Tagamac

Shoebox, an iPhoto competitor that features tag-based organization and browsing through tag recipes, has been updated to 1.7.1. Although there are no release notes, MacUpdate notes that it has improved compatibility with Leopard along with an importer for iMatch and stability enhancements.

Shoebox is definitely an interesting app if you’re looking for something a little more tag-centric than iPhoto, and is available in “Express” and “Pro” flavors at $30 and $80 respectively. If I did much photo management, Shoebox is probably what I’d use (although the pricing scheme is extremely cheap; the only difference is that Express has a limits the number of catalogs and photos you can add, which means you’re paying Kavasoft an extra $50 to essentially toggle off a variable that’s artificially limiting the program).

Booxter, a tag-friendly Delicious Library competitor that I only recently made aware of, has been updated to 2.0.4. This minor update brings a German localization, fixes a UPC parsing bug and Booxter 1.x import bug, and resolves an issue under 10.5 where Booxter panels would overlap the Dock in some instances. Unfortunately, there are no release notes except through the program’s auto-updated.

Booxter is definitely an interesting product, and worth a second look if you’ve been disillusioned by Delicious Library’s lack of any reasonably powerful way to sort and browse your collection. Although its tag cloud style browsing is fairly useless if you have any middling to large collection, the inclusion of smart views is alone worth the price of admission, even if tagging (via “keywords”) is fairly well hidden within the interface.

PackRat, the desktop Backpack client, has been updated to version 1.5.3. This minor update fixes a bug where PackRat would not display images in the same order as Backpack, and brings the help documentation completely up to date. There aren’t really any more details, but if you want to see it in the developer’s own words you can read the 1.5.3 blog announcement.

In other news, InfiniteNIL has announced that they are pondering upgrade fees and Leopard-only compatibility. If you’ve got any strong opinions on the subject (or desired features that you haven’t requested yet), they’d love to hear from you.

Reinvented Software has just released Together 2.0, a Leopard-only update to Keep It Together (KIT) that breathes entirely new life into the program. Although I was never tempted away from my beloved EagleFiler by KIT (and would, if I wanted a database-driven file library, probably have used Yojimbo before KIT as well), Together 2.0 provides a number of features that make it a solid contender in the file library market.

The most obvious new feature is the Together Shelf, a little black tab that hovers over the side of your screen (which side is up to you) and allows you to quickly drag and drop files into Together’s library. Together still provides tags (in a tag cloud), but now also automatically provides “system tags” based on labels, folders, and so forth to help augment tagging for those who are not yet used to it. A portrait layout takes advantage of widescreen monitors, Quick Look and its own powerful previewing are fully supported, and the addition of smart groups and folders add an additional level of hierarchical organization. Together’s library of files has also moved into the documents folder, and although I have yet been able to test this fully (due to problems importing files) it appears that Together stores files in a Finder-friendly format based on the same folder structure that you use within the program. [read more...]

Keyword Manager, one of the quintessential pieces of tagging software for iPhoto users, has been updated to version 1.4. This version brings Leopard compatibility and two crash fixes.

For more information, see the Keyword Manager release notes over at its website (you have to click the “Release Notes” link; no direct link available).

Cha-Ching, the tag-based financial manager, has been updated to version 1.2. This update brings a number of Leopard bug fixes, the ability to sort budget items by tags, the addition of local backups, paying bills from the Master Vault, and a slew of other small tweaks and fixes. If you’re using Leopard, or just want a version of Cha-Ching that works a little better, you should definitely give it a download.

The release notes are available via the in-program auto-update, and are also posted in the Midnight Apps forum. Update: you can also find a (better formatted) version of the release notes in the Midnight Apps blog.

Webjimbo, the online interface to your Yojimbo collection, has been updated to version 2.0. This update brings a large number of new features, including drastically improved network configuration, an iPhone/iPod Touch interface, Leopard compatibility, no Dock icon, access to passwords and encrypted notes, and of course it’s web-browser based so you can access your Yojimbo collection from either Mac or PC.

If you use Yojimbo for your file library needs, then Webjimbo is definitely worth a look. For more information, please see the Webjimbo website.

TagBot, one of the two main Spotlight comment tagging applications, has been updated to 1.1.1. This update at last brings full compatibility with Leopard, allowing you to double click those tags like there’s no tomorrow, and all without crashing the Finder. The update is available via the program’s auto-updating, or from the TagBot website for the impatient.

For more information, please see the TagBot 1.1.1 announcement.

Well, I’ve certainly been out of it recently thanks to this weekend being a bit busier than I expected it to be, but in the interim Pukka, the Mac del.icio.us client, has been updated to 1.6.4. This minor update once more brings more compatibility fixes for Leopard.

For more information, see the 1.6.4 blog announcement.

Although not strictly tagging software, Quicksilver, one of the two best application launchers and all-around Mac enhancements (the other being LaunchBar), has been released as open sourced software to the general community. Although the developer has been promising this for quite some time, that it’s actually been accomplished is quite exciting; hopefully some talented programmer with lots of time on their hands will pick up the project and provide a much-need bug fix and overall revamp. Quicksilver is a beautiful piece of software, and one of the staples in many peoples’ do-it-yourself file system tagging systems.

If you yourself are interested in taking a peek at the source code, it is freely available from the BlackTree Google Code site. The current BlackTree release of Quicksilver remains a beta, although it has been updated for 10.5.