Mac Utilities, Games, and More!

I'm planning on updating the sticky on this forum pretty soon, and one of the updates is the addition of a thread that both me and all you other Mac users here can post Mac Gems, basically Mac Gem means extremely good software that is simple and initutive to use, I do request you only post links to good stuff.

This is the format I'd like to have done.

Name of Application (place a link in for the name of the application)
What type of software is it? (Office, Photo editing, etc etc)

a very short summary of it.

OR

If you have a site that has a small collection *please I mean small, not a site with 2,000 programs* of very good applications link it.

One last thing, please list if the software is free or how much it cost as well.

So, I'll start off with a small collection.

Google Software for Mac.
All Free.

This site is brand new, just this past week Google started an offical Google Mac Blog, this blog will be used to update happenings on the Mac side of Google software.

I personally recommend checking out their plugin for iPhoto which enables you to upload your photos to picasa through iPhoto, or use their standalone program they have.

Please keep this on topic, as it will be added to the updated sticky soon.

Thanks to any posts you guys do! Lets make this thread one massive (well somewhat massive) one-step linkage to all the good stuff.

 

MPlayer OS X (free)
Video player

MPlayer plays almost anything you throw at it video-wise, so I find it very handy to have around. It also has less "overhead" memory usage in my experience than for example Quicktime. I use MPlayer for all my video needs, on Linux, Windows and OS X alike.

 

Desktop Manager (free)
Virtual workspaces

Desktop Manager gives you virtual workspaces, much like most Unix and Linux window managers have had for many years, and also like what Leopard is going to introduce to OS X. I was used to having them around from using Linux and various Unixes for many years so I found this very handy.
NOTE: This is not a universal binary and development on it seems to have stopped, so I do not know how well this works on an Intel Mac or if it works at all.

 

Adium (free)
IM client

Adium can connect to most IM services, gathering them all in one application. I have personally used it mostly for AIM and MSN, but friends use it for ICQ also and I will move over to doing that also soon. It also supports Yahoo and several other protocols.

 

Koolclip (free)
Clipboard management

Koolclip saves all that you copy or cut in a "history" that resets to the last X (where X is a number you can choose) on reboot. I use it exclusively for text but it claims to have support for images also. Very handy for some, completely worthless for some. I use it a lot personally.

 

OmniOutliner (bundled free with new macs)
Outliner

There is also a professional version, check out the award winning outliner software, manage all your tasks, notes just basically anything you can think of, very easy to understand layout. Two versions available, Standard and Professional.

 

SchoolHouse
Free

"With the ability to sort and organize your assignments, exams, and projects quickly and easily Schoolhouse is a must have for any student on-the-go. The power of smart groups allow you to interact with your work as simply as your iTunes library. Newly introduced in this version are Classcasts, the ability to publish your assignments to the web automatically for anyone to subscribe to. And with powerful automatic graphing of your grades and a GPA & Finals calculator you’ll never be in the dark at the end of the semester. Also integrates with iCal and Mail."

Pretty amazing stuff from an 18 year old programmer.

 

SuperDuper!
Free, $27.95 to unlock all features.

This is a great cloning program. I use it to clone my drive for backup. You can use it for free, or pay the $27.95 to unlock extra features, like the ability to add to your clone instead of having to clone the whole drive every time. Well worth it! BACKUP!!!

 

Parallels
$79.99 plus a copy of Windows

Ok, yes it is expensive, but it is GREAT! If you have to run Windows for just a few programs this is the way to go. It is not as fast as native, it is still very fast. There is a trial for those who want to try it first.

 

Rogue Amoeba
Free

Ok, I know we were not supposed to link to lists, but this one is pretty small. Rogue Amoeba (great name!) makes a lot of small programs that do one thing really well. This is a list of their 4 or 5 free programs. I personally am using SoundSource and am loving it! If you want to see what they have to offer that is not free click main to see their main page.

 

TinkerTool
(Last I checked it was shareware?)

Targeted towards the average user. *note. advanced users can use the free utility (preference list editor) provided by Apple with tiger*

"TinkerTool is an application that gives you access to additional preference settings Apple has built into Mac OS X. This allows to activate hidden features in the operating system and in some of the applications delivered with the system."

This utility makes it easy to change a few settings that aren't available to you in normal application preference settings, such as turning on the option to quit finder, turning on hidden files mode, etc.

Some screenshots of what it can do

 

Knox 1.1.1
30 Day trial. $29.99 USD afterwards.

Some of you are familiar with FileVault, FileVault basically takes your entire user home directory and encrypts it, and places a password on it. The only disadvantage is that it only works on the entire home directory, and you cannot use it just for separate directories, another disadvantage is that such a large FileVault can slow the system down.

Knox does the same thing as FileVault, but also solves those disadvantages listed above for FileVault, so now you can do separate directories, not worry about big slowdowns, and password protection. check out the link above for more information.

 

AppZapper
$12.95 USD, Free upgrades for life.

We all enjoy the ease of installing applications on OS X, considering all you have to do is drag the application to the application folder and its done. Even deleting it is fairly easy, because all you gotta do is drag the application to the trash, however applications leave traces all over the system such as preference files and the sort, and they sometimes and usually most of the time, don't get deleted and cause clutter and waste of space. AppZapper takes care of this by finding every file related to the operation of the application and destroying them.

 

AppleJack
Free, however it is donationware.

Probably just one of the most invaluable, best gems out there! This is a MUST have for any user, no excuses! "AppleJack is a user friendly troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X. With AppleJack you can troubleshoot a computer even if you can't load the GUI, or don't have a startup CD handy. AppleJack runs in Single User Mode and is menu-based for ease of use."

 

Perian
Free.

This plugin adds new Quicktime support. Having perian installed will enable you to finally watch the following in Quicktime.

3ivX, AVI, DivX, DivX 3.11 alpha, Flash screen video (v. 1.0), FLV, MS-MPEG4 v1, MS-MPEG4 v2, MS-MPEG4 v3, Sorenson h.263, Truemotion VP6, and XviD. Perian is also reported to being able to play H.264, MPEG4, AAC and AC3 audio as well as VBR MP3 content within AVI containers.

Now if they just get OGM container, OGG Vorbis audio and MKV containers in, I can finally delete VLC and Mplayer from my system.

No more searching the net trying to find ways to get a file to play in Quicktime, well at least it took out a major chunk for you.

 

Unsanity's Clear Dock
Clear Dock.
Awesome app. It takes your dock and can change it's color or make it clear.
It's free and they also make several otehr apps that looks decent.

 

SMC fan control
Awesome update. It allows you to change the speed of the fans. Not sure if this is the proper update that actually works with the temp sensor.
I've gotten mine from it's hottest point around 60 degress down to about 45.
Very nice and free.

 

Blender 3d modeling tool
Okay, I haven't used it but it's an open source 3D modelling tool.
Check it out

 

Edo 3D modeling
Another free 3d modeling software. Looks good. Haven't tried it really, but I plan to.

 

Inkscape Vector graphic program
Competitor to Illlustrator. Also haven't tried this one either.

 

Synergy Itunes plugin
A MUST have for iTune users. I love it. It adds basic iTunes controls to the Apple bar (or whatever it's called at the top). You can change the look of it as well as add your own hotkeys to change the ratings of songs, skip, stop, forward, etc. Really cool since I no longer have to switch to iTunes to change songs.
When the next track starts playing, it comes up with a small, clear box showing the album art, title, etc.
Very nifty. It's finally something that replaces WMP toolbar in XP.
It's free to use, but you can also buy it.
When iTunes isn't running, it also stays up there so you can launch iTunes, load playlists, etc.

One of my favorites.

 

Mac the Ripper
Used to rip dvd's. Works pretty well, but it does not burn the DVD's nor can you really control how it rips it. Overall pretty decent.

 

AppDelete 1.0
Free

Basically does the same thing as AppZapper that we mentioned in this thread, however its free!

Description:
AppDelete will delete the application you choose and any associated items (files and folders) that belong to that application. Now you will no longer have to hunt through your system to find these items and delete them manually. Or worse, just let them sit on your Mac forever even though the application is long gone! To run AppDelete just drag the application or folder containing the application you want to delete onto the AppDelete icon. The easiest way is to keep AppDelete in your dock so you can drag your app or folder containing the app onto the icon

 

Synergy
Free

Hollownail just reminded me of this with his post. It is different than his. This is a virtual keyboard and mouse switch. I use it all the time. You have a server and a client. My desktop is the server, the one with the keyboard and mouse plugged in, and my laptop is a client. I just go to the left of my desktop screen and the mouse will go onto my laptop screen. This is a must have for those with multiple computers. There is a GUI version for OS X, google for it. It works on OS X Linux and Windows.

 

Hey guys! I thought I'd make a thread similar to the Mac Gems thread. Post a link and a description to your favorite Mac Games.

And maybe we can get this and the Mac Gems threads stickied sometime!

 

Atlantis Sky Patrol
License: Demo
uh.. the type of game where you have to shoot the ball and make 3 in the row then those disapear...

It's similar to Zuma. I like it much better than Zuma. You're "Plane" is on a rail at the bottom, but the shape of the rail changes. There are special weapons and upgrades you can get as well.
Try it out!

 

Impulse
License: Demo
Puzzle type

It reminds me of that game, The Great Machine (or something like that) where you had to build a machine to complete an objective (like get a balloon to hit a marker).
The principal is simple. You have a marble in a field that has to hit a box. You will be able to use Bombs and other items to defy the gravity in order to make the ball reach it's goal.
I must say it's very simple and entertaining for those of us who like physics.

 

RIP
License: Demo
Shoot 'em Up

This game is kind of entertaining. There is a newer version out. Basically, you 're on a map and have to kill things. Tons of monsters come at you and you have to blast 'em all away. Kind of fun!

 

Doom 3
License: Demo
FPS

Well, a pretty sweet game. I enjoyed it thoroughly, though didn't try it on the MBP. I don't think this game needs much of an introduction.

 

Call of Duty 2
License: Demo
FPS

Another game that needs no real intro. Great game. Fantastic. Looks great, less filling.

 

Since I'm a poor college student, I tend to look for freeware games.

Christmas Crisis
Free

About Christmas Crisis
Santa has fallen sick this winter holiday! Ms. Claus has been cooking some of her most powerful chicken soup, but even that’s not powerful enough to cure Santa from his perilous cold! He won’t be able to make his first deliveries until much later than usual — but that is TOO late to deliver ALL of the presents!

You and other elves have been chosen to help make up for Santa’s missed time! Fly over cities and drop presents down chimneys. Maintain a 70% success rate to save Christmas! Watch out for planes - you don’t want to crash!

Awesome game, but it's actually kinda hard too.

 

SMARTReporter
Free

I believe many of us here are all familiar with the fact that notebook harddrives don't exactly have as long as a lifespan as desktop harddrives do. Notebook drives tend to fail after a year or two, or sometimes even eariler. We all know how bad it would be to lose important work data or even those precious memories sitting in iPhoto. Well, Time Machine isn't here yet but until it is use this! SMARTReporter uses S.M.A.R.T. to constantly check if your drive is functioning, if its on the verge of failing, it will notify you and in that case you can quickly backup all your data before it happens. Currently supports ATA and S-ATA drives. However, HDD over firewire are not supported, the author states if you want that support you need to send feedback to Apple and request it.

Right now in my menu bar I have a little drive icon thats colored green (Good), if that drive changes red (I better backup)

 

Marathon!

 

warcraft and diablo 2 are just two great games !
they are best seller and 'round 10 bucks

 

Sim City 4 =]

 

World of Warcraft

If you have a life and are trying to get rid of it, WoW is the answer. Also aids in really annoying your wife and endangering your marriage! Highly recommended!

 

Cashmonee have you seen this:

***Links edited out by mod***

Makes me want to buy the game!

Right now I am having fun with Tomb Raider Legends. Lara never looked better on the Macbook Pro C2D on 1280x720, high settings, anti-aliazing on, in Boot Camp.

 

Ya I saw that South Park. That was one of my favorite episodes, it was hilarious!

 

Hah... hey cash, can we get this and the mac gems thread stickied?

 

Simcity 4 Needs Friggin Universal Binary For My Mbp!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

i saw soldier of fortune back in 2003 or so .. i think it will rock for mac since it's my favorite game up 2 date on PC

 

bolo

That's right *****es, let's see who is truly an old school mac man

 

Do macs actually come with Bejeweled? That's what I heard from my friend.

 

No, it's not included on the discs that come with a Mac. Unless it's a part of the board game pack that I never tried, but I doubt it.

 

Did anyone figure out how to get the iSpazz thing to work?

 

Unsanity products

Several different products available. I have not tried them all.

I do recommend giving ShapeShifter a try if you want to spice up your OS X shell (the look of it). WindowShade X is also terrific at window managing.

I've not noticed any side effects with either of these apps running.

 

Quicksilver ( http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/)
a shortcut program which can search, browse controle, run and open all files and programs. Anything you can do in osx, you can use it by shortcutting via quicksilver.

to see it in action:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/macbreak/macbreak-012-600p-h264.mov

 

Pina, I believe thats been mentioned already in this thread.

TextMate ( http://www.macromates.com/)
a nice text editor, its especially useful if you a rails developer, or just a developer in general. It provides many nice features such as code folding, etc.

30 day trial to test it out.

 

Widget Manager is a free application that will install under your system preference menu. As a new user I'm unfamiliar with how to manually uninstall widgets. This makes it easy and painless to deactivate or delete old or unwanted widgets. It also revealed that OSX comes with about 20 stock widgets enabled.. I only see 4 on dashboard. weird.
http://www.downtownsoftwarehouse.com/software/WidgetManager/

 

"MouseZoom is a Mac OS X Cocoa pref pane which speeds up your mouse cursor movement in Mac OS X."

http://homepage.mac.com/bhines/mousezoom.html