JIMW  Perhaps then, the developer should consider another name for the product.   
(Version 1.4)

JIMW  First of all, overall I generally agree with your comments, other than the aspersions you have cast towards scanner and desktop users.

To respond to your questions:

My maintenance costs in relation to getting my signature into a document is zero since I already own the products, bought the products for other purposes, and only had to scan in my signature once many years ago.

I have no need to try the product since I do not own a notebook or trackpad and already have my signature on file and had it on file for many years. It is simply not suited to my current needs. I do not need to try the product to determine this and if you carefully read my first message I was not commenting on the functionality of the product.

What I was doing was pointing out to prospective users that they already may own the tools to do this task if a signature is all they want. That allows them to make an informed decision. Do you not feel it is fair to allow prospective customers to informed decision before purchasing this product?

For certain niche tasks, using this program may have limited benefits over a scanner. But then a scanner can do a multitude of operations that this product cannot. Such things as converting drawings or graphics into electronic files, OCR, document faxing by computer, copying documents, etc. The product is no substitute for a scanner.

I never cast doubt on the product. That would be unfair as I have not used it. What I did cast doubt upon is the need for it for many users that already have the ability to do this with the tools they already own.

BTW: if you are the developer of the product, which it sounds like you are, you should really be posting your comments using the developer tag instead of that of a user so that other users are aware of your connection to the product. If you are not the developer but have a connection to the developer, that should also be stated to be fair. If you are just an avid user, I am glad the product is working well for you, that you see terrific value in it, and are excited about the product.   
(Version 1.4)

JIMW  Perhaps on a machine with a trackpad or with a tablet it has other uses beyond that of inserting a signature into a document. However as a desktop user I simply have better things to spend my money on since other, no cost and viable alternatives are available to me for adding my signature to a document. Additionally equations inserted into a document, unlike using an equation tool, will not be editable. To change them they must be deleted and reentered.   
(Version 1.4)

JIMW  While this may be a great tool for the scanner deprived, I have used a scanner for this for doing this for many years. Just sign a blank piece of paper; scan it; then save it as JPEG or PDF. Then just copy and paste the "document" into your message or document. I keep mine in iPhoto for faster access from Apple applications as almost all of them can load up an iPhoto item directly. One a signature is in my document I am usually able to resize it to fit the need.

While this product is not expensive or necessarily out of line cost wise, my feeling is, having a scanner, why spend $7 on this when you might be able to spend it on something else more useful?

Not with any intention of casting aspersions on this product as I did not even download it, but why spend money on a another tool when I have one that already does the job effectively for me, unless it can do significantly better or easier to make its additional cost and maintenance worth while. This is a factor I always consider when considering the purchase of any product.   
(Version 1.4)

JIMW  Unfortunately what I say happens a lot more than any of us 'sane' people would want to believe. My 'copyright' notice was partially real but also a bit of dry humor. Sorry you missed that. Sometimes all of need to step outside and smell the roses while appreciating the hummingbirds. Gives a much needed and different perspective on life. What is happening here on this forum today will be totally meaningless in just a generation or two. So we need to make the best of what we have now and avoid pain whenever practical.   
(Version 1.1.234)

JIMW  Sorry folks but I have to do this. After the nightmare of the Parallels 4 initial upgrade, their lack of quality support; having issues with most of the updates; a recent crash during a snapshot that required picking up a much earlier Time Machine backup in order to get it work again; an now a full paid upgrade required to restore decent performance in less than a year after Parallels 4, I have to take the gloves off. Here is my one star rating. I only wish I could make it lower. I had to give features an average rating to be honest and fair.   
(Version 5.0.9220.531002)

JIMW  You may be correct but don't be surpassed if someday you get a nasty letter from WD's lawyers. Entrepreneurs have been sued for far less when it comes to trademark or copyright violation. Ever hear of the portable sanitation company that was sued by Johnny Carson when they tried to name their product "Here's Johnny." Johnny won by intimidation. Companies don't even have to prove it. All they have to do is file and get a court date. Large companies know that the people they sue simply can't afford to fight it.

I wish you well but frankly I think you are dancing on dangerous ground here.

Copyright Notice: "Dancing on Dangerous Ground" is a copyrighted title of a dance show created by Jean Butler and is used only to describe a frame of mind or concept. It is not intended to refer or connect with the show that is titled with the same name or the DVD produced and available for sale under this name.

It is so easy to get into trouble these days, even with the mention of a casual expression.   
(Version 1.1.234)

JIMW  FYI: Western Digital may not take to kindly to the name of this product as it is also the name of their high performance hard drive, a name that in all likelihood they have copyrighted.

BTW: The hard drive is awesome.   
(Version 1.1.234)

JIMW  I suspect time is on your side. Other than Filemaker I do not know of any other user friendly general purpose relational db targeted to individual users that as ever been written for the Mac platform. Filemaker used to be affordable quite a while ago. However for most individual home based users, that is no longer the case at $300. I believe their is a marketing and sales opportunity here for someone. If someone came out with a Bento like product with good forms and report capability with mail merge for around $100 I suspect they would own that market. Such a product could easily replace the majority of specialized shareware databases that run $10-$50 each. For $100 you could coin your own to your own specifications for whatever need you have for as many purposes as you need. I believe the market is their - waiting for someone to fill it. Given how you have described your core product it sounds like a good opportunity for you if you have an interest in doing it and a willingness to following through on it. All I have done is raised the flag, It is entirely up to you to take the suggestion as you wish. Personally I think that this could be a gold mine for someone but then again I could be completely wrong. Whatever you decide, I wish you success in your endeavors.   
(Version 1.11)

JIMW  Thank you for your clarification on this. Sounds like the product has much promise. Making too simple and having it act like a flat file db, w/o a report generator, does seem to make it a bit redundant to me for those who already have spreadsheets. What is needed for the Mac is a product with Access like features, but please not the GUI, for an affordable price. Filemaker is great but at $300 a copy, with $200 updates it is just to expensive for the typical single user.Bento is a step in the right direction but lacks merge capability and good report generation. The various incantations of SQL can do the job, are affordable, but almost require a degree in computer science to use them. And 4D, well - its 4D, big powerful, expensive and focused toward enterprise customers. That leaves a big hole in the Mac software portfolio for someone to fill. Create an easy to use powerful relational database and an affordable price for individuals. Are you up to the task?  
(Version 1.11)

JIMW  While I have not downloaded the product I did take a serious look at its documentation. Here are my conclusions based on is documentation. The product is a flat file database. It is not relational. I base this on the fact that there was no mention of multiple tables in a file or key fields. Printout seems to me limited to WYSIWYG. I saw no mention of report layouts or creating custom forms for input.

Conclusion: I see no distinct advantage that this application has over a spreadsheet - not even considering its low cost. While Excel and Numbers are considerably more expensive, NeoOffice and Open Office are free.

If I am wrong about my assessment of this product I would encourage a user or the developer to enlighten or correct my impressions of this product as a reply.

This is not to say this is a bad or useless product - only that with its current feature set as based on its documentation, it seems a bit redundant.   
(Version 1.11)

JIMW  In regards to the 3848 update I plan to take a "wait and see" approach to it for at least a month. Right now my previous update is running just fine thank-you on 10.6.1 after many hours of frustration and anguish over its installation along with the well documented abysmal support that the company provides as indicated in other messages on this forum.Historlly the majority of Parallels updates have been problematic for me and others. My personal view is that it stems from a lack of effectiveness and professionalism in their QA procedures.

Judging from the description and lack of meaningful information as to precisely what was changed or fixed, I get the impression the the primary change was in the area of performance. For that I can wait a bit, rather than potentially wasting my entire weekend struggling with this update.

Hopefully I am wrong about my concerns for this update and that others, braver than I, will report back exclaiming how easy and free of problems this update was and how Parallels provided phenomenal support for any issues.

However if history is a good predictor of future results - I don't think so.

Please Parallels - Prove me wrong!  
(Version 4.0.3848)

JIMW  Question? Why should one pay $20 for this app, when Garmin's free software, RoadTrip, and Basecamp allows users to export waypoints, routes, and other data to a file and read it back into the program as you wish. Both programs then allow uses to upload these files to their GPS.  
(Version 2.2.3)

JIMW  This product is a must have in my opinion. It just keeps getting better and better. I would love to write a full review on it but at the rate the developer keeps improving it and adding more great features, it never seems to get stable long enough for a review to accurately reflect its features for any length of time.

However unless something dramatically changes, I expect I will give it 5 Stars. Too bad their aren't more available. I am of the opinion that this is the greatest tool since Finder Pop, Pithelment, and Default Folder.   
(Version 1.2)

JIMW  Can't comment on it very much or write a review as the product is not configured to work with North American addresses. All of the query sites are European. If you want it to work for US Contacts you will have to do the research and add a site that supports US contacts.

Given the version number indicates possible beta product or Shareware in the future, with no cost indicated as yet, frankly I have better things to devote my time to right now then to try and get this product working for US contacts.   
(Version 0.9.1)

JIMW  This review reinforces a decision I made years ago after experiences other Epson customer service issues - to avoid purchasing Epson products whenever possible. However it parallels my experiences with their parent company: Ever try to get a watch fixed properly on the first try at a fair price by Seiko Factory Service?  
(Version v3.03A)

JIMW  Today I did receive an upgrade offer from IRIS - Upgrade for $99.

By offering the upgrade to registered at this price they certainly express their perspective of the concept of "fair and reasonable" pricing for upgrades and their interest in customer loyalty and retention. However in a arena that seems to lack viable competition, they most likely can get away with it for the time being.   
(Version 12.0)

JIMW  WARNING: This software package installs pieces of itself all over your library and system in a very stealth manner. If you decide you want to uninstall it, the uninstall will NOT completely uninstall it. In order to completely uninstall it, and get it totally out of Safari Preferences, you must either use Time Machine to take you User Library to a point before, the install; create a new user for yourself and delete the old one, or be a sophisticated user, able to read installer logs and use a tool such as File Buddy to remove this app. Personally I find the way this app imbeds itself into your system quite predatory as it does not provide a complete uninstaller that also installs its engine, and installs its various components under various names that are not easily identifiable as belonging to the primary product.

One of my primary concerns is that if you leave its components behind, aside from acting as a constant marker that you have tried the product, the leftover pieces, specifically the Add-On engine might trigger instabilities later in Safari or the entire system. Given the way it installs into your system and lacking a complete uninstaller, a non-technical Mac user may have to put up with having this product remaining active in their computer, similar to a virus, until they remove their user account or reinstall Mac OS X.

For these reasons I personally recommend that users do not install this product unless they are quite Mac savvy, have no intention of ever removing this product, or until the developer provides a complete uninstaller.   
(Version 1.1.5b)

JIMW  While this product has always seemed to me to be a bit flaky and its registration procedure procedure quite complex and medieval, it also, as far as I know is about the only game in town currently available for individual users that want to do OCR. Most if not all the rest are no longer in development for the Mac, in worse condition that Readiris (functionality and/or support), or are targeted for enterprise users. If I am incorrect about this would somebody please post a reply to enlighten me as I have been searching for a viable alternative for years but so far have not found one.

That said, at this time I note the following:

The upgrade has been announced on MacUpdate but as a registered user for many years I have so far received no notice from the company about this upgrade (09/10/09).

I have checked out the more info on MacUpdate and the corporate website but so far seen no mention of an upgrade price for previous users of Readiris 11. So far the only upgrade is to buy it again at full price (09/10/09).  
(Version 12.0)

JIMW  One of my major issues with Virtual Box, is that Sun, the owner of Virtual Box, was recently purchased by Oracle who is not known for their generosity. As such, I would not be surprised to hear soon that the free version of Virtual Box is going away, or that that part of the company has been sold off. So at this point it is a product that I do not wish to put my time and effort into setting up only to possibly soon find out it is no longer supported by updates or the free version becomes an expensive paid version.   
(Version 4.0.3846)

JIMW  This new version was an installation nightmare on 2 computers running XP = a MacPro and an iMac. Each time Parallels tools failed to install properly. It took me most of a day to get it running on the iMac and a half day on the MacPro. The issue was primary failure of the mouse drive to install properly. Multiple reinstalls of Tools - about 10 of them finally fixed the issue on the iMac. The MacPro was worse as multiple installs left me without mouse operation in Windows. Luckily I had 2, So I configured my wireless Logitech to a USB device and was able to finally fix the issue. It involves updating the virtual mouse driver with a PS/2 Mouse. Ignore the error your get about system space and just reboot and reinstall Tools. You should uninstall Tools (Software control panel) before exchanging the mouse driver.

Another issue: If you are running Parallels 3 and upgrade to Snow Leopard your are out of luck in running Parallels. It will not start. Also be sure that your Windows is shutdown, not just suspended before install Snow Leopard. If you do not do this you will not be able to install Parallels 4 without trashing your virtual image unless you can mount your drive on another machine (hard or network) and shutdown the virtual image by running Parallels 3 from Leopard (10.5. I found this out the hard way.

Hope this nightmare helps someone. I would say try another virtual program but from what I have seen so far, none of them give decent support. As far as Parallels Forum, it is primarily people asking questions with few answers - the blind leading the blind. For Parallels is sound economics. If you can get customers to support themselves rather than the company offering the support, it means more profit. Its a great business model if you can get away with it - minimal support and superficial QA to increase profits at the expense of their customers sanity.

Please - will someone offer a stable, well QA'ed virtual product with good support at a fair price. I would gladly pay twice what Parallels and VMWare charges for a great stable product with good support. Is anyone listening?  
(Version 4.0.3846)

JIMW  Thank you for the reply and info. I regard it as very unfortunate that while Apple was prophesying the features of Snow Leopard, they seemed to have failed miserably in informing users what they have taken away - contextual menu items, most Safari add-ons and the like.   
(Version 0.8)

JIMW  None of my Safari add-ons work under Snow Leapord  
(Version 1.0b20)

JIMW  Snow Leopard wiped it out. Reinstall does not help. Real Bummer. Also gone is Pithhelmet and Glimes  
(Version 0.8)

JIMW  Thanks for refreshing my memory about Tinker Tool. It has all the flexibility of Login Control (2.0)) and more. I despise the the bait and switch approach that some developers use to snare customers, especially those that use this technical for "one trick ponies" as a marketing technique in order to trick the less tach savvy buyers into spending far more money for a product than they would have if they had of known what the final price would be up front before they purchased the product. Instead such developers sneak up the price in overpriced 'upgrades' that typically only offer marginal feature improvements in order to get customer to purchase bug fixes that address issues that should have been caught in the original release. Their philosophy is that if a customer has already paid for the product once they will pay again at the inflated price for convenience. My philosophy is that if a developer pulls this trick on me, I look for a viable substitute, so I can dump the product and thus avoid any future losses.

In my experience, I rarely find a situation that getting rid of a 'one trick pony' for a viable substitute involves any substantial loss of time, data, or capability.

Thanks again for reminded me about Tinker Tool - a tool with a long history of being a great product with many features. Login Control is now gone from my machine.   
(Version 3.0)

JIMW  This product seems Safari 4 Hostile on my machine as it seems to cause Safari 4 to crash when accessing some websites if the product daemon is in you 'Login Items'. Removing the daemon results in the problem going away. Adding Safari to the exclude list does not help. The same problem occurred in the previous product RapidoWrite. So if you seem to be having random crashes with Safari 4 and are using either of these products, I suggest you try removing it from your login list and see if your Safari crashes disappear.

The issue is bizarre and frustrating enough to diagnose that I have placed the bug report here instead of the developers web site so that potential users will be aware of this strange issue before they attempt to try it.   
(Version 1.1)

JIMW  To DEV: First of all I did not write a review. I wrote a comment and tried to make it a constructive comment with ideas to make your product better. If you wish to interpret it as a review, they YOU have a problem. After reading SESQUIPEDALIAN's reply I must say I understand what is going on now and agree with him. However I do feel that Process Wizard while doing it differently will almost accomplish the same thing by raising the desired process to max time and the undesirables to minimum time.

Addition, if I understand SESQUIPEDALIAN's explanation correctly, what the product really does is provide a GUI to a command line instruction. From my perspective $10 seems a bit steep for this 'one trick pony' but not out of line if it had more features such as what i suggested or adding the capability of Process Wizard to it so that a user could either set priorities or pause the activity as desired.

FYI: This is also a comment and only a comment as I feel would be ethically wrong to attempt to write a review on a product I have not tried.   
(Version 2.1)

JIMW  Disclosure: I have not downloaded this or tried it so my comments are philosophical.

That said, while the idea is nice and might make a desktop more attractive, does a user really need another app, whose purpose is only to change the color of an icon, to run every day and as such be in a position to potentially cause conflicts, permissions issues, etc. and and further processor and threads to an already complex system, especially during startup?

All one has to do is examine the Activity Monitor after boot up, to get an idea of just how much is running in the background without the using doing anything other than booting the machine. So unless something makes me more productive, or does something easier or better for me, I am quite reluctant to add its load to my system.

As a suggestion, perhaps the app can be written to actually go into iCal to modify its resources to achieve this effect. That way the program would only need to be run once whenever iCal is updated by Apple. As well be noted by others, this might well be fraught by dangers as you are modifying an App. However a backup could automatically be made during the mod process and kept until the user is comfortable with the results. While any kind of mod to an app, (current program, or suggested alternative) poses risks, the latter would seem more preferable to me as it would not be affecting startup times or adding threads on a regular basis that could slow down some systems.

In any case that is my opinion, for whatever it is worth, and you are most certainly welcome to disagree with it. In fact I would be most surprised if there were other users that did not disagree with it. After all, it is only just an opinion and as such I do not expect everyone to agree with it. But it is my opinion right or wrong.   
(Version 1.9.1)

JIMW  Whyto: I like you handle. It brings back fond memories of my PDP11 days - ie: XYZZY  
(Version 12.1.9)

JIMW  Thanks for the tip as I am sure it will be useful to others. I had discovered this with the last update, after many hours of soul searching.

Since then I have reinstalled and have excluded Microsoft Office from future localization removal. What happened to me today was different. cash this document. the built-in updater stated that no updates were available. When I did a manual update I was told that the update couldn't be completed because there is no valid version, machine. When I checked before running the updater, it said I had version 12.1.7. After telling me it was not going to do the update, I found that I now have the version 12.1.9 installed on my machine. Yet there has been no indication to me as a user, that the software was updated. Quite bizarre. Go figure.

But then it is a Microsoft product and they tend to have a reputation among some for mushroom farming-keeping customers in the dark, and feeding them manure.   
(Version 12.1.9)

JIMW  Just downloaded and tried to install on my MacPro w/150GB free space and running a properly licensed and registered MSOffice v 12.1.7. It is telling me I can't install it as a version of the software to install this update was not found on this volume. Running MS Updater also tells me I am up to date. Go figure.

Most likely another shining example of MS Quality Assurance!

FYI: Just checked versions again. My version is now reading 12.1.9 even though no update seemed to occur and no indicating from the program that is has been updated.

Why do I feel like a mushroom?  
(Version 12.1.9)

JIMW  Process Wizard is free, been around for many years and quite stable. While it does not 'pause' an app, you can set it with a slider to minimum CPU time which is just about the same thing. Additionally it gives the user to set the priority for ALL processes on your machine, including hidden, background and other users. It resides in the menu bar, lists ALL your processes, and will also kill them if you wish. The only issue I have with it is that you must enter your password each time you invoke it as it only holds on to passwords for 5 minutes.

I am not the developer of it or have any relation to the developer other than that of a user. But as a user I feel it is one of those 'Must have utilities.

While I have not tried this app, and cast no aspersions on the developer, frankly given the alternatives that are available, such as Process Wizard, based on the description, I see little justification for paying for such an app. Perhaps the developers time would be better spent on developing products that lack heavy competition, unless a product is created that totally eclipses what is currently available.

An example of this would be a similar contextual or menu bar driven app, that would do what both this app and Process Wizard does with the added functionality of optionally setting a timed interval for each app that would automatically pause it or change its priority after the time interval expired. Then the developer would really have something to sell that would be more useful than anything currently available.   
(Version 2.0)

JIMW  Just opened the package. The 'manual' consists of 2 pages (1 sheet of paper printed both sides and folded), one page being the front cover. If you want a real printed manual you have to print your own.   
(Version 1.5)

JIMW  Just got my package today 5/23/09 via FedEx. With basic shipping it took 5 days to California. Upon receiving the package (about the size of a DVD movie) I weighed it out to less than 7 oz. However their web site lists it at 1.5 lbs. USPS Priority Mail (2 day) for this package is under $5. This means that MacSpeech is charging their customers twice as much as it cost them to ship it and using a service that takes twice as long to deliver it. If there is any question about their attitude to customer service, I think this example goes a long way to answer it.   
(Version 1.5)

JIMW  Update on shipping charges. MacSpeech charges $10.15 for basic shipping. Based on FedEx tracking info, the actual rate, minus any discount that business typically get is $8.55, which amounts to a 19% profit on the shipping charges for MacSpeech. If you assume they get a FedEx discount for quantity shipping, that likely boosts the shipping profit margin to around 25% or more.

I suspect that if asked about this they would claim that that covers the cost of packaging and labor to ship. So if the packaging cost is not built into the product then in fact the real cost of the upgrade become around $57.00, not $54.95.

Interesting enough the only service to have a higher price that the Fedex Rate Chart is the basic service. The faster services are in fact discounted by MacSpeech from the standard FedEx rates, which probably reflects their FedEx discounts. So the bottom line is that if you want the least expensive method of shipment, MacSpeech charges you extra for choosing it.

Mind you, it is not about the ~$2.00 but about principle. It would seem that since they own the market, the have no compunction about squeezing as much out of the customer that they can, even if it involves questionable ethics when doing it. From a short sighted business model there is no logical reason why the shouldn't - so long as there is no competition or anyone calls them to task on these practices.

However if I were an investor in their company, and got wind of some competition making itself available, I would strongly consider taking my investments elsewhere - very quickly. For given their attitude towards their customers, as expressed by their upgrade pricing, along with the consistency of bugs, and other issues with released products, should a viable competitor arise and offer a competitive upgrade, I would not be surprised to see their customers embrace the competition and desert MacSpeech like rats leaving a sinking ship.   
(Version 1.5)

JIMW  Yes the database source references are useful and I did find one I could download. Unfortunately the IGO format does not seem to be compatible with Garmin, one of the top selling GPS units in the US. If that compatibility is ever added, this product might be very useful for me.   
(Version 1.1)

JIMW  Sorry but I did not see the alternate language but neither could I find a source of RSS feeds for the US without paying for a subscription to it. Yes U dud download it and try it as best I could. I also did not find any sources of information in your import format for the US - only CSV.  
(Version 1.1)

JIMW  This is probably a very useful program - if you happen to live in France.   
(Version 1.1)

JIMW  Assuming that Pillbox is a software program, you probably are correct. However when I was referring to a pill box, I meant the old fashioned kind - the physical pillbox that has a compartment for each day of the week, with a flip top to hold the pills that you actually put in it.

Any pill tracking software that is presently available requires some sort of computer (yes the IPhone is a computer) and as such requires a religious discipline of entering each pill event into the system when it occurs. Otherwise it is useless. My experience along with independent research has demonstrated to me that very few individuals have this kind of discipline. In fact most studies show that a significant sector of the population has problems with just taking pills on a regular basis, much less spending the time and effort to record the event. The only setting I can imagine where such a product might be useful is a hospital, nursing home or athlete conditioning center where an independent person needs to record and monitor medication.

So while your program might be great in theory, its practicality for an individual unfortunately escapes me.   
(Version 1.0)

JIMW  While I agree with you they might try at first, what I have observed about human nature leads me to believe that the majority will not follow through for any length of time, especially when large numbers of meds are involved. If only a few meds are involved what's the point as the mind is normally the best computer on earth. This is another instance where I defer to Occams Razor. A pill box and watch or small timer is inexpensive, uncomplicated, reliable and requires little setup or interaction with the user. Not to put your effect down but it just seems like overkill to me. Perhaps the effort you have put in to this could be redirected into something else that might prove to be more practical or useful, such as recording an exercise regimen.   
(Version 1.0)

JIMW  Interesting concept but what is the realistic likelihood of a person religiously logging into a computer or mobile devices and recording every dose of medicine they ever take and for how long? I know I won't. Perhaps this concept could create a demand for a new product. How about a pill bottle or dispenser that sends an update via local wireless (Bluetooth for example) to your electronic device, every time you remove a pill from it including the kind of pill? Kind could be based on where in the container, shape, weight, etc. Perhaps pills could be bar coded or edible rfid chips could be attached.

Then again a watch or an alarm in it just serves fine as a reminder, in case I am forgetful and one of the those weekly pill boxes with daily compartments serves to insure I take all my current day's medication. Sometimes simpler is better.   
(Version 1.0)

JIMW  Very disappointed about the 1.5 upgrade policy. The are charging all previous owners ~$65 (with basic shipping) for this 'upgrade' which in my opinion is mostly an update as much of what it contains are items that should have been in the 1.0 release and bug fixes. However as the only game in town for Mac voice recognition, users that want this technology have no other choice to the best of my knowledge.

Tip: If you are buying this product for the first time I recommend you shop around on-line for any microphone enhancements rather than purchasing the upgrades from the Mac Speech web site as the only thing significant Mac Speech seems to offer by purchasing a microphone upgrade through them is convenience. The research I have done on this subject has indicated to me that on some microphone upgrades, substantially better pricing for can be easily found elsewhere. However if you are going to get one of the basic microphones included with their $199 price you are money ahead by getting it included with the package as the discount they offer for no microphone is substantially less than the prevailing cost of the basic microphones they include, along with the loss of any return privileges. For example, the Samson Airline ($350 @ macspeech) can be found for under $250 before the $23 discount for the software alone. My advise is to shop around for microphone enhancements in order to get the best price, then compare it to the MacSpeech upgrade price, taking in consideration the Dictate discount ($23) if you get the the software without the microphone. Another words, be an informed and savvy consumer.  
(Version 1.5)

JIMW  Since this is still Beta, I will wait until it goes final for a complete review and ratings.

As a former MenuCalendarClock user (Object Park Software) iClock 3.x did not did not meet my needs. However iClockPro most certainly does and more. I have now been using it for about 6 months. While initially a bit buggy and frustrating, it has matured into a reasonably solid product (still Beta) that I now rely on, depend on, and can depend on. My contacts with the developer have found them to be very responsive and eager to provide good support and feedback, as well as open to suggestions and improvement. At this point I have given up on MenuCalendarClock and all of Object Park Software's products, given their pricing for updates, and lack of response when emailed about customer service issues.

As such I can only highly recommend this product, even in its Beta form, and look forward to its first final release. It is most certainly software of sufficient quality and features that I would be willing to pay for when it goes final.   
(Version 1.0b11)

JIMW  Doing a quick search of MacUpdate for EXIF I came across this for you:

Photo Time Edit 1.1  
(Version 4.32)

JIMW  Sounds good. Glad to offer ideas. For me support is critical issue as no product is ever perfect and without decent support the product can be virtually worthless. From your responses, it would seem to me that you value constructive feedback and as such most likely will be providing good support for your releases. With all other things being pretty much equal, other than price, support is my decision maker, not price so long as the difference is not outrageous. I would rather spend a bit more for a product with good support than to get a cheaper product with poor support and have to replace it when I have unresolved issues with it that I can't fix myself. I wish you well with your progress on your products.   
(Version 1.0)

JIMW  Thank you for the prompt and courteous update on my comments. I and probably many other users appreciate the expanded information on your products specifications, and your plans for the future. It is especially useful to know that an SMTP address can be selected by users that have multiple mail accounts. Unfortunately, given the limitations of sending mail via dotMac (dotMe), 200 messages per day, parsing is generally a must have feature for small businesses and non-profits that mail such things as newsletters, membership lists, etc., that use dotMac as their primary mail provider. Some ISP's also get upset if messages are delivered too rapidly and will shut down the user. In my situation, I support, voluntarily a small non-profit that has about 800 members in their list. As such parsing is a must. Unfortunately 800 clients is not a large number for many small business either. That is why when evaluating priorities for future updates might I suggest that parsing be high on your list.

Hope this helps.  
(Version 1.0)

JIMW  Based on the developers website and MacUpdate info, while this product while headed in the right direction in terms of ease of use idea, sadly seems to lack a number of features that are generally must have features for bulk email programs on the Mac.

- While not requiring all the addresses be in Address Book, given the focus of the product to TSV, CSV, it should contain built in tools to directly import from Addesss Book and perhaps Entourage along with the ability to import from several sources with an option to either clear the current data or add the imports to the existing data. Furthermore it would be nice to be able to export the current list for archiving or later use.

- Their seems to be no mail parsing available. The program should be able to send messages at predetermined timed intervals or in user adjusted batches at timed intervals to circumvent limitations or restrictions that SMTP providers typically place on users specifically to prevent bulk mailing. For instance dotMac (dotMe) has a restriction of 200 outgoing messages a day.

- There should be a method of selecting which mail account will be used if the user has multiple mail accounts with multiple SMTP addresses. For ease of use, the program should be able to grab the user name and password from either Mail or Entourage along with SMTP account attributes.

- The program should have a way to validate email addresses before sending and allow the user to make manual corrections, since the address are imported into the program. Ideally the product should then update the source of the addresses if it is Address Book or Entourage so that the user does not have to make the corrections twice.

These additions, along with good support, timely updates, stability, and fair pricing would go a long way to making this a very competitive product to its existing competition. However, given the seemly lack of such features, I find it currently not worthy of serious consideration as my primary bulk mailing program.   
(Version 1.0)

JIMW  Oops, I forgot to rate it.   
(Version 0.1.3)

JIMW  I have been looking for something like this for years. It is great to see a new product that does not try 'to reinvent the wheel' but instead really does something new and different from currently available and up to date products. While this is something that Apple should have made part of Safari, they didn't, and it is much appreciated that this developer is providing it, especially for free. I cant describe the countless hours I have spent editing cookies to protect my information and privacy. This product now virtually eliminates that task.   
(Version 0.1.3)

JIMW  While I have not used this, or downloaded it, I fail to see how this can be a timesaver. In order to open a widget, you have to first open the Dashboard and wait for it to load. Then you can click on the Widget. Since Both iCal and Mail give access to To Do's I can't see how it is easier. Besides I much prefer the enhanced menu clock software where a single click on the menu bar gives an immediate view of events and ToDo's on my desktop and allows me to work while changing them or viewing them.

This is not to imply that this is a bad product or not well designed. It is just that I feel any Widget for ToDo;s is more trouble than they are worth.   
(Version 1.3)

JIMW  From a practical standpoint, as opposed to a technical perspective - .ds files for example, what does $14 get me that Right-Click and choosing Compress or entering the Unix command in terminal mode does not get me? And if it actually does get me something do I really need it?  
(Version 1.8)

JIMW  I would not surmise that anyone who refers to the Mac Menu Bar as a 'System Tray Icon' is Mac Centric. Thank you but no thanks. I will continue to stick with and support Turly's Finder Pop, a similar donationware, Mac only, product that has been around almost as long as Macintosh has.   
(Version 0.4)

JIMW  Sorry but it is only slightly better. I put in the name of a popular group that I have tickets for in San Jose that is also appearing in Oakland in May. I am halfway between the 2 cities. The widget only listed a Virginia appearance for the group and only listed San Francisco events when I entered my city - no San Jose events.

So at this point it is of little use to me as it does not seem to be able to reliably inform me of events in my area that I might be interested in. However it does have promise and hopefully a future version might be more accurate and complete.   
(Version 0.04)

JIMW  Not to cast aspersions on this product but just for information, this can also be fairly easily done in Automator.  
(Version 1.0b)

JIMW  Nice idea and implimented but unfortunately it usually is not actually fetching the zip code for my addresses. Given that it is a .10 version - i.e. not fully developed there is some reasonable excuse for this. If it were a 1.0 version its performance would not be acceptable. I am looking forward to the developer correcting its problems in the future as right now it is of little use to me.   
(Version 0.10)

JIMW  After using the program for a while and reevaluating some of the fee features available, along with its stability the product and support has changed my mind in regard to my previous comments about its fee.

First of all there is not definitive reason to pay for this program. The fee based features can mostly be worked around with feature setting utilities such as Onyx and saving a screenshot to the desktop is the default Apple setting. This program can hold its own quite well against its competitors in its free format.

That said I slowly realized that its fee based features could significantly save me time and annoyance when trying to import screenshot images to various programs. That fact, along with being able to dump the screenshots into my downloads folder eliminating desktop clutter convinced me to 'bite the bullet' and get a license.

Since I try to avoid PayPal at all costs, and this was the only listed method of payment, I emailed the developer both to avoid the use of PayPal and to test out product support. I was most impressed with the response and attitude of the developer. He did his best to accommodate me, inquired with serious interest in alternatives I use with other sites, and promptly followed up with my license when payment arrangements were concluded. I simply could not ask for better support.

The program has a simple, clean and well laid out interface, It is easy to use and has never created any problems for me.

Sometimes the quality of the product is the best marketing tool for a product. This is the case for Sharpshooter. One of my personal values is to take ownership for my actions. In this case my previous comments were premature and I have no problem in stating they were wrong about this product. Given the convenience of its fee based features, and the support offered for the product it is worth the shareware fee. As such I now highly recommend the product, both in its freeware and shareware configurations.   
(Version 1.0.2)

JIMW  If you are looking forA serious project management tool this is not it. It seems to be actually a little more than a nice-looking to-do list. Everything that this tool does can be done in iCal. All you need to do is create a special calendar for your project, and enter in the events. you can then create a list of two dues with dates and alarms for that particular calendar, to which you give the project name.

With this tool lacks is the ability to sort by date, percentage completed, a calendar, alarms, resources, percent completed, and much more. These are all fundamental parts of a serious project management tool.

The same thing with this tool does can also be done in a spreadsheet, with the bonus of adding much more information, including cost analysis.

While it has a nice interface,abet a little clumsy to use, its functionality is quite limited.

It does seem to work as described, and while I would not recommend against its use, I see little value or functionality in it over tools that most Mac users already have.  
(Version 1.0.2)

JIMW  Thank you for the education on FWIW. As I am not a texter, I assumed they were either your screen name or your initials.

As for my comments: i generally find legitimate sites offering additional information such as physical addresses, bio's or background on the company/developer, FAQ's, more detailed info about the products, mission statements, and maybe even a phone number. For all I know this developer could be a college student trying to earn tuition for MIT or Cal Tech, a front for Bin Ladin, or anything in between.   
(Version 1.0.1)

JIMW  Thank you for pointing out that it is also listed on Apple's web site. However the only additional information that listing provides is the release date and the fact a minor bug was fixed. Clicking on the 'Company' link directs the user to the same web page mentioned above. Just because a company is listed on Apple's web site does not necessary improve their credibility, reliability or long term viability. Sorry but the 'red flag's are still flying.   
(Version 1.0.1)

JIMW  While I have not had any interaction with this developer or used their products, I would suggest caution, especially if you are considering any of their fee based products.

On visiting their website, the extent of information available for this product is what is in the MacUpdate description. The total amount of infor for their paid products is little more. The only support they offer is via a single e-mail address.

There is nothing about the developer, or the company on its website, other than the single email address. There is no FAQ, or indication of where they are located. There is no way of reporting issues, or any more information about their product or what it does, other than a single screenshot.

While I have no concrete reason to suggest avoiding this company/developer, the overall impression that they convey raises some 'red flags' for me and as such I would suggest being a bit wary when doing business with this developer/company until their actions prove otherwise.   
(Version 1.0.1)

JIMW  Great concept but simply not compatible with latest Mac OS and Safari. Tried all the suggestions such as using the 1.6a1 version, placing in the main library and resetting permission, but still did not work. My rating is for MacOS 10.5.5 running Safari 3.2.1  
(Version 1.5.1)

JIMW  This is an update to a previous review. I have been using the latest update for a number of weeks. It seems to be much improved over the previous version. It also now contains the necessary features to now make it a useable program - features that should have been in 1.0.

Voice recognition seems to be improved as well. While it still suffers from a number of idiosyncrasies, such as not being able to add an unrecognized app to the app listing (only adds as a global), email commands causing crashing, and the occasional random crash, I now, after going through both Dictate 1.0 and the agony of IListen, finally regard it as a useable product. It finally seems to be in a condition that can improve instead of hinder productivity. This is not to say that it does not still have some significant faults. Nevertheless it does seem worthy of some serious consideration.

Given the complexity of the product I want to give it further use and see what is offered at MacWorld in January, before writing a full review on it again.   
(Version 1.2)

JIMW  Buy this product

or

- Buy File Buddy and get all the '1 trick ponies' rolled up into a single app with good support

or

- Do the following which will approximate the info from this product.

Open a Finder Window

Choose the Drive or Folder you wish to view

View in 'List' mode

Under View - View Options check Size and "Calculate All Sizes

Option-Click the arrow next to the folder or drive to open all subfolders within it

Take a short break

Click on the 'Size' column to sort by size.

All of your folders subfolders and files will be sorted by size within each folder.

This probably can be all incorporated into a single Automator script that should not take over 30 min to create - even for a novice.

But no matter what - be an informed consumer.  
(Version 4.4.1)

JIMW  This product does seem to work as advertised. However as a long time user of Pithhelmet I found it to be not as convenient, flexible or as powerful as Pithhelmet. Of the two products I do prefer Pithhelmet. However GlimmerBlocker did work with Safari updates which broke Pithhelmet until it got updated. So I am holding on to GlimmerBlocker, leaving it installed but not activated as I have a gut feeling that using both of them together might be counterproductive. That way, when future Safari updates break Pithhelmet again, as they frequently do, I will have GlimmerBlocker already installed and ready to use until Pithhelmet is updated. Given its stability, if GlimmerBlocker is ever enhanced to the same functionality of Pithhelmet, or better, it would certainly seem to be a very strong and viable competitor to it.   
(Version 1.0)

JIMW  This is the latest edition of the Parallels installation nightmare. I tried installing this 'update' over the previous Parallels 4.0 release. I had finally gotten that to work after several frustrating days of effort (see previous comments) This 'update' corrupted the working installation. In particular, it blew the previously working Parallels Tools out of the water. My mouse quit working again and Parallels Tools had a different install error after each attempt to get it reinstalled again. After another 2-3 hours of continual work I finally have it working again. Here is what it took to do this:

- About 30+ Windows reboots and several Mac reboots

- Several removal and reinstallation of the Microsoft PS/2 Mouse Driver

- Complete removal of the previous Parallels 4 installation and reinstallation of the update

- Reactivation of Microsoft Windows XP.

While the release notes state that they fixed the Virtual PC conversion issue, you could not validate that by my experience.

Makes you wonder if this company ever heard of Software QA or Beta Testing, much less doing it.   
(Version 4.0.3540)

JIMW  I agree with all that you say - providing your only interest is in a single such product. However as a consumer, I am also interested in value. There are literally hundreds of single use fee based, databases available for exercise, to-do lists, medications, Media libraries, recipes, home inventory, etc. A person could spend hundreds of dollars on such products and in a couple of years wind up with a sizable group that lack support, updates or require costly upgrades, or have simply gone out of existence. My position is that if a user needs encompass a number of such products they are better off buying a single general purpose database from a known reputable company and customizing it to their needs, as opposed to spending much more money for a bunch of products with an unknown or unproven pedigree.

Additionally, judging from most of the other comments posted about this product, I am not alone in my opinion that the product is overpriced for what it does. However if numbers of users are purchasing the product at the price you charge for it, then my opinion does not matter and the price instead reflects savvy marketing.   
(Version 1.5)

JIMW  Let me see if I understand this. For $25 you can buy a 'one trick pony' that will only track your blood pressure and pulse. But for $50 you can buy a general purpose database with a user friendly interface, like Bento, that will replace all the overpriced fee based 'one trick pony' databases that have proliferated in recent years, like this one, with a minimum addition of user knowledge and effort while allowing the user to customize the output and data entry to fit their personal needs. Which sounds like the better choice? While I take issue with Bento's (Filemaker) upgrade policies and regard it as predatory, It still offers a more cost effective solution if a user is considering purchasing multiple 'one trick pony' databases. Besides, there is no law stating that when a developer offers an upgrade that the user has to buy it, especially if the previous version is doing an adequate job.   
(Version 1.5)

JIMW  This review pointed me in the right direction. While many more error messages, some bogus, appeared, not covered in the knowledgeable article, ultimately due to this review I was able to actually get it running under a trial license after many frustrating hours.

Frankly, so far I do not find its performance to be significantly faster than Parallels 3. But then again I run a highly tuned 3.0GHZ machine with a 10K Velociraptor drive and 512 of VRAM.

FYI:The Velociraptor performance when rated is often compared to a Solid State Drive and other then adding RAM. At around $350, including the special mounting bracket, I find it to be the single most cost effective thing you can do to to speed of the performance of a Mac Pro tower machine.

The reason: MacOS is always writing page files do the hard drive. As such the speed of the hard drive becomes a performance limiting factor to your processors. A faster hard drive increases the speed that the page writing occurs and the less of a limiting factor to your processors performance it becomes.

Apple, like its competitors, uses the cheapest hard drive that will perform reliably for 3 years (Applecare Warranty), it can get for its stock drives. That gives them the best profit and return for their stockholders. From a companies perspective it just makes good business sense. The fact that it limits processor performance is irrelevant to them as they need to produce a competitively priced machine that people will buy and makes a good profit. If they used a Velociraptor as their stock drive they would have to add several hundred dollars to the machine which would reduce their sales. This is not smart idea from any companies perspective. Additionally Velciraptor size is only 300GB. This forces some users to have to buy a second drive to get their work done - professional video editors.

People tend to buy performance that they can see and feel and it is hard to appreciate the performance difference of a Velociraptor in a 15 minute demo on a showroom floor. But if you are serious about running Windows on a Mac, it does make a big difference.   
(Version 4.0.3522)

JIMW  Interesting and useful comment but leaves unanswered the issue as to how to follow the suggestion after you have done the conversion, have zero functionality of your Windows cursor, and can't fully install Parallels tools because of the issue. Additionally it does nothing of absolving Parallels of their abysmal tech support.   
(Version 4.0.3522)

JIMW  I am a long time user of Parallels My experience with conversion from Parallels 3 to Parallels 4 was horrific. After spending a good deal of time in dealing with their confusing upgrade options and spending hours trying to get help with it I found out that that I really did not need to purchase the default opt-in 12 month download option that added $7 to each of my licenses - and neither do most users if they have a CD-Burner, which all machines that can run the product come with, except for the MacBook Air. I also made the unfortunate mistake of directly purchasing the product instead of using the trial license as historically the product had a good history of stability and support for me. I say mistake, because the first thing it did after the upgrade of a working image and authorized legal license of XP is require me to reauthorize my Windows license. Then my cursor went dead and would not function at all in the virtual environment. Additionally It was impossible to contact support by phone regarding this issue. After being put on hold after being told I would have a 10 minute wait, 30 minutes went by and then I was told by the automated system that support was too busy to take my call the system disconnected my call. I then was able to finally contact customer service who acknowledged my demand for a refund but seemed to care less that they might be permanently losing me as a customer. Promised followup calls from a supervisor never happened. After some difficulty I managed to resurrect my working copy of Parallels 3 and it is now working the same as before. I have tossed my Parallels 4 upgrade in the trash and am now considering its alternatives. Needless to say I am considering VMware Fusion.

I would be very interested in feedback as to support experiences from VMware Fusion users. One thing a learned a long time ago is the only thing worse that not having a needed tool is having one that is broken and not being able to get it fixed. Good support is a critical issue for me. Based on my most recent experience with Parallels, they are no longer offering it.   
(Version 2.0.1)

JIMW  I have absolutely no issue with this product and its interface does look friendly. However their does seem to be a huge number of single purpose file utilities both free and fee based that do a single thing.

In my own experience I have frequently download these, used it one or twice, and forgotten it . Over the years I have garnered a multitude of these utilities, mostly free ones, that land up taking up a lot of space on my hard drive that I have forgotten their purpose until I open them. I rarely purchase "one trick pony" fee based utilities since I find their primary value lies in subsidizing the developers programming education. I also take issue with the 'bait and switch' tactics of some developer to initially offer the product for free in rough form then to add a fee for the update that polishes it form and function.

If the developer intends to charge a fee for the product, it initial release should be labeled a 'Beta' and the future charge should be noted from the beginning. That is what I believe is ethical. Experience has also shown me that frequently, be it free or fee based, single purpose utilities offer a release and perhaps a couple of updates, and then are completely abandoned by their developers, leaving the user or purchaser having to seek a eplacement product.

Please not that the above comments is not a reflection on this developer or their product. If you only need such a tool as this, this product may very well be just what you are looking for. It is just seeing yet another single file utility hit my 'hot button' and I chose to make this comment at this time.

For those that are looking for more functionality than this product offers; wish to avoid the disk space and confusion of multiple single purpose utilities; and the 'bait and switch' tactics that some of the other initially free product developers have produced, I would suggest taking a look at "File Buddy." It is a reasonably priced fee based product that has replaced most if not all my other file utilities. I have found it to encompass most if not all the features that individual products offer, good stability, and a long history of reasonable support and upgrades at a fair price. It is not for everyone however as its interface can be a bit complex for unsophisticated/inexperienced users and is overkill if you just temporarily need to repeatedly do a single function. But it does seem to be a well written program that does it all.

That is why I added it to the list of alternate suggestions - not to cast aspersions on this product, but as a solution for those looking for a good alternative to single function file utilities.   
(Version 1.0)

JIMW  Actually it only took me about 30 seconds to figure that part out myself as well. However trying to figure out if I needed it took the support call. If you read the info on this it starts out indicating you are buying the ability to download the product and updates for a year. However the following sentences that follow indicate the opposite. As such it was confusing as to what exactly they were selling. Additionally there was a box next to the the primary product that could not be checked or have anything entered. Since initially I wanted 2 licenses (not any more) I needed to find out if I could use that to order both at the same time.

What I found out was that the "insurance" is only for the initial download and is not needed if you backup or burn the download to a CD. However the way it is presented as a default "opt-in" with no information about opting out other than a confusing info of what it is for, it seems to me to be just another way of extracting additional monies from a casual or non-savvy user who might conclude that since it is included with the product as a default it is probably something they need. Additionally by using a small cryptic icon to deselect it at the end of the description rather than a obvious checkbox in front of it, without any explanation as to its function, they seem to be trying to "trick" the buyer in to purchasing something they probably do not need. Given the nature of the deselection process, its cryptic info, and the fact it defaults to "opt in" when you try to purchase the product, in my opinion the process is predatory and unethical and is representing an attempt by the seller to extract additional money from the unsophisticated user by given them the initial impress that they need to buy this option when in most cases they really do not.

While I and the other replies above were able to figure this out reasonably easily, I suspect there are those that will be taken in by what I regard as a scam designed to make for money for the on-line store.

I chose not to go into detail about this in the primary review since it was already much longer than I would have wanted it to be.   
(Version 4.0.3522)

JIMW  This is a paid upgrade, even for 3.0 users Minimum cost is $40. Understanding a determining what to purchase is very confusing. The download store automatically opt you in for a $7 download privilege that you do not need if you backup the download or burn it to a CD. Unfortunately it is not obvious how to opt out of this and the site provides no information to do this. It took 2 phone calls, several transfers, and an hour of time just to contact Tech Support to find out about this. Installation of the product after download is a very lengthy process and can be very problematic. In my case I lost all cursor control in Windows, and could not get Parallels tools to install properly. It also required me to reactivate Windows. Getting in touch with Tech Support is a nightmare from you know where. They do not want to talk to you unless you are willing to pay for it, even if it is an initial installation. Free support is only via email with no expectation of when they will get back to you. When I protested this policy I was transferred to support where I waited for over a half hour before being hung up by the system which indicated it was too busy to take my call. Given the install made my Windows XP unusable and I could not get any help to resolve it. I called customer service and was finally able to speak to a live person. When I asked for a supervisor I was told that they had all gone home. So I demanded my update licensed be canceled and I be given a refund, which they did with no protest. They did not seem to care whether I remained their customer or bought their competitors product. Unfortunately I thought I could simply delete the product and support files and reload Parallels 3 from Time Machine. Not so as it would not work. So I tried to reinstall Parallels 3 from an update image but it would not let me, complaining that server software was still present but providing no clue as to how to resolve it. A Google search on the subject was of little help. I finally resorted to reinstalling Parallels 4 then immediately uninstalling it with its uninstaller. That trick finally allowed me to reinstall Parallels 3. In any case please, for your own good, do not even think of Upgrading to Parallels 4 unless you are sure you have a complete backup of your Windows installation from Parallels 3. Additionally if you have more than a single license, you have to order each update as a separate order. Since I never got Parallels 4 to work properly I have no idea how it compares to Parallels 3.

In summary, upgrading to Parallels 4 can be extremely problematic and turn into your worst nightmare. Installation Tech Support, based in India, is virtually nonexistent if you need it in a timely manner.

Recommendations: I would suggest avoiding the current upgrade at all costs unless it absolutely necessary that you need to preform it, unless you want to be a Beta Tester, or a masochist.. If you still want to upgrade, I would suggest waiting for the next update, when hopefully they will have worked out some of the bugs. Right now given its installation performance and Tech Support issues, I do not feel it is ready for 'Prime Time.' It is a costly upgrade, even with the discount, and given its problems and support accessibility, a savings of $20 off the suggest price simply is not worth the pain of being an early implementer. As for my own plans. for now I will continue to use Parallels 3, and given Parallels current level of Tech Support, I am going to take a serious look and VMFusion. I see no reason to pay for or support Parallels products in the future, given the grief they have caused me today unless they improve their support access and and the products stability.   
(Version 4.0.3522)

JIMW  Thank you for your acknowledgment and taking ownership of this issue. I find it satisfying to see developers take ownership and responsibility for the products that they produce along with creating confidence that the developer is serious about producing a quality product with a respectable level of support.   
(Version 0.01)

JIMW  Totally utterly useless, at least for US Locations. Tried around 5 well know artists or events and it came up with nothing. Tried by zip code and major cities. Still nothing.   
(Version 0.01)

JIMW  Great idea! Ditch residential phone service for VOIP and count yourself among the dead or dying if you need help via 911 in a natural disaster when cell phone towers are overloaded and servers or overloaded or down. Land line is a proven technology with a history of behavior in times of such disasters. VOIP is not. Land line wile not perfect or absolutely 100% reliable is usually the last to go down and the first to come back. In disaster conditions when I need help I want the best chance to get it with a proven technology that has a history rather than a technology with a brief history of failure that is promoted with empty promises and slick marketing. Yes, I am willing to spend a few extra bucks a month for a proven abet older technology that will give me a better change of saving my life in times of floods, earthquakes, wind damage, or military attack. While VOIP may be great for businesses, I want the most proven technology for me and my families lifeline at home. That technology is copper landline. If you don't believe this, just ask your VOIP provider for statistical and historical data of performance in disaster or emergency conditions and see just how far you get and what they are willing to provide. While VOIP providers would like you to believe that you will have reliable phone service in disaster or emergency conditions, I have yet to see any actual data using real life situations that would back up their claims.   
(Version 1.0.5)

JIMW  Thank you for the informative specifications update  
(Version 5.2.1)

JIMW  I just do not see the need to purchase such a utility. In iTunes Prefs under advanced you can switch libraries with a couple of mouse clicks. With the recording ability of Applescript or Automator it is easy enough to create a script to automate the renaming of a preference file without any serious programming experience.  
(Version 5.2.1)

JIMW  I must agree with with Divematerza, and Lev. But given that there is little choice of decent DB's for Mac's, from a business perspective, why shouldn't they gorge their customers and provide a minimal return since they essentially own and control the consumer market for relatively easy to use general purpose Mac DB's. From what I have found unless you are a programmer, want to become one, or pay big bucks to hire someone to do it for you, Filemaker/Bento are the only 'games in town.' So far, other than Filemaker products the only other choices for the Mac seem to be 4D, Oracle (or spinoffs), or other SQL databases. Lets talk about the real costs of Filemaker Corp products:

-Initial costs for FM (Filemaker) is expensive - Minimally $300 - can range to nearly $1000 for all the features.

- Upgrades are costly and frequent - ~$200 min for an update to Filemaker around every 18 months or a repurchase of Bento for $50 -$100 every two years.

- If you file to purchase more than 2 Filemaker updates in succession you have to buy it all over again.

- Support is mostly fee based - minimally included with the product and not with Applecare even though it is an Apple product. Filemaker is wholly owned by Apple.

- If you need advanced support you are referred to an expensive consultant or to compiled solutions that mostly are not end-user modifiable.

- If you use a compiled solution you more often than not need to make 2 purchases - FM and the 3rd party database and then regularly shell out money on a regular basis via upgrades for both.

- FM is not very 'friendly' to developers - While they do get good tools and support, they have to pay 'through the nose' to get it - both in time and money. FileMaker dings them for license fees , certification fees, support fees, etc.

- Moreover since FM Consultants are independent from FileMaker Corp, many create an end user product or develop a custom DB for a user, that the user pays big bucks for. Then in a year or two, 'disappear' or go out of business, leaving the end user stuck with an unsupported solution that is not upgradeable.

So if you want a decent DB designed for the Mac that might be understandable or maintainable by average users; Welcome to Filemaker hell.

I am still looking for an easy to use, user friendly, affordable, general purpose relational database, that does not require a degree in computer science to setup. Hopefully someone will design one and give Filemaker the competition it needs have in order to make its business model end user friendly as it was when it was Claris.   
(Version 2.0v2)

JIMW  This is a great product as free or donationware. but not worth $15 ($12 for the next 3 days) for the average users,Thanks but no thanks for the few screenshots I do every month, I would rather spend the $15 on family entertainment than on this program.   
(Version 1.0.2)

JIMW  Seems to go smoothly on an iMac but totally messed up iCal on a Mac Pro. Other users have also reported this issue on the Apple Website. Be sure to backup iCal and quit it before updating. However this may not resolve the issue.   
(Version 10.5.5)

JIMW  An Apple Modem dongle that plugs into a USB port is under $50 and does not require a subscription (other than your regular phone line) to use it and has no quantity limitations. For the occasional or very heavy FAX user, this is probably more economical then an annual electronic FAX subscription service. Basic Faxing is built into OSX. I have used PageSender for years that substantially expands the capability of the OSX tool and supports many FAX services. This is not a criticism of this product, but only offered as information so that potential users can make an informed decision.   
(Version 1.0.4)

JIMW  After commenting about my first impressions earlier, and using this for a day I have mixed feelings about this product. On a positive note, it has many more features than MenuCalendarClock. It generally does do what I want it to and overall works as advertised. Functionally their seems to be 3 parts to this product - the actual menu item that displays the clock, calendar and associated features; The 'Big Calendar" that is a winding with a full sized configurable calendar, and the Preference Panel that sets everything up. This also happens to be the order of user friendliness. The actual menu item is easy to understand, and use. It is also the most solid of the items. The good news is that this is probably what a user will access most after setting up the program. Actually their are 2 sections to the menu item, Clock, and Date. The clock displays the time and controls all other functions other than the date functions. The Date Menu only controls the interface to ICal, but can display optionally the time as well. This initially can lead to some confusion during setup. It also means that the product has two icons taking up valuable menu bar space - the action time display, and an separate icon for the calendar control. It would be nicer in my opinion to have the calendar controls accessed from the time display - i.e. integrated into a single menu item to save menu bar space.

While the big calendar is cute and attractive, with many customizable options, does not provide any useful features for me, other that possibly printing some nice customized desktop or wall calendars. Just about everything can be customized in it including the background image in a multitude of ways. As a tool to create printable calendars, it is great, but not nothing I want to devote valuable desktop space for.

The final section is the Pref Panel. This is the tool that is used for configuring the rest of the program and is the most extensive Pref Panel I have seen so far. It is also the least user friendly section of the product. Suffice to say, it took me a while to figure out all of the various functions, settings, and how to use them. I guress I could have read the e-manual but since it is half hidden in the bottom of the panel, I didn't realize it was there until I had mostly figured it out. The settings are extensive and can customize most of the rest of the product.

Now for the bad news: This is a True Beta product. The Menus themselves are reasonably solid. This is good and make the product useable since this is probably what is used most. Big Calendar, initially had some hiccups but they have seemed to disappear after getting it initially configured properly. The big problem right now is the Preference Pane. It constantly crashed and hung during the setup procedure. Some items, like the Calculator and the short date and time display either failed to function properly on only functioned once properly, then quit working properly. Frequent reboots and a complete removal and reinstall was needed before I was able to get it setup properly. Since the short date and time selection for the time display did not work, I had to manually set it up as a custom display. As such the Pref Panel is real buggy right now and any user should expect problems with it in this Beta release. That said I was able to set it up and get it to work the way I wanted it to. It just takes patience and perseverance.

Removal is also an issue. After my initial setup problems, I wanted to completely remove the product and start over. In doing a quick search, I found no removal information or tools. I finally resorted to File Buddy to find all the pieces scattered all over my Library and machine and remove them. File Buddy was indispensable for this operation.

Let me restate again that this is Beta One software, as such I expect it to still have significant bugs. It does. However I also have a policy of not paying to test software. If I am to be a Beta Tester and take the time to fully document bugs, I do not expect to have to buy the product when released. As such I have not and do not intend to report these bugs any further than this review. Since the product comes with a 30 day trial, I will continue to use the product with the hope that it goes final in the next 30 days and that most of the issues get cleaned up. If so, I play to switch from MenuCalendarClock and buy it, If not, I may go back to MenuCalendarClock until this is released and reevaluate it again at that point.

While potentially I feel that this product can earn 4 or 5 stars when it goes final, right now my rating is based on the actual usability of this Beta version.   
(Version 1.0b1)

JIMW  It is nice to finally see some good competition in the area. While I have been using MenuCalendarClock for several years, a more proven product.

This product seems to have most of the same features as MenuCalendarClock plus a lot more. So I am tempted to try this one for a while instead of paying Objectpark another $13 every year or two for another update to a $20 program in order to stay compatible and not loose features I already paid for.   
(Version 1.0b1r3)

JIMW  Nice start with good interface, but Secrets is already does this much more extensively.In this effort the developer is seemly attempting to 'reinvent the wheel.'

Competition is good and while nothing intrinsically wrong with this, I fail to appreciate the rationally of creating this product when an functioning, almost identical product already exists.

Additionally there are many more maintenance tools and applications that also set hidden preferences. It seems already to be a crowded market.

This is not to say that the developer is doing anything wrong or it is a bad tool, but rather to point out that perhaps their efforts would be better directed towards more useful or unique product.  
(Version 1.07)

JIMW  Thanks for the tip delight1. It looks like it will be helpful for automatically mounting a disk when running X-Plane or other programs that require a master disk or image for full functions.   
(Version 2.0.1)

JIMW  "...Safari." Because I just want a browser that just works, integrates with my Mac, has phone support, designed specifically for Mac's, updated along with the OS, and doesn't rely on 3rd parties whims, and tinkering to get desired features. Isn't that one of the reasons people buy Mac? I chose Mac to get things done without having to 'play around' with software to get it to work properly.

However, based on your comments, I must conclude that I have failed to properly convey my point in a paradigm you can appreciate. I apologize to you and all that are reading this for wasting your time and mine on my issues regarding this product.

While you may respond,this will be my final reply as I see no point in carrying on this discussion in this venue. Based on your pervious responses, it is likely to be fruitless venture, and would be a further waste of our time and effort.   
(Version 2.0)

JIMW  Thank you for your candid and polite response to my message. My motivation of using such a tool is not for the sound but to either alert me of an issue, such as a device being recognized or for some action to be taken when a device is either plugged in or unplugged. Everyone places a value on everything they buy. From my perspective charging $10 for this simple utility is poor value considering the robust features of some other products that are either free or around the same price. On the other hand products like File Buddy, while costing $40 has saved me a fortune due to its robust buffet of features and the money I saved on other single focus programs that try and 'nickel and dime' their customer, misrepresent the products, or constantly charge for minor updates that are mostly bug fixes with a few little used or minor features to make it look like it has added value.

If I were you I might just give this away as donationware in order to establish my reputation and presence and continue work on an expanded version that might have some additional features, as testing input devices, setting output ranges of such devices and interfacing to entertainment software to implement control features that are currently only available to Windows uses of the hardware. such as force feedback, range and sensitivity settings, switch groups, hardware display screens, etc. Then I would have something that would attract a lot of interest, and be worth paying for - likely much more that $10. Mac users that have such devices are in desperate need for some kind of driver/controller that would provide similar functions that the vendors provide for Windows only. So far it is a gap that no one has filled. Personally if such a product existed, I would certainly be willing to pay $20, $30, or even $40, and possibly more in order to achieve full functionality of my input devices that I have probably invested close to $500 into. If you want people to pay for your product, provide them with something they want and will find really useful rather than something whose main feature is that it meows like a cat when a device is plugged in.   
(Version 2.0)

JIMW  That is just the 'Demo' or standard version. which will allow you to change the sound and a few minor other things. However if you pay it can launch an app when you plug in a device, start backups and a whole lot more. I was thinking of having it launch my X-Plane startup Automator script when I plug in a Yoke. Sort of cute but not worth $10 to me so I don't have to click once on my Dock. I got better things to spend $10 on like PithHelmet which does something really useful by blocking popups, pop unders, flashing screens, and controls what cookies I save. Now that is worth $10. So is Finder Pop that gives me contextual menus to my favorite folders, info on files, and shows hidden files with a single click, eliminating repetitive clicking when locating or moving a file. But to just launch an app when I plug in a device? Forget it.

I referred to it as 'Bait & Switch since the developer neglects to mention the fact that the product is crippled till you pay for it, but lists it as 'free'. To refer unlocking it as the 'Pro' version is semantics. There is no Pro version only the standard 'Demo' that tries to entice you to pay $10 to achieve full functionality. Sorry to rant but deceptive or untruthful advertising or marketing is one of my 'Hot Buttons and this product reeks of it.

When it said 'free' my expectations were set that it was a fully functional product, only to find out when I wanted to do anything serious with it that the functions I wanted were disabled till I paid $10. To me that is deceptive.   
(Version 2.0)

JIMW  This strikes me as a 'Bait & Switch' tool. To do anything really useful with it costs $10.

If I really need to do something like this, I might very likely be able to use Automator to do it and learn a lot in the process.

Thanks but no thanks. I got more important things to spend $10 on - like food and gas.   
(Version 2.0)

JIMW  You can email MacUpdate and ask them to remove the post. I have done this several times with some of my mistakes.   
(Version 1.30)

JIMW  I agree with you. While earlier versions had some desired features that Mail did not, the latest version is bloated with 'features' that may not be wanted, unstable, and missing desirable features, that were present in earlier versions. That is why I have switched back to Mail even though I own Entourage.

Additionally I have found an undocumented feature in Mail that is not present in Entourage. When Time Machine backs up Entourage, it backs up the entire database each time with all the mail buried in the database that is backed up. When Time Machine backs up Mail it backs it up logically as separate mail messages, even it it is backing up the entire database each. This means that each mail message is searchable in Time Machine and can be retrieved as such. This is a valuable tool in a situation where you have deleted a message but find out later you need it. Simply enter the approximate title or sender of the message into Time Machine and retrieve the deleted message. While this product might be helpful in this regard for Entourage, it is probably not as convenient, and given Entourage's other issues, especially it's printing capability for its Calendar, I will continue to use Mail and ICal thank you.   
(Version 1.4.1)

JIMW  Thanks for the tips. I will use them when I get the time and the nerve to try APE again with Dictate. One of the things that I fear is corrupting my speech profile as the program crashes. I have added a number of customized commands to it and MacSpeech, after over 6 months since release has yet to provide a way of exporting or saving them to prevent loss. But then again they have also failed so far to provide and word training or spelling correction as promised last January. Actually I rarely submit bugs to them, given their attitude which reminds me of the following quip:

A proud mother and her friend was watching a parade in which her son was in the marching band. As the band passed by she waved to her son and remarked to her friend - Look! Everybody in the band is out of step except my Johnny.

Besides, give the issues with the program, I would be spending a significant amount of time reporting bugs instead of using the product. Being a professional tester myself, I get paid to do this as opposed to paying for the privilege to do it. However I would be amenable to doing this if they they embraced such reports instead of continually trying to blame the problem on my system, Apple, or another product. That said their support has improved a bit as it is now much easier to actually reach someone to discuss the issue with, as opposed to submitting a 'ticket' and hopefully receiving a useful reply.   
(Version 1.5b4)

JIMW  I agree. Unfortunately MacSpeech seems to have tunnel vision on this subject reflected by their position that they will only support their products stability and performance in a pristine Mac, environment - something that more often than is not reality. Given that it is the only viable text to speech solution for the Mac platform, I hesitate to argue with them about this too much, or strongly discourage users from its purchase, Should MacSpeech cease to exist, so will speech to text conversion for the Mac. Sometime you just have to choose battles worth winning and consider the consequences that might be produced by such a battle. Hopefully over a period of time with enough 'gentle prodding' MacSpeech will realize the error of its ways, and concentrate of making their software solid and reliable rather than adding bloat and accessories. That should only come after the have a solid reliable foundation with their basic product, so that users can rely and depend on its basic functionality. Such a paradigm my not result in quick profits, but should encourage solid consistent growth. If such a paradigm will not support their cash flow, then they are probably undercapitalized or need to balance their expenses better. Building a successful ship is very difficult to do if try to do it in the middle of the ocean. If you want to build a great ship, you need good facilities in a safe harbor. Otherwise the ship is likely to flounder.   
(Version 1.5b4)

JIMW  Yes I have, but APE can still be an issue according to MacSpeech. My testing of the former version indicates that they may be correct on this. However I find Dictate to be unstable, even without APE at times. It seems to function more like a Beta then a Final Release. My feeling from their support is that it is very sensitive to anything that does not follow Mac Programming Guidelines 110% - which even Apple sometimes does not do. I may test APE again with ICeCoffEE again when time permits, but while I miss ICeCoffEE, I consider Dictate the more important of the 2 choices right now. Hopefully Dictate will get some of its bugs worked out eventually and I will be able to run both without issue.   
(Version 1.5b4)

JIMW  While I appreciate this information from the Developer as it gives everyone a better idea of what its capabilities are, I was in error when replying to the original commenter as it looks like I clicked on the wrong reply. The reply was actually meant for the previous commenter, Albfan who commented about deleting AppDelete with AppCleaner.  
(Version 2.0)

JIMW  I support and applaud your philosophy. However you might also wish to look at my favorite alternative - AppTrap. It resides in your system as a Pref Pane and requires no launching in order for it to do its job. It just works as part of the OS.  
(Version 2.0)

JIMW  Not understanding this is precisely why people get taken by quick buck charlatans. For the people that do understand it, hopefully it will give them some guidance so they will not get taken in by some leech.

As W.C. Fields once said: "It's morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money"  
(Version 3.0.1)

JIMW  First of all you may need to change your paradigm of business. It is the exception for a person to be in business to provide a product or service.

The overwhelming focus of almost all business (non-profits excluded) is to make money. Providing a service or product is just how they do it. Some achieve a balance between the quality of the product or service; some are just greedy. For those whose product or service exceed the cost of what they are providing, they either go out of business or run it as a non-profit.

In my experience I have encountered these types of business persons:

1. Quick Buck Artist: Driven by greed, supply a barely on non functional product or service - interested in single purchases by suckers.

2. The Opportunist: Puts out a product or service that sort of works but provide little or no support. In the case of software, buy it again at or nearly at full price. Only looking for one time purchases by uninformed customers and not interested in long term business relationships.

3. Show Me the Money: Puts out quality service or product but charges for every little item or update.

'Nickels & 'Dimes' people to death. Business plan is 'Whatever the market will bear.' Looking for customers that are willing to 'mortgage their house' in order to use their product or service. Only interested in long term business relationships with customers who have deep pockets.

4. Desired Business Person: Achieves a balance between solid products or services and a fair profit.

Their reputation and ethics is as important as profit. Looking for long term business relations where the customer is satisfied and the company makes a reasonable profit.

5. Clueless: No business sense at all. Puts out a good product or service but does not know how to market or charge for it. A short term relationship for both - business and customer. Such businesses go out of business.

6. Philanthropist or Student: Puts out a great product or service. In business for the experience. Regards the journey as the reward or in it for the learning experience. Does not expect to make money but hopes to break even someday. It not, at least they leave a legacy and happy customers.

So I will leave it to the reader to choose what category you might place this developer. Too bad I vote tally can't be set up on MacUpdate :)

FYI: Non-Profit can be sort of a misnomer. While the net profits of a non-profit is supposed to be zero, employees are paid, sometimes very handsomely. Some administrators do very well to the tune of 6 or even 7 figure salaries. That's is not 'non-profit' by my standards. Some argue that that is what they are worth as they would be making that or more in 'industry.' But that has nothing to do with it. If they accept a position with a non-profit there is supposed to be a more important reason that the paycheck. If they were looking for a fat paycheck they should have stayed in 'industry' instead of profiteering from others good will.   
(Version 3.0.1)

JIMW  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.   
(Version 1.5b3)

JIMW  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.   
(Version 2.1.5)

JIMW  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?  
(Version 2.0.2b11)

JIMW  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.   
(Version 2.2.2)

JIMW  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.   
(Version 7.0.2)

JIMW  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.  
(Version 3.0)

JIMW  Hangs up on my Intel MacPro on launch unless I run it under Rosetta.  
(Version 4.3.7191.6508 )

JIMW  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.