Category Archives: mac

My favourite Safari Extension

Leave a reply

Inquisitor is a fantastic search add-on for Safari, and it’s recently been updated to version 3. Basically, it enhances the Safari search box by suggesting results and allowing searches on sites other than Google. Pretty essential, I would say.

Inquisitor

Inquisitor

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

More Posts

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Useless Mac Applications #1 : Sherlock

Leave a reply

Bundled with Mac OS 8.5 – 10.4, the Sherlock search tool became less and less useful as time went by. Apple claimed that Sherlock was “dramatically better than standard web browsers at retrieving and displaying some of the most practical and useful information available on the internet” without ever explaining why. The US-centric content was pretty much useless, and so it always remained a curiosity. That it even made it to OS X was a surprise, it was finally made obsolete by Spotlight and Dashboard and removed completely from 10.5 Leopard. Good riddance!
Sherlock

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

More Posts

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Update your Facebook, Twitter and IM status from one application

1 Reply

MoodBlast
MoodBlast is an excellent little app that allows you to update your status from one place. It currently supports the following services:

  • Skype
  • iChat
  • Adium
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pownce
  • Jaiku
  • Facebook

Unfortunately, MoodBlast is Mac-only, but there is a web application called HelloTxt that looks like it will achieve the same thing.

MoodBlast
HelloTxt

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

More Posts

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Yahoo Messenger for Mac adds Voice capabilities

Leave a reply

The new beta 3 version of Messenger for Mac allows you to make voice calls to other Messenger users for free:

Mac Version – Yahoo! Messenger

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

More Posts

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Essential third party Mac apps

3 Replies

So, I’m now in the process of getting my new MacBook up to speed in terms of applications. Here are the apps that I decided were essential and needed installing:

Bingo!

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

More Posts

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Updated: Yahoo! Maps plug-in

Leave a reply

Plug-inI’ve updated the plug-in so it’s now a Universal Binary:

Yahoo! Maps Plug-in for Apple Address Book

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

More Posts

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn

EyeTV Hybrid

3 Replies

I’ve been meaning to get hold of one for ages, but finally I’ve got my hands on an EyeTV.  I’ve chosen the Hybrid version as I’m planning on digitising some analog video at some point in the future.

Initial impressions are very good:

  • The USB device itself is very small, as is the bundled aerial.
  • The EyeTV software (version 2.5.2) is excellent; it includes a free 1 year subscription to the tvtv service which provides a comprehensive programme guide.
  • Digital picture quality is excellent, even in full screen mode, although unfortunately I don’t get the full range of Freeview channels.

EyeTV Hybrid INT

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

More Posts

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Useful Smart Playlists for iPhone

Leave a reply

If you have a large music library on your computer, it won’t necessarily fit on your iPhone or iPod. Instead of syncing your whole library, it’s worthwhile being a little more selective with the tunes that you want to listen to on the move. To this end, I have two smart playlists set up that I sync with my iPhone:

1. Wheat, No Chaff

iTunes smart playlist for picking tunes by rating

This chooses tunes that I have rated 3 stars or above

2. Recently Added

iTunes smart playlist for picking tunes by rating

This playlist picks new music that I have added to my library in the last fortnight.

So a combination of these playlists results in a good mix of great tracks, and new stuff. You can choose to syncronise only selected playlists in the Music tab of your Device:

iTunes smart playlist for picking tunes by rating

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

More Posts

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Firefox 3 Beta 3

1 Reply

So, after dissing Firefox yesterday, here is something more positive:  Finally, Firefox has a proper Mac UI in the 3 Beta 3 release:

Firefox 3 Beta 3 Mac OS X

Download Firefox 3 Beta 3

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

More Posts

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Why is italic rendering in Firefox so poor?

2 Replies

I use Safari most of the time, but occasionally switch to Firefox for development purposes. There’s always something annoying about Firefox that makes me switch back sharpish. Today’s bugbear: crappy rendering of italic fonts.

Compare and contrast (click to view actual size)

Wikipedia content rendered in Firefox:

Italic rendering in Firefox

Same content rendered in Safari:

Italic rendering in Safari

Plastic Ono Band – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Glen Scott

I’m a freelance software developer with 18 years’ professional experience in web development. I specialise in creating tailor-made, web-based systems that can help your business run like clockwork. I am the Managing Director of Yellow Square Development.

More Posts

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedIn