Contrary to marketing hype, Macs do crash and when they do you'll need to do some basic troubleshooting to determine the reason why.

If it appears to be a hardware problem, one thing you may want to remember is, well, Rember.

Rember is a front end GUI for Memtest and while you can certainly run Memtest in Terminal, Rember's GUI version makes it much easier to use.

The interface is broken up into 3 main parts:

• How much memory you want tested
• The number of times you want to run the test
• Preferences

Once you decided on the amount of ram and the number of loops let Rember do the rest. Once completed, review the logs to determine if your RAM is the reason why your Mac is crashing.

Keep in mind that Rember is a GUI app that runs on top of your OS so some of your RAM will be in use and will not be available for testing. Think of it has a small trade off for not having to deal with the Memtest switches.

Attempting to capture the different ranges you see with your eyes on camera is quite difficult. For the most part, digital cameras attempt to accurately capture an image but sometimes details are lost in the shadows or in the highlights. In high dynamic range (HDR) photography multiple photographs of varying exposures are taken of the same subject and later combined to produce a photo with a greater dynamic range than if only 1 photo was taken.

There are many ways to go about creating an HDR image and if you're an Aperture user, the folks at Creaceed may have a solution for you with their Hydra 1.5.3 plug-in. While currently wearing the beta badge, Hydra allows Aperture users to select up to 4 photos to create their HDR image and also offers the option to auto align your selected images, allowing you to take photos without the use of a tripod. This is an important feature, as when you are overlaying multiple photos it's important that they all line up perfectly. Controls are well laid out and results are fast and impressive.

While producing a quality HDR image is more than just having the right software, Hydra attempts to ease the post production work allowing you to concentrate on the most important part... what's happening through the lens.

In no way does TapeDeck claim to replace Garageband, Logic or any other full blown audio recording application. TapeDeck just does one thing, record audio from your built-in mic or any other audio input to virtual cassette tapes.

The application resembles a cassette tape recorder and the interface is as intuitive as it gets. Because of this, TapeDeck lends itself well to impromptu interviews, dictations and lectures. TapeDeck even allows you to transfer recordings to your iTunes library.

Tapes can be color coded and labeled to make them easier to find in their virtual storage rack. And just like recorders of the past, you can select recording qualities of High, Medium or Low. These settings translate to different bit rates and the amount of disc space your recordings take up. In our tests, the lowest setting was more than adequate for dictation and everyday use.

There are a few gripes we had with TapeDeck. First, each time you press record, a new "tape" is used. There are no way to continue from a previous recording. While some may see this as a safety measure, what if you wanted to continue a recording and not have it spread across a couple of tapes?

Another issue we had was with the search function. Labels and liner notes are fully searchable from within the application but only the labels are searchable via Spotlight. Maybe we're asking for too much but we love our Spotlight.

TapeDeck is definitely a great application and the issues we have are definitely not show stoppers. Plus the mechanical transport sounds it makes alone is well worth the asking price of $25.

Delicious Library offers users the ability to catalog their entire collection of music, movies, electronic gadgets, kitchenware, clothes and most anything else using a web cam onto digital shelves on their Mac.

All you have to do to enter an item in your database is scan the product's PC using a webcam. Delicious Library connects to Amazon to determine what that product is. From there, it will download the cover art, detailed description and a host of reviews and additional information.

The program's been around for a few years, but the developers recently released version 2.0. There's a huge list of changes, including the addition of 5 new item categories, which brings the total to 9. You can also view other Delicious Library users' shared libraries from within the application itself instead of going to the web now. Cover art and graphics have a better 3D look to them and scale a lot better too. In addition, the library performance has been improved.

Working seamlessly with your iTunes library, djay 2.1 allows you to mix both MP3 and AAC songs in real time and record your performances to share with others. In addition, djay offers the ability to scratch and beat matching.

One feature that we enjoyed was the Automix mode. Select an iTunes playlist, set djay to shuffle and it will mix song after song using a variety of transitions from fading one song to the next to spinning a record backwards.

A Mac only download, djay is free to try for 10 days and is available for purchase for $49.99.

HyperPort is actually a Hypercard stack itself, so if you've already gotten rid of your Classic OS installation, it might not be much help to you. We found it was worth downloading just for the nostalgia, though. The PDF user's manual is a fascinating faded scan of the 1990 original. So, while you're grabbing all those old names and addresses out of your Hypercard stacks, you can enjoy author Goodman's timeless sense of style. Is that a sweater vest, Danny?

[via Daring Fireball]

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]

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.

Few companies inspire such wicked fanboy love as does Apple, and few have such creative 'haters'. Here's two things we've stumbled on just today that illustrate the Apple love that's flying 'round in the lead up to the iPhone.

First, a history of Apple in pictures. It's all there. Jobs, The Woz, The Apple I, The Lisa -- the predecessor to the original Macintosh -- and a ton of candid shots that really give the Cupertino kids some personality, no matter how minimalist and mock-turtleneck they may be these days.

Second, a fruity and creative version of Apple's logo. Notice anything missing? That's right. This picture is a tounge and cheeck way of saying, "Anything but Apple". So much for yo momma jokes, this is the way to spell out your distaste.

Apple announced in a statement yesterday that OSX 10.5 Leopard will be delayed until at least October. Leopard was originally planned to be released during Apple's WWDC in June but members of the development team for Leopard were pulled away from the project for some last minute tweaks to the iPhone software forcing the release date to be pushed back. In their statement Apple said, "While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us."

Apple has planned to now have a beta version of Leopard available to developers at WWDC and then release the full version in October.

Imagine sharing your life with your friends, and having them check out your favorite tunes, sites, and videos. Maybe you want to be an open book, maybe you don't. If you do, Slifeshare can help.

To start using Slifeshare, sign up for a free account and download the application, and run it on your computer. The Slife application looks at everything you do on your computer, from what music you are listening to, what websites you visit, and what feeds you read.

Your Slifeshare page profiles what you do, including a Live View feature that displays what live app you currently have running at the moment. The profile page displays friends and contacts, and people who may have similar types of interests. You can also invite Friends and track what everyone is doing as a whole and what were the popular items they might have been looking at. Slifeshare also has widgets that users can add to their websites and display top artists, top feeds, and top web sites visited. Slifeshare is available for Mac's running OSX 10.4 or later.

[via eHub]

Today's holiday download is bocken, a widget from hockeywidgets that shows the live webcam feed from the Gävlebocken, a giant straw Christmas goat erected each year in the Swedish town of Gävle. As christmas traditions go, this one is so much cooler than a guy in a Santa suit sitting in a mall food court that I don't even have words for it.

As cool as a live feed of a straw goat is on its own, the widget is also a bit of internet public service. Apparently, Gävlebocken are quite frequently victims of arson; only about half of them have made it to Christmas without being burned. This year's goat has already out-lived last year's by a week. So if you happen to see someone trying to burn the goat, take a screencap, please, and email it to the Gävle PD.

Previous 12 Days of holidays downloads for OS X:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7

Disco is a relatively new Mac OS X disc burning application that strives for simplicity, functionality, and good looks. It supports common disc burning activities (creating data CDs and DVDs, disc imaging, creating audio and MP3 CDs) but also packs a ton of other handy features: CUE/BIN burning, multiple file system support (Hybrid, HFS+, UDF, Joliet, ISO 9660), disc spanning support, and more. It's unique interface is intuitive, yet minimalist - you insert a disc, it asks if you want to save it to a disc image; you insert a blank CD or DVD, it asks what you would like to burn. My favorite feature is the smoke animation it emits during disc burning. Authored by Austin Sarner (creator of AppZapper), it's currently available as a public beta, but is also available for pre-purchase at a discounted rate of $14.95.

I often find myself in a stealth-like combat zone (home) where secrecy and the element of surprise is priceless (blogging late at night). Darkness can often provide the best natural cover in a covert environment such as this. DarkAdapted will help take the bright edge off your computer screen by adjusting your gamma so you can continue to blog, work, or generally download stuff willy-nilly all night to your hearts content. If you're like me, you don't hit the fridge for a midnight snack, you're still up at midnight blogging, coding, designing, or snacking on downloads. If you must keep the monitor brightness on the down-low or the natives get restless, then DarkAdapted will be your friend. It comes with different colored presets and allows you to make your own with varying levels of brightness and color saturation for customizable gamma-based screen-darkening. It doesn't darken beyond what is readable, but helps to get the brightness down to a manageable level. Coupled with a darker Windows theme, DarkAdapted is perfect for the late night devious activities you have planned. All of you hacker-elite out there are asking why I don't just go and adjust my monitor for brightness and be done with it, right? The answer is that I don't like to mess with my monitor every dang time I want to darken it down a bit (which is daily). DarkAdapted also allows setting up a custom keystroke to bring your PC or Mac back to full brightness. You now effectively have an easy way to get the best of both worlds (light/darkness) with little to no futzing with your beloved behemoth display. It is easy to throw this app on your USB drive and take it with you since it doesn't install anything and lives in an executable. Trust me, the next time you're in a live-blogging in a foxhole and need it dark, you'll wish you had downloaded it.

Last week Microsoft announced the official hardware requirements for Windows Vista and released an "Upgrade Advisor" tool to tell you how "Vista-ready" your computer is. Ina Fried at the CNet News blog has an interesting anecdote about running the tool on her various machines. The Upgrade Advisor told her that her four-month-old Compaq with 512MB of RAM was not Vista-ready and her laptop would run Vista but not its fancy Aero interface, but the machine that scored the highest was-wait for it-a dual-booting Mac Mini. According to a Microsoft rep the report for the Compaq was likely incorrect (Upgrade Advisor is beta, after all), and the Mini did have twice the RAM, but there's a certain amount of sweet irony in a Mac being more Vista-ready than its PC brethren.