For (let's say) "phans" of Crayon Physics, Phun 3.5 is a similar kind of physics simulator created by Emil Ernerfeldt for his thesis at Umeå University, Sweden. Not only is it Swedish, but it's just been released for the Mac.
Sure, it's rough-around-the-edges, and it follows pretty much none of the Mac's interface or key-combination conventions, but it's sure a fun (with an F) toy. Phun is Universal Binary, and freeware.
The guys over at the Google Mac blog have dropped a new little open source application called Visigami, which serves as a more "interesting" and "fun" way to browse and play around with images online. Basically, after installing the app, you can then pull in pics from Picasa, Google Images, or Flickr (iPhoto is just a suggestion so far), and then search, animate, zoom in or out on them, and even turn them right into a screensaver.
It's a pretty neat little application -- not exactly the kind of thing that anyone has probably been hoping for (it seems more fun than utilitarian), but if you find yourself often browsing photos online, this definitely seems like a more fun way to do it. And it's one more reason to praise all the great developers working on our platform -- it's little apps like this that make the Mac user experience so much better.
Over on the Office Google Mac Blog they're calling attention to simple little application from Google Mac Team member David Phillip Oster called AppMenuBoy. Basically, it will allow you to get one click access to all your applications by clicking on its Dock icon.
David designed it to function like folders on the Dock did back in the good old Tiger days, when you could simply drag your Applications folder to the Dock to get a basic launcher. Though the 10.5.2 update improved things to some degree from the original Stacks behavior in Leopard, AppMenuBoy "shows only applications, follows aliases, and if a folder contains only an application, it silently 'hoists' that application in the menu so you don't have hierarchical menus that contain only a single icon."
Karelia software released iMedia Browser 1.1 earlier this week, and it features some very nice changes.
If you're unfamiliar, iMedia Browser is a stand alone application much like the media browser in Apple's iLife applications. It lets you browse your iPhoto library (photos and videos), iTunes library and web links, all without having to launch those applications. It's very handy and a time saver for anyone who needs to access these files frequently. Plus, it "flips over" like a Dashboard widget, which is fun.
Changes to version 1.1 include
The photos browser now includes Adobe Lightroom
New Movies thumbnail generation and caching mechanism for improved stability
Source lists now indicate that folders can be dragged in to be added
Process of checking for updates and reporting problems has been improved
iMedia Browser works with Tiger or Leopard and is free.
John Gruber's (and my) favorite Twitter web app for the iPhone is about to get better -- if you've been on the Hahlo for iPhone homepage lately, you'll have seen that Dean Robinson is working on version 3 of Hahlo (titled, hilariously for us gamers, the Legendary Edition).
TUAW got to take a look (along with all of the other beta users) at the new software, and here's a short preview running through what the new Hahlo will look like, as well as updates to the system, including a brand new Settings page, inline replies, hashtags and searching, and lots of other cool tweaks and updates.
Vidalia is a cross-platform GUI for the Tor network, which makes it very easy to anonymize your Mac's TCP activity. The Tor project (which we posted about a long time ago) is a volunteer network designed to foil traffic analysis and thus allow you to cover your tracks online. Basically it bounces your network requests across a number of Tor computers (and back again) so that nobody is able to figure out your actual destination.
This is obviously useful for keeping your identity secret, but it may also allow you to access IP addresses and services that your local network administrator blocks. Now you should think carefully about trying to circumvent such restrictions, as bad things may happen to you if it's discovered. The other big downside is speed. Needless to say if you're bouncing around computers all over the globe before you get to your destination there's going to be some lag. Nonetheless, if you need the anonymity (or if the people you're communicating with need it -- think journalists or whistleblowers) it may be worth it. You may also like to contribute your own computer as a node to help out the network.
Vidalia is open source and a free download. The latest package is marked for Tiger, but it seems to work on Leopard as well. If you're having trouble getting it from the Vidalia project page you can also download it from the Tor project download page. Once you download it, be sure to carefully follow the instructions in the Installation Guide for OS X.
One of the nice things about the Airport Extreme Base Station is the Airport Utility application used to manage it. Most other routers these days are managed with a web interface which can sometimes be a little wonky. So it was with some interest that I discovered Port Map, from the Coding Monkeys of SubEthaEdit fame.
Port Map is not a full-fledged management application, but it does bring Cocoa lickability to one standard management task: port mapping, an essential task for iChat or Back to my Mac. If your router supports UPnP / NAT-PNP Port Map provides an iPhone-esque Ui for setting up specific ports, including "presets and URL templates." You can see it working above with my DD-WRT Linksys router (don't worry, I turned it off after the screenshot).
Port Map is a free download from The Coding Monkeys. They've also open-sourced some of the coding goodness that makes this possible and created a framework available to other developers on a Google Code page. Thanks constantin!
We're once again talking about Caffeine from lighthead Software (makers of Papaya), the freeware menubar app that keeps your screen awake. It's now at version 1.0.2 with one new feature that makes it even more useful: time-limited activation.
A command-click on the coffee cup icon in your menubar presents a menu that allows you to set a variable duration for Caffeine to be activated. Got a 10 minute video to show a friend, but your screen is set to dim or go into Screensaver before the end? Set Caffeine for 15 minutes and forget about it.
We covered Jolt a while back, and this feature was available... for a small, $5 fee (of course, it's worth mentioning that half of those five dollars are donated to charity). But Caffeine has caught up and it remains free. Update your copy or take it for a spin at lighthead's website.
If you love Aperture (or iPhoto) like we do, then you know that there are some nice plug-ins that allow you to export pictures to differing photo sites (i.e. Flickr, etc.). However, if you use Gmail's web based e-mail service, then you are out of luck ... until now!
Aperture2Gmail (or iPhoto2Gmail) allows you to export your photos in a new e-mail directly to Gmail. You can also resize on-the-fly, just like you can in Mail.app.
Mind mapping seems to be one of those things that you either get, or just don't. For those who do, there's a new player in town.
MindNode is a free Leopard-only mind mapping application from Markus Müller, based in Austria. The application is by no means feature-rich; in fact, it's so simple as to be a bit disarming at first. But what it lacks in features, it makes up for in elegance.
The interface is incredibly clean. To create a new node, simply double-click anywhere on the window, or press the Tab key when focused on a node to create a new child node. To create a node at the same level as the one that is currently in focus, press option-Tab.
As new nodes are added at the same level, they surround the previous nodes. For example, the second new node appears below the original one. The third appears above. Below, above, below, above. While this is an easy way to keep everything grouped together, it's not particularly useful if you're using MindNode to create a list with any sort of ordering. Some would argue that mind maps should not worry about ordering since it should be all about capturing ideas. But given that mind maps are useful in large part because they allow for graphical organization, this behavior is a bit unfortunate.
Other than that one small beef, MindNode is a nice, small, but useful tool that will be right at home in your Applications folder for the next time you find yourself needing to do some brainstorming.
We recently noted the release of the new shareware FTP client Flow and now it seems that one of the more venerable open source FTP clients on the Mac is also nearing a new version release. The first beta of Cyberduck 3 is now available. Most importantly, it adds a substantially updated interface as well as support for WebDAV and Amazon S3.
Cyberduck 3.0b1 is a free download but donations are requested.
My personal favorite desktop wallpaper app, the echo-named Desktoptopia, sent us a tip with a great announcement today: not only have they released version 1.5, and not only have they released a PC version (for your work computer to use, I guess), but Desktoptopia is now a completely free app.
Now, I don't know if this is new or not, but their FAQ page says that the reason they're now free is that some of the wallpapers that will show up on your desktop (the app periodically changes your wallpaper for you, as often as you'd like) are "beautiful desktops that reflect a brand." I haven't yet seen any obvious ones pop up in the old version, and I haven't started using the new version yet, but I guess there's a chance that you could have, say, a Wal-mart desktop show up. That would probably give me reason to uninstall the software right there, but of course that's up to you -- if you don't like it, you could always try Desktopia, or just do it yourself with Automator.
I haven't had that problem yet, though -- in my experience, Desktoptopia has provided some great wallpapers (with no brands I could notice) as regularly as I'd like with no fuss at all. If you want some change to come regularly to your desktop wallpaper, but don't want to go hunting around for the right pics, Desktoptopia is a great solution that is now completely free. Great to hear.
If completely useless (but oh-so-fun) is your thing, then why not check out IBlendIt. IBlendIt allows you to get your frustrations out by, you guessed it, blending photos, files, and colors. This is one application that I couldn't resist trying out ... it really does relieve stress (especially after working on that long term paper), but one feature that would be awesome is having it delete the files upon completion of the blending process.
If you would like to get your blending on, then why not try out this little free (donations accepted) blending application by downloading it today.
I know many TUAW readers keep their Macs on, and awake, over night for a variety of reasons. If your Mac is in your bedroom, then you have probably been rudely awoken by an errant alert from your Mac. Your sleepless nights are now over, because SoundAsleep is here to guard your slumber.
SoundAsleep is a very simple app that sits in your menubar (above you see SoundAsleep's preferences). Simply set the time you want to start muting your Mac, and when you want to unmute it. That's it. SoundAsleep will take care of it.
It would be nice if you could set a number of different 'muting schedules,' but that's why the concept of a version 2.0 was invented.
The lack of notes syncing on the iPhone and iPod touch just continues to baffle me. Just like To Do syncing it seems like a no brainer, especially in the case of notes since it's such a pain to type anything very long on the iPhone keyboard. The iPhone hacking community has been working on the problems and a clever Mac application called iPhoneNotes bring basic notes transfer between a Mac and a jailbroken iPhone.
The application actually works over wifi and requires that your iPhone be jailbroken. Unfortunately, the developer's site is somewhat lacking in instructions. You need to have OpenSSH installed (and working) on the iPhone and then when you run iPhoneNotes on your Mac it searches for the iPhone with Bonjour. Once it finds the iPhone and you put in your credentials, you should be able to download and upload notes. It does not provide true syncing; rather you download your Notes database from your iPhone, make changes on the Mac, then upload it back. Nonetheless, it works and provides a way to upload notes from your Mac to your iPhone.
Because it requires OpenSSH this doesn't seem like a long term solution. Nonetheless, if you need to get notes from your Mac to your iPhone, this is one of the best options at this time. iPhoneNotes is a free download from V1ru8.
For (let's say) "phans" of Crayon Physics, Phun 3.5 is a similar kind of physics simulator created by Emil Ernerfeldt for his thesis at Umeå University, Sweden. Not only is it Swedish, but it's just been released for the Mac. 
Over on the Office Google Mac Blog they're calling attention to simple little application from Google Mac Team member David Phillip Oster called AppMenuBoy. Basically, it will allow you to get one click access to all your applications by clicking on its Dock icon. 
Karelia software released iMedia Browser 1.1 earlier this week, and it features some very nice changes. 
John Gruber's (and my) favorite Twitter web app for the iPhone is about to get better -- if you've been on the Hahlo for iPhone homepage lately, you'll have seen that Dean Robinson is working on version 3 of Hahlo (titled, hilariously for us gamers, the Legendary Edition).
We're once again talking about Caffeine from lighthead Software (makers of Papaya), the freeware menubar app that keeps your screen awake. It's now at version 1.0.2 with one new feature that makes it even more useful: time-limited activation. 
If you love Aperture (or iPhoto) like we do, then you know that there are some nice plug-ins that allow you to export pictures to differing photo sites (i.e. Flickr, etc.). However, if you use Gmail's web based e-mail service, then you are out of luck ... until now! 
Mind mapping seems to be one of those things that you either get, or just don't. For those who do, there's a new player in town. 
We recently noted the release of the new shareware FTP client Flow and now it seems that one of the more venerable open source FTP clients on the Mac is also nearing a new version release. The first beta of Cyberduck 3 is now available. Most importantly, it adds a substantially updated interface as well as support for WebDAV and Amazon S3.
My personal favorite desktop wallpaper app, the echo-named Desktoptopia, sent us a tip with a great announcement today: not only have they released version 1.5, and not only have they released a PC version (for your work computer to use, I guess), but Desktoptopia is now a completely free app.
If completely useless (but oh-so-fun) is your thing, then why not check out IBlendIt. IBlendIt allows you to get your frustrations out by, you guessed it, blending photos, files, and colors. This is one application that I couldn't resist trying out ... it really does relieve stress (especially after working on that long term paper), but one feature that would be awesome is having it delete the files upon completion of the blending process.
