Freeware of the week: OSXplanet (Mac)

Most desktop earth simulators carry a hefty price tag (EarthDesk and Live Deskpicture each cost $20, not including upgrades). Being a young designer on a budget, I scoured the web for a cheaper alternative and stumbled upon the donation-ware gem, OSXplanet.

Based on the popular XPlanet, OSXplanet matches most its competitors’ features for free. It offers […]

Freeware of the week: Shades (Mac)

Better brightness control for your Mac

As computer displays become brighter and larger, most controls for setting brightness levels remain crude. Apple’s latest displays, for example, are still very bright even at the minimum brightness setting. For designers and others spending hours in front of a computer, the inevitable consequences are sore eyes and headaches. Charcoal […]

Instantly open Word docs with TextEdit

Just by accident, I discovered TextEdit’s forgotten superpower to open and edit Word docs. Just drag any Word document onto TextEdit, and it opens instantly. Barely a wait. Not even a splash screen.

If you’re sick of waiting for Word’s one-billion toolbars and useless features to load, this is a step closer to escaping the clenches […]

Get 10 insanely great Mac apps for under 50 bucks

MacHeist is bundling 10 award-winning Mac Apps for a fantastic price of $49. To get into the season, 25% of the sale goes to a charity of your choice. The bundle includes:

Delicious Library FotoMagico ShapeShifter Devonthink Personal Disco RapidWeaver iClip 4 One game by Pangea NewsFire (unlocked when $50k charity is raised) TextMate (unlocked when $50k $100k charity is raised)

Buying all applications separately will […]

Automagically organize your files with Hazel

If you can’t seem to keep your files organized and your desktop’s turned into a smelly junkyard, Hazel might help. An ingenius Mac app from Paul Kim, Hazel lets you create and attach rules and actions to any folder on your Mac——even the desktop.

Drag files into a folder or desktop, and Hazel processes […]

The fast and easy way to pick and convert colors

Need a quick way to pick and convert color values without opening Photoshop?

Check out the free widget with funny British spelling, ColourMod. This handy widget lets you pick colors and automatic convert their values into CYMK, RGB, HSV, and Hex. All at a glance.

It’s available for both Dashboard (Mac) and Yahoo! Widget Engine, […]