the big list of mac apps

this is a list of applications and utilities that I have used throughout the years. its pretty much just a list of app’s with links and descriptions – just so I don’t forget them. i will update this with software i have used and liked or stumble across. i do plan on organizing it a bit as well down the road.

last updated: 6-16-07

Abyss Web Server (link) – Abyss Web Server is a compact web server available for Windows, MacOS X, Linux, and FreeBSD operating systems. Despite its small footprint, it supports HTTP/1.1, dynamic content generation through CGI/FastCGI scripts, ISAPI extensions, native ASP.NET support, Server Side Includes (SSI), custom error pages, password protection, IP address control, anti-leeching, and bandwidth throttling. It features also an automatic antihacking system as well as a multilingual remote web management interface that makes its configuration as easy as browsing a web site. [$59.95+]

Act-On (link) – Very cool utility for sorting your email, by using quick keystrokes. [free]

Adium (link) – A client for all major IM networks: ICQ, MSN, Jabber, AIM etc for the Mac. [free]

AppZapper (link) – Removes app’s everything associated with them (Mac). [$12.95]

Awaken (link) – Awaken is a digital alarm clock and sleep timer that wakes you by playing music from your iTunes library. Setting An Alarm Couldn’t Be Easier Choose a playlist, pick from either a weekly or specific date alarm, set the time, and enter a reminder note if you wish – and you’re done. The volume of the music can be set to fade from 0% to the desired level over a set number of minutes to gently wake you from deep sleep without the jolt. [$8.95]

Backdrop (link) – Backdrop is a simple utility to fill your screen with a giant blank window. Fill the window with a solid color or a custom image, your choice. [free]

Camino (link) – Browser for the Mac. [free]

CandyBar (link) – Change the icons on your Mac. [$12.95]

Cashbox (link) – Cashbox was designed from day one to be a quick and simple to use application for managing personal finances. As it has evolved, it has become more feature packed while keeping with the original goal of simplicity. [free]

Cocoalicious (link) – Post to del.icio.us easily with this useful app. [free]

Cocktail (link) – Interface tweaks and maintenance tools, nice addition for every Mac. [$14.95+]

CyberDuck (link) – FTP / SFTP Browser for Mac OS X [free]

Desktop Manager (link) – Virtual desktop manager for the Mac. Please know this is currently in ALPHA. [free]

Desktopple (link) – Ever needed to take a screenshot and had to remove all of those icons from your Desktop before you do? Or maybe you needed to make a presentation and had to tidy up before hooking into the projector? If you did, then Desktopple is for you!With Desktopple, you can quickly and easily hide all of your Desktop clutter. A quick trip to your menu bar is all it takes. Desktopple is a Menu Bar item. Launch it, and it will hang out in your menu bar. Click it, and you’ll get a list of all its options. If you want it there every time you launch, simply add it to your Login Items in your System Preferences. [free]

Digg Update (link) – DiggUpdate will instantly inform you of new Digg stories that hit the front page. Whenever a new item is dugg to the front, a window will roll down from your menu-bar (resembling Digg.com itself) and pleasantly inform you of new tech news. [free]

Disk Inventory X (link) – Disk Inventory X is a disk usage utility for Mac OS X 10.3 (and later). It shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way called "treemaps". If you’ve ever wondered where all your disk space has gone, Disk Inventory X will help you to answer this question. [free]

Doodim (link) – Doodim permits one to dim the background of the foremost application thereby enhancing its visibility. You can switch it on or off very quickly from the menu bar, and set the level of dimness. [free]

Feeder (link) – Feeder is an application for creating, editing and publishing RSS feeds on Mac OS X. Whether it’s a news feed for your site or a podcast, Feeder makes it simple. [$29.95]

Free Ruler (link) – A horizontal and vertical ruler which can be used independently or simultaneously. Measurement in pixels, inches, picas, or centimeters. Automatic alignment of rulers.The ability to group rulers and move them around as a unit. Shadowless rulers with customizable transparency. Interactive tick marks which follow the mouse location for more precise measurement. Independent resizing of rulers, from 200 pixels to 5000 pixels in length. Single key shortcuts for most ruler functions. Conversion assistant to set ruler resolution based on screen size and resolution. Unit converter utility for converting numbers between different units of measure. [free]

GimmeSomeTune (link) – A beautiful, translucent floating window providing you with information about the currently playing tune. Highly configurable hot-keys. For nearly every aspect of iTunes, GimmeSomeTune has got a hot-key for you. But you can control iTunes also via the status menu in the right menu bar. Cover art fetching from the internet. That’s right, GimmeSomeTune will get you covers from the Internet and automatically adds them to iTunes, if you choose to. [free]

Growl (link) – Awesome notification utility. [free]

Hand Brake (link) – Rips DVDs into a compressed format like DivX. A whole DVD (4.7GB) can be compressed into a 700MB file. [free]

High Priority (link) – High Priority is an inexpensive Mac OS X 10.4 or higher menu extra whose sole purpose is to help you manage your To Dos in a simple, intuitive, and pleasant manner. Leveraging the power and simplicity of iCal, Apple’s calendar software bundled with Mac OS X, High Priority allows you to create, edit, and remove your To Do items directly from the menu bar, without having to have iCal open. [$6.00+]

iCal (link) – Calendar app for Mac.

iClip (link) – iClip is a new multiple clipboard/scrapbook software application for Apple Macintosh computers with OS X. [$19.95]

iEatBrainz (link) – Updated your metadat in your mp3 collection. [free]

iPhoto (link) – Digital photo manager, part of iLife suite. [$79.00+]

iStumbler (link) – iStumbler is the leading wireless discovery tool for Mac OS X, providing plugins for finding AirPort networks, Bluetooth devices and Bonjour services with your Mac. [free]

iWeb Enhancer (link) – With iWeb Enhancer, you can copy and paste code directly into iWeb from Flickr, YouTube, AdSense, Google Video, RSS Feeds, Del.icio.us, PayPal, Blogrolling, and more. [$12.95]

JBid Watcher (link) – A Java-based application allowing you to monitor auctions you’re not part of, submit bids, snipe (bid at the last moment), and otherwise track your auction-site experience. It includes adult-auction management, MANY currencies (yen, pound, dollar (US, Canada, Australian, and New Taiwanese), Swiss Francs, and euro, presently), drag-and-drop of auction URLs, a unique and powerful ‘multisniping’ feature, a relatively nice UI, and is known to work cleanly under Linux, Windows, Solaris, and MacOSX from the same binary. [free]

Juice (link) – Want to listen to internet audio programs (podcasts), music and shows but can’t when they are scheduled? Juice is for you. Juice lets users select and download shows and music and play whenever they want on their iPods, portable digital media players, or computers automatically. [free]

JunkMatcher (link) – A nice spam filter for Mail.app

Kip (link) – Organize the paper that clutters your life. Think of Kip as iPhoto for your documents. [free]

Letterbox (link) – Letterbox is a plugin for Apple’s Mail.app that takes advantage of your widescreen monitor. It rearranges the interface into three vertical columns – so the message pane is to the right of the message list, rather than below. You’ll probably need at least 1280 and perhaps 1440 horizontal pixels for this layout to work well for you. [free]

Little Snitch (link) – Little Snitch tells you when a program tries to send info to the internet so you can see what’s going on in the background!. [$24.95+]

Mac The Ripper (link) – MacTheRipper is a free DVD ripper (extractor) for Mac OS X. It can extract commercial DVD movies to your hard drive, minus all the copy protections and region controls put in place by DVD publishers. You can then use various tools to burn the movie back to DVD-R for use in DVD players, or convert the movie to different formats for playback with a variety of devices. MacTheRipper is intended to backup DVDs you have legally purchased for personal use. Any copyright-infringing activity you choose to perpetrate using this application is illegal, immoral, and beyond our control. [free]

Mac Stumbler (link) – MacStumbler is a utility to display information about nearby 802.11b and 802.11g wireless access points. It is mainly designed to be a tool to help find access points while traveling, or to diagnose wireless network problems. Additionally, MacStumbler can be used for "wardriving", which involves co-ordinating with a GPS unit while traveling around to help produce a map of all access points in a given area.. [free]

Maintenance 3.5 (link) – Handy little automator script that runs a series of system maintenance scripts via the Terminal: Repair Permissions, Verify Preference Files, Run Periodic and Update Prebindings.[free]

mira (link) – Six buttons makes for a simple and clean remote, but without mira, the Apple Remote can get a little boring. mira was designed exclusively for the Apple Remote, to take it beyond Front Row and give you personal control over any application. [$16.00]

Missing Sync (link) – The best handheld and smartphone synchronization software available for the Mac. [$39.95]

NetNewsWire (link) – The "Eddy" award-winning NetNewsWire has a familiar three-paned interface – similar to Apple Mail – and can fetch and display news from thousands of different websites and weblogs, making it quick and easy to keep up with the latest news. You can also download podcasts and audio files and have them show up on your portable audio device. [$29.95]

Newsfire (link) – Excellent RSS Reader for any Mac. [$18.99]

Pages (link) – Excellent word processor for Mac OS X (part of iWork suite).

Pzizz (link) – Need to powernap, check Pzizz out… pzizz uses a complex mathematical formula, or ‘algorithm’, based on structured random selection. This means that although the processor follows a certain path ensuring a full experience each time, the data it selects and subsequently delivers along the route is selected in a random manner making each nap different to a period of time you determine. [$39.95]

Quicksilver (link) – Application launcher and much more for OSX. [free]

Remote Buddy (link) – Remote Buddy provides you with a one stop interface that allows you to control almost anything on your Mac just with the remote control. [9.99 euros]

RapidoSMTP (link) – Tired of changing your smtp server over and over again? This free utility helps Mac users set up a full SMTP mail server in less than a minute. [free]

RapidoWrite (link) – Tired of writing the same text over and over again! Anytime you enter text in any application by typing it at the keyboard, RapidoWrite can help you do it faster and more accurately! [free]

RSSOwl (link) – An easy to use RSS Reader. [free]

Senuti (link) – There are many good reasons that someone would have to transfer music from her iPod back to her computer. There are many good ways to do it, too. Senuti is the only alternative that will give you the power and convenience that you need, wrapped in an interface that is extremely easy to use, at a cost that you can’t complain about. [free]

SizzlingKeys (link) – Have you ever wished you could control iTunes without leaving your current app? SizzlingKeys lets you do just that – and more – in an intuitive and unobtrusive way. [$4.95+]

SlimBatteryMonitor (link) – Takes up to 70% less space than Apple’s gauge. Monitors laptop batteries and many UPS batteries as well. Select different views for when powered, charging or on battery. Monitor can hide itself automatically when desired. [free]

Sofa Control (link) – Sofa Control uses AppleScript to control any application installed on your Mac. [$9.99]

SpamSieve (link) – SpamSieve is a very powerful and trainable Spam filter. It works with Mail, Thunderbird, Entourage & some other email clients. It is amazingly accurate from day one of your install. [$30.00]

Speed Download 4 (link) – Speed Download 4 is a very powerful download manager for Mac OS X. Lots of great features with a beautiful interface. I cant live without this app. [$25.00]

SuperDuper! (link) – Disk cloner for Mac OS X. [basic free. upgraded features $27.95]

Switch (link) – Switch is a VERY EASY to use audio file converter. It converts wav, mp3, ogg, flac, acc, wma, au, aiff, msv, dvf, vox, atrac, gsm, dss and many other formats into mp3 or wav files. [Free Version & Plus $28.00]

Synergy (link) – Synergy is a really convenient utility that pops three control buttons for iTunes on your menu bar. [9.95 Euros]

Tables (link) – Spreadsheet app for Mac OS X [currently in beta]

TextWrangler2 (link) – TextWrangler 2 is the powerful general purpose text editor, and Unix and server administrator’s tool. [free]

Todos (link) – Sometimes you just don’t want to take time going to your Applications folder or searching around your hard drive. Just click a quick hotkey (Command-Option-Control-T) and Todos will simply appear. Todos’ job is simple. Todos doesn’t do more than it says. Like its definition in Spanish, Todos will show you everything. Todos shows you all your applications in a complete dock. All of us have a plethora of programs, and the Apple dock just can’t fit them all. Don’t worry. Bring Todos up when you need to get to any of your apps. Click any application in Todos and it will instantly launch. Todos will fade away after application launch. Perhaps you don’t want it go go away so fast? Just hold the command key and click. Todos will open the application and remain displayed. Don’t forget to stand back and wow at all those cool icons for all of your applications. OS X has beautiful icons, why not see them more? [free]

Tofu (link) – Tofu is a novel application to address the common problem that people don’t like reading text on the screen. (Screen reader) [free]

Transmission (link) – Nice lightweight bittorrent client. [free]

Transmit (link) – FTP App for the Mac. [$29.95]

UNO (link) – UNO is a theme that brings the sunken unified toolbar/titlebar look&feel to every single window on your system (cocoa or carbon, metal or aqua and already unified windows as well). On an higher level, UNO’s main goal is to enhance aqua interface consistence, by making all elements look&feel "as one". UNO is aimed to those who want a clean and un-osbstructive interface while keeping the best of Aqua. [free]

Urly (link) – Manage any urls/web links that you have added to your doc. [free]

Vienna (link) – RSS/Atom Newsreader for Mac OS X [free]

VoodooPad (link) – VoodooPad is a garden for your thoughts. Plant ideas, images, lists and anything else you need to keep track of. VoodooPad grows with you, without getting in the way — no fences to box you in! Type in notes, highlight important words or phrases and create new pages. Drag and drop folders, images, applications, or URLs into VoodooPad — they’re linked up just like on the web. With powerful search, nothing will be lost or out of reach. [$29.95]

Wallet (link) – Wallet is the most secure, elegant, and easy way to store and organize your passwords, serial numbers, credit cards, and much more. [$14.95]

Witch (link) – Witch lets you access all of your windows by pressing a shortcut and choosing from a clearly arranged list of window titles. [free]

WriteRoom (link) – For Mac users who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the digital world. WriteRoom is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, WriteRoom is just about you and your text. Requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later. [free]

Zazen (link) – Focus On Your Applications… or Force Quit Them. Zazen is a cool and unique way to use or manage your applications. “Zazen” is Japanese for Zen Meditation, and with Zazen, your mind will be put into a state of productive relaxation. At least, that’s what we’re going for. [$12]

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