Für das Mac OS und die Apple eigenen Programme gibt es die Softwareaktualisierung um immer auf dem neuesten Stand zu sein. Andere Hersteller bringen oft eigene Aktualisierungstools oder die Programme können selbstständig beim Start nach neuen Softwareversionen suchen.

Unter Linux werden die installieren Programme oft Zentral vom Paketmanager verwaltet. Solch eine Anwendung gibt es auch für das Mac OS.

AppFresh durchsucht den Rechner nach allen installierten Programmen und vergleicht die Version mit der aktuellsten Version aus iUseThis. Eventuelle Updates werden dann angezeigt, können teilweise automatisch installiert werden, und teilweise wird man zur entsprechenden Downloadrubrik der Internetseite des Herstellers verwiesen. Neben den schnöden Versionsinformationen hält das Programm auch grundlegende Infos über die jeweilige Anwendung bereit.

Diverse Optionen erlauben es Ausnahmen zu definieren, oder z.B. nur Programme aktuell zu halten, wenn dies automatisch möglich ist usw. Auch kann man nur Programme, oder auch Widgets und Plugins aktuell halten.

Eine weitere Option erlaubt es automatisch die eigenen Daten auf iUseThis einzustellen. Dazu muss man einfach seinen iUseThis Account angeben.

Auch wenn man die Updates lieber manuell vornimmt, bietet das Programm auf jeden Fall schon einen guten Überblick wo man denn überhaupt veraltet ist. Aber alle automatischen Vorgängen haben bisher bei mir bestens funktioniert.

http://metaquark.de/appfresh/

http://osx.iusethis.com/

ściągnij AppFresh, a używaj regularnie.

Ten obecnie darmowy (przynajmniej na etapie rozwojowym) programik zadba, by większość zainstalowanych programów była w najnowszej dostępnej wersji. Integruje się z posiadanym kontem iusethis.com, ale nie jest ono wymagane do pracy aplikacji.

]]> http://andykashyap.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/top-mac-softwares-download-them/ Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:29:00 +0000 Andy Kashyap http://andykashyap.wordpress.com/2009/06/13/top-mac-softwares-download-them/

Making a switch from Windows to the Mac can be really difficult. I bought my Mac, mid-October 2008, and I must say it’s the best decision i’ve made. You can call me an Apple fanboy now. But, using a Mac can be both difficult, and many times annoying for first timers (like me).

Today, we have every possible software available for the Mac. And many of them beat good ol’ Windows stuff.

The softwares below, are in addition to the usual. As soon as you install Mac, install these softwares, without thinking twice.

Firefox (Everything starts with this)
VLC Media Player
Picasa (I prefer this over iPhoto)
Audacity (Editing and making audio files, ringtones et al)
Thunderbird (This is awesome, bleh to Mail)
UnRarX (For expanding all those Zips and Rars)
Adobe PDF
DivX Player – For QuickSilverScreenMovies

Widgets:
Wallsaver (make your screensaver your wallpaper, really cool)
iCal

Coming to the list of top mac Softwares (you must have these!)

• Quicksilver – This is by far the best software out there for the Mac. Without it, the Mac feels ‘naked’. Trust me, once you start using Quicksilver, you will never ever go back to using the Mac without it. I tried Quick Search Box (Google QSB) last week….never hated something so much, it doesn’t even have Move To… , Open with.. . Oh and did I tell you? It QSB lags as hell !

  INSTALL QUICKSILVER NOW! BECAUSE I SAID SO!

• InsomniaX – Annoyed by the sleep function that Mac has, when you close the screen. InsomniaX is the solution. Now you can listen to music, while having your Mac screen shut!
• AppZapper – I have an OCD. I need by computer absolutely clean, and hate random files lying around. So when someone told me that, when you delete files from the Application folder, there are remnants hidden on the Mac, I decided to give this software a go. And Thank God I did. It’s very very easy to use. Drop an application into it, and it’ll delete all associated files with it. No more, junk lying around.
  PS – It’s paid. Worth it though. It’s worth 2 sandwiches.
  
  
• AppFresh – I update my software. I like updating my software. I need to update my software. I use AppFresh to update my software.
• Gimp – Photoshop Alternative. Enough Said.
• NameWrangler – I don’t like using Automator, when I batch rename my files. This makes life a lot easier.
• Growl – I just installed this last week, after giving up on it a couple of months back. It is very very cool. Being notified of the song that you are playing, the battery levels, email, and every other thing that you need to know without having to click anything is just amazing. It looks awesome too. Took me a while to figure this out.

Some miscellaneous stuff

SuperDocker (Shapes and gives control of your Dock to you)
Keyboard Cleaner (I like this, i use it when I clean my Mac … literally)
Stellarium (Star gazers – This is for you)
Butler (Complicated to use, but incredibly awesome in assigning keyboard gestures to over-ride conventional buttons eg. excel)

These are just some of the things that I use almost everyday. Feel free to recommend some to me.

I still haven’t found an excellent photo viewer for the Mac. Waiting for Picasa Image Viewer

I posted ten different puns for all Mac users to see, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did.

I decided I am going to start doing a weekly tip for both Windows and Mac. This can include new methods of doing familiar tasks or simply a quick download of a application. I will try to do this every week. First up is the Mac version.

I always try to download the latest updates for my machines, which can be quite a headache. You have to fire up every app and check for a update option in the menu bar, which can take a long time if you have a lot of apps.

It is also a hassle when apps update when you are on a “expensive” connection like 3G or have a very low cap. Then you can fire up this app once you are in a free area like a public hotspot.

I recently came across AppFresh. The app can automatically check for downloads available for all apps. Instead of running each app’s individual downloader it has a central repository that can easily check which version you have and compare it to the latest version available.

It is currently still free, but they might start charging for it later. So jump at it while you still have the chance.

Most of us have lots of software on our computers and we might find it hard to keep all your softwares up-to-date. Here are 2 apps that might be the killer time-saver update checker!! (one is for Mac and the other is for Windows)

AppFresh is a popular application for Mac which keeps your applications, widgets, preference panes and application plugins up-to-date and best of all it is free and should pack loads of features than the Apple Software Update.

For Window users, I found a software that does almost the same things as AppFresh, which is called FileHippo Update Checker which was first found by MakeUseOf, so go there to read up more on this cool Windows app. But what about Linux users? Let me know what they use to update their softwares!!

*** Sorry, readers: despite efforts in either the normal OR html editing mode, this little wordpress wants to ignore the s p a c i n g I try to apply. This explains why some application description ends up next to the wrong image and such.***

So this week, Mr. President was absent and yours truley (Rob) got to present on some applications and web links that can be handy for a mac user. There probably isn’t enough time to go through all of these in the meeting itself, but below you can find some info on each one.

Web Applications (iPod touch & iPhone)

Yes, there are plenty of great applications to download and play with via iTunes (or the device iteself), but you have to store that on your device and possibly pay for it. So, since Apple is nice and friendly, they did some elbow work of putting together a page for us users to browse applications that are provided by websites. Mind ye, the downside to this is that you will need an internet connection to utilize it.

Enough word-junk, just click the iPhone above to browse the webapps and note their URLs and put that into Safari on your handheld. Enjoy!

Calendars for your iCal

Next up from the Apple site is something that may not interest you in the least, but I’ve used it a couple times. Click the image below to go to the calendars download page and browse all sorts of prefabbed calendars. Download whichever interests you (I have mexican holidays for example), and add it to your iCal.

And now for the applications:

• Appfresh

This program helps you to keep all applications, widgets, preference panes and application plugins installed on your Mac up to date. All from one place, easy to use and fully integrated into Mac OS X.

• Caffeine

Prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers.

• CamTwist

This one might be a little more advanced if you’re not the sort of computer user to just “play around” with a programs settings. That’s where all the fun in this little app is! In brief, it takes your iSight (webcam) video feed and puts it through the program to apply special effects and such. I have used it in the past when streaming live video to add a caption at the bottom (such as you might see on news programs). Make sure to set the capture device or webcam input on whatever website you use to “camtwist.”

Download here, whatever version is most recent.

• Disk Inventory X

This program reads your drive and gives a graphical result of how much space your files take up. This is handy if you’re running low on space and ever wonder “where does it all go?!”

(sorry guys, no fancy image for this one)

Go to their home page and watch the little movie clip for a good explanation. The free download is there too.

…and much, much more.

Whelp, I ran out of time writing this. I will save more goodies for another week.

Stay tuned.

Si eres como yo que instalo una aplicación y me olvido de estar checando cuando hay una nueva actualización, o estas haciendo algo y dices “después lo hago” creo que esto te será muy útil. Son 3 aplicaciones que te avisan que programas de tu Mac estan desactualizados, cada uno escanea las versiones de los programas instalados, y con ayuda de internet nos muestra que versión tenemos y que versión es la última según el programa del que se trate. Estas son las diferencias entre cada uno.

App Update. Más que un programa es un widget para el dashboard. Es donationware y aunque es pequeño nos muestra la información necesaria: la aplicación, versión instalada y última versión. Entre sus preferencias podemos elegir si queremos que nos notifique vía Growl las actualizaciones y cada cuanto hacer el chequeo de éstas. La información de las actualizaciones es tomada del directorio de software de Apple, MacUpdate y Version Tracker.

Version Tracker Pro. Este programa es de paga. El primer “escaneo” es gratis, a partir de este tienes que pagar $49. 95 dólares y tienes hasta 3 Macs para escanear. En su ventana principal además de mostrarnos los programas y sus versiones nos da el rating que tiene la versión de ese programa según la página de aplicaciones para Mac Version tracker. Si damos click en un programa nos da la descripción de éste así como también un detalle de los cambios en la nueva versión. Podemos descargar e instalar la última versión directamente de su barra de menú.
En la barra lateral nos muestra las últimas versiones que se han instalado, la lista de alertas, nuevos programas y también un motor de búsqueda.
En su ícono del dock nos da el número de programas desactualizados.

AppFresh. Es freeware. En su barra lateral podemos elegir que nos muestre todos los programas, los que necesitan una actualización, los que están actualizados, y los programas de los que no posee información. Esta aplicación toma la información de iUsethis. También nos dice si tenemos que actualizar los widgets, plugins y los programas instalados en  preferencias del sistema. Únicamente funciona bajo Tiger.
Este programa está aun en desarrollo y todavía no es beta, pero me ha funcionado muy bien.

Ahora sólo basta recordar correr cualquiera de estos programas

AppFresh es un magnífico programa que se encarga de mantener al día todas las aplicaciones que tienes en tu Mac.

Sólo tienes que ejecutarlo y se encargará de escanear todo nuestro disco en busca de las aplicaciones o plugins que tenemos instalados. Al finalizar, nos mostrará una lista con todas las que ha encontrado y nos mostrará si tenemos la última versión o existe una nueva.Desde el mismo AppFresh podrás actualizar la aplicación que quieras o bien decirle que actualice todas las que se han quedado obsoletas.

Para mi AppFresh es un programa que todos deberíamos tener y más ahora que con la llegada de Leopard es muy recomendable tener la última versión de todos nuestros programas para asegurar la compatibilidad. 

Descargar AppFresh 

Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of game music.
And when I say a lot, I mean it.
The Gears Of War soundtrack, composed by Kevin Reipl, has to be my favourite. Although it does seem to get a tad boring and repetitive, but its meant for a game not for exclusive listening.
I am currently listening to the Halo 2 soundtrack. Its not half bad albeit very predictable. I kinda feel as I have missed out a bit though as I never actually played Halo 2.
I finished Halo 3 in 5 hours and Halo 1 in..I have no idea how long.

I’m not exclusively listening to game music though. Anime soundtracks is closely followed is this listening habitation of mine.
The Hellsing one has to be my favourite. In fact, I have written a cover of one of the songs (Toll of the Masked Priest’s Chapel) to suit a more metal ideal.
I’ve also been listening to all of the Ghost In The Shell soundtracks. They’re ok, nothing too special but I really like the soundtrack for Innocence. Pity I thought the film was a fairly mediocre sequel.

Another thing I have been listening to a lot recently is trance. I attribute this trend to my fioncee.
One thing I have stopped listening to is the new Nightwish album, Dark Passion Play. It gets really annoying and all you want to do with it is throw it against a wall. Anette’s voice is really horrible after a while.
Still, I shall be seeing them on the 29th of January. 2 days after “An Evening With Dream Theater”. I’m so damn excited.
I think that month is also Amon Amarth.
In March, Immortal and Kataklysm are coming (seperately of course). I can’t wait until Immortal.

Thats enough of that, now for why the gaming, mac and computing categories have been selected.
I have recently switched internet providers to a much cheaper and reliable one. Even though this plan is at 8000 MBPS, it is still about as fast as my previous 20000 MBPS plan.
I have also switched over my browsers from Firefox to Opera. Why?
Because Firefox is incredibly unstable on this computer and has lots of isolated drop outs.
Opera is also kind of unstable but has quite a few features I really like. Speed dial is awesome, it just needs about 3 more spaces.
It also starts up much faster than Firefox.

A few weeks ago, I had a bit of a short review of the application called AppFresh. I didn’t really like it.
Well, a few days ago I gave it another go. I used it just after the system had rebooted. I can safely say now that it really does wonders. I ended updating about 20 applications.

Crysis officially comes out today here and everyone has given it either a 9.5/10 or a 10/10 rating. Just a pity that it probably won’t run on my Boot Camp system. Rather annoying.
UTIII comes out today as well, that will probably run slightly better on Boot Camp. I also still need to get “The Orange Box”. Damn, that will also most likely run like crap.

I guess I could wait until I get much more money, build my PC and then wait some more and buy the games.
Or I could just buy them and run them rather badly.

In fact, the total price of the games I want to buy is $AU355.48. Damn, and these are from a discounted site also. I also threw into the mix the Warcraft III Battle Chest.
Why you ask?
Because I have lost my original Warcraft III disk.

Well, that is that for now then.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been trying quite a few different Mac OSX applications to try and make life a bit easier.
Some are pretty bad, some are mediocre and I think a couple are actually decent.
These shall be short summations with a point score.

Onyx: This little system maintenance tool for OSX is free and allows you to customise some really basic things within OSX, some UNIX ones and some hidden features. E.g. you can change what format the screenshots you take are saved to. It actually allows you to do an awful lot. A couple of bad things about it are the general loading of it can get painful (especially if you do a S.M.A.R.T scan!) and that the cleaner doesn’t do anything to Firefox or other browsers apart from Safari. Laid out really well. 7.5 / 10

AppFresh: I didn’t use this program for very long mainly because it caused a severe slowdown on my computer. Although when that stopped, I liked the results it came up with. It found out that there was an X11 update about 4 days before the Apple software update decided to point that out to me. If it didn’t slowdown my computer, it would be a much nicer program. Laid out really well though. 6 / 10

SnapNDrag: An alternative to the built in screenshot command and Grab application. Really nice but causes some pretty intense slowdowns when doing a full screen cap. Also, the lack of autosave is a bit annoying but it has some redeeming features like JPEG quality and the option to resize (but you have to pay for that). 5 / 10

Vienna: I love this program. RSS Feed reader with a built in browser. Laid out perfectly. Blogging option. Skin customisation. 9 / 10

1001: I’m relatively new to Flickr (less than a week) and I have been using the official Flickr Uploadr to upload my pictures. I thought it was a bit bland and so got a different one. 1001 looks promising but its rather hard to get it to do what you want it to. The upload side of it is good but the other part of it that make it special, made it rather bad and clunky. The option to see a specific Flickr feed or a group feed sounds like a good idea, it just doesn’t seem to work. 4 / 10

Journler: This looked really promising. Its a blog client/note taker. Its laid out really well with a couple of exceptions. I didn’t like this one purely because of a personal reason. It just didn’t look ‘right’ to me. It has a ton of features that make it nice but I just couldn’t use it very well. It would be nice if it had more of an iTunes integration, e.g. ability to insert current play track. Seems to have a very intense Livejournal integration though. 6 / 10

Qumana: Oh god, I saw this program on a list of top 5 blog clients. It looked okay but the reviewer said the source view was pitiful. I didn’t think it could be that bad. It was. Integration with WordPress was rather good. Just the actual writing in both source and layout mode is horrible. Source mode doesn’t stay aligned and so if you keep going back and forth between those two modes, you spend ages cleaning up code. 5/ 10

QTM: I didn’t really try this one for long but it seems to be a barebones blog client. Fairly easy to set up a connection with a blog. Laid out fairly well. Its a very boring program to use. Wiht a better GUI (its open-source), this could be a rather top notch program. I can’t wait to see how it becomes past its current version of 0.5.5. 6.5 / 10

Xjournal: For those who use Livejournal like I do (my personal blog) and who use Mac OSX, this is one program you should get. It does everything you could want it to. In fact, its pretty much the Livejournal editor with some cool automation (like getting the current iTunes track), a couple of features that exist on LJ but a slightly harder to find and the ability to save everything as an offline draft. One little problem with it though is that you can’t enter your current location. 9.5 / 10

GIMP: An open-source image editing program coded in X11. Think Photoshop at around CS1 and then add some slower speeds to it and a slightly confusing interface. Thats GIMP for Mac OSX. Still, its free and does Photoshop’s job really well. A tad clunky and the keyboard shortcuts need to be learnt (not the same as every other Mac program.) 7 / 10

Time for another installment of App of the Week! The app for this week I actually just found last night, so I haven’t had a great deal of time to test all of its functionality, but from what I’ve seen, it looks quite promising.

AppFresh functions for third-party applications much in the same way that Software Update works for Apple products. When you launch it, it performs an inventory of all of your installed programs, plugins, and even widgets, attempting to match them with the iusethis database to search for updates. The result is quite effective, positively identifying more than 75% of all of my applications and providing accurate information about their version status. The remaining 25% of those applications were not actually apps at all, but rather other items that resided in the apps folder, such as documentation and uninstall prompts, which naturally did not have update options.

So why use this program? While it’s true that a great deal of apps have their own update client built in, many of them aren’t activated unless you prompt them to, or at best remind you of a new version. AppFresh does a comprehensive check of all your apps at the same time, allowing you to pick and choose which updates you want to perform, referring you to the appropriate website for the download. In addition, you have the option of backing up the currently saved versions of your apps, should an update go awry. Though AppFresh is still in beta, it has all of the polish and the functionality of not only a near-finished product, but also one that every mac user should have in their Applications folder.