Here are just a few links to where you can search for the new software titles for your Mac:Apple | VersionTracker | MacUpdate | MacReporter | Google | MacForge
Mostly I don’t provide any specific links to the individual software titles, as that would require me to maintain those 100+ links on the regular basis. Just read the following program descriptions and when you have found something interesting on this page, use these search engines mentioned above. I’ll just add that probably all software mentioned here are OS X “Tiger” compatible. (Please notify me, if I’m wrong!)
And so… let’s begin our short review of Macintosh OS X software! I’ve divided this software review into groups according to their application, in alphabetical order.
Quick Links to the Main Sections:
Bible Software
Brainstorming Applications
CAD Applications
Cataloging Applications
Communications (IRC, FTP, Bluetooth)
Contextual Menu (CM) Plugins for Finder
Disaster Recovery / Hard Drive Maintenance Utilities
Graphics & Desktop Publishing
Multimedia
Note-taking Applications
Office Software
Personal Finance Managers
Security
Super OS X menubar items (external link)
Utilities
Web Authoring
Widgets for Dashboard
Bible Software:
• Accordance – THE BEST commercial grade Bible software on any platform. Actually it’s only for Mac (runs also on Windows through Mac emulator), but there is no other application on any platform as good as this one. Many Bible scholars have switched to Mac only to be able to use Accordance! Many add-on modules you can buy and add separately — Bible maps, timeline, commentaries, dictionaries, language tools, etc. Starts from $39 or so. Gradual upgrades possible. Users can add their own modules and notes. 10% discounts to full-time church ministers. My favorite! (Here’s one short tutorial)
• Logos System – soon to come to Mac platform! Libronix Electronic Library system, thousands of books in electronic format at your fingertips…
• MacSword – free Sword project Bible software. Has very useful bookmark group option. I like it! Has New Testament in Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian.
• QuickVerse – newcomer to Mac platform. But, unfortunately, I cannot understand why they did it… There’s nothing interesting about it, at least for me. If you really need Macintosh Bible software, go for Accordance!
Brainstorming Applications:
• Curio – Curio is the ultimate brainstorming and project management application — a truly flexible and powerful environment which promotes visual thinking for gathering and shaping your ideas, while managing all the notes and documents associated with your project. Curio’s intuitive interface and tools encourage effective note gathering, research, and creative exploration. Its freeform, open environment encourages users to more easily visualize, associate, and recall information. $39 for Basic edition, $79 for Home edition and $130 for Pro edition.
• Mindjet MindManager – the market leading productivity software for visualizing and managing information. Capture ideas and notes directly into your mind map. Rearrange your maps by dragging and dropping Topics. With MindManager’s unique mind mapping software, you’ll be able to develop ideas, understand complex issues and relationships, and identify next steps in record time. Draw relationships between ideas, add callouts and color to highlight important information, group similar ideas with boundaries and insert icons and images to help you and others to see the big picture. Ideas generated in planning and brainstorming sessions, meetings, and classrooms can be quickly be enhanced with graphics, related documents, and links from the Internet. A cross-platform file format makes working in teams easy. Exchange maps with anyone using MindManager on Mac or Windows platforms. But don’t make a mistake — MindManager is not 1:1 clone of it’s Windows sibling, it’s really 100% Mac application with all Mac look and feel. It’s like a third member of the iWork suite. $230. Worth every penny! Used by BMW, Microsoft, NASA, Procter & Gamble, Rolls Royce, Siemens, etc.
• MindMap – Brainstorming, mind mapping and visual thinking. ConceptDraw MINDMAP is your personal assistant when discussing ideas, making decisions and planning projects. It enables you to present information in a simple, visual way by building trees of ideas or Mind Maps. Use ConceptDraw MINDMAP to organize brainstorming sessions, take notes, plan your work and make presentations. It just looks too much Windows-like… $120.
• NovaMind – NovaMind is a key tool used to conduct and record the outcomes of brainstorming sessions. Use this technique to generate ideas for marketing, KPI’s, goals and problem resolution. Having employees involved in brainstorming sessions encourages creativity, initiative, communication and improved employer/employee relationships. Presentations: Use NovaMind during presentations as a prompt so that all points detailed on your Mind Map are covered – you can print a whole Mind Map on one page! This is a great help so information is not forgotten and discussions stay focused on the topic at hand. Motivating People: Business owners and managers often find it difficult to motivate people. Using Mind Mapping techniques they can quickly assess the different options available for motivating their staff and put them into effect. $120.
CAD Applications:
• ArchiCAD – ArchiCAD gives users the ability to create great architecture and increase productivity. From day one, ArchiCAD has been designed by architects for architects, and over the years it has gradually become more and more refined. ArchiCAD offers a different approach to your workflow process, which gives you more control over your design, while maintaining accuracy and efficiency in documentation. While you raise walls, lay floors, add doors and windows, build stairs and construct roofs this Building Information Authoring Tool creates a central database of 3D model data. ArchiCAD Professional license — about EUR 4.000, single user update license — about $800. ArchiCAD student version — FREE.
• Artlantis Render – Artlantis Render is a unique software application developed especially for architects and designers, ideal for quickly and easily creating high quality 3D renderings.
• Artlantis Studio – Artlantis Studio is a unique software application developed especially for architects and designers, ideal for quickly and easily creating high quality 3D renderings, QuickTime VR panoramas, objects and animations.
• Autodesk Maya – powerful, integrated 3D modeling, animation, effects, and rendering solution. Maya Complete Edition $2000, Unlimited Edition $5000. Personal Learning Edition is available FREE of charge!
• Cheetah3D – The amazingly powerful 3D modelling, rendering and animation solution for Apple Mac OS X. Cheetah3D provides a comprehensive set of polygon modelling tools, including advanced features like boolean operations and surface subdivision. Cheetah3D also offers powerful spline modelling tools, including spline extrude, lathe and sweep. Application offers a powerful new UV editor that supports auto-highlighting. Selecting, moving, scaling and rotating UV coordinates is now pure pleasure within Cheetah3D! Performing truly advanced operations in Cheetah3D will seem like second nature very rapidly. Cheetah3D provides a level of productivity that you will be hard pressed to equal in software ten times the cost! $150.
• Design Intuition – Design Intuition® is a woodworking design tool for Mac OS X that is powerful enough for professionals yet simple and intuitive enough for everyday home use, without the hefty price tag usually associated with CAD software. Draw it once, and you’ve drawn it in all views. Make an adjustment in one view, and it’s made in all views. And you can view your design in 3D, based on lightning-fast OpenGL software. A library of smart objects is available, from which you can create a variety of cabinetry, furniture and rudiments of remodeling. Prices range from $180 to $550 (lifetime license).
• Domus.Cad – a 3D Architectural Parametric CAD. You can immediately begin to create three-dimensional elements without needing to start from a two-dimensional plan. Elements such as walls, floors, roofs, and stairs are created from the onset in their full three-dimensional form. Domus.Cad’s strong 3D capabilities are matched by its equally impressive array of 2D CAD tools. $399.
• Form·Z – Form·Z is a general purpose 3D modeler, which combines surface and solids modeling, and includes drafting and rendering, all in a single integrated package. Form·Z offers an extensive set of 2D/3D form manipulating and sculpting tools that are accessed through a highly interactive interface. These tools make it possible to easily create any form, real or imagined. New single user license — from $1.500 to 2.400, depending from the package configuration.
• HighDesign – HighDesign is the modern, easy-to-use 2D CAD and illustration solution that raises your productivity standards by providing new concepts and powerful tools in a friendly environment. From architectural design to construction, from cabinetry to facilities management, the projects you will build in HighDesign will be a refreshingly fun yet fully professional experience. Compatibility with DXF 12, 14, 2000/2002, 2004. Free demo trial (works 12 hours). Standard version $150, Professional version $350.
• Piranesi – Piranesi is a specialised ‘3D painting’ tool, allowing you to start with a simple rendering of a 3D model, and quickly develop it into high quality images ready for client presentations. New single user license — about $750.
• PowerCADD – PowerCADD lets you draw designs that make it look like it was drawn by hand, not by the computer. PowerCADD also has open architecture-an advanced level of versatility and expandability. New single user license — about $900.
• Shark FX – Full featured modeling, drafting, and presentation solutions for the professional designer. Bring your idea to market faster with Shark FX, the new standard with precision 3D digital prototyping. Explore new product concepts with unprecedented ease and precisely share data with manufacturing processes. Shark has the right tools needed to take your idea from concept to manufacturing ready. Available on both Windows and Mac OS X platforms. $1800.
• TouchCAD X – TouchCAD is a combined 3D modeling and unfolding program focusing on the ability to generate complex 3D shapes and converting them into physically buildable models. It can be used for a wide range of tasks such as marine/yacht design, production of soft material based objects such as tents, blimps, inflatable objects, reversed engineering where copies of existing objects are being recreated, sheet metal objects, industrial and architectural design, sculptures, etc. New single user license — about $800.
• TurboCAD Mac Pro – powerful drafting and design features, plus additional powerful tools for creating complex 3D models, 3D OpenGL renderings, and over 11,000 2D/3D symbols and parts. Adobe Illustrator Import & Export, AutoCAD Compatible, Over 275 Design Tools & 11,000+ Symbols; 2D Drafting & 3D to 2D Conversion. DXF/DWG Support – Read/Write AutoCAD files through v2008 with updated DXF/DWG translators. Includes support for model and paper space. Price? Unbelievable — $150 !!!
• VectorWorks – More than 400,000 designers in more than 85 countries rely on VectorWorks technology. These professionals have one thing in common: they all use a design solution that best meets their highly specialized needs. And without breaking the bank, you can, too. Prices range from $1.300 to 3.200, depending from the package configuration you choose. Special versions for designers, architects, landmark design, machine design, etc.
• ViaCad Pro / 2D / 3D – ViaCAD Pro gives you all the features of our revolutionary ViaCAD™ 2D/3D, plus increased high-end modeling power and a more robust collection of materials and textures for interactive visual realism. ViaCAD 2D/3D allows you to quickly toggle between 2D and 3D views. To help you get started, there are over 80 minutes of tutorial videos. $99-$500.
Cataloging Applications:
• Bruji Bookpedia – a book cataloging software for Mac OS X. To save you time and effort, it retrieves all book information from the Internet and lets you arrange your books in any which way you like, using smart lists for example. Using Bookpedia comes naturally because of it’s familiar iTunes style interface. Price only $18!
• Bruji CDpedia – a CD manager software. Its familiar iTunes style interface makes it easy to use. It integrates with iTunes so that you may know what CDs in your collection you have imported. $18.
• Bruji DVDpedia – DVDpedia is a powerful movie cataloging application that retrieves all information about your DVDs and videos from the internet. It lets you search all the Amazon sites (US, UK, Canada, France, Germany and Japan) plus IMDB and several other international sites for information about your movies, either by entering keywords or using an iSight or a scanner. $18.
• Delicious Monster Delicious Library – register your books, CDs, DVDs. iCal support. If you borrow something to someone, this is good program for such tasks – it’ll remind you when your friends have to return you borrowed items.
• FileFinder – FileFinder is a MacOSX native disk/folder cataloger which allows you to easily memorize a disk/folder hierarchy and quickly browse and search files stored on local disks or external media like CDs and DVDs, whether you have physical access to them or not. VERY FAST!!! Catalogs gigabytes and thousands of files in seconds! If that’s still not enough, they’ve priced it at just $25. Grab it!
Communications:
• BluePhoneElite – send SMS from your Mac! Nice program for Bluetooth phones. (As everything in this world — not free anymore).
• Camino – very good and fast browser. The same rendering engine as in Firefox, but Camino is 100% Mac software, and faster, too! Free.
• Captain FTP – one of the best FTP client for the Mac. Worthy alternative to Panic’s Transmit or Yummy FTP. Which one is better? You decide! $25.
• Cyberduck – FREE, robust and simple FTP/FTP-TLS/SFTP browser for the Mac. Support for external editors and system technologies such as Spotlight, Bonjour, Keychain and AppleScript are built-in. Did I mention it’s free?
• DropCopy – Bonjour (Wi-Fi) file sharing. Free.
• Ecto – front-end for local web-log (blog) editing and uploading to the blogging programs. More about it below in the Web Authoring section!
• Fetch – a full-featured FTP and SFTP client with a simple and easy-to-use interface. Fetch features include: a file list modeled on the Mac OS X Finder, automatic support for StuffIt, Zip, Tar, Gzip file formats, editing text or image files directly on a server, Bonjour (Rendezvous) support, Unicode file names, synchronizing folders using the Mirror command, automating repetitive tasks with Automator actions and AppleScript recording, a Dashboard widget for easy uploading and tracking the progress of your upload. $25.
• Firefox – freeware, good browser. Little bit slow on 1.5GHZ G4, but it’s getting faster and faster… If faster browser is needed, look for Camino! The same rendering engine, but Camino is 100% Mac software, and faster, too!
• Flow – New kid on the FTP block. Elegant, intuitive and powerful file transfer application (FTP). Flow makes working remotely every bit as intuitive and natural as working locally with the Finder. And it’s elegant too! Only $25. I like this app!
• iBeatTime – see current Beat time, and convert to/from local time. Now there is also Dashbord widget with the same name and features. One (Internet) time for one small planet Earth.There is also iBeatTime Dashboard widget that does the same. Your choice.
• iGet – iGet lets you move files between Macs over the LAN or Internet without resorting to archaic or only partially compatible protocols (like FTP or SFTP). And unlike AppleShare, iGet is network-oriented and designed to be fast over real-world Internet connections, and not just 100Mbps or 1Gbps LANs. Engineered specifically for the Mac, iGet can do things no other file transfer tool can. Its custom-designed network protocol efficiently supports remote Spotlight searching and true Mac icons. It understands packages, Finder labels, HFS metadata and resource forks, etc. Connections are always strongly encrypted (SSH). iGet provides remote Spotlight searching, Automator actions, resumable file and folder transfers. Bonjour and Keychain support. No server software required — just iGet on your own Mac and SSH enabled in Sharing (Firewall) preferences on a remote Mac. 60 second learning curve. Good application, I use it a lot. Only the price is a little bit high — $50… but when you start using this app, you forget about the price you paid. 🙂
• Imprint – print envelopes and labels. I bought it before I found that Mail Factory is by far better. OS X Tiger users can print envelopes straight from the Address Book, but still Mail Factory has lots more to offer…
• Interarchy – a powerful, flexible FTP client for Mac OS X. (My current favorite!) Interarchy can download and upload files via FTP, SFTP and WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning), and Amazon S3 as well as secure forms of FTP such as FTP/SSH and FTP/SSL-TLS, and secure forms of WebDAV over HTTPS. In addition, it can download files or whole websites using HTTP and the secure HTTPS, provide a wealth of information about your Internet connection, and help you work with remote servers across the Internet. Has Growl support and transparently can encode/decode files when transferring them. Yours for $60.
• IPCalc – IPCalc is a subnet calculator. The app is geared toward IT professionals and people who want to learn about IP subnetting. There are two modes of operation: basic and advanced. Advanced will show additional information (such as hex and binary forms). Additionally, the Advanced mode allows for “what if” analysis.
• IP Widget – Display your current internal or external IP — choose between Airport, Ethernet, Firewire and your “real” Internet/WAN IP. Copy IP to clipboard by click. Run multiple copies to show different IPs at once. Refresh automatically everytime you open the Dashboard. Tiger users can also use NetStat widget (also free).
• IRC Clients:
- Colloquy – my favorite IRC client!
- Conversation – good.
- Ircle X – hmmm…
- Snak – Good reviews from its users.
• iStumbler – finds Wi-Fi (and Bonjour) networks.
• Kids GoGoGo – Web filtration for home, school, public space and office. Block the sites you don’t want your children to see. Kids GoGoGo prohibits the browsing of adult-only content on the Internet. Block the RSS feeds such as Safari RSS as well as web sites. Block the Explicit Podcasts loading by browser and iTunes. When using the Search engines, you can filter the search results, even if the ‘SafeSearch’ is OFF. This function is effective for both image searches and web searches. Made in Japan. $30.00
• Letterbox – a plugin for Apple’s Mail.app that takes advantage of your widescreen monitor. It rearranges the interface into three vertical columns – so the message pane is to the right of the message list, rather than below. You’ll probably need at least 1280 and perhaps 1440 horizontal pixels for this layout to work well for you. Free.
• Mail Factory – probably the best envelope and label printing software! Made in Ukraine. $20 for Home Edition / $40 for Pro version.
• NetNewsWire Lite – good RSS Reader.
• NetNewsWire – even better RSS Reader. Editor’s choice!
• NewsFire – RSS reader with the style. Very simple (maybe too simple) and nice looking. Not free anymore… I prefer NetNewsWire — for me it’s easier to use…
• Norton Parental Control – Not bad, although not essential. Use Apple Safari 2.0 browser in OS X Tiger, and you’ll enjoy 80% of the same features! If parental control is needed, better look for Kids GoGoGo few lines above.
• Times – Instead of treating news like email (as most RSS readers do), Times presents you with headlines and photos from a variety of sources all in one place, letting you more easily discover the news you want to read. Like your own personal newspaper, you can put feeds into separate areas, create pages for different subjects, and more. You’ll be impressed by the sheer attention to detail in Times. Every feature was carefully crafted to work as intuitively and naturally as possible, while still keeping with Mac design philosophies. $30.
• Transmit – Transmit is an excellent FTP (file transfer protocol), SFTP, and iDisk/WebDAV client that allows you to upload, download, and delete files over the internet. With the most Mac-like interface available, Transmit makes FTP as simple, fun, and easy as it can possibly be. Actually I am new convert to Transmit after using Captain FTP for more than a year. Captain FTP was more convenient to use after switching from Windows to Mac, but now I prefer Transmit, as it provides better Mac experience. Much better. Very handy “linked” folder navigation — when turned on, you just open local folder and remote folder with the same name is opened automatically for you. Or you open remote folder, and local folder is opened automatically. Folder synchronization option. Supports file exchange over the Bonjour networks. Price — $30. Sweeeet. My favorite FTP client.
• WordPress – good blogging program that’s using PHP/MySQL. More about it in the Web Authoring section!
• Yummy FTP – FTP / SFTP client that combines all the best features available in other file transfer solutions, makes them better, adds a wealth of its own uniquely powerful capabilities, and then powers them all with a highly tuned FTP engine. $25. (Got it for $10). Good FTP client. But after playing around with it for a month or so, I switched to Interarchy and then back to Transmit. Flow seems to be very good application.
Contextual Menu (CM) Plugins for Finder
(OK for “Panther” or “Tiger”, but don’t work in “Leopard” and “Snow Leopard”!):
(OK for “Panther” or “Tiger”, but don’t work in “Leopard” and “Snow Leopard”!):
• DVFileDateCM – DVFileDateCM is a Contextual Menu (CM) plugin that allows you to quickly and easily see the recording date and time of a DV file from the Finder. No need to open any other app.
• File Buddy – Actually it’s a stand-alone application which provides it’s own Contextual Menu (CM) which you can customize according to your needs: Rename, Rename Sequentially, Rename with Dates, Replace Spaces with Underscore, Copy Path, Clear Creator, Lock, Unlock, Delete Resource Fork, Create Icon from Image, etc. More than two dozens of commands available. Plus almost hundred of commands from the program’s window. I think this is a must-have for all Mac users!
• Finder Browser – small contextual menu plug-in for the Finder, whose sole purpose is to allow you to quickly and easily browse all of the images in a single folder. Finder Browser supports a wide range of image file formats and can even display the first page of pdf documents. Double-click any image while in File Browser and that image will be open in the default viewer/editor. Very small (362kB), fast and FREE.
• FolderGlance – Contextual Menu plugin for Finder. When it is installed, it allows you to control-click or right-click on folders to see and open their contents, as well as examine the contents of sub-folders down an unlimited number of levels. With FolderGlance you can: add your own custom folders to the contextual menu, use FolderGlance to act as a launcher; move and copy the currently selected files or foders to a folder you browse to; create aliases of the currently selected files in a folder of your choice; drag-and-drop of files and folders; open files with an application different than the default by using an “Open with…” menu you can tailor to suit your own taste. Absolutely free.
• FruitMenu (by Unsanity) – Not really a plugin, but it fits better in this category… FruitMenu is a haxie that gives you the ability to customize the Apple Menu and contextual menus. Using a visual editor you can edit the contents of the menus to suit your needs and taste. Put any disks or folders and files in your Apple and contextual menus. See your IP Address in the Apple or contextual menu. Browse contents of the selected folder in a menu, instantly. $10.
• MP3-Info CMM – Contextual Menu plugin for Finder, which shows audio file info in the Finder’s contextual menu, like file kind, file duration, bit rate, sample rate, etc. Supports MP3, AAC, AIFF and WAV file formats. Free.
• PhotoToolCM – Contextual Menu (CM) plugin for Finder. You can apply a number of lossless options (including cleaning to reduce file size), see and edit comments and EXIF dates, and perform batch renaming and/or resizing operations. I don’t use the editing features much, but the feature I do use is the Photo EXIF option. This displays all the EXIF info captured by your camera when the image was taken — focal length, aperture, date, file size, format, etc. Contextual Menu (CM) plugin for Finder – just righ-click (or control-click) on the photo and you’ll see all EXIF info. A must-have!
• QuickAccessCM – Contextual menu plug-in for easy access to frequently used folders, documents and applications. QuickAccessCM plugin provides the following independent modules: “Quick Access” with items for quick opening; “Move To” with folders into which you often move things; “Copy To” with folders into which you often copy things; “Make Alias In” with folders in which you collect aliases. A must-have for Windows users! Free. Somehow I like FolderGlance better than QuickAccess, because FolderGlance allows me to browse to nay folder, not just use predefined folders.
• QuickImageCM – basic image manipulating Contextual Menu plugin. You can view the image without opening any applications, add and remove thumbnail icons, create an HTML IMG tag (with height and width settings) based on the image, batch rename images, and convert to different formats. The built-in viewer is actually quite powerful, with scaling, trimming, and sizing options. Contextual Menu (CM) plugin for Finder. A must-have!
Disaster Recovery / Hard Drive Maintenance Utilities:
• Alsoft Disk Warrior – the safest, the most technologically advanced, and the most powerful utility to prevent and eliminate directory damage available for any computer. DiskWarrior uses a different approach to disk directory repair than other programs. DiskWarrior is not a disk repair program in the conventional sense. Instead of patching the original directory, it uses a patent-pending technology to quickly build a new replacement directory using data recovered from the original directory, thereby recovering files and folders that you thought were lost and that no other program could recover. Price $79.95 (My favorite app!)
• Prosoft Data Rescue – recovers files from hard drives even if they fail to mount or only partially operate. Recovers all types of files, including their data, icons, dates, and folder hierarchy. Data Rescue II can now recover deleted digital pics from your camera media after you’ve deleted them. Recover your whole drive or just the files you need. Leaves the original disk untouched to preserve data. $99. Sometimes memories and information have more value than those $99! 🙂 (My favorite app!)
• Prosoft Drive Genius – Drive Genius is packed with powerful tools such as a drive optimizer, a comprehensive repair facility for analyzing, repairing and rebuilding volumes, plus excellent testing capabilities with media surface scanning, performance benchmarking and data integrity checking. It can be used to initialize drives, create and delete partitions, and erases them securely as per Department of Defense’s standard. Drive Genius can also hide partitions and duplicate volumes or drives swiftly. Last but not least, Drive Genius features advanced tools for resizing and moving of volumes without reformatting, and sports a sector editing tool to modify the data on any sector of the drive. $99. As I said before, sometimes memories and information have more value than those $99! 🙂
• SubRosaSoft FileSalvage – data recovery software for Mac OS X that will retrieve files that have been deleted (undelete), rescue data from corrupted media, and recover lost files from your hard drive or storage device. An exhaustive scan of the drive is performed to locate lost partitions and files. Your are presented with view of files so that you can copy your lost files to another safe location such as your iDisk, a networked drive or external Firewire drive. FileSalvage is device and file system independent. You can recover files from a normal Mac OS hard drive, USB key, PC disk, Linux disk, FLASH card, scratched CD, and almost anything else that your Macintosh can recognize. Download version for $89.95.Description and links to several disaster recovery utilities.
Graphics & Desktop Publishing:
• Anything from Adobe
• ABSoft Neat Image – a digital filter plug-in for Photoshop designed to reduce visible noise and grain in digital photographic images. For use by both professional photographers, and digital image processing enthusiasts. It can also reduce the film grain visible in scanned slides and negatives, JPEG artifacts of overcompressed images, and color banding, and at the same time makes images sharper. 3 versions, from Free to Pro for $60.
• Acorn – an image editor built for the Mac with simplicity in mind. Fast, easy, and fluid, Acorn provides the tools you need to alter and enhance your images, without any overhead. Acorn feels right, it won’t drain your bank account, and you don’t need a Ph.D. in computer graphics to use it. Free version and paid version for $49.95.
• Apple Aperture for RAW format photo development or photo libraries and archives – this is THE BEST! From the dozen of other Pro digital photo assets management applications I’ve tested this is the best for me. Maybe some apps like Lightroom offers few things better, but from all those all-in-one applications this is really the best. Only Mac version. Price: $300. And it’s worth every cent!
• Apple Keynote for presentations – this is THE BEST! You can throw PowerPoint CD-ROM in the trash bin…
• ArtMatic Voyager is an application by Eric Wenger, father of Bryce 3D, that allows artists to create, explore and render stunning, photo-realistic 3D worlds with exquisite detail. It uses non-polygonal rendering techniques that allow huge worlds (several times larger than Earth) to be created from compact files.
• Capture Me – for those times when you need to capture DVD movie screen. (OS X built-in screen capture program doesn’t allow you to capture DVD screen). Free.
• ClickBook – prepares files to be printed as a book. Print booklets, wallet books, day planner pages, greeting cards, brochures, etc. Print files from any application together or separately. Walks you through double-sided printing. Prints many custom layout styles! Rotates, reduces & realigns documents automatically. Works with any laser or inkjet printer. $50.
• Downsize – easy way to resize pictures. Batch mode.
• EasyBatchPhoto
• EasyCrop
• ExifRenamer
• Exif Untrasher – undelete (restore) deleted files on your digital cmaera’s Flash cards, Memory Sticks, SD cards, etc. Worth to consider if you have digital camera. Or, if you’re ready to go for the ultimate in file restoration and recovery — buy FileSalvage ($89) and OfficeSalvage. The last two will recover almost any file, except Keynote, Pages, PHP, XML and PowerPoint files…
• Extensis Portfolio – image database. Keywords, quick browsing. But… iView MediaPro is faster, although has some problems with the Spotlight keywords in Tiger. At least for now.
• Extensis Suitcase Fusion – font management for OS X. Good program, many useful features… $100.
• Image Capture – actually I live with Cmnd+Shft+4. In Tiger it creates PNG, but there’s script to change captured file format to JPG. (Instructions in Latvian) And that’s all I need…
• Inkscape – Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw, or Xara X using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats. FREE!
• iPhoto Buddy – add and change iPhoto libraries. Now iPhoto can deal with several libraries. Free
• iPhoto Diet – defragment iPhoto library. Eliminate duplicate photos created internally by iPhoto or imported by yourself. Remove iPhoto’s backups of rotated or modified photos. Strip the thumbnail icons of your photos. identify photos which have not been added to albums. Free.
• iPhoto Library Manager – similar to iPhoto Buddy. Free.
• iView MediaPro – fast, good feature set, but once you refresh some picture folder, all assigned keywords are gone… Hope they’ll make some update. Then, and only then, it will be highly recommended. $200.
• iWatermark – Protect and secure your photos. iWatermark is the easiest and most popular tool available for watermarking artwork, digital photos and other images that you can then put on the web or send via email. iWatermark can also create thumbnails. $20.
• Lineform – Lineform is a completely new drawing program. Lineform is the ideal tool for posters, diagrams and drawings. SVG, Core Image, AppleScript, Spotlight, Transparency, Gradients, Compositing, Bézier editing, Free Transform, CMYK preview, Freeform text flow, Text on a line, Linkback, etc. Powerful features combine with a simple interface to make your drawing great. $79.
• Keyword Assistant for Apple iPhoto – Keyword Assistant makes entering keywords in iPhoto faster. Highlight the photo or photos you want to tag and press Command-Option-K to bring up the Keyword Assistant entry panel. Start typing a keyword, and Keyword Assistant autocompletes it for you, based on your existing keywords or Address Book entries. Press return, and you’ve assigned the keyword to the photos. To assign more than one keyword, just type the desired words in the entry panel, separating them with a comma and a space—for example, John, birthday, family . If you enter a word that isn’t on the list, Keyword Assistant asks if you’d like to add it. Simple. Fast. Cute. Free.
• OmniGraffle – charting software. Works OK, not very expensive, good tech support. $150.
• PictureCode Noise Ninja – remove noise (grain) from your digital photos. This is the noise removal king! $80. I don’t know why, but somehow I still prefer Neat Image… Maybe because Noise Ninja is just port to Mac, maybe because it’s not that easy to use, maybe because I like Neat Image results better… I don’t know.. But give it a try!
• PhotoKit Sharpener – is a Photoshop plug-in providing a complete “Sharpening Workflow” for photographic images. Other products may provide useful sharpening tools, but only PhotoKit Sharpener provides a complete “Sharpening Workflow”. From capture to output, PhotoKit Sharpener intelligently produces the optimum sharpness on any image, from any source, reproduced on any output device. The ultimate tool in professional sharpening! (Luminous-Landscape review of PhotoKit Sharpener) $100.
• PhotoReviewer – a photo management app that helps you to sort through your incoming photos, whether from your digital camera (including raw images!), your scanner, or your internet connection. Quickly view your photos and choose which ones are “keepers”, sort them into different folders, delete duplicates, and more. This software is really fast! $10.
• Pixelmator – the closest app to Photoshop. 1/3 of Photoshop for $59 (almost 1/15 of Photoshop price). Pixelmator, the beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editor for Mac OS X has (almost) everything you need to create, edit and enhance your images. Consider its price, it’s a steel! Made by two brave Lithuanians in London. My favorite app.
• PicturePop Pro – a contextual menu plugin that shows pictures and QuickTime files directly from the Finder or any software that handle this kind of plugin. It helps you quickly view numerious photos, navigate through a pictures folder, within multiple windows or in fullscreen. You can mark elements and move them to folders/trash or change their Finder color label on the fly, read EXIF photographics tags, … Take the time to understand all the functionalitie and read the documentation. FREE.
• Picturesque – With an animated “drag and drop” style interface, Picturesque makes images with tasteful effects like reflections, soft glows, shadows, delicate curves, strokes and fades in less time than it takes to open Photoshop. Picturesque can also beautify images in batch, and with the ability to resize and apply effects on a whole folder of images, Picturesque is an an easy way to make sophisticated thumbnails and refined full sized images. $25. Superb for preparing images for your blog.
• PictureSync – a convenient utility that simplifies uploading images and movies to online galleries and photoblogs, whilst keeping valuable annotations and metadata. For me the best part is an integrated (IPTC/XMP) annotation editor for easy batch editing of captions and keywords (in Uniocode!) — and with fully searchable results in Spotlight (on Mac OS X v10.4). With support for BubbleShare, Buzznet, Club Photo, Flickr, Fotki, FotoTime, Photobucket, Shutterfly, Smugmug, Vimeo, Webshots, Zoto – plus FTP and export to folder. $14.
• QPict by Rune Lindman Development – If you find iPhoto too slow to use, give a try to QPict. QPict offers an attractive way to view, organize, search and batch process all your media files. Our media database engine supports common standards such as IPTC, XML and EXIF and supports many different media file formats including images, movie clips, fonts, RAW images and sounds. QPict is equally well suited for both professional and home usage. In fact many are switching from more expensive solutions to QPict due to the flexibility, speed and ease of use you just cannot find anywhere else. [$35; www.qpict.net].
• Sequantial – a fullscreen image viewer for Mac OS X. It was specifically designed for opening a folder of images and displaying them in order. Open one image and navigate to either direction from there. Sequential can display folders or archives (ZIP, RAR, CBZ and CBR) of images (including JPG, PNG, and GIF) in addition to PDF files. My choice image viewer! FREE.
• Xee – a lightweight, fast and convenient image viewer and browser. It is designed to be a serious tool for image viewing and management, with a sleek and powerful interface. In many cases it even surpasses Apple’s Preview. Open one picture and just press ⌘← or ⌘→ to navigate to another picture. Don’t like these shortcuts? You can replace default shortcuts or assign even several shortcuts to any command. Los-less JPG rotation. Full screen preview. It’s fast (albeit often shows not very accurate colour). Best of all, it’s FREE. Very good alternative is Sequential (see above) – less features, but accurate colours.
Multimedia:
• Amadeus Pro – Inexpensive audio editor with good set of features: live audio recording, digitizing tapes and records, converting between a variety of sound formats, audio editing, etc. Thanks to its outstanding direct-to-disk abilities and waveform caching, edits on arbitrarily large sounds (even beyond the usual 2GB limit) are performed at lightning speed. Multitrack editing an recording. Batch processing and conversion. Even CD-TEXT burning. Price: $40.
• Audio Hijack (Pro) – hijack (record) audio from any application — iTunes, RealPlayer, Skype, microphone — you name it! Extremely useful application! Pro version costs $32 and I’m proud owner of it! 🙂
• BIAS Peak LE – Bias Peak is a 2-track digital audio editing program. You can edit and process audio in a fraction of the time required by competing systems. Unlimited levels of undo and redo give you the freedom to create, without the fear of harming your original file. $129. But before you buy Peak, take a serious look at Logic Express! (scroll down to Logic Studio Suite).
• BIAS Peak Pro – probably one of the best Mac stereo recording and editing programs out there, besides Digidesign’s Pro Tools (which is the King of audio editing). It’s compressor is one of the best in this world, only plugins could be organised in a better way. Veeery expensive! ($599, as all pro-level audio editing and mastering programs). But that can’t stop you from reinstalling OS X every two weeks and using it for free, can it? 😉 Unfortunately, many users complain that this application is quite buggy and often crashes, and I have to agree… v.5.2 and v.6.0 were not as stable as I’d wish they’d be. So before you buy Peak, take a serious look at Logic Studio! (Scroll down few paragraphs).
• Cinematize – The DVD Movie Clip Extractor. With Cinematize, you can now select a favorite video or audio clip from your DVD, and then extract and save it in a format compatible with popular movie and audio editing applications, including QuickTime, iMovie, and Final Cut for Macintosh and Windows Movie Maker, Sony Vegas, and Adobe Premiere for Windows.
• Curio – organize your ideas until they are ready for project development. It had very good project templates and smart questions you should answer before your project is written down and completed… Somehow I wasn’t too creative, or did I lack big projects? Anyhow, I don’t use Curio anymore. But you can! From $40 for Home edition up to $130 for Pro version.
• DivX Pro – includes free full screen playback and an array of elegant features that create a truly cinematic experience. Improved versions of the DivX Web Player, DivX Converter and DivX Codec. The DivX for Mac bundle allows conversion of your movies into the DivX format for playback on millions of DivX Certified DVD players, portable media players and other devices. Player is free, encoder costs $20.
• Eartraining – An educational application that was designed for the composer/improvisor in need of increased skills in the aural identification of modal melodic and harmonic materials. The app creates an infinite number of examples of tetrachords, modes, scales, and single or groups of modal chords. Train your ears! $18.
• Fast DVD Copy – does what it promises, even Audio CDs and PS2 game CD-ROMs. One-click program, $99.95.
• ffmpegX – a Mac OS X GUI to ffmpeg a hyper fast video and audio encoder. It can decode MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 (aka DIVX4/5), VOB, AVI MS-MPEG4 V3 (aka DIVX 3), WAV, Real Audio, H263(+) (aka RealVideo 1.0), PGM, YUV, PPM, AC3, PCM8/16 bits, mulaw/Alaw, SUN AU format, MPEG audio layer 2, MPEG audio layer 3, MJPEG and even more formats. This GUI provides quick encoding to DivX, MPG1, MP2, MP3 & AC3, H.264. You can therefore convert DVD video to DivX, DivX to VCD or XVCD, and DVD to VCD or XVCD. $15.
• Flip4Mac – (several applications) – The WMV Player (freeware) is an industry first product offering that allows you to play Windows Media directly in your QuickTime Player. WMV Player Pro ($99) lets you import Windows Media files for editing and conversion to other QuickTime formats from within your favorite application, including Final Cut Express HD/Pro, QuickTime Pro and iMovie. Flip4Mac WMV Studio lets you also export Windows Media files directly from within your favorite QuickTime-based applications, including Final Cut Express HD/Pro, QuickTime Pro, iMovie, Compressor, and more. Player is freeware.
• HandBrake – multiplatform, multithreaded DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter. HandBrake was originally available on the BeOS, but now has been ported over to MacOS X and to GNU/Linux. Rip & compress DVDs on your HDD to DivX movies! Input any DVD-like source: VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD (even encrypted), PAL or NTSC, AC-3, LPCM or MPEG audio tracks. FREE.
• HandBrake Lite – a horribly-mangled abomination of HandBrake, jettisoning its non-crucial features with the one-track goal of creating iPod-sized movies from DVDs. FREE.
• iGetMovies – GetMovies allows you to copy a QuickTime movie from the iTunes Music Store or Safari to your Desktop. Once iTunes or Safari has loaded completely a movie, click on the button of iGetMovies and it will copy it/them to your Desktop. It depends on the website, but it works most of the time. FREE.
• Illumination – allows you to index and search through any volume (any hard drive, CD, network volume, tape backup, etc). Online or offline. Illumination can search through your offline files based on File Name, Path, Creation Date, Modification Date, Type & Creator Codes or File Size. $19. (But don’t forget to check also FileFinder! It may be better.)
• iTunes Publisher – exports your iTunes playlists to HTML, Tabbed-Text, M3U, and Quicktime Streaming Server (QTSS). Free.
• Logic Studio Suite from Apple – Everything you need to perform live on stage, write, record live or in studio, edit, and mix your music. Several world-class software synthesisers, 18.000+ Apple loops included. Professional level application suite: $500. Logic Express: $200. If you can buy this, forget about the rest here! 🙂
• MacTheRipper – a DVD ripper (extractor). It removes CSS encryption, Macrovision protection, sets the disc’s region to ‘0’ for region-free, and is capable of removing RCE region checking. It can also copy ARccOS copy-protected DVDs. This is to backup your legally-purchased DVDs onto your hard drive. Free, az most of ze hacker toolz! 🙂
• Movie Time – Wow! Only 300kB and simply the best fulscreen movie player for Mac OS X with subtitles support. Relies on QuickTime. Universal Binary. Free.
• Movist – Very nice movie player for Mac OS X based on QuickTime & FFmpeg. Has playlist option. In my opinion much better than VLC and 4 times smaller than VLC. Plays AVI, Flash video, QuickTime MOV files, MPEG-4, H.264, etc. And it’s also FREE. Grab!
• MP3 Trimmer – trim, split your MP3’s. Lets you cut off portions of MP3 files, fast and easy, without re-encoding. Normally, you would need to convert the MP3 file to an editable audio format, like AIFF or Wave, edit the file, save it and then re-encode to MP3 again. Auto recovery of damaged MP3 files. $9.
• MPlayer 2 – good multimedia player. MPlayerOSX is binary distribution of MPlayer (The Movie Player for Linux) and comes with native GUI in Mac OS X. After installation you can simply (by Drag&Drop) play almost all 3ivx, DivX 3,4,5 and other codecs files in the window or fullscreen mode. Rendering of very nice antialiased text-based subtitles is also supported. Sometimes crashes… but it’s getting better!
• pearLyrics – Dashboard widget and also a separate program for fetching lyrics from the Internet for music played in iTunes. The best iTunes plugin! Did I mention it’s free?
• Perfect Pitch – a powerful and diverse tuner application. It is simple enough for the casual instrumentalist to use, yet contains advanced features for tuning based on harmonic series, quarter tones, and any other even division of the octave. Free.
• Perfect Tone – try to sing in tune! An advanced tone generator, allowing the creation and simultaneous sounding of up to 64 waveforms. Created specifically for OS X using Objective-C and Cocoa, in order to provide an interface that is comfortable for any Mac user. Free.
• Perian QT plugin – allows QuickTime player to play back Divx, XviD, FLV, AVI, MS-MPEG4 v1, MS-MPEG4 v2, MS-MPEG4 v3, DivX 3.11 alpha, 3ivX, Sorenson H.263, Flash Screen Video, Truemotion VP6. These formats when they are inside an AVI: H.264, mpeg4, AAC, AC3 Audio, and VBR MP3. Universal Binary. Free.
• Pro Tools – undoubtly the King of audio editing and mastering! Pro Tools requires proprietary audio hardware and is protected with the USB copy-protection dongle, so you shouldn’t bother with this program unless you have Digidesidn or M-Audio hardware. But those who have it — you are the blessed ones! Still I recommend to take a look at Apple Logic Studio Suite. 😉
• VLC – Good freeware media player with a playlist. A highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, etc.) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. VLC gets better and better. Some graphics designers have also made very nice custom icons for it. Universal Binary. FREE. But look first at Movist (see above) before you commit to VLC.
Note-taking Applications:
• Curio – Curio is the ultimate brainstorming and project management application — a truly flexible and powerful environment which promotes visual thinking for gathering and shaping your ideas, while managing all the notes and documents associated with your project. Curio’s intuitive interface and tools encourage effective note gathering, research, and creative exploration. Its freeform, open environment encourages users to more easily visualize, associate, and recall information. Curio starts at just $39 (up to $120)
• DEVONnote – the repository for all your notes, thoughts, and clippings. Store and manage your bookmarks in DEVONnote too, browse the Web using the integrated browser based on Apple’s WebKit, capture interesting notes immediately or organise webcams. Furthermore, DEVONnote helps you sort in new stuff and supports cross and Wiki-style links. $20.
• DEVOthink Pro – one database for all your documents. And it’s flexible. It adapts to your personal needs. Use it as your document repository, your filing cabinet, your e-mail archive or your project organizer. Collect and organize data from the web for a publication, enrich it with sound and movie files, and export everything as a web site, drag it to an Apple Pages document for publishing in print, or copy it to your iPod. The Database for the Internet Age: DEVONthink keeps your important data in one database, regardless of where the data is physically located. Integrate both local documents and live content from the Internet to keep all project-related information together. Seamlessly mix local documents, clippings and live web pages. $80.
• Dossier – an information management tool for the Mac. It is an ideal tool for keeping and organizing notes, to-do lists, passwords, or virtually anything else. Dossier features an easy to use interface, with multiple documents and multiple simultaneous views per document, smart folders, live search, blogging support, an integrated calendar, encryption, flexible printing of entries, folders, or entire documents, rich text editing, excellent support for export, unlimited undo/redo capability, and many more features typically found in more expensive products. $25.
• Journler – Journler’s inline media viewer supports audio-video, images, PDFs, WebArchives, web sites and Address Book records. When you’re ready to organize, Journler supports entry by date and folder as well tiered folders and smart families. When you need to find your information, Journler includes lightning search and on the fly filtering of your entries. When you need access outside of Journler, there is Spotlight and AppleScript support as well as Mail, iWeb, iPod and blogging integration. FREE.
• KIT – KIT is like a magic scrapbook for everything you want to keep. Text, documents, images, movies, sounds, web pages and bookmarks can all be dragged to KIT for safe keeping, previewed, collected together in different ways and found instantly. You can arrange your files into groups, which are similar to folders, but with the essential difference that a file can be kept in more than one group at a time so you can reuse your stuff. You can also create smart groups, which do all the hard work for you and use categories to color-code items for quick visual recognition. $25.
• MacJournal – the world’s most popular journaling software for the Macintosh. Create a personal journal with two level security (password protection and encryption), record daily ideas, manage to do’s and export them to multiple file formats, generate blogs to any of the popular blogging services or .mac account. Even record audio and podcast! MacJournal has the power and functionality to do it all. $35.
• Mori – a digital notebook that makes it easy to record and organize your thoughts. Unlike the alternatives, Mori doesn’t box you into one way of thinking. Instead Mori’s simple and flexible design puts you in charge of your information. Very fast, simple, and … good! $40.
• Notae – a full-featured and lightweight notebook with instant full-text searching and complete import and export functionality. It can even read your notes out to iTunes, and thus your iPod. It includes a Mac OS X Service to grab any text or file selection and keep it as a note. Its open document format (XML or SQLite) allows for other creative uses. Really, it’s TextEdit on performance-enhancing code. $15.
• NoteBook – It’s a combination outliner and free-form database that lets you clip, annotate, and share unstructured information. NoteBook integrates directly with key Apple iApps to keep life in the digital hub super-organized. The NoteBook Contact Sticker provides direct, menu-based access to relevant Address Book contacts, as well as iChat and Mail functions from within NoteBook. You can set and manage iCal alarms for your NoteBook Action Items without leaving NoteBook, while receiving these alarms wherever they are through Apple’s standard iCal and iPod delivery systems. $50.
• NoteTaker – for organizing your information lifestyle, your digital workstyle. At its most basic level, NoteTaker is a personal note and idea organizer. Make a list, organize an outline or jot down an idea. It’s that basic. But with everyday work and lifestyle demands, our information needs are far more complex and diverse. And NoteTaker reflects this reality so that users can add and change the content and use of their information as needed. $70.
• OmniOutliner Pro – a flexible program for creating, collecting, and organizing information. You can use OmniOutliner’s document structure to create hierarchies of main headings and subpoints that can be expanded and collapsed, which are immensely useful when it comes to brainstorming new ideas, drilling out specifics, and lining up steps needed to get everything done. But you aren’t limited to outlines – you’ve got multiple columns, smart checkboxes, customizable popup lists, and an uber-innovative styles system at your disposal. Use OmniOutliner to draft to-do lists, create agendas, manage tasks, track expenses, take notes, plan events, write screenplays…and just about anything else you can think of. $70.
• SOHO Notes – SOHO Notes is the premier digital note-taking application for Macintosh. Use it to capture, organize, and share all of your personal and workgroup information. It can store rich text, PDF’s, images, files, movies, audio, bookmarks, and web archives. Synchronize notes between multiple computers, iPod’s, and Palm handhelds. Single And Multi-User Capable – SOHO Notes is as equally suitable for the sole proprietor with a single computer as the small business with a few dozen networked computers. This all new note manager is based on a commercial database engine for high-performance and reliability. $70.
• VoodooPad – a garden for your thoughts. Plant ideas, images, lists and anything else you need to keep track of. VoodooPad grows with you, without getting in the way — no fences to box you in! Type in notes, highlight important words or phrases and create new pages. Drag and drop folders, images, applications, or URLs into VoodooPad — they’re linked up just like on the web. With powerful search, nothing will be lost or out of reach. I tested this app and found it to be extremely fast, even with 1000+ notes in its database. Lite — FREE, Standard $30, Pro $50.
• WikiNotes – a free application for OS X 10.4 and higher that helps you to organize your brain and be productive without a hassle. Just start writing and then whenever you feel the need to break off into a new thought, create a link with the corresponding CamelCase word. Then, just like WikiWikiWeb, you get a new document with a single click. Take notes, organize your thoughts, and write notes for your iPod. WikiNotes leverages Apple’s CoreData technology so that your documents don’t waste any time getting loaded or saved. Type in CamelCase words to get links in a hurry. There’s even an auto-completion for existing page names too. FREE.
• xPad – a notepad/scrapbook application with robust drag and drop support. Manage an unlimited number of documents in a single window interface. Color-coded categories and document sorting allows for easy organization of text documents. xPad is a single solution replacement for Stickies, NotePad, Scrapbook and TextEdit. $13.
• Yojimbo – Yojimbo stores different data types: text notes, passwords, web bookmarks, product serial numbers, PDFs, and web archives. Data input into Yojimbo follows familiar Mac user interface gestures such as copy-and-paste, drag-and-drop, a Quick Input Panel, or PDF Services from the Print menu. Searching and retrieval are instantaneous, using either Yojimbo’s built-in search, or the Spotlight search system in Mac OS X Tiger. $40.
Office software:
• iWork – Simply the best office suite of applications. Pages for text documents and nice page layouts, handouts and posters. Keynote — the best application for astonishing presentations. Numbers… hm, maybe not as powerful as MS Excel yet (in some ways), but definitely easier to use and better formatting features. Free trial here. Regular price is around $70. No update options, always new version costs full price, but the price is so low (comparing even to the MS Office update price!), that I think it’s not an obstacle.
• Mellel – THE BEST text processor for Mac! Period. Rock stable, lightning-fast, well-structured. Somehow I don’t find it’s palette titles very intuitive, so you better learn this program very seriously. But once you do, you’ll love it! My favorite text processor. Word users, switch to Mellel! It’s simple yet powerful, cheap and fast! AND IT NEVER CRASHES. NEVER.
• Mesa – a spreadsheet built for Mac OS X. It has multiple worksheets (like Excel) and uses a subset of Excel’s commands and functions (as well as some all it’s own). It doesn’t include macros or ODBC capabilities. It will import Excel files very successfully if you’re using simple data, formulas and functions and formatting. You can save Mesa files in Excel format and read them in Excel. And once you’ve done your calculations, you can produce charts and good-looking reports, and copy your charts into other programs like Mail. Price: $34.
• Microsoft Office for Mac – if you can’t live without it, then… Slow, doesn’t like changes in font folders (after changes in fonts folders next startup is painfully slow), doesn’t use Mac’s standard color palette or font palette, so you cannot use user-made font groups… Word displays all OpenType font variations in the main font menu… Oh… It’s expensive as Cadillac and drives like Russian Lada… But the fact is that all Windows users have it, so probably you’ll have to have it too… But if you want something better with polished typography for personal usage, go for RedleX Mellel or Apple Pages.
• OmniDictionary – good free dictionary, can be configured to be used offline. OS X Tiger and leopard users don’t need it as the latest Mac OS X has it’s own built-in Dictionary (take a look into Applications folder!). Free.
• OmniFocus – helps you manage your tasks the way that you want, freeing you to focus your attention on the things that matter to you most. It is Getting Things Done (GTD) style application. Finish that novel. Spend more time with your friends and family. Grow your business. Let OmniFocus worry about keeping your goals and tasks, both personal and professional, in one ordered, easy to access system that you can depend on. I use this application every day! OmniFocus has also iPhone version ($20) so you can sync tasks between your Mac and iPhone and have your tasks always accessible. Price: $80.
• OmniGraffle – helps you draw beautiful diagrams, family trees, flow charts, org charts, layouts, and (mathematically speaking) any other directed or non-directed graphs. Price: $80 / $150 for Pro version.
• OmniOutliner – a flexible program for creating, collecting, and organizing information. You can use OmniOutliner’s document structure to create hierarchies of main headings and subpoints that can be expanded and collapsed, which are immensely useful when it comes to brainstorming new ideas, drilling out specifics, and lining up steps needed to get everything done. Some people need it, I don’t… Price: $40 / $70 for Pro version.
• PDF2Office Personal – Through PDF2Office Personal you can Directly Open and Convert PDF documents into fully editable Microsoft Word X/2004 documents – recreating the original construction and layout of the document. PDF2Office Personal forms paragraphs, applies styles, regroups independent graphics elements, extracts images; creates tables; processes headers/footers, endnotes/footnotes and columns/sections automatically – without any intervention. $60.
• Yep – organize the paper that clutters your life. Think of Yep as iPhoto for your documents. Still free, but be warned, they’ll be charging for the next version.
Personal Finance Managers:
• iBank – The new financial manager built exclusively for Mac OS X. Redesigned from the ground-up utilizing core Tiger technologies: Smart accounts, Smart import rules, Scheduled transactions, Core Data, Automator support, iCal and .Mac integration, etc. As someone has written in his review: “After reviewing, a debit of $39.99 showed up in my account. Is this a bug or a feature?” Highly recommended!
• Liquid Ledger – a modern personal finance solution. Liquid Ledger offers a comprehensive set of accounting tools that make it easy for you to balance your chequebook, keep track of credit card activity, analyse monthly spending, and a whole lot more. Probably the best accounting software for the Mac. Haven’t tried myself, but it looks as such… 🙂 Price — CAD 75 for download version. Or you can try iBank ($40).
• Money – Money is a little and very easy-to-use personal accounting application for home and small business users. Made in Lithuania. (Congratulations, brothers!) Costs only $25. Too simple? — then try iBank or Liquid Ledger.
• Moneydance – they say it’s intuitive personal finance software. For Mac OS X, Linux and Windows (oh…) Price: $30.
• Quicken – The most comprehensive personal finance software for Mac OS X. Also financial planning software. Unfortunately this program doesn’t know what Latvian characters look like… I can’t type Latvian characters, so I can’t evaluate it here… but the joy and happiness was so close…
Security:
• 1Password – Password Manager + AutoFill for Mac OS X. It is similar to RoboForm, but so much better! Manage hundreds of passwords with one master key. Integrated with Safari, OmniWeb, DEVONagent, Firefox, Camino, and Flock. Take your passwords with you on your Palm / Treo. Automatic form filler outclasses the other AutoFill products. Define multiple identities to be used by the form filler. Stop keyloggers from recording your passwords and credit cards. Prevent phishing criminals from stealing your information. Intelligent settings make you secure by default. .Mac integration allows passwords to be synced across machines. OS X Keychain integration provides maximum security. Easily import from Safari, Firefox, Web Confidential, and RoboForm. Generate and enter strong passwords with a single click. $30. Believe me, it’s really worth every penny!!! It took me 3 months to make a decision to buy it, but now I will never regret it! 🙂
• Steel – (discontinued!!!) Steel helps you categorize textual information such as passwords, access codes, bank accounts, software licenses, etc… Steel can protect your password and bank account information documents with Blowfish encryption, which supports 56 characters-long passwords for strong security. Enjoy the features you have come to expect from a true Mac application: fast searching, ease of use and a clean interface. The best application for password storage, and it’s cheep, too — only $9.00. As good alternative, you can try SecretBook ($15).
Utilities:
• Apples to Oranges – converts anything to anything. Free. Tiger users won’t need this…
• Butler – You won’t believe you could live without it!!! A file launcher. A bookmark manager. A file search manager. A pasteboard extension (multiple clipboards, etc. But recently I switched to iClip and Spark/Plain Clip Plug combination for this purpose — it gives me better solution) You can use Butler to simulate keystrokes, move and copy files, control iTunes, access the system preferences, change the current user, and so on. Small, stable, for free (donations accepted). Butler is worthy to be tried out! Want something else? Try Quicksilver (free) or LaunchBar ($20, my favorite). Both are nice programs, with some different options and tastes. But before you try other programs, try Butler! As I already told you, you won’t believe you could live without it…
• Calendar X – Calendar X is a multi functional calendar for Mac OS X. It computes astronomical events (moon phases, blue moons, solstice, equinox, moon rise and set, sun rise & set) and displays the information according to the selected calendar system. Charts Moon Phases, Solstice & Equinox, Moon Rise/Set and Sun Rise/Set in all supported calendar systems. Supports Julian, Gregorian (in many reforms), Jewish, Islamic, Bahai, Indian Civil, Mayan, Coptic and Ethiopic, Persian, Fasli, Shenshai and Qadimi, Viking and Chinese calendar systems. Additionally it will also give date information in Indian Civil, Mayan, French Revolution, Roman, ISO and Julian Day Number. From WunderMoosen for $28.
• Calq – an easy to use, on demand calculator. The idea behind Calq is to have a calculator handy when you need it do some basic calculations quickly. It’s there when you need it, and it’s not in the way when you don’t need it. Freeware. The best calculator for every-day use that I’ve seen! User can set transparency, assing his/her own calculations to the alphabet letters. Enter some digits, press the button “A” or “L” and the calculation “your_entered_number*0.54*1.18=” (price you entered converted to local currency and VAT added) is done! 🙂
• Carbon Copy Cloner – for those times when HDD backup is essential. Free, but currently doesn’t work reliably with OS X Tiger. If Tiger compatibility is a must, look for CopyCatX or SuperDuper!
• Catalog – build catalogs of your CD, DVD content. View and search them “offline”. Good price ($20), very slow performance. I’d suggest you to look for FileFinder. (Scroll down)
• CHM Viewer – view Microsoft Help HTML files. Shareware, $5. But there’s also one freeware application:
• Chmox – an OSX viewer for Windows Compiled HTML Help (CHM) files. Version 0.4β is Universal Binary. FREE!
• ChronoSync – ChronoSync brings power and simplicity to the old hassles of keeping your laptop and desktop computers in sync. Best of all, ChronoSync is fast! It only copies the files that have changed since your last synchronization. It literally can scan tens of thousands of files in minutes (or less) and it won’t take all day like some other utilities do! The most powerful aspect of ChronoSync is scheduling. Create multiple synchronizer documents and schedule them separately or combine them in a ChronoSync Container to schedule them together. You can schedule any synchronization to be performed automatically on a recurring basis to ensure files get reliably updated when needed. My favorite backup application (together with SuperDuper!). Run every Friday evening and you’ll be safe. All that for only $30…
• ClearDock (by Unsanity) – ClearDock removes the semi-transparent white background from the Dock so the Dock icons are “floating” on top of your desktop picture. Additionally, it can change the colors of application triangles and of the Dock background to customize your desktop! Free.
• ConverTable Planets – Compare Solar system planets. Free.
• Create Booklet PDF Service – adds an export command in Print dialog (system wide) that converts any printable document into PDF format for printing as a booklet with staples down the middle. This means the pages have to be resorted before printing and two pages have to be shrunk onto one. Create Booklet does that for you and as it is a PDF Service you can do it directly from the print panel. Additionally you get the Automator Action that is used in that PDF Service. No need to use InDesign if all you need is just printing a booklet.
• Default Folder X – adds file management to Open and Save dialog windows. Default Folder X attaches a toolbar to the right side of the Open and Save dialogs in any OS X-native application (both Carbon and Cocoa). The toolbar gives you fast access to various folders and commands. Very useful! How could Mac OS X developers miss it? Recommended for all Mac users! Seriously.
• DEVONthink Pro – EVONthink is the solution for the digital age, the one database for all your documents and notes. And it’s flexible. It adapts to your personal needs. Use it as your document repository, your filing cabinet, your e-mail archive or your project organizer. Supports QuickTime file types. $80.
• DiscBlaze by Radical Breeze – DiscBlaze is an easy to use application for burning data to CD’s and DVD’s. Features include: Burn multiple sessions to the same CD. Burn Audio CD’s from any QuickTime compatible files with audio tracks. Save and load “Burn Lists”. Burn an existing Toast or ISO disc image file. Create a new ISO and DMG disc image file. Make an ISO image of an existing folder or volume. Burn discs that can be read on Mac or PC or both. Erase re-writable media (such as CDRW discs) for re-use. Set a custom icon for each disc. All that for $30.
• Exif Untrasher – undelete (restore) deleted files on your digital camera’s Flash cards, Memory Sticks, SD cards, etc. Worth to consider if you have a digital camera. Or, if you’re ready to go for the ultimate in file restoration and recovery — buy FileSalvage ($89) and OfficeSalvage! Those two can restore erased files of all kinds of formats.
• F10 Launch Studio by Chronos – Very similar to LaunchBar or Quicksilver. You are free to make your choice…
• File Buddy – File Buddy is the most powerful and popular high-level file utility available for use with Mac OS X. Find files, make aliases, create droplet applications that automatically apply changes to items dropped on them. Modify the names of multiple files or folders at once. Create custom icons: from PICTs on the clipboard; from other icons; for folders using a variety of templates. Find empty files and folders, orphaned files, duplicate files, broken aliases. Create snapshots that can be used to track the changes on a disk, such as files installed by an installer. Use snapshots to uninstall applications. A must-have! (though expensive, $39.95).
• File Juicer – File Juicer is a drag & drop “can opener” and data archaeologist. Its speciality is to find and extract images, video, audio or text from files which are hard to open or export in other ways. It finds and extracts: JPEG, JP2, PNG, GIF, PDF, BMP, WMF, EMF, PICT, TIFF, Flash, Zip, HTML, WAV, AVI, MOV, MP4, MPG, MP3, AIFF, AU, WMV or text from files which contain data in those formats. All in one pass, for only $8.
• FoldersSynchronizer – a nifty utility for Macintosh which synchronizes and backs-up files, folders and disks. The user can choose one or more pairs of files/folders/disks and then they will be synchronized/backed-up exactly. $40 for full version, $20 for Lite version. I don’t know… It seems to me now that the new ChronoSync is much better! (Look here above).
• FileWrangler – batch file renamer. Probably the best for Mac so far… Did I mention it’s free?
• iBackup – Backup your HDD or folders or files to another HDD or folder, for free! FREE!
• FinderCleaner – Cleans hidden files the Finder creates. These files can be annoying in mixed OS environments or they might even cause some devices like mp3 player to not function correctly. Useful for USB sticks or mp3 players for example. FinderCleaner cleans the following items: .DS_Store files,Resource forks, FBC files, .Trashes. FinderCleaner can also eject a volume in a clean way so no new mess is being created. Free. I have it, but don’t use…
• iCuistot – good cooking recipe application. But I chose MacGourmet.
• iDefrag – defragment your HDD. Supports HFS and HFS+ (Mac OS Extended). Supports case sensitive and journaled filesystems. Supports adaptive hot file clustering (“Hot Zone”). $30.
• iDive – organize your movies, just like iPhoto for pictures. iDive is a digital video shoebox…for your DV tapes and now for all your QuickTime movies. It will turn any assortment of disorganised video files into an instantly accessible catalog. Finding a clip hidden amongst hours of footage will never again be a problem. $70.
• InVisibles – turn invisible system files visible or back to invisible. Free.
• iSync Scheduler – set different iSync schedule times. Free.
• iUnit – converts between over 600 different units of distance, mass, volume, velocity, density, and other types of units. iUnit is perfect for students, engineers, scientists, and other professionals who need to quickly, easily, and accurately convert between various units of measurement. $20.
• LaunchBar Press Cntrl+Space, type a few letters and LaunchBar shows possible results. For example, type in “te” and Text Edit will be shown. Just hit Enter button and it’s launched! Or, enter dot, and LaunchBar is waiting for you to enter www.* address. Type in some name, and it will find contact card — just press Enter and it will launch appropriate program to view it. Here’s a list of LaunchBar usage tips. Prefer different flavour? — try Quicksilver or Butler. Both are nice programs, with some different options and tastes. But my favorite still is LaunchBar. (Although I have to admit that the latest version of Butler is also very nice indeed.)
• MacGourmet – probably the best cooking software. Think of MacGourmet as “iTunes for Recipes”. Full screen recipe preview! After comparing several similar applications (like iCuistot or Organized Gourmet), I bought this one. Price: $25.
• Macintosh Explorer X – if you have recently switched from Windows and can’t live without Windows Explorer, then this is for you! Somehow I learned that I can live without it. 🙂 If you have nostalgia for Windows Explorer, set OS X Finder to icon view (press ⌘1 in Finder)then set label position (file names) at the right side of the icon (View menu > Show View Options — or just press ⌘J in Finder), reduce icon size there to the smallest possible size and presto! — you’ve got Windows Explorer list view in OS X Finder! Isn’t it cool? (And it’s only $16).
• MacJournal – Organize your thoughts. Create a personal journal with two level security (password protection and encryption), record daily ideas, manage To-Do’s and export them to multiple file formats, generate blogs to any of the popular blogging services or .Mac account. Even record audio and podcast! Somehow I can live without it… at least for now. Price: $35.
• Mac Family Tree – (MacStammbaum) offers all you would expect from a modern genealogy application, it has been completely re-developed from scratch by using the programming tools from Apple. With MacFamilyTree you can create in a fast and elegant manner, a general view of all relations and kinship and show it in impressive, graphical views. Simultaneously editing of several trees is no problem, nor is it to connect or merge several family tree files. Photos from iPhoto can be imported using Drag-and-Drop and the finished family tree, including the photos, is uploaded to your .Mac iDisk on the Internet with one click. Price: $50.
• Memory Usage Getter – check how much memory each application “eats”.
• NetworkLocation – adds a whole other dimension to using locations in Mac OS X. Leverage your existing network locations with powerful extras, like launching applications, changing default printer, changing default home page, changing outgoing mail server, or running scripts. With a single mouse click, you can set some of the most frequently changed settings you already manually set when you move your computer. Price: $15.Alternatives:1. LocationX – Location X brings the wildly popular Location Manager functionality from Mac OS 9 to Apple’s latest and greatest operating system, Mac OS X. Location X allows you to, with a single click, change network, time zone, email settings and more all at once. Price: $20.2. LocationChanger – automatically changes numerous settings in OS X based on location. Can reconfigure Mail, iChat, Volume, Printer, Privoxy, NFS, SMB, Skype and all proxy settings based on detected network environment. FREE.
• Organized Gourmet – Software for managing your recipe collection and scheduling meals. iCal and Entourage integration — send recipes to iCal or Entourage: includes the title, ingredients, and directions. Other features: .Mac sync, import recipes from websites, other applications, or text files; save shopping lists and recipes to your iPod; print out cook book (ie print group); units conversion; pre-loaded with 30 recipes; Universal binary. $15.
• PDF browser plugin – With PDF Browser Plugin you have all the the standard viewing options like continuous and facing pages available. You can zoom into documents to reveal details and – best of all – you can even split the document in half when you need to compare two different parts of it. Indispensable when you want to keep a look at figures or tables while you continue reading the text. Works well with Safari 2.0. schubert-it.com.
• Namely – Namely is possibly the fastest way to open applications. And unlike some other launchers, it doesn’t require any learning. You simply hit your preferred keyboard shortcut to show it and start typing part of an application’s name. It shows you a list of matches and narrows it down as you type. Most of the time, one or two letters are enough, especially since Namely learns your habits and makes your most-used apps even quicker to access. It’s basically Spotlight for applications, only much faster. Similar to LaunchBar or Quicksilver or Butler and the host of others, but it’s much faster, very small, very simple and it’s FREE.
• Path Finder ($35) – if you want something much more advanced than good old Finder, this is for you! Path Finder is an innovative file browser and manager with powerful tools. Designed from the ground up for maximum speed and Mac OS X integration, Path Finder has a gorgeous, accessible interface that you can customize to your heart’s content. Authors have put in their program almost every possible file management feature: file shelf for moving files to another place, integrated FTP, image preview, visual file paths, tabbed windows, StuffIt integration, slideshow, etc. Oh boy, they’ve worked really hard! 🙂
• Plain Clip – Plain Clip is a faceless application (no GUI) that removes text formatting from clipboard contents. It is ideally invoked using a Hot Key. For that purpoise you can use excellent Hot Key application Spark, which also is freeware.
• Plain Clip Plug – the same as above, except that it’s “faceless” plugin for Spark keystroke (shortcut) program. Spark is free keystroke utility which allows you to add user-defined shortcuts. This way, assign Option-Command-V to the Plain Clip Plug and your clipboard content will be pasted as plain text! Neat system-wide feature!
• Printer Setup Repair – printer Setup Repair is designed to rectify situations where the Printer Setup Utility will not open, printers cannot be added, and numerous other errors. Although Printer Setup Repair cannot fix every printing problem, it is capable of resolving most of the common ones. Printer Setup Repair can also be used to delete unwanted printer drivers, remove the build up of spool files, recreate the /tmp symbolic link, repair OS 9 permissions, verify and repair the system users (including root), backup and restore the entire printing system.
• PTHPasteboard (Pro) – the best and most mature multiple pasteboard program for OS X. Standard version (just multiple pasteboards or clipboards) is FREE, Pro version ($25) adds the ability to Sync Pasteboards across multiple machines and the ability to paste through Filters for easy and powerful text manipulations: Change capitals (all caps, all small, first letters capitals, etc.), Line sorting (alphabetical, numeral), Mac/Unix/Windows line ending conversion, Find/Replace filters, Paste as Plain Text, Smart/Straight quotes, Wrap/Unwrap lines, HTML entities encoding/decoding, etc. Filter grouping and keyboard shortcut assignment to these filters or filter groups. You can copy text into clipboard and paste through your custom-created filters something cempletely different. This utility should be installed on every Mac!
• QuickErase – a helpful utility for erasing a CD-RW or DVD±RW in the finder. Different from other erase utilities, it’s especially made to live in the icon-bar in the finder window.
• Quicksilver – very interesting program launcher. If you will enable some interface tweaks, it will look just gorgeous! Works similar to LaunchBar, but is more eye-candy. Can hide it’s icon in Dock, Finder and System menu, thus becoming completely “transparent”. I like it! (Currently beta, free).
• rootMachine – the all in one utility for having your Mac OS X™ 10.4 Tiger running nice and smooth. Imroved Interface combing a seperate window enabling you to batch select tasks you want to execute. Many new options to modify Spotlight™, Dashboard™, Finder™, Dock™… And the best thing is — rootMachine is for FREE (donation-ware).
• Saft – THE plugin for Safari browser. If you have Safari, this is a must! I can’t imagine my life without it. Block ads, pop-up windows, restore Safari open windows after Safari crash, sort bookmarks, add new/custom search engines to the Search field, etc. $12. Very nice review here.
• SecretBook – an encrypted personal information database for Mac OS X. It allows you to easily and safely store all those little bits of information like passwords and software licenses. Can have multiple password databases. AddressBook like user interface. Can group secrets into categories. Drag and drop reordering of secrets within groups. Spotlight integration. AppleScript support. Blowfish encryption (using libSSL). Secrets remain encrypted until they are viewed, data is not stored in clear text when not necessary. Many preferences allow customisation of features. Password generator can be customised to match password rules, gives rating of password. Timer hides visible password after preset delay. Clickable URL links. Can copy passwords directly from Dock menu. Optional Keychain login. Price is just $15. As alternative, you can check Steel.
• ShowVolumeFragmentation – Display details of all fragmented files on any available disk volume, unfragmented freespace and the hotfiles. SFV and hfsdebug will NOT change/modify your Volumes – it will only read the HFS+ structure! FREE.
• SmartWrap – SmartWrap™ analyzes your text, detects paragraphs and lists within your text, and rewraps your text so it wraps naturally within your document or message. SmartWrap™ comes in lots of varieties so it’s always available where you need it most. Has plug-ins for BBEdit (fits for TextWrangler too), MailSmith and Eudora; its System-Wide Service can wrap text inside almost any application… and if that doesn’t work, to a new window instead. $18.
• Spark – free keystroke (i.e. shortcut) utility which allows you to add user-defined shortcuts. For example, you can assing shortcut Ctrl-Option-Command-S to launch Safari browser, or Ctrl-Option-Command-W to launch Microsoft Word… You can choose any free keystroke and assing it to some program launch or closing, or control iTunes playback or sound volume — your choice.
• Spotless – Spotless is a simple utility designed to disable and enable Spotlight’s auto indexing of volumes with the click of a button. Spotless can detect mismatches between the Metadata Server indexing status and the index directories of volumes and offer options for correcting the mismatch. Spotless also detects and deletes the “mds-crash-state” file that can be created if the Metadata Server crashes during indexing. The presence of this file can prevent a volume from being indexed. Check the size of your indexes with ease.
• StartupSound.prefPane – This software enables you to control the volume of the startup sound (chime) of your Macintosh computer from Mac OS X System Preferences. Free.
• SuperDuper! – SuperDuper is the most advanced, yet easy to use disk copying program available for OS X. It can, of course, make a straight copy, or “clone” — useful when you want to move all your data from one machine to another, or do a simple backup. Whether you’re making a full backup to a disk image, using Smart Update to update an existing backup, or making a complex clone to test a software update, the process couldn’t be simpler: select the source drive, the destination and the appropriate script. Click “Start Copying”, and SuperDuper does the rest. And that for $19.95. Cheap? You bet!
• TextExpander by Smile On My Mac – utility that helps you type more efficiently and more accurately. TextExpander listens to what you type and inserts predefined text snippets on the fly whenever you enter their corresponding abbreviations. Insert standard greetings, text fragments, and signatures — including formatted text and pictures. Insert the current date and time in any format you prefer. Use editor-independent code templates and have TextExpander positions the cursor just where it needs to be. Type special characters without having to launch any special characters palette.
• TextSoap by Unmarked Software – makes it easy to clean out the annoying forwarding marks, invisible characters, and formatting that you often find in email and long documents. My favorite for cleaning and preparing email messages for posting on the web. You can create your own custom filters and scrubs. Yours for $25.
• Toast Titanium by Roxio – probably the best CD & DVD burning solution for the Mac. Burn large files across multiple discs. Copy your audio CDs, movies and DVDs. Add over 50 hours of music to an audio DVD with on-screen TV menus, shuffle play, and rich Dolby Digital sound. Turn DivX files into DVDs. Create stunning multi-image HD slideshows with collages, motion effects, titles and background soundtracks. Enjoy HD playback in your living room today! Do it all with the easiest, fastest, and most-reliable CD and DVD burning software for the Mac – Toast. $100. It’s worth this money. The only drawback is its inability to create ISO disc image files… But if you can’t afford it, I can suggest you DiscBlaze for $30. (Scroll up)
• VoodooPad (Lite and Pro) – a garden for your thoughts. Plant ideas, images, lists and anything else you need to keep track of. Type in notes, highlight important words or phrases and create new pages or split existing ones. Drag and drop folders, images, applications, or URLs into VoodooPad — they’re linked up just like on the web. Even has it’s own web server to share your notesove rthe LAN, if you wish so. With powerful search, nothing will be lost or out of reach. Has the ability to encrypt every single bit in your document. Stuff gigabytes of data inside a VoodooPad document, it won’t mind. A new file format makes saving documents super quick as well. Lite is $30 and Pro is $50.
• Yasu – Run various system level Unix shell scripts in order to perform maintenance routines and clear the various cache files used by OS X. Yasu is designed to be a simple maintenance utility. Run cron scipts, repair permissions, update prebindings, purge cache files, clear log files, etc. Options to choose just the necessary tasks. Free. A must-have for all Macintosh users! I mean it seriously. (Or you can try this Automator’s Maintenance action, although I think that Yasu offers more and is easier to use).
• XShelf – enhances drag and drop in Mac OS X by letting you “pause” drag and drop operations, as well as have multiple drag and drop operations in flight at once. You can drag files or folders from Finder into the shelf and they will sit there until you drag them out. Once you drag them out, the drag operation will finish as if XShelf were never involved. You may drag individual or multiple files or folders, as well as text clippings and URLs to XShelf. With XShelf, you no longer have to shuffle windows so that both the source and target of a drag and drop are onscreen at the same time. XShelf can be run in 2 different ways; it can be a free floating window or attached to an edge of the screen. If a free-floating window, it can be horizontal or vertical, and you may choose to have it float above all other windows, or act as a normal window. And the best thing is it’s free of charge! 🙂
• Radical Breeze – lots of nice little utilities and applications! Too many to count them here. Take a look at their web site. You won’t regret.
Web Authoring:
• BBEdit & TextWrangler – in my opinion not as good as skEdit for PHP, but then again – it never crashes… BBEdit is $120, while TextWrangler is freeware. Try TextWrangler first — I install it on every Mac — it’s very good plain text editor.
• CocoaMySQL – wow! MySQL frontend with style! Edit MySQL tables as they were Excel spreadsheets!
• Coda – for me this is winner application of year 2007! Coda is a one-window web development. Coda takes all of the tools you need to build the future of the web, including an integrated file browser, fully-featured text editor (SubEthaEdit engine!), CSS editor, preview, built-in terminal, and complete set of reference, and wraps it all in a single elegant interface. Panic has made no secret of the fact that they’re deliberately keeping each of Coda’s modules fairly lightweight. The text editor isn’t as full-featured as BBEdit, and the FTP client doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Transmit. Coda’s main selling point is the integration of all these features. And that makes it fantastic! About $90.
• CSSEdit – edit CSS with the style! Live preview. Expensive for such a small utility, but really good… I like it!
• Ecto – front-end for local web-log (blog) editing and uploading to the blogging programs, such as WordPress (see below!). Currently the only thing it lacks is HTML table support. These pages are blogged with Ecto. Very quick response and good tech support from the developers. It costs only $17. Highly recommended!
• Galerie – create HTML photo galleries from iPhoto library in an instant!
• MAMP – Apache, MySQL and PHP all in one package. No installation needed. Just drop in Applications folder and your are ready to go! My favorite.
• Paparazzi! – a small utility for Mac OSX that makes screenshots of webpages, even if the whole page doesn’t fit into your browser’s window, or on your screen. Save as JPG (you can even adjust image quality!), PNG, TIFF or PDF (not divided into several pages, but as one long page). May be used by the web designers to check out how the given page will look on different size monitors. Free.
• PHP Studio – new software for PHP development from Neometric Software. Still lots of things to do, but very promising beginning! Give it a try!
• RapidWeaver – easy way to create web pages without knowing HTML! Similar to iWeb, but goes way further. $80.
• skEdit – Good HTML/PHP editor. Sometimes crashes… $25.
• Smultron Some of its features are line numbers, support for syntax colouring for many different languages, functions list, support for text encodings, snippets, a toolbar, a status bar, HTML preview, split window, multi-document find and replace with regular expressions, etc. (Free)
• TextWrangler – Try TextWrangler — it’s very good plain text editor. I install it on every Mac. FREE. And if you outgrow it, reach for BBEdit! 🙂
• WordPress – free PHP/MySQL blogging software pack. If you have MySQL server and PHP support, this is the way to go! It supports remote editing and upload, uploads by e-mail or even SMS. These pages are created by the WordPress back-end engine. Works nicely with Ecto or MarsEdit. For offline blog writing and posting as a front-end engine I prefer Ecto — it’s more advanced than MarsEdit at the time of this review. And it’s cheaper too.Here’s link to some other web editors for Mac:http://www.pure-mac.com/webed.html.
Widgets for Dashboard
• emitSMS – Write text messages in dashboard, send through your mobile phone using Bluetooth. Works with most Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson and others. FREE.
• iStat Pro – the ultimate System monitoring widget, consisting of 9 sections which can be minimized, expanded or closed. It features detailed information on CPU, memory, hard drives, IP and external IP, bandwidth, CPU temperature, battery, uptime, temperatures and fans. You’ll know exactly what’s going on inside your Mac! Free.
• NetStat – Allows you to view your IP address and external IP address, as well as the amount of data transfered for each active network interface. Free.
• Sol – a Dashboard widget that tells you what time sunrise and sunset are, as well as dawn and dusk. (Very useful for Adventists and Jews!) Free.
• Swatch .beats – This widget displays the actual “Internet Time” in “swatch .beats” on its front. On its backside, any given time can be converted to “swatch .beats” and vice versa.
• Dashboard Widget download page
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