Software to Make Life Easier

May 23, 2000 - Evan Kleiman

Many people can go through their computer using career and never download a program to make their life easier. Why? Because they don't know which programs to download.

You don't have to be one of those people, because today I'll review some helpful programs you never knew you needed until now.

Nowadays it seems that everyone can't get organized-- that's why many companies make programs to get your life in order. But most of these programs are either expensive or barren of features. However, there is always an exception to the rule. This exception to the rule is Palm Desktop. This miracle program is very feature rich and, best of all, it's free!

This program is Claris Organizer customized for the Palm handheld device. This program was adapted by Palm Computing to be used with the Palm computer, but you can use this program on your Mac even if you don't own a Palm.

Palm Organizer has many nice features, like a daily, monthly, and weekly planner. Also, it has some original features, like a customizable interface. (I picked the chili pepper design).

Another program you never knew you needed is Audion. This wonderful little program lets you listen to MP3 music, but it also lets you listen to CDs and internet radio stations. And it does more than that.

If you are connect to the internet and you pop a CD into your computer, this program will instantly go onto an internet database called CDDB. At this database, it will look up the CD name, artist, and track listing, and then download it to your computer. So whenever you slap a CD into your computer, it'll know which CD it is.

The last program you never knew you needed is a great program for creating gradient filled backgrounds or just any type of graphic. This program is called Color It! This great shareware program lets you type any text and then fill it with the gradient of your choice.

This program has many other advanced features, like a sideshow capability, which other programs like Corel Draw have. However, the big difference is that Color It! costs as little at 50 bucks, while Corel costs a few hundred.

Now even though these programs won't make all of your daily tasks easier, it will definitely help. Well, Audion might not help as much as the others, but if you are in need of a break, Audion is definitely the program to consult.

Recent Mac Happens Columns

• MP3 Forever!, 6/26/00. Closing down Napster will not help already rich artists, but may prevent new ones from being discovered.
• Internet radio, 6/9/00. Internet radio solves problems with poor radio reception, but also lets you listen to radio from around the world.
• Software to make life easier, 5/23/00. Helpful software you may never have heard of.
• Mac Happens index
• Evansite, Evan's own site.

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