Recently, Mark at bOINGbOING had a series of posts on
his essential Mac applications. Inspired by this, I'm compiling my list of tools I use daily. Some are the same ones Mark listed, and not all are applications per se (some are add-ons, etc.) But I use them all regularly and would install them immediately if I had to reformat without a backup.
Super Duper (Mac, $27.95, free trial)
Once this is configured, you never need to worry about it. In combination with Time Machine (which comes with OSX), this is a hearty, well-done disc image backup application. Just get an external drive (I use a Firewire WD drive,) and you've got a bootable, full-backup ready to go.
Firefox (Mac, Windows, *nix, free)
Every OS comes with a serviceable web browser. I prefer to use Firefox instead. The huge array of useful add-ons and plug-ins have made it a must-have. Add-ons I use include ForecastFox (displays N-day forecast and radar in the status bar,) QTL (translates other languages to English or whatever you prefer,) XMarks (synchronizes bookmarks across multiple computers,) GreaseMonkey (runs little scripts for you,) Firebug (web development tool,) AdBlock Pro (blocks ads on web pages,) and many more. Firefox is a bit of a memory hog, but the pros outweigh the cons.
Dropbox (Mac, Windows, *nix, smartphones, free or premium) and Evernote (Mac, Windows, *nix, smartphones, free or premium)
I group these together because they do similar things, but are different enough that I depend on both. Each takes advantage of "cloud" computing. Dropbox allows you to drop a file into a folder on your computer, and have it almost instantly available to all computers and smartphones in your group, regardless of platform. Have a document you want to share with others? Put it in the /dropbox/public folder, and it'll give you an http:// address which you can send to anyone. Evernote is similar; it allows you to organize notes, web sites, pictures, etc. and have them almost instantly synced to your other computers. I use it for shopping lists (type them up on my desktop, then pull out my Blackberry at the store,) meeting notes, etc. It even has a feature which allows you to take a photo of a whiteboard with your smartphone, and when you get back to your desk, it's right there—already translated into searchable text!
Synergy (Mac, Windows, *nix, free)
I have a desktop Mac, a MacBook Pro, a Windows 7 HTPC, and a Ubuntu Linux machine. It's a hassle to have separate mouses and keyboards for each, especially when they're all nearby (well, okay the Linux box is upstairs.) This free, open source software lets you use one computer and its keyboard/mouse to navigate any of your other machines. Example: I have my desktop machine with its nice wireless mouse and full keyboard; next to it I have my laptop. Using Synergy, if I slide my mouse to the left of the screen, the cursor suddenly appears and is controllable on my laptop's screen. The keyboard is fully functional as well. This works flawlessly across platforms as well. This utility also supports clipboards across multiple machines and OSes. So, yes, copy that picture or text on your Windows PC, move your mouse onto your Mac, and paste away. (Mac users: Synergy KM puts the functionality easily into the System Preferences, making it much easier to use.)
ClipMenu (Mac, free)
When I first used a computer with copy-and-paste capabilities back in the 80s, my first complaint was that I couldn't copy non-contiguous bits and pieces. ClipMenu (Mac only; I'm sure there's something similar for other platforms) lets you save as many bits and pieces as you want. For this post, I have the URL, logo and random bits of text from the site all in my ClipMenu, and I just paste as needed. From their site:
Clipboard History
ClipMenu can manage clipboard history. You can record 8 clipboard types, from plain text to image.
To paste a recorded item, you just pop up menu by invoking the shortcut key, and select a menu item from the menu.
Snippet
You can also register texts you frequently use, like e-mail addresses, user IDs and so on, as snippets. You can paste these snippets from the menu, too.
Tweetdeck (Mac, Windows, *nix, some smartphones, free)
Tweedeck's name is a little misleading; it's not just a Twitter feed reader. For me, I have my Twitter feed down one column, Facebook in another, LinkedIn in a third, and Trending Topics in the last column. This puts all of my social media in one glance-able window. I hate having to have separate applications open for each. Too bad they don't make a Blackberry version, though iPad and some other versions are coming.
