mac apps

I work on a mac. Here are the apps I use in my work. I'll update this list when I start using new apps or quit using old ones.

MEDIA
Vlc. This is a one-stop-shop video player that plays virtually any format.

WRITING
Textmate. The best text editor I've ever found for the Mac.

MacVim (free). The old Unix editor wrapped with a Mac GUI. Edit code without touching the mouse.

Open Office (free). Open-source MS Office replacement.

TextExpander. Allows you to make system-wide keyboard shortcuts that expand into blocks of text. For instance, on my system, typing aaaa expands to my complete mailing address. You can set up shortcuts that work only in specific apps.

Slidepad. Neat little text-editor that slides on and off the screen via a keyboard shortcut. I used it for on-the-fly, temporary notes.

INFO MANAGEMENT
Evernote (free). A fantastic app that lets you keep track of any sort of information. It can sync to multiple computers, the web, and many mobile devices (including the iPhone).

APP LAUNCHING
Namely (free). Allows you to launch any Mac app via the keyboard. It's a lightweight alternative to Quicksilver, which always bogs down my system.

LauncherConfig (free). Launches multiple files at once. I use it every morning to launch iChat, my mail client, my svn client, my ftp client and my Twitter client with one click.

WEB BROWSING
Firefox Browser (free). I await a Mac version of Google Chrome.

Firebug (free). THE must-have Firefox plugin for web developers.

Fluid (free). Allows you turn web pages into stand-alone apps. I use it so that I can easily launch gmail into its own window.

DEVELOPMENT
Flash Builder 4 (formerly Flex Builder). This is my main coding tool. I used to use FDT, which is terrific, but Flash Builder has now outgunned it. Flash Builder is the best AS (and MXML) editor out there.

Aptana Studio (FREE). A one-stop show IDE for HTML, CSS, Javascript, Python, Ruby and PHP. It's Eclipse-based.

MAMP (free). An Apache server for the Mac.

RegExp Tool (free). This is the best app I've every found for testing out Regular Expressions.

DESIGN
Adobe CS4 Suite. Of course.

REMOTE FILE MANAGEMENT
Transmit. My FTP client of choice. It allows you to edit files while they're online.

Syncro SVN Client. Full-featured GUI client for the Mac.

Zumodrive (free for 1GB, $ for more). A virtual harddrive that you can access from anywhere.

Transmission. Solid bittorrent client.

SOCIALIZING
Colloquay (free). All-you-need IRC client.

Tweetie (free if you use add-supported version). Solid Twitter client for the Mac (and iPhone).

EMULATING
Virtual Box (free). Run Windows on the Mac. Like Parallels, but free.

READING
Vienna (free). RSS reader with a build-in Browser.

Tofu (free). Paste text into this cool tool, and it formats the text into narrow columns, which makes online reading much easier. It's the closest you'll get to a Kindle on your computer screen.

MISC
Eigenclock (free). Replacement for the system clock. Includes a dropdown calendar.


Caffeine (free). Lets you temporarily disable sleep, so that your monitor doesn't power down. Useful if you're watching a long video.

Default Folder X. I seriously don't know how I lived without this. It wraps open, save and save-as dialogs inside a feature-packed window containing shortcuts to folders you need to access quickly. You can define any shortcuts you want.