Please note that you may have been redirected (you might like to make a note of the URL in the address bar of your browser and update accordingly) This is a permanent archvie but is no longer actively maintained. Please visit http://joshuaink.com for the latest updates.

Sexy "Free" OS X Apps

Saturday September 3, 2005

I am still, on a day to day basis, a PC user at heart but I love my iBook (now it's all fixed up). Over the months I seem to have collected a good few apps to play with, these are a few of my favourites.

AppleJack

AppleJack knew something was up with my Mac long before my Mac did. Long before the S.M.A.R.T Status in Disk Utility started showing my hard drive as F.U.C.K.E.D, AppleJack was giving me warnings that something wasn't right (Though would the engineers believe me? No of course the wouldn't, I'm a fucking Windows user), so I backed up my data rapid and lo and behold a week or two later, pop went my hard drive (with only days left on my warranty, thankfully). So Applejack is my hero. Press Command + S at the, more annoying than Windows, Apple boot up sound, type "applejack auto restart" at the prompt and go grab a cup of tea whilst it does it's thing.

http://applejack.sourceforge.net/

Synergy

I had Synergy when I first got my iBook but could I work out how to get it going? No, I could not. Then I found an easy to follow tutorial on Engadget and I really haven't looked back. It's made my iBook really useful on a day to day basis; whereas before it was merely used for browser testing and something for clients to go Oooo wasthat? at.

Now instead of a two monitor PC set up: Too my left sexy 19" Formac attached to rather unsexy, but fast as hell, beige box running XP. To my right 'ickle iBook in clamshell mode, running 'ickle Sony monitor. In the middle, one mouse, one keyboard... lurvely.

It's not perfect mind you; you have to remember the ALT key on a PC keyboard is for the command key (Apple) key, and not the Windows key as you might, perhaps wrongly, expect, and not all shortcuts work. But we do get those oh so wonderful features such as a handy hash(#) key, an @ key in the right place and a scroll button on the mouse. Things your diehard PC user just can't live without.

On my wish list is some sort of shared clipboard because the amount of times I have been chatting on Adium(OS X), whilst coding in Dreamweaver on the PC and have gone to cut and paste from one to the other (not possible), with the person at the other end going yes, well where is it, helllloooo? has been once too many.

http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

Paparazzi!

Full screen screen shots save to PNG, I've loved this app longtime, you want it you do, and if you don't you should.

http://www.derailer.org/paparazzi/

Voodoopad

A notepad that behaves like a wiki. Hyperlinked brainstorming? Give me some of that, yes please!

http://flyingmeat.com/voodoopad/

Sidenote

You have sidenote because the pen and paper you had on your desk are never, ever, there when you most need them.

http://www.chatelp.org/?s=Sidenote

Khronos

A very simple but effective project timer and invoice maker, watch those pennies add up; or in my case just get an idea of how long things actually take; I mean without the time needed to read blogs.

http://crewoftheundead.com/khronos/

Oblique and SeeSS

The SeeSS widget I don't use as much as I thought I would but it's comforting to have on your travels. The Oblique widget is just tasty, it holds all the right answers and few good questions too.

http://www.guyd2.com/widget/

Adium X

Every bone in my body wants to punch the little bastard duck's lights out but tabbed chat windows, tabbed chat! It makes instant messaging bearable; and that's coming from someone who as a general rule hates instant messaging. Also the user interface is much nicer than iChat in my humble opinion.

http://www.adiumx.com/

DashOnOff

Do you remember The Karate Kid? Wax on Wax off? Well it's a bit like that, except for Dashboard, and it sits in the "other" bit of you System preferences..errrr, yeah.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/18261

Diablotin

I can't really remember how or why I ever downloaded and installed this but as a PC user with a habit of right clicking (and someone who likes to install and uninstall all kinds of apps), it's handy for tidying up the contextual menus. Because some apps don't always clean up after themselves (and I can never remember the file I am supposed to edit).

http://s.sudre.free.fr/Software/Diablotin.html

Share Points

I haven't really played with this much but it was handy when I decided to run my external hard drive from the Mac and share it with the PC. That's all I can really tell you, handy.

http://www.hornware.com/sharepoints/

NightShift

Update WebKit the HTML rendering engine that runs Safari. It's all automated which is why I like it. Though I can't seem to see a scheduler, anyone?

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27294

CocoaMySQL

For someone who thinks cocoa is a bedtime drink and MySQL is pronounced like a sneeze, CocoaMySQL is a rather handy front end for MySQL. Even I, with my zero knowledge of databases, can manipulate a Textpattern install, easily.

http://cocoamysql.sourceforge.net/

TinkerTool

You want to play with your Mac and so you can, and in relative safety with TinkerTool. Once you're done simply reset to Pre-TinkerTool state and no-one will be any the wiser. So go mad and change the default OS X screen shot format from PDF to PNG, woooo!

http://www.bresink.de/osx/TinkerTool.html

MenuMeters

The tool I love to hate. It's handy to see what's eating up the juice but it also shows me that my iBook is lacking ommph, even stacked full of RAM. Sigh, one day I will have a PowerBook and may even say goodbye to PC.

http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/

ClamXav

I'm a PC user god damn it, I just don't feel comfortable without some kind of anti-virus software to hand. This guy will be quids in the day someone finds a virus on a Mac.

http://www.clamxav.com/

  1. Jon Hicks

    1035 days ago

    Good list. I’m a big fan of VoodooPad and Sidenote.

    Try out Cocoalicious if you haven’t already (if you use delicious that is!)

  2. Matt Robin

    1035 days ago

    This article reminds me of one of those market stall traders calling out the different veg they’ve got out on a table…only…with OS X apps!

    :)

    And how many times did you have to say you are a PC User? (No one’s going to have a dig at you if you are using a PC….well…except for those Mac Nazis out there!! #Laughs #)

  3. Chris

    1035 days ago

    If you’re using del.icio.us (who isn’t?) you might also try delimport. It’s a plugin for Spotlight that indexes your del.icio.us marks.

    Then, of course, there’s Quicksilver. No mac should be without it.

    However; my favorite OS X app is built into the OS and most folk don’t realize it. Open ScriptEditor (Applications/Applescript/), type “choose color” into a new script, save. You now have a very handy color picker. Then go get the HexColorPicker and Painter’s Picker plugins. You now have an even handier color picker.

    Apologies for rambling on. It’s my nature.

  4. Andy Hume

    1035 days ago

    You’re not running Quicksilver?!

    No wonder you’ve not binned your PC yet!

    I have seen a pretty good tutorial for it somewhere. I’ll try and dig it up.

  5. Andy Hume

    1035 days ago

    Have a look at this one maybe:

    http://vjarmy.com/archives/2004/03/quicksilver_a_b.php

  6. Olly

    1034 days ago

    Surely OSX has some sort of scheduler built in – if not, it’s a unix underneath innit, so it’s bound to have the cron command – you can probably use that to run NightShift every erm… night.

    Of course, how the cron system works I know not, I’m a mere XP user ;-)

    Nearly bought a MacMini from Waitrose (!!) earlier though. So cute and no doubt damn handy too. It’s a DVD/CD/MP3/etc player, all in one, and it’s a diddy little computer too! Aceorama!

  7. Chris

    1034 days ago

    Cron for those that don’t have time to read man pages
    Cronnix

  8. Geoffrey Sneddon

    1033 days ago

    OS X fully supports cron. The crontab is located at /etc/crontab.

  9. Ben Ward

    1033 days ago

    I have a few, but the one I’m playing with at the moment is named ‘Witch’ (http://www.petermaurer.de/nasi.php?section=witch).

    It enhances OSX’s ‚åò‚á• and ‚åò` behaviour, giving visual feedback (namely the window title) on the currently open application windows (rather than switching blind). It also has a mode where you can switch between all open windows for all applications (like Windows Alt+Tab). I have that bound to ‚åò‚å•`.

    I’m completely aware that this breaks OSX’s spatial aspirations and the separation of applications and windows, but frankly, it’s dead useful. Well worth a look.

  10. Peter J Lambert

    1033 days ago

    bq. Every bone in my body wants to punch the little bastard duck’s lights out

    Leave the duks alone man.

    bq. I tried Quicksilver but just didn’t ‚Äúget it‚Äù

    Same here.

  11. Stephane

    1033 days ago

    You might try Chmox, a free and open-source CHM file reader.
    So you don’t have to boot your PC to read manuals, help file, ebooks.. :-)

  12. Brian

    1033 days ago

    Take a look at http://www.freemacware.com and you may find a few more you like.

  13. Alison Scott

    1033 days ago

    Networked clipboard—have you tried the very fabulous Spike from Porchdog Software? My PC and Mac are on the other sides of the room and I still find it incredibly useful.

  14. brian w

    1032 days ago

    You can replace the Adium duck with one of the replacement icons from adiumxtras.com very easily. Personally I’ve grown rather fond of having Domokun jump up and down and wave his arms when I get a new message!

  15. Aaron Boswell

    1032 days ago

    Glad you are back!

    On the quicksilver thing…

    For me, there isn’t anything to “get”. If all you use it for is a launcher for apps so your dock doesn’t get overloaded, then it has done its’ job. Now the only apps I have in my dock are those that I still need to drag-and-drop (like acrobat pro instead of reader). I also use it to launch specific documents I use often.

    It also comes in handy as a calculator. When you bring up quicksilver, press the period key and then do your equation. After you tab to the next pane, press “c” and calculate should come up (if it doesn’t, make sure the plug-in is enabled).

    There are some interesting ways of using it over at 43 Folders.

  16. Patrick Haney

    1032 days ago

    Like others have pointed out above, I’m very surprised you haven’t mentioned Quicksilver here. Though, seeing how you’re a PC user mostly, that could explain things.

    Quicksilver is a big reason I’m eager to switch to OS X as my primary platform of choice. If I could afford a new Powerbook to use as my design/development machine, I would’ve switched months ago and installed Quicksilver before anything else.

    Some of the software you mentioned above is new to me, so I’ll take a look and see what all the fuss is about. Thanks for the info in advance!

  17. Andrea

    1031 days ago

    Thanks for pointing out Khronos. I have been looking for something like this for a long time—I am terrible at keeping track of hours by hand.

  18. Chris

    1031 days ago

    You can schedule NightShift by making it run automagically (select all the automatic tick boxes, so it opens, runs, and closes itself). Then use an application like Cronnix to schedule when it should run in the cron jobs. /usr/bin/open will open a Cocoa application, so you would do something like:

    /usr/bin/open /Applications/NightShift.app

    I

  19. pickupjojo

    1031 days ago

    Nice article, thx for all ! :-)

  20. nooon

    1031 days ago

    Great list.
    Thanks!

  21. Alexis

    1031 days ago

    Quicksilver also allows for drag and drop. Command Space, to bring up Quicksilver, start typing the name of the app you want, when the icon pops up for the app just drag and drop any document or folder onto it. You can also use this technique to move stuff. Simply invoke Quicksilver, type the name of the folder where you want to move stuff and then drag and drop.

  22. Joen

    1031 days ago

    John,

    Two things to note:

    * You can do copy & paste across computers using Synergy. That’s what makes it especially useful.

    * Stop using your iBook in clamshell mode. In stead use Screen Spanning Doctor to use it as an extra monitor! It can have that Sony of yours have a greater resolution as well. It rocks.

  23. Sudeep Bansal

    1031 days ago

    You might like to see my list at http://brilliantignorance.blogspot.com/2005/08/essential-freeware-for-mac-user_20.html

  24. jtnt

    1031 days ago

    Instead of CocoaMySQL, I’d recommend MySQL Administrator, straight from the MySQL folks themselves:

    http://www.mysql.com/products/tools/administrator/

    I’d also recommend their Query Browser as well:

    http://www.mysql.com/products/tools/query-browser/

    Both are available in PC and Linux flavors as well.

  25. ryos

    1031 days ago

    I like Butler over Quicksilver.

    http://www.petermaurer.de/nasi.php?thema=butler&sprache=english

  26. Xangaioh

    1031 days ago

    Nice article. I swithed to OSX fully about nine months ago. Some of the programs on your list just made it to my Mac. Good stuff! Thanks!

  27. Zio

    1031 days ago

    I once downloaded a virus on my powerbook. Of course it was a pc virus so it didnt do n e thing but norton still caught it.

  28. Lori

    1031 days ago

    Good list. I am in agreement that Quicksilver may improve your quality of life. Adium is great too. I am a fan of the duck.

    I would add sideTrack trackpad driver (shareware) – you can scroll and custom set all 4 corners of the mouse to keyboard shortcuts. Also SuperDuper! is great for disk cloning and backups to another drive; similar to carbon copy cloner, but prettier. Onyx and Yasu are good for maintenance/housekeeping too.

    I’ve tried sidenote and voodoo pad, but for some reason, i stopped using them, and reverted to my old habit of text edit. I do like Check Off, a to do list for the menu bar.

  29. jank

    1031 days ago

    I’d add MacJournal (http://homepage.mac.com/dschimpf/) ‚Äì handy editor, and will post to most blog sites (blogger, livejournal, etc) as well as blog packages (MT, Wordpress...), if you’re rolling your own.

  30. Sheila

    1031 days ago

    Thank you to Chris for sharing his tip about using the AppleScript Script Editor to create my own App for launching the Color Picker without using some other third party app. I was looking earlier today at Painter’s Picker, as a possible cheaper alternative to Color Schemer, but since it relies on some other app launching the Color Picker, I didn’t see how I was going to be able to use Painter’s Picker with any type of convenience.

    Now you have solved that problem for me! Thanks!

    (I am “new” to Mac OS X since January.)

    -sheila

  31. Alice

    1031 days ago

    I love Growl, it’s the ultimate gobetween for any program that supports it.

  32. Joel Snape

    1030 days ago

    If your annoyed with the startup chime on the macs you can download a free preference pane which lets you turn it down or off from:

    http://alphaomega.software.free.fr/startupchimestopper/Startup%20Chime%20Stopper.html

    Joel

  33. Alex

    1030 days ago

    Mac OS X has built-in screen shot ability. Fool around with these hot keys.

    Screenshot entire screen.
    Command+Shift+3

    Screenshot entire screen to clipboard.
    Command+Control+Shift+3

    Screenshot a specified area.
    Command+Shift+4 then click and drag to select the area, release mouse to complete process.

    Screenshot a specified area to clipboard.
    Command+Control+Shift+4 then click and drag to select the area, release mouse to complete process.

  34. Sheila

    1030 days ago

    Unfortunately, the ColorPicker will not allow me to input my own RGB or HEX values without crashing. :(

    Without that ability, it isn’t much good to me.

    I did install Painter’s Picker, which seems like a really nifty add-on to the ColorPicker. I wish the ColorPicker didn’t crash when I input my own values. :(

    I’ve downloaded Color Schemer instead. I had work to get done and this ‚Äúsimply worked‚Äù. It is anything but ‚Äúfree‚Äù, though...

    -sheila

  35. Anona

    1030 days ago

    “On my wish list is some sort of shared clipboard”

    Wish granted:

    http://www.stupidfish23.com/shadowclipboard/

  36. ylon

    1028 days ago

    I did love CocoaMySQL, but it appears that development has waned and YourSQL has taken its place.

  37. hussain

    887 days ago

    i love google


Christmas gifts?

Beginning CSS Web Development book cover

Recently

The last seven posts made on this site.

Geeky shiteMeta

A proud member