Adobe Reader

Freeware

Current Version: 7.1.0 (May 12, 2008) / 8.1.2 (February 6, 2008)

Adobe Reader (formerly Acrobat Reader) is the industry standard tool for reading and interacting with PDF (Portable Document Format) files (although Mac OS X's built-in "Preview" application handles the vast majority of PDFs with aplomb).

Version 8.1.2 - the latest release for Mac OS X 10.4.3 and later - adds/changes the following:

• Recognition of blank space for accessibility
• Search functionality corrected for dynamic forms using direct rendering
• Corrected behavior for protected expandable fields in dynamic forms
• Corrected page flow when orientation changes (i.e. portrait to landscape)
• Re-calculate event in XFA forms improved
• Improved color output when converting to PDF/X via "short-cut" button
• Improved behavior of Reader enabled forms usage rights 1574838 Improved printing on HP-based printers
• Enhanced stability when opening dynamic forms
• Corrected behavior for "read only" fields when using direct rendering
• Improved behavior when adding sub-forms
• Added PCL print improvements
• Improved temp file clean-up after printing
• Support for new Adobe Extensions per ISO 32000
• Improved behavior of Reader enabled rights within LiveCycle Workspace
• Improved behavior when posting data with Safari on the Macintosh and Firefox on Windows
• Corrected screen reader behavior for converted German tags
• Improved decimal field behavior for dynamic XFA using direct rendering
• Improved decimal field behavior for dynamic XFA using direct rendering
• Improved stability on dynamic forms
• Improved stability on certified dynamic forms
• Corrected truncation error on metadata
• Improved review tracker display of email IDs
• Improved behavior of 3D annotations
• Improved behavior of meshes in 3D
• Improved behavior of name spaces in metadata
• Enhanced capability to handle multiple browser windows with similar javascript calls

Version 8 is for Mac OS X 10.4.3 and higher; version 7 is for Mac OS X 10.2.2 and higher. Version 4.05 is available for OS 7.5.3 - 8.5; version 5.05 is available for OS 8.6 - 9.0; and version 5.1 is available for OS 9.1 - 10.2.1. All of these downloads are available at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

Decoder

Shareware; $20

Current Version: 4.0.4 (March 31, 2008)

Decoder is a favorite UU- / Base64 / yEnc decoder for many people, which includes such niceties as built-in picture previewing. Version 4.0 was a major overhaul, adding and improving the following:

• Adds support for ZIP, TAR, GZ, and Tarball formats.
• Improves decoding of corrupted MIME messages.
• Fixes some bugs on Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger."
• Improves the registration code.
• Improves installers.

Version 4.0.4 adds the following:

• Improved support for Mac OS X Zip files.

DivX

See text.

Current Version: Player 5.1.1 (February 2, 2004) / Player 5.2.1 (October 26, 2004) / Complete Package 6.7 (January 16, 2008: Decoder 6.6 / Encoder 6.6 / Player 2.1 / Converter 1.2)

The basic DivX package consists of a free decoder plugin for QuickTime that runs on Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X (Carbon), allowing Mac users to create, distribute and watch full-screen, DVD quality video, offering a very high level of compression with advanced encoding tools and interlaced video support. DivX Video is available in free and "Pro" ($19.95) editions, the latter including a more recent version of the encoder/decoder - providing more advanced features and better performance - and includes support for MP3 encoding.

Version 6.7 - the latest release of the combo QuickTime Decoder / Encoder / Player / Web Player for Mac OS X - adds/changes the following:

• Universal Binary - completely and absolutely
• Full support of French, German and Japanese
• DivX VOD Support - Now enjoy your purchased or rented DivX VOD movies from your Mac.
• The January 16, 2008 version of DivX 6.7 includes version 2.1 of the DivX Player, which has undocumented changes.

The "DivX Web Player" - a dedicated web browser plug-in for Mac OS X that is currently at version 1.3.1 and included in the package - offers the following capabilities:

• Playback DivX AVI files (DivX 5/6 video with MP3 audio) stored on a regular web server live in your browser, including DivX HD video
• Save files to disk so that you can replay them later with the free DivX Player
• Monitor your connection speed and the download buffer during playback
• Watch video in windowed mode or blow it up to full screen
• Seek and trick play into the download buffer
• Change preferences for the download behavior
• Check for updates and instantly update the plug-in (with prompting)

DivX Web Player is supported under the following browsers:

• Safari (2.0 and above)
• Firefox (1.0 and above)
• Mozilla (1.7 and above)
• Netscape (7.2 and above)
• Opera (8.51 and above)
• Camino (1.0 and above)
• Seamonkey (1.0 and above)
• Flock (0.7.5 beta and above)

Flash Player

Freeware

Current Version: 7.0.73.0 (December 18, 2007) / 9.0.124.0 (April 9, 2008)

Adobe's Flash Player is perhaps the most ubiquitous Web browser plug-in of all, allowing you to view all kinds of nice interactive animations many people have produced for their Web sites.

Version 7 is the final version of Flash Player that will be produced for "Classic" Mac OS. Starting with the release of the December 18, 2007 security bulletin, APSB07-20, Adobe is discontinuing support of Adobe Flash Player 7 and will no longer provide security updates. Adobe recommends that all Flash Player users on supported systems update to the most recent version of the player through the Flash Player Download Center. Adobe's support policy for Flash Player is to support the current and previous major release. Flash Player 7 was updated with security fixes as a courtesy to customers on Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft NT, and Macintosh Classic operating systems, and for Linux and Solaris customers prior to the availability of Flash Player 9.

Version 9.0.124.0 (the latest release for Mac OS X) fixes the following issues:

• A media streaming security vulnerability was fixed in both Flash Player and Flash Media Server. As a result, Flash Media Interactive Server 3 and Flash Media Streaming Server 3 customers who are streaming H.264 content to Flash Player 9.0.124.0 or higher will need to upgrade their server to version 3.0.1.
• When html/SWF is in the local sandbox, getURL('javascript:.....') calls fail with Flash Player 9.0.115.0 in IE7. These calls will no longer fail in 9.0.124.0.
• A run-time warning has been added to the debug player in version 9.0.124.0 to reflect that AllowScriptAccess="never" has been deprecated.
• Full-screen playback shows black triangles in Flash Player 9.0.115.0 on ATI cards on Microsoft Vista.
• Authorization header has been reinstated in Flash Player 9.0.124.0.

Flip4Mac WMV

Freeware

Current Version: 2.2.0.49 (December 26, 2007)

Flip4Mac WMV (also described by Microsoft as "Windows Media Components for QuickTime by Flip4Mac"), enables you to play Windows Media files (.asf, .asx, .wma, and .wmv) directly in QuickTime Player and view Windows Media content using your Web browser. Flip4Mac WMV has been highly optimized for Power Mac G4 and G5 computers and supports playback of high-definition Windows Media video files. The components work quite a bit more smoothly than the dedicated Windows Media Player software - offering not just smoother playback, but much greater levels of customization and control - and are highly recommended.

Note: As of January 12, 2006, Microsoft has officialy stopped development of Windows Media Player software for the Mac. Versions 2.0 and later of Flip4Mac are now provided free of charge, and the software is distributed (and essentially endorsed) by Microsoft as well. Therefore, the future of Windows Media on the Mac lies in these Flip4Mac components. Luckily, they are very good indeed.

By purchasing an upgrade for Flip4Mac, you can import Windows Media files for editing and create Windows Media files for distribution.

Flip4Mac WMV supports the following audio and video codecs:

• Windows Media Audio 9
• Windows Media Audio 9 Professional
• Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless
• ISO MPEG Layer 3 (MP3)
• Microsoft G.726
• Microsoft IMA ADPCM
• Microsoft G.711 aLaw
• Microsoft G.711 uLaw
• Microsoft ADPCM
• Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile
• Windows Media Video 9
• Windows Media Video 8
• Windows Media Video 7
• ISO MPEG-4, versions 1.0 and 1.1
• Microsoft MPEG-4, versions 2 and 3
• Microsoft Motion JPEG

Version 2.2.0.49 adds/changes the following:

• Added JavaScript support to the browser plugins
• Added support for URL Stream Scripting
• Improved ASX handling
• Improved support for MMS servers and live streams
• Improved compatibility with many different web sites
• Removed the user enabled "Create Streaming Movies" preference
• Added support for manual Deactivation/Reactivation
• Fixed potential security issue where an attacker could potentially cause a security issue by deliberately malforming WMV files.
• Exporter: Significant encoding speed improvements for Intel Mac
• Exporter: Improved video quality when encoding 2-pass VBR

Flip4Mac WMV requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 / 10.4 or later, as well as QuickTime 6.5.1 / 7.1.2 or later.

GraphicConverter

Shareware; $30

Current Version: 6.1 (April 21, 2008)

GraphicConverter allows you to open, edit and convert almost any graphic format that exists. It's amazing, powerful (a poor man's Photoshop--really), and very, very fast.

Version 6.1 adds the following new features:

• Support for creation of 512x512 (10.5 only) and 256x256 icons added (UB only)
• External editor support added (UB)
• Slideshow can display next image on second monitor (as an option, UB)
• Geotagging with gpx files added (UB)
• JP2 export with alpha added

Version 6.1 updates the following features:

• Alpha channel import from clippings added
• Option for label display in browser added (UB)
• Option for destination format during html catalog creation added
• Core image filters can be applied to selections (UB)
• Save for web shortcut added
• Move folder option added
• Crop ratio of image added
• Option + tab key toggles preview mode in the browser (UB)
• Trim option for alpha channel added
• Catalog printing enhanced (more header and footer options)
• Pipette can calculate a median color for a region (double click on the pipette tool icon)
• Context menu can be installed flat or as submenu (UB on 10.5.x or later)

Version 6.1 makes the following bug fixes:

• Unicode bug in keyword window in the browser fixed (UB)
• Bug during vectorization fixed (UB)
• Bug during batch removal of bad pixels fixed
• Bug during saving drop list aliases fixed
• Bug during saving a multipage tif to single page jpegs fixed
• Count colors bug fixed (Intel UB)
• SUN export bug in intel version fixed (UB)
• Display bug with shortcuts for label change in slideshow fixed
• Operator bug with raw files fixed
• Transparent or bug with antialias fixed (UB)
• Scroll bug with really large images fixed (UB)
• Many bug fixes and small enhancements

MacGhostView

Shareware; $20

Current Version: 3.2 (January 27, 2005) / 4.5 (February 18, 2008)

MacGhostView is a general purpose Postscript and PDF previewer for the Macintosh and is based on ghostscript 7.05. If a Postscript document conforms to Adobe's Document Structuring Conventions, the pages of the document can be displayed in any order. The program includes installation and registration instructions.

Starting with Mac OS X 10.3, Apple's Preview application can "display" Postscript files. Each time you try to view a Postscript with Preview it is converted to PDF and the PDF file is displayed, not the original Postscript file. Since conversion can be quite slow, MacGhostView is much faster at displaying Postscript files.

Included with MacGhostView is macps2pdf, an interface to Unix ghostscript which can be used to convert Postscript files to other formats. Beginning with version 6.0, ghostscript is capable of embedding Type1 fonts in a PDF document, making it a viable alternative to Adobe's Distiller. Prior to 6.0 ghostscript could only convert Type1 fonts to bitmaps, resulting in PDF documents which displayed poorly in Acrobat Reader. MacGhostView includes a complete installation of Unix ghostscript 8.50, which is used by macps2pdf. Any version of ghostscript later than 6.0 can be used with macps2pdf.

Version 4.5 makes the following changes:

• A few minor bugs were fixed in MacGhostView.
• MacGhostView is available as either a PPC or an Intel program.

Miro

Open source; $0

Current Version: 1.2.3 (April 23, 2008)

Miro is a fantastic new free, cross-platform media player and organizer based upon VLC Media Player, but with a refined user interface and many, many more features, including the following:

• Miro can play MPEG, Quicktime, AVI, H.264, Divx, Windows Media, Flash Video, and almost every other major video format.
• Set your Miro preferences to either play videos one after another (in the order they appear) or to play a video then stop.
• Keyboard shortcuts for all the key playback commands makes it easy to configure a remote control.
• Bring together your favorite videos into a playlist. You can drag them one by one or select a few and right-click to add to a playlist or odd create a new playlist that they will be added to.
• Miro will create a thumbnail for any video that doesn't have one.
• Group your channels by topic by creating folders. Do the same for playlists.
• Videos can come in from lots of places -- a web browser, email, a p2p application, or Miro. Miro can watch any folder on your computer and include those videos in your collection. So when you save something to your desktop, for instance, it will show up in Miro without needing to be added manually.
• Miro can move your video collection to any location on your system, such as an external hard drive.
• When you install Miro, you can search you computer to find all your video files and list them in your Miro Library.
• Miro can download individual BitTorrent files and torrents that are in feeds. When a video torrent is downloaded it will be in your channel and library ready to watch, just like any other video download.
• A menu item lets you paste in individual video URLs to start downloads.
• After you watch a video on a channel, it will stick around for a few days and then delete itself. You can choose to keep it permanently if you like and you can set the channel to save every video permanently.
• Simple tell Miro to reserve a certain amount of space on your hard drive and it will stop downloading new videos when it reaches that limit.
• Easily pause and resume any individual download, all downloads in one channel, or all Miro downloads.
• Video RSS feeds provide a simple system that any publisher can use to distribute their content. Viewers can bring feeds from anywhere together into one place.
• Set any channel to download new videos as soon as they are published. You can also tell channels to stop downloading new stuff if unwatched videos are piling up.
• Miro works beautifully on all three major operating systems. We make this effort because a new model for internet television has to be accessible to everyone.
• Miro is free, open-source software (licensed under the GPL). Anyone is free to change the source code, contribute bug fixes and features, and make new versions.
• Miro can search and download from the biggest video sites including YouTube, Yahoo!, Google Video, Blip, and more.
• Save any search to get new videos as they are published.
• Save any search within a video feed as its own channel.

Version 1.2.3 adds/changes the following:

• When you download videos from YouTube (whether by search or in a YouTube feed), we get an MP4 rather than a FLV, if it's available. The video quality of the MP4s is much higher.
• Updated translations in lots of languages.
• We've updated the linux version to Mozilla 1.9.
• We've updated VLC on Windows to 0.8.6f (security fix).
• Bug fixes.

Miro requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later and QuickTime 7, although some video formats require 10.4 or later.

MPlayer

Donationware

Current Version: 1.0rc1 (December 12, 2006)

MPlayer is an incredibly useful video player that enables you to view files that are otherwise unviewable on your Mac. MPlayer plays most MPEG, VOB, AVI, OGG/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, FLI, RM, NuppelVideo, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ, PVA files, supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs. You can watch VideoCD, SVCD, DVD, 3ivx, DivX 3/4/5 and even WMV movies, too (without the avifile library).

The latest release is the third release available as a Universal Binary, running natively on Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs. This release also makes a positively huge number of improvements, which are fully detailed in the online release notes.

PDF Browser Plugin

See text.

Current Version: 2.2.3 (November 23, 2005)

PDF Browser Plugin is a free (for home, nonprofit and educational use), alternative PDF viewer plugin for Mac OS X browsers that provides most of the needed functionality to view almost any PDF directly in your Web browser, unlike Adobe Acrobat's plugin. But what makes this a particularly winning piece of software is that PDFs render incredibly quickly, eliminating the agonizing wait that so often occurs when you unwittingly click on a PDF link.

Version 2.2.3 fixes a problem with filling out forms in Safari.

A site license for commercial use on all computers in a single organization within a 5 mile perimeter is available for $69.

Perian

Open source; Donationware

Current Version: 1.1 (February 7, 2008)

Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component (provided as a Preference Pane) that adds native support for many popular video formats, including:

• AVI, FLV, and MKV file formats
• MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivX, H.264, FLV1, FSV1, VP6, H263I, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), MPEG Layer II Audio, TrueAudio, MP1, DTS audio
• AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
• Subtitle support for SSA and SRT

Perian provides a great, free way to convert all of the above formats to other video formats using the QuickTime Player itself, including the iPod video format.

Version 1.1 adds/changes the following:

• Major performance improvements
• TrueAudio, MP1, and DTS audio support
• Slice-based multithreaded decoding for MPEG-1/2/H.264
• Apple H.264 now handles AVCHD/interlaced video
• Compatibility fixes for QuickTime 7.4 and Leopard
• Objective-C GC compatibility
• Fixed a crash in Toast
• Better subtitle rendering
• Subtitles play during MKV loading
• Snow support
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

QuickTime

Freeware

Current Version: 4.0.3 (January 24, 2002) / 6.0.3 (January 29, 2005) / 6.5.2 (January 29, 2005) / 6.5.3 (October 12, 2005) / 7.4.2 (April 3, 2008)

QuickTime 7 (for Mac OS X only) is the standard method for playing QuickTime movies and MIDI music files on your Macintosh. QuickTime 7 brought integration of support for H.264 video; elimination of required setup; introduction of new playback controls; and support for 24-channel audio.

QuickTime 7.4.2 adds/changes the following:

• Fixes that enhance reliability, improve compatibility with third-party applications, and address security issues.

Version 6.0.3 is the latest release for Mac OS 8.x - 9.x. This download includes the system extensions, the Movie Player, MPEG Extension, and the Netscape plug-in (with QuickTimeVR support built-in). Version 6.5.2 is the latest release for Mac OS X "Jaguar" and "Panther," except version 6.5.3 provides "enhanced support for iTunes and other QuickTime-based applications" specifically for Mac OS X v.10.2.8 users.

Version 4.0.3 is still available for 680x0-based Macs.

RAR

Shareware; $29

Current Version: 3.7.1 (September 25, 2007)

RAR is the official RAR archive utility for Mac OS X (offered as a command line utility), especially useful while reading all those alt.binaries newsgroups.

Version 3.7.1 adds the following new features:

• Archive names in rar.log error log file always include the full path
• RAR tray icon is compatible with high DPI display modes
• If you modified a file in archive with encrypted names using an external editor, RAR will not ask for archive password again when prompting to update a file. It will use a password which you entered when opening an archive
• Switch -tl and "Set archive time to latest file time" option could fail in previous version. Sometimes they set archive time to current system time instead of latest file time
• If -ag switch mask contained archive number, month and minute characters, RAR placed 'I' character instead of minute value into generated archive name for archive numbers exceeding 1
• High ASCII names in ISO files using ISO 9660 format without Joliet format extension were displayed incorrectly
• RAR could crash when decompressing some of corrupt RAR archives
• If "Turn PC off when done" option was set in "Convert archives" command, RAR turned PC off after converting the first archive in selected group instead of after converting the entire group
• If user specified a non-existent destination path in SFX archive in Vista, SFX could enter into infinite "create new SFX window" loop
• RAR could fail to unpack an individual file from subfolder of ACE archive using the drag and drop

To use the RAR command line application, place the files in any folder on your hard drive, and call the utility by typing in the full path to the application (e.g., to run from the current directory, type "./rar" or "./unrar" followed by the appropriate parameters). Typing the application name (rar or unrar) without any parameters will produce a helpful guide to each program's usage.

RCDefaultApp

Freeware

Current Version: 2.0.1 (November 28, 2006)

From the RCDefaultApp home page: "RCDefaultApp is a Mac OS X 10.2 or higher preference pane that allows a user to set the default application used for various URL schemes, file extensions, file types, and MIME types. Mac OS X uses the extension and file type settings to choose the application when opening a file in Finder, while Safari and other applications use the URL and MIME type settings at other times for content not related to a file (such as an unknown URL protocol, or a media stream). Finder's Get Info panel can be used to set the default application for file extensions and file types, but it's not intuitive. Apple's Internet preference pane in Mac OS X 10.0 through 10.2 (Jaguar) allowed you to set the Web and Email applications, but no other URL handlers. In Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther), these settings have moved to Safari's and Mail's preferences -- meaning you have to run those applications if you want to choose to not use them. RCDefaultApp allows the setting of all of this information, and ties everything together in one preference pane."

Version 2.0.1 adds/changes the following:

• Added Dutch localization.
• Updated Japanese localization.
• Updated French README.
• Sort application names in the popup menu.

RealPlayer

Freeware

Current Version: 8.0 / 10.1.0 Build 503 (August 28, 2007)

RealPlayer 8 (for "Classic" Mac OS) and RealPlayer 10 (for Mac OS X) deliver audio and video over the Net without the wait, with surprisingly good quality. The links below will take you to the RealPlayer download page, where you'll be able to select the player and version you wish to download.

Version 8 - the latest version for Mac OS 8 & 9 - adds a few new features, including better quality audio and video, but is otherwise not a radical departure from version 7.

RealPlayer 10 for Mac OS X is also available, supporting RealVideo 9 & 10 and TurboPlay and sporting a clean, attractive interface and excellent performance. Version 10 also - at long last - integrates web browser functionality like the Windows version has for so long (thanks to Safari).

Although no information is available regarding what's new in version 10.1.0 Build 503 - the latest release for Mac OS X - version 10.1.0 Build 490 added/changed the following:

• Several security vulnerabilities fixed
• Improvements for Intel autoupdate components

Older versions are available as well.

Shockwave Player

Freeware

Current Version: 10.1.1.016 (March 15, 2006) / 11.0.0.429 (March 26, 2008)

Adobe's Shockwave Player is one of the most ubiquitous Web browser plug-ins, allowing you to view all kinds of nice interactive animations many people have produced for their Web sites. While not quite essential, this will make your Web browsing experience much more enjoyable.

Version 10.1.1.016 - the latest version for Mac OS 9 - addresses a security vulnerability.

Version 11.0.0.429 - the latest version for Mac OS X - adds native Intel Mac support as well as support for Director 11.

StuffIt Deluxe

Commercial; $79.99

Current Version: 7.0.3 (April 9, 2003) / 8.0.2 (December 11, 2003) / 10.0.2 (March 10, 2006) / 12.0 (October 11, 2007)

Smith Micro Software, Inc. produces the ubiquitous StuffIt line of file compression products, including StuffIt Deluxe, which enables you to create StuffIt .SIT archives to reduce file sizes for quicker transmission over the Internet.

Version 12 - the latest release for Mac OS X 10.4 - adds/changes the following:

• Compress MP3
• Compress PDF, TIFF, PNG, GIF ,BMP
• Optimized PDF compressors
• Patented 24-bit image compression
• Re-compress Zip archives
• Ability to view thumbnails of archived images

StuffIt Expander

Freeware

Current Version: 5.5 / 7.0.3 (April 2, 2003) / 8.0.2 (October 31, 2003) / 10.0.2 (March 10, 2006) / 12.0.1 (November 21, 2007)

StuffIt Expander is the essential utility for de-BinHexing and decompressing all of those .BIN, .SIT, .HQX, .ZIP, .GZ, .TAR, .RAR and .UU files out there.

Version 12.0.1 - the latest version for Mac OS X 10.4 or later - adds/changes the following:

• Fixed an issue where StuffIt Expander wouldn't auto-quit after finishing an expansion operation when using the "Watch Folder" feature.
• Fixed an issue that prevented expansion of Compact Pro archives that contained a comment.
• Fixed an issue that prevented complete expansion of some older StuffIt 5 archives.
• Fixed an issue that prevented expansion of some older self-extracting Zip archives (.exe).

If you don't already have a copy of StuffIt Expander, it may be difficult for you to perform this download successfully; visit the StuffIt page that allows you to have a copy emailed to you.

VLC media player

Open source; $0

Current Version: 0.8.6f (April 3, 2008)

VLC media player, like MPlayer, is an incredibly useful video player that enables you to view files that are otherwise unviewable on your Mac. VLC plays most MPEG, AVI, OGG/OGM, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, FLV, RM, and many other formats. You can watch VideoCD, SVCD, and DVD as well.

Version 0.8.6f adds/changes the following:

• This is a bugfix release. VLC media player 0.8.6e and earlier versions suffer from security vulnerabilities in the Subtitle demuxer, Real RTSP demuxer, MP4 demuxer and Cinepak codec.
• This release also includes improved video output on multi-screen setups running Mac OS X and compatibility with Windows 9x/ME has been restored.

Windows Media Player

Freeware

Current Version: 7.1.2 (January 8, 2002) / 9.0 (October 27, 2003)

Windows Media Player is a player for one of the most increasingly common media groups found on the Web these days: Microsoft Windows Media. This player supports the following video codecs: MPEG4 v2, MPEG4 v3, MPEG4S, and JPG (Illustrated Audio); and audio codecs: WMAudio v1, WMAudio v2, Acelp.net, Voxware MetaSound, and MPEG II Layer 3. Version 9 for OS X supports the embedded playback of media in Web pages, digital rights management (DRM) functionality, and includes support for content in the Windows Media 9 format.

Note: As of January 12, 2006, Microsoft has officialy stopped development of Windows Media Player software for the Mac, and are offering Flip4Mac WMV instead. Versions 2.0 and later of Flip4Mac WMV are now provided free of charge, and the software is distributed (and essentially endorsed) by Microsoft as well. Therefore, the future of Windows Media on the Mac lies in the Flip4Mac components. Luckily, they are very good indeed.

XFacer

Freeware

Current Version: 1.0b3 (August 18, 2002)

Similar to Simon Fraser's "Saving Face," XFacer is an X-Face bitmap creation utility (but it is a "Cocoa" application, for Mac OS X only) that will allow you to convert and create code for a 48 x 48 pixel picture that you can include in your news and email posts. These faces can be viewed in many newsreaders, including Multi-Threaded NewsWatcher and MacSOUP.

yEnc TZ

Freeware

Current Version: 1.13 (April 10, 2004)

yEnc TZ is a a simple, freeware program that decodes yEnc encoded files, and (for some interesting trivia) it's one of the very few pieces of software that I can think of that is available natively for all Macs, from 680x0-based machines to the lastest Mac OS X boxes. Version 1.13 adds/changes the following:

• CWPro5 doesn't allow // comments when ANSI Strict is set.
• Only quit after timeout if there were no errors.
• Better structure for event loop prevents odd behavior.
• File open write vs. append mode mapping fixed.
• Doesn't overwrite existing files. Uses new name.
• BASE64 and UU handle multipart messages.
• UU doesn't skip last line 2/3 of the time.
• All errors show a message. May still sometimes fail to write all remaining parts?
• yEnc now accepts an escaped SPACE.
• Only removes input file if all parts decoded correctly.

ZipIt

Shareware; $20

Current Version: 1.4 (September 25, 1999) / 2.1 / 2.2.2 (November 12, 2002)

ZipIt is probably the best of the graphical PKZip/PKUnzip utilities for the Mac . . . a must for compressing and uncompressing all those .ZIP files from your PC friends. However, if you have Mac OS X 10.3 or later, much of this functionality is already built-in to the operating system, and you probably won't benefit much from this program. On earlier versions of Mac OS, however, this is indispensable.