Macintosh (OS X) applications
This list is categorized into the following groups:
System Utilities
Browser Tools
Email Tools
Download Tools
Graphics Tools
Search Tools
Networking Tools
Security / Privacy Tools
Office Applications
Miscellaneous
System Utilities
DockFun! — This is my favorite new toy. Create custom docks and easily switch between them! I hated the Dock in OS X when it first came out (I've been using OS X exclusively since 10.0 Public Beta), but got used to it quickly. This tool makes it much more useful for me; I have a dock with all my graphics programs, a dock for office apps, and a dock for internet tools! TRIALWARE for 30 days, but does not disable any features after end of trial. It's only $19.95 USD if you want to get rid of the nag screens…
Cocktail — a general purpose utility for Mac OS X 10.2 or later. The application serves up a scrumptious mix of maintenance tools and interface tweaks, all accessible via a comprehensive graphical interface and toolset. It is a smooth and powerful utility that simplifies the use of advanced UNIX functions. If you're a true Mac user, you wouldn't want to go mucking about in the Terminal (command line interface); this puts a pretty face on all the commands available to you. TRIALWARE with a restricted free demo mode. Only $9.95 USD for a single user license; $349.95 for a site license.
DragThing — This app's been around for many Mac OS versions, and gets better all the time! It makes items on your Mac such as files, folders, applications, disks, URLs, and even windows, quickly and easily accessible, while taking up very little screen real estate. The main elements with which DragThing enables this speedy access are its docks. DragThing’s docks, unlike the Mac OS X system dock, are highly configurable and you can have multiple docks, customised to suit your specific circumstances. DragThing also allows you to define a huge variety of hot keys. These hot keys can open items in docks, control various other aspects of DragThing and even control the visibility of and switching between other applications running on your Mac. DragThing can also provide you with a Trash on your desktop, play sounds in response to actions like ejecting a CD, and a lot more besides. TRIALWARE with nag screens and some features disabled. $29.95 USD for a single user license; $1000 USD for a site license.
DiskWarrior — a utility designed from the ground up with a totally different approach to preventing and resolving directory damage. DiskWarrior resolves existing disk damage by rebuilding your disk directory using data recovered from the original directory, thereby recovering files and folders that you thought were lost. The directories DiskWarrior creates are also optimized for maximum directory performance. This program has fixed many problems on Macs I've worked on for years, and I still try this before ANY other repair utility is run! Worth the price of admission: COMMERCIAL $79.95 USD for a single user license (boxed copy with bootable CD-ROM).
Déjà Vu — offers an innovative new approach to backing up your files. It's a preference pane that shows up in your System Preferences, and it allows you to schedule unattended backups of important folders, or even your entire system. Replaces rsyncx, Carbon Copy Cloner, and Apple's Backup program (and no need to carry a $99 USD/year .Mac account to use it)! TRIALWARE $19.95 USD for a single user license.
Web Browser Tools
Mozilla — Web-browser built for 2004, with advanced e-mail and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and HTML editing made simple &mdash all your Internet needs in one application. Arguably the best web browser available, it sports a built-in popup blocker, tabbed browsing uses less taskbar space, its standards conformity beats Internet Explorer by a mile, loads pages quicker, and doesn't have 1/100th the security holes! Image Manager lets you control image rendering to block offensive images or to speed up the rendering of web sites. Built-in email client is clean and easy to learn, with built-in anti-spam filters (Bayesian). There's too much going for this program; I can't stop talking about it, and it's at the top of my list of all-time best programs to turn people on to. FREEWARE / OPEN-SOURCE.
SafariSorter — Computers are able to organize things for you. For example, you can throw files into a folder and the Macintosh Finder will display them in alphabetical order. But someone lost the recipe when web browsers were developed, and today most web browsers, Safari included, do no automatic sorting of bookmarks. SafariSorter does the sorting so that organized people like you will no longer have to spend time alphabetizing your bookmarks manually. FREEWARE.
Safari Extender — adds functionality to Safari in the form of a contextual menu item. With Safari Extender you can do things Safari never allowed you to do before, such as Save a complete Set of Tabs, Load a Set of Tabs, Cut and Paste a Tab, even paste it to a different window! You can easily get back to your optimal setup by loading a Tab Set. Or you can re-arrange your Tabs by making a Tab be the first one, or make it the last one. You can also compose an email with the current web address in your browser. Very useful! TRIALWARE; 15 day trial period, and if you like it, it's only $10 USD (per user).
Email Tools
JunkMatcher — filters spam using powerful regular expressions, IP query against multiple blacklists (such as SpamCop.net) and varoius other techniques such as email property matching, HTML final rendering matching etc. You can match against almost every bit of a message (including attachment filenames and charsets), and the raw material for matching is cleaned out for you to defeat some of the tricks spammers use to obfuscate their messages. JunkMatcher works with Mail.app via a rule so it can be used hand-in-hand with Mail.app's built-in (statistical) junk filter. Users can decide what actions to take on the matched messages (mark as junk/read/flagged/colored, move them to Junk/Trash mailbox, etc.). This makes the already strong spam filters in Apples Mail.app program superior to anything I've used on Windows! FREEWARE!
Downloading Tools
Graphics Tools
Search Engine Tools
Networking Tools
Security & Privacy Tools
Firewalk X — is a full featured firewall for Mac OS X. Offering flexible firewalling plus features such as restricting application connections and interactive, real-time alerts. Can work in conjunction with the built-in firewall in OS X, but is MUCH more informative. A bit pricey at $34.99 USD per user, but if you don't have a good hardware firewall protecting your Mac, this is the next best thing. TRIALWARE; you may use Firewalk X in full-use mode for TWO HOURS after each system reboot.
Office Applications
Miscellaneous
Konfabulator — a JavaScript runtime engine for Mac OS X that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to. Widgets can be alarm clocks, calculators, can tell you your AirPort signal strength, will fetch the latest stock quotes for your preferred symbols, and even give your current local weather. What sets Konfabulator apart from other scripting applications is that it takes full advantage of Apple's Quartz rendering. This allows Widgets to blend fluidly into your desktop without the constraints of traditional window borders. Toss in some sliding and fading, and these little guys are right at home in Mac OS X. Lots of eye candy, but some completely useful Widgets are available, with a strong community building more every day. TRIALWARE!
WTF?! — a Mac OS X programm to translate common Internet acronyms. It's a port of BSD's commandline tool wtf, but unlike that tool it's running as a service in OS X and also offers a GUI to browse through all the acronyms and add new ones. Very tiny, and actually helpful! FREEWARE!
WeatherMan X — download current weather conditions, current weather forecast and Nexrad radar images from the National Weather Service to your Macintosh. It has a feature set not found in any other weather program for the Macintosh, including: Sun and Lunar data; Special, Urgent and Severe Weather Statements including Severe Thunderstorm, Tornado, Flood and non-precipitation warnings; monitor as many cities as you want at one time. I love this one, bought it two days into the trial! TRIALWARE; program is fully functional for 30 Days. After 30 days WeatherMan requires a registration code to run (license is only $10 USD per user).