my favorite mac-tools
Friday, July 21st, 2006since Martin from futurenews.at is currently installing his very first MacBook, I thought I’ld collect some of my favorite Mac-utiltities for him…
Transmit 3 is probably the most popular FTP-client for the mac. it’s capable of all important protocols (FTP, sFTP, WebDav, .mac), integrates well with common text-editors for remote edit, syncs folders and offers a sweet user-interface (including dashboard-widgets and droplets).
strange name, great text-editor: SubEthaEdit is a lean yet powerful editor clearly aimed at developers. features include syntax-highlighting of the web’s most important languages, apple script-support, a UNIX-like command-line utility interfacing with the terminal and awesome collaboration-capabilities, allowing several users to work on the same document simultaneously.
for most mac-users, instant messaging means Adium X. Adium supports AIM, Jabber, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo! Messenger and sports a gorgeous, skinable interface. of course, like all other meta-messengers, Adium lacks support for many advanced features of the IM-networks (and you’ll still need your Skype-client, though this is probably about to change).
iTerm is a neat telnet/ssh-terminal application. besides boring stuff like VT- & ANSI-compatibility, apple script-support and multiple languages, it offers transparent windows and - quite useful - tabbed terminal-sessions.
at first glance Quicksilver, is just a fast search-index for commonly used folders, documents and programs (very much like os-x’ spotlight). when looking closer, Quicksilver offers powerful ways to define actions and scripts which also can be mapped to keyboard-shortcuts.
Butler is an essential desktop-utility providing extra menu-bars, docklets, hot-corners and custom hotkeys. Butler launches applications, manages bookmarks, inserts text-snippets, controls iTunes and runs apple scripts.
Transmission is a simple but efficient bittorrent-client - no bells and whistles, just working unobtrusively in the background. for more features, the java-based client Azureus is the weapon of choice.
VoodooPad is my favorite scratchpad-application. VoodooPad is unique in storing documents as marked up text very similar to html, allowing nested documents, links and the usual html-formatting. moreover, it exports directly to your iPod.
two more-or-less useful scripts utilize the integrated motion-sensor of the MacBook (Pro) in rather innovative ways: while SmackBook Pro allows users to change virtual desktops by smacking the MacBook’s sides’, MacSaber is totally over the top, turning your laptop into a jedi-weapon!
any must-have tools I have missed? you’re welcome to post!
