HOBOJOE  I fully agree with Carlos85. It's great that I don't have to go digging around on the Movie Magic site for updates.

However, I should point out that they do have a ton of video tutorials on their site for anyone looking to get a handle on this app.

I also agree about Screenwriter's UI. It's very dated, and could use some serious updating. Regardless, it's currently the app to beat.  
(Version 6.0.5.140)

HOBOJOE  Oh, and for the record, Rob.H seems like a genuine MacUpdate user. You can click on his name and see that he's been around on the site for some time.

Didn't want to imply that he's purposefully posting illicit links here.

:o)  
(Version 1.8.2)

HOBOJOE  I checked out the link you provided. Guess what pops up? A warning from Google Safe Browsing that visiting the page may infect my computer with malware.

Luckily, I'm on a Mac, and chances are I'm safe. And yes, this could just be a "mistake" on Google's part.

But I'm guessing that may be why you're getting marked down on your comments.  
(Version 1.8.2)

HOBOJOE  Jerry,

Pretty funny crack with "Spiderpig." Being a Simpsons fan, that made me laugh :)

But you're wrong.

Go to Dropbox's site, and click on "Install" at the bottom of the home page. What features does Dropbox tout? I'll give you a hint. The second one is "Backup," right there between "Synchronization" and "Sharing." Hope you can find it!

And then there's the matter of Dropbox Pro (vs. Dropbox Basic... both are Dropbox, so please don't try to argue that they're different services). For $10 a month, they'll even sell you 50 GB of storage.

Look, if they said, "We'll terminate your contract if we find you're abusing our bandwidth," hopefully after a warning or something, we wouldn't be having this discussion. But "without cause" and "without warning"? That's not right.

Special thanks to DoobieXX for the hearty defense ;)  
(Version 0.6.507)

HOBOJOE  I've been using Domainer for a while now, tracking about 50 domains or so. It's been very stable, and it's got some great features. It's been a very handy tool, and I haven't had a single issue with it.

There are definitely improvements to be made, and this release with definable fields is a good step towards that goal.

Some of the comments below are just so outlandish. I can't remember the last time any application "took down the whole computer." Of course, we've all seen applications hang, but that's what "Force Quit" is for.  
(Version 1.9)

HOBOJOE  First of all, let me say that I agree with the other commenters here: Equinux's policies are idiotic, antagonistic to their customers, and annoying as hell. They make you jump through so many hoops just so you can buy their software. It's really flabbergasting.

Then, they are incredibly stingy with their licensing. Basically, you get to use their software with one computer. That's it. And you have to go through the same rigamarole to activate, deactivate, etc. In this day and age, the only other company that I personally know of to use these same draconian measures is Final Draft. And if you're unfamiliar with how they're doing, well, let's just leave it at that.

Finally, their upgrade pricing is even stingier. I own CoverScout v.2, and they give you a $10 discount to upgrade to v.3. That would be very generous if the price was, say, $20, but it's not. It's $40, meaning an upgrade price of $30. (BTW, I've written to the company, expressing this.)

Now, after all of that, let me say that SongGenie is the only app of its kind that really works. I have a bunch of songs that don't have names or any usable metadata, and I was hoping to somehow figure out what they are.

I tried Jaikoz ($22 ugly ugly ugly Java app) and that didn't find any of my songs that didn't have good metadata. None. Its audio fingerprinting is totally useless.

I also tried MusicBrainz Picard (free), and well, that was only a bit better. It found a couple of the songs in my test, but strangely, it kept throwing out suggestions that were obviously incorrect.

I even tried using Shazam on my iPhone to see if it could find out who any of these tracks were by. It did okay with more dynamic tracks, but not so hot with softer, more ambient music.

SongGenie did very well. In my test, it only failed to identify one track. Pretty impressive.

It's also decent-looking, although it could use a nice whack from a subtlety hammer. The interface has some garish colors, and they have various column headings stuck together, so they blend into one big blue blob.

Some other design choices need to be reconsidered too, like the lack of the ability to just open a folder. You have to add folders and directories in the Preferences, which is silly. And the tiny little warning message in the bottom right corner could be more informative and easier to see and read.

However, the little flags it pops up are cute, and overall, the app is fun to use. Seriously. You can't help but get a little thrilled when you finally find out who that one song is by!

The big frustration, then, comes strictly from the company's policies and treatment of their customers. I really, really didn't want to give them any more of my money. But I did, since SongGenie was the only application, in my experience, that did what I needed.

I hope this helps others, and if you do end up buying any of their products, please be vocal about your displeasure with their policies if you do indeed agree with what I've said here.  
(Version 1.1)

HOBOJOE  The following is taken from Dropbox's policies page:

Dropbox reserves the right to revoke your access to and use of the Site, Content, Files and Services at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice. Dropbox also reserves the right to cease providing or to change the Site, Content, Files or Services at any time and without notice.

Is this not disturbing for a service that purports to back up and keep your data? They can stop me from using their service at any time, WITH or WITHOUT cause or notice? I'm sorry, but I need to be able to trust that my invaluable data is safe and that I can access it at any time, not subject to the whims of some company's policies.

I realize this may just be "standard" legal crap, but by contrast, SpiderOak does not have the same language in their policy. (Yes, I'm a paying customer of SpiderOak, and despite their high cost and mediocre client software, I feel secure that my data is safe.)

Dropbox needs to change this ridiculous policy.  
(Version 0.6.456)

HOBOJOE  Nonsense. I've contacted them several times, and have always received an answer within a day. There are too many ways, e.g., junk mail filters, network issues, user error, etc., that modern communication gets interrupted for you to make a pronouncement on a company's reliability based on one poor experience.

I asked the Dropbox people a question about their policies and never got a response. Should I make a big deal out of it?  
(Version 2.3.6332)

HOBOJOE  I've been evaluating just about all of the transcription software for the Mac, and InqScribe definitely comes out on top for me. My requirements were:

- Transcribe video and audio easily

- Work with various formats and codecs

- Timecode support

- Work with my USB foot pedal (Infinity/ ECS IN-USB-1, a very popular model)

The free Espress Scribe works with my foot pedal, but only works with audio files.

Transcriva has a decent interface, but doesn't work with my foot pedal. In fact, it only supports two models, each of which supply their own interface software.

Transcriptions, also free, and not updated in a long time, doesn't work with my pedal.

Annotation Transcriber says it supports foot pedals, but I couldn't figure out how, and couldn't get support from the company.

InqScribe is priced much higher than all of the above, but also offers some very cool features the others don't, like the ability to create subtitles for video, and integration with Final Cut Studio. I haven't tested these out yet, but as someone who works in post production, these would be very handy for me.

Lastly, I contacted the developer and asked whether the app was still in development since it hasn't been updated in a year. They responded within 24 hours, and said it is, and to expect a new release soon.  
(Version 2.0.5)

HOBOJOE  Does exactly what it says, and works well. I particularly like the slide-out drawer/ paper tape facsimile.  
(Version 2.2.2)

HOBOJOE  You haven't used the application, yet you feel justified in giving it a one-star review?

You could have left a comment, as I am doing, or communicated with the developer, who could have remedied the situation.

But your sense of outrage and indignation at such a small offense allowed you to basically deprive the developer of potential income by drastically lowering the perceived quality of his product.

What an upstanding person you are!

(I have no affiliation with the developer whatsoever. This was an app I was interested in, and wanted to read other users' experience with it.)  
(Version 1.2)

HOBOJOE  Man, people really need to stop overreacting. One of the commenters below is basically comparing the Linotype people to drug dealers!

"They give ya the first taste for free, but once yer hooked, it's gonna cost ya!"

It's obvious Linotype's business model didn't work. FontExplorer was supposed to be like iTunes, where you use its organizational and browsing features, but also its "Font Store" feature as well. Well, we all know that fonts are probably just as pirated as music tracks are, so the income Linotype was hoping for didn't happen.

So should they throw away this perfectly good app and stop developing it? Or should they try to leverage it into a new business model?

You can buy FontExplorer Pro for $39 now until the end of February. That's a very reasonable price, much cheaper than the other options out there.

I am in no way affiliated with Linotype. In fact, I'll even say that Fontcase looks really good too, and holds lots of promise for a 1.0 app. And it's only $45.

But let's take the drama down a notch, okay? Save your indignation for something that really deserves it.  
(Version 2.0)

HOBOJOE  This is an update to my comments below. I am in no way associated with the developer, and am only being so verbose because this application is something I've been looking for for a long time.

I did hear back from the developer within the 3 days promised with helpful info. I went ahead and purchased the app, and this review is based on 1.0.2.

They got the Safari import fixed. It's manual, meaning you have to export your bookmarks from Safari, and then import them into Webbla. It keeps any folder structure you may have created in Safari, and brings in your Bookmarks Bar as well. The developer said they're hoping to include sync with Safari by 1.1.

I had nearly 5500 bookmarks (crazy...), and it did take a while for them to import into Webbla. I can't tell you exactly how long, because I walked away from my computer, and when I came back, there was a dialogue box asking for permission to tap into a keychain item for a password-protected site (Screencasts Online). I don't know how long the dialogue box was sitting there.

I would guess it took about 2 hours to process all of the bookmarks, which means the app goes to each page and gets a snapshot of it.

With about 350 left, the app did hang, pegging CPU usage at 99%, and taking up about 650 MB of RAM. I force-quit the application, and when I re-opened it, it picked up from where it hit a snag, processing the rest, CPU running around 1.5 to 2%.

I've been messing around with Webbla for a bit now, and really like it. It's perfect for my needs, which are organizing all these bookmarks I've collected like a pack rat. I'm definitely cutting it some slack for being a new release, but judging from the developer's responsiveness, I'm okay with that.

Some niggly bits to point out:

- I don't love the position of the "tags" window

- When you resize the app, the upper window runs into the title of the webpage

- I wish there was an "activity viewer" so I could see just which webpage it's processing

- I'm not seeing tool tips on some of the buttons (e.g., the buttons in the toolbar), so I'm not sure what they do

- The program sends out the spinning beach ball often, but I'm sure this will change as the program becomes optimized

---------------

The program is responsive with all my bookmarks in there. I haven't tried exporting them back out to Safari yet, as it's going to take me a while to get these organized and cleaned up.

I can easily see this app hitting 5 stars in a couple of revisions.  
(Version 1.0.2)

HOBOJOE  Just heard back from the developer, who suggested copying and pasting bookmarks from Safari into Webbla until they get the kinks worked out.

I just tried it with 25 bookmarks, and it worked great!

They also mentioned that they are going to bring syncing with Safari in v. 1.1.

I'm in no way associated with the developer, fyi, and am going to purchase Webbla now.

I'll try to come back to do a full review soon.  
(Version 1.0.1)

HOBOJOE  I'm having the same experience as the previous poster. I can't get Webbla to import my exported Safari bookmarks with either 1.0 or 1.0.1.

What does work, if you want to try out the software, is dragging .webloc files into the program. However, this only works with one file at a time. You apparently can't drag a whole bunch of them in (or at least, I haven't be able to figure out how).

I wrote to the developers a few days ago. Apparently, they're based in Mauritius, and on their site, it says to expect a reply in 3 days or so. I think I'm on day 3.

Unlike the other posters, I think this program holds a lot of promise. I'm okay with it not syncing back to Safari automatically as long as I can export my organized and tagged bookmarks from Webbla and then import them into Safari with the same structure (not sure how tags are going to play with Safari...).

I've tried Bookdog and WebnoteHappy, but they all have their weaknesses.

I'll post back if/ when I hear from the developers.  
(Version 1.0.1)