Monthly Archives: May 2011

May 30 2011

Word Processor / Text Editor For Mac PowerPC

Productivity! Most people need a computer for their own organization and productivity.  A Mac computer is a very personal machine for this task otherwise the name wouldn’t have started with “i” – iBook, iWork, iMac and many iOthers that you can imagine.  But if you are looking for a good word processor and for some reason you don’t feel like you want to install an entire suite of applications like Open Office / iWork / Neo Office, here are some of the best options that you can find for a Mac PowerPC.

* Bean – (is a great software) It’s one of the best choices in my opinion, easy to use, fast, small and it does have a very clean interface, it’s not like other apps that have so many things going on in the window.  Runs perfect on Mac PowerPC 10.4.  http://www.bean-osx.com/Bean.html 

* AbiWord – (is a really good text editor ) This program is very similar to Microsoft Word, so the interface looks very busy, but this is just a detail of this open source app that is very suitable for a variety of word processing tasks.  Perfect for docs, letters, memos, etc.  http://www.abisource.com/

* iText Express – (another great app)  It’s a simple word processor, but it’s very powerful, you can not go wrong installing this small and fast application.  There are so many features that you will be impressed with it.  It’s very similar to Text Edit that comes in your Mac, but exceeds the limitations of Text Edit.  If you need something more powerful you can choose iText Pro, compatible with PPC 10.3 or later and Intel Mac too.  http://homepage.mac.com/lightway/iText/iTextExpress/pad_file.htm 

* iText – (is very cute) Sometimes when I start looking for a few applications to post here, it is a very hard task, but sometimes I find many great options to share with you.  This is one of these apps, that is absolutely unbelievable.  It’s fast, simple, very powerful features and it’s completely Free.  It runs perfect on PowerPC but is almost identical to Text Edit, and is worth a try.  http://homepage.mac.com/lightway/iText/ 

* Style X – (is very fast) This app is very simple, fast and compatible with PPC 10.0 or later.  http://www.merzwaren.com/style/  

Please if you like subscribe to my blog or leave a comment. Thanks

May 28 2011

Office Suite For Mac PowerPC

One of the most important softwares to have in your Mac or any other OS is a good productivity suite of applications, and the first name that makes any Mac user happy is definitely iWork.  iWork 09′ works pretty good on Mac PowerPC, there is no doubt about it.  The Suite is full of features and probably everything that a user could wish for.  I think this version of iWork is the last available version for PowerPC users.  I’m sure the iWork 10 or 11′ is just for iNtel users only.  This version is worth every penny spent (usually around $79.00 for Single Users), and comes with: Pages, Numbers and Keynote.  It’s not because it is Apple, but I have to confess this software is very functional and easy to handle.  MS Office 2008 is the last one available for Mac PowerPC 10.4 or later, and comes with: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage, etc.  It cost $399.95, it’s almost half the price of a Mac Mini!  I don’t agree with this price, it’s way over priced for a Suite of applications.  This is my opinion, MS Office does not work for me or more importantly, my wallet.  So if you are in the same position that I’m in, I would like to introduce to you a great application that does the same job, for FREE!!!

* Open Office 3.3.0 – (the best program). Open Source is a magic word these days, nobody wants to spend a lot of money for an app.  This works really well on a Mac PowerPC, it doesn’t eat all your memory ram and the interface is outstanding.  Download this Suite of applications that includes: Text Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing, Database, etc.  It’s a complete Suite and you are not going to have any problems with compatibility.  http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/download/aqua-PPC.html 

* Libre Office 3.3.2 – It’s basically the same as Open Office with very limited differences, so far it seems like it contains more “business” differences.  The big difference is that Libre Office includes codes from the Go-00.  But what is important is both choices work great with Mac PowerPC 10.4 or later.  Make your choice or download both and make sure your productivity is safe.  http://www.libreoffice.org/download 

* Neo Office – It’s a great productivity Suite, including: Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing and Database Programs.  With this software installed in your Mac you don’t need to worry about any incompatibility from any other Suite.  It’s a shareware application that recommends a donation of $10, but full features work in the free download version.  Before you go to the store you should research and consider some options listed here…I guarantee they are as good as the others.  http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/download.php#download

Please, leave a comment and if you have a better option about any other application just let us PowerPC users know!

May 27 2011

Anti-Virus For Mac PowerPC

The safe days of computing are long gone, it’s sad but true, and even Mac OS are affected.   These days, Mac is as unprotected as Windows or maybe worse, because we never had to worry about virus’s affecting our operating systems until now.  Who to blame? Good question because I have no idea.  Apple became so popular with the launch of products like iPod’s/ iPhones and iPads that now they are the biggest technology manufacturer in the world.  So the first thing you should do is go to the web-sites below and make sure that your mac will be safe from people trying to get your password, etc.

* Sophos – (The Best) It works perfectly with PPC 10.4 or later and it doesn’t use all your memory ram.  Keep your computer protected from the latest viruses, trojans, worms and malicious spyware, Sophos scans your computer constantly in real time.  http://www.sophos.com/ 

* ClamXav – It’s a simple, clean and easy to use anti-virus program, but don’t judge it for the simplicity, because it’s very powerful software and will keep your Mac PowerPC safe from viruses.  You can customize what you want scanned, or just activate it to monitor your hard drive in real time.  http://www.clamxav.com/

* MacKeeper – What to say about MacKeeper…  This software just about does everything possible to make your Mac clean and healthy.  I actually believe this software to be like the “department of public health” for your Mac, if you know what I mean.  Check out the web-site, because sometimes they offer discounts or coupons, and you can get this amazing software for a great price.  Once you install it you will never have to be worried again!  Pricing starts around $38.95.   http://mackeeper.zeobit.com/buy-now

Please if you like subscribe to my blog or leave a comment. Thanks

May 27 2011

Convert / Encode / Plugin For Mac PowerPc

After we talked about players for mac powerpc users, I thought it should be interesting to add one more post to show you a few softwares that will help you in case you want to encode/convert music to any other format.  So I started looking and I found great options for our PowerPC machines running 10.4 or later.  Also I included in this post, a great and very useful plugin to QuickTime.  With this plugin you are able to play almost all movie formats.

* All2MP3 – It’s a simple software that helps you to easily covert all different formats of audio to MP3 as the name of this application says.   It’s a basic Mac thing, drag and drop…  http://www.tresrrr.com/Personal/ENGLISH.html

* Switch – It’s another simple software that helps you to convert audio files and many different formats, not limited only to MP3. It’s a very powerful app and it’s going to help for those who use 2 or more OS because is easy to convert between mac and windows.  It supports audio file formats wav, mp3, wma, mp2, m4a, ogg, avi, mid, flac, mov, amr, aac, mpga, dct, au, aif/aiff, raw, dvf, vox, cda, gsm, dss, sri, shn, dss, msv, wmv, etc.  http://www.nch.com.au/switch/index.html

* X Lossless Decoder – It’s a great app that allows you to decode or convert lossless apple audio.  It supports many audio formats including Ogg, FLAC, Monkey’s Audio, Wavpack, TTA, Apple Lossless, TAK, Shorten, Wav, AIFF.  Download and keep these options and you never will have problems with you audio files.  http://tmkk.pv.land.to/xld/index_e.html

*Perian – (Absolutely necessary) Last but not least comes an amazing plugin that helps QuickTime to be able to read all the formats that were previously impossible to read.  AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats, MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio, AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3, subtitle support for SSA and SRT.  http://perian.org/

Please if you like subscribe to my blog or leave a comment. Thanks

Thank you André for sharing this app with us.

*Xact – I took a look online and it seems this app Xact 2.14 is Intel only, but an old version like 2.13 or older 1.63 works in a PowerPC.  At this moment I can not test, but if you can please feel free to share with us the results.

1.63 – (10.2/10.3/10.4) http://download.cnet.com/DC30-Xact-Driver/3000-2108_4-39818.html

2.13 – (10.5) http://xact.mac.findmysoft.com/

May 26 2011

Player For Mac PowerPC (movie version)

Alright! Yesterday I mentioned some software that help you to play music on your mac, some of them play movies aswell.  VLC it’s a full function app and if you have already installed it,  you know what I’m talking about.  But if you like to have options, I recommend that you follow a few apps that will help you to watch your favourite movie / tv shows. You won’t have problems with codecs anymore.

* Movist – Media player with high quality and simple user interface. It’s light app to run.  Probably “today” this is the best choice to play your movies  http://code.google.com/p/movist/

* MPlayer OSX Extended – It’s a powerful software to play your movies, for sure you will be impressed with the quality of this player.  http://www.mplayerosx.ch/

* XBMC – It’s not a popular player, but it does have support for PowerPC and this is a great opportunity to keep this app in your PowerPC computer.  http://mirrors.xbmc.org/releases/osx/ppc/

Please if you like subscribe to my blog or leave a comment. Thanks

May 25 2011

Audio Player For Mac PowerPC

When we talk about players for Mac the first one that comes to mind is definitely iTunes.  iTunes is a great app but sometimes you don’t want to sync your music and are only looking for a fast and easy listen.  iTunes 10.2.2 still runs on PowerPC 10.5 or later, if you do have a PowerPC 10.4 you can use iTunes 9.2.1. For those that are still running PowerPC G3 can use 8.2.1. I have to confess that I decide to downgrade my iTunes to 8.2.1 because I had a few issues with 9.2.1 the (determining gapless playback information) was driving me crazy.

* VLC – I know many people use the VLC for movies only, but this is a powerful app, perfect to play your audio (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …). If you are minimalist with your computer, you are not going to need any other app other than this one.  http://www.videolan.org/

* Cog – Simple but plays all the popular formats of audio (Ogg Vorbis, Flac, Musepack, Mp3, Shorten, Wavpack, AAC, and Monkeys Audio). Perfect for PowerPC 10.4.  It’s a light app to have installed in your computer just in case you need it.  As your default audio software, it will meet all your basic requirements, and looks good too!  http://cogx.org/

* Vox – It’s a small yet simple app that also plays everything that you are going to need, including FLAC, MP3, AAC, Musepack, Monkey’s Audio, OGG Vorbis, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, IT, MOD, XM, Games Music and many others.  I recommend that all PowerPC users download this app, as it’s always good to have it.  http://www.voxapp.uni.cc/  Download available here: Vox 0.2.7.1 – http://cl.ly/151K2l2P1F2i

* Audion X – It’s not a popular player, but works really good with PowerPC 10.4.  It’s Easy to use and has some of advanced features ready to be discovered! It plays Audio CDs, MP3s, and streaming network audio.  Even hang with your iPod, light, simple, and powerful.  http://www.panic.com/audion/

* Taply – It’s is a simple soundfile player.  http://www.bluem.net/en/mac/taply/versions/

*SoundApp Reborn – Another simple player. http://thirdcog.eu/apps/soundapp

* Play – is an application for playing and managing audio files. Play supports FLAC, OGG VORBIS, MUSEPACK, WAVPACK MONEKEY’S AUDIO, AAC APPLE LOSSLESS, MP3 and various other audio file formats.  http://sbooth.org/Play/

Please if you like subscribe to my blog or leave a comment. Thanks

May 23 2011

CD / DVD Tools For Mac PowerPC

Sometimes burning cds/dvds isn’t enough, sometimes we need to rip a dvd or just copy  it to our hard drive for back up purposes, and we get into a situation where we don’t know which software does the job.  Usually the one that looks the best isn’t free.  Here are some reliable options that work perfect with powerpc computers.

* Mac the Ripper: is one of the best DVD ripper/extractor. It a great app and easy to use, you will be impressed with the potential of Mactheripper. – http://www.mactheripper.org/

* RipIt: It’s great shareware software, that works seamlessly and quickly.  Users are given 2 choices:  “rip or compress” and can easily back up all your dvd movies/shows/etc.   All mac users (specifically mac powerpc users) should have installed this app in your  machine.  10/10

– http://thelittleappfactory.com/ripit/

* Fairmount: It’s an Open Source for decryption.  It does not perform the actual decryption, it simply forwards the data to VLC Media Player, which is used for the decryption. Hence, VLC Media Player must be installed for Fairmount to work. – http://www.metakine.com/products/fairmount/

*Mac DvdRipperPro – It’s not free but is the easiest and the lightest dvd ripper for mac, just check or try for this powerful software.  – http://macdvdripperpro.com/

 

Please if you like subscribe to my blog or leave a comment. Thanks

May 22 2011

CD / DVD Burn For Mac PowerPC

Thanks to developers for creating amazing application to burn cds/dvds for powerpc it’s a super easy task. I know the first name that comes to our mind when we talk about burning/ripping dvd is Roxio Toast (now in the 11 version of Titanium), I’m not going to lie, Toast is a great app to have in your Mac, too bad it’s for Intel users only, because the software is well worth the $99.99 fee.  Anyways, there are great alternatives out there including:   Burn.   Burn is a simple but advanced burning software for Mac that doesn’t  take much harddrive space.  Another alternative is:  SimplyBurns, which allows the user to burn CD/DVD media easily.  LiquidCD is another simple media burning software which allows you to burn personal hybrid discs with it.  In short there are great simple choices out there for you to try:

* LiquidCD – http://www.maconnect.ch/

* Burn – http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html

* SimplyBurns – http://simplyburns.berlios.de/

*Roxio Toast Titanium 11 – http://www.roxio.com/

*Roxio Toast Titanium 10 – http://kb.roxio.com/search.aspx?URL=/content/000074TT (works with PowerPC 10.4 or later)

Please if you like subscribe to my blog or leave a comment. Thanks

May 20 2011

Clean Your Mac PowerPC

Who doesn’t want to see their Mac clean and healthy? Well this post is for you. I keep saying but actually it’s true, the life of the Mac Intel Processor  is so easy, you guys can choose any app you like. For PowerPC users it’s not this way at all.  We have to hunt for something that is still available or working good. If you choose to keep your PowerPC running 10.4 (Tiger) because it runs faster than 10.5 (Leopard), you are in more trouble.  Anyways, I found some apps that run in a PowerPC running 10.4. Here they care:

CleanMyMac (the best, but is not free) – $49.95 – this app cleans all your trash and cookies, etc.

http://macpaw.com/store/cleanmymac

AppCleaner (This apps helps you to uninstall programs, it’s really easy to use and uninstalls all the trash left behind by some programs.

http://www.freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/

May 19 2011

Instant Messenger For Mac PowerPC

All Apple users know that MSN for Mac is something that won’t ever become more user friendly. I don’t know why, but it is terrible if you compare with the version for  Windows! Anyways, MSN for mac seems to be 2 or 3 versions behind. The funny thing is that MS Office 11 is of good quality for mac, but MSN continues to stay behind the pack. I don’t need to mention that MSN for PowerPC is archaic! For Intel right now you can use the web-cam. I think they really want to kill MSN! But a very simple and great app comes to the orchard to save our lifes: “Adium”. Adium is awesome app and runs very smoothy for PowerPC… even if you are still using Tiger (10.4.11). I also need mention Mercury Messenger because it is a very simple basic looking program but works much better than MSN. I can not forget to give a chance to our friend from Linux AMSN, it’s also a great app to keep in touch with all your friends and it’s the only one that supports web-cam for PowerPC users!!!!! If you want to try some of the programs I have mentioned,  you can go to http://www.macupdate.com/  and make your choice! Also few links bellow:

* Mercury Messenger                                                                                                                                                  http://mercury.im/

* AMSN  (Great App)                                                                                                                                                 http://www.amsn-project.net/

* Adium (1.3.10) One of the Best                                                                                                                               http://adium.im/

Please if you like subscribe to my blog or leave a comment. Thanks

May 18 2011

Browsers For Mac PowerPC

Here is the thing there are good choices for PowerPC but there are much more for Intel. It’s unbelievable why they stopping doing browsers for our old PPC. Anyway, I think the most sad thing for a PPC user is not be able to use Google Chrome. But follow a list of good Browsers:

* TenFourFox (the only one that support HTML5):                                                             http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox

* Camino (one of the best)                                                                                                         http://www.caminobrowser.org

* FireFox (3.6)                                                                                                                              http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html#languages

* Safari (there is no link because is already on your computer, sadly Apple don’t update anymore)

* Opera (10.63)                                                                          http://www.opera.com/browser/download/?os=mac&ver=10.63&local=y

* OminiWeb (this is a great browser)                                                                                http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omniweb/download/

*SeaMonkey                                                                                                              http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

* Flock (2.0) Was really good too, but they discontinued

* NetScape                                                                                                                                      http://browser.netscape.com/releases

Please if you like subscribe to my blog or leave a comment. Thanks

May 18 2011

Yoono Desktop – SocialNetwork All-In-One

These days it’s pretty normal for people to have apps to monitor what is happening on social network sites such as Facebook / Twitter / MySpace etc. Nobody wants to miss any status feed from their friends. So for those who use a PowerPc processor, we  don’t have so many choices. So far I have only found : Yoono Desktop.

Yoono Desktop is a really good app and is easy to run and set up. Most importantly, is free and you can keep all your social network in one place, so you don’t waste your time checking multiple sites. Go to web-site and get this app, and start updating your own feeds, and stay connected with all your social networks

http://www.yoono.com