The following are some of the apps that I install on any new Mac. Currently I’m using Snow Leopard so unless it says otherwise they all work on that version of OS X.
- Adium. Adium is a multi-protocol IM client for OS X and is free. It supports the usual services such as Yahoo, AOL, MSN and Google. Also has support for things like Jabber. I use this all the time for all of my IM accounts and it has proven both reliable and easy to use. It also allows more than one account to any service simultaneously so if you have home and work accounts for example this can be a real boon.
- Parallels. I’ve used VMWare in the PC world for years and with the advent of Intel Macs one of the obvious possibilities was for something along those lines to come along. Parallels is it and I purchased the software within hours of downloading the trial. And that was before it got really good! It allows a range of OSs to be run within an OS X app. I use it mainly for Windows as I have a setup that mimics my work network allowing full access to work related matters from the comfort of my MacBook Pro. And my sofa
. The latest versions have a feature called coherence which allows the Windows apps to pretty much work seamlessly within OS X. I look forward to each revision of this software. - TextExpander. I find myself once again indebted to Merlin Mann for this utility. If you type any amount then you will no doubt have stock phrases that you repeat over and over again. TextExpander allows you to substitute a shorthand “code” for this. An example is the best way to explain, if you write “Respectfully yours, All the best, Drew” a lot (for some reason) then you can enter in TextExpander ryatb and when you enter that stream of text in your text editor or email client it expands automatically into the full text. What’s more they have available for download a set of preset codes that mirror the MS Office Autocorrect entries, useful if like me you type certain words incorrectly on a regular basis .
- TextMate. TextMate is a text editor. I like it. Not going to get into a debate over the best text editor. I use this one for everything that requires text.
- Audacity. Not something I use every day but if I never need to tweak a sound file I will use Audacity. Although it’s listed here as OS X software it is multiplatform and works just as well on Windows.
- Handbrake. For backing up DVDs Handbrake is the best solution I’ve found. Furthermore it is totally free. The software has many built in output profiles including for media designed for AppleTV which is one of the main uses I have. Although multi-patform the OS X version is by far the best in terms of features and ease of use.
- Cyberduck. There are a number of good FTP clients available on OS X but my favourite is Cyberduck. It supports all the expected formats including SFTP, SSH and WebDAV. It also integrates pretty well with Textmate for editing of files directly through the FTP service.
