Servers are kind of like warehouses. It’s where you temporarily store product for later use. Simple concept right? With our warehouse metaphor intact, we have two products in the Mac world that want your undivided attention. First we have Transmit 4, an incredibly sexy can-do-it-all FTP client by Panic which in everyone’s eyes, is the current pinnacle of perfection. Depicted by a storage truck, Transmit promises to deliver your data.

But when a truck backs into the warehouse, its work is done. For it is the forklift that loads and unloads the truck’s contents. Forklift, currently in it’s first public beta as version 2.0, makes a strong statement. BinaryNights promises that no matter how strong the competition, they’ll always have the fastest speeds. So does that hold true? And how do Forklift’s features compare to Transmit’s? And ultimately, will this little workhorse outdo the truck that has captured the Mac world? Hold on to your trucker caps people - this is going to be fun.

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I was hoping to do this review alongside the MacPilot 4, as to tie together the whole aviation theme. As a Macintosh flyboy, I expect my machine to perform excellently in combat with nothing more than the twitch of my joystick or the press of button. Cockpit by green&slimy software can give aspiring pilots the precision they need to execute their daily tasks. Time to strap in to that five point harness Ace, it’s time for review.

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Koingo has been great to me as a software company. One of my favorite Mac utilities from them, AirRadar, is an essential tool I use when setting up wireless networks. ImageSmith, another often used product, is great for batch resizing photos to be shared online. One of their latest products, MacPilot 4, is absolutely mind boggling. Anything you’ve wanted to tweak on your Mac, uncover, or otherwise harness control of can now done through this single, feature rich utility.

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There are definitely a lot of new kids on the block nowadays. For the iTunes alternatives, we don’t have to look farther than Ecoute and Everplay for smaller solutions, and Songbird and doubleTwist as full library / syncing replacements for our multitude of devices. With doubleTwist making a name for itself with its ability to sync to the Droid (including recent Podcast and Amazon integration), one more player has stepped into the field that’s currently open to the public. Instinctiv syncs playlists to my Droid, shuffles music to my mood, and is a rather simple solution for playing and searching your music.

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I don’t know too many people who keep track of home inventory. As we gather things throughout the years, the only times we deal with our stuff en masse is when we move. It’s usually only then do we come across that ol’ cowboy hat tossed in the attic, or grandpa’s military rifle. If something were to happen to your home (god forbid a flood), you’ll want to have your possessions indexed so you can recover from the damages. Compartments from LittleFin Software is a simple solution for keeping track of everything you drag home. Read more

Today’s “productivity day” at MacStories: we’ve just reviewed Things for iPad, and now we’re on to another application, this time for Mac OS X, which is currently in beta and aims at empowering you to create tasks, projects and notes directly from the menubar, in a cool floating interface.

Meet Dejumble.

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We’ve gotten used to think that FTP applications should be simple, highly functional and powered by outdated and ugly user interfaces. Some people seem to think that a good FTP client is that app that comes with hundreds of features and doesn’t care about design principles and good practices just because it has to be functional, and functionality doesn’t play well with the eye candy. I think that an app meant of power users doesn’t have to exclude a great Mac-like UI design from its list of features- it’s the contrary: a full featured and complex app should find the right compromise between design and features.

It’s quite difficult to approach Transmit 4, the latest release from Panic, considering that is an application that comes with an immense amount of hype, possibilities and commands, being specifically meant for people who do file transfers like they drink water. Put simply, Panic has just released the ultimate file transfer app for Mac OS X. But delving deeper into it, there’s so much more to talk about.

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Back in January we talked about Zootool, a new web application that aimed at revolutionizing then way you collect and organize bookmarks on the web. I described Zootool as the best new webapp of 2010, and I still think that Bastian Allgeier’s creation is the most innovative and best designed new kid on the block this year.

Four months and hundreds of thousands of entries later, the Zootool community is still young, still growing and looking for more and better integration of the app with online services and devices. Zootool integrates with Twitter, Facebook and Delicious to share and backup your bookmarks, but people want a way to access Zootool from their Macs, iPhones and iPads. And while we know that an iPad version is in the works and maybe we’ll see a native iPhone counterpart someday, today Imprbbble has released the first official Mac client for the app called Zootool Offline.

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A couple popular tools for the Mac are Speed Download and Transmission, which allow you to manage downloads and harvest torrents quite easily. If you took both of these applications, ran it through a Windows (as in Microsoft) blender, and ported it back to the Mac, you’d get Folx.

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