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Your Top 5 Killer Mac Apps?

S

Suzuki

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 7, 2006
33
0
United Kingdom
In desktop environments, I have been a Windows user all my life.

This coming week should hopefully see my first ever Mac arrive on my doorstep (spec in sig), and I'm hoping that I can take a little shortcut into finding out which collection of apps might be most useful to me.

To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, I'll start with my existing Top 5 for Windows.

1. IrfanView - Fast easy image manipulation
2. Putty - Who doesn't need access to a console?
3. Firefox - IE is rubbish
4. Thunderbird - Outlook is also rubbish
5. HydraIRC - Everybody gets bored at work! ;)

So, I'm not looking for a list of the Mac equivalents to the above, but for YOUR top 5 killer apps on your Mac. :)
 
I hadn't thought about this, but here are apps that I would recommend to anybody.

1.) SpellCatcher- Accurate, global system integration, and selective jargon and language specific dictionaries!
2.) Cepstral voices (Millie and Callie) for use with Apple's TTS and Cepstral's Swift TTS engine.
3.) OmniGraffle Pro (Love the Omni Productivity suite!)
4.) Some good Encryption apps- not being specific.
5.) Visual Thesaurus by ThinkMap - A extension of dictionary tools with dynamic 2d/3d flowcharts, look up, and... it's cool check it out.

Limited to 5. I can't mention Nisus Writer, Kissmac or Revolution Studio.
 
I thought there was already a thread very similar to this a while back. Perhaps everyone exhausted themselves on that one.
 
Good thing you're not asking for equivalents... because 3 out of 5 of those are already bettered by built-in OS X apps!

1. Transmit - FTP client
2. ProTools LE - Multitrack recording
3. Peak - Audio mastering
4. Toast - CD Burning
5. Photoshop
 
1. Camino- My favourtite browser
2. Adium X- Best chat experience around absolutly beautiful
3. Burn- 100% free CD/DVD burning software
4. AppZapper- Uninstall for macs
5. Uno- Make you mac unified and even more beautiful

Peace,

ShadoW
 
Suzuki said:
In desktop environments, I have been a Windows user all my life.

This coming week should hopefully see my first ever Mac arrive on my doorstep (spec in sig), and I'm hoping that I can take a little shortcut into finding out which collection of apps might be most useful to me.

To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, I'll start with my existing Top 5 for Windows.

1. IrfanView - Fast easy image manipulation
2. Putty - Who doesn't need access to a console?
3. Firefox - IE is rubbish
4. Thunderbird - Outlook is also rubbish
5. HydraIRC - Everybody gets bored at work! ;)

So, I'm not looking for a list of the Mac equivalents to the above, but for YOUR top 5 killer apps on your Mac. :)
Click to expand...


Just one essential...Quicksilver ...invaluable!...and free!
http://www.blacktree.com/

A tip...read tuaw.com daily
 
1. Quicksilver - App launcher - Must have!
2. VirtueDesktops - Virtual desktops, like Spaces in Leopard. Really nice!
3. Transmission - Bittorent client
4. Toast - Disc burning
5. MacTheRipper - Rips DVDs
 
Suzuki said:
So, I'm not looking for a list of the Mac equivalents to the above, but for YOUR top 5 killer apps on your Mac. :)
Click to expand...

Quicksilver (I am a Linux diehard, so when I say
that this is a killer app I really mean it :D). The second
killer app would be Spotlight (built-in OS X).

Edit:typo
 
Here are mine in no particular order.


Adium - Best MSN client

Stellarium - As a very amateur astronomer, I find this sky mapping program absolutely indespensible. It is very detailed and provides information for pretty much every sky object.

Alarm Clock - A little app I found on Apple's software site, it wakes me up every morning with whatever song I specify.

Dictionary widget - Again, another app included with the OS, the dictionary widget has been priceless for its quick access and ease of use

AppZapper - You'd be surprised how many files can be left behind when simply dragging and dropping an application to the trash. Best of all, I got a free license from them!
 
lamina said:
AppZapper - You'd be surprised how many files can be left behind when simply dragging and dropping an application to the trash. Best of all, I got a free license from them!
Click to expand...

How did you get the free license?
 
Top 5? Now that's a good twist on the theme. But I can't decide on the very best 5, so here are 5 that I use a lot

1 - iSquint
2 - Transmission
3 - iBackup
4 - Lostify
5 - Handbrake
 
Erm.. hope this isn't a double post..
I'm also pretty new to the mac world (after a long layoff). I also own two suzukis, but that's for another time. I don't really have 5 faves as such, but these are the apps that have impressed me most over the last few weeks:
1) iTunes - I've loaded a lot of my CDs in and just bought my first iTune download at the weekend! Makes organizing, playing and above all rediscovering old tunes so easy! I'm back into playing music!
2) GarageBand - as an ancient user of Cubase, I can't believe this is free and included in Mac OSX - beats left handed surfing.
3) Pages - We almost sprung for InDesign at work until we played around with Pages. Great layout tool, and very cheap.
4) Dashboard - Am becoming addicted to widgets! There's a great satellite based weather one. Check it every day.
5) All the free software around for Macs. Image editors, DictaMac (for work), Open Office (excellent) and just about anything and everything on versiontracker. When I bought my home Mac, a Mac friend just kept loading up a little 1gig usb stick for me every day. I still have no idea what half of that stuff he has given me does, but I discover new stuff all the time.

Given point 5), I can only smile secretly when PC guys I enthuse about the Mac to say 'yeah, but there's no software for it'. Couldn't be more opposite to the truth. There's not much you have to buy, I agree. I'm writing this on a VNC viewer from my work PC to our little video editing mac...

Still discovering stuff on OSX too. You won't be disappointed. I used to rely on IrfanView, but I hadn't given it a second thought until you mentioned it!

Cheers
BSL
 
I'm a lot more into technologies than specific apps, but these are things I love on OS X.

1. iTunes - I'm too much of a junkie for it not to be!
2. Quicksilver - as others have stated, the coolest program I've ever seen-- and stunningly original.
3. Synergy - beautiful, functional iTunes control and "What's Playing" display
4. Growl - systemwide notifications! YES!
5. Adium - the best IM client ever

(If you want a replacement to infraview or whatever it's called, GraphicConverter is a billion times better. As is Hog Bay Image Processor. I find almost any time there's a "great Windows app" it's easily beaten by 5-10 different Mac apps... :)
 
in no particular order​


itunes- for obvious reasons. i've got 9.65 GB and growing.
adium- like others have said, its the best chat client for os x. its so customizable. i have to use ichat for video chatting though :(
skype- internet phone, and they just released the beta with video for os x. its great.
safari- my favorite we browser, although i do have firefox and camino on my macbook, i never use them because i love safari.
photobooth- too much fun not to be on my list. :cool:
 
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