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ClickToPlugin Brings AirPlay Support to Safari for Mac

ClickToFlash, the popular plugin to block Adobe Flash content in Safari and make videos play in higher quality through HTML5, had to go through a series of changes after Apple released Safari 5.1, which dropped support for WebKit Plugins. Those of you who use ClickToFlash on a daily basis may have noticed that ClickToFlash for Safari 5.1 recently got a new home, and it’s been developed by Marc Hoyois as a Safari extension called ClickToPlugin.

Marc Hoyois actually offers both ClickToPlugin and ClickToFlash rewritten as a Safari extension – the former is simply a broader version of ClickToFlash that doesn’t stop at Flash content, but prevents Safari from launching a variety of plugins, including Facebook Video Calling and Java. The same functionality of ClickToFlash is still there, only it’s been split in two versions depending on what you need (if you only want to block Flash, get the new ClickToFlash extension) with a new settings page. As usual, the extension replaces content with a placeholder that doesn’t load automatically and, when possible, allows for a direct plugin-to-HTML5 conversion that, in the case of YouTube, will allow you to load a video’s source in higher quality. ClickToFlash/ClickToPlugin comes with several preferences to tweak and support for many video websites – you should check out the complete list of features and screenshots of the settings at the developer’s website.

An update released earlier this week for the ClickToPlugin/ClickToFlash extensions adds a feature Mac users have been requesting since the introduction of iOS 4.2 last year – AirPlay support in Safari for Mac. While AirPlay had been enabled first in Apple’s iOS apps, then the Mobile Safari browser and third-party apps, Mac users were only given AirPlay support for audio in iTunes, but nothing related to video streaming on OS X. A number of hacks and utilities surfaced to send Mac video to an Apple TV or AirPlay receiver and even turn a Mac into an AirPlay-compatible device, but there’s never been a way to easily select a video in the browser, and instantly beam it to an Apple TV with the click of a button.

The latest ClickToPlugin adds exactly this feature in combination with its built-in HTML5 video recognition and a second utility available on Marc Hoyois’ website called Media Center. Version 2.5.2 of Hoyois’ extension adds a new “AirPlay” option in the HTML5 media player (the one you get if you, say, decide to replace Flash content on YouTube with HTML5 video), enabling you to send video to an Apple TV on your network. The Apple TV’s hostname or IP address needs to be specified in ClickToPlugin’s settings, but it’s set by default to apple-tv.local, which is what Apple gives you with an Apple TV out of the box. The default hostname worked for me and found my Apple TV (connected with WiFi first, then via Ethernet to my AirPort Extreme).

Once ClickToPlugin is set to fetch HTML5 video instead of Flash (you can optionally choose a default resolution – I picked 720p) and the Apple TV is configured to accept incoming AirPlay streams (the extension has support for AirPlay passwords, too), you’ll be able to try AirPlay in Safari by opening a YouTube video, like this one, and choose AirPlay from the source selector on the top left. If your settings are correct, the video should start playing on your Apple TV.

Media Center works in conjunction with the latest ClickToPlugin in that it adds a contextual menu item to links and HTML5 media to download a video file, open it in QuickTime, or send it to an Apple TV via AirPlay. Some of these functionalities are already provided by ClickToPlugin, but I like Media Center’s AirPlay action on right-click and, more importantly, the toolbar button that allows you to stop a a video from being streamed to the Apple TV.

In my tests, ClickToPlugin and Media Center have been fairly reliable, streaming 720p content from YouTube to my Apple TV, although I’ve experienced some connection drops (the video would stop playing after a few minutes on the Apple TV) and errors with the Vimeo website. I need to mention, though, that I’m running OS X, Safari and Apple TV beta software, so that might be the culprit. Even with these betas (OS X 10.7.2, Safari 5.1.1, Apple TV Software beta 6), ClickToPlugin’s AirPlay support worked fine most of the time, and I’m sure optimizations for the new OS and Safari will be available once Apple publicly releases the updates. I’ve also noticed you don’t have to keep a tab open after the video starts playing with AirPlay, but Safari can’t be quit or you’ll lose the AirPlay stream.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see native AirPlay support by Apple in a future version of Safari for Mac (or, even better, systemwide AirPlay support on OS X), but right now, ClickToPlugin and Media Center provide an interesting solution for those who want to comfortably enjoy video from their web browser on a widescreen TV. The extensions surely need some work and refinements, and it would be great to see them land on Chrome someday (if it’s even possible, I don’t know).

Go download ClickToPlugin and Media Center on Marc Hoyois’ website.

Control Multiple Macs with Teleport

I don’t always use two Macs simultaneously, but when I do, either there’s an Apple keynote or I’m trying new apps.

That’s how I stumbled upon Teleport, a free OS X utility, last year when I needed to switch back and forth between MacBooks during an Apple keynote, and why I decided to take the app for a spin again now that’s been updated for Lion. Teleport isn’t new to Mac users – in fact, it’s been around since Tiger and it’s probably the most popular app to control two Macs on the same local network. Now that version 1.1 is out with support for Lion and multi-touch gestures, I thought a fresh mention would be appropriate.

Teleport is extremely simple in what it does, although it uses some advanced technology to accomplish it: once installed in System Preferences, Teleport allows you to move your cursor (and keyboard) between multiple Macs. Teleport recognizes Macs “shared” on the same network, and through a system similar to Apple’s “hot corners” and based on Bonjour, it lets you “teleport” the mouse across screens.

Shared Macs that have Teleport activated in the settings will show up with their respective desktops in the app’s panel; you can arrange Macs placing them next to a main computer’s screen so you’ll remember how to switch displays, and configure options in a dedicated sub-menu. These options include handy things like “switch only if key is pressed” or “share pasteboard”. In this latest version of Teleport you can assign a keyboard shortcut to switch to another Mac, and Lion’s gestures are fully supported so you’ll be able to perform three-finger swipes and other Mission Control trickery on a Mac running Lion.

When controlling my iMac through my MacBook Air’s trackpad and keyboard, I was able to drag & drop files using Teleport, and have the contents of the pasteboard from my MacBook Air automatically synced on my iMac. There are several utilities to control how the pasteboard is shared and synced across local Macs, but Teleport manages to make the whole process “invisible” in a package that also happens to do much more.

For instance, Teleport supports encryption for file transfers, and you can read more about it on Abyssoft’s website and the ReadMe file included in the download. Long story short: you can generate your own certificate to activate encryption and it’s even easier if you already have a .Mac account. Also in Teleport’s settings, you can enable a menubar item, bezel, and sound notifications. The sound effect is particularly neat when you switch between Macs, as it really gives you the sense of something “travelling” between two spaces (Teleport also displays a quick animation at the side of your screen). Control requests are also handled well between shared Macs, with options to “ask me if host can be trusted”, “reject if host not already trusted” and “automatically accept”. If you leave Teleport always running, when a shared Mac comes back online a red indicator will flash on the previously configured side of the screen.

Version 1.1 includes a few more features like:

  • Host specific options: you can define the switching and sharing options per host, to have different settings.
  • Propagated options: the options you set for a host also apply when coming back from it.
  • Full multi-screens support: all screens of shared Macs are now visible, so pairing a secondary screen is much easier than before.

Teleport isn’t new, but it’s nice to see the app working well on Lion with gestures and multiple displays. If you happen to control multiple Macs every once in a while, give Teleport a try. It’s a free download (and make sure to donate if you really like it).

Realmac’s Analog: Apply Filters & Share Your Photos

Released today on the Mac App Store after months of teaser videos and private betas, Analog is the latest creation by Realmac Software, makers of great apps for the Mac like Courier and LittleSnapper. As the early preview videos suggested, Analog is an application to quickly edit and “beautify” your photos in a way that has been made popular recently by iOS apps like Instagram and Camera+ or, on the Mac, Flare by The Iconfactory. Whilst Analog undoubtedly shares some similarities in the main concept with these applications (pick a photo, apply a filter, share it), the execution and attention to detail of the Realmac team makes sure Analog can stand out from the crowd of post-processing utilities.

I’ve been playing with Analog, and I like it because it is extremely simple, focused, and elegant. Everything from choosing a filter to cropping an image has been made intuitive and fast, with some graphical elements (like the sharing menu) inspired by recent iOS interface guidelines brought over to OS X by Apple. Most of all, Analog is fast: I tried the app on my 13-inch MacBook Air (entry model), and filters were applied in less than a second – Analog is very snappy and responsive.

When you fire up Analog for the first time, you’re presented with a large “drop” area on the left, and a sidebar for filters and borders on the right. To start editing an image, you have to drop it into Analog’s main window; once an image is in there, you can start choosing filters and borders to “give your photo some soul”, and share it with your friends. The typical navigation and usage pattern of Analog is fairly simple: import photo, process, share.

Analog offers 20 filters, which have been carefully researched by Realmac over the past months to make sure each one of them has its own personality (something we know that matters in this kind of apps) and will make your photos look great. Now I’m no photography expert, but I can recognize a nice filter when I see it. Analog’s filters range from washed out (Hefga, Golden Hour) to black & white (Noir, Dark Knight, Bromide – three B&W variations with different grey scales and contrast) to contrasty (Memory, XProcess) and other interesting options that I can’t quite classify (Kyoto, Hawkeye). Analog’s filters look good, and I definitely like the choice of 20 different filters offered by Realmac. You might argue some of them look similar to each other, but the developers have also implemented a system that ensures scratches, noise and other effects are always randomized on each processing session.

A photo processed and exported using Analog

To switch between effects you simply have to click on them; a switch button at the top of the sidebar enables you to choose borders, which will look instantly familiar if you’ve used other apps like Instagram and Flare. Read more

JotAgent 2: Quickly Save Notes In Dropbox or Evernote

Last year, I reviewed JotAgent, a quick and easy way to save notes in your Dropbox account with a few taps. JotAgent 2, released earlier this week, improves on every aspect of the original app, adding support for Evernote and a refreshed user interface both on the iPhone and iPad. Just like the first JotAgent, you can configure the app to save text notes in your Dropbox account (you can pick your own folder for notes); in this version, you can also log in with your Evernote credentials, and select a notebook where new notes will be saved. If you configure both Dropbox and Evernote, you can easily de-activate one of the two services in JotAgent’s main screen, which has got service, settings, and queue icons in the lower section.

As soon as the app launches, you can begin writing. When you’re done with a text note, you can hit Save to send it to Dropbox or Evernote – the saving process will require a few seconds depending on your Internet connection. If you’re offline, JotAgent allows you to queue notes for later, and upload them when you’re back online. Two interesting features of JotAgent are TextExpander support for snippets and title formatting: the latter lets you change the default template for your notes’ titles, and you can choose between a nice selection of modifiers available on JotAgent’s website. Thanks to these modifiers, I’ve been able to customize the way notes are saved in my Evernote account to show only the month and day of creation.

JotAgent 2.0 doesn’t want to be a full-featured text editor as its focus is completely different. It’s a lightweight app to quickly send a note or idea to the cloud – as I wrote last year, it’s like Captio for text notes. You can get JotAgent 2.0 now at $0.99 on the App Store, or jump after the break to enter our giveaway. Read more

Magical Weather: A Beautiful Weather Station For Your iPad

When Sophiestication invited me to try a beta of her upcoming weather app, I was curious to see how the typical style of Sophia’s apps (Coversutra, Articles) would fit with this kind of software – I’m no Ben Brooks, but I’ve tried several weather apps for iOS in the past year, and I know that putting too much focus on the presentation, rather than data, can be counterproductive for the developer and an app’s success. That’s one of the reasons why apps like Weather HD quickly sold thousands of copies on the App Store, but never really got the weather geeks’ attention and long-term usage.

Magical Weather by Sophiestication might just hit the right spot between available weather data and attention to beautiful pixels. When you start the app for the first time (Magical Weather is iPad-only for now), you’re presented with a grid of thumbnails for different cities, labelled with their names and current temperature. You may notice the thumbnails are actually generated in real-time based on weather conditions, but more on this in a bit. The first item in the grid is “local weather”, which is obtained by default. You can add new locations to the app’s main screen by searching (city, ZIP and Airport codes are supported) and, with the Edit button, you can remove locations at any time. From the Settings popover in the upper left corner, you can set the temperature to Celsius and Fahrenheit, and tweak Wind Speed to the unit you’re more comfortable with.

When you tap on a location, the app brings you to a full-screen view of the current weather conditions. This new screen is gorgeous: Sophiestication built in several different animations that look great, and provide an instant summary of what’s going on. If it’s raining, you’ll see dark clouds and rain; if there’s a thunderstorm, you’ll see thunders animated on screen. But the real treat isn’t the weather animation itself – it’s the combination of beautiful artwork and data in the right sidebar.

As you open a location, in fact, Magical Weather will launch a weather animation and a sidebar containing a forecast, current temperature, and the following data:

  • Current temperature with today’s high and low
  • Relative humidity
  • Probability of rain
  • Atmospheric pressure
  • Wind speed (in Beaufort, knots, mph, kph, or mps)
  • Change in temperature since yesterday
  • Current UV index

If you don’t understand the icons displayed on screen, you can hit the “?” button to make a handy guide appear explaining all the data points offered by Magical Weather. This sidebar, however, offers two additional views: you can “hide it” by dragging it at the bottom of the screen – thus displaying only the current temperature in a corner – or expand it by revealing an additional section with a hourly forecast. Weather icons and typography are extremely clear and legible, and look elegant no matter the background they’re visualized against.

At $0.99 on the App Store (limited time offer), Magical Weather is a great piece of work with beautiful graphics and data that doesn’t confuse the user. The app isn’t complex and doesn’t require a learning curve, it’s fun and intuitive to use. Magical Weather may not be enough for the uber-geek, but it’s a fine weather app for everyone else. Get it here.

RestoreMeNot Disables Lion’s Resume For Individual Apps

One of Lion’s biggest changes for geeks and average OS X users alike has been its Resume functionality, which combined with Auto-Save ensures your documents are always saved in the background, and their application windows restored after you reboot your Mac, or quit an app. Whilst Lion’s window restoration may come in handy if you don’t want to lose your Safari browsing session or writing point in TextEdit, the opposite can also be true: automatic window restoration can be annoying for scratch documents that you don’t want to see again, in apps that perhaps you think should always start up fresh and uncluttered.

In our OS X Lion review, we detailed how it’s possible to decide to “quit and discard windows” every time by pressing the Option key alongside the usual CMD+Q combination – but wouldn’t it be nice to automatically disable window restoration forever in a specific app? In the days following Lion’s release, a number of Terminal hacks surfaced indicating that it was indeed possible to disable window restoration on an app-by-app basis. RestoreMeNot, a free System Preferences panel covered by Lifehacker earlier today, gives these Terminal hacks a graphical user interface that lets you choose apps you don’t want to restore windows with.

The app is extremely simple. Once installed, it’ll ask you for apps from your Finder. In my workflow, I always find myself hitting Command+Option+Q to quit and discard windows in Preview and OmniOutliner, so I might as well add them and go back to my usual Command+Q shortcut. RestoreMeNot does exactly this – it basically overrides the standard “Quit” command with “Quit and Discard Windows” and it’ll make sure your selected apps will launch window-free when possible (TextEdit, for instance, will create an “Untitled” document every time). Don’t worry though – this won’t disable auto-save: I tried with TextEdit, and whilst its windows wouldn’t be restored, the contents of a modified document were still correctly saved by Lion.

If you’re looking for a more advanced way to tweak your OS X Lion’s behavior, TinkerTool recently added an option to individually control Resume for apps as well. You can download RestoreMeNot for free here.

QuickCal 3.0 Gets Redesigned UI and BusyCal Support

Back in May I reviewed QuickCal for Mac, an iCal add-on that, through a very straightforward interface, allowed you to create new events in iCal using “natural language input”. With a combination of keyboard shortcuts and direct iCal integration, QuickCal let you write down events in plain English (example: Lunch with Cody tomorrow at Italian restaurant), and have them automatically formatted as new entries in iCal, which would then sync them to a MobileMe or online service of choice. Alternatively, QuickCal also featured native Google Calendar support, so events didn’t have to go through iCal first to be synced online. With a clean menubar list of upcoming events, support for to-dos and smart reminders, I was quite impressed by QuickCal as an iCal add-on for desktop users.

With the 3.0 update released today, QuickCal adds a completely redesigned UI, a new dynamic dock icon, and a series of improvements throughout the interface. As with the previous version, QuickCal can be invoked by pressing a keyboard shortcut (mine is Control+Shift+Q), which will open a floating panel (think OmniFocus’ quick entry/Alfred/NotifyMe) to start writing down a future event. Focus is immediately placed on the text cursor; the new QuickCal entry box design is nice to look at, and it retains the underlying simplicity of the older versions. As you type, text is automatically formatted to reflect an event’s data points like date, location, and duration. For instance, “Meet with Chris at Apple Store, Viterbo tomorrow from 5 to 6” will result in an event called “Meet with Cris”, with location, date and duration fields automatically filled in. This hasn’t changed from the old QuickCal.

QuickCal 3.0 has a beautiful dock icon with a dynamic date on it (like iCal), although unfortunately, due to Apple’s rules with menubar apps and Lion, you’ll have to manually drag it from Launchpad or the Applications folder onto your dock if you want to see it. Once it’s there, you’ll be able to click on it to open the quick entry panel, and drop text on it as well. If you don’t want to use QuickCal’s own quick entry box, you can make its natural language input work with popular application launchers such as Alfred and LaunchBar.

Other features of QuickCal 2.0 have been maintained and refined in this 3.0 release. The app can still create to-dos in a specific calendar with the “todo” prefix – this works nicely with iCal’s Reminders in Lion. QuickCal also provides a summary of upcoming events and to-dos in the menubar, and you can play around with the app’s preferences to tweak sorting options, days to show, and completed events. You can set a default calendar for new events and to-dos, enable Google Calendar sync in the second tab of the Preferences, and, as with version 2.0, activate automatic conflict resolution, so the app will turn red if you’re creating an event that’s overlapping an existing one.

One of my favorite features of QuickCal 2.0 has been ported over to 3.0, and that’s Smart Reminders. With this functionality, you can set the app to automatically apply certain alarms for events that are a day, week, or month away. This way you’ll always have a reminder available and different depending on the kind of event you’re assigning it to.

QuickCal 3.0 comes with native BusyCal support, but I haven’t been able to test this. I’ve only tested the app with MobileMe and iCloud calendars, and I’ve noticed QuickCal still isn’t completely independent from Apple’s iCal in that it requires iCal to be open to sync events to the cloud. With iCal closed but QuickCal running, new events will be saved in QuickCal, but they’ll only be synced after you launch iCal. Another app with natural language input for events, Fantastical, comes at a higher price on the App Store ($14.99), but it syncs events immediately to the cloud thanks to native CalDAV sync support.

QuickCal 3.0 is a simple and effective companion for iCal, now with a nicer UI. I prefer to call the app an add-on, rather than a mini-calendar replacement, as it requires iCal to be open to sync events to iCloud/MobileMe, and it can’t live on its own unless you’re a Google Calendar user. Natural language input is certainly more reliable than iCal’s in Lion, and the interface is unobtrusive enough to be there to assist you, but get out of the way as you don’t need it. If you’re an iCal user and you’re looking for a quicker way to enter events in plain English, QuickCal is only $2.99 on the App Store (a free 14-day trial is available on QuickCal’s website).
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App Journal, Episode 4: Moom, 4Eyes, Quotes Plus, Easy Timeline

App Journal is a weekly series aimed at showcasing apps we have enjoyed using on our iPhones, iPads, and Macs, but decided not to feature in a standalone, lengthy review here on MacStories. App Journal is a mix of classic reviews, weekly app recommendations, and a diary of our experiences with apps that still deserve a proper mention.

For this week’s App Journal episode, I asked my fellow writers Don, Chris, and Graham to come up with iOS and Mac apps to highlight in our weekly roundup. The result has turned out to be “quite a team effort” and, as I was reminded in our internal chat group, I still needed to come up with a proper introduction for the episode. So there you have it: window utilities, text-based search tools for iOS, timelines and famous quotes – there’s a variety of apps in App Journal Episode 4, and we’re increasingly looking forward to the updates and new apps the release of iOS 5 with iCloud support will bring.

Stay tuned for more App Journal episodes in the next weeks.

Don: Moom

Moom is a utility for moving, resizing, and manipulating application windows. It uses a mixture of pre-defined and user-defined window settings which are accessible by hovering over the green zoom button or through customizable keyboard commands. This is one of those apps that I didn’t think I needed until I gave it a chance. I was happy using a set of AppleScripts to move the front window to pre-defined locations but the problem was it only worked with applications that supported window bounds in AppleScript. This left Twitterrific and Preview out in the cold. Thankfully Moom has no issue working with these applications.

When using Moom there are two types of controls: Mouse and Keyboard. The keyboard controls are undeniably more powerful because of their speed and plethora of alterable configurations. Despite that I still found that the mouse features were treated with equal attention. Hovering over the green zoom button displays a beautiful transparent popover that has five pre-defined and extremely useful shortcuts.

Below the five icons lies a grid that can be used to dynamically draw out where you want the window to be located. The grid must be enabled under Mooms Mouse preferences. There you will find options to adjust the size of the grid as well as an option to enable access to your custom keyboard controls. Another great mouse feature is the ability to move windows across displays with nothing more than a gesture (clicking down on an icon and dragging it towards the second display).

The keyboard functions are also quite interesting. There are basically two types. The first type allows you to define window positions and set them to a keyboard shortcut. It is the reason I bought the program and it did not disappoint. The ability to use a keyboard shortcut to resize a window to fill half the screen or even just a quarter of it depending on the situation is invaluable. The second type is a keyboard mode which is triggered by a hotkey and allows you to move a window around with your arrow keys for more granular on-the-fly positioning.

The real gem of this program is its ability to save window layouts. It basically memorizes the current positions of your windows and it saves a snapshot of them so it can restore those windows to their exact locations by way of a keyboard shortcut or from the mouse-based pop-over menu. If that wasn’t cool enough, they even added AppleScript support so you can call those saved layouts from a script!

Example: I like to keep a Desktop just for social networking applications. Now with Moom I can automate the process of opening all of my social apps and then arranging them instantly by calling the saved layout I created called “Social Networking” from an AppleScript.

The last feature I wanted to mention was its ability to run in what Moom refers to as Faceless mode. This is a mode with no dock icon and no menubar icon. Moom can also be set to show the settings panel on launch which is perfect when calling Moom from a program like Alfred. No icons to stare at and quick access to Moom’s settings from a launch bar, what could be better?

Overall this app has great functionality and a very pleasant interface, all for a conservative price. $4.99 on the Mac App Store. Read more

FaceMan, Unofficial Photo Booth for iPhone, Gets 3.0 Update

Here’s a fun app that, for some reason, Apple still hasn’t delivered to iPhone and iPod touch users. FaceMan, created by fellow Italian developer Libero Spagnolini, is an unofficial alternative to Apple’s Photo Booth, which allows users to apply funny effects and distortions to their faces in real-time using the iPhone’s rear or front-facing camera. I first reviewed the app in January, but since then lots of work has been put into FaceMan – and a major 3.0 update released today adds a completely redesigned UI, a faster engine, and many optimizations to the code.

The new FaceMan lets you scroll between effects at the bottom (with live previews both on the effect’s thumbnail, and the bigger camera view at the top), and swipe vertically to change between effects, camera controls, and intensity slider. A new effect has been added, camera controls now rotate properly in landscape mode, and recording performance (FaceMan does both photos and videos) has been improved by 200%, the developer says. I haven’t been able to verify such percentage, but it’s clear FaceTime 3.0 is faster than the previous version on the same hardware (my iPhone 4). The app runs on the iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 4th generation, too, and requires iOS 4.1 or later. I have tested the app on iOS 5 beta 7, and it worked with no issues, although the developer told me more iOS 5-related fixes are on their way.

It’s not completely clear to me why wouldn’t Apple create a simpler port of Photo Booth for the iPhone and iPod touch. The software was previewed at the March 2 event as an addition to iOS for the iPad 2, and has proven to be a fun and delightful way to snap and share silly pictures with friends and family. The iPad 2 runs on Apple’s faster A5 processor, however, so that might be the reason why Apple’s official Photo Booth app hasn’t made it to existing A4-based hardware yet.

Still, FaceMan works nicely on the iPhone 4, and the new interface is fast and fluid at applying and switching between effects. If you’re looking for a Photo Booth alternative now, you should give FaceMan a try. It’s only $0.99 on the App Store.