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Whitney just got a new MacBook Pro and is wondering what cool stuff I recommend. Being an avid Mac user, I offer the following list. Items marked with a ($) are not free.
- AdiumX – nice multi-protocol chat (update: with iChat’s support for Jabber, I use iChat now)
- Audacity – great editor for audio when you’re not using Garageband
- Audio Hijack Pro ($) – record Skype calls and any system audio
- BBEdit ($) – best damn text editor there is
- Camino – a better browser than Safari
- Chax – iChat extender
- Conversation – decent IRC client if you use IRC
- CoRD – open source remote desktop client if you use MS Terminal Services
- Cyberduck – great FTP/SFTP client
- Disk Inventory X – find out where your free disk space went
- ecto ($) – do a lot of blogging on lots of blogs? Ecto is a great client.
- Firefox and Flock – for testing and extensions
- gDisk – turn your GMail account into a disk
- Gizmo Project – competitor to Skype
- Gleam – free Flickr uploader for photos
- Google Earth – the world
- Google Notifier – menubar GMail and GCal notifications
- Google Sketchup – 3D software if you like that kind of thing
- Growl – system-wide notifications
- Handbrake – DVD ripper par excellence
- iClip ($) – multi-clipboard tool
- iStumbler – find WiFi access points on the go
- Levelator – for leveled audio
- mAC3Dec – rip any media file with audio into AIFF for use in Garageband
- MacGPG – encryption
- NeoOffice – OpenOffice port
- QuickSpace X – fast MySpace links to common profile tools
- Second Life – for the world that isn’t your world
- Senuti – pull stuff off your iPod
- Skitch – fast, easy to use screenshot maker
- Skype – VoIP client
- Snapz Pro X ($) – screen grabber that can also make screencasts
- Spanning Sync – sync your Google Calendar to iCal and back
- SpyderX – MySpace friend manager
- Stuffit Expander – slices, dices, julienne fries, and decompresses
- Tea Timer – desktop countdown clock
- Transmission – Lean and mean BitTorrent client – can download Rocketboom HD in seconds
- TweetDeck – for Twitter power use
- VisualHub ($) – convert just about anything to anything in video
- VLC – best video player ever
- XCast – kind of neat podcast manager
- XCode – the 900 lb. gorilla of development tools
What tools on the Mac do you use every day that you can’t live with? Post them here!
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