CocoThumbX is an application that I used for making all the thumbnails on OscarGodson.com (Under Construction until the launch around the end of February.) You can see the thumbs it generated for the site in the last thumbnail. It’s just a really nifty app. I fell in love with it immediately. I’ll admit that I don’t use anything, but the save thumbnail feature, but I have tried out the other features.
The thumbnail generator is pretty darn spiffy. I love how you can make he rounded corners right there on the fly. I have done that with all of my thumbnails. I like the 1px border option and the mirror option will probably come in handy for many people. There are just so many options in this little thing it’s amazing.
It also has other features that other people might find fun/useful. One, that I did by accident when I was still trying to figure out how to use this program was you can change the actual icons you have in your Finder folders. In the 6th thumbnail you can see what I’m talking about.You can just as easily remove all of those changes by just dropping all those back in with the remove thumbnail option. Adding on to this feature you can turn on the watch folder option and it will automatically update the icons inside of that icon. Cool!
A feature that developers and designers might like is the Save as ICNS file. If you didn’t know, ICNS is what the Mac icon’s extensions are. So, you could even use a family photo, drop it in, and use that family photo as a icon for your Macintosh HD icon.
There are some buggy things though and that’s why I’m glad it’s free. I think if you use this software you should donate though because it’s really great for what it does. One of the best free ones out there and now it’s the only one I use.
Some bugs you should know about as of 2/15/08 are:
Other than that you might find some limitations, but for most everyones needs it works perfect. I highly recommend this to anyone wanting a thumbnail generator. It’s great and It’s nice reviewing a good application compared to the app I just reviewed.
Download it here: http://www.stalkingwolf.net/software/cocothumbx/
Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to drive down to a coffee shop to get free Wi-Fi? Some geeks out there including me know how to hack networks and using some tools it can be extremely easy, but what if there was an even easier way. A totally legal way? That’s where Whisher comes in.
Whisher is a free application that allows you to share your network’s wi-fi and bandwidth with others on the Whisher network. How do you get on this network of people? Simple, download their software. Unfortunately this is not only a Mac application and it shows.
The GUI looks extremely nice and I love it. It’s red and glossy and square. No rounded corners at all! But don’t judge a book by it’s cover. If you take a look at the first screen shot I have below and then the next one you will see what I have highlighted. Whisher makes these weird debug files that just dirty up the folder. I use stacks to open my files because I find it easy to open applications quickly with it, but having Whisher in their ruins my organization!
It comes with a built in instant messenger service and allows you to connect to AIM, Jabber, Yahoo!, and more. This is a nice feature and for a moment I thought I would be switching from Adium to Whisher, but oh was I mistaken.
I quit the app and the next day I opened it to write a wonderful review on it and how great it was, but that’s when I realized that it was extremely buggy. First thing that happened was it said I was no longer the admin of my network! That made no sense and I went to the forums asking for help, but they said it was a WPA problem. I explained I didn’t have my network encrypted at all and they never replied. I was hoping it was in the preferences pane, but it was grayed out. It took my about 10 solid minuets to find out there is this little icon on the top right that are the preferences.
Next I tried rebooting my machine and this is when it got really messy. It now wont let me login, create an account, and the lost password service gives me a 404 page! Quite irresponsible if you ask me. I tried going to their site, but it looks like in about a week they will be releasing a new version. Let’s just hope it works at the very least. The review isn’t that grea, but I will give it a second try in a week when the latest version is released.
Download it here: http://whisher.com
Here at iEatCorn we go through a lot of apps. The worst part about installing new apps is that if fills up disk space that you can’t seem to erase. Even when you drop that application in the trash it doesn’t erase all of the disk space it’s using and the system files are still hiding on your system. How would you ever get rid of them? Searching through system files and spotlight seemed to be the only option, until, I found AppZapper by Austin Sarner and Brian Ball.
These guys came up with a simple yet amazingly useful idea. This software does all the dirty work in getting rid of those applications you are done with and aren’t using anymore. Best of all it’s literally a two step process if it’s on your dock.
They also have an option that searches your computer for all of your applications and tell you your last used date. This is helpful for those pack rat type people because when you see it hasn’t been used for a year, well, hard to argue with that.
Another super handy feature is the ability to delete preference panes, widgets, and plugins. After while of having your Mac you build these things up and eventually you won’t want or need a preference pane anymore and want to get rid of it for good and all those files with it.
All in all this is a great application that does what it should and does it with ease. For a fairly low price of just about 13 USD it’s a great deal.
Download it here: appzapper.com
Wallet is one of my all time favorite apps and I just got it. I heard about this software from MacHeist, but unfortunately, I didn’t become a member there when it was loot. I heard about it on the forums later on. I decided to check it out along with some other apps I missed. This was the only one I was interested in and actually bought.
Wallet is a very minimal, simplistic application that does it’s job extremely well. It doesn’t try to have feature after feature because it doesn’t need it and that is why I fell in love with it. The simplistic interface is completely intuitive and the few extra features it has are great.
But what is it? I have been blabbering about how great this is, but not what it actually does! Waterfall Software says it best,”Wallet is the most secure, elegant, and easy way to store and organize your passwords, serial numbers, credit cards, and much more.” I personally use it serial numbers, credit card numbers, gift lists, server information, and Wi-Fi passwords.
What makes this so great? Well, it lays this information out great. It has two views to sort through all this information. You can make your own categories so you can totally customize it to suite your own needs. They call them groups and you can even set icons to fit the group. I wish you can put your own icons onto the groups or import icons or images, but it’s definitely not needed by any means.
It’s highly encrypted at 448-bit Blowfish encryption. Which is great, but what if your computer crashes? If you are using Time Machine then there is nothing to worry about because it is set up to backup those files. There are even more features that I haven’t gotten to use really, but others might find the password generator useful. I use the same couple passwords for everything. (Yes, I know, not all that smart, but have yet to feel the wrath of that.)
It also inludes iPod sync, AutoFill, and .Mac integration. I haven’t use those features, but I am sure they work great. Leave some comments if you have used them and the experience with them.
So what is the final verdict? Well, lets just say I picked one of the best for the start of iEatCorn.com
For more information on what those ratings mean go to the FAQ section.
Download it here: http://www.waterfallsw.com/wallet/
Screen shots:
Welcome! This is the first iEatCorn post! Here at iEatCorn we will be posting nothing but Mac OS X application reviews and information. Some upcoming reviews will be on, Transmit, TextMate, Transmission, Speed Download, DEVONnote, and many more.
The way our system works is by downloading some software and trying out for about a week or so. We continually take notes about the pros, cons, lovables, and annoyances. We will rate them on a scale of 1-5 on various categories such as learning curve, speed, GUI, cost, and a few more.
Check back very soon for the reviews to start piling in! We have over 60 app reviews waiting to be put up. We will try to put one out everyday if not every other day.
- Oscar
