
Pulsar | May 19 2009 |
BIGDAVE56 Great interface, great features, but runs my 1.2 G4 CPU (OK,OK, I know) at almost 100%. Running any other app simultaneously causes the audio to sputter. Saw another post asserting inferior audio quality to StarPlayr; wonder if this might be why. Probably not a prob on mighty Intel machines. Could not get StarPlayr to play a thing though. (Version 1.5) | |
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Gimp | Feb 18 2009 |
BIGDAVE56 I really like the GIMP, and applaud the developer for supporting us PPC dinosaurs. However, 2.6.5 continues a bug that was introduced in 2.6.4- some menu items and hover balloons inexplicably appear in Spanish. I have enough Spanish savvy to guess what's what for the most part, but this is really kind of annoying. (Version 2.6.5) | |
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SiriusMac | Dec 17 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 Five stars???? For what exactly? Spent 15 minutes and can't get app to do a damn thing. Only asked for 'captcha' code on first launch. Subsequently get 'login successful' and 'requesting' screen messages.... Then nothing......zzzzzzzzzz...... No 'Help' whatsoever within the app.... No hover bubbles.... No documentation of any kind... 'BaseImage Not Defined' error on almost every click... Phooey. (Version 2.3) | |
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Gimp | Dec 11 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 Like GIMP a lot. Maybe it is not as full-on powerful as Photoshop, but then, most users probably don't even use most of the power Elements has. On my 1.2 GHz G4 w/1.2 GB of RAM it runs as fast as Pshop CS2 or Pixelmator. The nomenclature is a little different than Adobe but if you are familiar with other image editors you'll figure it out. Download the Applescript 'Turn On X11 focus follows mouse' for enhanced usability. There is also one called (IIRC) 'X11 96dpi' which makes the menu fonts look the same size as OSX apps. Only big item on my feature want list is 16-bit color depth support. Not aware of any editors that do that that don't cost $600. I also applaud lisanet.de for not pulling support for us PPC hangers-on. This version is the basis of this review. Nicely done and good stability too. (Version 2.6.3) | |
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WireTap Studio | Dec 4 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 I'm not going to comment on the app feature set except to agree with another poster that input level control and metering are lacking. There are meters, but they are tiny and uncalibrated (except for changing color at overload). There is no support for VST plugins according to the developer, yet, strangely, the installer reports several times during the process 'installing VST plugin'. Most of that reflects personal preference, but I have one major beef, and that is with the licensing process. Instead of the license lasting the life of the product, like essentially every other app on the market,you have to renew periodically. For me, that always seems to happen when I haven't used the app in awhile and am trying to capture something in a hurry. Worse, instead of telling you what the frak the issue is, the app simply crashes at launch if the license has already expired. Luckily, previous experience with this problem led me to the solution, which was to reinstall the app, which puts it in trial mode. Then you have to go to Licensing under the Wiretap menu and enter your license key (hope you saved it so you could look it up, another hoop to jump through). Only then does Wiretap tell you that your license is expired and you need to renew. Fortunately, once you get to that point, it only takes a few more seconds. But it is a total PITA that does nothing to make me want to use the app. I would go so far as to say it is the most annoying license process I have ever seen. Partly as a result of all this, I use Audio Hijack Pro a lot more. I don't have to go through the above irritation, it has usable metering (and support for plugin options like PSP VintageMeter, which I love), and I don't have to squint at it to use it. Overall, the three stars seems to be in the ballpark. It has some interesting features, but... (Version 1.0.6) | |
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Ardour | Dec 6 2008 |
THE VALRUS Read the replies to the comment immediately preceding yours. (Version 2.7.4296) | |

VLC Media Player | Oct 8 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 I got a Mac four years ago. VLC was in beta then. VLC is still in beta- four years later. Now, no Quartz Extreme, no VLC. Thanks guys. Maybe I'll be back when I have the scratch for a new mac in a year or so. Maybe not. VLC might be up to 0.9.8 or so by then. (Version 0.9.4) | |
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OmniWeb | Sep 26 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 I bought OmniWeb early in v5, when it was $30. I like the customizability and many features, but I have frequent rendering problems too. In addition, I have problems dragging text from one place in another inside a text form, like when you want to rearrange words in a paragraph on a BB. This very basic functionality, which works on every other browser on my Mac, has been broken in OmniWeb for close to a year (Omni is aware of it.) Some of the previously unique features, like graphic tabs and individualized site preferences, have started to show up in open source browsers. As a result of all this, I seldom use it anymore. Makes me sad because I see wasted potential. (Version 5.8) | |
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ProtectMac AntiVirus | Aug 13 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 Oh, and a followup about iAntivirus: It is Intel-only. I discovered this after managing not to see this fact anywhere on their website, and after their installer failed to detect that it was being installed on an unsupported architecture, which hardly gives me confidence in the product. (Version 0.9.1) | |
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ProtectMac AntiVirus | Aug 13 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 I agree $45 seems overpriced, esp for what may just be a gussied-up version of ClamXAV. That's why I stopped using Intego's VirusBarrier: It never found a single thing, which means either there was no threat, or it didn't work, period. ClamXAV *WILL* quarantine infected files, but won't "sanitize" them. But on my machine, it has never detected a threat either. iAntivirus looks interesting but its small footprint is apparently achieved at the cost of omitting windoze viruses from the db- fine for protecting your mac, but doesn't do anything to protect windows users you may share files with. Just my 2 cents. (Version 0.9.1) | |
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ProtectMac AntiVirus | Aug 13 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 Oh, and a followup about iAntivirus: It is Intel-only. I discovered this after managing not to see this fact anywhere on their website, and after their installer failed to detect that it was being installed on an unsupported architecture, which hardly gives me confidence in the product. (Version 0.9.1) | |

ProtectMac AntiVirus | Dec 17 2008 |
MACMUSER iAntivirus is, arguably, a better program than ClamX and as it's free is considerably better than Protect Mac. In addition, iAntivirus is quicker than ClamX, it's checker for incoming files and attachments does not quit as ClamX's Folder Sentry does and as a bog-standard application iAntivirus is easy to quit the whole thing if necessary. ClamX shoves bits of itself deep into the Library. (Version 1.0.2) | |

Apple iPhoto | Jul 22 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 So why did you give it three stars, that doesn't seem to phase up with any of your comments. Just curious. (Version 7.1.4) | |
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Microsoft Expression Media | Jun 1 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 Good catch. How embarrassing is that- posting a screen shot (that is nothing but a splash screen anyway) containing a legal threat. That is laughable even by M$ $tandard$. I was eligible for the free upgrade to Expre$$ion, but am already scanning the landscape for potential substitutes, because I have little hope that M$ won't **** it up, or even drop Mac support entirely, sooner or later. (Version 2.0.1447) | |
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Pixelmator | May 12 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 1.2 a disaster for me. Completely broken on my ibook G4. I have the white palettes too along with blank white boxes and cannot open an image. Unfortunately I did not save my earlier dmg so I cannot revert. I am SOL for the time being as far as Pixelmator goes; at least GIMP finally works as of recently and Graphic Converter is reliable if homely. I am sure that Pixelmator, which is aggressively maintained and upgraded, will be patched in short order. I classify this release as a "growing pains" release of a very promising app. (Version 1.2) | |
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Pixelmator | May 11 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 You don't need to buy Elements to get web-export preview... Graphic Converter will do it, at less than half the price. (Version 1.2) | |
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GIMP (wilber-loves-apple X11 version) | May 6 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 Not sure why this is only popping up now, this release has been out for a month. But anyway, this is the first GIMP release that has worked on my G4/1.2 iBook since Leopard came out. I used to use Gimpshop (broken under Leopard) but haven't heard even a burp about a Leopard update to that. I am also using the latest XQuartz update to X11, not the horribly broken version from the 10.5 disk. Thanks to the developers and testers from both communities for making X11 and dependent apps usable again. (Version 2.4.5) | |
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XQuartz | Apr 15 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 I give this release 5 stars for the simple reason that it finally ended the nightmare that has been X11 since Leopard. That started out with X11 apps (main ones I have used are GIMP, Gimpshop, and more recently Inkscape) launching and turning up in the Dock but never opening a window. About four months later, things had progressed to the point where I could open the GIMP. actually get a window up, and apply between 3 and 8 clone stamp edits before GIMP crashed. Inkscape continued to not even bring up a window. It launches now but stability not tested yet. And it isn't even represented as Leopard compatible. GIMP tested OK and may actually be usable now. Thanks to the XQuartz community for making X11 useful again. (Version 2.2.0.1) | |
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Adobe Photoshop Elements | Mar 28 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 Windows version has a downloadable trial. Mac version does not. (Thanks, Adobe.) May be irrelevant for me, but I wanted to know if my iBook 1.2GHz would run it, as it meets every requirement EXCEPT video RAM (64mb; I have 32). Guess I'll have to stick with my old PE3, which runs fine despite Adobe's warnings, or GIMP if I can ever get it to run for more than three edits without crashing, or Pixelmator. But I was hoping to get E6's 16-bit editing support which none of the above have. Guess I better start saving for a replacement for Ol' Faithful (sigh....) (Version 6.0) | |
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Adobe Photoshop Elements | Apr 15 2008 |
M. LUTHER As of Today I went to Adobe's website and on the Photoshop Elements for Mac page their is a link to a free trial. (Version 6.0) | |

Bean | Mar 26 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 This is a dandy little lightweight word processor that will likely meet the basic WP needs of the "average" user who just wants to create a typo-free letter, book report, etc. Loads and runs fast, and you'll be unlikely to need to look at any documentation. I have Pages 08 (Word is banished) and like it, but I think Bean will see some fairly regular use for quick n' simple document creation. (For one thing, it can save directly to .doc format, without having to 'export' and have two copies of the same document, in different formats.) Haven't tried the page layout features yet, but the cool 'alternate colors' mode may save eyestrain (and for laptop users, battery power). A very nice app that the developers should be proud of. (Version 1.0) | |
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Bean | Mar 27 2008 |
TEDSTOUTPA Bean is indeed a nice little App. However, when I tried to save a Bean doc in Word 2003 format, the doc would not open in correctly in Word 2004. | |

Monolingual | Mar 23 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 Firstly, it isn't Monolingual's fault if the user doesn't read the readme file. Agree about the default setting suggestions though. But architectures aren't the real hogs- language support is. So the only architecture I remove is G3. (I am pretty sure I won't be buying a G3 machine.) The app tells you what architecture your machine has. On one pass, Monolingual removed one point nine GIGS. Just ran it again after the latest round of Apple updates- space reclaimed 487 MEGS, the equivalent of a complete Microsoft Orifice installation. I uncheck all versions of English, and Spanish, and remove everything else. If you have an older Mac with a smaller HD, this app is a must for you. Cleaning out your printers and running this app may save you 3-4GB. If you don't use GarbageBand, then run cleanapp or appzapper, several more gigs for something useful. No problems with breaking Apple Mail or any other apps here on my G4; however, as usual, YMMV. (Version 1.3.8) | |
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GIMPshop | Feb 21 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 Forget Gimpshop under Leopard for the time being. It crashes every time. Ironically, this is actually an improvement, as since Leopard/X11 change, it wouldn't even launch except for parking its icon in the dock. I blame this on the new X11 as included in Leopard. Just got (finally) the 2.4 PPC version of Gimp running on my 1.2ghz iBook after the 10.5.2 and x.org X11-1.2.4 updates, so I will be using that while I watch for a Leopard-usable version of Gimpshop, hopefully based on the 2.4.x Gimp. Apple doesn't appear to have done a whole lot to assure X11 functionality under 10.5.2. Guess they expect you to spend $600 for P-shop. Ain't happenin'... (Version 2.2.11) | |
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TechTool Deluxe | Feb 9 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 Whew! I thought it was just me. I got about 6-10K on two different broadband connections. FWIW, I had just downloaded an update of about the same size from another developer over the same wifi network. That one downloaded at 384K. (Version 3.1.2) | |
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OnyX | Feb 3 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 I have always liked Onyx but the download must come from a server on a Mac Mini in somebody's basement, takes forever to download, starts off OK and then starts going slower.... and slower.... and slower... and slower... As i write this the download has slowed from 400K at the first few seconds after start to a glacial 25K now... Download has been running almost 10 minutes. Happens every version. Contribute to this very useful app so it can be moved onto a server that is equally useful. (Version 1.9.2) | |
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OnyX | Feb 16 2008 |
TWELVEIGHTYONE I often wondered if it was just me who had seriously slow download speeds on OnyX! Same as you, starts off promisingly, then slows to a crawl. (Version 1.9.2) | |

OnyX | Feb 18 2008 |
MACNERD1984 Mac Mini? I think it could well be a Performa 630, given the speed I get. :) It is pretty crummy - 29K or something here on a 20 Mb connection.... Definitely worth a contribution if it helps the dev get a better hosting solution. (Version 1.9.3) | |

OnyX | Feb 18 2008 |
GUILLAUMEK OnyX is hosted at free.fr, a french internet provider. Usually very fast and reliable. I'm downloading OnyX at 800KB/s on a 20M dsl line. (Version 1.9.3) | |

The Missing Sync for Palm OS | Jan 13 2008 |
BIGDAVE56 This app still needs serious work IMO. Failed to recognize synced calendars from previous versions. Went into conduit settings and selected the calendars I wanted. Events still don't show up in iCal. Told me user profile could not be synced because of conduits not existing and that I should edit profile. When I clicked 'OK', profile selection cleared, making it impossible to edit profile (and no information as to what needed to be edited was provided anyway.) Setup Assistant failed to recognize or rectify either of these problems. Sync was dramatically slower than v5.x under Tiger, especially considering all the information it failed to sync. Think upgrade is overpriced also, frankly. A major disappointment. This is as a longtime user of versions 4 and 5. (Version 6.0.2) | |
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The Missing Sync for Palm OS | Jan 30 2009 |
A COOK I am so VERY VERY frustrated with Missing Sync 6.0.4 I have had the same errors. In my case it is the Contacts / Notes that are not syncing. It appears that they go through BUT then if you make a change Missing Sync duplicates the contact. Even if you ask to find duplicates it does not register them as there is a slight difference. I have been in contact - well I should say I have gone to Missing Sync Tech support and left an email message but have had no response. I have also spent over 1 hr on the phone with a product specialist with Mac and they have had no luck. What has been established is that Missing Sync 5.1.2 works but has its limitations. But the upgrade to 6.0.4 is not compatible with Mac Book Pro even though Mark Space / Missing Sync say that it is. The Product Specialist says that Mark Space / Missing Sync needs to put a fix in for it and do an update. But since you can not get through to them, then I am SOL. Anyone got the fix yet?? (Version 6.0.4) | |

TypeTrainer4Mac | Dec 8 2007 |
BIGDAVE56 Very nice app. I am a poor typist and tried Mavis Beacon. Lots of graphics but poor documentation and assumes at least a medium degree of proficiency. TT4Mac is all you need- just the essentials, no frills. (Version 2.9.1) | |
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Mail.appetizer | Oct 30 2007 |
BIGDAVE56 Adds very useful functionality and as someone else said, don't know what I'd do without it. Feels like an integral part of the app, which is the highest compliment I can give a third-party plug-in. All software should be this good. I want to know about Leopard-readiness also. (Not doing the early-adopter thing this time.) (Version 1.2b4) | |
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