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iTMS does storefront customization for radio websites
Two hip-hop radio stations, Power 106 in LA and HOT 97 in NYC, have signed on the dotted line with the iTMS to offer an integrated, customized version of the store right in their own websites. The radio stations can design the store any way they see fit, and feature any artists, recent releases and playlists they want. From some quick browsing, I was able to find the iTMS integration at HOT 97's site, but not at Power 106's.hypebot, the blog where we found this, was quick to point out the vast potential this kind of partnership with the iTMS has for any kind of niche markets, businesses and organizations you can think of: "From skateboard sites selling radical tunes to a museum's site selling period music that matches their exhibitions, this could be a very exciting development for niche and indie music marketers". Indeed, this is a great example of that iPod expansion post Scott had yesterday; it sounds like Apple has plenty of tricks up their sleeve for the iPod and iTMS.
SmileOnMyMac Releases TextExpander 1.3, the Customizable Typing Timesaver Tool
Earlier in May, SmileOnMyMac acquired Textpander, a really handy (and free) text insertion utility. Today, they released their first official version update in which they changed the name to TextExpander, added a few snippet-creation features and are now charging a lump-in-throat inducing price of $29.95. The new features include the ability to create snippets from selected text, snippet nesting and the ability to limit usage to an application list.A 30-day demo is available, but I have to say: I'm really happy I backed up the disk image of the latest version of Textpander. I haven't installed this new retail version of TextExpander yet, but slapping $29.95 (without any warning) on a utility that was previously free donationware stings quite a bit (Fraser Speirs, I would argue, handled this transition a lot better with the FlickrExport 2.0 beta introduction). If any enthusiastic users of Textpander make the leap, feel free to share your impressions with the new features and whether you think it's worth $30.[UPDATE: Peter Maurer makes a really good point: Textpander wasn't free, it was donationware. Unfortunately, the donation system clearly wasn't working, as Hawk Wings points out that many donationware-centric developers lament that only 1-2% of downloaders actually donate anything for the app. Let TextExpander serve as a good lesson for what happens when you don't show some donation love to hard working developers.]
Folder Icon X 3.0
If default icons just aren't doing it for you anymore, Folder Icon X might be just the tool you need to add your own touch. As the app's name suggests, Folder Icon X is a one-trick (though feature-rich) pony that allows you to add other icons and images to standard folder and file icons to imbue them with a more personal, relevant look. It offers a lot of simple DnD (drag-n-drop) abilities and can import/export a wide variety of formats.Check out Folder Icon X's product page at Naratt.com for extensive details into the app's abilities. A demo is available, and a license costs $15.00 USD.
MoRU - what Spotlight should be?
Rob Griffiths over at MacOSXHints has discovered MoRU, an app that builds upon the power of Spotlight with its offering of far more customizable search queries. Instead of searching for everything across your entire Mac with Spotlight, consider how much handier it would be to say: "show me these specific kind of files, with exactly X in their name, made between this year and that year." If this concept seems a little strange, check out Rob's post for a couple real-world examples of when a blind search across everything on your machine becomes less productive than Apple advertises.MoRU is shareware that costs $10. If you're as unhappy with Spotlight's blind, system-wide search as Rob, it sounds like MoRU is definitely worth taking for a spin.
TUAW Tip: Customize the Finder's toolbar, too
Dave Caolo showed you how to take control of the Finder's sidebar a couple weeks back. Today, I wanted to shed the same light on the Finder's toolbar, as you can customize it and add some tools not found in a default Mac OS X installation.The first thing I like to do is add 'other' kinds of folders (and files) up there, such as my Library, that I don't necessarily want in my sidebar. To do this, you can drag a file or folder up next to the buttons in the Finder, and wait a second - you won't receive instantaneous feedback like you do when adding something to the sidebar. After a second or so, the Finder's search box will move over farther to the right (like when you add something to the Dock), signifying that you can now add that item to the toolbar.You can also add a few more tools to the Finder toolbar by right-clicking on it (just like many other application windows) and choosing "Customize Toolbar." You will be presented with a whole set of handy buttons and actions you can drag and drop to add such as eject, get info, connect to server, burn and more. Even though we covered how to get a file or folder's path by command-clicking on a window's title bar icon, I also like to add the Path button to the Finder's toolbar with this trick for one more level of convenience.Since I'm willing to bet that I haven't covered all the Finder toolbar tricks, feel free to share yours in the comments.
BlogBridge, a second look
BlogBridge might still be a little too rough around the edges to de-throne NetNewsWIre - the web's most popular newsreader on either Windows or OS X - but it has a rocking feature set that I think the folks at Ranchero/Newsgator had better start paying attention to. C.K. took a look at a 1.0 release of BlogBridge a while ago, and I think it's safe to say the app, now at version 2.7, has come quite a ways since then. The installation went smoothly, and signing up for BlogBridge's free web-based syncing service was easy, which brings me to one of BlogBridge's strong features: the app can not only sync newsfeeds, headlines and even preferences with a free, web-based newsreading service, but you can categorize newsfeeds with tags and sync those tags with del.icio.us.Since I have such a huge library of categorized feeds, one seemingly minor feature I really appreciate about BlogBridge is the ability to assign custom icons to the feed categories, making them much more easy to identify when trying to find just the right one. BlogBridge has quite a few other tricks up its sleeve, such as feed-rating and smartfeeds, which can pull keywords from your own feeds or parse tags and keywords from other services like Amazon, Feedster, Flickr, Google and Technorati.All in all, once some kinks get ironed out I think BlogBridge shows some real promise. It's is available as a free download, and since it's java and open source it runs on OS X, Linux and Windows.
