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CaminoSession - Session Saving for Camino
We just let you know about a session saver for Safari called Forget Me Not, and now I'm happy to find a similar utility for Camino. At this point in my internet life session saving is an absolute must for me, and the lack of it was a huge strike against Camino in my book (despite its being favored by our fearless leader here at TUAW). It's incredibly annoying to open a bunch of tabs for later perusal only to lose them all when your browser crashes. CaminoSession will automatically save and then restore your tabs when you restart and is a most welcome addition to the more Mac-like Firefox alternative.[Via Daring Fireball]
Forget Me Not - Safari session saving
Forget Me Not 3.0 is a good example of the 3rd party plug-in and add-on support for Safari that is slowly but surely growing. FMN is a basic a session saver plug-in for Safari that can reload any tabs that were open the last time you quit Safari. It isn't quite as powerful as, say, Tab Mix Plus for Firefox, but it does a good job of bringing this increasingly popular feature to Apple's darling browser.Forget Me Not can be had from Jim Fowler's site.[via Daring Fireball]
FlickrExport for Aperture 1.0
Fraser Speirs was happy to announce this morning the official 1.0 release of his FlickrExport for Aperture plugin, which provides a direct conduit for your works of art to the heavenly nirvana of Flickr. I don't own Aperture, but the plugin seems to have the same UI and functionality as his #1 smash hit: FlickrExport for iPhoto (though it should be noted that on his product page, Frasier makes it clear that the existence of a feature in one of the plugins does not necessitate its existence in the other). Pricing for the Aperture plugin is $26.25 USD (or £14), and a cross-grades from the iPhoto plugin can be had for 50% off by using your FlickrExport for iPhoto serial number as a coupon code. Clever, Mr. Speirs.Demos of both plugins are of course offered, and Apple (finally!) released a 30-day test drive of Aperture last month, so you really have no excuse for not checking these bad boys out. I was a user of the iPhoto plugin since the early days, and I gladly dropped the cash for a license.
SafariSpeed 2.0
Safari users and web designers who aren't entirely happy with the browser's performance, especially under extended use, have another tool for their belts to optimize and tweak its performance. SafariSpeed 2.0 has been able to turn off favicons and Safari's 1 second page loading delay in the past, but this recent 2.0 upgrade includes new features like: disable cache (ideal for web designers testing sites) enable/disable the debug menu toggle PDF support (either downloading the PDF or displaying it in-line) swap between the on-its-last-legs brushed metal and Aqua While I've seen some of these functions offered in various plugins, SafariSpeed's 5-license price of $8 sounds reasonable to get them all in one place. The demo can be run 11 times, and registering also has the added benefit of netting you priority support.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom + Flickr Uploadr
Fraser Speirs already released a Flickr plugin for Aperture, but what about the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom users in the crowd (John Gruber has a nice piece on the ridiculousness of adding the 'Photoshop' prefix to Lightroom's name)? As it turns out, through a little trickery, Lightroom can be tweaked for uploading your images to Flickr.This Mac OS X Hints post describes the simple setup, as well as a couple of drawbacks, to using Lightroom and the official Flickr Uploadr tool in conjunction; one simply needs to change the external editor preference to the Flickr Uploadr, then chose the Uploadr as the option from the Post-processing page during an export. Check out Mac OS X Hints though for more details and possible inspiration for asking Mr. Speirs (nicely) for a true-blue Lightroom Flickr plugin.
Perian - play most video formats in QuickTime for free
The veritable ocean of available video formats can often instigate a confusing and frustrating adventure in hunting for plugins and explaining to grandma why that DivX email forward she received plays the audio, but not the video. Fortunately, instead of bookmarking the plethora of codec download pages and backing up loads of installation disk images, a new plugin called Perian brands itself as a "swiss-army knife for QuickTime," as it aims to help solve all our video format woes. Perian supports an impressive list of codecs, including DivX, XviD, 3viX, FLV (y'know, those Flash files you can save but can't play because Adobe's Flash player doesn't seem to install an actual GUI front end?), AVI, and much more. Of course, you still need Flip4Mac if you have to play WMVs, but it looks like Perian can have you covered for most of the other formats you (and grandma) might encounter in your journey across the internets. As an upcoming bonus for Democracy Player users, Perian will be included in the next version.Perian is offered for free from Perian.org, though I can't track down any system requirements or whether it works on both Mac and PC.Thanks Rick
Keyword Assistant updated for iPhoto 6.0.5
Apple updated their apps for Aperture 1.5's arrival, and Ken Ferry stayed right in step and updated his fantastic Keyword Assistant plugin for iPhoto, which we've mentioned before. Version 1.9.3 also brings a Russian localization to the table, meaning it now works in English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.Ken offers Keyword Assistant for free from his .Mac homepage.
Hawk Wings updates an already massive Mail plugin list
We mention Hawk Wings from time to time here on TUAW, as it's a great blog for all things Mail.app. One handy resource of Tim Gaden's Mail-obsessed blog that not everyone knows about, however, is its ever-growing directory of plugins, in which Tim relentlessly tracks and categorizes all the 3rd party add-ons, scripts, haxies, tweaks and other Mail goodies. The list was recently updated with 10 new entries, ranging from Note to Self (inspired by Leopard's Mail.app Notes feature) and a Return Receipts AppleScript (you know, that feature where you can bug email recipients with a 'yes I read this' dialog) to a Mail to Yojimbo script for those times when the 'print to Yojimbo' service is less than convenient.Check out the recent update and the full plugin directory for virtually any and every tool you could need to make Mail.app bend to your every whim.
Search TUAW from your Firefox toolbar
Reader Paul Stamatiou just earned a special place in our hearts by creating a TUAW search plugin for Firefox. Installation is a snap - just run over to the plugin's home at Mozdevo.org and click on it - and you can satisfy your urge for all things TUAW anytime you want, right from Firefox's search bar.I'm using the Firefox 2.0 beta 2 for everything these days, and the plugin works just fine for me; I would imagine it works for 1.5.x as well, since that's the *official* release. No matter which version you use though, thanks to Paul, you now have one more tool with which to be no more than one click away from TUAW.
Saft v8.3.5 released
Hao Li is at it again with a new version of Saft, quite possibly the Safari plugin that deserves to go the route of CoverFlow. If you aren't familiar with Saft's extensive and constantly evolving feature set, check out our past coverage to get familiar. This latest v8.3.5 update features: New feature: Option to block auto-completion in the location field Improvement: Customizable format of the dated download folder Improvement: Nicer tab thumbnails This is a free upgrade for registered users and is available from Hao Li's site.
New Chax beta with tear-off tabs, will be open sourced soon
Chax, the handy iChat plugin that offers tabbed chats and much more, has a new beta available that offers tear-off tabs for those times when you don't want to put all your eggs chats in one basket. Announced on the author's blog, this new version also allows exporting activity log data as HTML. Of course, various bug fixes are also included in what is technically 1.4.6 beta 2.The author is also going to release the complete Chax source code once 1.4.6 goes official, offering iChat hackers and other Cocoa-hopefuls a little more help in their quest for creating the next killer __________.You can download your copy of the beta from this latest blog entry.
Keyword Assistant for iPhoto goes Universal
Keyword Assistant is a stellar iPhoto plugin that dramatically simplifies the chore of adding keywords to images. In fact, one could go so far as to say Keyword Assistant brings tagging to iPhoto, but we'll let you judge for yourself. As you can see, it adds a menu item to iPhoto, as well as a simple, smart popup window that allows for comma-separated tags. We call this keyword entry utility 'smart' because it can auto-fill tags keywords from your existing set, (optionally) warn you when creating new keywords, and even auto-fill names from Address Book. It also brings a desperately needed option to iPhoto's preferences: alphabetizing the keyword list. All things considered, this is a utility we can easily refer to as a missing link from iPhoto's current abilities.This can't-iPhoto-without-it plugin just went Universal, and it is still provided as freeware from Ken Ferry's .Mac homepage. KA requires 4.0.3 or 4.0.4 and Mac OS X 10.4.7, and is localized for English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.
FlickrExport 2.0.1 released with bug fixes, API update
Fraser Speirs has updated his fantastic FlickrExport plugin for iPhoto to 2.0.1, ushering in a few key bug fixes an an API compatibility update. The specific bugs that Mr. Speirs squashed (murderer!) are the 'Waiting for Flickr' hangup the plugin could sometimes experience upon finishing an upload (I've been personally bitten by this one on occasion), as well as a nasty iPhoto crash upon upload.You can grab the update from Fraser's update post on his Connected Flow blog, or from the main Connected Flow product page.Thanks Nik Fletcher!
Quicksilver del.icio.us plugin updated
For all the Quicksilver users out there, the del.icio.us plugin has been updated for (what I assume is) the recent change in their API that seems to have afflicted every app that has anything to do with access to the social bookmarking service. As one might guess, the del.icio.us plugin simply allows access to one's del.icio.us bookmarks from directly within Quicksilver, just like browsing the bookmarks of any local browsers. The documentation page I link to says the plugin isn't compatible with Intel-based Macs yet, but I'm pretty sure that's outdated, as it appeared in my MacBook Pro's plugin list quite a while ago and has made my life all the better since.
PicturePopPro - powerful picture viewer Finder plugin
If you need a quick way to browse a few folders of images without starting iPhoto or some other serious photo management software, PicturePopPro just might be the Finder plugin for you. It offers right-click access to a surprisingly powerful yet slim and zippy photo browser and mini-manager. Images and directory structures can be viewed in a number of different ways, and a pop-up menu offers the ability to trash or label the image, as well as open it in its default viewer/editor (like Preview or Photoshop). This killer plugin can even be run in a full screen mode, and there are plenty of other options I haven't even explored yet. Check out its documentation page for visual demos, keyboard shortcuts and screenshots of what this plugin is capable of.PicturePopPro is a Universal Binary and offered as donationware from setnan.org.
Change desktop wallpaper with an Automator action
Sometimes randomly rotating your desktop wallpaper through the Desktop System Preferences pane is just a little overkill. Wouldn't it be nice if you had a simple drag-and-drop Automator action for setting your own wallpaper whenever your heart desired a change of pace? Then why not use this macosxhints post to make one. A few simple steps creates an action that you save as an app somewhere (I named my action 'Wallpaper') and simply link to in your Dock. For added convenience I saved it as a Finder plugin so I can right-click any picture I find to quickly chose Automator > Wallpaper from the context menu. Handy.As an extra tip: make sure you turn off automatic wallpaper rotation in the Desktop Preferences pane if it's on. Otherwise, at least from my testing, this action won't work.
Groupcal 3: manage your Exchange calendar from iCal
Are you a Mac user living in an Exchange world, forced to trudge through Entourage? (Don't get me wrong: Entourage is fine, but 'trudge' is just a good verb for dramatic effect.) Well trudge no longer with Groupcal 3, an addon for iCal that allows you to access, manage, edit and synchronize your Exchange calendars and tasks. Also on the feature list are: subscribing to coworker's free time, sending/receiving meeting invites, sharing/publishing calendars through .Mac or WebDAV and even syncing with an iPod or Palm through iSync.Groupcal 3 is a Universal Binary, a demo is available and a single licenses costs $55. As you might expect, multi-license packs are available starting at 5 seats, moving all the way up to 500 and 1000 pack licenses. [via MacMerc]
Enable a slick Constellation menu in Quicksilver ?49
Macintalk has posted a how-to on enabling a really slick Constellation menu plugin for Quicksilver β49. Granted, this menu is quite a bit of eye candy, but if you follow Macintalk's post all the way through and assign this menu to a hotkey, it then becomes a bit of really handy eye candy.Keep in mind, however, that (as far as I know) you need the latest developer β49 to bring this plugin to fruition, so just like with the last slick Quicksilver Cube eye candy plugin, if you're not interested in the beta side of things, you should probably leave this one alone until it gets ironed out a bit more......but on the other hand: look at how cool that is! The entire thing is clickable, and it's also bigger in 'real life' - on my 1440 x 900 display it's 512 x 512 pixels, so it's much more legible than the 225 x 225 screenshot in this post. The small button just to the right of the iTunes icon in the middle of this menu, for example, displays a popup list of your playlists. Clicking on any of the larger slices, such as the albums or artists, pops up a second, similar menu you can browse through by using the down arrow at the bottom of the inner circle. The whole menu system seems pretty zippy too, once it takes a second to load all your iTunes information. Of course, I'm also using a 2.0 Ghz MacBook Pro with 1.5 GB RAM, so YMMV. Check out Macintalk's how-to if you're done drooling and want to get down to business.
iCalFix: automatically add reminders to iCal events
We've blogged iCalFix before, back when it was just a fledgling 0.1 release that didn't even have a GUI interface (you had to edit a pref file lying around in ~/Library). For those who don't remember: it's a simple iCal plugin that automatically adds a reminder to every event you create.In this latest 0.5 release, iCal has become a true-blue iCal plugin, with its own preference pane and everything (As you can see, Robert Blum, iCalFix's creator, is looking for an icon designer. Check his blog for contact details). Now it's possible to specify your own alarm time for new events, as well as which sound to use, right from within iCal's preferences.iCalFix is donationware and available from Robert Blum's site.[via Hawk Wings]
A collection of all available QuickPicks for Backup 3
Wishingline, a web design studio, has done .Mac members a favor and collected most of the QuickPicks that are available on the web for Apple's Backup 3. There are quite a few QuickPicks out there for everything from ecto to PDF documents, Photo Booth pictures to Shiira bookmarks, OmniOutliner documents and much, much more. Wishingline went so far as to list a number of the QuickPicks individually, or simply offer an encompassing package of everything they could find (scroll down about midway on the page for these goodies).The QuickPicks package is offered free from Wishingline, but remember: they didn't have anything to do with creating these (as far as I know); they just tracked them down and zipped them. If you want a QuickPick for one app or another, you should probably consult the app's author or check out these resources for creating your own.[UPDATE: Scott from Wishingline dropped us a comment to let us know that the QuickPicks linked from Wishingline are, in fact, home grown. Thanks for some rockin' QuickPicks Scott!]
