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User "JimW" Profile
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About Jim
Over 30 years of Customer Service Technical Support and Test. Experience with most of it being in the software industry. Have worked for Apple, Claris, and Microsoft. The first computer I ever used was an IBM 1620. My first Apple was an Apple ][ +, from Apple, which I won at an IEEE trade show. I helped found an Apple Users Group and been a member of IEEE for around 40 years.
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User Reviews
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This was one of my favorite and highly recommended utilities. And while I appreciate the developer updating it for Leopard, unfortunately it still uses APE (Application Enhancer). I state this only because APE has a history of interfering with some Apps and from what I have been told by other developers, it does not follow all of Apple Development Guidelines. As such it can become a source of instability with some Applications. In particular MacSpeech Dictate 'chokes' on it. So given the choice between Dictate and IceCoffEE, my nod goes to Dictate. Hopefully the developer will find a way to divorce it from APE in the future, so I can reinstall and use a utility I really enjoy using and that was a real timesaver for me. |
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While this particular incantation does look like it may have some unique abilities for the free product category, I believe you have a valid point in your earlier comment. I interpret what you were saying is that there are a multitude of other tools available to basically do the same thing, with many of those having a unique feature or two that the others do not. This creates a situation for users that want these tools to have to sift through a mass of similar applications, and try to figure out which one/ones will best serve the users needs, and once downloaded try to remember which one does what. So it is not strictly a matter of too many apps doing exactly the same thing - instead it is too many apps having the same core features with slight differences between them. This makes choosing the 'right' one a daunting task, especially for the naive user. What I feel is needed is for some smart, savvy developer to survey the selections that are available and incorporate all the settings of all of these similar tools into a single, stable, free tool with a decent GUI. That would resolve this issue and have a long term effect of paring down the choices as the others would fall by the wayside. |
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First of all, might I might ask that if a 'contributor' going to assault another contributors character that the proper terminology be used - i.e., the use of the word "Spam" in your comment: From Wikipedia: Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam and junk fax transmissions. Contrary to the opinion that was expressed in your comment, my message was not indiscriminate, and it was solicited, as was yours. Comments are part of the culture of MacUpdate, and have always been solicited so long as they contain civil language and do not involve personal attacks. If you read my comment carefully, you should note that I cast no aspersions in regard to any individual, or group of individuals, directing my comments to characterize my observations of the Home Automation products that I am familiar with, and making constructive comments regarding the evolution of an up and coming public domain effort. My focus a purpose was to provide users with a summary of my experience with Home Automation Product and my overall opinion of them to assist them in making an informed decision without having to page through numerous windows or tabs, and multiple websites. If MacUpdate offered a side by side comparison of similar products, in chart form, along with comments then your comments about viewing all the information about multiple products would be correct. However to the best of my knowledge MacUpdate does not provide this feature, at least to unpaid subscribers, and I have not seen it offered by their competitors. If you know different, I would appreciate hearing about it from you. Perhaps you might consider offering this suggestion to the MacUpdate development team. I certainly cannot, since doing so would be stealing your idea, which would conflict with my basic core values. Given that your comment took exception to my comments, and you certainly have a right to your comments and opinion, as do I, let me point out what I believe is fact in my previous and others comments: FACT: I did not post the original comment about Indigo. FACT: To the best of my knowledge Indigo, currently is the most expensive, stand alone PLC control software available for the Mac. If you know of a more expensive product, for the Mac I would be interested in hearing about it. FACT: Many of the Home Automation Products contain features that less than 50% of the purchasers use. In order for this number to be greater than 50% evidence would need to be provided that over 50% of the users are scripters, or programmers and that would probably be extremely surprising to the industry as a whole. FACT: A significant percentage of Home Automation Systems are installed by professionals. I invite you to provide evidence that a professional installation can be equal in cost to or even just slightly more expensive than a self-installed system. FACT: X-10 systems have a history of anomalies. Just do a Google search on this subject. In particular, they are somewhat sensitive to electrical noise on the power line. Otherwise companies would not be selling filters and signal boosters to get rid of the noise or overcome it. FACT: Indigo 1.8 was a good product at a fair price. However I do not believe it is currently available for purchase. It is what I am still using. My comments regarding a "bloated Indigo" referenced 2.0 not 1.8 FACT: A significant period of time has passed since Thinking Home has done a major update to their product. It was enough time for many, like myself to feel the product had been abandoned. Many, again like myself, having up-to-date computers and automation equipment, felt that the only alternative at the time was to switch to Indigo. However given the direction and the current cost of Indigo, I am looking for an alternative. If Thinking Home had a history of addressing and responding to users needs in a timely manner, that choice might very well be Thinking Home. However this is precisely the issue that caused me to give up on it and switch. A wise person, whose name escapes me at the moment, said regarding human behavior, that: "Past history is generally a good predictor of future events." My experience generally leads me to agree with this philosophy. So given the history of Thinking Home, in relation to timely updates that address current OS releases and new Home Automation products, I will leave you with this final thought. Why should users expect the future updates and support from Thinking Home to be different from their past history? |
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While what the developer says might be true about Apple's Font Book. he fails to mention that Linotype Font Explorer does most of this and for free. Additionally Font Explorer does things that this product does not do. In order to make an informed decision I would suggest taking a look at Font Explorer when considering the purchase of this product. Please note that this is a comment on value, not on quality or performance of this product. |
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I checked all over their website for a phone number so I could contact them with a presales question - i.e.will it print calendars and tasks to a Franklin Day Planner. Unfortunately the do not list one and the only way to contact them is via email after registering on their site. Thank you, but no thanks - I am not going to give them all of my personal contact information so they can sell it to someone or harass me with junk mail if I do not want their product. If a company is not willing to talk to me or publish ALL of their contact info, I am not willing to consider purchasing their product. |
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For just a few more bucks FileBuddy does this and a whole lot more that includes most if not all of the features of the majority of shareware file utilities. |
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Hangs up on my Intel MacPro on launch unless I run it under Rosetta. |
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The good news is that they finally have a manual for this product abet, only in PDF format - at least for now. The bad news is the only indication to what was changed in the product is what is contained in the update blurb as posted in MacUpdate. I am unable to locate any other documentation that actually indicates what fixes and changes were made. Unbelievably, even the released version, as mentioned in the release notes was not updated, much less the content of the notes. Only after I work with it for a while will I know if my documented issues were addressed and what else was updated or fixed. But at least there is now a full set of instructions for the product including lists of some previously undocumented critical commands; but still minus a complete command reference listing. |
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My opinion of Indigo is that it has become bloated with capability that most average users are not very interested in and at around $200 for the current version, way to expensive. They again, this is the first upgrade of Thinking Home in literally many years. I used Thinking Home for many years, till it failed to work on my machines/OS. Right now I am using the previous version of Indigo, which was about half the current price and it is working fine for my needs on my Intel Mac's running Leopard. Frankly I am disappointed with all of the Mac based automation products, given their level of cost and/or timely updates. Hopefully the freeware Sourceforge project will eventually provide some needed competition and force the commercial vendors to either rethink their business model in terms of good support and value, or step aside for a hopefully a more customer oriented vendor. Given the pricing structure for home automation (other than X10) the products seem targeted only for the economically well heeled. The issue with X10 is that their operation can be inconsistent, and at times unreliable. Right now I regard Home Automation to still be in its infancy and needs to mature in order for it to migrate out of the hobbyist real and become practical for the general public. It seems right now that the only way to obtain a stable properly installed system, without being a tinkerer is to pay big bucks to have a specialist install and configure the system for you. The bottom line is that reliable equipment and software for the hobbyist is costly and somewhat fickle, and and to have it professionally done can become very expensive. I would expect it to remain such until competition and consumer demand results in more reliable, less expensive products that are easier to install, configure, maintain, and use. |
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I never suggested that the APE incompatibility was the exclusive responsibility of MacSpeech. I was merely pointing out the incompatibility, which is not documented in the materials included in the package, and the issues it creates. This was provided in the interest of full disclosure. It is up to the user, if they are an APE user, to make the decision as to which package they wish to use: Dictate, or Ape. However I do feel that a proactive company, given the popularity of APE in some circles, would have attempted to work with UnSanity to resolve some of the issues before release, or at least placed a detector in the installer that would warn users of this incompatibility before installation. A kernel panic is rather a rude awaking. I did not consider the APE issue in my rating. My rating is based on lack of a completed product, other stability issues, lack of documentation, and inability of a user to export their command efforts, in order to recover their work in case of file corruption, which is has occurred with my installation, even after APE was removed. On a positive note, I did mention the products, improved accuracy, reduced training requirements, improved scripting ease, and responsive technical support. Personally I think the product has a lot of promise, but do not feel it was quite ready for a complete release to the general public. That is my opinion and I will stand by it. The purpose of my review is to cover the good, the bad, and the ugly, so that a prospective buyer could make an informed decision, and not be surprised by what they get, or don't get, when they receive the package. |
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I ordered my upgrade at MacWorld in January. I received it several weeks ago, and have been using it off and on ever since. In dictation mode, it seems to work reasonably well, much better than the previous product iListen. It is easier to set up and train, and seems to be more accurate in its rendering of voice. It is also reasonably easy, to add your own commands for various applications, basing them on existing commands that are already in the product were using them as a template. That said, this first release of the product does have its problems, many of which are very significant. To begin with, no manual is available, not even on electronic version. The only documentation included with the product is a quick start guide, which mainly covers installation and initial setup, and an abbreviated command guide, it covers only a single page on the back of the four page, statement sized, set up guide. and opened up, this guide is the equivalent, of a two-sided, letter-sized piece of paper with half of one side, being the front cover, of the document, and having no useful information. The only source, other than me very limited list of commands on the back page of the setup guide, is a list of commands within the program, where they may be edited or modified, or a list of commands that appear when the program is launched. The user is left to its own devices, to export or print out these commands, as there is no export capability. This also becomes an issue if the user creates their own commands, since there is no way of exporting them into a file, they may become lost in the preferences become corrupted, which is not a totally unusual condition. spelling correction is not available with this version but is promised in a future release. The only applications that have command support with this product are finder Safari, iCal, Mail, and Text Edit. While it does have the capability of importing commands from iListen, this may also be a mixed bag as some of the imported commands may not function properly. wobble for a man in construction of a custom command is fairly simplistic, the procedure for actually accomplishing this, is not covered in the startup guide, nor is there on screen help, so it becomes an exercise for the user to figure out how to do this. An initial problem with the product, was at the registration website was not functioning properly, so a user was forced to run the demo mode, until the problem was resolved and fixed. That is now functioning properly. There is a hotline for technical support included, but unfortunately the agents can only assist with very basic questions. For anything else to call must be escalated. However they do call back. During uses I have experienced occasional crashes. I have had my preferences become corrupted. I also find that on launch, getting the product to synchronize its modes, with a monitor window, may require a bit of playing around. The only way I can get it to have consistent results, is to set the startup mode to sleep mode. Dictate is absolutely incompatible, with Unsanity's APE, or application enhancer. It caused no end of grief, including kernel panics, when installed in conjunction with Dictate. Excluding dictate as an application in its preferences pane, did not eliminate the conflicts completely. The product had to be removed. While MacSpeech is aware of this, at least at the time that IE ran into the problem, it was not documented anywhere. While MacSpeech representatives justify its current state as being a 1.0 release, I find I must take exception to this perspective. Personally I feel it is more of a beta version, then a final release, given the issues this product currently has. So at this time, I would primarily recommend this product, for people who need the Dictate portion of the product, rather than the command mode, and are capable of making spelling corrections from a keyboard. Beyond this I would suggest waiting for the next upgrade or release of the product. Hopefully by then, they will include spelling correction, proper documentation, and a more stable product. I find it difficult to give it an overall rating as some of the parts that work work well, but many other parts of the product do not or are missing. So my reading becomes an average of all of these issues. Once the product is revised and a number of its issues resolved, I believe it will earn a much higher rating, and I am giving it in this review. |
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First of all, if you purchased the software recently, either at MacWorld, or from other vendors, check your master disk. If it reads "CD Rev 42" on it, you do not need this upgrade as you already have it. Now regarding Alsoft and rating software: Alsoft has been around for quite a long time, and over the years I have found them to be a mixed bag. While historically much of their products I regard as somewhat flakey, Disk Warrior so far seems solid enough that it seemed to be the product of choice for disk repair while I was contracting at Apple last year. That is what enticed me to try to upgrade to the current version at MacWorld this year. Despite the fact that the last version I had was ancient (pre OSX) they offered me the upgrade price and were nice and pleasant to talk to. I have had no problems with the upgrade so far on Leopard. When I saw the upgrade, I found its presentation a little confusing, so I downloaded the update and tried to install it. It failed. So I called Alsoft TS, but could only leave a message. They promised a call back within 2hrs. I got one within 30min. The agent was somewhat curt but helpful and quickly resolved the issue for me - I did not need the upgrade. I suggested they clarify that on their website. He entertained the suggestion. So, somewhat surprisingly, given Alsoft's, mixed history, currently I would have to give them high marks at this time for this product and support. As far as rating software based on the company as opposed to strictly the software, I most go back a long time ago to an acquaintance that told me the following: "The only thing worse than not having a piece of equipment that you need is having it not work properly, and not being able to get it fixed." The same can be paraphrased for software. It is useless to have a piece of software that you can't get to work properly, and be unable to get good support for it. So in my opinion, how a company provides support for a product is part of the software package you buying. It is a poor business practice for a company not to include support costs into the total cost of a product they are producing. So I subscribe to the notion that when you rate a software package, support should be included but not be the single determining factor. Instead it should be considered as one part of the total package. |
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Initial impressions: Fantastic idea. Seems to work great. Much more complete than other 'hidden features' program. Really like the idea of it being a preference pane as it stays out of the way when i am not using it yet is available for quick access without a lot of typing, or populating the dock or launchers. Good job. Only issue is that it could be a bit better documented as to the functions, but then it is beta. |
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If it does not seem to work with your scanner and you are using Leopard or Tiger on an Intel Mac-- Try doing a ;'Get Info' on the app and checking the 'Rosetta' Box. It worked for me. |
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Try fixing Permissions then reinstalling the drivers. Mac sure the Epson Apps are at Root Level of the Applications folder. If that does not work, be sure the TWAIN drivers are installed and use Image Capture which is included with Mac OS. Hope this helps. |
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A user response to some of your questions: The companies headquarters is in Belgium. They have a support and sales office in Florida. The U.S. head-count seems very limited and overworked. They seem to actually try hard and try to do the right thing but they work under a European Management Team that seems to be clueless about good customer service, and solid products. They do provide complete contact and location info on their website and have attended MacWorld for the last several years. In my opinion the hoops that one must go through to register or reregister the product is ridiculous. The product has been around now for quite a while, and has been somewhat improved over the years. It is cross-platform as as such the GUI tends to suffer. Unfortunately it seems to be the only scan-to-text option out there right now for OS X. The alternative is to type it in by hand or use a speech to text product, such as iListen which from an accuracy perspective is little better and sometimes worse. Recognition quality does improve a bit over time and with training but that takes a lot of additional time to initially perform as well. The bottom line is that if you need to use a product like this it sort of works but I 'wouldn't write home about it' regarding its performance, GUI, or support. It is better than nothing when the alternative is nothing or next to nothing - i.e.retype it in or a speech to text product. |
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It seems to work for Leopard on my Mac Pro - as good or better than it ever did. For me it is a must have utility and I am happy to see it updated for Leopard. |
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Tried it and tossed it. After installing it the following problems surfaced: - Downloads (.dmg) to my Downloads folder would not expand. - Some website would not load - Linotype Font Explorer hung on Startup Disabling the tool got rid of the problems. Removing the input managers with the tool enabled did not. Nice idea but needs more testing before release. My consensus: Don't even think about trying 1.5 - at least on an Intel Mac. |
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iTunes most certainly can as well with drag & drop for tunes and movies. iPhoto will manage pictures in the same way. For full resolution photo's the iPod can be mounted as a disk and files dragged as with any mounted device. As I said, am I dense or what can this product do that the tools that Apple provides can't? What Apple products do not do well is copy un-synced files from the iPod to iTunes, especially the DRM stuff.If it can do that then it is more like YamiPod, an already proven and free product. Perhaps it is a tool that assists in removing DRM? If so then it would be doing something that is a weak area of iTunes. Still confused as to what is the need for this product. |
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Maybe I'm dense, but from the description I can't tell what this product does that iTunes doesn't. |
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I have received a very courteous replay back from the developer, after posting my review, indicating he was indisposed for a period of time and indicting that he intends to improve the support of the product in the future. I would welcome any comments in regards to the support experiences of the product from other users for review. If the developed does what he says and the evidence appears here, I would be happy to rewrite my review or provide an update which would reflect the improved support. In regards to functionality: I look forward to re-reviewing the product should the functionality significantly change. |
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As I personally replied in more detail to your email to me today (the only one I ever received) the issue was NOT the servers that was causing the key problem, it was Mailings, dealing with the message being sent, which I fixed within Mailings message area. I am not trying to "drive people away" but only wish to relate my experiences with your product so they can make an informed purchase decision. As a said in my review, when it works, it works well but it can be challenging to set it up for proper operation. I rated support as poor, due to the fact that there was no response for almost a day during which time, a continuing issue from the previous day was attempting to be resolved and support is only available via email with no response time parameters. |
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Unfortunately, while the product has some unique and useful features, support for the product (e-mail only) has generally been abysmal. Here is why: After researching a number of products for someone to whom I provide free support to for their organization, I suggest this product as a bulk mailer for simple text messages and attachments. We paid our shareware fee and started using the product. Unfortunately the documentation leaves much to be desired, so getting it to work involved a lot of trial and error. In the process we ran into a number of bugs, which eventually got fixed. Support for the product seems to be a mixed bag at best. Sometimes we get a helpful response, sometimes we don't. Our most recent experience is that we initially got a acceptable response but then when the initial suggestions failed to work we were abandoned. Finally after several frustrating days of continual failures to get the product to work properly, we finally figured out what was wrong and got it to work - without any help from the developer as a continual stream of emails were never responded to or acknowledged. Troubleshooting this product requires sophisticated experience as errors messages are encoded as cryptic codes that have no reference. Again, the developer ignored a request as to what the error codes mean. Only by going through the Mac console log were we able to get a clue as to what the problem was and figure out a solution on our own. When the product works, it works well, but it can be very finicky, In my opinion, especially given its level of support and limited documentation, it is not a product suitable for the inexperienced user. For these reasons, I cannot recommend this product for a general audience. If you are looking for a bulk mailer, I would research its alternatives and only choose this one if you can't find a better one that meets your requirements. This product has promise, but right now, I do not believe it is ready for 'Prime Time." |
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Does not work with Leopard |
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Works even better now - i.e. documents in Documents folder and with Leopard. Thanks |
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It now works with Leopard |
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Judging from the instructions, it looks like you have to setup your Mac as a webserver to use the dial. Much too complicated, even with the detailed instructions to do and too much overhead for a simple dialer. Thanks but no thanks. I'll wait for Jon's Phone Tool to be updated to Leopard. |
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It isn't as complete as FinderPop (still the best) but it is compatible with Leopard, which makes it the best that is available right now for contextual hierarchal menus. |
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Not Leopard compatible on Intel |
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Actually I only use Address Box as a portal to make my addresses in Entourage available to .Mac and as a backup for Entourage. VOIP (Vonage) is fine for business but I will not consider it for home use per my previous remarks. Given that I currently am doing some testing for Apple as a contractor, I am quite limited as to what I can say given the confidentiality agreements that Apple, like most other High Tech companies requires workers to sign. What I can say is that Apple is a company and like most all other businesses, their reason for being in business is to make a profit - as much profit as they can while operating within the laws that govern them. In this respect Apple is no different than any other business and Steve Jobs has much in common in this regard with Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and any other captain of modern business. Anybody who believes that a business has a conscious and is in business for their customers benefit is totally naive. Making money is the business of all businesses and what they make, sell and provide services for is how they do it. Companies only care about customer loyalty, customer service, and product satisfaction from the paradigm of selling goods and services in order to maintain and improve the bottom line. Anyone who thinks otherwise is in for a rude awaking. Companies are a paper entity and paper does not possess a conscience. The so called company conscience and culture of a company is simply a reflection of the values of its current senior management team. The two economic forces that coerce business to innovate, maintain reasonable levels of customer service, and offer products at a fair price are competition and customer interest in the products. Thus the only real leverage the consumer has is to buy the competition or do without. Everything else is window dressing. So it is only a natural course of business that as Apple gets bigger and improves its profits and market share, the level of customer service and quality tends to diminish. What will turn that trend around? Consumer resistance to their products and competition. Yes it is that simple. Implementing the forces to accomplish it is what is difficult. Are their exceptions to this paradigm. Most certainly but they are rare and few. Additionally they are most rarely found in Silicon Valley. So if you what to know what is going on with Apple, just examine their stock price from say 5-10 years ago and apply the standard business paradigm to them. Again, it is that easy. Now do it to Microsoft and you will have a good sense of what direction they will most likely take - i.e. they just relented and will allow computer makers to ship with XP. Again it is a rare company that ranks tops in profits and customer service. Only companies whose leaders are involved in long range thinking are able to do that. Most just want to address the immediate needs of their stockholders for the next couple of years at most. What are modern stockholders needs - Dividends, and Stock Price increases - i.e. quick profits. In the unstable world we live in, sacrificing some profit for long term stability has little meaning to the modern investor. Stability tends to generally mean 5-10 years - the average amount of time between retiring and dying (or not realizing that you are alive). Yes people are living longer but they are also working longer and spending their last years senile. While you may not like this opinion and analysis, I suspect if you show it to any astute business person, that they would probably mostly agree with the majority of its content. It may not be what you wanted to read but for me it unfortunately seems to be the truth as to how modern business is conducted. I say unfortunately, because I feel that things would be different if businesses were driven by human values instead of greed. However such is the current social paradigm. What we have and what we want seems to take precedence over how our individual actions impact others. Enough said already. |
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To respond to your questions: I did not demean the product. I just indicated that there were free alternatives, which I use, and I personally find them very satisfactorily. My implication was that people my wish to try what they already have first rather than to spend extra money on TapDex. Should my suggestion not fulfill their needs, as it obviously has not for you, then there is nothing in my comment to suggest not to try TapDex. I am just suggesting they might wish to try what they already have paid for first. Dumping Entourage was your choice. Not everyone has or Microsoft would not be wasting their money developing a new version. Entourage does things that Apple Address Book, Mail and iCal simply do not. It also allows easy integration of contact info into Word documents. Just because it is not your 'cup of tea' does not mean it is a bad product for everyone else just as TapDex is not necessarily a bad product simply because I have no use for it. No developer forces you to use their product. Users choose to use and purchase products based on need, quality, price, support, and features. As for myself TapDex does not meet enough of those criteria to warrant purchase. What Vonage and banners has to do with this thread, I have no idea since I do not use Vonage as I do not believe VOIP is a viable service for residential use, as the stability of the Internet in times of emergency situations has yet to be proven under real conditions and in my opinion a conventional landline still offers the best chance of reaching emergency services in times of disaster or emergency. It is the same reason I have refused to switch my traditional cable phone service to Comcast's new digital phone service, as it represents another version of VOIP under a different name. I have chosen to allocate memory for Jon's Phone Tools, because it has features I wish to have and use. In planning my machine use, I gave it consideration when purchasing additional RAM for my computer as it is a must have tool for me. Frankly I have never heard of LaunchBar, although, judging from its name and your comments, it represents one of the multitude of Freeware and Shareware Launchers now available as a Dock replacement. I still use the Dock for my primary programs and use a combination of Spotlight and FinderPop (been around since early Classic) for lesser used Apps. I also agree with your assessment of File Buddy, but I am not willing to devote machine cycles and RAM to keep it running all the time. I use it when Spotlight fails to find what I am looking for. It also rolls up into a single package most of the features of the other file management tools at an attractive price, along with good support and a great track record. File Buddy to me represents what a great shareware produce should be as opposed to DIT's (Developers In Training) trying to extract moneys from naive users for single function utilities that are mostly preexisting MAC Unix commands, repackaged by the DIT's into easier to use GUI's as a programing exercise. Mind you, I am not indicating that TapDex is such a product. However if the shoe fits, may the developer wear it in good health. The only axe that I wish to grind is to provide a counterpoint for naive users to the developers who share a belief in the famous quote from W.C. Fields: " It's morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money." |
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Perhaps. However all I do is press CMD-Space, type in a name and a list pops up in less than 5 seconds. I then just click on the name I want and it pops up in either Entourage or Address Book seconds after, with all the info. No Apps to manually launch, no cpu cycles eaten up by an extra idling app. no extra memory usage, and no compatibility issues, now or in the future since Spotlight is part of the OS. Perhaps your tool has a place in someone else system, for for myself, I am perfectly satisfied in this case, with what Apple provides. However should I actually want to call a phone number I do use Jon's Phone Tool, which sits in my menu bar and will allow me to choose a contact and then uses the Apple Internal Modem to dial it for me. That is something that Spotlight, Address Book, or Entourage will not do alone so the tool is worth the overhead to me. |
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So what does this do that the combination of Linotype Font Explorer(free) and FontBook at $10 do not do? I would encourage users to explore what these 2 utilities will do that Font Pilot does not. I hesitate to starting the listing since I believe it would be much too long to be considered a comment. While it serves the entire Mac community to encourage software development and interest, it also is equally as serving to charge for their efforts only if the product meets or exceeds the following criteria: - Does something better or a much more unique and user friendly way than the competition. - Does something that no one else does - Offers better value through more features and/or a lower price than the competition. Otherwise the product serves the Mac Community in no way other to dilute a product need that is already filled and confuse the user. While I would be the first to agree that W.C. Fields would take exception to my criteria ( i.e. "t's morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money."), rest assured, W.C. Fields never conceived of any kind of interest in the Mac Community, much less an ethical one. And in my opinion, neither do developers who subscribe to the ideology of Mr. Fields, who's numbers seem to be on the rise. |
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Sorry, but I don't understand how this can be shareware, when they are other programs such as Linotype Font Explorer that do what this reports to do, along with other features such as total font management, finding duplicates, etc., and are free. Am I missing something here, such as repairing damaged fonts. That would be worth a shareware price. |
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It works great. Thank you. My issue is that has turned out to be a bait and switch program. It was first free and then suddenly they now want money for it. Perhaps I missed it but I never saw anything that indicated the free versions were beta releases for a commercial program. In any case I will be taking your tips and be looking in to Automator to hook a procedure together. Thanks again |
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I agree with the MacUpdate Admin since that is the url that the link for more info takes you. That said I also believe it also belongs on the Macupdate primary description page for this product as it is most likely a key decision maker for many people. I also find it interesting that the developer is comparing 'apples' to 'oranges' on the costs on the sites home page. The current price is given by the quarter but the 'hope' price is an annual fee. Why not just say what it really is - i.e. $60/yr so people don't have to do mental arithmetic. I suspect the reason is that $15/qtr sounds less expensive that it really is. This may be good marketing but not as informative as just stating the annual real cost for an easy comparison instead of trying to 'spin' it to make it sound less than it really is. It reminds me of the infomercials that advertise payments and the price of shipping, instead of just telling you just what the final price really is. Don't you hate that? I know I do. I just like to know what the product is actually going to cost me so I don't have to do all of that mental arithmetic. That is work works best for me and improves my sense of integrity and trust of the the seller. |
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To clarify. My comments about the 'hidden' cost of use of this product were not aimed at MacUpdate but designed only to be informative and suggest that the developer of the product state the usage cost of the product upfront. While the new costs of use is beyond the scope of the developers control for any otherwise excellent product, nevertheless it is a consideration to users and their decision to investigate this product for their needs. My intent is just to provide such information so potential users can make an informed decision as to it the product is right for them before spending the time and trouble to download and installing it, only to possibly find out that the usage of the product is significantly more expensive than it would otherwise indicate by the information in the description. |
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What is not clear in the MU description is that the use of this product, according to the program itself, is no longer free. While the program is still free, you have to have a paid subscription to the download service to use it. I have no idea what the fee is as after reading it , I quit the program and deleted it from my machine. Thank you but the free services that Yahoo and Excite offer for TV listings are good enough for me, especially since I use an antenna and do not have HDTV. For those that do, and have cable or dish, they get on-screen listings as well. TIVO users get listings via the device. Given that TV these days has turned into a series of commercials, occasionally interspersed with some real programming (with paid product placement), I have little interest in paying for the privilege of scheduling of advertising. Yes, PBS is included in this. What do you think pledge breaks, auctions, and presentations that sell books and training material at the end are - advertising and infomercials. |
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During an exchange of comments with the developer of Folder Icon X the author of this product insinuated that their would probably be no more development of Viou. Since I felt that this was a baseless assumption, I contacted the developer of Viou to inquire about the future status of it. Here my response to the developer of Folder Icon X, approved by the developer of Viou: After contacting the developer, through his website, I have received an extremely prompt, courteous and informative reply indicating that Viou is still very much alive and well. In fact it is undergoing future development, and has an anticipated release date sometime after Leopard comes out and will be fully compatible with Intel Mac's. As to why it is taking so long, the developer confirmed that much of my conjecture in my previous comments was fairly accurate. My previous comments summerized to the author of Folder Icon X are as follows: The developor or group developing Viou is probably on a limited budget and time and most likely has another job, developing Viou and his other software in his spare time. His website indicates that he is also working on other projects. I would conjecture that a new version might be coming out sometime after Lepoard is released that would be fully Intel compatible. The fact that the product has not needed updates, aside for full Intel compatibility, is testment to its quality and stability. Viou is not dead. |
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This is an appoved response by the developer of Viou: After contacting the developer, through his website, I have received an extremely prompt, courteous and informative reply indicating that Viou is still very much alive and well. In fact it is undergoing future development, and has an anticipated release date sometime after Leopard comes out and will be fully compatible with Intel Mac's. As to why it is taking so long, the developer confirmed that much of my conjecture in my previous comments was fairly accurate. Viou is most certainly not dead. |
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Actually the last entries were in 2006 at http://www.lny.mine.nu/Pages/News.html .Reading the newsletter of the sites indicates that he has run into the limitations of .mac and is frustrated by it. It also strikes me as a minimalist low budget operation and it would not suprise me if he did not have an Intel based machine and buying one would be a significant financial strain on the group. However this is nothing more than congecture and opinion. However given what he charges for software and the fact he is maintaining a website other than .mac, indicates to me that their is a good chance that the groups development days are not yet finished. I think the best way to resolve this is to ask him, which I now intend to do, but if I were a betting man I would not wager on any future profolic output. But then again stranger things have happened. After all I believe it was years between when Turly did his last update for FinderPop under Classic, indicating it would be retired and then about a year ago he produced a new version for OS X. That is why, until I hear from the developer differently, the future of Voiu is anyones best guess. And that is all it is - editoralizing and best guesses - on both our parts. |
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I find it interestig that you seem to have access to a competitors development schedule. Just what do you base your conclusions on? What is the source of your information about the Viou development group's plans, or lack of them for future releases? I don't profess to have any inside information or knowledge about their plans, but given the size of the development group and the fact their website generally indicates that this is not their full time profession; along with current work on other projects, it does not suprise me that their are long periods between releases. Frankly it speaks well of their code given that it is solid enought to survive an major OS upgrade without needing change. However given the introduction of a processor change and the Autumn release of Leapard, I personally would not be suprised to see an update release for Viou by the next MacWorld. As I intimated, it is only a 'gut' feeling but Viou is currently an actively distributed product, and does its job very well for those that can use it on their PPC machines. |
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This is also a feature of the donationware product; Finderpop, except it is called 'Move.' It does this very well along with a multitude of other features, including the mentioned alias feature, hierarchal menus, automatic right clicking (for single button mouse syndrome), folder navigation, and a host of other features. It is a proven and well supported product, having been around since OS 8 or so. Mind you, I am not saying not to get FileCutter, or that it is bad, but just pointing out it is really nothing new and that another product with a proven track record does what it does and a lot more. Additionally it is free unless you feel morally driven to reward the developer for his outstanding work and a great product as I, along with many others have done. |
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Thank you very much but a combination of PithHelmet ($10 donation) and ClamXav is working fine for me. Both products are tested and proven products and have high reviewer ratings. If I am going to spend at least $25 on a product I would probably want a commercial one (Other than Virex or Norton) for a bit more that comes with regular updates and support. Spending $25 on a product that does less than the combo I am using just does not make sense to me, especially given the current frequency of Mac viruses, spyware and worms. In fact the main reason I run protection programs is to avoid the transfer of Windows viruses I get from others to other Windows friends. Pithhelmet, aside from cookie control also allow faster browsing and a more friendly web environment given all the ads, nasties and cookies it blocks. |
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I never said it was useless. What I did say is that Entourage provides a solid, easy to use, backup system that is built in. I suspect that the majority of Entourage users will find that what Entourage provides is adequate for their needs, once they learn about it. However if the extra features of this product make it cost effective for you to purchase it, and it provides a solution for you that the Entourage backup system does not, then by all means do so. My comments were made to make people aware that they do not have to purchase this product or any other product in order to backup their Entourage data. That way others can have the facts to make an informed purchase decision, instead of being taken advantage of just because they may not be completely familiar with Entourage's capabilities. |
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You are correct in theory but this preys on the naive and uninformed. As it turns out this table is already built into every Mac running OS X. Just open up the Character Palette and choose Code Tables. The UTF8 code, which is expanded ASCII is listed for every character on your machine. However the actions of this developer does not surprise me as they have had a long history of predatory conduct. I avoid them whenever possible due to their perceived business model - or to quote W.C. Fields: "Never give a sucker an even break." |
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The Post Office (www.usps.gov) has a postage calculator that will calculate postage with all options by weight - no charge. Stamps are much like counting loose change. As for myself, I don't have that many odd denominations of stamps laying around and I learned how to count change in elementary school. I hope they are still teaching that skill. The question one should ask themselves is: how much money will I waste in excess postage, if I miscalculate, whenever I actually use odd denomination's of real stamps, before I reach the $9 fee for this program? In other words, will my losses, should I make a mistake ever exceed the cost of this program? |
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Simple; no frills, but wonderful. As a free program it is a must have for me. However I had to click on a sound to launch it the first time. Check out the developers web site. A library is being developed with additional sounds. I rated stability as 3 as it is a beta and I have not tried it for very long or with other programs. |
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While it is nice that this is free, it is a script that is unnecessary for most of us. Keyboard View has always been in OS X as a menu item but the method of access is different from Classic. Here's how to set it up: - Open 'System Preferences' - Open 'International Preferences' - Click on the following items: 'Keyboard Viewer' 'Character Palette' (optional) 'Show input menu in menu bar' (at bottom) - Close the window The Keyboard will now be in your menu bar underneath the flag. That's all their is to it. It is available to all programs that display the menu bar. Some may also wish to add US Extended as a keyboard option from the list as well. |
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This might have been cute and handy, abet somewhat dangerous when it was beta, but not worth the nuisance fee, at least to me, when their are other free or full featured products out such as Onyx. |
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Now let me consider my options... I could buy this product for around $20 and get a single use utility similar to some other products that are free or donationware. I could also spend around $40 for a complete total file maintenance product, such as FileBuddy, which comes with an integrated interface, accessible by the contextual menu, that will not only change creator and filetype but fix alias's, make files and folders invisible, batch change and correct filenames, delete protected files, find duplicates, show invisibles, change security and permissions, add comments, etc., and comes with great support. Or I could choose pay this developer (Alpha Omega) around $50 and get licensed access to all of their software - including a lot of obsolete and next to useless programs, that no one else wants and I don't want either. Now which is the better value? hum-mm? |
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Or you could go to System Preferences: Universal Access and do the following: - Turn on slow access. - Check 'key clicks' - Set 'Acceptance Delay' to Short. and save your self an inconvenience fee. |
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Make this fee a non-issue: For basic 'Force Quit': Press 'Command - Option - Escape.' For more control and flexibility: Download 'Process Wizard.' Enough said. |
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This may have its uses but I still love Viou. All I have to do is chose a folder containing an app, and Viou from a Contextual Menu, and presto!; the selected folder now has a custom icon of a folder showing the icon of the app. I have yet to find any other similar product that works as simply or well as Viou or is as versatile. What I describe here is just the beginning of what it will do. It is also free but this is one app I would gladly pay for. This is one utility that should be on everyones 'must have' list. It is also available from MacUpdate and if you are looking for Icon utilities, I strongly suggest you look at this as well. Since they do things in somewhat different ways and have different features, they just might complement each other. |
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But why? Apple has already included an expanded version of this tool as an option available in every finder window. If you choose "Customize Toolbar" in the Finder (CTRL-Click on the Toolbar) and add the Button with 4 offset lines, It will show the entire path when clicked and you can choose whatever folder you want in the list to open, including the parent folder. |
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Now if only someone would write an LCARS Finder replacement (:=)))). |
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I have no need for this software because I do not use or want anything to do with PayPal. The reasons: -In order to use Paypal as a consumer you must agree to essentially give up all rights and protections you normally have when using your credit card. You have to agree to hold Paypal blameless, even when it is their fault. When you agree to use Paypal you also have to agree to give up your privacy. They are free to do whatever they want with your information so far as the law allows including selling it to whoever they want to. If you do not believe this is true, just read the fine print of their usage and privacy agreements. In my opinion Paypal is simply not worth the price a user must pay for it in terms of giving up privacy and protections. So if you want to make sure as a vendor that I and others will not patronize your website, just indicate on your home-page that Paypal is your exclusive method of payment. BTW: If you feel that you need this software in order to manage your PayPal transactions, just think about the money you will save by switching to another method of payment. |
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While it took longer than anticipated, Garmin finally came through and honored their commitments. Congratulations Garmin. I worked just about fine updating my StreetPilot 2820 from 10.4.9 on a G5 2.5. Only exception was that it failed to download one of the Aussie Male Voices properly from the website. But I suspect it was the file itself, since it had no problem with other voices. Quick and easy to use overall. Thank you Garmin. Now one less major reason to use Windows and Virtual PC. |
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Not to cast aspersions on this product - a product have never used as I use Spotlight for this. Spotlight also works for MS Office (Entourage) and additionally finds all documents associated with the name I type in. |
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If that is what you got out of my reply then you missed the point entirely or I filed to communicate it succinctly enough. My goal was not to make a 'mountain of to a molehill' but to provide readers with an alternate perspective and information to enable them to make an informed decision in regards to your service. Since I have decided that your service does not address my needs at a price I am willing to pay, it would be foolish for me to try it for free for a month if I am not wish to pay $60 a year or more for any streaming audio subscription. However I am pleased that you clarified it that your offer was a demo, much like you offer everyone else, rather than to single me out for special treatment as the previous message implied. That does indicate some level of integrity, a characteristic that I insist upon before considering doing or continuing to do business with anyone. Please do not provide me with any further offers to entice me as I am not interested in purchasing a subscription to your service. For $60 I can buy over 60 selections from ITunes or similar services. That is around 8 days of unique music selections if played 8 hours per day, that I select, that I own, that I want to listen to, and that I never will have to buy again. Moreover, if I purchase the music as CD's there are services that will allow me to exchange them for a nominal fee, for other CD's should I tire of them, thus recovering a substantial portion of my investment. So to summarize my comments, I wish to share with other potential users of your product the fact that I am not interested in your service, don't want it or believe in it, but do believe their are other reasonable alternatives abet with some limitations, don't want special treatment, and have concerns about your software being present on my computer relative to the security of my personal data and listening habits. I sincerely hope that this response is now succinct enough. |
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I am a satisfied users of Meteorologist, another free menu bar program. The reason - It works for me and provides more information from the menu bar, than this product does - at least based on the screenshots and description as I have yet to actually try the product. However Meteorologist is quite unstable for some and has not been updated or well supported in quite a while. Therefore I can no longer recommend it for new users. It will not surprise me if Meteorologist fails to function in Leopard. If so it is likely I will attempt to switch to this product. Ideally, since Meteorologist seems to be looking for a reliable development effort, it would be nice if the developer of this product took a look at Meteorologist and if possible, took on it's continued development, with the goal of merging this product and Meteorologist into a single product. It seems to be a duplication of efforts to me to have two products, both free, that visually do mostly the same thing using the same resource (weather.com). |
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I have respectfully declined this vendors kind offer for a free subscription, I feel it would not be fair or ethical for me to accept it as I have done nothing other than to express my thought about his product, along with other streaming entertainment. I see no reason that I should be treated differently than other subscribers. I have also written him back personally a long reply expressing my thoughts on the service, security and streaming Internet in general. |
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Since Ragtime Solo seems to be discontinued, previous Solo users might want to take a look a Scribus-Aqua, another free page layout product. |
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Suggestion to old Ragtime Solo users: Since Ragtime has discontinued Ragtime Solo, it might be wise to convert your files to this product, before Solo becomes incompatible with the newer Mac OS's. This is a definite possibility since it is my understanding that Solo no longer supported. Unless this product includes a converter, copy and past should do it after creating the appropriate layouts. |
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I like Pastor as well. Encryption is must for laptops in case they get lost or stolen, unless you activate FileVault to encrypt your disk and require a password on awake from sleep and startup. |
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That is because you are using a mouse that is not designed to be used on a Mac. Logitech seems to make just one Bluetooth Mac friendly mouse. Actually their are relatively very few Bluetooh mice on the market. That is because the technology when used in mice is generally not as stable or reliable as other kinds of wireless mouse technology. I happen to have the only dedicated Bluetooh Trackball for Mac and frankly it was not worth the manufactures cost of its empty box. It sits in a drawer. I now use the 8 button cordless Trackman Trackball from Logitech and am quite happy with it and their included software. One reason I chose it is that historically I have found Logitech to offer passible to excellent customer and technical support for the Mac despite them being a Windows centric company. They also happen to be a major manufacturer to a significant number of other mice labels. So if I am going to buy a third party mouse, why not buy it from the company that probably made it in the first place? I believe that Logitech used to make Apple mice but I am not sure if they still do. |
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While I have not used this particular service I have explored and am using Internet Radio. Mac users have several alternatives fro radio ranging from free to paid subscription. When pricing out such services I suggest you price it out on a yearly basis to reflect what you really will be paying for the service on an annual basis as it puts it in a better perspective. For example, this service costs $60 a year and requires special software to be installed. Other options that do not require additional software being installed are: Live365: Shoutcast : Products that do not seem to be ITunes friendly:: Real Player Yahoo - Subscription based and requires special software. Unknown price. Additionally there are several music and Internet radio services, such as Comcast that are Mac hostile. A search on the Internet with the search term 'Internet Radio' or 'Streaming Radio' will reveal another of other lesser known choices, both free and fee based and mostly sourced from foreign countries. Hope this helps. |
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I have not used Keyword Manager but have read the specs noticed the concerns about the price. For those who price is an obstacle there is a lighter duty product call Keyword Manager that has some of the basic features of this product. It is Keyword Assistant. Its price - free. I have been using it for years with no problem, Granted this is a more full featured product but if the price is an issue you have an alternative that might suit your needs. |
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Unlikely but possible. More likely it would turn a color to blend with the surrounding to avoid being eaten by its compatriots. The best meal a lobster can have is one of its friends. Which brings me to a recommendation. If you have a friend, who is a lobster, I recommend that if you get a dinner invite, that you respectfully decline it. Otherwise you might become the dinner or have to eat your friend. Frankly either choice ruins my appetite. Speaking of franks, they are are great in lobster rolls. Speaking of red lobsters, I have heard rumors that Hollywood was going to make a movie about hunting lobsters, but decided against it in favor of hunting for a submarine. Rumor has it that they were going to name the sub 'Red Lobster" but changed their mind after considering the trademark infringement issues. So they named it 'Red October' instead. The most logical reason: October is a great month to go lobster hunting. Actually if you like lobster, any month is a great month to go lobster hunting as long as it is legal. Actually I am now losing my appetite for this entire inane thread and think it is about time I cleared my plate of the subject, tabled it, and took it off the menu. I further apologize if anyone gets steamed about these nonsensical remarks. |
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Don't you know the difference between a turkey and a lobster? Have you ever seen a lobster with feathers or a turkey with eight feet? Have you ever heard a lobster go gobble gobble? Frankly if you think this is a turkey, I have to wonder what is on your dining room table at Thanksgiving. If I should talk as my wife serves up baked oysters with our turkey every year. I sincerely doubt if THAT was on the Pilgrim's table. On the other hand, your definition of turkey could become an interesting new recipe when served with cranberry sauce. I will have to think about that one - hopefully not to much. |
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Cute little app and worth every penny. However some points: Uncooked lobsters are grey-green (rarely white) not red. A red lobster indicates it has been cooked. Since you are dealing with a cooked lobster, perhaps the developer should include in your preferences - boiled, steamed, Thermador, and grilled with an option with recipes, preparation and consumption instructions for a great gastronomical experience. On the other hand if the developers indicate they are alive by changing the color, they might also think about having 'lobster races' - i.e. placing them on a kitchen floor and seeing which one can crawl away from the stove more quickly. Another preference option could be included to choose if the winner gets the pot first, last or put back in the ocean. My wife used to do this when she was a kid and vacationed with relatives in Maine (no letters from PETA please). Verbiage Abuse Disclaimer: The author of this message emphatically wishes to state that no abuse, mistreatment or injury was inflicted upon the nouns and verbs used in the creation of this review and that their use and handling followed the guidelines as set out in the Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. |
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The listing displayed $7.95 to me when I wrote the comment. I rounded to the nearest dollar. It now displays $12.95 for me as well so I would guess that either an error was made on the initial listing that has been corrected or the price has gone up. As for my self, based on the description, I would not buy it at any price or use it even if it was given away as Apple's built-in controls are completely adequate for my needs. |
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First of all I did not denigrate you, I denigrated the philosophy of releasing and charging for an almost identical product when there is already high quality, established one for free. In fact I supported the development community in general by acknowledging "their efforts" and "wasting their talents". In order to waste talent, you must have talent to begin with. As a developer you are part of the development community. Personally I feel it is predatory for one to try and make money off of a freely contributed idea and product by creating a completive product and charging for it when it seems to offer little to no advantage over the free product. Such a philosophy stifles future contributions and volunteerism of others. Not everything in this world deserves or is worthy a price tag. Some things are done just for the experience, for education, or just to make someone's life a bit easier and the world a better place to live. Sometimes it is just nice to make a contribution just for the sake of making the contribution. To paraphrase one of the old Apple motto's 'The journey can be the reward.' Secondly their is no reason for me to try your app as judging from those who have used it (previous reviews) it seems no better then what I already have - something that does the same thing as you describe for your app and already works just fine. Yes the interface might be a bit different but then again I have no issues with the interface in the current app. Part of any business plan is having the right product at the right price at the right time. If Western Digital had of been able to deliver DOS to IBM at the right time we might have never heard of Microsoft. So your delivery time was off. That is unfortunate for you but a fact of life. If you had beaten SpiritedAway in the release of Shoo Apps for Intel Mac's, who knows - the developer of SpiritedAway might have abandoned the update. But you didn't. Too Bad. The ethical thing to to in my opinion would have been to have never introduced it at all or to have written it off |
