KavaMovies is an interesting database application aimed squarely at all the movie fanatics out there. It allows you to catalog all the movies you have seen, own, hope to see or want to buy. It connects to online sources like the IMDB and Amazon to download cover art and other information.
Once you've entered your selections, KavaMovies offers recommendations based on your collection. Finally, it also keeps track of video files already on your Mac and facilitates downloading from iTunes or via bittorrent.
KavaMovies is $35US and requires Mac OS X Leopard. It's presently in beta and a demo is available for download.
Sun has released a beta for StarOffice 9, which brings native Mac support to Sun's commercial version of the OpenOffice suite of applications (finally bringing to fruition Sun's joining the Mac porting team back in 2007). The new version is a regular Aqua application and no longer requires X11. In addition, it integrates with "the address book and other system tools" including Spotlight, and allows importing the new XML-based Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac file formats (.docx, .xlsx etc.).
StarOffice9 is Intel-only and requires OS X 10.4+. The beta expires on August 17. It is a free download from Sun Microsystems (registration required). The regular price of StarOffice 8 is $69.95.
Batch renaming utilities for the Mac may come and go, but A Better Finder Rename just keeps on keepin' on. The latest update of the venerable utility is the beta 8.0 release, which will be a free upgrade to anyone who bought the product since January 2007 (or owners of 'forever licenses'); upgrade costs start at $12.45 for single user licenses.
New in the forthcoming v8:
a new single-window interface, simplifying most actions into 7 renaming categories
a more powerful database behind the renaming process
automatic conflict resolution
full rename preview lists (up from a max of 250 files)
performance enhancements (multi-threading, optimization of rename order)
The trial version of ABFR is limited to 10 renames at a time. You can download the beta from Publicspace's download page. While you're there, check out The Big Mean Folder Machine, a $15 file/folder organizer with serious attitude; it does a great job on folders with thousands of images or MP3s that you want to slice and dice into a more rational arrangement.
Sometimes Command-C and Command-V just aren't enough. You're working on a project and want to capture a bunch of text, pictures, or code, and then paste it into the project you're working on. Using the Mac clipboard, you're toggling between open applications, cutting and pasting like there's no tomorrow. Wouldn't it be nice to capture all of that information into one place, then pull it out when you're ready to use it?
Corkboard (from Ayluro) does exactly this -- you press a hot key or click a menu bar icon, and a transparent "corkboard" appears. You can either paste or drag-and-drop items onto the corkboard, then hide it. If your machine crashes, or if you need to restart it, no problem -- the items that you've pinned to the corkboard are there. When you're ready to use those items (text, sound, pictures, etc..), just open Corkboard and drag them into the receiving app.
Corkboard accepts many types of media, and Ayluro has created a framework so other applications can work seamlessly with Corkboard. It's currently a time-limited beta (download here) with an introductory price of $12.99. Developer Jonathan Grynspan expects the app to leave beta in early 2009. Give it a try!
The slowness of Flash has long been a complaint on the fairer platform and it finally looks like somebody at Adobe was paying attention. Adobe Labs has released a beta for Flash Player 10 and among the changes is a major speed boost. Indeed commenting on his personal site, one Adobe Flash engineer has gone so far as to say that "this version of the player runs... [the GUIMark] benchmark substantially better on OSX than any previous Flash Player version. It should be up to 3 times faster" (more details here).
Adobe Flash Player 10 beta 2 is a free download from Adobe Labs. However, they warn that previous version should be uninstalled before updating.
You hate Entourage, and you're not particularly fond of iCal. You've waited endlessly for Nighthawk, Contactizer Pro is too complicated, and you want a native app instead of using Google Calendar or another web calendar. And, since you're saving money for an iPhone 3G, you don't want to spend any money on a calendar app.
Maybe it's time to look at Mozilla Sunbird 0.8 for Mac OS X. It's developed by the same people who brought us Firefox and Thunderbird. It's almost identical to the Lightning calendar plugin for Thunderbird, but doesn't require that email app to run. Upon first startup, Sunbird will import events and tasks from your existing calendar application.
The UI is plain and simple, probably because this is a multi-platform application (Windows, Linux, and Solaris in addition to Mac OS X) that shares a lot of code between the different flavors. Sunbird can tie into CalDAV servers such as the one in Mac OS X Server 10.5, and can subscribe to any .ics format shared calendars. In limited testing, Sunbird felt responsive in searches and was quite stable for betaware.
Sunbird, of course, is free. If you are searching for a new calendar app, give it a try.
With the recent trojan scare PC Tools' timing for the beta release of iAntiVirus for Mac could hardly be better. While there are a variety of anti-virus applications for the Mac, iAntiVirus seems to be especially designed to reduce resource usage by simply ignoring virus signatures for Windows. The idea is that your Mac is immune to Windows viruses so why waste memory, etc. scanning for them? Otherwise iAntiVirus is pretty conventional with a menubar interface and real-time scanning.
In some ways I'm of two minds about this approach. It's true that I don't allow any Windows boxes on my home network so having a Mac-only solution makes sense. However, by not scanning for non-Mac viruses it's possible that your Mac might unwittingly pass along a virus or trojan by email, etc. I run an Enterprise version of Sophos provided by my University and I've been surprised by how many Windows virus signatures it has picked up on my machine from various downloads.
iAntiVirus is a free download, but virus definitions and updates are $29.95 for one year.
It's the Holy Grail of Mac virtualization: a Mac inside another computer, running happily on a virtual machine and subject to your every whim. Up until last fall, there was no framework in Apple's licensing to allow for Mac OS X virtualization; then the ground shifted and the heavens shook, and there was a way forward. Mac OS X Server is now eligible for virtualization on Apple hardware, so naturally both big Mac virtual machine players are eagerly pushing forward on this front.
Parallels is offering OS X Server virtualization as part of its Parallels Server high-end product, which is currently approaching the end of its beta; the gang at VMware, however, are going the route of integrating OS X Server virtualization into the consumer level Fusion product. VMware has announced that the next beta of Fusion 2 (and the eventual release) will include the option to virtualize Mac OS X Server. This is awesome news for anyone using Fusion now, as the upgrade to 2.0 is free for existing customers.
Of course, virtualizing Mac OS X Server is not an inexpensive proposition, as even a 10-user license of Server clocks in at a cool $499. For developers and corporate folk, however (many who would have access to volume or seeding licenses of Server), it's a great help. Video demo of VMware's new feature announcement after the jump.
Almost a year ago, we wrote about Versions, a program designed to bring an intuitive and attractive interface to the Subversion version control system. Now, Made by Sofa has finally released the first beta.
Although Versions isn't the only game in town for accessing Subversion repositories through methods other than the command line, it is certainly the best looking, and at least in the few minutes I've spent with it, the most Mac-like. The application is beautiful and the interface is very easy to use and understand.
Ah, Fireworks. I remember it as the app that introduced me to the PNG file format in 1999. I was disappointed when it was excluded from Adobe Creative Suite 3 (Design Premium Second Mortgage Edition), and kept my copy of Fireworks 8 in protest. I was elated when it married Jeannie, but then saddened when it left her for Diane.
Fireworks CS4, part of the group of beta apps that Adobe introduced on Tuesday, is the latest in the long line of Macrome -- I mean, Adobe's -- rapid website prototyping tools. Long-time users of Fireworks will be pleased that most of the app's functionality has been retained -- at least in the beta. Users looking for a more Photoshop- or Illustrator-like experience will probably be disappointed.
If my last review is any indication, there will be nothing but fireworks after the jump.
Adobe Dreamweaver, for better or for worse, is probably the most mature integrated development environment for website building for the Mac. Professionals might be supplied with Dreamweaver through their company's site-license; beginners might get Dreamweaver on the recommendation of a friend.
Hard-core coders have their favorite text editors and IDEs. This review is not for them. To be clear, I use Coda and TextMate almost exclusively for web development. This review is for people who use Dreamweaver primarily as a WYSIWYG HTML editor (as much as that makes me cringe). But that's what Dreamweaver does best.
The public beta of Dreamweaver CS4 dropped on Tuesday, and I'm going to show you what's new and different about Dreamweaver CS4, and if it's worth the upgrade.
In a Memorial Day treat for users, Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster announced viaa tweet earlier this evening that a beta of Delicious Library 2 is now available for download and purchase. We've been waiting eagerly for DL2 for quite a while now, along with everyone else.
Interestingly, on first launch of the new beta you're presented with the dialog on the right. Apparently DL2's scrolling and display performance relies on fixes delivered in Mac OS X 10.5.3 -- that is, fixes you can't get yet in an OS build that hasn't shipped. Patience is a virtue, I suppose.
Update: Wil Shipley replies below. The beta test is of the integrated store functionality in DL2; the software itself is not launched yet, so be cautious.
Your response to last week's post about Evernote was amazing, with over 250 people requesting beta invitations and jamming my email inbox. Evernote has followed up with a 24-hour open invitation just for TUAW readers. There's also a new 1.1.0a build of the beta that resolves a crashing bug.
Really cool stuff today over at ModMyiPhone. The new IntelliScreen software customizes your "Slide to Unlock" screen allowing you to load widgets onto that otherwise unusued space. Options include listing calendar events, mail subjects, SMS messages, weather reports and RSS news feeds.
One note though about beta releases: We love them for the inspiration and early access. We hate them for causing possible endless reboot sequences. This release may cause fatal rebooting errors so proceed with care.
TUAW recently featured an interview with Phil Libin, the CEO of Evernote, who stated that the ultimate goal of the application is to be a "universal human memory extension." I've been using Evernote for over a month now and love it -- I've sucked all of my business cards into Evernote with my iSight or iPhone camera, and use the program instead of a card file. Evernote's text recognition simplifies tagging the cards, and I can use either the Mac app, the web client, or my iPhone to look through my database. Evernote's unique focus on images makes it quite different from other information managers like Together or Yojimbo.
The update has some great new features based on customer feedback:
PDF support -- Evernote can now store PDFs and you can print into Evernote from any Mac application. Image-recognition isn't working for PDFs at this time, but they're working on it.
Encryption -- Included in the last release, but not announced, encryption works with the Mac or Windows clients only, not with the web client.
Spotlight integration -- Evernote "memories" are now searchable, and you can create Finder "smart folders" that include Evernote content.
Mixed View Mode -- In addition to List and Thumbnail view, Evernote 1.1 has a Mixed view that shows small thumbnails with metadata for each note.
Vertical Preview Pane -- In Mixed and Thumbnail modes, provides a big preview pane with live search results.
Want to give Evernote a try? I have 19 Evernote invitations for the first 19 commenters who ask for one politely.
Update: All of the invitations were swallowed up quickly by a group of very polite readers! Thanks for your comments and have fun with Evernote!
Update 2: Thanks to Evernote, I have a huge number of invitations available for TUAW readers. Leave a comment and try out Evernote.
Update 3: Sorry, everyone! I can't send out any more invitations. But thanks for playing!
Sun has released a beta for 
Batch renaming utilities for the Mac may come and go, but 
The slowness of Flash has long been a complaint on the fairer platform and it finally looks like somebody at Adobe was paying attention. Adobe Labs has released a beta for 
With the recent 
Ah, 
In a Memorial Day treat for users, Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster 
The beta just got bettah!
PDF support -- Evernote can now store PDFs and you can print into Evernote from any Mac application. Image-recognition isn't working for PDFs at this time, but they're working on it.
