Existing users, 
User Name Jay
Member Since 2001-05-12
Total number of Feedback Posts: 194
Total number of comments: 27
Last 10 Feedback Posts by Jay [ Search for All ]
Evom 0.94b (Mac OS X)
Video OK, audio POOR. There are better free alternatives. 
Well, I tested Evom 0.94b by using it to convert 3 different video files into all of its available formats and comparing those to conversions of the same videos made with the latest versions of QuickTime, HandBrake (free) and MPEG Streamclip (free). The video quality of Evom's conversions was comparable to those of QT and HandBrake, but was substantially poorer than the conversion I made with MPEG Streamclip using the free x264Encoder QT plugin. The audio was another story -- it was substantially poorer in all cases. In fact, the audio was so poor that it completely overcame any advantage Evom accrues from its simplicity; so bad even that I removed it from my computer. If the developers of Evom can dramatically improve its audio conversion then I will again consider it for my super-simple conversion jobs (which is what it's made for). For now I will stick with the many other free alternatives that do a much better job, like HandBrake, MPEG Streamclip, VisualHub, iSquint, Prism, Video Monkey, The Exporter, etc. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 0 of 1 users found this helpful
Wednesday, June 03 2009 @ 01:41 AM PDT
NDNoise 0.4 (Mac OS X)
Did not work on my 10.5.7 MacBook
Icon expanded upon being double-clicked, but then nothing. Bummer. [alert admin]
Sunday, May 17 2009 @ 02:17 AM PDT
HiFijack 1.3 (Mac OS X)
I downloaded the app, then asked it to find three pretty arcane titles -- which it immediately did! I now have MP3s of pretty high quality in my iTunes! I love it! It doesn't have any documentation that I know of, but it was easy to figure out how to work it. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Thursday, April 16 2009 @ 05:58 AM PDT
iTweaX 1.10 (Mac OS X)
It crashes at the end of cleaning and maintenance.
It ran the tweaks, permissions fix, and scripts, but when it told me to shut down after cache cleaning it just froze my system. Also, this app is almost EXACTLY like OnyX. But the difference is that OnyX has been in development for years, and it has NEVER affected my system negatively. [alert admin]
Read Comments (1) | More Info | 0 of 1 users found this helpful
Monday, April 13 2009 @ 10:58 AM PDT
WireTap Studio 1.0.11 (Mac OS X)
Curious about this app's many names?
This review was written for WireTap Anywhere 1.0.4, but I thought it might contribute something here as well. My colleagues and I cannot believe that WireTap Anywhere (herein called WTA) still costs $129!! Please consider that Jack OS X 0.82 was just released 3 days ago on April 6, 2009, and it's a very high-quality but FREE open-source WTA competitor app which, like WTA, has been in development since at least 2003. Knowing that, one could conclude that Ambrosia Software (WireTap XXXX's author) is unsupportably greedy for asking $129 for WireTap Anywhere 1.0.4. Oddly enough, v. 1.0.4 inexplicably was the second version the company released today, after v. 1.0.3! I'm guessing that Ambrosia included in v. 1.0.3 some real improvements that have been in the works for some time, and then they decided they wanted to save those upgrades for a version they could release later, when they were all alone in the spotlight without any FREE competitors exposing their greed. I am quite certain that Ambrosia only released this new version of WireTap XXXX (this redacted app name is explained below) today because they wanted to limit the damage done (again) to their market share by the recent FREE release of Jack 0.82, which has really come into its own in the last few versions, and which makes their WTA asking price of $129 seem quite ridiculous to anyone who remembers that Jack OS X is also a great app, so maybe they should download and compare the two! Ambrosia is infamous for these cheesy business shenanigans, but in this case they're made even more shameful and obvious by the lame justification they offered in the "What's New In This Version" section of their VersionTracker.com posting for WTA 1.0.4, which unbelievably reads as follows: "These updates prepare our core Ambrosia productivity tools for the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5.7, as well as improve compatibility with Apple's latest hardware." Does any Mac developer ever release a new version of their software for that first BS reason? And do they ever release updates to fix a hardware incompatibility that NO ONE has complained about on any software review website since their last version was released (which, in this case, was September 2008)? Clearly they just wanted to stop the bleeding that the recent release of Jack OS X inflicted on their market share, and given their dishonorable past business practices, they had no compunction against releasing another pointless update and frivolously marketing WTA on those very same software review websites (which, as you'll see below, are key to their contemptible business plan). Gosh, Ambrosia didn't even claim to fix some of the previous version's bugs, or add one or two new capabilities to this latest version because they're waiting to do that in a future release without their potential customers constantly being reminded that there's a new version available of a FREE app that does the very same things that WTA charges $129 for! Couldn't Ambrosia hide their unscrupulousness any better than that? If you investigate the past of all FOUR VERSIONS of WireTap XXXXX, you'll discover that Ambrosia has a long history of greedy upgrade policies that piss off their existing customers, but that's how they keep adding new customers every year. And just to preempt the character assassination that I expect from Ambrosia after I write this expose, let me first explain that I have never met and I am in no way related to the makers of ANY of the apps mentioned here (other than my use of Jack instead of WTA because it's a great and FREE program), and I am NOT some disgruntled former Ambrosia employee or customer -- I have never bought any of their software because I caught on to their scummy software renaming scheme (explained in a minute) a couple of years ago when I first compared WireTap Pro against Jack and another great audio-input app called Audio Hijack (which charges $16 and $32 for the two versions of their WireTap competitor app). You see, TODAY AMBROSIA SELLS AN AUDIO RECORDING APP CALLED WireTap Studio, AND AN AUDIO-INPUT APP CALLED WireTap Anywhere, WHICH WAS PREVIOUSLY CALLED WireTap Pro, WHICH ONLY SHORTLY BEFORE WAS CALLED SIMPLY WireTap! To help you fully understand Ambrosia's distracting, dishonest and entirely shameful marketing strategy, just surf over to MacUpdate.com (a company that does not cozy up to the software industry as shamefully as VersionTracker) and look at Ambrosia's posting about its WireTap Studio app (which has customer reviews and other types of feedback going back only to 2007, and which, to be honest, was an outstanding audio recording app -- not an audio-INPUT app like WTA -- when I tested it in 2008). Then check out Ambrosia's MacUpdate posting for WireTap Anywhere, the quality of which I cannot conscionably review here because when it was "originally released" (which really means RENAMED) in 2007, I refused to fully test it because of the unethical marketplace behavior that I describe here, and because I could afford to ignore WTA because of the availability of a truly outstanding and FREE alternative in the form of Jack OS X. When you look at WireTap Anywhere's MacUpdate posting you'll see that THE FEEDBACK GOES ALL THE WAY BACK TO 2003 -- 4 years before Ambrosia's own website claims that WireTap Anywhere was first released. This is because WireTap Anywhere was not really a new product in 1997 but was just a RENAMED VERSION OF WireTap Pro, WHICH IN TURN WAS JUST A RENAMED VERSION OF WireTap. Part of Ambrosi's strategy has been that very time they changed the name of their main app Ambrosia used that new name to claim that it was "really a whole new version that was completely rewritten and has a totally new set of capabilities!" In this way they repeatedly justified CHARGING ALL THEIR OLDER (and therefore more professionally settled/rich) CUSTOMERS A SECOND SHAREWARE FEE (if the customer wanted to obtain the newest version), and it gave the company a NEW OPPORTUNITY TO MARKET THEIR "NEW" MAIN APP, and it gave them a new opportunity and (specious) justification to DUPE THE SOFTWARE UPDATE WEBSITES LIKE MacUpdate.com (which first fell for it, then didn't fall for it) AND VersionTracker.com (which originally and to this day turns a blind eye to it) INTO LETTING THEM START OVER WITH A CLEAN HISTORY OF USER FEEDBACK IN ORDER TO ERASE ALL THE OLD NEGATIVE FEEDBACK, AND TO HELP THEM GIVE POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS THE IMPRESSION THAT IT REALLY IS A NEW AND DIFFERENT APP (when all the old users but none of the new users know that, in fact, it is the same old app but with perhaps one more new capability, or maybe even just a different method of graphically organizing it). Non-critics of such disgusting business practices (like probably Ambrosia) call this "cross-grade" marketing, which is the production of several versions of one type of app that all have overlapping capabilities in order to justify a constant though confusing product upgrade cycle which enables the company to force some customers to pay repeatedly while still attracting a bevy of new customers every year. A lot of scumbag companies use this marketing "philosophy," though I'll let you decide which ones they are. Of course, for this to work, the company's apps have to be of sufficiently higher quality than their competition's apps or customers wouldn't put up with that sh!t and your company would slowly whither and die. So, now you know. [alert admin]
Read Comments (4) | More Info | 5 of 7 users found this helpful
Friday, April 10 2009 @ 04:12 AM PDT
Apple iTunes 8.1.1 (Mac OS X)
All the other things included in the iTunes 8.1.1 update....
On MacUpdate.com somebody named DANMARK posted this about 8.1.1: 8.1.1 (for those that would like to know what the upgrade contains) In addition, iTunes 8.1 provides many other improvements and bug fixes, including: • Supports syncing with iPod shuffle (3rd generation). • Allows friends to request songs for iTunes DJ. • Adds Genius sidebar for your Movies and TV Shows. • Improves performance when downloading iTunes Plus songs. • Provides AutoFill for manually managed iPods. • Allows CDs to be imported at the same sound quality as iTunes Plus. • Includes many accessibility improvements. • Allows iTunes U and the iTunes Store to be disabled separately using Parental Controls. iTunes 8.1.1 adds support for renting HD movies and provides a number of bug fixes, including addressing issues with VoiceOver and syncing with iPhone or iPod touch. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Friday, April 10 2009 @ 12:48 AM PDT
Wondershare DVD to MP4 Suite for Mac 1.8.1 (Mac OS X)
App description is nonsensical babble
If you want people to buy your product you must first help them to understand what it is and how it can be useful to them. The description shown here does neither. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Friday, March 20 2009 @ 11:55 PM PDT
Wondershare DVD to iPhone Suite for Mac 1.8.1.1 (Mac OS X)
The description of this app is nonsensical babble. If you want people to buy your product you must first help them to understand what it is and how it can be useful to them. The description shown here does neither. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 1 users found this helpful
Friday, March 20 2009 @ 11:52 PM PDT
VideoVangelist 1.3.3 (Mac OS X)
4 updates since the version that was reviewed below, but no newer reviews since?
I'm trying to guage the quality of this app, but no one leaves any reviews about it. PLEASE REVIEW if you have it. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 2 users found this helpful
Thursday, March 19 2009 @ 05:25 AM PDT
TechTool Pro 5.0.1 (Mac OS X)
So, does anyone have anything good to say yet about TTP 5?
I thought not. [alert admin]
Post a comment | More Info | 1 of 3 users found this helpful
Saturday, March 07 2009 @ 06:58 PM PST
Last 10 Comments by Jay [ Search for All ]
OpenOffice v3 DOES require X11
You are incorrect, OpenOffice DOES require X11, as stated in OpenOffice v. 3.0.1's VersionTracker webpage, "In order to use OpenOffice, you first have to download and install the latest build of X11 from Apple."
Original feedback item : Read More
Monday, March 30 2009 @ 06:06 PM PDT
That's funny, it works perfectly on my exact same MBP. It's an unusual instal - are you sure you installed it correctly?
Original feedback item : Read More
Sunday, March 22 2009 @ 02:14 AM PDT
I did a Google search for mkvmerge 2.4.2, and all I got were references to MKVToolNix. I read a few of them, and it seems that mkvmerge was just one of the tolls in MKVToolNix.
Original feedback item : Read More
Monday, February 23 2009 @ 04:47 PM PST
A glut of ripping clones that are all the same thing!
I totally agree. These scumbags tipped their hand by releasing them all within the same month. Are we idiots?
Original feedback item : Read More
Friday, February 20 2009 @ 10:31 PM PST
Still cannot open Entourage calendar events by clicking them, and other remarks
The problem is that when I create calendar events I usually click the "All-day event" checkbox because when I'm viewing my calendar (which I usually do in Month view) I don't like seeing the time at the beginning of each event. So, there's no time listed at the beginning of most of my events, therefore I have nothing to click on to re-open an event. The weird thing is that I used to…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Tuesday, March 18 2008 @ 11:13 AM PDT
Menubar click area is too SMALL, otherwise it's great
FOLLOWUP TO MY COMMENT THAT "Menubar click area is too SMALL, otherwise it's great": I just updated to Mac OS 10.5 (and eventually to 10.5.2), and now this problem is SOLVED -- the area of the Pasteboard menubar icon that responds to clicking is back to its normal size, which is quite sufficient and no longer annoyingly restricted/small. This is a GREAT application.
Original feedback item : Read More
Thursday, March 13 2008 @ 04:09 PM PDT
My "copy," as you put it, is polished because I am a Ph.D. student at the University of Iowa (coursework complete) and now I teach Geography at California State University at San Bernardino. Oh, and I'm a former Clinton Administration official -- so I write well because it's my job. Seriously, I have nothing to do with the company that makes Synk. In fact, I only have an educational license (since I'm still a…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Sunday, February 10 2008 @ 12:00 AM PST
Exactly how is this free? If I have to buy iLife 08 to obtain the new iDVD, then it's NOT FREE. Geez.
Original feedback item : Read More
Wednesday, September 26 2007 @ 08:52 PM PDT
I am not a developer of any sort. In fact, I am a geographer, and normally I wouldn't give a hoot about any of the above back-and-forth regarding software development. However, I do care about giving credit where credit is due. And, I'm a fan of civilized discourse. Accordingly, I give lots of kudos to both the above developers and the person who showed the developers what's what. Kudos to…
Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)
Sunday, July 29 2007 @ 02:51 PM PDT
We didn't have Intels, that is why!
I too think TTP sucks. But, does anyone understand the jibberish in this posting?
Original feedback item : Read More
Friday, July 27 2007 @ 11:44 AM PDT
