4 ms·

10 Mac Apps I Can't Live Without

26 points by subpixel 17y ago

yan 17y ago
Instead of using 'Witch' to command+tab between windows and apps, I actually find the built-in method of switching far easier to use: Command+Tab switches applications, Command+` switches windows within an app. And bundled with my probably favorite OS X shortcut to un-minimize windows[1], I don't see a need for added utilities. [1] If you Command+Tab into an application that's minimized, it won't be restored, unless: Command+Tab into the minimized application, and while holding down Command, press Option, and then let go of Command; your window will spring back to life. This sounds and feels awkward at first, but quickly becomes second nature. (I use my left hand thumb+ring finger to Command+Tab, then I just move ring finger from Tab to Option, and let go of Command)
- tortilla 17y ago
  Wow, awesome. I never knew you could restore a minimized window with just the keyboard (without the aid of another app). Previously I just never minimized any windows, electing to hide them instead.
- ugh 17y ago
  It’s really a shame that OS X doesn’t have a consistent shortcut for switching tabs. It’s ctrl+tab for Safari but not Terminal. – edit: scrap that, only true for at least those using German keyboard layouts, not everyone using US keyboard layouts (and others?) (Cool thing, though, for all these commands is that you can simply switch direction by throwing in shift.)
  - yan 17y ago
    It does have a consistent shortcut: Command+{ and Command+}. Works in every app that has tabs.
    - ugh 17y ago
      Sorry, I’m using a German keyboard. Didn’t actually think of that – the German keyboard layout seems to get you inconsistent shortcuts. (Now I know why the terminal has those weird command+Ö and command+Ä shortcuts, Ö and Ä are presumably where { and } are when you use the US keyboard layout. Those pesky umlauts. By the way, { and } are alt+8 and alt+9 – also where the normal brackets are when using shift – on a German keyboard. Oh, and command+Ö or command+Ä totally don’t work in Safari. You have to use ctrl+tab.)
      - riobard 17y ago
        My friend is using a German keyboard on his MBP. He is thinking about buying a wired Apple English keyboard and exchange all the key caps with the MBP and then use English keyboard. Not sure if this will work, but then the keys will be white instead of the default black ...
    - jcoby 17y ago
      it doesn't work in textmate (cmd+opt+<- and cmd+opt+->). seems to work in almost every other app though.
      - yan 17y ago
        Hm totally forgot about this one. This does work in Safari and Terminal, but doesn't in MacVim. Cmd+{/} work in all three. I guess pick the shortcuts that cover the largest subset of apps you care about.
    - marchdown 17y ago
      Sadly doesn't work in Chrome, Textmate or Papers.
  - melling 17y ago
    This works in both apps, and many other apps. Cmd-shift-} Cmd-shift-{ It even works in the version of emacs that I use.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
rbanffy 17y ago
> Caffeine – When activated stops your Mac going to sleep! Great for presentations or watching your “on demand” TV shows. Seriously, you need an app for that?!
- danudey 17y ago
  Most (well-behaved) apps that need this (Keynote, Powerpoint, VLC, Quicktime, DVD Player) will tell the system not to go to sleep when they're doing something relevant. Caffeine is for when you're doing something like watching Hulu, but even then you can enable hot corners in the system preferences to handle this for you. VLC (at least in the past) has been kind of a dick about it; it tells the system not to go to sleep or blank the screen whenever it's running, whether it's playing a video or not. Dunno if they've fixed this yet.
- whyme 17y ago
  Seriously - I do! It's great. I can leave my preference settings alone and conserve my power & screen life with a single click on the mac bar. Plus you gotta love the little coffee cup that switches between empty and full. :)
troystribling 17y ago
I would add MultiClutch to the list http://wcrawford.org/2008/02/28/everytime-i-think-about-you-i-touch-my-cell/ http://wcrawford.org/2008/02/28/everytime-i-think-about-you-.... It allows you to define custom gestures for any application. I was thinking of switching to jitouch http://www.jitouch.com/ http://www.jitouch.com/. Anyone know how they compare?
- wtallis 17y ago
  I haven't tried MultiClutch, but from what I can find on the web, it looks like it lets you re-define what the built-in gestures do. This is fairly useful, although it has the downside that apps that are designed with the multitouch gestures in mind lose that functionality. jitouch doesn't change any of the built-in gestures; it just adds a bunch of new ones, and lets you configure those. I find this to work quite well, because many of the gestures (both the standard ones and the jitouch ones) are very intuitive defaults. (eg. the pinch zooming and the rotating. Re-defining these seems like a kludge.) Now that jitouch lets you define character-based gestures, such as drawing an S with two fingers to perform the equivalent of cmd-S (Save), you can get your touchpad to do a lot of stuff without needing to resort to esoteric gestures.
  - HaloZero 17y ago
    BetterTouch is a good too, it's pretty active development as well.
jcsalterego 17y ago
> If the original title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective, we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids." http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html It's okay to downmod me for getting too meta. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
nat 17y ago
These sort of lists always kind of amaze me. I don't think I use 10 mac apps total. Chrome, iTerm, Mail, iCal, Adium, Twitterrific, iTunes, uh...Unix? I guess that last one is kind of a multi-parter, but still. Are the apps in the article addressing problems that don't really exist, or will I just put up with anything?
nkm 17y ago
As I posted at the OP: My essentials: - SizeUp + Cinch - TextMate - Quicksilver - iStat menus - TextExpander - The Unarchiver - Growl - Perian - Movist Also, for webdevs: - WebKit nightly - ImageOptim - Colors.app - Transmit - xScope - CSSEdit - Sequel Pro - Changes.app - Reggy - GitX
- tvon 17y ago
  Curious, any particular reason for colors.app vs Digital Color Meter?
  - nkm 17y ago
    The Custom Formats. Colors.app can both input and output color values in multiple formats (Hex, RGBA, HSL... you can even create your own), making much easier working with colors between Photoshop and CSS. It's basically a nice interface for the system color picker. I discovered this app not long ago in one of the comments in the following article; which covers other little gems too, definitely worth reading if you're into front-end design: http://www.macstories.net/reviews/spot-color-use-mac-os-x-color-picker-as-a-standalone-app/ http://www.macstories.net/reviews/spot-color-use-mac-os-x-co... (sorry about the delay, it's hard to keep track of conversations here! :)
tlrobinson 17y ago
Yup, I use just about all of those. Also: http://blog.tlrobinson.net/post/360281269/installation-log http://blog.tlrobinson.net/post/360281269/installation-log
sant0sk1 17y ago
I'm a big fan of Sequel Pro (mentioned in the comments), and use it daily. http://www.sequelpro.com/ http://www.sequelpro.com/ I'm waiting for a high quality MongoDB GUI to take its place though ;)
btipling 17y ago
Pixelmator. It's amazing, it's like Photoshop only $600 cheaper and I think it even has a better user interface. Can't live without it.
- tvon 17y ago
  I'm a fan of Acorn myself, but the suitable-for-most-uses Photoshop alternatives that have cropped up over the past few years are great.
grayrest 17y ago
There's an iphone simulator that comes as part of newer versions of xcode that's a much better environment for testing how web pages will work on the iphone. Things like touch events and the semi weird float behavior didn't work in iphoney last time I tried (admittedly 2007).
christefano 17y ago
There's a 25% discount for Path Finder right now. The discount code is LADRUPAL and it will work until the end of April, 2010. Read more about the deal at http://knurl.us/url/66zpaut http://knurl.us/url/66zpaut

26 points by subpixel 17y ago

yan 17y ago

Instead of using 'Witch' to command+tab between windows and apps, I actually find the built-in method of switching far easier to use: Command+Tab switches applications, Command+` switches windows within an app. And bundled with my probably favorite OS X shortcut to un-minimize windows[1], I don't see a need for added utilities. [1] If you Command+Tab into an application that's minimized, it won't be restored, unless: Command+Tab into the minimized application, and while holding down Command, press Option, and then let go of Command; your window will spring back to life. This sounds and feels awkward at first, but quickly becomes second nature. (I use my left hand thumb+ring finger to Command+Tab, then I just move ring finger from Tab to Option, and let go of Command)

tortilla 17y ago
Wow, awesome. I never knew you could restore a minimized window with just the keyboard (without the aid of another app). Previously I just never minimized any windows, electing to hide them instead.
ugh 17y ago
It’s really a shame that OS X doesn’t have a consistent shortcut for switching tabs. It’s ctrl+tab for Safari but not Terminal. – edit: scrap that, only true for at least those using German keyboard layouts, not everyone using US keyboard layouts (and others?) (Cool thing, though, for all these commands is that you can simply switch direction by throwing in shift.)
- yan 17y ago
  It does have a consistent shortcut: Command+{ and Command+}. Works in every app that has tabs.
  - ugh 17y ago
    Sorry, I’m using a German keyboard. Didn’t actually think of that – the German keyboard layout seems to get you inconsistent shortcuts. (Now I know why the terminal has those weird command+Ö and command+Ä shortcuts, Ö and Ä are presumably where { and } are when you use the US keyboard layout. Those pesky umlauts. By the way, { and } are alt+8 and alt+9 – also where the normal brackets are when using shift – on a German keyboard. Oh, and command+Ö or command+Ä totally don’t work in Safari. You have to use ctrl+tab.)
    - riobard 17y ago
      My friend is using a German keyboard on his MBP. He is thinking about buying a wired Apple English keyboard and exchange all the key caps with the MBP and then use English keyboard. Not sure if this will work, but then the keys will be white instead of the default black ...
  - jcoby 17y ago
    it doesn't work in textmate (cmd+opt+<- and cmd+opt+->). seems to work in almost every other app though.
    - yan 17y ago
      Hm totally forgot about this one. This does work in Safari and Terminal, but doesn't in MacVim. Cmd+{/} work in all three. I guess pick the shortcuts that cover the largest subset of apps you care about.
  - marchdown 17y ago
    Sadly doesn't work in Chrome, Textmate or Papers.
- melling 17y ago
  This works in both apps, and many other apps. Cmd-shift-} Cmd-shift-{ It even works in the version of emacs that I use.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

rbanffy 17y ago

> Caffeine – When activated stops your Mac going to sleep! Great for presentations or watching your “on demand” TV shows. Seriously, you need an app for that?!

danudey 17y ago
Most (well-behaved) apps that need this (Keynote, Powerpoint, VLC, Quicktime, DVD Player) will tell the system not to go to sleep when they're doing something relevant. Caffeine is for when you're doing something like watching Hulu, but even then you can enable hot corners in the system preferences to handle this for you. VLC (at least in the past) has been kind of a dick about it; it tells the system not to go to sleep or blank the screen whenever it's running, whether it's playing a video or not. Dunno if they've fixed this yet.
whyme 17y ago
Seriously - I do! It's great. I can leave my preference settings alone and conserve my power & screen life with a single click on the mac bar. Plus you gotta love the little coffee cup that switches between empty and full. :)

troystribling 17y ago

I would add MultiClutch to the list http://wcrawford.org/2008/02/28/everytime-i-think-about-you-i-touch-my-cell/ http://wcrawford.org/2008/02/28/everytime-i-think-about-you-.... It allows you to define custom gestures for any application. I was thinking of switching to jitouch http://www.jitouch.com/ http://www.jitouch.com/. Anyone know how they compare?

wtallis 17y ago
I haven't tried MultiClutch, but from what I can find on the web, it looks like it lets you re-define what the built-in gestures do. This is fairly useful, although it has the downside that apps that are designed with the multitouch gestures in mind lose that functionality. jitouch doesn't change any of the built-in gestures; it just adds a bunch of new ones, and lets you configure those. I find this to work quite well, because many of the gestures (both the standard ones and the jitouch ones) are very intuitive defaults. (eg. the pinch zooming and the rotating. Re-defining these seems like a kludge.) Now that jitouch lets you define character-based gestures, such as drawing an S with two fingers to perform the equivalent of cmd-S (Save), you can get your touchpad to do a lot of stuff without needing to resort to esoteric gestures.
- HaloZero 17y ago
  BetterTouch is a good too, it's pretty active development as well.

jcsalterego 17y ago

> If the original title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective, we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids." http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html It's okay to downmod me for getting too meta. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

nat 17y ago

These sort of lists always kind of amaze me. I don't think I use 10 mac apps total. Chrome, iTerm, Mail, iCal, Adium, Twitterrific, iTunes, uh...Unix? I guess that last one is kind of a multi-parter, but still. Are the apps in the article addressing problems that don't really exist, or will I just put up with anything?

nkm 17y ago

As I posted at the OP: My essentials: - SizeUp + Cinch - TextMate - Quicksilver - iStat menus - TextExpander - The Unarchiver - Growl - Perian - Movist Also, for webdevs: - WebKit nightly - ImageOptim - Colors.app - Transmit - xScope - CSSEdit - Sequel Pro - Changes.app - Reggy - GitX

tvon 17y ago
Curious, any particular reason for colors.app vs Digital Color Meter?
- nkm 17y ago
  The Custom Formats. Colors.app can both input and output color values in multiple formats (Hex, RGBA, HSL... you can even create your own), making much easier working with colors between Photoshop and CSS. It's basically a nice interface for the system color picker. I discovered this app not long ago in one of the comments in the following article; which covers other little gems too, definitely worth reading if you're into front-end design: http://www.macstories.net/reviews/spot-color-use-mac-os-x-color-picker-as-a-standalone-app/ http://www.macstories.net/reviews/spot-color-use-mac-os-x-co... (sorry about the delay, it's hard to keep track of conversations here! :)

tlrobinson 17y ago

Yup, I use just about all of those. Also: http://blog.tlrobinson.net/post/360281269/installation-log http://blog.tlrobinson.net/post/360281269/installation-log

sant0sk1 17y ago

I'm a big fan of Sequel Pro (mentioned in the comments), and use it daily. http://www.sequelpro.com/ http://www.sequelpro.com/ I'm waiting for a high quality MongoDB GUI to take its place though ;)

btipling 17y ago

Pixelmator. It's amazing, it's like Photoshop only $600 cheaper and I think it even has a better user interface. Can't live without it.

tvon 17y ago
I'm a fan of Acorn myself, but the suitable-for-most-uses Photoshop alternatives that have cropped up over the past few years are great.

grayrest 17y ago

There's an iphone simulator that comes as part of newer versions of xcode that's a much better environment for testing how web pages will work on the iphone. Things like touch events and the semi weird float behavior didn't work in iphoney last time I tried (admittedly 2007).

christefano 17y ago

There's a 25% discount for Path Finder right now. The discount code is LADRUPAL and it will work until the end of April, 2010. Read more about the deal at http://knurl.us/url/66zpaut http://knurl.us/url/66zpaut