TextExpander has to be one of the best productivity apps out there. It’s more of a tool than an application. If you have multiple computers, you can even synchronize TextExpander though either MobileMe iDisk or through Dropbox. One thing TextExpander is good for is email signatures. If you want an easy way to add an email signature in an email, you can just make a new snippet for it. Another way to utilize TextExpander is to create snippets for words you misspell often. As an example, when typing “Hey”, sometimes I accidentally type “hry”. So what I did was made a snippet and set the abbreviation as “hry and the snippet content “Hey”.

TextExpander can save you a lot of time. It even tells you how much time you have saved with a nice little stats window.

You can also purchase an iPhone version of TextExpander from the App Store for $1.99. However, that is not what I am reviewing.

Overall, I have to say that it takes a week or so to really get some use out of this application. Right out of the box, it’s not going to appear like the most useful thing. After a while though, chances are you will be using it often like I do.

I thank the wonderful people over SmileOnMyMac for sending me a review copy of this sweet little application!

That’s where ScreenGrab for Mac comes in. ScreenGrab has something a little different from the built-in screenshot taking keyboard shortcut in Mac OS X.What makes ScreenGrab different is that it gives you the option to have your screenshots automatically named and uploaded to your website via FTP.

ScreenGrab has other nice features including automatically shortening the url of the image, open in web browser after upload, delete local copy after upload, and many more.

Overall, ScreenGrab is a great free application that I find myself using often. If you like taking screenshots of interesting things on your screen and uploading them, I highly recommend this application.

Tweetdeck (Website) (Review)

TweetDeck is by far the best Twitter client for the Mac. Even If you don’t have a Mac, you can still use TweeTdeck because it runs on Adobe Air, meaning it can be ran on Mac, PC, and Linux machines. In addition to twitter, TweetDeck also supports Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn. TweetDeck auto-refreshes for you so you don’t to hit that little refresh button every time you want to receive the latest tweets.

CamTwist (Website)

CamTwist is a great application for you live streamers out there. CamTwist allows you to add text, media, and effects to your live streams. As a matter of fact, Chris Pirillo uses CamTwist on his live stream too! Bast of all, CamTwist is free!

HandBrake (Website)

HandBrake has to be by far one of the most useful applications on this list. What HandBrake does is lets you take your DVDs and convert them to the MP4 format, perfect for watching in itunes or on your iPod or iPhone.

PandoraBoy (Website)

If you use Pandora, you need PandoraBoy. PandoraBoy is simply Pandora.com, in a desktop application. PandoraBoy uses Growl to tell you what song is playing. You can also use your Apple Remote to control PandoraBoy! If you don’t have an Apple Remote or don;t want to use it with PandoraBoy, you can set keyboard shortcuts in the PandoraBoy settings to control your music.

StreamDesk (Website)

StreamDesk is perfect for people who like to tune in to live streams on a regular basis. Streamdesk is also perfect if you have dual monitors, because then you don’t have to minimize and pull up the window whenever you want to see what’s happening.

What are your favorite Mac apps?

• Clean
• Simple
• Useful
• Great UI

Cons:

• A bit spendy

Price:

$7.99 via PayPal. I must note, however, that I did not pay for this application. The Nice Guys over at AppDelete sent it to me for review.

The Bottom Line:

AppDelete is a great application for people like me who test out a lot of applications. Off course, there are going to be some applications that we don’t like and want to never see again. This is what AppDelete is great for.

I recommend AppDelete for any Mac user that downloads applications from the internet. You can try it for free and buy it if you like here.

This is just a short and quick post. I just wanted to announce to everyone that I am now a Mac. Do you know of any good Mac apps that I should download? I have been testing out a few and will be doing some reviews on them later.

What iRip does, is it lets you transfer music from your iPhone or iPod Touch to your Mac or PC. This is exactly what I was looking for! iRip is simple, reasonably priced and has a great user interface. It does exaztly what it says it does, takes music from your iPhone/iPod and moves it to your iTunes. It is cross platform, so it runs on windows and OS X.

Pricing:

• Free trial: up to 100 song transferrers.
• $19.95: unlimited song transferrers.
• $29.90: unlimited songs on up to five computers.

The Bottom Line:

iRip is a GREAT application.You may think it is a little spendy, but it’s totally worth the price.

You can download iRip for yourself by clicking here.

1. Updated Macbooks and Macbook Pros

I expect Apple to keep the $999.99 base price on the white Macbooks but make some great changes. Starting with design; I expect apple to give the Macbook some new colors and maybe a newer design. I also expect a built-in battery with higher battery life and possibly a FireWire 800 port.

For the Macbook Pros I expect only a price drop and a bigger hard drive.

2. Mac Mini price drop

I expect Apple to lower the Mac Minis price by $100 to $499 and $599 and include a $699 model with better specs.

3. Updated iMac

I predict that Apple will make the chin on the iMac smaller but will not remove it completely. I do not see Blu-Ray being included in any new iMacs. I do however predict that Apple will include an SD card slot as seen in the Macbook pros.

4. No Apple Tablet this year folks

I do not expect Apple to release an Apple Tablet this year. Possibly in spring 2010..

Here are a few questions that I have for all you Mac users:

Have you bought your copy of Snow leopard yet? How it it? I have heard that some people ate getting more than 7GB back that Apple said they would. How much storage space has Snow leopard given you back? Have you noticed any bugs or problems in Snow Leopard? How much faster is it?

Lastly, is it worth the $29?

Please, either leave a comment or email me at Colby@cpaleytech.com with your response!

When you go to the pre order page on apples website you will see the cover of the box with some text:

“Upgrade from Mac OS X Leopard with Snow Leopard, a simpler, more powerful, and more refined version of Mac OS X. It delivers a wide range of enhancements, next-generation technologies, out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange Server, and new accessibility features. It’s the world’s most advanced operating system, finely tuned from installation to shutdown.”

What do you think? Will you be pre ordering your Snow Leopard, buying it in an apple store, buying it in another store or will you not be buying it? Why?

What do you think?

Comments welcome….