“What makes for a five star Mac utility that you don’t need but can’t do without? The utility makes itself indispensable through sheer utility, elegance, and clever implementation, right?” Alexis Kayhill asks for Mac360.
“Usually that’s the case, and it is certainly the case with Smart Scoll, a Mac utility you don’t really need, but once you use, wonder why you didn’t get it sooner, or why Apple doesn’t have it built in to OS X,” Kayhill reports.
“Smart Scroll brings an iPhone-like experience to your Mac’s scrolling efforts. It’s smooth, easy, with plenty of features for trackpad or scroll wheel. Scrolling on a Mac becomes remarkably easier than Apple’s standard offerings in OS X,” Kayhill reports.
“What’s the downside? Price… Marc Moini has created a true Mac gem utility and dozens of Mac users give it high fives and five star ratings,” Kayhill reports. “But $19?”
Much more in the full article here.Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Chuckles the Microsoft CEO” for the heads up.]
Author calls it “indispensable”, wonders “why you didn’t get it sooner”. It gets 5 stars and high fives. Yet, $19 is too much? Holy cow! I think the author needs to ask for a raise or something. I often spend more than that on lunch!
I thought he was going to say $399 or something. $19? Is that really too much for something “indispensable”?
Smart Scroll is well worth the money. Just give up two lattes and quit yer bitchin.
@ron, where the hell to do you get lattes that cost $9.50? You know, you don’t HAVE to drink ’em by the bucket.
I agree that the author’s whining is unfounded, everything costs more these days, and with the work and hours that go into Dev, I often wonder why so many give their apps away. We all deserve to be rewarded for our hard work.
@Wille G
I agree with you, there are alot of good iPhone apps that their developers really should have charged for, even if only for $1.99. It just pervades the PC mentality that people are entitled to the hard work of developers for nothing. Good apps should cost something.
But do I really want an intelligent scrolling app? hmm.. nope I’ll just use my common sense and vote no to opening my wallet this time.
“Alexis Kayhill asks for Mac360.”
Once I saw that I stopped reading. Mac360 is a shameful shadow of what it used to be filled with anti-Apple bile and PC fanboyism.
No thanks.
Meh.
I downloaded and installed the trial.
It made my apple mouse act goofy.
While it did make scrolling snappy in made my mouse tracking dog slow. I even altered sys.prefs to max out the speed of mouse tracking and it still was not good.
BTW I am running a MacBook Pro (1st gen intel)
“Usually that’s the case, and it is certainly the case with Smart Scoll…”
must’a been written on a pc
The author is right to say that scroll utility should cost less than 19 bucks. You guys are nuts.
I stopped reading Mac360 a while ago. When they regularly complain about regular updates to the products, like iLife, as “forcing us to pay the regular mac tax” it pretty much spells out their idiocy.
And just because an update comes out does not mean you MUST buy it. I see their writing hasn’t changed.
I put Mac360 on my prohibited list years ago. Its mods had turned into harpies even then, as though MS had paid them to alienate and insult long-time and new posters alike. The switch was sudden, like that of a radio station changing formats.
It’s a site to avoid.
Rs- Meh.
I downloaded and installed the trial.
It made my apple mouse act goofy.
While it did make scrolling snappy in made my mouse tracking dog slow. I even altered sys.prefs to max out the speed of mouse tracking and it still was not good.
BTW I am running a MacBook Pro (1st gen intel)
Operator error! Use Smart Scroll prefs.
Ever since Tera passed away, the site has taken a dump.
Gil… You’re right. It used to be a fun, fluff site. It seems that the people who took over from Tera Patricks have morphed into Pee Sea dorks.
I dumped the bookmark not long ago.
I stopped reading Mac360, after so many of its links were to old articles. What is up with that?
<
Rs- Meh.
I downloaded and installed the trial.
It made my apple mouse act goofy.
While it did make scrolling snappy in made my mouse tracking dog slow. I even altered sys.prefs to max out the speed of mouse tracking and it still was not good.
BTW I am running a MacBook Pro (1st gen intel)
Operator error! Use Smart Scroll prefs.
>
I played around with them briefly but my mouse still acted goofy. Though I sure there was some pref to correct it. I didn’t feel like searching for it.
If the default prefs change my basic mouse settings then something is wrong.
Tried it for 10 seconds and now I gotta uninstall it. Sorry. Not for me.
My Logitech MX mouse makes it automatically.
I tried it on my eMac with Microsoft wheel mouse and I didn’t even wait an hour and I had given them my money. GREATEST IMPROVEMENT IN THE MOUSE SINCE THE WHEEL!
I’m also one that disregards anything from Mac360. It’s absolute rubbish.
And that includes describing this app as indispensable, and which should be the price of an iPhone app at 1.99.
I put this on my MacBook at work with a Mighty Mouse and it works just great.
– As for Mac360, even the mouse itself is disposable, at least on laptops, however, this utility is a wonderful addition. If you use your Mac to make money and time is important, then this will be money well spent.
– Note: it does not work with Filemaker 9
@ron
“it did make scrolling snappy”
Drum roll…
How snappy was it?
to thethirdshoe. As snappy as some of the snapsters on this site.
Smart Scroll is about the best little app there is for the Mac. Some of these five minute testers shouldn’t be so testy. So there!
I agree … I luv it! Seems indispensable…. but 20 bucks is just way to much!
I love Mac 360 because they find and review Mac software you don’t find reviewed elsewhere. Whilst I miss the old spice from Tera, I sure do not see any PC fanboy stuff at all.
In this case, Ms Kayhill is spot on. SmartScroll is really very cool and I could see myself using it and wondering why Apple doesn’t include it– but not for $19 USD.
Seriously? There are better apps on the iPhone for $1.99.