Thanks to everyone who participated in Layers giveaway!

We have picked 2 lucky winners and they are…….

The Winners:

1. Brian N.
2. Carsten Langrock

The developer will be contacting you guys for your free licenses shortly. Congrats and I hope you enjoy using Layers!

For those who didn’t win this time, there are more giveaways coming up, the upcoming one is on Monday! So stay tuned!

Check out SUBERNOVA online project management tool:

I have seen lots of screen capturing tools, most of them lets you manage screenshots, do annotations etc. That’s cool, but none of them lets you capture screens like Layers. At least I have never came across one. We have 2 x free Layers license to giveaway, so read on to find out more about Layers and how to win it!

Meet Layers

Layers, created by wuonm provides sophisticated features eg. letting you deconstruct the whole screen grab into individual layers, hence the name.

No, nothing to do on your part, the app deconstructs the whole screen grab for you, while saving the entire bunch of separated windows into one well sorted Photoshop (.psd) file.

Photoshop Layers

As you can see on the left, each individual windows, icons are separated into different layers waiting for you to manipulate. There are many possibilities on what you can do with them. If you take screenshots often (like me), this is a great tool to keep!

Want More Control?

Not only can you take screenshots as one huge Photoshop file, Layers also includes its own Inspector for you to choose which window, icons etc to grab. To save an item, just select it from the list and hit “Save Screenshot”.

There are also many other options like applying shadows to your screenshot, grabbing the screenshot with an opaque background etc.

Dual Monitor Support

Layers also supports dual monitors, you can choose to select or omit any display screens from the shot.

Not Just Screenshots, Web Shots Too

With the latest update, you can even take web snapshots! With a click of the mouse, or keyboard shortcut, you can take a screenshot of the entire webpage of the current tab in your active browser. Works flawlessly. This feature makes it a almost complete tool for screen grabbing.

Settings

Don’t want to save screenshots in TIFF? Choose PNG instead, or vice versa. For me, I like using PNGs as it is more compatible with browsers (not mentioning IE6 and below though!).

Selecting “Capture options: Image Kind” will show 3 options – Layered PSD, a bunch of images or just a flat image?

I think these options are very well thought out, non designers would want a bunch of images or a composite while designers who knows Photoshop inside out would most probably choose Layered. Though, it still depend on individuals’ different needs. All in all there is an option for everyone.

Keyboard Shortcuts

To save more time, use keyboard shortcuts! As a complete application, developers can never leave that out. Here are a couple of frequently used actions that you can perform with keyboard shortcuts. Of course you can also modify them as you deem fit.

Dock & Menu Icon

For those worried about having too many icons cluttering up your dock (or is it just me?), there is a built in option to hide the dock icon or the menu icon! Small feature but very thoughtful!

Conclusion

With the ability to take desktop and web screenshots combined with the powerful features of deconstructing the entire screenshot, this makes Layers an awesome choice for your screen grabbing needs. If you want to read more, check out reviews from Macworld or Smoking Apples.

2 x License Giveaway!

The developer is generous enough to give 2 FREE licenses (usually $24.95) to SUBERAPPS readers! To win a license, all you need to do is to leave a comment and tell us why you want a copy of Layers.

The giveaway will run until Friday, so quickly leave a comment now to be entitled a chance to win this awesome app!

Check out SUBERNOVA online project management tool:

1Password Pro iPhone App

[Discount: FREE! | iTunes Link]

The best and wildly popular password management tool for the Mac also comes with an iPhone version, the pro version of the iPhone app normally cost $7.99. But today, it’s absolutely FREE! Download it now already!

Textexpander

[Discount: 50% off $12.95 | Coupon Code: SMILEONFRIDAY | Website]

Textexpander is a utility app I can’t do without. Type an abbreviation and Textexpander (as the name suggest) will expand the abbreviation into a full text, image or both that you previously defined. Saves me so much time! Also worth noting that all other apps by SmileOnMyMac are also on 50% discount!

Fuel Collective’s Snippet & Swatch

[Snippet Discount: 20% off $12.95 | Coupon Code: thanksgiving | Website]
[Swatch Discount: 20% off $4.95 | Coupon Code: thanksgiving | Website]

Snippet & Swatch are beautifully crafted by Fuel Collective to help designers and developers save time on managing code snippets and colors. Very useful utilities for passionate designers and developers!

Layers

[Discount: 50% off $24.95 | Website]

Layers is a great screen capturing tool that takes screen captures even further. Taking a snapshot of your screen immediately turns every single application into individual layers perfectly sorted out in Photoshop waiting for manipulation. Latest feature includes web shots!

Equinux Family Of Apps

[Discount: Stationery Pack Bundles ($39.95) & Top 10 Mac app bundles ($79.95) | Website]

Equinux is bundling their top Mac apps that saves you up to 66%! Key apps included in the bundle are CoverScout, SongGenie, iSale and more.

JumSoft’s Money

[Discount: 50% off $39 | Coupon Code: BF2009 | Website]

I have used Money before and I can vouch for its quality, even though my needs have changed (need a more scaled down version) and no longer using it, I think it serves lots of others’ needs for finance management, invoicing etc. Even comes with an iPhone app that syncs with the Mac counterpart!

Postbox

[Discount: $10 off | Coupon Code: EP24355 (via @storiesofmac & @MarcEglon) | Website]

Postbox lets you work with email the way you’ve always wanted. Powered by an ultra-fast email engine and a sharp-looking, intuitive interface, Postbox will help you focus, save time, and get more done.

284 iPhone Apps on Sale!

[Visit 148Apps for full listing]

148Apps compiled a monster list of iPhone apps that are currently on Black Friday sale! Sale items include apps from lots of big names like Namco, EA Mobile, GameLoft, Konami, Pangea! Be sure to check out the page!

Check out SUBERNOVA online project management tool:

Ever since the roundup of 21+ essential iPhone apps with sexy interfaces crashed my hosting server (!), I understand how much people love roundups of well designed apps.

This post is a round up of 50 handpicked Mac apps that have either well designed or have really sexy interfaces or both! They’re not arranged in any order, just random.

I know it’s a giant list to digest, so bookmark this for future reference! Also, leave a comment if you think I have missed out a Mac app of this category.

Pixelmator

[$59 | Website]

Pixelmator is a great alternative to Photoshop, low memory footprint and extremely beautiful.

Tapedeck

[$25 | Website]

TapeDeck is a powerful and fun new audio recorder for Mac OS X Leopard. It’s just like your old analog tape recorder, only better. A lot better.

Snowtape

[$29 | Website]

Snowtape lets you listen to radio stations and record them live. And more! Read my review.

Delibar

[$18 | Website]

I have a review for Delibar coming up next week, so stay tuned! Delibar is a full featured Delicious.com Mac client. Delibar focuses on giving Mac OS X users an easy and quick tool for searching, managing and sharing their Delicious bookmarks.

CleanMyMac

[$29.95 lifetime or $14.95 6 month license | Website]

CleanMyMac represents sophisticated all-in-one-suite utility that helps keep your Mac clean and healthy. With just two simple clicks you can delete useless files that basically pile up and waste your valuable disk space.

Swatch

[$4.95 | Website]

Swatch lets you group your colors together in ‘Swatches’ to later be used throughout your project. Working in CSS? Easily copy the hex value to paste right into your stylesheet.

Snippet

[$12.95 | Website]

An unobstrusive snippets management tool for your Mac.

Anxiety

[Donationware | Website]

Anxiety is a super-lightweight To-do list application for Mac OS X Leopard that synchronizes with iCal and Mail. Its aim is to provide a streamlined, easily accessible interface to add and check off your tasks, while remaining poised to melt into the background at a moments notice.

Capo

[$49 | Website]

Capo is a musician’s best friend. It lets you slow down your favorite songs, so you can hear the notes and learn how they are played.

Bodega

[Free | Website]

Bodega is like Apple’s App Store, but for Mac! Extremely well designed to say the least.

Blogo

[$25 | Website]

Blogo is a blogging app for Mac that supports Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, Typo, Drupal, Joomla, and Expression Engine. This post is composed speedily with Blogo!

LittleSnapper

[$39 | Website]

LittleSnapper is a screenshot snapping and management app.

Things

[$49.95 | Website]

If you only have budget for only one Mac OS X to-do list tool, look no further than Things. There is also an iPhone app that can sync with Things for Mac

The Hit List

[$49.95 | Website]

Another to-do list tool for Mac, more fancy design, no iPhone app yet.

Notebook

[$49.95 | Website]

More than just an outliner or text processor, NoteBook is idea management software that supports Mac users at every stage of a project, no matter how large or small.

Coverstream

[€14.95| Website]

Control, search and browse music unobstrusive with a coverflow like interface. Gorgeous!

Tangerine

[$24.95 | Website]

Tangerine! lets you easily create playlists of upbeat music, or playlists for relaxing. It works by analyzing the BPM and the beat intensity of your music. Spend your time listening to music, not making playlists.

TuneUp

[$29.95 lifetime or $19.95 annual license | Website]

Your music collection is a mess. TuneUp fixes it. Automagically.

Coversutra

[$19.95 | Website]

CoverSutra gives you a handy and attractive way to control iTunes without having to leave your current application.

Notify

[Free | Website]

Notify provides a simple and elegant way of keeping track of what’s in your Gmail inbox. With support for multiple accounts, and a beautiful tabbed user interface, you can’t go wrong with Notify.

Just Notes

[Donationware | Website]

A simple, beautiful and powerful notes app. The nice user interface lets you focus on the important things – taking notes

Postbox

[$39.95 | Website]

Postbox lets you work with email the way you’ve always wanted. Powered by an ultra-fast email engine and a sharp-looking, intuitive interface, Postbox will help you focus, save time, and get more done.

NewsLife

[$14.88 | Website]

NewsLife is the simplest way to stay up-to-date with tons of websites without even having to touch your web browser until you see something you want to read.

Stuf

[£12.99 | Website]

Stuf is a clipboard manager with a beautiful HUD like interface.

Cha-Ching

[Free during beta | Website]

My personal favorite finance management app. Manage your finances quickly and easily with Cha-Ching 2 for the Mac. Quickly create a budget, enter transactions and track spending, all within a beautiful user interface that will make managing your finances a true pleasure.

Awaken

[CAD$15 | Website]

Gently fall asleep with the sleep timer and wake up on time with Awaken.

Fontcase

[$56 | Website]

A beautiful font management app!

DaisyDisk

[$19.95 | Website]

With DaisyDisk you can free up disk space by quickly finding and deleting big, useless files. The program scans any mounted disk and displays it on the sunburst map, where segments mean files and folders, proportionally to their sizes. The map is easy to read and navigate. You can also quickly preview any file and reveal it in Finder to delete.

iStat Menu

[Free | Website]

The most advanced system monitor for Mac, and dare I say the most beautiful.

Dropzone

[$10 | Website]

Dropzone is a Mac application that makes it faster, easier and more fun to get things done on your Mac. Share files and text, launch applications and extend via a powerful ruby based API.

Midnight Inbox

[$35 | Website]

Midnight Inbox helps you work smarter and with less stress, automating your inputs and organizing your tasks, files, and information so that you can always be in control. Collect emails, files, calendar and to-do items and notes automatically. Process all of your collected items into to-do items you can actually do when and where you are able. Organize those to-do items into projects you can track easily. Review your lists, projects, and collections to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. Do everything on your lists with a Zen-like focus.

Picturesque

[$29.95 | Website]

Picturesque is a simple app with a simple goal: to make images more beautiful. Whether you are in web or print, your images can benefit from a touch of Picturesque magic.

Aperture

[$199 | Website]

Aperture 2 delivers streamlined tools for moving photos from capture to output with uncompromising quality.

Lightroom

[$299 | Website]

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 software is essential for today’s digital photography workflow. Now you can quickly import, process, manage, and showcase your images — from one shot to an entire shoot. With Lightroom 2, you spend less time in front of the computer and more time behind the lens.

ScreenFlow

[$99 | Website]

Capture the contents of your entire desktop at the same time as your video camera, microphone and computer’s audio. Sophisticated editing tools allow you to create incredible screencasts in no time.The finished result is a QuickTime or Windows Media movie, ready for publishing to your website or blog.

Tweetie

[Free (w/ads) $19.95 (no ads) | Website]

Very low memory footprint and pretty Twitter client for Mac! A standalone iPhone app is also available.

Socialite (previously known as Eventbox)

[Not Available Yet | Download Socialite beta 2 from here | Website]

You can manage your social life on Socialite, an all in one social media client where you can tweet, digg, Facebook, Flickr, read RSS feeds, Google Reader, Reddit and more.

Eventbox has been bought over by RealMacSoftware who subsequently renamed the app as Socialite.

Twistori

[$12 | Website]

Twitter visualization app for Mac.

Canary

[Free | Website]

Canary is a Twitter client that is beautifully designed, fun to use and has everything you’ll ever need. Canary’s user interface is slick and straightforward and helps you do what matters most fast and easily. It does more than you would expect it to and the best part: it’s free with no ads.

Delicious Library

[$40 | Website]

Catalog your books, movies, music, software, toys, tools, electronics, & video games

Tags

[$29 | Website]

File tagging app for Mac.

1Password

[$39.95 | Website]

I wonder what I’ll do without 1Password! 1Password can create strong, unique passwords for you, remember them, and restore them, all directly in your web browser.

Propane

[$20 during beta | Website]

A Mac client for users of Campfire. Campfire^™ is a web-based group chat tool from 37signals^®. It’s like Instant Messaging, only better because it’s designed for groups and runs in your web browser.

Espresso

[€59.95 | Website]

Espresso is a web development app by MacRabbit.

CSSEdit

[€29.95 | Website]

Also created by MacRabbit, CSSEdit lets you, as the name suggest, edit CSS!

Coda

[$99 | Website]

My personal favorite for web development! Text editor + file transfer + svn + css + terminal + books + more = whoah.

Billings

[$39.99 | Website]

Billings is an invoicing and time tracking app.

On The Job

[$39.95 | Website]

Similar to Billings, On The Job gets your invoicing job done.

Rapidweaver

[$79 | Website]

Rapidweaver lets you create beautiful websites quickly and easily!

xScope

[$26.95 | Website]

Want to measure stuff on your screen? xScope can help you get the job done.

Flux 2

[£40 | Website] Suggested by Irfan Q

Flux 2 is an extensible web development tool that enables developers to write HTML, CSS, PHP etc. FTP (including SFTP), Local Disk, and MobileMe are all supported in a completely rewritten publishing system.

Textmate

[£40 | Website] Suggested by svenlito

Peeps who uses Textmate stands by Textmate, they must have done something right as one of the most popular tools for developers.

Writeroom

[$24.95 | Website] Suggested by Powitsjj

For people who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the digital world. WriteRoom is a distraction free writing environment. Unlike the cluttered word processors you’re used to, WriteRoom lets you focus on writing. Also comes with an accompanying iPhone app ($4.99)!

Scrivener

[$39.95 | Website] Suggested by twiedi

Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool created specifically for writers of long texts such as novels and research papers. It won’t try to tell you how to write – it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application.

Vinoteka

[€29.90 | Website] Suggested by William

Vinoteka is a brand new wine cellar management software for Mac. Extremely easy and fun to use, Vinoteka offers a realistic interface to manage your bottles (wine, liquors or spirits) recreate your cellar and organize wine tasting sessions. No matter if wine is new for you or if you already are an expert, Vinoteka is here to make your wine experience the best.

Contactizer

[$119 | Website]

Contactizer Pro is an amazing all-in-one solution for managing, sharing and organizing your personal and business information. Contactizer Pro 3.8 makes your business management experience more efficient, productive and inventive. Following the prodigious success of its predecessor, OD4Contact, many users worldwide continue to choose Contactizer Pro for their calendar, organizational and management needs. Contactizer Pro, specifically built for Mac OS X, provides a wealth of powerful PIM features, all through an innovative, elegant and intuitive interface.

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Finally, a comprehensive Mac App to manage your finance with style. Cha-Ching 2.0 (currently in beta, free download available until end of April) written by the Midnight Apps, is written from the ground up to take advantage of Leopard’s latest features like CoverFlow. Cha-Ching 2.0 also syncs with the new iPhone app ($2.99) recently available on the App Store. Very powerful combo to manage your finance both at home and on the go.

Cha-Ching 2.0 (beta)

I have tried a few finance management apps and I can say this one looks best. Besides looking good, Cha-Ching packs a whole lot of punches with many useful features:

Lock Your Database

It’s advisable to have Cha-Ching lock up your database with a password to prevent any unauthorized peeks. This is the pretty screen you’ll see once you set a password and re-launch the app.

User Interface

The default view shows your transactions list with a pre-attached image, also showing you very clearly which transaction is reconciled or not. You can even attach scanned receipts for each transaction, transactions with receipts attached will have the attachment batch shown on the transaction item.

All your accounts are shown on the left sidebar after adding accounts and is just a click away to see transactions for each account, be it bank accounts (checking or savings) or credit card accounts.

CoverFlow View

Not sure if this view is really useful when you’re at the “All Transactions” area, the CoverFlow feature works best when you set smart folders with minimal transactions shown at the same time.

Login to bank accounts directly

From the app itself, you can login to your bank account directly without having to login from your web browser. This is helpful when you need to do internet banking and also making a record in Cha-Ching at the same time.

Smart Folders

Think iTunes’s smart playlists or Mail’s smart mailboxes when using this feature. One of the must have features in apps of this genre as it’ll help you heaps when the time calls for doing your taxes.

Budgets

The budgets feature lets you set a pre-define budget for any tags so that you can track your spending easily. Another must have function we take for granted for any finance apps.

I feel that the budgets could be more powerful by showing a history graph of your monthly spendings like how Squirrel app does so that you can also track your spending habits and when you should cut down on spending.

Scheduler | To Do | Payees

Scheduler helps you remember when you should pay your rent or bills, by syncing scheduled items with your iCals. So does To Dos. Set up Payees so that you can easily choose from them when entering transactions.

Option to sync scheduled items, todo or both with iCal via preferences.

Entering Transactions

Enter transaction details via the right sidebar with the option to include an image taken from your harddrive or your iSight camera. The transaction image feature has been improved from version 1 as it lets you choose a history of uploaded images which is very useful if you’re entering repeating transactions.

Upload Scanned Receipts

This feature is the reason why I switched from Squirrel to Cha-Ching!

Keeping your receipts physically doesn’t make alot of sense when the ink on the receipt wears out in the long run.

Also it’s very difficult to tally receipts with your transactions in the future with a sea of transactions, this feature streamlines your receipt with your transaction details seamlessly.

Do note that at this point of time, double clicking on an attachment doesn’t launch the receipt file, this is a known bug and is currently being investigated by the developers. It’s currently a beta app afterall!

Cha-Ching for iPhone

Cha-Ching for iPhone is the best looking app for under the finance genre. I think the app deserves much praise for its attention to details.

The login screen that you see once for every launch, is pretty.

Account view. You can only view transactions from the current month, by clicking on “This Month”. I’m not sure why this is so, maybe it’s an effort to reduce memory footprint?

After clicking “This Month”, you can view all your transactions, reconciled, pending or both. Set a transaction as reconciled or pending easily by clicking on the checkbox.

All your budgets are shown here. For example if you set a transaction’s category as “App Store”, the number will be incremented at the App Store budget. My only wish is that the budgets are linked to tags instead. Cha-Ching supports tags and the new “categories” feature, which I think is kind of redundant when tags is already very powerful. Also one thing to note is that the budgets you set in the Mac app will not sync with the iPhone app.

Schedule transactions appears here.

Syncing with the Mac App

The single most important feature in an iPhone finance app is the ability to sync with it’s Mac’s counterpart. Syncing with the Mac app is flawless. I’ve tested and am able to vouch for that.

Location Awareness

The last most interesting feature for Cha-Ching’s iPhone app is the location awareness feature for Payees by making use of the iPhone’s GPS.

Imagine going to a grocery store to do groceries, after making payment, you record the transaction in Cha-Ching, by using the location awareness function, the app will intelligently know who is the payee by using it’s GPS to figure out your location.

All in all, great apps by the Midnight Apps, only hope the developers are able to clear out the bugs from the 2.0 beta Mac app and release a much stable one soon.

Check out SUBERNOVA online project management tool:

As a web designer, I spend a large amount of time on the internet, using lots of web apps like Freshbooks, to send and track estimates and invoices to my clients, SQL Buddy, a much more beautiful alternative to PHPmyAdmin which I have installed on my own hosting server to manage mySQL databases, Google Reader, to keep myself up to date with my favourite news, and the list goes on.

If you’re like me, you will wish that the developers have built the web apps native for Mac OS X, so that your browser won’t be cluttered with too many tabs. I’m not saying that by turning all your web apps into desktop apps won’t clutter up your dock, but at least resource hungry web apps that are AJAX or Flash driven (eg. Picnik or Photoshop Express) won’t consume too much memory for your browser’s liking.

Meet Fluid (Free)

Fluid not only convert your frequently used web apps into desktop apps, or Site Specific Browsers (SSBs), it also does a little more. Take Google Reader or Gmail for example, you’ll be able to see unread counts as a dock badge on your dock icon like this (also applies to Gmail):

If you use Twitter, you can even turn Hahlo.com (a Twitter web app client optimized for iPhone) into a menu item, complete with Growl notifications, watch the video below to see how to do that.

Here’s a couple of web apps I have converted into a Mac OS X native desktop application:

Google Reader

mySQL Database – SQL Buddy

Freshbooks

The possibilities are endless. For instance, I like to manage mySQL databases as a standalone application so that I can put it on my other screen without needing to switch to my browser to manage a database during a development process. If you don’t have dual monitors, switching to a web app is only a matter of Cmd+TAB.

Coupled with QuickSilver, Launchbar or any other application launchers, it’s even easier to launch your frequently used web apps quickly, avid app launcher users will know what I mean.

How does the app work?

Converting a web app into a Mac app is easy, launch Fluid and you’ll be greeted by a user friendly window. Enter the URL of the web app you’re converting, the name of the app, and choose between using the website’s favicon as a dock icon (not recommended as your icon will be blurry), or choose your own icon (highly recommended). If you have an image file eg. png, jpg, gif, bmp, but not sure how to convert it into a Mac icon, go here, or if you don’t mind paying for a native Mac OS X icon convertor, here’s a good looking and functional one.

It’s that easy, the following are more videos to learn more about Fluid (the TinyURL feature is really handy):

The Fluid Thumbnail Plug-in:

Fluid TinyURL Features:

Enjoy!

Check out SUBERNOVA online project management tool: