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Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Don MacDonald — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 00:02:15 -0000

Agreed. Although they're web apps (but they do run on my Mac, so I think it counts), I've found 37signals' Backpack and Basecamp to be the best for to-do's, reminders, and project planning. Their design philosophy is to keep things as simple as possible, so that you can focus on doing stuff instead of fiddling around with all the settings.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

simmondia — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:08:35 -0000

I think it's Twitter integration is understandably weak,so play around with them and then choose what works best for your workflow.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Guest — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:52:03 -0000

The fact that you quote that old saw about there not being much software for the Mac shows that you still believe the trash that Windows fanboys shout because they have no facts. There has always (at least since 1986 when I first started using Macs) been plenty of software for Macs. In addition, that software has either been free or far cheaper than the Windows equivalents.

Listing time-wasters like twitter apps isn't something I would consider productive. No listing real productivity apps like NeoOffice (free) and GIMP (also free) is a disgrace.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

fergielei — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:06:02 -0000

yes llyod you have a point.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Stephan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:18:35 -0000

I use Things for to-do and also sync with a iDevice for being able to always write down my next actions or check my list of actions. In a meeting i'm just writing the actions down and processing them after in Things. It's a fantastic program based the even more fantastic Getting Things Done workflow suggested by David Allen. I feel Dropbox is incredibly easy for sharing low to mid-sized files with anyone, as the program just runs in the background, youre always logged in and you just drop the files in the folder. Quicksilver is also a must have, since you can 'automate' any action you'd like to perform on your mac. It also helps your productivity because you have to think first which program or file you're gonna open and you don't end up opening Firefox for 100 times in a row while you should open Photoshop :) My calender and mail is synced with Google and Mail/iCal apps (also on my iDevice) and works like a charm.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

donnacha — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:46:38 -0000

Yeah, me too, worst app I've actually paid money for, essentially the opposite of a productivity app, it wasted a lot of my time, I wish I hadn't fallen for all the hype.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

donnacha — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:45:17 -0000

You make a good point but I think it's actually more cynical than that: the "pro" blogs don't want to offend possible advertisers, so, they only act as cheerleaders for software, they have no interest in reporting on matters of consumer interest. When Cultured Code closed the Things forum, I thought it would be widely reported by all the Apple blogs, especially given how clear the problems were and how angry hundreds of users on the forums were, but, no, not a peep from any of the blogs.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Pawel — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:44:50 -0000

Hi Donnacha, i agree, wifi syncing is useless. Most of the time you just simply forget to sync it with the desktop app.

I consider Things iPhone app as one of my worst purchases.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

wawak — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:18:09 -0000

Good apps but some are way too expensive. If you're a student like me, I simply don't have the money to pay for these. It's kind of contradictory, I have to work more to pay app to make me productive. Great list but it would be even better if you could find some that are affordable in a college student level.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

wawak — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:15:40 -0000

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

madmilker — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:06:50 -0000

jus using your head works too!

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Garry — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:49:05 -0000

I LOVE MacJournal by Mariner Software. It's a wonderful tool for organizing journal entries, ideas and various media . . . but mostly I love it because it's a great tool for composing blog entries off line, automatically posting them and keeping backups of everything.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Olukay — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:13:01 -0000

Unfortunately no. The Apple-focused blogs are more like (or worse than) apple fanboys. No objectivity in most of the things they write. And before they scream and whine, I'm actually an apple user.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Rob — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:21:36 -0000

I've been a Mac user for many years and I find this article very valuable and insightful. Thank you for suggesting great applications such as Things, Dropbox, Xmarks and Tweetie. I will try out some other apps such as BusyCal. Keep it real.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

George Kriza — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:08:44 -0000

Omni Outliner and Omni Graffle

I use Outliner for my organizer... which is very non conventional, but outline processors rock, and this is the best outline processor going. If you give talks without powerpoints... this is the best tool going, way better than Word.

Then, Graffle for mind mapping, also rocks. Omni makes great applications for a reasonable amount.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

NigelHall — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:51:48 -0000

I think I'd call that a compromise :)

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

CoachDeb — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:28:39 -0000

Nigel - so if a PC turned MAC is a Hackintosh - what would my new MAC Book Pro be if I can now run windows on it as well?

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

dougless — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:53:01 -0000

I personally like Nambu (nambu.com) for Twitter

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Marni Melrose — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:42:23 -0000

Daylite by Marketcircle should definitely be on this list!

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Trace — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:21:28 -0000

Well PC's make nice bookends or doorstops :-) There's your out if you want to Mac!

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Nagumoko — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:15:18 -0000

Overflow is a great application launcher too ($14.95).
http://stuntsoftware.com/Ov...

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

englandnz — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:58:36 -0000

I second Default Folder X. Utterly indispensable and really ought to be incorporated into the operating system.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

dvi-kabel — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:21:11 -0000

Well my DSL downloads at around 150 KB/s, max. There is no way to make that faster, even with breaking it up into smaller chunks. You are only allowed so much bandwith, and I don't see how a download manager could help with that.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

Ashli Norton — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:21:41 -0000

Cool article , I didn't know Mashable covered Mac apps.

For students to be productive there is an app, Cram and another SchoolHouse.

Re: 20+ Mac Apps to Increase Your Productivity

brookwarner — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:35:38 -0000

Not sure if this has been mentioned already, but i really like the Google Search Box - hit Command twice and then type the first few letters of what you want - whether its an app, a google search, an email. And its really powerful - you can open, delete, show in finder, get info - all from within the GSB. and its free!