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Daily Mac App: gfxCardStatus
Some newer MacBook Pros have been packing dual graphics cards for a while now, with the ability to dynamically switch between them -- integrated for battery life and discrete for performance. It's often tricky to know which card is currently in use as the switch between the two is seamless. That's where gfxCardStatus comes to the rescue. Sitting up in your menu bar, gfxCardStatus shows you at a glance which card is currently active, but more than that, it actually allows you to manually switch between the GPUs. A drop down menu provides you with three options: Integrated Only; Discrete Only; and Dynamic Switching, which is the system default that lets OS X decide which graphics card is required. If you want to save as much battery power as possible, leaving it on integrated only will ensure that the power hungry discrete GPU doesn't fire up. On the other hand if you want maximum performance all the time, then discrete only will make sure the most powerful GPU is fired up. For most situations OS X does a decent job of managing power considerations, but if you want a little more control, gfxCardStatus will let you set up GPU power schemes to define which chip is used depending on power source. gfxCardStatus is one of those little apps that's both useful and doesn't get in your way. You won't need it a lot, but if you're on battery power and you want to keep working for as long as possible, the little menu bar app can be a life saver. It's freely available (donations accepted) to download from the developer's site and is Lion-ready.
Daily Mac App: Adium
Instant messaging is an essential part of modern communications. On the Mac, we're blessed with the excellent iChat, but Apple's built-in IM solution doesn't connect to every protocol, so that's when we turn to Adium. Adium is a great long-standing piece of open-source Mac software. The reason it's so good is that it connects to almost every IM protocol under the sun. Gtalk, Facebook IM, Live Messenger, Yahoo, AIM, Jabber, IRC, you name it, Adium will let you chat using it. The Swiss Army Knife of chat clients, Adium not only lets you connect and chat, but does it in a very customizable, yet Mac-like way. You've got Growl support, plugins, a menu bar icon, sounds, notifications and alerts for every action and a highly recognizable icon, even if it doesn't scream "chat" to you at first glance. Setting up Adium couldn't be easier. Select the desired protocol, plug in your login details and you're good to go. Your buddy list is downloaded from the respective sites and blended together in one list. You can sort by protocol or create your own groupings. Cross-protocol chat isn't possible for those that don't have interoperability, but that's no fault of the chat client. Adium is purely text-based, there are no built-in options for video or audio chat at the moment, but you can send files for protocols that support file transfer. Adium is available for free from the Adium team's site, and works great on almost all versions of OS X including Lion. If you've got friends spread across a plethora of IM protocols, let Adium simplify things and get you chatting to them all from one great client.
Daily Mac App: SiteSucker
Back in the pre-ubiquitous internet days, services like AvantGo allowed you to cache and store websites for offline viewing. These days there's little need for that kind of thing, simply because we're very rarely offline. Having said that, there are times when a solid internet connection just isn't available and it would be nice to keep on working, reading or browsing sites. That's where a program like SiteSucker comes in. SiteSucker, as the name suggests, sucks down a localized version of site of your choice to your Mac's hard drive for viewing offline. Simply type in the URL of the site you want and press "Download," SiteSucker will do the rest, scanning, downloading and processing the site into an offline viewable form for when you haven't got an internet connection on hand. The number of levels deep SiteSucker will scan and download can be user defined, so if you're looking for a small skim of the site, a one or two level archive will do. If you want a more in depth, browsable localised site something more like a four to six level download will probably be best. You can also set limits on the number of files downloaded, the minimum and maximum file size as well as a minimum image size to download. File type limits can also be imposed as can paths to include or exclude, and whether or not to limit it to the original site's server. Once you've got your site downloaded, it's just a case of opening it up in Safari or any other browser of your choice from your disk. If you've ever wanted to keep an offline version of a site for tinkering, browsing or analysis, SiteSucker gets the job done fast, efficiently and automatically, all for the great price of free from the Mac App Store.
Daily Mac App: ClamXav
Antivirus on a Mac might be a touchy subject, but if you'd like the reassurance of a virus scanner that's not intrusive and can be called on-demand, then the free ClamXav is a great choice. While you may or may not need a virus scanner on a Mac, there's no harm in having one that you can run as and when, perhaps if you're sending a file to a Windows using colleague for instance. Just because a potentially infected file goes totally unnoticed on your Mac, doesn't mean it's not going to wreak havoc on your poor unsuspecting friend's Windows box. ClamXav is the Mac GUI variant of the open source ClamAV project, and has recently entered the Mac App Store, making it even easier to get on-demand protection. Thanks to the ClamAV antivirus engine, ClamXav will detect both Mac and Windows threats and remove them quickly and easily. You get a Services menu option, which allows you to scan files as and when, be it that PDF you just downloaded or your entire disc. You can define file exclusions and even save your favorite scan locations for frequent scanning tasks. Virus definition updates are of course free, and you can get ClamXav to update when you first start the program or on a set schedule. While ClamXav may not be the fastest scanner on the block, it's free, gets the job done, and most importantly, won't bog your system down. If you ever share files with Windows users, or just want to make sure you're not going to fall foul of a Mac malware uprising if it ever comes into being, then ClamXav is a great occasional use scanner.
Daily Mac App: Full Deck Solitaire
Solitaire is one of the enduring classics of computer gaming, keeping all the skill and entertainment of the real thing and ditching all the shuffling and laying out. Full Deck Solitaire is fantastic free solitaire game available from the Mac App Store. Full Deck comes with 22 "deliciously delightful" solitaire games wrapped into one tight little package. You've got the old favorites like Klondike, Spider solitaire and Pyramid, combined with the less common likes of Thieves of Egypt and Tri Peaks solitaire -- there's something for almost everyone. The card movements are all well animated, with appropriate optional sound effects, and you've even got the option of an animated "video background" of the sea lapping up on the shore on a moonlit night. You can of course use your own background image if the stock green ones don't do it for you. You also have three decks to choose from antique, clean and large print, or if you hate all of them, you can define your own card backs from an image of your choice. You have three choices of card size too, meaning you can just about customise the whole card playing area to your liking, including playing full screen on Lion. Each game has a nice load of statistics, that tell you how many games you failed to win, at least in my case, and of course there's a full set of rules available should you have never played a particular game before. So, if you're looking for a decent solitaire game for your Mac on the cheap, you can't get much cheaper and better than the free Full Deck Solitaire.
Daily Mac App: TimePlus
I'm almost afraid to write about TimePlus because it is such an accurate simulation of the LCARS interface from Star Trek: The Next Generation (complete with sound effects) I worry that the lawyers will descend upon the developer and force him to remove all traces of familiarity in the app. Still, TimePlus is too fun not to write about. If you're a Star Trek nerd like me, TimePlus gives you not just a big clock as you see above, but also timers, a stopwatch, two alarms and a world clock. Plus, you can use it as a sort of screensaver, or reduce it to a "nano" clock, or access world times in your menu bar. All of this is super handy if you manage people around the world (as I do), or use time management like the Pomodoro technique, or just want to geek out with something Trek-y in your daily life. TimePlus is free on the Mac App Store, although you may need to install the LCARS font first to get it looking just right. There's an iPad app as well called Clock Tacular which costs a reasonable $.99. If you want a fun clock on your Mac, download TimePlus and make it so Number One!
Daily Mac App: Backdrop
I've been using Backdrop for years, so I was eternally grateful to see it on the Mac App Store, still at the low cost of free. While it hasn't added any bells and whistles (I don't recall the "pixel test" before, but perhaps because I didn't use it) the app does one thing brilliantly: it places a backdrop over your desktop for taking screenshots, doing demos, etc. That's it! You can customize the backdrop color, add an image, or have it float on top of your desktop clutter (my preference) or under it, obscuring only your wallpaper (that pic of nyan cat won't be the butt of boardroom jokes anymore!). Backdrop is a simple, useful app and it has one more trick: Pixel Testing. Really this is no more than a big red, green, blue, white or black overlay on your screen to check for dead pixels. The colors cycle through a time interval you set, giving you time to look for dead spots where a pixel may be stuck or dead. If you need something to cover your cluttered desktop while taking lots of screenshots, Backdrop is a one-trick pony that does what it does exceptionally well, for free.
Daily Mac App: Tremors
Who says we're not topical here at TUAW. For our Daily Mac App, I bring you Tremors. Developed by TUAW's own Michael Jones, this $2.99 app helps you monitor seismic activity around the globe. It leverages USGS data, but it includes quake data from all over. Tremors had no trouble locating today's Virginia shake-up, seen above. What's more, it offered that in terrain, roadmap view, satellite and hybrid modes. When you zoom in using Satellite, you can see these quakes had epicenters right in the middle of someone's backyard. A handy list-view lets you see where each quake has happened and when. It surprised me how many quakes took place around the world in just the last few hours. Virginia looks piddling in that list, although I'm told that it's all about how the plates are laid out, not about just the magnitude and distance from the epicenter. Anyway, Tremors is a cool app to explore and hopefully very few of you will have to get up close or personal with any of the seismic activity reported there in.
Daily Mac App: War Pinball HD
Can't get enough pinball on your Mac? War Pinball HD from Gameprom takes the great pinball engine we saw in Pinball HD and adds some war film tie-ins to the mix. You've got three tables on offer in War Pinball HD, two based on Charlie Sheen flicks, Platoon and Navy Seals, and one on a Chuck Norris special, Missing in Action. Each table is stacked full of images, props and sounds from the movies. You've even got unique elements like Huey's, Subs and a giant Chuck Norris on the table that form part of the missions available to each table. Of course because it's war-themed you've got oodles of gun fire and explosions. Almost every action on the table has some sort of well thought out and integrated sound effect or clip from the respective movie, making the soundscape within War Pinball HD incredibly immersive. It draws you in and really adds to the action. In the settings there's a toggle for some of the more sweary clips, just in case youngsters are playing. Even the menu music and sound effects are great. If you're a fan of American war films, you're going to love it. The game's graphics look great of course, and you can even play it in 3D with some suitable glasses. Gameplay is top notch too, as each table plays really well, with enough side missions and targets to keep you entertained. If you're hankering for some decent pinball action on your Mac, the US$2.99 War Pinball HD brings pinball and war together to give you one of the best pinball games available in the Mac App Store.
Daily Mac App: Sunset
Sometimes your screen is just too bright in the evenings. For the sake of your eyes, Sunset lets you reduce the brightness of your monitor below that of the standard brightness controls and without having to adjust the backlight. If you reduce the brightness of your screen using the on-board controls, what you're doing is reducing the brightness of the backlight bulbs or LEDs behind the screen. Sometimes that can cause buzzing, or other droning noises, and sometimes that just isn't dim enough. Sunset takes a different approach purely in software that overlays a dimming mask over your screen with different levels to suit your brightness needs. This means that if your display makes an annoying sound when dimmed, or you just can't get it dim enough, Sunset will dim your display to your satisfaction without issue. Sure, dimming your display with Sunset doesn't affect electricity usage or the life of your backlight, but it will save your eyes at night. The little program sits in the menu bar and can be configured to respond to global shortcut keys like F1 & F2. If you have more than one display, Sunset can dim all of them to the same level or you can pick and choose which one to dim independently. The only thing missing is some sort of auto-dimming set to a specific timer, but the manual control works well. Sunset is great if your lowest monitor's brightness setting is just too bright, or it makes an annoying sound when not on full brightness. It's simple, easy to use and gets the job done for an introductory price of US$1.99 (regular price $3.99).
Daily Mac App: BreakTime
Many of us spend hours seated before our computers, and that's not a good thing. A study conducted by the American Cancer Society linked extended periods of sitting with an increased risk of death. That's a nasty side-effect, my friends. BreakTime (regularly US$4.99, currently on sale for $2.99) by excited pixel prompts you to get up and move at regular intervals. Plus, it's unobtrusive and easy to use. Here's my look at BreakTime. This simple utility lives in your Dock or Finder menu bar (you choose) and ticks away your designated work period. When the session ends, it begins counting down your custom break period and then immediately begins the next work session. Here's how to set it up. Set it up The preference pane is quite simple (above). First, use the sliders to determine the length of work and break sessions. Work sessions can range from 60 seconds to 2 hours while breaks can run from 5 seconds to ten minutes. You can tweak these settings a bit. For example, enter "93" seconds into the work field or "18" minutes for a break. Just don't go nuts (my request for a 360 minute break was accepted). The Enforce Break feature is nice. It prevents you from switching out of BreakTime while a break session is active. No quick peeks at Twitter or Facebook. This is a break time, so back away from the Mac and go look out a window. Remember outside? There are four advanced features: show Dock icon, show menu item, play sounds and magic reschedule. Most of those are self-explanatory, but let me explain magic reschedule. If a work session expires and BreakTime does not detect any activity, it re-schedules the break time. In other words, it assumes you're already away from your desk doing something else. Pretty nice, though not flawless: you could be zoning out with your iPhone, iPad or who knows what. Use I've disabled the Dock icon (a restart is required) so that only the teeny, tiny menu bar icon remains. As soon as it launches, the work session countdown begins. You can click the menu bar icon at any time to see how much time is remaining, turn the timer on or off and access the app's preferences (see below). Once your work session is down to 10 seconds remaining, the countdown window appears. As it ends, your display's brightness dims and BreakTime's break window appears, counting down the break time (see below). If you've elected to enforce breaks, the "Done" button on the right will be disabled. If not, it's ready to receive your break-denying click. If you happen to be right in the middle of something that absolutely, positively cannot be abandoned (like the the last golden egg in Angry Birds), click the In A Minute button to delay the break period by one, five or 15 minutes. Note that the In A Minute button remains available even if you've elected to enforce breaks. BreakTime and Pomodoro Some of you know that I'm a huge fan of the Pomodoro Technique. In a nutshell, it teaches you to alternate work/break periods all day long. For example, you'll work for 25 minutes and then break for five. Repeat the process, taking a longer break (15 minutes) every five "pomodoros" (which is Italian for tomato). Pomodoro practitioners can easily use BreakTime as a Mac-based timer. Years ago, computers were primarily work machines. Today they're increasingly used for leisure activities, commandeering even more of our time. If I monitor my own behavior, I notice that I sit at my desk from 7:00 AM to about 3:00 PM daily, then take a four- or five-hour break and return around 8:00 PM for several more hours of sitting. This sedentary lifestyle isn't doing me any favors. Not only does work require me to park it, force of habit influences my behavior, too. "I"ll just check email," I think, or "Let's take a quick look at Twitter." I fully expect to live a slothful existence aboard the Axiom within a few years. Fortunately, BreakTime is here to intervene. It's a steal at 4.99 and a "no-brainer" as the kids say at three bucks. Do yourself a favor and let BreakTime nag you into motion.
Daily Mac App: Paprika Recipe Manager
I've been using Paprika Recipe Manager from Hindsight Labs on my iPad for a couple of months, and I've found it's turned my iPad into an invaluable kitchen tool. The only drawback to the app has been that the iPad's touchscreen keyboard made entering recipes by hand somewhat cumbersome. That won't be an issue anymore, because Paprika Recipe Manager is now available in the Mac App Store. Those familiar with Paprika on iOS devices won't find any surprises. The interface is largely the same, though obviously optimized for the traditional mouse/keyboard setup on the Mac. If you haven't used Paprika on any device and you do a lot of cooking, you'll find it an invaluable tool that goes beyond mere recipe management. You might look at an app like Paprika and think, "Why pay for that when I can just enter everything in Excel or something?" That's a fair question, and Paprika's features go a long way toward answering it. The app's built-in template allows you to enter ingredients, instructions, prep time, cook time, and serving sizes manually, but Paprika's powerful, built-in web browser will "grab" recipes from many sites with a single click. To get started, click on the Browser tab in Paprika's side bar to bring up Google (you can change the app's search options via the preferences). Next, simply search for a recipe. If you find one on a site that Paprika supports, click "Save Recipe" in the upper right-hand corner to import it into Paprika's database. You've just created an entire recipe with a single click. This one-click function supports many sites, but if you've found a site isn't part of Paprika's database, all is not lost. You'll find individual clipboard buttons for Name, Ingredients, Directions, and so on at the bottom of the screen, which you can fill in as needed. It's slower than the one-click solution, but still faster than adding a recipe entirely by hand. Like a few other recipe manager apps, Paprika also includes a meal planner, a grocery list function that allows you to add recipe ingredients to your shopping list with one click, and a "scale" function that will allow you to scale recipes up or down depending on how many servings you want to make. This last function can occasionally get confused by recipes with both U.S. and metric measurements, so you may still have to dust off your second-grade memories of fractions. As someone who owns the iPad app, I'm interested in Paprika's syncing service. It's been available on the iOS apps for some time, via a US$9.99 per year in-app purchase. Paprika for Mac comes with this service enabled for free, and once you've created an account on Paprika for Mac you can share information on your iOS device(s). To send recipes to your iPad or iPhone from your Mac, just click the syncing icon in the lower left of Paprika's window. This feature alone makes Paprika for Mac invaluable. Creating and managing recipes on the Mac is easier than it is on the iPad, but carrying my Mac into the kitchen is out of the question. Being able to sync everything to my iPad is a killer feature. At US$19.99, Paprika is significantly pricier than its iOS equivalents, but it's priced well in line with similar Mac apps. The only possible stumbling block for potential buyers is that Paprika requires OS X Lion. Anyone still running Mac OS X Snow Leopard is out of luck. The interface is also very mouse-driven, which may be a potential turnoff for the keyboard enthusiasts out there. Recipe manager apps have been around for a long time, but Paprika's one-click recipe downloader and cloud syncing with the iPhone and iPad are worth the price of admission by themselves. If you're like me and you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, Paprika is definitely worth a download.
Daily Mac App: Drive Mounter
If you have multiple network drives in multiple locations, repeatedly finding and mounting them manually gets old, fast. Drive Mounter takes the tedium out of mounting drives by automating the process. OK, mounting drives can be done at login pretty easily, especially if you're only ever going to be in one place; you can even set up scripts to auto-mount drives here and there. But what happens when you have a portable Mac that you take with you and need different drives mounted in different locations on different networks? Drive Mounter makes it easy by doing all the hard work for you. It remembers which drives should be mounted on which networks and mounts them accordingly when you boot or resume you Mac. It's simple to use, just mount the drives you want to setup once on each network you connect to and record their details in Drive Mounter. Next time you resume from sleep Drive Mounter will mount the appropriate drives for your currently connected network, WiFi or LAN, allowing you to get on with your work. You can also manually force Drive Mounter to mount all the drives on its list, or temporarily disable Drive Mounter if you don't need it. It's got both a Dock icon, which can be disabled, and a menu bar icon from quick access. Drive Mounter is available for US$5.99 and if you connect a lot of network drives, could take the headache out of your work flow. Users familiar with AppleScript will be able to create something like this for free, but for the rest of us, who just want it to work, Drive Mounter could be just the ticket.
Daily Mac App: WhatSize
Getting to grips with the files and folders on your hard drive can be a chore, but the right tool makes it easier. WhatSize is a tool that combines the best of several disk visualisers into one package. WhatSize scans your disk(s) and reports on the size of your files and folders with a straightforward, color coded, Finder-esque presentation. From there you can click through folders, drilling down to large problem areas, identifying files and folders was you go. WhatSize can also give you a pie chart representation of your data with labels and concentric folder display. For instance, your home directory is held within the "Users" folder on the root of the drive, so the Users folder is displayed in the innermost ring, while your home directory is displayed on the next ring out. You can drill down by double clicking folders, or zoom out by double clicking on white space. It's simple and intuitive. There's also a table view that you can sort by file size, or you can scan for duplicates, which scans and compares your files, which takes a while (read: hours) if you have lots of files, but then allows you to easily see what's doubled up. WhatSize will also let you scan files and folders with Administrator status, allowing you to scan other users data on your drive. If you're looking for a comprehensive, simple disk space visualiser, WhatSize does the job admirably for US$12.99 and is available from whatsizemac.com. But don't take our word for it, download the free trial and give it a whirl. Thanks to Klajd Deda for the suggestion.
Daily Mac App: Teleprompt+
Teleprompt+ has been around for awhile for iOS, and developers Bombing Brain just released a version for the Mac. Launching the program gives you a two-panel window with one side showing your scripts and the other your work area where you can type out your main speech, then use the menu on the right to adjust settings or add cue points. The settings are pretty robust and control the speed of the teleprompting, countdown, timers, font and whether or not you want to be guided. What the software lacks is the ability to have your speech text one color and your cue points another. The cues quickly get lost among the regular text when the prompter is on. When the teleprompter is activated, you can use your mouse, keyboard, gestures on a trackpad or an iOS device (via the free Teleprompt+ remote) to control the prompter. You can pause it mid-speech, speed up or slow down. Four sets of timers show you how long your speech is expected to take, how much time remains and how long you actually took to do your speech. Teleprompt+ is $19.99 on the Mac App Store, and it's a great program to have if you plan to give a speech.
Daily Mac App: Pinball HD
Looking for some classic arcade gaming action on your Mac? Pinball HD might just hit the spot. Originally released for iOS, Pinball HD has made the jump to the Mac App Store bringing you three tables in one and upping the graphics to take advantage of modern Mac hardware. Tables include Wild West, where you have to try and rob a bank and kill Dirty Harry; The Deep, which takes you down to the sea floor; and Jungle Style, which yes, you guessed it, takes you on a trek through the jungle, pinball style. Pinball HD looks great either windowed or fullscreen, with three graphics modes and 2x and 4x anti-aliasing to suit every Mac (a 2011 15" MacBook Pro didn't even break a sweat with everything maxed out). You've even got the option of playing in 3D using some traditional color-based 3D glasses if you have them. Game play is pretty good, with realistic physics and no detectable latency. Each of the tables have missions, which you unlock as you might expect, by hitting targets and fulfilling certain criteria. In Wild West for instance you first unlock the bank vault by hitting targets up top, then you can go rob it by firing the ball into the vault. It's pretty easy to keep up with the action, as the three camera modes do a good job of keeping an eye on the ball. For US$2.99 of your hard-earned cash, Pinball HD brings you enough pinball action to your Mac to keep you entertained on a rainy day.
Daily Mac App: Xmarks
Need to sync bookmarks across multiple platforms and/or different browsers? You need Xmarks. The service that was on its way out, then bought by LastPass, allows you to sync bookmarks to the cloud, between machines and between different browsers. Xmarks has extensions or plugins for Safari (installed as a preference pane), Chrome, Firefox and even Internet Explorer, so it's got most mainstream browsers covered. Xmarks will sync your bookmarks to the cloud and give you access to them through the my.xmarks.com if you're somewhere without the Xmarks plugin installed. You can keep different profiles, one for work and one for home perhaps, and you can share your bookmarks with friends via RSS or the Xmarks site, all for the fantastic price of free. It's true that Safari, Firefox and Chrome will all sync your bookmarks from one computer to another, but not between different browsers. Xmarks lets you use Chrome on one machine and Safari on another. It'll even let you sync your Chrome bookmarks to your iDevice through iTunes courtesy of a little Safari syncing intermediary. Speaking of iOS, if you want access to your bookmarks through the Xmarks app on iOS, Android or Blackberry, Xmarks Premium at a yearly charge of $12 nets you that plus backup and restore for your bookmarks. Xmarks Premium also comes with open tab sync, so you can take your browsing sessions from machine to machine, browser to browser. If you've ever wanted to sync your bookmarks between different browsers, the free Xmarks makes it quick and easy. Download Xmarks for your browser from here to get started.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: Bookworm
If you're into word games, today's Daily Mac App will be right up your street. Bookworm, from PopCap, is a word game that combines Boggle-style word making with Bejeweled-style tile removal. You're presented with a board of tiles filled from the top that's seven columns wide and seven to eight tiles high. You link adjacent tiles to make words with a minimum length of three letters and for each word you make you get points based on its length and letter types. Each word removes those used tiles from the board. The "Classic game" is simple enough, but as you progress you must deal with "burning tiles" that burn through letters, dropping down one tile per turn. If they reach the bottom of the board it's game over, so you have to use them in a word pretty fast. Other special tiles come into play as rewards. Green tiles appear randomly and will increase your word score if you include them. Gold tiles are earned by creating words with five letters or more, and are worth even more. Diamond and sapphire tiles are also available for massive scores. You can boost your score by creating the suggested bonus words that pop up too. There's also an "Action game" that drops many more burning tiles requiring you to match words as quick as you can to survive. It's a great game for word game fans and can get pretty addictive as you level up at the end of each round. Bookworm is available for US$6.99 from the Mac App Store, directly from PopCap if you're not on Snow Leopard or Lion and is available in the browser for free too.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: Mac Screen Rotate
Mac Screen Rotate's goal is to bring a bit of iPad functionality to the MacBook Air by enabling you to hold the laptop on its side and have the screen rotate to a vertical orientation. While the site markets it as a way to "read" your MacBook Air like a real book, the result is cumbersome. MacBook Airs have just enough heft to where holding them in this position for any length of time is annoying. Where a program such as Mac Screen Rotate comes in handy is if you're wanting to show off a vertical photo, graphic design or spreadsheet. It would come in handy for certain niches that work in these particular fields and gives you a bit more room to show off a document without having to compensate for the narrow horizontal screen. Then there's also the fact that you can do this for free in OS X. Go into System Preferences and hold down the option and command keys while selecting the Displays tab. This reveals a rotation menu that allows you to rotate your screen. However, what it doesn't do is rotate the trackpad's functionality as well, which makes for awkward maneuvering indeed, and this is how Mac Screen Rotate sets itself off from the free offering. The developers of Mac Screen Rotate also detail the free process on their site, and kudos to them for doing this. Does it work though? Yes, very well. The trackpad behaves as expected in vertical mode and recognizes most of the Lion gestures, though it's very apparent that these gestures were made for a horizontal-oriented trackpad rather than vertical. The gestures work, but even with my small hand it was difficult to do some of the more complicated gestures. If you fall into the niche that would most likely take advantage of this, Mac Screen Rotate is $4.99 with a 3-day trial, but is currently on sale for $3.99.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: Solebon Solitaire
Card games have been our entertainment fall back for generations. Solebon Solitaire for the Mac brings the quality, small screen experience of Solebon Solitaire for iOS to your desktop screen. Solebon Solitaire for Mac features 42 solitaire card games in one. You've got old favorites from Klondike, Yukon and Golf to original games such as Ambrose, Provisional and Honeybees -- it's one of the most comprehensive card game collections out there. Smallware have taken the simplicity and clean look from their original iOS offering and brought it to the Mac. It offers a slick, well-animated interface that avoids the frivolous for ease of use. The cards are large, easy to read and look great while card movement animations, deals and transitions are fast and well done. There are no cheats or hints in Solebon; it's serious solitaire for serious players. Some games have options like reverse layouts, the ability to switch on auto play (which speeds up repetitive tasks like moving the cards to the stocks) and the option to disable undo. Speaking of undo, there's unlimited undo available just in case you get stuck. Each game has full lifetime stats, scoring, move tracking and a timer. If you're new to the game there's a full rules sidebar available to get you going. Solebon Solitaire is a well-executed, comprehensive collection of solitaire card games that are easy to play with a mouse or a trackpad. If you like playing cards in the real world, then Solebon is definitely worth checking out for US$4.99.
