iPhoney simulates the iPhone, displaying a pixel-accurate web browser powered by Safari. Ostensibly for developers who want to preview what their web sites will look like in iPhone, I use it to play with iPhone apps—without iPhone.

Check out Sudoku 4 iPhone or Shredder iPhone Chess (pictured below), for examples. And try more games and widgets for iPhone at Culture Code’s new Gridgets.com.

This latest version sports a snazzy new icon and includes the latest ClamAV engine. You can schedule scans or virus updates to run when your computer is idle and ClamXav Sentry lets you scan watched folders (such as a download folder) as new items are added. There’s a new contextual menu, too, which makes it a snap to select a file or folder and scan it directly.

Bottom Line: ClamXav is still “the only user-friendly, completely free virus scanner for Mac OS X.”
From: Mark Allan
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh

I wrote a few days ago about using ImageWell to quickly resize images, but I’ve discovered an even easier and faster way: just drag and drop an image on the Image Shackle Dashboard widget. You can resize the image using a slider, or set a default width or height. There’s also an option to automatically convert images, such as PNG files saved from screen captures, into JPEG. I haven’t found an easier way to scale images for uploading to the web.

Via ProBlogger.

Bottom Line: Scaling your images is now as easy as drag and drop.
From: Cre8tivegroup
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh (Universal)

PicLens is a free plugin for Safari that lets you view photos in full screen with a single click. Once you’ve activated PicLens, you can play a slideshow of photo albums or search results, even browse the photos using your Apple remote. PicLens supports several sites: Flickr, Photobucket, Facebook, Google Images, Yahoo Images, and Ask.com Images.

Bottom Line: Stop squinting. Lean back and enjoy browsing photos online in fullscreen cinematic mode with PicLens.
From: Cooliris
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh (Universal)

Bottom Line: For basic image modifications, ImageWell is quick and easy. Though still in beta, this new version of ImageWell is well worth downloading.
From: xtralean software
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh (Universal)

Universal. Mike Piontek

Universal. Hetima

Universal. Nathan Barkei

Jun Wen Lau

Universal. Sören Kuklau

Santa Software

David Watanabe

Bottom Line: You don’t need a TV to enjoy this little HBO widget.
From: HBO
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh

Note: Telestream also offers several upgraded versions of Flip4Mac that let you import, export, edit and create Windows Media files, with prices ranging from $29 to $179.

Bottom Line: Flip4Mac is a no-brainer. Everyone Mac user who has to open Windows Media files should install it. Even Microsoft distributes Flip4Mac.
From: Telestream
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh

Vitaly Friedman combed the web to find the 20 Best License-Free Quality Fonts. The selection is impressive; whatever your project, you’ll find some winners in here.

Via Bearskinrug.

I just did something I never thought I’d do: I installed a GUI theme to give my Mac a consistent look. I love OS X, but I’m getting tired of Apple’s indiscriminate proliferation of window styles. The clincher was the new look in iTunes 5.0.1. So you have aqua (e.g., Preview), metal (e.g., Safari), burnt metal (e.g., iTunes 5.0.1), sunken unified (e.g., Mail) and whatever the heck they call the look of the professional apps like Final Cut Pro. UNO (derived from the Latin word for “one”) unifies your windows with the same sunken unified look of Mail.

UNO is simple to install; you don’t have to install a GUI theme switcher first. UNO automatically creates a backup of your current GUI files. Restart and you have a beautiful, consistent Mac. Uninstalling is just as easy: just run the installer and choose “Uninstall UNO.”

Bottom Line: If you think the Mac is beginning to look like there’re too many interface designers running loose in Cupertino, restore a little adult supervision with UNO.
From: interacto.net
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh

SizzlingKeys lets you control iTunes with hot keys, allowing you to switch tracks, control the volume, change your rating and pause or resume play, all without switching to iTunes. A floater window displays the current song name, artist, and cover art, if available. You can also search your Library or display playlists in a floater window.

Bottom Line: SizzlingKeys lets you control iTunes without interrupting your work.
From: Yellow Mug Software
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh

I don’t use a PDA. I had a Palm once, a long time ago, but I never bothered to replace it after the battery died. Someone once said that using a PDA was like getting in your car to drive next door. Most of the time, simple pen and paper do the trick and my Letts Slim Diary never runs out of batteries. But if you don’t feel like shelling out $15 for a Letts diary, or you want something that can fit in a wallet, try a PocketMod.

A PocketMod is a small “book” constructed from one folded sheet of paper, yielding front and back covers and 6 inside pages. What makes it so special? According to PocketMod, here’s the list:

1. It fits easily in your back pocket or purse.
2. It’s as cheap as one piece of paper (Because that’s all it is!)
3. It opens like a book. Leading to easier to find, more organized notes.
4. The first page has a pouch, big enough to carry a business card!
5. Customizable with "Mods" tailored to your needs.
6. It’s free and fun!

Your PocketMod can make use of a variety of page templates, including grid pages, tables, story boards, musical staff sheets, calendars, lists, food diaries, contacts, check books, tip tables, and games (Dots, SoDoku, and Tic Tac Toe).

PocketMod is a Flash application. You can access it online or download it from the PocketMod site.

Bottom Line: The PocketMod is svelte, flexible, and free, and you won’t need any handwriting recognition software.
From: PocketMod
Price: Free
Platform: Flash, Windows, Mac

FolderGlance installs a preference panel in your System Preferences. You can specify what kinds of files to include in the menu, change the sort order, change where the files appear in the menu, change the menu font size, and make a few other selections.

Bottom Line: FolderGlance lets you spy into your folders without opening them. It’s a great little shortcut.
From: Yellow Lemon Software
Price: Free or donation
Platform: Macintosh

What aspiring writer hasn’t toyed with the idea of writing a screenplay? You could spend a couple hundred bucks on Final Draft (as I did some time ago) or Movie Magic Screenwriter ($249), two applications that screenwriters love to hate. Or you could try the new, free, open source Celtx, which lets you write your screenplay, manage pre-production tasks, and collaborate with your team over the Internet, gratis.

Celtx offers all the features you need to craft your script, including auto file saving, automatic script formatting, pagination, title page generation, spellchecker, script notes, find and replace, and more. You can easily backup projects on a secure central server, where they’re available for your team. Celtx isn’t limited to text, either; you can also attach notes, images, audio and video files. And Celtx also lets you do production breakdowns, including Character, Extra, Location, Props, Set, Wardrobe, Camera, Lights and Sound.

Celtx is built on the Mozilla Application Framework so it runs in a Web browser, but works like a standalone application. The application will continue to be free, but Celtx will eventually charge for the web services it offers.

Bottom Line: Celtx does just about everything the major screenwriting apps do and costs nothing. Write your screenplay for free and spend the money you save at the movie theater.
From: Celtx
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh, Windows, Linux

MediaTuner is a rich media aggregator and player that lets you manage text blogs, news, audio, podcasts, streaming video, video blogs, and images. No software to download; MediaTuner runs in your browser.

I had some problems running MediaTuner in Safari, with Safari quitting unexpectedly (I certainly didn’t expect it to quit), but it seemed to work fine in Firefox.

I prefer desktop applications to web-based ones, but it’s interesting to watch the proliferation of rich media browsers, players, aggregators, syndicators. Worth a look.

Visit MediaTuner.

Slide is currently in beta (it launched on August 29th) and available for Windows only (WinXP or Win2k required), but a Mac version is in the works. Looks promising.

Visit Slide

Via Johnnie Manzari

There are a number of maintenance utilities available for the Mac, but MainMenu may be the easiest to use. MainMenu packs a slew of maintenance, optimization, and cleaning functions in the Menu Bar.

MainMenu includes all of the standard functions you’d expect from a maintenance utility—repairing permissions, running system maintenance scripts, updating prebindings, cleaning caches and logs, and repairing disks. You can also rebuild your Spotlight index, verify preference files, enable or disable Dashboard, and more.

MainMenu lets you execute most tasks as a batch and the rest are quickly accessed via the menu. Finally, an easy way to show invisibles in the Finder or force empty the Trash.

Bottom Line: There are other utilities that offer a few more bells and whistles, but MainMenu puts the most useful features within easy reach.
From: Santa Software
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh

Textpander brings the idea of snippets to any application under OS X. If you regularly type the same thing—greetings or signatures, code fragments or text fragments—Textpander can save you a lot of work. With Texpander, you can insert snippets with a few keystrokes.

Textpander works seamlessly. It installs as a Preference Pane, so it’s available within any application. It’s easy to use: just set the abbreviation that triggers the snippet, then type the abbreviation in any text editor and Textpander expands the abbreviation into the snippet. For example, I type “fts” to insert the template for the “facts” section at the bottom of this review. You can have Textpander place the cursor where you want to begin typing after the paste (in the middle of a tag, for instance).

Bottom Line: Why type more than you have to? Save your wrists and get Textpander.
From: Peter Maurer
Price: Free
Platform: Macintosh