This icon:
denotes a Dashboard Widget. Requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later
ShoveBox (v 1.7.6) -
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Requires: Mac OS X v10.4 or later
Price: $24.95
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If you are like me, you use bookmarks/favorites in your web browser for permanent things, and drag links to your desktop for temporary storage. But if you hate desktop clutter (also like me), then ShoveBox is for you. This application sits in your menu bar, just waiting for you to drop whatever you want into it: links, pictures, documents, or whatever else may sit on your desktop. What's more, you can create text documents straight through ShoveBox, a great way to keep random thoughts. There is also a iPhone app counterpart (available for $3.99) which you can sync to you Mac's ShoveBox.
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Layers (v 1.1) -
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Requires: Mac OS X v10.5 or later
Price: $24.95
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To call Layers a neat screenshot utility would be an understatement. What really makes Layers stand out is that it doesn't just grab your current screen, it actually turns each object on your screen into a different Photoshop layer! Once you have taken a screenshot with Layers, you can then modify each object individually, giving you complete creative control over the output. Furthermore, the developers have given you some handy tools that work with these layers. For instance, the WebShot will give you a screenshot of an entire webpage, without the browser! Layers also supports multiple monitors and even allows you to choose your image export format (including the ability to export one image per layer). This is a must have utility for anyone who takes screenshots often.
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Boxee (v 0.9.7.4825) -
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Requires: Mac OS X v10.4 or later, Intel Mac
Price: Free (currently)
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Boxee is an open source community media center that outclasses any I have ever seen before. Using this application (can be controlled with the Apple remote), you can use your Mac to watch a variety of internet "TV stations" including Hulu, CBS, CNN, MTV, etc. as well as media files stored on your computer or a server you have setup. You can bring in pictures from popular image sharing sites, or stream music via internet radio stations. By setting up RSS feeds, adding Boxee friends, or installing XBMC plugins you can limitlessly expand Boxee. If that's not enough, Boxee has a built-in BitTorrent client for downloading all of that content that cannot be found elsewhere. This application has become the standard for watching videos, viewing pictures, and listening to music on your Mac.
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Album Artwork Assistant (v 2.2) -
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Requires: Mac OS X v10.5 or later
Price: Free
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With the release of iTunes version 8, album artwork is more more prominent throughout the interface. Couple that with how the latest iPods utilize cover flow, and artwork-less albums seems so last year. Apple tries to help by providing a function to pull in Album Artwork from the iTunes store, but that doesn't work for everything. That's where Album Artwork Assistant comes in. Simply select a song in iTunes, jump over to Album Artwork Assistant, and find the cover. You can queue up a bunch of songs/albums at once, and then let this program add all the artwork for you. This really reduces the manual work of adding artwork to those songs that the iTunes store simply cannot handle.
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iCal Events (v 2.3) -
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Requires: Mac OS X v10.4 or later 
Price: Free
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If you are like me, you would rather not open iCal every time you want to check if you have anything coming up in the next few weeks. This is where iCal Events comes into play. This dashboard widget links into your iCal database, and displays your upcoming events for the next 1to 14 days. You can pick which calendars you want it to bring in, and it will display them by color with the start time (if you hover over the time it will also display the end time). Click on an event to launch iCal and display even more information. I have found this widget to be indispensable; it will likely never leave my dashboard.
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NetNewsWire (v 3.1) -
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Requires: Mac OS X v10.4 or later
Price: Free
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There are many RSS readers out there, and I have finally found one I think is better than any other. NetNewsWire has the standard RSS and Atom reading capabilities, with a tabbed browsing interface, many different styles, archiving abilities, integration with a variety of applications, embedded object detection, and auto download of podcasts into iTunes. But best yet is the syncing with the Newsgator service. Using this service, you can have your feeds synced between multiple different computers (think at home and work), so you always keep up with the latest news without sifting through things you have already read. With this application, you will never be out of the loop again.
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TaskPaper (v 1.0.3) -
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Requires: Mac OS X v10.4 or later
Price: $18.95
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TaskPaper provides and easy way to keep track of what you need to do. With a very simple interface, you can create a list of tasks and projects, after which you can mark specific tasks as completed with a click of the mouse. To help with finding tasks, you can filter by project, just show done tasks, or do a text based search. Autosave and reopening last used document make it hard to lose data and simple to pick up where you left off. All this put together means less post it notes and incomprehensible hand written to do lists.
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Point of View (v 1.0.1) -
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Requires: Mac OS X v10.4 or later, Radeon 9600 / GeForce 6600 or better recommended
Price: Free
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Point of View is a great way to waste away a few (or maybe a lot) of minutes. This game forces you to think outside of the box, by solving three dimensional puzzles. The puzzles require you to match a specific pattern for three different angles, and must be created with the minimal number of cubes possible. Very simple to play, but can be extremely difficult to beat.
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HandBrake (v 0.7.1) -
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Requires: Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later
Price: Free
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HandBrake is a video conversion tool that is mainly used for putting DVDs on your video iPod or PSP. It has many more features than just that, but to be frank, that's all most people will use it for. In fact, there is a version of HandBrake called Instant HandBrake that is a stripped down product, which aims at making it even easier to rip DVDs to your iPod. I have used it to rip about a dozen DVDs so far, and haven't had a single issue. I great way to watch your movies/TV shows on the road without having to re-purchase them from the iTunes store.
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