The R Project for Statistical Computing is a free multi-platform Open Source statistical and graphical programming platform. It provides a Mac friendly R Console for all the statistical and graphical work you can throw at it. Version 2.7.1 was released earlier this week.
Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac users can finally read those DOCX, XLSX and other "X" files created by Microsoft Office 2007 (for Windows) and 2008 (for Mac). Office 2008 for Mac gets its own giant 12.1.1 update with a bunch of fixes (some related to the previous SP1 update).
Two weeks ago, I complained about something not being quite right with the way OmniFocus -- a task management application based on GTD -- handles repeating actions, which may cause most of a project's actions to be hidden from you. In the comments to that blog post, a reader suggested three possible workarounds. Here's how useful those workarounds turned out to be, plus an official view on the topic by the OmniFocus developers.
If a Mac-based home automation system is on your wish list, but you don't want to hassle with your own configuration and installation, Savant has an impressive system just for you.
One of our office iPhones recently had to return to Apple for "service" — read replacement. For some reason, the phone started complaining at random intervals that a mysterious phantom accessory was incompatible and kindly suggested we enable airplane mode to avoid any risk of interference. Judging by the sympathetic smiles we got at the Apple Stores in both Chicago...
Why bring your *nix app to the Mac if you're a scientist?
VectorDesigner 1.3 is a low-cost vector drawing application that looks like a good tool for even design challenged people like me. I took a photo and a hand drawn sketch through the bitmap to vector conversion process and got what seems like good starting points for a new project of mine.
A while back, Derrick Story wondered how valuable Roxio Toast still was, given the disc-burning features built in to Mac OS X. Well, Toast hasn't grown moldy; Roxio added a bunch of features right after Derrick's post came out. I've covered two obscure but very cool audio ones: the ability to make high-resolution and surround-sound DVDs. Here's another tasty Toast...
The bottom line I gave to my review of ScreenFlow, Vara Software's screencasting studio software, last month was that " ScreenFlow does deliver on the promise of providing a one-stop-shop tool for creating high-quality screencasts with excellent visual effects, and it does so in a polished, modern, and totally Mac-like user interface."
Apparently, ScreenFlow also appealed to this year's Apple Design Awards jury.
When, three weeks ago, I blogged about Patrick Stein's "SmartSleep" preferences panel, which lets you configure a Mac laptop's sleep and hibernation (aka "Safe Sleep") settings, I explained that I wanted to use this software to switch off Safe Sleep altogether, because that feature had failed on my MacBook so many times that it was basically useless. I didn't expect SmartSleep to restore Safe Sleep's usefulness, but it did.
