Mac Software
Dec 23 2008 06:15 PM Filed in: Apple
There are a lot of people at my place of employment
that are joining the world of Apple, and they often
ask me what application I use to do such-and-such. I
figured I would go through the applications I have
installed on my Mac and tell a little about them,
that way they can see what I use.
Utility Applications
Growl is a notification system for Mac OS X. It lets applications send you notifications. You know those annoying little balloon pop-up windows that come from the task bar in Windows, letting you know stuff like wireless networks are available, or your Exchange e-mail isn’t working; growl is something along those lines, but a lot nicer looking, and less obtrusive. Price: Free.
Screenshot
IStat Menus is an application for those computer geeks that like to know what’s going on with their system. It lets you add up to 8 separate menus to your menu bar. These menus will tell you about your CPU and Memory, Network Traffic, Fan Speed, Hard Drive, Temperature, etc. Price: Free (donations encouraged).
Screenshot
Hazel is one of those applications I got as part of a software bundle that runs every so often. When I first installed it, I didn’t really think much of it, but the more I used it, the more I saw its worth. Hazel lets you set rules on folders to take certain actions. For example, it comes with built in rules for your Downloads folder. If the file you download is a music file, after the file download is complete, the file will be moved from your Downloads folder, to your Music folder in your home directory. Same goes for Movies. Hazel will also monitor your trash can and automatically empty it after a file has been in there for a certain amount of time. Hazel will apply colors to the labels of folders, if there are files in it you haven’t accessed in a while. Price: $21.95.
Screenshot
Default Folder X is a great application that makes the Mac OS X save and open dialogs easy and fast to work with. It’s hard to explain what Default Folder X has to offer, so if you want to know more visit the website. Price: $34.95
Screenshot
Perian is called the swiss-army knife for Quicktime. It’s a free, open source Quicktime component that adds native support for many popular video formats. What that boils down to is Perian lets you use Quicktime to play videos other than the ones natively supported by Quicktime. This is handy when you don’t want to have multiple media players on your computer to handle all of the different video formats out there. Price: Free.
Caffeine is a simple application that stops your Mac from going to sleep. Don’t you hate it when you are on your Mac and in the middle of reading something, or perhaps giving a presentation, and the screen dims because you haven’t typed or moved the mouse? Caffeine will stop the screen from dimming and keep the Mac from going to sleep. Price: Free.
1Password is a password manager and automatic form filler. With all of the web sites out there that request for you to sign in, it’s pretty much necessary to have a password manager these days to keep track of it all. 1Password is nice because it will not only store your password, but can also generate a password for you. 1Password will also integrate itself into your browser, and automatically fill in the information for you when you visit a site. Price: $39.95.
Speed Download is a download manager. Download managers keep track of all your downloads, and will let you resume a download later, if for some reason your download doesn’t complete. Speed Download 5 is spectacular and worth the money. Price: $25.00.
Screenshot
Fetch is an easy to use FTP and SFTP client. While there are free FTP clients for the Mac, Fetch is the first FTP client I’ve used that doesn’t have a crowded, hard to use interface. Fetch has all its functionality in one simple window. Price: $25.00.
Screenshot
That’s enough for now, I will post about more applications in another post at a later time.
Utility Applications
Growl is a notification system for Mac OS X. It lets applications send you notifications. You know those annoying little balloon pop-up windows that come from the task bar in Windows, letting you know stuff like wireless networks are available, or your Exchange e-mail isn’t working; growl is something along those lines, but a lot nicer looking, and less obtrusive. Price: Free.
Screenshot
IStat Menus is an application for those computer geeks that like to know what’s going on with their system. It lets you add up to 8 separate menus to your menu bar. These menus will tell you about your CPU and Memory, Network Traffic, Fan Speed, Hard Drive, Temperature, etc. Price: Free (donations encouraged).
Screenshot
Hazel is one of those applications I got as part of a software bundle that runs every so often. When I first installed it, I didn’t really think much of it, but the more I used it, the more I saw its worth. Hazel lets you set rules on folders to take certain actions. For example, it comes with built in rules for your Downloads folder. If the file you download is a music file, after the file download is complete, the file will be moved from your Downloads folder, to your Music folder in your home directory. Same goes for Movies. Hazel will also monitor your trash can and automatically empty it after a file has been in there for a certain amount of time. Hazel will apply colors to the labels of folders, if there are files in it you haven’t accessed in a while. Price: $21.95.
Screenshot
Default Folder X is a great application that makes the Mac OS X save and open dialogs easy and fast to work with. It’s hard to explain what Default Folder X has to offer, so if you want to know more visit the website. Price: $34.95
Screenshot
Perian is called the swiss-army knife for Quicktime. It’s a free, open source Quicktime component that adds native support for many popular video formats. What that boils down to is Perian lets you use Quicktime to play videos other than the ones natively supported by Quicktime. This is handy when you don’t want to have multiple media players on your computer to handle all of the different video formats out there. Price: Free.
Caffeine is a simple application that stops your Mac from going to sleep. Don’t you hate it when you are on your Mac and in the middle of reading something, or perhaps giving a presentation, and the screen dims because you haven’t typed or moved the mouse? Caffeine will stop the screen from dimming and keep the Mac from going to sleep. Price: Free.
1Password is a password manager and automatic form filler. With all of the web sites out there that request for you to sign in, it’s pretty much necessary to have a password manager these days to keep track of it all. 1Password is nice because it will not only store your password, but can also generate a password for you. 1Password will also integrate itself into your browser, and automatically fill in the information for you when you visit a site. Price: $39.95.
Speed Download is a download manager. Download managers keep track of all your downloads, and will let you resume a download later, if for some reason your download doesn’t complete. Speed Download 5 is spectacular and worth the money. Price: $25.00.
Screenshot
Fetch is an easy to use FTP and SFTP client. While there are free FTP clients for the Mac, Fetch is the first FTP client I’ve used that doesn’t have a crowded, hard to use interface. Fetch has all its functionality in one simple window. Price: $25.00.
Screenshot
That’s enough for now, I will post about more applications in another post at a later time.
|