The blog MacPowerPC is currently off until further notice, I’m trying very hard to come back posting new info/apps/softwares compatible with PowerPC. This moment I really would appreciate a little bit donations, because my iBook G4 just died and I need to buy any Mac PowerPC to keep this project on, without a PowerPC machine I can’t do my research. If everyone understand my work here and would like to help me with $5 or $10 would be appreciate. Thank you very much for the support.
Social Network + MSN + Twitter
Social Networking is really bringing everyone in front of a computer, making people spend more money for new machines + tablets + phones that support a connection to internet and to the world. These days most people are so connected and synchronized to the web, that it seems like the possibilities of the internet are unlimited!
So far what we really need are applications to help us to keep in touch and connected to our various Social Networks. If you have new machine (they keep popping up like apples!!) you are safe. If you have an old-school, cult status apple/mac and choose to keep it for some reason, the good ol’ PowerPC processor runs your favourite “roarrrr”! Here are few more options to help you out:
MSN For Mac PowerPC:
* Proteus – It’s simple but a really clean layout, it supports MSN, ICQ, AIM, Yahoo and Jabber. Run on PPC 10.4 or later. – http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/12319/proteus
* MSN 7.0.2 – I confess I tried it and I liked it, it’s simple but effective. To bad it doesn’t support web-cams, but if you have any problems with other apps, MSN 7 seems at least stable. – http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads
* Skype – If you got tired about all the hunting that never ends or sometimes likely doesn’t work at all, go skype, because the version for PowerPC 2.8.0 work very well for you. – http://www.skype.com/
* BuzzBird – It’s a Twitter client that was missing in the hunt, this is an great Open Source that works really well on your PowerPC machine 10.4 or later. -http://getbuzzbird.com/bb/
Twitter For Mac PowerPC
I just mentioned in the last post about tweeting your tunes and after that I really tried very hard to find an application to tweet from a Mac PowerPC running 10.4.11, but had absolutely no luck at all. It seems that we don’t have any choices to do that function, but if you are tired accessing your twitter from your browser there are two other ways to do this. They’re not fancy but they work great.
* Yoono Desktop – We already mentioned this application in our first post. http://www.yoono.com/desktop_features.html
* Twidget – It’s very simple widget but works very well. You can tweet from your dashboard in one blink, also you can retweet and check the latest updates from your timeline. http://gettwidget.com/
* Tweetie – Thanks to Roelant, he shared with us a great app that support PowerPC 10.5 (leopard). the link it’s http://www.atebits.com/tweetie-mac/ . If you are tired using Safari to check your twitter account this is the best option that a PowerPC can have it. I hope you guys enjoy and thanks again for the clue…
Twit My Tunes For Mac PowerPC
Gosh! This one was really hard to find. I do enjoy tweeting what I’m listening to. I think it is a pretty common practice, though some people don’t understand why, (probably those who have not yet discovered Twitter!) Twitter really changes everything, of all these Social Networks that we have available today, I have to tell you that Twitter is the most exciting and cool. I remember a long time ago my friends and I used to hang out every night and share the news about what happened during the day, what we listened to, what we watched, etc. Now we grow up and it’s impossible to hang out all the time, so Twitter is the perfect fit! There are so many web-sites to share pictures with your followers that I shouldn’t even mention, but definitely TwitPic is one of the most popular. I used to like Plixid, but now they changed the name to Lockz… but I digress…back to our original topic:
* TwitTunes (available at macupdate) is the only one that I found that runs on PowerPC 10.4.11 (Tiger) so no complaints at all. Install this and start tweeting your iTunes tunes. Keep your followers up to date about what you are eating, listening and watching… http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/30327/twittunes
RSS / Atom News Reader Client For Mac PowerPC
Some people prefer to follow news very closely and these days news runs so fast and in so many web-sites/blogs that it is almost impossible to check for each site to be updated. So to make our life easier there are options out there to keep us updated and better organized. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and once you add the link in your favourites, sooner or later you will have time to catch up. Usually all the options are very similar with e-mail clients and if you use Mail 4.5 from Apple you don’t need to worry about installing anything extra because this version of Mail is able to read RSS but it is only for Intel Mac OS 10.6. If you are like me, and also have a PowerPC machine, running OS X 10.4 your Mail won’t be able to be read. After spending a few hours researching my options, I found a couple of free applications for Mac PowerPC running Tiger and also a couple of applications for Mac PowerPC running Leopard. Take a look…
* NetNewsWire – It’s a great application with many features, easy to use and a very nice interface. Runs easily on PowerPC Tiger. It also has support for iPad + iPhone. Don’t miss any updates and download this powerful app. http://netnewswireapp.com/
* Vienna – It’s my second choice, but not second place for Mac PowerPC Tiger users. It’s an Open Source and also supports 10.3 users. It’s has a typical Mac interface, it’s easy to use and very organized. Take a close look because this option probably will fit your computer very well. http://sourceforge.net/projects/vienna-rss/
* Times – (Shareware $30.00) It’s a whole new way to treat your news. Usually you add the link on your RSS reader client and that’s it. Times shows you all the latest news as headlines and you choose what you want to subscribe to and you can separate your favourites. If you run 10.5 on your PowerPC this application will bring you to a different site to be updated. http://www.acrylicapps.com/pulp/
* Gruml - Compatible with PowerPC 10.5 or later. This application works together with your subscriptions on Google reader and is very similar to Mail from Apple. Easy to use and very fast. http://www.grumlapp.com/
I hope you guys enjoy the post, if you like you can subscribe or just leave me a comment or feedback. I will try to find more available apps for PowerPC. If you have any suggestions, please share them with us! We are a small but steady group of Mac supporters…and I’d like to keep options coming our way!
Archiver / Unarchiver For Mac PowerPC
It’s always good to have a good software to archive or unarchive your files. It could be just to save space on your hard-drive or just to better organize things that you don’t use often. If you download more often you are probably going to need an easy use application to open/unarchive the files. The good news is that for PPC it’s not hard to find great options and here are some:
* Stufflt Expander – One of the best, works with PPC 10.5 or later. Easy to use and it can expand over 30 different formats. The Stufflt 12.0.2 works with PPC 10.4. http://www.stuffit.com/mac-expander.html
* The Unarchiver – It’s another app that does the job really good. Very easy to use and runs on PPC 10.4 or later. http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver
* Keka – It’s a very simple app, but runs on PPC 10.4 or later. It’s a good call. http://www.kekaosx.com/en/
* TarPit – It’s a Free software to archive files and unarchive. Runs on PPC 10.3 or later. It’s very easy drag and drop. http://homepage.mac.com/entropy4/software/
* BetterZip – One more option for PPC 10.4 or later. No complaints so far, all these apps do the job pretty well. http://macitbetter.com/
* 7zX – PPC user, this is a great app to archive your file or unarchive. It’s free and it’s simple and fast. Runs on PPC 10.3 or later. http://sixtyfive.xmghosting.com/
* sArchiver – (ShareWare $19.99) File archiving and extraction, supported formats: RAR, Zip, 7z, DMG Images, LHA, ARJ, Bzip2, Tar, tar.gz, tar.bz. PPC 10.5 – http://www.bitpersecond.com/bps/sarchiver.html
Include: ZIP, SIT, TAR, GZip, BZip2, RAR, 7-Zip, CPIO, ARJ, LZH/LHA, JAR, WAR, CAB, ISO, CHM, RPM, DEB, NSIS, BIN, HQX, DD
If you have better options share with us, leave a comment telling us what do you think about these applications. Thanks
Client BitTorrent For Mac PowerPC
Task of the day: To find a good client bit-torrent for Mac PowerPC. In the beginning I couldn’t easily find any good applications, but as the research kept going, more options keep popping up, and where I thought I’d have no options, I found a few…
These days there are so many ways to download, but having a torrent client installed is one of the best ways to ensure you get what you want, when you want it.
* Bits on Wheels – This app is very simple and easy to use. It’s native Mac torrent client. Runs on PPC 10.3 or later. http://www.bitsonwheels.com/
* FrostWire – It’s an Open Source and it’s very fast to download. Runs on PPC 10.5 or later. http://www.frostwire.com/
* Tomato Torrent – It’s easy to use and very clean interface, one of the best options to download torrents. Also supports 10.2 / 10.3 / 10.4 or later that’s really helpful. http://sarwat.net/bittorrent/
* Vuze – The best Torrent Client for a PPC 10.4, it’s easy to set-up and start using, simple, fast and dynamic. The interface is very clean and organized. http://www.vuze.com/
After I wrote this post I found out another great application to make sure your torrents will be downloaded. Xtorrent – It’s an easy to use torrent downloader. It kind of reminds me of iTunes. http://www.xtorrentp2p.com/
I hope you guys enjoy the post, if you like you can subscribe or just leave me a comment or feedback. I will try to find more available apps for PowerPC. If you have any suggestions, please share them with us! We are a small but steady group of Mac supporters…and I’d like to keep options coming our way!
*Transmission - One of the most famous app to download torrent and thanks to Andre who shared the link with us. Now who have PowerPC inside will be able to use this great app. Run in Panther / Tiger / Leopard. https://trac.transmissionbt.com/wiki/PreviousReleases
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/
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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!
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
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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/
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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/
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/
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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/
* 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/
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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/
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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)
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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/
