Cool Mac Gear

CoolCam 2.0 Webcam Tool For Displaying Live Video On Web Sites

CoolCam is a webcam application for Power Macintosh, PowerBook, iMac and iBook computers. CoolCam provides true WYSIWYG editing of text captions, picture badges, clocks and blur items, all floating on top of live video from your camera. With CoolCam's intuitive user interface, you'll be running your own webcam in minutes.

CoolCam was designed to be an elegant, easy-to-configure, easy-to-customize webcam application. Unlike other webcam applications which use large, complex dialog boxes to create and edit items, CoolCam uses true WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editing of text captions, picture badges, clocks and blur items. CoolCam allows you to edit these items in place over live video from your camera, continually updating the video display in realtime, even if you are moving or resizing items, editing text within a caption, or changing an item's color. CoolCam also features blur items, which blur a portion of the video with a TV-style block blur effect (useful if you want to 'censor' something in your webcam image).

New in this version:
• Added motion sensors. You can now create any number of motion sensors in the 'Items' tab, and place them over the area of the video in which you wish to detect motion. When in motion detection refresh mode, CoolCam will upload automatically when motion is detected by any of the motion sensors.
• Added timelapse QuickTime movie creation to CoolCam's archiving feature. In addition to archiving sequentially numbered image files, CoolCam can now append each image to a timelapse QuickTime movie in the selected archive folder. To set the archiving method to use, click the 'Archiving Options' button, then choose whether you want to archive sequentially numbered image files, a timelapse QuickTime movie, or both. You can also choose the frame rate of the movie when it is played back.
• Added 'Custom Size' command to the 'Image Size' submenu. You can now use any arbitrary image size between 160 x 120 pixels and 720 x 480 pixels.
• Added 'Internet Time' format to clock items. Internet Time divides each day into 1000 'beats' (one beat is equivalent to 1 minute 26.4 seconds) and is displayed in the format '@000' through '@999'. Internet Time is the same no matter what time zone you live in, and is based on a meridian running through Swatch's headquarters in Biel, Switzerland, in the Central European Wintertime time zone. Note: This feature is available only on Mac OS 9.0 and later.
• Added 'Web' menu, with links to useful web pages (Evological's web site, CoolCam's web page, and online purchase page) and an automatic version check feature that checks if you are running the latest available version of CoolCam. If you do not have the latest version, you can download it. Note: The automatic version check feature is available only on Mac OS 8.6 and later.
• Added 'Duplicate Item' command to the 'Edit' menu, which duplicates the selected item. Alternatively, you can hold down the Option key while clicking on an item to 'drag off' a copy of the item.
• Added 'Delete Item' command to the 'Edit' menu, which deletes the selected item.
• Added 'Open Image' button to the 'Status' tab, which opens the last image captured.
• Added 'Open FTP Transcript' button to the 'Status' tab, which opens the CoolCam FTP transcript.
• Added ability to horizontally or vertically constrain dragging of items by holding down the Shift key while dragging an item.
• Added ability to move items in 10 pixel steps by holding down the Shift key while moving an item with the cursor arrow keys.
• Added ability to drag multiple images into the CoolCam window to create badges.
• Changed the modifier key used to move an item without selecting it from Option to Command, to allow the Option key to be used to duplicate an item.
• Fixed a problem where CoolCam X was not executing AppleScripts in the Scripts folder.

System requirements:

• Mac OS 8.5 or higher
or
• Mac OS X 10.0 or higher (Currently, Mac OS X supports only FireWire DV cameras. Please contact the manufacturer of your camera to ask about support for Mac OS X).

CoolCam is $20.00 shareware  

For more information, visit:
http://www.evological.com/coolcam.html

SmartWrap 2.0 Text Cleaner Tool

SmartWrap™analyzes your text, detects paragraphs and lists within your text, and rewraps your text so it wraps naturally within your document or message. SmartWrap™ comes in many varieties so it's always available where you need it most. The following SmartWrap™ programs and plug-ins are available:

• Analyzes and re-wraps your text.
• Removes all quote marks (">") from the beginnings of lines.
• Works curiously well on text copied and from Web sites and PDFs!
• Removes unwanted line breaks from within paragraphs.
• Allows you to paste text from e-mails perfectly into your word processor!
• SmartWrap™ numbered and lettered lists.
• And most importantly, Save You Time!
• Works great with sparse messages! (Messages that have lots of white space.)
• Set loads of preferences within the SmartWrap™ Preferences program. These preference affect all SmartWrap™ modules.

SmartWrap MacOS X Text Service
All of the above and...
• Works great in Mail.App and TextEdit.App!
• SmartWrap a selection only.
• Works in any MacOS X Application that support text edit services!
• Always available from a system menu.

New in this version:
• An all new SmartWrap Text Service for MacOS X works great in TextEdit and Mail.

• A completely new preferences panel provides loads of options to help you control the format of SmartWrapped text across ALL SmartWrap modules. Preferences include:
• An option to force a hard-wrap to a specific line length or leave text flowing.
• An option for specifying a hard-wrap width.
• An option for maintaining a quote level.
• An option for specifying a quoting width.
• Options for special insertions before and after lines of text.
• Options for special insertions before and after paragraphs of text.
• Options for special insertions before and after the text body.

• All of SmartWrap's modules, including those for Eudora, BBEdit, AppleScript, Preditor, SmartWrap the Clipboard, and the MacOS X Text Service have been upgraded to take advantage of all of these wonderful features whether you're running MacOS 8, 9 or X!

• SmartWrap(tm) detection of lists has been significantly improved for better wrapping.

• SmartWrap(tm) the Clipboard opens a new window every time it is double clicked, so you can view more than one clipboard at a time.

• Rudimentary editing capabilities have been added to SmartWrap(tm) the Clipboard.

• A new Scripting Addition allows users of MacOS X to SmartWrap(tm) their text from a MacOS X AppleScript with lots of new options.

• And all of this great stuff is documented in a new PDF manual. (And on our web site.)

SmartWrap is $18.00 shareware  

For more information, visit:
http://www.selznick.com/products/smartwrap/mac.htm

Disk First Aid Doubler 1.0.1 Eliminates Startup Disk Check Delay In OS 8.5-9.2.1

If your Mac crashes, it will check its disk when it restarts. After it's done, it waits for 2 minutes before continuing with startup. Disk First Aid Doubler removes this delay, so that your computer will start up faster after a crash.

Disk First Aid Doubler eliminates the 2-minute delay after the startup disk check under Mac OS 8.5 and later

System requirements:
• Mac OS 8.5 or higher

Disk First Aid Doubler is freeware  

For more information, visit:
http://web.periodic-kingdom.org/People/Miro/Software/

DragThing 4.1 Launcher Palette For Files, Folders, Disks, Servers And URLs

DragThing is an application dock designed to tidy up the icons littering your desktop. Simply drag an application from the Finder onto an empty square in a dock and then drag documents onto it as normal. Click a docked application to launch it or bring it to the front.

New in this version:
• Docks can have custom background pictures and textures
• Support for unicode and long file names for dock items
• Added an option to use icons in layer tabs and minimised docks instead of names
• Added an option to speed up DragThing's startup time
• Added an option to quit DragThing at startup if there is another copy already running (useful for Classic)
• Added an option to only search local disks for missing items
• Added important commands back to folder contextual menus
• You can paste custom icons onto dock items from the "Item Options" window
• You can set the same hot key for multiple items again
• Hotkeys for hiding applications now work when the process dock is hidden
• Fixed icon problems with AppleWorks, OmniWeb and others
• Various performance enhancements and bug fixes

Changes on Mac OS X:
• Hiding and showing applications works on Mac OS 10.1
• "Get Info" no longer crashes the Finder and works on Mac OS 10.1
• Ejecting disks by dragging them to the Trash in DragThing docks works on Mac OS 10.1
• Process Dock indicates if applications are hidden
• Added an option to hide the window shadow of a dock
• The smaller Aqua tabs are used in docks at small font sizes
• Fixed problem with menu items being disabled with a dock frontmost

Changes on Mac OS 9 and earlier:
• File Sharing can be excluded from the Process Dock

System requirements:
• PPC
• Mac OS 8.6 or higher with CarbonLib
or
• Mac OS X 10.0 or higher

DragThing is $25.00 shareware  

For more information, visit:
http://www.dragthing.com/english/whatsnew.html

Sambucus 1.2 Multi-tasking Time-management Software

Sambucus is a multi-tasks time-management freeware for the Macintosh. Through a simple interface, the user can manage the time spent on different projects, each divided into one or more tasks. Furthermore, notes can be saved for each task. Like all Malus products, Sambucus is offered in both english and french versions, and the "Undo" function is only limited by the amount of memory allocated to the application; this way the user can safely try-out features, knowing that the action can be undone.

New in this version:
• introduces the capability to select a different currency symbol than the default "$"
• introduces a basic exporting feature of time-stamps to a tab-delimited text file

System requirements:
• Mac OS 8.0 or higher
• 3 MB RAM

Sambucus is freeware  

For more information, visit:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/fuzzies/EN/index.html?products/Sambucus.html

Oratorio X 1.5b1 Presentation Package For Church Music

Does your church use an overhead projector or PowerPoint to display lyrics to hymns and worship music? Oratorio is a software package (currently in development) designed to make that job much easier. A streamlined combination of a music library and a presentation package, it allows a set of songs to be put together and presented within a matter of minutes.

System requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.0 or higher

Oratorio X is $49.00 demoware

For more information, visit:
http://www.saguarostudios.com/products/oratorio/

MoonDock 1.1 Displays The Current Moon Phase In The Dock

MoonDock is a lightweight application designed to run in your system Dock and display upto-date images of the Moon's phase. It also allows examination of Moon phase information for specific dates and times between 2001 and 2015. If you're an amateur astronomer, learning about the night sky or just like to have the Moon on your desktop this program is for you.

MoonDock displays information in both Universal Time (UTC) and Local Time. Local time is dependant on your computers current locale time-zone settings, while UTC is based on Greenwitch Mean Time (+0000hrs). See your System Preferences for information on setting your time-zone correctly. The Next New Moon and Next Full Moon times can be displayed in either Universal Time or Local Time, preferences to change this are under the MoonDock menu MoonDock->Preferences...

Throughout each day, Moon phases look very similar at any given point on the Earth's surface. However depending on which hemisphere you are viewing from you will be accustomed to seeing the Moon at a particular orientation. MoonDock defaults to assuming you are viewing from the Northern Hemisphere but you can change to a Southern Hemisphere preference under the menu MoonDock->Preferences...

Features
• Displays current Moon phase image in your Dock
• Provides popup information panel of Moon data
• Allows custom viewing of Moon images/data (2001-2015)
• Optimized for minimum resource usage

New in this version:
• Preferences for Northern and Southern hemisphere viewing locations
• Preferences for default Date and time displays (choose Local Time or Universal Time)
• Time-zone offset information added to all date and time displays for improved clarity
• High contrast Moon images showing more detail and stored using improved image compression
• 70% more rendered Moon images for smoother animation and accurate visual terminator display
• Display for Moon's selenographic terminator longitude to assist in locating luna features
• Moon feature name catalogue for mouse over help hints on the main information window display
• Edit menu and text selection now allows use of Services menu and pasting to other applications
• Conventional Aqua window (i.e. not a pop-up panel) with normal close and minimize gadgets
• Window menu added to support correct Dock menu behavior and main window functionality
• Help documentation updated

System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.0 or higher

MoonDock is freeware  

For more information, visit:
http://homepage.mac.com/garycmartin/MoonDock%20Help/index.html

FortuneX 1.12 Prints a Random, Interesting Quote

FortuneX prints random, hopefully interesting, quotes, from the UNIX fortune(6) utility. FortuneX wraps a port of fortune in a Cocoa interface.

New in this version:
• Now chooses fortunes from all databases
• Removed a few stupid databases
• Fixed the About Box bug. Thanks Chuck Pisula!
• Now includes Charles Mercadal's excellent macintosh fortune databse

System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.0 or higher  

FortuneX is freeware  

For more information, visit:
http://cfcl.com/~incomingsw/products/fortunex/index.shtml

TurboMem Now Freeware

Editor's note: This is somewhat controversial software. CM

Mac Unicorn Software says:

"All our software is now free. Why?

"We received a lot of bashing from the Mac community and from a few known Macintosh developers. Why? We don't know. Anyway, they accused us of conning our customers because we would allegedly sell software that doesn't work. We cannot fight against the Mac community if no one trusts us. We decided that, to prove our good faith, we would make all our software free. You can use it without time limit. However, if you like our software, do not forget that we spent days programming them; you can help us by making a donation.

"Turbo Mem will defragment your RAM and will reclaim the free RAM other applications doesn't use, as well as accelerate applications using a "turbo-charge" method, which puts disk information in RAM for much faster access. TurboMem will reclaim RAM from MacOS and applications, so that when the application you are currently using needs memory, it is available. This will improve computer performance and frequent slow-downs or "lag" periods.

Automatically defragment Everything is automatic. As soon as there isn't enough free RAM, Turbo Mem will defragment it and will automatically accelerate it "on-the-fly".

"You can also ask Turbo Mem to 'turbo-charge' an application. If you want to launch an application such as Photoshop or a recent game such as Deus Ex, just turbo-charge it with Turbo Mem and it'll have plenty of free RAM for a smooth executing. Turbo Mem will also automatically accelerate applications on-the-fly, on launch, for a smooth and fast execution, with less "watch" or "beach ball" cursors!

"Other features Turbo Mem has plenty of other great features, such as cache adjusting, defragmenting when reaching an "alarm" level or total RAM scrubbing. Turbo Mem is compatible with MacOS X. Since TurboMem tracks in real-time the memory status, it can be a great developer tool to see if your application has memory leaks.

"MacOS X's RAM allocation system is dynamic, but Turbo Mem's system is much better: is is faster, since it tries to avoid at all costs virtual memory, and it is more intelligent, since it will take RAM from a background application when the foreground one needs some."

New in this version:
• TurboMem is now a freeware!
• The dialog boxes are now properly enabled
• A few bug fixes related to the scrub RAM function
• A few other minor bug fixes

System requirements:
• PPC
• Mac OS 9 or higher with CarbonLib
or
• Mac OS X 10.0 or higher

For more information, visit:
http://www.macunicorn.com/turbomem/index.htm

Charles W. Moore

Cool Mac Gear