IVANOVITCH  Absolute shame about the adware built-in. Avid user for years, but now looking at Vienna and Shrook once again after latest more-aggressive adverts in places where I can do without the clutter. Why pay when you can find apps for free and without advertising?   
(Version 3.2.2)

IVANOVITCH  Could do with more work.

First, it doesn't find all of my apps (only found 62 of a possible 272). Not sure where it looks, or if it knows how to check nested folders.

Second, it shows duplicate apps (or shows different versions of the same app, so it's impossible to know if I own both versions, or that it is offering advice about ANY version).

Third, it offers no way of checking what version you actually have: it appears as though it merely finds apps, but does not care what version each is. AppFresh does a much better job in this regard.

Lastly, the data is plainly false in some regards: for example, it claims that 'Disc Cover RE' 'Doesn't work at all under SL' - yet it opens just fine on mine.

It might be simpler just to head over to the wiki first?  
(Version 1.0.2)

IVANOVITCH  I'd be more impressed if it didn't block Facebook:

"Request failed.

Got java.io.EOFException (Unexpected end of ZLIB input stream): http://www.facebook.com/n/?reqs.php&mid=1.....(etc)"

Oh well...  
(Version 1.4.1)

IVANOVITCH  Any chance of this prefpane being rewritten so that it works properly in Snow Leopard (it forces System Preferences to be re-loaded in 32-bit).

One other request: any chance of it distinguishing between USB drive names so that you can have different actions for different devices, or is it not possible to tell? 'Storage Media' looks like a single class, I guess.

ps. I'm running v1.02, even though MacUpdate only shows v1.01 here.  
(Version 1.0.1)

IVANOVITCH  What an absolute shame. My most favourite screen saver, and the author has long since disappeared. A pity, since it won't run at all under 10.6.1...

Wish I could find an alternative which is just as pretty.  
(Version 1.3.6)

IVANOVITCH  I should have been clearer: I couldn't understand why 3 iPhones were listed, and couldn't work out which ones to delete. App is good, though the modal splash screen when first installed is not needed, and when you're installing on a number of machines, it gets tiresome. This functionality should be built into the OS, I reckon!  
(Version 1.0.1)

IVANOVITCH  Great system preference, but I'd like a way of deleting redundant entries in mu Cameras listing - my iPhone is listed three times, and I cannot work out how to remove the two that I do not wish to see. Otherwise, it does what it says on the tin.  
(Version 1.0.1)

IVANOVITCH  I went to the site in absolute desperation after seeing all of my preferences reset (and losing all my shared calendar settings), but it doesn't explain how to recover the data and preferences that is blown away in the process. It takes users back to square one: a fresh install. And I won't go into how Goggle Calendar got messed up in the process of re-assigning calendars (where my shared calendars, and that of my co-workers, had names changed to cryptic and impossible to use text strings appended to my GMail address).

Now if BusyCal merely pushed BusySync aside and kept its preferences and overall settings, which could then be re-applied fully after uninstalling, I would have been much happier.  
(Version 1.0b10)

IVANOVITCH  WARNING! DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS SOFTWARE if you already use BusySync, and want to return to using BusySync!!!

I've just lost ALL of my BusySync prefs, with no backup other than Time Machine (which doesn't help, since the settings are spread in more than one pref setting).

To the BusyCal people: what were you thinking? Did you not expect that some people might wish to return to BusySync? Your 'tips' on your site are very, very lame, and I'm furious that I have to go and recover my settings, and my multiple calendar information.

Grrrrr.  
(Version 1.0b6)

IVANOVITCH  This update addresses incompatibilities between Safari 4.0 and certain features in iPhoto '09, including Places and Facebook publishing.  
(Version 4.0.1)

IVANOVITCH  Looking forward to seeing Mac OS v10.7. Good to see that you guys are way ahead of things.  
(Version 2.3.3)

IVANOVITCH  For FREE software delivering FREE VOIP, I see no reason to whinge about this at all. So it's a beta version - big deal. It works well, and I use it many times a day, both national and international. The latest bug fixes address most of the concerns that I have had (and I hope it won't crash as much), and although some aspects of the software are perplexing (such as making/joining conference calls), it all works well. And did I mention that it is FREE?  
(Version 2.8.0.438)

IVANOVITCH  Gotta love Filemaker's attention to detail: "With ease-of-use breakthroughs in sharing and administration as well as advanced security features, FileMaker Server 7 gives you easy-to-use, yet powerful features that allow you to..." (As in the description posted above).

Does this mean that Filemaker 10 isn't worth $999 and that we would be best to stick to v7?

(still grumpy that v8.0 is not supported on OS X 10.5)  
(Version 10)

IVANOVITCH  I'd love to be able to say that I like this app, but when it consumed 95%-110% of my CPU (i.e. a runaway process), I had to ditch it. A real pity.

I've noticed that it has a memory leak on a number of laptops that I've installed it on, and cannot recommend this app at all on that basis alone: it's too dangerous until it gets fixed.

Other than that, it shows great potential, though I'll be looking for alternatives for now.  
(Version 3.2)

IVANOVITCH  Works like a charm, especially now that the repeating items bug is sorted out. It's worth every cent, even for a group of users. Whilst there are free alternatives available, this offers a more comprehensive suite of tools in a better interface, and the ability to retrieve backups is a deal-maker.

The developers are responsive, and helpful - making the app even more useful and understandable (setup is a bit confusing because there are numerous options).

All in all, great value, and a 'set-and-forget' app that does what it promises.  
(Version 2.1.8)

IVANOVITCH  Not as good as the original v1.0. Here's why:

• The original permitted resizing (enlargement) of the window, this one does not.

• The original permitted adjustment of the grid size (i.e. larger than 9 x 9), this one does not.

• The original permitted adjustment of the token colours, this one does not.

All in all, this game is much less playable than the original. Once the ability to change the number of cells is added, and once it's possible to change the colours so we can tell the difference between orange and yellow (near impossible unless screen on maximum brightness), then I recommend finding the v1.0 app from years ago.

I commend the effort of the programmer to smarten things up, but the slick graphics are only a small part of what used to make this game playable, and enjoyable. Alas, this version is consigned to the trash until original features are returned.  
(Version 1.3)

IVANOVITCH  Okay - it's getting better, but it's still slow to refresh. The iPhone/iPod Touch version is better and simpler, but this widget appears to be getting more stable. Still loses settings from time to time.  
(Version 2.2)

IVANOVITCH  Wow! An incredible challenge to play, and I'm still trying to work out the algorithm. Congrats to the author for allowing your own picture to be used as the template: it doesn't make it any easier! Will struggle with this for days. Would be nice to be able to speed up or slow down the rate of refresh, though - so we can experiment with our visual senses. Stable, simple, and extremely frustrating!  
(Version 1.0)

IVANOVITCH  Also froze my Mac, and created havoc. WARNING: don't use this software with OS X10.5....  
(Version 1.5.3b4)

IVANOVITCH  One other thing: it scrolls pages very badly - this should be fixed!  
(Version 9.51)

IVANOVITCH  My only criticism is that this build renders website colours badly, and doesn't handle text forms at all well (even though it claims to adhere to all standards). That, and the top menu bar is as ugly as all get-out. However, these quibbles aside, it's okay for what it offers, but unlikely to replace my other browsers of choice. It might be different for Windows users, of course.  
(Version 9.51)

IVANOVITCH  This is not improving with each iteration.

Not only is the interface now larger, with clumsy icons consuming the top bar, but it appears that frequent revisions are required to make it work properly. It isn't working now.

First, we had to suffer the loss of station identifiers (here in Australia). Okay, once resolved, we discovered that some channels were incomplete. Then, another build later this was resolved, but we now discover that if you choose to view more than 5 channels, you can only view up to 3 programs. Alternatively, you can choose to view less channels and see 5 programs.

Further, the present active program is no longer coloured to indicate what is being shown (oddly, now the blue highlight is used to indicate supplemental program information, which is plainly wrong from an interface perspective), and I can no longer simply toggle from 3 to 5 or all programs on the fly, but have to resort to flipping the widget and awaiting a refresh.

On the plus side, the supplemental information is easier to read thanks to a sharper font choice.

Overall, badly implemented and I recommend that users keep Build 1.25 and learn to cope with the problematic ABC1 and ABC2 station identifiers being absent: at least it works, and works well, in a more compact space.

I also dislike having to store preferences on a website, but this is trivial in comparison to the widget not actually working the way it should.

On the good side? It's free. So perhaps I shouldn't complain, but I do wish that the constant beta testing wasn't up to users so much.  
(Version 2.0b5)

IVANOVITCH  That's better: the previous version didn't match battery cycles with Apple's System Profiler - now it does.  
(Version 2.6)

IVANOVITCH  'European'? You probably mean 'non-Amercian' - there is no other place on earth than USA which uses the strange and illogical mmddyyyy format.  
(Version 2.3)

IVANOVITCH  Why do we have to negotiate through a third device each time we wish to connect? Whilst logmein has a page devoted to security, there is no mention made of what data is kept at logmein.com. What does this offer that the OS 10.5. 'share screen' does not offer? Or ARD?  
(Version 4.00.697)

IVANOVITCH  Sorry, but I don't want my software to 'move forward'. I just want it to work, and do what I want it to do.  
(Version 0.3)

IVANOVITCH  Great work. We now have a choice of adblockers for Safari. Whilst not as customisable as SafariBlock, it leaves the decision to block or not block to a list. Set and forget...

Incidentally, I have absolutely no issue with the principle of blocking annoying material from view. Others may believe that the world rotates around commerce and advertising, but some of us use the web for other purposes, and blocking advertisements is of little loss to the real world. The web won't disappear overnight if advertisements are blocked - contrary to some people's views. It happily ran for a number of years before the advertisers moved in.  
(Version 0.2)

IVANOVITCH  A timely update: it was unusable with Remote Buddy open at the same time (made Vienna uncontrollable, oddly). Further, the display bugs introduced with Leopard now appear to be ironed out. No more truncated scrollbars or icons.

What's missing:

Still no icon to indicate that a headline has been opened in external browser: only option is to display read/unread and to manually flag item.

Also difficult to re-sort headlines by date (up or down) without doubling size of pane used for headlines (I use condensed layout to emulate previously purchased RSS readers).

Apart from this, it works remarkably well, and the price is brilliant value. Like others, I bought other readers but grew disappointed with the direction of development and features. I'm now happily stuck with Vienna.  
(Version 2.2.1.2210)

IVANOVITCH   I suggest giving it a wide berth until developer confirms that it works with Leopard (10.5).

Turned my entire machine into thick cold porridge until uninstalled.

(3GB RAM, MacBook Pro 2.33GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo)  
(Version 1.0)

IVANOVITCH  Read the manuals?

I'm a veteran Macintosh user - so have long lost any desire to comprehend manuals, instructions, or readme files.

And any preferences interface that requires more than a simple selection is beyond my capacity, thus I conform to Steve Jobsian expectations.  
(Version 1.1.1)

IVANOVITCH  I mistakenly attributed a complaint to the developers of Growl, when I should have checked more thoroughly: OmniGrowl is the culprit, using the Growl framework.

I apologise to the developers of Growl unreservedly. It's a great piece of FREE software, and works as advertised, with no fuss or bother.  
(Version 1.1.1)

IVANOVITCH  I mistakenly attributed a complaint to the developers of Growl, and not OmniGrowl. However...

OmniGrowl is nagware, not freeware. The author should acknowledge this in the documentation.  
(Version 1.5)

IVANOVITCH  Warning: not just unstable, but doesn't play nicely with dual-screen setups (plugging in an extra monitor causes problems, removing a monitor causes system instability).  
(Version 2.7.2)

IVANOVITCH  Okay: I'll reinstall (removed it entirely yesterday) and post a screenshot soon.

Then perhaps I can have an explanation of how I get growl notifications (dismissible, as are all other notifications) of the number of people who have downloaded the software (in the thousands) and the number of donations (which was zero), and how I can remove this nag message by donating.  
(Version 1.1.1)

IVANOVITCH  Useful, but now broken: Latest version (2.0) backs up to one level below where you expect, creating havoc if you used IMsafge prior to the non-beta period.  
(Version 2.0)

IVANOVITCH  Having been an ex-user of NetNewsWire, I thought it would be good to try the latest version to see if it's worth switching back. It was once the premier newsreader, in my opinion.

Having used Ensemble, Shrook, Vienna, and a few others, I'm now a convert - to Vienna. It's fast, lightweight, free and has an excellent interface. Why pay for NNW when Vienna does it better, for free?  
(Version 3.1b14)

IVANOVITCH  Unbelievably poor installation process. In this upgrade, it has taken more than 35 minutes to regain control of my computer. Although I had other apps open at the time (Safari, iTunes, Mail, Vienna, BBEdit, Preview, Photoshop, iCal, Activity Monitor), the Parallels update process completely took over my MacBook Pro (with 2GB RAM, 40GB spare hard disk space) to the point of it being totally unworkable, with Activity Monitor showing that Safari, Vienna and iTunes 'not responding' on numerous occassions.

Eventually, the installation, upgrade, installation of Parallels Tools, and subsequenty Kapersky 6.0 updates were complete, and Windows XP booted: 38 minutes later, at which time all other apps were usable again, though now with a 5-second timelag in shifting from app to app, and with fans blaring.

Overall, I loathe discovering updates for Parallels, and loathe having to fire it up. I've got the fastest Mac laptop that can be bought, and it's full of RAM, yet Parallels acts as though it's no better than VirtualPC in its characteristic 'slow' mode.

What a disappointment. I was hoping that I'd be able to fire up XP and view webpages in IE (the primary reason for buying the product - I'm a web developer), but the sluggish response and the ridiculous speed of loading Parallels makes it more profitable for me to simply fire up an old XP workstation and work from that.

For further information: I've experimented with giving less and more RAM to the virtual machine with each update (it makes no difference - the spinning beachball sits there for just as long), and I've a stock installation of XP (with all service packs, plus IE7) and nothing else. And my MacBook Pro is running 10.4.10, and is stock also.  
(Version 3.0.5120)

IVANOVITCH  Note: Dimming only works on one monitor in multiple-monitor set-ups..  
(Version 2.3)

IVANOVITCH  Still great, still free! The new dimming feature makes it even more useful: not just for web designers, but for people who want to highlight certain parts of their screen.

Rock solid, easy to use, though the ability to drag by all edges would be an added bonus - it takes some experimentation to discover that you can only drag by one section of the 'window frame.

An old favourite updated.  
(Version 2.3)

IVANOVITCH  I share similar concerns with others here: I was an early adopter of this software, but now find it almost unworkable on my 2GB RAM, 3-month old laptop. Not only does Parallels take over the entire machine (preventing me from using any other app for up to 5 or 10 minutes) but I cannot even push it into the background to run anything else. IF the developers were truly interested in helping those of us with these problems, the ReadMe file would make suggestions about how it can work on current Apple laptops without crippling everything else. I now prefer to use an old Windows machine nearby with Remote Desktop - much faster and easier!  
(Version 3.0.5060)

IVANOVITCH  Great idea, and has great potential. However, it keeps crashing on my Intel MacBook. The widget remains in place, but the app crashes in the background, even after restarts.

Would be even better if the lyrics in the widget were both editable, and copyable!  
(Version 0.72)

IVANOVITCH  And this is different to 'Sync Now' in what way? (same icon, too)  
(Version 0.1b)

IVANOVITCH  Stops on mounting of CD-RW. Have to manually eject and re-insert CD to allow script to continue. Not sure why this is better than manually selecting all protected files, converting them to an MP3 format on CD, then re-importing...

Confusing non-standard interface, too.  
(Version 1.4)

IVANOVITCH  It stalls at backing up an image at 15.99GB... (and indicates 1% complete, on a 'second pass' of the update progress bar). Makes it useless for home directory backup to iPod disk ,for example (what I am trying to do - back to manual directory copy)  
(Version 1.4.4)

IVANOVITCH  Works for minor backups of individual files, but chokes on home folder backup (20GB or more), and required force-quit after command+period failed to cancel stalled process of a backup to an iPod disk. A number of applescript errors appear from time to time, not making me confident that a backup imagefile can be created. Yet to try restore function.  
(Version 1.4.4)

IVANOVITCH  Fantastic bit of software: I agree that OS 10.4 made a backward step in this area. Let's hope that 10.5 reverts back to a more functional approach. If not, I"ll continue to use Sync Now.  
(Version 1.1)

IVANOVITCH  Not just Filemaker Pro 8.5, but v8.0 and 7.0 also won't operate - and Microsoft Word crashes on some documents (with embedded pictures), and Excel now takes forever to open. Looks like a complete reinstall is imminent. First time that an OS update has caused mayhem in my Intel-Mac. Finder takes forever.

Firefox, Parallels (after losing it's wireless connection), Photoshop, Apple Remote Desktop, TextEdit, iPhoto, iTunes, BBEdit, Fetch, Google Earth all okay. InDesign is very slow to load. Menu items mostly okay as before.

I recommend being cautious in upgrading this time around. PowerPC Macs seem to be fine, however.  
(Version 10.4.9)

IVANOVITCH  Broke a few plugins for iSync and other apps, and FileMaker Pro 8.5 won't load. Not happy. Didn't go as smoothly as hoped. Now looking for FMPro fix, and SonyEricsson plugin that works, and why both broke. Non-Intel Macs seem to be fine, though (updated 5 machines so far).  
(Version 10.4.9)

IVANOVITCH  Airport Extreme Driver shows no change (v405.1.0) though framework has jumped from v431.4.0 to v451.2.0 - and Airport Menu Extra now shows v441.1.0 (up from 428.3.0).

Security improvements are all well and good, but it's still impossible to get more than 53.7KB/s throughput in either direction from an Extreme Base Station sharing with older 802.11b and g machines (so mixed protocols required). Hurry up with this fix, please, Apple! And let's hope the constant drop-outs are fixed at the same time.  
(Version 2007-001)

IVANOVITCH  Doesn't work with MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo - probably needs updating to cope with 802.11n cards that appear in these machines.  
(Version 0.5.3)

IVANOVITCH  Doesn't work with latest MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo). I suspect that it needs updating to deal with new 802.11n cards that have been put in these machines.  
(Version 0.97)