mac

Reeder, the new best RSS reader for Mac, is finally out of beta! It's only $9.99, on the Mac App Store.

I used NetNewsWire back in the early '00s, but it has become a complicated beast, and after learning about Reeder beta 1 a few months ago, I was an instant convert.

Reeder is great, because all I ever do is arrow-down through news stories, glance over ones I might be interested, press 'B' to open the really interesting articles in my browser, and then press 'A' then 'return' to mark all stories as read.

Update: More recent versions of QuickTime Player have the ability to copy frames of the video by using 'Command + C'. In recent versions, to grab a frame, do the following:

1. In QuickTime Player: Pause on the frame you want to capture (use arrow keys to go forward/backward by 1 frame).
2. Press 'Command-C' (or select Edit > 'Copy').
3. In Preview: Press 'Command-N' (or select File > 'New from Clipboard')
4. Save the new file where you'd like.

There are many things to like about QuickTime X, and many improvements were included over QuickTime Pro 7... but there were also a ton of features removed (like being able to set advanced export options, save a movie as images, and do some other more advanced edits/exports.

However, I'm glad I finally figured out how I can grab one frame from a movie in QuickTime Player X. The problem I was having is this: If you pause the video and use the left/right arrow keys to move the playhead exactly to the frame you want, the player controls are still showing over the video (in addition to the video title bar/window chrome.

When I'm performing quick calculations or estimates, measuring things, or balancing my checkbook, I just hit Command + Spacebar, then type in what I need to know.

• 1+1? (Spotlight gives the answer right away: 2)
• ((1+1)/4*(232.2-28))+55? (Spotlight gives the answer right away: 157.1

Instant math... way better than any calculator or calculator app I've ever used... and it's always at my fingertips.

Bonus: press Command + C to copy the result to the clipboard. Awesome.

Dear Things developers (Cultured Code),

I know you are perfectionists. I know you're purists. Your software is inspirational, in a way. It's clean, it's fast, and it's functional. You make beautiful software, and I'm glad you've had such great success in the past.

But I have to say, "Goodbye."

The one and only feature that I've been waiting for—OTA sync—is still not here.

You've made some pretty status indicators telling me nothing, but impressing me nonetheless. You've posted some great developer stories about this feature, but given no backbone to your words.

I currently own or use a variety of Macs, and am approaching the end of a 'cycle' of Mac usage, where I need to decided what Mac I'd like to purchase next. Currently, I'm using a 27" iMac at work, an 11" MacBook Air (from work) for travel, and a 24" iMac at home. They're all great computers in their own right, and using Dropbox, MobileMe, and a couple other helper services, I can operate simultaneously on all three Macs, without any hiccups.

So, I'm thinking about getting a new Mac for hardcore development work (web and app), some graphic design, and possible portability. I have an iPad for lighter computing (reading, browsing, email, videos...), so even though the MacBook Air is probably the best thing to happen to a laptop in a very long time, I'm shying away from it as my primary personal computer.

A few weeks ago, I heard rumors of a new Git client for the Mac that was supposed to be even easier/prettier than my past favorite, GitX (specifically, brotherbard's fork of GitX). GitX is simple, and very usable, but just feels rough sometimes. But... it's free, so it is very nice in that way.

Yes, I often work on the server. "Do what I say, not what I do."

This new Git client is Tower, and it is awesome. I paid for two licenses for my two Macs, and I highly recommend it for other Mac users deeply invested in Git. The interface is simple, it has searchable commit logs, it lets you stage and unstage (and modify) changes and commits with efficiency and ease, and it is $50 well-spent. Check out the Tower demonstration video on YouTube.

Today we released Visibility for Mac, a free Mac OS X application that helps you make invisible files visible, easily. Check it out!

I just released Visbility, a simple Mac application that makes showing and hiding invisible files easy, via Midwestern Mac, LLC.

I created this app for three reasons:

I was having this particular problem off and on when using Mac OS X Mail on my work Mac, which was set up to use our corporate exchange server, and an 'Exchange 2007' Mail account: Every so often, Mail would quit getting new messages in the inbox, and when I checked the 'Activity' window, I would get the following error:

(Screenshot to be posted here)
("Opening Mailbox — Requesting Latest Information")

Sometimes, simply hitting the 'stop sign' would allow me to get new messages, but the problem would always crop up again. Other times, I'd pull out my Mac laptop, which was set up to use IMAP instead of Exchange (long story, details don't matter), and after syncing it up with the server, and restarting Mail on my main Mac, the problem would go away.

Only today, after finding this forum thread on Apple's Discussion Forums, did I find the source of the problem: