Steff.me

The name of this post was actually intended to be shortened to something comical yet meaningful but I found it slightly funny being longer, so I’ve kept it. I was going to do an ordered list counting down from ten to one, however I’ve decided to do this list slightly differently. I’m going to list my top ten applications, only ranking the top three. So without any further ado I give you, in alphabetical order, my Top Seven Freeware and Shareware Mac Applications:

• AppZapper - known as the uninstaller that Apple forgot. I’ve used this application so much that for a period of time I actually had it in my Dock. I really like downloading new applications, having a play with them and then just getting rid of them if I don’t like them. AppZapper lets you do that simply - drag the application to the drop box and hit “Zap”. The application and all related files, folders and preferences for that application will be removed. This feature makes it particularly great for the neurotic, who like to make sure something is removed without worrying about trawling through all of the Application Support and Preferences folders. Space is space - and it all adds up! AppZapper can be purchased for the price of $12.95.
• CSSEdit - style made easy. Now anyone can design beautiful websites easily with CSSEdit’s intuitive approach to style sheets. With powerful editing features and a unique visual approach to editing, you can create the style you want without knowing any of the syntax. You can preview any site, on or offline and using an innovative “Overwrite” function you can apply your style-sheets to anything and see it change in real time. With all of these features, built in validation and more you can become a CSS Pro in no time. CSSEdit is available for $29.95.
• HandBrake - space saver, for the shelf not the hard-drive. I like to take my movies with me when I move around and what better way to do this than on my hard-drive. This is one of the better dvd-ripping applications I’ve come across. Not only is it really simple to use, it’s powerful and good looking. HandBrake comes at a great price of free.
• NewsFire - the ultimate in RSS experience. This application is one which breaks the mould, for me. I’ve not being using it that long but it’s already changed the way I read my news. Before I found this application I didn’t actually bother with RSS feeds. Safari can deal with them okay but it doesn’t really look that great. Bringing style to your favourite feeds you can keep track of all your news. Displaying the amount of new items you have to read right in your Dock, along with grouping of feeds and preferences to customize the look and feel this application is a must for RSS readers. This application is packed with quite a number of features too, which only go to enhancing its usability and usefulness. NewsFire can be yours for a price of $18.99.
• TextMate - one of the must have applications for any Mac developer. While it’s not an IDE, TextMate is extremely powerful by making good use of macros, code snippets and more. The community have also created “modes” to allow support for other major programming languages. To me this looks very clean and minimalist, which is exactly how I want any application to feel. TextMate comes at a price of €39.
• Transmission - a lightweight BitTorrent client. I don’t really have much to say about this application. It has some nice little features, such as setting when this application can download or limiting the bandwidth usage. It has a simple and intuitive interface which runs atop a cross-platform back-end. Transmission is open source and can run on many variations of Linux and of course, Mac OS X (with a lovely Cocoa interface). Being open source, this application is completely free.
• Transmit - ftp the way it should be. By that I mean quick, easy and good looking. I have heard that there are some faster ftp clients for the Mac, I’ve yet to see anything that looks as decent. While the internet isn’t a big truck, uploading files is as easy as dropping them on this big truck in your Dock. You can edit in any remote file, in any application and simply upload them by saving them. With more very useful features, Transmit is easily worth the price tag of $29.95.

It was actually a really difficult process to get down to those applications. These are just some of the fine apps that are made for the Mac and I feel they deserve some praise. I use all of them on pretty much a daily basis. There are only a few odd days where I’m not using one of these applications at all.

So, what made my top three? This was one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make in some time (which goes to show I don’t get out enough). The applications I narrowed it down to are absolutely amazing and have just made using a Mac that little bit nicer for me. I would now like to present to you, my Top Three Freeware and Shareware Mac Applications:

• #3: Growl - grr. Growl is a notification system, which allows any application (which bother to add Growl support) to send out notifications when new information is available from them. Say you’re in Safari and someone emails you, a Growl notification can pop-up from Mail saying who sent it and what it contains. You go to check the email and the item you were downloading in Safari completes, another Growl notification pops-up from Safari saying what just finished downloading. Growl also offers you control over what is shown and what isn’t, so if you don’t want to be alerted of certain events you can just switch them off. It’s also highly customizable, allowing you to choose various styles of alerts along with placement on the screen and colours. Growl is so easy to use, too, as if you start an application which has Growl support it will instantly work and start displaying the notifications right away. As it’s so flexible, powerful and free there isn’t any reason to not have this application installed.
• #2: Quicksilver - I don’t feel that I can quite do justice to how powerful this application really is. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what it can do, as I only use it for simple application launching - even that makes it completely indispensable. For me, pressing F1 and just typing for the application or document I need is much better than filling up my Dock with unnecessary clutter. Quicksilver creates a catalog of your applications and frequently used folders and documents. You can search for any of these by typing in full words or fragments. When not in use, Quicksilver disappears until the next time you need it. The best way to learn all about it is to try it yourself and believe me, there’s no reason not to. Go download a copy now because it is absolutely free.
• #1: Adium - an instant messaging tool. This was actually the very first application I installed when I bought this PowerBook some two years ago. Adium allows users to connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo! and more. You can also chat away with people via Bonjour. Adium makes good use of a plug-in style architecture, where users can customize it’s look and feel from the contact list layout, chat windows to the emoticons, Dock icons and more. It also makes very good use of my #3 application, Growl. Using the notifications you can display when people connect, disconnect and more. While it was difficult to rank my top three applications, as I certainly use Quicksilver more, its more of a nostalgia factor that brings me to say this is my favourite. No matter how you look at it, Adium deserves to be ranked highly among all Mac applications - it is certainly the best instant messaging client out there. Adium is free and due to it being based on Gaim it is also open source.

There we have it, that’s my list. Whilst you may not agree with the ordering or indeed any of my final top ten, you have to agree that they are fine applications. I didn’t actually take price into account with any of these applications, although anything higher than their value means I probably wouldn’t have bought them in the first place. Don’t go thinking that I gave the top three places to free applications, as that’s not necessarily true. I believe those applications have earned and deserve their place at the top of my list. I’ll give anything a try and I’m very happy to play about with new applications when and where they arise, however these are the few that have stuck with me and have been favourites of mine for quite some time (NewsFire being the only exception, but it made it’s way in there quickly). So there we are, my favourite applications for the Mac.

There are some other applications I would like to give some praise to. These applications didn’t quite make the top ten but they certainly deserve a recommendation:

• Alarm Clock - a menu item clock, to get you up in the morning.
• Chicken of the VNC - a fast, lightweight VNC client.
• Colloquy - an IRC client.
• Pukka - scrumptious del.icio.us poster.
• Quinn - a Tetris-like game, with slick graphics.

What do you think about my list? See anything missing or think another app is more worthy? Have your say below.