“When it comes to utilities and applications for my Mac, I must admit I’m a bit of a whore.”
I’ll date lots of them, and toss them aside just as quickly as I come across them. But there are some that just seem to stick around. I absolutely love them, and can’t imagine my Mac-using life without them. Here is part one of my list of OS X apps I love: (more…)
You have Dropbox, right? C’mon, who hasn’t at least tried it? For those who haven’t, Dropbox is a simple way to sync files from one computer to others, and share files with family, friends, and co-workers.
Dropbox has cemented itself as a staple of any multi-Mac user’s toolbox. It works near flawlessly, and couldn’t be easier to use. But there are plenty of alternatives out there that offer similar services, if not exactly the same ones.
Here are a few that I’ve tried and really like. Most offer paid upgrades for more storage and features, but all are free to use if your syncing and storage needs are light.
CopyCopy is named quite ironically, because it’s a virtual copy of Dropbox as far as how it works. A folder is created in your Home folder your Mac and everything you put in it gets synced through the cloud with your other Macs (or PCs). The Copy web app is nicer to work with than Dropbox’s website, IMO. I love the features Copy offers, like the ability to easily set up shared folders, notifications, and bandwidth restrictions for uploads and downloads.
Copy starts you off with 15GB of storage. Like Dropbox, Copy offers a referral bonus program which gives you 5GB of bonus storage for every friend who signs up with your personal link. Your friend also gets an extra 5GB when they sign up. So if you use the link above to sign up, you should get 20GB of storage right from the start. Pretty sweet! Copy is already fairly popular, and integration with other websites and iOS apps is popping up every day. The iOS app is really, really nice, too!
I recently had the overwhelming desire to rip a DVD to my Macbook for watching on the road. It’s not something I had done before, so I was shocked at how incredibly complicated it can be. Everything I read told me to get Handbrake because it was so simple. After giving it a try, I nearly gave up on the entire project. I sat there after hours of unsuccessful attempts thinking “there has to be an easier way.”Handbrake couldn’t be more complex. Not only are you required to know what terms like bitrate, anamorphic, codec, and framerates are, but you also have to download VLC; another ugly and unnecessarily complex app to actually finish the job.
As it turns out, there is a much easier way to simply make a copy of your commercial DVD. It’s called RipIt from The Little App Factory, and it actually lived-up to it’s claim of being easy – a fact which earned it a Macworld 2009 Editor’s Choice award.
Ok, so it’s not dead simple. You do have to have some knowledge of your Mac to rip a DVD with RipIt. To make it easy, I’ve created an illustrated set of instructions below.
Step 1: Insert DVD. Step 2: Click Rip button. Step 3: Wait. Step 4: Watch your movie.
I would love to give a lengthy review of this app, but quite honestly it simply isn’t necessary. The app does one thing, and works perfectly. You can choose how you want to receive the resulting file(s), a single file viewable with Quicktime, or the required folders to burn a viewable DVD using Toast or other DVD burning app, a few simple quality settings, and a small handful of eye-candy preferences. That’s it. It really couldn’t be any easier than RipIt makes it.
RipIt can be purchased from The Little App Factory for $19.95, and a demo download is available. The developer claims that the app works with over 250,000 commercial DVDs – and even guarantees that if you find one that doesn’t work, they’ll buy the DVD and fix the app. I wish every shareware app I downloaded delivered on their promises like RipIt does.