LaunchBar 6 has been released by Objective Development

Objective Development has updated their awesome all purpose launch for Mac OS X to version 6. This is an awesome program that allows you to launch applications or documents using keyboard shortcuts, but is smart and learns your shortcuts so you can quickly launch apps or do things on the computer with a few simple keystrokes. And you can do custom keyboard shortcuts for different thing, even launching an e-mail addressed to a specific person. It is $29 for a single user or $48 for a 5 user Family License.

The new version adds a new interface and themes, and is now extensible. You can do live searches of Google, Wikipedia, DuckDuckGo or dict.cc. It adds information browsing to items by hitting shift and the right arrow.

Personally I have replaced the command-space spotlight search with Launchbar (moving spotlight to ctr-space), and can hit a few simple keys to launch apps. Such as command-space ap to launch adobe photoshop. or command space apr to launch adobe premiere. It is an amazingly fast and versatile app.

Honestly it has so many features that I don’t even know, but is worth it just for it’s launching features. It will speed up your computer usage so much. Honestly I miss it whenever I am on a clients computer as it really speeds everything up. This is the power user app that you should really check out.

XtraFinder for OS X

XtraFinder

I recently discovered Tran Ky Nam’s XtraFinder for OS X.

It is a program that adds extra abilities to the OS X finder. It is intended to add tabs and control tabs within the finder, but since this has been added to Mavericks, it still has many other cool features.

Some of my favorites are recoloring the Finder Sidebar Icons, which I think makes them much easier to see.

ColoredSidebar

Another really cool feature is adding back the full colored label to labels in OS X. Mavericks had changed this behavior to tags, so that there is only a tiny colored dot, but you can turn back on full colored tags which I think makes them much easier to spot.

FinderLabels

You can also add items to finder menus:

AddItemsToFinderMenus

Here is show hidden items:

ShowHiddenItems

And the ability to launch an application as root!

LaunchAsRoot

Overall a very cool finder extension, especially for the power user!

iOS 7 Mavericks and Bookmarks!

I just had to get my iPad 3 replaced as the home button was broken, and not only did I lose Gmail Push (as it has been discontinued except for Apps and there is no way to upgrade a normal GMAIL account to apps), but I have also lost all my bookmarks on my iPad as they no longer allow direct syncing from iTunes, you can only get bookmarks from iCloud.

That would be fine if iCloud bookmark syncing worked, especially with LastPass, which I use to sync my Chrome and Firefox bookmarks with Safarl. The problem is that ages ago my iCloud bookmarks became corrupted, and I could never get them to work right again, and now they seem to be empty. As even with iCloud bookmark sync on, I get no bookmarks on my iPad whatsoever! THIS REALLY SUCKS!!

If only apple would allow you to have basic controls over iCloud, like overwrite iCloud with this computers bookmarks (like they used to have), but now it is so dumbed down that my bookmarks are screwed up and I can’t fix them, and I can’t just sync my bookmarks with iTunes like I always did previously!

APPLE YOU HAVE REALLY FUCKED THIS UP! I don’t want to have to go into the Apple Store to try and fix this either, but it might be the only method since there is no phone support. I just want my Bookmarks reset on iCloud. Why can’t I do this?

SideEffects 1.9 Restores Color iCons to Mavericks Finder using Easy SIMBL!

SideEffects has been updated to version 1.9 and restores color icons to the finder.
.SideEffects

This was a huge mistake of Apple to remove a few versions of the OS ago, and I used SIMBL to bring it back for a while, but it was not entirely stable, so I am glad to have it back and working. Why should you not see your own custom drive icons and have an easier time seeing locations in the sidebar?

AVID Media Composer and Apple Mavericks

From AVID themselves, they do not support Mavericks with Media Composer 7, though they are working on it.

I know Apple must have purposely made Mavericks work with Final Cut Pro 7, but it still works and Premiere Pro CC and CS6 work just fine, so AVID had better get on the ball here.

Of course they have till December with the new MacPro (which will likely coincide with a new version of Mavericks), but that means no new Macs will run AVID until they update!

Yes Final Cut Pro 7 runs in OS X 10.9 Mavericks

Yes I upgraded to Mavericks and ran Final Cut Pro 7 last night, and yes it runs and plays back. Haven’t done extensive testing, but it does seem to work. And it has to have been on purpose as even After Effects CC had an update to make it work right in Mavericks, but Final Cut Pro 7 without an update still seems to work.