Some cool freeware and open source apps for OS X
This was originally meant to be a YouTube video, but when I had finished recording it and imported it into iMove for editing, I realised I didn't record the sound. I then made it again on another occasion. I made the same mistake. I made it a third time, again with the same mistake (my microphone works, I just keep forgetting to set it to record sound as well. It's not the default, but I set it to record no sound for some other movies and the setting just stuck). Anyway, I'm not going to make it a fourth time, I will just give you the material.
Burn - an application to burn data, audio or video onto optical media, or you can copy disk images.
Caffeine - App Store - a menu application to prevent your Mac from going to sleep or initiating a screensaver while you do a task that the Mac doesn't consider as user-activity, e.g. watching a movie.
Mactracker - App Store - an application that lists all models of Apple computers/devices from 1984 to the present day.
Paparazzi! - a useful tool to capture webpages
Transmission - an open source, cross-platform, yet platform-native (in terms of looks) torrent client which consumes less resources than some CLI torrent clients.
Perian - a QuickTime component and prefPane which allows QuickTime to play many more formats, while also extending QuickLook (so I guess it's also a QLGenerator).
Bean - a free, light word processor which has just the right features and doesn't overload on features, yet doesn't skimp either.
There are loads of websites which list more apps like this. If you're a switcher and you're left with a budget of 0 for downloading apps for your new platform, this list can be so helpful. I consider these to be unmatched in their beauty and functionality too, so there are no paid apps which offer the same functionality with a better experience. These are apps you will keep, not free alternatives to tide you over while you save up for superior apps.
I hope you enjoy this list of free and open source software for OS X!
3 – TotalTerminal (formerly Visor)
Another episode of Terminal Hacks. This time, I talk about TotalTerminal (formerly Visor), a Terminal plugin with a few features, key being a Quake-style Terminal.
Download this app at: http://totalterminal.binaryage.com/
[Review] iSaidWhat?!
Over the holidays, I stumbled across a very useful app for audiophiles, students and pranksters. iSaidWhat?! is an audio recorder, editor and mixer which can be used to record lectures or mix together recordings to create the illusion that someone said something they didn’t.
The first thing I noticed about the app was the icon. The icon was very clean and stood out from the rest of the pack. I immediately had high expectations of this app and I was not disappointed. I proceeded to open the app’s iTunes page and the next thing that struck me was the clean layout of the app. I knew exactly how to navigate around easily when I installed it. A nifty feature of this app is the input percentage meter, which allows you to choose how much the app can pick up. Although, this was not very intuitive. It should be there by default, rather than having to click the small grey microphone icon, which does not give a good indicator of its function. However, the feature is a bonus and not a necessity.

The next thing that caught my eye was the script feature, which puts a script for you to read from, which could be useful for song writers for example.

Now onto the main function of the app, which is the editor and mixer. I think it performs this function very well and it is very easy to use. It has two tabs, one for the recordings and one for arrangements of recording snippets. It’s very easy to cut bits out after a recording and easy to use it in arrangements.


Unlike some App Store reviewers, I disagree that the name is bad. I think it’s a unique name and will catch student’s eyes along with its icon that makes good use of the small square area. It could be improved to appeal to the songwriters though.
Complaints
The only complaints I have about this app are very minor. The first is that I should be able to delete a recording without deleting an arrangement that uses snippets from it.

The second is that the app should open to your list of recordings rather than the “New Recording” screen except on first launch. That’s it! Like, I said, these are not big deals and can be very easily fixed.
To sum up, I would recommend this app to pranksters, students and songwriters. For example, a student could use the arrangements feature to make one arrangement for a topic that was discussed in several lessons. This could be useful for many other purposes and I think at 99 cents, it’s a steal.
Update:
“The app opens in the recording screen on launch only if you didn’t close from within the snippets view, or arrangement view.”- my mistake
Also, as I suspected the developer says that “Arrangements aren’t seperate files, they actually read from the recording. Snippets are just shortcuts to a recording in order to conserve space and time.”
[Review] ReelDirector
ReelDirector is one of the best apps I have ever downloaded for my iPhone. And I download a lot. I am always on the App Store just for the sake of downloading useful(one day) free stuff.
ReelDirector is the first full-featured video editing app for the iPhone. And by video editing, I don’t mean trim. ReelDirector is a powerful tool not to be trifled with. Think of iMovie for the iPhone, then you’ll have a pretty good idea of how powerful it is.
What never ceases to amaze me is that this app is a mere 2.6Mb. Just over a quarter of 10Mb. You can download this app with 3G in a matter of seconds.
You’ll never be short of transitions on ReelDirector with 27 professional effects to seamlessly change from one scene to the next. You can also drag and drop the videos in any order, which should be familiar to Mac users. When you press the ‘Add’ button, the app asks whether you want to import a video or picture or record something or use pre-imported music. Alas, the app does not allow you to import your music directly from the iPod app, although I believe this is being looked into. The app can import clips from synced folders too. If you don’t have video, this app is still very useful as you can make brilliant slideshows with it and you can import photos with the Ken Burns effect. Your Hollywood creations can be shared with friends and family via email and/or saved to your camera roll.
I really like the fact that they haven’t bloated the app with features. How they managed to do that on a phone app, even a smartphone, really baffles me, but I suggest you buy it before the developer(s) turn sane and charge more for this app.
Complaints
The only complaint I have about this app to the developer(s) is that it should be able to import music from the iPod app directly, although I realise there may be some difficulties. It should also be taken into consideration when buying this app that the video features only work with the 3GS, although this is to be expected. Apart from these minor annoyances, the app is very well executed and deserves a lot of credit for fitting into 2.6Mb, making it speedy and for being the first of it’s kind. It really has a lot of potential and I would love to see this app grow. I highly recommend it if you have a lot of vacation videos on your iPhone for example. I think Wired.com Gadget Lab summed it up really well: “File this one under sent from the future”… “A quite amazing demonstration of the march of technology.”
Promo Code
And finally, a surprise to all who read this far. I have one free US promo code for this app. So the first person who grabs it gets the app: X6A64M3E4PP7. Remember, this will only work if you have a US iTunes Store Account.




