Shottr: An Awesome Mac Screenshot Utility!

Shottr Mac Screenshot App

Shottr is quite possibly the best screenshot software for the Mac I’ve ever used! I can’t say enough about how much I like this app. It’s obviously built by people who care about quality.

From the website:

“Shottr is a small, fast, human-sized screenshot app built for those who care about pixels. It was crafted with Swift, optimized for M1, and is completely free at the moment.”

Scrolling screenshots, rulers, text recognition (OCR), and a color picker are just a few of its many features. You can even vote on what features they add next directly on the homepage. Go grab a copy while it’s still free. I have it, but I’m totally willing to pay for this kind of high-quality and extremely useful software. If the Shottr folks happen to come across this post, please don’t follow the trend of making it a subscription. Single purchase, family licensing, paid upgrades are all fine — I just can’t take another subscription.

You can find more videos on Twitter.

Sparrow: A simplified Mac email app. It looks cool, but IMAP support is still lacking.

Sparrow - Mac Email App

Today I gave Sparrow a try. It’s a simplified Mac email app that recently gained support for imap email accounts. Prior to version 1.1 it was strictly for use with Google’s gmail (which I don’t use).

I was curious about the idea of using a much more streamlined email client. Currently I use Apple’s Mail, and although I have no real complaints about Mail, I’m always looking for ways to simplify my day. I wasn’t sure if I would like Sparrow, but that’s the beauty of imap – if I decided I didn’t like it, I could seamlessly go back to Mail without worrying about losing anything or having to migrate from one app to another since all the mail lives on the server and syncs to any app I use.

Unfortunately, Sparrow’s imap implementation has one big problem that made going back and forth a little more painful than it should be. When I set up my email address in Sparrow it didn’t recognize my existing imap folders for Sent, Drafts, Junk, and Trash, so it proceeded to create it’s own versions of these folders. That kind of sucked, but the real oversight from the developers of Sparrow is not building in any way to manually map it’s folders to your existing folders. The result is I now have two sets of folders – one being used by Sparrow, and the other being used by Apple Mail. Both sets actually show up in both apps, so messages aren’t getting lost, but it adds a layer of complexity that doesn’t need to exist.

Supposedly the next version of Sparrow will add the ability to map existing folders, but in my opinion the imap support should have never gone live without this basic functionality. I won’t be trying it again until they fix this.

Although my testing was cut short due to Sparrow’s lack of proper imap support, there was one (negative) thing that jumped out at me right away. If you select a message and hit the delete key, the message isn’t moved into the trash, it’s moved to a folder called, archive. Presumably this behavior is due Sparrow’s roots as a gmail-only app, because gmail archives deleted messages, but I found this behavior just plain wrong.

To me, an Archive is a safe place you use to store items you’re no longer actively accessing, but you need to keep for possible future use. The Trash on the other hand is a place you put things that you no longer want to keep. By these definitions, it makes absolutely no sense to hit the delete key to move items to a “safe place”. As the name implies – delete means throw away. I can’t think of any other software where hitting the delete key actually saves something instead of deleting it. To make things worse, Sparrow also has an Archive button – clicking it also moves items into the archive folder, so essentially archiving and deleting do the same thing. If you truly want to delete something you have to hit Command-Delete. I find this behavior very confusing and I hope they correct this soon.

My last gripe is actually directed at the developers themselves. They kind of make it a little difficult to have conversations with them as they’ve somewhat closed themselves off. Their blog is powered by Tumblr, so that means no comments. Their suppor site is hard to find, as they don’t even provide a link to it on the Sparrow site. I personally find this annoying.

MacUpdate Promo: 11 Mac Apps for $50

MacUpdate Promo

MacUpdate is running a bundle promotion where you can can 11 mac apps for just $49.99 (a $381 value). These bundle promotions come and go on a variety of sites, and more often than not the included apps are just OK. But, this one has some nice apps including, Parallels, 1Password, TechTool Pro. Check the site for the complete list.

It should be noted that the version of Techtool Pro included in the bundle is 5. The current version of the app is 6, so you’ll need to spend an additional $40 for the upgrade if that’s an important app to you.

Is Adobe rethinking how Flash should be used?

Adobe Home Page

Ever since Adobe acquired Macromedia, just about every page at adobe.com has been thick with Flash content. Their home page, especially, always had lots of motion and giant interactive flash banners. Recently, they’ve been doing some redesign work on the site, and I was extremely surprised today when I noticed that the entire site is almost completely void of any Flash content. Flash is used very sparingly (and tastefully). And, the home page currently has no Flash at all.

Given Adobe’s past use of Flash, and their very public feud with Apple regarding the quality, stability, and usefulness of Flash, I found this new, subtle use to be very uncharacteristic of them.

Now, I’m not complaining at all. I personally think the site is better without all that overuse of Flash. But, it does make me wonder if Adobe is rethinking exactly how and when Flash should be used.

I was actually kind of surprised when Adobe starting adding all that Flash to their site in the first place. Many years ago Macromedia tried to convert their entire site to Flash, and it was a dismal failure. One which they spent months undoing. I would have thought that Adobe would learn from Macromedia’s mistake.

So, is Adobe rethinking it’s position on how Flash should be used, or have the Flash designers simply not caught up with the web designers, and all that Flash will be back eventually? Only time will tell.

Wunderlist Task Manager: A Compelling Alternative to ‘Things’

In terms of task management, I’ve been a very happy user of, Things, on both the Mac and my iPhone since the software first came out. I haven’t had any plans to switch apps, but today I noticed a todo app called, Wunderlist, that Apple is featuring as this week’s, iPhone app of the week. I decided to take a look, and I have to say I’m pretty impressed.

Like Things, Wunderlist is available for both the Mac and the iPhone, but, unlike Things, it’s also available for Windows. Wunderlist isn’t nearly as full-featured as Things, and it is missing some high-priority features, like scheduled and recurring tasks. But, Wunderlist does have a few key advantages over Things:

  • Wunderlist is free on all 3 platforms. (Things costs $49.95 for the Mac, and $9.95 for the iPhone)
  • Over-the-air syncing of tasks between Macs, PCs, and iPhones via their free cloud-sync service. (Things can sync between a Mac and an iPhone if they’re on the same local Wifi network – they’ve promised cloud-sync, but haven’t delivered yet)
  • Wunderlist can share tasks with other Wunderlist users – over-the-air. (Things can’t do this at all)

I’m not sure if I’m quite ready to ditch Things, but over-the-air syncing is a huge deal for me. It’s been my only real complaint about Things – and it pains me every time I have to remember to launch the app on both my Mac and iPhone while I’m on my local network so they’ll sync up.

Whether you’ve already picked a task-management solution or not, Wunderlist is definately worth a look – especially if you’re on multiple platforms.

On a side-note to this, I do feel a little bad for Cultured Code (the maker of Things). Contrary to the popular belief, I personally do NOT think all software should be cheap (or free). Those guys have put a lot of effort into their apps, and they deserve to make a living as developers. It always irks me a little when someone comes out with a free app that is solid competition to a well established paid app. However, the flip-side of this is I personally think $49.95 is too much for the Mac version of Things. I think $24.95 would be a little more reasonable.

Links: Wunderlist | Things | YouTube

Get Little Snapper for $5 until January 17th

LittleSnapper by Realmac Software

I’ve been using Little Snapper for a couple years now. It’s a very nice little app for capturing and managing screenshots, webpages, etc… I’ve generally been pretty happy with it.

When I bought Little Snapper in 2008, it was $39. Last week when Realmac put it into the new Mac App Store they dropped the price to $25. Now, they’ve temporarily lowered the price even further to just $5 – until January 17th.

I highly recommend taking advantage of this offer. You just can’t beat $5! If you want to try before you buy, you can still download a demo version from the Realmac site.

App Store Link: Little Snapper

Request Files from Non-Tech-Savvy Clients with Dropbox and AirDropper

AirDropper

Dropbox is an awesome web-based service for syncing and sharing files, but despite how good it is, I’ve never really found a way to get it into my workflow.

I’m an independent freelance designer / developer, and I only use one computer, so I don’t need the ability to sync files across multiple machines. I also have my own server, so sharing files with others is very easy for me. But, the one thing that does often come up is the need to collect (large) files from clients who are not necessarily too tech-savvy. That’s where AirDropper is going to be very useful.

AirDropper is separate web-service that allows you to use your Dropbox account to collect files from others, who don’t have an account with either service.

Basically, you link your AirDropper account to your Dropbox account, and then simply generate a file-request through the AirDropper website. An email is sent to your recipient with a link to an upload form. They upload files, which are uploaded into your Dropbox account, and sync back down to your local machine. It’s extremely simple and straightforward.

It should be noted that the upload form is single-use, meaning once the person you sent a request to uploads some files, the form can’t be used again. This is actually an important feature. Since the files being uploaded are being synced (downloaded) to your local computer, you wouldn’t want that form to become public, or used some time in the future when you weren’t expecting to receive files. If you need more files from the same person, simply send a new request.

There are, of course, no shortage of file sharing services out there on the internet. But, it seems like most of them either require your client to sign up for an account, or the cost is a bit too high. In contrast, both Dropbox and AirDropper have free accounts available, and don’t require your client to do anything.

AirDropper is currently in beta, so we’ll see what final pricing ends up being. For now, this is the cheapest, and most convenient way I’ve found to collect files from others.

It should go without saying that you don’t have to be a freelancer to use these services. Anyone can use them to request files from anyone else.

Thanks to The Graphic Mac for the tip!

UPDATE: I just noticed that Dropbox has a referral program. If you sign up for an account using my link, we’ll both get an extra 250MB of space added to our account for free. Yay!

Schedule Your Time Machine Backups with TimeMachineEditor

Schedule Time Machine with TimeMachineEditor

One of the most useful pieces of Mac software I’ve ever come across is, TimeMachineEditor. As the name implies, it allows you to edit the interval in which your Time Machine backups occur. It’s free, and it’s super easy to use!

Time Machine works very well for automatically backing up your Mac, but if you’re backing up to a network drive, like a Time Capsule, your Mac and your network can suffer some performance hits while the backup is in progress.

Time Machine runs every hour, and Apple didn’t include a way to edit that interval. I deal with a lot of big files that change often, so the result is Time Machine was constantly running, and I was really feeling that performance drop. With TimeMachineEditor I’m able to change that schedule so Time Machine only runs twice per day… once while I’m at lunch and once in the evening. It’s actually extremely flexible, as it will allow you to define anything from a new repeating interval, to scheduled hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly times.

If you use Time Machine to backup your Mac, I highly recommend using TimeMachineEditor.

My Favorite Safari 5 Extensions

One of the best features to come with Safari 5 is the addition of Extensions. If you’re unfamiliar with Safari Extensions, they basically add functionality – either to Safari itself, or to specific websites.

Here’s a list of some of my favorite extensions:

  • Lucidica: Restyles and simplifies Google Reader.
  • Pure Reader: Similar to Lucidica, but it gives Reader more of a desktop-app feel.
  • Flickr Original: Right-click on Flickr thumbnails to download the original file.
  • Pure Flickr: Removes clutter from Flickr.com
  • YouTube5: Replaces YouTube’s Flash player with an HTML5 player
  • YouTube Video Downloader: Adds a button to download YouTube videos.
  • TinEye: Right-click on any image to search for that image using TinEye.
  • SaveTabs: Saves all open tabs in the current browser window and allows you to reopen them later.
  • Mail Open Tabs: Creates a new email message containing the addresses of all open tabs.
  • ExifExt: Right-click on any image to view it’s EXIF information.
  • BetterSource: Styles, color-codes, and numbers HTML source code.
  • Facebook Neue: Cleans up Facebook (removes ads, etc…)

There’s a wide variety of Safari Extensions out there. Two good resources for finding them are Apple’s Extensions Gallery, and a Tumblr blog aptly named, Safari Extensions.

If you know of any other resources, or extensions that you find useful, leave a link in the comments.