Mac OS X apps »
[Mac OS X] Stop pressing the ‘Delete’ key with Don’t Look Back
In high school English class, you were probably subjected to at least one class where you learning about “stream of consciousness” writing. This writing exercise helps people be more creative by simply writing everything that comes into your head, and following your thoughts to their most logical (or illogical) conclusions. [...]
[Mac OS X] Noteworthy+ is a menu bar app for notes, to-do lists, and more
Throughout history, there have been plenty of people who were both young and talented. Age doesn’t always equal experience, and many apps and computer technologies have been created by young, forward-thinking people. The tech sector is great that way: most other industries would dismiss a young person’s ideas out of [...]
[Windows] Text people around the world for free with Pinger Desktop [Mac OS X]
While social networks make the world seem like a smaller place than ever before, there are some aspects of technology that just don’t seem very forward thinking. I can’t be the only person who finds it weird that I can send a tweet or email to someone in a different [...]
[Mac OS X] Annotate or read PDF files with Skim for OS X
Earlier this week, I was raving about Get Mac Apps, a web app that lets you install a bunch of different apps at once using a Terminal command. Get Mac Apps featured a bunch of apps that were quite familiar to me, but many others that were not. One of [...]
[Mac OS X] Quickly install multiple, popular apps with the web app Get Mac Apps
So I’m getting ready for a sort-of-fun Mac project: taking an old MacBook I bought in 2008 and souping it up with a solid state drive. Of course, this will entail a fresh install, which is both good and bad. There’s nothing like a clean slate for your laptop…but I [...]
[Mac OS X] A Monster Ate My Homework is a charming physics-based puzzle shooter
Most of us don’t think about it, but physics is everything. Well, at least when it comes to games. Video games that lack realistic physics (or at least, consistently fantastic physics) are often games that frustrate players. Even though I’m not much of a science nerd (my physics grades were [...]
[Mac OS X] Track time spent and productivity with Harvest
There are two main reasons to track how you spend your time: because you want to boost your own personal productivity, or because you have to do invoices/payroll. Whether you’re a solo user, or own a small business, one tool that can be really helpful in managing and monitoring your [...]
[Mac OS X] Liquid is a productivity app that boasts it “makes you twice as fast”
“Liquid…makes you twice as fast.” That’s the bold statement made on the Liquid Mac App Store page. The official site also boasts a glowing testimonial from beloved actor and bon vivant Stephen Fry. With such great expectations set up by the developers, can Liquid for OS X actually [...]
[Windows] sView is a free stereoscopic 3D media player (video player and image viewer) [Linux, Mac OS X]
If you are like me, you definitely dislike optical disc playback because sometimes playback fails; reasons behind failure include, but are not limited to, faulty disc, region lock, device limitation. For example, a DVD bought in US may not play in India if it is not region-free; or blu-ray disc [...]
[Mac OS X] Regner puts a custom calculator in your menu bar
It’s interesting how your computer preferences can change over time. When I got my first MacBook, I was all about setting up a ton of widgets. Now, I only have five that I use regularly. After my widget phase, I was more into standard apps and programs. But lately, the [...]
[Mac OS X] Minbox claims to be “the fastest file-sharing app in the world”
I’m a sucker for any app that has a sleek, minimalist design. Design isn’t everything, but an app that has been thoughtfully designed almost always works better than an app that features a clunky aesthetic. So when I heard about Minbox, a file-sharing app that featured a very minimal [...]
[Mac OS X] Watch tweets and trends with ‘Echelon: a passive Twitter client’
We’re lucky enough to live in an age where Twitter news of an earthquake travels faster than the quake itself. Twitter is a great tool to harness the power of crowdsourcing, discover trending topics and news events, or showing the reach of your brand. More and more often, professionals in [...]
[Mac OS X] Easily switch between the alphabets of different languages with Transliteration
I took two semesters of Japanese in college, and it was so much fun. But one thing that was challenging was getting used to an entirely new system of writing. I was big into Japanese pop music back then, even before I took the class, so I would find transliterated [...]
[Windows] ZeZebra is a great way to share files between Windows, Mac, Android, and/or iOS
Desktop to mobile file transfer clients are a dime a dozen. We’ve covered quite a few here at dotTech, such as AirDrop and qrSend. ZeZebra is another program that allows you to share large files from Windows or Mac to Android or iOS devices. Let’s see if it is worth [...]
[Mac OS X] Play Pathways Into Darkness, Halo’s predecessor, for free!
I absolutely adore old-school games. Whether it’s an arcade cabinet from the late 70s or a polygon-laden bit of nostalgia from the 90s, I have a real affection for old, retro, and forgotten games. I also love modern video games, and I’ve spent more hours playing Halo than I’d care [...]
[Mac OS X] ChronoSlider Lite offers super-fast, super-simple one-click timers
Back in February, we took a look at a little timer app called Pomodoro. This customizable timer was somewhat inspired by the Pomodoro time management technique, whereby you break down your working day into short increments of active working time (25 minutes), and take 5-minute breaks between each 25-minute block. [...]
[Mac OS X] Get a Microsoft Paint experience with Paint Pad Lite for Mac
After converting to the Cult of Mac in 2008, I was totally won over. I don’t think I could ever go back to working on a Windows computer. But that being said, I do get a bit nostalgic when I think about the Windows machines of my youth. I’ll say [...]
[Mac OS X] Share your screengrabs online with Gyazo: Instant Screen-Grabbing
There are tons of reasons you would want to share a screenshot. True, most funny images online already have a shareable URL…but other things, 
like personal documents and movie stills do not. If you want a very simple app that can help you share screenshots and keep a record of [...]
[Mac OS X] FGDesktopLoupe helps you divert attention to a specific part of the screen by darkening the rest
Sometimes, communication is hard. If you work on a team where you need to collaborate with people who work in a different office, it can be really hard to clearly explain what you’re looking at. After all, a screengrab or screen-share can only go so far. If you need to [...]
[Mac OS X] Find useless junk that wastes hard drive space with FindSpace
Feel like your hard drive has a bunch of stuff on it that’s superfluous? One app that can help you clearly and quickly review disk usage is FindSpace, developed by John Holdsworth.
What is it and what does it do
Main Functionality
FindSpace displays disk usage in a simple-to-review- [...]
Read More »[Mac OS X] Cleanly uninstall or delete apps and programs with AppCleaner
This past weekend, I decided to clean out my hard drive. I had tons of applications and old files that I needed to get rid of, and I cleared up a ton of space. But there’s one thing that annoys me about clearing out old applications: I can never seem [...]
[Mac OS X] Paper Train Lite is an addictive puzzle game
Th
e great thing about the App Store is how easy it is to find a hidden gem, even years after the app was initially released. The right string of words in the search box, and pow!– there’s a game you missed when it first launched that’s still worth checking [...]
[Windows] Create horizontal or vertical panoramas from photos with PhotoStitcher [Mac OS X]
Snapping a panoramic photo is fairly easy in today’s world; simply pull out your smartphone, use a panorama app, and go. However, there are times when you don’t have access to a smartphone or have images you snapped individually that you want to stitch together to create a panorama. This [...]
[Mac OS X] Dimmer Than Dim will lower your brightness more than what would normally be possible
Whenever I go to the eye doctor, they always ask what I do for a living. When I say that I’m a writer, and I spend most of my day starting at a screen, the doc always clucks his tongue. We all know that computer screens are bad for our [...]
[Mac OS X] Screen Utility is a 3-in-1 app that finds dead pixels and helps easily hide desktop icons
I have kind of a love-hate relationship with multipurpose apps. I’ve yet to find a 3-in-1 or 4-in-1 or 8-in-1 app package that is truly useful. This “Swiss army knife” approach to apps sounds good in theory, but in practice, the execution leaves a little something to be desired. That [...]
[Linux] Thunar is a lightweight file manager [Mac OS X]
Need a lightweight file manager for Linux? Thunar might be just what you’re looking for. Thunar is a large part of the XFCE desktop environment and is based on being lightweight but elegant. Let’s see how it compares to some of the other file managers.[...]
WHAT IS IT AND
Read More »[Windows] Securely store your passwords, contacts, notes, and more with Data Guardian [Mac OS X, iOS]
dotTech has a review on best free password manager for Windows, programs that not only securely store your passwords but other data too. If you have yet to find a program to you like using to securely store password and other data, Data Guardian is another program you could check [...]
[Mac OS X] Type2Phone turns your Mac into a wireless keyboard for your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV
While there are some people out there who are masters of the virtual smartphone keyboard, most of us type at our fastest when we’re plopped down in front of a Qwerty keyboard. However, not all of our iOS and Apple devices play nice with the keyboards on our Mac desktops [...]
[Mac OS X] Brainstorm and build mind maps with SimpleMind Free
I think a lot of people miss the point of brainstorming. Sure, it’s great to have a free-for-all where you share ideas. But it’s never enough to simply list all of your ideas in a row: you need to take your brainstormed ideas and make them actionable. A great next [...]
[Mac OS X] xTeamView lets you access team member schedules from xTeam [iPhone, iPad]
When you’re working as part of a collaborative team, one of the hardest things to accomplish is finding blocks of time where everyone can get together and meet. One great tool for building your schedule (or reviewing the schedules of other team members) is xTeamView, an app that is [...]
[Linux] Tired of traditional desktop environments like Unity, KDE, and Gnome? Try XFCE4 [Mac OS X]
Not a fan of Unity, KDE or Gnome 3? XFCE4 is one of the fastest growing desktop environments in the market today. The XFCE project’s XFCE4 comes packed with lightweight programs and an easy to use environment that you’ll quickly call home. XFCE4 is one of the most renowned desktop [...]
[Windows] Easily author DVDs with Wondershare DVD Creator [Mac OS X]
Ever needed to create a movie DVD, that is playable on all DVD players, of non-DVD format videos? For that you need a DVD authoring program to do that. dotTech has a review on best free DVD authoring program for Windows. Wondershare DVD Creator is another DVD authoring program. Let’s [...]
[Windows] Wirelessly share files between your computers, smartphones, and tablets with Filedrop [Mac OS X, Android, iOS]
Airdrop for Mac allows you to share files between Mac computers using drag and drop methods, as long as they are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. AirDroid pretty much does the same thing for Android and desktop computers. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many applications out there that allow sharing [...]
[Windows] Eliminate distractions while you write with FocusWriter [Mac OS X, Linux]
This time last week I was checking out Obtract, an app that helps you resist and eliminate distractions to your workflow. That got me thinking about other distraction-free apps, and I thought it was high time to try a few more distraction-free apps. Whether you’re trying to focus on getting [...]
[Windows] Arora is a fast web browser with built-in ad blocking [Mac OS X, Linux]
Not everyone is content to stick with the big five web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari). That’s why browsers like Arora exist. Arora is a webkit-based web browser designed to be simple and fast. Though it does not have a ton of features, what it does have [...]