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Tap-Translate Does Inline Mobile Safari Translations

Tap-Translate, a $1.99 universal app by developer Ronen Drihem, brings an interesting approach to translations on iOS, and more specifically in Mobile Safari. Tap-Translate, in fact, isn’t exactly an “app”: it’s an app whose only function is to let you install a bookmarklet in Safari that will let you tap on a word on any webpage to get an instant translation inside a cute yellow popup menu.

It works like this: once you’ve followed the steps provided by the app to install the bookmarklet (which allows you to choose from a variety of languages), you’ll find the bookmarklet in Mobile Safari (works on any iOS device, but I’ve also tested it in Chrome and Safari on the desktop) ready to give you inline translations on tap. The translation’s popup allows you to “speak” a selected word, or jump directly to the Google Translation page. Tap-Translate can also do entire paragraphs, and be dismissed at any time. It’s fast, easy to use and convenient.

At $1.99 you could argue you’re spending money to install a bookmarklet. The thing is, Tap-Translate works really well and, most of all, it’s integrated with Safari and it’s unobtrusive. Recommended.

Space Gremlin Is A Simple App To Free Up Space On Your Mac

I stumbled upon Space Gremlin for Mac today when browsing new releases and top paid categories in the Mac App Store. Not as sexy and shiny as Daisy Disk, Space Gremlin can scan any drive connected to your Mac (external, internal Mac HD, network drive through AirPort Extreme station) and provide an easy solution to visualize files that are eating space on your computer.

Space Gremlin doesn’t allow you to delete files and folders in-app like Daisy Disk does with the recent 2.0 update, however it comes with a more standard grid view that reminds me of the popular cleaning tool WinDirStat for Windows. From this grid view (scan took a few seconds on my 120 GB SSD), you can select folders to reveal them in Finder, navigate to deeper levels, zoom back and hide free space / hidden files. What’s cool is that you can also add specific folders (like system ones) to an ignore list because you know they’re there and you can’t delete them. You can access and modify the ignore list at any time from the toolbar, which also happens to have buttons to refresh folders and perform a new scan. I really, really appreciate the fact that, together with my FireWire drive, the app also recognized the USB one attached to my AirPort extreme and shared on my local network. From the “begin a new scan” window, you also have shortcuts to popular Places like the Desktop, Documents and Applications folders.

Space Gremlin doesn’t have the most beautiful interface you’ve ever seen, but gets the job done. I would like to see the possibility to delete files within the app in a future update, and smoother animations when switching between folders in the filesystems. Overall, Space Gremlin is a well-realized utility that you can get at $3.99 in the Mac App Store.

Fuel Collective’s ImageGlitch Destroys JPEGs, TIFFs

If you’re designing for a Trent Reznor project, Fuel Collective’s ImageGlitch literally achieves the task by having users delete lines of code from the image’s code makeup. A glitchy app will have glitch results: you can’t just delete any line of code, but some fidgeting in the text editor allows you to suddenly edit out lines, alter color, and completely screw up any of those vintage family photos you’ve saved to your hard drive. I don’t know how safe this is, but it’s recommend that you back up anything before you start deleting data from those image files. I might try it to create some new graphics for a site I’m working on, but I think Fuel Collective has already beaten’ me to the punch.

Download the destructive image editor in the Mac App Store for $.99.

I Love Joypad For iOS

I recently completed Cave Story (for the thirteenth time) with the aid of niche but awesome iOS app by the name of Joypad. Turning your iPhone into a virtual video game controller, Joypad is a pocketable companion for 8 bit, indie, or emulator crazy Mac gamers who don’t have a USB controller accessible. NES, SNES, N64, SEGA Genesis, and GBA controllers are all available to smash those Cheeto flavored fingers on, but how well does a flat display work with bumpers?

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Twitterrific 4 For Mac Review

My first exposure to Twitterrific was when MacHeist casually offered Ollie as part of their first nanoBundle, alongside great applications such as WriteRoom and TinyGrab. While the third version quickly grew outdated in part because of Twitter’s continual feature growth and the IconFactory’s focus on providing parity between iPhone and iPad iterations, Ollie remained perched in my menubar for quite a while thanks to its minimal HUD interface. It was this Aqua-less client that faded into the background as I went about my other tasks that was supposed to be a permanent mainstay on my MacBook. I loved everything about it despite criticisms of it being ugly or lacking features, and if I wasn’t as vigorous on Twitter as I am today it would still be perfect for simply reading the latest incoming tweets. Though times changed, and I shelved my favorite mascot for Echofon while Tweetie garnered droves of followers in its presence.

While the OS X version of Twitterrific remained seemingly stagnant, the IconFactory made a rather large push into the Twitter realm with the iOS versions we’re familiar with today. Starting with the iPhone, the IconFactory practiced bringing a familiar experience across mobile devices by simplifying how we interact with Twitter. There is no excess interface or useless presentation of information: the IconFactory replaces Twitter’s originally dull and now confusing web interface with an inline, color-coded approach whose design is recognizable across the Apple community. Macworld named Twitterrific the ‘Twitter Client of the Year’ in 2010’s App Gem Awards, and you can bet the IconFactory would take their award winning design to the desktop. Steve Jobs wasn’t kidding when he said everything was coming, “Back to the Mac.”

Today, I’m glad to say that with the launch of Twitterrific 4 for OS X, it has once again reclaimed dominance on my Coca-Cola bottled desktop.

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MacStories Product Review: Ten One Design Pogo Stylus

Many people would tell you that you don’t need a pen to enjoy touchscreen devices. For the most part it’s true: the iPad shines as fingers flick photos into sharing bins and users check off another todo item in Things. Pen input is old fashioned, and quite frankly there isn’t a successful way to do it on a capacitive touchscreen. Though what would happen if we took the pen away from a poet, or a brush away from a canvas painter? Ten One Design defies finger philosophy with an elegant solution for the iPhone 4, iPod touch, and iPad with the popular Pogo Stylus.

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MacStories Product Review: Sena Folio Case for iPad

It is no secret Sena makes beautiful products. From travel cases to sleeves and integrated keyboard folio designs, Sena’s leather quality and manufacturing process is top notch. In fact, I don’t think any other company I know of makes better leather accessories than Sena’s. Over the past weeks I’ve been able to test a Folio Case for the iPad, an elegant case with a portfolio book design that adds a very “sophisticated” tone to the device. Read more

Desktop Curtain Removes Clutter, Gets You Better Screenshots

Desktop Curtain, a $1.99 app available in the Mac App Store, has become one of my most used utilities these past few days. The concept is simple, and fits with one my most performed tasks on the Mac: screenshots. Desktop Curtain hides the clutter on your desktop, isolates the app you’re currently using and lets you focus on that app with no files, folders or other distractions around it. For me, this is incredibly handy as I can pick the app I need to capture in a screenshot for MacStories and avoid additional modifications in Acorn or Preview. Read more

Shuttie: Set A Timer For Your Mac To Shutdown Or Sleep

Shuttie, a $0.99 app available in the Mac App Store, is the kind of utility I’ve been looking for these days, as I’m tweaking my workflow to include Time Machine backups through Dolly Drive, and hard drive clones with SuperDuper. My problem with backups is that I want them to run at night, but I’d like my MacBook to sleep once backup sessions are completed. And even though I know it’s possible to trigger AppleScripts to put a Mac to sleep with iCal, or tweak the System Preferences to enable display and computer sleep, Shuttie is a simple app with a nice design that offers more options, and it’s very easy to use.

Shuttie lets you set a timer for shutdown, sleep, restart and logout. Set a time (hours and minutes are supported), activate the timer and forget it. Once the countdown is up, Shuttie will perform the function you assigned it. This is quite handy for me, as I can let Dolly Drive and SuperDuper do their backups, then put the computer to sleep after 3 hours, when the backups are completed. This way, I don’t have to leave my MacBook running all night.

Shuttie provides a nice interface for things that can be accomplished manually in other ways, and it works very well. If you don’t want to mess with System Preferences and AppleScripts, give it a try.