DOUG S.  THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND ABOUT SEO:

- SEO is not an exact science and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. There is a lot that goes into it and a large portion is reverse-engineering Google.

- You cannot guarantee any rank in any search engine without paying for it.

- Search rank varies depending on search terms, your location and a number of other factors that are entirely out of your control.

- Page ranks can change frequently, as often as hourly.

- Certain SEO tactics (key-word stuffing, for example) will get your site banned form Google.

I would also like to add that I've never used this product so it may deliver and it may use legitimate techniques. I just wished to share some of my knowledge as a web designer and developer so that potential users can make an educated decision.  
(Version 1.8.2)

DOUG S.  Doesn't seem to mount on 10.6.1. Any thoughts?  
(Version 2.5)

DOUG S.  That's true, I can't comment as to the increased stability, I'm just going on what I've been told by more techy friends (I'm only a webbie anyway). But the new features I can comment on and they are quite nifty.

Though, I should also note that I've commented before (and will continue to do so) that Macupdate should add the ability to rate the aesthetics and user interface—these are two different but connected things—because it effects the over-all user experience of an app that goes beyond what features it has and so forth. A good app might have very few features but have them organized and presented in an extremely intuitive and visually pleasing manner. Like RipIt, for example. Very, very few features but a very pretty little app.  
(Version 9.0)

DOUG S.  I have to say this is the reason I don't pay too much attention to MacUpdate ratings.

The functionality has been improved. There are new features. It's faster and more stable. It adds some things that have been heavily requested by the community... And they change the color on one piece and people give it a 1/5 even though aesthetics isn't part of the rating system.

I agree I prefer the darker color scheme but you know what? It's personal taste. As a designer I can look at it and go, "It's nice but I would have gone a different way." It's now closer to the design of some of their other apps so it's tighter branding.  
(Version 9.0)

DOUG S.  That's not really a reason to give something a 1/5. It has added functionality now, which is nice.  
(Version 9.0)

DOUG S.  You can no longer format a Boot Camp partition to NTFS with version 4.4 in Snow Leopard (10.6) with Disk Utility. Not sure why, looking into it more.  
(Version 2009.4.4)

DOUG S.  Rather nice and there are things about it I really, really like.

However, and this is just an aesthetic wish on my part, I would rather they used the HUD interface over a more window-look. Even Apple is moving more in that direction.   
(Version 1.0.2)

DOUG S.  While I prefer this to other solutions I've seen in some ways I still use alternatives if only because (1) they support multiple accounts—I have four—and (2) this has no support for Growl, something I find extremely surprising.  
(Version 1.10.4.676)

DOUG S.  This is a great little app but a good example of pricing that doesn't reflect need. I'm not going to say this program isn't stable—it is—or that it isn't easy to use—it really is—or anything like that because I'd be lying. This app is brilliant. It does exactly what you'd like. What's more it does it fast. I can't confirm this but I'm relatively certain that it fixed a few fonts while it was converting them. Or, at least, made them stop causing problems.

The problem lies with the price. To give people an example of other programs in that cost the same or less we have VMware's Fusion, Panic's Coda, Apple iWorks, Apple iLife, OS X... Starting to see a trend? You can get some extremely powerful programs with a hefty amount of features for less than you can this program.

This program is great but far over-priced. After all if something is too expensive it doesn't matter how great it is it still won't sell. $15-35 would be a good price range for his app. Any more than that and people just won't buy it.

Too bad, they'll be missing out on a great app. I myself am going to find an alternative because this one is just too expensive.  
(Version 1.7)

DOUG S.  I played around with Tweetie for a little while in the hopes that it could replace my current client (Pwitter) but alas not yet for it is missing some features and won't implement others.

Before I get into why I won't be switching at this time let me start by saying that the adverts (you get them in the free version) are very few and far between. this can easily be used as a free client. It's also very fast and easy to use, though sometimes the UI gets a bit confusing and not everything is as clear as it could be.

Also it should be noted this app is visually gorgeous. They did a standup job creating the graphics.

However... As I alluded to already the UI is not clear in some cases and will take getting used to. Likewise some users will find the separate window for tweeting a little odd. A large number of users have expressed interest in the developers adding a way to tweet without leaving the window but the developers have stated they aren't going to be doing this, not now or at any point in the future. Given the volume of users asking for this and the response of the developers I started to question the wisdom of switching to an app where the developers aren't responsive to their community but instead only do what they see fit. It's an understandable position but since other apps' developers are more responsive to their users I see it as a strike against.

Of course at this time there is no Growl support, you can't save searches... A number of smaller features are currently missing. However, they are slated to be added.

Also, from what I hear, multi-user accounts doesn't seem to work very well.

Right now while this app has promise it's missing too many features and the developers don't seem to be as interested in what the community wants as I would like. That may not be an issue for some users, and most likely won't be, but for me it's very important and as such it's a deal breaker.  
(Version 1.0)

DOUG S.  What kind of file does this output? MOV, MP4 or M4V? It doesn't say on the website.  
(Version 1.0)

DOUG S.  MKVtoolnix 2.5.3 does not launch on OS X 10.5.6 (Intel). At least, not at this time.  
(Version 2.5.3)

DOUG S.  Great app, but sometimes I want to just auto-extract things and sometimes I don't. I don't see a simple way to do that. A right-click menu option would be appreciated to make this work.  
(Version 1.7.3)

DOUG S.  It's funny, I was waiting desperately for Chrome to come out for Mac and thought if Google didn't pull it off then Stainless would. Little did I expect Apple would!

As far as I know it doesn't have each tab as a process but that's a small price to pay for the epic speed increase.

I've noticed large numbers of tabs (40+) open and render faster on my slower DSL connection. When I'm on a much faster Comcast connection things are blazing. Also, because of how well it renders pages things don't get clogged up as much and everything appears to be more stable because of it.

That being said, this isn't flawless. The tabs on the top can be a bit finicky if you have a large number of tabs open. At times when you want to select a different tab it tries to drag it. Part of this has to do with the tabs being a bit on the narrow side. Another 10px would do wonders.

Also, my most wished for feature, tags for bookmarks, still isn't around. Oh well, maybe someone will implement a plugin.

Oh, and mad props to the good folks behind 1Password for fixing the compatibility issue so quick! If only Inquisitor would do likewise...  
(Version 4.0b1)

DOUG S.  As of this moment Inquisitor is not compatible with the latest version of Safari 4 (the public beta).  
(Version 3.2v58)

DOUG S.  Honestly? This app is OK. It gets the job done (usually). There are definitely features I would like to see, integrated PAR support for instance, but it does as advertised, again, usually.

When you start adding larger NZB files and larger numbers of files to download it starts to act up. Fast. For a start it gets extremely laggy and at times it will fail to respond for a few minutes at a time. Then there are the times when it says it's downloaded all the files only I find it only did about half of them. This is extremely annoying when you queue up a few downloads over the night and expect them to be all complete the next morning.

Out of the other newsreaders for Mac I've come across this one does rather well but it still has a ways to go.

Which is sad for me because I've used and love many of Panic's other products. I think Coda is the single greatest code app for any platform and use it on a daily basis.  
(Version 1.8.1)

DOUG S.  I've been playing around with Anxiety for a little bit and my first impression is it's pretty great! It's very easy to use and it provides a nice work-around for a deficiency in Things.

That being said there area few things I wish it did or did better.

1. Hot key to hide and show the list at will.

2. Sync with BaseCamp (not a must have but very handy).

3. The ability to choose to where the window sits (desktop level, always on top, window level).

Other than that I think it's pretty great! Others have mentioned stability issues, though I haven't come across any just yet.  
(Version 1.0)

DOUG S.  To start with, I've been using this as a piece of beta software ever since it went public a little while ago so I've watched this app evolve from a rough app to a very fine and sophisticated Mac application.

From the very beginning the developers have worked very hard to squash any and all bugs and have always been very good about dealing with any and all feedback. There were even a few times when they changed things and would specifically ask for the input of their users.

In terms of features, it has all the ones you expect and more. Beyond groups there are smart-groups and tags, two things that are extremely handy. Also, like iTunes, it allows you to fully edit all the info about individual fonts and families just as you would an album.

I really can't say enough good things about this program. I have noticed the occasional issue with stability during the beta phase but it was a beta at the time and now everything seems rock solid.

And then of course there's how the app looks. My guess is if you're looking at a program to manage all your fonts you likely work in some design-related industry. If so then it's always an added bonus when apps look pretty and boy does this one! It fits in perfectly with the rest of OS X while still having it's own unique styling. And when compared to the competition which all look like they were designed by a Microsoft developer... Well, you see my point.

Besides with Font Explorer now coasting $78 (after mid-February), FontAgent Pro costing $99 and Extensis Suitcase costing $99 it's also the cheapest font manager on the market.  
(Version 1.0)

DOUG S.  I could tell you about my 1TB drive and how it died, but there are plenty of stories like that in the reviews already. Instead I will simply say it works better tan you'll expect it to.

That and that to do a data recovery service it will cost you anywhere from $800-$4,000 if you're doing a 1TB drive. Suddenly $99 for an application you can use time and time again doesn't seem so expensive, does it?

I've seen this program recommended on many websites and in many magazines as well as one rather enthusiastic recommendation from an Apple Genius.

When a drive dies it's a heart-wrenching moment. You fear you've lost everything and you'll never get it back. There are certain programs out there that will help you solve those problems. Data Rescue II is on that list and near the top.

—

For anyone who's reading these reviews as a result of a recent failure, my condolences. I know what you're going through there and have been there myself. Try these following programs and one of them will be able to fix it, or at least allow you to get your data back:

1. Disk Warrior.

2. Drive Genius.

3. Data Rescue II.

I usually use them in that exact order as well. The first can fix any, and I do mean any, directory-based issue and can almost always find all your files if a directory is corrupted beyond repair. Drive Genius will help you diagnose exactly what's wrong with your drive if Disk Warrior doesn't work. And finally, Data Rescue II will get your data back.

Even if you buy all three of these programs you've spent less than you would had you paid for a professional service.  
(Version 1.2.1)

DOUG S.  Does this require a RPC1 drive or can this work on RPC2 drives? Also, when this resets the region code does it count as one of your five changes?  
(Version 1.0)

DOUG S.  We're talking about the ability to mass-distribute. The problem with Matroska files is that there is already an industry standard that does what they do and does it better by being playable on a large portion of devices.

The only thing I can see this program needing is a way to do pass-through and keep embedded but not hard encoded subtitles.  
(Version 2.3)

DOUG S.  This is an amendment to my previous review.

OK, so it's been a bit over a month since I originally tried this app out on October 30th and a lot has changed! Everything that Google's Notifier can do Gmail Notifr can do. What's more, it tends to do it better by actually checking as regularly as you tell it to and allowing you to customize how it tells you of new messages.

It now has full Growl support and no longer alerts you of the same new messages. The only thing I requested — which was rather an off-hand request — that hasn't been implemented is support for multiple accounts. But, you know what? Google's Notifier doesn't even do that so I in no way count it against Notifr. This is a great little app. Without a doubt I think it should be used instead of Google's own app. This one is more responsive and more customizable.

Well done to the developer! I've fully switched now and highly recommend you get this app. It has a very responsive developer who quickly adds features his users request. What more could anyone possibly ask?  
(Version 0.2.8)

DOUG S.  Lately I've been considering switching my browser. I am a web designer so I use all the big players on a regular basis and they each have their issues. Mostly it comes down to their inability to have a large number of tabs open without experiencing excessive amounts of lag. I find this to be unacceptable.

Since I use every major browser regularly I know all their shortcomings and know none of them meet my requirements. Though Stainless is not complete it shows the most promise out of all of them. It's more than a proof of concept, like CrossOver Chromium, it's an actual working browser and it works pretty well.

However, it's missing history and bookmark support. Also I'd love to see some 1Password support just as much, though this could be achieved by implementing a plugin architecture similar to Safari's. There are other features that I would love to see added that you don't really find in any other browser without plugins such as bookmarks powered by tags and smart-folders.

OK, so it's not complete and still has lots of room to grow. That being said I can't think of a single other browser that I'm really looking forward to the next version of like I am for Stainless. I hope this browser moves out of the beta phase and into real development. I know I'd use it as my default browser if it did.  
(Version 0.4)

DOUG S.  Feature Request: Smart Groups.

Basically, right now this program goes through all my podcasts, audiobooks and songs. I want it to only process songs as the difference in volume isn't nearly so big a deal with those.   
(Version 3.1.4)

DOUG S.  This is an app that has potential but still a ways to go before it's ready to dethrone Google Notifier.

There are some nice things about this app, such as the fact that it allows you to choose how often to check for new mail. For some people this might not be a big deal but it's still nice to have the option. It also looks rather nice and seems pretty stable.

There are also a few small flaws though. First and foremost is the lack of Growl support. Just by adding Growl support this app would already be every bit as good as Google Notifier and it's something the developer has stated he plans to implement soon, which is great.

Another issue is a small one but still very annoying, you can't copy and paste in passwords. For most people this probably isn't a problem. But if you're like me and use 1Password then you have a randomly generated 18 character alpha-numeric password with a symbol or two thrown in. This is not fun to type out... Copy and paste would be much appreciated.

The final issue is more of a request as it's something that even Google's own Notifier does not have. I would like the ability to check multiple accounts. As a web designer I have a few Google accounts since I use DreamHost and they host their web mail with Google. Because of this I have a few accounts. Right now I have them all feeding into one main account but I would definitely prefer having them all separate if the option was given.

Needless to say I'll be keeping a close eye on this app and very much look forward to the next version. If it has Growl then I'm in. If it has support for multiple accounts all the better.  
(Version 0.1.3)

DOUG S.  Save it as a QuickTime Movie (MOV). That should do it. It might not matter but I was using H.264 video and M4A for audio.  
(Version 1.5.5)

DOUG S.  1. The UI is unclear. There's no specific indication as to whether or not everything is enabled beyond the text.

2. No support for web files placed in another location besides the site folder. MAMP Pro allows for this.  
(Version 0.7.4)

DOUG S.  I just had a quick question about upgrade licenses. I looked over the site and couldn't an answer or contact info so I figured I'd post it here.

Basically, when I buy a license, what's going to happen when 1.1.0 comes out? What about when it hits 2.0.0? Is this like Awaken where I buy once and I'm pretty much in for life or do I have to pay for every major update and if so is it a full price or is it discounted for upgrades?  
(Version 1.0.9)

DOUG S.  It does what it does but I don't see a point. OS X by default can export a PDF from any application and iTunes has a similar, and in my opinion superior, functionality built right in that allows you to print your entire library or just playlists, with album artwork and so forth.

And it works with all versions of iTunes on all platforms.  
(Version 1.2)

DOUG S.  Download link no longer works, home page cannot be found.   
(Version 1.1)

DOUG S.  Nice first release but still a ways to go.

There are two things that are really missing from this application that if added would really put it above it's competators:

1. A more graphical graphic interface. This is kinda the biggy. Right now the UI is mostly a window that opens up and runs the command, displaying progress much like it would in Terminal.

This could be bettered by the use of progress bars and some decent layout and typography. Possibly more like Transmission or XLD, which use basic OS X elements.

2. Post-processing. A few competitor apps like Mac Par Deluxe will either process the files for you or open a program that will do it. This isn't necessary but it's a nice little bonus, even if it was just the default app. This can be augmented by the ability to define rules about how certain files are to be treated.

—

Over all I'd say this was a pretty good first release, just some minor improvements. One thing this really has going for it is it's a much smaller resource footprint than something like Mac Par Deluxe and it's faster. If they can just fix up that UI...  
(Version 1.0)

DOUG S.  I don't know how to start this review. I guess I should start by saying it was encouraged by a member of the Agile support staff.

I downloaded a demo of 1Password, looking for a way to keep track of the myriad of passwords I use daily (It's at least 20+ sites with passwords) with hopes to make my web life more secure since, like many, I use the same password for everything.

A friend of mine said I should check out 1Password so I did. Right away I noticed how user friendly it was. It was easy to integrate with the main browsers I use (Firefox and Safari due to my web work) and very user friendly to manage. It was rather idiot proof even. Best of all was that stylistically it matched whatever browser it was being used in.

OK, I guess I could go on for a long time saying how great I found the app, how useful, how I love everything about it. Let's just take that one as it is.

I did have one issue though, I thought I'd noticed a flaw with the way it resaves passwords. It turned out to be user error but after a quick chat with someone at Agile's tech support the issue was sorted. I responded saying how impressed I was with the speed of their response (a few hours to the normal few days) and thanked them for being so helpful.

The tech said they were happy to help and that I should spread the word. So here I am. I think it's a great app, it's extremely useful, it makes having secure passwords very easy. It does exactly what you want it to do.

You want a complaint? Only one: It can be difficult if you're on a different computer. Funny thing is Agile is currently working on a solution to that. Keep up the great work, guys!

The only thing stopping me from buying it right now is I'm waiting to see if it pops up in a discount deal or in a bundle somewhere first. Once it does...  
(Version 2.7)

DOUG S.  Note to Logitech: Saying you have fixed the Growl incompatibility issue is not the same as having fixed it.

It's really too bad, I love my mouse, I just HATE the software I need to run it. And so far none of the alternatives seem to be worth the money.

At least it's stable now... If nothing else it's stable. I can live without Growl until the people over at Growl figure out a way to fix Logitech's problems. How sad is that? One of the biggest input device companies is repeatedly shown up by an open source project.

OS: Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard

Computer: MacBook Pro 2,2

Mouse: Logitech VX Nano

LCC ver.: 2.6

Growl ver.: 1.1.4

Once my Logitech mouse dies I won't be buying another one, not unless some major changes happen with Logitech and their support for Mac. I'll probably go back to my Mighty Mouse. It's not perfect, but at least it's supported on both Mac and PC.  
(Version 2.6)

DOUG S.  This is a great little app. I use it just about every day to help me keep a digital sketch-book of great websites I come across during my work as a web designer. As such I find this app indispensable as it saves me from having to spend a few minutes piecing together images as I take multiple screen captures for pages that are longer than my window.

It works great and the browser-button makes it extremely easy.

I did notice a small stability issue where one page (for an unknown reason) would save as an empty image but after I had alerted them the developers of Web Snapper fixed the problem for me.

The only request I'd make for future updates is to add a little black box onto the bottom of the image that simply said the page's title, the URL it was taken from, and the date. Bonus points for the ability to make a quick notation.

This is possible if you save as a PDF but I prefer PNGs.

Having that ability would make my log-keeping for the images all the easier. Just an idea.  
(Version 2.3.2)

DOUG S.  You know, you can tell when an app was developed for Mac and when it was ported from Windows, or at least has a Windows version. There are certain issues with it's UI that never make sense.

It's something Azureus always suffered with and it seems Vuze is no different. To put it bluntly, the UI is pathetic. Sorry, but it's true. It's horribly confusing and in no way intuitive. The UI makes it hard to do even the simplest tasks, tasks other apps make easy. They may not have some of the features of Vuze but they run well and run fast. What more do you really need from a torrent app?

It has a lot of features. Oh yes it does... Too many. You'll never use most of them and even if you do know what they do it's still hard to get around the app to find them. In this case, this many features in this way ruins it.

In fact, all the issues for Vuze come down to the UI. This app was made for power users and power users alone and has a heavy influence from it's Windows sibling.

This app is fast, blazing fast, and it has some great features that put it above and beyond any other torrent app when it comes to potential, however the UI is so cluttered, bloated and confusing that it's almost impossible to figure anything out.

I don't usually recommend this even to my clients but this needs a 100% from the ground up redesign. They need to focus less on features and more on tasks. In features they are king. In tasks they are a peasant.  
(Version 3.1)

DOUG S.  _Pros:_

Cover Stream has a very nice UI. Out of all the iTunes mini-players it's gotta be my favourite, and not just because it has cover-flow built-in.

The UI seems pretty clean and intuitive which is always a bonus for any app, though oddly not something you can rate it for. If I could, this app would get a 5 for it's UI.

I've also noticed it to be very stable for my purposes. I have a very large library, with almost all of it having album art. Cover Stream loads it pretty quickly.

_Cons:_

For all the niceness of it's UI, it has a mode where there is no album artwork and a mode where there is cover-flow. I would like to see a middle-mode that just shows the album artwork.

Likewise, my biggest gripe about this app (and it's competition, CoverSutra) is that it auto-hides itself when not the active app. Key-commands bring it back but I enjoy having it there where I can look at it. It's a nice replacement to Apple's iTunes mini-player.

In the end, this last thing is the missing feature that made me look elsewhere. I do wonder how hard it would be to make the auto-hide part of this app something you could turn on and off...  
(Version 2.1)

DOUG S.  The other day I noticed my current FTP app (Yummy FTP) wasn't running very fast. I knew part of that was my ISP and modem, but that was not enough to explain a 5kb/s upload.

So I went on a round of MacUpdate looking for FTP programs (commercial, shareware and free) to give them all a test.

The way I tested was three part. First I tested the speed they logged in and created a folder. Then I tested how fast they could upload a batch of small files, in this case WordPress. Then I did an upload of each using a larger file, an 8MB FLV. Then of course I deleted everything and started again.

I tested YummyFTP, Fetch, Transmit, ForkLift, Flow and Cyberduck. YummyFTP, Fetch and Transmit were the registered versions (I had serials from previous uses and bundle buys) and the rest were either free or trials.

Out of all of them, ForkLift was the most user friendly, had the best UI and was by far the fastest. Usually it clocked in at 2x-5x the speeds of the others. YummyFTP was the only one that was remotely close. Fetch, Transmit and Cyberduck were average and Flow was slower than death. I ended up quitting that program by the end since even the simplest things took ages.

Though ForkLift is by no means perfect, the way it stores favourite FTP sites for instance could use a bit of work. But in so many respects it's exactly what I need, as well as being blazing fast.

Would definitely recommend this to anyone who needs a good FTP client and is willing to pay a little bit to get it.  
(Version 1.5.2)

DOUG S.  This app converts video extremely fast, it's very easy to use, it's highly stable and is free. It doesn't get much better than that!

The only thing I'd ask for is better track naming abilities.  
(Version 20080503)

DOUG S.  I downloaded the most recent version and three time since then I've had to quit the app because it was eating up resources like nobodies business.

I have a 2.33Ghz processor and it was using between 130-160% of it! I'd love to know what an IM client needs with all that power. I don't really even get that with Photoshop!

Leopard 10.5.2, all updates.  
(Version 1.2.5)

DOUG S.  This is a pretty good app. It tried it out not too long ago during my search for an option on how to deal with Matroskas. I wanted a way to put subs in a QuickTime friendly format.

This was one option I looked at. In the end I didn't go with it though because the subtitles are hard-encoded. In other words when it exports the video it doesn't add a new layer to the mix, it makes it all one video. QuickTime supports subtitle files now, has for a little while, especially when embedded but not hard-encoded.

That's why I don't give this a perfect rating. Yeah it's good on value, stability and easy of use. But one you add the subtitles you can't remove them again.

For people like me who are looking for a way to have multiple audio and the option of subtitles in their MP4s and M4Vs, this doesn't do the trick.  
(Version 1.5)

DOUG S.  I can't find this on the website. Does anyone know if the subs are hard encoded and the video is re-encoded with the subs on top or if it exports a video that can enable and disable subtitles?  
(Version 1.2)

DOUG S.  Don't waste your money. I've had externals die and use various programs for data recovery and have been called in to help out friends. I've tried various programs and this one is the worst. It hasn't worked a single time.

The two main situations where I've tried this is when the directory data was lost and where 1 drive of a RAID-0 2 drive system failed.

In the first case Boomerang didn't recover very much, including being unable to recover any of my music and what it did recover many of the files were corrupted. The situation was solved via Disk Warrior which was able to recover ALL of my data.

The second case one of the two disks in my RAID-0 external failed. Data Rescue II was able to recover the vast majority of my 1TB of files. Boomerang couldn't recover a thing. At all. Nothing.

Buying Advice: Don't get this. Don't even bother with the demo. Nothing. If it's a software related issue get Disk Warrior. This is a great app to have anyway, very useful and helps prevent these sorts of problems. Otherwise the best data recovery tool for Macs is Data Rescue II without a doubt.

Either of these options is light-years ahead of boomerang.  
(Version 1.1.6)

DOUG S.  For some reason my backup alarms have stopped working. I don't know if it's an issue with the latest iTunes or what, but if iTunes fails to play I no longer get a backup alarm.

All my music is on my external hard drive so iTunes can load but no music will play as the song will be "missing" and thus I am left with silence.

Unfortunately as I tend to be plugged into my external most of the time I haven't noticed when this stopped working. What I do know is that it was working once upon a time.

iTunes 7.6.1, Awaken 4.0.11, OS X 10.5.2  
(Version 4.0.11)

DOUG S.  I thought Netscape Navigator was dead? I read articles on Arstechnica, Slashdot, Engadget and Wired all saying that the browser was being put out to pasture with no future updates? Is this the final release for Mac or something?  
(Version 9.0.0.6)

DOUG S.  Awaken doesn't revert to backup alarm if iTunes doesn't play a song. My music is on an external drive and when it's not plugged in Awaken still acts like iTunes is going to play a song so it doesn't revert to the backup alarm.

Itunes 7.6, OS X 10.5.2, Awaken 4.0.11.  
(Version 4.0.11)

DOUG S.  Featres (5):

With this latest release they've added all the old features back so it's completely back to where it was, plus all the added new stuff. I can't think of anything else it could possibly need as it has all the features I want.

Ease of Use (5):

Everything is simple and easy to figure out, being right where you'd expect it to be.

Value (5):

Sure, enough of it's functions are done on other alarm apps to make you wonder if it's worth paying for one that does just a little bit more, but once you've seen how much that little bit more is your worries about price pretty much disappear. They did for me.

Stability (4):

The only issue I've ever had with the program is that one morning I woke up late to find that an update had been released since I went to bed and instead of an alarm, an update notice was shown. Turning off the auto-update feature solved this but I'd much rather it wait to tell me until AFTER I've turned off my alarm.  
(Version 4.0.8)

DOUG S.  This is a great piece of software and is a must for anyone who spends a lot of time in Safari, especially if you find yourself doing searches where you know the first result or two is going to cover your needs.

—Features—

It has all the features you'd want in a plugin like this, allowing you to search from an amazing number of localised search engines, and allows you to choose how many results, how many keywords, auto-complete options... It's great. The only thing I could see it doing more with is giving you a small thumbnail of the image but, personally, I think that'd be far too much.

—Ease of Use—

There is almost no learning curve with this. The arrow key commands are a bit confusing at times but by no means does it reflect negatively on the program. It just takes getting used to.

—Value—

It's free. Even if you want to complain that your results are mixed in with affiliates it doesn't matter because the option can be turned off and suddenly you see them no more. It's completely understandable on a free piece of software, and while having to deal with them would have greatly annoyed me, I could have survived and think the developer did a great thing by allowing people to say no to them.

—Stability—

Completely stable. Never caused a problem for me, ever. I wish all apps were this good.

Conclusion? Get it. You have no reason not to. There's nothing better out there and even if there was you'd certainly have to pay.  
(Version 3.0v52)

DOUG S.  there is a bug that's related to secondary displays in Leopard (might be Tiger as well, I can't test that) where if you have TotalTunes Controller on the secondary display when you disconnect the controller window might be partially off the screen. When this happens, and the top-bar is obscure, it becomes impossible to drag the player fully into view.

The only solution I've found for this, when it happens, is to either plug the monitor back in, which isn't always possible, or to close the program, delete it's preferences, and start it up again.  
(Version 2.0b21)

DOUG S.  This is the best out of all the mini itunes controllers I've used, if only because it's free and provides 90% of the features the paid versions offer.

Features (4): It offers a lot of great features, the only ones I've seen others offer that this doesn't seems to be cover flow and Last.FM support both of which don't matter to me.

Ease of Use (4): It's easy to set up and has a lot of options that make easy to use to the point of where you don't have to do anything. Some things aren't always clear right away, but with a little bit of playing they become so.

Value (5): It's free.

Stability (5): I've not used it a whole lot yet, but so far it seems to be 100% stable for me on my MacBook Pro with Leopard.

Pros: Easy to use and customise with great compatibility with OS X combined with the fact that it's free. You really can't ask for much more.

Cons: Though there seems to be an option for it, there aren't actually other styles for the album art. Also, though it does have a clean style, things can feel a bit cluttered as there's not much space between the icons and controls so you get no real sense of grouping.  
(Version 2.0b15)

DOUG S.  Technically any Mac with Front Row installed (anyone with Leopard, I think) can access it without a remote by using the key command Command+Esc. Then just navigate via arrows and the enter key, pressing Esc to back out a level.

Though, it is nice to see this in a free app to make things easier for people.  
(Version 0.1)

DOUG S.  I've noticed a few issues relating to Paragon's NTFS for Mac and I just wanted to share them.

(1) Incompatible with VMware Fusion: In order to run VMware Fusion I have to go to Disk Utility and unmount the volume before I can run it.

(2) Safari Download Issue: When attempting to download a file via Safari, if the NTFS volume is mounted on the desktop the Safari will hang for about 15 seconds before it continues the download normally.

(3) Name In Finder: Though the volume's name is "Mimmic" both in Disk Utility and in Windows, it's mounted as "Mimmic 1" and no amount of changing on my part can fix this. It will change temporarily but the next time I mount the volume it will be "Mimmic 1" all over again.

(4) Finder Eject: I cannot unmount the volume by key command or dragging to the trash, I have to unmount it via Disk Utility.

It's a good little utility and once these issues are ironed out it'll be an invaluable piece of software.  
(Version 6.0)

DOUG S.  Every time I'm not connected to the net but I go to browse through Finder and look at videos, each time the icon changes to the preview I get a message saying Perian couldn't load version info, in a folder of 20 videos I might get that 20 times.

I've stopped it by turning off "Check for Updates" in the System Preferences pane for Perian, but I liked the fact that it would warn me if a new version comes out. Is there a way for the check to be disabled if no internet source is connected instead of a little pop-up error?  
(Version 1.0)

DOUG S.  I love these icons, I still use them on my My Book. I've bought a WD Passport, I don't suppose you'll add those?  
(Version 0.5)

DOUG S.  Out of curiousity, how is this better than something like Keynote, which is part of iWork for only $79?  
(Version 1.3.64b)

DOUG S.  Any chance on adding a rating functionality, either just for the song or for the album as well as the song?  
(Version 1.0.1)

DOUG S.  Nice, but what would be really useful is if it cached the data from the last time you opened it so if you're using a web app it doesn't need to be connected to the net.

My example of this is Kuler by Adobe. if it had a way of caching all information used last time I opened my little desktop version this program would become extremely useful as Adobe doesn't supply a good desktop version of Kuler and, rather sadly, most other desktop apps that do the same thing aren't as good.  
(Version 0.2)

DOUG S.  Currently does not work in Leopard. Any chance of an update?  
(Version 1.8)

DOUG S.  Features:

Great list of features. You can save in any number of formats that you'd like, including single and multi-page PDFs. However, the one thing I do miss is Red Snapper used to let me define the width of the shot. Though not a necessity, it was nice for browser testing I could define a width that would be normal for 800px displays and 1024px displays to see how they showed up.

Also, support for Safari .webloc files would be nice.

Ease of Use:

Very easy to use. Just drag a link straight from your browser onto Web Snapper. The only hang-up is if you use the button in Safari. In my case the bar showed green, as if the image had been taken. It took me a few minutes of searching my computer to realise this wasn't the case. Now that I know it's not an issue but that problem should definitely be fixed. This could be done by just having it go directly to the save dialogue without having to click anything.

Value:

Only $8 for an app like this isn't a lot at all. It's got only a little way to go to being perfect. If you're a web designer this little program is extremely useful for keeping a visual log of great sites from around the web to use later as inspiration.

Stability:

Not had any problems with it at all. 100% stable. This is how all Mac apps should be (minus the Safari button of course).  
(Version 2.1)

DOUG S.  There's nothing on the website but does this support other RAIDs, such as a Western Digital My Book Premium II 1TB perhaps?  
(Version 2.7.1)

DOUG S.  I've completed 19/20 of the levels, that being all of the main island and all of the second island, but I haven't completed the game. When I go to the bottom of the frozen make when I try to jump to that little island with two levels it instead puts me to the point where I can head to the right onto the bridge to the boat.

On the second island all the levels are beaten but there appears to be a single small island to the top right with one mushroom house I can't seem to get to.

What am I doing wrong? There is nothing about this on the site and it lists a 0.1 as the latest Mac version, which obviously isn't.  
(Version 0.3)

DOUG S.  I'm giving Azureus a 2 because it fails in what I think are some key areas for any application.

It's features are great, it has the most of any torrent app I've seen for Mac. You want features, you get them in full, hundreds. But I think it's a bit bloated because of it.

Ease of use is horrible, I mean sure the very basics are easy but if you try to get beyond that it becomes very hard very quick. This app is one of the least user friendly out there for torrents.

Value, well it's free isn't it? Can't get better than that.

Stability is pretty good as with any application. It has it's moments but they are few for me.

The reason I gave it a 2 and not a 3 (as math would make me) is because I'm judging by visuals and UI, which doesn't always fall under "Ease of Use" (says the web designer) and I think it fails there. The UI at first appears slick, but doesn't allow you to do anything. The second you try to you're shown one of the ugliest PC looking UIs for torrents that is so confusing and bloated with information and options that it's impossible to do much if don't know exactly how.

This application has the ability to be the best app for torrents hands down no contenders, but before it can do that it HAS to figure out a way to make it more user friendly and visually appealing.  
(Version 3.0.3.4)

DOUG S.  Warning to those thinking of downloading the latest version of Transmission, be careful it's buggy.

I'm running a MacBook Pro with Leopard and I've found the last two version of Transmission to be extremely temperamental, crashing all the time and locking up, graphical glitches like active and hit states for buttons missing, scroll bars disappearing and re-appearing...

0.92 was stable, but this latest version isn't as much so.  
(Version 0.94)

DOUG S.  I love this widget, so much better than any of the other options out there and it works great, especially now that it's Leopard friendly!

Great widget, keeps me organised and helps me not forget deadlines! I've been without it since Leopard released and I have been the worse for it.

Definitely get this!  
(Version 2.3)

DOUG S.  This is currently incompatible with OSX 10.5, when can users expect an update?  
(Version 4.5.3)

DOUG S.  Can Flame identify the PCs as well as the Macs?  
(Version 0.2.1)

DOUG S.  For some reason I can't backup to a disk image on my external.

I've set up a schedule to backup to a disk image in a specific folder on my external, making an image of my entire main drive, but when I run it I get an error saying it's not available or the bath has changed.

It hasn't. What's up?  
(Version 3.0)

DOUG S.  Can I backup to a disk image instead of an external drive? Or possibly a folder?  
(Version 3.0)

DOUG S.  Please don't take this as flaming, but instead as only curiousity, but how is this different from the default iTunes visualiser?  
(Version 3.7.2)

DOUG S.  Does anyone know if Parallels supports both cores or if it can only utilise one core? VMWare Fusion makes a point of mentioning this and I just wanted to double-check.  
(Version 3.0.5160)

DOUG S.  This may be a side-effect of the global positioning but my notifications aren't showing where they should.

I have it set to display them in the top-right (I know, original, huh?) but they're showing in the middle-right of the screen.

I can take a guess as to the cause of this since it's not constant. I usually use two displays, the larger one which acts as my main display is set to 1680x1050 and my MacBook Pro display is set to 1440x900. When I leave my display the main screen becomes my smaller MBP screen and that's when things start showing up in the wrong position.

A little extra info to help you guys figure out the issue (assuming you need this):

- Growl v1.1

- OS X Tiger 10.4.10

- Theme: Smoke

I know it's not a problem with the specific app doing the alerts since I get the same issue when getting alerts from Safari, YummyFTP, Adium or iChat.  
(Version 1.1)

DOUG S.  I gotta say the reason I stopped using Azureus and move to Transmission was simply that Azureus' UI was /is horrible.

Your app runs great and is definitely a great bittorrent app, but my recommendation to you is to NOT follow Azureus and instead design a nice, clean, front end to your app.

Do that, and you'll be the only BT app for Mac or PC that has all the features, is fast, and has a nice friendly UI.

Heck, do that and I'd be willing to pay for it.  
(Version 1.1.1)

DOUG S.  I've been working strictly in Coda for development on my latest project and I've come across two possible additions that would make Coda all the better:

(1) Automatically, or via a menu item or right-click, turn any symbol into it's HTML equivalent. & to & and — to – and so on.

(2) Auto-formatting. So I can select a block of text and it will remove all the extra spaces, tab it out to the level it should... But more (and this is where I need it most) when I copy content into Coda it will put all the lines together for me so I don't have to join each line of a paragraph up myself.  
(Version 1.0.3)

DOUG S.  Sorry but when you look at the source code, it's bloated to a horrible extent.

Those of you considering this, as a web designer who hand-codes his work (so you know how much I dislike WYSIWYG editors) just use iWeb. More features, more support, extremely user friendly.  
(Version 2.1)

DOUG S.  As a web designer what would make me move to this instead of browsers like Safari and Firefox would be the ability to swap render engines.

Right now in order to browser-test I have to go to those different browsers. The ability to render from one browser in IE 5.5-7+, Firefox 2+, and Safari for both Mac and PC.

If someone created a browser that could do that I would most happily pay for it as it'd be one of my most useful tools for web development.

Also, you might want to look at FireBug and The Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox as those are the two most useful tools for development and checking your work.

Personally, I don't care as much about a small, light and fast browser. Safari (the beta) runs very fast for me as it is and any extra speed you'd get out of it would be barely noticeable. Where as combining some of my most often used tools, as well as adding some never before seen, would make my life extremely easy.  
(Version 1.3.5)

DOUG S.  Can TuneRanger transfer individual songs directly from a connected iTunes Library and is there a PC version available?  
(Version 0.9.5.200)

DOUG S.  _____Features_____

Transmission has all the features I really need in a torrent client. The UPnP, with the recent update, works fantastically on every network I've tried so far. The prioritising also works perfectly well, possibly even better than Azureus but that just may be my imagination and they might work the same. And with the added ability to not download files I don't want, it's added everything I've wished it's had over the years.

_____Ease of Use_____

You can drag a file in, put it in a folder you have Transmission "watch" or you can just double click it. It even has Growl support to let you know when files are done. Doesn't get much easier. And the UPnP/Port choosing on Transmission is infinitely more reliable and easy to use than on other clients such as Azureus that are, while feature heavy, in desperate need of a bit of design.

_____ Value_____

It's free. Um, what more could you ask for?

_____ Stability_____

Mostly it's perfectly stable. I've only noticed it getting a bit finicky when I'm downloading more than 15 torrents at a time (which occasionally does happen) but then, every other client I've tried is the same way.  
(Version 0.80)

DOUG S.  Awaken is great and all but it needs better iTunes+external drive support. If you have your music on an external hard drive and you allow your disks to go to sleep, starting up of iTunes and the playing of that first song can take a few seconds while the drives spin up.

This is a problem because Awaken won't wait long enough and tends to go right to the error message and backup sound.

This could be solved by, if you're playing an iTunes track, having it start up the minute before the alarm is set to go off that way when you're set to play the song iTunes, and your external, are ready. Or you could just extend the time before you get an error message to a few minutes.  
(Version 3.1.4)

DOUG S.  It says you can automatically determine the BPM of a song, but last time I downloaded it I first had to choose a range. Is there a way to bypass this and just have beaTunes determine it for me?  
(Version 1.2)

DOUG S.  Something I noticed that Coda has over Dreamweaver is the ability to use Tiger's built-in spell-checker. By right-clicking and selecting Spelling>Check Spelling as you Type I can have all my text spell-checked which you can't do in Dreamweaver without getting special menus and such out.

The reason I mention this though is that it spell-checks things like "href" and other terms that aren't in any English dictionary. A nice feature addition would be to have Coda only spell-check things between tags.

It's things like this that are going to make me permanently switch from Dreamweaver to Coda. Keep up the great work guys! Small thing I know but it's the small things that makes Coda the best.  
(Version 1.0.3)

DOUG S.  Does it disable all Flash or is it just certain Flash ads based on IDs and Classes?  
(Version 8-2007)

DOUG S.  Would this allow someone to download the music from that website as well?  
(Version 1.6)

DOUG S.  Now that there's actually an icon for my drive I can give it a proper review.

Features: Great! It has all the My Book drives. I guess that's what you'd call features in an icon set. It also comes with the icons as well as the icons applied to documents so you can copy and paste them easily.

Ease of Use: Well he's given all the things you'd need to make applying them in whatever way you like as easy as possible.

Value: It's free. 'Nuff said.

Stability: The icons work great with no problems that I can see.

Plus the guy who made them is responsive to requests and that can't always be said of a developer.  
(Version 0.2)

DOUG S.  Any chance of getting one for the 1TB My Book Premium II? It's thicker than yours and the one I made is a bit on the rubbish side since I didn't take time to really do it justice.  
(Version 0.1)

DOUG S.  Is there a way to preview .php files without running a server environment locally? So far the only way to do it is if I run MAMP Pro when I go to preview.  
(Version 1.0.3)

DOUG S.  This is a good software and one of the nicest looking iTunes controllers out there but before I'm willing to pay for it there are features/issues that I would like to see addressed, which is why it only gets a 3.

———————————————

Features

———————————————

• This software could really benefit from the adding of a hot-key to make CoverSutra or the ability to turn hiding on and off. A combination of these would also work and would probably be a better option.

• There is currently no support for playlists so you can't keep it open as a stand-alone completely to iTunes, you still need to switch back to switch playlists and the like.

———————————————

Ease of Use

———————————————

You install it and... Well that's it. The layout of what features it does have is well done and obvious. The only draw-back is you can't specify it to launch when iTunes does and you have to click on the icon to make it show itself.

———————————————

Value

———————————————

Personally I think this program is too feature deprived to yet justify the price, but it does have the potential to be a great app and in fact worth paying for.

———————————————

Stability

———————————————

100% stable. Never an issue with it running or crashing. The only slight flaw is that if you CMD+Tab to it the window remains hidden. Small flaw, probably easy to fix.  
(Version 1.1.6)

DOUG S.  Can someone tell me how to change the access key? I use F2 for expose and I use it in Flash.  
(Version 1.1.1)

DOUG S.  For making this I love you... But even if the theme was rubbish, for naming it after something from Napoleon Dynamite I'd still love you.  
(Version 1.0)

DOUG S.  Ever wondered why all those other unarchiving utilities either have too many features or not enough or, worse of all, don't support every format?

This isn't that kind of unarchival app. This does every format I've come across and I work in web design, I come across everything at one point or another. It sets itself as the default unarchival app on your computer and you only set it once. It's as fast as any of the default utilities but where they can only do a few formats this does them all!

The only place where this falls is the ability to unarchive all forms of RARs. Certain kinds of segmented RAR files it can't do for some reason, but the majority are not a problem.

Great app! Room to improve (barely) but definitely a must have for any Mac user.  
(Version 1.6)

DOUG S.  Great program and I haven't had a problem with it in ages but this morning I found a glitch. If the program has an alert, say if a new version is available and it wants to know if you want to download it or the like, then the alarm won't go off. You won't even get the secondary alarm.

So yeah, because it was asking me if I wanted to download the latest version of Awaken the alarm didn't sound. (version 3.1.2)  
(Version 3.1.3)

DOUG S.  I'm reading through here and seeing some negative comments and I'm wondering what people have done to their copies of FireFox... I've been using it since before I was in the Mac world and I use it now just as frequently, never once had a problem. Ever.

Features:

Features wise? No browser comes close. There are the normal features that you get with every browser but to top it off there's also all the extra plugins and addons. Mozilla's site is swimming with them and there are some extremely useful ones (FireBug and Wed Developer Tool Bar anyone?).

Ease of Use:

Rather easy to use, streamlines a lot of stuff. But every once and a while things seem a bit confused but only just so not a perfect rating but close. It's more a 4.5 than a 4.

Value:

It's free and it works better than browsers that aren't. What more could you possibly want?!

Stability:

Like I said, it's never let me down, and I'm a web designer so I've gone to all sorts of pages but, what's more, I've used it to test my sites that I know have bad code and could cause issues with a browser. Yet FireFox has never once gone afoul on me.

Great program, great extras, and from what I hear about the next major release it's going to be all that much better.

Keep up the good work boys! Maybe one day you'll take over from IExplorer (please for the love of god do! Make my job easier!!!).  
(Version 2.0.0.4)

DOUG S.  Thank god someone finally did this! I'm sick of getting Matroska files when I download fan-subs and having to watch them in VLC player. Now I can use them all in Front Row!

Features: It does everything you'd want it to do and then some, giving you lots of options to have the final product suit your tastes perfectly.

Ease of Use: You just drop in the files, select the parts you want, and either extract or export. It's that easy.

Value: It's free. What's better than free?!

Stability: I've not used it extensively as of yet but from what I've seen it runs perfectly smoothly.  
(Version 1.0.1)

DOUG S.  Great app! Does exactly what the name implies every time with no problems. I'm only giving it a 4 because the features are very basic since it only is a on/off toggle with no extra options (that's why that got a 3) which might have been nice but considering what this app is and what it does it's not even a real issue.

Great app! One I shall keep using for a long time to come!  
(Version 1.1)

DOUG S.  I'd say this is a really nice piece of software. It works well and everything, however, it's 100% useless. Now, don't misunderstand me, I use things like this every so often and I do find them useful. However, this one charges you money for what various free programs do, and for a lot cheaper.

Screenshot Plus for instance can take a screen shot of just an icon. It's free. There are various plugins for Photoshop that can import icon data, including it's various states.

As a piece of software this is indeed nice, but I cannot justify paying $25 for it, not when there are so many other programs that you can get that are more flexible and cost you nothing.  
(Version 1.1.9)

DOUG S.  Those people who are unhappy with the latest version of Flash must not be using the final version, either that or the demo is extremely different than the final version because I'm floored.

The features in this version of Flash are every bit as good as the previous versions, but they have plenty of added bonuses when it comes to supporting other CS3 applications. Flash 8 was a great step up from MX 2004 but damn they've outdone themselves this time!

Ease of use is a great step up as well. Granted, there is still quite a learning curve seeing as it's Flash but for those who are avid Flash users should welcome the change. The new interface makes it possibly to use it on a single display without feeling cramped.

Stability has not been an issue at all for me. I never take it easy on programs and get annoyed at the littlest interruption to my work-flow but Flash CS3 has behaved flawless with me so far, and I use it on a daily basis.

Value isn't so good considering it's still very expensive for us poor student/freelancers but when you consider all the changes this version around it's completely worth it.

When Adobe bought Macromedia I was a bit worried but they proved me oh so very wrong. Great job boys keep up the fantastic work!  
(Version 1.0)

DOUG S.  This is a great torrent app! I've used all the big ones at various times (Xtorrent, BitTorrent, Azureus, Tomato Torrent...) and so far this is my favourite. Some of the others have more features but when it comes to stability and speed this one is king!

One of my favourite things this app does is it automatically checks every time you add a new port ant tells you it's status, some of the others do to various degrees but never as quickly or as effectively, or as easily for that matter.

The only things this torrent app is missing which would make it the best app hands down are three features.

1) Selective file downloading and prioritising. Very few apps actually have this but it's extremely useful if you only need that one small file in the 5GB torrent, or if you want the first 5 episodes of a torrent to download before the rest (that's what I use it for).

2) The ability to add other trackers. Sometimes when someone creates a torrent it only has one trackers but they'll later add more to it, it'd be nice to be able to add extra trackers in.

3) Torrent authoring. This is just a small feature that is rather useful if you want to create a torrent without downloading an entirely new app.

If these three features were added this would be the best application for downloading torrents bar none!  
(Version 0.71)

DOUG S.  This is an amazing tool, great for those of us who like to code by hand when possible! The user interface is extremely clean and is very clear and takes almost no time to feel comfortable in. It's also got great CSS support, which is something not all of them can say.

My only complaint is the PHP support, it's non-existant. If you use a .php extension instead of .html (like you are supposed to when doing PHP in your code) nothing shows up in preview except the source code. This is a major drawback because I have to upload every time I want to check how the site looks, which is constantly.

Maybe I've missed something and there is actually a way to preview this but until there is I'm not going to switch over from Dreamweaver, no matter how much better of a UI this has.  
(Version 1.0)

DOUG S.  I'm using a trial of CoverSutra before I decide whether or not it's worth the cash and I was wondering if there's any way to make it NOT hide when I'm clicked off the app?

I really like it as a mini-player instead of using iTunes and that's kinda what I use it for at this point, however when I click off it the app fades away. Is there a way to disable this? Even when it's in the background I'd like it to be visible.

Is that possible? And, if not, will it ever be a feature in the future?  
(Version 1.1.2)

DOUG S.  Does exactly what it says it does. And, honestly, how many other plug-ins can you say that about? "This does exactly what it's supposed to do each time, every time, no exceptions." With this it's true.

My only wish is that it'd keep up to date with the latest releases for stuff like DiVX. Also, Windows formats support would be nice.

Other than those two, rather minor, things it's flawless!  
(Version 0.5)

DOUG S.  Amazingly enough you might notice it's "Designer Icons 2" there is a set 1 with all the parts you're missing:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23918/designer-icons  
(Version 1.0)

DOUG S.  Does anyone know if this has any support for the Matroska container? I know FfmpegX has some basic support for it but I was wondering if this actually had some real support for it?  
(Version 1.22)

DOUG S.  What exactly does this do? Does it allow you to have more than one Dock at once?  
(Version 2.0)

DOUG S.  If you look at the scores I gave it, a 2 might seem a little harsh but bear with me a second.

Features are OK. It does have those features it mentions above but there are a few, such as multi-trackers and UPnP that are rather missed. Also, having it auto-open from multiple folders would be better than just one. Finally, the ability to track how much each file within a torrent is complete and the ability to assign priority would be great.

Ease of use is great. It's UI is both pretty and obviously simple. This is the one thing this program has gotten 100% right and which no other torrent app has please me with as much as this one.

Value I'll save to last.

Stability. This is where this program goes so wrong. At least with this last update, I can no longer leave it running over night it seems because at some point it will have crashed and OS X will send me a message saying it quit unexpectedly. Before when I quit it I could start it back up with no problems what so ever. Now more often than not when I start it up I have to recheck all my torrents, completed and uncompleted, which severly lags my system (No small task on a MacBook Pro with 2.33GHz processor and 2GB of RAM).

All in all I'd say this is not worth the money, not until those key features are added and the stability issues are addressed. If he can do all of that, then I'd pay for the app without thinking twice.  
(Version 1.0b3v29)