International Mac Podcast

Hi there, it’s the newest member of the IMP team, Matt Rhinesmith, with my first post!

Today I’ll be talking about some neat and useful things you can do with the old PowerBook or iBook you have sitting in your “Macs I Used To Use But Didn’t Have The Heart To Get Rid Of” closet/shed/bin/etc.

Use #1: Alarm Clock

This is a great one if your ‘Book has a completely dead battery. There’s an app called “Alarm Clock 2” from http://www.robbiehanson.com/alarmclock/index.html which allows you to use your Mac running Tiger to function as an iTunes enabled alarm clock with multiple schedules, customizable volume, and lots more! Best of all, it’s free! If your ‘Book is running OS 9 or even as low as System 6, there’s a less frilly but still useful app called BluClock available at http://www.blufiresoftware.com/prod/bc/index.html for free as well.

Use #2: Twitter

Yes, Twitter. If you have to be tweeting constantly, you could get a good Twitter client for whatever version of the OS you’re running (a few good ones are: Grackle68k for System 6-OS 9 Macs at http://www.retards.org/projects/grackle68k/, Twitterrific for Tiger+ at http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific, and any client that you like), and set it in the kitchen, by your bed, near the couch, etc. so you can tweet about every movement you make.

Use #3: RSS

No, RSS isn’t dead, and a good RSS client can really make an older machine useful again. Most blogs have an RSS feed, so you can read them to varying extents without having to specifically open a browser. If you’re running Tiger, NetNewsWire is excellent http://www.newsgator.com/Individuals/NetNewsWire/ Endo is very nice too: http://infinite-sushi.com/software/endo/. If you’re running OS 8 or 9, BottomFeeder ought to make you happy: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/BottomFeeder/.

Use #4: Light Browsing

For light browsing, I’d recommend Processor-Optimized Camino for OS X at http://www.rpm-mozilla.org.uk/builds/camino/, and for OS 7.5- OS 9 I’d recommend iCab at http://www.icab.de/dl.php.

Thanks to everyone who helped me get on the team, especially Stu!

–Matt