Like Erica, I've been poking around the App Store all morning. Unlike Erica, I'm not brave enough to install the firmware without the official word from Apple, but in the meantime, here's a few free apps in there that are definitely worth a download right away.
Phonesaber: Yes. This is exactly what you think it is. And it's free.
Light: Don't spend money on one of those other flashlight programs -- get Erica's original for completely free. (In fact, you might as well go ahead and get all of her apps, they're all great.)
MixMeister Scratch: Free vinyl scratching over your iPod touch or iPhone's background music. Silly, but fun for aspiring (or, more specifically) wannabe DJs.
Zenbe Lists: A pretty good-looking free alternative to all the other To-Do applications out there.
???: I have no idea what this is (looks like some kind of Memory-type game), but it's free and it's hilariously beautiful. Update: Actually, this looks like the non-English version of Jirbo Match. But still, it looks like amazing and colorful fun.
NetNewsWire: This and AIM aren't really hidden, but they're must-haves, of course.
Have more that you've seen? Link us in the comments. I may not have the ability to install apps on the phone yet, but when I get it, I'll be ready.
Google's Mac group has released Precipitate, a plugin which allows you to search Google Docs and Google Bookmarks from the same interface that you search you Mac. It works with both Spotlight and Google Desktop for Mac. Basically the developer's idea is to have a one stop search interface for information on your Mac and information in the Google cloud so you don't have to remember where you saved something. Sounds like a good idea to me.
Google's Precipitate is a free download from Google Code.
In the past we've covered the Mac application TV Shows, which automates starting bittorrents for tv show episodes. Sadly, it hasn't been updated in a while (though the main page still promises an update soon). However, I recently ran across another application that works in a similar way called ted.
With ted you can select various shows, even see summaries of episodes, then send the torrents off your your favorite bittorrent client (e.g. Transmission). Unfortunately, ted is a cross-platform java application, but it should run fine on any modern Mac.
Are you tired of being distracted by the internet? Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Google Earth could all be considered "distractions" or "time wasters." So, if you're looking to get some work done without physically un-pluging from the internet then Freedom might be what you need.
Freedom allows you to set a time limit for internet access. For instance, if I need to set aside 30 minutes for a project that doesn't require internet access, I could tell Freedom to block internet access for those 30 minutes, Freedom will then disable WiFi and ethernet access for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes are over your WiFi and ethernet access will be restored.
You hate Entourage, and you're not particularly fond of iCal. You've waited endlessly for Nighthawk, Contactizer Pro is too complicated, and you want a native app instead of using Google Calendar or another web calendar. And, since you're saving money for an iPhone 3G, you don't want to spend any money on a calendar app.
Maybe it's time to look at Mozilla Sunbird 0.8 for Mac OS X. It's developed by the same people who brought us Firefox and Thunderbird. It's almost identical to the Lightning calendar plugin for Thunderbird, but doesn't require that email app to run. Upon first startup, Sunbird will import events and tasks from your existing calendar application.
The UI is plain and simple, probably because this is a multi-platform application (Windows, Linux, and Solaris in addition to Mac OS X) that shares a lot of code between the different flavors. Sunbird can tie into CalDAV servers such as the one in Mac OS X Server 10.5, and can subscribe to any .ics format shared calendars. In limited testing, Sunbird felt responsive in searches and was quite stable for betaware.
Sunbird, of course, is free. If you are searching for a new calendar app, give it a try.
The graphic above says it all -- Firefox 3 Download Day was a success, with 8,002,530 downloads in 24 hours. Amazingly, this happened despite all of the initial download glitches that happened on Download Day. The Mozilla team is reporting that 29,116,621 copies of Firefox 3 have been downloaded as of 1:13 PM ET today.
If you signed up for Download Day notifications, you'll receive this email as well and you can get your own cheesy certificate, suitable for framing (or not).
Since I downloaded Firefox 3, I've been enjoying some of the plugins that are now residing at the bottom of my browser (Twitterfox and the Accuweather Forecastfox plugin). Firefox 3 seems faster to me, and I like the way it displays sites that are using certificates by putting a wide, clickable banner in the address bar. What are your opinions about Firefox 3?
Posted Jul 3rd 2008 12:00PM by Mat Lu Filed under: Freeware
I often find myself in need of a the digital equivalent of a scratch pad: just an open text-field to jot down a phone number, save some text for a blog comment, etc. These are not really things I want to save, so I don't want to open a word processor or even use the snippet manager of my choice (Yojimbo). So Scribblet appeals to me in its focus on one basic task. (I've never been a fan of Stickies.)
It's a menubar application that does one simple thing: pop up a small notepad; that's it. It doesn't allow for multiple notes or snippet management. It's simply a scratch pad that pops up with a simple click on the menubar or by hitting a user-definable hotkey. Despite, or rather because of, its simplicity I find it quite handy and it has earned a spot on my menubar.
Posted Jul 3rd 2008 10:00AM by Mat Lu Filed under: Freeware
I was on the hunt today for a clock application and ran across an interesting implementation in Wallpaper Clock. Basically it's a small application that dynamically redraws your Desktop every minute, to keep your time and date, well, up-to-date. The application itself is free, but requires particular artwork files in a variety of designs. Some of these clock files are available in a free, low-quality version, while others are only available to registered users (along with the free ones in higher-quality versions). It is also possible to create your own Wallpaper Clocks with your own images.
Wallpaper Clocks is a free download however there is a registration fee for subscription based access to the maker's website with artwork unavailable in the free version. Subscriptions are $8.99 for 3 months, $12.99 for 6 months, $19.99 for one year, and $29.99 for lifetime access.
Those wizards of widgets at iSlayer have come up with yet another really useful tool for the Dashboard. Organized is a free widget with an event calendar, world clock, notes, and to-dos, all of which are synced to iCal and Mail.
As with other iSlayer widgets like iStat menus/nano/pro, it is obvious that a lot of thought went into the design of the user interface for Organized. It packs a lot of data into a very small widget and even has a feature I immediately turned on -- the ability to shut off Marker Felt as the default font for Notes.
If you download, install, and use Organized, consider sending these guys a donation so they'll continue to develop great stuff for us.
Posted Jul 2nd 2008 10:00AM by Mat Lu Filed under: Freeware
AllBookmarks is a simple, free menubar application from the makers of 1Password. Basically it gives you one-click access to all your Safari, Firefox, OmniWeb, Camino and Flock bookmarks as well as your 1Password Bookmarks (if you have 1Password installed). The interface includes a live search box, though it doesn't seem to work as well as I would like. Nonetheless, it's relatively easy to navigate the hierarchical menus.
AllBookmarks is a free download from Agile Web Solutions.
Keynote Objects is a package of 100 attractive icon-like objects that can be used not only with Keynote, but also with Microsoft PowerPoint and Word. All of the objects have a transparent background, and are easily resized, rotated, made more or less transparent, or shadowed.
I'm actually going to use several of the objects as icons for a new web site that I'm designing, simply because they offer an attractive and cohesive set of art objects. What will you use your free Keynote Objects for?
Have you ever tried to empty the Trash on your Mac only to receive a dreaded message that said the trash couldn't be emptied because a file was in use? Well, "What's Keeping Me" hopes to solve this problem with it's advanced trash-error detection technology (we kid, it's really just magic).
If you encounter the message that the trash cannot be emptied, just click on What's Keeping Me to see what application or process is keeping the trash from being emptied. You can have What's Keeping Me quit the application or if need be kill (force-quit) the application.
You can download What's Keeping Me from HAMSoft Engineering; this application is freeware, however, donations are accepted.
If you switched to Firefox from another browser like Safari that supports in-line PDF viewing (that's the ablity to look at a PDF in the browser instead of downloading it), then you might have been disheartened to learn that Firefox does not support this feature natively. However, you will find Firefox-Mac-PDF to be a useful plug-in.
Firefox-Mac-PDF allows for the same in-line PDF viewing that can be found in Safari. This plug-in requires Firefox 3 and Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or higher. You can download the plug-in for free from their Google Code page.
To install the plug-in, just open the Add-ons panel by going to Tools > Add-ons. Once there, drag the downloaded ".xpi" file to the Add-ons. You will be asked if you wish to install the plug-in. Once you restart Firefox you'll be able to view all PDFs right within Firefox.
It was only a couple weeks ago that Growl version 1.1.3 was released, but as some commenters noted on the 1.1.3 post, there was a bug that caused some the inability to install Growl under Leopard. Well, the Growl team has heard your cries and issued an update to Growl that hopes to solve the problem. Some of the bug fixes include:
"Install Failed" message on Leopard is now fixed
Fixed the problem of Growl thinking it was 1.1.2 even after installing 1.1.3
Fixed Growl updater to stop showing updates after you've already installed them
Just a reminder, as Robert hinted half an hour ago today is "Download Day" for Firefox 3. If you haven't yet downloaded the official 3.0 release, be sure to do it today! Firefox is trying to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. At 10 AM PDT (1:00 PM EDT) head over here to get your official download. Note: Only downloads from Mozilla's official site count towards the record.
It's not all about Mozilla's pride, really! Firefox 3 will bring many changes for all Mac users (mostly good), as this is the first release of Firefox that is built primarily using Cocoa for the underlying Gecko 1.9 engine (a project that's been in the works for years). Along with better redraw speed (CoreGraphics vs. the older QuickDraw API) and improved memory handling, the new engine provides the groundwork for a pure-Cocoa, 64-bit clean version of Firefox in the future. Firefox 3's UI is more Maclike now, with Aqua-style widgets improving the view. You can read more about the architectural changes to Firefox 3 and Gecko 1.9 at developer Josh Aas' blog.
Like Erica, I've been poking around the App Store all morning. Unlike Erica, I'm not brave enough to install the firmware without the official word from Apple, but in the meantime, here's a few free apps in there that are definitely worth a download right away.
Google's Mac group has released 
In the past we've 
Are you tired of being distracted by the internet? 
Those wizards of widgets at 
iPresentee
If you switched to 
Just a reminder, as 
