dock

Kensington has just announced driver software for OS X that allows Mac owners with USB 3.0-capable systems to make use of its latest docking stations.

USB 3.0 is the latest iteration of the USB protocol, which at 5Gbps throughput offers a substantial speed boost over USB 2.0, and gives it more options to host high-bandwidth devices, including video adapters for external displays. While video, networking, and audio over USB is nothing new, the greater bandwidth of USB 3.0 allows for more of these options to be lumped together into rather versatile docks such as Kensington's SD3500V docking station.… Read more

Users with specialized document deletion needs will find the standard trash to be insufficient. DocShredder for Mac performs its single function well and scrubs files from a Mac without any problems.

DocShredder for Mac, available as freeware, requires no payment to unlock or operate without restrictions. Download and installation occurred quickly, despite the lack of a native installer. A license agreement file appeared after download, but no acceptance was required for operation. The program appears to be very simple with no menu for operation. The program installs a small icon in the dock, which you can use exactly as you … Read more

This might be a tip only the Anal-Retentive Chef could love, but I kind of like it. If you'd like to add a bit of order and structure to your Mac OS X Dock, there is a way to add spacers, which let you separate the various icons into distinct groups.

To do so, open Terminal and then copy and paste this command:

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-data={}; tile-type="spacer-tile";}'

Followed by:

killall Dock

The command places an invisible space on the right side of your Dock. You can drag to reposition this spacer … Read more

The flexibility of Thunderbolt storage has just taken a new turn, thanks to G-Technology.

The storage vendor announced today its new Evolution Series of portable and desktop storage devices, which comprises a Thunderbolt dual-bay docking station called G-Dock Ev, and two interchangeable and expandable storage modules that carry the names G-Drive Ev and G-Drive Ev Plus.

Both the G-Drive Ev and the G-Drive Ev Plus hard-drive modules can also work individually as USB 3.0 portable drives. The G-Drive Ev is bus-powered, comes in either 500GB or 1TB capacity, and is slated to provide some 135MBps data throughput. The 1TB … Read more

Sonnet Technologies has debuted its Echo 15 Thunderbolt Dock, which includes a number of ports and options that is intended to be an all-in-one solution to I/O needs for systems with Thunderbolt connectors.

As portable systems get smaller and adopt high-speed universal I/O technologies such as Thunderbolt, more peripheral and docking solutions that use this technology are being introduced. Since a single-port solution is a popular choice for notebook users, a number of companies have promised Thunderbolt-based docking options that can link all peripherals to a portable system directly via its Thunderbolt connection.

One of the first of … Read more

For laptop users, or for any user performing machine-intensive tasks, it might be reassuring to access temperature data directly from the machine sensors to see how the computer handles temperature increases and stays cool under any workload. With this idea in mind, ThermoInDock for Mac attempts to help you, but doesn't really succeed.

The app mainly consists of a dynamic dock icon that can show you real-time temperature information regarding your machine. We found the default transition rather eye-catching and a little disturbing. It is nice to have this information at hand, but you certainly don't want it … Read more

For experienced Mac users who run multiple applications at once, quickly checking computer processor load can be an annoyance. LoadInDock for Mac's indicator in the dock allows those users to instantly verify the CPU load without opening additional menus.

LoadInDock for Mac comes available as freeware without any restrictions. Although there was no native installer, download and installation took place quickly without any user intervention beyond dragging the program to the applications folder. After initiating startup, you don't have to do anything else to use the program. A simple, square icon is installed in the dock that shows … Read more

Windows 8 apps are meant to be run from the Windows 8 Start screen and in full-screen mode. You can snap them to the side of the Start screen, but they're still limited to the Start screen. If you're simultaneously using desktop programs and apps, you'll have to toggle between your desktop and Start screen to use them. This inefficient back and forth can be alleviated with the use of a program called ModernMix. ModernMix, just released by StarDock as a public beta, aims to give Windows 8 users the flexibility to run Windows 8 apps right … Read more

Everything on a Mac looks so polished on the outside that it may become unclear how to fine-tune settings under the hood of its graphical interface. Cocktail for Mac allows you to access an impressive number of useful tweaks and enhancements without entering a single line of code.

Cocktail for Mac can manually trigger maintenance scripts, optimize inactive RAM manually or periodically, toggle Spotlight indexing for chosen drives, force special startup modes, and access a lot of the hidden Finder and core app settings, to name just a few options. By "hidden," we mean those settings that are … Read more