One to watch: Gruml
When it comes to free newsreaders for the Mac, there are really only two that matter: the ad-supported NetNewsWire and Vienna. But these days it’s becoming common for people to access the news from several devices: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, laptop, computer at home, computer at work — and on it goes.
That’s why the ability to sync with Google Reader gives NetNewsWire a distinct advantage. Vienna is a great app that equals NetNewsWire in many ways, but its inability to sync between devices is a serious shortcoming.
One solution would be to use one of half-a-dozen Safari extensions available to enhance Google Reader, and be done with the desktop. I can’t quite bring myself to go this route — it just seems awkward — so I was pleased to find that development of Gruml continues apace.
This Google Reader for the Mac has been in beta for at least a year, and as such has been free for some time. The interface is similar to what you’re likely used to in NetNewsWire or Vienna. Feeds are listed on a sidebar to the left, headlines are in a top panel to the right, and articles are shown below right. (In fact, some of the widgets used in Gruml are identical to those used in Vienna.)
While still rough around the edges, Gruml makes a valiant attempt to outdo its competitors. In addition to starring or flagging an item, you can also “like” it, although the difference may be too nuanced for some users. Much more interesting is the ability to tweet an article. Just click the tweet button and you can post to Twitter with a headline that can be edited.
You can also send articles to a host of other social sites ranging from Buzz to Tumblr, or dash it off in an email. In my testing, all of these services appeared to work fine. You can also post to your blog with helper apps such as MarsEdit.
NetNewsWire offers some of these abilities, but the lack of a Twitter function is a glaring omission if you consider its popularity.
Documentation for Gruml is skimpy at this point, so it’s not clear how some features work. For example, I’m not sure what to make of sections for “People you follow” and “Recommended items.”
Gruml holds much promise, and I look forward to the day when all the bugs are worked out. Meanwhile, it’s quite usable as-is if you’re attracted to the extra features and you’re willing to overlook its flaws. Also, and this is a big one for some people, there are no ads.
Posted Tuesday, August 31, 2010 in Reviews
One to watch: Babble
With all the Twitter clients out there, it’s hard to find one that stands out from the crowd — even if you narrow it down to freeware. So it was nice to come across Babble, a program that combines feeds from both Twitter and Facebook.
The interface is similar to what you’re likely used to in apps such as Tweetie. The big difference is that there is a separate tab for Facebook. In our tests, we found that Twitter worked as expected with all the usual features. What’s nice is that if you double-click your way into another timeline, it shows up as a new tab.
The stumbling block was the Facebook tab. We were able to gain access to the thriftmac account without any trouble, but nothing showed up in the timeline. Babble is still in beta, so bugs are expected. On the other hand, Facebook doesn’t exactly have a sterling reputation, so it could be a problem at their end.
Babble is at version 0.9.60, and if it remains free would be a great alternative to apps such as Socialite that combine social networks in one place.
Posted Thursday, August 26, 2010 in Reviews
Introducing Elmedia Player — and a giveaway
SWF & FLV Player for Mac was already a good option for playing Flash movies, but Eltima Software has cranked it up a notch and transformed it into Elmedia Player.
The free version has a slick all-in-one interface that supports the playback of Flash and other video formats such as Real video, Silverlight, AVI, MOV, MP4 and WMV. It really is nice to have all this functionality in a player that looks right at home on a Mac. You can also keep your videos organized in an iTunes-style library.
The handiest thing about Elmedia Player is the ability to use it for downloading movies. Just browse to the site you want to download from. This feature is only available in the pro version, which would normally set you back $19.95. But once again Eltima insists on giving stuff away.
Leave a comment below describing what you like about Elmedia Player — or a suggestion on how it could be improved — and we’ll send you a pro licence. Just be sure to fill in your email address so we can get hold of you. It will be kept private.
UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who took part in the giveaway. We’ll pick the best comments and send out licences. Comments are now closed.
Posted Wednesday, August 4, 2010 in Reviews
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&mdash 18 so far
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SWF & FLV Player giveaway
Steve Jobs may be ready to dance on Flash’s grave, but there are still plenty of Mac users who enjoy movies in SWF and FLV formats. If you’re one of them, SWF & FLV Player is a solid choice.
In addition to plain old viewing, this program allows you to fast-forward and rewind frame by frame, manage playlists, zoom in and out, and browse websites for Flash movies. These are all great advantages over simply clicking and watching.
And that’s just the free version. If you upgrade to Pro, you can download the video to your hard drive, get the external resources for SWF files, view movies in full-screen mode, and convert Flash movies into a series of images. Then you can really dissect a movie.
Normally an upgrade to Pro costs $19.95, but Eltima Software is offering free licences to thriftmac readers. To get one, I would like you to help flesh out this review with some real-life examples of how SWF & FLV Player can be used.
Download the free version, check it out, and leave a comment. Don’t be afraid of being critical — Eltima wants to know what you really think. We’ll give free licences for the Pro version to the three commenters we feel did a good job of describing how they use SWF & FLV Player.
If you would like a licence, be sure to leave your email address — it won’t be published, but we’ll have it on file so we can send the licence.
Posted Wednesday, June 9, 2010 in Reviews
A no-frills way to keep track of your stuff
It’s been more than a year since last we looked at the Hunter suite of apps used for cataloging books, DVDs and games.
Progress has been steady, and the programs have now edged past version 1.0. While they are nowhere near as feature-filled as the likes of Delicious Library, the three Hunters clearly suffice for basic needs.
The interface is reminiscent of iTunes, with the ability to create folders for lists and smart lists in a sidebar to the left. Clicking on them reveals the contents to the right. Clicking on a list item in turn reveals details below.
A separate window lets you create list items by getting started with just a bit of info — for example, a book title. You can the click on an Autocomplete button that fetches the rest of the data for you from one of half a dozen Amazon stores, plus a couple of others. The system performs efficiently. You get, at the very least, the title, genre, author, publisher languages, ISBN, a summary and a picture of the cover.
A companion app called Hunter Touch allows you to synch your data with an iPod touch or iPhone. Plus, there is a helpful tutorial page to get you started.
As we said before, if you needs are basic, the Hunter apps will do quite nicely. Our only real gripe is that they exist as a suite. If the bunch of them could be combined into one, we’d be happy as clams.
Posted Monday, May 10, 2010 in Reviews
Miro struggles for relevance
A major update to Miro promises, among other things, big improvements to speed, so I though I’d give this feed reader and viewer for videos another try.
As an open source project, Miro has been in development for a few years now, starting off with the unfortunate name Democracy Player. It has since matured quite nicely to the point where it has an attractive and easy-to-use interface along with — as promised —plenty of snap.
I subscribed to the feed for The Onion, and in no time had a list of a dozen or so episodes to choose from. They loaded quickly and I was able to waste many happy minutes watching them.
Encouraged by this, I decided to explore some of Miro’s other offerings. The Miro guide presents a tabbed screen of new shows, popular shows, HD shows and genres. Miro betrays its open source roots with the popular shows section being topped by such gems as GimpKnowHow, Ubunter and Linux Journal — you can’t get much more niche than that.
Mousing over icons for individual shows produces popups with details about them. In my testing, this feature was a bit buggy. Sometimes a popup for the wrong show would come up, and there didn’t seem to be an easy way to dismiss it.
Despite this niggle, I found there were plenty of shows to explore by going through the various genres. I came to the realization, though, that many of these programs are, well, podcasts. So I checked out the iTunes Store and sure enough there were the same Onion videos that could be watched within iTunes or subscribed to for later viewing.
But Miro aspires to be more. For example, you can use it to search for and download legal torrents. The emphasis, though, is on legal — you won’t find any Hollywood movies the way you would with Vuze, which downloads and displays videos of all types. (Vuze also allows for subscriptions, by the way, but doesn’t offer anything in the way of a program guide like the one in Miro.)
Should this be considered a limitation? That’s up to your conscience and the laws of the land in which you live.
In short, Miro is a good app — good at what it does. But it still seems in search of a purpose that extends into the mainstream.
Posted Friday, March 26, 2010 in Reviews
Mac becomes Mc
Back in February 2006, when thriftmac was first getting its feet wet, I chose some of the best free Mac apps I could find to get things rolling. Among them was MacSolitaire.
It was — and is — clean, crisp and easy to use. There’s nothing fancy about it, but it works exactly as you would expect — perhaps “standard” would be the best way to describe it. Four years later, which is like 20 years in computer time, I can still recommend it as a good solid way to pass the time playing Klondike.
So what’s changed? The developer, PCV, has come out with McSolitaire 2. At first I thought my eyes were deceiving me. Surely, the “a” between the “M” and the “c” was left out inadvertently. But no. The original MacSolitaire and the newly released McSolitaire are listed as two different apps.
So of course I couldn’t resist comparing the two.
McSolitaire 2’s main claim to fame is the ability to go full screen with the click of a button. This feature only works, though, if buy the iPhone version, which somehow unlocks it on your Mac. (I tried this, but couldn’t make it work. You may have better luck.)
Other than that, the differences between the two are scant. If anything, the original has a few more preferences. For example, you can opt to double-click to move the cards.
Also, the graphics in the free version of the new McSolitaire 2 are not as sharp, likely because they have not scaled down well from the the full-screen option. And the thicker black lines around the cards are unwieldy.
Compare the MacSolitaire Jack of Hearts with the McSolitaire 2 King of Hearts:
Overall, McSolitaire 2 is a disappointment. Unless you really need full-screen, you’re better off sticking with the tried and true MacSolitaire. And while you’re at it, give PCV’s Double a try — it’s a nice implementation of the classic Shanghai-style game.
After years of giving away freeware, PCV is trying to make a bit of money, and who can blame anyone from trying to make a living. Let’s just hope he’s able to iron out the wrinkles in his offerings.
Update: That didn’t take long. McSolitaire 2.1 is now out with a larger default size for the free version. This significantly improves the graphics.
Behold:
Posted Friday, March 5, 2010 in Reviews
DaisyDisk vs. DiskRing
Last fall, I downloaded a free version of DaisyDisk as part of a MacHeist promotion. It creates a graphical representation of the contents of a folder of your choosing — sort of like a pie chart with concentric bands for each level of data, with the top level in the middle and lower levels expanding outward.
Confusing? Have a look at a sample:
At the right of the graph — not shown in the screenshot — is a colour-coded list of what each section represents. For example, the yellow-orange section close to the middle represents a project, and outward from it are sections representing folders for documents and images associated with the project. You can hover over them to get details such as the location of the folder and its main contents.
But what, you may be asking, has a $19.95 program got to do with freeware? Via the suggestion box, we received a tip about the open source DiskRing, which does much the same thing as DaisyDisk. Have a look at the graph it created of the same folders:
It looks familiar, yet somehow different. The main difference is in the use of colours. DiskDaisy attempts to use shadings of the same colour to represent a folder and its sub-folders. It’s easy to see, for example, that the yellow-oranges go together in a single hierarchy.
On the other hand, DiskRing’s approach to colours seems almost random. If there is a method to it, I couldn’t find it. Still, though, you can puzzle it out by hovering and observing the spatial relationships of the sections.
Another difference is the reported sizes of the folders. Each program lists folder sizes, but — strangely — they don’t agree. DaisyDisk says the main folder shown in the screenshots is 71.3 MB, while DiskRing says it is 68 MB. So who is right? I went to Get Info as the final arbiter, and DaisyDisk was the winner.
We love freeware here at thriftmac, and our sincere thanks go to the developers who make it possible, but in this case the free alternative doesn’t measure up. Keep an eye on DiskRing, though — it could become a contender.
Posted Thursday, February 25, 2010 in Reviews
GIMP vs. Photoshop
Is GIMP just as good as Photoshop? I tried both on a single task to see how they compared. But why even bother with GIMP in the first place? Money, of course.
The last I checked, you could get Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended for the Mac for $162.50 on eBay. There were still nine hours of bidding left, so the price likely went up before it was finally sold.
This is not a bad deal, and you could probably find others. The fact remains, though, that if you want Photoshop, it’s going to be pricey at best.
Since we’re all about freeware here at thriftmac, the alternative is GIMP. Its name is an acronym that stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, but when pronounced out loud, the word becomes derogatory. Think lame.
Unfortunately, if you’ve had experience with Photoshop (or pretty much any Mac program), your first impression of GIMP will indeed be of something lame. The palettes have cheesy icons and roughly hewn fields and widgets. And you have to use Windows-esque menus attached to the windows with yet more crude icons.
But they say you can’t judge a book by its cover, so let’s move on.
The main area of GIMP presents you with a window and a message urging you to drag a file in to open it. I tried to drag a png graphic from the desktop several times without any luck. But opening it from the menu was no problem, so we’ll let that one pass.
Since the graphic was quite small, my first thought was to zoom in with a keyboard shortcut. With Photoshop you do this with Command+. With GIMP, you simply use + and – to zoom in and out. It’s not quite that simple, though, because to get at the plus-sign on a keyboard, you have to press shift. The minus-sign doesn’t require this. It’s a bit confusing, but not unprecedented.
Next I needed the colour picker. GIMP has a tool that looks a lot like the one in Photoshop and worked as expected. If you’re using the pencil or paintbrush, you can hold down the Control key to invoke the picker. (In Photoshop, use the option key.)
Switching to various tools in the palette is an odd experience. For example, if you want the pencil, and the window where you’re working is highlighted, a single click won’t do. First you must click on the tool palette to highlight it, then you must click again to choose the pencil. There’s none of this in Photoshop (or any other Mac program that I know of), so you’ll have to get used to it.
Next, of course, I had to choose what size I wanted for the pencil. There’s a bunch of presets, or you can type in the number you want. But honestly, the widget for the presets is so poorly done, it will make your eyes hurt. See below:
I soldiered on, finished my work and this is what I got — the little arrow you see here and beside the “Download Site” links throughout thriftmac.
So is GIMP as good as Photoshop? No. But if you can’t afford to take part in the bidding at eBay, it’ll do the job. Perhaps the best thing about GIMP is that it is similar enough to Photoshop that you can use it as training for when you have enough cash to take the next step.
Posted Wednesday, January 20, 2010 in Reviews
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&mdash 10 so far
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Alpha Alert: TotalFinder
Mac users have long dreamed of the day when Apple would grant their wish of Finder windows with tabs.
How much simpler life would be: instead of windows proliferating as your work progresses, you just stick to the one window with multiple tabs and switch between them. How much more usable Finder would be: it could be pressed into service just like other Mac programs with one-stop shopping.
Many hoped such a thing would arrive with Leopard. But no. With Snow Leopard? No new features really did mean no new features.
Developers have stepped into the breach, though, and one of the results is Path Finder — a killer app that does an amazing makeover of Finder for $39.95. Tabs similar to those found in Safari are but one of its plethora of features.
Seem like overkill? Then how about TotalFinder? Its developer, Antonin Hildebrand, has been toiling in the obscurity of alpha for some time now, but has suddenly found himself cast into the full light of day with the addition of tabs.
He was able to do this thanks to the Chromium codebase, made available when Google came out with its tabbed web browser, Chrome. And, as you may have guessed, the Finder tabs in TotalFinder are just like the ones in Chrome.
It really is a treat to use. Once Chrome for Mac comes out of beta, I may start using it full-time because I like the tabs so much. And to have them in Finder as well would double the pleasure.
Before you rush into a TotalFinder installation, there are a few things you should know. First, it’s alpha. That’s not even as good as beta, which can be dicey. Second, it installs a plug-in called SIMBL, which by itself may be harmless, but may lead to problems down the road if you upgrade your operating system. Third, Hildebrand intends to eventually charge a fee, although there is nothing on the site at this point to indicate how much.
The good news is that uninstallers for both SIMBL and TotalFinder are included, so if you get cold feet, you can make a quick exit.
Of course, the best way to get this tab thing on the road would be for Apple to do it. In the meantime, let TotalFinder show you how your dreams could become reality.
Posted Friday, January 15, 2010 in Reviews
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