Web development tools for the mac are vast and plenty, yet Espresso is the newcomer to the game, from software veteran MacRabbit software.

Within Espresso, websites are stored as ‘projects’, which include a folder hierarchy and Espresso project file. Existing websites can be transformed into Espresso projects by importing a folder.

The interface to Espresso is elegantly done, with a three-column design. On the left, there is an iTunes and Finder-esque sidebar, with the ‘Workspace’, ‘Project’, and ‘Publish’ categories. “Workspace’ contains the documents that you are currently working on, which is a new take on tabs. ‘Project’ contains the file and folder hierarchy for the website you’re working on, while ‘Publish’ is an FTP manager for uploading and transferring project files locally and server-side.

The central column within Espresso is the main coding window and workspace. To the left is a ‘Navigator’ pane, which shows the tags used in the current document. Below that, are the ‘Quick Publish’ and ‘Snippets’ panels. ‘Quick Publish’ is a toggle to turn on or off automatic uploading to a server, while ‘Snippet’s allows you to create frequently-used fragments of code for easily adding to documents.

Espresso also has many advanced features that speed up production time and increase usability. For instance, there is a find-and-replace function that allows you to search within a document for any text or code, and then, if requested, you can then replace found text with something else. There’s also a live preview window that shows real-time changes being made to a document.

For being a 1.0 product, Espresso is an excellent web development solution. There’s even added ability for users to expand Espresso by downloading sugars, which add support for scripting languages, and themes, which modify the look of the editor.

I haven’t used Espresso exclusively, but after receiving a license in the MacHeist bundle, I’m definitely going to use it on a new project. See more about Espresso and download a free 15-day trial from MacRabbit Software.

Growl is one of the most popular, and widely used, Mac OS X utilities for displaying system-wide notifications. Prowl will now transmit your computer’s Growl notifications to your iPhone or iPod touch.

The app takes advantage of the 3.0 software to send Push Notifications to you. Setting up the computer-to-iPhone connection is simple, you simply sign up for an online Prowl account. Then, you download ‘Prowl’ as a theme for Growl, and all notifications will be ‘pushed’ to the iPhone.

The entire system is flawless, and having Growl notifications sent to the iPhone is a genius way of getting updates. The app works fine, and the only issue I’ve found is the inability to have notifications simultaneously displayed on the computer and on the iPhone.

While Prowl isn’t free, it’s worth it for any avid Growl user and isn’t terribly expensive at $2.99. See more by visiting Prowl in the app store.

The Sims, a popular video-game franchise from EA, has been ported to the iPhone as a life simulation game.

As many fans know, The Sims allows users to create people, design their homes, and control their lives. The iPhone version allows for many of the same features, but is heavily centered around the ‘life control’ aspect of the game.

For users that are interested in building and designing homes on-the-go, The Sims 3 for iPhone won’t fill your desires. There are minor moving, rotating, and purchasing methods for furniture, but these tools can’t compare to the features of the desktop version.

While controlling your Sims’ life, you’ll need to keep them satisfied and fill their wishes. Satisfaction levels include ‘Hunger’, ‘Energy’, ‘Bladder’, ‘Hygiene’, ‘Social’, and ‘Fun’. There are up to 73 goals and wishes that your Sim could come across for you to complete.

Within the game there are mini-challenges that improve a Sims’ skill set, which include ‘Cooking’, ‘Fishing’, ‘Repairing’, and ‘Gardening’. Of course, relationships are also a huge part of the game, in which you can befriend, anger, date, or marry the other Sims.

The Sims 3 is an extremely addicting game, that has engrossed me for many hours. There are numerous features and aspects to the game, some of which were mentioned here, that make it worth the expensive price tag.

See more about the Sims 3 for iPhone.

Analog recipe managers aren’t fun to use, or easy for that matter. One of the new digital recipe managers for the mac is SousChef from Acacia Tree Software.

At its simplest, SousChef allows you to import and create recipes. Recipes can have pictures, ingredients, directions, notes, and other information assigned to them. Each recipe can then be printed, blogged, or emailed.

SousChef can also store Grocery lists, that can either be printed or emailed. There’s even a full-screen cooking mode that includes support for control via an Apple remote and voiceover reading. Recipe search can be done with any number of factors, including name, ingredients, category, and cuisine. These factors can be combined and modified to any degree.

One feature that is unique to SousChef is a vast online database of recipes that, at the time of writing, has totaled over 103,000 recipes. The cloud database is accessible by the in-app search. SousChef will also keep track of recently imported and recently cooked recipes.

For the most part, SousChef is an excellent recipe manager and stacks up nicely against the other competition. It offers great features and has a supreme ease-of-use. SousChef costs $30, and can be downloaded for a free trial from Acacia Tree Software.

Blogging, as most people know, is typically done by writing posts in an online client. Yet, if you find yourself blogging a lot, and to different blogs, using the web interfaces can become tedious and even annoying. Luckily, MarsEdit is here to improve that experience as a desktop client.

The main window in MarsEdit is set up to display blogs on the left, with a list of posts on the right and previews of the selected posts below the list. Above all of that is the toolbar, which holds many basic functions. There’s nothing slick and flashy about MarsEdit, but it is functional and gets the job done.

Creating or editing a blog post opens up the blog editor and preview window. The editor is based around a large coding window. Of course, no coding knowledge is necessary to add text to the post, but the editor does support HTML and is not rich-text based. The editor window also has options for choosing categories, editing server options, adding media, and even some service-specific functions (such as choosing a post type in Tumblr).

There are many other powerful features to MarsEdit that aren’t located in the editor, such as the ability to schedule and edit posting dates, edit trackbacks, adding tags, and adding technorati tags. Unfortunately, some of these functions are hidden, or buried away, instead of being placed in the prominent editor window.

MarsEdit is also extremely powerful, with the ability to add and store local drafts, adding custom preview templates, support and ability to add macros, ability to upload photos to google, options regarding sending new posts, and sending pings. Each blog that you register can also have specific settings that pertain only to that blog. There are numerous blogging services supported, including but not limited to WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, and Typepad.

While there are other blog editors that are a bit flashier and do certain tasks well, none excel like MarsEdit does. It’s easy to use, simple to figure out, and powerful in more ways than one. Plus, their service is excellent.

From Red Sweater Software, MarsEdit 2 costs $29.95 and is available for a free 30-day trial.