The new Yahoo! Messenger beta is working well for me, and the fact that it supports themes is an interesting development.

At this time, I haven't found any useful documentation online on how to create new themes for the Mac client, but I've modified the "Default" theme to have some darker elements, calling it "TheDark".

Once it is complete, I'll post my Yahoo! Messenger theme "TheDark" here for free download, but for now, here is a preview:

Megazoomer makes windows full-screen on OS X. Just press Command-Return, and the front-most window grows to fill your entire monitor, covering the Dock and menu bar. Press the same keys, and it shrinks again.

Like many other OS X modifications, Megazoomer requires SIMBL, a free InputManager available here.

Megazoomer is a free download. Get it here.

Included in the update are more emoticons, theme choices (albeit limited for the moment), automatic message archiving, tabbed chat windows, and access to Yahoo! chat rooms.

Why use the official client instead of the (admittedly awesome) Adium? For me, mainly webcam support, and a hope that voice chat will one day be included.

I'm in the process of working on a new theme for it, which will be posted here when it's complete.

Yahoo! Messenger is a free download. Get it here.

iTunes Remote Control lets you control another machine's iTunes playback over a network.

iTRC is a Universal application, so it will run on (and between) Intel and PowerPC Macs seamlessly. It is free and open source.

Setup is simple, just enable Remote Apple Events (System Preferences->Sharing) on the computer that is running iTunes. Make sure there's a network name entered in the 'Computer Name' field.

Open iTRC on the computer you want to use as the remote control, and type in the network name of the iTunes server. Authenticate with the username and password of the currently logged-in user of the iTunes server computer, and you're off to the races.

It provides support for track changing, playlist and EQ selection, and control of Shuffle and Repeat functions. It also includes Growl support. Works (for me) with iTunes 6 and 7.

Gotchas:

-Make sure to add ".local" to the end of the iTunes server's network name.
-Do not use the Keychain option to store your password, the program will crash on launch.
-Make sure the username is correct, as it defaults to your current machine's username instead of the remote one.

Over time, my Services menu has become cluttered and full of items I have no interest in using. As a result, I haven't used it since OS X 10.2, nor have I given the accumulation much thought. The cruft became an issue when random services began to interfere with my custom keyboard shortcuts. With Service Scrubber, a simple and wonderful program, my Services menu is trimmed to less than a screenful, and my shortcut keys are no longer hijacked.

From the Service Scrubber site: With Service Scrubber, you can: • restructure the services menu • change service keyboard shortcuts • disable services

It works on any Mac running OS X 10.3.9 or later and is a free download.

MacHeist, MacAppADay and MacZot hurt developers, and as a result, hurt their users.

Users love these services because they get applications for free that would normally have cost them money. Developers attempt to like these services, believing that their mind-share is increasing, even as their support costs go up and sales don't increase.

It's not so great that MacHeist is giving 25% of proceeds to charities of their choice, either. There are better ways to do that, where the charity gets exactly the amount you want to donate.

One Mac user is fighting back against the farce with The Real Week Of Independent Mac Developers.

If you've been running Butler for a while, you won't have a few items that the new versions come with, such as a Wikipedia search engine ready to use.

You can set it up so that you can either type in your search terms or have it perform a search on the text that is currently in the Clipboard.

To type the search terms:

1. Add the search engine:

Open your Butler configuration window, click on 'Engines'.
Command-N to create a new search engine. It will default to show you the Prefix and Suffix fields on the right side.
In the Prefix field, paste this line:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=

In the Suffix field, enter this:
&go=Go

Name the engine whatever you like, I went with 'Wiki'.

2. Create the Web Search interface:

Built around a redesigned buddy list with a sliding webcam pane, it sports a number of interface enhancements, including (for the first time) support for custom user avatars.

Yahoo! Messenger is a free download. Get it here.

Check out the new 'Recommended Macintosh Software' list, a comprehensive listing of useful applications that play well together.

It will be updated as often as we discover new software worth checking out, so post a comment on the list or email us to let us know of anything you think should be added.

Twelve games that have brought me enjoyment on my Macs, listed here for you, the reader.

Super Tux - A 2D side-scroller, Super Tux is a great time-waster, and with controls that work just like Super Mario Bros. (the first one for NES) it's got a lot of replayability. Best of all, it's free, like the rest of the games featured here.