WOWSZER.COM

If your a Mac user, and you probably are if you’re reading this, you probably realize that there are times when the finder isn’t quite the fantastic tool you’d like it to be.

In fact, the Finder hasn’t really come that far in the last decade. Apple’s been taking baby steps. The lads over at cocoatech.com have really done quite a job.

If you dig Unix, if you like Filebuddy, if you use Graphic Converter for thumbnail galleries – get it all with so much more. Pathfinder is great for these tasks and a lot more. It gives you tons more control over Spotlight searches and filtering your folders.

The current version is 4.5. I explored 4.1 and my only complaint was that it was kind of slow. Well 4.5 is faster and seems to run quite smoothly.

One of the features that I really like is the Drop Stack. At first it seemed like a useless addition, but when I got the hang of it, I fell in love. Basically you can visit any folder and drag a collection of items to the Drop Stack. Go all over your computer or network doing this, then drag the group icon from the Drop Stack to your target. It follows the same rules as the Finder and copies or moves everything. It’s like a smart temporary folder. You should really try it.

If you are constantly tinkering with your WOW folder like I am, then you will love the bookmark bar (ala Safari) that lets you drag a any folder or volume to a bar at the top of the window. You also get a shelf on the left side of the screen just like the Finder’s for easy access to favorite items.

I can’t speak for all Mac users, but I’m a very visual person. Another feature that I like, is Pathfinder’s scale slider for icons. It let’s me blow up thumbnails for art and then slide things back down to a manageable scale.

The list of very useful features could go on and on. However, I would suggest you download it and give it a try. The program looks and runs great. These guys really kept an eye on the details. The help is simple and to the point. I would rate this program as Extremely Useful.

Check it out and tell us what you think.

Kurn.

I owe Tony, the author of VirtueDesktops an apology. I got the name of his cool program completely wrong. I’ll have to fire our editor (oops, that’s me).

Do check it out. it’s a neat piece of software that improves nearly every day.

As an added incentive, I recently learned that if you have one of the newer motion-sensing PowerBooks or MacBooks, you can tap the side of your computer to switch desktops. Neat stuff

Just go check it out 

I was reading Phill Ryu’s blog today. He had a great article about programs that would die when Leopard (Mac OS 10.5) ships. One that just WOW’d me was VirtueDesktops. Just the look of the program is fantastic.

‘What the hell is it?’ you ask? It’s four desktops for your Macintosh. It is so fun, you’ll be switching desktops like a madman mad person. Sure it’s not even 1.0 yet and it’s missing some docs, but it’s easy to explore and fun to find features.

Seriously, I tested this while running WOW on a Titanium Powerbook with 1 GB of Ram. This has not crashed or caused any trouble. I keep finding clever features. It’s intuitive.

I strongly recommend this software.

Get it now. (The link is hard to find -> click on ’0.52r175′)

Kurn,

[updated 8/10: I found some weirdness with DreamWeaver, but it handles all the other programs pretty well.]

Skype of Macintosh Beta is updated. This version is supposed to include video…let us know what you think.

Go get a copy

In mid July there was an unhappy post on the official WOW Mac message boards about being unable to raid because Ventrilo support was so horrible. The player claimed that guilds required their players to use Ventrilo for raid groups of 20 or 40, so he was going to quit playing WOW.

The discussion quickly shifted to Ventrilo as the defacto standard for raids in guilds and how those guilds that use the speex codec for Ventrilo can play with their guild-mates.
While the Blizzard rep suggested that  that players post their concerns with Ventrilo, another user posted a link to a thread on the Ventrilo boards to talks about the speex codec’s funtionality. The most interesting part is that a Ventrilo rep claimed that they would resolve the codec issue with the next release of their software. hmm. Keep your eyes peeled end-gamers.