*** The "un-official" Essential OS X Apps thread ***

Syther101

Syther101

Syther101

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Joined
16 Jan 2012
Posts
607
Ok so I've been kinda bored and I've seen we have an iPad app recommendation thread so I thought i'd start up an OS X app thread for the users who might just be switching and for current users to discover new apps they might not have heard of.

I have added Utilities today and kinda underestimated how long this would take to make so I will be adding media tomorrow and so on. I will also add a list of discounts codes I can find for any of the Apps added :).

If you have any personal recommendations let me know and I'll add it to the list.

------- Utilities -------
Bartender30.png
Bartender | £10.25
Bartender is one of the first apps I install on any of my Macs.
If you have a bunch of software like my self you have probably go to the point where your menu bar is getting pretty cluttered.
Bartender tidies up the clutter in a smart way. It lets you hide selected apps, rearrange them, or moving them to the Bartenders Bar.
You can display the full menu bar, set options to have Menu Bar Apps show in the menu bar when they are updating, or have them always
visible in the Bartenders Bar.

Bartender-screenshot.png


http://www.macbartender.com/
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AppZapper32.png
App Zapper | £8.53
So you've just moved to OS X, you've installed an App you don't like and want to uninstall it without leaving clutter behind. For some reason Apple forgot to include this feature in OS X.
But don't worry, AppZapper has your back. Just as simple as dragging an app into your applications folder, and it's installed. You'd think it would be that easy to delete an app — just a matter of dragging it to the trash.
But Apps install support files on your computer that generate clutter. With AppZapper you Simply drag the App you want to uninstall onto AppZapper.
Then, watch as it finds the extra files and lets you delete them with one click.

AppZapper.png


http://www.appzapper.com/
Free Alternative:

AppCleaner
http://www.freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/
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CleanMyMac 2 | £34.95
Every computer needs a little TLC, temporary files build up, log files get long and apps come with junk files you don't need.
CleanMyMac does all this maintenance for you in a nicely designed, fast and efficient package.

- As-well as cleaning up junk CleanMyMac can also uninstall Applications correctly the same way a AppZapper mentioned earlier
- Discover large files occupying disk space you might have forgotten about.
- Manage startup items, clean up your Trash and much more.

CleanMyMac-2.png

http://macpaw.com/cleanmymac

Free Alternative:
CCleaner
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
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1PasswordIcn.png
1Password | £32.93 or £26.35 using a .edu or ac.uk email address
So with more and more website cropping up every day it's hard to remember each individual password and these days it un-safe to use the same password for every site. In this case 1password is a great solution.
With the added in browser plugins 1password will pick-up your passwords as you go along, the next time the same site and need to login with the click of a button 1password will fill-in the login form without any hassle.

- Includes dropbox support for use on multiple machines
- Browser extensions for Safari, Firefox and Google Chrome

1passScreenshot.png
1pass.png


https://agilebits.com/onepassword/mac
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iStat%20Menus.png
iStat Menus | £10.54
iStat menus is the complete system monitoring application which is a must for any power user who wants to see the stats under the hood of their machine.

iStat-Menus.png


http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/
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BetterTouchTool.png
BetterTouchTool | Free
Got a Magic Trackpad or Macbook Pro? Then you need BetterTouchTool. BetterTouchTool enables you to create custom gestures of any kind for your tracking device with the ability to use 1 to 5 fingers you can create gestures for everything.

My prime example for this would be my favorite custom gesture. A simple 3 finger swipe down will minimise the current application under my cursor.

- Includes Window snapping and Windows switcher feature
- Custom gestures and shortcuts can also be setup on your Magic Mouse and Keyboard.

http://www.boastr.de/
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AlfredIcn.png
Alfred | Free
To sum up Alfred simply it's basically Spotlight on steroids. While including powerful local search of Apps and files on your Mac you now have the power to
quickly search the web, contacts, use system commands and much more all from your desktop hidden behind a simply shortcut.

AlfredScrnshot.png


http://www.alfredapp.com/
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XtraFinder.png
XtraFinder | Free
The features Apple forgot. XtraFinder offers vast improvements Finder for a reasonable price of nothing.

- Finder tabs withe the ability to save tab sessions
- Ability to order folder on top of files (Great for Windows users coming from Explorer)
- Arrange itmes by name in Icons view
- Cut and Paste
- "Copy Path", "Show Hidden Items", "Hide Desktop", "Refresh", "New File", "Copy to", "Move to", "New Terminal Here", "Make Symbolic Link", "Contents" and many other added commands.
- and much more.

XtraFinderScrnShot.png

http://www.trankynam.com/xtrafinder/
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TrimEnabler.png
Trim Enabler | Free
Got an SSD but didn't fancy paying Apple tax for one of their "Officially" branded drives? You need Trim Enabler. Natively Apple disables trim on non-apple drives.
Run this App and with a flick of a switch and a reboot trim support will work as expected.

TrimEnablerScrnShot.png

http://www.groths.org/trim-enabler/
*You will need to re-apply the Trim Patch after certain OS X updates so check after each update
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Click to expand...

###Categories to be added and expanded upon###
------- Media -------
- MPlayerX - Free
- VLC Player - Free
- Transmission (BitTorrent Client) - Free
- SABnzbd (Web based Usenet client) - Free
Click to expand...

------- Social -------
- Tweetbot
Free alternative: Twitter App
Click to expand...

------- Apps for Students -------
- iStudiez Pro
- MindNode Lite
Click to expand...
------- Apps for Developers -------
- Espresso (Web Development)
- Coda (Web Development)
- SublimeText (Web Development/Genreal text editor)
- TextWrangler (Web Development/Genreal text editor)
- Dash
- Tower (Github Client)
Click to expand...
------- Apps for Photographers -------
 
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ShortWarning said:
I'm actually quite shocked at the prices for what are essentially tweaks.

(This is coming from a windows user looking to swap over to the dark side within the next few months).
Click to expand...
I think a lot of the pricing is because of
1. The fact that the OS X market is smaller than Windows hence fewer copies will be sold.
2. Allot of the OS X market is older/less tech oriented people who will use a very small variety of apps yet again meaning less copies will be sold.
3. And also for certain apps not a lot of people using OS X are going to be in a large scale business environment so again devs don't make much money off volume licencing.

But I have to say while the apps come expensive a lot of the time the devs put that extra spit and polish in their apps you just don't see in Windows these days.
 
Syther101 said:
But I have to say while the apps come expensive a lot of the time the devs put that extra spit and polish in their apps you just don't see in Windows these days.
Click to expand...

I'm not having that. iStat Menus vs the entire Sysinternals Suite (free) par exemple? Perception vs reality merry-go-round again.

I'm a big fan of aquamacs for OSX. Nice little text editor I've found handy over the years.
 
A random handful that I use reguarly:

Cloud Mate "It's like Finder for iCloud"
gfxCardStatus View/set which GPU is used in dual GPU systems.
aText Cheaper alternative to Text Expander. By the same developer as XtraFinder.
Caffeinated Very nice RSS feed reader (becoming standalone since the announcement that Google Reader is to die).
Decelerate Change (or remove, in my case) OS X's horrible mouse acceleration
DaisyDisk Excellent visual representation of how your disk space is being used
ForkLift Nice FTP/SFTP client
Wimoweh Like Caffeine with extra options. Prevents sleep based on rules.
Radium Stupidly overpriced but very nice radio stream player.
Sublime Text Very nice feature packed text/code editor with minimal GUI. Overly expensive though.
Codebox Code snippet manager
 
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Can anyone tell me why you have to pay for "BetterSnapTool" in the app store, yet can just download "BetterTouchTool" for free? :/ Surely it should be the other way around? You can do more things in TouchTool...
 
Marky said:
Can anyone tell me why you have to pay for "BetterSnapTool" in the app store, yet can just download "BetterTouchTool" for free? :/ Surely it should be the other way around? You can do more things in TouchTool...
Click to expand...

Because SnapTool is an essential. If you are remotely productive with yuor computer it is a totally required piece of software.

I would reccomend SoundBunny - real individual app volume control like Windows has had forever.

HyperDock too. Gives thumbnails of windows when hovering on the dock, again, much like windows. Way better for window management.
 
Most of the apps I use are already covered, but I've just started getting back into webdev and am using Brackets from Adobe. For backing up CDs I use XLD. Burn for burning stuff beyond ISOs. Simple Comic for manga. Textual for IRC. All are open source or free. Including textual. There's a paid version available from the App Store, but if you want it for free, you can download the source from Github and compile it yourself.
 
Divvy looks good but a quick Google for comparisons with BetterSnapTool have brought up Moom, which looks to be the best of both worlds! This said, BST is much cheaper.

EDIT: I purchased Moom, and must say that I'm extremely impressed. When I realised that HyperDock was cheaper and offered snapping, I thought I made a mistake...however, after playing around with how OS X deals with minimised windows and multiple spaces (it will always maximise that window back into its original space), I figured that it would be better to make more efficient use of Spaces and Moom than it would to minimise and use HyperDock (added onto the fact that you can see which windows you have open and minimised for each app by right clicking on its dock icon anyway).
 
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Hxc said:
Because SnapTool is an essential. If you are remotely productive with yuor computer it is a totally required piece of software.

I would reccomend SoundBunny - real individual app volume control like Windows has had forever.

HyperDock too. Gives thumbnails of windows when hovering on the dock, again, much like windows. Way better for window management.
Click to expand...

But I mean the TouchTool does what SnapTool does AND more... For free! :p

I think I'll probably still buy it from the App Store due to the easy updates and supporting the developer for a feature that frankly, should have been in OSX a long time ago :p
 
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