Macgasm

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Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner

In this episode, Grant talks about using TinkerTool and Secrets to modify your Mac.

[Download] [01.2 MB] [0:02:20]
Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner

In this episode, Josh talks about Drobo Pro.

If you spend most of your day coding, or even looking at copious amounts of text and characters, there’s probably a good chance that you’ve recently had to revert some revisions, or even had to figure out the differences between multiple versions.

There’s nothing worse then working on a file with a group of people, when someone decides to change some code or text on you (sorry brad!) and you have absolutely no idea what needs to be switched back.

Most coders use some sort of SVN, but some of us couldn’t be bothered. Why would we install an SVN when we have access to Apple’s FileMerge tool for free.  Please note the sarcasm.  I know there’s plenty of good reasons for an SVN and don’t need more hate mail.  I get enough!

Anyway,  File merge is a simple little application that lets you compare two text files and find the differences between the two files.

It’s nothing earthshattering, but it’ll let you know if some douche (again, sorry Brad) added a stupid semi colon when he really needed a question mark.  I found the mistake immediately, and saved myself hours of checking my code line by line.

FileMerge is free and comes on the Xcode install discs that ship with all those new Macs out there.  There’s a good chance you have the discs kicking around somewhere, and if you don’t you can get it for free from Apple’s Developer website.

Below is a quick example comparing two ancient header files from an even more ancient OS Commerce website (Note: Ugh, table layouts FTL).

What Tweetie Can Do For You.

Tweetie is a native Twitter application. It’s lightweight and gives you the ability to manage your Twitter addiction by giving you access to the basic core functions of Twitter.

We do have the ability to manage more than one account at a time, which is excellent for those of us running a personal twitter account and an account for our websites or business. The fact that this option even exists means that the guys over at Tweetie haven’t completely pushed aside the power users on Twitter.

The application is sleek and is everything most people need out of a twitter client.  It gives you access to short urls, it lets you preview links in new windows, and better yet, it’s not an eyesore.  It gets you back to enjoying your twitter time, and away from cursing your twitter client.

What Tweetie Is Not.

It’s not for power users–yet. Keep in mind that the application is brand spanking new, so a lot of the bells an whistles that power users have come to enjoy over the last couple of years are absent.

We don’t have access to creating groups, and we can’t continuously track search terms. As someone who uses Twitter for both personal and “business” purposes, it’s hard to live without being able to track “Apple”, “Mac”, and “iPhone” live.   I should probably clarify this point a little. They give you the ability to view your searches live in a new window (go to the window menu, then click open in new window, after entering your search criteria), but they don’t remain active if you close the program and reopen it.  You essentially have to set it up again every time you want to track a search.  It’s not a deal breaker, but it would be awesome if they let you add it to your sidebar.

Another little quirk seems to be that Tweetie doesn’t keep track of your “viewed tweets” between your sessions.  Hopefully this one gets fixed quick.  It’s hard to keep track of your new tweets.

Stuff we would like to see added

Growl

The application is extremely polished for a first version, and I really have no major complaints about it. Well, that’s not truthful, I would love to see growl integration. What’s a native OS X application without Growl support these days? Power users wouldn’t really use it as growl updates from 700+ followers would dominate your screen pretty quickly, but considering the average user feel of the application Growl is a must.

Favourites

I’ve spent quite a bit of time today trying to figure out how to view my favourite tweets, sadly, as far as I can tell, you can not. You can tag things as a favorite by right clicking on the tweet, and selecting mark as favourite, but I can’t get a list of them. If you know where they are let me know. If they don’t exist yet, that blows.

Pricing

Tweetie has gone the route of Twitterific. It’s free if you don’t mind the ads, and it’s 15 dollars if you can’t stand the ads. I went the free route and to be honest I’ve yet to be distracted by an ad. That’s good for users, but not so good for advertisers. Lets keep it on the down low though. For the record I’m not saying that you should use the application’s free version, but if moneys tight and you can’t afford to drop the developers some much deserved coin, you have options.

Gallery

[Download] [01.2 MB] [0:02:20]
Hosted by: Grant Brunner

In this episode, Grant talks about getting the most out of Netflix by using Understudy, Phone Flix, and Netflix RSS feeds.

You want to sell an operating system? You talk about its features. You want to sell a laptop,you talk about the laptop. Both of which the “Laptop Hunter” videos do not do. The new “Get a Mac” ads do both, and manage to burn PCs at the same time. This is what makes the marketing genius. The say everything they need to say, and they’re sardonic in a way that we can all love.  If you want to watch all the videos in the archive you can check out the Get A Mac page.  There’s some real epic ads in there.  If you’re looking to see the latest videos you can also follow the links below.  The video will play in a new window or tab.

Biohazard Suit

Legal Copy

Stacks

Time Traveler

There have been a ton of questions on twitter regarding twitter clients for Mac OS X. So I thought I’d compile a list, and a brief description of each. This is by no means an exhaustive list, since there are hundreds of twitter clients available.

Twhirl

Twhirl is one of the most popular Desktop based twitter applications. Twhirl is based on Adobe Air, meaning that it is cross-platform across Mac, Windows and Linux platforms. Twhirl is maintained and created by the folks over at seesmic. Twhirl allows a user to connect to multiple twitter accounts. This is useful if you run more than one account, like one for a business, and one for your personal twitter account. Twhirl is completely free and can be downloaded from twhirl.org.

Twitterific

Twitterific was one of the first Mac OS X desktop twitter clients. It’s created and maintained by the guys over at Icon Factory. Twitterific is only useable for a single account, there is no multi-account support. Twitterific can integrate with growl, for new message notification. There are two versions of twitterific. The free client, which includes advertisements inline with the application. And there is the paid version, which is $14.95 and is completely ad-free. You can download your copy from iconfactory’s website.

twitterpod

Twitterpod is a very simple interface for twitter. The biggest addition with Twitterpod is the ability to store messages. It’s maintained by @drikin over at drikin.com. Twitterpod is a free client and can be downloaded from Drikin.com.

Tweetie

The newest twitter client is Tweetie. Just released on April 20, 2009 it features quite a bit, including integrated search, a nice UI with the ability to keep searches in a separate window, which is actively updated.
It’s created and maintained by the folks over at Atebits I don’t have a screenshot for this one, since it’s not out yet. But you can watch the preview video over at Tweetie’s website.

Nambu

Nambu is still in beta, but it looks promising. Much like Tweetie, it provides navigation on the left hand side. It allows for multiple twitter accounts, which is always a plus. It also provides access to identi.ca and laconi.ca based networks. It’s run by the guys over at nambu. It is still in Beta, so there are still bugs, but it’s usable. It’s free, but it could change, I don’t know what they’re plans are. You can download it directly from Nambu’s website.

It looks like the twitter App to end all other twitter apps is going to be  released soon.  If my twitter stream is filled with conversations about an application, it has to be the best right?  If it’s any indication of success, twitter certainly thinks Tweetie is going to blow the socks off the Twitter world on Monday.

It’s one of the sexier looking Twitter applications I’ve stumbled across, so I’ll be giving it a shot on Monday with the rest of the twitterverse.  The video from their site shows great design, and effectively segments the information you’re getting from twitter.  The don’t show much information about groups or live search streams, but I’m hoping that it’s supported. Tweet Deck is great for tracking the tags #iPhone, #Apple, and #Mac.  It’s become a necessity for me.  If this technology is built in, I’m game for making the switch.

You can catch a quick sneak peek of the application on their site.  It’s a nice tease about what you can expect on Monday.