Handy OS X Tools

[Dippyskoodlez]

Handbrake (http://handbrake.m0k.org/)

Onyx (http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/english/onyx.html)

VLC (http://www.videolan.org/)

Flip4Mac (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/wmcomponents.mspx) - Allows WM video playing in OS X

DIVX (www.divx.com)

Azureus (http://azureus.sourceforge.net/) - bittorrent client

Toast 7 (http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html) - fully featured burning suite for cd and dvd.

Pacifist (http://www.charlessoft.com/) - 3rd party package installer. Lets you control every aspect of using .pkg installers. Seeing where everything goes, changing where everything goes, partial installs, force installing .pkg's that are soft-locked for no good reason, etc., etc. I have even used this to force install Front Row on 2 of my Macs. lol

Tech Tool Pro 4 (http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=48) - Hard disk/volume maintenance and repair program.

Disk Warrior (http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html) - Another volume maintenance program. Note that I haven't tried Ver 4 yet, only 3. This and Tech Tools both consistently recovered broken volumes for me, but this has a very slightly higher success rate on recovering already damaged volumes. Tech Tools offers more maintenance options, however. Both programs have saved countless Gigs of data for me.

Cocktail (http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.html) - Very similar to Onyx, but offers some different and useful options, especially in reference to network performance settings.

Parallels (http://www.parallels.com/) - [INTEL ONLY] Its like Vmware. But utilizes the virtualization technology in the core duo series. This makes windows and linux guest OS's full speed. This program is AMAZING. Anyone that would ever have a potential need for a virtual machine, this is a necessity. If anything, this is THE only program you would ever need. And keep watching for updates. The beta's are constantly adding a ton of features.
--note worthy features
-Virtualization
-Coherence mode
-Multiple guest OS's, and streamlined installation
-Upcoming 3d additions

Best $60 spent. EVER.

--Built in tools
-Terminal
-Disk utility
-OS X CD.

BURNING A CD

This is kinda an unknown, yet blatently simple way to burn data cd's..

http://img.techpowerup.org/070606/Picture%203.png
Works like windows XP's built in cd burning, except its just a folder you put stuff into. Open folder, click burn and you're off! No need to select cd/dvd/etc, because it just asks for something that fits!


Boot Camp (www.apple.com/bootcamp)- Apple's bootloader to boot Windows XP (SP2+) and windows Vista along with os X. Allows repartitioning, to control whats default, startup disk in system preferences (OS X) or the control panel item startup disk that is provided when you install apple's driver CD. If you for some reason cant get either to work or just wanna switch to one, you can hold OPTION during boot just like classic mode used to work, and you get a nice little select screen. Enjoy! (1.2 I can personally confirm works great with XP SP2 and Windows Vista!)

[Wile E]

You should add VLC (http://www.videolan.org/) to that list. Plays most anything, except WMV/WMA.

And are we sticking to free tools? Cause I have suggestions for some that cost money, but are well worth it IMHO.

[Dippyskoodlez]

You should add VLC (http://www.videolan.org/) to that list. Plays most anything, except WMV/WMA.

And are we sticking to free tools? Cause I have suggestions for some that cost money, but are well worth it IMHO.

If they have a trial, I'll see how good it is :)

VLC is good for ANY platform!! :toast:

[Wile E]

Other freebies:

StuffIt Expander (http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/) - Multiple format archive extractor.

Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/) - Web browser

Azureus (http://azureus.sourceforge.net/) - bittorrent client

unRarX (http://www.unrarx.com/) - Graphical .rar extractor, way more stable than StuffIt at extracting .rar files.

ffMpegX (http://www.ffmpegx.com/) - Video converting program.

xACT (http://sourceforge.net/projects/xact) - Audio conversion program.

Share Points (http://www.hornware.com/sharepoints/) - Lets you control what folders and volumes are shared over your network

Senuti (http://www.fadingred.org/senuti/) - Allows you to extract the music from your iPod back to your computer.

Things that cost, but are worth it imho, are:

Toast 7 (http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html) - fully featured burning suite for cd and dvd.

Pacifist (http://www.charlessoft.com/) - 3rd party package installer. Lets you control every aspect of using .pkg installers. Seeing where everything goes, changing where everything goes, partial installs, force installing .pkg's that are soft-locked for no good reason, etc., etc. I have even used this to force install Front Row on 2 of my Macs. lol

Tech Tool Pro 4 (http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=48) - Hard disk/volume maintenance and repair program.

Disk Warrior (http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/index.html) - Another volume maintenance program. Note that I haven't tried Ver 4 yet, only 3. This and Tech Tools both consistently recovered broken volumes for me, but this has a very slightly higher success rate on recovering already damaged volumes. Tech Tools offers more maintenance options, however. Both programs have saved countless Gigs of data for me.

Cocktail (http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.html) - Very similar to Onyx, but offers some different and useful options, especially in reference to network performance settings.

I have fully tested all of these or still use all of these on my Macs with great success. I'll post any others I find, after I test them.

[Dippyskoodlez]

I grabbed some of those I know are great, and will try the rest when I get some time...

Pacificst can be used for free though ;)

Excellent tool.

[Wile E]

Pacificst can be used for free though ;)

Excellent tool.I know, I was just trying to avoid the grey areas, lol.

[Wile E]

Wanted to point out that Version .86 of VLC now plays wmv files on the mac. Haven't come across a wma to test yet. Gonna rip one from one of my cd's to test. Will update.

UPDATE: couldn't get it to work with a 192Kb/s VBR wma file. It showed a time, and the timeline was moving, but it gave the "no suitable codec found" error. Might try fooling around with it later, to see if different encoding techniques work.

[Wile E]

Just wanted to let all know, Toast 8 (http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html) is out. Some new features, including Blu-Ray support, and more importantly DISK SPANNING! It's about time they saw fit to add spanning.

[Dippyskoodlez]

Wanted to point out that Version .86 of VLC now plays wmv files on the mac. Haven't come across a wma to test yet. Gonna rip one from one of my cd's to test. Will update.

UPDATE: couldn't get it to work with a 192Kb/s VBR wma file. It showed a time, and the timeline was moving, but it gave the "no suitable codec found" error. Might try fooling around with it later, to see if different encoding techniques work.

Use flip4mac.

;)

[Wile E]

Use flip4mac.

;)Yeah, I have it. I just prefer VLC over Quicktime.

[Wile E]

Intel only:

Boot Camp and Parallels. You try Parallels yet, Dip? It's coherence mode is awesome(runs guest operating system transparently on top of OS X, you have the Windows taskbar on the bottom of the screen and the OS X tool bar at the top, and it works with Boot Camp partitions.)

[Ripper3]

That new feature in Parallels is what's making me want to move over to an Intel Mac. I've got an old Clamshell iBook, which is good enough for doing work in the living room in front of teh telly, and emulating Win98/Snes/Nes, etc. but it lacks the power I'm looking for, and that I'll likely need for uni, so I'm looking at buying a Mac Book.
Anyhu, does any one know of a good program to create keyboard short cuts? I used to have one, and used it to make my Function keys more useful (they controlled iTunes, even without having iTunes on screen), but can't find it any more. Can't even remember a name.

[Dippyskoodlez]

That new feature in Parallels is what's making me want to move over to an Intel Mac. I've got an old Clamshell iBook, which is good enough for doing work in the living room in front of teh telly, and emulating Win98/Snes/Nes, etc. but it lacks the power I'm looking for, and that I'll likely need for uni, so I'm looking at buying a Mac Book.
Anyhu, does any one know of a good program to create keyboard short cuts? I used to have one, and used it to make my Function keys more useful (they controlled iTunes, even without having iTunes on screen), but can't find it any more. Can't even remember a name.

If you're into hardcore keyboard shortcuts, try "quicksilver".

;)


As for parallels, GET IT. NQA. Don't even think twice, if you have used a virtual machine tool like vmware in the past, and/or want to game, GET IT.

parallels has some amazing stuff going on. And much more to come.... enough to revolutionize why people are going to buy a mac ;)

Intel only:

Boot Camp and Parallels. You try Parallels yet, Dip? It's coherence mode is awesome(runs guest operating system transparently on top of OS X, you have the Windows taskbar on the bottom of the screen and the OS X tool bar at the top, and it works with Boot Camp partitions.)

I've actually been playing with it since I got my macbook pro, and its been in beta.. this software is amazing (added it to the OP)... best $60 I have ever spent.. and when version 3.0 comes out, I may do a review... its just that good.

The newest beta is amazing. (There is a reason I'm waiting for 3.0 ;) )

[DaMulta]

http://www.myconfinedspace.com/watermark.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2006/09/pc-vs-mac.jpg

:toast:

I'm sorry:) I felt the need to post that.

[Ripper3]

Heh, nice image, made me laugh a bit.
To be fair, all you need in life is a knife and the knowledge that the ultimate answer of the life, the universe and everything is truly 42.

I'll give Parallels a try as soon as I get my hands on an Intel Mac (and when that happens, I'll make my iBook a digital picure frame :laugh:

BTW, I'm trying out Quicksilver, and I'm already dissapointed in terms of support... I'm running Panther on my old ibook, and I have to use an older version... makes me feel left out :(
First impressions with Quicksilver are pretty good though, so I'll let it slide

Just thought of a good app to put up there, for all of the Mac users that have upgraded to a non-Apple supplied drive called Patchburn (www.patchburn.de). I upgraded my CD-ROM only drive to DVD/CD-RW combo, and couldn't figure out how to get it working, but this app helped, to say the least (it did all the work for me).
Free of charge, and the profile it makes allows all burning apps (that I know of) to support the drive as if twas one of Apple's own.

[Dippyskoodlez]

:toast:

I'm sorry:) I felt the need to post that.


Someone needs to try parallels.

Its the other way around.

Its just the smart people that realize this. ;)

Its the swiss army knife with a combination lock on it!

[Dippyskoodlez]

bumppity for updates, 2 additions. Boot camp 1.2 works great with vista, and how to burn a data CD.

[Rob!]

http://perian.org/ Perian is a plug-in for Quicktime that allows it to play AVI files. I also noticed after I installed it that I could import AVIs to iMovie as well.

http://www.isquint.org/ iSquint converts files to mp4 format for iPods, iMovie, etc. It works quite well with avi files, and is pretty quick.

[v-zero]

I would add that if you use newsgroups, then Unison (little bit of money) and MacPar Deluxe are fantastic tools. MacPar will fix archives using parity files, then extract them once done - imho better than quickpar for windows - but it does nag you every now and then for an optional donation.