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TeamWin demos TWRP 2.0 recovery manager for Android, scoffs at your volume rocker (video)
It's pronounced "twerp," but don't mistake TeamWin's Recovery Project for a run-of-the-mill chump. The software is intended as a touchscreen replacement for ROM managers such as TWRP 1.0 and ClockworkMod Recovery. In addition to the all-important backup, restore and install functions, the utility now provides a full GUI for touch input that's fully customizable with XML themes. As a particular boon, developers will have the option to design custom installation processes unique to their particular ROMs, which is a lovely (though very metaphorical) cherry on top. As you'd expect, the software supports both phones and tabs, and if you're interested to see more, just check the full demo video after the break. According to the developer, the utility still needs some work before it's ready for prime time, but it's rather nice to see the group stay productive as it matures. [Thanks, Ian]
Daily Mac App: GeekTool
GeekTool was released as a free download on the Mac App Store a few weeks ago, and it's remained at the top of the download chart since. It's been around for years, and we've featured it a couple of times on TUAW, but the MAS release allows it to reach a new audience. Unlike the GeekTool of yore, the MAS version is not a preference pane, but a separate app. It allows users to display various information on their desktops via three plug-ins: file, shell and image. These are referred to as geeklets and can be used as follows: File: It displays live content from any file. It's mostly used to monitor system or application activity. Shell: This displays the output of any Unix shell command and is the root of a lot of the customizations in the program. Image: Originally developed to display monitoring graphs, it's also used for image customization. As the product description warns, this isn't for general Mac users, but those who are comfortable with Unix and shell commands. Drag one of the plug-ins to the desktop, then customize it for your personal use. There's a lot of scripts to choose from out there. This piece from Lifehacker will help get you started and Mac OS X Tips has a comprehensive list of geeklets. You can use GeekTool to monitor everything from time and date wherever you want to pulling your RSS feed and displaying the album cover of your current iTunes track. While it's not for the brand-new Mac user, or for the faint of heart, GeekTool is good to see if you're interested in learning more about the underpinnings of your Mac.
Daily iPad App: PDF Expert
We've covered PDF Expert a bit before, but this week they rolled out a 3.0 update that greatly enhances the functionality in the app. When the iPad debuted, one of the first apps to rocket to the top of the charts was GoodReader, and with good reason: it was a better PDF reader than Apple's built-in iBooks app. GoodReader wasn't perfect, and hasn't evolved that much. I bought GoodReader and used it for a long time until I had a chance to use PDF Expert. Now I'm sold: PDF Expert is likely the ultimate iOS PDF app out there right now. Even if you're just reading PDFs, PDF Expert has an edge. I found it caches large PDF files effectively, so swiping through pages isn't an exercise in futility. The responsiveness of the app has to be experienced, it's just that good. New to 3.0 is a Recents button, so recently-used PDFs appear in a shortened list, handy when you're flipping around in different documents. PDF Expert has had support for some bookmarking in the past, but 3.0 has a full range of tools for highlights and marking within your documents. Plus, if you want to delete all the marks, it's a one-button process. Add to that a full range of document editing tools, allowing you to move pages, insert blanks, copy and paste, rotate and more and you'll see why I don't even think about Adobe Acrobat Pro any more. PDF Expert already supported forms, hyperlinks and added signatures (a really, really awesome feature which allows you to sign with your finger or stylus and save that signature for later use) so the 3.0 additions are like icing on this robust PDF 3-layer cake. If you frequently deal with PDF documents, be they read-only or forms or anything in-between, take a serious look at PDF Expert. There's a Pro version of PDF Expert available for iPad and iPhone, plus a "free" enterprise version designed for use with a backend solution from Readdle. If you're in the market for a full business solution, the Enterprise version offers additional features like group sharing options. %Gallery-132889%
Scosche's RDTX-PRO for iPhone and iPod touch detects radiation
Scosche Industries produces a wide line of accessories for Apple products, ranging from iPad cases and flexible keyboards to screen cleaners and headphones. Now the company has developed and is selling the RDTX-PRO Radiation Detector and app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Primarily designed for those who are affected by radiation from the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan, the US$329.99 device will be sold at Synexx in Tokyo beginning in September. The RDTX-PRO can either be plugged into an iPhone or iPod touch via the dock connector or used as a standalone radiation alarm. When being used as a standalone alarm, the device runs on a single AA battery for up to 96 hours. What's unique is that the device requires no calibration at all, but can still detect gamma radiation above 60keV with +/- 5 percent accuracy. The accompanying free radTEST app makes it easy to interpret the readings, showing simple green (safe), yellow (elevated), and red (dangerous) zones on a meter. A digital display is available for advanced users who wish to get exact radiation level readings, and the results can be shared via Facebook and Twitter or viewed on a Google Map. Scosche is donating $10 of each sale to charities that are assisting people affected by the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, with a goal of $1 million within two years.
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: 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.
Trover Mobile Discovery app re-launched today
Trover joins the ranks of free GPS-powered apps for the iPhone that can guide you intelligently to places of interest near you or while traveling the world. It has some interesting twists that make it unique, giving it kind of a feel of Instagram meets Yelp. Trover had a limited release that required a Facebook login, but an update allows you to sign up using email or Twitter. Developer Rich Barton told me the app tries to simulate the experience of walking around a neighborhood looking for food, or retail stores, or even a park as you discover things you might not otherwise notice. When you open the app you'll see thumbnails of pictures listed in order of distance to you. You can also take a picture yourself, add a description and comments, and it will be uploaded for the world to see. If you find friends or users who have similar interests, you can choose to share in their discoveries. I was surprised to find quite a few entries in my little corner of southern Arizona, and as more people sign up there will be more usable content. If you read about a location, you will see it on a map and your own location so you can navigate to it. If you tap on the map you'll get directions from Google Maps. There are some potential security issues with the app. If you take pictures around your home, or your backyard, your location is exposed to people looking at your messages. Your email remains private, but people can comment on your uploads. There's nothing to prevent the upload of offensive pictures, but the developers say any upload can be flagged by users, and if it is inappropriate it will be removed. Trover is iPhone only, but an iPad version should appear early next year. I liked using the app, because it gives an extra dimension to search beyond what apps like FourSquare, Instagram and Yelp can provide. If you're interested in socially based discovery apps, Trover is free and worth a look. %Gallery-129414%
Blood Sport: Finding your PVP playstyle in arena, part 2
Want to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women? C. Christian Moore, multiple rank 1 Gladiator, examines the latest arena strategy, trends, compositions and more in Blood Sport. We talked last week about finding your PVP playstyle in an attempt to find better partners. People with the same view on how an arena battle should be won usually find themselves doing much better than otherwise. The strategy doesn't have to be necessarily the best strategy or tactics used, as long as everyone is on the same page. I've seen inferior strategies work wonders when everyone on the opposing team is in sync with each other. While we went over a variety of topics, including offense vs. defense, crowd control vs. damage, and leader vs. follower mentality, I don't believe I've quite done justice to healers or overarching views on arena. So we'll be discussing this for a bit more today, then moving onto something else next week.
Video App Demo: Wasabi
Wasabi is another in a crowded market of "to do" apps, aiming to keep your to do lists handy across iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. There are a number of novel twists keeping Wasabi worth a look for your listmaking needs. The most unique feature are text files which become quicklists, a preset selection of list items which you could use to quickly template a project outline. You can also share tasks with others. Although iOS 5 will have location-based notes and reminders, Wasabi has them now, with the ability to "pin" tasks to a location and have reminders trigger when you are at a location. If you can't wait for iOS 5 or find the upcoming Apple solution too limited, Wasabi is worth a look. Check it out in the video below. if(typeof AOLVP_cfg==='undefined')AOLVP_cfg=[];AOLVP_cfg.push({id:'AOLVP_1042610123001','codever':0.1, 'autoload':false, 'autoplay':false, 'playerid':'61371448001', 'videoid':'1042610123001', 'width':480, 'height':270, 'stillurl':'http://pdl.stream.aol.com/pdlext/aol/brightcove/studionow/p/5bdc8c0735f09/r/eeba48c0881a3/al/193846/poster-10.jpg', 'playertype':'inline','videotitle':'TUAW - App Demo - Wasabi','videodesc':'undefined','videolink':'#'});
Video App Demo: WhitePages
If you're over a certain age and live in the USA you may remember the days when giant books filled with addresses and phone numbers were thrown at your house each year by Ma Bell. Unlike countries elsewhere, such as France, where computers took over the task of finding phone numbers before cell phones were popular, the White Pages (and their paid cousin, the Yellow Pages) were a fixture of American life for many years. Of course, now we have smartphones. But if someone isn't in your address book on your iPhone, you can use the WhitePages app to find their info. The WhitePages app does more than reverse lookup, but don't take my word for it. Check out the demo video below to see it in action. if(typeof AOLVP_cfg==='undefined')AOLVP_cfg=[];AOLVP_cfg.push({id:'AOLVP_1034513390001','codever':0.1, 'autoload':false, 'autoplay':false, 'playerid':'61371448001', 'videoid':'1034513390001', 'width':480, 'height':270, 'stillurl':'http://pdl.stream.aol.com/pdlext/aol/brightcove/studionow/p/96f369cb1e0a9/r/9f97f0a0ab0cd/al/193082/poster-10.jpg', 'playertype':'inline','videotitle':'TUAW - App Demo - WhitePages','videolink':'#'});
TUAW's Daily Mac App: AppTrap
With the imminent release of Lion, perhaps it's time to clear out all those apps you don't need anymore. AppTrap is an app up to the task, which integrates nicely into the OS X way of uninstalling apps. We all know that the Mac way of uninstalling apps is just to delete them. The size of the preference files, settings and other cruft left behind is so small in comparison to modern disk sizes that you shouldn't have to worry about them. But what happens when you want to clear out your hard drive properly after each uninstall? Installed as a Preference Pane, AppTrap runs in the background watching for when you trash an application from your Applications folder. It will then locate any files associated with that application and ask you whether you want to trash them as well, removing the need for you to hunt them down manually. Other uninstaller apps that we've featured on the Daily Mac App before primarily work along the Windows way of uninstalling. Select the app you want to uninstall from a list of installed programs and hit delete. But AppTrap enables you to continue deleting apps the way Apple wants you to, without leaving all that cruft behind. It's fast, effective and free. If you install and delete loads of apps the Apple way, then the free AppTrap is a must. It's downloadable from the developer's site and supports Snow Leopard and the soon to be released Lion. Thanks to hispidignoramus for the suggestion.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: TinyExpander
Every Mac comes with a built-in file compression utility, but its decompression support is limited. We've featured a perennial favorite, the Unarchiver before on the Daily Mac App, but today we'll take a look at a new kid on the Mac App Store block, TinyExpander. Just like the Unarchiver, TinyExpander is ready to expand whatever archive you throw at it. It'll handle over 25 different formats, with the highlights being Zip, 7z, RAR, TAR and XAR. TinyExpander is also able to extract encrypted archives, so it's pretty safe to say that it'll get the job done for almost any archive you're likely to have on a day-to-day basis, save for the really obscure formats. There aren't many preferences to change in TinyExpander (as you can see above), but you can set archives to expand to a custom folder, should you want everything extracted to the same place. You can also change whether it'll trash the archive or not when it's finished extraction, and also whether it'll show you the results in a new Finder window. If you expand an archive to a folder that already exists, TinyExpander will give you the option to overwrite it or cancel your action, which should help make sure you don't accidentally overwrite something important. TinyExpander is a great little utility that gets the job done without a fuss. If you're not enamoured with the Unarchiver, then the free TinyExpander is a worthy replacement.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: Onyx
Cleaning up a Mac is something many users never do, but if you want to squeeze all the performance and disk space you can out of your Mac, you need a tool like Onyx. A free multi-purpose utility, Onyx lets you run a myriad of system tasks such as disk maintenance, cache clean-up and index rebuilding. You can use Onyx to clear away the cobwebs that collect in things like the browser cache, font caches, boot, kernel and extension caches, as well as logs from crash reporters, system diagnostics and Software Update. If that wasn't enough, you can also get Onyx to delete previous iTunes libraries, the QuickTime Content Guide, recent items lists and even Mail downloads. OK, you can do most of these things yourself manually, but Onyx makes it fast and easy to do it all from one place. Cleaning isn't the only talent Onyx has -- it's able to do quite a few maintenance and repair tasks such as verifying your startup disk, which it will do on it's first run automatically. By rebuilding the Spotlight Index or LaunchServices, you can often cure small corruption issues with your Mac. You can check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your internal disks, verify file structure and fix disk permissions without having to open Disk Utility. Onyx will also let you change some hidden preferences in Finder and other Apple programs such as iTunes and Mail, allowing you to tweak a few things here and there. Onyx is a great free system utility that we've covered many times in the past and which allows you to perform a load of different tasks all from one application. If you're interested in cleaning out OS X, download Onyx today. By the way, Onyx also works well with OS X Lion.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: Disk Inventory X
With Lion on the way, maybe it's time to give your Mac a bit of spring cleaning. The best place to start is always the hard drive, and Disk Inventory X is a great tool. You let Disk Inventory X scan your hard drive and it creates a visual representation of the used file space on your disk called a treemap. Each of the colored blocks represents a file on your hard drive. They're color-coded by file type, allowing you to visually distinguish documents from media files, applications from fonts. The size of each of the blocks is proportional to its file size, meaning that the bigger the file is the larger the block, which allows you to quickly identify large space hogs. The large purple square in the image above represents the sparse bundle used by FileVault, but you can easily see the digital copies of Inception, Star Trek and Tron Legacy I have stored in iTunes outside the FileVault. Once you've identified an errant large file, click on the block to display information about the file including size, creation and modification date, owner, permissions, file path and format. You can then either reveal the file in Finder or trash it straight from Disk Inventory X. While you can find large files manually with Finder, Disk Inventory X streamlines the process. Download the free Disk Inventory X today and reclaim some of that valuable hard drive.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: HandBrake
Open-source software is a beautiful thing. It's free, community driven, and more often than not, incredibly useful. HandBrake, one of the best video converters around, is a classic example of great open-source software. The Swiss army knife of video converters and a perennial TUAW favorite, HandBrake is a Mac users best friend. Using libavformat and libacvodec, it'll take almost any video format or container you want to throw at it and convert it into something more useful. Want to convert a video for playback on an Apple TV? No problem. Open the offending video file, select "AppleTV" (version 1 or 2 depending on your model) from the preset list under "Apple" and click the "Start" button. If you want to get a bit more involved than simply using presets you can tweak almost every video and audio conversion setting available. From bitrate, FPS and target size, to video and audio codec, embedding of subtitles and breaking-down the video into chapters, you can do it all with HandBrake. HandBrake is available for the Mac, Windows and Linux, but on a Mac it's 64-bit, multithreaded and will use all of the available resources of your modern Intel-based machine. That means conversions are fast and efficient. If you've got a video file and you need something to covert it then HandBrake is the tool you need. It won't decrypt things, so if you're trying to rip a DVD or something similar, you'll need a tool to remove the copy protection first, but that video of your mate jumping the gate you shot won't know what hit it. Download HandBrake for free from the HandBrake Project website.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: QuitAppsMBI
Quitting apps quickly can be a pain. If you've got loads open, but you want to quit them all fast, the best way has been Cmd+Tab then Cmd+Q. Now, the free QuitsAppsMBI app makes quitting some or all of your apps a breeze. A menu bar utility, QuitsAppsMBI sits patiently waiting for your command. Click on the icon and a drop-down menu featuring all the currently running apps allows you to quickly quit individual apps or quit them all at once with one click. QuitsAppsMBI even allows you to quit apps you couldn't normally. Things like the Adobe Update notifier (a personal bug-bear of mine) and other unquittable menu bar and background apps can all be quit from the drop-down menu. This is both a feature and an issue for QuitsAppsMBI, because there aren't any settings for excluding apps from the "Quit All Apps" command, which means if you have things like tablet support programs, Xmarks or other background apps, they will all be terminated as well. If you need more functionality such as excluding some apps from the "Quit All Apps" command, Limit Point Software offers a paid-for version of QuitsAppsMBI simply called QuitsApps, which is available for US$9.99 from the Mac App Store (trial available on the Limit Point Software website). But for just quickly quitting a few or all of your apps the free QuitsAppsMBI gets the job done.
WWDC Interview: Ultralingua
Neil Ticktin (Editor-in-Chief, MacTech Magazine and MacNews) interviews Jeff Ondich of Ultralingua at WWDC 2011. Jeff was kind enough to tell us about their thoughts on the announcements at WWDC, and how it will affect their plans moving forward. TUAW and MacTech Magazine teamed up to speak to developers at WWDC 2011 about the keynote and how Apple's new technologies will help them and their customers. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll bring you those videos here, at MacTech.com and at MacNews.com. Also, check out the free trial subscription offer for MacTech Magazine here.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: Caffeine
Caffeine, like a shot of coffee at night, keeps your Mac awake and your screen bright. We first covered it a few years ago. A tiny menu bar utility, Caffeine prevents your Mac from activating the screen saver or sleeping when idle. Presenting as a cup of coffee, the icon indicates whether Caffeine is active, denoted by a full cup of coffee, or inactive, when the coffee cup is empty. Caffeine is activated by clicking on the menu bar icon. You can define a set period of activity from five minutes to five hours, or set it to be active indefinitely via a right-click or in the settings. While you can replicate the features of Caffeine using System Preferences, having a quick and easy sleep preventer in your menu bar is a real boon. It's cute, effective, and best of all, Caffeine is absolutely free. Grab it now from the Mac App Store.
Quicksilver appears to be coming back from the dead
Let's take a moment to appreciate the mouse, the marvel of engineering that made computing accessible to the general public. But, if you've ever watched an expert systems administrator rocket through tasks using nothing but the command line and a keyboard, you know the mouse isn't the world's most efficient way to unleash the power of your Mac. Many of us here at TUAW are devoted fans of the keyboard shortcut super utility Quicksilver. After wandering the wilds of the open source kingdom with mixed results, Quicksilver appears to have been adopted by a small team of developers who released a proper update to the app over the weekend. Originally developed by a shadowy software wizard with the handle "Alcor," Quicksilver lost its only parent to a serious case of got-hired-by-Google-itis in 2007. Before becoming completely inundated with "real work," Nicholas "Alcor" Jitkoff released Quicksilver to the open source community where its development splintered and stagnated. Some of us at TUAW, discouraged by performance issues and compatibility problems with newer versions of Mac OS X, lost hope in Quicksilver and began experimenting with alternatives. Others continued to recommend the free utility, which lets users quickly launch apps, move files, compose email messages and, with a little practice, quickly accomplish a broad range of tasks with nothing but a few key strokes. Now, a team of developers at qsapp.com, who say "Quicksilver is like carrying a light-saber and throwing robots across the room with your mind," aims to unify all of the utility's fragmented open source builds, plug-ins and support groups. The team's latest build, Quicksilver version ß59, addresses a handful of known issues while running the tool on Snow Leopard. Above all, it offers hope for the Quicksilver faithful that someone out there wishes to take ownership of this powerful utility. Mac users can download Quicksilver for free at qsapp.com. [via Minimal Mac]
