#31: OnyX
URL:
Price: Free
There are lots of utilities that provide graphical front-ends to long lists of Unix commands, so that you can clear caches and fiddle with hidden Dock settings without using Terminal. OnyX is one of them. It doesnt have the most complete feature set, but its closeand free.
#32: Delicious Library
URL:
Price: $40
Cataloging your whole collection of books, CDs, and DVDs could be a nightmare, or it could be fun. With Delicious Library, just wave a barcode for each item in front of your iSight camera and off you gocomplete with a synthesized voice reading you each items name for confirmation. I particularly enjoyed the audio Easter eggs when scanning movies and books from the Harry Potter and Star Wars series.
#33: Cronnix
URL:
Price: Free
Mac OS X should have a built-in way to set programs to run automatically on a schedule. Well, it doesin fact, it has severalbut they all require trips to Terminal and some geek mojo. If you want to use cron, the old Unix standby for scheduling, Cronnix gives you a friendly GUI interface. If you want to use the more-capable and more-modern (but, alas, more-confusing) launch services instead, the nearest equivalent is Lingon (http://lingon.sourceforge.net/, also free).
#34: Google Earth
URL:
Price: Free
See a frighteningly detailed view of almost any spot on the planet, from any angle, from the comfort of your computer screen. That alone would be ultra cool, but you can also find stores, restaurants, and tourist attractions; get driving directions; see 3D buildings; and share comments on your favorite places. Its the best way to develop an addiction to cartography.
#35: MenuMeters
URL:
Price: Free
So your Mac is feeling a bit sluggish. Is the CPU busy? RAM getting full? Lots of disk access or network activity? Find out exactly what you computer is busy doing behind the scenes with a glance at your menu bar.
#36: Salling Clicker
URL:
Price: $24
Turn your Bluetooth-compatible cell phone into a remote control for your Mac. Salling Clicker gives you way more capabilities than an Apple RemoteBluetooth doesnt need line-of-sight, and your phone has a lot more buttons! Plus, your computer can send feedback to your phones display.
#37: Terminal
URL:
Price: Included with Mac OS X
I know Ive mentioned a few apps I love because they eliminate the need to visit the command line. But Terminal is still my friend. It lets me do all sorts of fancy things with my Mac that are either impossible or simply very, very awkward with GUI tools. Sure, it requires you to know a bit about Unix, but all that power is worth it.
#38: Nisus Writer Pro
URL:
Price: $79
Six months ago, Nisus Writer Express would never have even come close to making my Top 50 list. With the release of its successor, Nisus Writer Pro, were finallyfinally!getting back to some meaningful percentage of the features that made the original Nisus Writer so great. Best of all: attribute-sensitive grep find-and-replace, even in macros! You have never experienced word processing until youve used that feature. Now, if Nisus would just add change tracking and comments, it could start posing a serious challenge to Word.
#39: iChat AV
URL:
Price: Included with Mac OS X
Honestly, Im not a big fan of instant messaging. But as IM clients go, iChat AV is my favorite. The support for multi-party video and audio chats, instant file transfer, and Address Book integration are nice. If I could just connect to phone numbers as I can in Skype, well, that would be truly marvelous.
#40: Google Desktop
URL:
Price: Free
Apple wants us to believe that Spotlight is a super-fast, super-accurate search tool, but really, it falls short more often than not. Google Desktop provides faster, more relevant results, and even pulls up the contents of your Web browsing history and Gmail. Sweet.