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Christopher S. Penn's Awaken Your Superhero
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Tools I use on my Mac

Started by Christopher S. Penn · 10 months ago

Whitney just got a new MacBook Pro and is wondering what cool stuff I recommend. Being an avid Mac user, I offer the following list. Items marked with a ($) are not free.
AdiumX - nice multi-protocol chat
Audacity - great editor for audio
Audio Hijack Pro ($) - record Skype calls ... Continue reading »

31 comments

  • Whitney

    2 years ago

    One of the reasons I am such a big Chris Penn fan is that not only does he come to the rescue with great advice, he shares with everyone. Thanks again Chris! It's going to be a busy and fun time getting this new member of the family "tricked out".

    Whit
    reply
  • Dale Cruse

    2 years ago

    Good list, Chris. A few additions/suggestions:

    For FTP, Cyberduck is good, but IMO you can't beat Transmit.

    If you like Ecto, try Mars Edit as well.

    One of the most useful apps ever is xPad. I save text documents to my iPod and then go shopping. Kicks serious butt.

    And if you do web development, Xyle scope rocks the house.
    reply
  • Justin Kownacki

    2 years ago

    Per your suggestion, I've just downloaded Levelator. I currently use Soundtrack Pro, but I'm always open to new possibilities.

    And yes, I'm a Cyberduck fan too.
    reply
  • Eric Skiff

    2 years ago

    Awesome list - I'm definitely going to be checking some of these that I hadn't heard of out.

    The one thing I'm surprised is missing from your list is quicksilver. I closed it by accident the other day, and I was nearly lost. Launching and switching to applications is clunky without it, and there's so much more you can do with it if you're willing to dig a bit into the documentation or have someone to show you the ropes :)
    reply
  • Christopher S. Penn

    2 years ago

    I've tried QuickSilver a few times, and I've always found it to be more work than the task I was trying to accomplish in the first place.
    reply
  • Daniel Ho

    2 years ago

    I like:

    Tangerine $- figures out the beats per minute of my iTunes library so that I can make playlists for workouts easily.

    Cyberduck - my choice as well. It works and it is free.

    PocketMac - Syncs the Mac with Blackberry

    Parallels $ - Great for running Windows or any other operating system that you want to test. Our accounting software ONLY runs in Windows and I sometimes do testing with Internet Explorer.

    SuperDuper $ - I use this to backup the internal drives to external firewire drives

    SSH Tunnel Manager - I connect to a lot of different systems and can't remember what the tunnel is that I'm trying to create sometimes. I used to keep a text file of the commands, but now I just use SSH Tunnel Manager. Once set up, it is also great for people that couldn't string together a unix command to save their lives. Yes, I live with one.


    This is all well and good, but this is something that flew right under my radar. I want it!

    http://www.axiotron.com/
    reply
  • Julian Hebbrecht

    2 years ago

    One of the Mac applications I love most is Graphic Converter. It not only opens images in any known format but is also great for slide shows. That it NEVER crashes is also a great plus.
    Another one is Paparazzi that takes pictures of webpages and downloads them in JPG format.
    A third one is AppleWorks - especially the drawing module that allows me to move text boxes and images around freely over the page to create the exact page layout I want - something that word processors don't allow. Wouldn't know what to do without it.
    reply
  • gecko

    2 years ago

    One tool I use every day on my Mac (as a Manadarin major) is a simple, yet INCREDIBLY powerful vocabulary builder called ProVoc. This program is a definite must see for anyone learning a language. You can build your own dictionary of words (in any language you please, you just have to add it to the list), as well as download premade ones. You can also design your own quizzes and have weekly or even daily reports made out showing how well you do on your own quizzes- in order to hopefully see some improvement, or learn which way is fastest for you to learn effectively. The method by which you add new words is streamlined well enough to make the task of adding 10 or 1000 new works easy and practically fun! As a student of Russian, Latin, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish, I really wish I had known about this application earlier. It would have saved me countless hours of writing words and characters on flash cards.

    The application is free (but not under GPL to my knowledge) at: http://www.arizone-software.ch under the applications menu on the left.
    reply
  • gecko

    2 years ago

    I'm sorry, I mistyped that link. The correct link is http://www.arizona-software.ch

    Please excuse me.
    reply
  • COLORADO BOB

    2 years ago

    Chris .... One I've really been using that's not a Mac item is Stumble Upon. It's how I got here.
    Julian .... Graphics Converter - Ditto
    Gif Fun is a great little program from Stone :

    http://www.stone.com/
    reply
  • Ricky

    2 years ago

    I have to get on the GraphicConverter bandwagon too. It's the single best Photoshop clone ever. I've been using it for...well, since the '90s. And yes, BBEdit is the best text editor ever, but it's also the best HTML editor.
    reply
  • Peatmoss

    2 years ago

    StumbleUpon is how I found this too, really cool little add-on http://www.stumbleupon.com/
    Transmit is a very nice FTP program
    reply
  • Amy

    2 years ago

    Cyberduck fan here too.

    I like a tool called VoodooPad, which is a sort of mash up between a desktop wiki and a text editor.
    reply
  • yolantevonscheußlich

    2 years ago

    SuperDuper is as it says, hands down the most usful and it-life-enhancing app for me .

    recently i came upon SafariStand
    which i use mainly for the session restore funktion.

    http://hetima.com/safari/stand-e.html
    reply
  • Jimi

    1 year ago

    Hello, i'm looking to try QuickSpace X, that is in your list, but the developers site don't work.
    Do you have some notice? It's possible to download it from some other site?

    TIA
    Jimi
    reply
  • Cearum

    1 year ago

    I like to use apatana for my web development. It has a nice interface (in my opinion) plus it features a nice ftp upload/download for files. It's essentially a dreamweaver replacement. It's great for RoR development as well.
    reply
  • Jeff Glasson

    1 year ago

    I highly recommend checking out Skitch - excellent program for quick image capture/manipulation/sharing.

    Watch the demo video and you'll be sold (even though its free)!

    http://plasq.com/skitch

    -Jeff
    reply
  • Enkerli

    1 year ago

    OmniOutliner (an outlining program) is one reason I missed the Mac so much during the dark days of my life as an XP user. The Omni Group's other productivity apps might be even better for some people (OmniFocus, OmniPlan, OmniGraffle). They will release OmniFocus for Touch devices (iPhone, iPod touch), which might make it a dream come true for many people.
    reply
  • Mary N

    1 year ago

    One of the programs I can't live without, as an Instructional designer/help desk for faculty is Skitch. Great for quick screen captures when trying to solve a problem long distance.

    It's from Plasq http://skitch.com/

    Another Plasq product that I love to use for creating training is Comic Life $
    reply
  • AdPuppet

    1 year ago

    Here are some more for the list!

    Appzapper $ (http://www.appzapper.com) - gets rid of preferences and other files installed on your computer from programs

    Little Snitch $ (http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index...) - wonderful traffic monitor for seeing what apps are trying to phone home and shutting them down!

    OnyX (http://www.titanium.free.fr/) - Mac maintenance made easy

    Screenflow $ (http://www.varasoftware.com/screenflow) - easy to use, powerful screencasting client

    iStat series...program or widget (http://www.islayer.com/) - your Mac stats at a glance!
    reply
  • TechNomad

    1 year ago

    I find that I use xPad almost everyday. Mostly to take notes, but occasionally I'll start drafts of longer documents in xPad before I move them into a 'formatting' program. It's small, lightweight and easy to use without a lot of superfluous functionality.

    http://getxpad.com/
    reply
  • Michelle/chelpixie

    1 year ago

    Don't forget Yojimbo. If you need a quick place to jot stuff down and keep it organized in one place. This is the organizer that rocks. Notes, passwords, bookmarks, photos and web pages. Save with a couple of keystokes in one program and you're done.
    reply
  • Sam J.

    1 year ago

    Shocked you prefer BBEdit to Textmate (macromates.com)!

    Also really do use QuickSilver every day.

    And I'm a HUGE fan of the Omni family.
    reply
  • Joe Pikin

    1 year ago

    Gotta add one for yojimbo!
    Omnifocus, Omnigraffle, OmniOutliner
    i've also been digging bluephone elite
    reply
  • Hieronymus Murphy

    1 year ago

    Two apps I really like are PopChar X (http://www.ergonis.com/products/popcharx/), which makes things like tildes and umlauts very, very easy to insert in text (no more remembering key combinations); and Style Master (http://www.westciv.com/), a CSS coding app that comes with an amazing array of how-to lessons, templates and documentation.

    While neither app is free, I think they're worth every single penny.
    reply
  • David Beaudouin

    1 year ago

    Came to the party late, but thanks for this amazing list. Agree with Joe--OminOutliner is a must for me.
    reply
  • Eric Blair

    1 year ago

    Here are two I haven't seen listed and are among the first things I install on a new Mac.

    SpamSieve - best anti-spam software I've used, works across multiple email clients.
    Launchbar - shortcut-based app launcher and switcher, among other functionality
    reply
  • Dan York

    1 year ago

    Chris,

    Just found your great list through a tweet. I use many of the tools you list and will have to check out some of the others. The two not on your list that I use pretty much every day are:

    - MarsEdit ($) http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/ for blogging. I tried both MarsEdit and ecto and found that I really liked MarsEdit better, especially with it's easy handling/insertion of images/media through a "library" feature. Some people may like the WYSIWIG editor of ecto better, but if you're okay with seeing HTML code in your post, I find that MarsEdit totally rocks.

    - Skitch (free) http://www.skitch.com/ for screen captures that I want to put into blog entries. Allows me to easily capture a part of the screen, resize/crop/edit it, annotate it with text or drawings and then drag/drop the resulting image to MarsEdit for upload to my blog. Also allows me to upload images to myskitch.com so I can easily share them with people via passing around a URL.

    I also like Jing ( http://www.jingproject.com/ ) for the similar purpose. If you want to show someone a quick view of something on your screen, it's simple and easy to take the screenshot (or a screencast-like video) and then get a URL to pass along to others.

    Great post!
    Dan
    reply
  • Eric Blair

    1 year ago

    Aw heck, I forgot to mention DiskWarrior. It's not productivity software and for most people, it's not a day to day tool. However, I've been using it over the last 8 years or so and it has consistently been the most reliable hard drive repair tool I ever used. The only time it's failed me is when the physical hard drive mechanism has been damaged.
    reply
  • Josh Nichols

    1 year ago

    Don't forget MacSaber. Personally, I have duels almost daily.
    reply
  • gWallet

    9 months ago

    Can we add Carbon Copy Cloner to the list? After using Time Machine for a few weeks and having less than satisfactory results with backups, I went back to my good old standby, and CCC hasn't let me down since.

    http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

    I think it's mentioned above, but I second onyx as well. Played with Cocktail for a bit, but found onyx to do just as good (or even better in some areas) and is free. :)
    reply

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