Universal Binary
Chessmaster 9000 finally goes Universal
I thought Adobe and Microsoft were bad, but Feral Interactive has just released a patch for Chessmaster 9000 that brings Universal Binary status to the well known chess application. Other changes in version 1.1.2 include support for the latest MacBooks with Intel X3100 graphics. So now you can finally try the Queen’s gambit on your Intel Mac without the distaste of Rosetta.
The 1.1.2 Universal patch is a free download from Feral. Chessmaster 9000 retails for about $40.
[via MacNN]
Popularity: 7% [?]
Name mangler: batch rename your files
Most people rarely ever have to rename a whole lot of files at once. Let’s face it — batch file renaming isn’t UNIX kernel reprogramming, but it’s one of those irritating tasks that can be a surprising amount of trouble for casual or even more experienced users without the right tools. As a web designer and developer, I find myself having to numerically rename images a lot or add “_tb” suffixes for thumbnails, for example.
Luckily for Leopard users, there’s Name Mangler 2.0, a donationware app by Mac developer Many Tricks that does all the stuff you might need a batch file renamer to do: change case or extension, prefix or suffix a file name, remove characters, the works. You can even store renaming configurations as droplets that you can drop files or folders on to.
Unfortunately, Name Mangler is Leopard-only. Many Tricks has an earlier app, File List (direct download link), that apparently does the same thing for pre-Leopard systems; another alternative app is File Wrangler, which resides on my 10.4.9-running MacBook Pro quite happily.
[via Lifehacker]
Popularity: 11% [?]
Adium adds Facebook Chat support; emo kids cheer worldwide
Adium, the tasty multi-client Mac chat app, is about to get even tastier: developer Evan Schoenberg announced today on the Adium blog that he’s adding Facebook Chat to the ridiculously long list of instant messaging protocols already supported by the app. He even included a screenshot of the new protocol in action, seen on the right.
No word on when the new release will be available, unfortunately, but you can keep track at the Adium blog.
Thanks, Chris!
Popularity: 14% [?]
Renoise: A multi-platform tracker for music composition
Back in the day before Ableton Live and Reason and all the other sequencer apps out there, desktop electronic producers made do with trackers: apps which allowed the budding Moby or Paul Oakenfold to sequence samples. They were basically software equivalents of legendary hardware sample sequencers like the Akai MPC. These usually had all of the usability of a 1957 Trabant and none of the good looks.
Renoise 1.9.1 sequences like an old-school tracker, but it’s got loads more features: plugin and MIDI instruments, effects chains, a halfway decent mixer, and even internal sample editing. Everything a growing music geek needs to make bleep-bleep music (and maybe more). It’s available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS 10.3.9+ as a Universal Binary.
At 49.99 euros (US$75.80 at today’s exchange rate) for a license, Renoise is a helluva lot cheaper than alternatives like Live or Reason, and the ability to use a single license for versions running on multiple platforms is nice. The only drawback is that the interface appears a little complex for users unfamiliar with the conventions of sample trackers. Also, the demo version times out and doesn’t allow rendering of your tracks out to .wav format.
I still have nightmares about using FastTracker on my old Pentium II back in the late ’90s, so I haven’t tried this one myself. If you have, drop me a line in the comments and let me know what you think.
Popularity: 11% [?]
