Desktop enhancements

Mailplane 3 takes off

Mailplane is a standalone Mac OS X e-mail client that integrates the Apple and Gmail experiences. For six years, Mailplane has been putting the Gmail experience into a proper app with functionality like drag-and-drop attachments, program icons in the dock and tab switcher, and integration with Mac OS X contacts. The latest version 3 release boosts the program one large step forward, with a completely redesigned interface, attachment previews, and compatibility with Mountain Lion's Notification Center.

With version 3, Mailplane has done a bit more than refuel and de-ice the wings. Aside from the redesigned GUI, the app now … Read more

Leave a smaller PC footprint

Meson Player (32bit, 64bit, Mac)

Meson Player is a tiny music player without a conventional graphical user interface (GUI). The lack of a GUI puts the bulk of the application control in hot keys rather than the usual mouse and click. Using your keyboard's number pad, you can quickly skip tracks, turn volume up or down, and save and open playlists. Meson Player can handle a variety of audio file formats as well as Internet Radio playlists. Meson Player also supports the multimedia keys on some keyboards for advanced functionality.

Barely consuming any system resources, the software leaves a … Read more

How to address ColorSync profile errors in OS X

Apple's ColorSync technology in OS X uses calibrated profiles of correction curves and other scaling factor information to match the color of various image input and output devices such as monitors, printers, and scanners, so images viewed on them will appear as close as possible.

Most devices will use a factory-provided profile or a generic one to give a close color match, but these often have notable color discrepancies that in some cases you can manage by creating your own profiles. For example, for matching colors across different displays, you can use the Calibrate button in the Color section … Read more

Exclusive free giveaway of a popular weather app, YoWindow

UPDATE: 12:20pm PT, March 4, 2013 Due to popular demand, I was able to secure more license keys for CNET members from the developer of this software and am extending this free giveaway until 11:59pm PT, Tuesday, March 5, 2013. If you forgot to grab one, now is your chance. Enjoy!

What's not to like about a weather app that actually shows you what the weather is going to be like? Whether that be your hometown or a city that you are traveling to, YoWindow will get you as prepared as you can be for your trip … Read more

3 must-have freeware apps for multiple desktops

Users who are tired of running back and forth between multiple computers might want to give today's collection of freeware a look. First, we have two KVM switch replacements: Qsynergy, a more intuitive version of the popular Synergy; and Mouse without Borders, a quick and easy solution from Microsoft's Garage for sharing your keyboard and mouse.

A third alternative is Win Switch, a tool to share programs on multiple computers and unchain you from your desk. All three options differ from remote desktop applications such as TeamViewer or Splashtop, since all of the computers operate on the same … Read more

XMBC lets you customize mouse functions

From everyday office work to Web browsing or even casual gaming, (X-Mouse Button Control) (XMBC, but not to be confused with the open-source media-center software XBMC) lets you control your computer mouse like a hardcore gamer. With customizable mapping features and numerous profiles setup, X-Mouse Button Control lets you do so much more than your standard pointing and clicking.

Most modern PC games let you customize the mapping of your keyboard and mouse buttons, but strangely, Windows provides very few options for tweaking your mouse functionality. The basic Mouse Control will only let you make minor adjustments to cursor sensitivity … Read more

Add tabs to Windows Explorer with QTTabBar

A little Internet Explorer shell named Netcaptor introduced tabbed browsing, and major players like Opera and Mozilla Firefox (and then Google Chrome) made the feature a default tool for surfing the Web. Even though Microsoft eventually added tabbed browsing to its own browser with Internet Explorer 7, the idea of tabs never really translated to Windows Explorer ... until QTTabBar.

QTTabBar is an extension that brings tab functionality to the Windows Explorer file browser. Began as a project by a Japanese developer known as Quizo, QTTabBar (which also goes by QT TabBar) added tabs to Window Explorer during the many years … Read more

Camtasia makes your screencasts look professional

Camtasia for Mac received an update today that makes it easy to create professional screencasts (capturing all actions on screen) for demonstration videos, instructional videos, and other screen-recording projects. Some new features offered in version 2.1 of the software should make it even more useful, adding new Clip Speed and Remove a Color options to add to your screencasts.

Clip Speed lets you adjust play speed easily The new Clip Speed feature can be accessed from the Video FX tab, and lets you speed through slow processes in a demonstration or slow down a faster process you want your … Read more

Personal search app Found scans cloud and local data

"There's a lot of cynicism about search," Stephen Brady told me when we first met in August last year. He was working on a new personal search utility, then called BitLev and now called Found, that, he said, would help people find all their stuff, no matter where it was.

People have tried this before, and most have failed. X1, Copernic, and even Google's own Desktop Search app never got mainstream traction. And then Microsoft and Apple built desktop search into their operating systems. They made desktop search work better, but not soon enough. Nowadays, people … Read more