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Audio
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Bowtie Customisable (themeable) iTunes controller and Last.fm scrobbler. Useful. |
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ScrobblePod Last.fm scrobbler that handles songs played in iTunes and on your iOS devices. |
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Tomahawk Manage all of your music services with one simple app. |
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Spotify Instantly listen to over 15 million tracks online and sync them to your iPod. |
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Breakaway Pull out your headphones, and iTunes pauses. Plug it back in, and it starts again. |
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X Lossless Decoder Decode/convert various lossless audio file formats including FLAC, Apple Lossless, Monkey’s Audio, etc. |
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Audacity Open sources, cross-platform audio editor. Must have for amateur musicians. |
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Songbird Alternative music player and library manager. |
Browsing Aids
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Google Chrome A lightweight, fast browser. Great alternative to Safari. |
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Firefox For Firefox fans who can’t live without it. |
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Opera The only popular browser for Mac that’s available on the Mac App Store. |
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Hotspot Shield Utility to secure your browsing sessions and prevent identity theft or bypass restrictions. |
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CCleaner Finally the Mac version of the essential CCleaner for Windows. |
Dashboard Widgets
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Delivery Status Delivery tracker that alerts you when your package clears custom or is on the delivery truck! |
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CurrencyConverter One of the best currency converter widgets for Mac OS X. Updated frequently. |
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The Weather Channel Widget All the weather information you need right on your Dashboard. Check it out. |
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Countdown Dashboard widget Set the date and time for any event and it will show you how much time you have left. |
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Symbol Caddy Can’t seem to find the Euro currency symbol? Symbol Caddy provides access to all special characters. |
Featured
The apps and services below participate in the MakeUseOf Rewards program. You can exchange your points for a free copy or subscription. Each product has been selected because of its quality, so check them out. We think you’ll like what you see.
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Paragon NTFS Read and write to NTFS-formatted hard drives (like external hard drives used on Windows computer). $19.95 |
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Postbox The perfect desktop email client. Adds loads of features like labels, canned responses, third-party app integration, more. $29.95 |
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deskPDF Creator 2012 Create new PDFs, convert to PDF, watermark and lock PDF documents. $34.99 |
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Crashplan+ One of the best backup solutions for home users. Backup 10 GB od data to the cloud. |
Email Clients
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Postbox The perfect desktop email client. Adds loads of features like labels, canned responses, third-party app integration, more. $29.95 |
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Mozilla Thunderbird If Mail isn’t good enough, try Thunderbird. |
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Gmail Notifier Menubar app that alerts you when you have new Gmail message or upcoming GCal events. |
Photos/Images
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SketchBook Express Free, professional-grade drawing application for Mac. |
Pixelmator Great Photoshop alternative. Extremely capable and easy to use. $29.99 |
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Skitch Skitch helps you to create screenshots and add annotations, then share it with friends. |
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Paparazzi! A useful tool to take screenshots of webpages. |
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Hugin Free panorama photo stitcher, assembles a mosaic of photos into a series of overlapping pictures. |
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HDRtist Create HDR images easily and simply from multiple images with different exposures. |
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Inkscape Open source vector graphics editor similar to Illustrator. Uses the SVG file format. |
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GraphicConverter A fantastic, affordable photo editor that offers many of the features of the big boys. $39.95 |
News
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Fresh Feed Fresh and light menubar feed reader. |
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Pocket An awesome way to read things from the web later. |
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Vienna A fantastic, open-source RSS reader. |
Others
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Paragon NTFS Read and write to NTFS-formatted hard drives (like external hard drives used on Windows computer). $19.95 |
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Transmission The ultimate torrent downloader for Mac. |
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Prey Open source anti-theft solution. Tracks your stolen laptop’s position, photographs the thief, and much more. |
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Cyberduck Open source FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Google Storage and Amazon S3 browser for Mac. |
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iAlertU Uses the MacBook’s Sudden Motion Sensor to trigger an alarm when your MacBook is touched or moved. |
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teleport Seamlessly control multiple Macs with a single keyboard and mouse. |
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f.lux Cross-platform app that automatically tweaks the colour of your screen to suit the time of day. |
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DiskWave Free utility to determine which files and folders consume the most disk space. |
Mactracker Get detailed specifications of every Mac ever made. |
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Transmit Superb FTP client that also supports SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3 file transfers. $35.99 |
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ClamXav A free virus scanner based on the ClamAV open source antivirus engine. |
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Stellarium A free planetarium right in your Mac. |
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Flutter Control your media with gestures using a webcam. |
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Mint Quick View Get a quick idea of what?s happening with your finances. |
Productivity
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TextExpander The best solution for text substitution. Syncs with Dropbox if you have multiple copies. $34.95 |
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Evernote Jot your ideas, memories and thoughts and bring them with you. |
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Wunderlist The desktop client for the one and only Wunderlist. |
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Anxiety Another great, super lightweight to-do list manager. Syncs with iCal and Mail. |
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Bean Free, easy to use word processor. Reads MS Word and OpenOffice documents. |
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WriteRoom Distraction-free, full screen writing environment. |
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TextWrangler Much better text editor than TextEdit. Supports syntax colouring and advance search functions. |
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Stuf The ultimate clipboard manager. Supports clipboard sharing over network. $24.99 |
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LibreOffice Alternative, free office suite. |
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Quicksilver Resurrected, Quicksiler is the best Mac launcher and time saver you’ll ever need. |
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Dropbox Sync and share files with other Dropbox users or mobile devices. |
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SugarSync Dropbox alternative that allows you to sync any folder. Provides a free 5 GB account upon subscription. |
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Do Something When System preference pane that allows the user to watch for certain events and invoke an automated response. |
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Notational Velocity Store notes, thoughts and data securely. Syncs with Dropbox and Simplenote. Open source. |
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Desktop Curtain Temporarily hide the clutter on your desktop. $4.99 |
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Alfred Saves you time searching your desktop and the web. Launch your apps with shortcuts. |
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CloudApp Drop images, links, music, videos and files from your desktop to share them. |
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Keynote Create incredible presentations and slideshows with dazzling effects. $19.99 |
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Noteworthy+ Take notes from your Mac’s menu bar in seconds. |
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Clear A slim, easy to use to do list application. $6.99 |
For Switchers
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Parallels Desktop Easy to use virtualisation app. Allows you to run Windows and Mac OS X simultaneously. $79.99 |
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VMware Fusion Another great virtualisation application. $79.99 |
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Virtualbox Open source, cross platform virtualisation software. Not as easy to use as Parallels or VMware but is free. |
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WineBottler Run Windows apps on OS X without installing Windows. |
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Microsoft Office for Mac Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, and Excel included in the Home & Student suite. $149.99 |
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Wineskin Make wrappers to run Windows software on Mac OS X. |
Social
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Adium Customisable, themeable, multiprotocol instant messenger. |
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Twitter Follow your friends’ tweets and send out your blurts from the desktop. |
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Skype Essential application, especially useful for long-distance teleconferencing. |
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FaceTime Chat with your friends on OS X and iOS face to face. |
Utilities
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Crashplan+ One of the best backup solutions for home users. Backup 10 GB od data to the cloud. |
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The Unarchiver Unarchiver works with just about any type of compressed file. |
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Little Snitch Control and administer connectivity privileges for each of your applications. $29.95 |
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Caffeine Temporarily prevents your Mac from automatically going to sleep or initiating the screensaver. |
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AppCleaner Completely removes all preference and system files when uninstalling apps. |
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OnyX Enables you to configure and tweak hidden parameters of OS X. |
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1Password Great password manager that automatically stores and retrieves online passwords. $39.99 |
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Burn A free and better solution to Mac OS X’s innate DVD recording feature. |
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Carbon Copy Cloner Easily create and backup bootable images of your hard drive in case it crashes. $39.95 |
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Keyboard Cleaner Handy application that temporarily disables your keyboard and mouse, allowing you to wipe it clean. |
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BetterTouchTool Adds configurable gestures to your Magic Mouse and Magic TrackPad. |
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Secrets A database of hidden settings for Mac OS X. More user friendly than OnyX. |
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Lab Tick Control the brightness of your MacBook Pro’s backlit keyboard. |
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Hazel Create folder rules to automatically organise files and run tasks. $21.95 |
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Monolingual Removes unnecessary languages from your applications, saving disk space. |
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Drop Copy The easiest way to send files across your internet network. |
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RPN scientific Easy to use scientific and RPN calculator for your Mac. |
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AppFresh Easily keep all of your applications up to date on your Mac. |
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ixPaste Brings the default copy and paste to another level. |
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Geektool Display various kinds of information on your desktop in beautiful ways. |
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Growl Better notifications for just about any system event. |
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iPartition Easily create and manage partions on your Mac. |
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CleanMyMac Keep your Mac running in tip-top shape with one program. Demo version limits cleaning to 500MB. $29.95 |
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DaisyDisk Disk analyzer tool that visualizes hard disk usage and allows you to free up hard disk space. A trial version is available. $9.99 |
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deskPDF Creator 2012 Create new PDFs, convert to PDF, watermark and lock PDF documents. $34.99 |
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Bartender Organize and take control of your Mac menu bar. $15 |
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SideKick Automatically have your Mac take certain actions at different locations. $29 |
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Memory Clean Purge your Mac’s inactive memory to make it run faster. |
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Found A better search client for Mac that makes finding files easy. |
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SyncMate Expert Keep all of your devices and computers in sync. $39.95 (free version available) |
Video Tools
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VLC Media Player The best cross-platform multimedia player. Ever. |
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MPlayerX Strong contender for VLC Player. Plays almost any media format, sleek user interface. |
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Handbrake The best open source, multiplatform, multitreaded video transcoder. |
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MetaX Meta-data tagger for MP4 files that automatically searches IMDB and tagChimp for movie credits. |
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Flip4Mac WMV Play Windows Media files (WMA and WMV) in QuickTime. |
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Fairmount Decrypt DVD content on-the-fly for archival. |
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Evom For those looking for a simple, one-click video converting solution. |
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XBMC Fully loaded media center for your Mac. |
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MpegStreamClip Play, create, and convert almost any video format. |
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PS3 Media Server Turn your Mac into a full-featured DLNA-compliant UPnP Media Server |
Disclaimer: All applications listed were thoroughly reviewed. MakeUseOf is not responsible for any damage and/or data loss
that might result from use of any of the above mentioned applications.



































































































































Hide 151 Comments
Evom is awesome. I had a ton of videos stuck in .mpg format. I was looking for a free program that would easily batch convert all my .mpg videos to .MP4. That did it.
An Excellent collection, downloaded many on my new MacBook Air, what I liked that most are free and better than paid, Been looking for this for so long, thanks!
thanks for the feedback
unfortunately it hasnt worked in several months now though. they seemed to have stopped development
handbrake is better, i say i converted an AVI file from fraps using it and it sustained if not gained more quality
Thanks. The collection are very good for most Mac user out there. They dont have to buy just for trying out the app. Keep up the good job !!
If …
“Cross-platform app that automatically tweaks the colour of your screen to suit the time of day.”
is really one of the best 100 available – it’s time to switch back to Windows.
Overall though, helpful stuff. Thanks
The notion that anything which doesn’t produce immediate, profitable results is worthless – that has indeed resulted in Windows.
Thinking like that simply dismisses things such as screen brightness and colour as frivolous nonsense. But it’s wrong. These are real, important issues in how a person interacts with a computer. It has been Apple’s attention to this sort of detail that makes working on a Mac so immeasurably more pleasant than working on Windows. You can’t measure it directly. But that’s doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
If that’s of no importance to you, you might indeed just as well use Windows.
thanks for the recommendation, we’ll check it out
You guys should try SwiftRing – little known but I can’t live without it
thanks, will check it out
What is this program do exactly Jimmy?
SwiftRing is officially dead and is no longer supported.
whats the best anti virus software for mac……!!!
check this MakeUseOf article, http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/two-free-antivirus-programs-for-mac-os-x/
Oh, sorry, did you see the part where it said Mac?
The best anti virus for mac is mac os x, lion if it’s possible.
antivirus for mac is useful so we mac users don’t pass along something to our enfeebled windows brethren. also, while rare and difficult to make happen, it is possible to craft a virus (or other malware) for a mac.
happy new year, all!
I use sophos. It’s free and mac friendly
awesome! thanks so much
Thank you very much
+!!!
Excellent info! thanks a lot!.
you’re welcome
gay
Some serious omissions here…
)
- Keynote (the PowerPoint killer)
- Transmit (FTP)
- Timeline 3D (cool presentation of timeline data)
- ClamXav (antivirus – run it once a year or so “just to be sure
- Stellarium (gorgeous, free planetarium software)
- Sweet Home 3D (architectural layout & 3D modelling)
thanks, we’ll check them out
I use ClamXav, myself. I couldn’t tell you if it’s actually working because it’s never triggered a response from a threat, and well, having mac I’m not likely to see a virus for a long time (if ever).
I don’t think Keynote is freeware, though, as it’s part of the iWork suite.
Stellarium. God I’ve been looking for a piece of software like this for years. Thanks!
If you like Stellarium maybe you’d like check out Celestia as well at http://www.shatters.net/celestia/
Celestia is not just a planetarium app, but a kind of “universe simulator” that allows you to travel to other planets, stars or even galaxies. It’s also very useful for educational purposes: I used it for lectures more than once. One of my favourites is flying through Saturn’s rings .. it really looks awesome. Give it a try, it’s free as well.
The default package comes with relatively low-res maps of planetary surfaces and a small star catalog, but you can download hugely detailed maps and a large star DB as well for free, great-looking nebulae and other objects plus all sorts of goodies such as real or imaginary spacecraft / stations etcetera.
The only thing that I’d love to see in there is relativistic effects, because you can now travel with speeds like 100 lightyears / second without even a hint of blueshift
How did Discovr Music not make this list!
This is great stuff.
For the video segment i would recommend Nice Player which is an excellent player for mac if you want to play 1080p@60fps videos, i got a sanyo fh1a and vlc lags crazy when i try to play it, had to use windows to be able to see the clips until i found Nice Player. Here is a link http://code.google.com/p/niceplayer/ to there homepage check it out!
Thanks!
you ugly gay ass niggas
I second that – Nice Player is very nice and light
Yes! I freakin love The Play List. I feel like a futuristic underground dj.
Thanks !
every one i need a help with my computer , i have bought the new lion mac pro and I like same windows games to play here i don’t know is there any software for it , and i have a WD hard drive and I can watch movies but i can’t copy any thing , or past any thing , thank you all
It’s probably because the drive is NTFS meaning you can only read from it
Dude, download mac fuze. If you can, format your external HD to Fat32 so it will read/write to both Windows & Mac OS.
You shouldn’t believe, my co-worker’s step-aunt makes USD80/hr on the computer. She has been without work for 9 months but last month her income was $9023 just working on the computer for a few hours. Read more on this site… MakeCash17.cøm
Thanks for the list!
Thanks for the list!
Hi, nice list OminWriter is a free version of Writeroom and I actually prefer it, worth a mention?
Thanks alot!!
Nice
I miss a clone app like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Clone
Be able to start up from another Mac on a clone might save your day
Then a have a soft spot for Sparrow when it comes to mail app …
MacFUSE doesn’t work on Lion and is no longer in active development. I would recommend OSX-FUSE or any of the other alternatives/patches. It does kinda mess up the Preferences app with its ugly name, but what can you do? It’s functional and useful.
Google Bookmark Single Icons vs Standard Bookmark Listing stinks for Mac OS X 10.6.8
How do I turn the Theme back on for http://www.makeusof.com? I turned it off and cannot turn it back on. I like the web page better with the Theme on.
Hey Efoltz,
I am not sure I understand what you mean. What theme you’re referring to?
Aibek
well that sucked
my iphone 3 is showing imagency dial
What is that? If this is an issue, please ask a question at MakeUseOf Answers.
Activate your iPhone.
A great list indeed. One app I would like to see in the list is MacCleanse- its a shareware, yet highly useful.
How about an application to enable a quick find of the mouse curser / pointer
on large 30″ double screen.
Some years ago I had an app where there were a pair of eyes in the menu bar which looked in the direction that the mouse pointer was residing.
I remember that one from back in Linux days… nice feature though I only think this one only exist on Linux?
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/eyes/id419112727?mt=12
here you go
I’ve used mac’s for quite a long time and this is by far the best collection I have ever seen. The one thing I would like to add is Switch which will convert any music format to any music format including FLAC files.
There are some missing! Where is SMC FanControl and Geektool?
I’m new to Mac-world and love the list! The comments are especially useful with so many “Top” lists out there it’s great to read the endorsements. I’m looking forward to trying many of these.
thank you, let us know about your favorite apps once you have tried them
i wana download free games.,curently i dont hav any games n my mac.,cn u sugest me sum gd webs for games..
The app world is overwhelming so thanks for separating the wheat from the chaff! Good work.
Good collection and I thin Office for Mac is too too expensive
That’s why you buy the Apple alternative…Pages, Numbers and Keynote
Belter webpage mate! great place to look for cool apps!
And zeZebra is now also available for Mac- It’s free and great- Allows to send any kind of file in any size to anyone. And it’s completely free. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!
Omni Sweeper – See what’s hogging all your HDD space
Sorry – Omni Disk Sweeper
Thanks for mentioning that one! I had totally forgotten about that one!
I love macs and I’ve used them for the past 10-years. The selection presented here is awesome. These are all great tools to create multimedia and video production projects. I’m a video producer and editor myself and I’ve used majority of the video tools mentioned. I mostly use Apple’s FCP 7 for editing.
what an excellent list
I simply could not live without Menu Pop and Cinch for productivity.
Keka – like The Unarchiver – but you can make archives for free too! (I’ve used both for years now) Opens 7z, RAR, and just about every other format. Creates half a dozen formats including advanced options like volume spanning and graceful handling of resource forks, etc. Version 1.0 was recently launched, along with inclusion in the Mac App Store.
I second the recommendation for Stellarium. Unbelieveable, free, educational software… and cross platform too!
I feel like “ixPaste” belongs on this list. I bought it a week ago and cannot stop using it. It’s the best app I’ve bought. The developer is insane for only charging $2.99
I bet this will be on the list soon: ixpaste.dev32.net
should get games
I would add ultra copier to this list. Ultracopier’s copy function is similar to total commander for windows. It allows you to copy file(s) without worrying about the whole copy process being terminated by one file in use. So you can easily skip it.
And… It’s free ‘cos it’s open source.
http://ultracopier.first-world.info/
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I spend heaps of time getting many of the aps featured feeling confident of your recommendations.
For email, you should definitely add Sparrow.
thanks this helped
i can’t find the “download” button (I don’t mean on this page) for some apps such as keynote and evernote. Does that mean its currently unavailable
You have two options here. Either to download the apps via Mac App Store, see details here http://www.apple.com/mac/app-store/?id=406056744
Or go to their respective sites and download from there.
Evernote – http://www.evernote.com/evernote/
Keynote – http://download.cnet.com/Apple-Keynote/3000-2075_4-34114.html
excellent info!
best free mac apps.. not in any order for mac newbies
1) vlc player, 2)7zX 3) onyx 4) better touch tool 5) growl 6) set icon 7) backlight 2
8) firefox, chrome, opera 9) team viewer 10) adium, nimbuzz, skype, 11) thunderbird
12) RPN scientific 13) stellarium 14) paintbrush 15) sweethome 3d 16) utorrent/ transmission 17) appcleaner 18) appfresh 19) insomniaX 20) clamxav 21) dupe guru
22) google earth 23) istat pro 24) kindle 25) quicksilver 26) smc fan control 27) the unarchiver 28) get tube 29) tvu player 30) handbrake 31) smart converter 32) wine/ crossover. 33) calibre 34) nook 35) usbcat best screensaver free…1) hyperspace 2) lotsawater 3) skyrocket
4) soundstream some useful widgets 1) pemdas 2) currency converter 3) podunes shuffle
a few really cool paid apps
1) candybar 2) diskwarrior/drive genius 3) dolphins 3d 4) speed download 5) 1password 6) microsoft office 7) notebook 8) facetime 9) screenflow 10) machider
11) watts 12)vmware fusion/ parallels desktop 13) boom 14) salling clicker
forgot to add UBERSTRIKE in the free apps section
i tried the speech synthesis voice peter from acapela infovox ivox. totally fell in love with it… its a 30 day trial… very expensive stuff.. u ppl should try it. lion users get downloadable voice packs. i use snow leopard.
some apps like gimp n blender arent user friendly…maybe cos they were developed to accomplish complex jobs.
GIMP is the way to go. With the improved user interface for mac, the toolbars and menus are now streamlined just like on Windows or in photoshop. For someone with a small screen (like myself), losing track of which toolbar or open project went where is a pain. The new interface is so pretty and productive!
magicmenu 3.0 does a remarkable job. i get to use the entire screen be it on safari, itunes or the finder itself. it lacks a good UI but it still does the job quite well.
windows isnt as bad as you think it is. u get a good antivirus program and you are good to go. and clamxav does detect malicious software. it didnt warn me against macdefender but i doubt any paid av program during the outbreak could.
cant live without BTT.
I’m looking for an app for the iMac for calendar and appointments at a beauty salon with 4 staff. Also to auto email customer appointment times and keep contact details of clients thanks
Daniel, I recommend asking this question over on MakeUseOf Answers.
I would strongly recommend using the iMac’s built-in services:
Address Book.app and iCal.app
Once you’re set up with Address Book and iCal you can use a number of services for auto emailing. Find one on MacUpdate and there’s a list of recommendations at the bottom eg: http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/16998/mailings
Either sync iCal and Address Book to Apple’s iCloud (for safekeeping)..
or sync to a Gmail account for safekeeping and enhanced capabilities like Auto emailing (there’s almost certainly an online service for that).
Otherwise there’s Relationship.app for simple, unified customer management:
http://www.jumsoft.com/relationship/
Or Bento (by FileMaker):
http://www.filemaker.com/za/products/bento/
Or FilemakerPro:
http://www.filemaker.com/
Not for people like me, who always think outside the square.
I downloaded a “Guide to Social Media Marketing” from a Make Use Of e-mail sent to me by your firm. The download will open but will not print. How about sending me a “clean copy” of the document, so that I might print it out, and forever sing thy praises. Thank you.
Ed, I’ve emailed you the PDF, but it probably isn’t any different than the one you downloaded. If that copy fails, please try updating your Adobe Reader, or trying out FoxIt:
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/
MpegStreamClip
http://www.squared5.com/
Excellent free, cross-platform, video conversion.
Thanks for sharing these Simon! They have been added to the list of apps to review for the next revision of this page.
Likewise, Tina
thanks for the suggestions..
I’ve started a list of top tools and essential apps which I take with me when servicing client’s Macs.
I’ll be keeping it updated here:
http://macmatrix.blogspot.com/2012/05/top-mac-apps.html
iPartition
http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php
An alternative to the excellent Apple Disk Utility.app, iPartition includes a huge number of partition types and the ability to write MBR boot code to drives for advanced boot capabilities.
iStat Pro, Diskwave, Stellarium, f.lux NOT AVAILABLE in App Store
Not every app is available through the Mac App Store.
Thanks so much, there are definitely some great alternative programs in here!
We have released an app which is designed to work with Dropbox accounts, making sharing of files using public URLs dead easy (Twitter, IM, e-mail etc). It’s called Swiftdrop, and is available through the Mac App Store (http://itunes.apple.com/se/app/swiftdrop/id520829730?mt=12). Simply drop files and/or folders onto the Dock icon and the app starts uploading to the Public-folder of your linked Dropbox account. When done, you have a publicly accessible link ready for sharing in your pasteboard – simple as that! You don’t even need to have the Dropbox client installed to make Swiftdrop work, you only need a (free) Dropbox account. We hope you’ll love it as much as we do!
great list!!!
should have added HandBreak!
even try Senuti!!!
Yeah, very nice apps! Thanks. But I missed a very cool app, it’s called “Short Menu”. In my opinion it’s the best url shortener for mac! You’ll find it in the mac app store: http://bit.ly/Ju5Dv3
Should check out:
. DaisyDisk
. CleanMyMac
. GimmeSomeTune
. Flutter
. QuickPick (LaunchPad)
. Camouflage
. ScreenFlow
They are awesome!
I’d add to this list UnRarX, an excellent solution for decompressing .rar files.
http://www.unrarx.com/
SideEffects puts color back in the OS X 10.7 Lion sidebar.
The all-in-one installer combines the work of several developers.
Installs SIMBL, ColorfulSidebar and RelaunchFinder.
http://macmatrix.blogspot.com/p/sideeffects.html
Nice list man, thanks
But I think you should add “Quick Web”, it’s a very cool app: http://bit.ly/NTpNqn
i want to recommend Macgo Blu-ray Player Software , the first BD player software in the world.it’s really helpful without any quality lost when playing other video files other than optical discs . hope i can get a free code from them ,could you ask them for a Giveaway
http://www.macblurayplayer.com/
thx
Is there an app like “Freemaker” for windows. It basically lets me convert youtube videos automatically to mp3 files and sends it to my itunes automatically. Is there something similar to Freemaker for Mac?
Damien,
I think the equivalent for the Mac is HandBrake, which is listed under video tools above.
I love this site. You guys have some of the best info on the internet.
What about the RSS-Reader ‘Vienna’. I’ve been using this one for long time now. Great App…!
I’m an Ubuntu user at desktop home, Windows at work, Mac at my portable and Androidat the phone. So, thank you very much for this site!! (as I feel happy with this “babel tower” and have no intentions to change any of them)
My last incorporation was Mac. Searching for open source office suit I went directly to LibreOffice (same as in my Ubuntu). In my new (January/2012) Macbook Air, this soft kept displaying very annoying effects on my screen: the text-line being typed kept messing its pixels arround the screen. Asked in Libre’s web, I got as an answer: “Mac users have learnt to live with this”.
I found “NeoOffice”. Afther a “donation” of 10$ I have a libre-office-like suite on my Mac working very great!!.
I have lots of old kids learning games like Reader Rabbit from the Learning Company. I can’t run these on my Mac Book Pro. Do you have any apps that might help?
Carolyn,
We have a pretty large reader base. Perhaps you can put this question to our wider community at MakeUseOf Answers [http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/]
Great selection!
you guys need to update the Spotify review- it just turned 1 year old for the US users and it’s amazing
Hi Colter,
We regularly review apps. We will do so for Spotify too. Thanks for the feedback.
awesome range on apps found some good ones in there but is there any chance that theres a video recording one for mac because I’m going to america and want to record each day off my mac soooo yeah if there is can you email me
If you are looking for video editors that you can use to finetune your recorded videos, look here at our recent post -
The Top 6 Free Video Editors For Mac OS X
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-6-free-video-editors-mac-os/
i would like to know that if all these apps work on mountain lion?
Excellent collection
My essential iPad app for business is Beesy. It’s a great tool for my everyday life at work. help to sort out and don’t forget a thing on my differents projects. Very useful also in meeting with I can take note and send minutes at the end of the meeting by mail very quickly and easily. http://www.beesapps.com/beesy-ipad-to-do/
zoc6 is the best ssh telnet tool for mac… its on the expensive side. but worth the money
Burhan, it could be, but we feature only free apps here at MUO.
isnap and cheatsheet are also useful
How about doing best IDEs?
One of my favorites is Bartender, a free beta program compared to Broomstick.
Thanks for the recommendation.
I recommend this Timeline Eons app, a graphic representation of the entire natural and human history:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/timeline-eons/id433352152?mt=8&ls=1
I think Numi (http://getnumi.info) worth to be here. The best free calculator on OS X.
I would like to recomand
Forklift … http://www.binarynights.com/
From my point of view THE BEST Filemanager/FTP/SCP/Multirename/Sync tool i have seen so far!
SideKick … http://oomphalot.com/sidekick/
Nice working tool to do a lot of things related to your current location. Things like change default printer, mount network shares, launch or quit apps, …
At first, I thought “There could be more free apps listed here,”
but that is more of a fault to the platform than this list.
Adjusted remarks, this is a great list, but I note that some apps are listed twice
– Also, Dock Spaces would make a great addition to this list
In the utilities section consider adding prosoft’s Drive Genius. Been using it for years to keep my system running smooth. Definitely some apps on this list I will be downloading.
Ccleaner is no longer in beta on mac. Here the link if Ccleaner latest release. http://www.piriform.com/mac/ccleaner
Great collection, although the browser listing could have a few more apps listed.
Lots of good apps (have you been in my application folder
)
i do miss one – GraphicConverter http://www.lemkesoft.com/
Open all strange format you can get. It is also a very good for photo editing but there is a lot nowadays
Great lineup!
Great resource. I just downloaded Monolingual.
Nice, helped me to improve my mac performance!
Sorry to say but Skitch do not belong to “best mac apps” any longer. Version 2 destroyed a lot of the best things. You can still download version 1 from evernote.com but until they fixed it I think one should go fore another app
Thanks for the feedback, Mac! We’ll keep that in mind when the list is revised.
An old list with many retired apps and many new ones not listed, but nonetheless a great starting point for new and experienced Mac owners.
Will,
Are there any specific apps we should remove or that you think are missing? We take suggestions into account for revisions.
wow great job! this is a very well done list I have to say. There are so many apps is hard to narrow them down tough…if you skim videogames and photofilter you’re already halfway tough lol for any finance and accounting needs I found a great list and more here: http://www.mevvy.com/articles/manage-your-finances-on-the-go-and-on-any-device/
I have VLC Media player already, is there any point getting any of the others as well?
Cheers
Of the video tools that is! :S