Mailplane: Let Your Gmail Soar!

Published on November 21, 2007 in Internet Apps and Software. 8 Comments

mailplane_icon.jpgGmail is one of the best (if not the best) web email service available, with over 5gb of storage for all your email, along with a powerful spam filter, automatic attachment virus scanning, and much more.

Gmail is easy enough to use in your internet browser, but have you ever wished it was even easier? No? Well once you try out Mailplane, you’ll wonder why you ever put up with your internet browser.

mailplanescreenshot.jpgMailplane is an application similar to a browser, but designed specifically to work with Gmail. For example, instead of back/forward, there are overview/open buttons. There are also toolbar buttons for going to newer/older messages, composing a new message, replying, archiving, starring, etc. Some features that really seal the deal are drag-and-drop attaching, a download manager, a button to open a web-based Google Talk, as well as the ability to manage multiple Gmail accounts in an account drawer.

It’s not all good, however. For example, there are some toolbar buttons which do the same thing as Gmail buttons, like Archive or Delete, making them pretty much useless. The app suffers from some minor visual bugs, and Leopard users will be disappointed to find that the handy “Attach Screenshot” feature doesn’t work the most recent update fixes this problem.

Mailplane is a private beta app, and can be found here, complete with tutorial video. Fortunately I have two six(!) invites to give away, so as usual, the first six people to comment on this post will receive one. This offer will stay on indefinitely until Mailplane is released as a non-beta app, in which case the invitations will be useless. Mailplane is now my primary email app, ending Apple Mail’s one and a half year reign on my desktop.

BitClamp - Simple File Encryption

Published on November 2, 2007 in Screencast, Utilities and Software. 2 Comments

If you’re reading this blog, you probably know what encryption is. If you don’t, it’s basically saving a file so that you (or anyone else) need a special password to open it.

bitclamp_icon.pngWhile there have been a few encryption applications for Macs, the most Mac-like and easiest to use is BitClamp. A brand-new application, BitClamp strives to make encryption quick and simple, even for those who have no idea how it works.

After using the program for a couple of days, I’ve noticed a few features that really make this application worth buying. For one, it has extremely fast encryption times. It compressed a 10.2 megabyte Quicktime movie in under two seconds on a Mac Pro, and under 4 seconds on a Core Solo Mac mini.bitclamp1.jpg Number two is that it also compresses files as it encrypts them. The 10.2mb movie was shrinked down to 5.2mb. The third is that BitClamp features something called “Covert Files”. This lets you give an encrypted file any name you want, and BitClamp will still recognize and decrypt it. For example, if you had a supersecretstuff.doc document you wanted to secure, you could give it an inconspicuous name like familyphoto.jpg or birthday.avi.

To help show you how BitClamp’s Covert Files works, I’ve created a neat little minute-long video using Screencast. Enjoy:

bitclampscreencastlink.jpg
(the folder being encrypted is about 13.2 MB)

BitClamp is developed in C++/REALBasic (you can’t tell; it seems just like a Cocoa app), which means that it can be adapted to work on Windows, and that’s what the developer intends to do in a later version. There is no Applescript or Automator support, but again, that is intended for a later version (probably within the next few weeks). BitClamp currently costs $10, but on the 8th of November that will change to $15, and again on the 15th to $20. A free decrypter will soon exist, however, so that Mac-using receivers can access files without buying the program. You can try out BitClamp here.

Blog Problems

Published on September 29, 2007 in Site news. 0 Comments

While updating to WordPress 2.3, the entire website broke down. Fortunately, I had a backup, but it was several months old. All the posts are still here (as you can see), but the theme is different, and the images are gone. I’ll spend the next few weeks trying to get RapidMac back to the way it was before this occurred. If you find any problems (such as broken links, etc.), please let me know at admin at rapidmac dot com.

New iPods and MarsEdit

Published on September 9, 2007 in Apple, News, Internet Apps and Software. 0 Comments

itouch.jpgIn case you haven’t heard (in which case you’ve been living in a cave for the past 5 days), Apple just released a brand-spankin’-new iPod nano, iPod classic (a renamed iPod video), and iPod touch (an iPhone without the Phone). All iPods have an updated interface and design. Some of the most noticeable changes are that nanos can now play videos, classics go up to 160gb, the iPod touch goes up to 16gb, and the touch and the iPhone can use the iTunes Store over WiFi/AT&T.

inano.jpgIf you find the new iPod nano and classic repulsive looking at the photos on Apple’s website, don’t fret. In reality, they look much better; for some strange reason, Apple made them seem uglier in advertising. Unboxing photos of the nano and the classic can be found here and here, respectively.

Over in the rumor section, there are hints that iTunes TV download prices may be cut in half, and that 30-day movie rentals may replace movie downloads on the iTMS.

MarsEditAlso, MarsEdit 2.0 was released a few days ago, sporting a new user interface, the ability to make new categories on WordPress blogs and others, and Flickr photo integration. 2.0 is being used to write this post, and I haven’t encountered any problems yet.

Sorry about the extreme lack of posts over the last few weeks, but ever since summer ended I’ve been swamped with work. The weekends are the only periods where I can find time to blog, but I should still be able to churn out a post a week or so. There’s also a new Software I Use Daily page, which, obviously, lists cool Mac software that I use daily. You can get to the page from the sidebar under “Links”.

Thanks for reading faithfully!

Quinn - Ultimate Mac Tetris

Published on August 16, 2007 in Games and Software. 0 Comments

Has anyone else discovered that there are no good Mac Tetris programs? There are some, but they’re low-quality and un-Mac-like (if you know of a program that isn’t, don’t hesitate to prove me wrong in the comments).

Quinn IconThere is at least one good Tetris for Mac program, however, and that’s Quinn. It uses animation, amazing graphics, and a general Apple feel to make Mac users feel right at home. It doesn’t add any new types of gameplay, but instead tries to keep to the original Tetris style.

Something you might be very surprised to find when you open Quinn is the Network screen. Here, you can connect to servers over LAN or even over the Internet. The Quinn website has a list of all servers that are running, along with the number of players, a description, the IP address, and a handy Connect button. The multiplayer mode has everything you’d expect from an online game: chat, server highscores, and views of everyone else’s screen.

Quinn is also extremely customizable, letting you change everything from the key combination to the Tetrimino styles to the background image. And with the latest version, doing all this is drag-and-drop. To get a new background, for example, you download it from the website, open up the folder, then drag-and-drop the background image into the well in the preferences panel.

There are a few problems with Quinn. For one, if there are too many players on a server to fit on your window, the game simply puts a scroll bar, and doesn’t resize the players’ screens, so you have to keep making your window larger and larger. Not to mention that even with a meager five players connected to a server, Quinn lags considerably. Also, if the chat text box is in focus, the only way to go back to playing Quinn is to click somewhere in the chat record; clicking back on the game screen doesn’t do anything. This could mean the difference between winning and losing.

The positives well outweigh he negatives, however, and Quinn is a great game to have, even if you’re not a big Tetris fan. The best part? It’s 100% free. Get it now at www.simonhaertal.de.

A quick little unrelated note: I’ll be on a trip to California until next Sunday, so don’t expect any posts between now and then. Thanks for your patience!

ButtonBuilder Bounces Back

Published on August 4, 2007 in News and Internet Apps. 0 Comments

ButtonBuilderEver wanted to create simple buttons for your website without having to open an advanced image editor? Well, thanks to RealMac Software (creators of RapidWeaver), now you can.

ButtonBuilder, an application that was mothballed a year ago, was just resurrected, and it’s just as useful as ever. With over 50 different button styles and the ability to make your own styles, it lets you spend less time while still retaining uniqueness. To create a new web button, you open up ButtonBuilder, select a button style on the left, click “Adjust” to change the text content, position, the button width, opacity, and more. When you’re done, you click “Export” to save the button as a JPG or a PNG.

To create a new button style, you open an image editor and create left, middle, and right images. You drag them into ThemeBuilder (a seperate app included in the download), and it exports the completed theme as a folder, which you can then install at ~/Library/Application Support/ButtonBuilder/.

ButtonBuilder is a great application that only does one thing, and does it very well. It does have some bugs, but they’re small and dismissable, especially considering that BB is a free app. If this sounds interesting to you, go check it out!

New Backpack!

Published on July 31, 2007 in Information Organizer, Online Apps and News. 0 Comments

backpack.pngNo, not the kind that holds an ever-growing amount of school-related waste. 37signals just released a new version of their amazingly popular info manager, Backpack. With dividers, drag-and-drop “items anywhere” reordering, dragdrop transfer between pages, a less-cluttered interface, search, OpenBar integration, and more, this update adds both features that you’d probably never have thought of, and features that should have been there from the start. To check out the new version, head over to BackpackIt.com!

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