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PiXcompare for Mac helps users with large numbers of digital photographs eliminate duplicates, easily. It is a basic program that allows photo comparison, but offers no additional features, meaning it will likely only appeal to users who have a large amount of hard drive space dedicated to photos.

PiXcompare for Mac is freely available and installed quickly. A readme file with the installer contained basic directions. The program, itself, had a very limited menu, but could have used the addition of some feature-related buttons. In a window on the left side, the user can designate a folder for analysis. Once … Read more

As an easy-to-use desktop application, Rainlendar Lite for Mac allows for easy viewing, editing, and synchronizing of calendar events both online and offline. This application works well as a calendar and task manager and has all of the expected features, but ultimately lacks functions when compared to other, more popular programs.

Rainlendar Lite for Mac installs quickly and places a small icon on the Mac's top menu bar. There are no other control menus to speak of, but the drop-down is easy to use for those familiar with other calendar applications. The calendar displays in the background and has … Read more

ResizeIt for Mac successfully modifies large numbers of photos with different sizes and formats. The interface is rather dated but the program performs all of its functions well.

As people take more digital photos, the differing sizes and perspectives make organizing them into albums difficult. ResizeIt for Mac permits users to change these images so that they match in size. The program's menu was dated and had no graphics or animations for easier identification of functions, but the readme file offered some basic instructions. With just a drag and drop, files can be imported into the program. Options exist … Read more

Resolution Calculator for Mac allows users to analyze both digital photographs and scanned images for the optimal screen resolution they should use. The program's interface is streamlined but not as intuitive as it should be.

The first thing we noticed about Resolution Calculator for Mac was a rather unclear interface. The lack of tutorials or instructions did not help, either. The program window contains two main buttons, one for scanned images and the other for digital images. Clicking and dragging files into the window, which is not clearly labeled, starts the analysis. The program quickly populates a number of … Read more

As an add-on for Apple's Web browser, Safari Cookies for Mac adds more features for managing and removing unwanted cookies, databases, and other programs. Since native features for managing cookies in most browsers often feel incomplete and may not perform all of the tasks needed, this add-on will be useful to most Mac users.

The application installed easily into the Safari browser. Safari Cookies for Mac add-on works in the background, but it does have an operation preferences menu. This contained several tabs for each of the application's functions. A cookies tab brings up a list of those … Read more

With data security being an all-too-common concern, the options for encrypting data in OS X are welcome additions that are quite easy to implement. While you can store files in an encrypted disk image, you can also use FileVault to encrypt your boot drive. Furthermore, you can encrypt or decrypt any secondary volume by right-clicking it and choosing the option to do so, or by using the Terminal.

These features are convenient, but if you wish to change the password for an encrypted drive, you will find that this feature is not available along with the options for encrypting. You … Read more

Walk into any Best Buy and you're hit with an ugly truth: PCs aren't pretty.

A 15-inch HP Windows 8 laptop that sells for $270 (Best Buy's "Deal of the Day" on Saturday) isn't meant to be pretty. It's meant to be practical.

But a $330 iPad Mini is also very practical for a lot of people. And pretty too (consumers and reviewers seem to think so). Pretty and practical are two reasons Apple can sell tens of millions of Minis.

Why bring this up? I was struck by a statement from an … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers asked about how to batch-edit files to add missing file extensions so they can be read in an applicable program, the options for adding more space to a MacBook Pro system with fixed flash memory, and the possibilities for secure-erasing e-mail messages from within Apple's Mail program.

I welcome contributions from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Batch-addition of file extensions to unreadable files. MacFixIt reader … Read more

Encrypting data is a convenient method for keeping your data secure, especially when using external hard drives and thumbdrives that may be stolen or lost. While it might be easiest to encrypt an entire drive, sometimes doing so may be a touch inconvenient, especially if the drive is used for more than one purpose.

For instance, if you keep sensitive files on your drive, you may wish to keep it encrypted; however, this prevents you from sharing the drive with others. Therefore, if you want to use the drive to transfer files to another system, you will have to authenticate … Read more