Blogging wouldn’t be as fun or as easy without MarsEdit. The ability to draft posts offline allows me to work anywhere and publish once I get online. I love the ability to add new categories without visiting my WordPress powered site. If you blog without MarsEdit you aren’t being as productive as you could be. My one wish for MarsEdit would be bullet and numbered list support.

While there are a number of good ftp clients for the Mac, many of them aren’t free. I’m not a power ftp user and Cyberduck allows me to get the job done. Cyberduck supports ftp and sftp and has integration with Spotlight, the Keychain, AppleScript, and Growl. If you don’t want to spend money on an ftp client, give Cyberduck a try. If you try Cyberduck and use it frequently, consider a donation to the developer (I donated).

In 2007 I used iBank to manage my household finances. Sometime in 2008 I switched to Cha-Ching as my Mac money management application of choice. Neither application is perfect, but I liked the UI and ease of use of Cha-Ching. Cha-Ching 2.0, currently in beta, improves the UI and a number of other features. There is even a Cha-Ching iPhone application in beta (I’m testing it right now) that will sync your Cha-Ching database to your iPhone. When both of these Cha-Ching applications are officially released, it will create a killer experience.

Caffeine is a one trick pony but it works like magic. When watching TV shows or movies, just activate Caffeine and it will stop your display and Mac from going to sleep. You don’t have to mess with your power settings, just a click to activate and a click to deactivate it when your done watching your video. Preventing your display or Mac from going to sleep couldn’t be easier. I use this all the time when watching my EyeTV recordings or viewing TV shows on Hulu.

If you have to use Windows and don’t want to reboot into Boot Camp, VMware Fusion is a great application to add to your arsenal. Though Parallels was first on the scene, VMware has closed the gap in a relately short amount of time. I use Fusion to access some IE only websites for my work. I’m so thankful I don’t have to tote home a Windows laptop and can instead just fire up WMware Fusion. Get VMware Fusion 2 for about $60 from Amazon.

If you read RSS feeds on multiple devices, you need NetNewsWire. The ability to read feeds from nearly anywhere and have everything seamlessly sync is absolutely amazing. I can read feeds at work, feeds on my iPhone (iTunes link), and feeds on my Mac and the changes are all kept in sync. NetNewsWire syncs with NewsGator online and the mobile version of NewsGator to allow reading from almost anywhere. Mobile NewsGator even has an iPhone optimized version which I actually prefer over the native iPhone application. If you are an iPhone toting Mac user and haven’t tried NetNewsWire, why are you waiting?

Skitch is a screen capture application from Plasq. It’s been in beta for well over a year but is very stable and ridiculously useful. Nearly every single picture you see here on Apple Mac HQ has been captured or edited with Skitch. The ability to easily resize and markup a picture and drag it from Skitch into the MarsEdit media uploader makes adding pictures to Apple Mac HQ dead simple. Skitch even comes with it’s own web-service which allows easy uploading and image sharing. When Skitch hits 1.0, there is no question I’ll plunk down my credit card to purchase it.

1Password is a password manager and form filler for OS X. These days nearly every website has a login of some kind. 1Password will help you login to those websites with ease. 1Password works will nearly every browser on OS X. If you ever find yourself forgetting your passwords or having to manage different passwords in your different browsers, you need 1Password. Currently, the 1Password iPhone application (iTunes link) is even free!

BusySync is the glue that keeps my family schedule together. My wife uses Google Calendar to keep her schedule up to date while I use iCal. BusySync makes syncing between iCal and Google Calendar completely transparent. I update my iCal and then when I sync my iPhone, my calendars and my wife’s calendar is available anywhere I have my iPhone. The synchronization of calenders prevents those moments when someone isn’t home in time to go somewhere or those “where are you” phone calls.

I enjoy dabbling in a little web development and have purchased a number of fantastic tools. Despite owning a number of great shareware web development applications, I wanted to focus this article on some applications for those who don’t want to spend the money for shareware applications or just don’t have the money to spend. I’ll breakdown the best freeware applications into various web development categories.

Web Server and Languages
MAMP – MAMP stands for Mac Apache MySQL PHP. MAMP is a stand alone web development environment. Just install MAMP and you’re basically ready to go. MANP includes a desktop widget to easily start and stop Apache and MySQL. If you’re looking for the easiest way to setup your web server, database, and php then MAMP is your application. You can be up and coding in less than a few minutes.

Image Editor
Seashore – Seashore is a Cocoa based open source image editor. Seashore features gradients, textures, multiple layers, and alpha channel editing. Seashore is based around the GIMP‘s technology and uses the same file format. While you could just download the GIMP instead, Seashore does not use the X11 windowing system that some OS X users don’t care for.

Text Editor
Smultron – Smultron is an open source text editor that is both easy to use and powerful. Smultron is a Cocoa applicaiton that features tabs, line numbers (very helpful), support for syntax coloring, snippets, multi-document find, and many more features. Smultron also offers a preview feature powered by Webkit. One feature lacking in Smultron is the ability to edit files remotely.

TextWrangler – TextWrangler is a very powerful general purpose text editor. Though it used to cost $50, Bare Bones Software made it free about three years ago. TextWrangler has so many features that I had a hard time narrowing them down for this article. Features include multi-file search and replace, a document drawer allowing you to edit multiple files in the same window, find differences in two files and merge the differences, spell checker, syntax coloring, plug-in support, AppleScript support, and so much more. And like many of the shareware text editors, TextWrangler allows remote file editing. The ability to remotely edit a file on SFTP/FTP servers is such an enormous time saver.

FTP Clients
Cyberduck – Cyberduck is an easy to use open source FTP/SFTP client. While Cyberduck may not be the two pane ftp client you’re used to, the simple drag and drop from/to the finder is very simple to use. Cyberduck integrates with many OS X technologies such as Spotlight, Bonjour, Keychain, and AppleScript. The ability to bookmark sites, support for external editors, and support for the Growl notification system round out the some of the reasons Cyberduck is such a wonderful FTP client.

Fugu – Fugu is an open source SFTP client. Unlike Cyberduck, Fugu does feature the familiar two pane UI that many ftp users are used to. The features include support for external editors, Keychain access, image previews, and more. One downside of Fugu is that it does not support regular FTP. This means if you only have access to a website via FTP, Fugu will not connect to your file server. The website also fails to mention support for Leopard.

CSS Editor
Firefox + Firebug – The combination of Firefox and the Firebug plugin offers the best free CSS support. While Firebug can do HTML, JavaScript, and so much more, the CSS support in Firebug is what initially drew me toward the plugin. You can view the CSS of any webpage and instantly start to tweak the code and see how those changes affect the page. While you can’t edit a CSS file directly, you can easily copy/paste the edited code into a new CSS file. Add on the Web Developer plugin to get even more CSS functionality.

Simple CSS – Simple CSS is a Cocoa application that makes it easier to update your style sheets. Simple CSS allows you to easily change fonts, borders, margins, and much more. Open a style sheet and Simple CSS displays all the elements in the left pane while the right pane gives you various options to change the currently selected element. You an mange multiple CSS files at the same time and a simple plus and minus button allow you to easily add and remove elements.

So there you have it, the best free programs for Mac web developers. If you find some of the programs useful, consider a donation to those developers that have asked for a donation. Did I miss something? I certainly couldn’t list every program but if you feel I’ve left out a well deserving free program, leave a comment below and a link to the software you’re recommending. Hope you enjoyed this list!

Blogging wouldn’t be as fun or as easy without MarsEdit. The ability to draft posts offline allows me to work anywhere and publish once I get online. The addition of the Media Manager in v2.0 made the decision to upgrade a no-decision. I love the ability to add new categories without visiting my WordPress powered site. If you blog without MarsEdit you aren’t being as productive as you could be.

While there are a number of good ftp clients for the Mac, many of them aren’t free. I’m not a power ftp user and Cyberduck allows me to get the job done. Cyberduck supports ftp and sftp and has integration with Spotlight, the Keychain, AppleScript, and Growl. If you don’t want to spend money on an ftp client, give Cyberduck a try. If you try Cyberduck and use it frequently, consider a donation to the developer (I donated).

Caffeine is a one trick pony but it works like magic. When watching TV shows or movies, just activate Caffeine and it will stop your display and Mac from going to sleep. You don’t have to mess with your power settings, just a click to activate and a click to deactivate it when your done watching your video. Preventing your display or Mac from going to sleep couldn’t be easier.

If you have to use Windows and don’t want to reboot into Boot Camp, VMWare Fusion is a great application to add to your arsenal. Though Parallels was first on the scene, VMWare seems to have closed the gap in a relately short amount of time. Dual-core support is one of the reasons Fusion seems so fast. In addition to dual-core support, Fusion has experimental support for DirectX 9 and is written in Cocoa. Get VMWare Fusion for under $45 from Amazon here.

I’ve been using iBank for a few months now to manage my finances. Scheduled transactions, smart import rules, ability to import multiple financial file types (QIF, QFX, etc), and the ability to create budgets are some of the great features in iBank. The developer is pretty good at making updates to the application as well. The only feature I’m missing is the ability to get a monthly spending average based on categories. If that is implemented, the application will serve all my financial needs.

Most of the images you see on Apple Mac HQ have been edited in ImageWell. Resizing or editing a screenshot is a simple task in ImageWell. I use ImageWell quite often in my blogging workflow. I just drag the file to the ImageWell icon on the dock and drop it. Once ImageWell opens, I edit the graphic, resize it if necessary, and then save. If you need some basic quick image editing done, ImageWell will likely fit into your workflow.

If you read RSS feeds on multiple operating systems or computers, you need NetNewsWire. The ability to read feeds from nearly anywhere and have everything seamlessly sync is absolutely killer. I can read feeds at work, feeds on my iPhone, and feeds on my Mac and the changes are all kept in sync. NetNewsWire syncs with NewsGator online and the mobile version of NewsGator to allow reading from almost anywhere. Mobile NewsGator even has an iPhone optimized version. If you are an iPhone toting Mac user and haven’t tried NetNewsWire, why are you waiting?

Much like NetNewsWire, syncing is the killer feature of PackRat. PackRat is a desktop client for 37 Signals’ web application Backpack. When at work or on another computer, I can visit the Backpack website and add a note, create a to-do, or create some ideas for future blog posts or anything else that’s on my mind. On my Mac, I just fire up PackRat and click sync and the changes I’ve made in PackRat and the changes online are all synced up.

Admittedly I probably use 5% of what Quicksilver can do. As an application launcher any application is only a few keystrokes away when using Quicksilver. As a conduit between applications, Quicksilver allows you to easily upload a file via ftp, add a song to a playlist, email a certain file to an Address Book contact, and so much more. Describing everything that Quicksilver can accomplish is virtually impossible. Visit the Quicksilver website to learn more. As info, the application has been open sourced and is no longer in active development by the original developer.

So that’s my list of applications I couldn’t live without in 2007. I’m sure 2008 will bring some additions to my list. If you have some applications you couldn’t live without, drop a comment below and let everyone know about them. I could always use a few more applications to make my Mac life easier! Have a happy and safe New Year’s!

If you’re like me, you really enjoy the holiday season. The time between Thanksgiving and New Years is full of family and friend get-togethers, Christmas lights, fantastic dinners, presents, and more. Giving is also a very important theme of the holiday season. This holiday season I’m going to extend the giving to Mac developers.

In honor of the holiday giving spirit, I challenge the Apple Mac HQ readers to give a little money to some of the Mac freeware/donationware developers who write software that make your life easier. If you have a little money tucked away in your Paypal account, think about giving some money to those developers that give their software away. Do you have a few favorite applications that are free? If so, drop a little money in their virtual piggy bank.

As someone who donates time to a community effort (a local adventure racing club), I know what it feels like to volunteer my time and energy. Volunteering can be a very tiring effort, and while you feel great when you get compliments, there are always some who make you feel less than valuable. It’s impossible to make everyone happy.

I’m always hesitant to ask for support from the developer of free/donation software. Why? I feel like it’s bothersome to ask for help for something that I didn’t pay for. I know my time is valuable, and I’m sure it’s the same for those that develop some of the freeware and donationware that us Mac users rely on.

As a way to say “thanks” to those developers, I’m going to give out some holiday cheer in the form of good old greenbacks. Among those I’ll be donating to is the developer of Cyberduck. If you plan on donating to a Mac developer, drop a note in the comments with the name of the application and a link to the developers website.