iPhone apps: Voice Dialer, Units calc, DaysFrom

Voice Dialer (free) is a voice dialing application for the iPhone that allows users to search through their contact book using voice commands. Users press and hold the onscreen button, then speak a name and command such as "call." After a contact has been found, users can choose to call, e-mail or send a text message to the person. If an address is associated with the contact, a map of that locat...

published today, 2 hours 3 minutes ago, macintosh-news-network

ProteMac releases KeyBag keystroke logger

ProteMac has released KeyBag, a program that intercepts and records every keystroke entered on a Mac. The utility allows users to keep track of all chat conversations, applications opened, and keys pressed in any application, all while running hidden in the background. Users can also use the records as a detailed backup copy of information, in case a file is accidentally deleted or the computer ma...

published on Tuesday, the 2. December 2008, macintosh-news-network

FontAgent Pro 4.0.3 supports CS4, QuarkXPress 8

Insider Software has added support for Adobe's Creative Suite 4 and QuarkXPress 8 to its newly released FontAgent Pro 4.0.3. The update specifically includes auto-activation plug-ins for Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator in CS2 through CS4, as well as QuarkXPress versions 6 through 8.0.1. The download also adds support for French and Italian language systems, and detects and installs in the user...

published on Tuesday, the 2. December 2008, macintosh-news-network

Set QuickTime Player icons for non-standard file types

I found this great QuickTime component package callled Perian that includes codecs for pretty much everything VLC does, thus making it possible to use QuickTime Player for all my media. The problem with Perian is that files with extensions like MKV or DIVX aren't given a preview or icon, even though they open nicely from the Finder. The solution is to add those extensions to QuikTime's plist, which will associate a nice QuickTime 'Movie' icon for such files. Here's how: In the Applications folder, Control-click on QuickTime Player and choose Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu. Open the Contents folder, and then open Info.plist in a pure text editor of your choosing. Press Command-F and find the string Movie-Quicktime. Now add the wanted extensions to the array of strings above the line you found. For example, I added mkv in the following example: <array> <string&g...

published on Tuesday, the 2. December 2008, macosxhints

Install some programs without using installers

You may wish that all apps used the simple "drag and drop" installation, instead of Apple's installer. As it turns out, a lot of them use installers when they don't even need to -- see this hint on installing Microsoft's Remote Desktop via drag-and-drop, for instance. There are lots of others that use package installers, and then ask for admin privileges, when they don't really need to. If you're concerned that they could be running daemons or background processes that make your computer slower, or put files where you don't want them to go, here's a manual-install method to try instead: Control-click on the package in Finder and select Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu. Navigate into Contents, where you may see more package installers, or you may see an Archive.pax.gz file. If you see the pax.gz file, double-click on it to decompress it and you'll find your .app ...

published on Tuesday, the 2. December 2008, macosxhints

Nokia intros touchscreen N97 flagship

Nokia today used its own Nokia World expo to establish a touchscreen phone as its new leading device and its best chance against the iPhone. The N97 has a full 3.5-inch touch LCD that shares the same Symbian S60 5th Edition platform as the 5800 XpressMusic but also hides a slide-out QWERTY keyboard that locks into a more natural typing angle like the AT&T Tilt. Accordingly, the phone is pitched ...

published on Tuesday, the 2. December 2008, macintosh-news-network

High-quality unboxing photos of Apple's LED Cinema Display

Apple's first LED-backlit and DisplayPort-based desktop monitor has arrived at AppleInsider; we now have high-quality photos as well as some early impressions.

published on Monday, the 1. December 2008, appleinsider

Mouseposé 3.1 adds invisible keystroke option

Boinx Software on Monday announced Mouseposé 3.1, the latest update to its mouse-pointer highlighting tool for presentations, screencasts and demos. Users can now define a list of custom keystrokes that remain invisible when using the keystroke display, with the full range of key combinations only shown when modifier keys are pressed. The update is also claimed to improve stability and performance...

published on Monday, the 1. December 2008, macintosh-news-network

Analysts: Okay, so Apple didn't do so badly on Black Friday

Apple's Black Friday '08 deals may not have been very impressive, but the company still did well on the first official shopping day of the holiday season according to numerous analyst checks. Looks like Apple didn't need to offer steep discounts after all. Read More...

published on Monday, the 1. December 2008, ars-technica

"Welcome to Macintosh" documentary ready for DVD release

The Mac documentary Welcome to Macintosh, after some delay, is set to be released on DVD December 15. Preorders are being taken now for the limited first pressing.Read More...

published on Monday, the 1. December 2008, ars-technica