Must Have Mac Marketing Tool(s):

Cyberduck FTP software:

Open source FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Cloud Files, Google Docs & Amazon S3 Browser for Mac & Windows

Creator/Publisher: David V. Kocher

Cyberduck’s Big Idea:

A powerful, feature-rich FTP, SFTP, WebDav application that feels like an extension of the Mac OSX Finder. Works like a Mac app should.

Why You Need To Have This:

No matter what you do online as a marketer – whether or not you build your own sites, use WordPress, or outsource every single thing you develop… you need a good FTP program to upload and download stuff to and from your servers.

Lots of folks use that abomination of an FTP app, FileZilla. If they gave out awards for fugly, difficult to understand and unintuitive to use interface design, Filezilla is right up there.

You may have suffered so long under the tyranny of Fugly FZ that you’ve developed some sort of FTP Stockholm Syndrome, a paradoxical sympathy and positive feelings for your captor.

Seriously, download Cyberduck, login and save your web accounts and passwords as bookmarks. It’s like RoboForm for your online accounts and websites.

Just enter your AWS S3 Access Key and Secret Key and let Cyberduck start managing your S3 data and you’ll instantly understand why this app is so cool.

Be sure to specify your preferred Editor application and you can quickly and painlessly edit any file on your server in seconds with one click and “Save”.

Hidden Value Gem:

Insanely great Amazon S3 integration – almost certainly better than any S3 management software you’ve ever used. Complete control over everything you do in your S3 account.

Price: FREE

Cyberduck is open-source (or nagware if you’re a cynic), so consider donating directly to the developer (that way they get the most money) or “buy” through the App Store for $23.99

Get It Now:

http://cyberduck.ch/

Image © Daniel Bozet - iMotion Luxembourg

A friend on a marketing forum recently asked about software tools and applications for business now that he’s got a brand spankin’ new MacBook Pro in his hot little hands…

Here’s my quick rundown of the tools I hang from my Mac tool belt. I’m betting you’ll find a lot of value on this list!

DO get iWork. Pages and Keynote are arguably the single best tools I’ve ever used for creating beautifully designed and highly polished content with minimal fuss.

Apple – iWork – Documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. The Mac way.

Also… Plop down the $29 and upgrade Quicktime to Quicktime Pro to unlock all of the codecs and hidden functionality.

For business software, FileMaker Pro is quite possibly the most powerful and overlooked application in the world. I built an entire business with it as the core.

Database Software | FileMaker

Barebones Software is a great developer and BBedit or Textwrangler are to my mind the best text editors available. I use Textwrangler daily.

They recently acquired and improved a little “collection” app I LOVE called Yojimbo

Bare Bones Software | Yojimbo

Totally eliminates clutter and lets you tag text, pdfs, images, whatever… keeps them in their own database and easily accessible. Harder to explain than to use.

The alternative to Yojimbo that I also own but took a backseat to Yojimbo is “Together”

Reinvented Software – Together for Mac OS X – Keep Your Stuff Together, Find It Again Instantly

A fantastic writing tool you might enjoy: “Scrivener”

Literature and Latte – Scrivener

OmniGroup publishes the seminally awesome OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner

The Omni Group

For security and keeping an eye on where your packets are going:

Little Snitch

For screencapture, you have a few excellent choices:

Skitch, Jing and Little Snapper are all excellent image capture apps

For video capture, it’s Screenflow or Camtasia for Mac.

Screencasting Software – ScreenFlow Overview – Telestream

Camtasia for Mac

However, you can never know when this nifty machine might just break down or need repair, run out of ink or paper. What if you need to send a fax ASAP? Then your all-in-one machine isn’t of much help anymore.

Email to Fax Software can change all that. Many have been skeptical in switching to online faxing, but here are a couple of reasons on why email to fax software is a better choice from your personal business or individual use.

- Save Money – Not only are you saving money, but you are also saving time by not having to run to the office supply store to by paper, ink or call a repair man. Email to Fax software is easy to use so there is no training needed or time wasted.

- Flexible – Many fax software support a variety of platforms such as Windows, Mac, Unix and MPE.

- Safety – Unlike broken down machine, fax services are safe to use anytime anywhere. As long as you have a computer with internet access then you can send a fax. There are tons of fax services online so you can pick any in the case of an emergency.

- Design – The best thing about email faxing is that there is no big old machine you have to set up or buy a table for. No cables, phone wires or power plugs. Just use your computer to send faxes!

So as you can see, email fax software can send a fax just as efficiently as a fax machine can, but it brings much more advantages. Start using free online faxing today!

Learn more about the best options to Send Fax Through the Internet If you’d like to read more about fax software, you can also visit my site onlinefaxfree.net

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joshua_Mac

Compelling arguments have been made on both sides. Ill try to sum up the important points on either side, and Ill even give you my recommendation, but ultimately, its up to you.

LEAVE IT ON:

Constantly warming up and cooling down is bad for electronic equipment, and the computer experiences some mechanical wear and tear every time you turn it on and off.

Theres also the issue of convenience. Its much easier to plop down and go to work when you want to, rather than having to wait several minutes for the computer to turn on and boot up.

TURN IT OFF:

The hard drive may last longer. Since it is composed of moving parts, it stands to reason, the less they move, the longer it will last. This may not be much of an issue with newer computers. The hard drive will probably last longer than the useful life of the computer, regardless.

If the computer is on all the time, it will suck more dust through the ventilation vents. More dust = more heat = shorter life span for the computer, so it may be worthwhile to turn it off when not in use.

All computers can benefit from the occasional reboot, and turning them off allows this to happen. Over time, minor things go wrong and the computer doesnt bother to inform you; it tries to patch itself up and moves on. The cumulative affect of all these little hiccups can be to reduce performance or even cause the computer to freeze or crash. Turning the computer off now and then gives it a chance to reset itself and start fresh.

Turning the computer off when idle uses less electricity. Depending on your computer, it may use as much electricity as one or more 100 watt light bulbs. That can add up to quite a few dollars over the lifetime of the computer. Also, less electricity expended means less carbon emissions, which is better for the environment, reduces global warming, etc. etc. etc.

ON THE SUBJECT OF ELECTRICITY: While were talking about electricity, there are settings on all computers that we can adjust to save power right now.

If you have a PC running XP, right-click on the desktop, and choose properties from the menu that pops up. This will open a little window titled Display Properties with several tabs underneath. Click on the Screen Saver tab. On the bottom of this tab is a section titled Monitor power with a button labeled Power… – click on this button to bring up a window titled Power Options Properties.

On a Mac running OSX, choose System Preferences… from the Apple menu, then click on Energy Saver.

Computers running different systems will have slightly different menus and settings, but the main idea will be the same. Explaining all the different settings is beyond the scope of this article. Suffice to say, these settings let you control how long the computer can run unattended (with nothing going on) before different parts of the system are turned off, or put to sleep, to save electricity. There are separate settings for the monitor (screen), hard disk, and the system (the entire computer).

Depending on how you use your computer, you can experiment with the settings to complement the way you work. Dont be afraid to tinker. Nothing you change here will damage the computer. Of course, the more things you turn off, and the sooner you turn them off, the more energy youll save.

MY RECOMMENDATIONS: These arent Commandments; theyre suggestions. Be flexible and tailor them to your needs. If you plan on using your computer in the next 8 hours, leave it on. If not, turn it off or put it to sleep. I leave mine on during the day, and turn it off overnight. My computer is set to go to sleep if I walk away for more than twenty minutes. This way, my computer benefits from the occasional reboot, and I can reduce my total energy use, even if it is only a little bit.

Larry Spinak is a professional computer consultant and tutor in Los Angeles, CA. He started his own firm in 1999, called CompuNerds

2007 – All rights reserved

Author: Larry Spinak
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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In this article you’ll learn five great tips to help you work more effectively with Mac OS X.

We all want to save time when working, and there are hundreds of ways you can work more effectively with your Mac computer.

Here are just a few:

1. Learn and Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Most Mac applications provide two, three, or four-key shortcuts for common tasks. Look in the menu bar of each app to see the available shortcuts. If you’re not sure what the symbols in the menus mean, switch to the Finder, choose Help > Mac Help, and search the help for “Symbols for special keys”. You can also create your own shortcuts for any menu item with Applications > System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts.

2. Speed Up Common Tasks with Automator

If you find yourself doing the same task again and again, create an Automator workflow for it. Automator (Applications > Automator) is Apple software that lets you create scripts, or workflows, that you can run automatically with the click of a button.

3. Control iTunes Quickly with SizzlingKeys

SizzlingKeys (http://www.yellowmug.com/sk4it/) is a simple utility that lets you assign keyboard shortcuts to common iTunes actions, such as play/pause, previous/next track, and volume up/down. You can then use the shortcuts to control iTunes from within any application. This is great as it saves you having to switch to iTunes when you want to pause a song, for example.

4. Organize your Dock

Remove programs that you never use from the Dock to make it easier to find the ones you do. And if you find yourself regularly using a new piece of software, add it to the Dock. (An easy way to do this is to Control-click the icon in the Dock when the software’s running and choose Keep In Dock.)

5. Get a Handle on Spam

Junk email is a big time-waster. To reduce the amount of spam you get, only give out your email address to people you know and trust. If you need to register for something on a website and you don’t trust their privacy policy, create an additional “disposable” email address and use that. Then you can drop that email address if it starts getting a lot of spam. Finally, take advantage of online spam filtering services, as well as Apple Mail’s excellent built-in spam filter. That way, even if you do get spam, most of the time you’ll never need to deal with it.

About the author

Matt Doyle is a writer, Web developer, and converted Mac-head. Grab lots more handy Mac tips and tricks in his Mac blog, http://mac.elated.com/

Author: Matt Doyle
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Expose On Apple Mac is a feature of the leopard OSX operating system which allows a user to show and hide all active and hidden windows, in a single click of the mouse or the press of a button.

So why would this feature on a mac be so useful to somebody, you may ask. well, simply put, as an every day computer user, you may have several applications running all at once and suddenly need go back to one of your open applications.

Expose is perfect for showing you which applications are currently open on your desktop, so that you can switch around very quickly.

Points that will be covered in this article are :

• How to Activate Expose and Customize
• Features of Expose
• Hidden Features of Expose
• How Expose can make your life easier

How to Activate Expose and Customize Expose

Expose can be activated in three main ways:

Hot Keys

Mouse Click

Hot Corners

Hot Keys – By default, F9 on the keyboard activates Expose on Leopard OSX, However this can be configured by going to System Preferences – Expose & Spaces, and then configuring the settings to your own preferences.

Mouse Click – Expose can be activated by the Apple mighty mouse, or any other multi button mouse. On the Apple mighty mouse you can configure Expose to be activated when squeezing the two side buttons. Expose can also be configured on a multi-button mouse by once again opening Expose & Spaces, System Preferences and setting up which mouse button you would like to use.

Hot Corners – ( Hot Corners for Leopard OSX, are areas of the users desktop screen that will activate certain commands when the user however over that part over the screen with their mouse cursor) In the Expose & Spaces System Preferences , you can configure the Hot Corners of your desktop screen to activate Expose.

Features of Expose

All Windows – The feature enables the user to view all of the active windows on the desktop. For example if you, the user had iTunes, Photoshop, and iPhoto open at the same time, activating Expose will shrink all of the active windows, so that all the applications fit onto your screen and you can see all of them in a Birds-Eye view mode.

Applications Window – This feature of Expose allows you to see all of the active windows for a active application, by again shrinking the windows to fit the desktop screen. This feature is different from the All Windows feature, as you can only view the current application windows. For example if you were working on many Pages documents, and had many different files open, activating this feature will allow you to see all of your pages documents at once, however if any other applications were open, they would not be shown. By default this can be activated by pressing the F10 key or changed inside of system preferences.

Show Desktop – By activating this feature ( by Default is F11 or changeable by system preferences ), Leopard quickly moves all of the application windows to the side of the screen so only the edges of the application windows are viewable and the entire desktop area is exposed.

Hidden Features of Expose

Expose has some features that are not obvious and have not been, documented on the apple website, but have been discovered by some Mac fanatics, and are quite easy to activate and use.

The Blob – The “blob” is a hidden and undocumented interface to Expose that was discovered by a member of the MacNN forums. When clicked, it enables the “Application Windows” mode. When Option+clicked, it enables the “All Windows” mode.

Slow Motion Expose – When activating Expose, it can be done in a slow motion effect, which is more for fun or for presentation purposes, rather than that of any practical purposes. To use this command, Press down the Shift Key when activating expose, so by default it would be Shift + F9.

How Expose can Make your Life Easier

Once you figure out how to use expose, it will probably become on the most used features, of your mac. The best practice is to configure your mouse buttons to activate Expose, and switching from one application to another will become a cinch. In practical uses, it will allow you speed up your productivity when compared to a windows machine, by allowing quick and easy access, to all of your active applications. And now that you don’t have to spend so much time clicking all of the tabs, on all of your applications your productivity, will in all likeliness increase, giving you more time to do other things.

For further information visit http://www.customizemymac.com

Author: Hergo Borelli
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable Multi-cooker

After all, any computer (Mac or PC) is only as useful as the programs that it runs…

Here’s a nice quick rundown of 10 Mac applications that every Mac should have…

(Via TUAW)

However, for those of us who have both children and Macs, we have to take responsibility for educating and protecting our children on the computer. This was never made clearer to me than one late night a few months back.

My daughter was upstairs on her computer and my wife and I were downstairs watching a movie. First my daughter called down asking for her mothers birth date. Then, two minutes after getting the answer, she called down and asked for the year. I asked my daughter why she needed to know. She replied, just asking.

Her mother shouted the answer before I could stop her. I paused the movie and said, we have to go see what our girl is up to, because I had a suspicion she was giving out my wifes information online. We were met on the stairs by an ecstatic ten year old that told us she had just won a free pizza. All she had to do was give them all her moms personal information.

From this incident I knew I had been lazy with the education of my daughter. I had helped with math and history homework but had given her a computer that is always connected to the Internet without any real instruction. This was my wakeup call. She impresses me daily with her ability to use her iBook. But the same reason kids are good students of computers is the reason they can get into so much trouble on the Internet.

Children are mostly trusting and fearless. They trust that aside from dropping a computer, it can be fixed and that no harm can come to them through their actions online. Most of all they do not fear making a mistake, as many adult students do.

Within Mac OS X 10.4, Apple included Parental Controls that help a parent supervise their childs computer use. The first step is to always have children use Non Administrator user accounts. Whether your child has their own computer or
shares yours, they need to have a separate user account.

When you create a password for your user account or the Administrator account on your childs computer, be sure to select a password they cant guess and that you will never need to tell them. Remember kids are smart and a locked door is more tempting than an open one, so dont think they wont try to get your password.

Next, you’ll need to create your childs account. In System Preferences select Accounts and click on the padlock in the lower right hand corner of the window. Enter your password and click on the + button above it. Enter your kids name and a password. This will be the password you can tell them, so make it appropriate to what your child can remember.

There is a check box towards the bottom that will ask if the user can administer the computer. Do not check that box.

Now that your new user is added, you can click on Login Options and check Enable fast user switching. This will let your child use their account on your computer without shutting down the things you have been working on.

Creating a Non Administrator user account is just the first step.

You will now need to set up limitations on that account. Doing this will require a good understanding of what your children do online and what you feel they should be able to do.

In the Accounts section of System Preferences click on the user account you made for your child. To the right there will be a tab named Parental Controls. Clicking on that will bring up five items to configure. Mail is the first selection. Checking the box there will filter whom your child will communicate with. You can add email addresses to the list of friends and family. This list can be constantly updated and managed by you. It will even send permission requests to your email.

Next Finder & System can be managed. This is where you will make most of your decisions about what the computer is to be used for. Do you want your child to change system settings or burn CDs? Here too you can limit what programs they can use.

Limiting programs is best for younger computer users, just keep in mind that as you children grow, so too will their interests and capabilities. It may be better to let kids have access to programs you might not think they would want to use than to limit their options, and if they’re not Internet based programs, there’s not much
trouble they can get into.

Configuring iChat is the same as with Mail but instead it is listing permitted persons chat name. This is probably more important to use than mail filtering. Predators in particular can misuse iChat, so filtering strangers access is recommended. If you dont think there are predators out there, search through the news. Anyone who is inclined to be that kind of monster has found fertile ground on the Internet. They feel safer sending anonymous emails or chatting than lurking around a mall hoping to engage a child in conversation. They’re out there, and you may be the only defense standing between your child chatting with predators online.

To filter Safari, the next section, you will need to log in under your childs user account and add sites one by one. To add approved sites will require your Administrator password; so only use this if you want to be in complete control of where your kids go online.

The last item is Dictionary and all this does is block profanity when checked. This, like filtering Safari, is a tough issue for some. If you block your childrens access to certain things then you run the risk of not preparing them for when they do encounter them later on. Instead have your kids use the computer where you can see the screen, that way you can see what they are working on and can ask questions.

Apple has also been adding parental controls to other applications too. For instance, iTunes has a new preference tab to help filter iTunes Music Store content, Podcasts and explicit content. However, as new tools are added for parents it is increasingly important not to forget to teach with those tools. I might be able to filter the websites that ask for personal information but I will miss the opportunity to teach my daughter healthy skepticism on the Internet. I can block the strangers but I still need to teach that you should not chat with people you have not met in real life first. Education, not isolation, was the intention of these tools from Apple. So use those tools to help your children discover and explore safely.

PowerMaxs <http://www.powermax.com/> resident Mac expert, Jacob Loeb, has been using Macintosh computers professionally since 1990. He founded a pioneering Mac based DVD production company and later worked as an IT administrator for several Portland, Oregon companies. Over the last four years Jacob has retained a top Apple Product Professional ranking. As a PowerMax technician hes repaired, trouble shot, and tested every model Mac we sell.

Author: Chris McMullen
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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But what exactly can you do with this mini computer? Quite a bit! The base model comes with more than enough features for most computer uses. It is a full fledge Macintosh, nothing small about this machine except its physical size.

In this article I will talk about three main uses for the Mac mini. First, I will discuss what Macs are known for; their audio and video capabilities. Secondly, I will discuss general Internet uses such as browsing, email and chat. Finally I will discuss word processing. These three are some of the most common tasks for most computer users.

Digital Video, Photos and Music

Music has become what Apple is known best for. Who has not seen one of their iPod music players? The Apple Macintosh comes with iTunes, which allows you to play MP3 music, as well as purchase legal copies of songs directly from the iTunes music store. Songs only cost ninety nine cents, and the selection is huge. If you have an iPod you can attach it to the Macintosh and use it directly with iTunes.

The Mac Mini also comes with iMove and iDVD. These two applications allow you to edit and burn your home movies to a DVD. However, if you want to record your own DVDs you will need a Mac Mini with the optional DVD burner, which adds $100 to the price of the Mac Mini. If you have a digital camcorder you can transfer your movies directly into the Mac Mini.

Digital Video has become very easy with the Macintosh. Just drag clips from your video together and make a complete movie. If you are like me, your home video includes many scenes where the camcorder is not pointed where it should be. The video editing software makes it very easy to remove such footage from your movie.

If you have a video camera you can use iPhoto to download and organize your digital photos. The iPhoto application allows you to quickly move your pictures from your digital camera to the computer. Photos can be organized into catalogs and printed.

Browsing, Email and Chat

The Mac Mini comes with both Internet Explorer and the Safari browsers. Internet Explorer is provided for sites that require it for compatibility. You can also use the built in Macintosh browser Safari. Safari works very much like Internet explorer, only with many additional features and fewer security issues. Safari supports tabbed based browsing, which allows you to open multiple websites and quickly switch between them.

Email can easily be setup on a Mac with iMail. The iMail application will connect to your mail provider and allow you to send and receive mail messages. Chat is provided by iChat which allows you to use your existing instant message accounts to communicate with your friends. Additionally, most of the major chat networks have chat clients that can be downloaded free of charge for the Macintosh.

Word Processing

The Mac Mini comes with Apple Works. Apple works is a full featured office automation product, similar to Microsoft Office. It can open files created with Microsoft office. Apple Works comes with all of the standard office applications that you would expect. It includes a word processor similar to Microsoft Word. Additionally, Apple works includes a database application, similar to Microsoft Access. Spreadsheet functions are provided as well, similar to Microsoft Excel. Finally, a presentation application is also included, similar to Microsoft Powerpoint.

The word processor is full featured and includes all of the tolls you have come to expect. Files created with Microsoft word can be opened. Additionally, you can save your files as Microsoft Word documents. Whether you are writing a report for school or a resume for a new job, Apple Works is ready.

Conclusions

The Mac Mini is a very powerful computer, despite its small physical size. The Mac mini also comes with a great deal of software already loaded. The only add-on that I discussed in this article is a $100 DVD burner, if you want to record your movies to DVD.

Using a Macintosh is very similar to Windows. The average Windows user will soon be right at home with a Macintosh. Many things are actually much easier on the Macintosh. The Macintosh operating system is based upon the industrial strength UNIX operating system. This makes for a very stable operating system, without many crashes. If you are thinking of trying something other than Windows, the Mac Mini is a great option.

Jeff Heaton is a college professor and author. To read more articles by Jeff Heaton visit http://www.heatonresearch.com.

Author: Jeff Heaton
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital pipeline