wrangler. It's called.
BBAutoComplete
http://c-command.com/bbautocomplete
Michael Tsai explains the application on his website like this. "BBAutoComplete adds word auto-completion to scriptable applications. You type the start of a word, press a key, and BBAutoComplete types the letters to complete the word. If BBAutoComplete guessed wrong, you can keep pressing the key to cycle through other possible completions. Other auto-completion utilities need to be taught the abbreviations and expansions that you use; BBAutoComplete avoids this hassle by automatically looking for expansions in the program’s open documents. This means that it always suggests completions that are relevant to your current task."
BBAutoComplete is probably most useful for programmers, who need to remember and type long variable and method names, but it can also help with everyday writing. It’s useful any time you need to type long words quickly and accurately. Download and give BBAutocomplete a try. I think you'll love it. It's free and functional, that's what great Mac developers do for us.
DasBoot
Here's another great Mac software developer that gave back several freeware applications to the community. This one today, is a little different. This is how SubRosaSoft explains it.
"Do you have a flash drive, or multi use storage device (in other words an iPod) in your pocket? Now you can turn it into a Mac OS X diagnostic, repair, and maintenance tool. DasBoot allows you to take any third party boot CD (such as those shipped by SubRosaSoft.com Inc, Prosoft Engineering Inc, Alsoft Inc, or Micromat Inc) and quickly create a bootable diagnostic device that contains any of your own utilities you may wish to install. You can use your device to boot and repair Mac OS X computers as needed without erasing it and taking away your ability to use it for other purposes such as playing music, or watching videos. With the help of DasBoot you get to carry all the tools you'll need with you. But unlike expensive third party alternatives, you'll have plenty of space left over in case you need to recover data. DasBootª devices run software much faster than a CD/DVD repair disk. In addition you can re-configure the device at any time to add new utilities, updated versions of software or newer versions of Mac OS X."
DasBoot helps you build a pocket-sized toolkit for your Mac - just the way you want it - and it's totally free !! Just plug it in and all your tools will be at your fingertips. Of course, you'll need a registered version of the repair software to add on your boot disk, that goes without saying.
iPodDisk
This is an application that makes it easy and simple to copy music off your iPod onto your Mac. iPodDisk enables you to do so within the Finder, or whatever application that you use to read files. To be accurate, iPodDisk isn’t a tool that copies songs from iPods; instead, it enables other applications to do so by emulating an iDisk drive. After it starts, iPodDisk automatically opens a Finder window: You can browse, drag from, or even play music directly on the drive. From a user’s perspective, there’s no difference between the emulated drive and regular local folders, with the exception that iPodDisk drive is read-only. You can use spotlight to search on your iPodDisk, and you can even use command-line tools. all iPods are supported, including Windows-formatted ones.
RapidoWrite
http://www.app4mac.com/rapidowrite.html
I use TextExpander for entering text with a simple abbreviation. But Textexpander is no longer freeware and for those of you that are looking for a substitute, look at app4Mac and try Rapidowrite. When you are writing text, you probably find yourself typing the same text again and again. Whether this is your name, your e-mail address, the URL of your blog, your personal address, etc.
RapidoWrite is here to save time by "typing" these frequently used text for you. You just define your list of abbreviations, and RapidoWrite will automatically show you related texts as you type.
With RapidoWrite, you will be able to quickly insert in any application standard greetings and signatures (including formatted text) or any phrases. For example, instead of typing my the podcast motto, software, hardware and websites that make using the Mac Special, I just type an abbreviation I chose, MRCmotto, and bang, the full motto is placed in the app where I'm writing. Once you define an abbreviation, it is available at all times, anywhere text can be typed, no matter if you are using your word processor, chat program, Finder, address book or any application at all.
Colorblender
http://developer.mabwebdesign.com/colorblender.html
Color Blender is a Cocoa application that was created to find hex/RGB values for colors and finding colors in Apple's default color picker that corresponded with hex/RGB values. It is also very helpful when coming up with a color scheme for a web-site or designed to blend two colors together to try to find a matching color for your project's color scheme. Also, you can blend two colors together and find the hex and/or RGB values for all the three colors. In addition, you can edit the RGB & hex values for the colors. Through the preferences pane you can customize a prefix to be added to the hex values. You can easily copy hex/RGB values through the dock menu, allowing quick access while using other applications such as Photoshop or Flash.
Peel
Peel is an MP3 blog reader and player rolled into one. Subscribe and stream music the minute it becomes available! So, what are MP3 blogs? They are also known as musicblogs or audioblogs and have become increasingly popular since the beginning of 2003. An MP3 blog is a type of weblog in which the creator makes music files, normally in the MP3 format, available for download. There's iTune integration which allows you to download and add your favorite music directly to iTunes with a click of a button. The music posted ranges from hard-to-find rarities that have not been issued in many years to more contemporary offerings, and selections are often restricted to a particular musical genre or theme. Some MP3 blogs offer music in advanced Audio Coding (AAC) or Ogg formats, as well as MP3. For an up to date listing of MP3 Blogs, check out http://wiki.monkeyfilter.com
FlightGear
Source code for the entire project is available and licensed under the GNU General Public License. FlightGear is a free flight simulator project. It is being developed through the gracious contributions of source code and spare time by many talented people from around the globe. Among the many goals of this project are the quest to minimize short cuts and "do things right", the quest to learn and advance knowledge, and the quest to have better toys to play with.
The idea for Flight Gear was born out of dissatisfaction with current commercial PC flight simulators. There are so many people across the world with great ideas for enhancing the currently available simulators who have the ability to write code, and who have a desire to learn and contribute. Many people involved in education and research could use a spiffy flight simulator framework on which to build their own projects; however, commercial simulators do not lend themselves to modification and enhancement. The Flight Gear project is striving to fill these gaps.
There are a wide range of people interested and participating in this project. This is truly a global effort with contributors from just about every continent. Interests range from building a realistic home simulator out old airplane parts, to university research and instructional use, to simply having a viable alternative to commercial PC simulators.
Head over to the website and check out the add-ons and take a look at the screenshots. If you have a soft spot in your heart for flight sims, this app is a must have.
iRed Lite
http://www.filewell.com/iRedLite
Here's an app in beta that’s got a ton of potential. If you have a beautiful new Mac with a built-in Infrared port and an Apple remote, iRed Lite let's you control more then just
Front Row with that remote. You see all you do is hit the menu button on your remote and you can control many of your favorite Mac apps by remote keystrokes, or you can even call up Applescripts without touching the keyboard. Use your remote for iTunes, iPhoto, and more. Just keep hitting the menu key to switch between apps and the controls are displayed on your Mac's screen so you know what the remote buttons can control. The idea is pure Mac and I really am looking forward to seeing this app develop and mature. Check it out for yourself and give them your feedback.
MemoBlock
http://www.blocksoft.net/memoblock.html
MemoBlock is a useful notepad utility for OSX. Store as many styled text notes as you require, transfer of notes to iPods, and more. Alarm reminders can be set for individual notes, and notes can be categorized as you wish. The latest update to MemoBlock sports a new icon, runs at full speed on Intel or PowerPC Macs, improves support for transferring to iPods, and allows users to specify up to six favorite colors.
Well that's all for this month, download them all and give them a try. You'll find many of the freeware developers also provide great shareware products. Support them by purchasing their shareware.
Tim Verpoorten
tim@surf-bits.com
Editor: Surfbits.com
Producer: MacReviewCast.com
Co-Producer: The MacRoundtable.com
