Mac software I can’t live without

Recommending useful software is a common feature of technology blogs, but I thought I’d share with you some programs that I’ve come to rely on when using my Mac. These are general helpful applications, which can help people regardless of what they primarily use their computer for. It’s easy to go down the geek route, but here is a list of easy to install easy to use applications to enhance your computing experience.

Growl (free) and OmniGrowl (free)

Growl (free) gives you notifications on your screen when something notable happens. It’s able to notify you of events that originate in other apps, like Firefox and with OmniGrowl (free) you can extend that functionality to notifying you of the weather, birthdays, flights arriving, etc.

Perian (free) and VLC (free, also for Windows/Linux/etc)

Perian is the Swiss army knife of video codecs. After you install, QuickTime Player will be able to playback almost any type of video. Simple. If what you’re trying to watch still doesn’t work, try VLC (free).

Dashboard Widgets (free)

If you don’t use the Dashboard you’re missing out on a lot. Simply by pressing a button on the keyboard you can view lots of information, make calculations, check cinema times, view weather info, snow reports and even tweet. Personally I use iStat Pro (free, shows you statistics on your computer like CPU and memory info), Twidget (free, allows you to tweet and view the tweets of people you follow), Currency Converter (free) and a handful of built in widgets Apple provide such as the calendar.

Adium (free)

iChat is great but with Adium you can send instant messages to users of: AIM, MobileMe (formerly known as .Mac), ICQ, XMPP (formerly known as Jabber), Google Talk, LiveJournal, MSN/Windows Live, Yahoo! Messenger, Bonjour, MySpaceIM, Gadu-Gadu, Novell GroupWise, Lotus Sametime, Tencent QQ, Facebook Chat and a whole host more with plugins.

AppFresh (free)

Some apps tell you when they have software updates available but AppFresh will search your hard drive for applications and then check to see if you have the latest version. If there is an update it will even direct you to the correct page to download it.

AppTrap (free)

Trying out software on the Mac is great. To install you drag it to the Applications folder and to delete you simply drag it to the Trash. What isn’t as widely known is that programs leave behind preferences and other files. That’s where AppTrap comes in handy; drag the app to delete to the trash and it searches your hard drive for associated files then present a list where you can choose what to get rid of.

Cocktail (from USD $14.95)

Computers can be a bit like cars; from time to time you need to have them serviced to keep them in perfect working order. With Cocktail you can easily perform otherwise complex maintenance tasks outside of the remit of Apples otherwise excellent Disk Utility. Cocktail also allows you to customize look the look and feel of you computer and alter system settings.

BetterZip (USD $19.95)

With the advent of Mac OS X you could expand and compress files without the need of other software such as the classic Stuffit. The operating system can’t decompress everything though and occasionally you will still come across something a little more exotic than your standard Zip file. BetterZip has inherited StuffIt’s crown in my book with it’s easy to use interface and ability to handle zip, tar, gzip, bzip2, rar, 7-zip, cpio, sit and hqx archives.