“What?” you ask.

“On my flash drive,” she says. “There are all of these…stupid files.”

Are you sick of explaining why your Mac – despite being superior in every way to her PC – feels the need to leave behind a bunch of files on her USB key? Or network drive, for that matter? Stop it from happening.

Indexing, trash bins, folder positions – OS X keeps track of all these things, on every drive connected to your Mac, by creating files. These files are fine on a Mac – OS X uses them regularly, and hides them from the user. Plug a drive mainly used with Windows into a Mac, however, and in Windows you’ll see a variety of useless files cluttering things up. Do you want to stop the madness? You can.

The Problem

Feel unclear what the problem is? Insert any flash drive readable by Windows – FAT, in all likelihood – into your Mac. Eject it, then insert it into a Windows computer. You’ll be greeted by this nonsense:

What’s all that crap? Well, the Spotlight and Trash folders should be obvious – they’re related to indexing and deleted files, respectively. The folder “.fsevents” records file system events. It’s a record of everything that happens on the drive. And the infamous “DS_store” file – not pictured above – records things like the placement of icons in Finder.

This is all useful to Macs, but in Windows it’s just annoying. Why does OS X write such files to drives formatted FAT, knowing Windows users will see it as nonsense? Good question.

Your Mac creates these files basically the second you plug in a drive, so there are two things you can do – delete the files before you eject the drive or stop the Mac from creating the files. I’m going to outline some apps, starting with two that take the first approach before moving on to two that take the second.

Automatically Delete the Files Before You Eject

If you think you can remember to use them, two different application can delete all of these files when you eject. Simply add the app icon to your dock and you’re ready to use it.

The first such app is Eject For Windows, which despite its name is actually a Mac program. Drag any drive you want to eject here and all of the crap files will be deleted:

Another app, called HiddenCleaner, works the same way:

I tested both of these apps using Mountain Lion and Windows 7 – the Mac left no ugly files that the PC could see. Because both apps work the same way, you can pretty much choose based entirely on which icon you like best. I’ve got to say, Hidden Cleaner wins for me on that front (it’s up to you, though).

Stop The Files From Being Created

Want to stop these nonsense files from even appearing on non-Mac drives? Install BlueHarvest. This app installs as a preference pane, allowing you to configure when such files are created:

There’s a 30-day trial, but if you want to keep this app around you’re going to need to pony up $15. If crap files on Windows drives is something you really, really care about, check out BlueHarvest.

Mostly concerned about .DS_Store files on network drives? TinkerTool, a free configuration tool, can handle that. The first screen of this app allows you to stop your Mac from leaving crap files on network drives:

Check that box and your Mac will stop creating such files. This program does a lot more, so read more about Tinkertool. It’s not as complete as BlueHarvest – no support for USB drives – but combined with a tool like Hidden Cleaner you’ll be completely set.

Cross-Platform

Getting a file from a PC to a Mac used to be a big deal – file incompatibilities were a fact of life. These days the two platforms play more-or-less nicely with each other – yet annoyances like this persist. I think OS X should be smart enough to tell when a drive is meant to be shared with Windows computers and adjust accordingly, but I want to know what you think.

Is this not nearly as big a deal as I’m making it out to be? Or do you also think something at the system level should be done to fix this? Let us know in the comments below, along with links to any other tools for solving the problem.

The post Why Do Macs Leave Garbage Files Like “ds_store” On My Flash Drive, And How Do I Stop It? appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Modern hard drives are big, but sometimes we all need just a little more space on our primary drive. Whether you’ve installed a solid state drive in your Mac or simply filled up your primary one, sometimes a little extra space can help a lot.

Mac OS X includes hundreds of languages, most of which you don’t need. You might well need Spanish, Chinese or even Hebrew on your computer, but do you really need Yiddish? Or Welsh? Or for that matter, invented languages like Esperanto and Klingon, or dead languages like Latin or Sanskrit? All these and more are taking up space on your Mac, right now.

Which languages you need obviously depends on who are – I’m sure at least one person reading this has set Klingon to be their default. More power to you. But next to none of us need every language Apple offers – which isn’t a problem, unless you’re running out of space on your hard drive.

Monolingual removes these languages, and also frees up space by removing PPC-specific files from “Universal” applications.

Removing Languages from Mac

Open this program and you’ll see a complete list of languages included, by default, in OS X. Uncheck any language you want to keep.

Make sure you’re absolutely certain you’re not deleting any languages you need – there’s no real way to get those languages back. The program even warns you:

Again – make certain before going forward. Once you have the removal will begin:

If you’re expecting to save gigs and gigs of space you’ll be disappointed – the languages don’t take up that much. Still, I was able to shed over 100 MB.

You could say it’s not much, but I kept quite a few languages – and any space I can free up on my SSD gives me more room for installing games and apps (not to mention dual-booting).

Removing Architecture-Specific Stuff

Languages aren’t the only trick up this app’s sleeve – it can also delete excess files intended to allow apps to run on multiple architectures.

Confused? Maybe you shouldn’t mess with this, then, but I’ll provide some background. Macs switched from the PowerPC (PPC) processor to Intel back in 2005 – since then a number of apps have been designed to run on both PPC and Intel systems. Such apps are called “Universal”, and were an important part of why Apple’s transition from PPC to Intel was so seamless. In 2013, however, the PPC parts of these Universal apps just take up space on Intel Macs.

So Monolingual can remove the PPC parts of Universal apps. Running this is a bad idea if you plan on using Rosetta to run PPC software, but probably not a problem if you’re using Lion or later – Apple dropped all support for Rosetta with Lion.

Pick which architectures you’re willing to remove from your system:

Monolingual will clean up “Universal” apps, turning them into Intel-only ones. How much space this frees up will obviously depend on how many apps you have installed – and whether they’re Universal – but for me this ended up freeing up more space than the language removal:

Okay, so I probably have more software installed than most – I test software for a living. But again, freeing up 200 MB could be useful for many.

Download Monolingual

Ready to try out Monolingual? Go ahead and download Monolingual from Sourceforge. You’ll need to install it the old fashioned way – dragging an icon. Stop complaining, it’s fun.

Other Ways To Save Space

Do you want to save even more space on your Mac? I highly recommend check out CCleaner for Mac, which cleans up the crap left behind by a wide variety of apps. Mackeeper is also worth looking into, if you’re willing to pay for it. You can also find and delete duplicate files to save space, using Dupe Guru. You might be surprised how many redundant files you have.

Do you have any other space saving tips for Mac users? Please share them in the comments below – your comments could help us build our best of Mac apps page. Or, if you prefer, just share your thoughts about Monolingual.

The post Monolingual – Remove Languages You Don’t Use From Your Mac appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Perhaps you have better concentration than I do, but for me my best writing happens in a comfortable, reliable and distraction-free place. If you want to, as Neil Gaiman said, “Make Good Art“. Make yourself a beverage, find comfortable seating and open up a decent writing tool.

Maybe you’ve already encountered your own diamond in the desert. As we well know, there’s no shortage of great Mac apps. But if you’re using an office suite or notepad application to spin sentences (as opposed to writing reports), you’re definitely missing something out. Allow me to introduce you to Byword, a beautiful, simplistic writing tool.

Byword ($9.99)

The Byword writing app is a text editor available for Mac OS X and iOS. In this article, we’ll mostly be focusing on the desktop client. What you should know starting out is that Byword is no traditional office text editor or notepad application. Rather, it’s a very simplistic rich text and markdown editor, intended to be completely (or as much as possible) distraction-free.

It’s not just a prettier alternative to TextEdit, though. Byword is completed with a variety of features that assist you while you’re writing your next novel, article or literary doodle. It’s a simple package, all in all, but very rich in usability. Add in other techniques to help you focus and stay productive for a killer combination.

Rich Formatting Versus Markdown

By default, Byword will function as a markdown editor, similar to FountainPen which was previously reviewed on MakeUseOf. In case you’re wondering, Markdown is a way to impose styling (for example, bold text or headers) on a document in plain text, all without hindering reading the document in its current form.

Byword provides a guide to pick up on its own MultiMarkdown formatting. The guide itself was, in fact, written in MultiMarkdown in Byword.

If markdown editors are not your cup of tea, don’t worry. You’ll be able to switch to rich text formatting in the settings. These formatting options are a far cry from what you’d find in most rich text environments, but Byword hopes to offer what you really only need to structure your writing.

This covers three different text sizes, the usual bold, italic underlining, alignment, bullet lists and highlights. A nice finish is the formatting pop-over, which is activated by pressing command+T, and lets you stylize currently selected text.

Fullscreen Mode

One of the first things you do when you don’t want to be distracted is close your door. The analogous action on your computer is to put your application in full-screen. Byword can be put full screen by pressing the Command and Enter keys on your keyboard.

Your text is centered on the screen and Byword’s word and character counters are still visible on the bottom of your screen in a light grey. Apart from that, there’s absolutely nothing. It may sound strange to describe it so, but it’s a view that I absolutely love. Especially when you switch the color profile from white to black in the application settings, as you can see in the screenshot above.

Line & Paragraph Focus

Another two cool features that Byword adds to the mix are line and paragraph focus. The idea of paragraph focus is simple: the paragraph you’re working in looks normal while the rest of the document is greyed out. Not the best idea for documents where you need overview at all times, but good for almost any other scenario.

Line focus is similar, only the current line is spared instead of the entire paragraph.

Typewriter mode offers another novel way to keep your focus on the text you’re currently working on. Not through shading, though, but through placement. Like the typewriters of old, this mode puts the line you’re working on in the vertical center of your screen. Start typing somewhere else, and it readjusts. Not only is this a great way to keep focus, it also does a lot to prevent eye fatigue.

What text editor do you normally use, or do you use more than one? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post Byword Offers Fullscreen Distraction-Free Writing Pleasure On Your Mac appeared first on MakeUseOf.

One of the newest RSS feed readers on the block is NewsBar for Mac (offering a free lite version, and $3.99 full version) and iPhone ($3.99). Though I’ve been a longtime user of NewsRack, I was immediately impressed with the features in NewsBar and how they could be useful to my workflow as someone who monitors news and blog feeds throughout the day.

How NewsBar Stands Out

NewsBar is similar to traditional newsreaders in that it enables you to add RSS feed subscriptions and manage them in folders/categories. NewsBar also supports Google Reader integration, but since that service will be shut down by July 1 of this year, it’s probably better to manually add subscriptions instead of importing Google Reader subscriptions.

NewsBar’s user interface is quite different from most readers in that feeds are continually displayed in a window bar on a designated side of your Mac desktop. Clicking on a news feed item will display a reader window that includes the original source article, and from there you can select to open the item in your default web browser. You can also double-click on an item to open it your web browser.

This window bar interface works great for large screen Macs or for those of us who use more than one desktop monitor. I have NewsBar parked on the far left side of my second monitor. Placing it on your main monitor desktop might make it a little obtrusive.

Unfortunately, NewsBar doesn’t have an automatic hide feature for when it’s not being viewed. You can however set feed items to auto hide after you have marked them read. I have mapped  NewsBar to BetterTouchTool which enables me to quickly perform a three finger tap on my trackpad to mark all items as read.

Appearance

NewsBar includes additional preferences that make it easy to adjust its appearance to your liking. You can select to have the window bar Always on top or always in the background. You can set the background opacity of the bar, as well as adjust the text size of feeds and the box height of the bar.

If you want NewsBar to compliment your existing desktop wallpaper, you can change the window background color of the sidebar and even add a background gradient that might make it less distracting.

If you subscribe to a dozen or more feeds like I do, you might find folders useful for managing feeds. But more importantly, I really like that you can set a different text and background color for each of your subscriptions. So for example, if you have a feed that you want to stand-out above the rest, you might change the text or background of the feed’s news items or posts to red.

It is also possible to set the refresh rate individually for each feed, how many feed items to show and the number of news items that should remain in the feed window. Custom icons for each feed source can also be added or changed by simply dropping the icon in the subscribed feed window.

Other Features

Another one of the NewsBar’s powerful features is keyword notifications. If you monitor dozens of feed subscriptions a day, you might want to identify particular keywords in news or blog items that you want NewsBar to highlight visually with a designated text or background color.

For example, you might add keywords like “releases,” “updates,” “now available,” and “arrives” to highlight feed items that announce new updates to or releases of software or online services. You can also have NewsBar issue a sound alert for keyword related items, as well as put those keyword notices in the OS X Notification Center.

NewsBar also includes buttons and functions for performing a quick text search, adding new feeds, starring feed items, and showing only keyword filtered news. In its most recent update, keyboard shortcuts were added for toggling read items, marking items read and unread, and for starring them.

Another useful feature allows you to quickly share feed items to a new email or via Twitter, Facebook, Messages, or Safari’s Reading List. By right (or control) clicking on a feed item, you can also select to mark individual feed items or all feed items as read or unread, and even delete a selected item from the list.

Conclusion

In the first few days I have used NewsBar, it has already shown itself to be a time saver. It reduces the need to constantly launch a newsreader in order to check new feeds. I can simply glance over to the left side of my second monitor and view and interact with new items. And by using special colored highlights, I can scan items for what I’m actually looking for.

The “lite” version of NewsBar will give you a glimpse of how it works, but this version doesn’t include many of NewsBar’s more advanced features (no folders or menu bar buttons, and limited to two feed subscriptions). That said, if you’re an avid newsreader user I think NewsBar is worth checking out.

Download: NewsBar for Mac OS X or iOS

Let us know what you think of NewsBar, and any of your other favourite clients in the comments below.

The post Power Up Your Mac Desktop With RSS Feed Reader NewsBar [Mac & iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

For this article, we scoured the Mac App Store for the best calculator applications, each for a very different usage scenario. No matter how you’re used to crunching your numbers, there are a number of Calculator alternatives worth looking into.

Always on Top Calculator ($0.99)

One of the things that can be most irritating when you’re multitasking on Mac OS X is having to switch to and fro between Calculator and the app or apps you’re working in. Admittedly, this is a problem most calculator applications suffer from, those covered in this article included. The exception appears to be Always on Top Calculator, a cheap little calculator that—you may have guessed it – always stays on top.

You won’t be able to do all the same things as you would in a more powerful calculator application. Powers, roots and goniometric formulas are out of the question. However, Always on Top Calculator will suffice for standard number crunching and for the menial price of $0.99, you’ll never again lose your calculator application between the clutter of other applications.

Soulver ($19.99)

Soulver does the kind of number crunching you’d expect from expansive spreadsheets. However, contrary to those applications, Soulver is very fast and intuitive to use. If there’s any way to describe Soulver, it would be as a smart, contextual calculator. Instead of wrestling for control of intricate formula chains, Soulver allows you to use (something very close to) natural language.

With a $19.99 price tag, Soulver is the most expensive Calculator alternative we’ll cover in this round-up. Whether it’s worth that price depends on how often you have to crunch your numbers and how complicated the operations are. In any case, Soulver will speed up the way you work, allowing you to juggle different currencies and current stock prices with intuitive natural language constructions.

PCalc ($9.99)

Mac’s Calculator app includes a scientific mode, granting access to a wide variety of functions. Although the sheer amount of features packed into the Calculator app is impressive, it still hasn’t reached the same level of calculator goodness that is PCalc. Although the application is especially popular among fans of the RPN mode, PCalc is an all-round great scientific and programmer calculator.

At just under ten bucks, PCalc isn’t cheap either, but you’re buying a whole lot of functionality packed into a good-looking and user-friendly application. Even more impressive is the developer’s dedication to the application. The first version of PCalc was released over twenty years ago, in 1992. A special release of PCalc 2 was even shipped with Mac OS X in the United States and other countries in 2002. Looking at its track record, it’s easy to see why PCalc 3 does not disappoint.

Wolfram Alpha

You’ve no doubt already made acquaintance with Wolfram Alpha, a ‘smart’ computational knowledge engine. If not, it’s high time to learn about the true power of the Wolfram Alpha knowledge engine. More interesting uses can be found in Saikat’s article - 10 Search Terms To Put Wolfram Alpha To Good Use Everyday. Any one of these examples is reason enough to integrate Wolfram Alpha into your workflow as a computational knowledge calculator.

The default way to access Wolfram Alpha on your computer is through your browser. However, other apps allow for a more tight integration of Wolfram Alpha. My personal favorite in this area is Fluid, which allows you to turn any website into a standalone application. You can create a standard desktop application for free, or purchase the $4.99 premium version of Fluid to create a menu bar application.

To keep things nice and tidy I prefer to use Wolfram Alpha’s mobile website, as can be seen in the above screenshot.

Magic Calculator ($3.99)

Most calculators allow you to save some intermediate results to a spot in memory, remaining there for later perusal. For more complicated calculations, one such spot in memory quickly proves to be insufficient. Magic Calculator is an advanced calculator, with support for functions and variables. Save any number (or formula evaluation) to a chosen variable name and start juggling intermediate results like an expert.

More advanced usage is also possible. Magic Calculator lets you define functions yourself. Adding to this user-friendly function plotting and Magic Calculator proves itself to be a very powerful calculating tool. All of this for the decidedly low price of $3.99.

What calculator tools do you use in your workflow? Share your favorite applications (or websites) with the other readers in the comments section below the article!

The post 5 Interesting Calculator Alternatives For Mac OS X appeared first on MakeUseOf.

I think all of the MacBooks are a good choice, but the reasons why are various.  A 13-inch MacBook Air has different hardware and options than a 13-inch Pro but, because Apple doesn’t sell laptops based on specs, understanding the differences can be difficult. I’ll help you sort through the clutter and decide which MacBook is for you.

Size & Weight

If you want small – like, really small – the MacBook Air 11.6” is the only choice. There’s no equivalent Pro model and even the 13-inch Pro w/Retina is about an inch wider and taller, plus it adds well over a pound of weight. But be warned; the 11.6” Air is so small it can be uncomfortable to use.

The 13-inch Air and 13-inch Pro make for a tricky comparison because there’s really two versions of Pro – standard and Retina. The 13-Inch Pro w/Retina is actually thinner and lighter, coming in at 0.75 inches thick and 3.5 pounds. That’s just one-tenth of an inch thicker and a half-pound heavier than the 13-inch Air! Personally, I don’t find this a functional difference, so I recommend buying the 13-inch Pro w/Retina over the Air (if you can afford to).

Those who can’t afford Retina, however, are stuck with the vanilla Pro design. It’s almost an inch thick and weighs 4.5 pounds, so the difference between the 13-inch Air and 13-inch Pro without Retina is significant. Indeed, the old 13-inch Pro is heavy even compared to similar Windows laptops, so it may not be the best pick for those who frequently travel.

Obviously, if you want a 15-inch system, the Pro is the only choice. The gap between the Retina and standard version continues; the 15-inch Pro w/Retina is thinner and weighs just 4.5 pounds while the vanilla model tips the scale at 5.6 pounds.

Battery Life

The loser in this battery life contest is the 11.6-inch MacBook Air. Apple quotes that it offers up to five hours of wireless web browsing, but you’ll eat through it faster than that if you’re watching high-definition video. This is because the smallest Air has the smallest battery.

Everything else, from the 13-inch Air to the 15-inch Pro w/Retina, is quoted at seven hours. Professional reviews have found that, while there are some small fluctuations, the quoted figures are a decent approximation. All 13-inch and 15-inch models offer similar real-world battery life and are, as Apple’s ads say, capable of surfing the web for about seven hours.

Just one word of caution – battery life will take a tumble if the optional discrete graphics chip found in the 15-inch Pro is engaged to power a game or high-definition video. Depending on your usage, this could result in lower real-world battery life.

Performance

Both the MacBook Air and Pro use Intel Core processors, but the type used is far different. The Air relies on what Intel used to call an “ultra-low voltage” chip. On paper, this is a huge difference – the 13-inch Air has a 1.8 GHz standard processor while the basic 13-inch Pro comes with a 2.5 GHz processor.

But in real-world reviews, the 13-inch Pro doesn’t destroy the Air. It’s a bit quicker in most tasks, but if you didn’t compare them side-by-side, you’d probably never notice. How can this be? It has to do with the Turbo Boost feature offered by Intel’s processors. This allows the Air’s low-voltage processor to nearly match the clock speed of the Pro’s standard processor.

The 15-inch Pro comes with a quad-core that can give its smaller brethren a thrashing. Under the right conditions, the 15-inch Pro is up to 75% quicker than other MacBook models. However, this only matters for users who run demanding software optimized for multiple cores. Users who stick to web-browsing and light productivity won’t see much difference.

Gamers will also want the 15-inch Pro because it’s the only model with optional discrete graphics. Then again – why are you gaming on a MacBook?

Display Quality

The vanilla Pro offers Apple’s least attractive display with the 13-inch model offering a resolution of 1280×800 and the 15-inch model using 1440×900.  The Air, by comparison, provides 1366×768 in the 11.6-inch and 1440×900 in the 13-inch, which translates to higher pixel density and a sharper image. Color accuracy and contrast is fairly uniform throughout the Air and vanilla Pro models.

Apple’s Retina technology is, of course, the way to go if you value quality. The 13-inch Pro w/Retina has a resolution of 2560×1600 while the 15-inch model offers 2880×1800. That’s a pixel density of 227 and 220, respectively, second only to the Chromebook Pixel. Color accuracy and contrast values are great, as well. The only downside is cost, as you’ll have to spend at least $1,499 for the 13-inch and $2,199 for the 15-inch.

Ports

Apple’s vanilla Pro, the thickest laptop it sells, offers two USB 3.0, Thunderbolt, FireWire, Ethernet, a card reader and audio-0ut. The 15-inch model also include audio-in. Slimming down to the Retina (pictured above) means ditching Ethernet. However, Apple throws in another Thunderbolt port and HDMI, which seems like a good deal. Both Pro models are competitive with PC laptops of similar size.

The Air, however, suffers a port shortage. Both the 11.6″ and 13-inch models offer just two USB 3.0 ports, Thunderbolt and a headphone jack. The 11-incher even ditches the card reader. That could prove an annoyance for anyone with a digital camera (Apple probably hopes you’ll just snap pictures with your iPhone instead).

Conclusion

So, we’ve now covered all the important points. What’s the verdict?

My pick for the best overall MacBook is easily the 13-inch Retina. When you drop the extra $300 for this model you’re not just getting the great display. You’re also getting a very thin and light laptop with excellent build quality and great battery life. If you can afford the 13-inch Pro w/Retina there’s no reason to consider the Air or vanilla Pro (except for aesthetics).

If you’re on a tighter budget the 13-inch Air is probably your best choice. This model offers a better display than the 13-inch vanilla Pro, is much lighter, and just slightly lags in performance. You should only buy the vanilla 13-inch Pro if you need extra connectivity, an optical drive or a large hard drive.

I don’t recommend the 11.6″ Air because it has just sixty-four gigabytes of standard hard drive space and only five hours of battery life. You can fix the storage issue by upgrading, but at that point you may as well buy the Air. Maybe you think you need an 11.6″ laptop; believe me, you don’t. The 13-inch Air is easy to take anywhere you might travel.

If you’re looking for power, the 15-inch Pro is the obvious pick, because it’s the only model available with a quad-core processor. But do you go with the vanilla or Retina? That’s a hard choice because the size and weight benefits of the Retina design matter less to buyers of large laptops. As a result, I think you should buy for the display and display alone; if you want it, buy it. If not, don’t.

The post Which Is Best, A MacBook Air Or MacBook Pro? Both Models Compared Side-By-Side appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Many Mac users won’t admit it, but there are some pretty nice features in Windows – particularly Windows 7 and later. Maximizing apps in a way that isn’t seemingly random, resizing your windows by dragging them to a particular side or easily hiding notification icons are just a few things Microsoft’s brought to the desktop that Apple hasn’t got around to (yet?)

Don’t panic, though – third party apps bring all these and more of Windows’ best features to OS X. You just need to know where to look to bring the best of Windows to your Mac.

Actually Maximize Windows

As in Windows, OS X offers three buttons on every window. One button closes the window; another minimizes the window. So far, so good.

The problem is the right-most green button, the purpose of which is completely unclear to many former Windows users. Sometimes it causes a window to take up all vertical space, sometimes it restores a window to its previous size, and sometimes it does nothing at all. Seriously, I just pressed the button on Chrome. Nothing happened.

This is confusing to Windows users, who are used to the same button making a window grow to take up the entire screen or shrink back to a previous size – no ambiguity. Do you wish you could change this?

Well, good news - Right Zoom makes the maximize button in OS X behave as in Windows. So if the mystery of the maximize button bothers you, consider it solved.

Snap Windows Into Place

It’s probably the best unsung feature in newer versions of Windows – drag a window to top of the screen and it will be instantly maximized – drag a window to the side of the screen and it will take exactly half the screen. It sounds confusing, but a combination of wireframes and animations makes it all make sense.

If you want this on your Mac, check out iSnap. This free app allows you to resize windows in this way, or by using keyboard shortcuts.

Hide Notification Icons

Oh notification icons! You’re occasionally useful but overwhelming in aggregate. Windows users have for a long time been able to quickly hide icons they don’t want to see constantly, all without losing access when necessary – it’s all easily configured. OS X offers nothing like this, meaning if you constantly use a lot of apps that use the notification area, your menu bar is almost certainly a mess.

You don’t have to live like this - Bartender for Mac can clean up your act. Sure, it’s not free, but if the clutter above your workspace is driving you nuts this is your only choice.

Alt-Tab

In Windows pressing “Alt” and “Tab” takes you from one window to another – regardless of which program is offering that window. So if you’ve got three Chrome windows open while also editing five pictures in The Gimp, you can switch between every one of those individual windows quickly using one shortcut.

The equivalent shortcut for Mac – command and tab – switches between programs. This means you can’t use it to switch from one Window in Firefox to another. There’s a (sort of) solution to this: Command and ` (the button above Tab). This shortcut switches between all open windows in your current app.

It’s not perfect, sure, but it’s something – you can switch to your preferred app and then switch to the window that you like.

App Previews

It’s been part of Windows for years – hover your mouse over the icon of an active program and you’ll see a preview of any open windows. Some programs will even offer controls – play, pause and skip for media programs, for example.

Hyperdock brings this functionality to OS X, along with a lot more. Check it out if you’re at all interested.

Lock Your Screen

It’s quick to lock your screen in Windows – just press the Windows key and L. Mac users can map a corner to lock the screen, but those who prefer a keyboard shortcut are out of luck.

Unless, of course, you install QuickLock. This simple app gives you a custom lock screen you can activate with a keyboard shortcut.

The Worst Feature Works Too – Full Screen Apps

Windows 8 brought the feature absolutely no one was asking for to the PC – full screen, single purpose apps. It’s called “Modern”, because to Microsoft on-screen multitasking is apparently a relic akin to horse drawn carriages and manually churned butter.

Well, Apple offers a similar feature – and actually did years before Microsoft. It’s called full screen mode – introduced with Lion – but instead of every app from Evernote to Office needing to offer two completely different interfaces, Apple simply allows any app to work in full screen. Some programs have unique full-screen interfaces, others simply grow to take up the entire screen. This is similar to Metro in that it sucks, and you’ll rarely use it once you realize you don’t have to.

What’s that? You want a screen filled with animated boxes that represent apps and distract you? You’re lying, shut up. Though I guess you could access the launchpad, a collection of icons for people who want their computer to turn into a phone:

No one really uses this though, do they? No. No one. Move along people.

Or just let me know more Windows features you’d like to see in OS X using the comments below. I might help you out.

The post A Perfect Operating System? Getting Windows Style Features In OS X appeared first on MakeUseOf.

For what it does, Keyboard Maestro for Mac is modestly priced, and in my experience very reliable. Keyboard Maestro is similar to Automator in which you set up macros to perform tasks and steps that you perform manually. For example, almost any steps you take – to launch, hide, or quit applications; open folders and files; download webpages; input copied text; rate iTunes songs; email a family member; copy or paste a URL – can be done faster by Keyboard Maestro.

What It Can Do

If you’re new to Mac automation, Keyboard Maestro (KM) is made for you. You don’t have to know coding in order to build automations. You just need to take a little time to set up automations that mirror what you do manually, and from there Keyboard Maestro will perform the steps for you.

Don’t let KM’s user interface scare you off. Granted, the UI looks very techie and a little complicated, but after you create a few simple workflows, you will see how easy it is to use.

The following is just a partial list of automatons I have KM perform:

• Automatically launches specified applications and webpages at specified days and time (see demo below).
• Hides or quits an application after it has been unused in the background for a specified period of time.
• Automatically inserts username and password after an application like Yahoo Messenger is opened.
• Opens any folder or file on your computer with a keyboard shortcut or when a specified application launches.
• Automatically activates specified menu items in applications (or you can assign keyboard shortcuts to menu items that don’t have a keyboard shortcut).
• Creates a new document when an application like TextEdit, MarsEdit, or Pages is launched.
• Creates a template email that includes specified address(s), subject line, and message.
• Selects and copies a URL in a browser window using a simple keyboard shortcut.
• Resizes a window of an application, such as iTunes, when it is opened or brought to the front.
• Executes Automator workflows and AppleScript scripts.
• Lowers, mutes, or increases the audio on your Mac when an application is brought to the front.
• Simulates keystrokes in nearly any application.

The above are some of the basic automation workflows KM can perform (see a list of more features on its website.) Depending upon your needs, it can do even more advanced or complex automations, especially when you use it with applications like the mouse and trackpad program, BetterTouchTool, or with the keyboard navigation application, Shortcat.

Sample Workflows

Though Keyboard Maestro includes a manual, a more user friendly guide could also be written for the program. The following is a simple single-step workflow for an action performed manually by all computer users. Download the fully functional trial version of KM and follow the steps in this 5 minute demo that shows you how to have KM launch and/or quit an assigned application(s) at a specified time and day.

Other Features

The key to using KM is to open and explore its list of several hundred Actions to see which ones fit your needs. Notice it includes actions for copying and pasting text, launching its built-in application switcher, displaying text, hiding a specific application, playing a specific iTunes track or playlist, searching a particular website, pressing a button, etc.

KM’s Record Quick Macro can record a set of actions you perform on your Mac, and you can use the results as a macro. Also, you can assign and group macros to perform only in specified applications. I have macros that only work when Safari is in the forefront. For example :

• I have a keyboard shortcut that will select and copy the URL of a webpage.
• I can type the assigned letters, “nx” and KM will play the next track in iTunes without switching to the application.
• If I want to close a Safari tab without using a keyboard shortcut, I can type “ccw.”

Note, with string triggers, the typed letters automatically activate the assigned macro and then disappear from where you typed them – all within a fraction of a second.

If you download and try out Keyboard Maestro for Mac, let us know what you think of it. You can also visit my Google+ Community page on Mac Automation tips for additional ideas about using Keyboard Maestro.

The post Automate Everything On Your Mac with Keyboard Maestro [Mac] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Viber for desktop is similar in function to Viber for mobile, and still activates using your mobile phone number. Once activated, Viber for desktop will automatically sync contacts from your mobile, and will keep your devices synced as you go. Viber for desktop and Viber for mobile were designed to work as extensions, and calls can be easily transferred from one device to another with a click or tap. Messages you receive on Viber are shown on all devices, but should only beep on the device you’re currently using.

As mentioned above, Viber’s mobile apps were not left out either, and both iOS and Android versions received a significant facelift, with Viber for Android now featuring Google’s Holo interface, and both apps getting video messages, new stickers, a better photo experience, and more.

According to Viber, the service now has over 200 million users across its various platforms (Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Nokia, Bada, and now Windows and Mac), and this move to desktop might put them in a position to combat some of the bigger players in the field, such as Skype.

To try out Viber for desktop, or the new mobile versions, head over to viber.com.

Is this a good move from Viber? Will it convince you to give the app a try?

Source: Viber PR

The post Viber Launches Desktop App For Windows & Mac, Redesigns Mobile Apps [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Hazel is an automation program that essentially goes into action when files are added or changes are made to designated folders. Automator includes similar functionality, but Hazel is much easier to use and faster on the draw. I have Hazel rules that automatically open new applications added to my Applications folder, change the file size of screenshots, automatically clear off files on my desktop after a certain period of time, and move PDF files in my Downloads folder to a designated folder in my Dropbox account (more about Dropbox here.)

Hazel costs $25, but you can download it for a free 14-day trial to discover just how useful it can be.

How It Works

Hazel basically watches folders that you assign rules to. So, for example, you could set up a rule in which Hazel automatically opens PDF documents, or any files, when they are downloaded or added to your Downloads folder. Once you set up the rule, and it works correctly, you don’t have to do anything else to Hazel in order for it to perform actions. Hazel gets installed in your System Preferences, but you can choose to interact with it from your menu bar.

The best way to learn what Hazel can do is to download the trial version and try out some of the rules described in this article. Hazel comes loaded with a few sample rules, but you will better understand what it can do by creating your own rule first.

Let’s start off by having it perform an action on your Downloads folder. On the left side of the Hazel interface, click on the + button at the bottom, and in the drop-down window navigate to and select your Downloads folder. Next, click on the + button under Rules, and set up the conditions as I have done in the screenshot below.

Click OK. If you already have PDF documents in your Downloads folder, Hazel will automatically run the rule and open them. Otherwise, locate a PDF on your computer or download one from our MUO Guides page and add it to your Downloads folder. Keep in mind, Hazel will automatically run a rule assigned to your Downloads folder. However, you can temporarily stop Hazel from running by clicking on its icon in your menu bar.

Rules & Conditions

The heaviest amount of work done in Hazel is setting up rules and conditions, and testing them out. Any time Hazel detects changes to designated folders that it monitors, it will run the rules you set up for those folders, so be careful how you apply the rules. When setting up a rule, you will first want to determine if you want to apply the rule to “all”, “any”, or “none”of a designated types of files or matching folders.

Note, rules can also be applied to sub-folders and files.

Next, you want to think about what type of files or conditions you want Hazel to monitor and act on. Hazel includes dozens of conditions to choose from, based on the type of things that we normally do on our computer. You may, for example, set up rules to act upon files added to a designated folder in the last hour or day, or when last modified or opened.

Your rule(s) may apply to only certain kinds of files, e.g. Movie, Image, Application, or Text files. This means, for example, that if you set up a rule for your Downloads folder to only apply to PDFs, then Hazel will ignore other kinds of files added to that folder.

Of course, you can click on the + button and add additional conditions for your rule. For example, since the Desktop is really a large folder, I have a Hazel rule that moves any files on my desktop that have been there more than three hours to a designated Junk Folder.

As you can see in the screenshot below, I also added another condition in which Hazel will ignore any file with the name “hold”.

I also have two similar rules – one set up that will change the dimension size of PNG files that are either greater than 580 pixels in width or height.

The second part of any Hazel rule is have it perform a certain action or set of actions. As you can see in the screenshot below, Hazel can perform the type of actions we normally do manually, including moving, copying, renaming, opening, or revealing designated files in the Finder.

For example, you might set up a rule that watches your Public folder for any new files added in the last five minutes.

I set up another Hazel rule that moves all PDFs added to my Downloads folder to a designated folder in my Dropbox account. I use this rule because I typically read PDFs on my iPad in which I access and open them from the designated Dropbox folder.

I have another rule that sets the color label of individual applications in my Applications folder, red, if they have not been opened in the last 465 days. I activate this rule only when I want to select and delete applications I have not used in a long time.

And to quickly remove the red color labels, I of course, set up another rule to do just that. Again, I only activate this when I need it.

The best way to get the most out of Hazel or any automation program is to think about actions that you perform manually on a regular basis. If you give this some thought, those redundant actions can typically be done for you by programs like Hazel, Automator, or another one of my favorite programs, Keyboard Maestro.

Let me know what you think of Hazel and how you use it to manage tasks on Mac.

The post Hazel – Performing Tasks On Your Mac So You Don’t Have To appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Don’t get me wrong. Not all file-sharing is cumbersome. Online file sharing sites help you move large data quickly and efficiently between computers half a world apart, as evident by Yaara’s compilation of the 6 quickest ways to share any file with anyone. In another article, Jackson showed how to set up a network share on your Mac to move data locally. However, none of these really fit the bill if you want to move small files locally and sporadically.

How often have you sent an email to yourself, simply to move a picture or document between computers? Often, the only obvious alternative is clear overkill, like setting up a temporary FTP server on your jailbroken iPad. For these kind of scenarios – moving small files quickly and efficiently – Mac OS X’s own AirDrop is the ideal tool for the job. Although AirDrop is a Mac OS X exclusive, meaning Windows computers and mobile devices are left out, applications similar to AirDrop allow you to share between those devices as well.

What Is AirDrop & How Do You Use It?

AirDrop was introduced with Mac OS X 10.7, Lion. Joining the other favorites in the Finder sidebar, this little chute allows you to easily share files locally between Mac’s, without prior set-up required. Simply click on the sidebar’s AirDrop icon to get started. Your Finder window transforms to a radar view, with your own user icon front and center.

Any user going into AirDrop joins this view, and is able to see the other AirDrop users. Sharing a file is now as easy as dragging it onto another user’s icon. As soon as the user accepts, the file starts transferring. This works for files of all sizes. Large movie files can be shared this way, but AirDrop can also be used to share small files almost instantly. You know, those files you’d usually email to yourself.

AirDrop Alternatives – Adding Compatibility

Although AirDrop works like a charm, there’s one problem that’s hard to miss. Being designed specifically for Mac OS X, it offers no help in transferring files between your other devices. Moving documents from Windows to Mac computers, for example, or sharing pictures between your phone and your computer.

It’s a good thing AirDrop appears to have inspired other developers. Third-party applications are implementing the same intuitive mechanism, adding compatibility with other devices. We’ll view two of these third-party AirDrop alternatives below. In time, both plan to offer compatibility with most other systems. Until then, one offers an additional Windows client, the other adding an iOS app to the mix.

Filedrop (Mac + Windows)

Filedrop works much like Airdrop, with the addition of a Windows client. The main difference is that, rather than residing in your Finder sidebar, Filedrop is a standalone application. Launching Filedrop shows a pop-up on your screen. Similar to Airdrop, if someone else opens Filedrop as well, they’ll become visible in the pop-up. From there on, you can share files between computers – also between a Mac and a Windows computer – by dragging and dropping them on the other user’s warning.

A note of warning. Rather than displaying your user icon, Filedrop users are marked by their wallpaper, as evident in the screenshot below. This is no problem for people like me, who think grass is pretty. However, if you’re more partial to ‘spicy’ or mature wallpapers, you should think twice before firing up Filedrop.

The makers of Filedrop have big plans ahead. An iOS and Android client are scheduled to join their Mac OS X and Windows counterparts ‘soon’. You can sign up to be notified on Filedrop’s website. Apart from sharing files to and from your mobile devices, these clients will add other, less Airdrop-y features. Once available, the mobile apps will let you stream a photo slideshow or music to your computer, or even use your cellphone as a wireless USB stick.

Instashare (Mac + iOS)

Another free alternative to Airdrop comes courtesy of Twomanshow. Instashare currently offers a Mac OS X and iOS client. The iOS app can be used on your iPhone and on your iPad. Although the iOS app is free, there are some ads, which can be removed by a one-time payment of $0.99.

Like the other applications covered in the article so far, different clients using Instashare are visible to one another. This way, you can share files to and from your iOS device, or between two Macs, through the magic of drag-and-drop. You can access your device’s photo roll through Instashare and select multiple pictures before sharing, making it incredibly easy and fast to wirelessly share pictures to a foreign computer.

Alas, because of the way iOS is designed, you can only share other files if you explicitly open them in Instashare. Most filetypes are supported, but this still means you’ll have to find an ‘open in…’ button elsewhere on your device. Luckily, iOS file manager iFile does wonders for jailbroken devices.

On the computer’s end, Instashare makes itself at home in your Mac menu bar. A useful Instashare feature lets you mark a device as trusted by selecting Always Allow on an incoming transfer prompt. This lets you download files to your computer wirelessly without having to accept them manually. However, doing this carelessly is not good for security.

How do you usually move files between devices? Share your experiences in the comments below the article!

The post Share Files Easily Between Computers With AirDrop & Two Similar Applications [Mac] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

The beta period of the application will run until May 31st, so if you’re interested, you have exactly one month to sink your  teeth into the podcast client before the final release hits the market. The final release will not be free, so if you want to enjoy it without paying, now is the time.

Many of the features you  know and love from the iOS version of the app are included in the Mac app. You can subscribe to many popular podcasts (including my own, The Technophila Podcast), directly from within the application. Any podcast not featured within the app’s search field can be imported manually using its feed URL.

Like most good podcast managers, new episodes of your subscribed shows will be downloaded automatically once posted. Your shows are presented in a slick, easy to navigate layout, so you can get down to listening to your favorite podcasts without unnecessary fluff.

Another cool feature for users of the iOS app is the ability to sync podcasts between your devices with the creation of an Instacast account. This makes it easy to listen at home and keep going when you have to venture out into the world. Users who really enjoy the app during the beta period can purchase it for $14.99, which is still lower than the official launch price of next month.

As this is a beta, if you see any bugs, it’s helpful to report them so the creators can make the app run as smoothly as possible. Grab Instacast Beta for Mac from the Instacast website.

Source: Instacast Blog

The post Popular Podcast Client Instacast Launches Beta Version For Mac [Updates] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Instead, you could switch to your computer, or a media center hooked up to your TV. But if you want to enjoy the content from your iPhone or iPad, there’s a third option. You could display the image of your iOS device to your television set. This instantly makes any TV into a smart TV, allowing for Hulu, Netflix, and even apps that do not have a desktop alternative.

There are a number of ways to hook up your iOS device to the television screen; both wired and wireless.

1. Use A Video Adapter

The simplest solution to get your iPhone’s or iPad’s video to show on your television screen is to use a hardware adapter. Apple, and other third-party hardware manufacturers, provide adapters to convert Apple’s proprietary 30-pin, or the new Lightning Connector connector to another type of video plug.

Check the back of your television set, or its manual to find out which types of plugs are supported and read Video Cables Explained: Difference between VGA, DVI & HDMI to learn more about the differences between these video connectors.

Once you’ve found the right connection, likely HDMI or RCA, check out your local hardware store or the online Apple Store to find a connector. You can try online marketplaces like eBay too and save a big part of the money, but there’s no guarantee the connector will be recognised by your iOS device.

All generation iOS devices support Video Out, which is a framework that lets an app explicitly output video to connected AV adapters. You can expect Video Out to work with most video and photo apps, but it probably won’t be incorporated into your mail or calendar application.

Later generation iOS devices (iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and later devices) also support Video Mirroring. Here, you can mirror your entire iPhone or iPad screen to your television set, unless the app explicitly uses the video out feature to show a different image configuration.

View this Apple Support article for more compatibility information.

(Cydia) DisplayOut

Apple’s limiting of video mirroring is 80% marketing move. If you’ve jailbroken you’re device, you can use the $2.99 Cydia app DisplayOut to introduce the video mirroring functionality to all iPhones and iPads, regardless of generation and connector type (although, admittedly, HDMI adapters work better than component or composite cables).

Cydia is available through the BigBoss repo. This repo should have been added to Cydia by default. If nothing shows up on your search results, you can still add the BigBoss repo through Manage -> Sources -> More Package Sources.

(Cydia) Resupported 4.0+

Another Cydia tweak that’ll help you with your video output is Resupported 4.0+. As mentioned earlier on, not all AV adaptor cables are recognised by every iOS device. For example, iPod cables or usually unsupported by iPhones and iPads, even if the connector is essentially the same. Although Resupported 4.0+ provides no guarantee, it all but says to make every iOS AV cable supported again.

This functionality is available for $3.99 through the Cydia store, which is a lot less than you’ll save buying an “unsupported” AV connector. Better yet, you can try the product for free, for ten full days.

If you haven’t already jailbroken your iPhone or iPad, these two apps might be sufficient reason to do so. Read MakeUseOf’s guide, How To Jailbreak Your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad by Lachlan Roy, to get started.

2. Stream Over AirPlay To The Apple TV

If you have an Apple TV at home, this process gets a lot less convoluted. Instead of fumbling around with AV connectors, you can simply stream your iPhone or iPad’s image to the Apple TV. The third generation of Apple even supports 1080p video! If that doesn’t tell mean much to you, read our write-up on display resolutions.

Supported applications, like Apple’s own Video app, or in fact any web video, will show an AirPlay icon when there’s an Apple TV connected to your local network. Pressing the AirPlay icon and selecting your Apple TV will start wirelessly streaming your screen. Learn more about AirPlay from What’s AirPlay, And How To Use It In Mac OS X Mountain Lion.

If you want to mirror your iOS device’s screen from unsupported apps, there’s usually not much you can do. However, if you’ve jailbroken your device, the Cydia DisplayOut app discussed above also lets you mirror your device’s screen to the Apple TV on iOS 5+.

3. Stream Over AirPlay To Your Computer

Mirroring your iPhone or iPad’s screen to your television set might be a new obstacle, but chances are you’ve already found a way to connect your computer to your TV. In fact, most laptop nowadays come with HDMI ports, as do most new TV’s. This makes hooking up your computer to your TV easier than ever before.

If you’ve already connected your computer to your TV, you could simply project your iOS device’s screen to your computer and get the same results. This adds an additional device in the chain, but it may keep you from needlessly buying additional hardware.

AirServer transforms your Mac or PC into an AirPlay receiver. Instead of shelling out over a hundred bucks to purchase an Apple TV, you can purchase AirServer for $14.99 to transform your computer into one. With AirServer installed, you can stream video from your iPad to your computer, full-screen. In fact, you can even mirror multiple devices side-by-side!

How do you go about mirroring iOS to your television set? Do you prefer cables or wireless? Let us know in the comments section below the article!

Image credit: Television via Shutterstock

The post How To Mirror The iPhone Or iPad To Your TV [iOS] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Though there is no robot application (yet!) that can do all the work for me, the following are 10 of the most useful free or low-cost productivity apps that I use on a daily or regular basis. These applications not only save me time but in many cases help me work more efficiently.

Fantastical

It’s difficult to work in any home-based office and not need a useful calendar. Though OS X comes installed with a default Calendar application, the third-party option, Fantastical ($19.99) is hands down the best calendar you should run on your Mac.

With Fantastical, you can input and check calendar events and schedules right from your Mac’s menu bar. You can create a new event simply by opening Fantastical’s drop-down window and entering the data for the event. Instead of clicking numbers and times, you simply write the event as if you were writing it on a scratch sheet of paper.

For example, to schedule a lunch meeting for next Wednesday, simply type: “Lunch with Bakari next wed, 11:30am, at Fresh Choice.” As you type, you watch Fantastical fill in all the data for you.

You can preset the type of reminders you want for calendar events. Fantastical syncs with Apple’s Calendar application, but there’s also an iPhone version ($8.99) of Fantastical that works the same way. By having Fantastical in your menu bar, you don’t have to open the Calendar app just to add or review a few events.

Super Memory Cleaner

If you find that your Mac slows down throughout the day or when you have several applications open, you should download Super Memory Cleaner (free). It does a great job of cleaning up hundreds of megabytes, or even gigabytes, of memory with one simple click. You can select to have it auto-clean, or clean at startup.

Desktop Wallpapers

If you meet clients in your home office, and/or you like your office to have professional décor, your desktop wallpaper should be just as classy as your iMac or Macbook computer. My wallpaper of choice is a collection produced by Vlad Studio.

These free wallpapers are designed by digital artist, Vlad Gerasimov, and you can download them for nearly any size desktop monitor. I recommend selecting and downloading a few dozens of your favorites and simply have your Mac change the pictures everyday, or each time you wake up your Mac. I find that these unique wallpapers add a little inspiration to my daily workflow.

Caffeine

There are occasions when you need to keep your Mac desktop or laptop awake when you’re doing a presentation, or playing a video while multitasking in another part of your office. This is where Caffeine (free) comes in. When you enable it, it keeps your Mac from going to sleep until you cut if off. Jackson reviewed this application when it was first released back in 2008.

Wunderlist

There are no shortage of to-do applications for the Mac, but if you’re still looking for one, you should give Wunderlist (free) a try. Dave reviewed the iOS mobile version of Wunderlist, but the desktop version contains a similar user interface.

Wunderlist is a clean, well designed cross-platform program where you can mange and sync all of your to-do lists. You can also share and collaborate lists with your colleagues. If you don’t need a task manager with lots of bells and whistles, Wunderlist can be very useful in your workflow.

FunctionFlip

FunctionFlip (free/donation) is a Preferences utility that allows you to customize those Fn keys at the top of your keyboard that you might rarely use. For instance, while I constantly use the assigned volume keys, I hardly ever use the brightness, iTunes, Exposé and Launchpad Fn keys on my iMac.

So with FunctionFlip, I can turn off those functions and assign them another purpose using applications like Keyboard Maestro or QuickSilver.

Trello

Another useful task and project manager is an online and mobile application called Trello. It’s sort of like a whiteboard for sorting ideas, lists of tasks, and project workflows. You can share your “whiteboards” with others, and view them in any web browser or the iOS version (free) of of the application and service. Erez reviewed Trello in more detail here.

Launchpad Manager

If you have amassed a lot of applications on your Mac, you have probably experienced how difficult it is to use Launchpad to access all of your applications. The Launchpad feature in Lion and Mountain Lion is not very useful if you don’t have your applications organized alphabetically or in folders. This is where Launchpad Manager ($7.99) comes in.

Launchpad Manager includes over a dozen features, including the ability to alphabetize applications, delete icons from Launchpad without uninstalling the applications themselves, and move selected applications to another Launchpad page. You can easily move applications into groups, rename icons and groups, and quickly cut and paste applications from one folder to another. You can use custom layouts of your Launchpad for different purposes.

You can download a free version of Launchpad Manager, but many of its advanced features are only available in the paid pro version.

Dropzone

Dropzone ($9.99) is a nifty little application that enables you to perform various tasks from the menu bar or from the left or right side of your desktop screen. For example, say you download a new application that is delivered to you in a DMG file. You can drag that DMG file to Dropzone and drop it on the Install Application action, and it will proceed to automatically open and install that application, and then delete the DMG file for you.

You can create another action that sends files to a pre-selected folder. There’s actions for quickly printing a file or converting a long URL to a bit.ly short URL. You can download a 15-day trial of the application, which I recommend. Spend some time with it, and check out the user contributed actions for Dropzone.

If you find more than five actions that will enable you to be more productive, then it may be worth paying for the application, which you should download from the Mac App Store.

Time Out

One of the ways to be more productive in your Mac-based home office is to actually take breaks from your Mac. Time Out (free) will remind you to take “normal”, say 10 minute breaks, and “micro” breaks, like 10 seconds every 30 minutes, based on the time intervals you set.

When I don’t use this application, I end up working at my computer for hours before I take a break. Not taking a break causes a strain on my eyes, and by the afternoon I’m less productive. You can postpone or skip breaks, but doing so too often will defeat the purpose.

That’s it for my Mac-based home office applications. Let us know which productivity apps for Mac that you find most useful in your workflow.

The post 10 Productivity Apps For Your Mac-Based Home Office appeared first on MakeUseOf.

To use Alfred workflows, you must have the PowerPack purchased for $25; the basic Alfred functionality is and always will be free, but these advanced features cost money. Given the amount of time and keystrokes it saves me in the long run, I have absolutely no qualms about recommending you upgrade too – some things deserve to be paid for, and this is one of them.

In this article, I won’t be addressing the technicalities of coding your own Alfred workflows, though I will mention how I adjusted these favourites of mine.

Should I Watch This Movie?

Included with the PowerPack, Should I Watch This Movie workflow can be found under the examples folder when you click the +. It’s actually one of my favourites too though – finding a movie I want to know more about, navigating to RottenTomatoes to check out the ratings, and YouTube for a trailer – and this simplifies that whole process.

However, I did make one modification – instead of using the default search action on YouTube, I used a custom URL of http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query={query}+trailer in order to only get trailers and not just random clips from a movie.

If you’d rather just trust Rotten Tomatoes for your information, check out….

TomatoTomato

This lets you search and displays results inline, along with ripe red tomatoes and squished green ones depending on the user score. Also uses the “movie” keyword, but you can of course run both these movie workflows at the same time. Results will take a few seconds to appear depending on your Internet speed – like all web based workflows listed here.

Weather

Ok, you could just type “weather” in Google, but this will save you from opening a new browser tab.

Be sure to set your location first using the keyword “weather {location}” and “weatherunit {celsius}”. Then type “forecast” for a 4-day breakdown. Simple, effective, and always raining in England no matter which site I use to check.

Kill

When you have 12GB of RAM, you don’t tend to care that much about the number of open browser tabs or applications. Which is especially useful if you’re both a technology writer and a recovering Windows users who still can’t quite get the concept of closing a window not being the same thing as closing an application. Very occasionally though, something will run away and cripple my machine. In those cases, finding and opening up the Task Monitor is quite laborious.

This Alfred workflow makes it easy. Just type “kill” and the name of the offender. You can also just use this as a text based way to close down an application of course, though this really isn’t recommended since it’s the equivalent of force quitting. Still, a nifty function to have around.

Play

A couple of times a day, I have an insatiable desire to hear a particular song; this makes that easy. Note, iTunes will need to be running for this to work. Type play, a few characters of the song or more, and presto.

Lyric Search

I wasn’t entirely truthful in that last paragraph. I actually have to sing karaoke, not just hear the song. This workflow adds the keyword lrc (which I’ve changed to sing), and allows you to either download, copy to clipboard, or display onscreen via keystroke modifiers, once lyrics are found for the currently playing song.

Now if someone could combine this with the iTunes plugin above, James would be a very happy boy, able to belt out Meat Loaf hits pretty much non-stop.

PirateBay

Everyone’s favourite way to download Linux! This helpful workflow lets you search directly for Linux distros that are hosted on PirateBay (“pb”), or top torrents in each category (“ptop”), as well as copying the magnet link to the clipboard on completion. You can probably use it for downloading other things too, but I wouldn’t know anything about that.

Another bonus to using this is that it doesn’t matter if the PirateBay is blocked in your country, since it uses a third party API through Appify. Superb.

Password Generator

Generating strong passwords is something I do a lot, and usually involves searching for a web generator, tweaking the defaults and then copying out the result. With this handy workflow, all I need to do is type “pwgen” and the number of characters I want. It’s then output as a notification and saved to the clipboard. Small, but handy.

Reddit

A strange juxtaposition perhaps, with a tool designed for super-productivity, and a site designed to waste your life away. But nonetheless, for a quick Reddit fix, this is a useful workflow. Unfortunately, it’s not that effective for pictures, since it doesn’t display inline and you’ll still need to click through to the Imgur URL – hopefully someone will streamline this to be even more useful in future.

Need more? Very well – here’s the Alfred Workflow List (beta), and the Share Your Workflow forum.

To be honest, I’ve been blown away by the power of Alfred v2. It was already an essential app, now it’s just amazing. Alfred Workflows have brought the power of Automator to anyone, and then some (but if you’d rather use Automator, we have a great guide to get you started). Being able to edit the functionality of workflows to suit your own needs is also really nice – they aren’t just plugins where you get what you’re given!

How about you? What are your favourite workflows? Don’t forget to include a link.

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