That new Macintosh that you have is probably looking lonely without
its fair share of applications. At some point we all get a new computer
and, if it’s a Mac, it will come bare-boned and ready for all types of
applications to suit your needs and pleasures. The applications that I
name off today can mostly be found in the Mac App Store, which is
available on computers running Snow Leopard and Lion.
These solutions have been polled from the greater
Gnomies community.
Some of the utilities and applications provided today are free and some
are paid; if they are paid, I consider them worth the small investment
Productivity
TextWrangler:
If you code anything or are looking for something advanced like
Notepad++ on Windows, than TextWrangler is your equivalent. Being free
in the Mac App Store, TextWrangler is highly customizable and can help
you code in any language from ASP to XHTML.
Sparrow: If you’re a fan of a simplified layout of your mail, like the Lion design of the Mail app, check out Sparrow. With both a
free
and paid version, Sparrow is in modular with separate columns for your
mailboxes, messages, and message content. Its got a very slick layout
with simple layout of buttons and customizability. Sparrow can even
connect with Facebook to align names with pictures and Dropbox to attach
files.
Dropbox:
One of my very favorite applications for sharing documents and other
files between multiple places is Dropbox. You start out with a massive 2
GB of space that’s enough for pictures and videos to be stored with
documents and other data. Not only on OS X, but all desktop and mobile
platforms, Dropbox can sync and view almost every document from any
location where it can be accessed.
CyberDuck:
If you’re looking for a super simple client to access FTP or SFTP,
CyberDuck is for you. It’s lightweight and easy to navigate and
configure for any transferring that you need to do. For more advanced
users it can also access Google Docs, Amazon S3, Rackspack Cloud Files,
Google Cloud Storage, and more.
Internet
Google Chrome:
I’m not a fan of Internet Explorer, and it’s a safe bet that you might
not be, either, if you were to look into alternative browser options
that are out there. One of my favorites is Google Chrome — it’s both
fast and lightweight. It’s very expandable with extensions and can sync
across computers if you have a connected Google Account. Google Chrome
is a fast growing browser and is making leaps and bounds over the
competition. Based on the open source project of Chromium, it’s being
actively developed and stays up to date for avoiding all the nasty
browser bugs out there.
Adium:
Let’s face it, you probably have multiple instant messenger accounts.
An easy way to manage all that with a clean interface is Adium; it’s a
great IM tool that lets you connect multiple accounts — even IRC — and
manage your instant message life. With access to a wide array of
extensions to customize the experience and appearance, you can turn
Adium into the ultimate IM machine.
Twitter:
Twitter is a very active social network with messages streaming in by
the second on everything from friend updates to the latest news
depending on who you follow. Twitter has a native desktop application
for Twitter that is a simple single column with tabs on the side to
manage multiple accounts and all of your messages in a lightweight
client that can sit on your desktop.
Colloquy:
IRC is still alive and popular these days. The big question is always
what the best IRC client is. Our recommendation for a long time has
alway been Colloquy; it’s free and very easy to use to connect to IRC
servers and get chatting away. For the user who doesn’t mind paying a
little bit, there is Linkinus in the Mac App Store, which is the top
paid IRC client.
Skype:
Even though Microsoft bought Skype, the application is still pretty
slick with Facebook integration and is a must for easily video or voice
chatting with people over an Internet connection. The application is
free for you to voice chat with a group of people without limitation. If
you want to video chat with a group of people, however, you’ll have to
pay for that service. For most mainstream users, the base Skype system
is fine. There’s also the ability to add in your own phone number to the
service and the ability to call landlines with Skype Credit.
Utilities
The Unarchiver:
The native extraction utility in OS X is nice, but it just doesn’t do
as good of a job as The Unarchiver. The Unarchiver provides more
compatibility with extensions ranging from RAR to ISO files, and much
more. The application also has a variety of great features to customize
what happens with the archived folder and when it is extracted. It’s
fast and very user-friendly, which is a must have for files that need
extracting.
Cloud:
I find myself constantly sharing screenshots to friends and clients
needing a simple update on their website design. Combined with the
built-in screen shot utility for OS X, Cloud can take those screen shots
and upload them to the site, giving you an easy-to-share link to that
screen shot.
TeamViewer:
Not just for Windows but OS X, too, if you need to access another
computer or provide tech support to your friends and family, TeamViewer
will do just that. It’s free if you’re using it for non-commercial
purposes. If you’re looking for a more professional route, check out
GoToAssist, which provides the most features and one-click URLs that
allows you instant access to remote computers for support.
Alfred:
Sometimes the finder toolbar isn’t enough for finding what you want,
and that’s where Alfred comes in. it’s an application that hides itself
in the background until you call it up. It gives you all the access that
the finder bar gives you, but a lot more. If you quickly need to go to a
Web address but won’t be bothered to bring up an entire browser, then
you can type in the address to the Alfred bar and it’ll pull up your
browser client for you and input the address. It has those features and a
lot more to check out. If you’re looking for an alternative to Alfred,
check out QuickSilver, which is almost as good.
Growl:
If you work within multiple applications, chances are they are enabled
for Growl notifications. These are simple notifications that pop up on
your desktop to alert you of statuses like someone initiating an IM
session with you or the changing of a song in iTunes. It has long been a
popular application to install right away; recently it updated and
became a part of the App Store. Now you can get it for a small fee,
which helps the developer out for creating a better product. If you want
an older version for free, though, it’s available on Growl’s website.
Media
VLC:
One of the most popular media players out there is VLC because, let’s
face it, QuickTime isn’t the best at playing multiple file formats and
has many compatibility issues with file formats. VLC comes packed with
all the codecs you could ever need to play any video or audio file out
there. VLC also leaves a lighter footprint on your Mac than QuickTime
and won’t cause it to crash as much. Besides compatibility, it’s also
customizable for that perfect home theater computer, as well.
Perian:
If you just love QuickTime and won’t change it for another client,
check out Perian. It’s a code pack that sits in your preferences panel
and gives you access to a wide range of codes that enable QuickTime to
play any file — just like VLC.
Picasa:
Who doesn’t take pictures these days? One of the biggest problems with
taking a lot of pictures is organizing them. Picasa has proven time and
time again that it can handle all of your pictures and manage them in
organized folders and even upload them to sites like Facebook and
Flickr. For the best management of your pictures from your camera, check
out Picasa and all its abilities.
SoundFlower:
Sometimes you need to reroute audio from one application into another,
and that’s where SoundFlower comes in to virtualize an audio source. For
example, if you like streaming your gameplay to a website, you can
reroute the audio from the game into SoundFlower and then use it as the
input setting on the streaming client to send audio to it.
Conclusion
This is just a small portion of the vast amount of applications that
are out there to download to your new Mac to make it useful. Obviously,
for every situation there are different apps that can be used and
downloaded to conform to what you like to do. Let us know in the
comments what you use on your Mac!
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