os-x
Latest
Defend yourself in the wild skies of Luftrausers
You're a fighter pilot with a plane that can be customized to fire devastating lasers, equip heavy armor, and spin elegantly in all directions. Oh, and it can repair itself while in mid-flight and survive a dive straight into the ocean, too. Your life is constantly in danger as rival pilots, warships, and other hazards flood your path at every turn, and a flight can end in tragedy within seconds of takeoff. This is Luftrausers. This odd little indie title from developer Vlambeer -- available today on Steam for Mac -- is a unique, modern twist on the classic old-school fighter pilot arcade games of yore. With ultra-simple controls consisting of a single button to fire your weapon and basic navigation controls, it takes just seconds to learn, but its steep difficulty curve means you won't be mastering the skies any time soon. As soon as you launch your plane into the air you will be inundated with enemies to take out. Small, quick enemy planes zip by at every angle and don't seem to care if they plow right into your aircraft, while massive hostile ships patrol the ocean below. It's up to you to find a way to spin your plane in a manner that allows you to fire upon them, and then cross your fingers that you achieve a hit. The game is presented in a four-color palette that makes it feel more like old war footage than a game, but the retro-futuristic weapons like lasers and massive missiles remind you that it's all very much tongue-in-cheek. The gritty, bass-filled soundtrack keeps pace with your flying and feels totally on point with the kind of experience the game offers. The more you learn about how to fly efficiently, the more progress you'll make on the various goals laid before you -- which range from taking out certain numbers of enemies to scoring a large number of points. As you gain ranks you'll be given access to new plane modifications like various body types, propulsion systems, and weapons. Luftrausers is currently on sale on Steam for US$8.99, a 10% discount over the regular price of $9.99, and it's definitely worth the price of admission.
Firefox adds support for OS X Notification Center in latest release
Mozilla may have stopped working on the Windows 8 version of Firefox, but that doesn't mean its standard desktop browser is getting the same treatment. Quite the contrary, actually. Today, Firefox 28 was released for Linux, Mac and Windows, with support for OS X Notification Center, volume controls for HTML5 media playback and VP9 video decoding. There are also security fixes in tow, which, while not as exciting, are equally important. You can peek the full changelog here -- in case you're into that sort of thing.
How to follow NCAA's March Madness on your iPhone, iPad or Mac
March Madness kicks off this week with the first round of games in the popular NCAA basketball tournament. College fans who want to track their favorite teams and follow the live action can do so on their iPad and iPhone using the following apps. NCAA March Madness Live [iOS Universal; Free] The NCAA March Madness live app with be streaming all 67 tournament games live, allowing cable subscribers to follow the games on their iOS device. If you don't have a cable subscription, you can watch the games broadcast from CBS for free. There is also a free, three-hour live video pass that you can use before you are required to login. The app also includes highlights and scores from each game as well as a bracketing game to help you pick the winning team this year. ESPN Tournament Challenge [iOS Universal; Free] ESPN Tournament Challenge is one of the best bracketing apps in the iOS App Store. Not only can you pick your own winners and losers, you can compete with others to see who is the king at picking teams. Basketball fans can follow pre-defined groups that are led by sports personalities or create their own groups for family and friends to join. TuneIn Radio [iOS Universal; Free] Westwood One will be providing live audio streams of the NCAA tournament through the TuneIn Radio app. There will be multiple channels allowing you to listen to each game in its entirety. A national channel will switch from game to game, providing highlights of the best action as it happens. Those who want to follow on the Mac can turn to the web for their up-to-date tournament information. The NCAA website will provide a live stream of all 67 tournament games with some restrictions. Users can watch any CBS game for free, but they will have to log in with their cable TV credentials for those games broadcast by TBS, TNT and truTV. Mac owners can listen to a live audio stream courtesy of WestWood One Sports Breaking coverage, analysis and highlights are available on CBSSports.com and Bleacherreport.com.
OneNote for Mac now available in the Mac App Store
Microsoft quietly released OneNote for Mac this morning in the Mac App Store. As previously announced, the longtime Office component from the Windows side (and presumptive Evernote competitor) is free for all users, regardless of the platform. OneNote for Mac requires OS 10.9. Check it out, and let us know what you think of it in the comments. Could OneNote have a chance to replace Notes, Simplenote, Evernote or something else as your go-to digital notebook?
New and notable apps for iOS and OS X
It's always busy in the App Store with a never-ending flood of new apps landing on iOS and OS X. Take a few minutes and check out our list of stand-out titles from the past few weeks! If that's not enough, you can also follow our ongoing coverage of new apps as they are released. New iOS Apps CASHFLOW - The Investing Game [iPad; Category: Finance; $4.99] Claw your way out of the Rat Race, build your CASHFLOW Empire and claim dominion over the realm (realm being your living room)! StackMotion [iPhone; Category: Photography & Video; $1.99] StackMotion™ is the ultimate superimposing application that will wonderfully enhance your moments by combining photos, videos, text and music. UP Coffee [iPhone; Category: Health & Fitness; Free] UP Coffee, the first product from Jawbone Labs, is the simplest way to understand how caffeine affects your sleep. Da Vinci's Art of War [iPad; Category: Games; $4.99] Da Vinci's Art of War is a popular region-based board game where the ultimate goal is to dominate 16th century Europe. Now you can play it on the iPad! Sliver [iPad; Category: Music; $3.99] Sliver is a powerful tool for soundscape and sonic texture creation. Glorkian Warrior: Trials Of Glork [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $2.99] Glorkian Warrior: The Trials of Glork is a collaboration between Eisner Award winning cartoonist James Kochalka and indie game studio Pixeljam, makers of the prehistorically epic DINO RUN! Surgeon Simulator [iPad; Category: Games; $5.99] You are the surgeon. Bob is the victim. Do your worst! Dudeski [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $1.99] Race down Shred Lord mountain as an avalanche chases after you. Ski between gates, dodge obstacles, discover the secrets of the mountain, and try making it all the way to the bottom. Penombre [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] Journey into the enchanted land of Pénombre where witches, ghosts and other creatures meet in this endless runner game. Microtrip [iPhone; Category: Games; $0.99] Microtrip is a physics arcade game set inside the body of a strange creature. Its unique soft-body physics and the procedural generated levels make the game different and challenging every time you play. New OS X Apps F1™ 2013: Classic Edition [OS X; Category: Games; $54.99] Compete for motorsport's ultimate prize in the official computer game of the 2013 FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP™. Tworb [OS X; Category: Productivity; Free] Good-bye email, and hello Tworb, where you can transfer small and large files quickly, securely, and easily. ImageCrawler [OS X; Category: Utilities; Free] utomatic image file crawler. You input the root URL. (entry address) ImageCrawler collect images from internet. HeyWire [OS X; Category: Social Networking; Free] HeyWire synchronizes your text messages and contacts across every phone and device you use. Just a Timer [OS X; Category: Utilities; $0.99] Simple timer. Start with Return, cancel with Escape, pause and resume with Space key.
AtmoBar brings Netatmo weather data to the Mac
A few years back I reviewed Netatmo, a personal weather station that delivers information on both inside and outside temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide level, and other bits of information about your home's comfort. The device syncs to an iOS app, so you're never more than a tap away from current data and history regarding your personal comfort. Recently I heard about an OS X app that places the Netatmo information in your Mac's menu bar. AtmoBar (US$2.99) is in the Mac App Store now, and it's a very slick way of looking at your weather data with a click. As you'd expect, AtmoBar installs easily from the Mac App Store. Once it is launched, there's just one thing you have to do -- log into your Netatmo account. Once that's done, you see the current outdoor and indoor temperatures in your menu bar. With a click, a dropdown appears with detailed information, including the outdoor and indoor temperatures, barometric pressure indoors, outdoor and indoor humidity, and the indoor sound and CO2 levels. The outdoor and indoor temperatures are also graphed from midnight to the current time. Click disclosure triangles on the dropdown, and you're greeted with more graphs for all of the items that are not graphed by default. Unfortunately, the popup graphs need a little work. For example, some of the graphs had no scale on the vertical axis (see humidity outdoor graph image in the slideshow), or had metric values where they should have been imperial values (see pressure indoor graph image in the slideshow). Still, it's a good start for an app and a wonderful companion app for Mac users who happen to have the Netatmo weather station in their homes. With a few fixes, this app will become indispensable for Netatmo users.
Watch Apple's SXSW iTunes Festival from the comfort of your home
Apple's iTunes Festival at SXSW starts tonight with London Grammar kicking off the festivities at 7:30PM MDT. The festival spans five days and includes well-known artists like Coldplay, Soundgarden, Willie Nelson and Keith Urban. The Festival is available for SXSW attendees who were awarded tickets on a lottery basis. if you are watching from afar, Apple will stream the events live as well as offer on-demand videos of the completed performances to all iOS devices and its Apple TV. Here is how you can watch: On your iOS Device: To watch the performances from your iOS device, you must install the iTunes Festival app, which was recently updated to support the SXSW festival. On your Apple TV: Apple TV owners can tune into the iTunes Festival channel and watch on their big screen TV. On your Mac: Last but not last, Mac owners can watch the from the iTunes Store. Just look for the big iTunes Festival banner in the featured music section.
Star Trek Online finally enters the Mac universe
It's been roughly four years since Star Trek Online began exploring the universe in search of new worlds and strange life forms, and it looks like the MMORPG finally stumbled upon the Windows-less Apple galaxy. Publisher Perfect World has at long last launched the game for the Mac-owning populous. The game -- which allows players to pick one of several races, classes, and venture through a number of storylines -- is free-to-play, having switched over from a subscription model. That of course means that there are microtransactions in the game, allowing players to cash in their real-world currency for in-game cash. Developer Cryptic Studios has been quite good about updating the game with additional content, with a total of 8 full "seasons" worth of quests now available. If you're interested in strapping on a tight-fitting futuristic onesie, you can download Star Trek Online and sign up for your account right now.
Daily App: Shady allows you to dim your Mac's overly bright display
Shady is a handy OS X utility that sits in your menu bar and allows you to dim your Mac's screen beyond what is available is OS X. It's useful for Mac owners whose eyes are sensitive to light or for nighttime use when you don't want to light up the entire room with your Mac's overly bright screen. Shady doesn't modify the dim settings in OS X, it works by overlaying a virtual shade over your entire screen. This overlay can be darkened to the point where the entire screen is almost black (90% opacity) or lightened so it has no effect (0% opacity). The default setting is 40% opacity and you can adjust the darkening in 5 percent increments. You can change the darkness level of Shady by clicking on the menu bar icon and adjusting the slider. You also can drop the application icon into the Dock and then click on Shady to bring it to the forefront. When it is the frontmost application, you can use the Up/Down keys to adjust the shade or click "Q" to quit. Shady is available for free from Instinctive Code. It is compatible with Mac OS X Leopard (10.5), and Snow Leopard (10.6) or later.
VideoGIF creates animated GIFs from your favorite home videos
VideoGIF from PearlMountain is a lightweight Mac video editor that has a singular purpose -- to create animated GIFs from your favorite videos. Its basic toolset and intuitive controls make it easy to go from video clip to animated gif in a just few short steps. The app allows you to import a movie (mov, mp4) from your hard drive or webcam and then output a short section of that video as an animated GIF. Controls within the app allow you to crop the video or resize it for optimal output. You also can add a filter for effect and adjust common quality settings like saturation, hue, exposure and more. You can even overlay text if you are looking to add some humor or commentary to the clip. The controls to set the boundaries for the animated GIF are intuitive to use, but they can be finicky with longer clips. The video timeline is not zoomable, so you always see the full movie. This can make it difficult to hone in a specific frame, especially in a long video clip. I'd rather see a timeline that is adjustable so you can view a smaller section of the video at a time. Once you find your target frames, VideoGIF has a nice combination of keyboard shortcuts that make it easy to move through the clip frame-by-frame as well as set the in point and the out point for the resulting GIF. You also can preview the selected clip in a loop to make sure your animated GIF captures the right sequence of frames. When you are ready to output the clip, you can adjust the frame count and frame delay to slow it down or speed it up. You also can reverse for an even more humorous effect. When exporting, you may have to tweak the settings to get the right effect and file size, which can be large. The two sample clips below were created with the default export options and are approximately 4 MB in size. Social options for sharing the animated GIF include messaging, email and Twitter. VideoGIF is available in the Mac App Store for US$4.99.
OS X 10.9.3 beta features native Retina resolution for 4K displays, and other news for March 7, 2014
Yesterday Apple released the first beta of OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 to developers. At the time of its release Apple didn't note any changes in the beta beyond asking developers to concentrate on Graphics Drivers and Audio. However, now devs have found that OS X 10.9.3 offers support that enables all 4K displays to run at a native Retina resolution. The news of native 4k Retina support doesn't necessarily mean Apple is getting ready to drop its own 4k display. The company could very well only be addressing the aggravations of third-party 4k display owners. Prior to this update, 4k displays suffered from hard-to-read text in OS X Mavericks, with noticeably small UI elements and menu items. The new Retina display option was first found by Twitter user @KhaosT, who posted the above screenshot. It should be noted that Apple sometimes does test and then pull new features in beta builds of OS X, but those that own 4k displays are no doubt happy Apple appears to be working towards better support for the advanced format. In other news: For those interested in seeing a peek inside Apple's meeting rooms, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu YouTube page has posted a video of his meeting with Tim Cook at Apple's HQ. Pixelworks has revealed in an SEC filing that it supplies Apple with components for an undisclosed device. Given that they company manufactures high-resolution displays, it's likely that the company contributes Retina displays to Apple's iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Amazon has released the Amazon Seller app for iPhone. The new app allows third-party Amazon sellers to manage their accounts from their iPhones.
How to watch the Oscars on your iPhone, iPad or Mac
ABC announced this week that it will be live streaming the Oscars to its Watch ABC service, but the broadcast won't be easy to watch on your iOS device or Mac. You will need to subscribe to a participating pay-TV provider and live in one of eight ABC geographic markets. Both the Watch ABC app and the ABC Go website will provide a livestream of the pre-show events, the full Oscar broadcast and the follow-up Jimmy Kimmel Live: After the Oscars special. To access this content, you must login to the Watch ABC mobile app or the online video streaming service using the username and password from your cable TV account. Once authenticated, you can watch the stream for free on the day of the event. Archived copies of all the Oscar footage will be available on Watch ABC until March 5. The list of partner pay-TV providers include Comcast, Cablevision, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Midcontinent Communications, Verizon FiOS, Google Fiber and AT&T U-verse. Customers of these providers must live in one of the following eight ABC markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Fresno, Calif. If you live outside these areas, you can follow the Oscars on your iPad or iPhone using third-party apps like NewsFusion or E!'s Live From the Red Carpet. The ABC's Oscars telecast will begin at 7 p.m. Eastern (4 p.m. Pacific) on Sunday, March 2, 2014.
Apple isn't updating Snow Leopard anymore, here's what you should know
Update: post clarified regarding the "gotofail" bug, which is not present in Snow Leopard and did not require a security patch. Snow Leopard has been a wonderful operating system for Macs, but more than four years into its life span, Apple is posed to send it to the Home for Elderly Felines. The writing was on the wall for Snow Leopard in December 2013 when Apple patched Safari for OS X Lion, Mountain Lion, and Mavericks without thinking about their older sibling. Snow Leopard had received a security update in September of 2013, just two months earlier. To be clear, Snow Leopard does not appear to have the "gotofail" bug -- the SSL/TLS vulnerability allowing secure web sessions to be hijacked with a man in the middle attack -- which was patched in Mavericks this week and in iOS before that. However, when you look at the installed base of OS X, as the folks at ComputerWorld have done, the fact that this particular high-profile security issue wasn't a Snow Leopard issue isn't really that comforting. According to the report, 19% of Mac users are still sticking with Snow Leopard, leaving roughly 1 in 5 Macs vulnerable to these holes in security. Snow Leopard is still popular for a number of reasons. It's the last version of OS X that supports pre-Intel Macs. Correction: Snow Leopard is the last version of OS X to support Rosetta, which allowed you to run PPC-based older Mac apps on Intel machines. You cannot run Snow Leopard on a PowerPC Mac -- 10.5 Leopard was the final release for those models. In production environments it is not uncommon to have an OS a few versions behind, particularly if you rely on a few key apps. Bottom line, if you've got an older computer that's just used for day-to-day Internet and word processing, some users may not move on from Snow Leopard until the computer gets replaced. The problem is Apple hasn't officially announced its intention to send Snow Leopard to a nice farm with a new family. Users who don't keep up to date with Apple news, or just rely on the updates their system suggests, may be left out in the cold with security loopholes on their machines they don't know about. And attackers may look at that hefty chunk of older OS users as a promising target, with security issues that may never be fixed. In the case of the "gotofail" bug, which was caused by an errant line of C code that had been duplicated, the hole was in Mavericks and in iOS 6/7, but in the 10.9.2 update a patch for Safari also addresses "multiple memory corruption issues" in WebKit (upon which Safari is based). So the good news is that your older Snow Leopard machine doesn't have this latest exploit to begin with. The bad news is that if a vulnerability is found, there's really no guarantee Apple will patch it. As for Lion or Mountain Lion fans worried their OS may be the next on the chopping block, rest easily. Apple is still offering users of those systems a free upgrade to Mavericks.
Guacamelee is over-the-top in just the right ways
I love games that realize that they are games. What I mean by that is a game that isn't afraid to point out the fact that you are indeed doing something ridiculous, and is in on the joke. Guacamelee is one of those games, and everything from the level design to the ridiculous story seems to be made to put a smile on your face. How crazy is the story? Try this one for size: You're an agave farmer who turns into luchador (a type of traditionally over-the-top Mexican wrestler) in order to rescue the president's daughter from a hellish skeleton overlord. You regularly switch dimensions from the living world to the land of the dead in order to solve puzzles and traverse the 2D landscape. It's bonkers, but brilliant. The game is played like a traditional 2D platformer, where you'll be spending much of the game running left or right. And as the title suggests, your primary means of dispatching enemies is with hand-to-hand combat. The fighting is smooth and responsive, and avoids much of the "punch one enemy, get punched in the back by another" annoyance of similar titles. Enemies start off small, but will eventually fill the screen, requiring that you adjust your approach for each new enemy type. You gain a whole host of abilities as you progress, many of which will be familiar to gamers who cut their teeth on titles like Metroid on the original Nintendo. Only in Guacamelee, you turn into a pint-sized chicken to sneak through narrow gaps, rather than rolling into a ball. The game originally launched early last year for PlayStation systems, but the Gold Edition just launched for OS X on Steam. In addition to the full original game, the new release includes bonus costumes and new abilities, as well as Steam extras like trading cards. There's a ton of replayability here, and with the addition of 2-player co-op, you may very well find yourself tackling the game multiple times just because it's so well done. If you've not yet given Guacamelee a go -- or if you're a PlayStation 3 or Vita gamer who feels like revisiting this gem -- it's available for US$14.99 via Steam.
Daily Roundup: Mt. Gox goes offline, OS X update, Disney's new app and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
OS X Update 10.9.2 now available, patches SSL/TLS hole [Updated]
OS X 10.9.2 just arrived via the Mac App Store, bringing with it a number of "improvements to the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac." While the update seems to focus on issues that were occurring with FaceTime audio calls, iMessages, Mail, and server/VPN connections, there's no word on whether or not it has also fixed the SSL vulnerability that was recently patched in iOS 7.0.6 and 6.1.6. Update: developer Steve Streza confirms that Safari now behaves correctly/securely in 10.9.2, indicating that the security hole has been plugged as expected. The "detailed information about the security content of this update" has not been posted as of publication time; however, "detailed information about this update" -- which lists all of the changes made with the exception of the security details -- is updated. Update: If you're dubious that the error has been fixed on a specific machine or browser, head over to http://gotofail.com to find out if your installation is safe from the Apple SSL bug. Thanks to Andrew, Eric and everyone who sent this in.
A roundup of last week's TUAW app reviews
Last week was a busy one for app news and announcements, giving your favorite TUAW writers a chance to post some great reviews of the apps that grace their home screens. Here's a quick roundup of our recent reviews -- and a few app roundups -- you may have missed: New and notable apps for iOS and OSX - February 20, 2014 If you haven't played Don't Look Back, today's the day to change that Sock-It app has a handle on privacy Cook better bacon with the Better Bacon Book for iOS Daily App: Brian Cox's Wonder of Life provides an awe-inspiring look at nature's complex beauty MindMeld: A beating of minds WunderMap: The weather app gets a "wunderful" update Daily App: BugDrug is a visual cheat sheet for prescribing antibiotics mPing lets you get involved in the weather, rather than just complain about it Voila screen recorder for OS X WeatherBug for iOS has been revamped with better real-time lightning features Play+ for Netflix just doesn't deliver Daily App: Photofy lets you express yourself through photos Unfortunately, Guess The 90s is really, really good Unread is a beautiful and very capable RSS reader for your iPhone Daily App: Weather Line shows you the weather trends for the day, week or month Dumb Ways to Die is a great way to live PolyFauna for iOS is a trip into another dimension from Radiohead Peek is a very pretty calendar for iPhone Daily App: Stackables allows you to enhance a photo in layers TUAW will be back next week with another round of app reviews, so be sure to drop by to see what's new and what's cool.
New and notable apps for iOS and OSX
It's always busy in the App Store with a never-ending flood of new apps landing on iOS and OS X. Take a few minutes and check out our list of stand-out titles from the past few weeks! If that's not enough, you can also follow our ongoing coverage of new apps as they are released. New iOS Apps Astro Golf [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $1.99] What could be better than mini golf? Mini golf, with robots, in outer space. Golf with Orbit, the Robot and with his gal-pal, Tess. Hop [iOS Universal; Category: Social Networking; Free] Hop brings your email to life! It automagically turns your email messages into a natural chat conversation with the people you know. Wonders of Life [iOS Universal; Category: Reference; $5.99] Explore the majesty of nature in breath-taking 3D with Professor Brian Cox as your personal tour guide. Photofy [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; Free] Photofy is a self-expression photo app that empowers people to be creative by adding their own unique touch to photos and sharing them with friends, family and social media. UpWord Notes [iPhone; Category: Productivity; $0.99] UpWord Notes makes your everyday notes more productive. We re-imagined powerful note-taking as an elegant experience. The Right Word [iPad; Category: Education; $1.99] Introducing The Right Word: The premier app for practicing English usage and learning how to properly use commonly confused words. World of Gibbets [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] 'World of Gibbets' invites you to a gruesome place where people are just moments away from..uhm..becoming angels. They hang on gibbets! Numerical: Calculator Without Equal [iPhone; Category: Utilities; $2.99] Numerical is a calculator without equal. Whether you're doing simple math, advanced brackets and exponentiation, or need a running history of your previous work, Numerical has the answer. Card Wars - Adventure Time [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $3.99] Floop the Pig! It's Adventure Time CARD WARS! Play the game inspired by the Adventure Time episode, "Card Wars"! Summon creatures and cast spells to battle your way to victory. CalCube - Quick, Slick & Easy Calendar [iOS Universal; Category: Utilities; $1.99] Calcube is the quickest calendar around. All you need to enter is the name and time of your event. Other details are already pre-set at the first startup of the app. That's what makes CalCube much faster than your default calendar. Monster Stacker [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $2.99] A fun new physics game for the Mac OSX. Test your balancing skills as you drop deliver crates of cute monsters onto your hiring bosses' dungeon floor. Bug Heroes 2 [iOS Universal; Category: Games; Free] Every day while you're gone, an epic battle of swords, guns, and armor rages on your counters, on your floors, and in your yard... Enter the world of the Bug Heroes! SECTOR [iPad; Category: Music; $6.99] Slice and sequence your loops with a matrix of markov-chain connections. Introduce order with the probability-based coin-flipping pattern sequencer. New OS X Apps VideoGif [OS X; Category: Utilities; $4.99] VideoGIF makes it easier than ever to create animated GIFs from videos/movies. To get started, you are free to add a video from video files or the Webcam. Monster Stacker [OS X; Category: Games; $2.99] A fun new physics game for the Mac OSX. Test your balancing skills as you drop deliver crates of cute monsters onto your hiring bosses' dungeon floor. Compare Folders [OS X; Category: Utilities; Free] Folder comparison for the rest of us: simple, fast and accurate. Compare at a glance two folders, even with thousands of files, taking into account file and subfolders content, creation & modification dates, permissions and more Keep Everything for Web [OS X; Category: Productivity; Free] Light & Fast Web Archiver for OS X, iOS. You can keep webpages and images by just "Drag & Drop" or "Select & Copy".
Play+ for Netflix just doesn't deliver
A while back I reviewed a Mac app called Play+ for YouTube from developer It's About Time Products. I love and use the app, which provides a slick way to browse and discover YouTube videos, and then watch and comment on those videos without firing up a web browser. Today, It's About Time Products released a similar Mac app that is supposed to make browsing and discovery of Netflix videos and shows easier -- Play+ for Netflix (US$1.99 introductory price, $5.99 after February 23, 2014 ) To be blunt, I immediately found myself somewhat confused as to why a Netflix user would want to use the app. Play+ for Netflix doesn't actually allow you to view the Netflix videos inside the app. Instead, it opens a browser -- requiring a second login to Netflix -- and plays the video there. As with Netflix on any Mac or PC, that requires Microsoft Silverlight to be installed on your Mac. Of course, I'll be removing Silverlight as soon as I'm done with this review. So what's the selling point of the app? Well, clicking the bottom of a movie or TV thumbnail in Play+ for Netflix brings up a pop-up window that shows the movie or show's rating on Rotten Tomatoes and allows viewing of the trailer within that pop-up. Of course, if you wanted to watch Netflix movies on your Mac, you could just as easily have the Netflix site and Rotten Tomatoes open in a pair of browser tabs and switch quickly between them... Watching on your Apple TV? Just pull out the iPhone or iPad that you're probably playing with anyway and bring up the Rotten Tomatoes or IMDB sites to see viewer reviews. Many Netflix users pass on using their Macs to watch content anyway, instead using an Apple TV box connected to an HDTV or choosing to watch on an iOS device or another platform altogether. But if you want to watch Netflix content on your Mac, I can't really recommend Play+ for Netflix -- I just don't see the point. A closer look at the app's user interface makes it appear to me that it's just another web browser displaying the same page that you'd view if you went directly to the Netflix site in your favorite OS X browser -- the app just provides a different colored background. For example, here's what you see on the Netflix web page: Now here's the same information in Play+ for Netflix (located at the bottom of the "page" both in the browser and in the app): Hovering above the play button on each one of the thumbnails brings up the standard Netflix popup, so there's no difference there, either: The items across the top of the Play+ for Netflix interface (Home, New Arrivals, HD, Subs & Caps, Taste Profile), are the same as what you'd find in the "Watch Instantly" menu in Netflix in a web browser. The other web browser links -- My List, Genres, Kids, DVD, My Account -- are just moved down to a toolbar at the bottom of the Play+ window and given icons. If you're familiar with the Netflix menu structure in an OS X web browser, you're going to have to figure out where those commands are in the app -- hardly worth the effort. I've been impressed with offerings from It's About Time Products in the past, especially the company's incredibly good iBooks. I recommend 70 iOS 7 and Legacy Tips, Tricks and Secrets and its OS X Mavericks companion iBook to anyone who wants to learn more about either of Apple's operating systems. But I cannot recommend Play+ for Netflix to any Netflix customer as it simply doesn't provide any added value.
Mac 101: How to use Stacks effectively in your Dock
New OS X users may not be aware of the power of stacks as only one is included in the Dock by default. If you've never used it, a stack is a Dock item that gives you quick access to a folder. Each OS X installation includes one -- the "Downloads" stock on the right-hand side of the Dock next to the Trash. Creating a stack is as easy as selecting a folder or files from the Finder and dragging it onto the right-hand side of the Dock. Once the stack is added to the dock, you can view its contents or customize how it looks and sorts the items that it contains. You can quickly and easily view the contents of a stack by clicking on it. One click will display the contents and a follow-up click will cause them to collapse. It's a quick and easy way to glance at the contents of a folder without opening up finder and browsing to the folder's location. Stacks can be customized right-clicking or control-clicking on the stack's icon in the Dock. You can change the sorting criteria for the contents of the stack as well as modify how the stack appears in the Dock, either as an icon or a folder. The most important option is how a folder contents are displayed when you click on it. You can view each stack as a fan that opens up as a series of icons arranged in fan or a simple list. You also can choose a grid which shows a scrollable matrix of icons that are arranged according to your sort criteria.