Top 10 Most Useful Mac Apps?

[MacNoobGuy]

hey guys, i just wanted to know if anyone had a list of the most useful and productive apps that are available on OSX. i'm looking for a list of the best technology recommended by some expert that's much more aware of what's available out there.

something like a list recommended by 'John Gruber' of 'Daringfireball' or something by Steve Gibson.

thanks for any help!

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

hey guys, i just wanted to know if anyone had a list of the most useful and productive apps that are available on OSX. i'm looking for a list of the best technology recommended by some expert that's much more aware of what's available out there.

something like a list recommended by 'John Gruber' of 'Daringfireball' or something by Steve Gibson.

thanks for any help!

PC mag does
http://mobile.pcmag.com/?ref=295154&url=http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401329,00.asp

 

[nosnhojm]

Some of my most-used apps:

Apps:

1. Lightroom
2. Tweetbot
3. RadarScope
4. Paprika
5. 1Password
6. Arq

Utilities:

1. Dropbox
2. Popclip
3. Fantastical
4. Moom

 

[exegete77]

1Password (life changing for password management and iOS app as well)
Scrivener (most versatile and complete writing system)
Dropbox (solid exchange and backup one of best available)
Devonthink Pro Office (best database repository and OCR solution)
Timeline 3D
Tinderbox (expensive but most powerful notes/research/visualization/planning tool available)
TotalFinder (excellent alternative to Finder)
InfoClick (from Nisus software; far better to find emails than Mail.app search; until I used it I saw no need for it; now I can’t see how I could live without it)
Orbiter (another dock-like app that is very handy, which I use in conjunction with Dock)
Reunion (genealogy software)

 

[fluxforge]

While 'most useful' will always be very subjective there are a few apps that almost everyone will find useful:

Dropbox (easiest way to keep stuff in sync)
Evernote (keeps your head free for important things)
1Password (like evernote - only for passwords)
Daisy Disk (when you wonder where the space on your hard drive went)
Fantastical (makes iCal usable)

And then there's some apps that I find very useful but other people might not:

iTerm (the better terminal.app)
Vim/MacVim (hands down the best text editor *duck*)
XCode (best IDE on OS X)
NetNewsWire (imho still the best RSS reader - works even without google reader)
Adium (best IM client for the Mac)
Sip (a color picker on speed)

 

[Apple fanboy]

I know it gets a lot of bad press round here but I love
iTunes (Can't believe no one mentioned it!)
Also Safari (my number one Browser)
Chrome (number 2)
MS Excel (sorry boring work stuff)
OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 7
Nik Complete collection
Steam (for a bit of light gaming)
Time machine (for peace of mind and ease of use)
Carbon Copy Clone (because it's always good to have a bootable back up!)
iMessage (I love texting on my big screen and keyboard, Just wish everyone I knew was on iOS!)

 

[Macman45]

It's different for everybody....hard to define a one size fits all list. For me it's :

Aperture
Logic
MKV
VLC
Handbrake


But everybody has a different list according to what they do...

 

[kirky29]

For me, my main and maybe most important/used apps are:

Popclip - iOS styled copy/paste/define/search menu
Cinch - Windows styled drag left/right for app windows
Dropbox - cloud storage
Photosync - Sync photos from iOS to Mac/Mac to iOS
iTeleport - Control Mac from iOS devices
iMessage - iMessage other people
1Password - Password manager
MusiXmatch - Display lyrics
Transmit - FTP software
Type2Phone - lets you use your Macs keyboard via bluetooth to iOS devices
Degrees - displays the temp in your menubar
AU Lab - Equaliser for audio - system wide. (can anybody name something better???)

Then obviously bigger apps like:
Photoshop
Dreamweaver
Aperture (maybe moving to Lightroom)
iWork (certainly pages)
Spotify - iTunes
Chrome
Skype
Parallels Desktop

 

[athonyzhang]

1.Chrome
2.Evernote
3.DaisyDisk
4.Foxmail
5.Pocket
6.Xcode
7.MPlayerX
8.Clear
9.SkyDrive
10.iPhoto

 

[Sital]

In no particular order:

1Password
BusyCal
Alfred
Moneydance
iPhoto
Dropbox
Carbon Copy Cloner
HandBrake
AppCleaner
Firefox

 

[ReneR]

I'd definitely include OCRKit as affordable quality PDF OCR to work with all kinds of documents at work: http://itunes.com/mac/ocrkit

 

[turtlez]

• Alfred - Search Bar
• AppCleaner - Removes everything associated with the application
• CloudApp - File uploader in the menu bar
• DayOne* - It is for journal writing
• Gemini* - Duplicate Finder
• iStat Menus* - System Monitoring
• ScreenFlow* - Screen capture (video/audio)
• The Unarchiver - Unzippererer
• VLC - Universal media player open source

* means premium​

 

[Xe89]

In no particular order (and more than 10):

Notational Velocity
Default Folder X
TextExpander
Superduper
Quicksilver
1Password
Omnifocus
DaisyDisk
Dropbox
UnrarX
Divvy
Hazel
Cloak
VLC
Arq

or something by Steve Gibson.

He's a charlatan btw:

http://attrition.org/errata/charlatan/steve_gibson/

 

[maflynn]

Here's my list in no particular order

Applications:

1. Aperture
2. Photoshop
3. Pixelmator
4. Bento
5. Vmware Fusion
6. Microsoft Office

Utilities

1. Carbon Copy Cloner
2. Omni DiskSweeper
3. Little Snapper
4. Transmit

 

[jafingi]

My "must have" list (have made a CCC of a fresh ML with those apps installed so whenever I format, I always have them installed ).

• 1Password
• Alfred
• Google Chrome
• Dropbox
• CloudApp
• The Unarchiver
• SublimeText 2
• VLC
• Adobe Creative Suite
• Parallels
• Skala

There are probably more, I've just forgotten

 

[Rossatron]

vlc media player is great (if it's not already mentioned in thread)

 

[melchior]

VLC

• VLC - Universal media player open source

VLC

• VLC

vlc media player is great (if it's not already mentioned in thread)

a few people mentioned it... including the post above yours...

 

[James_C]

In no particular order these are apps I use everyday (well maybe not DaisyDisk every day but still a must have App)

1. 1Password (Password Manager) - I wrote about it here
2. PopClip (Brings iOS like Copy and Paste functionality to OS X) - I wrote about it here
3. TextExpander (Text Expansion App) - I wrote about it here
4. Alfred 2 (App Launcher and much more)
5. Dropbox (Cloud Storage) - I wrote about it here
6. Evernote (Web Clipper, Document and Note Storage, Reminders)
7. PDFpen (Great PDF Editing Utility)
8. Tweetbot - (Twitter App)
9. OmniFocus (Task Management App)
10. DaisyDisk (Find out what is taking space on your hard disk)

 

[MacNoobGuy]

1.Chrome
2.Evernote
3.DaisyDisk
4.Foxmail
5.Pocket
6.Xcode
7.MPlayerX
8.Clear
9.SkyDrive
10.iPhoto

Great list!

 

[t0rr3s]

00 instashare
10 dropbox
20 alfred
30 notational velocity
40 1password
50 xtrafinder
60 lightroom
70 safemonk
80 bettertouchtool
90 keynote

 

[tshort]

In no particular order (not included with a Mac):

• Adium
• Chicken (VNC client)
• MacFusion+OSXFuse
• Handbrake
• XQuartz
• XCode
• Dropbox
• CrashPlan
• Microsoft Office (sometimes you have to use it)
• 1Password

I do use a bunch of other apps including:

• OmniGraffle
• iPhoto
• Safari
• Chrome
• VMWare Fusion/Parallels
• Calendar
• Mail (yes, I use plain Mac Mail)
• VLC
• Carbon Copy Cloner
• Time Machine
• Steam
• iWork

 

[DaveTheRave]

Flip4Mac (this might overlap with VLC a bit, at some point you'll receive a video file in a format that can't be played by a Mac without one if these)

Firefox - I don't use it that often but good for the times when Apple stops letting you use Java on Safari due to a virus alert

Google Notifier - hasn't been updated in years but that's how I check my Gmail.

 

[clukas]

Well here is mine:

1. Chrome
2. Lastpass
3. Coda 2
4. Forklift
5. Paragon NTFS
6. Pages
7. Mail/ Calendar
8. Skype
9. Bootcamp *not really an app but still very useful
10. Parallels

 

[jojoba]

Evernote
Alfred
TextExpander
2Do
Calendar
iPhoto
Dropbox
Xmind
Simplenote
Curio
Devonthink
Carbon Copy Cleaner
Scrivener
Caffeine
Tweetbot
MarsEdit

 

[MacNoobGuy]

Thanks guys!

Be great if I could look at an updated list for 2014