Some OS X Applications and Utilities

Leon just joined the Jaguar set, so here’s a list of handy stuff he, and you, might want to download and install. In no particular order:

1. BBEdit - obviously. You need this.
2. NetNewsWire - the headline reader/weblog editor of choice
3. Transmit - best FTP client I’ve come across
4. LaunchBar - lightning quick files/applications/URLs launcher thingy. Effectively allows you to set custom command keys for everything on your computer on the fly
5. Silk - enables Quartz rendering in Carbon apps (ie, makes things prettier)
6. Audio HiJack - record audio from any application. Handy for recording streams from online radio stations
7. Search Google Service - allows you to search Google for highlighted text in pretty much any applictaion
8. DragThing - too ugly for my liking, but the multiple Dock functionality can be handy
9. MenuMeters - a set of monitoring tools for network activity, memory use, etc.
10. CroniX - an Aqua frontend for cron (in English: lets you schedule tasks without getting Unix under your fingernails)
11. LiteSwitch X - I nearly forgot this one, which is a sign of its brilliance: it’s a keyboard application switcher, and should be part of the OS itself.
12. Ittec - a contextual menu plugin that… does a bunch of cool stuff. As with LiteSwitch X, I’d almost forgotten that it’s not part of the OS
13. SafariNoTimeout - does what it says on the tin. Very handy.

Right, that should get you started Len! There are, of course, about a million and one other things I could mention, so I might add a few more later. I’d also suggest subscribing to MacUpdate’s RSS feed to keep tabs on all the useless crap/exciting new tools out there, as well as Apple’s own downloads feed. If I’ve missed anything essential, do add a comment.

Posted at 3pm on 07/05/03 by Jack Mottram to the mac category.
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