A few weeks ago, an older article of mine was republished, and in it, I described some of my favorite third-party software. Since it’s a bit dated now, I think it is time to start a new list! I’m going straight to my Applications folder and see what stands out. Here are some of my favorites, in alphabetical order:
Ableton Live 9: https://www.ableton.com/en/live/new-in-9/
I was an electronic music DJ from about 1993 to 2001. When I stopped buying vinyl, I started buying music production software, and Ableton Live was my first purchase. I think I still have my box from their very first version. I’ve just recently upgraded to the brand new version 9 and I really look forward to getting back into making music after a long hiatus. Ableton Live offers a different way to look at live performance and studio production, and the newest update offers some very cool additions.
BBEdit: http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/
This is another program I have been using for many years, since well before OS X. While I have bought and enjoyed competitors like TextMate, I keep coming back to BBEdit for all of my text editing needs. Whether editing system files for work, or doing hobbyist web development at home, BBEdit is my go-to choice, especially since I can trigger it from the command line and easily save files that need root permission to edit. I don’t like word processing. I like text editing.
Carbon Copy Cloner: http://www.bombich.com
This is now my favorite hard drive cloning tool with its ability to create recovery partitions on Lion and Mountain Lion clones. I was happy to pay for it when it became a commercial app. It is worth every penny. SuperDuper comes a very close second.
Pixa: http://www.pixa-app.com
I like to collect images, mostly cool desktop pictures, or sailing photos. While my own photos go in iPhoto, I like to keep track of my found images, and Pixa is a very useful tool. I’m just getting to know it, but I like the interface and the speed. You can use Finder folders, tags, and projects to organize your images.
Plex: http://www.plexapp.com
I use Plex Media Server to serve up video files from my Mac mini to some of my devices in the house or on the road. The Plex client runs on Macs, PCs, Linux, iPad, iPhone, and jailbroken Apple TV. While I probably do more with iTunes and its sharing, Plex offers some unique features that cover a lot of ground that iTunes doesn’t. For instance, I can use it to watch an MKV format video on my non-jailbroken iPad, since the Plex software transcodes it in the mini before sending it over the air to my iPad.
Seasonality Core: http://getseasonality.com/core
As a sailor and road warrior, I like to know the weather. I like cylinder graphs for wind, particle animation for weather patterns, and being able to customize the interface. Seasonality does all these things and is fun to use. There is also an iPad app called Seasonality Go which I also like.
Transmit: http://panic.com/transmit/
Moving files to and from my web server calls for a reliable tool with an easy interface, and Transmit does the job very well. I have tried almost all the graphical FTP tools over the years, and Transmit has long been my number one choice.