Mac Software

I’ve not blogged a lot about my mac, but thats not a reflection of the amount of use it’s got :)

In general, this is a fantastic machine – it’s fast, very very stable, and generally a joy to use. The keyboard could be better, but it’s no worse (and in a lot of cases, better) than any other laptop keyboard I’ve used. It just works well. And it looks so pwetty…..

So, one of things I’ve noticed in the Mac space is the software. There are the usual big players – Microsoft, Adobe and co – but there are a lot – and I mean a LOT – of indy developers. And their apps look so good and work so well. Aside from Office (which I never use), I’ve only really been using Indy stuff. So far, so good. Here’s some of them:

Parallels

think of this as VMWare for the Mac. Very clean, very nice, integrates into the OS very very well. I’ve not yet had to use it in anger, but Phil’s been developing out of it for around 6 months, with no issues. VMWare is also coming out with their own Mac product, which will be interesting. $80, but can be had for around $40 just before they release a new version.

Adium

Multi-service IM client. I use it for GTalk. Easy to use, and the duck is really cute :). $Free, open source.

Ecto

Blogging client. What I’m using to write this post. It’s not perfect, especially compared to BlogJet on the PC, but it’s reliable and works well enough. I’d love to see flickr integration….. $18. MarsEdit looks good, too, but my trial time ran out with the last version, so I can’t try the new one :(

XTorrent

BitTorrent / TorrentCast client. Allows you to subscribe to torrent feeds (eg from tvrss.net), and with one click – ala buying something off itunes – and downloads it. Not the best torrent engine, I’m told, but it’s working for me, and makes the whole thing so much easier. $29.

Missing Sync

Windows Mobile Syncing. Yup, it’s activesync on the PC and the missing sync on the mac. Works nicely, pulling contacts from address book, calender from ical (which can pull from google cal), sync over files etc. $40.

ByteController

This is a tiny little iTunes controller. Sits in the “tray” (top right side of the screen), showing play/prev/next. You can assign a hot key to any of the features (I use ctrl-apple-P to play/pause). Nice, as I listen to music on my mac when I’m working on the PC. $ free.

Quicksilver

Not sure how to describe this. I use it as a launcher – hit ctrl-space, start typing the name of an app, document, or function (play, pause etc), and it auto-completes it for me. This means my dock is small – I have 8 things on it. I think I’m only using about 10% of it’s functions tho. $ donationware.

google notifier

Tray app. Tells me how many emails I have, and does calendar alerts. Essential. Nuff said. $ free.

Growl

Notification daemon. Other apps talk to growl, and growl presents those messages to you in the way you choose. Very cool central control. Out of the apps there, ecto, xtorrent, handbrake, google notifier, and adium all talk to it. $ free.

Perian

Recently 1.0′ed. Divx (and other codecs) for Quicktime. Essential. Lets you play divx in frontrow! $ free?

smcFanControl

Not essential but handy. Allows your to control the lowest speed the fan will go (the mac can – and will – speed it up if it needs to). This allows your machine to run slower, at the cost of noise and battery. I have it set high (3800 RPM) when I’m on power, and normal on battery. Machine runs nice and cold as a result. $ donation ware

doubletake

Panoramic photo stitcher. This photo was taken as 5 shots, stitched together in about 2 mins with a small brightness control on one of them. Painfully simple to use. $23.

Handbrake

Converts a DVD to ipod / divx format. Not a lot more to say – works really well, and with a dual core, it does most of it without slowing the rest of the machine down. $ opensource.

SuperDuper!

super easy backup agent. I’ve always had a server (well, for the past 10 years) to back up onto. Now with just 2 macs – and a 100GB external disk – its a little harder. SuperDuper! is really easy – just setup a script/fill out the form (it comes with some good defaults), and it’ll do everything from just my home directory (which is what I use) to everything, making a bootable external partition. I back up to a mountable disk image, as I dont need to boot off it (I hope!), and it does a copy-only-changed-stuff mode, so it takes around 5mins to grab everything I need. $28

Pixelmator

This is a mini-photshop-clone type image editor, using some of the mac’s nice new API’s – coreimage etc. Looks very nice, but not out for another few weeks. I’ll be in line to try – and buy – it when it’s out tho.

iStat

Excellent little desktop widget, showing all sorts of system stats – ip, network, disk, fan speeds, temp’s, etc. Good for a quick look why things are going slowly. donateware.

Billable and Checkout

Not apps I’m about to use soon, tho I may – Billable is good for tracking billable hours, and Checkout is a full POS system, all with the beauty and polish of a mac app. I intend to be in a position to use Billable when we are in the UK, and when we get back.

Some of the things I didn’t need

A mail reader: Gmail + Firefox all the way

A RSS reader: Google reader + firefox all the way :)

All up, these are excellent apps by any measure, and so far, they all work – and work together – really well. Most are around $30 US (parallels being “expensive” at $80). So far, I’ve bought more Mac software than I ever bought for Windows – and I’ve spent less money. Most of the indy publishers seam to have one or two products, and are done my one – or maybe two – developers. I’m not sure if this ecosystem could exist and thrive as much on the Windows platform – not sure why, but Mac users seem to be more willing to try stuff out. Maybe it’s the ease of installation (open, drop into /Applications, run)

give them a try :)