For both 2007 and 2008, I listed a number of applications I couldn’t live without those year. It’s now time to release the same list for 2009. Some applications remain unchanged from 2008, but a few have dropped off the list all together and a few more have been added. I’d like to say “Thank You” to all the Mac developers out there who make beautiful Mac software. These are the applications I couldn’t live without in 2009, in no particular order.

1Password remains one of my favorite Mac applications. It makes managing your online passwords incredibly easy. I recently upgraded to 1Password 3 in advance of my move to Snow Leopard. 1Password 3 adds some nice features, including the ability to manage software license information. The 1Password iPhone App (iTunes link) gives you the ability to make your login information mobile.

I still write every AMHQ post with MarsEdit. Not much has changed over the last year with MarsEdit, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Blogging with MarsEdit makes blogging easier, so I’m going to continue to use it. Alas, MarsEdit still doesn’t have bullet and numbered list support. Maybe it will happen in 2010?

Towards the end of 2009 my wife didn’t use Google Calendar that much, but BusySync still remains incredibly useful. Since I upload my work Outlook calendar to Google Calendar, I’m able to sync it to my iPhone with the help of BusySync. For work and home, BusySync keeps my calendars in sync.

Nearly every time my Mac is turned on, Caffeine is running. Caffeine easily allows you to suspend your power settings to prevent your Mac from going to sleep. This year they added the ability to suspend your power settings for 7 different time periods. If you watch video on your Mac, you need this application. Best of all, it’s free!

It’s 2010 and I still use Cha-Ching to manage the finances for my family. The iPhone App was released and I love having the ability to add transactions while on the go. I liked the Cha-Ching touch beta so much that I purchased version 1.0 the first day it hit the App Store. Cha-Ching for Mac is still in Beta however. In fact, I’ve begun to loose faith in the developers as the app has been in beta for well over a year and communication from them is thin at best. I’m slowly beginning to think that I need to look for another application to manage my finances.

Rising from the ashes of VisualHub is Video Monkey. Video Monkey is my go to application when I need to convert video. The very first version I tried was slow. Since then however, Video Monkey has turned into a very solid application. I use it often when converting video for my Apple TV.

I don’t watch many TV shows when they are first aired. Instead, I plug in my EyeTV Hybrid and use the accompanying software, EyeTV, to record shows onto my Mac and watch them later on my Apple TV. I just upgraded to version 3 which included Snow Leopard support and a updated UI among many other updates. There is also a companion EyeTV iPhone App.

Cooking is one of my passions and MacGourmet is what I use to keep my recipes organized. I watch a lot of Food Network show and have added countless recipes from their website. MacGourmet includes a very easy method to import recipes from the Food Network site and a handful of others. For recipes on any website, the text clipping feature makes adding a recipe dead simple. MacGourmet touch (iTunes link) allows you to take your entire recipe collection with you on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Despite still being in beta, Skitch was rock solid in 2009. I use Skitch to capture and resize pretty much every picture you see on this website. After capturing and resizing the picture, I just drag it straight from Skitch into MarsEdit and click insert. I wonder if 2010 will finally bring a 1.0 version?

When I needed to handle multiple Twitter accounts, I found Nambu. Nambu allows me to manage every aspect of the Twitter accounts I use. The ability to unfavorite tweets has been one of the most used features of Nambu. When I upgraded to Snow Leopard, Nambu started to crash randomly. Nambu moved from an open to private beta so I haven’t been able to update it for Snow Leopard support. Because of poor Snow Leopard support, I’ve been on the lookout for another Twitter app in 2010.