Commissario
The way I see it, if I've bought an application then it automatically becomes one of my top apps. I must have bought it for a reason and that reason would be because it's good and because it's useful.
So, in no particular order, here's what I've bought since I started using OS X.
*note, you can click on each image to go to the applications home page*
Betterzip
OS X has built in archive handling so why buy an application to handle archives? Betterzip does a much better (no pun intended) job of it. Whereas the built in handler simply unarchives files to the same location as the zip file, betterzip works differently and allows files to be uncompressed whereever one wants. You can drag individual files out of archives and it's just a much more rounded way to handle compressed files. Cheaper than Stuffit and does just as well. There's also the free plugin for Quick Look which lets you look in compressed files using Quick Look within OS X.
SuperDuper!
Time Machine is great but SuperDuper! goes one step further. It creates a bootable copy of your drive so that if your main hard disk fails, you have a replacement that you can just plug in and carry on working. I used it originally to clone my boot disk from the drive Apple supply to a much faster one and it's worked perfectly. I now use it to create an incremental backup of my boot drive on a daily basis automatically.
SteerMouse
I don't like the Mighty Mouse. I have a Logitech MX518 instead and this app allows me to sort out my acceleration and pointer speed to how I want it and to custom program the various buttons on the mouse.
CandyBar
CandyBar allows a lot of customisation into the way OS X works. Its main job is to change icons and although this is possible without using CandyBar it's quite difficult and there are some programs where it's really difficult to change icons. CandyBar simplifies this process and works very well. I've changed a lot of icons within OS X and this application has made it a lot easier for me to make things look even prettier.
CoverSutra
A natty little addon for iTunes, CoverSutra drops an image on your desktop in the form of a CD case with the album art of the track you're currently playing within along with the song/album/artist details. Simple but effective and skinnable so you can change the way the cover art is presented.
VisualHub
Described as "The Universal Video Converter" and this description is spot on. I convert a lot of videos from different formats to import into iTunes and stream to my AppleTV and VisualHub hasn't missed a beat yet. It features h.264 encoding for increased quality and reduced file size and does a fantastic job of converting any video file you care to throw at it.
Little Snitch
This does the opposite of a firewall! Firewalls stop incoming connections but Little Snitch can stop outgoing connections. If an application tries to access the outside world, Little Snitch will pop up and tell you exactly what it's doing and give you various options either allowing or denying the connection for either a limited period or forever. A very useful app if you want to know what's trying to phone home.
VMware Fusion
This application allows one to virtualise Windows and run Windows applications within OS X. It's not great for any fancy 3D accelerated graphics but I use it for certain Windows utilities which have no OS X alternative. I don't use it every day, maybe once every couple of weeks.
All of these applications are used regularly to improve my Mac Experience. They're all very cheap apps (except VMware but that doesn't exactly break the bank) and I can recommend them to anyone and everyone.
So, in no particular order, here's what I've bought since I started using OS X.
*note, you can click on each image to go to the applications home page*
Betterzip
OS X has built in archive handling so why buy an application to handle archives? Betterzip does a much better (no pun intended) job of it. Whereas the built in handler simply unarchives files to the same location as the zip file, betterzip works differently and allows files to be uncompressed whereever one wants. You can drag individual files out of archives and it's just a much more rounded way to handle compressed files. Cheaper than Stuffit and does just as well. There's also the free plugin for Quick Look which lets you look in compressed files using Quick Look within OS X.
SuperDuper!
Time Machine is great but SuperDuper! goes one step further. It creates a bootable copy of your drive so that if your main hard disk fails, you have a replacement that you can just plug in and carry on working. I used it originally to clone my boot disk from the drive Apple supply to a much faster one and it's worked perfectly. I now use it to create an incremental backup of my boot drive on a daily basis automatically.
SteerMouse
I don't like the Mighty Mouse. I have a Logitech MX518 instead and this app allows me to sort out my acceleration and pointer speed to how I want it and to custom program the various buttons on the mouse.
CandyBar
CandyBar allows a lot of customisation into the way OS X works. Its main job is to change icons and although this is possible without using CandyBar it's quite difficult and there are some programs where it's really difficult to change icons. CandyBar simplifies this process and works very well. I've changed a lot of icons within OS X and this application has made it a lot easier for me to make things look even prettier.
CoverSutra
A natty little addon for iTunes, CoverSutra drops an image on your desktop in the form of a CD case with the album art of the track you're currently playing within along with the song/album/artist details. Simple but effective and skinnable so you can change the way the cover art is presented.
VisualHub
Described as "The Universal Video Converter" and this description is spot on. I convert a lot of videos from different formats to import into iTunes and stream to my AppleTV and VisualHub hasn't missed a beat yet. It features h.264 encoding for increased quality and reduced file size and does a fantastic job of converting any video file you care to throw at it.
Little Snitch
This does the opposite of a firewall! Firewalls stop incoming connections but Little Snitch can stop outgoing connections. If an application tries to access the outside world, Little Snitch will pop up and tell you exactly what it's doing and give you various options either allowing or denying the connection for either a limited period or forever. A very useful app if you want to know what's trying to phone home.
VMware Fusion
This application allows one to virtualise Windows and run Windows applications within OS X. It's not great for any fancy 3D accelerated graphics but I use it for certain Windows utilities which have no OS X alternative. I don't use it every day, maybe once every couple of weeks.
All of these applications are used regularly to improve my Mac Experience. They're all very cheap apps (except VMware but that doesn't exactly break the bank) and I can recommend them to anyone and everyone.
Last edited:
