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mac os x

TotalFinder – A Better Finder (Mac OS X)

TotalFinder is a new application for Mac OS X, which allows you to pump your Finder full of steroids (not literally of course, but you see where I’m going with this…) and enhance it with many new and useful features. It’s still only in Alpha, but it’s stable enough for everyday use, and is now an indispensable tool on my MacBook Pro.

The first thing you’ll notice about TotalFinder is that once it’s been installed on your system, Finder will have tabs! With tabs styled on Google’s Chrome browser thanks to the Chromium codebase, you can easily flick between tabs and save the hassle of having a lot of Finder windows open to carry out your daily tasks. For those ol’ Norton Commander fans out there, you can also view your windows in a dual panel mode which is a nice option to have, although one I don’t personally use.

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AppZapper Review (Mac OS X)

One of the great delights of Mac OS X on my MacBook Pro is how easy it is to install and uninstall applications and now AppZapper makes it even easier. For those of you who aren’t familiar with OS X, when installing an application, all you have to do (most of the time) is drag and drop in to your applications folder.

When uninstalling, you simply drag the application into the trash can. As with any program, however various leftovers remain on your hard drive which are hard to identify amongst the multitude of other files floating around. This is where AppZapper comes in!

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Steam Coming To Mac OS X (Digital Games Distribution)

I know, I know, Christmas happened way back in December, but presents are better late than never! In case any of you Apple fanboys out there missed the news, Steam announced yesterday morning that they’re bringing their service to the Mac along with a great library of games which will be available to purchase like PC users running Steam.

In case you’ve not used used it before, Steam is probably the best digital games distribution platform out there, which most of the big and small games publishers are now using to cut out the need for physical media distribution for games. Not only are publishers using it to release new games, but also to find a market for their older games, for example Lucasarts re-released some of their older classic titles. It’s fair to say that we’re big fans of it here at Zath.

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CleanMyMac Review (Mac OS X)

CleanMyMac is a utility for Mac OS X from MacPaw that helps keep your Mac running smoothly, and recovers disk space from your hard drive by removing files that you don’t need on your system. Being a Mac user for some time now, I’ve become accustomed to just dragging an application from my Application folder to the trash when I no longer want it on my MacBook Pro or Mac Mini.

However, unwanted files are always left behind which were used by whatever program is deleted, and these not only take up disk space, but can cause OS X to run slowly and get in the way of your productivity.

During my testing of CleanMyMac, it has become the most essential utility I’ve ever used on OS X, and does a great job of keeping my Mac in good shape. When you first open CleanMyMac, you may want to take a look at the various preferences which are available to you, which allow you to select which language translations you don’t need for your applications and enable options such as the automatic application uninstaller.

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Yep 2 Review – Document/PDF File Manager For Mac OS X

Every Mac you buy comes with the iLife suite: iPhoto sorts and organises all of your photos; your songs are taken care of with iTunes but what about your documents? Well, iLife may not have you covered in that department, but what about all those documents you’ve got floating around your hard drive? For that you’re going to need Yep 2…

Not only does Yep keep track of all the PDF and office document files on your hard drive, but it also allows you to scan documents and file them so they’re kept organised and don’t take up room collecting dust in a cupboard. When you start Yep for the first time, it will scan through all your documents on your hard drive and display them in an iPhoto-esque window. The great thing about using Yep is that it doesn’t interfere with any of your file’s paths; it simply indexes them for easy access and you can still get to them without using Yep because you’ll still know where they’re located.

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Intego VirusBarrier X6 Review (Mac Anti-Virus Software)

Shortly before the new year, Intego’s popular anti-virus offering for OS X received an update in the form of VirusBarrier X6, which builds on X5 with new features and a lower price point of £39.95 (ex. VAT) with a standard license that covers two Macs, not just one, so for instance you could protect your MacBook Pro and Mac Mini on one subscription.

If you’ve never heard of Intego’s anti-virus (after all, if Apple had their way, everyone would think that getting a virus on a Mac is impossible, although some people think Windows is Virus Proof too!) then you’ll also be interested to know that it can also detect Windows malware in addition to OS X, so if you have a boot camp partition setup, you needn’t worry about any viruses on Windows either!

I personally have never had an anti-virus on any Mac I’ve owned, so I was definitely curious to see if I had anything nasty hiding out on my hard drive that had escaped my attention – coming from years of Windows use before using OS X, it’s certainly a strange feeling not worrying about an anti-virus, but I definitely feel more secure knowing that I’m protected even though it didn’t find any malware when I left it scanning. The scan took around two hours to complete and was very thorough, which was re-assuring.

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Linux Training Week: Which Distribution To Choose?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Linux in the past week of using it is how versatile it is. I’ve concentrated on using Ubuntu 9.10 and found it to excel, in many ways, further than Windows and Mac OS X.

Of course Ubuntu is just one of the many distributions available out there, and Linux comes in many forms, including ones you may not expect; even Google’s Android OS runs off a modified version of the Linux kernel.

So with so many distributions to choose from, which should you go for? There are too many choices to cover, but there are definitely some main contenders. If you want an experience close to what you’re used to with Windows, you may want to consider openSUSE – an easy to use distribution with great hardware support and a Windows-esque start menu to match.

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Linux Training Week: Customisation

One of the great things about any Linux distribution is the ability to customise the look and feel of it to your taste. Throughout the past week, I’ve discussed software availability, compatibility and ease of use, but I haven’t gone as far as modifying the way I use it.

Coming from using a MacBook Pro and its OS X operating system, I was eager to see what docks were available, as I’m accustomed to using a dock on Mac OS X. As well as modifying for added functionality, I also wanted to add a little eye candy with the help of Compiz.

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Logitech Touch Mouse iPhone App Review

Not long ago i reviewed the iTap Touchpad iPhone app which acted as a multitouch trackpad for any PC or Mac. I discovered the app was feature filled, responsive and overall pretty good. But then i stumbled across the new Logitech equivalent which I must say, threw all of that iTap hype right out of the window, across the street, and straight into the nearest bin. It’s hard to imagine that these apps differ much at all, but the few subtle differences there are, trust me make a big difference.

The setting up of the Logitech Touch Mouse iPhone App is simple. It is available for free from the iPhone app store and you must also download ‘iTouch Server’ from the official Logitech website on your PC or Mac. This is so it can communicate solely to that machine, otherwise you could end up with all sorts of confusion if your home consists of more than one machine. Once you have downloaded both apps, you will notice upon launching the iPhone app, the name of your PC will be listed and connection via Wi-Fi should be simple enough. If not, you can always manually enter the IP address of the desired machine.

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Linux Training Week: Ease of Use

For most consumers, the number one factor when buying a computer is for it to ‘just work’ without them having to play around with various settings or install drivers for various hardware components.

There’s certainly quite a long way to go for many Linux distributions, but my experience so far with Ubuntu 9.10 has been painless, with everything seemingly slotting in to place and co-operating nicely. This also applies when installing software, and thanks to the Ubuntu Software Centre, it couldn’t be much easier…

With the introduction of the Software Centre, there’s now one place where the user can install, remove and update all of the software on their computer. Introduced with Ubuntu 9.10 in October, the functionality of the Software Centre will grow with the release of future versions, eventually replacing other applications such as the Synaptic Package Manager and taking over their functionality by incorporating it into the Software Centre.

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