OS X Freeware of the Day: Quinn Network Tetris Game

Today's OS X freeware of the day harkens back to the days of Nintendo and the original Gameboy system, in front of which many of us spent hours upon hours destroying lines of blocks in a game called Tetrist. Since that time, many versions of Tetrist for many different computer and gaming systems have come and gone. Now, we look at a free version of Tetris for Mac OS X users, namely: Quinn.

Quinn is a completely free OS X version of Tetrist that includes multiplayer and network playing options. Although it is not yet Intel-native, the game does not present much of a demand for most users' systems. Read on for some screen shots and additional info about the game.

The Quinn download package (3.2 Megs) includes not only the Quinn game but a game server for hosting network games. When you host a game, you can publish your server to the Quinn site and others will be able to see and join you.

The gameplay of Quinn is precisely like the Tetris we all know and love, though there's no music and the settings are pretty basic. There are two different keyboard layout options, one especially for Powerbook/Macbook users.

Another neat trick that Quinn does is allows you to report your high scores to a central server, where it keeps track of all-time great scores. If you are a power Tetris player, this could be very cool for you to participate in.

In summary, Quinn brings back classic Tetris to the OS X gamer, and for FREE! It has some cool modern options and will keep you entertained for hours.

Links:
-Download Quinn for OS X 10.4.2 or later (earlier versions, see site below for links) (3.2 MB)
-Quinn home page.

OS X Freeware of the Day: Smultron Text Editor

From hard core code jockeys to the average home user wanting to keep shopping lists, everyone needs a solid text editors that's reliable, has good editing and searching features, and (of course) is free. For this reason, we are always excited to learn about OS X programs fitting the bill and our freeware pick of the day, Smultron, certain fits in this category. For code warriors, Smultron offers all the common programmer-friendly features you'd expect, such as syntax highlighting for dozens of different languages, advanced search-and-replace (including multiple document searching), snippet storage, HTML preview, and the like. And, for the casual user, Smultron has an easy to use and intuitive interface that will have you working through text files in no time.

Smultron supports many different languages for its color-coded syntax support:

Smultron allows a fair degree of customization through preferences and settings:

Smultron has an intuitive interface that will allow anyone to jump in and start using:

Smultron supports advanced search and replace, including use of regular expressions:

Links:

-Download Smultron 2.2.4. (5.3 MB)
-Visit the Smultron home page.

Freeware of the Day: Max 0.7.1 Audio Converter

Max 0.7.1 is a powerful audio conversion utility that goes above and beyond the audio ripping capabilities of iTunes. For those who want a littany of options in their audio ripping, or prefer the use of a small utility rather than the very large iTunes application, Max 0.7.1 is a great and free alternative.

Max is intended to be most useful in ripping audio data directly from compact discs, however the converter can also work on existing files on your hard drive. You could convert an MP3 file to a WAV file or an AIFF file to an AAC file. Importantly, Max supports a large variety of formats, some of which are not supported by iTunes. Thus, it could be a very valuable tool if you come across non-iTunes supported formats and would like to convert the files for use in iTunes. Or, if you are a supporter of open source codecs such as Ogg Vorbis, then Max is a great utility for Mac OS X users. A list of format settings options is below:

Max also gives users a significant number of general settings options for completing the final audio rip:

The overal interface of Max is shown below:

Download Max 0.7.1 (Universal Binary, 5.07 MB)

Developer website for Max 0.7.1.

OS X Freeware of the Day: Masq iChat Group Chat Program

Looking to find some friendly Mac users to chat it up with using your iChat accounts? Miss the old days of AOL chat rooms where you could have flame wars until 3 in the morning? Then you might enjoy Masq, which is a new program that allows you to utilize your iChat account to participate in group chats with other Mac users. Masq requires you to register a separate Masq account, but the chatting is actually done through your iChat account, so people will know you by that identity.

Installing Masq is a cinch. Just drag to your preferred location and check out the documentation if you're into that sort of thing.

Once you've gone through the Masq sign-up process to get your Masq account, you can login to the program. Again, this account will be different than your iChat account.

Now that you're logged in, you can see the main chat interface. You'll automatically be included in the default chat room and there may be others available when you log on. The list of chatrooms should grow as more users log on to the service.

Inside the program, you can set some basic profile information so that others can know a little more about you. Examples include location, gender, birthday, etc.

Go here to download Masq for free.

OS X Freeware of the Day: Google Earth

Most people have used one Internet mapping service or another to find directions online. But a whole new level of navigational and explorative wonder awaits those who use the Google Earth software client to access Google's database of geographic data. Only fairly recently has an OS X client been available for Google Earth, which started out as a Windows only program. In today's FOTD, we take a closer look at Google Earth, which is available for free download directly from Google.

When you first open Google Earth, you will see an image of the entire planet, which can be spun around and zoomed in on. If you are really good at geography, you can keep zooming in on a location until you find your desired location. Since the data that feeds Google Earth goes down to street level accuracy at a few hundred yards from ground resolution, I'd be willing to be that almost nobody could find, say, their house just by zooming in from planet view.

More likely, you will want to enter an address and watch as Google Earth "flies" you to the destination, as though you were Superman in outerspace, looking at the planet, and then flying to your destination. This effect is quite impressive if you've never used Google Earth before, and it has been featured on news broadcasts and other media outlets in the past.

Some of the great features of Google Earth that push it beyond the simple interface of Google Maps are: (1) the ability to plot courses on the maps and calculate distances -- you can see which walking routes are the longest/fastest, (2) the ability to change the view angle of the data shown, (3) ability to see and contribute data on points of interest in maps, and more.

The data that supplies the Google Earth databases is continuously updated and new and better information is always being added. Since I first used Google Earth, certain areas which were not even available are now visible in high levels of detail. Certain metro areas in the U.S. and U.K. are available in ultra high levels of detail.

If you haven't checked out Google Earth yet, download this amazing free wonder now.

OS X Freeware of the Day: Netfixer website image capture tool

If you have ever wanted to have a photographic record of a particular web page, you probably know that getting a good, complete image of an entire web page is not an easy task. Sure, you can print the web page to paper or PDF, but that is not a representation of how the web page is actually displayed within a web browser. You could take a screen capture of the web page, but that will only show you the portion of the page that is visible in your browser window -- most web pages are longer than a single browser window. And so, you are stuck -- that is, until you have Netfixer.

Netfixer is an uber-simple utility that makes an image of an entire web page, no matter how long, automatically. You simply put in a URL, set the settings you want, and the image is created. If you need to document websites in image form, there is no better tool out there for this purpose. And, of course, it's free.

The Netfixer interface: what could be more simple?

Choose your image settings.

Choose your save location.

And you're done!

Links

-Download
-Netfixer website (Shiny Frog)

OS X Freeware of the Day: DTV Free Internet TV Program

DTV is an open source program for easily watching and subscribing to video programs that can be downloaded freely over the Internet. The program uses RSS enclosure technology, which most people know as "podcasts," but focuses only on those podcasts that provide video. The program provides a very intuitive interface for viewing the videos available from a particular source, and manages the videos once they are downloaded.

DTV is in rapid development and each new release provides more stability and better features than the next. For the moment, DTV is only available for OS X (how often does that happen?) but is in development for all your Windoze friends.

Using DTV is as simple as opening the program to see the main interface, with various channels and a channel guide on the left. Once clicked, any of these options will show you a list of programs on the right.

You have the ability to download any video of your choosing with a single click. Once downloaded, the video will appear as such both in the channel listing and in your "My Collection" section, which contains all of the videos you've downloaded.

DTV also serves as it's own video player, with standard playing controls you can use to fast forward, pause, and stop your videos.

DTV can be downloaded for free here.

OS X Freeware of the Day: Video Poker Solitarus Free Video Poker Game

It's not secret the poker is all the rage with a large section of the population these days. For those wanting a more laid back version of poker than that found on ESPN or the average high schooler's basement on Saturday night. If so, Poker Solitarus might be your bag.

Like other games from the producer of Pokersolitarus, the name of the game here is simple. Very little besides the basic game interface will be needed by the average users. Just double click the application and you're off to the races.

Just click the button to place your bet, or place the max bet, and you'll get your cards.

Next, click on the cards you want to hold, and then hit deal.

If you're a winner, you'll see it on the screen and your bankroll will increase. If you lose, it'll say that as well.

If you're confused about the point values of various hands, then you can take a look at the points chart you'll see when you open the program, which is also available in the installer DMG when you download the program.

You can download Pokersolitarus for free here.