Need to Send Email Later? Try This!

The developers at ChungwaSoft have SendLater, a low-cost ($10) Mac Mail enhancement that adds a button to your new mail toolbar allowing you to send messages later.

This is perfect for getting your messages out to your clients or friends when they are most likely to see the messages -- no matter what time day or night you think to send the message!

Check out the information from the company website for more information.

Here’s a screenshot of SendLater in action:

If you used this type of option in Microsoft Outlook on your old Windows PC, this is a much easier solution than using a combination of Automator/AppleScript and iCal.

 

Pixelmator 2.2.1 Update!

My favorite substitute for Photoshop, Pixelmator, has a fresh new update with tons of new features.

As mentioned before, this is a great little app that packs in a great number of Photoshop-like features that can satisfy the needs of quite a few casual users of Adobe products without that hefty cost of admission to Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite.

Still available on the Mac App Store for just $14.99, I recommend this highly to anyone interested in editing graphics files from photos to screenshots for almost any purpose from documents for school or work all the way through to custom animation frames for apps like Animationist.

The fine developers at Pixelmator Team Ltd. have added more tutorials to the website, along with tons of sample Pixelmator documents as a showcase of what can be done with the application. Unlike some of the samples shown with other products, you don’t have to be a professional designer to learn from and even duplicate the results shown.

Some of the updates in this minor rev release (2.2.1 from 2.2) are powerful enough that I’d probably have given the version number a larger increment. That being said, here are just a few of the changes:

1. Automatic saving in the background while you work
2. Faster performance thanks to a new Pixelmator file format
3. Option to use old or new Pixelmator format so you can still exchange files with others who haven’t updated
4. Progress bar that finally reflects the status of progress unlike the previous version that reminded me of the Microsoft “copy” dialog (who knows how long this will take)
5. Enhanced effects browser with previews

For a full list of improvements, check out their post here.

Remember, by buying from the Mac App Store, upgrades are free and if you use the same Apple ID you can even install the app on multiple Macs!

Free Location (or Event-based) Configuration Management - ControlPlane

With the ControlPlane application, you can create configuration profiles that automatically adjust settings on your Mac based on many different events, including the location of your device. For example, if you are logging into your Mac at work, you might want specific network drives connected. Similarly, at home you might have a NAS (or Time Capsule) and desire reactivation of your Time Machine backups. Once you are at home, it would be helpful to automatically change your default printer, start your VPN connection, change the screensaver start time. The feature list goes on and on, with more features added on a regular basis. The current build (as of September 2013) for Moutain Lion users is 1.4.0 beta, with older versions for Snow Leopard (1.2.3) available on the same page.

The author of ControlPlane calls says the software enables “context sensitive computing” and it’s definitely a solution for problems that many of us might not realize we have! Sure, it’s easy to change your default printer, but I know from experience that it’s annoying when you’ve already started a print job only to realize you’re sending it to the office printer.

For more about ControlPlane, see this page, and if you have Xcode installed, you can download the latest codebase from GitHub and make your own changes to this open source project.

Scroll to the bottom of this post for screenshots.

Enjoy!

 

ControlPlane Options

 

Evidence Sources

Rules 

Actions

Fall Bundle 2013 from MacLegion

Fall Bundle 2013 from MacLegion has arrived! Get 10 great apps for just $49.99

Apps in this bundle are:

1. AfterShot Pro - AfterShot Pro supports your entire photo workflow, whether you’re building a searchable library of thousands of images, enhancing a handful of photos, or generating output for an album, website or client review, AfterShot Pro is your app!
2. CollageFactory Pro - CollageFactory Pro is a powerful combination of photo collage maker and greeting card creator. With CollageFactory Pro, you can make photo collage and holiday e-greeting card effortlessly.
3. Pagico - Pagico is a personal database that helps you to manage and keep track of everything: notes, tasks, lists, files, projects and contacts. You can store all kinds of information in its database, and Pagico will get everything neatly organized for you.
4. Deliver Express - Deliver Express is an automated solution to send and share files easily across the Internet and local networks. Deliver Express is suitable as an enterprise solution, as well as for single users.
5. Default Folder X - Default Folder X is an award-winning utility that enhances the Open and Save dialogs in all Mac OS X applications. Its custom keyboard shortcuts put your favorite and recent folders at your fingertips.
6. EarthDesk - EarthDesk converts your Macintosh desktop into a beautiful, real-time image of our planet, continuously updating in the background while you work. With four maps and eleven projections to choose from, EarthDesk is perfect addition to your Desktop.
7. DriveDx - DriveDx is advanced drive health diagnostic and monitoring utility. Save yourself the data loss and downtime that is associated with unexpected drive failures. Don’t worry about losing your important data, music, and photographs.
8. MailHub - MailHub is a new 'smart' plug-in for Apple Mail which revolutionizes email management. File, create new mailboxes, delete or assign actions to your email effortlessly without interruption to your workflow.
9. MixTape Pro - Mixing music has become beautifully easy. Whether you're a pro DJ or just listening to your beats in the car, gym or at home, MixTape Pro has something for you.
10. Bluenote - Beautifully designed notes, tasks and passwords organizer all in a single app. Bluenote automatically encrypts, saves and syncs on the fly. It's a fantastic app, exclusively for the Mac.

I’m a big fan of Default Folder X and ColageFactory Pro, and the first 2,000 customers also get MacCleanse 3&4.

 

The Little App Factory - "Pay What You Want" Bundle

Featuring a number of apps for downloading and converting videos, including the fantastic RipIt DVD ripper app, this bundle is available for a limited time from Paddle, one of my favorite sites for buying apps these days.

Check out this bundle of programs from The Little App Factory and share your thoughts in the comments.

Note: the iRip app is a great offering on its own because it can help you recover your iOS content when moving to a new Mac or reinstalling Mac OS X.

New Wallpapers from OS X Mavericks

Over at OS X Daily, there are links to the latest wallpapers from the Mavericks developer preview.

Check the wallpapers out here.