I think things such as Applescript and Automator scare a lot of people. While it’s an easy language, the Average Joe does not want to learn how to program. Personally I stayed away from those things for a long time, but have recently adopted them into my workflow once I made up my mind to just do it. Still, it took a weekend of reading and a week of just messing around to get comfortable going pro so to speak. Sikuli takes the idea of Automated workflows and makes it available for regular people. While it’s a simple screenshot app in it’s most basic form, more advanced users can add a ton of functionality.
Snoozing to Awaken. Review and Giveaway.
With the market saturated by dozens of iPhone and iPod docks, no doubt do we at least have one in our homes that sport some form of alarm function. For those that utilize this tool, traveling becomes an issue when we can’t take our iPhone alarm clocks with us. The guys over at Embraceware understand that iPhone affectionados appreciate the simple comfort of waking up to their favorite morning power song, so they’ve taken their top notch Mac utility and made it mini.
Awaken for the iPhone is the dream app for those in need of a portable night stand that can kick some cool tunes.
EXPERIMENTER, Science Made Easy.
Science has always been a sore subject for me. Maybe it was because I bombed chemistry class in senior high, or struggled with physics in college, but I could never wrap my head around the complexities of the world around me. That is at least until an iPhone app showed me just how awesome science could be. And while it’s not your LHC atom crushing awesome, it’s your accessible easy to do yet you never thought of kind of awesome.
If you’re ever interested in learning how to turn water into ice instantly with a touch of nothing but your finger, this is the app for you.
Snagit Beta, Your One Stop Shop for Snapshot Fun
Mac users are lucky. We get all kinds of toys to play with if we ever want to take screenshots, with Littlesnapper and Skitch coming to mind as the two most prominent apps available. Techsmith, the same guys who make Camtasia Studio, felt that there was room for one more. And I must admit it’s really pretty (I’m a sucker for eye-candy).
VideoStories: My Living Desktop, Your Virtual Gateway to Zen
While I first passed it off as a gimmick, My Living Desktop is one of those applications that you just have to see for yourself before passing judgement. It’s interesting to note that while it doesn’t promise to increase your productivity (or really anything for that matter), those looking to transport themselves to another world during work or play might find this application of great use.
VideoStories: SizeUp, The Missing Window Manager
Another VideoStories post, another awesome review by Cody. In his quest for the perfect windows management app, today Cody takes a look at SizeUp, a cool app by Irradiated Software which lets you move and resize windows with just your keyboard.
Some weeks ago I reviewed Cinch, another app from the Irradiated guys, which brings the Windows 7’s Aero Snap feature to Mac OS X. SizeUp seems to be more geeky and a little bit more difficult to set up, but I’m sure many of you are gonna love this.
And remember: for every Mac, there’s a story.
VideoStories: SizeUp, Reviewed By Cody Fink from Federico Viticci on Vimeo.
TouchPad, The Magical Wireless Trackpad
When I’m sitting on the couch or lying in bed, fussing around with a keyboard and mouse can be a pain. Certainly you might have the talents to manage such contraptions on your cushions, but I don’t have the patience for it. Fortunately, I don’t need to have the patience for it, since the great folks over at Edovia have decided they were sick of it too. With their release of TouchPad, they’ve integrated three peripherals - your Apple Wireless Keyboard, your Magic Mouse, and your Apple Remote, into a single iPhone app.
Schoolhouse, the Mac App for College Students. Reviewed.
The Mac platform is blessed with tons of excellent productivity tools, outliners, and task managers. Despite this, the majority of these apps have been founded on the GTD philosophy, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, I’ve always wanted a separate application for managing tasks that specifically relate to school. You could certainly do this in an application like Things or The Hit List, but it can get quite messy since you’d have to create tags for classes, then you have to manage assignments alongside your business stuffs, and you just get bogged down in everything rather than the schoolwork you want to focus on.
Enter Schoolhouse, an application dedicated to providing you with the management tools needed to stay on task and get those assignments turned in on time. It also features an incredibly smart grading tool that can calculate weighted and unweighted grades, which is an amazing time saver compared to doing it by hand on the Ti-83.
Keep on reading to find out what makes this app one of my favorites.