Mac OS

AEP stands for Active Extension Processor - so what's that all about? The idea is to automatically process a file when its extension is changed in the Finder. For example, if you add ".sit" to the end of a file name, AEP compresses it with StuffIt. Change a ".mp3" file to ".aiff", and AEP will convert the contents from one sound format to another using QuickTime Player. AEP relies on AppleScripts that call appropriate applications to perform these transformations. A variety of plugins are included, and there's a tutorial to help you write your own.

Licence: Freeware.
Online: http://homepage.mac.com/roger_jolly/aep/
Operating system: Mac OS X.
Requires: Mac OS X 10.1.2

Install instructions

		Mac OS

AmphetaDesk aggregates headlines from your choice of thousands of Web sites supporting the RSS protocol (and that includes many blogs as well as "real" news sites such as Australian IT), and presents the results in your browser. Just click on a link to read the full story. We raved about an earlier release of this program, but now it is Mac OS X native and much easier to install. The Classic version of 0.93 revealed a bug in MacPerl, and so its release has been delayed.

Licence: Freeware (but donations accepted).
Online: http://www.disobey.com/
Operating system: Mac OS X (an older version is available for Mac OS).
Requires: Mac OS X.

Install instructions

		Mac OS

If you have any kind of emotional reaction to the phrase "God speed, John Glenn," this Project Mercury flight simulator is a must. An apparently faithful model of the real craft, you'll need plenty of practice to successfully complete a trip. Until registered, the program will only simulate suborbital missions, so if you want to be John Glenn rather than Alan Shepherd, you'll need to stump up the US$59.95.

Licence: Shareware.
Online: http://www.u-r-go.com/
Operating system: Mac OS.
Requires: 333MHz PowerPC, 20MB of free RAM, 3D graphics controller with 8MB RAM, Mac OS 8.6, QuickTime 4.0 or better, and QuickDraw 3D or the Quesa/OpenGL libraries.

Install instructions

		Mac OS

Wocka-wocka-wocka! Some games are timeless. Zork, Tetris and Pacman are three good examples. This Pacman clone for Mac OS X does a good job of recreating the arcade classic. It's not 100% accurate, as there's no "shortcut" route from one side of the maze to the other, but it's fun and it's free.

Licence: Freeware.
Online: http://www.diego.org/
Operating system: Mac OS X.
Requires: Mac OS X.

Install instructions

		Mac OS

Giving Mac OS the ability to write directly to CD burners without any third-party software was a smart move on Apple's part, but only supporting a single session limited its usefulness. CD Session Burner overcomes this restriction without requiring the purchase of a full-scale (and relatively expensive) burning utility. At the time of writing, it was rumoured that Mac OS X 10.2 will burn multiple sessions, but if that feature doesn't eventuate or you're not upgrading immediately, this utility will plug the gap.

Licence: Shareware.
Online: http://www.sentman.com/
Operating system: Mac OS X.
Requires: Mac OS 10.1.4, CD-R(W) drive compatible with Disc Burner.

Install instructions

		Mac OS

Think of Extension Manager for Mac OS X, and you're pretty close to understanding Diablotin. This preference pane lets you activate or deactivate fonts, Internet plug-ins, preference panes, screensavers, sounds and startup items. Fonts and screensavers can be previewed within Diablotin - the former is especially handy as Mac OS X doesn't show a sample when you double-click a font file. It also plays sounds.

Licence: Freeware.
Online: http://s.sudre.free.fr/
Operating system: Mac OS X.
Requires: Mac OS X 10.1.

Install instructions

		Mac OS

Instant messaging is very popular, but the chances are slim that all your contacts will agree on a single service: some will like AIM while others prefer MSN. Fire packs clients for AIM, ICQ, IRC, Jabber, MSN and Yahoo into one application.

Licence: Freeware.
Online: http://www.epicware.com/
Operating system: Mac OS X.
Requires: Mac OS X 10.1.

Install instructions

		Mac OS

"Pro" graphics software can be expensive overkill. Especially when all you want to do is adjust and combine photos, digital graphics and text to create an image for your Web page. Picture Play takes care of the basic manipulations (such as lighten, trim and rotate) as well as compositing multiple images with translucency and transparency effects and adding text. The result can be saved in one of several popular formats, but the list does not include GIF.

Licence: Shareware.
Online: http://www.crescendosw.com/
Operating system: Mac OS, Mac OS X.
Requires: Mac OS 8.6, Mac OS X.

Install instructions

		Mac OS

The way text is smoothed by the Quartz graphics engine in Mac OS X is not everyone's cup of tea, but once you get used to it, unsmoothed text sticks out like a sore thumb. If, like us, you spend a lot of time in Internet Explorer and the Office applications, switching to a program that hasn't been updated for Quartz is very jarring. Silk is a neat little hack that activates smoothing in older Carbon applications. If you find that smoothing disagrees with certain applications, it's easy to tell Silk to give them special treatment.

Licence: Freeware.
Online: http://www.unsanity.com/
Operating system: Mac OS X.
Requires: Mac OS X 10.1.5.

Install instructions

		Mac OS

Stuck in an office cubicle with no line of sight to a window? WeatherPop will give you a clue about what's happening outside by collecting a weather report from the Internet, displaying an appropriate weather icon and temperature in the menu bar, and updating it every 15 minutes. If you're going on a trip, use WeatherPop to get a handle on local conditions - but beware of time zone differences. It's not made clear where the data's coming from, but it seems to include Australian capitals and regional areas. Some place names were recognised, but no data was found. WeatherPop Advance (shareware) adds forecasts and other features.

Licence: Freeware.
Online: http://www.glu.com/
Operating system: Mac OS X.
Requires: Mac OS X.

Install instructions

		Mac OS