Posts in mac

Parallels Transporter Makes PC to Mac Migration Dead Simple

Parallels, probably best known for its popular virtualization software, has today released a new product that lets you make migration from Windows to OS X dead simple. The product, Parallels Transporter is being offered at a special introductory price of $0.99 on the Mac App Store (it’s regular price will be a rather expensive $39.99) and allows users to automatically transfer music, pictures, documents and more from a Windows computer to a Mac.

Using an external hard drive, wireless network or a Parallels USB transfer cable, Transporter will automatically transfer the data to the appropriate locations the Mac. Whether it is documents in the home directory or bookmarks for browsers, Transporter will do all the work in correctly transferring the users files.

We created Parallels Transporter to be the simplest, most efficient way to transfer everything you need from your old PC to your Mac in just a few easy steps. Now you can move to a Mac without the time-consuming chore of manually moving files and without the expense of hiring somebody to do it for you.

Transporter will even transfer over Windows applications and other files into a virtual machine on the Mac so that if you end up using Parallels Desktop, everything will be set up and ready to go for you – although note that this does require the purchase of Parallels Desktop which isn’t included in Transporter.

Reposado, An Open-Source Update Service Independent of OS X Server

Hosting an internal Apple Software Update service involves having to rely on Mac OS X Server to update you various testing machines if you want to test software against various releases of Leopard and Snow Leopard across hardware. Walt Disney Animation Studios, however, have released Reposado, an open-source project founded upon Python that eliminates the need for OS X Server while alleviating some previous limitations.

The open-source benefit of this project is immediately applicable for small businesses. As TUAW’s Chris Ward points out, running your own update solution for businesses allows administrators to economize on bandwidth by downloading the update once, and distributing it internally. For both developers and IT administrators, Reposado takes this a bit further by leveraging what a company is likely to already have available in equipment. It’s a cost effective solution that’s currently available for download via GitHub.

All you need available is a box running an Apache 2 web server and the ‘curl’ binary tool, and provided you already have an old Mac around (such as a Mac Mini), utilizing these tools is incredibly easy. Replicating Software Update catalogs and updates, Reposado is powerful in that it supports deprecated updates. Apple’s course of action only offers and encourages admins to download the latest software, yet testing environments require that software be compatible across multiple iterations of software. With Reposado, you can branch any update to various machines on your schedule, giving you time to test new software before deploying it.

[Managing OS X via TUAW]

ProductiveMacs Bundle: 8 Great Mac Apps at $29

Given all the great apps available for the Mac, wouldn’t be great if someone bundled together some really powerful utilities that help you get work done? How about utilities like Keyboard Maestro, Mail Act-on, TextExpander, and Path Finder all in one shot? If the addition of HoudahSpot and Today wasn’t enough, then how about the killer price tag of $29? The ProductiveMacs bundle, organized via Apparent Software (who just picked up Socialite from Realmac Software) are hosting a bundle that features a fine collection of seriously powerful software for your Mac.

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BreakTime Helps You Step Away From Your Mac

Where Take Five remembers to unpause music that you seemingly forgot about, BreakTime is your queue to get up off your butt and take a brisk walk around the office or grab a bottled water. Featuring a beautiful interface that carefully counts down (perhaps you could use it as a Pomodoro timer in your menubar), BreakTime will carefully interrupt your session so you don’t lose any progress on what you’re working on, while encouraging you to rest your eyes or stretch at your desk.

If you happen to walk away from your Mac for a while, BreakTime has Magic Rescheduling™ built in that monitors your keyboard and mouse usage – the next time your return to your Mac, BreakTime will start the timer and smartly determine when it’s appropriate to take a break. Available for $2.99 in the App Store, BreakTime reminds you that sitting all isn’t healthy.

PNG Compressor for Mac Optimizes Your Images for Web

Most of the time (not all of the time), I run my iPod and iPad screenshots through an optimizer before tossing them onto the web. Usually I do this via a script I’ve set up with LaunchBar, but I wanted to take the extra step of running that command after dragging-and-dropping to just the dragging part. If you’re looking for lossless PNG compression in a simple utility, PNG Compressor for the Mac is a utility designed for quickly dragging a folder or group of images into the icon or onto the window for seamless, instant compression. As a wrapper for optiPNG (with support for Pngcrush and AdvPNG coming soon), PNG Compressor is a classy way to reduce the file size of your images before uploading to the web. Currently on sale for $0.99 in the Mac App Store, a quick buck gets you a gorgeous icon and a useful utility.

Palua for Mac Toggles Your Function Keys

Defaulting to a variety of Apple keys for media, Exposé, and the Dashboard, the functions keys have to be continually activated by holding down the Function (fn) key on your keyboard. Function keys by default offer some powerful functionality; F8 is used to activate Spaces or Yojimbo; the F9 through F11 keys manage windows; and applications such as Photoshop can make extensive use of this top row for various functions. If you are going to be making use of the functions while working in a specific app, Palua for Mac allows you to toggle the function keys on and off so you don’t have to mash the fn key with each command. More interested in getting use out of those function keys than changing the volume? From the menubar or a simple ⌥⌘⇥ (option-command-tab) keystroke, Palua will activate and deactivate the function keys as needed when working in various projects. Used in combination with Keyboard Maestro, you could create some pretty powerful workflows where apps automatically launch and the function keys are activated for immediate use. Palua is available on the Mac App Store for only 0.99 cents, which can be purchased and activated at login so you’ll always have the function keys readily available with a quick keyboard shortcut.