Airmail, the sparrow alternative is here.

Since Airmail launched its beta, I have been using as my mail client and I found hardly not much of bugs to be my default mail client. Yet, the ‘beta’ stopped me from doing so as I have bad past of using beta products as my default client. It changed today!

Airmail is now on App Store and its great. I mean “Sparrow-esque” great – actually even better. And its for just $1.99.

If you have read my Airmail beta review (Do read as the review there is more detailed!), I mentioned that the app was getting regular updates. It seemed like there was an update almost everyday not just fixing bugs, but also adding a tiny little feature or two. With a stable release, how much of difference does it come with? Find out below

Changes from Beta : 

I could hardly find any difference. I felt that I paid to get the same app without “beta” tag attached. But, having said that, I would have paid any amount for this app. Such is my demand for a Mac mail.

The big difference I noticed, is how responsive and quick the app has become. Beta was sluggish in launching and from there it hardly stuck. But this version is far more speedy.

Set-up : 

It has had not changed much from beta. It supports a huge range of accounts that would suffice a non-geeky user. From AOL to iCloud and IMAP accounts, the login is hassle-free. The advanced tab would let you customise your set-up incase you need it.

Easy to setup.

User Interface : 

The UI is broken down to three panes – actually four! On left is the account information, followed by the Folder pane which can be customised to a simple view. The message pane is next, which has few themes to choose from the settings, with detailed pane being last.

UI – simplified view!

 

Being a beta user for a long time, I found very comfortable with hardly anything new – not that I am complaining.

Prefs :  

The preference section has lot more customisations than sparrow. Also, the setting can be made for each account. So, if I don’t want notification for my personal mail ID, I can set up that. Another notable feature is enabling “Gmail Shortcuts”. So if you are a heavy user of Gmail, that is very handy and might save you lot of time.

Prefs – General

The dropbox sync meant I could attach from them directly. Probably the feature that some might miss is Facebook integration as sparrow did.

Airmail > Sparrow? 

Obviously! Not just because Sparrow is dead, but by the fact that it has lot more features that Sparrow doesn’t. Its worth $1.99!

My only worry is that, I don’t want Airmail to be pouched like Sparrow and abandon the product. Please. Even if that happens, just don’t ditch your loyal fans like Sparrow.

Prefs – General

Easy to setup.

UI – simplified view!

Magican – The OS X Magician.

Its not often when you get the best apps for free. They might have a sale, but I am sure it won’t be free for a long time. 1Password has never been free (to my knowledge), so is CleanMyMac, AppFresh, Sparrow etc. They charge you! Else, they are “Freemium” apps. But I stumbled upon an application that does the job of CleanMyMac ($20.00 approx), Hazel ($25 approx), Gemini ($10), iStat Menu app ($16), ANTI-VIRUS (You guess the $), weather all for FREE. Yes. Free and absolutely free with no ads!

Mailbox App – The much hyped about Email client is here!

The much hyped Mailbox is now running on my iPhone, finally. Having downloaded the app on 8th February 2013, I was able to use the app only on 3rd March, 2013. The reservation system was an idea by their team to avoid any ‘Server’ overloading during the launch and subsequently. I can understand as even just before my access, I noted that there were around 700,000 odd reservations and it was still increasing.

The page you would / have been waiting for!

Numeric – A cool calculator app!

There are very few Electronic devices that are still being used even after 5 years of invention. It either gets upgraded or gets forgotten completely. Hand-held calculators have been the same since its invention in the year 1960’s. You have smart phones, tablets, laptops, PC’s and all that which has built-in calculator app but none comes close to ease of use of hand-held calculators.

However, I wish my Mac does this job than me pulling out my calculator and doing stuff. But the idea of me searching for numbers and arithmetic signs to do calculations was not easy. Though Alfred did the calculations, typing the numbers was my primary concern for not just me, but for many others as well.

Belkin Cooling Pad Review!

The most common complaint I have heard for MacBook’s is that it runs hot. Burning hot. And its been going on for many generations. They say rMBP doesn’t run so hot, I don’t have one so I can’t speak for that. But the other MBP’s runs so hot that you can’t call it a ‘Laptop’ at all.

Is it a concern? – Actually No.

My Macbook pro runs around 85 degrees Centigrade most of the time and rarely the temperature dips below 70. Playing games like Diablo 3 or F1 2012, I could hear the fan spin so fast that I feel the need to quit the game.

(This snapshot was taken during causal browsing with Tweetbot, Fluid, Airmail, Sparrow, CleanMyMac, Chrome opened!)

Should I be bothered? Absolutely. I paid so much money on this machine. I don’t want it to be damaged by anything that not my fault!

But after reading few blogs, I felt you don’t have to be bothered because its Apple! I am sure the laptop was designed to tolerate such heat. I am sure it was tested that it would run even at a higher temperature.

Airmail – Sparrow Alternative!

As mentioned in my previous article, the search for a perfect Mail App for OS X is still on. Sparrow has raised the level both on OS X and iPhone. It has to be hands down client on both the platforms. Now that Sparrow team has joined Google, I don’t see why would they would update their mail clients with more features. That very feeling of you being left out just doesn’t go well with me. I faced the same issue with HP Palm Pre 2. It was amazing phone and just after I heard that they are stopping their support for handsets, I had to make to switch.

Anyway, I use two Email account – personal and business. I have been using Sparrow for Business and InkyMail for personal. I recently reviewed InkyMail and it was just great. But a client like that is great only for personal. I didn’t feel it would replace my Sparrow. So the hunt went on and I stumbled upon – AirMail.

Early Beta Stage:

First, Its a beta! And Second its only for 10.7 (Lion) and above (Mountain Lion). Its a put off for many. We normally are bit apprehensive about using a beta software. But, a beta product doesn’t mean it always crashes and will have many bugs. Its stable, workable but with ‘limited’ features. You might face odd crash, the developers might hide their ‘trump’ card for the major release yet, they are never mean they are unusable. I have been using it for 4 days now and its stable and it crashed maybe once or twice. Nothing malicious with those. (Oh btw, if you are a Alfred Powerpack user download V2 beta. Its awesome as well!).

Beta Product

Second, with 10.7 version as minimum requirement puts many users off. Seriously, if you are still on Snow Leopard, you have to upgrade. You are missing out on many features. Its excusable if your hardware doesn’t support the upgrade but for the rest, Wake up!!

Alfred Extensions for Volume Eject & Internet Sharing!

Alfred is the go-to app for me. It does the job from opening 5 websites to tweeting, from controlling iTunes to opening folders using shortcut. Thanks to many developers who create extensions to make it more simple.

I have made two extensions – Unmount Disk & Internet sharing.

Unmounting:

So many volumes mounted on Desktop and you might want to eject only a few. How about an apple script that lets you select the disk that you want to eject? Thats what this extension lets you do. It displays the list of disk mounted, lets you choose 1 or more disk to eject and then its gone!

InkyMail Review

I love applications on OSX as much as my Macbook. Its these applications that makes my experience so much awesome. Its not just for Mac, its the same for Windows, Android, iOS, BB (!!) etc. I keep searching for them when I am not in office. I have found awesome apps ranging from Alfred to Should I sleep. Those are the best. If I like the UI, experience and novelty, I don’t care for price (Tweetbot!). I just buy them. If they are free (Cobook) its the best feeling, still I don’t mind being charged.

Anyway, I have like 8 odd email ID (Both business & personal) that I check everyday. And I have the best email client on Mac, Sparrow, running for office emails and then postbox for personal. But, Postbox wast my choice. Its more like Mail client itself. I tried many others and nothing came close even to Postbox, so I had to stick with it. It was not as awesome as sparrow. So I keep searching for apps and then I came across an awesome Mail client for both OS X & Windows (Yes! Windows too) – InkyMail. I loved their website and pictures shown, it was free and seconds later I was downloading this stuff.

Setting up:

Setting up my personal account was a breeze. It was a gmail account and Inky did all the connecting stuff itself. I had to create an Inky mail to access but thats Ok. It was just easy. Inky 1, Postbox 0!

 

Should I sleep Mac app Review.

Caffeine was a must have utility on OS X and features on my OS X 2012 list. Its a freeware and its awesome. It just sits on your menu bar with a coffee mug. Click to turn on and off. It does the job for me. Almost. Mostly.

There were times I forget to turn it either back on or off. But I overlooked this drawback, most of time. It used to be on at night, or at work when I am busy with something else. So I began searching for other apps, knowing I won’t get any better app. The hunt ended with Should I sleep! Its paid, but its worth it. Link to Mac App Store.

iPhone 5 Review

Each time Apple launch iPhone, everyone goes hyper – be it critics or fanboys! It has never been a smooth launch for Apple – iPhone 4 release saw Antennagate while iPhone 4S met with yellow gate, battery issues & wifi issues with iOS 5. The recent edition of iPhone met with two “gates” too – scufffgate & purple gate. Inspite of all these glitches, the success of each product is meteoric. Each launch extends the standards to a great level. But iPhone 5 was labelled was “not revolutionary”! Lets see if its true.

Non Revolutionary?

Before I get to unboxing and reviewing, I have a point to make!

I met few other friends/colleagues/relatives and read few articles on internet saying iPhone 5 wasn’t revolutionary. Their words were like these – “Its nothing new!” , “The same 4S in new pack” , “Even camera MP isn’t changed!” , “Its just bigger version of 4S” , “Tell me whats new in that?”. I was kind of pissed off (Fanboy!) because, I knew they had a point. Then I heard my friend say this – “Get one and you will know its not true!”

So here I am. Holding iPhone 5. And It is Revolutionary. Really.

Kindle – Rekindle your reading Habits!

Its only school books that everyone despise in their entire life. We love reading anything other than that. But with so much of smartphones, Facebooks and Tweets, we have completely forgot about reading a book. Very rarely I see people with books in airport or trains or in bus. Its sad. There were days in my school days when we used to say ‘after you!, after you!’ to read Enid Blyton or Harry Potter books. My friend, along with Dominic used to buy second hand books at almost a $1 during university. We became fans of Sidney Sheldon. These days most of kids play angry birds!

Inspite of all this decline to read books, you have to appreciate Amazon (Barnes & Noble too!) for having EBook Readers in the market. Just reading books. Just that. But the latest ‘Fire’ series have other features of a tablet. It was because of market pressure which is understandable.

Tweetbot – The King of Twitter.

Who hates twitter these day? Its simple, easy to use, clean and not complicated like Facebook.Twitter, to make things easier for their “tweelpes’ gave its native app for, virtually, all devices – from iOS to Nokia S40 (remember the days we used to find which series our Nokia is?). It sure is a clean app. No hassles, nothing complicated and most of all, its FREE. It was most people’s best choice irrespective of the platform.

So why do people even buy the paid app then? Like tweetbot? Its not even $0.99 for iOS. Its $2.99. Why would you even buy it? I read few reviews and decided try the iOS app. Oh boy! That was the day the native twitter app was forgotten. After using, you realise how much twitter has avoided in their app.! Its classical. iOS app is different. Lets skip it for now.

iPad Mini – Rumours!

Apple’s new product launch, off late, has been some of the worst kept secrets. They come up everywhere. You can never blame apple for this.With high attention people get for exposing such information, you can never blame them the secret reporters to websites. So anyway, what will we have on October 23rd? They say ‘We’ve got a little more to show you.’ What would they give us?

iPad Mini? 13 inch retina MBP’s? Upgrade iMacs? Mac mini upgrades? Read below –

1) Mac Mini – The last refreshment happened in July, 2011 in 3 variants. It moved to the ‘i’ series from Intel’s Sandy Bridge with bluetooth 4.0 support. One year is a lot of time in electronics. So, logically, Apple might be forced to give a slight refresh to this group. Maybe bump it to the new Ivy Bridge processor range. This might be the only biggest upgrade for Mac Mini’s.

2) iMacs – A whole lot of rumours are steaming up in this ranging from huge design change to processor upgrade. Read this for a whole lot of rumours.

Design – Teardrop/Waterdrop design. You might see a little bit curvature in rear to make it look like water drop. Yes! You can see this. Sure you can expect it to be lot thicker. It actually looks very thick after seeing the MacBooks, iPads and iPhones. Sure it might get slim and not like that size zero!

Processor – Whats the use of upgrade without processor upgrade? Sure it would get this Ivy bridge!

Display – Size reduction means you have to forgo something. Sure it would cut off Super Drive.

Considering the size loss, you might expect Apple to ditch super drive. It has done it on rMBP. So do expect the change.

Overall, this upgrade seems to happen on 23rd, October. But I suspect if they would ship it before next month.

3) 13″ rMBP – The D1 coded product! Apparently D2 turned to be 15″ rMBP, D1 has got all chances to be 13″ rMBP. But is it feasible considering few glitches the 15″ faced? Or will they just upgrade and silently refresh 15″ rMBP too? I would not bet on 13″ rMBP launch. If it launches, great! Something more affordable in rMBP series.

iOS 6 features compared!

 

About 48 hours before Apple launches iOS 6! So that brings us to this – Which version gets what?! iPhone 4S owners gets all the features. As I already blogged, if you have iPhone 4S, you dont have much of a need to upgrade unless you require an extra line of apps and faster processor. The rest, especially 3GS owners, its high time you upgrade to 4S or to 5. iPhone 4S seems to be a raw deal! Go grab it and wait for iPhone 6! Same with 4S owners.

Lets break down and see which version gets what –

Specs	3GS	4	4S	iPad 2	New iPad
Facebook Integration	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Cellular FaceTime	X	X	✔	X	✔
Turn by Turn GPS	X	X	✔	✔	✔
Guided Access	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Hearing  Aids	X	X	✔	X	X
New App Store	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Safari – Offline Reading	X	✔	✔	✔	✔
Passbook	✔	✔	✔	X	X
Call rejection replies	✔	✔	✔	X	X
Safari – Tab sync	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
New Photo Stream	X	✔	✔	✔	✔
Siri	X	X	✔	X	✔
Mail – VIP	X	✔	✔	✔	✔

3GS users – You get nothing from iOS 6 other than the very basic features.

4 users – No cellular Facetime is kind of a big deal and no Siri also makes it worse. But you still get more features than 3GS users.

4S users – You get all! Thats one reason not to go for iPhone 5!

iPad 2 – No cellular Facetime and Siri. As expected passbook and Call rejection doesn’t make it. To make you feel good, even the new iPad doesn’t have these features.

New iPad – You guys get Siri and Facetime on Cellular Network! So its awesome.

 

iPhone 5 – Worth the upgrade?

So, After reading so much about iPhone rumours its finally out. The specs are out and you must have read so much reviews. But is the upgrade worth it? Lets run down the comparison before deciding

Spec	iPhone 4	iPhone 4S	iPhone 5
OS	iOS 6 – Excluding Facetime over 3G/4G, Flyover & GPS, Siri	iOS 6	iOS 6
Processor	1Ghz A4	1Ghz Dual Core A5	A6
Screen Size	3.5 inch 960×640 Retina with 326 ppi	3.5 inch 960×640 Retina with 326 ppi	4 inch 1136×640 Retina with 326 ppi
Size	4.5 x 2.31 x.0.37	4.5 x 2.31 x 0.37	4.87 x 2.31 x .30
Wifi	801.11 b/g/n on 2Ghz	801.11 b/g/n on 2Ghz	801.11 b/g/n on 2Ghz and 5Ghz
Camera	5MP	8MP	8Mp
Front Camera	VGA photo & video	VGA photo & video	1.2MP 720p Video
LTE	No	No	Yes
Connector	old 30 pin’	old 30 pin’	Lightning 9 pin
Accessory	old earphones	old earphones	Earpods
Siri	No	Yes	Yes
Price (US on contract)	Free	$99 for 16GB	$199 for 16GB
Color	Black & White	Black & White	Black and ‘slate’, White and silver
Unlocked Price	–	–	$649/16Gb, $749/32Gb, $849/64GB

Those are major comparison between the last 3 generations. If you want to get the best out of your money and have iPhone 4, shift to iPhone 4S. Its worth the upgrade. But from 4S to 5? – If you are a fanboy and want to be the first to use it, Yes. But it would surely be not worth.

For my Indian readers – Do we need iPhone 5? Our people havent got 3G completely. So whats the use of LTE? I dont find the necessary to upgrade. But fanboys, like me, would surely want to have one.

Rumour round up – iPhone 5 & New iPod Touch.

So its iPhone 5 and not ‘New iPhone’. Many people had issues with ‘New iPad’ nomenclature, including me. But it makes more sense than iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad 5. You really don’t want to mess up like what Nokia did to their naming. Also, retina MacBook Pro’s are still ‘New Macbook Pro’ than MBP 1! So that makes sense. But iPhone 5?! Anyway, having heard so much about next iPhone over few months, what has that got us to? What will the new iPhone actually by and what will be the changes? Here are few major ones –

Design

You can surely expect to have a design makeover. To confirm this, a prototype has hit IFA 2012 too. So that surely confirms a design change. If you have 4S, your phone might look outdated.. Sorry.. Anyway, looking at that article from Cnet, and other articles from internet, It will surely come in two variant – White and Black.

(Pic from cultofmac)

Chances of this rumour going wrong – 0%

Best Social Networking Apps – 2012

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE READING THE APP LIST.

Face it, You can’t survive without Facebook. And there is no better alternative to it in Social Networking. Agreed Google + is there. But really? And even if there is, be assured it would be pounced by these two giants. Eg, Instagram. It became hugely popular and Facebook took it.

Off late, due to heavy boredom and hatred towards Facebook, I began looking out for Facebook alternatives. Believe me, I found none! So I decided to see if there are any other Social Networking apps that might impress me. And I shortlisted to the list below. The list below are not exactly alternatives to Facebook. These are other Social Networking apps that might impress you.

1) Twitter – Its mighty famous when compared to any of the other ‘choices’ listed below. If you are not on twitter, open an account and start tweeting, you will begin to love it. Its not complicated. Its simple, easy, clean and tremendously useful. Yes! Useful. With new Stock Tags or Ticker Tags, It is perhaps useful. There are people who believe Twitter is way better than Fb (I am one among those!). And few twitter habits has crept into Facebook for some unexplainable reason like use of #hashtags! I don’t know what they mean on Facebook but those are immensely useful in Tweet world. This is the next best thing to Facebook!

iOS – YES

Android – YES

2) Instagram – The app that makes everyone to think they are awesome photographers! Acquired by Facebook did lead to few hatred, it still is the best for photo sharing. The best feature of this app is that it will make u look like a ‘pro’ in photography! You can add filters and make it look vintage, 1940’s or like however you want. Initially it was for Apple-boys app and with recent launch in Android, its got a huge fan base. You are sure to have atleast 30% of your fb friends on this.

iOS – YES

Android – YES

Thank You All – 1000 Visit in 110 days!

Dear Anonymous Reader/Stalkers,

I have no clue why I started this doodle, but it has surely got more visits than I ever imagined. I thank all those readers through this post – though I am sure all won’t get to read this post. To reach 1000 visits 110 days of starting is a huge achievement, atleast for me.

Olloclip Review – iPhone 4S

When iPhone 4S was launched, Apple promoted their Camera a lot. It came with Illumination Sensor, faster lens and with 8MP Camera. With extraordinary apps like 645 Pro, Snapseed, Hipsmatic, iPhone 4S can be eligible to be your point and shoot camera. But can never replace the dSLR. Arguably, iPhone 4S has the best Camera.

You can make it even more cool with an accessory – Olloclip. A recent trip outside India gave me the opportunity to buy this lens. Its only-iPhone 4/4S Camera Kit. It comes with 3 lens – Fish-Eye lens, Wide Angle Lens and a Macro Lens. If you are love to click pictures with your iPhone, this should be your accessory.

The Make:

All three lens put together are amazingly small. The right word would be tiny. The package comes with the lens, a carrying bag and lens cap. The carry bad acts as cleaning cloth too. And then the two lens cap. Unscrew wide angle to get the mind-blowing Macro Lens.

When the lens are put on the carry bag, its highly portable. It fits in your pocket, though I won’t advise.

Setup:

If you have your case on your iPhone, you are in bad luck. You have to remove the case to fit the lens on. If you are using screen protectors on both sides, you might damage the edges. I use Screen Protectors and don’t have a case. I had issues with my Screen Protector. I have now removed my back protector so that I don’t have trouble attaching the lens each time. Other than that, Its easy to set this up. Just push the lens on your camera side edge and you are fine. Its simple, Sturdy and eye catchy too.

gfxCardStatus Menu App Review – Save Battery!

I had visited a friend of mine recently and used his MBP. And, I happened to stumble upon an alphabet  – d –  on his menu bar. Having so much love for those tiny – yet powerful – menu bar apps, I asked him about the app.

Before he could finish explaining (It took less than a minute!), I found myself already searching for the app. Meet – gfxCardStatus – a free, open source app that helps you to switch GPU, aka Graphics Card,at your will. Its for 15″ and 17″ MBP’s from late 2008 and until the retina MBP’s (The reason is very obvious). Its updated to Mountain Lion as well.

Off late the Macbook Pro’s come with dual graphics card and they switch automatically based on the app you run. But, most of times we are never aware of which GPU you are running on. And even if you knew, we hardly knew which app kicks on the integrated Card. And this app helps you will all of those. You always need to understand you laptop to get the best out of it!

UI:

As you expect from any menu bar app, its got the basic option – About, Check for Update and Preferences

How to make iPhone to replace a dSLR…. Well almost!!!!!

To put things in perspective, iPhone can never replace a dSLR – NO MATTER WHAT… Atleast till iPhone 4S. As a matter of fact, iPhone can never be modified to act as a dSLR. If you want proof, try arguing with a professional photographer that your iPhone replaces his $2000 odd bazooka like Nikon or Canon. He would throw you all those technical words at you that never heard of and tell you where a real dSLR strikes!

Though I have my Canon 550D, I am too lazy to carry it around for vacations. My bag is always loaded with 17inch Macbook Pro, 2 iPod Touch, Palm Pre2 (It dont really use, but its just there in my bag always!) 2 Proporta USB TurboCharger. So there is hardly any space for my dSLR.

After purchasing an iPhone 4S, it became my best option to capture moments. Its always on my pocket and I hardly go anywhere without this. Its always there with me. So I decided to enhance this gadget to make the best out of it without much expense.

Having done few days of googling, I have few handy apps and a yet-to-be-purchased accessory that would almost act like a dSLR without occupying so much space on my travel bag. Most importantly without burning a hole in my wallet!

THE APPS:

I had the most famous app that would make any of my crappy photos look awesome (atleast to me!). Its called INSTAGRAM. Oh wait, Its called Facebook Camera aka Facebook . (DOT). But that just add effects and does nothing more. Camera + was another good alternative that kept me busy for few days. Another app I used was Camera Awesome by SmugMug. These became handy apps to add effects.

But recently, I bought two apps that totally took me by surprise and it almost gave everything I was looking to make my iPhone dSLR.

1) 645 Pro ($2.99)
This is just a bit of tonnes of feature in this beast of an app. Go check out reviews from experts for more details as such.I am not going to review the app because thats not the primary motive of this article. But I will try to give you an idea about the app as such. This app had so much on the screen to make youfeel that you actually have a dSLR.

It takes uncompressed JPEGS and almost takes RAW. They say its the closest to get RAW  on your iPhone. Unlike many other apps where you have to go to various screen to adjust various setting, this app gives you every setting on the screen. It might be clustered, but, because you have live view mode, you can just change setting on-the-go to suit your taste. I mean it. Just like that. How I exactly used to do on my Canon 550D.

2) SnapSeed ($4.99)

Most pics from 645 Pro are better if they are left untouched. However, I found this app which makes me to edit those pics. Its fun to use (Oh, the UI is so refreshing!) and has got some
serious tools. Its so easy to use, thanks to in-app help that makes sure you are not lost. There are adjustments to make your pics look perfect and some filters. They are frames with control on the border so that you can customise to suit your taste. Over all, use this app and you will love it. It only takes few minutes to get used to it and to come up with gorgeous pics.

Internet Sharing Alfred Extension

Some Crap about why I did this app!

My two years of education in Singapore made me heavily dependent on Wi-fi. Where ever I went, I never had the trouble of finding wi fi spots. Either SingTel would give me one or McD had one, Starbucks, in my Uni, in my house everywhere had a wi-fi.

After my studies there, I returned to India to work in our family business. That too in a town like Virudhunagar. No wifi. I had to use my mobile net which sucks! 3G is not even launched here when they say iPhone might get to 4G. Living in 2G sucks.

And so, I use Reliance Netconnect on my laptop which is fast. iPhone data plan is capped. So i had to rely on my unlimited Reliance to connect my iPhone to internet. Each time I had to connect, I had to do many steps to share my laptop internet.

Because I already have Alfred app and Powerpack with me, I decided to use a script to share internet.. It does a good job for me. Sure you might face a situation where you might want to share you laptop internet. This app reduces the job.

Useful Mac Applications – 2012

So I was wondering what to publish for my firstwordpress blog. Few years ago, When I first got my Macbook pro (2006), I found myself constantly googling for “Must Have Apps” or “Useful Apps” etc. I still google the same continuously. So if you came to blog using the same search types, I won’t be surprised. In this post, I decided to put forth few apps that are very handy – some are paid, others are free.

A Warning before you see below. This list consist of apps that I use. Who I am and my primary laptop usage & purpose have influence on the type of app I use. For e.g., If i write apps, my usage of apps varies and my essential would include xCode, Textmate etc. But for me, as a regular user who just browse the web, do a bit of social networking, check mails, and for official use (btw, I am into business!) these apps are must!

So check ’em out if you are of my type. The rest, thanks for visiting my blog. Hope I have something interesting for you next time. And, If there are any other apps that might help me out, put a comment. I shall check out and update it as well. Whats more, the below apps work on Mountain Lion too.

UPDATE date 31.72012: The following apps are MOUNTAIN LION compatible unless specified. (Basically  all are compatible!) 

Note: The order is not based on importance but alphabetical.

1) Alfred – Free/£15

I literally cannot operate my mac without this app. Its basically the same as “Spotlight” by default. It opens files, opens applications, finds document just like SpotLight. But then why another app when Spotlight does the same trick? It does the same job but more easily, quickly and can be customized to suit your preference. So what is the £15 for if its free? Its for power pack (I have power pack!) With power pack, it literally puts your mouse pad to zero use. Use it to send tweets, toggle wifi, bluetooth, use your spotifu, rdio, search evernote.. basically it does almost all stuff. Check this for some scripts.

You may want to download free version, get addicted and buy the full version (I mean the power pack for extensions!)

2) 1Password – $49.99 

Ok. $50? Yes! For a app just for Mac. Add another $14.99 for your iOS device. All it does is saves your password. Are they crazy to charge us so much for this app? No! Frankly, Lastpass is a beautiful extension to remember our passwords. Its on almost all browsers. Then why this? This saves your bank information, email accounts, FTP ones, IM’s, Software password and the list is on and on! This on my OS X along with my iPhone version makes life so much easier for me. If you keep forgetting your ATM pins or you dont want to open your wallet to see your credit card number or want to know your software license number you bought few years – this app stores all those information for you. So I never lose my password anytime, anywhere. Try it for free for 30 days!

Why am I here?

I have no clue why I am into these sites suddenly, but i felt cool using using it and sharing on twitter. 😛

So if you want to read some crappy stuff that has no meaning, know what the hell am I upto in life, Follow me. Sure you won’t be disappointed about this.

So what are these crappy stuff about? Mostly about some computer stuff, gadgets, my life, and things I find wort sharing. I know its not a clear picture, but hope u get some idea of what u might see.

This blog is strictly not for reader who like to criticize and not correct, decide to oppose and not discuss,  and who wants to spend the time usefully. So you decide for yourself.

Also, whatever is written here is purely my view! And may or may be correct all the time. I am not asking you to do what I say. And whatever written here are cannot be taken to court for legal issues. If I have used any copyright material, please advise to take it down and also its purely unintentional. I am sure to give you credit for those materials. Dont sue me! Please..

Oh. If I have used any of your copyright photos/articles/anything, please let me know. I shall remove it at once! Its unfortunate that I used yours and I apologise to you.

Update: Please read this for a Quick Thank You for 1000 Visits!