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since Martin from futurenews.at is currently installing his very first MacBook, I thought I’ld collect some of my favorite Mac-utiltities for him…

Transmit 3 is probably the most popular FTP-client for the mac. it’s capable of all important protocols (FTP, sFTP, WebDav, .mac), integrates well with common text-editors for remote edit, syncs folders and offers a sweet user-interface (including dashboard-widgets and droplets).

strange name, great text-editor: SubEthaEdit is a lean yet powerful editor clearly aimed at developers. features include syntax-highlighting of the web’s most important languages, apple script-support, a UNIX-like command-line utility interfacing with the terminal and awesome collaboration-capabilities, allowing several users to work on the same document simultaneously.

for most mac-users, instant messaging means Adium X. Adium supports AIM, Jabber, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and sports a gorgeous, skinable interface. of course, like all other meta-messengers, Adium lacks support for many advanced features of the IM-networks (and you’ll still need your Skype-client, though this is probably about to change).

iTerm is a neat telnet/ssh-terminal application. besides boring stuff like VT- & ANSI-compatibility, apple script-support and multiple languages, it offers transparent windows and - quite useful - tabbed terminal-sessions.

at first glance Quicksilver, is just a fast search-index for commonly used folders, documents and programs (very much like os-x’ spotlight). when looking closer, Quicksilver offers powerful ways to define actions and scripts which also can be mapped to keyboard-shortcuts.

Butler is an essential desktop-utility providing extra menu-bars, docklets, hot-corners and custom hotkeys. Butler launches applications, manages bookmarks, inserts text-snippets, controls iTunes and runs apple scripts.

Transmission is a simple but efficient bittorrent-client - no bells and whistles, just working unobtrusively in the background. for more features, the java-based client Azureus is the weapon of choice.

VoodooPad is my favorite scratchpad-application. VoodooPad is unique in storing documents as marked up text very similar to html, allowing nested documents, links and the usual html-formatting. moreover, it exports directly to your iPod.

two more-or-less useful scripts utilize the integrated motion-sensor of the MacBook (Pro) in rather innovative ways: while SmackBook Pro allows users to change virtual desktops by smacking the MacBook’s sides’, MacSaber is totally over the top, turning your laptop into a jedi-weapon!

any must-have tools I have missed? you’re welcome to post!

the death of my ipod (4G, about 1.5 year old, refurbished by Apple only a few months ago) seems to be only a matter of days. since weeks it’s crashing while playback almost on a daily basis. since yesterday the device isn’t recognized anymore when plugged into the dock. I’ll try to remove the rockbox-BIOS, update the firmware and format the harddisk later today, but I guess it’s time to move on…

besides adding video-capabilities (at least to some degree), digital media players seem to stagnate since 2 years. innovation is happening only incremental. according to Steve Jobs, a new iPod should be just around the corner. a microsoft-manufactured media player is rumored to appear soon too. I’ll probably try to revive my old ipod until the major players push out new products… here are some features I’ld like to see in my future player:

• gap-less playback of audio-tracks: when listening to ripped albums, the ipod (and most other players I’ve tried) inserts a very short gap when roaming from one track to the next (mabye <0.5 second). most people won't even notice, but I know two groups of users who get the creeps about that behaviour: lovers of classical- and electronic-music. (I belong to the latter, so I sort of know what I talk about). in both cases, music is presented as a steady stream (i.e. DJ-mix) without any silence between tracks (or parts of the symphony etc.). eliminating this unwanted interruption of music will immediately own the hearts of hardcore-music-lovers to the manufacturer who solves this issue.
• direct recording: this is a feature for fans of live-music, DJs, Bands or solo-musicians: they all’ld love a simple device which records 5 or more hours straight away. hard- & software-requirements should be easy: proper A/D-converters, line-in, recording both lossless and mp3. yeah, I could use an iKey to record to my iPod - but carrying around two devices, cable and power-adaptors - hmm, no. other products (f.e. iRiver) can record but are artificially limited to 2 hours recording-time (thats why pro-users try out alternate software like rockbox or ipodlinux).
• wireless connectivity: to kickstart the next generation of portable digital media players, wireless connectivity is a must. automatic sync of fresh podcasts whenever your player comes in range of an open WiFi-hotspot. wireless upstream from your player to your friends’ WiFi-enabled hifi-stereo (think Apple AirPort). and probably most appealing: wireless sharing of tracks with friends or even the unknown guy on the tube who looks like he’s into electro-punk ;).
  three requirements: it better has to be based on standard WiFi, it has to treat battery life with care, and it has to work independently from digital music stores (the wireless Music Gremlin misses on 2/3 ). agreed, Apple probably can’t enable free sharing without cutting their own profit and scaring off the labels. but here’s an idea: why not let iTunes-customers be your mobile sales-force? integrate wireless sharing with ITMS and smart DRM. lets say I beam my favorite tracks to my friends player. the next time he connects to ITMS he is billed for the music - at the very same time I get a 10% revenue-split credited on my account. of course, your DRM better has to be solid…
• better manufacturing: this is aimed at Apple - please, improve quality of production. at least 50% of my friends who are using an iPod intensely (like, daily) face hardware-defects after about one year of usage. for a 400 EUR-device, this is ridiculous.

Update: the harddisk-format has helped - at least the iPod is recognized by iTunes again

sure, the ads introduced by apple when launching the mac book pro were kind of original and - to some - funny. to others they appeared to be quite arrogent as well (especially the one regarding viruses, esp. since recent security-warnings regarding mac-os x made clear, that apple’s security-bonus mainly derives from not being in focus of most attackers). that’s why I love the spoof ads which turned up today on youtube.com :)…

for those of you hosting a podcast on the iTunes Music Store: Apple just announced a major overhaul of the iTunes podcast-categories. the updated specs can be found here. while the old categories will be supported ‘for the next few months’, I recommend everyone to check their feeds:

Most of the old categories and subcategories are now automatically mapped to corresponding ones within the new system. For example, if your podcast was listed under “Arts & Entertainment > Photography”, it will now appear under “Arts > Visual Arts.” However, 3 categories have been removed and do not have a similar replacement: “International”, “Talk Radio”, and “Public Radio”. Those categories overlapped with others in the old system, making some podcasts difficult to find. If one of these categories is listed as the first subject in your podcast feed, that category information will be ignored and the second category will be used to determine eligibility and placement in that feature page.

Bill Belew from the recommendable TheBizOfKnowledge-blog asks: “So, which PC is best for new students?” (meaning mac- or windows-PCs). there are obvious arguments of course, like lower price-point and greater choice of hardware for the windows-PC, while an Apple-computer shines regarding the ease-of-use and the ability to run both windows- & mac-software. I guess it’s this versatility why I’ld recommend a Mac to the average student.

however, I think it’s important that students also learn about alternative, opensource operating-systems and -applications like linux and open office. parents (and schools!!) will be happy to save the money on that Microsoft Offce-license, and students will benefit from the ability to adapt to different software-environments (of course this applies especially to students in technical subjects - luckily opensource is common sense at Austria’s Technical Universitiy). coming a long way, I think that mainstream linux-distributions like SuSe and Ubuntu have almost reached the level of user-friendliness necessary for general adoption in education.

as reported on Ajaxian, Webkit - the browser-engine powering Safari, Mail and other OS X applications - has finally received an integrated JavaScript-debugger called Drosera. since Safari’s implementation of JavaScript is differing from Firefox and others in some spots, this will ease life of many developers greatly.

If you’re a Mac user and haven’t been intrigued by Firefox or more lately by Flock, I also recommend checking out the Safari Enhancer for a better user-experience with Apples own browser.

The Free iPod Book by iLounge was recently released for download in its second version. the first 80 pages deliver a wide-ranged shopping-guide to accessories like headphones or docks, cases in all kind of colours and shapes, additionial software, car-installment kits and ipod-customization-options. another 70 pages cover the itunes-software and most of it’s lesser known features. ipod-owners will enjoy leafing through the shiny pages of these ebook, geeks might miss stuff like the alternate opensource-firmware rockbox or more detailed info on ipodlinux.

I’m leaving for new york tomorrow morning, enjoying a week of urgently required holidays (I’m visiting my friend thomas, who is working for the financial times germany). as I’ve just realized (thx to engadget), the new apple midtown store in new york is going to open tomorrow (19th of may, 18.00 local time). besides it’s architectural attributes (the whole thing seems to be built inside/under a huge glass-cube) and the rumours that it was largely financed by steve jobs privately, the most interesting fact about the new store is that it will be open for customers 24/7 on 365 days a year (good to buy ipod-accessory-last-minute-presents on 24th of dec).

if jetlag isn’t killing me, I’ll be there to shoot some pics