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Cyberduck A great, free, FTP client. I was considering purchasing Transmit after using quite a few other freeware clients, but this does everything I need and more.

"Built with an easy-to-use interface, this free, GPL-licensed FTP browser is a lean, mean, file-managing machine. Cyberduck 2.3.1 offers feature-rich FTP file management and handles basic tasks with ease."

HyperEdit I've not done a huge ammount of editing with this yet, but it seems to be a great, cheap, html editor.

"Tumult HyperEdit is a lightweight HTML editor with a preview pane that displays the web page live as you type. HyperEdit breaks the tedious cycle of writing html, saving the file, then reloading and viewing the page in the browser by combining the writing phase with the viewing phase. This clarifies the effects of your changes and speeds up the overall process of making a web page. W3C-based validation will red-underline any mistakes. It uses the same rendering engine found in Safari, so it is not only standards compliant, but also very fast."

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Clutter ( http://www.sprote.com/clutter/ )

You know how when you flip through your CDs, they're in a clutter all about your room? Well, this moves the clutter to your desktop. It also automatically downloads album covers so that you can export it iTunes. Great app! :D

  • 1 month later...
now thats a useful comment...  :rolleyes:

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Nah just asking, you'll find out more about a program when using it yourself. People always forget to mention a feature that can be helpful etc.

And hey man your comment is very useful too! :rolleyes:

Has anyone given this a try:

http://www.fastdvdcopy.com/

Probably the closest I've found to DVDShrink on OS X.

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I have. It worked 2 out of the 3 times I tried it.

The one that didn't work didn't need to be compressed, it was just a straight burn. The final DVD would play on some DVD players but not others, and it wouldn't play on Apple's DVD player either.

This thread is useful, but what about a 'OS X lemons' thread? I know I've paid for a few pieces of OS X software only to find out later that they are actually not quite all they're cracked up to be.

Before I go any further, I should point out that of the 30-40 shareware apps I've purchased, almost all of them are excellent and well worth the purchase price.

That said, here are a few examples of purchases that, in hindsight, were less than excellent:

PulpFiction: This seemed like a really great piece of software during the time I tried it. However, shortly after buying a licence I found that it crashed all the time, it became extremely sluggish after accumulating any more than a handful of feeds, and can't even properly display an accurate count of unread messages. Yes, I'm sure I have -98 unread messages in my inbox. That's two seconds of my life I'll never get back.

WeatherPop: For months I used this thing in spite of the fact that it provided completely wrong icons for the current forecast (ie rain and thunder icons for sunny weather, a moon in the middle of the day, etc). This was listed as a known issue on their site months ago when I first checked, and it's still happening. Sloppy.

Path Finder: Not really a lemon as such, just a piece of software I eventually came to realise I didn't need. Fully integrating it into OS X is just a little bit too fiddly and requires a little too much nursing to keep it happy. The features it integrates are nice but I don't use them enough to justify running a single app that bundles them all. You really need to want this app to get any use out of it (ie, you have to really really want the 'erase disc' icon on the toolbar of your Finder instead of having to go into Disk Utility, or the 'compress' icon instead of, well, right clicking and choosing 'archive' like you would in OS X Finder - I just didn't find myself needing these things very often or that badly). The price paid for those extras in being faced with a Finder environment that was just slightly sluggish and slightly resource-intensive was just a bit high. Still, it's not buggy per se so as long as you have a specific need for it, it'll be useful.

OmniWeb: This is really a great browser with heaps of brilliant features, but it is just simply too damn slow and still just a little buggy. Sometimes it can take as many as eight or ten bounces just to launch this app, and that's on a G5 with 2GB of RAM (just tried it then and it took 7 - all I'm doing is typing this in Safari and playing an iTunes playlist). Not good enough. Performance starts off as less than ideal at launch and declines from there to the point where bugs begin to appear. Omni's tech support acknowledged there were performance and stability issues relating to the amount of time OmniWeb has been running, and suggested quitting and relaunching. That's not really a deal-breaker in itself, but all of these things add up to leave just enough of a sour taste in the mouth that it's just as easy to stick with Safari+Saft in the end.

Windowshade X: This is a pretty neat haxie, but like the above examples there's just enough in the minus column here to make it seem like missed potential. The minimize-in-place feature is damn cool, but half the time pressing the MIP shortcut does the wrong thing (for instance it might make the window shade instead of MIP). When I'm working, I'm just too busy to deal with unreliable or inconsistent software. The 'cool' factor just isn't cool enough to compensate for the underlying issues. I'll add to this that I have generally grown wary of anything that runs off APE. While I love ShapeShifter (and I don't count that as a lemon at all, it's excellent), I rely on my machines to work without even the slightest hitch, so I'm going to learn to live without it for a while.

Unison and Transmit: Don't get me wrong, I like Panic's products. I will keep using them because they are better than the alternatives, IMO. However, there are still issues with both of these apps that I find annoying. Unison is slow and occasionally a little buggy. Transmit's type-ahead support is not up-to-scratch which occasionally makes getting files out of large directories a nightmare. I also can't get the 'raw FTP command' option to DO anything, but that's probably me not using it properly. Not that I'd know, however, as there is absolutely nothing of substance in Transmit's help documentation or on the Transmit website. Come on guys, when you're charging for your software, provide a break-down of how to use its features. In this regard, it's quicker and simpler for me to just call up a Terminal window and use FTP over a command line.

Pretty soon, when you start to add up all of these items, you begin to realise that you've spent a not inconsiderable sum of money on stuff that in a lot of ways just isn't up to par for the Mac experience. Some of the licences for this stuff costs $30 or $40 each. So while we're talking about the 'essentials', maybe it'd be useful just to throw out some caveats so the people who do decide to take the plunge at least do so knowingly.

Out of all of these examples, the only one I really regret purchasing is PulpFiction, and possibly WeatherPop (why I put them at the top). The rest are pretty good and I don't really regret having bought them. I'm just not sure that, knowing what I know now, I'd buy them again if I could go back in time.

And finally, hopefully this isn't necessary but I have a nagging feeling it might be: please don't give us any of that caveat emptor talk. Buying software licences isn't like buying a piece of furniture, a television set, or a car. You can't just take it back or get it fixed if it turns out not to work properly, and you certainly don't get any kind of warranty (in fact, most of the time you are paying for an EULA that specifically says the software may completely hose your entire system and, if it does, that's just too bad). Too often there's this insistence that the burden is always on the customer to check everything, to do all the testing, etc. There is something to be said for this for sure, it's bloody stupid to buy a piece of software without trying the evaluation version; BUT these vendors are still selling a product that in many ways and far too often does not live up to the experience they sold you. Most of the time the annoyances are relatively tiny, so that you may not spot them during an evaluation period, only to come across them later under more intense scrutiny. And yes, just in case you were wondering, I do research my purchases beforehand. I check sites' forums. I Google. But it's simply not feasible to expect someone to read through an entire forum of posts or go through 20,000 Google links just to make absolutely sure there is no possibility that somehow the weather app you're about to buy might show you completely the wrong icon. It's wrong to expect people to anticipate every possible hitch and rule each of them out prior to buying something.

As a Mac user I expect the things I pay for to work. Not for them merely to work sometimes, or temperamentally, but consistently and reliably. I certainly wouldn't tolerate the kind of issues I've pointed out here from Apple, and I doubt any of you would either. If Mail.app showed a negative number of messages unread, these forums would go absolutely bezerk. While I know these guys are usually small developers and their products are often just hobbies, we're not exactly paying them with 'hobby' money either.

So my advice to all the people here who, like me, may be just a little too eager to whip out the credit card: be prepared to be annoyed by software you buy from smaller Mac developers. Most of the time the apps will be insanely cool, but almost always they'll have just a few hitches that are mostly frustrating simply because you know that the app in question might just be perfect were it not for a few tiny blemishes.

What about everyone else? Any of you who read this thread a little less than thrilled with having purchased any of these apps?

(wow.. this was way too long. Sorry :()

Has anyone given this a try:

http://www.fastdvdcopy.com/

Probably the closest I've found to DVDShrink on OS X.

585396648[/snapback]

I've tried 2 or 3 times, It worked for me, but one thing is for sure, it's not FAST!!!!

It took a hell of a time to copy the dvd to hd, shrink it and then burn it, and I have an iMac G5. DVDShrink it's a hell lot faster.

Anyway, the copies were good, looked all right to me, and worked with DVD Player too...

I still like DVDRemaster anyway....

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    • Disabling open on hover, great! That was so stupid! They need to do a fix, where if a network share is disconnected, it doesn't hang when opening "This PC" for 20 seconds.
    • Microsoft releases major feature updates for stock Windows 11 apps by Taras Buria In addition to releasing new Windows 11 preview builds, Microsoft announced that inbox Windows apps now have dedicated release notes in the official documentation. At long last, users have access to all the release notes for each app, with changes listed in chronological order. Microsoft used to announce feature updates for stock apps with each build. Now, with Windows Insider release notes hosted on the Microsoft Learn website, each app has a dedicated space for its changelog, which is very useful for those who want to track new features and improvements. Alongside that, Microsoft dropped massive feature updates for six stock apps: Clock, Media Player, Calculator, Voice Recorder, Photos, and Paint. Each app packs quite a lot of changes and new capabilities, so here are the release notes. Here are quick notes so that you can jump to the app you are interested in the most: Calculator Camera Clock Media Player Paint Photos Sound Recorder Here is what is new for the Calculator in version 11.2605.9.0: More accurate square-root results — Fixed rare cases where a calculation that should equal zero (like sqrt(2.25) - 1.5) returned a tiny leftover value instead. Readable text in High Contrast themes — Settings text now shows the correct colors in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes. Fixed layout for right-to-left languages — For languages like Arabic and Hebrew, the graph, number pad, equation fields, and scroll buttons now appear correctly oriented. Reliable launch after upgrading — Fixed an issue where upgrading from much older versions could leave outdated settings that stopped the app from opening. Here is what is new for the Camera app (version 2026.2605.7.0): Zoom slider works on more cameras — The zoom slider now works on the latest cameras, respects your system zoom settings, and updates instantly when you change those settings. Full range of zoom levels — Fixed an issue where the zoom slider only showed three steps on some devices that zoom in finer increments. Front camera works on more devices — Resolved a problem that blocked the front-facing camera on certain wide-angle devices. More video resolution choices — You can now pick video resolutions that were previously hidden; the app shows a heads-up warning instead of removing them. QR links you can still use — When a scanned QR code points to something with no matching app, the link is now copied to your clipboard (with a notification) while still offering a Store search. Smarter default settings — When you haven't set a preference, the app now follows your system settings by default. The Clock app has a massive changelog with the following improvements in version 11.2605.9.0: Timers keep counting after they hit zero — When a timer runs out, it now keeps counting up (for example, -00:27:31) so you can see how far past the time you've gone. You can turn off the daily goal — Focus Sessions now include an "Off" option so you can skip setting a daily goal entirely. New 15-minute snooze option — Alarms now offer a 15-minute snooze interval. Run up to 3 countdowns at once — The Countdown Widget now supports three simultaneous countdowns, up from two. Timer Widget notifications now appear — Fixed an issue where the "timer finished" notification didn't show when the timer was started from the widget. Less clutter in Focus Sessions — Tasks you've already completed no longer show up in the Focus Session task list. More accurate focus progress — Fixed a rounding issue that could show your daily focus progress as a minute short (for example, 49 minutes instead of 50). Smoother World Clock comparisons — The World Clock compare page now loads dates as you scroll, so it feels more responsive. Up-to-date World Clock locations — Refreshed country and city names to match their current names. Correct sun and moon icons during midnight sun — Fixed an icon that wrongly showed a moon during all-day daylight in polar regions. Fixed back-button behavior in clock comparisons — Pressing back once now takes you back as expected, instead of jumping the date to 1926. Corrected the Newfoundland time zone — Newfoundland now uses the right time zone (St. John's). Disabled alarms stay looking disabled — Editing a turned-off alarm no longer makes it appear turned on. Cleaner timer cards — The expand button is now turned off on timer cards that have no time set, preventing actions that wouldn't do anything. Clearer theme setting — Updated the wording to "Choose your preferred app theme." Smoother Settings links — The "About" links in Settings no longer trigger an unexpected "switch apps" prompt. Fixed spacing in Spotify settings — Corrected uneven spacing in the Spotify settings card. Better focus visibility in High Contrast — The focus highlight in World Clock is now clearly visible in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes. No more double announcements — Screen readers no longer read the timer value twice. Countdown names read correctly — Screen readers now properly announce the name of each countdown. Keyboard focus stays put — Focus no longer disappears after you press the Timer Reset button. Clearer alarm toggle for screen readers — Tidied up how the alarm on/off switch is announced. The Media Player app received plenty of changes as well (version 11.2605.14.0): Custom captions — You can now personalize how closed captions appear, with caption styling tied to your Windows caption settings, plus a quick link to open those settings directly. "Indexing" banner in the play queue — When your media library is still being scanned, a banner now explains why some items may not appear yet. Fixed the look of selected items — Corrected a layout glitch with selected items in lists. Fewer playback failures — Improved how the app recognizes supported file types, so more files play without issues. Playlists need a name — You can no longer accidentally save a playlist with a blank name. Cleaner look for empty playlists — Improved how a playlist appears when it has no items yet. More stable play queue edits — Fixed a crash that could happen when changing the play queue while the app was switching between sessions. Clearer "missing codec" message — Improved the dialog that appears when a file needs a codec you don't have, with clearer guidance on what to do. A big update is also available for Paint in version 11.2605.61.0: Adjustable eraser transparency — You can now control how transparent the eraser is. Cleaner stamp brush strokes — Fixed visible color shifts and artifacts when using stamp-style brushes. JPEG photos save in place — Opening a rotated JPEG and pressing Save now overwrites the original instead of unexpectedly prompting "Save As." No more crash on bad image files — Opening a damaged or invalid image, from within the app, by double click, or commandline, now shows a clear error message instead of closing the app. Classic selection behavior restored — The selection outline now hides while you move, resize, or rotate a selection, just like in classic Paint. Tidier AI image panel — Fixed missing spacing at the bottom of the AI image generation panel for a cleaner layout. Visible button hover in light theme — Toolbar split buttons now show a clear hover highlight in the light theme. Snappier toolbar — Streamlined how the ribbon lays out, giving a small speed boost at startup. Fewer background crashes — Fixed a crash that could happen while background tasks were finishing up. Stable app shutdown — Prevented rare crashes when closing the app. Fixed layer removal glitch — Deleting the active layer no longer leaves the layers list in an inconsistent state. Here is what is new in the Photos app (version 2026.11060.2004.0): AI watermarking — AI-generated or edited images can now carry a visible Copilot watermark. You choose Never, Always, or Ask Every Time in Settings, with a confirmation when saving. The watermarking is off by default in settings. Better viewing of small images and pixel art — Tiny images (like 16×16 pixel art) now zoom in far more to fill the screen and stay crisp instead of looking blurry. Select scanned text with the keyboard — When text is detected in an image, you can now navigate and select it using the arrow keys, Shift+Arrow, Home/End, and Ctrl+A, with a clear focus highlight. Fixed a crash in text recognition — Resolved a crash that could close Photos while detecting text in images; the app now recovers gracefully. Easier keyboard navigation — Tabbing through the navigation bar no longer stops on hidden controls, so it takes a single Tab to move past it instead of three. And finally, here is the Sound Recorder (version 11.2605.1.0): Waveform shows with Bluetooth mics — The live waveform now displays correctly when you record using a Bluetooth audio device. No more stray scrollbar — A non-working horizontal scrollbar no longer appears at the bottom of the waveform unless you've zoomed in. Mark button ready right away — The Mark button no longer looks grayed out until you hover over it after opening the app. Markers hidden for WAV files — Markers are now turned off for WAV recordings, since that format can't store them — so they're no longer lost silently. Smoother deleting — Quickly pressing Delete and Enter to remove several recordings in a row no longer triggers a "file doesn't exist" error. Fixed a memory issue — Resolved a memory leak that occurred each time a recording started. You can find all these changelogs in the official documentation here.
    • again, an article about Microsoft Edge and ridicules hater's comments
    • From this very same article: "For organizations that prefer a “more deliberate pace”, the Extended Stable channel remains an option."
    • Or every other browser, because they all behave the same, at least the mainstream ones. Firefox does exactly the same: background updates, restart to install them. Haters gotta hate, I guess.
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