mattpatenaude
independent developer
skinnable iTunes controller
One of the most popular apps in the theming community, Bowtie is a local iTunes controller to replace all other iTunes controllers. Feature set: controls iTunes. UI: totally up to you.
Bowtie is the only free iTunes controller on the market that's easily themeable using only HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Backed by the powerful WebKit engine, this is one iTunes controller that's sure to please just about anybody. Version 1.0, which adds support for controlling Bowtie for iPhone (iTunes link) and substantially improves compatibility with Snow Leopard, is available on the Bowtie website.
rail signal reference for iPhone
Around the world, the movement of trains is governed by signals placed next to or above tracks. One of the methods of displaying those signals is with colored lights, lighted in a particular order. Signals allows you to look up the meaning of a given signal aspect right from your iPhone or iPod touch. Signals is available in the App Store (iTunes link).
themeable Twitter client
Bluebird is yet another endeavor by {13bold}: introducing a Twitter client that's designed with you in mind. Bluebird, like Bowtie, is themeable with HTML and CSS, which allows for an immense degree of flexibility in the way you view your tweets. Featuring threaded Direct Messages and strong support for multiple accounts, Bluebird is sure to fit right into your Mac lifestyle. Development is actively ongoing; the first second beta is now available at the Bluebird website (click the hatched eggshell!), and you can track progress on the app via @bluebirdapp on Twitter.
open source iTunes remote control
TuneConnect is an open source iTunes remote controller. By simply installing a lightweight server application on the computer you wish to control, and installing a client application on the computers you want to control from, you can quickly and easily gain control of almost every facet of iTunes' most commonly used features. TuneConnect works on Mac OS X 10.4 and higher (optimized for Leopard), with support for Windows and iPhone/iPod Touch coming soon. For more information, visit the TuneConnect website.
color snatcher
Colors is a simple application for graphic designers, web designers, and anyone else who needs to be able to pull colors from what you can see on the screen. Colors takes Apple's basic color chooser (complete with "magnifying glass" to pull colors from other applications), and combines it with an easy way to copy common formats of color values (eg., #rrggbb, rgba(r, g, b, a), etc.) to the clipboard. In the newest version, you can even define your own patterns, and input colors using any valid CSS color declaration. Colors is a free download for anyone who would like to use it. Requires Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
visual tester for template images
Template Tester is the product of about 15 minutes of work, but it's relatively handy: it's a simple app that lets you test "template" images. If you've ever used textured buttons in a Cocoa app, you've noticed that, in Apple-created apps, the button images take on a slight gradient, and have both white and blue highlighted states. These are template images: you provide an all black-and-white image, Cocoa automatically does the rest. This app lets you preview what your images will look like as image templates.
free stuff for you to use
Cocoa Source Code
The vast majority of my software development is done in Objective-C with Cocoa. Naturally, over time, I've developed a few useful little pieces of software which I'm quite willing to share.
- MPConnectionAgent, a simple set of wrapper classes for asynchronous HTTP requests with "handler" methods (updated 1/3/09, completely rewritten, introduced encapsulated
MPConnection class to replace MPConnectionAgent, more efficient).
- Scribbler, a Cocoa framework for communicating with Last.fm and scrobbling new tracks (updated 3/15/10, fixed a bug which incorrectly scrobbled tracks containing "+" signs).
- MPTidbits, a set of very small categories for
NSString, NSMutableString, NSArray, and NSDictionary that add a few sorely lacking features (isEmpty and containsKey: methods, for instance; updated 12/12/09, minor fix for iPhone compatibility).
- MPLoginItems, a simple interface for adding items to the current user's "Login Items" list (updated 2/4/10, initial import).
- Blackbox, an embeddable Cocoa HTTP server that wraps the terrific CocoaHTTPServer project (updated 3/16/10, brought up to date to version used in Bowtie).
- AVWindow, a subclass (complete with the tutorial that creates it) of
NSWindow for displaying a custom view in the top-right of the window chrome