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<title>macosxhints.com Pick of the Week feed</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/index.php?topic=pick</link>
<description>A feed showing the macosxhints.com Picks of the Week.</description>
<managingEditor>webteam@macosxhints.com</managingEditor>
<webMaster>webteam@macosxhints.com</webMaster>
<copyright>Copyright 2010 Mac OS X Hints</copyright>
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<pubDate>Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:39:32 -0800</pubDate>
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<title>Path Finder 5 - The Finder, greatly enriched again</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081110100818716</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081110100818716</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:08:00 -0800</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081110100818716#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_pathfinder5.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer / Product Page: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cocoatech.com&quot;&gt;CocoaTech&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: &amp;#36;40 (&amp;#36;20 upgrade from prior versions; free demo available)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

This week's Pick of the Week is a two-time repeat winner...though its first win was actually many years ago, and under a different name. It was, in fact, the third-ever Pick of the Week, way back in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20020311050000246&quot;&gt;March of 2002&lt;/a&gt;. At the time, the program was called SNAX, and it was a replacement for the Finder. Then, in December 2006, version 4.5 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006120605315624&quot;&gt;won again&lt;/a&gt;. Now, just under two years later, I feel the need to reward it again. Why again, you may ask? Because Path Finder 5 is a great upgrade from version 4, and has finally become my full-time Finder replacement. I've used the prior versions off an...</description>
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<title>Witch 2 - Switch to any open window</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081028074446390</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081028074446390</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:44:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081028074446390#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_witch2.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.manytricks.com&quot;&gt;ManyTricks&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.manytricks.com/witch&quot;&gt;Product Page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: €9.95 [&amp;#36;12.35 as of 10/28/08] Shareware&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

This week's Pick of the Week is actually &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050220100227926&quot;&gt;a rerun&lt;/a&gt;. Back in 2005, Witch was very new, and very welcomed -- it was the first program I'd found that let me switch windows, instead of just switching between applications. Over the years, I've come to rely on Witch quite heavily. Unfortunately, the release of 10.5 caused some issues for Witch -- nothing critical, but (for instance) some annoying repetitive log entries.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Witch 2.0 (now up to 2.0.1) fixed those problems, and added one nifty new feature -- you can use (and display, if you wish) &quot;shortcut&quot; badge icons on your first 10 open windows. So I can switch to any window by pre...</description>
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<title>What's Keeping Me? - Identify files on 'busy' volumes</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081020055139544</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081020055139544</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2008 05:52:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081020055139544#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_whatskeepingme.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer / Product Page: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hamsoftengineering.com/index.html&quot;&gt;HAMSoft Engineering&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hamsoftengineering.com/products/wkm/wkm.html&quot;&gt;Product page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: &amp;#36;5 donation requested&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

If you work with disk images at all, it's likely you've been thwarted at some point when trying to eject an image -- you'll get a generic message about not being able to eject the image because it's &quot;in use.&quot; As is typical of many error messages, this one doesn't actually contain any information needed to help solve the problem -- you're not told which file is in use, just that &lt;em&gt;something&lt;/em&gt; is in use.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Regular readers here &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080615071312194&quot;&gt;probably know&lt;/a&gt; that you can use &lt;tt&gt;lsof&lt;/tt&gt; to identify the culprit, but sometimes a trip to Terminal may be more work than you want to do. If...</description>
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<title>Fluid - Create standalone apps from web pages</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081013071323284</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081013071323284</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:17:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081013071323284#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_fluid.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: Todd Ditchendorf / &lt;a href=&quot;http://fluidapp.com/&quot;&gt;Product page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: Free&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

One of the rumored features of OS X 10.6 (actually of Safari 4, which I think will be part of 10.6) is the ability to turn any web page into a standalone application. This can be useful for sites you access all the time, or if you're tired of, for instance, your entire browser crashing because of a problem with one particular Flash-heavy tab you had open. Whether or not this feature is coming to 10.6 remains to be seen, of course, but it's here &lt;em&gt;today&lt;/em&gt; in the form of Fluid.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Fluid is amazingly easy-to-use program that converts any web site into a standalone, Cocoa native, OS X application (called a site-specific browser, or SSB for short). Just enter the site's URL, name your new program, pick a save location, and then choose an icon (you can use the site's fave icon, create yo...</description>
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<title>MercuryMover 2 - Even better window management</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081006085349944</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081006085349944</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:54:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20081006085349944#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_mm2.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer / Product Page: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.heliumfoot.com/&quot;&gt;Helium Foot Software&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.heliumfoot.com/mercurymover/&quot;&gt;MercuryMover 2.0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: &amp;#36;20 (free upgrade from 1.x; 30 day trial available)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

Earlier this year, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080428064742892&quot;&gt;I selected&lt;/a&gt; MercuryMover 1.1 as a Pick of the Week. This week, it's being selected again, because I've found version 2.0 to be a very nice upgrade over the original. There are two main features of 2.0 that I really like: you can define single keystrokes to set window size (width and height) and/or location (left and top of window), and there's a nice little info window that shows the current window's size and location. While the info window is nice, it's the shortcuts that I find really useful.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
For instance, after activating MercuryMover (Control-Command-Up Arr...</description>
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<title>DNG for PowerShot - PowerShot RAW image converter</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080929052706937</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080929052706937</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:30:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080929052706937#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_dng4ps.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer / Product Page: Denis Artyomov / &lt;a href=&quot;http://dng4ps2.chat.ru/index_en.html&quot;&gt;DNG for PowerShot&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: Free (open source)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
If you've got a Canon PowerShot (Digic II or Digic III) camera, there's a third-party software suite known as &lt;a href=&quot;http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK&quot;&gt;CHDK&lt;/a&gt; (Canon Hacker's Development Kit) that adds a huge variety of features to your camera -- and it supports a long list of Canon models, as seen on the first page of their site. For many people, the ability to shoot in RAW mode is among the most useful of the newly-added features. I wanted to test this out, and my PowerShot 850is is among the supported cameras, so I installed CHDK this weekend. The installation is relatively straightforward; I used a combination of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_for_Dummies&quot;&gt;CHDK for Dummies&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ&quot;&gt;FAQ ...</description>
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<title>10.5: FunctionFlip - Toggle laptop's function key behavior</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080915065201592</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080915065201592</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:55:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080915065201592#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_functionflip.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer / Product Page: &lt;a href=&quot;http://kevingessner.com/frog/&quot;&gt;Kevin Gessner&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a href=&quot;http://kevingessner.com/frog/projects/functionflip/&quot;&gt;Product Page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: Free&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/105only.png&quot; align=&quot;left&quot; style=&quot;margin-right: 10px&quot;&gt;Do you have a Mac laptop with the multi-function Function keys (i.e. controlling brightness, keyboard illumination, media playback)? A setting in System Preferences controls how these keys work -- you can either have them work directly, or only when holding down the Fn button. But what if you want some of them (brightness, for instance) to work just by pressing the function key, and would prefer others (that you'd rather not press by accident, or what rather use for other commands) work only when holding down the Fn key?
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
The answer is this week's Pick of the Week, FunctionFlip. It's a simple Syst...</description>
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<title>AppleJack - A utility for use in single user mode</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080909060410594</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080909060410594</guid>
<pubDate>Sun, 07 Sep 2008 06:07:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080909060410594#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_applejack.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer / Product Page: &lt;a href=&quot;http://theapotek.com/projects/&quot;&gt;The Apotek&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a href=&quot;http://applejack.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;AppleJack&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: Free (donations accepted)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
AppleJack is a different kind of utility -- it's one that you'll probably only use when you're in a real bind, say with a Mac that crashes every time you login. In such cases, the usual advice is to boot off the installer disk, and use the various tools available there to try to fix the problem.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
But what if you're traveling with your laptop, and you don't happen to have your install disk with you? Enter AppleJack, which runs only in single user mode (Command-S at startup). In its basic mode, AppleJack does five things (either as a group, or one by one): repair disks, repair permissions, clean up cache files, validate preference files, and remove swap files. You access these tasks through a text-ba...</description>
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<title>Timeline - Beautfiul timelines made easy</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080825060148601</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080825060148601</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Aug 2008 06:08:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080825060148601#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/105only.png&quot; align=&quot;left&quot; style=&quot;margin-right: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;margin-left:60px&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_timeline.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; style=&quot;padding-left:10px&quot;&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.beedocuments.com/index.php&quot;&gt;Bee Documents&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: &amp;#36;40 [&amp;#36;65 for 3D Edition]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

Back in June, I &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macworld.com/article/133919/2008/06/apple_design_awards.html&quot;&gt;wrote about&lt;/a&gt; the Apple Design Awards at the 2008 edition of Apple's WWDC, where Bee Documents' Timeline 3D earned a runner-up award for Best Mac OS X Leopard Application. And while I've been on vacation for the last week or so, I noticed today that Dan Frakes gave Timeline &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macworld.com/article/135126/2008/08/timeline.html&quot;&gt;a spot in Mac Gems last week&lt;/a&gt;. Given I wasn't looking at much new software over the last week, I thought Timeline would be a reasonable first pick for my return fro...</description>
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<title>10.5: Delicious Library 2 - Track more of your stuff</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080811063020603</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080811063020603</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:35:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080811063020603#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/105only.png&quot; align=&quot;left&quot; style=&quot;margin-right: 10px&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_dl2.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;margin-left:60px&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.delicious-monster.com&quot;&gt;Delicious Monster Software&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: &amp;#36;40 [&amp;#36;20 upgrade; demo available]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

The first version of Delicious Library was a Pick of the Week &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20041116090142760&quot;&gt;way back in 2004&lt;/a&gt;. At the time, Delicious Library let you easily catalog your books, movies, music, and video games -- it could read bar codes using an iSight camera, and then look up data for those bar codes on the web, greatly simplifying the task of creating a digital version of your collection. Your collection is then displayed with virtual representations of the books, movies, etc., using images that are also downloaded from the web.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Version 2 picks up where version one l...</description>
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<title>TransformMovie - A QuickTime movie rotation tool</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080804053223376</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080804053223376</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2008 05:36:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080804053223376#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_transformmovie.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.limit-point.com/&quot;&gt;Limit Point Software&lt;/a&gt;/ &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.limit-point.com/Utilities/TransformMovie.html&quot;&gt;Product page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: &amp;#36;10 [Free trial available]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

Without fail, every few weeks it seems I'd get an email or iChat from a relative that went something like this: &quot;Hey, I just shot a QuickTime movie with my digital camera, but I did so with the camera rotated. Can you use QuickTime Pro on it for me, and rotate it the way it's supposed to be?&quot; So they'd then email me a large file, I'd take two seconds to rotate it in QuickTime Pro, save it, and email it back to them. I figured there had to be a better solution, and after some web searching, I stumbled on TransformMovie.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
This simple app lets you rotate -- in any increment of degrees that you like -- movies, as well as flipping them horizontally and/or vertically. You can a...</description>
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<title>Professor Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery - Puzzle time!</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080728072151654</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080728072151654</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:25:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080728072151654#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_pfmolten.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;The macosxhints Rating:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_9.png&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;
[Score: &lt;b&gt;9&lt;/b&gt; out of 10]&lt;br&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://grubbygames.com/&quot;&gt;Grubby Games&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a href=&quot;http://grubbygames.com/pfmm/&quot;&gt;Product page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: &amp;#36;19.95 [Demo available]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

A couple years back, I selected the original Professor Fizzwizzle as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060803055611418&quot;&gt;a Pick of the Week&lt;/a&gt;. In 2007, Grubby Games released Professor Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery (PFMM from here on), and it was just as addictive as the original. Given that I've been enjoying it for over a year now, I figure it's time to give it a Pick of the Week selection.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Like the original, PFMM is all about puzzle solving, and moving the professor from point A to point B in the process. (You can read the original PotW write-up for a fairly detaile...</description>
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<title>Final Cut Express 4 - iMovie HD's heir apparent</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080721060058886</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080721060058886</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:54:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080721060058886#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_fce4.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;The macosxhints Rating:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_9.png&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;
[Score: &lt;b&gt;9&lt;/b&gt; out of 10]&lt;br&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.apple.com&quot;&gt;Apple&lt;/a&gt;/ &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/&quot;&gt;Product page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: &amp;#36;199 (&amp;#36;99 upgrade from older versions)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

I just finished another video project for Macworld (an &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macworld.com/article/134584/2008/07/mwvodcast59.html&quot;&gt;overview of Sun's VirtualBox virtualization app&lt;/a&gt; for Macs), and as I finished the project, I realized just how pleasant it is to work with Final Cut Express -- and that I'd never given it the Pick of the Week nod here on macosxhints.com. Yes, it's relatively expensive, but if you have more than a passing interest in video editing on the Mac, it's well worth the cost of admission.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
I'll be the first to admit that I've got no aspirations (nor skills to su...</description>
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<title>App Store - Mobile software distribution solution</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080714065052605</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080714065052605</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:55:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080714065052605#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_appstore.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;The macosxhints Rating:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_9.png&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;
[Score: &lt;b&gt;9&lt;/b&gt; out of 10]&lt;br&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.apple.com&quot;&gt;Apple&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a href=&quot;http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewGenre?id=36&amp;amp;mt=8&quot;&gt;Product page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: Varies&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

This week's Pick of the Week is somewhat unusual, but I think highly deserving. Instead of picking any one product, I've chosen to give the selection to  Apple's new iPhone/iPod touch App Store. After using the App Store quite a bit over the last few days, I believe it truly is a paradigm-changer for the mobile applications business -- much as the original iTunes Music Store was when it opened years ago.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Prior to my iPhone, I owned and used a Palm Treo. One of my frustrations with the Treo was finding and installing software for it. Although there's a huge universe of programs fo...</description>
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<title>CaliBrate - Make batch iCal changes</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080707065019929</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080707065019929</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:50:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080707065019929#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_calibrate.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;The macosxhints Rating:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_9.png&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;
[Score: &lt;b&gt;9&lt;/b&gt; out of 10]&lt;br&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.woodenbrain.com&quot;&gt;Wooden Brain Concepts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: &amp;#36;8.00 shareware&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

If you've ever wanted to modify a number of events in iCal, you'll soon find it's basically not possible. That's where CaliBrate comes in, which I discovered last week when it was &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macworld.com/article/133952/2008/07/woodenbraincalibrate1.html&quot;&gt;written up as a Mac Gem&lt;/a&gt; on macworld.com. I'd never heard of the program before, so I downloaded it and gave it a trial run.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
Over the years, my iCal calendars have become something of a mess. There were near-duplicate calendars (Personal and Home, for instance), as well as calendars that contained events that I'd originally placed on one calendar but really wanted to have on another. ...</description>
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<title>10.5: Warp - Add more features to Spaces</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080630062702788</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080630062702788</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:45:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080630062702788#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_warp.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;The macosxhints Rating:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_8.png&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;
[Score: &lt;b&gt;8&lt;/b&gt; out of 10]&lt;br&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ksuther.com&quot;&gt;Kent Sutherland&lt;/a&gt;/ &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ksuther.com/warp/&quot;&gt;Product page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: Free (donations accepted&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

Kent Sutherland, author of Chax, has come up with another gem. Warp is a System Preferences panel that offers some new features that make working with Spaces simpler. First, you can switch spaces simply via mouse drag -- you don't have to be dragging a window; just drag the mouse to the edge of the screen, and after a user-settable delay, you'll switch to the adjacent space. (You can optionally add a required modifier key to the mouse-drag, if you like.)
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
You can also have the cursor warp into the new space, which changes its position in the new space -- it's hard to explain but easy to understand whe...</description>
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<title>ScreenRecycler - Extra desktop space from another Mac</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080623063548742</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080623063548742</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:35:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080623063548742#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_screenrecycler.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;The macosxhints Rating:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_8.png&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;
[Score: &lt;b&gt;8&lt;/b&gt; out of 10]&lt;br&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jinx.de/weblog/weblog.html&quot;&gt;Patrick Stein&lt;/a&gt;/ &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.screenrecycler.com/home.html&quot;&gt;Product page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: €19.95 [free demo available]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

Last year, I gave a PotW award to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070904141027992&quot;&gt;JollysFastVNC&lt;/a&gt;, a speedy VNC client. That product was actually a spin-off from ScreenRecycler, which is interesting in its own right. Just what is ScreenRecycler? A program that lets you use another computer -- Mac or Windows -- as an additional screen for another Mac. In other words, it's a virtual second monitor. This is actually something that I'm asked relatively ofen: &quot;Hey, I've got this old Mac, can I somehow connect it to my main Mac to use as a second sc...</description>
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<title>iStat menus - Keep an eye on various system functions</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2008061606422259</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2008061606422259</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2008 06:45:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2008061606422259#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_istatmenus.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;The macosxhints Rating:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_9.png&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;
[Score: &lt;b&gt;9&lt;/b&gt; out of 10]&lt;br&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.islayer.com/&quot;&gt;iSlayer&lt;/a&gt;/ &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.islayer.com/index.php?op=item&amp;amp;id=28&quot;&gt;Product page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: Free [donations encouraged]&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

For years, I've used Raging Menace's free &lt;a href=&quot;http://ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/index.html&quot;&gt;MenuMeters&lt;/a&gt; (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031027094319200&amp;amp;query=menumeters&quot;&gt;Pick of the Week write-up&lt;/a&gt;) to keep an eye on my system. Although I've tried other apps over the years, this week's Pick is the first one that has me seriously considering changing my system monitoring utility. As with MenuMeters, iStat menus lets you monitor various system activities via menu bar icons. Also as with MenuMeters, you can monitor CPU usage, disk space, me...</description>
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<title>Name Mangler - A batch file renaming utility</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080609055252255</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080609055252255</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:52:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080609055252255#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_namemangler.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;The macosxhints Rating:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_9.png&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;
[Score: &lt;b&gt;9&lt;/b&gt; out of 10]&lt;br&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.manytricks.com&quot;&gt;ManyTricks&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a href=&quot;http://manytricks.com/namemangler/&quot;&gt;Product page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: Donationware&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

There are lots of utilities out there to help with batch file renaming, including Apple's own Automator, which includes some renaming actions. One of my favorite tools is Name Mangler, which has a (relatively) intuitive interface, and some powerful renaming features. Using a drop-down menu, you tell Name Mangler what you'd like it to do -- find and replace, number sequentially, change case, set extension, add prefix/suffix, or remove/insert characters. There's one more option here, Advanced, that I'll discuss in a bit more detail later.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
The left half of the Name Mangler window shows the list of files...</description>
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<title>Leech - A powerful yet lightweight download manager</title>
<link>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080602070923956</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080602070923956</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:09:00 -0700</pubDate>
<comments>http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080602070923956#comments</comments>
<dc:subject>Pick of the Week</dc:subject>
<description>&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_leech.png&quot; align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;
&lt;b&gt;The macosxhints Rating:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.macosxhints.com/images/w_9.png&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;
[Score: &lt;b&gt;9&lt;/b&gt; out of 10]&lt;br&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Developer: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.manytricks.com&quot;&gt;ManyTricks&lt;/a&gt; / &lt;a href=&quot;http://manytricks.com/leech/&quot;&gt;Product page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;Price: €9.95 (free trial available; €6.95 cross-grade)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

I've never been a huge fan of download manager applications -- for my needs, I really felt that Firefox plus the Download Statusbar did everything I'd ever need relative to downloads. Then I spent some time using Many Tricks' new lightweight download manager, Leech. Leech is really best for those who download a lot of files; if you usually only download a couple of files a week, then your browser's built-in tools will probably meet your needs. But if you download a ton of stuff, you may find Leech quickly becoming an indispensable tool.
&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;
What does Leech offer that you don't ...</description>
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