faf : Elle Stevenson

October 30, 2009 in Favourite Apps, Featured by David John

Elle Stevenson is one of the most promising female solo artists to hail from Belfast. Elle takes us through her five favourite Mac Apps.

I’ve picked 5 of the most useful, but perhaps lesser-known, mac applications that I found through browsing various mac user websites over the last few years, and the really great thing about all of them is they’re entirely free! I’ve included a link after each so you can download and try them out for yourself.

1. AppCleaner:

Dragging applications to your trash can and hitting ‘empty trash’ does not get rid of that application in it’s entirety. Rather, when you install software it generally distributes files throughout your System hard drive. This is a really small, but extremely useful application that finds all the files associated with the application you want to delete so you can get rid of them in one fell swoop! [Link].

2. Caffeine:

I absolutely love this application. Basically, caffeine stops your mac from sleeping, dimming or the screen saver starting. It’s great for when you’re watching a movie on the laptop and find it dims every couple of minutes! You can set it to start up at log-in and there’s a little coffee-cup icon in your menu bar. Click on the coffee cup to turn on and off – if the cup is full, your mac’s on caffeine; if the cup is empty, your mac will sleep as usual! Brilliant! [Link]

3. Monolingual:

You’d be surprised how much of your computer’s hard drive is being used up by unnecesary language resources. You can choose which languages to keep (though I think I’ll only ever need the one!) then you can reclaim several hundred megabytes of disk space by deleting the rest. I was stunned by how much space I got back, simply because when you install new software it automatically installs every language file from Afrikaans to Yiddish! [Link].

4. MacLoc:

Such a simple, but useful, application. I have this one added to my finder window so it’s even quicker than ctrl-alt-del on a PC to lock my computer. If you’re working in an environment, like me, where you have client contact details or other sensitive information on screen, then this one is a Godsend for when you want to nip out to make a cup of coffee! [Link]

5. MagicDesktopSwitch:

This one is really just for fun! Sometimes (like when I’m feeling in a festive mood around Christmas time!) I want to decorate my mac desktop with something more animated than a bog-standard wallpaper. MagicDesktopSwitch allows you to use your current screensaver as a wallpaper. Maybe I’m easily amused, but there’s something really magical about watching lights twinkle or snowflakes fall or fish swim around (whatever my screensaver happens to be that day!) in the background while I’m working. [Link].

About Elle:

Elle  is a musician and singer from Ireland who is releasing her latest album entitled “Coming Around” at a special launch night 5th November at Belfast’s Laughter Lounge. For more information visit Elle’s website at www.ellestevenson.com

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