Because the XBox runs on Microsoft, it's hard to find ways to get your Mac to play well with Microsoft products. Under normal circumstances, you'd even be hard pressed to get your Mac to check your XBox Live status since it doesn't have Windows Live Messenger. Enter MacLive, a project of James Howard and Andrew Murray.

MacLive runs on Cocoa and acts as a front-end for Xbox.com, allowing you to sign into your Windows Live ID and check on your Xbox Live account. What that means is that you can actually see which of your friends is online, as well as check on what they're playing, just like the real deal.

Of course, it's still a work in progress. You still won't be able to view achievements, send messages, or manage your friends list (the add friends function is currently broken, it seems) but you can get alerts through Growl. In any case, Mac users will probably enjoy trying this out and using it in conjunction with other apps they might have found.

Download: [MacLive]