Apple Mac HQ

It was just over a month ago when I named Quicksilver one of the applications I couldn’t live without in 2007. What a difference a month can make. I’m currently flying Quicksilver free and haven’t noticed a difference. So what’s different? Spotlight.

With the upgrade to Leopard a few weeks ago, I’ve found myself using Spotlight as my application launcher. A quick command + space and I’m tying in Spotlight as it’s narrowing my results. The vast majority of the time the first result is the applications and a quick stroke of the enter key has the application popping open.

In Leopard I have the added benefit of one less application taking up system resources and not having to wait until Quicksilver finishes loading before I can use my Macbook Pro after logging in. If you’re a Quicksilver user running Leopard and only used it for application launching, you should give Spotlight a try to see if it can replace Quicksilver. While I loved Quicksilver in 2007, I’m loving without it in 2008.

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This wouldn’t be a blog without some type of end of the year list. So without further ado, here is my first end-of-the-year-list post on Apple Mac HQ. I have very much enjoyed my first year of using the Mac. I’d like to thank the developers of the applications listed below as they made life on the Mac great. These are the applications I couldn’t live without in 2007, in no particular order.

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.

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