There’s something of a misconception when it comes to the Mac. While powerful tools like Photoshop or Final Cut Pro certainly have price tags commensurate with their robust feature sets, many of the greatest OS X apps won’t cost you anything more than the time they take to download them. And with the launch of right around the corner, we've expanded this list to include a new batch of apps to enhance your desktop experience. A quick note before we begin. Apple has changed its security settings in recent version of macOS, so you’ll need to allow your system to open a couple of these apps. If a dialogue box pops up telling you a certain app was blocked from opening, head over to System Preferences, click the Security & Privacy tab in the first row, and select the General tab.
At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see an “Open Anyway” button next to the name of the app. Click it and then open the app as normal to properly launch it. You’ll only need to do this once for each app. Video formats are constantly changing, and you no doubt have all sorts of movie files littering your Mac’s drive. But if they haven’t been encoded in 64-bit or MPEG, the newest version of QuickTime might not be able to play them. That’s where comes in.
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Open-source and omnipotent, the media player will play, stream, or convert just about any video format you can throw at it, while sporting a clean, minimal interface that strips away unnecessary controls and puts the focus on the content. It’s so good, you might forget it didn’t cost you anything. One day iCloud Drive will be able to handle all of our file storage needs, but until it arrives, is an essential tool.
But while its website is fine for quickly uploading small files, the Mac app turns the service from a simple digital locker into a seamless storage syncing solution. Launch it once and your Dropbox folder will integrate with the Finder, so adding a file is as easy as saving it to your Documents folder. And the handy menubar component keeps tabs on everything that’s been uploaded and altered. Don’t let name fool you—the only thing simple about it is the decision to download it. Lpr Jar Utility Download.
No matter how or what you write, Simplenote promises to fit neatly into your workflow, with a syncing and organizational system that rivals the most powerful note-takers around. The deceptively powerful app puts a premium on speed and efficiency, offering a clean, lightweight interface that lets you breeze in and out of your notes, organize your thoughts, and quickly find things buried under a mountain of text snippets. Brava Reader License Key. Torrent files get a bad rap (or not, depending on your views about stealing music and movies), but they’re not all about illegal content.
There is an array of perfectly legal albums, books, and games ready to be downloaded, but to get at them you’ll need a way to unbundle the files. You can’t go wrong with, one of the most popular free clients on the Mac.
Torrents will instantly start downloading without hogging any of your system’s precious resources, and an array of features give you full automation and remote control over your files. Mac maintenance might not be as vital to the day-to-day operation of your Mac as it once was, but slow-downs still happen. And when they do, will clear them up. A general-purpose utility with more tools than a Swiss Army knife, Onyx packages maintenance scripts, cache cleaning, and permissions repairers to keep your Mac in tip-top shape. Its simple interface makes it quick and painless to run all kinds of cleaning solutions, but its best feature might be the individual optimized versions Titanium Software offers, going all the way back to Jaguar. Mac veterans will forever be devoted to, but since it hasn’t been updated since Snow Leopard, retina and dark mode lovers will get the same results using to keep their Mac awake. Featuring a similar menu bar-based interface, the app lets you temporarily override your Mac’s sleep schedule (even when the lid is closed) and even adds a few features that Caffeine never had (like activating only when connected to specific Wi-Fi networks and keeping only certain drives awake).
But you'll probably still need a cup of coffee. Professional software developers have been singing BBEdit’s praises for years, but you don’t need to spend a bundle to get on board. While is still available in the Mac App Store, it’s no longer supported by BareBones. But you can get all of the features and more in the. Even without spending anything, BBEdit is a full-featured editor in its own right, sporting powerful features such as multiple clipboards, automatic backups, live search and syntax-highlighting support for more than 20 programming languages. But you don’t have to be a Swift coder to appreciate it—anyone who writes and edits large chunks of text on their Mac should grab a copy. Whether it's to-dos, reminders, wishes, or groceries, we all make lists.
And if you make them on your Mac, is just as amazing as it sounds. Simple, fast, and elegant, the app will let you write, share, and assign as many lists as your life needs, with a friendly interface that keeps everything neat and organized. But it's more than the price that's wonderful; Wunderlist is one of the most powerful task managers around, seamlessly augmenting your workflow with smart lists and Calendar integration, and making sure you never forget anything that needs to get done.
We're not sure how long Microsoft plans on keeping it around, so grab a copy while you still can. Macs may have a reputation for being free from viruses and spyware, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still get clogged with gunk. So if your Mac is feeling a little run-down, make an appointment with. With a simple interface and a lightweight, menu bar-based app, the good doctor will optimize your memory and clean out the hidden files that bog down your hard drive.
With a click, it'll surgically remove caches, logs, and temporary files as it frees up disk space and makes sure your Mac gets a clean bill of health. Back before iTunes was a bloated beast that handles far too many of your Mac's media files, it was one of the best music players around. If you're nostalgic for those days, might be the player of your dreams. With a clean interface that kind of looks like an updated version of the original iTunes Player, you'll be able to play all of your music files, including ones from streaming services like Spotify, Google Play Music, and YouTube (but not Apple Music). You can also create playlists and curate your own radio stations, and since it's open source, new features and big fixes will be instantly available in the nightly builds. Apple’s productivity suite has been a benefit to new Mac buyers for years, but now everyone can get them. Previously available for $20 apiece, Apple quietly earlier this year, and you won’t find a better set of tools without opening your wallet.
With professional features, powerful collaboration, and tremendous cross-platform versatility, Apple’s office suite of,, and can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with apps sporting much higher price tags. Things like Touch ID protection and real-time tracking belie its free status, and of course, there are iOS companion apps that are also free so you can work wherever you are. And don’t worry if you have a mountain of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files—it’ll work with those, too. Has quickly become the first name in business collaboration and messaging since it launched in 2013, and its free Mac app is the best way to keep in touch with your team.
Bringing everything you love about the web interface to your Dock, the Slack desktop app lets you quickly switch between groups, change your status, drag and drop files, and, of course, communicate with your team members. A lightning-fast search gives you instant access to buried messages, and granular notifications will keep you apprised of only the most important correspondences. It's so good, you might not want to turn it off at the end of the work day. Sometimes, you just need a quick way to record audio on your Mac, and QuickTime doesn’t exactly live up to its name.
That’s where comes in. Once you install it, a record button is never more than a click away, sitting in your menu bar until called upon. The free version is pretty light on the features, but you can change the sample rate, switch between mono and stereo, adjust the volume, and save your recording right from the menu bar. A $5 in-app purchase will unlock a few extra features like mp3 recording and keyboard shortcuts, but the free version will be more than capable for most users. If you’ve been using your Mac for a while, there’s a good chance you have accumulated duplicate files along the way.
And some of them could be eating up precious space on your drive. You could run a full disk cleaner to find and root them out (in fact, Dr. Cleaner on this list will do the trick), but if you want to quickly find double files and get on with your day, make space for in your Applications folder. Simply drag a folder onto its window and within seconds you’ll have a full report of the duplicates on your machine, letting you see what they are and where they’re hiding, and letting you delete them in a snap. Unless you opt for the $5 pro version, you’ll have to deal with the occasional ad, but it’s an indispensable tool nonetheless. Apple’s default email client gets better with each macOS revision, but if you’re looking for something different, will be a refreshing change of pace.
Smart, stylish, and speedy, Spark will help you get control over your inbox with powerful filters that help you focus on the messages that need your attention. It works with Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, and just about any other email address, and its companion iOS apps will keep all of them perfectly synced. With a deceptively powerful interface and a slew of advanced features, Spark just might ignite your passion for email again. Or at least make you not hate it as much.
There's something exciting about buying a new piece of software, unwrapping the packaging and slipping the disc into your Mac ready to install your new goodies. And, of course, the new Mac App Store has made the process of obtaining new software by a digital download just a few simple mouse clicks.
Whichever method you prefer, the biggest drawback is the money you have to hand over. Forking out for your goods is a necessary evil, and the price of things is usually a good indicator of its quality. But the good news is it's not always that way, especially when it comes to Mac software. As we will show you, there are many apps available for free that have all the polish and advanced features you would expect from a premium paid-for version, but without the nasty price tag. There are apps that will clean up your hard drive or organise your day-to-day activities. Some even work on your iPhone and iPad, too.
We've presented the best ones below – they're all really fantastic and, best of all, they're all free. A number of these applications, while still great as a free version, also have more fully featured pro versions. So if you really enjoy one, you can consider spending the extra money. Best free Mac media tools 1. Boxee Online TV channels put a lot of their content online for free, but you usually have to go to their websites to find out what's available. This app lets you browse through episodes of shows from sources such as YouTube, among many others.
It also pulls in media from your Mac. The interface can be controlled via the keyboard, an Apple remote or the free Boxee app available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It's a doddle to navigate, enabling you to quickly find sports, movies, music or photos to enjoy on your computer. For entertainment on your Mac, Boxee is hard to beat. Vuze BitTorrent clients have received a bad rap over the years for enabling users to download copyrighted material for free. Vuze is no different in this respect.
That said, downloading via BitTorrent is not illegal and, should you be accessing legal material, you're fine. Even better than that, will act as a media player for most formats and even convert files for playback on your devices, including iPads and games consoles. You can even stream video from Vuze via Wi-Fi to compatible devices such as the 360, making it more of an ideal media viewing solution than a nuisance to society. Flip4Mac There's been little love lost between Apple and Microsoft over the years, and the same extends to their media formats. The dreaded.WMV (Windows Media Video) file is the scourge of the Mac OS X operating system and will not run natively in QuickTime. Fortunately, the free software will eradicate this headache and, once installed, lets you forget about formats and enjoy the video you are after.
The WMV player also allows for Windows Media files to play back in Safari as well to help you enjoy a more complete browsing experience. A must-have install to alleviate format folly. HandBrake Those looking to bring their movie collection into the modern world should certainly consider for all their ripping needs.
This simple app can grab a movie from DVD and encode it into a variety of formats for playback on your Mac, iPhone or iPad. Those with the new will also be able to create compatible files from their movie discs and add them to iTunes without having to fiddle around with DVD players and tons of cases. The app can even retain the chapter selection features and subtitles of your original disc. While ripping a DVD to your Mac can take some time (and please respect copyright) if handled right, the outcome makes accessing your entertainment a great deal easier. The latest version of HandBrake introduces a live preview feature that allows you to check the quality of your rip before committing to hours of encoding too. You can also use HandBrake to convert video files into different formats.
Spotify came from out of nowhere and took the music lovers of Europe by storm. This is streaming music done right. This service is free to those who can handle an advert every three songs or so. It offers a catalogue of more than 10 million songs of all genres, which stream instantly through the Spotify app. It can also link to your iTunes library so all of your favourite tracks are in one place. You can log in from multiple Macs using your Spotify account, create playlists, share music with friends and more.
One of our favourite features is the innovative collaborative playlist, where your friends can add tracks over the internet for you to listen to. If you wish, you can pay to upgrade Spotify to a premium account, at which point you become ad-free. And for £9.99 per month you can even have the same service on your iPhone with music stored for offline playback. VLC is one of those apps you can turn to if QuickTime and other media-playing apps won't work with a media format you want to use. Initially, you might wonder why you'll ever need this app, but if you ever stray beyond the bounds of the iTunes Store and download video from another online source, you're more than likely to encounter a problem – that is, it's not playing properly in iTunes or QuickTime. Converting the video with HandBrake is always an option, but, to be honest, using VLC is simply quicker. The app can handle DVD playback as well as more obscure formats that crop up from time to time.
Files that are missing pieces or broken can still be played in VLC to the best of its ability and it provides a wealth of codecs to help your Mac handle all kinds of media file formats. VLC is an application that every Mac user should have installed for when their media won't behave.
Social apps for Mac 7. AddressBookSync The Address Book app on your Mac is great for organising contacts and syncing them to your iPhone. However, the problem is with so many contacts held, continually adding information and profile pictures can become a time-consuming task. Is an ingenious tool that connects to your Facebook account to pull in your friends' birthday info as well as images from their accounts into your Mac's Address Book. This is particularly handy for iPhone users with images appearing on screen when a contact is calling. Adium The chances are you have an account for more than one instant messaging client.
With so many available from iChat to Windows Messenger through Google Chat and Yahoo! It's not surprising. So, do you leave all of these clients open and consuming memory or do you find an all-in-one solution? If you want the latter, is your app. Compatible with more IM clients than you probably knew existed, Adium combines all your accounts into one easy-to-use solution so you can keep in touch with all your contacts regardless of the service they are using.
Twitter This is the official. It was launched at the same time as the new Mac App Store, and quickly became the most popular download there.
To get it you'll need to have the Mac App Store installed (which means you'll need to be running OS X 10.6 and have installed the latest system updates). Unlike other Twitter clients, Twitter offers a very OS X-friendly environment without skimping on the features you need to enjoy your 140-character fix. A particularly great feature is that you can view all tweets in a conversation simply by double-clicking on the main tweet. You can also search for trending topics and use multiple accounts within the same app. Composing a new tweet is now made far easier with the Compose window that floats outside the interface, ready for you to type your thoughts.
If you want to add an image to your tweet simply drag and drop it into the new tweet window. You can select which image hosting service you use from the Preferences pane, and also which URL-shortening service the Twitter app will use.
You can also get the official Twitter app for iPad and iPhone to complete your Twitter experience wherever you are in the world. Skype isn't a new service but the way it has developed over the years keeps it incredibly useful. The premise is simple, with an internet connection and a copy of the free software installed, you can talk to anyone on Skype via audio or video chat. And you can even swap files, create conference calls or simply chat via instant messaging.
For an additional fee, you can add voicemail to your account and even call mobiles and landlines if you wish. Handy utilities 11. Evernote Whatever you're doing in life there are things you need to remember, be they pictures, notes, websites or sounds. Provides a place to store your ideas, plans and reminders. Using cloud-based storage, the Mac app syncs with your iPhone and iPad, as well as any other computer to keep your notes close to hand whenever you need them. Unique search features allow you to dig out anything you've stored and it can even recognise handwritten docs. This app not only organises your notes, photos, screenshots and more, but you can add custom tags to make things easier to search.
R-name Have you ever had a bunch of files in a folder and then discovered you need to rename each one? For a renaming task that comprises more than ten files or more it can become a very dull and repetitive task. And that's where comes in.
It's a simple, free app that allows files and folders to be dropped in and renamed in any way you require. Ideal for photos or television series, this app will save a great deal of time.
Burn While it's easy to burn a CD or DVD from within Mac OS X, brings simplicity, as well as advanced options to the task. For example, it allows you to set which file system your disc will use so Windows owners can access files. It can create audio CDs and MP3 discs, and caters for DVD, VideoCD and DivX discs. An Inspector tool allows you to change settings on your disc such as file permissions, dates and the icon. Carbon Copy Cloner Everyone talks about backing up their computer files, but how many of us are committed to doing it properly?
Makes it easy to back up your system but to move it to another Mac or larger hard drive without having to reinstall the OS. It even offers incremental backups, which only updates files that have changed since you last ran the software. Considering this is a free application, it's an absolute powerhouse for any Mac user who wants security for their system and flexibility for their hardware.