Cocktail Bar Mac OS
Cocktail Bar Mac OS
Developer: Maintain
Price: $15 (Tiger Edition); free (Panther Edition)
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 required for Tiger Edition.
Universal: Yes
Trial: Fully-featured (10 launches)
Video: Hide Date and Time from Menu Bar in Mac OS X Yosemite If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help. Cocktail is a general purpose utility for OS X that lets you clean, repair and optimize your Mac. It is a powerful digital toolset that helps hundreds of thousands of Mac users around the world get. Inspired by traditions, 'Top Chef's' Whitney Otawka recreates unique dining experiences at Greyfield Inn.
Cocktail Bar Mac Os Catalina
Like the self-named drink style, Cocktail blends a variety ofunder-the-hood Mac OS X utility functions into one application. You canplay with the Finder interface, inspect a multitude of log files, andmodify “deeper” features like your Mac’s network configuration. If Appleever includes a digital bar, Cocktail will no doubt let you specifyshaken or stirred.
Installation and Getting Started
Download the .dmg file, open it, and drag the Cocktail file to yourApplications folder. If your hard disk supports the SMART automatedmaintenance system, Cocktail can run it on program launch. This willtake several seconds per volume, so leave this option off if you don’tlike the delay.
Feature Exploration
The main window covers six areas: Disks, System, Files, Network,Interface, and Pilot. Each includes OS-level options (some more thanothers) and settings that seem opaque at first (some definitely morethan others).
I recommend reading the Cocktail help filebeginning-to-end. It explains the panoply of options, critical for anyyou’re not familiar with. The application brings several handy featuresto the fore, but you can create problems by changing settings withoutknowing what they do.
If you’re used to working with OS tools on the command line, Cocktailbrings many of them to life in a graphical interface. The picturedoption, Journaling (enabled or disabled), for example, helps recoverfrom errors by tracking changes on-the-fly, which means a performancetrade-off. You can change this in Terminal (or circuitously in DiskUtility), but it’s right there for Cocktail users. Some functionscontrol more banal OS elements like log files and cache maintenance, butothers impact the Finder and other interface elements directly. (I addeddual arrows to my scroll bars double-quick.)
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Interface options.
Cocktail’s “Suggestive” Feature
The Network Optimization panel provided the most interesting controlsfor me. At first glance, it’s cluttered with more than a dozen options.Fortunately, you just need to pick a connection type—everything elseupdates automatically.
Cocktail tunes my AirPort card for a cable modem connection.
This task feels helpful, even if it’d be hard to comparebefore-and-after results of a network reconfiguration. I know thatpacket size can impact wireless detection and performance, so that maycome into play—other settings on this screen feel like mystic runes.That Cocktail would suggest type-specific settings makes a realimpression.
Cocktail lacks one feature I’d love love love (and would pay money for):something that disabled the Mac OS X Dock!
Cocktail App For Mac
Eight Dock options, and none of them turns it off.
Unfortunately for me and Bruce Tognazzini, the Dock sitsintertwined with some basic Mac OS X functions. A mere check box cannotdisable it.
Now How Much Would You Pay?
Ultimately, what do you really want from an OS utility? Apple’s DiskUtility and Alsoft’s DiskWarrior handle file repair, so they aren’t in the same camp with Cocktail. Titanium’ssuite of maintenance tools seems the realcompetitor, with many similar OS features and a freeware price. Youarguably get a nicer interface and help file with Cocktail, so that willprobably determine whether you lay out its registration fee.
Summary
At $15, Cocktail doesn’t cost much. It’s a nice collection of tools andoptions aimed at the “LEGO builder” user who wants to bring a bevy of OScontrols from the command line to the GUI. Users like me need to lean onthe help file to know what’s what, but that’s not a bad thing. Better tolearn your options and what things do, even if you only make minorchanges.
I look forward to smart features like Network Optimization creeping intoother areas. Should a future version of Cocktail capably automate diskoptimization or know how to “tune” my system for specific tasks likevideo editing or having 20 tabs open in Firefox, it’ll move from “good”to “buy buy buy.”
Cocktail Bar Mac Os X
Copyright © 2007 Matthew Glidden, mglidden@atpm.com. Reviewing in ATPMis open to anyone. If you’re interested, write to us atreviews@atpm.com.
Cocktail Bar Mac OS