TOMIS  It should be noted that teleport 1.0.2 is Intel only.

For PPC users, Teleport 1..0.1 can be downloaded from the author's website: http://www.abyssoft.com/software/teleport/downloads/teleport101.zip  
(Version 1.0.2)

TOMIS  Crashes on startup on Mac OS X 10.5.7:

Dyld Error Message:

Library not loaded: /usr/lib/libtcl8.3.dylib  
(Version 0.61-3)

TOMIS  I just want to give you one big THANK YOU!

This is exactly the type of application I've been trying to find. The fact that it's free and has additional downloadable 'worlds' makes it just that much sweeter.

Overall 4/5 because it could stand to have a smoother installation process for new worlds, and auto-detection of worlds placed next to the app (or maybe in a sub-folder to keep things organized?) would be nice.

It has an easy-to-use GUI world editor though. Very well done sir.

Again, thank you, great work.  
(Version 1.0b5)

TOMIS  There are more features planned which will make it into the final 1.0 release, a few of which are mentioned at the blog post announcing this release. I suppose I should have made that more obvious. Thanks for the feedback.  
(Version 0.9)

TOMIS  Sorry, Billboard is just an iTunes status display and controller. However, you can use QuickTime Player (possibly Pro-only?) to watch movies fullscreen without blanking out other monitors.

I'd suggest you send a feature request to the iTunes team via http://www.apple.com/feedback/, this is a feature I'd like to see as well.  
(Version 0.9)

TOMIS  Just a note. On 10.5.6 PPC I was able to simply copy SoundSource.menu from inside the installer package, double-click it, and it installed in my menubar without the need for the Menu Extra Enabled hack that the installer also places in the system. I noticed no functional difference vs. when the input manager hack was installed.

SoundSource won't let me switch between line in and mic. I have Soundflower installed, and it lets me select the two Soundflower sources as inputs. That's my only real problem with SoundSource.  
(Version 2.0)

TOMIS  Needs better support for radio streams. But otherwise, well implemented.  
(Version 1.2)

TOMIS  Dear developers, please just put your entire application in a proper .app package ZIP'd up. If you need to instal support files, do that on first-run.

If, for some crazy reason, you absolutely can not get around the need for an installer, then grab Apple's Xcode, instal it, and go to /Developer/Applications/Utilities/PackageMaker.app

You can add scripts to your instal and all that niftiness, and do it using the native installer package format that users expect and trust.  
(Version 6.0.2)

TOMIS  Still doesn't understand the concept of network shares. iTunes has no problem loading its library from a file server on my LAN. This means I can have one iTunes library across all machines in my house. So what's Front Row's problem?

The switch from being a front-end to iTunes broke much functionality...  
(Version 2.1.7)

TOMIS  I believe the point is to prevent screen burn-in should one wish to use it on a TV which is prone to such problems. Is it really that big a distraction?  
(Version 2.1.7)

TOMIS  Apple claims 8.1 "Adds Genius sidebar for your Movies and TV Shows."

Well, it doesn't for me. It shows up in my music library and playlists, but not in movies/tv shows. And when are we going to get Genius suggestions for Podcasts?

Other than that, seams a solid update. I store my iTunes library on a network share, and it indeed seams to open my library slightly faster.  
(Version 8.1)

TOMIS  I honestly can't tell if the music has any affect. It is pretty. Check out their other visualizers though, they've got some interesting ones. They definitely know how to do elegant abstract design.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  Thanks for the feedback. The next release should make it more responsive and fix this issue.  
(Version 0.8.5)

TOMIS  I like where Safari is going. But the beta has too many bugs for my taste (no surprise, it's a beta), uninstalled for now. Will gladly check out the next beta. Remember to report any bugs you find people! The more feedback Apple gets the better the final product will be!  
(Version 4.0b1)

TOMIS  It's a beta. With lots of debug features in place. Wait for the final release if this is a serious issue for you.  
(Version 4.0b1)

TOMIS  C'mon Apple, nix the separate Google search field, give us an integrated address/search box! If you're going to rip-off Chrome's UI, do it completely! Overall I like the UI. BIt rough around the edges, but hey it's a beta. Top Sites, though a bit gaudy, is actually pretty cool. I've found a couple stability issues already. Ironically enough, while browsing Apple's own website

Wish I could remove the pointless "add to bookmarks" button without having to use

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign false

Hopefully they'll give us tab/plugin/process separation ala-Chrome by Safari 5...  
(Version 4.0b1)

TOMIS  The registration window says version 3.0, the binary says 6.0 with a copyright of 2005

Either way, it's too bad development stopped, this seams like it could of had some promise.

Also, the developers website seams to be down, but the download isn't?  
(Version b262)

TOMIS  Ah the wonderful Skittles! I remember playing this back in the MacOS 9 days..

The game is now open source, available at http://candycrisis.sourceforge.net/  
(Version 1.2)

TOMIS  Alternate ways of interacting with the computer are always good I think. This has a surprising number of bugs for a 1.3 release, including the inability to display previews for windows of hidden apps. It just displays empty black rectangles for those windows.  
(Version 1.3.1)

TOMIS  Useful pre-Leopard. Post Leopard, I see no advantage over using the Guest account. It gets wiped when they logout, and they'd need an admin password to screw up anything outside the guest account anyway.  
(Version 4.10.070.0316)

TOMIS  There's a newer version at the official Soundflower homepage: http://code.google.com/p/soundflower/  
(Version 1.3.1)

TOMIS  Homepage/Download are dead.  
(Version 1.5)

TOMIS  Download is dead. Website has a minimal notice stating it was pulled 6/4/08 and to expect an updated version soon...   
(Version 1.3c)

TOMIS  Homepage/Download are "GoDaddy parked", effectively dead.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  Homepage/Download are "GoDaddy parked", effectively dead.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  Download/homepage are dead.  
(Version 1.0.1)

TOMIS  Does exactly what I want. Wraps up a caching proxy in a nice GUI. I appreciate the compactness of using a menubar extra.

Only problem is that restarting Polipo causes it to forget the settings I changed via the web configuration interface. This seams to be a problem with Polipo, not with this app.

Would be nice if there was a GUI setting to daemonize Polipo and run it at system startup instead of user login. But this is a minor issue and one that I know I could solve by installing Polipo via another means.

Overall 4/5  
(Version 0.8.3)

TOMIS  Props on how much work went into creating this. And while I like the basic idea, I found it odd to have Santa flying around in an inner-city around scrapers and such instead of a town setting. I can dig the sense of humor.

However, having a randomly generated town layout each time would make this spot-on.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  Crap UI. Buggy. Did I mention a crap UI? No nifty screensaver like SETI@home had. Joined a project. Next step insisted I set up an account and provide my email address. I did. It couldn't find work for my computer to do. Absolute rubbish. Uninstalled.

Too bad. I was hoping to put my idle CPU time to good use too... Don't any scientists use Macs? Oh well...  
(Version 6.2.18)

TOMIS  Dear AOL. Start by being feature complete against iChat (audio/video), have a clean user interface (kill the style bar), and then improve from there.

Save your bandwidth. There's no reason to choose this over iChat.  
(Version 1.0b5)

TOMIS  As others have noted crashes on startup on 10.5.5 PPC  
(Version 2.4)

TOMIS  The viewer insists I enter a "license key" or "request a trial", when I go to request the trial (entering email address and name) it then tells me that a trial license has already been issued for my machine.

Completely useless. There are free viewers available, including Apple's own in Leopard. Making it hard for people to try your software seams a very silly thing indeed.  
(Version 3.0)

TOMIS  Safari 4 and the Webkit nightlies both pass. No idea why they're taking so long to release Safari 4 though.  
(Version 3.2)

TOMIS  Download is dead. Developer's main page says they've "closed our virtual doors"  
(Version 1.1.2)

TOMIS  At first run it quite clearly states that this should be considered a "tech demo" to prove that running each tab in a separate process is doable and usable on the Mac. Hopefully the WebKit/Safari team will pick up on this idea.

Props for the effort, it's certainly interesting work. People marking it down seam to be missing the point.  
(Version 0.1)

TOMIS  As others have stated. Lots of problems.

After the update it gave me alternating errors about not being to connect to a database and having the wrong password. How could it have the wrong password when the previous version logged in fine?

Finally, after going 'round like this and re-entering my password a few times, it logged back in. And then subsequently removed about half my contacts. And then asked me if I want to pull in my contacts from Address Book (which I say no to on each update)!

Avoid this version.  
(Version 2.7.0.330)

TOMIS  Methinks the download is linking to the wrong thing. When I ran the app iTunes asked me if I was sure I wanted to quit while downloading podcasts. Doesn't seam like much of a Force Quit to me...

That being said, this appears to simply be an Automator workflow front end to functionality which is already available in several places in MacOS X.

I'm not sure what the point is, but I'm also not sure why there are so many negative comments about it. It's simply another way to accomplish a task.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  I found it unbearably slow compared to the system's built-in VNC/ARD server.  
(Version 3.0)

TOMIS  For anyone who finds the download ends in .dmg.bz, change the extension to simply ".dmg" before opening the file, the DMG will now mount properly.  
(Version 0.9)

TOMIS  The Download links to the 0.7b4 source code, you will need the Apple developer tools to compile it.

The last MacOS X binary (ie, built application) was version 0.7b1, you can download it at http://downloads.sourceforge.net/hugin/HuginOSX-v07b1.zip  
(Version 0.7b4)

TOMIS  Don't waste your bandwidth. The interface needs a complete overhaul. Very bare-bones and awkward. Feels like a weird cross between the old Carbon port and a modern Cocoa app. It's going to be a while until this is anywhere near being a replacement for iChat.  
(Version 0.8.6)

TOMIS  If you're on an iBook G4 with 10.5, avoid this program.

Works fine until it's time to start the gameplay. Then all it does is play cool music while displaying an amazingly corrupted screen. I couldn't command-q or force quit the app. Had to restart. Completely useless.

Fullscreen mode is the same deal, except all you get is black, no screen corruption.

So sad, it looked like an awesome game from the screenshots...  
(Version 2.6)

TOMIS  Wow. I've been wanting something like this for a while. I always wondered why Apple didn't include something like this in the developer tools, or in Activity Monitor. Great work!

Overall I give it a 4/5. The basic functionality is there, and it's superb, but the interface could use a bit of polishing. And maybe a couple other views to provide other useful information, possibly graphs of some sort.  
(Version 2.2)

TOMIS  Totally pointless and yet, totally awesome.   
(Version 1.0.2)

TOMIS  A good idea with what looks to be a promising interface at first glance. But one look at the awkward preferences window tells you everything you need to know.

Recommendations for the Developer:

* Enable all features during the trial period, I'm not paying for something I can't fully try out

* Cut back on pointless interface customization options that only clutter the interface

* Get rid of custom interface elements that serve no purpose (re; weird black sheet dialogs, Tab Options link, etc)

Weird interface + crashed during the first run, so I'm giving it low marks for now.

It's a promising app.  
(Version 0.3)

TOMIS  A great idea implemented very poorly.

Oddly slow scrolling of the main list, weird design choices, buttons that appear disabled when they aren't, the main window isn't resizable. I could go on.

If the developer takes the interface back to the drawing board I think they could have a winner.

Additionally it couldn't find one of my filesharing Leopard machines that appears in the Finder sidebar with no problem. Though it found my Tiger system fine.  
(Version 1.5.5)

TOMIS  If I wanted something that just "mostly got the job done" without any sense of proper interface or reliability, then I'd be using a different OS. That's why I gave it 1 star in those areas.

I expect applications on MacOS X to do the job they set out to do, do it elegantly, and do it without unwanted surprises.  
(Version 1.4.2)

TOMIS  It mostly does the job it sets out to. But has a horrible interface, and it doesn't use the standard authentication dialog, which makes me wonder what they're really doing with my password...

After messing with a few settings I clicked "Restore to Defaults", it gave me the fake authentication dialog, I clicked cancel, and it proceeded to reset the dock to the system defaults anyway!

Please Mr. Developer, take a look at Xcode and Apple's interface guidelines.  
(Version 1.4.1)

TOMIS  Recommendation: Avoid

Incredibly buggy. Refused to run from the disk image. Lots of interface glitches, windows popping up randomly and unexpectedly. Very slow. Feels like a Java port.

Doesn't respect the user's wishes. Annoyingly presented a window asking to be set as the default app for numerous archive formats, closed the window, only to discover that it had set its self as the default app!

Upon first opening a ZIP archive it loaded the file browser and loaded the file previews, then proceeded to close the file browser, open a "User Agreement" and open an "sample archive"!

It's really too bad. The core functionality is great. Everything else about the app is utter junk. Needs to be re-written as a proper Cocoa app.  
(Version 2.1.0.852)

TOMIS  Now this is what I call essential freeware. It does what it's designed to and no more. No muss, no fuss.

The only thing I could possibly ask for would be for the option to apply global keyboard shortcuts for rotating the displays.

Something like command-option-right for rotating 90 degrees right, command-option-left for 90 degrees left. And maybe include number keys if you have more than one display... I'm sure the developer can think of something more elegant though.

Thank you for the great work. This is an excellent piece of software.  
(Version 1.1)

TOMIS  But I don't see how this is any more efficient than Safari honestly. Sure the application size is different, 7MB for Safari 2.5MB for this app. But the advantages stop there for me. Having to launch a second 1.7MB app just to download content to my hard drive?

The interface is far too limited, and as such it makes my browsing experience inefficient. Perhaps that's because the only things I find inefficient about Safari are really problems with the rendering engine. Namely RAM usage, stability (or lack of), and rendering speed of highly complex pages.

If you seriously want a no-features browser which is just an address bar and back/forward buttons, this is the browser for you.  
(Version 1.0.2)

TOMIS  Sounds like you've selected "Always Use Safe Sleep"

To turn this off, select "Only Safe Sleep in Emergencies" (which is the default behavior for machines that ship with safe sleep enabled) or "Disable Safe Sleep"  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  It couldn't be any easier than this! Works beautifully for creating .gz files for my website using mod_gzip

Drag & Drop, and it even overwrites the existing .gz file if there is one. Simple and elegant!  
(Version 0.95)

TOMIS  Horrible, awkward interface. Makes Spyder look well designed. Points for trying I suppose. It's just horribly awkward and hackish. But hey, they're only at 0.5, hopefully they'll have given it a complete polished Leopard-esque overhaul by 1.0

Though it is one of those 8MB REALbasic apps so... who knows  
(Version 0.5)

TOMIS  Check out SafeSleep, hosted here at MacUpdate : http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/25065/safesleep

I developed it on and for my iBook G4  
(Version 1.0.2)

TOMIS  Bummer, doesn't work at all in 10.5, installed in ~/Library/InputManagers , restarted Safari, no go.  
(Version 1.3)

TOMIS  1.0 adds the ability to get rid of any visual indicators, making the virtual KVM experience completely seamless. There are a couple bugs still. Mainly with teleport remembering disconnected displays and not letting me re-arrange current ones if they overlap the disconnected ones. Deleting the prefs always solves this.

Absolutely essential for someone with a desktop and laptop. Apple really should hire this guy. The setup and usage is dead easy.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  An essential piece of software for Mac laptops. It's been painful using Leopard without it. Apple's similar features in recent laptops pale in comparison to the ease-of-use that SideTrack offers.

The developer is very clear that it should be considered an unstable beta. That being said, instal went smoothly and I haven't experienced any system instability yet.  
(Version 1.6b2)

TOMIS  I just want a faceless iTunes media server so I don't have to keep that bloated program running just to access my media on other computers. This looked like the ticket for sure. But without documentation it was confusing to setup.

There's two faceless apps, a server and a client. It would appear I have to have both running on my machine in order for other iTunes' to access my media.

A few things this needs:

* Support for iTunes playlists (right now it just serves up your library with no playlists)

* A readme or documentation of some sort

* A graphical configuration app

I'll be keeping my eye on this. It looks promising.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  This picker does the job, but I must say I prefer the HexPicker from Waffle Software at http://wafflesoftware.net/hexpicker/

It has a couple nice extras beyond the basic hex functionality.  
(Version 1.0.1)

TOMIS  I have the same issues with Navigator that I have with Firefox. It doesn't use native interface widgets and therefor it feels like a cheep port from Windows.

How many times do I have to say it. Use native widgets for the platform you're targeting, or don't even bother porting.

And this weatherbug thing is a buggy mess. I can't disable it. View>Toolbars>Weatherbug, totally ignores the fact that I've unchecked it.

Do the Netscape developers even use Macs?  
(Version 9.0)

TOMIS  Download is down, the developer has discontinued the product.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  Download is dead, the developer's site say CoverTunes is no longer in existence.  
(Version 0.7)

TOMIS  The developer would do better to help out on the open source Shiira browser instead of trying to start yet another WebKit browser.

This browser has one redeeming feature: a nice toolbar icon set that I can pull out and put into Safari.  
(Version 2.6.2)

TOMIS  Opera may be a great browser on Windows. But on the Mac it still feels like a bad OS9 port.

Each time I try it I hope they've gotten a clue and completely re-written the interface to use native toolbars, native widgets, and throw out the cruft. But they never do.

The rendering engine may be great, but you'd never know because the rest of the interface is a piss-poor mess. Convoluted configuration dialogs and poorly done graphics abound in Opera. It may be the norm on Windows but it's absolutely unacceptable on my Mac.  
(Version 9.23)

TOMIS  So Yahoo finally gives Mac user chat room support. And it's a complete joke.

You have to go to their website to fill in a "captcha" each time you join a room. Every single time you change rooms, they give you a link that you have to go to to fill in the "captcha". Completely asinine.

And to top it off, the "user list" for chat rooms consists of a row of horizontal icons of all the users in the room, you have to mouse-over the icons to see the user names. I suppose if you go around adding everyone to your buddy-list this is good as you can see their custom user icons. But in practice it means you have a row of generic icons. Just give us a normal list of user names!

Oh, yea this version also ads tabbed chat. But they still haven't fixed innumerable other problems that make the yahoo chat/IM experience too painful to use. Back to Adium.  
(Version 3.0b2)

TOMIS  I really like this utility. It's very thorough.

Only thing I wish it had: an option to remove .DS_Store files when converting.  
(Version 3.7.1)

TOMIS  Ok so it has the basic functionality, but the overall design is poor. It just needs some nice graphics to look right sitting next to all my other pretty aqua icons in the the dock.

Additionally, the website show screenshots of all sorts of preferences and setting it has. But you can't access any of these features until you register!! How can I tell if the software will do what I want unless I can actually use it. I wouldn't buy a car without a test drive, etc.

I'd suggest going back to the drawing board. Learn ObjC and Xcode, learn a bit about elegant MacOS X interface design, and do some beautiful graphics for the clock. Then you'll have a great product. Right now it feels like someone's fun weekend project app.  
(Version 2.0)

TOMIS  The correct description would be:

Netscape revolutionized Internet browsing by providing an easier and more personal way to use the Internet. It was designed around the things people did most online - browsing, e-mail and newsgroups - and brought them all together for the most convenient and customized experience possible at the time.

There are some cool add-ons included that differentiate it from Firefox. But that's it basically. Just some built-in add-ons and a new skin. The development efforts would be better spent improving Firefox than trying in vain to keep an old dead brand name product alive while Netscape.com tries (badly) to compete with Digg.com  
(Version 9.0b2)

TOMIS  While the radio subscription model is something that makes sense to me, I find it dangerous to base it around an iTunes Plugin. While the integration is great, Apple could release an update that suddenly breaks these 3rd party plugins at any time.

I would find it much more comforting to have a stand-alone app to access the service with possible iTunes integration. The additional upshot would be less initial system overhead as iTunes is quite a beast of a program just for listening to music.

I found no information on the website about how the profits from the monthly subscription are shared with the radio stations. Are they shared equally among all the stations? Or only to the stations I listen to? Is it based on how often I listen to said stations?

Currently I'm quite happy donating money to Radio Paradise and I haven't found a better eclectic radio station. But I'll keep my eye on iRADIOmast.  
(Version 2.5)

TOMIS  Safari 3.0.2

As far as I can tell this software does absolutely nothing. I ran the installer. I restarted Safari. I went to Apple's QuickTime trailers page, started watching a trailer and... I can find absolutely no interface to view the movie in fullscreen. No contextual menu, no extra item added to the menus in the menubar, tried just clicking the movie. Nothing.

Oh well. It's not that hard to look up the movie URL in the activity window, copy, and load in QuickTime Player anyway. If I was really lazy I guess I'd make an AppleScript for it.

At least they provide a nifty un-installer.

2 stars on stability for not crashing Safari.

1 star on everything else.  
(Version 1.1)

TOMIS  While I prefer just using a folder in the dock to perform this functionality, this looked like a nice alternative.

Unfortunately the developer choose to go the odd route of SITX compressing a DMG. Perhaps he is not aware that Apple ceased bundling Stuffit Expander with MacOS X years ago. I am glad to be rid of it. Hopefully he will release his next version in a standard MacOS X archive format (compressed DMG, or ZIP).  
(Version 2.2.1)

TOMIS  I was expecting to leave a happy-go-lucky review like "Completely useless but also completely awesome!! 4/5 stars!"

But sadly the software does not do what it says. Instead of "leaving a trail of stars" it creates short explosions of stars as I move the pointer around. Definitely not the same thing.

It's a good start. But I have seen other examples which achieve this effect much better.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  How does this differ from "Rebuild Mailbox" in Mail.app?

I'd really like to know.  
(Version 0.9b)

TOMIS  In Safari 3 beta on MacOS X 10.4.10 you can already save as PDF. Safari 2 apparently can't.

Go to menu File>Print then click the "Preview" or "PDF" button. Either way you'll get a PDF with active links included.

If you want a JPEG or other image format then click Preview and then do a "Save As" from Preview.app  
(Version 1.4)

TOMIS  So encryption is not used... Well I see no reason to switch from using MacOS X's encrypted sparse disk images then.

Just open Disk Utility (in /Applications/Utilities/), make a new disk image, choose an insanely high storage size, select "sparse" for the type, and choose an encryption. And you're done.  
(Version 1.2)

TOMIS  Q: What do you call beta software which acts more like an alpha?

A: Safari

And on Windows it's even worse. Apple had a good thing going with the iPod and the iPhone,but no iPhone SDK, and the craptacular quality of Safari on Windows may well have undone a good portion of the goodwill they built up with Windows users.  
(Version 3.0b)

TOMIS  Works great except the programs icon shows up in the dock, which is a show-stopper for me. Making the program a background-only app (by editing it's Info.plist) breaks the fake transparency feature.

Hopefully the author will fix this shortcoming by removing the dock icon and adding a quit button to the preferences window.

10.4.9 PowerPC  
(Version 1.1)

TOMIS  It just keeps getting better with each release!

It's funny that it has a GUI now, as I wrote up my own GUI front in in AppleScript yesterday. I would prefer that the GUI use the native Authentication dialog, so I think I'll be sticking to my own front-end for now.

The only way this could be better is if it were a MenuExtra. Keep up the great work!  
(Version 0.5)

TOMIS  The read me says the program is $99, the Installer says it's $49, trying to register took me to their homepage where I had to hunt around to find the price listed as $49. After the initial setup in the absurdly large preferences dialog they use, I tried it out.

The real advantage of CutX is in it's content filtering. It blocks pages and web addresses which contain banned keywords. This is also its downfall.

I found that on large websites it consistently locks up Safari as it goes through checking every piece of linked media. Additionally, it's not hard to get around the initial blocks by simply running websites through a translation service.

If you are looking to protect young users from inappropriate content on the internet then the solution is MacOS X 10.4's whitelist based parental controls paired with simply being in the room.

The basic idea behind this software is decent. But the implementation doesn't feel professional, and the cost can not be justified.

To sum it up, when CutX blocks a website it display a static page with the words "YOU CANNOT ACCESS TO THIS WEBSITE" in giant letters. I think the poor grammar of this statement is a good metaphor for the program on the whole.  
(Version 3.1)

TOMIS  Well the software does its job. And it's certainly easier than editing your hosts file.

On the downside, I'm leery of installing anything into the InputManagers folder as it could potentially compromise the entire system. And the frames blocker is apparently broken.

But, judging by his replies to a few of the reviews here, the developer needs to take some anger management courses. So I will abstain from giving a rating. I would give high marks but I don't believe one should be rewarded when they're a jerk to users asking honest questions.

it's too bad, because this is a great piece of software that's being hindered by the arrogance of its developer.  
(Version 1.15)

TOMIS  This game should be a model to all software developers. This program comes in at under 200k and it's a Universal binary!

The game play is sparse but accurate. It does exactly what it needs to, and nothing more. No useless bells and whistles to bloat it up.

Excellent.

My only suggestion is that the game play needs to be varied more in the harder levels. Perhaps having the target shift slightly, or starting the craft at a much higher altitude, or even having the craft start at slightly random angles and decent velocities.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  This is the feature Apple forgot. This truly makes the dashboard technology useful.

I haven't had a single problem. And the purchase process was painless. I definitely recommend this app.

The only way it could be easier is if they included a quick widget browser within the drop window so I don't have to dig through my system folder when I want to convert a widget. A nice little popup with widgets separated into system and user-installed sections.

Other than that, it's perfect.  
(Version 1.2)

TOMIS  This is perfect. Apple should include this with every mac.

Excellent when you want to kill the screen but let processing continue, or go away for a quick second and save battery life without the sleep/wake delay.  
(Version 1.002)

TOMIS  I had high hopes for this software but it's just riddled with bugs. Not to mention the confusing interface.

Suggestions: Make it a 2 step process to get the files one needs from the iPod, 1 select the ipod 2 press a "get data" button, and a 1 step process to upload the changes

While getting the resources it sat there chugging away for a few minutes, then error'd out telling me it couldn't find the destination folder that I pointed it to. Even though the folder was still sitting right there!

Then it refused to quit. It would just beep at me each time I tried to quit. So, Force Quit, and right to the trash with this one.  
(Version 0.7.1b)

TOMIS  It tells me it needs to download and instal a plugin?

Widgets should be self contained. They should not need to instal crap in my system in order to work. This is totally absurd. Right to the trash with this one. And a quick search for "unity" brings up the plugin sitting happily in my internet plugins folder. Right to the trash with that too.

They could have implemented this using flash or shockwave and had a seamless user experience. Heck, even Java 3D would have been a good idea.  
(Version 4.0)

TOMIS  It does one thing, it does it very well, it's under 1MB and it's free!!  
(Version 0.7)

TOMIS  Just a front-end for the built-in UNIX renice command. There are other, free, GUI front ends that do the same thing. No point in paying for something that's included with your OS already. Not to mention that it only "increases" the front application's performance by decreasing the performance of the rest of the OS.  
(Version 3.9)

TOMIS  Totally 100% froze my system while "Verifying startup disk" I couldn't even force-quit, had to force reboot my mac. Utter crap. Right to the trash with this one. So much for MacOS X being more stable than Windows.

If one app can bring down the whole OS so easily, imagine what a virus writer could do.. scary.

1Ghz G4 768MB RAM, OSX 10.4.9  
(Version 1.8b1)

TOMIS  Definitely cool. Unfortunately the "Invert Hue" only causes display distortion and nothing else. There are a couple other bugs as well. Still needs a bit of work, but it's definitely a good start.

So nice having all these settings in one place instead of having to use a combination of the Universal Access settings, and a program to alter the RGB gamma.

MacOS X 10.4.9 - iBook G4  
(Version 1.0.4)

TOMIS  This package of programs act in a way that can only be defined as spyware/trojan-horse.

Don't bother. Preview.app's deficiencies are not worth the loads of utter crap Adobe's PDF reader loads into your system against your will.

Someone should slap the engineers responsible for this, multiple times. And then fire them.  
(Version 8.0)

TOMIS  So lets see...

$35 for some 3rd part software that claims to convert any media format for the Apple TV

Or. $30 for QuickTime Pro from Apple, which actually does the job.

Which would you choose?  
(Version 3.1.9.0427)

TOMIS  A 10 second delay upon first run. Numerous disabled menu items that have clearly been left in place from an xCode project template.

It's quite obvious the developer is hoping to make a lot of money by charging for numerous small utility programs without exerting much effort in the development process.

The ironic thing is that he could have exerted his energies developing one program that is much more useful than all these little money-grabs.  
(Version 1.0.2)

TOMIS  The software certainly does its job. And in conjunction with the grayscale option in the "Universal Access" System Preference it is truly invaluable.

I just wish the developer had used Apple's developer tools to make this wonderful program. There's no reason it should be a bloated 8MB download.

Hopefully they will take the time to learn xCode and make a native program.  
(Version 2.2b4)

TOMIS  The interface include several innovate features. But this is offset by numerous bugs throughout the program. And it doesn't play WMV files even though I have Flip4Mac installed and Safari plays them fine!

Additionally they don't use tooltips at all in this program. This over-sight really needs to be corrected. Proper tooltip usage can replace the need for a help system.

This is definitely a beta release, not worthy of a 2.0 final release. Go back to the drawing board with this one guys.  
(Version 2.0)

TOMIS  Why-oh-why do first-time REALbasic user always have to tick the CustomBackgroundColor property and then choose the ugliest color they can find?

Ugly interface, huge application, I don't want to be mean. Everyone has to learn programming by doing silly/pointless projects, that's how I did. But don't expect the general public to be impressed by it.

This is not worthy of a 2.0  
(Version 2.0)

TOMIS  The company has apparently disappeared, their website is now an adult-entertainment portal.  
(Version 1.5.5)

TOMIS  A 14MB download, ok.... And a 40MB app, what? It takes 30MB RAM on launch. Not a good sign.

It certainly looks slick. But a novel interface is not always a good thing. A simple bezel-style interface with a grid of items would have been perfect.

Digging into the program package I can see why it's so bloated. The developer must have gone to the Apple school of software design. All of the graphics in the app are pre-rendered, with multiple copies, even down-sampled pre-renders.

It's supposed to be a clipboard extender, less is more. Be functional and stay out of my way, and don't eat up gobs of RAM.

Dear Mr. Developer; A little optimization effort goes a long way. If you don't have enough respect for your users to optimize your app, don't expect them to respect your work.  
(Version 4.0)

TOMIS  Basically this is just a package of pre-rendered images that you sync to your iPod. I'm suspicious as to why the installer requires my password just to dump a bunch of pictures somewhere.

A more efficient approach would of been to create a small program that generates the images on-the-fly.

The website claims "If you prefer to match your base color to a particular object, simply hold your iPod next to it. Again, a suggested color scheme will be automatically displayed in the corners."

How exactly do they propose that the iPod will know what object I'm holding next to it?

The usefulness of a digital color-wheel is undeniable for certain professions. But I question the approach the developer took to get there.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  Airport Utility is the app that will be replacing "Airport Admin Utility" and "Airport Setup Assistant" in Leopard.

Unfortunately, the installer refuses to instal Airport Utility if you don't have it already. You can easily get around this limitation by digging into the installer package (right-click > "Show Package Contents") and copying out the following file:

/Volumes/AirPortUtilityUpdate/AirPortBaseStationUp date2007001.mpkg/Contents/Packages/AirPortUtility. pkg/Contents/Archive.pax.gz

Just double-click the file and a new folder "Applications" will be created with "Airport Utility.app" inside.

So far I've had no problems configuring my AirPort Express with this release. Just wish Apple hadn't crippled the installer as this really is an improvement over the old interface.  
(Version 2007-001)

TOMIS  I keep hoping they'll get a clue about proper interface design on the Mac. But they never do.

Right now Opera feels like some weird 1990s experiment in feature over-kill. With an interface to match. They need to start by just ripping off Safari's interface, and then make some really smart improvements on it.

Personally, I prefer a minimalist interface. Forward/Back and address at the top, status bar at the bottom, and tabs only when they're needed.

All the other features should be designed around making my life easier while staying out of my way. See Safari for how to accomplish this.  
(Version 9.20b1)

TOMIS  It has many useful features. But, for being developed in Xcode the interface is surprisingly cluttered and decidedly not Mac-like.

Native controls (popup menus, text boxes) are eschewed in favor of odd custom-made implementations.

Maybe it's just suffering from growing to far too fast. Hopefully the developer will take some time to sit back and clean up the interface. I'll keep checking it out. But in the current state, I can't stand it.

I suppose really I just want Safari + useful developer add-ons.  
(Version 0.895)

TOMIS  If I need a generic desktop for a screenshot, I just set my desktop picture and quit the Finder. But this app has it's place.  
(Version 1.2)

TOMIS  Networked two macs together via direct Firewire cable. Couldn't get a usable framerate no matter what settings I tried. And there were numerous stability problems.

iMac G5 2ghz 512MB

iBook G4 1Ghz 768MB

It's a good tech demo, can't wait until it's actually useful. Combine it with some sort of wireless transmitter/receiver and you could have a really cool product.  
(Version 0.90)

TOMIS  Still no reason to use this over Dashboard.

I thought the sidebar might be cool, but it has numerous implementation flaws like the rest of the app.

I have to press fn-F7 for the global hotkey to work. Dashboard doesn't need the fn key. I can't drag widgets from the sidebar? Oh, I have to click them to load them. I set the sidebar to auto-hide, yet it still shows a sliver of it on-screen, wtf! How do I configure a widget? By right-clicking... and then messing with a clunky half-baked preferences window.

No-where nearly as elegant as Dashboard.

Still the same clunky interface, a long way to go in my book. And they're already at version 4?  
(Version 4.0)

TOMIS  Just a normal upgrade here, nothing noticeable to report. Interesting that they note iChat USB-cam support. Wonder what cams it supports?

Words of Advice:

* Repair permissions before/after instal

* Download the combo updates from http://support.apple.com/downloads , Partial updaters (ie, Software Update) have hosed my system in the past.  
(Version 10.4.9)

TOMIS  Well the program wouldn't work unless I paid and registered. I suppose I must have tried out a previous version at some point, so now it thinks my "trial period" is expired. So in order to test it I had to circumvent the registration system. Strike one.

Considering the market for these system configuration apps is pretty saturated, the only way to really stand out is to have a better interface or more features.

The interface is a bit cramped due to the wealth of features it supports, but it's generally quite clear. They definitely get points for having more features than their competitors.

However, there are several competitors to this program which are Free, and the program is a whopping 22MB! The developer would of done better to make the program in xCode or AppleScript Studio instead of REALbasic.

In summary: questionably huge file size, annoying and buggy registration system, competing apps are free and mostly on-par with features.  
(Version 2.2.4)

TOMIS  The core gameplay is pretty decent. But overall the movement through the levels is too slow, and the gameplay gets repetitive fast.

I found myself wondering "what do I get for clicking all these fish?" The game rewards you by taking you to the AquaPark where you can... watch the the fish. Boring!

As a mini-game inside of a bigger park-management type game this would be great. But as a stand-alone game it's just not that compelling.

Hopefully they'll take this into account for a sequel. But seeing how this company seams to be taking the carpet-bomb approach to game development, I doubt they really spend much time worrying about long-term playability. They are apparently owned by RealNetworks, so that may have something to do with it.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  Too dang complex. I suppose if I had time to sit down and read the manual thoroughly and play around with all the settings to learn this thing then I'd find it useful.

As it is, it's just too dang complex. They need to cut all these tabs and settings down to a couple sliders and a couple checkboxes.

Back to using iTunes' Sound enhancer and EQ for me. At least I don't need a giant manual to use it.  
(Version 2.2)

TOMIS  I've been watching Seashore develop. I keep hoping they'll add more of Gimp's effects.

I've become addicted to live previews in other apps, I hope they'll add it to Seashore.

Overall a good little app if you don't need all the power of a Photoshop or Gimp.  
(Version 0.1.8p3)

TOMIS  Personally I just put a folder full of aliases in the dock for quick launching without cluttering the dock. Right-click, start typing the name, hit return.

This app is pretty cool. The developer has put much work into making it easy to use and keyboard accessible.

But in the end, it doesn't provide enough added value for me to replace the aliases-in-a-folder technique.

A good feature would be if Overflow could quit after launching the desired program, this way it wouldn't be taking up memory when I don't need it.  
(Version 2.0.5)

TOMIS  Like MySpace, but with an even worse interface. It uses an odd mixture of stand alone application and web interface that just doesn't work well.

Many of the forms don't have "submit" buttons, closing such a form then asks you to submit it.

It incorrectly placed my location as being in New York, though I'm in California. I've updated my location but it still thinks I'm in New York!

There's no actual web interface to the service so you have to download this custom app to access it. This significantly educes the overall usefulness.

Bottom Line: Avoid  
(Version 0.65)

TOMIS  Well it certainly works. But I don't find it to be all that much more impressive than iTunes' already existent Sound Enhancer and EQ abilities.

I found the interface to be unnecessarily huge. It would be much better if they had fit it into a window the size of of the iTunes EQ window.

In summary, I'f rather put the $20 towards a better set of external speakers or headphones.  
(Version 1.1.6)

TOMIS  In case anyone doesn't know:

Try clicking on a background window while holding down the command key. You'll find that you can move, resize, even use controls in the background window without even bringing it to the front.

Obviously MondoMouse does much more than this, but that basic functionality is built in to the OS.  
(Version 1.3)

TOMIS  It's definitely a good start. Great interface.

It's very basic at the moment and the functionality is wanting in some areas. It's very promising.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  Overall the game was great. The gameplay can get a bit repetitive, but it stays a challenge. Definitely a good non-violent game for kids, and adults too!

And I give the wacky plotline 5 stars as well. Great job!  
(Version 1.0.3)

TOMIS  The program does its job, but it's 17.3MB!!

Do I need to say anything more? I just hope the developer learns xCode. A program like this shouldn't be more than 1MB.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  I wasn't very impressed. Upon initial run I had to access the help system to find out how to actually log on. The accounts menu provided no "Log In" option! Finally I found out you have to press the Home button to log in...

Then I started messing around. I found no ability to change the view from a list-style to a more useful iPhoto-style gallery. Short of going directly to a user's profile in Safari I did not find any obvious way to view a selected user's pictures or videos.

Clearly, a good amount of work has been put into this program. But, except for the minimal usefulness in being able to sort through your entire friend list, I found this program to be of little extra value beyond what MySpace already provides.  
(Version 1.2)

TOMIS  Well it does what it says. But due to the fact that it doesn't support dithering, the output from full-color images looks horrible.

I'll continue to use GifBuilder for now.  
(Version 4.0)

TOMIS  The reason for the absurd file size is due to absurdly bad design. The program stores all these "quotes" as hi-res JPEG files! The screen saver is made with iScreensaver, which if I remember correctly, makes it easy to package up quicktime movies/images into a shareware screen saver.

So essentially:

1. Use someone else's quotes.

2. Make hi-res images of the text of these quotes.

3. Use someone else's software to package these images into a screen saver.

4. Profit!!

My suggestion; go back to the drawing board with this one. Learn to use Xcode, look at apple's screen saver examples, and program it properly. A basic text-on-background screen saver like this should be a matter of a few hundred kb at most.

Heck, you could probably accomplish the same thing using Quartz Composer (included in the apple developer tools), not have to write a single line of code, and still have a small file size!  
(Version 5.0.3)

TOMIS  The download is 16MB for Universal, 10MB for PPC. I couldn't find a screen shot of the program anywhere on their website, if I had, I wouldn't have bothered downloading it. Too many palettes, too many menus. The program tries to be too many things at once, and it does none of them elegantly.

To be fair, you _can_ accomplish the tasks the program was designed for. It's not as if it's severely lacking in features.

The big problem is that it's a MacOS 9 interface with feature-creep being shoe-horned into a MacOS X existence. It just doesn't feel right.

For example; using the mouse scrollwheel changes the document zoom level instead of actually scrolling the document. This is a good metaphore for the interface on the whole.  
(Version 13.01)

TOMIS  Plop down $200 for a photo manager or buy iLife for $80 and get iPhoto and more? I don't think there's anything more one needs to ask themselves.

The cost of this program is so high, they must be targeting to pro-sumer space, and in that price range they're competing with Apple's Aperature program, Adobe's Lightroom, and various Photoshop competitors.

The program uses a cluttered MacOS 9 style interface. MacOS X has been out for 5 years now. Who do they think they're fooling?

Suggestion: Rewrite the program for MacOS X, focus on the features the program really needs, drop the other fluff, and bring the price down to earth.  
(Version 3.1.2)

TOMIS  Safari, Camino, Firefox, iCab, Opera. In that order.

Too many features, without sane defaults. And widgets? A built in mail client? Can you say feature bloat? The rest of us learned from the Mozilla suite; all-in-one mail/web/pagebuilder programs are a BAD idea.

Instead of adding nifty new features no one cares about, they need to go back and make the interface useable. Use standard interface elements, use the MacOS X toolbars.

If they're not going to stop insulting Mac users with bad Windows interface logic, then they should get off the platform entirely. This is like someone moving to a new country and absolutely refusing to learn the language. If you don't want to be here, then don't!  
(Version 9.0.2)

TOMIS  Hah. Allume's servers can't handle the bandwidth required. Maybe if their software wasn't so bloated then they wouldn't have this problem. 12MB just to decompress files! DropStuff is "only" 3.5MB in comparison. So funny.

Guess I'll have to wait a few days and try downloading again to see what all the fuss is about. Is it really that much faster at decompressing those ancient SIT files?  
(Version 11.0)

TOMIS  I've liked most of the previous versions. But this one is just a lemon.

* More custom interface junk, just use native widgets!

* Removes keyboard shortcut for the EQ window

* Removes ability to keep iPod Shuffle in the source list!

* New "Album Art Retrieval" did not retrieve album art for the majority of my music, making the album views totally useless. It can't even find the artwork for "Latter Days: Best Of Led Zeppelin".

* Album view eats an extra-ordinary amount of RAM and does not release it in an orderly fashion. A half hour after switching to mini-player mode and iTunes has only reduced it's RAM usage to 70MB

* It still uses that annoying modal dialog when "authorizing content", "rebuffering stream" etc. Modal dialogs that lock up the rest of the app are sooo 1999!!

Hopefully they'll fix these problems in 7.0.1, In the mean time, don't bother.  
(Version 7.0)

TOMIS  Well my first reaction is very negative. Running the program sends it into a never ending loop of starting up and crashing. I can't even kill the stupid thing from Activity Monitor! The only way out of it is to log out of my machine.

Yes, the readme warns against running it from the disk image. But this is a mac, we expect software to "just work"! If the program can't run from a locked disk image then either fix it or don't ship it on a locked disk image!

Rubbish.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  The download is dead as is the homepage, a quick Google search could not locate a new website. Is this program dead in the water?  
(Version 1.0b1)

TOMIS  I found it to be extremely buggy. It wasn't able to access an image on the clipboard at all when no other Mac app had a problem with the clipboard image.

Then when opening a JPEG of aprox. 2500x1900 it threw an out of memory error, which is an absolute joke on a 768MB system that had 160MB free at the time. Considering Preview.app opened the same image flawlessly, what gives?

I would give it thumbs down. Maybe wait until they do a Cocoa/Java port? Who knows. It just doesn't feel very polished at this point.  
(Version 1.3.7m)

TOMIS  Well it took me a bit to figure out how to use the new interface. But after stumbling around I got it figured out.

Much better than the old one. Now Gizmo has an even longer way to go to catch up.

Would be nice if there was a "hold music" feature and automatic conversation archiving (ie, recording) would be nice.

Overall, a very nice update.  
(Version 1.5.0.48)

TOMIS  Well it is highly buggy.

The interface needs a lot of work to feel like a native Mac program. It does the basic task of playing MP3s from the hard drive. But everything else is sketchy.

I'll keep an eye on this and hope it improves by leaps and bounds by the time it reaches 1.0  
(Version 0.2)

TOMIS  Though I think this program is quite silly and I have no need for it, it is a prime example of a proper mac program.

The interface is clean and it is very easy to operate. Kudos for excellent software design!  
(Version 0.1)

TOMIS  Considering the price point, I was expecting this to be a professional application aimed at the Apple Aperture crowd.

And then I used the program and discovered it's a Java program (need I say more?). And unfortunately it holds up to all the stereo-types we've come to associate with Java.

The editing interface is actually well done. But the whole program is slow, the controls aren't totally mac-like and the interface for navigating your photo directories is very poor.

I'm sure the developers know what they need to do to improve this program.  
(Version 1.5)

TOMIS  Gizmo has better feedback cancelation than Skype. They both accomplish the basic VOIP functionality well.

Gizmo's Call-Out within the US is 1¢ while Skype's is 2¢ normally (Skype's call out is free for the rest of the year).

Considering the features of Skype and Gizmo are essentially the same, I found Gizmo's interface to be cluttered and confusing. I also find Skype's interface to be cluttered, but Gizmo's is far worse.

The better solution would be for Skype and Gizmo to both contract with Apple to add support for their protocols into iChat so we don't have to suffer with these bad Windows-ported interfaces.

Overall I'd say Gizmo has a better feature set. But the interface is so horrible that even Skype is better in comparison.  
(Version 2.0.0.161)

TOMIS  Surprisingly, VirtualPC 5 on a 1GHz G4 iBook noticably outperforms Q on a 2Ghz iMac G5 , both running a fresh instal of Windows 98

I didn't do any benchmarking. I'm going purely based on how fast it feels.

Performance problems aside, it does exactly what it says. It does it easier than the other free PC emulation software, and hey it's free!

I'd like to see performance optimizations for the Intel emulation on PowerPCs but the Qemu team is probably focusing on getting intel virtualization working now.

A great overall product, it shows a lot of promise!  
(Version 0.8.1a35)

TOMIS  Well that's great that they have source code that can possibly be compiled to hopefully create a usable binary. But we're on a Mac, we want binaries and we want them to "just work."

The latest MacOS X binary is version 2.1.1, which might as well be the source code. It just tells me to run a script, which then runs Bochs from the terminal, which asks me to load some configuration file, and there is no information on where to obtain one of these files or how to make one. Yes, I read the read me. Useless.

Granted, I understand it takes alot of effort to wrap these things up elegantly in order to make them just work. But, until they have a real GUI front end on this thing, don't bother. Check out Q, or just get VPC or Parallels.   
(Version 2.3pre2)

TOMIS  I'm sure there will be a way to hack Boot Camp to run on a G4. It will probably happen right after someone figures out how to hack Windows to run natively on a G4, that is to say, never.

Seriously, the only other OS you can run on a G4 would be MacOS 9 on some models or Linux. Both of these already have procedures for working so there's no need for BootCamp on G4s.  
(Version 1.0.2beta)

TOMIS  If for some reason your application must instal crap in the system then use the Apple Instal Package Maker. And include an un-instal script.

Otherwise a compressed DMG or just compressing the app are the way to do things on the mac. A 3rd party installer immediately screams "shoddy developer" to me and I'd imagine most other users as well.  
(Version 3.6.2.152)

TOMIS  It's a step in the right direction. But it's basically just a new face on the old messenger. There's still no Yahoo! Chat support, still no voice.

At least there's someone working on it again, so maybe the Mac version will finally catch up to the PC version's feature list.  
(Version 3.0b1)

TOMIS  To greatly reduce the CPU usage, simply put the player into mini view. You toggle in and out of mini view by pressing the green widget in the titlebar.

Once in mini view, drag the resize widget to make the window as small as possible. Sure you won't be able to see the current song info, but a right click on the iTunes icon in the dock will tell you that.

Additionally, turning off EQ, Sound Enhancer, and Cross Fading will reduce CPU usage further. Remember, the less processing/animation a program has to do, the less CPU it will take!

Hope that helps!  
(Version 6.0.5)

TOMIS  I don't mean to be a downer but, we already have enough browsers. The major two browsers, Safari and Firefox, are open source. A better use of the developer's energy would be to help out on one of those projects instead of re-inventing the wheel, it offers nothing new.  
(Version 1.0 Alpha)

TOMIS  This is one excellent piece of software, it is exactly what I was looking for. The only needed feature would be the ability to have multiple expression windows, and it has that too! The program is extremely compact as well.

Well done guys!  
(Version 2.02)

TOMIS  The good: It doesn't force you to use it's weird directory structure like iPhoto does. It doesn't take forever and a half to start up. It's free.

The bad: Horribly clunky interface. Tried to import all photo's from my Pictures folder without asking me first.

The break down: Good features suffer due to a bad interface.

For the money they're investing in development of this app they'd do better to go back to the beginning. Rip off iPhoto's interface pixel-for-pixel, and then improve it. As it is, it feels a cheep PC-esque iPhoto wanna-be, not a mature Mac app.  
(Version 5.2.2)

TOMIS  For what it is designed to do, I give it a thumbs up.

For how well it actually does it, thumbs down.

Whenever I try to call a landline from skype, the program freezes up. For some reason, when I go to log out of my computer, this un-freezes skype, and it proceeds to dial the number without a problem.

Very aggravating.   
(Version 1.4.0.49)

TOMIS  The only major difference I see between this and the multitude of other system settings apps is that this program is written in REALbasic and thusly won't be able to be a Universal Binary for quite a while yet.

That being said, it does as advertised. No better, no worse.  
(Version 2.0.8)

TOMIS  I find it inspiring that a complex simulation such as this is only 64k. It could easily have ended up being some slow 5MB java joke. But instead the developer went with efficient design. Kudos sir.

Perhaps MacUpdate can see fit to place this program in a more appropriate category than "Games"

It gives hope that there are still programmers who can write compact efficient code. Especially on MacOS X.  
(Version 0.680)

TOMIS  This is the iPhoto 6.0.3 updater, it updates iPhoto 6. If you want to go from iPhoto 5 to iPhoto 6, buy iLife '06 from Apple.  
(Version 6.0.3)

TOMIS  Cute! The "dead" chia is hilarious too.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  Still can't play RM through QT eh? Maybe we should nudge those Flip4Mac guys to make an RM plugin in addition to their great WMV plugin.  
(Version 10.1 (412))

TOMIS  The installer stupidly requires a password. No, I don't want to grant system access to an application installer when drag & drop works fine for everything else! I manually pulled the app out of the installer package, it runs fine.

Functionally, the program is great, but the interface doesn't feel natural at all. It's much too cluttered and non-standard.

It would be nice if it could simply tie-in to iTunes for MP3 conversion. As it is i just converted my OGG files to AIFF, then converted them to MP3 in iTunes.  
(Version 2.5.3)

TOMIS  Sounds interesting.

But the interface is not Mac friendly at all. It doesn't appear to support quicktime formats ; .mov and .mp4 files dont show up in the file viewer.

The interface is so confusing though, who knows.

In any case I won't be bothering with this app again.  
(Version 0.952)

TOMIS  Where's a screenshot?

I downloaded it and it says it's a haxie, but the requirements on MU don't say that.

So what is it, just a replacement theme file?

I'm not gonna risk hosing my system to find out.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  I like the initial idea of this program. However, the implementation is horrible.

* the various filters process the ENTIRE image, thusly causing it to take forever

* the image processing took so much CPU for a 9x filter that the system was unresponsive to cmd-opt-del (the force quit combo), causing me to force restart rather than wait

* the registration nag screen comes up incessantly, very annoying

* overall interface could be cleaned up a bit, feels a bit thrown-about

* it doesn't have an option to "RealZoom" an actual portion of the screen, major drawback

If the author would optimize the program to use block processing and only process what is going to be visible to the user, then the program would actually be usable.  
(Version 1.5)

TOMIS  Positives:

* excellent straightforward interface

* good number of effects

Negatives:

* unusually slow (compared to other CoreImage apps)

* no effects stacking

* no layering

Summary: Poor performance and a limited feature-set hamper what could be a powerful application.  
(Version 2.0)

TOMIS  Positives:

* choice of complex or simple interface

* underlying functionality of this program is excellent

Negatives:

* clumsy interface, needs to be streamlined

* undo system records too many steps

Summary: I really like this program. They have the foundation of a killer app here. Lots of ability for various image manipulations. Unfortunately, the interface is really holding it back right now.  
(Version 1.6)

TOMIS  It was an april fool's joke bro. You might wanna look at facts a little more clearly next time.  
(Version 0.89.1)

TOMIS  I suppose this is for people who find MacOS X's built in screenshot keyboard shortcuts too hard to press?

The design of this widget is superb but; I don't see how this offers any advantage over simply holding command-control-shift-4 (or 3) , pasting into Preview.app, cropping however I want , and saving under whatever format i want.

Perhaps it's indicative of how little people use Apple's help system. Someone commented how it's great that the widget lets you capture other widgets. You can do that already.

Press the aforementioned keyboard shortcut, and then hit the space bar, mouse over the window/widget/menu you want to capture, and click. Bam! Easy.  
(Version 2.2)

TOMIS  So it's a REALbasic program that sticks flash movies into a template application which, presumably is also made with Real Basic.

Though I didn't get a chance to dig that deeply into it because well, the program is just too painful.

* Build times are slow on a 2GHz G5

* the preview insists on auto-playing in the background and you have to bring it to the front to shut it off.

* the toolbar is just a row of buttons that changes the tabs for you, what a waste!

* The price is about how much you would pay for REAL Basic anyway. You could easily set up a template project to accomplish most of what Zinc does.

This seams like a get-rich-quick scheme if I ever heard one.

All that being said; The silly thing can't even be run from the locked disk image it is distributed on! It throws a nil object exception. Which makes me wonder how well the designers really thought this one out.  
(Version 2.5.0.12)

TOMIS  Well at least they're fixing bugs. But RB5.5 is still the last usable version.

* RB2006 build sizes are still too large

* RB2006 still doesn't compile intel-native apps

* Performance is still worse than 5.5

* The interface still needs major re-designing

REAL Software knows about these major problems but they refuse to fix them. RB has become a Rapid Application Development Environment without the "Rapid".  
(Version R2)

TOMIS  You don't need extra software get this sort of functionality from MacOS X. Simply set up restricted accounts for users and you can determine which programs they can access.

You can do this in the Accounts section of System Preferences (accessible under the apple menu)

In the Security section of the System Preferences you can also set automatic logout after a period of inactivity.

Hope someone finds this informative.  
(Version 1.0)

TOMIS  Positive: Works fine, does what it says.