FullScreen
Latest
Scrivener - the word processor with a cork board
Scrivener is a new word processor made for the messy, non-linear and notecard-slinging writers out there. Merlin Mann has been raving about it, and I can understand why: Scrivener's entire UI and workflow is designed around managing the pieces of whatever you're working on, allowing you to organize things like thoughts, outlines, pictures and dialog snippets with folders and keywords. The most interesting organizational feature, however, is a unique cork board UI on which you rearrange virtual notecards that contain summaries of whatever is in the document they represent. Hopefully, this allows many a college student and screen writer to stop jamming real cork boards in their bags when meeting for group projects. Scrivener doesn't stop there: multiple document editing, full-featured outlining, full-screen editing and format-friendly exporting all round up quite a v1.0 debut. A 30-day demo is available, and a license runs $34.99.
QTAmateur does full-screen playback, batch exporting, more
QTAmateur brings a lot of the handy QuickTime Pro features to the table without having to pay the $30 upgrade. Full screen video playback (with a more streamlined, iTunes 7-like video window) and batch exporting of any format QuickTime can read and write make for a handy little app.QTAmateur is free, Universal and available from Mike Ash, a Rogue Amoeba programmer.
Shiira v2 beta released
Remember that Shiira v2 beta preview that delusions of grandeur had at the end of July? Well instead of simply reading about it, now you can take your own copy for a spin, as a public, localized beta has been released. Shiira, if you haven't been following the coverage as of late, is an open source and uniquely feature-packed browser based on WebKit, the same web (and also open source) rendering engine that powers Apple's own Safari. Most of the new features that were previewed seem to be implemented, including the Shelf, Tab Exposé, a tab thumbnails option (instead of standard tabs found in Safari and Firefox), FullScreen Mode with a really slick and self-hiding navigation overlay, a palette replacement for the sidebar and more. When this first landed on digg, the download was only a PowerPC build, but it has since been replaced with a true Universal version. So what are you waiting for? Get downloading!
Trans Lucy 2 is Universal and freakin' sweet
My friend Clark, who seems to be my only resource for anything, pointed me in the direction of an incredible little app called Trans Lucy 2. It's a video/DVD-player that actually lets you modify the transparency of the video window and then overlay it on your screen, so you can watch whatever's playing while working/chatting/surfing in the background. Perfect for people with small screens, or folks (like me) who hate constantly moving around windows depending on what they want to do. Right now I'm watching a Thomas Jefferson biography (thanks, Netflix!) while talking via iChat and writing this post in Camino. Depending on what task I wish to focus on, I just change the focus of my vision. And it works really well.A registered version of Trans Lucy 2 is $15, but you can download a demo version at www.translucy.com.Update: seany explains the best benefit of Trans Lucy over other apps with similar functionality: "The nice thing about this is that you can 'click through' the movie and work as normal. In other apps, their windows are selected when you click anywhere. To all intensive purposes [sic], the app disappears except for the video. I find it great for following video tutorials as I can track the actions in real time without swtiching between windows."
