Essential Mac Applications

In my daily life there are applications or utilities that I simply cannot live without. Be it on the Mac or iPhone they make my day what it can be. This list focuses on the Mac side, these apps have the appearance of seamless integration into the OS and my user experience.

The list contains items everyone should at least try if not buy and is not in any particular order.

  1. Quicksilver
    If you are not using QS, I hope it is because you are using LaunchBar, that is the only excuse for not being a Quicksilver User. QS is an application launcher, system catalog, shortcut manager super automation wizard.
    The tagline for Quicksilver is "Act without doing" and after a few days of use, it fades into your workflow.

  2. Dropbox
    Dropbox helps me keep things in order by allowing me to sync items across multiple systems (Macs, iPhone, Windows). Its a super easy to set up and use, cross platform, online storage, and synchronization tool. One of my favorite ways to use Dropbox is to create symbolic links from Dropbox to each computer to keep application settings in sync.
    Example ln -s ~/Username/Library/Application\ Support/MarsEdit ~/Username/Dropbox/Library/Application\ Support

  3. 1Password
    1Password allows me to remain sane while maintaining hundreds of online accounts. What used to be a simple password manager has evolved with the release of version 3. It manages my logins, identities, software licenses, secure notes and can manage my wallet by storing my credit cards.
    There are 2 features I use most of all, the logins and the licenses. It integrates very well into most browsers and with a simple right click I can login or create a strong password for a site. The companion 1Password Touch Pro

  4. Growl
    Growl keeps me informed when I don't want to look away from my current application. The little pop over windows inform me of new mail, the current iTunes track, the latest tweets, incoming IM messages and so on.
    It simply works!

  5. TextEdit
    I use many text editors; Text Wrangler, WriteRoom, BBEdit, Evernote, Word, Pages, Coda, but only one dominates. I use the built in TextEdit program for almost anything. I write most everything in a simple text editor and migrate it to where ever it should live. I have the shortcut of TE assigned to it in Quicksilver for quick launch.

  6. Typinator
    The sheer time saving accomplished using Typinator is countless. I use it to correct common misspellings, expand long text strings, insert html and css, and shortcuts for just about anything. I want Typinator for life.

  7. Jumpcut
    Jumpcut is a clipboard manager that can store up to 100 of the latest copied items and easily allow the user to paste them with a configurable keyboard command.

  8. Tweetie
    I just love Tweetie, it is elegant, simple and usable. Does it make me more productive? No, not at all. It still makes my day more enjoyable.

  9. Coda/Transmit
    Coda and Transmit from Panic, Inc are tools I use for creating and managing web content. Coda is at it's core a text editor with syntax highlighting, but also allows for preview, direct CSS editing and reference book access. It also can be used for file transfers, but I fall back to Transmit for that. It is the best FTP/sFTP and more client I've ever used. The days I bought these brought me joy, felt great to own such great software.

  10. Teleport
    Teleport is an amazing little utility simply allows you to use a single mouse and keyboard to control all of your computers. This is not VNC or Remote desktop. Think of it as a virtual KVM Switch.

There are dozens of other applications I could include, but the list would go on forever. Here are some others I use regularly The OnmiSuite, MarsEdit, Pukka, iStatMenus, Chax, Flickr Export, Parallels, Fluid, GreaseKit and oh I could go on and on.