For years, Rogue Amoeba’s Fission has been my go-to tool for manipulating audio files. Whenever I need to trim songs, splice tracks, edit voice recordings, fade tracks in or out, or create ringtones, Fission has been simple and efficient—once you’ve mastered the basics, you can do any of these tasks and more.
A big update, Fission 2, has been a long time coming, but it was worth the wait. In addition to an attractive new interface—with two themes, one dark and one light—it now supports FLAC files, and can convert files, alone or in batches, to and from any of the formats it supports: AAC, MP3, AIFF, WAV, FLAC, and Apple Lossless. Though it’s still not as versatile as the free XLD—which can convert multiple files at the same time, taking advantage of all available CPU capacity of your Mac—Fission’s file-conversion features will be sufficient for most users.
As with the original version, when you work with audio files in Fission 2, they’re edited in their original format; some audio-editing apps first convert files to, say, AIFF, and then later convert them back to their original format. Fission’s approach saves time and makes editing easier, as you can edit AAC or MP3 files without having to go back and forth to another format.
Before Mountain Lion’s introduction of Notification Center, Mac users often turned to a third-party app for receiving, collecting, and displaying alerts from their apps. That app, of course, was the once-free Growl. Now, though, we’re in a new era: Growl is a $2 app in the Mac App Store these days, and Notification Center duplicates a decent amount of the utility’s functionality.
Many apps, however, still support Growl but not Notification Center, including Adium, Propane, Coda, NetNewsWire, and Transmit. It seems silly to me to get some notifications in Growl when there’s an entire OS-level feature devoted to such notifications. Enter Bark.
Bark is just one of several utilities that pipe Growl notifications to Notification Center, so those alerts appear in Notification Center instead of as traditional Growl alerts. But Bark has two qualities that make it a slam dunk for me: It’s free, and it works precisely the way I’d like it to.
And while all Gems are by definition inexpensive, longtime readers also know that I sometimes write about a great deal or bundle that lets you get Gems at an even better price than usual.
When Postbox 2 () debuted, I thought it blew the doors off Apple Mail and Microsoft Exchange, offering solid performance and an arsenal of first-rate email features. Since then, Apple’s Mail has closed much of the feature gap, integrating its own versions of Postbox features such as quick replies and threaded conversations. In response, the new Postbox 3 focuses more on integration with other popular apps than on inventing new interface bells and whistles. And if it’s not quite as distinct from Apple Mail as its predecessor, it’s also considerably less expensive, at just $10.
Postbox 3 does add a few new interface touches, including a Favorites menu for frequently accessed folders, reminiscent of the similar feature in Apple Mail. But Postbox 3’s biggest draw is its close cooperation with Gmail and the Dropbox and Evernote services. Over IMAP or POP, the program recognizes Gmail labels and sorts your mail accordingly. It can use Gmail-style keyboard shortcuts, shuffle messages into your Gmail archive, and move detected dates within messages into your Google calendar(s).
If you’ve installed the Evernote OS X app and set up an account, you can take any message in Postbox and convert it into an Evernote note with the click of a button. The tags, subject, and text of my test notes were all correctly reflected in my Evernote account.
It seems like it was just yesterday that we kicked off our annual Summer of Mac Gems marathon, where we featured a quality, inexpensive Mac app every weekday. We got through a lot of different programs, from tools for managing your Instagram photos to battery saving utilities and everything in between. In case you missed a few, here’s our complete list of products from GemFest 2012.
System Enhancements
Gemini 1.1 combs through your folders and looks for duplicate files, spitting out snarky phrases while you wait.
Editor’s note: The following review is part of Macworld’s GemFest 2012 series. Every weekday from mid June through late August, the Macworld staff will use the Mac Gems blog to briefly cover a favorite free or low-cost program. Visit the Mac Gems homepage for past Mac Gems reviews.
My MacBook Pro just celebrated its third birthday, and though it’s still going strong, I’ve been taking precautions to make sure it keeps performing at its best. One thing I’ve been trying to improve is battery life, and DeepSleep has greatly helped with that. This app does only one thing—it puts your Mac into Hibernation mode instead of standard Sleep mode—but it does it well.
Usually, when I’m finished using my MacBook, I just close the lid to put it to sleep, which conveniently leaves all of my open applications running. When the lid is opened again, my MacBook wakes up quickly and I can pick up where I left off. While there’s nothing wrong with using a MacBook this way (actually, I’m sure a lot of us do this), the laptop’s battery still drains while asleep if the laptop isn’t connected to AC power.
Editor’s note: The following review is part of Macworld’s GemFest 2012 series. Every weekday from mid June through late August, the Macworld staff will use the Mac Gems blog to briefly cover a favorite free or low-cost program. Visit the Mac Gems homepage for past Mac Gems reviews.
I like my desktop neat and tidy—not only does it look better, it keeps my iMac running more smoothly. I like it even more when things get cleaned up without my having to lift a finger, and Desktop Tidy (Mac App Store link) does just that. This handy utility tidies up your Mac’s desktop, keeping it free of clutter. It stores all the cleaned-up desktop files and folders in a hidden Shadow Desktop, which you can access from the menu bar or in the Finder.
