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Take Five
Take Five originally debuted as an iPhone app last year, but it had limited appeal because I mostly listen to music my mac. Just last week a mac version of the app came out and its already become a favorite of mine. Set up a hot key to pause your music, and it’ll quietly resume iTunes after a few minutes. Fantastic.
Simple Note & Notational Velocity
Simple Note was at first an iPhone application, but as since expanded to an entire platform just for taking down text notes. As cliché as it sounds, its elegant simplicity is more than welcome in a world of bloated software. No save button, just notes.
Take down a note, it syncs to the web. Get something equally great (Notational Velocity) that syncs with Simple Note and you have something fantastic. I write practically everything (except code) within Simple Note. It’s a great place to keep all sorts of blurbs about anything whatsoever.
Dropbox
While old news to some, Dropbox has proven itself indispensable over the last several months. Simply put, Dropbox acts as a networked thumbdrive. Store your files in the dropbox directory and it’ll sync it over the internet to any other computer with your dropbox account. This also functions really well as a way to share directories.
Fluid
Fluid is a very simple app that creates a standalone application for specific websites. Originally discovered for the late Muxtape, I now use Fluid exclusively for Google Reader. One of the great things about running Google Reader (or Gmail) as a Fluid app is that it has a functional dock badge. It’s a great way to integrate web apps into your normal desktop workflow.
Fuzzy Clock
This completely relies on personal preference, but I’ve come to love Fuzzy Clock. This simple app replaces your normal system clock with a more human-readable approach to time. 2:48pm turns into “quarter to three”, and so on. Some people say “oh thats awesome!”, others have said “that would kill me!” Like I said, it’s all about preference.
Cloud App
For the last several months, I had been using Skitch for all of my compulsive screenshot uploading needs. Earlier this week, Cloud.app emerged from closed beta to replace Skitch completely. Cloud.app also packs in a whole bunch of functionality for easily uploading files and creating short urls directly from your browser.
On the Job
Of the very minimal freelance type work that I’ve done, I’ve been using On the Job to keep track of my time. Thankfully, On The Job not only keeps track of your time (and even shuts off if you leave your computer for a while), but it also produces PDF invoices. An enormous upgrade from the terrible dashboard widget I used to use to track my time.
Things
When it comes to staying organized, Things has become my tool of choice. Sure, $50 (or $35 with Education Discount) seems like a lot for a glorified checklist, but Things has excelled at making the entire process painless. Seamless integration with the iPhone app doesn’t hurt either.
GeekTool
Whenever I have my computer open, someone always asks how I got the weather stuck on it. I always say “it’s called Geek Tool, and it isn’t easy to use.” To put it lightly, Geek Tool is not the most user-friendly application out there. It took me a good while to figure out how to get it to display the information I wanted on my Desktop. That said, if you actually know what the hell is going on with the UNIX underpinnings, it’d probably be easier to get going. There are plenty of scripts available if you’re willing to do some digging, but this is one of the best resources. As you can see, it works really well alongside Coversutra.
Coversutra
To me, Coversutra is an unobtrusive Last.fm scrobbler that looks great. Unobtrusive in that it does not need to have a dock icon or menubar item. Coversutra also includes a robust iTunes controller, but I’ve never found a use for it.
