utilities
Latest
Launch Center Pro 2.3 supports iBeacons, Geofences and more
Launch Center Pro has matured into a useful and very capable utility for iPhone. When I looked at it in 2011, its main functions were launching apps and performing actions. Subsequent releases have built upon that functionality, adding features like URL schemes and x-callback-url Support. Today, version 2.3 adds support for iBeacons and geofences, plus it has a channel on IFTTT, GIF sharing from Giphy and barcode/QR scanning. Let's take a look at Launch Center Pro 2.3 Creating an action that makes use of a geofence or iBeacon is easy. Tap the compose button in the upper right-hand corner, then tap the "+" to make a new action. You can fill in a name and other information as you like, and then tap Location Triggers and finally "+". Two options appear: Geofence and iBeacon. Select either and enter the relevant information. When setting up a geofence, there's a map built right in that lets you find the target location and adjust the size of the geofence around it. I love geofence tech and having it as a part of an app as powerful as Launch Center Pro is fantastic. Working with iBeacons is just as easy. Just give the beacon a name and UUID (other information is optional) and you're all set. I'm already dreaming up how I can take advantage of this at Fenway Park in Boston. Tweeting a GIF is fun and simple. You can create a list of your favorite GIF categories (like rage or featured, for example) and quickly find one you're interested in. The app then takes you right to Tweetbot (it'll prompt you to install Tweetbot if you haven't), composes a new tweet and paste the link right in. Anyone who has searched Giphy knows what a time saver this routine is. Of course you can share that perfect GIF via IM, email and more. Bar code scanning had me stumped at first, but it's perfect for finding something on Amazon. Let's say you're at the mall and the perfect Acme Widget is on sale for US$29.99. Just scan the code and find it on Amazon to compare prices. Easy! My favorite apps are those that are useful. Apps that actually make life easier. Wasn't that the promise of personal computing in 1984? Launch Center Pro makes it come true.
Alfred 2.3 adds external triggers and more
Alfred for Mac is one of my favorite utilities. So much more than an app launcher, it lets me find and move files, control apps and even set complex workflows into action for a super-effecient work day. Things get better with version 2.3, which is out now. External triggers, case-sensitive hotkeys and other changes only make this app better. External triggers are so cool. In a nutshell, you can use an AppleScript from outside Alfred to tell it what to do. Attach one to a Calendar event, for example, for precision timing. Meanwhile, you use Alfred to select which app opens a specific file. Think of it as Finder's "Open with..." command but much more efficient. The marquee feature is context-sensitive hotkeys. I use a utility like Alfred because I don't like reaching for the mouse over and over, all day long. Perhaps you're the same. Now you can make your hotkey triggers case-sensitive. There's also an option to disable a combination when a certain application is frontmost, and a unique setting for when you're using Photoshop. Hotkey conflicts are a huge pain in the backside, and Alfred 2.3 does a lot to address it. Alfred is among the apps I install on a new Mac immediately. This update is an example of why.
Reviews: Disk Diag is a popular, but odd Mac utility
Disk Diag from Rocky Sand Studio Ltd. is another one-trick* pony utility for Mac OS X. Updated in December, it simply scans your home folder to locate unneeded files, which you can choose to delete. Disk Diag is not well-named, because it does not do any diagnostics on your hard drive at all. There are no preferences for Disk Diag; this one-window utility shows you a gauge of disk usage at the top and a file type list underneath it. The six file types for which it searches are Caches, Logs, Browser Data, Trash, Mail Downloads and Large Files. You can turn each one on or off with a click on the blue stripe. The latest update disables Downloads deletion access by default. The program launch opens a Welcome to Disk Diag window with ads for other software from Rocky Sand Studio. I found that annoying, but there is a "Show at Launch" checkbox to disable this window from appearing. You can move your mouse over Smart Gauge to show how much space is used on your hard drive, how much is removable and how much free space is available. When you click the line next to one of the items, a text box and search box appears. The text box displays a brief explanation and the search takes you to the folder with the files within. Personally, I don't recommend this little app, because it is just too easy to delete items you may want later on down the road. For example, I keep logs, so I can follow a program's progress in case it crashes or to see progress notes on a sync. Logs are the only way to keep tabs on your system. I'm also not a fan of emptying caches while a program, such as your browser, is still in use. It will also delete files in your Downloads and Mail Downloads folder. I seriously do not want some utility app messing with my downloads folders. I usually keep my downloaded files and often leave received photos in my Mail Downloads folder to look at and deal with later, because it's all personal mail. So, I just think it's a good way to lose items you may want to keep. If you could pick and choose what to delete, Disk Diag would be more useful to me. One inconsistency in Disk Diag should probably be fixed. When you click the blue bar area to activate Downloads deletion, it just adds the whole folder contents to be deleted. Yet, when you activate the Large Files selection, it comes up with a dialog in which you can check boxes to indicate which large files to delete. I think both optional areas should include the check box selection. Now, there are more than 900 people who seem to love this app and have given it a 5-star rating in the App Store. Good luck to them. I just think it gives you enough (or rather not enough) information to make deleting things you cannot view first precarious. Rocky Sand Studio notes on their support page that the only way you can retrieve a file Disk Diag deletes is to restore it from your backup. You do have a backup, right? Disk Diag v.1.2 is free for a limited time, but normally sells for US$4.99. It is a 64-bit app compatible with Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8) or later. I tested it in OS X 10.8.4. * Corrected typo mistake.
Mac App of the Week: MPlayerX offers multi-format playback for OS X
MPlayerX (free) is one of those fabulous utilities like VLC, NicePlayer and MPEG Streamclip that seems to have ended up on my Mac as a must-have playback app. It offers an OS X wrapper around FFmpeg and MPlayer libraries. These enable it to handle a wide range of media codecs without requiring you to install extra packages. The player provides tons of options aimed at the power user. I must be honest, though, and say that 99.999 percent of the time, I play a file, watch it and that's that. If you want more features, the app lets you tweak playback speeds, video aspects, create loops and more. Say, for example, you are watching an out-of sync video, whose audio needs a tiny delay tweak. MPlayerX makes it simple to apply that audio delay directly in the playback window. MPlayerX is tremendously hacker friendly. According to the developer, it integrates with third-party remote functions, offers audio pass-through for home theater compatibility and even supports YouTube video streaming. If you wish to contribute to the MPlayerX project, there's a donate button on the site's main page.
Post Haste for OS X creates project template folders
A rather curious app crossed my desk this morning. Aimed at creatives who make complex project folders repeatedly, Post Haste (free) enables you to create named directory hierarchies over and over again. You supply the project name and client name, and Post Haste builds your folders and skeleton files. The idea is this. Many workflows include setting up folder groups. For example, if you spend time in Photoshop, you want to create a primary document, set up folders for raw source images, establish a set of reference images and so forth. Post Haste builds that skeleton on your behalf, bringing your project and client name references all the way down the tree. Although the preloaded Post Haste templates are geared towards graphic designers, you can build your own for whatever client work is specific to your business. So how useful is this idea? For me, not so much. My project folders use the same naming for each item, with few project changes. For me, the development edit or tech edit review directories don't need project-specific names. What's more, my projects never use particularly complex hierarchies. In other words, I've done it by hand for years and will probably keep going on as I've been. That said, if you work on several projects at a time during your workday, juggling multiple clients and tasks, this may prove more useful.
DevJuice: iOS Artwork Extractor updated
Many devs find it useful to inspect system artwork -- whether for inspiration, for reverse engineering to help create consistent new elements or simply for curiosity. In that goal, there's been no better tool than the open-source iOS Artwork Extractor from Cédric Luthi. The project, formerly UIKit Artwork Extractor, has now been updated for pretty much any iOS version you throw at it, including iOS 7. It also now enables you to scan arbitrary frameworks, not just UIKit. It's a handy utility, one well worth checking out.
Chatology for Mac lets you easily search Message histories
Flexibits has released Chatology for Mac (US$19.99), which lets you search your Messages chat history with great ease and success. Its looks will make it familiar to just about anyone who's used a Mac within the last ten years and and its integration with Messages is just lovely. Say goodbye to Apple's chat search. Looks Chatology is similar to iTunes, iPhoto and others as it has a list on the left and related details on the right. Again, it will be super familiar to most Mac owners, so you'll be up and running in no time. Click any name on the right to view the associated chat logs in clear, legible text. Conversations, images and links are a mere click away. Finally, you can opt to see your conversations as balloons or boxes (I prefer balloons). %Gallery-191695% Use Chatology finds the chat logs stored on your Mac at launch and displays each conversation according to the person on the other end. Click any name in the leftmost column to see your full history with that person in the center column, sorted by date. You'll also see the conversation's start time and duration. You can refine your history by viewing logs from today, within the last seven days, the last 30 or within the last year. Once you've selected a particular history to scour, you can view the full conversation, just images or just links. While testing this app, I was able to find two images I remembered seeing in chat but failed to drag out. It was crazy easy to find them: I just pulled up the conversation, clicked "images" and there it was. There's a search box, too. Simply type in the term you're after and there it is. Here's what I love about Chatology. There's a preference to enable Messages integration. When enabled, you'll be brought right to Chatology when you hit Command-F in Messages. It's like launching über-search mode. Finally, you can export any conversation as a plain text file, use Quick Look to view images and delete a chat log, all from the app. Conclusion Those who have lots of conversations in chat, especially those that might include desirable reference information, will do well to install Chatology. Likewise, it's a good choice for users who are not satisfied with the search feature in Messages. Chatology for Mac is available now for US$19.99 from the Flexibits Store. It requires Mac OS X 10.7.5 or later. Please note that Chatology for Mac will only be available from the Flexibits Store. It will not available from the Mac App Store. Unfortunately, Apple's policies won't allow an app like Chatology on the Mac App Store. Pick it up now and get searching.
Shortcat: Spotlight for your screen
It comes as little surprise that OS X supports many flavors of user interaction, nor that certain users gravitate towards certain input styles. For example, there are trackpad wizards who beckon with careful gestures and there are mouse users who prefer to point with their cursor. And then there are keyboard fiends, those like myself, who live and die by our home position. If you're a keyboard-based user like me, every physical movement that draws your hands away from the keyboard is a loss in efficiency, a break in concentration. We are the arrow movers, the shortcut makers, the Spotlight addicts. And it is us that the Shortcat app targets. Currently in public beta, the app offers a new take on keyboard-based interaction. Instead of launching Spotlight (Command-Space), you launch Shortcat (Command-Shift-Space). Enter a few letters and Shortcat searches the frontmost app for matching text. This solution is brilliant for apps and websites that don't support keyboard shortcuts. I've now used it to prepare TUAW posts in Safari, to navigate between chat rooms in Colloquy and to jump to messages in Mail. This is still a beta and I did encounter beta issues. At times, Shortcat would go into endless-spinny-progress mode, ignoring me until I quit and relaunched the app. Also, I quickly discovered that Shortcat doesn't walk through menus, only windows, although for many purposes that's perfectly sufficient to my needs. Even so, this is a really promising app and one that I'm already seeing could become a big part of my daily work routine.
Farensius adds weather to your Mac menu bar
For only US$0.99, the OS X Farensius app is just adorable. It adds a current weather indicator to your menu bar, and offers an optional 5-day forecast in its drop-down. It's exactly what I've been missing on my desktop. I have it set to update every five minutes, and with a tiny glance up and to the right, I can keep track of the current temperature. Farensius is one of two related apps. Its big brother, Farensius Desktop ($1.99) adds the forecast to your desktop wallpaper. For me, my bland white desktop background is a necessity -- so I'm sticking with the basic app for now. Those looking for a whimsical weather-themed backdrop, however, will enjoy this. Not everything was, unfortunately -- and if you forgive the pun, sunny. Farensius Desktop struggled with my multi-monitor set-up, insisting on placing its background only on my secondary monitor. What's more, when I tried adding custom backdrops, the app crashed several times. I had no issues with the menu-bar-only version, which is even now running on my desktop.
Timed command-line screenshots
A TUAW staffer recently asked if there were a way to snapshot the exact same region of the screen over and over at timed intervals without buying third-party software. There is, but it depends on your comfort with the command line. If you're experienced in Unix scripting, read on. If not, you may want to investigate standalone screen-capture apps instead. I pointed him to /usr/sbin/screencapture. This built-in OS X utility allows you to specify a screen region to capture. For example, to capture a 50x200 rectangle starting at the point 200, 200, you'd say: % /usr/sbin/screencapture -R"200,200,50,200" ~/Desktop/foo.png You can easily apply a Unix shell script to create numbered output files. Unix commands will also enable you to sleep and repeat the capture requests over time. The utility is Retina-ready. Since it captures in points (and not pixels), the results are twice as big in each dimension when run on Retina systems.
Preview, sips, and more: OS X image processing tools
On a recent trip, I found I had failed to add copies of my auto-resizing drop tools to my travel MacBook Air. My droplets allow me to convert images to TUAW-standard sizes, namely 225 pixels for small images and 456 pixels for banner images. (See? Information you never thought you'd need to know.) What a lot of people don't realize is that OS X offers solutions for these kinds of basic image tasks. First and foremost is Preview. This app is simply terrific. Yes, I know, Apple took some really helpful utilities like Link Annotation out of the app on its road to Mountain Lion. (Time? Feature trimming? It's hard to say.) Even so, Preview is the best app on your computer that nobody uses enough. Preview offers a surprising tool suite that combines a little bit of Photoshop and a little bit of Acrobat into one app. In addition to annotating PDFs, you can rotate and crop images using Preview's Tools menu. You have access to lasso selection, color correction, and image fitting, among many other features. At one point Steve Sande and I threw around the idea of writing an entire book on Preview (there's plenty of interesting material in there!) but ended up deciding against it. Unfortunately, demand leads sales and too few people know how powerful Preview can be. To resize an image, choose Tools > Adjust Size or click the resizing icon you see at the top-right of this post's main image. The icon looks like an arrowed line in a square box. An Image Dimensions panel slides into view, as you see here. Select the new width you want to use, making sure the small icon next to the two text fields remains in the locked position. This ensures that the height and width scale proportionately, so the resulting image is sized just right. Preview isn't the only resizing solution on your Mac, however. The "sips" command line tool offers another take on image processing, one that's especially convenient for scripting and batch processing. For example, if you want to resize an image to fit a given width, you can ask it to resample to the pixel count you supply. Here's how you might do that. % sips --resampleWidth 225 input.png --o output.png You can also perform many of the same tasks as preview. For example, you might rotate an image clockwise by 90 degrees: % sips -r 90 input.png -o output.png or convert a file from PNG to JPG format: % sips -s format jpeg input.png -o output.jpg OS X also supports related based on "folder actions". These refer to AppleScripts that you attach to folders, so when you drop items into the folders, they run those scripts. It's easy to take a peek at some of the system-supplied actions. Create a new folder on your desktop. Control-click or Right-click it and choose Services > Folder Action Setup from the contextual pop-up menu. Select a pre-built script like "Duplicate as JPEG" or "Rotate Left" and click Attach. Finish by checking "Enable Folder Actions". Your new folder applies the attached script to any file you drop into it. If you're an intrepid system-modding type, you can expand these script choices by adding items to ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts. (The system supplied versions all appear in /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts). Scripts are built around a standalone Image Events application, found in /System/Library/CoreServices. This app provides a "faceless background application" that wraps sips for AppleScript scripting. Apple has documented Image Events as part of its developer library, and its docs point to this external website that details how you integrate scripting with image manipulation requests. I'll leave the rest as an exercise for the reader, but a bit of Googling will turn up already-built image solutions ready for testing. Here at TUAW, we regularly use these for image resizing -- and they're exactly the bits I forgot to pack on my trip. So did I get my work done while gone? You bet I did. And a big part of that reason is how sips and Preview enable you to step up to image challenges without any third party software needed. Got some OS X image processing tips? Share them in the comments.
Nest acquires MyEnergy, inherits better analysis tools for its customers
Nest, maker of the award-winning Learning Thermostat, announced today that it's acquired MyEnergy, an online service that lets you consolidate energy bills and share them with friends and family. Until recently, Nest's intelligence was limited to the confines of your home. This changed last month when the company launched Energy Services, which lets the thermostat communicate with participating utilities, making it aware of peak pricing and energy crunches. By acquiring MyEnergy, Nest will be able to help its customers manage energy more efficiently through better energy analysis tools. It also gives Nest another way to share information with utilities by tapping into MyEnergy's user base, which covers 1500 territories in 50 states, including areas without smart meters. Full PR after the break.
Macworld shares five nice TextExpander snippets
TextExpander by Smile is an essential tool for folks who type as often as we do. It lets you create short key combinations that trigger -- and are replaced by -- larger strings of text. For example, I have TextExpander covert "actk" to "Apple CEO Tim Cook." It saves time. Macworld editor Dan Miller has made a video demonstrating his top five TextExpander snippets. I always appreciate the chance to peer over the virtual shoulder of someone who knows how to use a tool really well. Dan's video is a great example of that. Go and learn something new!
Drafts 3.0 adds draft and action management, much more
Drafts, the iOS note-taker from Agile Tortoise, has been updated to version 3.0, and it's a big one. Drafts 3.0 is available now for the iPad (US$3.99) and iPhone ($2.99), and it's a free update for existing users. Much like Apple's own Notes, Drafts lets you quickly jot things down (we recently featured Drafts as a Daily iPhone App) But it's so much more than that. Use Drafts to create "actions" for moving your text into other apps, or sharing with family, friends or co-workers. You can even geek out and create complex workflows that interact with other apps. Drafts can be as simple or involved as you like. In both scenarios, it's fast and useful. There's a lot to like and play with in this release; so much so, in fact, that I'm going to pore over it a bit more for a full review soon. In the meantime, here's an overview of what to expect from Drafts 3.0. This update adds draft management and action management. The new action manager gives you four customizable panes of actions -- ways of interacting with other iOS apps or web services. You needn't scroll a long list to find the actions you want. You could, for example, have sharing actions on one pane (Twitter, ADN, Facebook or email), productivity actions on another (OmniFocus, Reminders and Fantastical) and writing-based actions on a third, like Markdown and send to Byword. Draft management works in a similar way. The scrolling list is replaced with an inbox, an archive and a list of pinned drafts. Swipe any draft to pin it, archive it or move it back to the inbox. It's a seemingly simple change but it goes a long way to keeping things organized. There's fun new geeky stuff, too. New Evernote actions let you create/append/prepend to notes in Evernote. It can process notes in Markdown now, too. Integration with Apple's Reminders has also been improved. You can now opt to import reminders right into Drafts, which is handy. You can also use an action to create new reminders or even start new lists in Reminders if a list does not yet exist. Super handy. Additionally, if you use TextExpander, your saved snippets can now be expanded when you run a custom Drafts action. The iPhone version of the app features an extended keyboard. There's a lot more in there -- this is a huge release. Drafts is a handy, useful tool for the iPhone and iPad. Version 3.0 makes it so much better. Keep an eye out for my in-depth review soon.
Timebar: Turn your menu bar into a countdown timer
Timebar ($2.99) has got to be one of the wackier utilities I've come across but it's one that may deserve to find a loyal audience. It works like this: You pull down the menu, set a stop time and an optional audio alert. Click "Start" and boom, the menu bar at the top of your screen transforms into a progress bar. A blue line moves from right to left, providing a visual indicator of the time remaining. Now, honestly, this app may not be for everyone. I found the moving bar at the top of my screen gave me a migraine (not a joke migraine, an actual migraine migraine), but I doubt this kind of motion sensitivity will affect most users. If you, like me, have carefully disabled every animation detail on your desktop (no bouncing icons, thank you, no window zooms), the app may not be right for you. I thought it offered a cute idea and implementation. I particularly liked its "snooze" option. It's not expensive, and it's very easy to use.
Quicksilver app launcher released after 10 years in beta
After spending 10 years in beta (and you thought Siri was in beta a long time) OS X launch utility Quicksilver has at last reached version 1.0. The utility allows users to launch applications or perform tasks through simple keyboard shortcuts. Announcing the release, the developers of Quicksilver said in a blog post: After almost 10 years of testing, Quicksilver lays the beta tag to rest. (If the lack of an eszett brings a tear to your eye, you can always reminisce by hitting ⌥S on your keyboard). What does this release mean? It means more than just a change in the version numbering system -- it signifies a maturity of Quicksilver and a sign of what's to come. Quicksilver 1.0 is a free download, although the developers are accepting donations.
Alfred 2.0 adds workflows, improves preferences, more
Alfred is one of my favorite Mac utilities (here's my review of version 1.0). After a long beta period, version 2.0 is now available. I've been using it throughout the beta period and I can say that it's a huge improvement over version 1.x. The new workflows are fantastic, the preferences are easier to use and better organized. Here's my look at Alfred V2. Looks Alfred's main interface is still a single input field, but now you can customize it more deeply than before. New theme options let you change the fonts, sizes and the height and width of the results window. You can even change the roundness of the corners. Once in the theme editor, use a combination of mouse clicks and key combinations to affect different changes. Pop-up help text guides you through the process so it's easy. You can duplicate an existing theme if you want to use it as a starting point, or begin entirely from scratch. And for the record, I like the Dark And Smooth theme. %Gallery-181517% Workflows Let's talk about the big guns. Alfred 2's marquee feature is Workflows. Some people think of Alfred as a launcher. Workflows will change that for good. Workflows let you combine a series of actions into a helpful sequence. You get your triggers, inputs, actions and then the outputs. What's nice is that it's entirely approachable. You needn't code a single thing, and the supplied templates and examples will get you started. A workflow can be simple or complex. Here are a couple of examples. Every day I use a workflow called "paste to plain text." Occasionally I'd paste text into TextEdit to strip out the styling. Now I simply hit the hotkey combination I set up in Alfred -- Option-P -- and the contents of my clipboard are pasted as plain text. One of the example workflows is called "Should I watch this movie?" Here's how it works. Launch Alfred, type "movie" and the the film's title. Hit Return, and Alfred opens the movie's IMDB page, its page on Rotten Tomatoes and its trailer on YouTube, all in separate tabs on your browser. I also created a quick one that launches QuickTime Pro and begins a new audio recording, which is helpful when I'm podcasting. There's so much you can do from fun to productive, from triggering AppleScripts to terminal commands. You can even share your work with others. Other improvements You can now have Alfred remember where you like its window to appear. You can also change the wallpaper that appears in the background of the theming preference pane. These little improvements stand out and make the experience very pleasant. Conclusion Alfred V2 is a great update. So how does pricing work? Alfred is a free download, and the Powerpack, which adds features, is paid. For upgrades, a single license to a mega license is £20. This been the case since the beginning of the beta. You can go from a single to v2 single for £10, and from a family license to v2 family license for £15.
Desktop Groups: Add floating file pallettes to your desktop
Desktop Groups (US$7.99) offers a nice utility for anyone looking for a fresh take on desktop organization. It creates little floating window palettes for arranging your workspace. Each group can be shown open or closed. The windows live essentially at the same level as the desktop. That means any work naturally opens up on top of these groups. You name and group floating items exactly as you please. Unfortunately, to comply with App Store rules, Desktop Groups doesn't really support aliases. I was hoping to use the app to arrange in-progress book projects but found that my carefully collected aliases weren't compatible. Clicking aliases locates the original Finder alias file. It doesn't open the connected file or folder. Aliases aside, I liked the way the app functioned. Although you can, of course, create your own native Finder windows, I appreciated how the groups organized my files with their Finder-friendly translucent backgrounds. Simple integration with a desktop-based Desktop Groups folder made it simple to manage and review items. This app won't be for everyone but it's a pleasant addition to the "organize my desktop" genre of utilities.
Launch Center Pro 1.1 adds native in-app actions, Action Composer, more
AppCubby has released Launch Center Pro 1.1 (US$2.99, currently on sale), a major update to its very useful utility for the iPhone (here's our full review of Launch Center Pro 1.0). This update brings many big additions, including native in-app actions, a re-designed Action Composer and TextExpander support in URLs. The new Action Composer is beautiful and so much more intuitive than its predecessor. When you're making a new action, a new screen appears listing system actions, installed apps, all supported apps, featured apps and those recently added. There's also a button for using a custom URL. It's very neatly organized and presented, which makes it easier to use. That's great, but support for TextExpander snippets is even better. If you've got TextExpander touch installed (and why wouldn't you?), launch it and enable snippet sharing. Now you can use snippets within Launch Center Pro, which is immensely handy. There's more, of course, and we'll have a full review up soon. For now, Launch Center Pro 1.1 is a great updated to one of my favorite utilities. Stay tuned for my full run-down of this useful app.
Access your Nest Thermostat from your Mac menu bar
The Nest Thermostat has been a hit since it was announced in late 2011. Apple sells them along with other retailers, and they were created by Tony Fadell, one of the fathers of the iPod when he was at Apple. The Nest can be accessed from a browser, or iOS apps that let you control all aspects of the thermostat from anywhere. On a Mac, there is a web page. Now, developer Joe Workman has improved that by creating a small app for your menu bar called Climate. The US$2.99 app, now available in the Mac App Store, places an item in your menu bar to log into your account. The app persistently displays your minimum and maximum temperature settings. Click it to see a screen similar to what you find on your iOS device or the web. You can change settings, modify your schedule and set the Nest to auto-away mode or do anything you could do from a browser or your iPhone or iPad. %Gallery-181036% Why would you buy an app when you can get the same info for free? First, Nest doesn't have a Mac app. You have to navigate to its web page and log in to your account. I find Climate a lot more convenient to use, and it is always a click away. If there is anything I would change, it's what is displayed in the menu bar. I know my minimum and maximum temp settings, and they rarely change. I'd prefer my current house temperature, or maybe a switch that lets me select outside or inside temperatures, or maybe display both. Those are small quibbles. Climate is a handy app for your Mac, and I think most Nest owners will find it useful.
