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Useful monitoringmodes letyouhear the original or soon-to-be- repairedaudio or ustthe noise being removed) inrealtime.Finally,the Click- Repair manualand Web ste provide exten- sive documentation and tutorials onthe processof convertingvinylto digital ($45; Brian Davies, macworld.comy2602) 010 EasyWMA 2.7.34 you've got WMA, WMV Audio, ASF, or ‘Ogg Vorbis audiofiles that you'dliketobe able to playin Tunes or on youriPod, Easy- WMA273 (6661) isworthalook. Just choose your output format (AIFF, MP3, M4A/AAC, or WAV) and bitrate, and then dragthe audio iles—as many asyou § want—into the EasyWMA window; the program willquickly convertand save theminalocation of your choosing (Unfortunately, EasyWIMA doesn't sup- port DRM-enabled Windows Media iles or the WMA Losslessand WMA Voice codecs) The software preserves existing 4 togtagsand can evenimportthe resulting tracksinto [Tunes ($10; Patrice Bensoussan, wweweasywma.com)—OF FLVR1.0 Howmany times have you found agreat video ona Web site andtried tosaveitto yourhardetive,onlytociscover thatthe clipisin Flash format? Thanks tothe FLVR 1 plugsin for Safari (94841) Flash no longer means “can't download” FLVR placesanew button in Safar’ toolbarand letsyou download any Flash media froma Web page, with usta few licks. Even bet- ter,FLVRcan automatically convert Flash video to AVI, MP4, or QuickTime files (using theMPEG-4 or H.264codec) andcan save Flashaudioas AAC or MPfiles, soyoucan take the les with youonan iPod issTasty Apps, wwevtastyapps.com) —DF converting your COs o digital musicfles. so,you'lwant tocheck out Maxo71 (O484}),whichlets you rip CDs tomore than 20 audio formats includingall of iTunes’ choices (AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless, MP3, and WAV), as wellassuch popular alternativesas FLAC, Monkey’ Audio, and Ogg Vorbis, Maxalso offersadvanced options for ripping damaged discsandtag- avo10 Max 0.7.1 ifyoure anaudio geek, youmay feellimited byiTunes whenitcomestofeaturesfor pale Nes Rob G Griffiths Butler inser This powerful tooldoes everythingfor me-—launches pro- ‘grams, controlsiTunes, creates navigable pop-upfolders,runs AppleScripts and even halesasiemacros.i'smy one oe ny j che Apa wcuclcasse | e/a Ihave dozens of open chat windows most ofthe time, soChax brings me order by bed window toiChat. This essential iChat add-on also has built-in logand GoogleEarth #8 ¢t;macworidcomasry Le eS a ER er or CA Fe ros Sse sta aN cen Google Earths path toolto get an accurate measurement without leaving the house, ‘When ’'m done, | can copyand paste: sents ae oa as itsaloagrent waytoexplrethe planet) (On year __ Keyword Assistant 9#9%3macvorid comz782 y __fyouuse keywords in iPhoto (and you should) Keyword Assistant makes t much “easlertoadd, delete, and work with your keywords.’ an essential add-on forhigh- ee August2007 Macoié 55gingtracks; [ets oucustomizethe format for file names;andcan even automatically ripmultiple versions ofeachtrack—for example, uncompressed forplayingin your homeaudiosystemand compressed for use on aniPod (payment requested; Stephen F. Booth, sbooth.ors)—oF wnr0 NicePlayer 0.95 Many QuickTime Player users find them selves frustrated when they try toplay videoinfull-creen modes (that’spossible only ifyou pony up $30 for QuickTime Pro). ‘columnist for the Chicago ‘Sun-Times: FlickrExport for iPhoto ¢#4#; macworldcoma78q Thisplug.in provides seamessinte- aration between my photo library and the servicethat lets meshare my Pies withthe world—a no-brainer for any enthusiastic snapper. Salling Clicker $4696; rmacworld.comy21 For God'ssake, Apple, writethisman check. ABluetooth phoneis the one device that youhavewithyou at all times. Who wouldn't want toalways have the ability to control and com- municate with his or her Mac? ‘SmartReporter #$41 ‘macworid.cony783 Ivehadthisinstalledin my menu bbar—and have been nervously eyeing Itregularly—sincethe day three ‘yearsago when my PowerBook’s hard drive failed. ‘VLC media player #9#¢3; macworid.comi6ag ‘'mstil thrilled and surprisedthata program this goodand handy isstil freeand still energetically updated. It'samust-have,ifonly becauseit’s the easiest way to watch aDVD and stillbeable to makescreen grabs, 56 wacnorls August 2007 ‘Theopen-source NicePiayero.95 (9484) letsyoudothatandmore.{tl play DVDs, and even letyou use the Apple Remoteto control playback from the comfortof your ‘couch, One unique feature of NicePlayer is the abiltyto resizethe video using your mouse's scroll wheel—thisallows you to eliminate letterboxeffectsinsome DVD videos. With the addition of codec plug-ins, NNicePiayer can handle pretty much any for- tmatyouthrowatit. And unlike QuickTime Player.itsupports playlists (payment requested; Robert Chin and Jay Tuley, niceplayer.sourceforge.net).—oM Periodic Table 4.0.6 Inaddition togivingyou basic periodic-table information, Periodic Table 40.5 (4848) provides property-specifictables (for exarn- ple, physical and bondingproperties).a ‘molecular-masscalculator for compaunds, customizable graphsand tables (including alternative table arrangementsandtheabil- itytobuild tables that include ust the nfor- mation youwant),anda built-in chemistry glossary. 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Now you'linever be more than akeystroke away from knowing whether ivsabout torain ‘outside—even if our office doesn’thave: any windows (free; Kamal Aboul-Hosn, www dividedsoulnet)—om avo1o Soundflower 1.2.1 Soundfiower'.23 (64949) letsyouroute ‘audio from one program toanather throughtthe use ofvirtualaudio devices. For example, you couldsst Skype's sound ‘output to Soundfloweras well set Garage Band's sound input to Soundflower,and then recordthe audio from Skypeinto GarageBand, An included program,Sound- flowerbed, sts in your menu barandiets ‘you monitor theaudio through yourhead phones, your speakers, oranother output device. Since Soundflower actsasavirtual audio device,youcanalsosetitasthe defaultinput and output for programs that don'tlet youselect audio sources (free; Cycling’74,wwwecycling74.com).—om es >