macdispatch

Handling images Google style

Do you want a different way to process images on your Mac? Google's Picasa provides a one-stop shop for managing your photo library and simple image editing tools including red-eye removal and cropping. When you're done touching up your work, you can turn your photos into movies, collages, slideshows, or you can upload your photos to Picasa Web Albums to share with friends and family.

Also this week, we have the latest version of Path Finder, the software that provides intuitive options to the Mac OS X Finder for finding and managing files on your hard drive. Our … Read more

Free long distance and video chat

If you have friends and family overseas or anyone who qualifies as long distance with your current phone plan, you should check out Skype. With this VoIP client installed on both users' computers, you'll be able to make free long-distance calls--computer to computer--using your microphone and speakers or any of a number of available USB handsets and headsets. If you want to be able to call landlines, you'll need to pay a monthly fee, but for computer-to-computer calls anywhere in the world, Skype is the program to have. This latest version adds Skype Access, the pay as you … Read more

Add cool audio clips to podcasts

Certainly most people have heard radio shows that include push button sound effects and music. Popular morning shows often have audio clips thrown in to add excitement and humor to the broadcast. There are several soundboards online that usually revolve around a specific theme or pop culture character (my personal favorite). However, building a custom soundboard for use in your own broadcast takes more technical savvy then most computer users have.

Fortunately, the folks over at Ambrosia Software just released Soundboard. With this program you can create custom soundboards with any audio or music clips you want, and the whole … Read more

Give Mac OS X a tuneup

Most of the time Macs run smoothly; however, once in awhile the computer might experience sluggishness or something else out of the ordinary. To rule out system problems, check out OnyX. OnyX lets you verify your Mac's Startup Disk and the structure of System files, and it offers several configuration tools to let you tweak the Finder, Dock, and other native applications. If you're a do-it-yourself type of person, or would just like a way to tweak some settings, OnyX might be just the tool you're looking for.

Also this week we have the latest version of … Read more

Easily add items to iCal to-do lists

Sometimes finding a simple piece of software makes all the difference in your everyday work flow. Many people rely on to-do lists to get things done. iCal is the natural choice to enter your to-dos, as it'll send you reminders even when you're busy on other projects. But sometimes a new list item comes up while you're feverishly working on something else, and the new item won't make your list simply because it's too much effort in the midst of other work.

This week, I found FlexCal, a free program that makes adding items to … Read more

Notice anything different?

Like everything in life, Download.com evolves and changes with the times, and we've decided to improve our newsletters with more of what people are looking for in the latest downloads. What do you think of the new look? Let us know in the comments.

Now, on to this week's software! Google Earth received a substantial update this week, with improvements and fixes to many features. OpenGL mode performance improvements make 3D buildings stream in much more smoothly, even with low memory Macs. Tour paths have improved substantially, allowing for smoother camera paths. There were also several other … Read more