Bandwidth Plus for Mac Review

There are too many apps out there these days that overload their feature list. Sure, a feature heavy app sounds great in theory. But the truth is, most have more tools than you will ever use, some entirely unrelated to the main purpose of the original program. Instead, it is increasing the file size so it takes up more space, and may possibly limit the speed that it runs. No one wants an app that has a slow loading time thanks to features you didn't even know it had.

Click to read more ...

Remind Me Again for Mac - Productivity App Review

I hate using the general calender reminder system on my iPhone. It is such a pain to manually enter everything in, and I don't always have my phone on me. When I work, I actually prefer to turn my phone off full stop to avoid the temptation to check or reply to text messages that I inevitably get from friends and family.

Click to read more ...

HOW TO: Turn Video into an Animated Gif (Mac)

I have stumbled across this cool tutorial on turning videos into gif files. Here's a quick recap (Mind that you can also turn your iPhone videos into gif using this cool free iPhone app we reviews previously).

Things you will need:

• MPEG Strteamclip (free!)
• Gimp (free!)

And here's the result (Let's call it "When youdon't feel like working!")

1. Open your video in MPEG Strteamclip and select the part you want to turn into gif (the shorter the better). Use Edit-Select in / out for that
2. Export video as the sequence of images (make sure to click "Options" to set "frames per second": The more the faster will be the gif)
3. In Gimp, open all the resulting images using "Open as layers"
4. Now export the sequence as gif image (make sure to "Loop forever").

Here's my result:

Cinch for Mac

Cinch, developed by Irradiated Software, is an elegant, mouse-driven solution to window management. Inspired by Microsoft's Windows Explorer, Cinch is based off the idea of "hot-zones". Once you drag a window into one of the zones (either left, right, menubar), an outline of your resized window will appear on the screen. Just drop the window into the hot-zone and the application window will be resized. Cinching to the right or left side of the screen will resize the window to exactly half the screen's resolution. The top hot-zone resizes to will the entire screen. Dragging a window away from its cinched position will restore the window to its original size.

Drag a window to a "hot-zone" to see a preview of the resize.

Cinch automatically resizes your window to the desired length (determined by "hot-zone").

You can download the free version (occasional pop-up), or purchase a license for yourself over at the Irradiated Software store. I will be posting a video review of Cinch on my YouTube channel, which can be found here.

SyncMate

Syncing and backing up your contacts, calendars, music, photos, videos, and other data between multiple devices can be challenging. Of course, you can copy each item manually between multiple computers, phones, and MP3 players, but that can be a real headache and cost you time… time that you can save.

With SyncMate, developed by Eltima Software, you can easily sync your data between multiple Macs, PCs, Google accounts, flash drives, and even online storage systems! SyncMate is offered in two editions: Free and Expert. With the free download provides options for syncing your iCal and Address Book data with other Macs and/or Google services.

Those looking for more advanced features should look towards the Expert version, which is available for $39.95 at the Eltima online store. Such a license adds support for syncing iTunes and iPhoto libraries, bookmarks, emails, and even specified folders on your computer. SyncMate even supports the automatic real-time synchronization of files and folders throughout your devices (via AutoSync options).

As you can tell, I am quite a fan of SyncMate myself. Not only does it eliminate the need for Dropbox and other syncing services, but it provides a simple solution to keeping all of my devices up-to-date. You can download the free version and/or purchase an Expert license for yourself here.

Also, be sure to check out the ReviewLocker blog, where I will soon be hosting a giveaway of an Expert license for SyncMate! Subscribe to the RSS feed to be notified when the giveaway article is posted!