There are a few tools that you can use to customize your desktop. Most of the apps in this list are free or free to try. They are fairly easy to use right away and you can find resources on the Internet to make them even better. This list contains apps that are most frequently used by users who customize their desktops. The list includes a link to the site and a brief description.

Adium

http://adium.im/

Adium is an instant messaging application for Mac OS X that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more. You can even find custom themes to use with Adium. (FREE)
Here are two sites to find xtras for Adium:
http://www.adiumxtras.com/
http://www.deviantart.com/#order=9&q=adium

Bowtie

http://bowtieapp.com/

Bowtie is an application that allows you to control iTunes with customizable shortcuts, it submits your songs to Last.fm with support for Loving and Banning, and sports a very simple, yet powerful, html5 + css + javascript based theming system. You can find themes for Bowtie in a variety of places on the Internet. (FREE)
Here are three sites to find themes for bowtie:
http://www.jackrebel.com/category/bowtie-themes/
http://www.iconpaper.org/bowtie-en/
http://www.deviantart.com/#order=9&q=bowtie+theme

CandyBar

http://iconfactory.com/software/candybar

CandyBar is easy to use and gives you a safe way to customize icons found on your system and application toolbars. You can also customize your apps, folders, clipping icons, locations and more. (Free to try/$12.95 to purchase.)

DragThing

http://www.dragthing.com/

Use DragThing to keep all your documents, folders, and applications a single click away. It is highly flexible, allows multiple docks, each customized to suit your exact needs.
It stores frequently used clippings such as text and pictures, and lets you easily paste them into other applications with just a click. (Free to try/$29.00 single user. Other prices available for multiple users.)

Img2Icns

http://www.img2icnsapp.com/

Img2icns is an application to create icons from images or images from icons, keeping them organized for future use. Creating an icon is as simple as dropping one or more images into Img2icns and choosing an export format. (Free Version and $12.90 for Pro)

Magnifique

(site down)

Magnifique allows you to browse beautifully crafted themes and apply them to your system with ease. The site is currently down. I have found a download at http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30497/magnifique. I do not recall if it comes preinstalled with themes, if not, you would have to download from sites like deviantART or other locales.  (FREE)

GeekTool

http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/

GeekTool is a PrefPane for Mac OS 10.5. It allows you to display different kinds of information on your desktop, provided by 3 default modes:
File mode is used to monitor your MacOS X activity with /var/log/system.log, or any file that you want to follow.
Shell mode is used to launch custom scripts or commands.
Image mode helps you monitor bandwith usage, CPU loads, memory availability of your server, via tools like MRTG, Cacti, or RRD. (FREE)

NerdTool

http://mutablecode.com/apps/nerdtool

NerdTool is a GeekTool like application that displays shell output and more directly on your desktop. Unlike GeekTool, it is run like normal applications.
Nerdtool allows you to display many things directly on top of your desktop; weather reports, headline news, and system vitals are just a few uses. Nerdtool is capable of displaying shell outputs with ANSI escaped formatting, but can also manipulate the final output’s colors, size, and font. If more intricacy is desired, Nerdtool is also capable of displaying images, HTML documents, and other higher forms of media. (FREE)

Overflow

http://stuntsoftware.com/overflow/

Overflow is an application designed to quickly launch applications, open documents, or access folders while reducing the number of items needed in your Dock.
Any item you see in the Finder can be added to the Overflow interface, making it accessible through a few simple mouse clicks or keystrokes. You still have quick access, but now that item is tucked away in Overflow instead of cluttering up your Dock.
The interface is resizable, and fully customizable. Create separate categories for your applications, work files, games, or anything else you want to be able to access quickly. (Free to try/$14.95 to purchase.)

DateLine

http://machinecodex.com/dateline/index.php

DateLine is a small app that displays a linear calendar on your desktop in a transparent window. It provides easy access to iCal by double clicking on a day. The background and text colors are customizable with support for transparency. (Free/Unlock features for $4.95 donationware.)

Rainlendar

http://www.rainlendar.net/cms/index.php

Rainlendar is a feature rich calendar application that is easy to use and doesn’t take much space on your desktop. The application is platform independent so you can run it on all major operating systems: Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
The appearance can be customized with skins and you can even mix different skins together. Many of these skins can be found on http://www.customize.org/rainlendar or find skins at deviantART. (Rainlendar Lite is Free/$13.49 Pro.)

SuperDocker

(site down)

SuperDocker is a free utility that gives you the opportunity to customize some aspects of your system. For example, you can customize your Dock, your Dashboard, and even the Safari progress bar. And because the appearance customization is useless for some people, SuperDocker also brings up the ability to activate some hidden features. SuperDocker site is down but I found a site that has a download: http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/SuperDocker-Download-30474.html (tested and it worked). (FREE)
Here are a few links to download docks:
http://www.deviantart.com/#order=9&q=mac+docks
http://www.leoparddocks.com/Browse_Leopard_Docks_Designs.php
http://www.dockulicious.com/docks/
http://www.jackrebel.com/category/mac-dock/

Secrets

http://secrets.blacktree.com/

Secrets provides handy checkboxes to turn terminal commands on and off, and doubles as a menu of secret settings. A “Top Secrets” entry shows a list of popular options, but many more options for various applications can be selected from the application sidebar.
Clicking on any of the listed features will show you a short description of what it does in the bottom of the window; click on the More Info button for a detailed description. (FREE)

Wallpaper Clocks

http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaperclock/

Wallpaper Clocks is a desktop wallpaper that refreshes every minute to keep your time and date precise on the desktop. They have many to choose from and you can register to download the better wallpapers. (FREE and the plans are Lifetime for $29.99, 3 Months for $9.99 and 12 months for $19.99)

Yahoo Widgets

http://widgets.yahoo.com/

Yahoo Widgets are sort of like the Dashboard widgets. You can choose from more than 4,000 widgets from the Yahoo widgets site and place them wherever you want on your desktop. (FREE)

Check out the list of sites that consists of fonts, backgrounds and wallpapers, icons, clip art, stock photos, vector images and more in ‘Fantastic Resources For Desktop Customization.’ If you have a useful app you’d like to share, leave a comment with a link. Don’t forget, if you like this article, share it with others.

I have used several applications to keep a Calendar of my daily events. I started out with iCal, which came with my Mac. It is still sufficient but I decided to try other calendars over the years. This list is a compilation of the top 10 calendars I have used the most. I am currently using BusyCal because it has uses the same interface as iCal but has extra features. I am also using MenuCalendarClock, which sits in my menu bar and syncs with my iCal. Continue reading for my top 10 favorites.

ICAL (FREE AS PART OF MAC SYSTEM)

http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/mail-ical-address-book.html

iCal is already pre-installed on your Mac and ready to use out of the box. It has many useful features.

View: there are three different ways to view your calendars in iCal: Day, Week, and month.
Multiple Calendars: You can use several ‘Calendars’ to represent different areas of your life. Don’t forget to color code your calendars so that they don’t become confusing when viewing them all at once.
Sync: with your MobileMe account or to your iPhone through iTunes.
Adding Events: double click on a day you want to add an event and type your event information.
Notifications: set up a notification for either the time of your event or for a certain time period. A pop up will display a screen with details of your event at the time you set the notification. You can also have notifications sent to you by email. These are also known as alarms.
Address Book: is integrated into iCal so that you can send invitations to people from your address book by email and they can respond back to you regarding your invitation.
To Do: allows you to enter items that you need to do but don’t have a set day or time to do it. Click the ‘push pin’ icon in the lower right hand corner and it will display a list of your current To Do items. To add a new item, just right click and select ‘New To Do.’

BUSYCAL (FREE trial/$49 One User or $79 Family Pack)

http://www.busymac.com/

BusyCal uses the same iCal interface, making it simple to use. There are many other features that make BusyCal very unique. Some of the features you will find in BusyCal are:
Syncing with Bonjour: use Bonjour to sync calendars with others on your local area network.
Syncing with Google Calendar: sync your calendar with your Google Calendar to access from any computer, anywhere, anytime.
Syncing with iPhone: sync calendars with your iPhone through iTunes or MobileMe.
Multi-User: your calendar can be shared and edited with full read-write access and the changes made are synced instantly.
Recurring To Do’s: create repeating To Do’s that display in the calendar view and carry-forward until completed.
List View: customize a list view to sort events by date, event type, calendar, etc.
Live Weather: view live weather forecasts along with sunrise/sunset times, and moon phases right from your calendar.
Sticky Notes: add virtual sticky notes in your calendar and share or sync them with others in your network.
Rich Text: style the events in your calendar with customizable fonts, sizes, styles and colors.

MICROSOFT ENTOURAGE (Part of Microsoft Office:Mac 2008)

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/Office2008/default.mspx

Entourage is part of the Microsoft Office:Mac 2008 package. The calendar is part of the email, address book, and project management included in Entourage. It is a decent Calendar application but does not sync with iCal or with Google Calendar.
Views: Day, Work Week, Week, and Month views. The default view shows one work week.
Custom Calendar Views: You can filter the settings to create a custom calendar view.
Mini Calendar: see a quick view of the current and upcoming months by clicking on the arrow on the bottom left-hand side of screen.
To Do List: you can view and manage To Do items here.
Color Coding: you can color code events by category or event.

MOZILLA LIGHTNING (THUNDERBIRD) FREE

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/

Lightning is part of an add-on for Mozilla Thunderbirds email client.
Views: include day, week, multi-week, month, and task views.
Tasks: you can add or edit tasks by clicking the task button or just click on the ‘Click to Add a New Task in the Task window (if open). If the Task window isn’t open, click on the ‘Today Pane’ button in the status bar.
Add-Ons: since Thunderbird is a part of Mozilla, and Lightning itself is an add-on for Thunderbird, you can also add other add-ons for use with Lightning.

PREMINDER (FREE during BETA may become Shareware)

http://www.hairyhighlandcow.net/software/PreMinderMain.html

This is a different type of calendar app which uses multiple windows instead of one window. It takes a bit of getting used to, but has many features that would be nice if it were incorporated into iCal like the scrolling views and spans. Since it is currently free, I’d hate to see it go to Shareware status. Also, there is no syncing with Google Calendar.
Views: You can switch between weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, yearly and multi-week views in the calendar window.
Reminders: a reminder for one day is able to show text in different fonts, colors, and sizes. You can even display small images.
iCal Import/Export: Save your calendar to a file in iCal, then import it to PreMinder (you can also import any standard vCalendar file type).
Import Birthdays: Birthdays stored in your Mac OS X address book can be imported directly into PreMinder and create an alarm for them. PreMinder also will calculate people’s ages for you if necessary.
Click and Type: click on a day that you want to add an event and just start typing (you will see the type in the large central field in the Reminders window.
Spans: create multi-day events with a simple drag and drop. Adjust the days by dragging the edges or move around the Calendar window.
Repeating Events: you can define events that repeat over a period of time or indefinitely.
Scrolling View: scroll through the months of the year and show the end of one month at the start of another in your month view. There are also month indicators in the scrollbar to show you where you are and where to scroll to.
Fast Time Travel: jump to any point in time with buttons that let you glide between months or years. Use the scrolling slider at the top of the Calendar to go to any month of the year and push the slider to the edge to scroll into the next year. To return back to today, click on the Target button.

MENUCALENDARCLOCK (menubar calendar) FREE/$19.00

http://www.objectpark.net/mcc.html

This is a very handy application that sits in your menu bar. It has some really cool features, especially adding an event without having to open iCal. They offer a free version which has limited capabilities.
Font: the font, style, and color along with where to display the MenuCalendarClock icon are in the Preferences.
Navigation: navigate between months using left/right arrow keys.
To Do: click on the button that has lines in it next to the ‘X’ to view your To Do items in iCal.
Add New Event: click Control+N and it opens a panel to enter new event information which will then be placed in iCal.
Add New To Do: click Control+K which opens a window to enter a new to do item which is also placed in iCal.
Search: if you want to do a search, click Command+F and it will add a spotlight search bar in the display. Type in your query and it will display the information if available.
Hover: when you hover over the menu bar icon, it will display upcoming events.
NOTE: you will probably want to disable your OS X time/date display through the Date & Time pane in your System Preferences.

GOOGLE CALENDAR (online) FREE

http://www.google.com/calendar/

Out of all the online calendars, I like Google Calendar the most. Especially since I am able to sync with my BusyCal (or iCal) calendars. Not to mention that I use GreaseMonkey and Stylish user scripts to tweak the interface to my liking.
Views: Google Calendar offers Day, Week, Month, 7 Days, and Agenda views.
Create Event: click on the Create Event in upper left-hand corner of the screen. Fill in all the information and Save.
Quick Add: use for quick event entry.
Scrolling: to view other months, scroll up or down to desired month.
Colors: change the colors of the different calendars set up.
Add Other Public Calendars: by going to settings, Browse Interesting Calendars at the bottom of the settings. The next window will display a list of available calendars you can subscribe to.
Tasks: are located on the right side of the screen. If it is not open, click on Tasks from the left hand of the screen and it will open on the right of the main calendar view.
Drag and Drop: move events that you have changed to a different date by dragging and dropping into the new date.
Import/Export: from Settings, then Calendars, you can import/export your Google Calendar.

YAHOO! CALENDAR (online) FREE

http://calendar.yahoo.com/

Yahoo! Calendar is fairly decent but doesn’t have as many features as Google Calendar. It has a bland appearance to me, but others swear by Yahoo! Calendar. So it is all in the preference of the user.
Views: offered in Yahoo! Calendar are Day, Week, Month, Year, Event Lists, and Tasks.
Add Event: click Add Event in upper left-hand corner of screen. Fill in the information in the next window and hit Save or Save and Add Another button.
Add Task: located in upper left-hand corner next to Add Event. Fill in your information and hit Save or Save and Add Another button.
Search: events from the search bar located under Tasks on the left hand of your screen.
Photos: can be added above the mini calendar for inspiration.
Import/Export: to Palm Desktop or Outlook. No syncing with Google Calendar or iCal.
Sharing: with friends or anyone, event sharing private, shown as busy, or public or by sending your URL of your calendar with friends by their Yahoo! ID.
Print: your calendar by clicking on the Printable View in the upper right-hand side of your screen.

WINDOWS LIVE CALENDAR (online) FREE

http://calendar.live.com//calendar/

Fairly decent calendar. Again, I think it could use more though. Also, I am unable to share between my iCal calendars.
Views: offered are Day, Week, Month, Agenda, and To-do List.
Add Event: by clicking on the New button above the calendar, then select ‘Event’ and fill in your information in the pop up window.
Add To-do: by clicking on the New button above the calendar, select ‘To Do’ and fill in your information in the pop up window.
Birthday: added by clicking on the New button above the calendar, select ‘Birthday’ and fill in your information in the pop up window.
New Calendar: by clicking on the New button above the calendar, select ‘Calendar’ and fill in your desired information in the next window provided.
Import/Subscribe: to another calendar by clicking on the Subscribe button above the calendar and fill out the information on the next screen.
Sharing: by clicking on the Sharing button above the calendar and either selecting ‘don’t share this calendar (private)’ or ‘share this calendar.’
Print: by clicking on the printer icon above the calendar.

30 BOXES (online) FREE

http://30boxes.com/

This is a cool online calendar which has some cool features added in. I like that it allows you to share your calendar with Buddies and the ability to incorporate social networking. Add this to the Google Calendar and it would be awesome.
View: 30 boxes in view which can be changed to 4, 5, 6, or 8 weeks. You would still see 4 weeks on the screen but you would scroll down to see the other 4 weeks. You can also change views by clicking on the View button in the left hand side of screen and scroll down to View and select either Day, Week, Agenda, Webtop, or Map.
To Do: Click the check box in the upper left hand corner of the screen and start typing out your to do list. It will then show a number in the top right corner of the icon indicating how many to do items you have in the list.
Messages: There is a little box next to the check mark which indicates if you have any messages waiting.
Buddies: you can add buddies to share your calendar with and this icon will display if any of your buddies have made any updates.
Facebook: icon allows you to update your information with your facebook account.
Find: button gives you a search bar to find people.
Share: gives you a multitude of ways to share your 30 boxes with others.
Overall, this online application has lots of cool features. I of course still use BusyCal the most out of all the items listed.

As you can see, there are many calendar applications to choose from. These of course are the ones that I have used more frequently over the years. They share some common features and others have features that would be great with iCal. I especially like the Google Calendar syncing, the scrolling through the month views, the span views, birthdays from your address book, use of sticky notes, syncing between Mac and a few others. If you have a calendar application that you use that isn’t on the list, feel free to leave a comment and share the wealth with our fellow readers.

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I had previously wrote about the top three RSS newsreaders for Mac. Gruml is another full featured reader that is on the top of RSS readers available for Mac. It is still in Beta phase and seems to be continually updated. Let’s dive in and see what Gruml has to offer.

The Interface

The interface is similar to Mail. The left panel contains the list of subscribed RSS feeds, the right panel contains the feed article title with a little summary of the feed, depending on the feed, some will show more of what you would see in their actual web site. If you have a feed that you would like to read more about (usually the feeds that display only a summary), hit your return key and it will open the article in the built-in browser. Unread news are bold and in the left panel, there will be small icons with numbers next to the folders for unread items. Gruml supports Growl notifications as well.

Layout

Gruml offers two different layout styles.
The 3-column style has the feed subscription on the left, the feed item with summary in the middle, and the feed article on the right.
The Preview Below Article style has the feed subscription on the left, the feed headline with summary on the top-right, and the feed article on the bottom-right.
I prefer using the 3-column style as it is easier for me to read my feeds on a smaller screen.

Styles

Gruml gives you 7 styles to choose from.
Graphite which contains a blue feed title and smaller fonts.
Greyed (default) which has a shiny black feed title and a larger font.
Lucidr has an aqua on white feed title and lucida sans style font.
Simple Sans which has a black on white feed title and sans style font.
Simple Serif has black on white all caps feed title with sans style font.
Vanilla (which I use) has black on white feed title and smaller fonts.
Write Type which has black on white all caps feed title and courier style font.
It would be nice if there were a way to add your own styles (like in NetNewsWire), but currently, there is no option to do this.

Feed List (Left Panel)

Your Stuff
All Items, when selected, displays all of your feed items.
All unread, when selected, displays your unread feed items.
Starred Items, when selected, display your starred items.
Liked Items, display items you have marked ‘liked.’
Shared Items, display items you are sharing.
Notes display any notes associated with a shared item. To add a note to a feed item, click on the note icon with the ‘+’ sign and enter a note.
Comments display feeds that have comments.
People You Follow will display a list of feeds from people you follow.
Search is where the search results are displayed when searching from search bar in the toolbar.
Feeds
This is where the list of your feed subscriptions are displayed.
Folders
A list containing folders created either in Gruml or in your Google Reader account.
Tags
A list containing articles that have been tagged in Gruml or in your Google Reader account.
To add a new folder, just click on the + sign in the lower left-hand corner, which in turn opens a window for you to name the new folder. Click the arrow button in the window to add it to a certain folder if needed.
To remove a folder, click on the – sign in the lower left-hand corner to remove the selected folder you want to remove.

The Built-In Browser

Gruml has an integrated Safari style browser, which is very useful for reading feeds that only contain text summaries. It is also useful when using the “Send Article To…” option.

Google Reader Sync and Integration

Gruml syncs any changes you do with Google Reader promptly. This includes syncing of starred items, shared, items, favorites, etc.

Adding Feeds

In preferences from the menu bar, you can enter your Google information that you want to sync with. You can also manually enter a new feed by clicking on Feed<Add Feed To Your Subscriptions from the menu bar,  which then opens a new window for you to enter the feed information. You can also remove feeds by clicking on Feed<Remove Feed From Your Subscriptions from the menu bar.

To rename a feed, select the feed to rename and either right-click and select Rename Subscription or click on Feed<Rename Subscription from the menu bar.

To rename a folder, select the folder to rename and either right-click and select Rename Folder or click on Feed<Rename Folder from the menu bar.

Send Article To…

This is a nice feature of Gruml. It allows you to share your feed with a variety of social networks and blogging platforms.

As to date, you can share your information with Twitter (using the included URL shortener included in Gruml), Facebook, and Myspace.

If you want to save an article for later reading, you can add the item to your Instapaper or ReadItLater.

To send the article to a blogging platform, your options are tumblr or posterous.

The bookmarking platforms for sharing are delicious, digg, reddit, and stumbleupon.

To ping the information, you can use ping.fm. You can also email or print a selected article.
To use the Send Article To…, right-click from your selected article and choose the service you want to use from the Send Article To menu. If you customize your toolbar, you can add your preferred services to the toolbar as well. Or, use the keyboard shortcuts: Delicious (Shift+E), Digg (Shift+D), Facebook (Shift+F), Instapaper (Shift+I), MySpace (Shift+M), ping.fm (Shift+G), Posterous (Shift+P), ReadItLater (Shift+L), Reddit (Shift+R), StumbleUpon (Shift+U), Tumblr (Shift+B), and Twitter (Shift+T).

Preferences

There are a few preferences offered in Gruml.
General Tab is where you would enter your Google account information.
Social Accounts Tab only allows the input for your Twitter, Instapaper, and ReadItLater account information. It also gives you options for URL shortening (is.gd, bit.ly, tr.im, cli.gs, u.nu, and .tk).
Appearance Tab allows you to change the fonts for the article list and sidebar.
Advanced Tab is where you would change the menu bar and icon, URL handling, Update/notification, feed behavior, and caching behavior.

Menu Bar Notification

Gruml offers a menu bar icon which will display the number of unread articles. Not only that, when you click on the icon, it displays a HUD interface displaying the articles that are available with the name of the article item and the title. If you double-click on an item,  the article will open within Gruml’s integrated browser.

Blogging Options

If you find an article that you would like to integrate into your own blog. Click on Article<Blog With…(display will show available blogging applications in your system) from your menu bar. You would need an application like BlogThing, Ecto, MarsEdit, or Xjournal.
Once you click on the application you have, Gruml opens your application and integrates the feed item into your blogging panel.

I have noticed a few quirks in the program. It crashed on me one time and it is a little sluggish at times. It is however quick to refresh, sometimes too quick for my liking. When I unstarred, unshared, or unliked an item, there was no visual cue the change had taken place, the feed still showed in my list, so this would be a nice item to fix. Maybe showing the toolbar item change color or something of that nature. Also, there were times when an article or item list that I have marked all as read would still be shown in the list, even after checking the Mark All As Read in the menu. It would be nice to see Gruml integrate with apps like Things, OmniFocus, or Evernote. Also, Gruml lacks the AppleScript dictionary. Another important item missing in Gruml is some form of Help. When you click on the Help menu bar item, it displays “Help isn’t available for Gruml.” Hopefully, in the future, this will be integrated for people who need help with Gruml.

Gruml, however is still in Beta phase and is constantly updating. I still like the overall feel of Gruml, and will continue using it as a backup to my preferred NetNewsWire. I’d like to see how Gruml will be in a few months after more updates. To give Gruml a try, click the icon at the end of this article to be directed to their web site. If you use Gruml or have used it and would like to share your experience with other readers, please leave a comment and share the wealth with us.

I really like trying out new apps when I read about them. Most of the time, I try apps that offer free trials or the ones that are completely free. I LOVE FREE. Anyways, I started seeing more articles about apps that use Adobe AIR. There are many AIR applications to choose from through the Adobe AIR Marketplace. And you can find many articles on the web about AIR apps. So, I decided to show you what AIR apps are currently my favorite and that I have on my Mac. Trust me, I have a lot more, but these are my favorite AIR apps that I use most often. The AIR apps that I have are all FREE. (To be directed to the AIR app website, simply click on its icon next to the title. To view the screenshot larger, click on the thumbnail on the right of the descriptions.) So let’s get going….

ADOBE SHORTCUT
I find Adobe Shortcut to be a really useful app for those times when you’re in, let’s say… PhotoShop and you’re tired of manually clicking in the menu bar for tools or actions when you can use shortcuts. But, what are the shortcuts? How can one remember every shortcut available? No need to do that when you have this app. Just open it up and look for what you need and Voila! there’s a shortcut for practically everything! What’s even cooler is you can save the ones you most frequently use in the ‘My Favorites’ tab for quicker access! Yay! This app literally saves time and energy.

clDESKTOP
I love shopping. I especially love shopping when I can save moolah! So, that’s where CraigsList comes in. Of course you can always use CraigsList on the web, but the clDesktop has a much nicer interface. All you do is type in your location (which can be saved), select a category (I normally check For Sale), then whatever your interest is (i.e. furniture, music instruments, housewares, etc….you get the drift) and it displays a list. Sort of like the web site…cleaner and with better pictures. You can even have the option to save certain types of searches. I have Music Instruments as one of my saved searches.

EBAY DESKTOP
As mentioned above, I love getting deals whenever I shop. Just like CraigsList, I also like checking out eBay for great deals. When I check out eBay, I use the eBay Desktop. This app has a nice user interface and I usually do searches and check my eBay account. I like how simple it is to use. Just type in a search and it displays the results and you can click on little radial buttons to narrow the search. It’s really quick and gives the same information as if you were on the eBay web site. There are many other functions, but you’ll have to check it out for yourself.

FACEDESK
I like using Facebook, but I don’t always like how the site works. This app is quick and it also saves your login information so you don’t always have to login. You can do all the pokes, updates, etc. as you do on the web site in this app also. It’s really nice when you don’t want to open your browser.

FLICKROOM
Lately, I’ve been using Flickr a lot. I’ve been posting new desktops, checking out new entries in the Appleviews pool, and checking out designs that aren’t in the pool. What I love about Flickroom is the nice interface. It is super clean and easy to use. It has the same functions as Flickr and offers other useful features like the ability to tweet about an image, upload multiple images by dragging them from your desktop, chat with other Flickroom users, view recent uploads of your contacts, etc.

READEFINE
I read Google Reader everyday. But, I read it in Readefine, which is an AIR app which uses Flex 4, creating a really nice, clean layout for your RSS feeds, text or HTML content. It displays multiple columns for easier reading and you can adjust the text size, line height, column width, etc. to your liking.
This app uses Flex 4 and creates a nice layout for your RSS feeds, Text and HTML content by displaying multiple columns for easier reading. It can read content from the web, a file on your computer (by copying and pasting), or Google Reader content. It also allows you to tweak settings like the justification, column width to your liking.

SHIFD
I used to bookmark EVERYTHING that I’d find on the Internet in my bookmarks (wish lists, sites to read later, reviews, etc.), only to forget where I bookmarked it, what the bookmark is, etc. Then, I found Shifd.  Now I just add a description and copy and paste the web site URL and add a tag as to what the information is for. I have a WISHLIST tag and a READ tag at the moment. Now I can find what I need in my bookmarks. Yay! There are many other ways to use this app, but you’d have to decide for yourself if this is an app that you’d like.

SNACKR
Sometimes, I don’t have a lot of time to read my RSS feeds in Google. When I don’t read them, they pile up and then I end up having hundreds to read. This app displays your RSS feeds in a ticker like style either on the top, bottom, left or right side. If you see an article that catches your eye, you can click on it and it brings out a little window with a snippet of information and you can read the full article by clicking on the ‘View Post’ button on the bottom right corner, which opens the web site where the article resides.

TWEETDECK
I use TweetDeck to check out what’s going on with all my friends on MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. All in one app! You can adjust what you want to see. You can update your Twitter, Facebook or MySpace – all from within TweetDeck. I am currently tracking All Friends in 2 of my Twitter accounts, Full News Feed in my Facebook account and Friends Activities on MySpace. I love the idea that I can check everything in one place!

I only listed the top 9 AIR apps that I use more than any other. I have many more; but, again, this is just a small list. Anyways, if anybody uses AIR apps and has a suggestion or an app they’d like to suggest, feel free to leave a comment and share the wealth with our fellow readers!

When I create a customized desktop, I have several tools to choose from. One of the tools that doesn’t get noticed too often is DateLine. It is a simple app that displays a linear calendar on your desktop. What’s cool about DateLine is that it allows you to change the way it is displayed on your desktop by right clicking and opening the Preferences. When you open Preferences, you see a window with 3 tabs. General which allow you to choose what calendar to open when a day is clicked. Your options are iCal or Daylite 3.
The next tab is Appearance which allow you to change Day color, Today marked color, and the DateLine line color. (That’s a tongue twister!)Then, you can change the width of the line by dragging the slider to however long or short you want it. You can also change the overall Font, Today Font, Mark Shape (diamond or square), and Window Level (Desktop, Desktop Icons, Normal Windows, or Floating Windows). Then, you can check the box to show Two Letter Day and Month Title.
And the last tab is the Updates tab where you can check the box to Install Automatically. I love how easy this app is to use and its simple functions. Best of all, the app is FREE. To download DateLine, click on the icon at the end of the article.
If you have used this app or have suggestions of cool customization tools, feel free to comment below and share the wealth with our fellow readers!

Here’s the scenario, you’re in one of your favorite stores, you know, the trendy store that always plays really hip music. You’re humming to the tunes as you’re shopping and hear a tune that you’re familiar with, but you just can’t recall the name of the group who sings it. Fear no more, Shazam is there to save you from wondering all day long, as you’re humming the tune, racking your brain out trying to figure out just who sings that tune. All you have to do is just pull out your iPhone, open up Shazam and let it do its magic.

Here is how Shazam works: when you hear a song that you want to know more about (either from the radio, TV, film, or in a store) just pop out your iPhone, open up Shazam, press the ‘Tag Now’ button, which is in the upper left corner, and hold it toward the location of the music. Keep holding it (for about 10 seconds) until you feel your iPhone vibrate, then, look at your iPhone and you will see the results.

You will be presented with the name of the song, name of artist/group, album name, genre, label and the date you tagged the song. But that isn’t it….you are then given the option to preview or purchase the song via iTunes, view any available videos in YouTube, Tweet your result, send a post card via email, view the Biography of the artist/group, and view the Discography of the artist/group. It gives you a few other options like taking a photo (I guess of the location) of where you are when you tag the song, attach a photo or just delete the song result.

What I really like about Shazam is the clean UI and its accuracy. However, it does have a difficult time identifying some underground or lesser-known artists. I have tried to hum a tune to see if it would work. It didn’t. I think only once or twice it wasn’t able to decipher a tune. But I’ve used it hundreds of times and more often than not, it usually found what I needed. Oh, I forgot to mention, the price of this app…..it’s FREE! Yay!

Technical Info: Shazam was released on July 7, 2008 with a few updates here and there. Made by Shazam Entertainment, Ltd. It is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch and requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later. It is also available for use with Android and Blackberry phones. To view more information about Shazam, you can visit their website: http://www.shazam.com/music/web/home.html which contains a lot of other information. To download it from iTunes, click on the iTunes App Store button at the bottom or just type ‘Shazam’ from the App Store on your iPhone.

If anybody has used Shazam and wants to share their experiences with Shazam, leave a comment and share the wealth with our fellow readers!

I like reading a variety of articles on the Internet. I admit, I LOVE learning something new. Plus, reading gives me lots of ideas of things to create, things to write about, things to read about (books), things to listen to, etc. You catch the drift. The Internet is FULL of information, and sometimes, it is hard to find what you’re looking for. I ran into an iPhone app a little while ago called Regator and I use it everyday. It is full of a variety of articles on anything you can think of (or almost anything – I don’t’ want to say anything because everything has its faults). Anyways, Regator is a FREE app based on their website.
The only difference between the two is that you don’t have the ability to use the tools available on the web site.

The Regator app contains thousands of blogs from the web, as well as a searchable archive of more than three million posts. You can browse from a large category base of topics, search Regator’s extensive archive, view the most popular blog posts on the web or for your favorite categories, view trends of the latest blog searches, keep up with the latest blog posts (which is updated frequently), read the full text of posts in the original source blog, share posts via email, Facebook, or Twitter, and in each post you read, you will find Related Posts to find more information on a story.

When you first open Regator on your iPhone, you are displayed with a list of All Topics (under the Popular tab). On the first screen, you will see a lime green line with a search button at the top left (where you can search for whatever subject you choose), the name of the app ‘regator.com’ and to the right of the app name, you can change the text size by clicking on the AA button until you achieve a text size of your choice. The next line is a darker green line showing where you are in the directory. So whenever you change the category, that category will show up in the first dark green line. This is sort of like breadcrumb navigation. Under the first dark green line is a lighter green line, which displays the main categories. In your main categories, your choices are: Academics, Arts, Business & Finance, Entertainment, Health, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Local Interest, News, Occupations, Politics, Religion, Society & Culture, Sports, Technology, and What The ?(See the list of subcategories towards the end of this article). To choose from the category list, just slide the titles until you reach a category of your interest. When you choose a category, the dark green tab displays your location in the application.  On the bottom of the screen, there are five tabs:

Popular
This is also the main screen. It displays the popular articles in the category you are in.

New
This section displays the latest blogs/articles for the category you are in.

Trends
This section displays a list of trending subjects for the category you are in.

Directory
This section displays a tree list of all the categories, sub-categories and categories in sub-categories (like the category list displayed below).

Help
This section displays contact information along with the applications FAQ’s.

CATEGORIES/SUB-CATEGORIES
Academics
Anthropology, Archaeology, Astronomy, Biology (Biomedical Research, Cell Biology, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Marine Biology, Paleontology, and Zoology), Chemistry, General Science, Geology, History (Ancient History, Military, US History, and World History), Linguistics (Grammar), Literature, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology

Arts
Art History, Business, Ceramics, Dance, Digital Art, Drawing & Illustration, Fiber Art, General Visual Arts, Graphic Design (PhotoShop, Typography, and Web Design), Museums, Painting, Photography (Digital Photography and Equipment), Sculpture, Theater & Performing Arts, and Writing (Poetry)

Business & Finance
Career & Jobs, Economics (Career Advice, Job Hunting, and Management), Entrepreneurship, Investing (Commodities, Contrarian Investing, and General Market), Marketing (Advertising and Online Marketing), Mortgage & Banking, Personal Finance, Real Estate (Industry News and Local Market), and Venture Capital 

Entertainment
Animation (Anime & Manga), Books, Celebrity, Comic Books, Film (Bollywood, DVDs, Filmmaking, New Releases, and Reviews), Gambling (Casino, Poker, and Track Betting), Genres (Fantasy, Horror, and SciFi), Humor, Music (Blues, Broadway & Stage, Children’s, Classical, Country, Dance & DJ, Folk, Hip Hop & Rap, Indie, Jazz, Metal, Rock & Pop), Pop Culture, Television (Classic and Reality), Toys & Games (Board Games and Role Playing), Video Games, and Web (Web Videos and Webcomics)

Health
Addiction (Alcohol and Drug), Aging, Alternative Medicine (Hypnosis and Reiki), Disabilities, Diseases & Conditions (ADHD, Alzheimer’s Disease, Asthma, Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease, HIV & Aids, Migraine Headaches, and Multiple Sclerosis), Ears & Hearing, Epidemiology, Fertility & Reproductive Health, Fitness (Hiking, Running and Yoga), Men’s Health, Mental Health(Bipolar Disorder, Depression, and Postpartum Depression), Nutrition, Pregnancy, Stress, Toxicology, and Weight Loss

Hobbies
Aviation, Beekeeping, Birding, Camping, Chess, Collecting (Currency, Stamps, Toys, and Trading Cards), Crafts, Fishing, Gardening, Hunting, Knitting, Model Rail, Origami, Quilting, Robotics, and Scrapbooking

Lifestyle
Beauty (Cosmetics, Nails and Perfume), Etiquette, Fashion (Bags, Glasses, and Men’s), Food & Drink (Beer, Cooking, Fine Dining, Recipes, Restaurant Reviews, Tea, Vegetarian, and Wine), House & Home (Home Improvement and Interior Design), Parenting (Fatherhood, Infants, and Special Needs), Pets & Animals (Alpacas, Birds, Cats, Dogs, Horses, and Rabbits), Productivity (Happiness), Relationships (Dating, Divorce, and Weddings), Shopping, Travel (Asia, Cruises, Europe, Family, Hotels, and  North America), and Vehicles (Aircraft, Boats, Cars, Industry News, and RV)

Local Interest
Africa (Cape Town), Antarctica, Australia (Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney), Austria, Azeroth, Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Canada (Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver), China (Shanghai), Cuba, France (Paris), Germany (Berlin), India, Ireland, Japan (Tokyo), Malaysia, New Zealand (Auckland), Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (Dubai), United Kingdom (Grimsby, London, and Scotland), and United States (Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Scranton, Seattle, St. Louis, and Washington D.C.)

News
Crime, Independent, and International Affairs

Occupations
Agriculture, Construction (Architecture), Customer Service (Food Service), Education (Education Tech, ESL/EFL, Learning, Library & Research, News & Policy, and Students With Disabilities), Entertainment, Law, Manufacturing, Media (Accuracy and Ethics, Industry News, New Media, Publishing, Sports Media, and Television), Medical (Pharmaceutical), Military (Australia, Defense Industry, Iraq War, United Kingdom, United States, and War Journals), Public Safety (EMS, Fire Protection, and Law Enforcement), Retail, Tourism, Transportation (Commercial Aviation and Railway & Trains), and Utilities (Communication)

Politics
Conservative, International (Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland, United Kingdom, and Wales), Liberal, Libertarian, Other Parties, and US Elections

Religion
Atheism, Buddhism, Catholic, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism

Society & Culture
Age Groups (Baby Boomers and Seniors), Environment & Nature (Climate Change, Environmentalism, Green Living, and Nature), Ethnicity & Race (African American, Asian American, and Latino), Expats (Americans Abroad), Issues & Causes (Animal Rights & Welfare, Feminism, Pro Choice, and Pro Life), Lifestyle Choices (Goths, Hipsters, and Survivalists), Men’s Interest, Paranormal (Ghosts & Hauntings and Psychic), Sexuality (Gay, Lesbian, and Transgendered), and Skepticism

Sports
American Football (College and NFL), Baseball (MLB), Basketball (NBA and NCAA), Cheerleading, College, Cricket, Extreme (Climbing, Dirt Biking, Paintball, and Skateboarding), Golf, Hockey, Martial Arts (Aikido, Judo, Karate, and MMA & UFC), Motorsport, NASCAR, Olympics, Rugby (Womens), Soccer, Tennis, Water (Sailing, Surfing, Swimming, and Windsurfing), Weightlifting, and Winter (Curling, Skating, Skiing, and Snowboarding)

Technology
Gadgets, Hardware, Industry News (Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Start Ups), Internet (Blogging, File Sharing, SEO, Social Media, and Usability), Mobile (Apps), and Programming (Business Application, Database, Linux, Macintosh, Mobile, Open Source, Web, and Windows)

What the ?
Variety of Miscellaneous Blogs/Articles.

As you can see, this app has a plethora of information, tons of categories to choose from, and even more articles in each category you choose. And it is really useful when researching a subject along with the related posts in a story you are reading. I like that function and I like the fact that I can share the information via email, Facebook or Twitter.

If you would like to download the Regator iPhone app, click on the iTunes App Store button to be directed to their location in iTunes, otherwise, you can search under Regator on your iPhone App Store. I know that I really like this app and if anybody out there has tried the Regator iPhone app or the Regator web site, feel free to leave comments about your experience with the app, share the wealth with our fellow readers!

Last week (10-23-09 Friday), NASA released an app for the iPhone. This app is perfect for those who are space fanatics – including me. I have downloaded the app and I must say, it is impressive. Especially for a FREE app. The first screen of the app provides up-to-the-minute current and future NASA missions directly from NASA resources. On the bottom of the screen are buttons for missions, images (which contains a HUGE database of photos) that you can email or save to your iPhone, videos (obtained from NASA TV consisting of science updates, mission activity, rocket launches and other activities), and updates (from @NASA twitter feeds). The app also allows you to search for any specific mission, and find information, images or videos for whatever you search. You can also access countdown clocks, image of the day, astronomy image of the day, online videos, NASA’s twitter feeds, and more. Not only that, you can track where the International Space Station is at any moment, as well as other spacecraft orbiting the planet, all in three different views (maps with labels/borders, available visible imagery of satellites, and satellite positions overlaid on maps with country labels/borders). Overall, I really like what NASA has done with this app. It is extremely informative. To download the app on your iPhone, you can click the iTunes App Store Button or search on your iPhone (NASA). If anybody has tried this app and find it useful, comment below to share the wealth with our fellow readers!

While I was surfing the Internet looking at a variety of Adobe Air applications for an article, I ran into this nifty program, Livebrush. This Adobe Air application provides the tools to bring out your creativity. The Lite version is Free and provides different brush styles and decorations. The Pro version give you more options, like vector export, canvas sizes, and more styles/decorations, and costs $10.00. The brush styles allow you to control the way the brushes react and its outputs. The decorations (the graphics) can be stamped onto the screen or added to a line. You can create your own decorations, control different functions of Livebrush, use single colors or use a variety when creating your lines, draw with more than one brush, export or import styles (limited in the free version), export or import other graphics (limited in the free version), edit your lines, transform items you imported, and many other features. I’m not as creatively blessed as my husband (as you can see in the picture). He volunteers his time to create designs for me. To check it out, go to http://www.livebrush.com.
UPDATE:
Just received a comment from Livebrush on the difference between the free version and the paid version. You have the same awesome functions as the paid version, you just don’t have the export vector and canvas size luxuries. For the $10.00, you can have those functions. Either way, this is a really cool and fun application. Thanks David for the correction.
-TINA

If you enjoy reading books on your iPhone but find it difficult to read for long periods of time, Six Voices developed an iPhone app for books called Tapstacks. This application delivers important elements of a book, in a nice graphical interface, cutting down your reading time. The elements contain snippets of information from bestselling books. When you read a Tapstack, you swipe the screen to go to the next card. If you need to go back a card, you just double tap the screen and it will take you to the previous card. You can keep double tapping to get to the card you’re looking for, or, to make things easier, you just turn your iPhone sideways (landscape mode) and thumb through the cards until you get to the card you’re looking for. Tapstacks runs on iPhone or iTouch running software version 2.0 or later and there’s no internet connection needed, so your cards can be used anywhere. Below is a list of the current books offered by Six Voices with a short description. To download a book, click on the iTunes App Store icon and you’ll be sent to Six Voices applications in the iTunes App Store.

Have you ever been on a web site that you registered for a while ago, only to get there and realize that you don’t remember the username and password you had set up? Or have you ever needed pertinent personal information like your social security number, credit card information, or driver’s license? I used to write this information into a notebook, and it filled up very quickly, especially when I started putting web site information in it. This became frustrating when trying to find my user information. Now, I use a great 3^rd party app from Agile Web Solutions. I am talking about 1Password. This stand-alone application handles all of your usernames and passwords plus more! In fact, I use it every day when using new forums or online sites that require registration. It is an extremely versatile application. I have it installed on my Mac, my iPhone (yes, they have an app for the iPhone), Firefox and Safari. Check out the video to see what the program looks like first hand.

ABOUT 1PASSWORD:

1Password is a password manager, which also hosts a strong password generator. You only need to remember one password (as the name implies). That is the Master Password. All of your information is stored locally on your OS X keychain or in an Agile Keychain (created specifically for 1Password). This program allows you to store the following types of information:

Login Information:

• You can store this information manually via 1Password or
• You can use 1Passwords browser extensions, which will prompt you ‘Would you like to save this login for later use?’ In this prompt, you can change the save as name and add any notes within the prompt, then click Save to save the information into 1Password.

Wallet:

• Financial Information (Credit Cards, Bank Accounts, Credit Unions, etc.)
• Membership Information (Reward Programs or Memberships)
• Online Services (email accounts, instant messaging, FTP, MobileMe, iTunes, Amazon S3, or an ISP)
• Government Certificates or Licenses (Passport, Social Security, Driver’s License, Hunting License)
• Computer and Network Information (Software Licenses, MySQL Database, AirPort Extreme, UNIX Server)

Identity Information is where you store your personal information which include your name, sex, birth date, occupation, company information, address, phone numbers, internet information, etc.

A strong password generator in which you can change the settings for length of characters, how many digits it contains, how many symbols it contains, add hyphens, change letter-case, etc. and it will generate the password for you. Then you copy and paste the information where needed.

iPhone or Palm syncing. If you have the 1Password app on your iPhone or Palm, you can sync it with the stand-alone app on your Mac.

You can change the preferences and change the toolbar to adjust to your needs.

To purchase 1Password, you can go to the link at the end of the article. You can try it FREE for 30 days. Here is the cost:

Single License (single user license): $39.95

Family License (5 users): $69.95

Upgrade to Family (from single user): $32.95

If you have 1Password and want to upgrade to 1Password 3:

Single License (single user license): on sale for $19.95 (as of 10/11/09)

Family License (5 users): on sale for $29.95 (as of 10/11/09)

For the iPhone:

1Password: $4.99

1Password Pro: $7.99