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The "Official" Must Have Free Apps/tools Thread

A

applejack

macrumors newbie
Apr 1, 2004
18
0
I love these threads, there are always little apps coming out and this is a great way to hear about them. I just installed Bytecontroller, it's exactly what I've been looking for in a menubar iTunes controller - simple.

Does anyone know of a freeware app to monitor connections to your wireless network? My friend has something like this for Windows, not sure if there is something similar for mac (I'm a little paranoid).
 
Westside guy

Westside guy

macrumors 603
Oct 15, 2003
6,343
4,160
The soggy side of the Pacific NW
I came across Launchbar when I was looking for a replacement to the quick-launcher I used to have in my Gnome panel (under Linux). This was a little box that you'd type a command in and it'd run - not quite as cool as Launchbar, but actually more flexible because you could type a one-line perl script etc. in addition to command names.

Then someone mentioned Quicksilver and I tried that. Quicksilver seems to be faster that Launchbar when it comes to indexing etc.

But the question is, will Quicksilver stay free? Maybe I'm just blind, but I haven't seen anything (and I've looked) that says Quicksilver is going to be a free app. Right now it's just in beta, and often beta means "free for now, until we get the quirks worked out".

Can anyone shed light on this for me? :confused:
 
Doctor Q

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,815
7,585
Los Angeles
I wanted an app that would show me the current month and following month's calendars in a small window, for when I'm planning the next couple of week's activities. I found it as CalendarCenter from MacDev.ca. It's not elegant but it does just the one trick I wanted. Freeware. versiontracker page.
 
D

dotnina

macrumors 6502a
Aug 19, 2004
856
0
applejack said:
I love these threads, there are always little apps coming out and this is a great way to hear about them. I just installed Bytecontroller, it's exactly what I've been looking for in a menubar iTunes controller - simple.

Does anyone know of a freeware app to monitor connections to your wireless network? My friend has something like this for Windows, not sure if there is something similar for mac (I'm a little paranoid).
Click to expand...

I don't know a thing about it, but iTattle sounds like it might work for you. It's free. :)
 
njmac

njmac

macrumors 68000
Jan 6, 2004
1,757
2
sorryiwasdreami said:
Can anyone recommend an app that does with video what iPhoto does with photos? It should have a library of thumbnails, folders, search, the ability to display most video types, not just limited to QuickTime, ability to drag and drop files which create aliases, etc.

Basically iPhoto for videos. Oh yeah, and free (my guess is it ain't gonna happen for free.
Click to expand...
This app: movie montage http://www.findleydesigns.com bills itself as iphoto for movies. (quicktime only I believe) It is a crippled free version but check it out.
 
W

whiteangel

macrumors regular
Aug 29, 2004
115
0
Manchester
Yup!

rickvanr said:
That's what growl does? I've only ever seen/ heard about it in the Proteus message boards
Click to expand...

All it does is to provide a service for applications to notify users of events.
Like using an applescript that Growl provides, whenever I get a new email i'll have a bubble pop up informing me which account received a new email, who is it from and the subject title.

As I said you'll have to try it to love it. And check out their list of applications that use growl. ;)
 
M

mrpaperknife

macrumors member
Nov 8, 2004
30
0
Louisville, the Derby city
eclipse525 said:
I really liked this one. I've tried many other apps that gather the Album Cover art for iTunes songs/albums but this is the best by far.

It's called Clutter.

Launch Clutter when you have iTunes open. As a song is playing, Clutter automatically looks up the album art. Once found, under the File menu select copy to iTunes and BAM, it's there for the WhOLE album. Sweet.

One note. If it doesn't find the art, just go under the File menu and choose "Find cover in Amazon". Just type in different variations of the artist or song and i'm sure it'll pop up.


Enjoy,
~e
Click to expand...

And to think that I spent all that time to manually gather album art! If I had only known! Ugh! :eek:
 
Diatribe

Diatribe

macrumors 601
Jan 8, 2004
4,256
44
Back in the motherland
Here are mine:

WeatherMenu - menu bar weather app (shareware but I think with a free trial)
Mail appetizer - mail preview
Synergy - iTunes controller (shareware but I think with a free trial)
SafariSpeed - removes lag in loading webpages

Those 4 I couldn't live without and I usually don't like installing many other apps.
 
S

stepbasin

macrumors member
Nov 16, 2004
71
0
Virginia
My list

Ok, here you go, my list of "Must Have" free apps:

TigerLaunch: This puts a little paw print near the clock at teh top of your screen and allows you to access all of your apps through it. Its quick, easy and very cool. Oh, and its customizable.

Desktop Manager: By far the most useful free app I have ever seen. This little gem allows you to run multiple desktops on OS X. It is great, free, and has very few bugs. It is cool beyond belief.

Konfabulator: The closest thing to Tiger's Dashboard feature. This widget launcher is free, cool and very well done. Great for webcams, weather alerts, stock quotes etc.

Tinker Tool, Onyx, System Optimizer and Cocktail all unlock hidden OS X features.

Teal and Gimp: A very poor man's photoshop.


Anyway, thats all. Let me know what you think of my list.
 
stevietheb

stevietheb

macrumors 6502a
Jan 15, 2004
591
0
Houston
stepbasin said:
Konfabulator: The closest thing to Tiger's Dashboard feature. This widget launcher is free, cool and very well done. Great for webcams, weather alerts, stock quotes etc.
Click to expand...

Konfab is free now?

As for me:

Quicksilver -- practically replaces the Dock and Finder...also, triggers are quite useful

mp3 Sushi -- creates a little radio station on my network...tune into the stream from 2 users on the same computer and send one of the itunes over to AX...now you've got your library playing on your computer's speakers and on AX...a little bit of lag, but useful if you're speakers are in separate rooms.

Genius -- for language study.

MacJanitor -- housekeeping
MacStumbler -- see what's going on in the wireless realm
MacTracker -- info on all macs

Meteorologist -- menubar weather....I have it set to give me weather for multiple zip codes (always intersted in what's going on back in my home state of Texas!)

TransparentDock -- puts the Dock where you want it and allows you to match it with your for ultimate aesthetic yumminess

VLC -- for those stubborn multimedia files

GeekTool -- currently I'm only using it to create an updating screensaver of radar images from weather.com -- I really like to know the weather!

All of these should be available from versiontracker...sorry for not posting links.
 
nbs2

nbs2

macrumors 68030
Mar 31, 2004
2,719
491
A geographical oddity
ialert

I'm surprised it isn't mentioned here (let alone searching the forums came up with zero hits). iAlert is a little preference pane that lets you put various bezels on your desktop. Not as cool as konfabulator, and useless whentiger/dashboard is released, but still pretty cool.
 
MacBandit

MacBandit

macrumors 604
Aug 9, 2002
7,440
8
Springfield, OR (Home of the Simpsons)
nbs2 said:
I'm surprised it isn't mentioned here (let alone searching the forums came up with zero hits). iAlert is a little preference pane that lets you put various bezels on your desktop. Not as cool as konfabulator, and useless whentiger/dashboard is released, but still pretty cool.
Click to expand...


This looks to be the same kind of app as Growl which someone did mention in this thread.
 
palusami

palusami

macrumors regular
Nov 4, 2004
131
0
san jose, ca
does anyone know of a mac osx program similar to konfabulator that's free? i love the widgets but i don't think its worth $25 to get the full copy. of konfabulator
 
MacBandit

MacBandit

macrumors 604
Aug 9, 2002
7,440
8
Springfield, OR (Home of the Simpsons)
palusami said:
does anyone know of a mac osx program similar to konfabulator that's free? i love the widgets but i don't think its worth $25 to get the full copy. of konfabulator
Click to expand...

From what I read there is no difference between a paid and non paid version in way of functions. The only difference is that it eliminates the nagware.
 
palusami

palusami

macrumors regular
Nov 4, 2004
131
0
san jose, ca
MacBandit said:
From what I read there is no difference between a paid and non paid version in way of functions. The only difference is that it eliminates the nagware.
Click to expand...

right, i was hoping to get rid of the nagware poping up in the lower left portion of my screen.
 
wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
markjones05 said:
Hand barake is a great ripping tool but does anyone know of a free app to condense a dvd so that it can fit on a single 4.7 gb dvd?
Click to expand...
Handbrake can do that too, in case you didn't know.
 
MacBandit

MacBandit

macrumors 604
Aug 9, 2002
7,440
8
Springfield, OR (Home of the Simpsons)
markjones05 said:
Hand barake is a great ripping tool but does anyone know of a free app to condense a dvd so that it can fit on a single 4.7 gb dvd?
Click to expand...

HandBrake will do that all you have to do is set the size of the video file.

HandBrake isn't just a ripping tool it's a video/audio ripping/extracting tool.
 
M

mms

macrumors 6502a
Oct 8, 2003
784
0
CA
Skimming through the thread, is it just me or did nobody mention SubEthaEdit?!?!?! Greatest free text editor ever (it would be IMO the best except for BBEdit) especially for web design. Can't live without it. Even though commercial license is paid, personal license is free and unrestricted. Cool new stuff in 2.1 just released about two weeks ago. Collaborating over Rendezvous is ingenious.

http://codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit
 
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