My OSX Essential Apps in 2011

After my issues with the Lion upgrade I ended up wiping the hard drive on my iMac and doing a completely fresh install.

I posted previously about a “spring clean” on a Mac and which applications I considered to be “essential” (and why)

That was almost two years ago, so while it’s still a handy point of reference for me it’s due an update.

So my essential software list in 2011 is probably not that different, but it’s still slightly different:

Evernote – I use it for keeping track of my “todo” lists
DropBox – very handy for sharing files between multiple locations.
Quicksilver – while Lion’s “Launchpad” goes some way towards providing this kind of functionality it’s still not there yet as far as I’m concerned
Skype – I’ve been using this a lot over the last year or so to communicate with industry colleagues.
Microsoft Remote Desktop – for accessing Windows servers ..
Last.fm – I listen to music while working (and playing) so Last.fm is my tool of choice.
Tweetdeck / Seesmic – both are social network clients. Seesmic uses Microsoft Silverlight and hasn’t been “happy” since I upgraded to Lion. Tweetdeck uses Adobe Air and seems to be more stable since the upgrade
Pixelmator – handy for editing screenshots, photos etc
Flickr – the Flickr desktop tool for uploading photos
Blip.tv – for video uploads
iShowUHD – for doing screencasts / tutorials
Video to Flash Converter – one of my hobbies involves films, so being able to convert .mov to .flv is handy for blogging ..
Ecto – desktop blog software.
Mac Update Desktop – very handy utility / service that keeps track of the software you have installed and lets you know when updates / upgrades are available. It also does a good job of managing the downloads and installs.

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