Do you use Time Machine? What about an off-site backup? Time Warp (currently in beta) from Jumping Bean Software is a simple to use backup solution that compliments Time Machine to backup your data off-site.
One of the exciting new upgrades in the upcoming release of Snow Leopard will be a vastly improved QuickTime player called QuickTime X. With not only a cleaner interface, but also improved performance and new features to make media viewing and even creation and editing much easier.
Do you have a large iTunes music library? Does some of your older music seem to “disappear” from your listening rotation? Well, using Smart Playlists you can organize your music library to keep your listening fresh.
As the number of PC-to-Mac switchers grows, so do the sales of Mac virtualization software. If you are Windows gamer or need to run certain Windows-only software, something like Microsoft Visio comes to mind, then youā€™ll need some sort of virtualization software. Virtualization software allows you to not only run Windows, but other operating systems such as different flavors of Linux.
Would you like the ability to rate songs and videos in your iTunes library using half-stars?
Would you like voice recognition on your iPhone, but donā€™t have the new iPhone 3GS? Vocalia 2.0 from Creaceed brings voice recognition to older generation iPhones, along with the second generation iPod Touch.
Vocalia is a speech recognition tool that allows users to simply say a contacts name and Vocalia will search through the contact list to find the name or names closest to the one spoken. Vocalia uses phonetics so you do not have to “train” the software with your voice or pronunciations.
When you start the application the first time, it will scan and phonetizize the contact list. When ready you will be presented with the purple Vocalia “eye”
Simply pronounce the name of the contact and Vocalia will search its database and present the closest match. If there is one match, such as when we said “Home”, you will be presented with the contact information, allowing you to touch the number to initiate a call. If however, there are several matches when we just used the contactā€™s first name. “Jim”, Vocalia presented us with a list of possible matches.
Vocalia does a very good job on sound pickup and voice recognition and your results will depend on background noise. We were to use the application with the iPhone sitting on our desk in a quiet office. Vocalia was easily able to recognize the contactā€™s name and present us with the correct contact information.
Another feature in the application is the ability to edit the phonetizations and even add nicknames to contact records.
We also tested Vocaliaā€™s iPod functions, which allows you to say an artist name and Vocalia will display information for that artist, allowing you to select All Songs, particular Albums or individual songs. iPod mode is initiated by selecting the iPod menu item and the Vocalia “eye” will be brown.
Vocalia also allows you to import Safari bookmarks and use voice commands to open bookmarks in Safari.
We were very impressed with Vocaliaā€™s voice recognition and ability to correctly identify contacts and artist names in iPod mode. As mentioned previously, background noise can affect accuracy, we had minor problems when testing outdoors with some wind noise, but indoors Vocalia performed flawlessly for us.
Vocalia 2.0 is available in the App Store for $3.99 and if you want to add voice recognition to your older generation iPhone or second generation iPod Touch, this will provide you with that ability.
Are you tired of bouncing dock icons when you launch a new application? Thereā€™s a simple way to get rid of this feature if you find it annoying.
Tips & Tricks: Make a Widget From a Web Page
Is there information on a particular website that youā€™d like at your fingertips, but donā€™t want to have to open Safari everytime? You can create a Dashboard Widget that provides you with that information.
Dashboard.app in OS X is a memory and CPU hog, even in the latest Snow Leopard. Although improved on with the use of grand central dispatch. If you dont use your Dashboard, you might find this command useful to save some CPU utilization, memory, and battery life on your Mac.
One of the handy features that was released in Leopard was Quick Look, which provided a preview technology that displayed more descriptive thumbnails.
