Here’s a list of 20 applications that allow you to create blog posts from the comfort of your operating system environment, no internet connection required.

Mars Edit 2: Mac

Mars Edit is among the most popular desktop blogging apps for the Mac. It supports all of the major blogging platforms such as WordPress, Blogger, and Drupal and even many of the newer ones like Squarespace and Tumblr. Composing a blog post in Mars Edit can be as simple as writing an email but there are enough advanced features like macros (reusable snippets) and TextWrangler integration to keep professional bloggers happy.
Price: $29.95

Flock: Mac & Windows

I know this doesn’t strictly fit the category of a desktop blogging app, but it is a desktop app and it does have blogging integration… so there. Flock is the most unique web browser I’ve ever come across and is absolutely worth checking out. The thing that makes Flock unique is that it has integrated tons of the services you use online into the browser itself (by default). This means you can browse the web while keeping tabs on your social networking and blogging services. The built-in blog editor isn’t as fully featured as Mars Edit, but as a free utility bundled in a browser it’s pretty impressive. Check out all the services Flock supports below. Price: Free


Flock Services

Ecto: Mac

Ecto is a surprisingly fully featured blogging application with support for a ton of platforms. Ecto features include both a rich text editor and an HTML editor, full local control of recently posted entries and drafts, and the ability to convert and scale images. In my own testing Ecto seemed a bit rough around the edges but it’s definitely a good alternative to Mars Edit if you’re looking for something a little cheaper.
Price: $19.95

Qumana: PC & Mac

Qumana is another free option with most of the necessary features we’ve already discussed: WYSIWYG and HTML editor, support for most major blogging platforms, and local control of previous posts. What sets Qumana apart is its emphasis making money with your blog. Qumana lets you easily include ads in your posts so you can (theoretically) earn cash as viewers click on the ads.
Price: Free

Blogo: Mac

Blogo breaks ground in the interface category by delivering a slick, minimal UI for updating your blog. Blogo supports Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, Typo, Drupal, Expression Engine, Twitter, Ping.fm and more. Notable features include a bookmarklet to easily grab content from your browser, a fullscreen editing mode and easy drag and drop photo uploading/resizing.
Price: $25

MacJournal: Mac

MacJournal is geared more towards private journaling than professional blogging, but it does include full support for LiveJournal, Blogger, Movable Type, and WordPress. MacJournal takes full advantage of OS X by offering features like Quicklook integration and iSight compatibility.
Price: $39.95

BlogJet: Windows

BlogJet is one of the nicer Windows-only options that I came across. BlogJet sports a ton of great features including posting to multiple blogs simultaneously, Flickr and YouTube integration, file sharing/attachments for your readers to download, and browser/feed reader integration. And of course, support for WordPress, TypePad, Movable Type, Blogger, MSN Live Spaces, Blogware, BlogHarbor, Squarespace, Drupal, Community Server, etc.
Price: $39.95

RocketPost

Another really impressive Windows only app, RocketPost claims to be the “only one with WYSIWYG editing, full local editing and full blog import.” RocketPost boast tons of top notch features like automatic linking to related posts, quote tracking, quick linking, auto save, instant photo album creation, and scheduled posts. If you’re on Windows and are serious about blogging, this may be the way to go.
Price: $29

And a Bunch More!

After you’ve listed the features for eight desktop blogging apps, things start to get redundant. So I’m going to stop there and let you check out the rest. The apps above are the ones I found particularly impressive or unique, but here’s another 12 that are definitely worth looking into.

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1. Adobe Creative Suite
An obvious and primary requirement (I feel) all serious web designers should have. I couldn’t get through the day without Photoshop while Illustrator and Flash are constantly called upon. I hear Fireworks is good too, especially for compressing images, but I’ve yet to use it myself.

2. Transmit
Transmit is an FTP client for Mac. Edit remote files, synchronize, search, SSL, tabs; it covers all your daily FTP needs.

3. Coda
Coda is a light-weight all in one text editor. You can edit your code, preview your web page, upload to server (integration with Transmit), edit CSS and run commands in Terminal; all from within this one app. I would use Coda for front-end development.

4. Textmate
Textmate is another text editor that I prefer using for back-end development. Code completion, snippets, syntax colouring are some of the things I enjoy about Textmate along with ease of customizing fonts and colours.

5. CocoaMySQL
CocoaMySQL gives you an interface to work with your MySQL databases. This is a desktop alternative to PHPMyAdmin, which is a lot quicker and in my opinion a lot easier to operate.

UPDATE 13/12/08: CocoaMySQL has been abandoned and replaced with Sequel Pro. Works just as well and looks even better. Check it out.

6. MAMP
MAMP is an easy way to get Apache, MySQL and PHP up and running on your machine. Just by running MAMP all these three services will be up and running, no messing around in Terminal needed.

7. Things
Great app for getting things done. Set yourself project tasks and daily tasks and check them off as and when you get them done.

8. CSS Edit
A very good CSS editor. It allows for real time previews of your website and styles and is a very efficient app allowing you to easily find all styles being applied to certain elements.

9. Transmission
Transmission is used for downloading/uploading torrents over the net. Useful for sharing files with friends and colleagues (among other things)

10. MarsEdit
MarsEdit allows you to compile draft blog posts on your local machine before publishing them live on your blog. I use it daily to take notes on various blog topics I think of and then I can easily compile a blog post over the course of a week.

11. Skitch
I was only recently introduced to this by GoodOnPaper @ FOWA. Allows you to easily share images/screenshots on the web and using the Skitch editor you can add notes to your image or highlight areas of a screenshot. Very useful and saves having to load up Photoshop for simple tasks.

12. Parallels Desktop
You can run Windows XP or Vista on your Mac using Parallels. Handy for being able to test your websites in versions of IE (using Multiple IEs) and if there are any Windows only apps you need to use, e.g. Microsoft Access.

13. Office
A good old favorite for creating text documents, preparing slideshows or looking after sets of data. There are a few Mac alternatives, and of course online alternatives, but I personally prefer Office.

14. Paparazzi
Paparazzi takes full screenshots of webpages. The problem with Cmd+Shift+3 is that it only takes a screenshot of the visible screen. Paparrazi takes the whole height of the page, even below the fold, so it’s great for showing screenshots of your web designs.

15. Twitterific
Easily interact with Twitterland via Twitterific. Saves you having to make the trip to Twitter to see what’s going on as it can retrieve and send tweets for you.

For example, to configure settings for the TextEdit application, open it from your Dock or the Applications folder, then from the TextEdit menu, choose TextEdit Preferences. Other application preferences can be configured in similar fashion.

The System Preferences pane controls system-wide settings (“global” settings), and is available from the Apple menu at the upper-left corner of the screen. System Preferences lets you to adjust things like your screen resolution, keyboard and mouse control, sound, and more. Read on for more information about using System Preferences.

Optimize Your Keyboard, Mouse, and Trackpad

We all type, point, and click differently. That’s why it’s important to make sure that you optimize your keyboard and mouse or trackpad, if you’re using a MacBook or MacBook Pro for your movements. Here’s how to do this.

Customize Your Keyboard

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
In the System Preferences window, click Keyboard & Mouse.
Click the Keyboard tab. These controls allow you to set the keyboard sensitivity for how fast you type.
To control how quickly a key types its character repeatedly when held down, move the Key Repeat Rate slider left to slow down the rate, or right to speed it up. You can use the text field in the middle of the window to test your setting.
To control how long you can hold down a key before it starts repeating, move the Delay Until Repeat slider left to allow a longer delay or right to shorten it.
If you want to reassign the modifier keys on your keyboard (Control, Option, Command, and Caps Lock), click Modifier Keys. In the dialog that slides down, you can change which modifier is assigned to what key, or disable a key altogether. For example, if you keep hitting Caps Lock by accident and wind up typing in ALL CAPS, choose No Action from the Caps Lock Key pop-up menu. Click OK when finished.
If you’re using a MacBook or MacBook Pro and want to use the F1-F12 keys on your keyboard to control other application features, select the checkbox—you’ll need to press the Function (fn) key along with any F1-F12 key to perform a key’s default hardware function.
Optimize Your Mouse

Your Mouse preferences settings may differ, depending on what kind of mouse you’re using.

Open System Preferences and click Keyboard & Mouse to display these preferences.
Click the Mouse tab. These controls let you set the mouse sensitivity to control how fast the arrow flies across your screen when you move your mouse, and adjust for your double-click reflexes. Other controls may be available, depending on the type of mouse you’re using.
To control how fast the arrow moves across your screen when you move the mouse, move the Tracking Speed slider left to slow it down, or right to speed it up.
To set your computer’s reaction to your double-click speed, move the Double-Click Speed slider left if you tend to click slower, or right if you’ve got an itchy trigger finger.
If your mouse has a scroll wheel, you can set its scroll speed using the Scrolling Speed slider. You can also change the mouse’s primary button if you’re using something other than an Apple single-button mouse.
Optimize Your Trackpad

Portable Mac users can change the speed and functionality of their trackpad

Open System Preferences and click Keyboard & Mouse to display its preferences.
Click the Trackpad tab. These controls let you set the trackpad sensitivity to control how fast the arrow moves across your screen when you move your finger across the trackpad, and also adjust for your double-click speed.
To control how fast the arrow moves across your screen, move the Tracking Speed slider left to slow it down, or right to speed it up.
To set your computer’s reaction to your double-click speed, move the Double-Click Speed slider left if you tend to click slower, or right if tend to click faster.
If you want to add double-click functionality to your trackpad, select the Clicking checkbox below Trackpad Gestures. You can also select the Dragging and Drag Lock checkboxes if you’d like to drag items using the trackpad.
Change Your Screen Resolution
You may want to use a high resolution so you can see more files, folders, desktop items, and view graphics at the best possible resolution. Or you may prefer a smaller resolution. Here’s how to adjust your screen resolution.

This MacBook Pro display provides a maximum 1440 x 900 resolution, but also supports several smaller resolutions.

Open System Preferences and click Displays to display its preferences.
Click the Display tab; your display’s supported resolution settings are listed in the Resolutions pane, from the lowest to the highest resolution.
Select any of the choices to change the resolution. A lower resolution gives you less desktop space to display windows and interfaces, but these will also appear larger. A larger resolution maximizes your screen space, letting you see more of a photo or document, and can help you manage applications whose interface elements span multiple windows.
To adjust your screen’s brightness, move the Brightness slider left to make it dimmer, or right to make it brighter.
Change Your Sounds

Open System Preferences and click Sound to display its preferences.
To change the alert sound, it plays when your Mac wants to get your attention, click the Sound Effects tab, and select a sound in the top list.
If you want to hear sound effects play when you do other things in the Finder, such as when you drag stuff to, or empty, the Trash, or remove items the Dock, select the “Play user interface sound effects” checkbox.
To change the overall volume of sound effects, move the “Alert volume” slider left to turn the volume down, or right to turn it up.
To adjust the overall volume of your Mac, move the “Output volume” slider left to quiet things down, or right to crank it up. If you’d rather have your Mac be quiet, select the Mute checkbox.
To adjust the sound balance for your internal or external speakers, click the Output tab, select your speaker device from the list, and move the Balance slider left to skew the stereo sound mix to the left channel, or right to hear more from the right channel.
Customize Your Keyboard Shortcuts
Your Mac has plenty of functions and commands that can be triggered by a simple keyboard shortcut, pressing two or three keys simultaneously to perform an action.

Look in any menu. For example, click the File menu in the menu bar, and you’ll see a list of functions and commands, as well as a two- or three-character code to their right. These are keyboard shortcuts. Most shortcuts are made up of one or two modifier keys (Command, Option, Control, or Shift) and another key. Here’s what modifier keys represent:

You don’t have to stick with the keyboard shortcuts that are already assigned for your Mac. You can customize many of the functions with your own key combinations.

You can dictate which keys to press to make your Mac perform certain tasks in the Keyboard Shortcuts pane.

Open System Preferences and click Keyboard & Mouse to display its preferences.
Click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab to display a list of some of the system-wide menu commands whose shortcuts you can change.
To change any item, double-click on the actual shortcut, the characters in the Shortcut column, and press your preferred key combination to enter it in the text field.
To change the keyboard shortcut for any unlisted system-wide or application-specific item, click the plus (+) button.
In the dialog, choose All Applications or a specific one from the Application pop-up menu, and type the exact name of the menu command that you want to change in the Menu Title field, look in the menu to view the exact name.
Type your preferred keyboard combination in the Keyboard Shortcut field, and click Add.

Change Your Computer’s Sleep Habits
To conserve energy, all Macs have the ability to sleep. That is, when you haven’t used your computer for a set amount of time, the computer enter a low-power mode until you wake it by using it. Sleep doesn’t turn off your computer; it merely puts it into an inactive state that consumes less power. Waking your Mac from sleep is faster than waiting for your Mac to start up after a shutdown.

This is especially helpful for conserving battery life on MacBook and MacBook Pro computers. But sometimes you may need to alter your computer’s sleep settings, such as when you’re burning a DVD—if you’re not interacting with your Mac during this time, it could go to sleep during the process. Or, you may want to have your Mac go to sleep earlier than scheduled. Here’s how to change sleep preferences.

Set the Sleep Time

Open System Preferences and click Energy Saver to display its preferences.
Click the Sleep tab.
Move the sliders for both the computer and display to change the times in which they go to sleep.
Click the Options tab.
Select any other options you want, such as wake options, in the panel.
Customize Your MacBook or MacBook Pro Sleep Habits
If you’re using a portable Mac, you can set different sleep times for your battery and power adapter use.

In Energy Saver preferences, choose Power Adapter or Battery from the Settings for pop-up menu.
To change the sleep times for your power source choice, either move the computer and display sliders to change the sleep time, or choose one of the energy presets from the Optimization pop-up menu.
Schedule Sleep or Shut Down
You can also automate when your Mac goes to sleep and wakes up, or shuts down and starts up. If you want to put your Mac on a set schedule:

In Energy Saver preferences, click Schedule.
In the dialog, select the “Start up or wake” checkbox.
Choose a scheduled interval from the top pop-up menu, for example Every Day or Weekdays.
Set a wake up or start up time in the field to its right.
Select the bottom checkbox and from the pop-up menu to its right, choose either Sleep to have your Mac automatically sleep and wake on schedule, or Shut Down to make your Mac automatically shut down and start up on schedule.
Choose a scheduled interval from the next pop-up menu, for example Every Day or Weekdays.
Set a sleep or shut down time in the field to its right.
Click OK.
Change Your Language
Your Mac is set to display the language for the country in which you bought the computer. In other words, if you bought your Mac in the United States, your Mac is set to English. If you bought your Mac in France, your Mac understands French. But if you prefer to use a different language, you can.

If you bought your Mac in the U.S. but English isn’t your preferred language,
you can switch what language your Mac speaks via drag-and-drop.

Open System Preferences and click International to display its preferences.
Click the Language tab.
In the Languages pane, drag your preferred language to the top of the list.
Restart your Mac or log out and log back in to apply the language throughout your system.
Set Your Media Preferences
When you insert a CD or DVD into your Mac, we told your Mac what it should do. For example, when you insert a music CD, iTunes automatically opens so you can listen to it. When you insert a DVD, DVD Player opens so you can kick back and watch.

But you don’t have to stick with our assumptions. You can tell your Mac what you want it to do when you insert a prerecorded CD or DVD, or a blank disc.

You can tell your Mac which applications, scripts, or actions to take when you insert media

Open System Preferences and click CDs & DVDs to display its preferences.
The top two pop-up menus let you decide what your Mac should do when you insert a blank CD or DVD. By default, both menus are set to “Ask what to do”; this action opens a dialog. You can change it to open your choice of application, open Disk Utility, run a script, or simply ignore it.
The bottom three pop-up menus let you choose what your Mac should do when you insert a music CD, picture CD, or video DVD, respectively.
Change Your Date and Time
Your Mac has the ability to automatically set the correct date and time, or you can choose to set these manually. You can also decide how you want the time and date to display on your Mac. Here’s how to set these preferences.

Open System Preferences and click Date & Time to display the preferences.
Click the Date & Time tab.
If you always want your Mac to set the date and time automatically, select the “Set Date & Time automatically” checkbox, choose your location from the pop-up menu to the right, and skip to step 7. A network connect is required.
To set things manually, or if you don’t have a network connection, deselect the “Set Date & Time automatically” checkbox.
To manually set the date, click on the month, day, or year in the field above the calendar to select it,. Either use the up or down arrows to change the value, or type in the information. Or, click on the correct date in the calendar graphic, to change the month use the left and right arrows.
To set the time, click on the hour, minute, seconds, or AM/PM in the field above the clock to select it. Either use the up or down arrows to change the value, or type in the information. Or, click and drag the hands on the clock graphic to the correct time.
Click the Time Zone tab and either click your approximate location on the map or choose the city closest to you from the Closest City pop-up menu.
To change the way the clock displays on your Mac, click the Clock tab. In this pane, you can select whether to display the time and date in the menu bar, and whether it will be displayed in digital format, or as an analog clock face. Seconds display and additional options are available.

Fortunately, there are several third party solutions that save you the work of hunting down and deleting all these stranded files. Here’s a quick rundown of six of them, let us know which ones you use!

 

Amnesia

Amnesia

Amnesia is a feature rich solution that uninstalls applications, screen savers, dashboard widgets and preferences panes and their associated system files. It also comes with a built-in backup function that lets you restore any files that you may have deleted accidentally and lets you create a list of “Untouchables” that the application will warn you about before deleting.

Amnesia features a drag and drop interface as well as the option to view all installed applications, widgets, etc. in a list within the application.

Price: $9.95
Developer: Koingosw
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

 

AppCleaner

AppCleaner

AppCleaner is one of the best uninstall solutions out there. Simple drag and drop interface will take care of applications, widgets, plugins, and preferences along with their associated files with a smooth rotating cube animation.

Turning the SmartDelete option on will allow you to simply drag applications to the trash to receive an option to eliminate all associated files. Additional features include built-in lists to sort through your apps, automatic updates, and a customizable protected applications list. Best of all, it’s completely free.

Price: Free
Developer: Free Mac Soft
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

 

AppDelete

AppDelete

Though not as refined as AppCleaner, AppDelete is a great utility that effortlessly deletes applications, widgets, plugins, and preferences and any associated files. Drag and drop or select from list, hidden file support, auto detect apps thrown in the trash (if AppDelete is open), history logs, and undo delete.

Price: $5
Developer: Reggie Ashworth
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

 

AppTrap

AppTrap

AppTrap seeks to be a seamless solution for deleting apps in OS X. Instead of a standalone application, AppTrap is a preference panel that runs in the background. When you throw away an app, you get a simple dialogue asking if you want to delete the associated system files as well. If you’re looking for full integration and minimal effort, this is your best bet.

Price: Free
Developer: Markus Magnuson
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

 

AppZapper

AppZapper

AppZapper “zaps” your applications into oblivion with an easy to use drag and drop interface. After dragging an app to the window, you’ll see a list of associated files. Simply uncheck any you wish to keep and hit the zap button. Additional features include a log of all zapped files and the ability to keep certain apps safe from zapping. The best feature? It plays a (very) cool laser sound effect when you delete an app.

Price: $12.95
Developer: Austin Sarner and Brian Ball
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

 

CleanApp

CleanApp 3

CleanApp is by far the most advanced uninstall application I found. As soon as you open CleanApp it begins searching your Mac for applications, preference panes, and archives. It then organizes these files into searchable, categorized lists.

Like the other apps listed above, you can drag and drop an unwanted application into the interface and delete it along with any associated system files. If “logging” is turned on, CleanApp will track any new files created by a given app and include those in the delete menu along with the system files.

DeleteApp has several other options for keeping your Mac clean as well. It can analyze a specified directory for disk usage statistics, identify old files (those that haven’t been used in a while) on your Mac that you might not need, search for bulky cache files, and eliminate unnecessary language files and universal binaries from a specified application.

CleanApp even comes with a handy dashboard widget with similar functionality. Finally, CleanApp gives you the option to archive any deleted apps in case you wish to reinstall them at a later time.

Price: $13
Developer: Synium Software
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

 

CleanMyMac

Extra: CleanMyMac

Not sure how we missed this one the first time around! Take a look at our review.

If you’re suffering from a sluggish Mac or a lack of hard drive space, CleanMyMac is definitely worth looking into. It’s capable of freeing up space through slimming Universal Binaries, removing unnecessary language files, deleting old caches and logs, and various other miscellaneous files.

At the very least, it’s worth downloading the trial to see how much space could be freed up.

Price: $29.95
Developer: MacPaw
Requires: Mac OS 10.4 or later

Conclusion

After briefly using all of the applications listed above, I have two personal favorites. If you like lots of features and don’t mind dropping a few bucks, I recommend CleanApp. It goes way beyond simply deleting apps to an all-in-one way to keep you Mac trim and tidy.

If you’re looking for functional and free, I recommend AppCleaner. It’s a great app that runs smoothly and gets the job done whether you prefer to drag apps into the interface or straight to the trash can.

Two additional applications that you might want to check out are uApp and Yank. uApp is no longer in development and Yank isn’t yet compatible with Leopard. For these reasons I did not include them in the above list.

There’s something for everyone, whether you’d like to show Expose in slow motion, quickly empty your Trash, automatically save text to a sticky note or zoom in and out of your screen.

The Basics

This is the first set of the 10 most useful shortcut keys on Mac that you really need to get a hang of to be productive in everyday use. 

• shift + apple key (command) + delete – empty trash
• ctrl + n – new mail window (in Mail application)
• shift + apple key + d – send mail
• apple key + w – close active window
• shift + apple key + left/right arrow – tab navigation in Safari browser
• mouse drag and drop + hold option – copy file
• mouse drag and drop + hold option + apple – create alias (shortcut)
• apple + space – on/off spotlight (search)
• apple + tab – switch to another active app
• apple + q – quit active application

This section is all about programs that can be used to work with files and applications

1) AppFresh
Software updater is great for Apple applications, but appfresh has the ability to check thrid party apps for updates. A great little tool for keeping upto date.

2) AppZapper

Although applications are easy to uninstall on a mac there are usually small preference files hanging about. Appzapper cleans up an uninstall all of those files.

3) Disk Inventory X
A simple program that scans your disk and visually shows what files takes up how much space, good to visualize if you are running out of space and you have some size hogs.

4) Grand Perspective
Very similar to Disk Inventory X, shows you what files take up how much space on your website.

5) OpenPlist

A very cool little tool if you need to end up editing Plist files.

6) Quicksilver
One of the best applications ever made for the mac. Its a quick launch tool that enables you to open and do practically anything. Very fun and really increases your productivity.

7) Stuffit
An application design to unstuff or unpack nearly any file. Create if you use archives a lot.

8) TextWrangler
A very cool text editor that lets you edit text files quickly. Sometimes more powerful than text edit.

9) TidyUp
An application that enables you to search through a list of files finds duplicates. Great if you have many files and you need to organise them.

10) Todos

Leaves no application behind. A very visual way to view all of the applications on your computer. Kind of surpassed by the stacks in the dock.

11) UnRarX
UnrarX gives you the abilty to easily uncompress .rar files. Very good, although stuffit can now handle .rar files.

12) Xslimmer
Give your mac a diet. It goes through and removes the powerpc or intel parts of your program. It can really reduce the size of applications. Can also break them if you are not careful.

Internet

This section is all about applications that use the internet or this type of connectivity in some way.

13) Adium
A simple all in one AIM, chat client. Supports, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and many other through the use of plugins and basic support. It does lack some functionality in some chat protocols.

14) ApGrapher
A great little program that offers the ability to find information about the wireless networks whizzing around your head.

15) Azureus
One of the best bittorrent clients out there. Has lots of user extensions through the use of plugins.

16) Colloquy

A really powerful application that can be used for the IRC networks. Special care has been taken in this application to make it blend in with the rest of the Mac OS theming.

17) CSSedit
A must for any web developer. CSSedit offers the best tools around to help you edit and modify CSS code for you webpages.

18) Cyberduck
A small lightweight application for ftp. Has some small niggles, but it is free. Transmit is better if you use ftp a lot.

19) Firefox
One of the best web browsers around in my opinion. Has a massive add-on library which you can customize to your needs. A viable alternative to safari.

20) iStumber
I found this a great small application that enabled you to view wireless and bluetooth networks quick and hassle free.

21) LittleSnitch
The application that snitches on any application that is trying to access the net to phone home. Great for protecting you privacy.

22) Netnewswire
A very popular RSS client for the mac, nuff said.

23) Skype
Offering superior calls over the internet, it is the application if you do a lot of talking and want a good quality transmission.

24) Transmission
A light weight bittorrent application that is gaining popularity. Its personal choice at this point of transmission verse Azureus.

25) Transmit
A great application from Panic that will feature a couple of time in this list. It is a powerful application for ftp uploads and downloads.

26) Undercover
A piece of software that dials to the undercover servers if you computer has been stolen. Great if you use a laptop, less useful on a desktop.

27) Unison
Another piece of panic software that enables you to use the usenet newsreader networks. A really good piece of software if you use usenet a lot.

28) Vidalia
A GUI controller for the Tor anonymity network. One click on, one click off, simple and easy to use. Best of all its free.

Multimedia

This section is all about video, images and sound. Anything of this nature is included here.

29) VLC
The all in one application for watching videos. Supports nearly every codec imaginable.

30) Aperture
One of Apples Pro programs for organizing and altering photos. A very powerfull application although comes with a bit of a price tag.

31) Audacity
A free audio editor which has a few advance features that make it create for editing audio for your videos or other applications.

32) Blender
A free 3D modeler which has the same power of many of the most advance applications on the market. Comes with quite a steep learning curve.

33) Delicious Library
A very cool application used to organise your books, movies, games and CD’s. You can use your built in iSight to save time by scanning your books. Very cool and fun to use.

34) DeskLickr
A simple application that uses the vast photo resource of flickr to change your wallpaper every so often. Makes a cool change.

35) Desktastic
Anoter Panic app. This time it can be used to write directly on your desktop. Very cool if you use a tablet for your daily work.

36) Gimp
The free image editing program. Used by many open source and linux users. A create start since Leopard doesn’t include any image editing software.

37) Google Earth
One of the best applications from Google. Use it to zoom in on planet earth and explore the world around you. A great time waster, as well as a very useful tool if you are going anywhere and want to check out the surroundings.

38) HandBreak
An open source application that can quickly convert DVD’s to Mpeg-4.

39) iLife
The all in one package made by Apple. I don’t think this needs any explaining.

40) iShowU
This application takes a direct recording of your screen. Great if you want to make recordings of specific applications. You need a good CPU, a bit of a power hog.

41) Joost
A very hot application that lets you watch free TV. Beautiful application even though the amount of TV stations are a bit small.

42) Photoshop
The high priced application for real pros who want to edit and manipulate images and photos. Not for people with tight wallets.

43) Pixelmator
The medium priced application that has a lot of great image editing potential. Not as expenisive as Photoshop.

44) Shapeshifter
Bored of your interface? Let shape shifter change it for you. Not Leopard compatitble although this is likely to change.

45) Theme Park
A great little app which lets you delve into the resource files for applications and lets you change them. Not as powerful as Shapeshifter but lets you tweak little bits of your operating systems interface.

46) TVShows
A little app that downloads all of the torrent files for your favourite TV shows. You need a bittorrent client to finish the process off.

47) Wallsaver
Puts your screensaver as your wallpaper. Add a bit of life to your desktop.

Little Apps

Little Applications are small applications in size that add a bit of functionality or are just plain cool.

48) Autorate
A simple piece of software that rates your musis in your iTunes libary based on the number of plays and track skips.

49) Fish
A simple little program that shows you little fishes swimming around.

50) iAlertU
A little program that can arm your computer. Moving your laptop will set of the alarm and alert you to intruders.

51) Liquidmac
Once again using the motion sensor in a laptop. This program fills the screen with water which you can play around with by moving your computer.

52) MacSaber
Let your Mac become a jedi. Once again using the motion sensor makes cool lightsaber noises. Don’t let the mac fly out of your hands as it has with a couple of people.

53) Quinn
Tetris on the extreme side of life. A cool little app with amazing graphics on the old arcade favourite Tetris.

54) Resize ‘Em All
A little program which can be used to resize images.

55) Rulers
Put a ruler on your screen. This application lets you measure nearly anything on your screen, great if you are in the design world.

56) smcFanControl
A small application that runs in your menu bar to control your fan speeds. A must if you think your computer runs a bit hot.

57) TimeOut
One for the work-a-holic. A little application that tells you to take a break and stop what you are doing.

58) Wallsaver

Sets your screen saver as your wallpaper. A great little program to add a bit of movement to your desktop.

Tools

This section of essential applications is all about tools. These are tools to do specific task or just to give you information.

59) Apple Remote Desktop
One of Apples many programs that lets you work effectively on your network. This app lets you look in on a remote desktop and work with it remotely.

60) Battery Health
One of many tools used to help you find out how much juice is left in your Mac battery. A tool for any laptop.

61) BootCamp
Installing Windows on a Mac is never easier with BootCamp. A simple program that create a partition on you disk for installing windows.

62) BwanaDik
A menu bar monitoring tool for you network. Lets you find tons of info about you LAN and WAN in one easy to reach place.

63) Carbon Copy Cloner
For serious back ups you need somthing like Carbon Copy Cloner that can clone your entire drive quickly and easily.

64) Chmox

Chmox is a program that enables you to open .chm help files on your Mac. Chm files are not supported in preview.

65) Coconut Battery

A personal favourite of mine, this is another battery tool to monitor the health of your battery. I wish my laptop was run off coconuts.

66) DasBoot
DasBoot is a tool to create a diagnostic and repair kit for your computer to put on an iPod or flash drive.

67) Flip4Mac
The tool endorsed by Microsoft to help with those pesky .wmv files.

68) FreeDMG
This software creates drag and drop .dmg archives on the fly. Easy to use if you make a lot of disk images.

69) GeekTool
GeekTool is a preference pane module to show system logs, unix commands output, or images (i.e. from the internet) on your desktop.

70) Growl
A very useful tool that is used by many applications to show a clean way of displaying messages to you. Like the bubbles in Windows except a hell of a lot better.

71) Hardware Monitor
Hardware Monitor is designed to check the various pieces of hardware on you computer for faults and problems as well as give messages back to you.

72) Hex Fiend

Editing hex files cannot be easier with Hex Fiend.

73) HoudahGeo
HoudahGeo allows you to add Geo data to any image within the EXIF data. Helps you find your way around the world in your images.

74) iStat Menus
iStat Menus off a wide range of statistical analysis of your computer including various hardware bits. Their widget is one of my favouites.

75) Mac Pilot

This piece of software allows you to modify various parts of your computer that you would normally have to do through Terminal.

76) MacJanitor
This little app cleans up various system files and other bits and bobs to keep your computer running smoothly.

77) MainMenu
MainMenu is another piece of software to help you keep your computer running smoothly. This one has more advance options such as rebuilding the spotlight database.

78) MenuMeters
Another monitor piece of software but this one is designed to run within the menu bar.

79) Monolingual
Who needs to know French. Monolingual removes the languages from the computer that you do not need.

80) Operation
A project management tool that lets you organise your projects quickly and easily.

81) Parallels

Highly recommended virtualization software for virtualizing other OS’s.

82) Service Scrubber
Helps you organise and remove services from your menus (Name of App > Services)

83) SquidDan

Once a very popular proxy tool for sorting out your own proxy for handling your internet connection. Has become disused over time.

84) Stomp

Stomp those big files down to size. Helps reduce video files into more compressed formats.

85) SuperDuper
Another great backing up utility although its not fully Leopard compatible at the time of writing.

86) Synergy2

A very cool little application that lets you share a mouse and keyboard between one or more computers.

87) TinkerTool

A tool that lets you access more preferences the Apple has built into the OS.

88) VMWare
Another very good piece virtualization software to enable to to virtualize other OS’s.

Work

This final section ,and to round up, is going to be all about top programs for use at work.

89) Cha-Ching
A simple money program that helps you organise your accounts, budgets and finances.

90) Concept Draw
More of a group of programs that offer a wide range of applications such as flow charts to mind maps.

91) Filemaker
A cross platform database application, that has amazing power and potential.

92) iWork
Apples work application package to complement iLife, a good package if you want the Apple integration although lacks on some features.

93) Microsoft Office
Office is one of the most prominent packages on the Windows machines for work programs. Very good on Mac, although some small annoying bugs.

94) Money2
Another application for managing your accounts. The interface on this program is amazing.

95) Neooffice
An Open Office port to Mac, like Microsoft Office, except its free.

96) Nvu
A very powerful webpage editor for designing and creating websites. Just as good as Dreamweaver.

97) Omnigraffle
A brill program that offers a really cool way of creating presentation diagrams. Check out the Omni Groups offerings for all of the cool programs they have to offer.

98) Process
Another program by Jumsoft on this list that lets you plan and organise your projects.

99) Quicken

Another personal finance program, but this one feels more corporate and official.

100) Yojimbo

A cool little program that helps you organise all your bits of information, great if you end up filling up dashboard with millions of stickies.