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Daily Mac App: Slender
New from Dragon Forged Software, Slender (US$9.99, currently on sale for $4.99) is a narrowly-focused utility that will either be exactly the tool you're looking for or one you can safely skip. It helps you non-destructively optimize Xcode projects by allowing you to view, evaluate, and adjust development assets. For example, you can scan multi-resolution image collections. Slender detects when you might be missing a @2x asset or have used an incorrect dimension. That's particularly handy when you're working on large projects and may find it hard to otherwise audit your images by hand. Slender also matches assets to source code, so you can automatically remove unused asset items to help save space in your shipping bundle. You can use Slender to add its extra checking and validation to your normal workflow as a final project cleanup stage. Developer Kyle Richter adds, "This is the perfect app for anyone who is working on large projects with frequent asset changes and anyone trying to keep an active eye on their final bundle size." Slender originated as an internal project. Richter explains, "When working on client projects, we frequently ran into issues with asset control. Slender was designed as an in-house tool to help us optimize our work flow and cut down on our development time. We found it extremely useful internally, as did the colleagues we shared it with, so we decided to release it on the App Store so we could share the tech with others." Slender is now available from the Mac App Store. For more details about its features, you can check out this information page.
Totus Copy, for your dying hard drive
Performing regular backups of important data has been greatly simplified with the advent of Time Machine. For most people, in most cases, that's enough to ensure a good night's sleep. But for those situations where a hard drive in its death throes means a last minute panic to save whatever data can be salvaged, Totus Copy can make a bad day a little better. The documentation for this new software from Dragon Forged clearly states that running it can further damage your failing drive, but that's not such a bad price to pay if it can save your data. It requires a hard disk that can still mount, and features several means of rescuing your flailing files, including transferring single files (less likely to fail than batches), minimal scanning to reduce failures and error correction with no time limit on transfers. It can also target specific directories or even file types. Thankfully, I'm unable to test the application right now. But if you're in a situation where this might (now, or eventually) be a lifesaver, Dragon Forged is offering TUAW readers 25% off the $20 pricetag until June 1st. Just enter coupon code "BHBB0008F" when you purchase. More information, documentation and a trial download are all available on the product page.
