This Week's Sponsor:

LookAway

It helps you take regular breaks from your Mac to rest your eyes, without breaking your flow.

Posts tagged with "mac"

Put Screenshots In Your Sights With Crosshairs For Mac

Want to take screenshots with precision and adjustable controls? Crosshairs for Mac is what you’ll need if you want a friendly menubar utility that slaps screenshots right onto the desktop. Crosshairs is really simple to use:

  1. Click on the menubar icon to activate Crosshairs
  2. Drag the overlay anywhere and achieve a pixel-perfect with the graphic counter
  3. Press the spacebar to take the screenshot
  4. Press the escape key to deactivate Crosshairs

Simple, no? You might be wondering why you’d use Crosshairs over Snow Leopard’s built in screenshot utility, and the answer is simple. With Crosshairs, you can readjust and take multiple snaps consecutively in one row, making readjustments as needed.

There’s quite a few keyboard commands for Crosshairs, and its main purpose is to get dimensions of anything on screen. For pixel pushers measuring apps or windows for Photoshop, Crosshairs conveniently sits above your workspace so you can quickly rule what you need. If you’re working with a dark background, you could always change that overlay from black to white.

You’ll be set back a meager $4.99 in the Mac App Store for an aiming cursor with mad screenshot & measuring skills. Check it out at Giant Comet for more information.

Snap for Mac Assigns Keyboard Shortcuts to Apps In Your Dock

If you use the OS X Dock as much as I do, then it’s likely that you’ve always wondered why there’s no easy way to assign a keyboard shortcut for apps placed in the Dock. Snap, a $0.99 app available in the Mac App Store, solves this problem by providing an easy solution to cycle through Dock apps using the keyboard.

Once downloaded, Snap will let you assign numeric shortcuts to Dock apps starting from the Finder and the app right next to it. All you have to do is choose a modifier key that, together with the numbers, will enable you to switch between apps in seconds. The modifier key can be Command, Control, Shift or Option. Personally, I chose Option so I can switch between tabs in Chrome using CMD. If you don’t want to have shortcuts for Dock apps, however, you can also manually pick an app from the “Other” menu and virtually create shortcuts for any app on your Mac.

I like Snap because it’s simple and allows me to quickly open apps using easy to remember shortcuts – always faster than heading over an icon with your mouse cursor. Go download it here.

New µTorrent Beta for Mac Adds Remote Web Access, Scheduler

Popular BitTorrent client µTorrent was updated in its beta version for Mac last night adding support for a series of features that have made the app a must-have among Windows users. Namely, the latest beta for Mac adds the ability to control torrents remotely from any desktop or mobile browser, without having to mess with complicated network and firewall settings. It’s quite handy if you’re that kind of user who likes checking on his torrents on the go and wouldn’t mind adding new ones as well. Everything happens with a Web interface that’s completely accessible from anywhere. Together with the web UI, the application’s design has been improved as well.

Other important features in the 1.5 beta include feeds and the scheduler. While the second option is pretty obvious as it lets you schedule start and stop times for µTorrent (so your internet service provider will be happy), the RSS support is interesting. It allows you to subscribe to torrents’ feeds to automatically download them as new ones become available.

µTorrent is a free download for Mac, and the beta version is available here. [via Cult of Mac]

CalendarBar Tucks Event Reminders In Your Menubar

Clean Cut Code is known for making beautiful apps like Cloud Calendar, and it was only a matter of time before they brought some of their talent to the OS X desktop. CalendarBar takes on the inefficiencies of a traditional calendar client by providing a quick list of events in a beautiful timeline that can grab events from iCal, Google Calendar, and Facebook. Clicking on an event takes you to the event listing in its parent application – CalendarBar removes the distraction of busy calendar utilities, but provides shortcuts so you can add entries and gather additional information. The app features a some iOS overtones in its design, most obviously via the settings and exit button that adorn the bottom of the pop-up panel. Launching yesterday, the app is only $1.99 in the Mac App Store.

New iOS 4.3 Feature: iTunes Home Sharing

At today’s iPad 2 event, Apple said iOS 4.3 will be available next Friday, March 11. A new feature mentioned was iTunes Home Sharing, so let’s dig in.

iTunes currently has Home Sharing between Macs or PCs on the same Wi-Fi network, but now iOS 4.3 is letting you stream all your music, movies and TV shows from your Mac or PC to any iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. After installing iTunes 10.2, tap and enjoy all your media in your iTunes library anywhere in your home. Imagine, you can stream a movie from your Mac to your iPad anywhere your Wi-Fi range can reach. Want to listen to an excellent new podcast, connect and go!

Current iOS 4.3 GM users, the iTunes Home Sharing feature is now in the beta. Others, it will definitely be in the public release on March 11.

UPDATED WITH SCREENSHOTS BELOW: Read more