Category: 
Digg and del.icio.us periodically feature “top 10 mac applications” or other must-have Mac applications for windows switchers. Instead of naming the same software, I am recommending some of the mac applications I cannot live without (some of them are not free – I got them with the MacHeist II Bundle and they are worth every penny).
1. Firefox 3 – if you dont know what firefox is, you shouldn’t be reading this
2. 1Password – Great password (keychain) management software and has plugins for pretty much all the Mac browsers (eg. Safari, Camino, Flock, Firefox 2, Firefox 3 but no Opera support AFAIK). Use the same keyboard shortcut across all the browsers to log in to your sites.
3. LaunchBar – Pretty similar to QuickSilver (which was the software I anticipated the most). However, Quicksilver used to crash every once in a while and I am not a hard-core Quicksilver user. LaunchBar is not free but came with the MacHeist bundle but is very stable, efficient and quick. Gets the job done right and is a huge lifesaver and prevents me from adding all my top used applications in the Dock. You need to hack one of the files (editing the properties file) to avoid seeing LaunchBar in the dock when it is running.
4. Parallels – I need Windows mostly for work – I will probably give the latest version of VirtualBox a try at some point.
5. Eclipse – for all development needs
Other than that there are some applications that are just really helpful:
a. Preview
b. Pressing the space bar to see the quick preview of any item
c. Google Notifier – makes it really easy to add events to the Google calendar which syncs with the Blackberry.
d. CoverSutra – shows the Album Art on the desktop, handy shortcuts and submits information to Last.fm
e. GeekTool – just to help remind myself who I really am – no seriously, I mostly use it to view my to-do list and to have a weather map loaded on the desktop.
f. Jollys FastVNC – This might fall in the above essential category since I sometimes get lazy to walk across the room to my Windows PC and prefer to VNC to it. I prefer Jolly’s FastVNC to Chicken of the Sea.
g. Time Out – helpful to remind you to take breaks and forces you to concentrate on work while you work.
h. Skitch – This should also fall in the above category. Still in beta and I have some invites left. Really handy Screen Capturing application with tools to make annotations. The best part is how you can easily post the screen caps online or drag it to the dekstop.
i. Windows RDC Client 2.0 beta
j. Transmit – Because no other FTP client is as stable although Filezilla 3 is now compatible with Macs.
k. TextMate – it is as good as the praise it gets
l. LittleSnitch – Keeps an eye on all outgoing connections. The trial version works pretty well but it is worth getting.
m. Miro – handy to keep up-to-date with the News (NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams) or Tekzilla.
n. Caffeine – helps to watch videos uninterrupted by the dimming screen or other power saving mechanisms
o. Transmission – for all your torrent needs – to download legal stuff like Ubuntu iso’s, of course!
p. VLC Media Player – to play all kinds of video files and has a better interface than the Windows client IMO.
Wishlist
I hope to see Picasa for the Mac soon.
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