My new favorite OS X application has landed and it’s beautiful! A French project, with English and French versions, Poladroid lets you take normal digital photos and turn them into virtual Polaroids via an elegant drag and drop and intuitive “developing” feature (shake them to develop faster!). You can also export the finished photos for print or sharing on the Poladroid Flickr group. You might not be able to find the film as easily anymore, but at least you can relive the good ole days with a little bit of grainy Polaroid visuals on your desktop.

Wahey! Google showing more Mac love is always a good good thing. I often wondered why Google didn’t put more effort into Mac applications, considering how close Google and Apple work together. Well today I can finally quit wondering and bask in the warm light of Google Desktop for Mac OS X! Still in beta, Google Desktop for the Mac gives you the power of Google.com on your desktop, allowing you to search your local files, web history and even your Gmail email while offline. They are even nudging in on Quicksilver’s territory, allowing you to use the Quick Search feature to launch applications and files. Helloooooo!

Read more: Google Desktop for Mac | Google Desktop for Mac (Thanks Wolfgang)

The desktops are alive with the sound of widgets and now more than ever thanks to Wigipedia, a wiki community collecting everything there is to know about desktop and web widgets for Windows, OS X and Linux computers. Wigipedia is attempting to catalog the development of all widgets and gadgets, across all platforms, allowing developers to upload their creations in order to collaborate with other developers and offer their small apps directly to end users. There’s also a comprehensive section with tutorials and code samples so you can learn to create your own desktop widget!

Widget more: Widgipedia.com

So your favorite band came through town, you missed the show and now your friends are all telling you how killer it was? Have no fear, a pair of grad students have gotten fed up and have developed a delightfully simple tool for keeping track of both your MP3 library AND your favorite band’s tour dates so you won’t miss the next killer do. The tool is iConcertCal and it’s a free iTunes plugin that monitors your music library and based upon your most playlist, generates a personalized calender of upcoming shows in your city. THe interface mimics iCal and is available for both Windows and Mac OS X.

Download: iConcertCal

So Twitter is our new fun obsession and what better way to enjoy a newfound hobby is there than to find all the free and open source software you can for it!? NONE! Twitterrific is a light and fun little application that lets you easily publish “tweets” to your Twitter account or read tweets from your Twitter contacts, all while stylishly occupying a small spot of real estate on your Mac’s desktop. Let your friends know what level your World of Warcraft character is or how badly you want the iPhone you’re reading about without having to leave your desktop!

Download: Twitterrific | Twitter

Working in web development I’m constantly finding myself taking screenshots, which I am then manipulating manually, cutting and pasting here and there and back again, in an attempt to get the perfect shot. I knew of screenshot tools on the PC, maybe even used one or two here and there, but, for some reason they just never stuck. Now that I’m fully using OS X for everything I do, I’ve noticed the need for taking screenshots rapidly, with as little downtime as possible, and I think I’ve finally found the perfect piece of software for me. InstantShot! is a freeware piece of software (free as in beer, or bier) which creates a menu icon under OS X, assigning an easy to use UI for OS X’s screenshot functionality, allowing you to capture whole screen, partial screen and timed captures. All this for the low-price of nothing, but donations are highly encouraged.

Read more: InstantShot!

Admittedly I’m no expert in the mobile industry, but I have to say, I’m feeling the iPhone. Beautifully designed, packed with features, it’s *almost* everything I’ve wanted in a mobile device (I say this as I cancel my order for the Nokia E61/E62). I’m a little bit disappointed with the lack of AGPS/GPS and/or UMTS and I’d have preferred a $399/$499 price point, but I quickly get over that disappointment the minute I take a look at OS X running on that beautiful wide screen. Apple has really done it again and if the execs over at RIM, Palm, Microsoft and every smart phone manufacturer aren’t muttering a few “uh-ohs” under their breathe, they’re living on another planet.

Now I ask the question, was Microsoft mistaken to not converge the Zune with a mobile phone? I’d think yes. The age of carrying a personal media player and a mobile phone are over, the age of hand-held mobile computer is coming and it seems Apple is ushering this in and Microsoft is left missing the boat (does the UMPC still exist?). To all the new Zune owners, I almost joined you, but a month later, I’m thanking myself for not taking that leap. Seems my near-death iPod Mini will have to last until June.

See the beauty that is iPhone after the jump…

Read more of ”Apple iPhone everything the Zune could have and should have been“

The early developer milestone release of Firefox 3.0a1, codenamed Gran Paradiso, has reached Alpha 1 and is available for download for web developers, testers, and folks who like to risk their browsing experience for the sake of being an early adopter. This isn’t the official Firefox 3.0 alpha, so don’t get *too* excited, but this does give an early look into the next generation of Firefox. Builds are available for Windows XP (98 and ME no longer supported!), Macintosh OS X and Linux varieties. There are no major front-end improvements, but the back-end has been torn apart with Gran Paradiso now using Cairo for all of the graphics and text renderings. Cocoa Widgets are now used in OS X builds also! Padow!

Read more: Gran Paradiso Alpha 1 available for download

David Watanabe, the creator of the great NewsFire RSS reader has done it again (and again) with his brand new torrent client, Xtorrent. This man definitely knows how to design a piece of a software. The user interface is elegant and simple, with the multi-source searching a breath of fresh air compared to searching the dredges of the internet trying to find a torrent file. I’m sure David will keep up the great work, but he’s already won me over, Xtorrent is already my torrent client of choice for OS X, not that I’d use such an evil and illegal technology.

Read more: Xtorrent

MacLibre is a nifty little open source application for Mac OS X, developed at Google’s recent Summer of Code. Consider MacLibre to be the quality control of open source Mac apps, providing Mac users with a pre-selected list of applications available for quick and easy downloading through the use of MacLibre’s internal bittorrent client. More open source applications are being added quite often, naturally after passing MacLibre’s vigorous testing and quality assurance requirements.

Read more: MacLibre