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Attention Mac Freeware & Shareware Authors (and anybody else who likes independent software)

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 | Author: OWC Chris S.
  • Globe-SharewareAre you an small/independent software developer with a high-quality piece of software that may be interesting to the average Mac user?
  • Is this software free or inexpensive (<$50)?
  • Would you like to expose that piece of software to potentially hundreds of thousands of users who might not normally get to see it, at no cost to you?

If you answered “yes” to all the above questions, we’ve got an offer for you.

When we talk about our OWC and Newer Technology Storage solutions, we usually talk about the high-quality drive mechanisms we use, the bundled utility software, the fact we include all the cables, and the overall value of the units. These are all great selling points, but there’s one other little “extra” that often goes unmentioned.

On every storage solution we send out, there’s over 2GB of Mac freeware, shareware, software updates, Apple Commercials, and other goodies. We do this for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, it serves as a test to ensure that the Storage Solution is transferring data properly – being able to transfer a larger than 2GB file is a pretty efficient test for the drive. Secondly, it allows Mac users who have a slow or no Internet access to update their system software with the major updates. Finally, it offers a number of useful free or inexpensive tools and utilities that some users may not hear about or try otherwise.

It’s this last option that you may be interested in.

Right now, we’re updating our Shareware Collection for the new year, and we’re actively searching out new and interesting pieces of software to add to the mix.

If you’re a freeware/shareware author and you want to add your project to the collection, let us know. Simply reply to this message with the URL of the software’s description page and an email address where we can reach you (don’t worry, we won’t make those comments live, so you won’t get spammed). We’ll take a look at your software, and if we like it (as long as it’s functional and inexpensive/free, you’re 90% of the way there), we’ll contact you to let you know you’ve made the cut.

Everybody wins with this one: you get free distribution of your software to potential customers, the end user gets to see a new piece of software they may not have seen before, and we get the satisfaction of supporting independent software developers and, by extension, the Mac community as a whole.

How’s that for a gift-wrapped exposure opportunity?

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Category: OWC Difference, Product Spotlight, Random Thoughts & Topics
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Freeware Friday

Friday, August 14th, 2009 | Author: OWC Chris S.

It’s been a while since I’ve lobbed some free software your way. Since we don’t have an installation video this week, I figured this was an optimal time to talk about a couple of pieces of Freeware I’ve recently come across that you might find interesting.

Cameras_iconSmile for the Cameras!

This is an awesome concept for a piece of software. Normally, whenever you plug in a camera, Image Capture automatically opens your image editor of choice. As with most people, this works well for me, as all I do is plug in my camera, iPhoto opens, and I can import my pictures.

Unfortunately, this setup breaks down a bit when you also have an iPhone, which is also seen as a camera. This can become inconvenient in some cases. If you have an Aperture library of several thousand pictures (this is not unreasonable – I know multiple people that have libraries this large), you don’t want it launching every time you connect your iPhone.

This is where Cameras comes in. This free preference pane recognizes each camera-enabled device you attach to your computer, and sets custom system behaviors for each one. You can set it so your DSLR can open Aperture while your point-and-shoot brings up iPhoto and your iPhone does nothing at all. It’s one of those things that should have been built into the system in the first place.

I’ll admit that I haven’t had a chance to use this software to its best ability, simply because I don’t have an iPhone and only one digital camera. However, as I said before, this is an amazingly great concept and those around the OWC offices that are using it have reported no problems, so I’m passing along the information to you.

Let’s get Geeky!

GeekTool_iconFor the most part, I’m not too keen on using the command line; I’m more of a “graphical” thinker and a terrible typist to boot. There are, however, some things, such as relocating your Home folder, that are just plain easier and/or faster to do in the Terminal.

There are also a number of different command-line tools that provide useful information. The problem with using these tools is they require me to keep one or more Terminal windows open, which is hardly convenient when I have several other programs open at once.

I came across Geek Tool a while back, and liked that it could display all sorts of Terminal results on my desktop, but found it was too difficult to get anything to work the way I wanted it to. With its latest incarnation, though, things have gotten a lot easier to use. I now use it to display a monthly calendar (using an adjustment of the cal command), my upcoming iCal events (using the free command-line tool, iCalBuddy), and a couple other bits of information, such as internal/external IP addresses, uptime,  and a log file or two.

Geek Tool is definitely not for everybody; it is best utilized by folks with a lot of experience with Linux tools. For those who can use it, though, this can be a helpful way to monitor your system.

OWC has no affiliation with this software and receives no benefit related to this support (other than a benefit we all share in the continued support of these applications). If you appreciate the function or functionality this software offers, we encourage you to support the authors.
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Category: Random Thoughts & Topics
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Grrr, baby, grrr…

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 | Author: OWC Chris S.

One of the Main problems with multitasking is that sometimes you miss an important notification, which grinds things to a halt. Sure, you can arrange all your windows so that they’re all viewable, but unless you have a pair of 30-inch displays, that method gets cluttered very fast. However, there’s another great little utility that works quite well.

Growl is a system extension that keeps an eye on your applications and notifies you of important updates with an unobtrusive window.

Many popular programs are supported by Growl, including perennial favorites like Toast, Firefox, Adium, and  StuffIt Expander. There are also add-ons that add notifications for Safari, Mail, iChat, iTunes, iCal, and a host of others. There’s even a command-line tool to allow you Terminal jockeys out there to add Growl notifications to your shell scripts.

At first, I resisted installing this notification system. Then, I actually started using it. Now, I get notifications as soon as files are done downloading, when I get emails or instant messages, and various other bits of information that are happening that I should know about, but am not actively monitoring.
Has really made my work flow more efficient, and it may do the same for yours.

You can find Growl at the author’s Web site, or in the “System Enhancements” folder of the Shareware collection included with every OWC and Newer Technology Storage Solution.

OWC has no affiliation with this software and receives no benefit related to this support (other than a benefit we all share in the continued support of these applications). If you appreciate the function or functionality this software offers, we encourage you to support the authors.
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Category: Tech Tips
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See what’s going on “behind the scenes” on your Mac.

Monday, February 23rd, 2009 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Have you ever wondered how all the resources in your Mac are being used? I know I have. At any given point in the day, I’ll usually have a number of things going at once: Software downloads, graphic processing, file transfers, et cetera. Keeping track of processor, memory, network and hard drive use is important if you want to get the most performance out of your Mac.

There’s a number of ways to keep track of these sorts of things. You could simply open up Activity Monitor, and leave that running. The downside to that method is that Activity Monitor’s window is rather bulky, and that’s where the majority of the information will be. There are also various command-line tools you can run in Terminal which will provide quite a bit of information. However, unless you are comfortable mucking about in Terminal (which I generally don’t care to do), it isn’t very convenient.

However, for at-a-glance information regarding my system resources, there’s been a utility I’ve used on various machines since 2003: MenuMeters.

As the name would imply, MenuMeters puts a number of easy to read graphs or meters in your Menu Bar that give you vital specifics about memory, network, processor and disk usage. Its kind of like keeping an eye on the gauges in your car – they are only vaguely interesting when everything works fine, but when things are acting less-than-optimally, you can quickly see what’s going on.

If your Processor meter is showing 100% processor usage, then  perhaps you’re trying to do too much at once. If your Network gauge is peaking, then you know you’re dowloading/uploading to the greates capactity allowed by your network setup. If your RAM gauge is full and your Disk Activity gauge is blinking rapidly, your computer is using your hard drive for Virtual Memory, and you probably need to buy some more RAM.

MenuMeters is a wonderful utility if you want to keep up with what’s happening on your Mac. Being freeware, its price is right, and you’re not out anything if you decide you don’t like it.

You can find MenuMeters at the author’s Web site, or in the “System Enhancements” folder of the Shareware collection included with every OWC and Newer Technology Storage Solution.

OWC has no affiliation with this software and receives no benefit related to this support (other than a benefit we all share in the continued support of these applications). If you appreciate the function or functionality this software offers, we encourage you to support the authors.
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Category: Tech Tips
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