1. [G.SKILL - F3-8500CL7S-4GBSQ] Running $169.99 a piece, these quality sticks are $150 cheaper then Apple’s stock selection. If you max out your iMac with these it will set you back $680, about $800 cheaper than Apple’s 16GB offering.
2. [Mushkin - Enhanced Essentials 996644] You can get a pair of 4GB sticks (8GB) from Mushkin for $334.99. That means if you wanted a full 16GB you could do it for about $670, $800 cheaper than Apple.
3. [RamJet -MBALX4G] At $699.99, This 16GB set from Ramjet is slightly more expensive then the previous two. Quality between these three manufactures differs very little.

If you’re looking to grab a shot of you’re beautiful desktop and capture the whole screen, you simply need to press Command-Shift-3. Looking to select the area you want captured? Command-Shift-4.

But now I’m gonna tell you about the ever so useful third option. Hold down the Command, Shift, and 4 keys, then press the Spacebar, a small camera icon appears. When you move this camera icon over the element you’d like to capture, that element is highlighted. Click and you’ve captured a screenshot of just that element — no further cleanup required.

Thanks to everyone else who entered!

Didn’t win? have no worries, there will be plenty more giveaway coming up in the next month.

RoadMovie is easily worth the $20 pricetag, especially if you are looking to transfer those dvd rips and downloads to a format that your iPod/iPhone and PS3 can playback.

If you are looking for some more in depth info or are interested in trying RoadMovie 1.5, Head over to Bitfield’s website.

1. Wipe that hard drive. If you have been using the same install of OS X for over a year now, a fresh install can do wonders. Over time, whether you wanna believe it or not, OS X does slow down. It is hard to notice because it happens slowly but you will notice a difference after you reinstall. The included archive and install function makes it very easy. (Note: If possible, backup your data and do a fresh install, This results in a faster OS)
2. Make some room. Performance can really suffer when your hard drive gets backed up. I like to always have at least 10GBs of free space.  This is mainly due to the fact that OS X utilizes virtual memory and free space is required to get the best performance.
3. Keep those permissions in order. OS X utilizes a permissions database which prevents conflicts and ensures smooth operations. Occasionally after many programs have been installed and or removed conflicts can arise. These conflicts cause delays and stability issues. The simple way to fix this is to launch OS X’s Disk Tools located in the Utilities folder. Then choose the drive which has OS X installed and click on repair permissions. If all goes well all conflicts should be automatically fixed.

Do you have any tips? If so we would love to hear them. Why not post them in the comments section below! Thanks for reading and enjoy 2009!

So, without further stealing your time let me introduce you to my 3 favorite ways to relax and lose some stress.

1: Increase your “you time”. Spend this time doing only what you want and nothing else. Put all work aside and watch a few podcasts. Being able to sit back and watch a really good podcasts can take of alot of stress off.

2: Organize your time: I used to be a stronge believer in the chaos style where you would just do it on the fly. Straight through, start to finish, no planning. Just doing stuff as you think of it. I would tell myself I don’t have time to plan. But I have recently found that writing down your ideas and prioritizing them can save you alot of time. You waste alof time in a day by trying to think of what you need to accomplish. But if you have a list, its all right there.

3:  Find a really fun game to play: I have always been a huge fan of Tetris. I have Tetris (Quinn) on my Mac and for the NES. I spend at least an hour a day playing the game. It kinda gives your brain time to mull your ideas around. I have also become a big fan of Bejewled 2 Deluxe.

Individually they are not very big, but when combined they can make your life alot more managable.

*Note, Music is also a great way to cool off.

[poll id="4"]

Thanks for your input!

Cyberduck is an open source FTP app. I use it every single day to manage and maintain Appleaddiction.net. The features and ease of use make it a breeze to use and the $0 price tag makes it even more impressive.

Now, this next App is actually counter productive, but all work and no play makes Luke a dull blogger. Quinn is an OS X adaptation of the popular puzzle/matching game Tetris. Impressive visuals and small footprint make it a must for anyone.

Transmission is an app that as long as my computer is on, its on. Whether I am downloading a new Linux distro or an episode of Diggnation, Transmission has constantly been improving. Weekly updates and another $0 price tag make Transmission another wonderful app.

Hopefully you have been around AppleAddiction.net long enough to of heard me talking about Xslimmer before. But if not, here it is. Xslimmer is a cleaning type app that will actually remove unnecessary code and foreign languages from applications that you have downloaded. It comes with a $12.95 price tag, but this app alone has saved me over 2GBs of disk space and speed up app launch times, which to me, is worth the $12.95

*Now, the last one on my list is kinda questionable. It is not nessecarly the best developed, but it is very useful. It’s called Serial Seeker. Serial Seeker is a database of serials for thousands upon thousands of registration numbers and key codes for countless versions of Mac apps. Now, I’m not promoting the pirating of software. But sometimes I just wanna try out the full version of an app to make sure its right for me without having to buy it.

So there you have it. If you have an app that you find extremely useful please let me know by clicking the “Show Meta” tab and post a comment about it.

If you are wondering why Firefox was not included, I was trying to stick to less popular and more discrete apps that not everyone already knows about.

*Not neccesarly well developed, but very useful.

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