My favorite Leopard Applications

It has only been a few days since I’ve started using OS X Leopard as the primary operating system. The OS itself took only a few hours to get used to and be comfortable with. Most of the things looks more streamlined with Mac. But not everything is so rosy though - definitely there is a lack of quality Free applications out there. Yet a few of the good ones I managed to find are enlisted further.

Information Applications

1Password - Password vault
Keeps my software licence information, web logins and other wallet data securely. I bought this application because it has an excellent way to sync the desktop data with the iPhone using Smart Bookmarks.

NeoOffice  - Office Suite
NeoOffice did not run well  on my Mac. I would definitely go for iWorks ‘08 or Microsoft Office 2008. The KeyNote application of iWorks is just too good. iWorks is priced at Rs.3800 and is available at the Reliance iStore in Bangalore. Office 2008 for Mac is yet to arrive in India.

SideNote
I found it better than the default ’stickies’ app. Really useful to take study notes.

TaskPaper
This is a GTD application for Mac. I have been using Lifebalance earlier with my PC and Palm before moving on to MyLifeOrganized and Windows Mobile. Unfortunately MyLifeOrganized won’t be available for Mac. Now the task was to setup a simpler GTD system working with my office laptop, home Mac and iPhone. I evaluated quite a few available GTD apps like iGTD and OmniFocus. Though they are all well executed programs, I could not find a way to easily integrate them with my iPhone. I use the default Notes.app on the iPhone for a lot of note taking and ToDo lists. But having the iPhone Notes data to sync with a Mac application was the issue. Fortunately a good friend from scotland found a way to do that - Sync TaskPaper GTD App with iPhone Notes. I am yet to purchase TaskPaper as the cost is way too high for me. Fortunately the TaskPaper data can be opened in any text editor. I found another application - Things - which is nicely designed and I hope to see iCal Sync / native iPhone client for Things in the future.

Plaxo
My Addressbook and Notes are always synced across home, PC and iPhone using Plaxo. Plaxo integrates very well with the Mac AddressBook.app.

Developer Applications

NetBeans
This is the default Java/Ruby IDE for me.

Eclipse
This is my Android development Setup

Utilities

VMWare Fusion
This is an awesome piece of software - the Guest XP OS installation on Mac was really automated. Just slide in your XP Install CD, provide the registration information and you’re done!. The ‘Unity’ feature which makes Windows application run on the Mac Desktop natively is just way too cool. I think I may be buying this software, wait, for what?!…except for Windows Live Writer, there is nothing that the Mac cannot do.

QuickSilver + RTM plugin
I love to do simpler project management with RememberTheMillk. QuickSilver is an all-purpose tool with a lot of plugins - such as this one for RTM - helping you quickly perform tasks. QuickSilver is a real time saver and you become quite used to the quick Control-Space shortcut for many of the tasks to do on the Mac.

AppDelete
It is a good free application uninstaller for Mac

Jing
I use it to make screen casts. I can’t believe this is free!

Skitch

This is how I take Screen shots. I particularly like the timer in Skitch.

Multimedia Tools

Audacity
I use this to create custom ringtones for my iPhone.

HandBrake
This is a great video converter with iPhone presets.

Wallpaper Clocks

Beautiful! and  takes almost no system resources.

VLC
Plays anything!!

Web Applications

Yahoo! Messenger
Crashes often. But only way to web conferencing with my parents who are on Yahoo! Messenger.

Flock
A great browser alternative. But too bad, not all my favorite firefox extensions won’t work with Flock.

Picasa Web Albums uploader
Waiting for the Google Mac team to release Picasa for Mac this year later. iPhoto for picture management is already working well for me.

Twhirl
This a nicely done Adobe AIR application to post your tweets. Has very good customization options.

ScribeFire
This firefox extension is filling up for Windows Live Writer. I tried Ecto and MarsEdit - but they do not cut it for me.
I like opening the ScribeFire editing window in a new Tab in the browser (Right click on the ScribeFire Icon on the status bar and select).

I am sure, there are other good ones out there. What do you use on your Mac?!