Silverback basically turns your Mac into a full-featured usability testing station. Add a new project, add some users, and have them come sit down and test out your interface. Silverback hangs out unobtrusively in the background, capturing video of the the entire screen, including a cute (and useful) effect that marks where your tester is clicking. This in itself would be handy, but Silverback also takes advantage of your built-in iSight camera to include a picture-in-picture of the tester's reactions, on top of the screen capture.

This way, you can see everything the user is doing in real time, and they can speak comments aloud as they come up, rather than pausing to write them down. Usability testing the old-fashioned way generally involves expensive setups and lots of instructions, but Silverback is intuitive to use and provides straightforward and informative results. Silverback is currently in private beta, so some testers can test its testing functions (this makes our heads hurt a little bit.)

Flow has been in the works since the days of OS X Tiger, but the freshly released version takes things up a notch with a slick UI and a feature set that takes advantage of the power of Leopard. Flow is an FTP client, a text editor with a useful live preview feature, and a bookmark generator for drag-and-drop uploading. Add tabbed navigation and phenomenal ease-of-use, and it's got everything we want out of a new Leopard app,

Flow does have some neat extras, but first and foremost, it's an FTP client. When we tested it, it smoothly handled multiple connections to FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, and even the often-criticized .mac service. The only thing we would have changed about the interface: a "recent connections" button or menu item would be nice. The bookmark button in Flow is easy to find, but sometimes we just forget to use it. Speaking of bookmarks, Flow has a unique feature that lets you save any bookmark as a droplet - a tiny app that quickly uploads anything you drop on it, without even opening Flow itself.

Once you've got some files on the server, Flow really sets itself apart from other FTP apps. You can edit your html and css files on the fly, and watch the results in a live preview. This is amazingly powerful, and saves a lot of time when you just need to make a quick change. Forgot to close an html tag? Don't bother uploading a new copy of the file, just edit it in Flow! It even supports Quick Look, so you can preview images right on the server.

We recently previewed the new Evernote clients -- for web, mobile and Mac -- and now we've got even more details about what's in the works for this popular cross-platform capture tool. Evernote's CEO, Phil Libin, talked to Download Squad about Evernote's expanding catalog of features. The biggest news is today's launch of a desktop client for Mac. We also have 2000 invitations to the beta to share with Download Squad readers, so make sure you read this whole post to get yours!

Libin says the Mac client has been improved a lot even in the short time since demo videos were released on the Evernote website. We were already impressed with how nicely Evernote played with Apple's Photo Booth -- snap a picture of some kind of text, like a handwritten note or a business card, and Evernote will be able to recognize it and make it searchable. Libin says that, although Photo Booth works well for this, Evernote also has direct support for Apple's built-in iSight cameras.

As with the Windows client, all the memories you save in the Mac version can be automatically synced to your phone, your Evernote web account, and your other computers. This opens the door for some creative use cases: Libin says he gets around his poor sense of direction by saving his trip itineraries and Google Maps before he leaves the house. Another staff member took pictures of his prescription medications, so he could remember what they looked like and make the labels searchable. The Download Squad team down at SXSW could no doubt have used Evernote for another neat trick: taking pictures of people you meet at conventions -- Evernote will search the text on their nametags!

When popular Mac RSS reader NetNewsWire started offering the full version of its software for free, there was plenty of speculation that its competitors would follow suit. Not too surprisingly, NewsFire, another top player in the OS X newsreader market, is now free too. Its features are competitive with those offered by NetNewsWire, and it's UI is arguably the best out there.

Despite having a great product, it's probably a good thing that David Watanabe is now releasing NewsFire for free. Last year, we reported on the woes of the product registration system for Newsfire -- customers could activate the software with just an e-mail address, and they had some unfriendly communication with the developer when he thought they were using it on too many machines. Now that NewsFire is free, Watanabe can keep his product competitive with NetNewsWire without having to deal with the registration issue.

If you need a full-featured RSS reader, but you don't like the looks of NetNewsWire, you should definitely give NewsFire a shot. The price is right!

We've written before about Quicksilver, the indispensable launcher app that lets you quickly get to any file on your Mac with just a few keystrokes. Quicksilver is a nice-looking piece of software, but the default interface fits a lot better with the overall look of Tiger than it does with Leopard. Fortunately, German designer Julius Eckert has created some impressive new skins that are particularly well suited to the latest version of OS X.
Bezel HUD is a sleek, compact improvement on Quicksilver's built-in bezel interface. The translucent black look will be familiar to users of HUD-based applications like Twitterrific. Because the design is modeled on an element of Leopard itself, it feels like part of the operating system, which is exactly how Quicksilver is meant to feel.

Eckert has released a second interface called Showcase, built to take advantage of the larger icons in OS X 10.5. Although it takes up a huge amount of screen real estate compared to Bezel Hud, Showcase is perfect for showing off Quicksilver to the uninitiated. It displays your icons at their largest size and reflects them against a black backdrop, which is visually striking and makes it easy to see exactly what you're doing in Quicksilver.

We love the interface work Eckert has released so far, but we're even more excited about what's next. Eckert has posted screenshots and a demo video for SilverFlow, his upcoming Quicksilver UI based on OS X's Cover Flow feature. His sense of how Leopard apps ought to look is so impressive that it's hard to believe he just got his first Mac in December.

Have a decently equipped PC sitting in the corner of your room, gathering dust? Have you been dying to try OS X out?

It used to be that installing OS X on a "Hackintosh" (an Intel based PC running OS X) was an involved process that took hours and hours of hacking to get to work properly, sometimes with mixed results.

According to Lifehacker, you can now install Leopard on a cheap PC almost as easy as installing in an Apple device, sans the wicked command line hacking. Also, you can reportedly update your Leopard install without the fear of all your hard work falling down. It must be stated however, that installing OS X on a non-Apple product may be illegal, even if you have a legitimate installation disc. Proceed at your own risk.

The technique does not require a BIOS reflash, but just tweaking the BIOS settings to be friendly to the OS X install program. Next you download the DVD image and burn it to a DVD for use installing Leopard. We'd recommend actually buying Leopard if you're going to be using it for any amount of time. The final step involves booting the new DVD and running through the install process using the settings for your specific motherboard.

Have any experience with this install process and running OS X on a PC? We look forward to reading about them in the comments below.

[via Lifehacker]

Apple's Leopard operating system is about to get a hefty update. Version 10.5.2 was seeded to developers and according to AppleInsier the update will contain around 100 code fixes and enhancements.

The only specifics available on features being updated seem to be Time Machine backups and the handling of PDF documents, and image/mail attachments. Die-hard Leopard users are also hoping the new OS X update will address issues with Stacks desktop feature as many have reported numerous errors.

If you have been wanting to upgrade to Leopard but have been waiting for some of the major bugs to get worked out, 10.5.2 might be the release you've been waiting for. The update is quite sizable - weighing in at around 450 megabytes.

[via Engadget]

Haven't gotten around to using Automator for all of your mundane, joyless, repetitive tasks? Need to rename a large number of files with a large amount of hurry? BatchRename'em is the Mac utility for you.

As much as we cringe when an application uses "'em" in its name, BatchRename'em makes up for it with its simple effect. The application allows you to batch rename files and folders in a number of ways, including:

• Make Sequential
• Add Text
• Replace Text
• Change Case
• Add Date or Time

To get started, double-click the BatchRename'em icon. You'll be met with a finder window where you can choose any number of files simultaneously. After you've selected the files you wish to rename, a drop down menu is presented, and you can choose the rename function that suits you. Hit continue, and BatchRename'em goes about its business.

All in all, BatchRename'em is a quick, sparse tool, with a simple, easy to use interface that harnesses the built-in power of Automator without being too complex. BatchRename'em is a free download for Mac OS X, and is confirmed working on Tiger (it has yet to be tested on Leopard).

WebEx, one of the premier providers of web-conferencing software, has announced that their desktop sharing software is available for Apple's OS X operating system. PC users have long known the advantage that WebEx provides - being able to share desktops for online meetings, product presentations, and joint collaboration.

Just in time for MacWorld, WebEx has announced that they are expanding their product offering and going cross-platform. Using their new OS X client, you can easily conference PC-to-PC, PC-to-Mac, Mac-to-PC, or Mac-to-Mac. Enterprise users will be particularly fond of this added functionality.

To get started, head over to WebEx's Mac page and download the 30-day trial of WebEx PCNow. After installing the WebEx Mac client, you'll be connected to your home computer. Another great feature is the use of 128-bit encryption that is also firewall friendly. For those of you who want to keep an eye on the office or home, you can utilize Remote Webcam Streaming.

Head on over and give WebEx for OS X a shot.

There was once a rumor that said ZFS support would be included in Mac OS X Leopard. While the CEO of Sun (who you'd think might be in a better position than many to know) told an audience this is true, it turned out to be false. The geekiest of Mac geeks were disappointed to the greatest degree as their favorite operating system would not harness the benefits of the ZFS file system. However, the interesting thing about geeks is that if a company won't do something for them, they'll just figure it out themselves.

As a result, we are happy to present to you the ZFS project at Mac OS Forge. If you'd like to add ZFS support to your Mac, this is the place to go. The site's got everything from download links to FAQs and getting started tutorials. Keep in mind that adding ZFS support to your Mac is still experimental, so we recommend keeping this away from any machines with important data.

If the ZFS project ever matures to a really reliable state, this could become a popular open source addition to Macs around the world in the same way Firefox has become the standard browser on many computers today. ZFS definitely seems like the future of file systems, so you can bet many of us are rooting for this to get better.

It turns out that Madonna had it wrong: instead of living in a material world, we are increasingly moving to a digital one. One arena in which that is particularly true is photography: digital cameras have slowly replaced traditional cameras, digital images replaced real prints, and digital manipulation has replaced traditional editing means.

Today we're going to look at six programs for the Mac, all designed to help you edit and manipulate your digital images. These programs vary widely in price, skill level, and features. Know this: whether you simply want to remove red-eye without having to pull out that felt-tip pen (we're not the only ones who did that, right?), or would like to insert Bigfoot into a picture of scenery, we've got you covered.

Matuschak believes an operating system is only as good as its ability to avoid or solve problems, and that's what Ubuntu's really good at. For example, in Ubuntu, if a user tries to watch a video and doesn't have the proper codec to do so, the open source OS will attempt to find and install the codec.

But there's a solution on the horizon, or Matuschak would like there to be. He believes the answer is in Spotlight, a commonly underused but very powerful OS X feature which can be adapted to be a general problem solving tool.

Coming back to the video codec problem, if the user would like to figure out what's needed to play the video file, he types the file extension into Spotlight. The service would return a variety of options including codecs and programs. The suggested codecs and programs aren't necessarily installed on the computer, but, with one (or two) clicks, the user can then install whatever programs or codecs came up as a result of the search. It's merely a concept at this point, but Matuschak would like to make it a reality. If you'd like to help him out, make sure to check out his site.

Fire up Software Update, Mac OS X users, for iPhoto 7.0.2 has just been released. This update addresses "issues associated with publishing to .Mac Web Gallery, rebuilding thumbnails, and editing books. It also addresses a number of other minor issues." Thanks for clearing up those 'other minor issues', Apple.

All we know is: this better fix the renegade Spotlight "mds" process that peaks our CPUs for a few minutes every time we start iPhoto '08. There's nothin' like shiny new software draining our batteries dry to get us out of bed in the morning.

Two weeks ago we saw the first wave of third party applications for the iPhone. But because Apple has yet to open up the device and provides an API (Application Programming Interface) for software developers, making third party applications right now is not for the faint hearted or even regular developers. A couple of weeks ago in MacBreak Weekly, Leo Laporte called for Apple to open up the iPhone immediately and he could not see any reasons preventing that happening. What Mr. Laporte, and most pundits, seems to imply is that providing an API is a straightforward process. Publish the API online and let the developers use it, right? If only it were that simple.

An API is a contract between the provider (Apple) and the consumer, who in this case is the software developers. As with any contract, once it is published, a level of trust is established between the provider and the consumer. This means the provider describes the functionality accessible by outsiders in the API, and that functionality will work as advertised. The consumer has to depend on the provider to keep their word so the consumer can develop applications base on that functionality.

But establishing an API also means restricting internal development freedom for the device. It is no longer simple to rework a particular function to provide better capability or performance without substantial testings to ensure the existing APIs are not broken. There are a few ways to deal with this situation.