# Sticky  3rd party Mac Apps/Utilities



## PJS

Maybe the moderators/management will sticky this for our ever growing Apple Mac user base.
In this thread, please list your favourite 3rd party Applications/Utilities without which you'd be struggling to cope using vanilla flavoured Mac OS X - yeah, right! :devil:
Anyhoo, I'll kick off with this lot, in no particular order of preference:

*GraphicConverter* - cheap but still powerful alternative to Photoshop
*Flip4Mac* - view WMV encoded clips in your web browser and via Quicktime
*OmniDiskSweeper* - see what's eating up your disk space, and remove it
*Transmit* - upload/download your files to your ISP provided webspace or any other server you have access to
*PictureSync* - upload your images and movies to free hosting sites Webshots, Flickr, and more
*R-Name* - rename multiple files in one fell swoop
*MPFreaker* - gather tags/lyrics/artwork for all those MP3's devoid of them
*MainMenu* - maintenance, cleaning and optimization menu item
********* - control iTunes from the menubar
*OnyX* - tweak hidden elements of OS X
*Xupport* - same as OnyX
*AppFresh* - keep tabs on updates for your growing list of software
*MaxMenus* - make use of the 4 corners of your screen/desktop
*Growl* - global notifications system for OS X
*Perian* - Quicktime component like Flip4Mac, for native viewing of AVI/DivX/FLV and many more video and audio formats
*Secrets* - customize many Mac OS hidden or incomplete settings
*Service Scrubber* - manage your increasing OS X Services Menu resulting from the addition of new software


----------



## RichieLee

hey PJS, would it not be good also to add a very brief explanation next to each app as to what they do? 

I'm going to say

Spotify- great little program that allows you to listen to music for free, 100% legal too as it's streaming not downloading, like listening to a podcast really.


----------



## Neil_S

I'll sticky it, a short description would be very useful, thanks :thumb:


----------



## parish

RichieLee said:


> hey PJS, would it not be good also to add a very brief explanation next to each app as to what they do?


+1

I'm looking for a good video re-encoder - for creating MP4 files from WMV, AVI, etc. - so I can upload videos to my new iPod Touch. Preferably free :thumb:


----------



## swordjo

I like Rivet, lets you stream music and films to your Xbox 360 and PS3 very easily.


----------



## PJS

parish said:


> +1
> 
> I'm looking for a good video re-encoder - for creating MP4 files from WMV, AVI, etc. - so I can upload videos to my new iPod Touch. Preferably free :thumb:


Grab Visualhub (no longer in development) via MacUpdate or Versiontracker.


----------



## Chris_R

Relatively new user, but finding a lot of good stuff out there, just starting to figure out Automator which is very interesting:

Remotetap - For OSX and Iphone, remote control (and wake up) your Mac from anywhere.
Cyberduck - FTP Client
Plex - Xbox Media Centre but for Mac which is way better than Front Row, has plugins for 4OD, BBC Iplayer etc.
Seashore - Paintshop equivalent but open source (free)
Upload to FTP - an automator action so that you can build your own right click scripts from Finder. I have mine configured so that I can right click a file or folder and bang it straight to my webhosting account 
Burn - easy CD burning application
Also a generally handy site for Mac/PC/Linux users alike is http://www.osalt.com - a repository of open source alternatives to all your favorite paid for applications.
Skitch - Screen grabber, edit and publish to a webpage in seconds from not only your Mac, but anything with email access too. Really, really good bit of software and something I wish the PC had because I have to use like three applications to do this one task near enough daily


----------



## JasonRS

Evernote - Note taking & syncing tool, has an iPhone app too. http://www.evernote.com/about/what_is_en/

Curio Pro - Creativity tool, one of the most useful things on my MBP. http://www.zengobi.com/products/curio/


----------



## thehogester

Autorate - This application automatically sets the rating for all tracks in your iTunes library according to how often each track is played, and how often each track is skipped.

http://tzisoftware.com/products/autorate


----------



## parish

PJS said:


> Grab Visualhub (no longer in development) via MacUpdate or Versiontracker.


Thanks - I actually grabbed iSquint (a cut-down version of VisualHub it seems, from the same people) which does a superb job :thumb:



Chris_R said:


> Cyberduck - FTP Client


I tried CyberDuck but didn't get on with it (forget why now ) so I use FileZilla :thumb:


----------



## parish

Another one for the list..

*Audacity* - A *Free* audio editor/convertor. Supports all the common audio formats used in Windows, Mac, and Linux. Convert from one format to another. Edit audio files, e.g. split a "gapless" album ripped as a single file into separate tracks. Similar to Cool Edit Pro


----------



## DubbedUP

VLC... Media Player that will play anything...Even files that you are in the middle of downloading..:thumb:


----------



## JasonRS

Spotify - Webbased audio streaming. Free & Legal

Vienna - RSS reader (free again)

SuperDuper - Disk duplication (Still free...) - a must before any trip away.


----------



## AndyN

http://handbrake.fr/

Encodes videos to many many formats. Has presets for the likes of AppleTV, 360, Ipod etc etc.
It'll also rip direct from DVD.


----------



## Xorro

I use Fetch for FTP.

A good app is nullriver medialink, it allows you to stream media from the mac to your ps3. You can get a free version which works for 30 mins at a time, but the full version only costs 20 dollars anyway.


----------



## *JimmyJ*

Some really good software heads up there guys, im after an app which records any audio which is playing through your speakers on your mac into an mp3 file - any ideas?


----------



## PJS

Audio Hijack, I think.
Check www.macupdate.com for it or similar.


----------



## Grizzle

Mac app store

http://appbodega.com/

It's a really nice piece of kit.


----------



## MarkH

Is this thread for iphone apps as well, or is it worth starting a separate thread?


----------



## PJS

There is one, by myself, but never stickied - use search to find it, should be easy enough.


----------



## philworrall

OpenOfice.org - free office equivalent of MS. :argie:
Skim - PDF reader allowing you to mark up and modify the PDF file. :argie:
Stuffit 12 - a sort of unzipper.
Google sketchup - 2d and 3d drawing made simple
Gimp - photoshop equivalent in capability and power :argie:
Freemind - great help when planning a project or document :argie:
Namemangler - to batch name change files, good for photos
iAntivirus - I've had it running for 12 months without anything being caught yet. Guess that is one of the reasons for having a Mac eh?

BURN or Mactheripper or LiquidCD to rip and burn anything
:thumb::thumb::thumb:


----------



## PJS

Don't bother with the anti-virus software unless you're being particularly thoughtful of fellow Windows users you share attachments with over e-mail/IM.
You won't be harmed with one, since OS X can't execute an Windows executable file (.exe), so all you'll be doing is removing it/not passing it on, and saving them from being a numpty when they just automatically double click on it, without checking the format first.


----------



## egon

Leawo Video converter is very good, converts pretty much any video file to other formats.

Handbrake has already been mentioned, same sort of thing.

Carbon copy is a VERY handy hard drive cloner, and will literally carbon copy your hard drive to a back up drive, much more useful than time machine.


----------



## scottgm

*Coda* - Text Editor / FTP Client, for creating and editing raw html, css, php 
*MAMP* - Sort of a local webserver? - For testing websites,etc
*Microsoft office for Mac* - Nasty WINDOWS computers at uni use office so makes my life easier using it at home.
*Adobe Design Premium CS4* - Photoshop, Illustrator, flash, etc.
*PhotoMatix Pro* - For generating HDR Images

use a lot of others mentioned above aswel.. Handbreak, Spotify, etc


----------



## egon

Undercover. 


Seriously, £40 for software but google it and enjoy the smug feelings...


----------



## nicks500

*ripping CD's*

Rip to get the best possible rips from CD's
Quicksilver app launcher and much more


----------



## cam73

CCleaner from Piriform which has recently come to the OS X platform. I've used it on my PCs for years and find it very useful.


----------



## LeadFarmer

ewallet, a great app for storing passwords and bank card info which can sync between apple devices.


----------



## Clean ocd

( sofaplay )can stream video to smart tvs , game consoles etc


----------



## LeadFarmer

My favourite app is PopClip from Productivity Orchard, which I use multiple times every day. Just highlight a word and a menu bar pops up asking if you want to copy, paste, google search or google map search that word etc. Can also be customised with whatever options you want.


----------



## tommyboy40

If you use your Mac for work then microsoft one note is fantastic. It's free and syncs between all your devices. Dropbox also syncs between devices and integrates into OS.
If you need a pro video playback system with on the fly aspect and colour correction then Playback Pro plus is good, expensive but good.
Transmission as a bit torrent client

And for god sake turn on find my Mac and find my iPhone


----------



## Willis55

Hi I'm new here. Thanks for all the inputs! I've been a Mac user since 2011 and so far, so good. I haven't had any problems at all. And of course being an iPhone user, it helped a great deal with backups and smooth synchronization.

For my data files, I go for this Mac data recovery software. These are just some of its features:


An easy-to-use interface with clear instructions to guide users
The option to recover deleted data, data from a corrupted hard drive, data from a deleted partition, data from a formatted hard drive, or simply data that has gone missing
The ability to save a single file, multiple selections of files, or the entire contents of the drive
The ability to preview various types of files such as photos and documents to check if they are the right ones before recovery
Dedicated help channels such as email response and live chat via a website
The option to recover data from USBs, SD cards, and even digital cameras and phones





:

Hope this helps! :wave:


----------

