An Apple Mac biased technology waffle

A quick look through the Mac App Store reveals many multi-clipboard apps, some more fully featured than others and varying in price from free to… well, quite a few dollars in some cases.

ShelfMenu ver 2.0.0 is the new kid on the block, released a few days ago it offers the ability to save anything from the OS X clipboard into its storage system, making the clipboard snippets available for use at a later time. It will store images, text and webpages which can then be organized into folders within the app.

Just send your clipboard snippets to the ShelfMenu’s Inbox where they are safely stored for later retrieval. The clippings can be left in the Inbox or reorganized into folders. The saved snippets are available from the app’s menu bar icon, from where you can access all of ShelfMenu’s functionality.

The Organizer feature of ShelfMenu allows management of your clipboard history by the creation of folders, into which the clipboard snippets can be stored, enabling you to sort, rename or delete your snippets.

Keyboard shortcuts can be set within Preferences to activate various features of ShelfMenu and once setup they allow quick and easy snippet saving, viewing and pasting.

ShelfMenu also allows the creation and storage of text notes and the developer of ShelfMenu, Cesare Tagliaferri, hopes to include syncing across multiple Macs in the next release of this app.

With so many versions of multi-clipboard apps available today, each performing similar tasks in different ways, it really is a matter of personal preference as to which one you would choose. In my case I’ve found ShelfMenu simple to use, useful in its feature set and it’s an app that will be remaining in my menu bar for continued daily use.

Give ShelfMenu a try, it’s available for download from the Mac App Store for AU$2.49 / US$1.99. You can also download a free trial version of the app from the developer’s website, OSOMac.com.

Ever needed a simple timer just to know for how long you’ve been exercising, giving your presentation or just boiling those vegetables?

JustTime is one of those simple iPhone apps that does what it’s designed for without any unnecessary bells and whistles and what’s more… it’s free.

The app displays a large clear digital timer which rotates as the device changes orientation.

Tap the screen to start or stop the time, shake the device to reset the timer to zero. There is also a choice of light or dark backgrounds to suit the occasion.

Although designed for the iPhone, the app works well on the iPad giving a large clear time count display.

Check out JustTime on the iTunes App Store or visit the creator, Cesare Tagliaferri’s website www.OSOMac.com to read more about this app and other software produced by Cesare.

gfxCardStatus is an open-source menu bar application for the unibody, dual-GPU MacBook Pro.

Since the introduction of the unibody MacBook Pro in 2008, users of versions sporting dual Graphics Processors have had the choice of using the less powerful integrated GPU, or gaining better video performance at the cost of precious battery life by selecting the discrete high end GPU.

Simple enough you’d think, however on the Late 2008 and 2009 MacBook Pro the switching process entails the user logging out and then logging back in to activate the change of GPU. Now I know this isn’t much of a hassle in the overall scheme of things, but recently while travelling around with my MacBook Pro I went through this ritual six times within the space of a day.

How much simpler it would have been if I’d had gfxCardStatus residing in my menu bar.

The app allows quick and easy swapping between graphics processors without the log-off / log-on process.

Click on the app in the menu bar and select “Switch GPUs”. There then follows a few seconds of flickering blue screen then normality returns and the alternate GPU is engaged!

In the Preference pane you can choose to have gfxCardStatus automatically swap the GPU as you move from battery power to mains supply, with a Growl Notfication to let you know this task has been undertaken.

The menu bar icon handily shows either an “i” or a “d” indicating whether the integrated or discrete GPU is active.

A very handy little menu bar app.

gfxCardStatus is a free download from http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus