Today is the last day to get your free download from macheist.com. There’s a set of applications for your mac that won’t cost you a penny. Some of them I’ve already got, and some don’t fit my needs, so I didn’t download them. Depending on your needs you may want all 6 six of them.
Let’s take a look at each of these apps in short:
ShoveBox, WriteRoom, Twitterific, TinyGrab, Hordes of Orcs, and Mariner Write.
(1) ShoveBox – Think evernote on this one: well, kinda evernote. ShoveBox works on the same principal as evernote, that we have too much crap flooding our brains while we sit at the computer. From twitter, facebook, chat tools, websites, email…and now that google came out with Wave, there’s always something flashing or popping up on our screens. ShoveBox is designed to help you capture those small pieces of information that you want to revisit, but don’t have them time to get to at the time. Like, when you’re at work “working” and you aren’t supposed to be browsing CNN to see what’s happening in the world. Rather than forgetting it, the makers of this application want you to highlight the URL, or image, or chunk of text and throw it in your cardboard box (which sits in your menu bar) so you can go read it later. The trick, then, is to remember that you put things there. There is a ShoveBox app for your iPhone too, $3.99 in the app store, which will sync what you’ve captured. This application has some promise: the real trick is remembering that you put something in it. I suppose if you make a habit of checking it during your lunch hour or free time it won’t be an issue to remember. I haven’t played with it yet, but I hope it’s better than evernote which I’ve tried twice and uninstall twice.
(2) WriteRoom – I’m actually writing this entry in WriteRoom, and so far I’m enjoying it. WriteRoom also considers the fact that there’s usually too much crap on our screens and we’re frequently distracted by our computers while we’re working. The app designers are very clear about the purpose of the tool in this posting on their website:
“Is WriteRoom the right tool for you?
WriteRoom is designed for distraction free writing. If you are looking for a programmer’s text editor or tool to help you manage large writing projects then there are better choices. If you need syntax highlighting and command line integration try TextMate. If you need to manage large writing projects try Scrivener. If you just need to block out distractions and write then I think WriteRoom is a great choice.”
I appreciate that they aren’t trying to be all things to all people. This is a writing tool, not a designing, editing, layout tool. You write with it, and that’s it. Plain and simple. I’m able to focus well on what I’m writing as WriteRoom is launched in full-screen, thus eliminating all the other pieces that get in the way. It also auto-saves. Every 5 seconds, 10 seconds, all the way to “never”. That’s up to you, and it’s a good thing. My current color scheme is lime-green text on a black background, just like the old Apple IIE. It doesn’t get much more basic.
(3) Twitterific - A nice little program for you twitter account(s). I started my tweeting days with the free version of twitterific then changed over to tweetdeck. Not to say that this isn’t a good tool, it just didn’t quite “fit” my liking. Give it a shot though, it might suit your desires.
(4) – TinyGrab – A simple-to-use screen capture program. It doesn’t operate any differently than your built-in Mac OS X screen capture tool, except that in pushing command-shift-4 and doing the screen capture the software automatically creates a link to the images to be posted and shared with your friends. It’s not one of the applications I downloaded because I don’t need an extra piece of software to launch to preform the functions that I already can use with my OS. Besides most twitter apps will automatically create a URL for you if you tweet an image. Beyond that using google wave or email will get the image to someone just as easily and sending them a link.
(5) Hordes of Orcs – Ummm…I don’t get it. I’m not a gamer, not will I ever be one. There’s something about building towers and defending a kingdom or some such thing. I’m not going to do it any justice so just check the website.
(6) Mariner Write – While I didn’t download this program, it’s description puts it somewhere between WriteRoom and MicroSoft Word. It is capable of writing and reading word files, so if you don’t have Microsoft Office it may be worth a look…at least for the next few hours while it’s free.
I’m not exactly an authority on Mac software, but I can talk about what I’ve used and what it’s done for me. Some of these are worth the installation and some aren’t so much. Anyways, for the time being they’re free, so it can’t hurt to give them a shot, so take a journey over to MacHeist and take a look.
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apple, macintosh, reviews, software, twitteriffic, writeroom, shovebox
