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Another VMware Fusion 2 and Parallels Desktop Comparison

ryan — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:58:44 +0000

Another good VMware Fusion 2 vs Parallels Desktop 4 comparison. Via Web Worker Daily.

Edit in TextMate in Leopard

ryan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:25:31 +0000

The “Edit in TextMate” feature (part of the TextMate TextMate bundle) lets you call upon TextMate to edit text fields in other applications. However, following the instructions in the TextMate bundle was not working. It turns out this is due to a change in how Leopard handles Input Managers. Here are the steps you need to take to enable the “Edit in TextMate” feature in Leopard.

VMware Fusion 2 vs. Parallels Desktop 4

ryan — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:01:57 +0000

Nice comparison of the newly released Parallels Desktop 4 and VMware Fusion 2. via theAppleBlog.

Much Needed Evernote Update

ryan — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:57:02 +0000

Evernote 1.1.6 for Mac is available via a software update and brings some much needed capabilities for note editing. The following formatting options are now (finally) available in the Evernote note editor:

Unordered and Ordered lists
Ability to add hyperlinks
Tables
Horizontal rules (hr)

The lack of the above was really frustrating in previous versions of Evernote. There are several other updates in this release. See the full release notes on MacUpdate here.

List of Essential Mac Applications

ryan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:44:34 +0000

So, after about a year of using a Mac as my primary computer, I decided to share the list of applications I consider essential on OSX. This is not a comprehensive list of every application I have installed; it only includes the ones it would be really tough to deal without. What are your essential applications?

Essential Mac Applications

Essential Applications – Quicksilver

ryan — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:49:22 +0000

Besides VMWare Fusion and Parallels, Quicksilver was probably the foremost application that got me interested in buying a Mac. I kept hearing great things about it from many different sources. I have always been a big command line user and prefer using the keyboard as much as possible so any application that helps minimize mouse usage is extremely compelling to me. On Windows, I have tried a variety of keyboard launchers – SlickRun, ActiveWords*, Dash Command, etc. SlickRun is what I settled on due to its light weight and price (free). It is a great application and I still use it in my Windows virtual machines. However, it is not really functionally equivalent to Quicksilver.

In my opinion, using Quicksilver simply as an application launcher is worth the download. However, it really is capable of a lot more. I won’t attempt to summarize what it can do as other people have already done so better than I can. When I first started with Quicksilver, I used this as a primer. It does a great job of covering some of the basic things you can do with it and whets your appetite for some of the advanced things you can accomplish.

I have been using Quicksilver since the first day I received my Mac and it is absolutely indispensable. I never use the Dock or Finder to launch applications – a few keystrokes in Quicksilver handles all. I can use Quicksilver to check the currently playing track on iTunes, to rate songs, to add an item to my todo list, and many other things. And, I know that I have actually not even scratched the surface. I have not explored features like Triggers yet and have only tried a small set of the plugins that are available. I highly recommend Quicksilver. I have read a lot of people are initially intimidated by it but I encourage you to try it even if you only use it as an application launcher initially.

* To be fair, ActiveWords is a lot more than an application launcher and is a great product.

Essential Applications – Growl

ryan — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:11:03 +0000

Growl is a notification system. It provides a consistent framework that various applications can use for notification purposes. For example, Adium leverages Growl for its notifications. Plugins can be created for applications that don’t directly support Growl. GrowlTunes, for instances, can be used to show notifications for the currently playing item in iTunes. There are several notification displays to choose from and Growl can be configured to show different displays for different applications. Having a single notification framework is great for the user as there is one central place where notifications can be configured. Windows needs something like this. In fact, this type of framework should be a fundamental feature of both Windows and OS X. I will cover how I use Growl in different ways in future posts.

Essential Applications – Adium

ryan — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:03:03 +0000

Adium is a free cross-protocol instant messaging application. It supports AIM, MSN, GTalk, Jabber, and others. It has all the features you would expect in an IM application and a great, customizable interface. There are also a ton of extras you can download to customize it even further. If you are like me, the first thing you will do is change the silly duck dock icon (see right). Note that Adium also ships with Growl, another Essential Application.