Thread: Few Best Mac Apps

IM - Instant Messaging

Adium Why install three separate instant messengers when you can connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo and GoogleTalk in a single, beautiful app? Plus it's 100% free and open source. Everybody needs Adium.


Video Player, BitTorrent, Podcasting

Miro Miro can play any video format (much more than quicktime), download torrents, permanently save videos from YouTube, and watch video podcasts. Beautiful interface, 100% free and open source.


Video Converter- MP4, iPhone, iPod

Miro Video Converter Convert any type of video to mp4 or theora. Convert any video for use with iPhone, iPod, Android, etc. Very clean, easy to use interface.


Application Launching


Quicksilver lets you start applications (and do just about everything) with a few quick taps of your fingers. Warning: start using Quicksilver and you won't be able to imagine using a Mac without it.


Auto Update

AppFresh Keeps all of your Mac applications up-to-date, automatically. Still in beta, but so necessary.


Email

SpamSieve Anybody who uses "Mail" for Mac needs this. After a few days of training, SpamSieve will obliterate junk mail and leave good emails unscathed. Free for 30 days, then worth every penny.


Writing and Office

xPad For most writing a word processor is overkill. xPad is the perfect simple alternative. Your notes sit in a sidebar and save automatically when you quit. Way better than stickies or TextEdit.

Writeroom

A full-screen writing space that eliminates distractions. If you use your Mac for writing, you have to try this.

OpenOffice

OpenOffice is a full-featured, office suite compatible with Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, and Excel. Plus it's 100% free and open source. Friends don't let friends pay for Microsoft Office.


Reading (e.g. books)

Tofu Makes reading on your computer much more like reading a book. Drag or paste text into Tofu and it arranges everything in crisp, classy columns that scroll side to side (not up and down). Ergonomic reading for Mac.


Camino

Based on the same Mozilla foundation as Firefox, Camino is a more native OS X app. Fast and simple.


Privacy

Vidalia



Rock-solid anonymous web browsing for everyone. This TOR frontend keeps you anonymous on the web using open source software and military-grade techniques. To use with Firefox see: TORbutton


Handbrake

Handbrake DVD ripper with MPEG-4 / H.264 encoding. The simplest way to save DVDs on your computer.


Peer-to-Peer Filesharing

Transmission

A rock solid torrent downloader. 100% free and open source (no annoying nags).

xTorrent

xTorrent Integrated search makes this an awesome Bittorrent client, and makes you very happy to have a Mac.


Nintendo Emulator

Sixty Force

Trouble finding good games for you Mac? Then turn it into a Nintendo64! MarioKart works great, even on a Powerbook G4.


Music

Ableton Live

For anyone who ever wanted to make a remix, DJ a party, or play with beats. A great manual, good tutorials and a super slick interface make Live so easy to learn. Free demo (hint: use AudioHijack for saving).

Nice thread! Ive sometimes regretted buying a MacBook due to that its easier to find apps for Windows.. but atleast it looks better ;)

The best note-taking application I have found so far is Notational Velocity. There are numerous reasons I recommend it. It's free and open source to start. Very keyboard shortcut friendly. Extremely simple. Best of all, it synchronizes with the online Simplenote service which means you can easily view any notes you've taken from a browser or from the many other compatible applications supported on other platforms. I used to use xPad but Notational Velocity is way better.