Mac Apps

I’ve been using OS X since 2001 and am often asked what applications I have installed. This page doesn’t have an exhaustive list of the apps I have, but it has the ones I use regularly, or perhaps use sparingly, but am really happy I have when I need them.

Two good places to look for applications are MacUpdate.com and VersionTracker.com. I prefer MacUpdate, but that’s just personal preference. Both sites have very large collections of apps that can be easily searched for using a keyword or two. They also offer subscriptions so that you can be notified of updates.

I’ve created several categories below, and within each category, the apps are listed alphabetically. Some are freeware and some are shareware. Many, but not all, of the links below are to pages on MacUpdate. This is so you can read some of the reviews, which are sometimes useful and sometimes offer alternatives that you might want to investigate. Every page on MacUpdate has a “More Information” link which will take you to the application’s real web site.

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Development-Related

Aqua Data Studio - Excellent SQL access, but very pricey for the pay version. I’m not a Database Administrator, but I know DBA’s who use and like this app. An alternative is DBSolo, which I only briefly played with. But it seems promising, and is less expensive than Aqua Data Studio.

Changes - Excellent diff/merge tool.

Coda - All-in-one web site editing tool from the cool folks at panic.com.

CVL - GUI for CVS.

ManOpen - GUI for Unix man pages.

TextMate - Excellent text editor.

TextWrangler - Although I like TextMate better for general editing, TW has two features that TM doesn’t: (1) File/folder diff’ing; (2) The ability to easily change line endings, which is absolutely necessary when you copy a Windows document onto your machine that has CRLF line endings and you need to convert them into LF line endings so you can check it into a repository (SVN, CVS, etc) and not end up with blank lines on every other line.

Versions - Very nice GUI for Subversion.

Cornerstone - An alternative to Versions which has some cool features and has some real promise, but as of August 2008 v1.0.3, it’s a little slow when dealing large repositories and some basic functions (like viewing a file’s history of log messages) is somewhat cumbersome.

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Audio/Video

Audio Hijack Pro - Record audio from any app.

Flip4Mac - Plays Windows media files (wmv) on your Mac. The link above is the free player from Microsoft. If you want more features, go to the Flip4Mac site.

Graphic Converter X - Image manipulation app. If you’re really into photography, you’ll probably want Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightbox, or Apple’s Aperture, none of which I know much about.

Handbrake - Easy to use DVD ripper.

Snapz Pro X - Screenshot / Movie grabber. Two alternatives that I haven’t tried are: Screenflow and iShowU.

VisualHub - Video conversion/compression tool. The free version is iSquint, but I like VH better. An alternative that I haven’t tried is Stomp.

VLC - Media Player for files that QuickTime or Flip4Mac can’t play. I don’t have this installed anymore because I use VisualHub to convert other video types into a format playable by QuickTime.

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Words

iWork - Apple’s word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation applications.

MacJournal - Journals, etc. I save lots of pieces of information using this app.

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Web/Network

AdiumX - Multi-service, skinnable, instant messaging client (uses the GAIM library). I use Apple’s iChat for video chatting and Adium for text chatting.

AlmostVPN - An excellent ssh tunnel management (and more) preference pane. I use it to open ssh tunnels to my mail server allowing me to send and receive emails securely.

Camino - Alternative web browser from the Mozilla (Firefox) folks. More “mac-like” than Firefox, but without all the plugins. My default browser is Safari, but if a site doesn’t work (well) in Safari, then it most likely will in Camino.

Little Snitch - Outbound connection monitor/firewall (must have!).

Remote Desktop Connection - Microsoft’s client for Terminal Services access.

Safari Block - Ad blocking for Safari.

Shimo - Unobtrusive menubar access to Cisco’s VPN Client.

Sogudi - Safari extension that allows you to search various sites directly from the URL input field in Safari.

Transmission - Bit Torrent client.

Transmit - FTP client. Also from the cool folks at panic.com.

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Utilities

1Password - Password management app. More useful if you have multiple Macs, but still useful even if you only have one.

iPulse - System monitor tool. Takes a little getting used to, but it’s extremely powerful and useful. I don’t care for the default “jacket”, but there are a lot of choices to replace it with. I prefer this one.

LaunchBar - Keyboard-based app launcher and more.

Lingon - GUI interface for accessing OS X’s launchd utility (like cron, only easier/better).

Little Snitch - Outbound connection monitor/firewall (must have!).

Macaroni - Automated maintenance. Especially good for laptops where cron jobs don’t always run because the laptop sleeps during normal cron job times.

Magic Number Machine - Nice calculator.

MenuCalendarClock - Replacement for default Mac clock.

Meteorologist - Menubar-based weather app.

Path Finder - Replacement/Adjunct for Apple’s Finder. I don’t use it to replace the Finder, but I do use PF more than the Finder.

RC Default App - Default app (and more) configuration tool as a preference pane.

Springy - Better file archiver than the overpriced and buggy Stuffit.

SuperDuper - Backup/Cloning program. Allows you to create a bootable (if you want) backup of your entire system.

WindowShade - Cool “haxie” that allows you to instantly turn a window transparent to see what’s underneath it, with many other options as well.