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The "Official" Must Have Free Apps/tools Thread

I just got iMsafe. It backs up to an iPod, Firewire drive etc and it has been excellent. It just seems really good. Looks nice, dead simple, works well. And that's it.

Bit like macs, s'pose :)
 
Okay here's the single coolest program ever. It's so cool that Apple should have thought of it.

Delicious Library

It's a media library. It will make an index with images and information of all your Books, CDs, DVDs, Games, and more.

To get them in you can do a search, enter the barcode, by voice input, or best of all hold the bar code up to your iSight camera and it will read the barcode.

Once you have the data in it's like iTunes with lives searches, personal ratings, and custom playlists (collections). Also you have the ability schedule and checkout items to friends and family and do the scheduling via integrating with Address Book and iCal.

Last but not least is the ability to Sync this information with your iPod.

These are just the features I thought were the coolest there are more including bluetooth functions. Definitely check it out.
 
MacBandit said:
Okay here's the single coolest program ever. It's so cool that Apple should have thought of it.

Delicious Library
Click to expand...

Agreed that this app is definitely worth checking out, if only for the amazing more-apple-than-apple GUI! But as DR Q pointed out before this is a thread for freeware apps and at $40 Delicious Library doesn't quite fall into that category.
 
My Favorite Free Software

I was actually going to start a thread just like this! Great idea for a thread.

Here's my list ... and yes, all of this is FREE (I read the name of the thread). ;) :D

WireTap

Records ANY audio being played through your Mac. Absolutely ... anything. Very nice, simple interface as well.

Streamripper

Records songs playing through an internet radio station as individual mp3s. Keeps all the mp3s nice and neat and named for you, in a folder that you specify. Great way to discover new music / artists.

Newsfire

The best RSS newsreader for the Mac I've tried.

Quicksilver

Hard to explain, you just need to download it.

Meteorologist

Best weather utility I've used for the Mac. Stays up in the top right corner of your menu bar, where it displays an icon representing the current weather (ie, raindrops), the location, and the temperature (mine says [Sun icon] Home 62). Click on it to get an extended forecast and more info.

Genius

A must-have for students who use flashcards to review. Tracks your progress, quizzes you, teaches you.

iTunes Monitor

Lets you know who's listening to your iTunes music on the LAN, as well as what they're listening to.
 
munkle said:
Agreed that this app is definitely worth checking out, if only for the amazing more-apple-than-apple GUI! But as DR Q pointed out before this is a thread for freeware apps and at $40 Delicious Library doesn't quite fall into that category.
Click to expand...

Actually you can try it for free and it's fully functional as long as you only have 25 items in your library.
 
dotnina said:
Meteorologist

Best weather utility I've used for the Mac. Stays up in the top right corner of your menu bar, where it displays an icon representing the current weather (ie, raindrops), the location, and the temperature (mine says [Sun icon] Home 62). Click on it to get an extended forecast and more info.
Click to expand...


If you like Meteo your going to love WeatherMenu. It's free for 30 days. I used Meteo for nearly 5 years but on the first try of this program I jumped ship and even paid the shareware fee. The biggest plus about it is it uses the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations weather pages which is far more accurate (where I live) then Weather.com which is what Meteo uses now days. Also it puts the moon phase in your menu bar at night.
 
Growl

Growl is a global notification system for Mac OS X. Any application can send a notification to Growl, which will display an attractive message on your screen.

Try it! Its free and from the makers of Adium and you'll love it!
I use it to notify me of iTunes track changes, new mail and Adium notifications.
 
whiteangel said:
Growl is a global notification system for Mac OS X. Any application can send a notification to Growl, which will display an attractive message on your screen.

Try it! Its free and from the makers of Adium and you'll love it!
I use it to notify me of iTunes track changes, new mail and Adium notifications.
Click to expand...

That's what growl does? I've only ever seen/ heard about it in the Proteus message boards
 
MacBandit said:
Actually you can try it for free and it's fully functional as long as you only have 25 items in your library.
Click to expand...

Having a free trial doesn't make it a free app, and crippled software is just that. No big deal, was just pointing out the title of the thread.
 
munkle said:
Having a free trial doesn't make it a free app, and crippled software is just that. No big deal, was just pointing out the title of the thread.
Click to expand...

In my mind it's still free. No it's not freeware but you can use it and get some productivity out of it even if it's only for a limited time. Thus free.
 
MacBandit said:
In my mind it's still free. No it's not freeware but you can use it and get some productivity out of it even if it's only for a limited time. Thus free.
Click to expand...

Interesting! So under your description Macromedia Studio/Adobe CS are free apps as well ;)
 
munkle said:
Interesting! So under your description Macromedia Studio/Adobe CS are free apps as well ;)
Click to expand...

For one month. If you were a profesional you could potentially make enough money with the Adobe 30 day trials to pay for the full programs.

Whether or not you can be productive with it even with the limited time. Now if the program can be ran but you could not save what you produced out of it then it would not be free.
 
Keep it "Free," Folks

I think we should try to keep the software listed here just to what’s flat-out free. Perhaps if someone wants, we can start a second thread to the tune of “‘Not Exactly Free, But Worth It!’ Software.” As a general rule, any software with a trial period isn’t free, so we should probably keep it out of this thread in order to keep with the thread’s theme. (And BTW – this isn’t directed at anyone in particular.)

So let’s keep it up, guys! What other free software you do like? :)
 
dotnina said:
I think we should try to keep the software listed here just to what’s flat-out free. Perhaps if someone wants, we can start a second thread to the tune of “‘Not Exactly Free, But Worth It!’ Software.” As a general rule, any software with a trial period isn’t free, so we should probably keep it out of this thread in order to keep with the thread’s theme. (And BTW – this isn’t directed at anyone in particular.)

So let’s keep it up, guys! What other free software you do like? :)
Click to expand...


Fair enough. The easiest way to do this would be to have the thread description changed to, "best Freeware,".
 
Can anyone recommend an app that does with video what iPhoto does with photos? It should have a library of thumbnails, folders, search, the ability to display most video types, not just limited to QuickTime, ability to drag and drop files which create aliases, etc.

Basically iPhoto for videos. Oh yeah, and free (my guess is it ain't gonna happen for free).

Thanks!
 
:( I am unable to install wiretap. when I try to unstuff it, it asks to save some preinstall thing in a folder but it says that it already exists. I naturally say save, all three documents. It unpacks, but when i click on it, it tells me that it was unable to locate files. So i am lost at the moment.
 
sorryiwasdreami said:
Can anyone recommend an app that does with video what iPhoto does with photos? It should have a library of thumbnails, folders, search, the ability to display most video types, not just limited to QuickTime, ability to drag and drop files which create aliases, etc.

Basically iPhoto for videos. Oh yeah, and free (my guess is it ain't gonna happen for free).

Thanks!
Click to expand...

It's not what you are looking for exactly but MPlayer has a playlist/library ability. Also it will play just about any format. Oh and yes it's free.
 
dotnina said:
Quicksilver

Hard to explain, you just need to download it.
Click to expand...

From what I gather, it's just like LaunchBar, no?

I haven't messed with it a whole lot, so I don't know all its ins and outs, but it seemed to be doing a similiar thing (brings up applications/files as you type).

Not bad, although if they are the same idea, I prefer launch bar - just wish it was free ;)
 
Josh said:
From what I gather, it's just like LaunchBar, no?

I haven't messed with it a whole lot, so I don't know all its ins and outs, but it seemed to be doing a similiar thing (brings up applications/files as you type).

Not bad, although if they are the same idea, I prefer launch bar - just wish it was free ;)
Click to expand...

Except QuickSilver is free.

I don't remember LaunchBar too well, I tried it about 9 months ago. Quicksilver has some really neat features. I find it *ESSENTIAL*
 
Josh said:
From what I gather, it's just like LaunchBar, no?

I haven't messed with it a whole lot, so I don't know all its ins and outs, but it seemed to be doing a similiar thing (brings up applications/files as you type).

Not bad, although if they are the same idea, I prefer launch bar - just wish it was free ;)
Click to expand...

I haven't tried Launchbar, but yes, Quicksilver brings up apps / documents / folders / etc. to a certain depth that you can specify (at least partially).

I guess it's not that hard to explain after all. :p It's very strange and different if you're not familiar with the concept of a launcher, though (at least, I thought it was strange when I first used it ;) ).
 
Quicksilver also has a lot of pretty useful plug-ins, which you have to download separately. For example, a pretty handy address book module which allows you to display telephone numbers/addresses etc in large type through Quicksilver. Development is very active, the developer is already talking about how Quicksilver is going to be incorporated into Tiger and best of all it's all free.

There is a steep learning curve to get the most out of Quicksilver and unfortunately the documentation isn't great. But even if you only use it to invoke apps it really is a great app and highly customisable. I find it preferable to LaunchBar, although Quicksilver doesn't 'learn' as well as LaunchBar does. So check it out!
 
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