Filed under: Macintosh

There's something about the idea of multiple screens surrounding me with green Matrix glyphs running down them that really appeals to me. When I'm sitting at work, I've got three screens in front of me -- one for my Windows PC, and two for my Mac laptop that is my primary machine.

When I'm not using them, I use Matrix screensavers to create the Matrix effect, but if you ask me, that's not really good enough. What I really wanted was to have that same Matrix effect persist even when the screensaver is not active; I want it to be like an active desktop, of sorts.

While there are several ways to achieve this effect on Windows, the options are much slimmer if you happen to run Mac OS X. After a bit of looking, I found one called Wallsaver that works well.

Wallsaver is a utility that can embed most screensavers on your desktop, and they even offer a compatible Matrix-themed screensaver that works very well with Wallsaver. Wallsaver's primary function is to switch between embedded screensaver mode and normal desktop wallpaper mode. Once you perform the switch, you can close the application, and the effect persists.

Depending on the screensaver you choose and the number of screens you are running, there will be a bit of a performance hit on your system, but in my case, it's not enough to be noticeable. As usual with this kind of thing, your mileage may vary.

With the launch of the Mac and Windows versions, what we'll probably see is Skype as part of other desktop apps. One notable exception is "adult" apps, which Skype has explicitly refused to endorse with the "Plugged Into Skype" label. You can sign up as a developer and get started with SkypeKit for a cool 20 U.S. dollars at developer.skype.com. I can't wait to see what apps come out of this.

uTorrent, one of the most popular torrent apps for Windows, is getting a stable release for Mac today. According to the uTorrent blog, it's been a years-long road toward a Mac client that has nearly achieved feature parity with its Windows counterpart. All of the protocol enhancements that make uTorrent fast are part of this Mac release, including (and this is straight off the blog, so I don't leave anything out) D HT, PEX, Protocol Encryption and the new uTP transport.

uTorrent looks like it might give Transmission a serious run for its money as the best Mac-ready torrent client. Both are lightweight and focused on speed, which makes them a lot more useful than some of the torrent bloatware out there (I'm looking at you, Vuze!).

And that uTP transport thing? That's the protocol which helps us get around ISP traffic throttling by dynamically giving you the best speeds possible based on network conditions, and it yields to your regular TCP traffic (think web browsing) so that running torrents won't cripple the rest of your online activities. Although it's somewhat controversial, many people in the torrent community see it as a very good thing.

Remember Smultron? The no-frills Mac text editor with the distinctive strawberry icon got left behind when Snow Leopard was released, and (as Lifehacker notes) everyone thought it was a goner. Well, fret not, because Fraise is here to pick up where Smultron left off. Same lightweight text-editing abilities, same strawberry-themed icon, same free price.

Fraise has the snippets and color-coding that coders rely on, along with a beefed-up find and replace feature. Also, if you needed a language that Smultron just didn't have, you'll be glad to know that Fraise also adds more localizations. It's a worthy successor to Smultron, and it's right up there with other powerful free options like Textwrangler.

You might not notice many of the changes unless you're a BT guru, but you'll certainly notice the speed improvements. Transmission is now smarter about the order in which it connects to peers, better at optimizing the number of connections so you get the best speeds for your bandwidth, and doesn't take as long to verify local data when you resume a download. It also fully supports magnet links. Basically, you want this update.

For Mac users -- and maybe this was just a pet peeve of mine -- Resume All no longer restarts your already-finished transfers. I know it's a small thing, but it was really bugging me, and I'm glad the team of volunteers working on Transmission are paying such careful attention to details.

In case you're not sold yet, here's the full list of changes in Transmission 2.00.

[via TorrentFreak]

Because Download Squad is always* super-relevant and topical when it comes to sports coverage, here's another app that lets you show your virtual support for your favorite World Cup team. Fun Booth 2 is like a souped-up version of the Photo Booth app for Mac, and it now includes all kinds of World Cup props that you can add to your photos.

Adding team-colored beanies, jerseys, and more to your pics is Fun Booth's trendiest feature, but it's got other tricks that make it worth a look even after the World Cup. Fun Booth has a library of other props, and it uses facial recognition to make them fit your photo perfectly. It also lets you drag and drop your own props or draw on your photos. There are even some limited photo editing capabilities, like adjusting brightness/contrast and saturation. The full version of Fun Booth 2 is US $19.99, but there's also a free trial edition that you can download to see if it's something you want to keep around.


*for very, very small values of "always."

Now, we've previously covered extensions for both Chrome and Safari 5 that stop Tynt from ruining your copy/paste party, but if you've got administrative rights to whatever computer you're currently using, you can put a stop to more than that. You can block services like Tynt -- or even entire ad networks -- once and for all with nothing more than a text editor and admin rights.

All you have to do to block ads, Tynt, or even Facebook from ever bothering you again is to add their hostnames to your computer's hosts file. The best thing about this is that you can do it whether you're using a Windows PC, Mac, or Linux. They've all got hosts files, and power-users have been using them for years to speed up browsing or block ad networks. As an example of using the hosts file as a system-wide ad-blocker, check out this list of ad network hostnames that's ready to be pasted in.

For the purposes of this short guide, we're going to use Tynt as our target service to block. Remember, you can use this method to block anything. Simply apply the steps used here to put the kibosh on whatever other services or sites you choose.

If you're unfamiliar with Tynt, it basically appends an "attribution" link to any text copied off of a page that uses it. The usual user-response when this happens is an audible cursing of the site using it and a quick deletion of the added link.

While the site owners who use Tynt tend to claim they're doing it to ensure proper attribution, it's actually more about getting exposure and linkbacks. Anybody who's come across this annoyance can attest to the fact that it's not making anything proper or easy for the person doing the copying -- and contrary to the beliefs of the ultra-paranoid, a user shouldn't be branded a thief and plagiarist just for copying and pasting text.

One of the major draws of Chrome is that it runs in a sandbox, making it one of the most secure ways you can browse the Web today. The catch is that people have to use Chrome to gain that extra measure of security, and let's face facts here -- Chrome and Chromium only hold a fraction of the market share that Firefox has earned over the years.

Thankfully, Firefox users on OS X now have the option of using IronFox, which is simply a shell-script wrapper which starts Firefox in its very own sandbox. The only catches are that you must be running OS X 10.6 and Firefox 3.6 or newer. It's not a bad deal, considering all you're really doing is opening the Firefox you already use with a different icon.

IronFox creators say that while it only functions on Snow Leopard at the moment, that they do plan on a backport for Leopard sometime in the near future (when they find the time to work on it). Tiger users won't be able to take advantage of this since the kernel in 10.4 isn't built to handle it. (Sorry folks)

(IronFox via OS News)

Aside from Tumblr's oft-broken web interface, there are some reasons that you may be looking for a desktop app to handle your tumbling. If that's the case for you, myTumblr is at least worth checking out -- it's free to try, and could be well worth the $14.99 price tag if you're a serious Tumblr user.

myTumblr more or less acts as a direct replacement for the Tumblr Dashboard. It does have some nice perks in addition to that, though: it allows for multiple accounts and fast switching between them all, auto-refresh of the follow-feed, drag and drop for multimedia posts, and built-in FTP.

The drag and drop feature is definitely nice, but to beef it up some basic image-editing options (which might be the biggest feature for many Tumblr users) have been added to the app. You can also simply provide a source URL for an image on the web, and sending your post to Twitter is as easy as a ticking a checkbox.

Adobe just released the finished version of Adobe AIR 2, its cross-platform framework for apps. That means developers on Windows, Mac and Linux can deploy their AIR 2 apps today.

For users, this means new versions of the AIR apps you love are probably coming very soon... That's assuming that you love any AIR apps at all. AIR is notorious for its instability and memory-hogging, but AIR 2 should go a long way toward fixing that.

We've covered the features of AIR 2 before, but they're worth repeating here. AIR apps can now access files on external mass storage devices, and they support dragging-and-dropping files, multitouch gestures, microphones and more. On top of that, there are the all-important fixes for memory use (apps will use up to 30% less memory now!) that should lead to much better performance. Will they be as fast as native apps? Almost certainly not, but it should be faster than it was, and crash less often.

If you're a developer looking to get your hands on the AIR 2 SDK, it will be part of Adobe CS5 and also available as a standalone download on June 15th.

If you are among the fortunate souls who run a Mac with a dual monitor setup, you'll want to check out SecondBar. Normally, you'd be stuck with the OS X menubar on just one monitor, forcing you to move your mouse back to your main screen whenever you want to access it. SecondBar solves that problem by putting a second menu bar on your other monitor.

SecondBar has a few weaknesses -- it's Snow Leopard-only, and it doesn't copy your extra menubar apps onto the second bar. It does give you access to the Apple Menu and the menubar for the active application, though, which can be extremely useful. it also has keyboard shortcuts to resize and reposition windows to one half of the screen, in case you need to view documents side by side on that second monitor.

Oh, and SecondBar is also completely free. Probably good, considering how pricey those delicious Apple Cinema Displays are.

Deleting an app in Mac OS X is sometimes as simple as dragging it to the trash, but more often than not, there are associated files and preferences scattered around your hard drive. When you want to delete an app the right way, without leaving behind those pesky related files, give TrashMe a shot. It's a free app deleter from JibApps that's compatible with OS X 10. Snow Leopard.

I've tried (and liked) AppZapper and other alternatives, but there are some things that TrashMe seems to do better. For instance, when I did a side by side comparison, TrashMe caught more related files. It also doesn't require you to drag-and-drop apps to delete them (although you can if you want to), and it lets you look for apps outside the applications folder. I'm not saying there aren't other file deleters, but I definitely like what I see from TrashMe. The price is right, too.

[via Free Download a Day]

With the announcement of WebM, the big-deal new open media format for the web, the average user was probably wondering, "How the heck do I convert my videos to this new format?" The popular cross-platform media player and converter Miro has an answer to that question. Miro Video Converter is claiming the title of first VP8 / WebM video converter app.

Miro Video Converter 2.0 also includes some other big improvements over the older version. Audio and video quality have been improved, and more formats have been added. There's support for iPad-optimized video, and you can send Apple-formatted videos directly to iTunes when they're done converting.

[via NewTeeVee]

Mac gaming comrades, the day is upon us! Valve's awesome Steam gaming service has arrived on OS X, allowing Mac game junkies to finally play titles like Portal without running Boot Camp or setting up a Windows partition. You can grab the Mac client from steampowered.com and start downloading games right away.

Steam's Mac library is kicking off with Valve's own Portal -- available for free until May 24th! -- Sid Meier's Civilization IV, and Runic Games' highly-acclaimed Torchlight. More titles will be added each week, including Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. Also, Portal 2 will launch simultaneously on the Mac and PC versions of Steam. Beyond that, the selection of upcoming games is only speculation at this point.

I'm a longtime fan of Fluid, a Mac app that lets you easily set up site-specific browsers for your favorite webapp. In fact, I like it so much that I posted 10 web apps that work amazingly well as Fluid SSBs. Fluid may have just become even cooler, though, because developer Todd Ditchendorf has released all of the code for Fluid and announced that it's going entirely open source.

If you're a developer, you can grab the code on GitHub and have at it.

I'm excited to see what comes out of this, especially in terms of Finder integration to make Fluid browsers behave even more like desktop apps. Our newest member of the DLS team, Matthew Rogers, pointed out that Fluid is a straightforward enough app that open source might not make a difference.

What do you think, readers? Is there anything you'd like to see added to Fluid?