BusyCal calculate a pile like iCal . But it does thing iCal can only dream of . It seamlessly syncs with Google Calendar out of the boxful , ploughshare calendar via Bonjour , and supports multi - individual editing . BusyCal did did more than recreate the calendaring category ; it established itself as the family leader .
There are passel of ways to sync your files , but Dropbox really gets it right . You install a detached app , put files into a Dropbox brochure , and that ’s it : Those files are automatically synchronize to your other computers and your iPhone ( with the free iPhone app ) , and they ’re usable from the Dropbox Website .
Bento continues to set the measure for personal database programs . Bento 3 added iPhoto integration , web sharing , and 128 - bit AES encoding . Best of all , FileMaker did the right thing for upgraders : alternatively of charge them full price ( $ 50 ) for the raw version , it gave existing drug user a $ 20 rebate .
Mac users all have their own way of keeping track of what they have to do . Some use bare text file , other utilise full - blown project managers . But of all the project - management programs we ’ve seen , we think Things 1.0.4 excise the best equaliser between power and serviceability .
SmileOnMyMac ’s $ 50 PDFPen fits neatly between OS X ’s free Preview and Adobe ’s $ 449 Adobe ’s Acrobat Pro : It does right smart more than Preview , and offers some of the same feature article as Acrobat Pro at a fraction of the price . PDFPen may not be the sexiest mathematical product among this class ’s Eddies . But it ’s surely one of the most useful .
Flash is the vane technology you roll in the hay to detest ; it slows your internet browser to a front crawl , jaw up shelling life , and is reportedly the leading causal agency of covering crash in OS X. You ca n’t block Flash completely ; sometimes it ’s useful . That ’s why we love ClickToFlash , the Safari chew - in letsyouchoose what Flash content you view .
Every few years , a biz total along that pushes Mac gaming in a young instruction . This year , that game is Braid . The premise is simple : You guide a eccentric through obstacle , gather puzzler piece , and rescue a princess from a monster . But the longer you play , the stranger that story gets . Braid is a genre - resist chef-d’oeuvre .
DVDs can be a hassle : They are well-heeled to turn a loss and damage , take up a lot of shelf - space , run through up battery living when you act as them on a laptop computer , and ( because of written matter - protection ) are n’t easy to watch on an iPhone or Apple TV . By lease you rend the DVDs you own to a VIDEO_TS folder , RipIt deal all of those problems in one easy - to - employment app .
Apple ’s Logic Express 9 is a workhorse bargain . This class ’s variation tote up some fantabulous Modern features , including the Amp Designer , Flex Time , Pedalboard effects , Varispeed transcription , and a Drum Replacer . Logic Express 9 ply professional character tools with professional grade flexibility , making it a dandy step up from Garageband .
If you do n’t know graphical layers from layer patty , Acorn 2.1 could be your idealistic picture editor program . It offer multi - layer redaction , transmitter form , and snazzy filters . It lets you take screen grab of your entire screenland , then treat each software window as a separate bed . Acorn may not have everything Photoshop does . But for many of us ( and for $ 50 ) , it ’s everything we need .
Picasa disengage you from the need to keep all your photos in one consolidated library . Instead , it scans your scheme and finds epitome data file wherever they ’re save up , then countenance you work on them in any other photo - app you want . That short - handed approach makes it a tonic option to iPhoto .
panther has been around for a long , long meter . But Painter 11 is an Eddy - worthy upgrade , with more speed , a slew of new brushes , resizable palettes , PNG support , and more . The amount of money of those changes is a fine improvement on an already all right product ; catamount remains the definitive painting program for the Mac .
Whether you ’re a creative pro or a casual user with a more - than - casual stake in face , you need something more than OS X ’s Font Book . For our money , that something should be FontExplorer X Pro 2.0 . It displays more detail and take into account greater control condition than other font director , yet t ’s also tight , customizable , and surprisingly simple to use .