Get the best bit of Win7 on your Mac

This little piece of software was my pick on last night’s IMP Live, and it’s so good I thought I would share it on here for those that may have missed it.
Before I do though, I want to take a minute to remind you all about what IMP Live is, and to point you at www.impodcast.tv for more info. Think MacBreak weekly but with funnier accents and you’re about there.

Moving on….

Not long ago, Microsoft released its latest in a long line of operating systems. Windows 7 promised to fix all the issues Vista had, and to a certain extent it’s hit the spot perfectly. After a few days playing with it though, I came to the conclusion that the best new feature in Win7 is a thing they call Aero Snap. It’s one of those things that’s so obvious you find yourself wondering why it’s taken so long for someone to include it inside an OS.

What Aero Snap does is quite simple, and has real world uses to boot.

I often find myself with two windows open, often comparing a webpage layout, or trying to decide which new toy to buy. Much dragging and resizing later ensues and I finally get a layout that makes use of my 16:9 screen. With Aero Snap, simply dragging a window to the right hand side of the screen makes it fill that half of my desktop. Doing the same with another window, this time to the left side, does the same over there. Instantly I can see what I want, and I’m using all those pixels Mr Dell gave me. Dragging the window to the top edge of the screen also makes whatever is selected full-screen. All very neat.

Alas, it wasn’t enough to make me drop OS X for Windows, and I forgot all about the feature. That’s until last week’s MacBreak Weekly episode, where Andy Ihnatko mentioned Cinch. Created by Irradiated Software, Cinch is a menubar item that gives you all the features of Aero Snap, right inside OS X. It even plays nicely with Spaces, which was a concern I had when installing. For a meagre $7, this little gem really is brilliant. There’s a free demo available too.

I’ve embedded a (very) short video showing what Cinch does, just in case my description doesn’t make any sense!

Go ahead and try Cinch for free from Irradiated Software’s website.