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For Mac OS X users, desktop social media clients almost always involve a trade-off. We can either use multiple apps to update our profiles and services or we can use programs like TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop that work with lots of services, but rely on Adobe AIR and thus have a tendency to eat up memory and bog down our processors.

Earlier this year, an app called EventBox entered the Mac marketplace as an option to fix this quandary. It was a native Mac OS X app but allowed users to access and update multiple social services. In October Realmac Software acquired the app and renamed it Socialite. Over the last two months, Realmac has worked to refine the interface, add features like Twitter Lists and just generally give the whole client a good coat of polish. Today Socialite 1.0 is available for download.

Multiple Services, One Clean Interface

As we’ve discussed in previous preview articles, Socialite handles Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Flickr, Google Reader and standard RSS feeds. What’s nice about Socialite is that you can view information from all of these services in one clean interface, without getting bogged down by columns or multiple windows.

Check out this video from Realmac that shows off how to add an account to Socialite:

Photos, Retweets and Lists

Since we last wrote about Socialite, Twitter Lists support has been enhanced to support lists you subscribe to, as well as lists you have already created. Creating lists and managing lists is a feature that Realmac is considering for a future update, but it isn’t available in the 1.0 release.

Socialite uses Twitter’s new RT system. You can do this by either hitting a key-command or selecting RT from a tweet’s option bar. You get confirmation of a Retweet by the appearance of a translucent black bar just above the status update menu. This is how Retweets look in Socialite:

One of the nicest features of Socialite is its integration with both Flickr and Facebook’s photo systems. Lots of Facebook clients can offer ways to update status messages and view status messages from others — and even view photos in-line — but uploading photos or viewing photographs in a more album like manner isn’t a common feature.

Socialite lets you upload and also view photos in both Facebook and Flickr in an easy to browse kind of way. For users who don’t like using the web uploaders, the ability to upload and tag within Socialite is really nice.

HUD Option

Socialite’s main interface window is uncluttered and easy to navigate, but if you are low on screen real estate or just want an easy way to see what’s going on with a particular feed, you can use the HUD, or Heads Up Display, option. It’s a nice alternative to having the full menu and you can perform almost every action from the main interface within the smaller HUD column.

Overall

Socialite is a solid Mac app with a great look and feel and great integration with different social services. We would love to see LinkedIn added as a supported service, especially now that they have an API, but Socialite covers the gamut of the most widely-used social platforms. Socialite is $20 but you can try the program out for free.

Have you used Socialite? What are your favorite social media clients for Mac OS X? Let us know!

Tags: digg, facebook, flickr, mac software, realmac, Socialite, twitter

If you live some place where it gets really cold in the winter — you might already be familiar with the advantages and convenience of a remote-start car system.

Rather than fumbling to open an icy door or waiting a few minutes for the car to start and the heat to come on, you can start the car using a keyremote and even turn the heat on, so that by the time you get to the car, it’s on and warm.

Today, Directed Electronics, who make the popular Viper remote start systems, are taking remote-start one-step further: start your car with your iPhone. The Viper SmartStart system combines the Viper system with an iPhone app that acts as a remote control for your car.

Here’s how the system works: if you have a compatible Viper remote system installed on your car, you can download a free iPhone app and configure your car to hook up to your phone. Then, you can start your car and turn on the heat before you head out to the driveway. The Viper iPhone app can also lock your car (or unlock it) remotely too.

The advantage of the iPhone app over the traditional key-remotes is that the range is much larger than what you get with IR. I’m assuming the system works via satellite, because Viper calls it “virtually unlimited.” This would definitely be convenient for anyone who has a relative or a spouse with a predilection for locking their keys in the car.

The Viper SmartStart iPhone app is available for either new SmartStart systems (retail price $499) or existing Viper users can get the SmartStart module (retail price $299) from Best Buy stores beginning today. If you like the idea of keyless entry and remote-start, bringing that sort of functionality to the iPhone makes perfect sense.

Do you have a remote-start system? What do you think of unlocking your car with your mobile phone? Let us know!

Tags: iphone, keyless entry, Remote, viper smartstart

On August 28th, Apple released its latest operating system Snow Leopard on the masses. The big news with Snow Leopard is that the focus isn’t on whizz-bang features, but on performance and stability improvements.

As such, the price-point, just $29 for a single-user upgrade license (provided you already have Leopard on your Intel Mac) made it a no-brainer for me to immediately upgrade all the Macs in my house.

According to analysts at NPD, I wasn’t alone. Sales for the first two weeks of Mac OS X Snow Leopard have far exceeded those of both Mac OS X Leopard (released in October 2007) and Mac OS X Tiger (released in April 2005). NPD reports that sales for Snow Leopard were more than two times higher than those for Leopard and almost four times higher than those of Tiger.

The initial sales weren’t limited to just the first week (when many members of the Apple Faithful rush out and buy the latest iProduct), NPD reports that second-week sales dropped only 25%. Considering that Leopard saw its sales drop 60% the second-week, the price-point and the low-key marketing campaign seem to be working.

Although the NPD report doesn’t touch on this, I wonder what role social media played in Snow Leopard sales. Because the focus is on performance, not features, Apple has had a relatively quiet ad campaign for its latest OS. Having said that, I know my Twitter stream (which is admittedly full of lots of Mac users) full of conversation and links regarding Mac OS X 10.6.

So Mac users, have your upgraded to Snow Leopard? What have your experiences been so far?

Tags: mac os x, Snow Leopard