Timebar ($2.99) has got to be one of the wackier utilities I’ve come across but it’s one that may deserve to find a loyal audience. It works like this: You pull down the menu, set a stop time and an optional audio alert. Click “Start” and boom, the menu bar at the top of your screen transforms into a progress bar. A blue line moves from right to left, providing a visual indicator of the time remaining. Now, honestly, this app may not be for everyone. I found the moving bar at the top of my screen gave me a migraine (not a joke migraine, an actual migraine migraine), but I doubt this kind of motion sensitivity will affect most users. If you, like me, have carefully disabled every animation detail on your desktop (no bouncing icons, thank you, no window zooms), the app may not be right for you. I thought it offered a cute idea and implementation. I particularly liked its “snooze” option. It’s not expensive, and it’s very easy to use. Timebar: Turn your menu bar into a countdown timer originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Original post:
Timebar: Turn your menu bar into a countdown timer
It has been busy in the App Store with a handful of new apps landing on iOS and OS X. Take a few minutes and check out our list of standout apps from the past few weeks (all prices are USD)! iOS Apps Currency – Made Simple [iPhone; Category: Travel; $0.99] Currency is a simple converter for travelers. Has over 160 currencies from all over the world. Trial of the Clone [iOS Universal; Category: Business; $3.99] You’re a clone who sets out to find your place in a cold, uncaring, but also kickass and ridiculous futuristic world, solving challenging puzzles and fighting monsters along the way. Written by Zach Weinersmith, creator of the hilarious, award-winning comic strip “Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.” Wil Wheaton voice overs. Triage: Email First Aid [iPhone Category: Productivity; $1.99] Triage is for people who struggle to stay on top of their inbox. It doesn’t try to replace your desktop mail client, but lets you use your downtime to quickly remove the noise and stress. Complete – Reminders, Tasks and Grocery [iPhone; Category: Productivity; $0.99] Complete it. Finish it. Do it. Start organizing and managing your tasks and reminders the best way possible. Dragon Puzzle [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] Dragon Puzzle is an awesome iOS game which combines puzzle- and RPG-playing and set in a fantasy landscape. Bottle Cap Blitz [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] Bottle Cap Blitz is an explosive one-minute action game where you fire bottle caps to smash as many ice cubes as possible in 60 seconds. Blue Toad Murder Files: A Touch of Mystery [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] As one of the detectives from the infamous Blue Toad Agency you arrive in the quaint village of Little Riddle for a well-earned break. But there is murder and mystery afoot. Lumber Jacked [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] Take on the role of Joe the Lumber Jack in his quest for justice against the notorious Bustin Beaver and his band of beaver bandits. YoCam [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; $0.99] YoCam – Beautifully designed and packed with powerful and trendy tools will let you edit fast and perfect your photos. OS X Apps SandboxCleaner [OS X; Category: Utilities; Free] Some QuickTime components are incompatible with OS X sandboxing, which leads to problems — including crashes — with many popular video and photo apps. SandboxCleaner finds and reveals those components, helping you to fix the problems and keep your system up and running smoothly. DM1 – The Drum Machine [OS X; Category: Music; $4.99] DM1 is an advanced drum machine. It turns your computer into a fun and creative beat making machine. WebCode [OS X; Category: Developer Tools; $49.99] WebCode is a vector-drawing app that instantly generates JavaScript+Canvas, CSS+HTML or SVG code. Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing [OS X; Category: Games; $24.99] Take 25 years of SEGA history, a revving lineup of crazy vehicles and the world’s fastest hedgehog and what do you get? Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. New and notable apps for iOS and OS X, April 17 edition originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments 
Nobody likes spam , but if you use Apple’s Mail on Mountain Lion, at least you have some tools to deal with it. Plenty of Mac users rely on Mail to read, manage and process their emails… and spam messages. If you use email, you have spam — that’s just the way it works. Following up on Kelly’s how-to from a few months back , let’s take a look at some ways to manage spam efficiently and decrease your email processing time. Built-in Spam Filtering Mail ‘s built-in spam filtering is enabled by default. You’ll find it in the Junk Mail setting in Preferences. Make sure that the box labeled “Enable junk mail filtering” is selected. You can also determine where spam messages go after detection, or add exemptions to your filter. [Note that some online mail services -- Gmail in particular -- recommend disabling Mail's onboard spam filtering. Be sure to check the setup instructions for your service provider. --Ed.] In the Viewing preferences tab, disable “Display remote images in HTML messages.” Some spammers send out messages with web bugs — invisible images linked to the specific message you received — that notify the spammer that your email is an active email account once you click on the message. From the spammer’s perspective, this “validates” you as a real, live address, which then generates more spam for you. Not good. Turning off this feature prevents the spammer from recognizing your email as an active email account. Creating Rules Mail lets you create rules to fine-tune your spam filtering. One helpful method is to create a new mailbox for messages that meet your spam criteria. Once your new mailbox is created and properly labeled (i.e., “Spam-ish”), go to the Rules setting under Preferences and create specific actions based on a predetermined set of criteria. For example: If all the Content-Type Contains ‘ multipart/related ‘ then Move Message to [the mailbox you just created]. Now that you’ve set that rule, messages that meet your criteria are moved to that mailbox. Fine-Tuning No spam filter is completely foolproof, so you will get false positives and false negatives. Mail allows you to select a message and click on “Not Junk” or “Load Image” which will correct the labeling of the message. The more times you correct these errors, the better Mail gets at reducing them. A good rule of thumb is to review your Junk Mail folder periodically to make sure valid messages haven’t slipped through the cracks. Cloud Mail If you’re not using Mail on your Mac, you still have options in the cloud. An iCloud or Gmail account can act as a buffer between malicious spam and your computer. In some cases, the cloud service filters may be a bit too aggressive ; if you suspect some of your inbound mail is being blocked incorrectly, be sure to check the support page for your provider and test with another account. Third-Party Spam Utilities Several third-party spam utilities are available to further enhance your spam-squashing powers, including SpamSieve from C-Command Software . It’s been around for quite a while and works very well. A single license will cost you US$30; a free trial is also available. SaneBox is an online application which helps to sort your email into proper boxes and reduces your email processing time. An added feature is that it runs through spam amazingly well. The Smart filtering feature of SaneBox reads your email messages, determines the level of importance and moves unimportant messages out of the inbox. The @SaneBlackHole will not only delete your spam messages but makes sure you never receive email from the sender again and automatically unsubscribes you from the mailing list. You can also defer processing your email by placing your email in the “@SaneTomorrow” or “@SaneNextWeek” folder and it will automatically pop back into your inbox when the time comes. The cost for SaneBox is US$5/month but if you refer other people you’ll receive extra credits. The free Mailstrom.co service also can help you reduce spam along with unwanted subscriptions, newsletters and so forth. Mailstrom groups your email by big-picture criteria (sender, subject, size, etc.) and lets you archive or delete in bulk with a single click. For catalog emails or newsletters, you can also unsubscribe in only a few steps, rather than having to track down and confirm individual unsubscribe requests. By using these techniques, hopefully the only place you will see spam is in your musubi . Mac 101: Beef up your spam filters in Mail (video) originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments 
Some Xcode challenges seem to crop up repeatedly. Today, I thought I’d share a few solutions that you might find helpful to integrate into your workflow. Challenge : When you move an Xcode project to a new folder, all your file references die . Solution : Avoid those red “can’t find” file references by changing the way each group defines its location. If you’re pulling in a suite of code from another folder, select it and open the File inspector (View > Utilities > Show File Inspector). Choose “Absolute Path” from the Path pop-up. Now, when you move the folder, those files remain fixed to the original location. You won’t “lose” them in the update. Challenge : Your project is jam-packed with groups and subgroups and you want to find a file in your project. Solution : Start with File > Open Quickly (Command-Shift-O). Enter enough text to locate the file name you’re looking for. Once you find the right name, for example “BezierFunctions.m”, select the name and click Open. The file now appears in the workspace editor. Right-click within the editor and choose Reveal in Project Navigator from the contextual pop-up. Presto, Xcode finds that file for you, opens its parent group or groups, enabling you to manage the file and within its group setting. Challenge : You’re using a function or type and want to quickly reference the original declaration. Solution : Move your mouse to the item in-code, and Command-click. Xcode immediately jumps to the original definition file. Alternatively, press the Option key. The cursor switches to “?” and a dashed highlight appears under the item name. Click to reveal a pop-up menu. Choices on this menu vary, depending on whether the selected item is custom or system supplied. In this screenshot’s example, you can click on BaseGeometry.h to open the file that declared the POINT_IS_NULL macro, providing an equivalent result to command-clicking. The option-click trick also offers more info in addition to the move-to-declaration option, particularly for system-supplied items. Yes, you can jump directly to the CGPath.h header file using this little trick, but you can also read a description summary or hop to the class reference document. DevJuice: Three useful Xcode tricks originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments 
After spending 10 years in beta (and you thought Siri was in beta a long time) OS X launch utility Quicksilver has at last reached version 1.0 . The utility allows users to launch applications or perform tasks through simple keyboard shortcuts. Announcing the release, the developers of Quicksilver said and in a blog post: After almost 10 years of testing, Quicksilver lays the beta tag to rest. (If the lack of an eszett brings a tear to your eye, you can always reminisce by hitting ⌥S on your keyboard). What does this release mean? It means more than just a change in the version numbering system – it signifies a maturity of Quicksilver and a sign of what’s to come. Quicksilver 1.0 is a free download , although the developers are accepting donations . Quicksilver app launcher released after 10 years in beta originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 26 Mar 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments