Cool Mac Gear

Mac Net Journal’s Rob McNair-Huff has posted an interesting article rating and ranking a large selection of OS X applications. He writes:

“This document will be updated frequently to show which OS X programs I find most useful as time passes. I was inspired to create this living document because the one-time reviews and wrap ups I have created for Mac Net Journal are pretty useless once each of the programs in the review is updated...”

Currently On Rob’s Dock are:
• iCal
• Eudora
• Fire
• NetNewsWire
• OmniOutliner
• Tinderbox
• Safari
• OmniWeb
• Mozilla
• Internet Explorer
• URL Manager Pro
• iView Media Pro
• BBEdit
• AppleWorks
• iTunes
• Transmit

You can check out Rob’s piece for his spin on the best OS X programs. I thought I would weigh in with my own current picks-- the applications I actually use every day. Here goes:

Tex-Edit Plus 4.5.1b1
This is my Swiss Army Kinife, general dogsbody, do-all standby application that I do a little bit of everything in. I’ve used TE+ (and before it Tex Edit) almost since I’ve been unsing Macs, and it just keeps getting better and better. Consequently, I rarely use either full word processors or Web authoring software anymore. TE+ is also my main archiving format.

Eudora 6.0b26
Still the best all-round email client, and it recently got better with its new, cool, “Junk” Spam-filtering feature in the version 6.0 beta

Nisus Email 1.6
Not the comprehensive email tool that Eudora is, but still pretty cool, and it’s quicksend feature is unparalleled (to my knowledge). It is also very useful for accounts that get a lot of big spam messages, because it allow you to preview messages before downloading -- a great advantage for thos of us on dailup connections.

iCab 2.9.1
My workaday browser choice. Not the fastest, and it still has problems with some pages, but when you just need to get some Web work done with a minimum of hassle, it’s the ticket. Also has the best history, bookmarks management, and Diwnload Manager, in my estimation. No tabbed browsing yet, but I understand that it’s coming in iCab 3.

Safari 1.0
Getting better all the time, and I’m no using it as my main #2 browser, alternating off and on with Mozilla. Stil doesn;t support some of my banking sites (which work fine with iCab and Mozilla). One big advantage over the others is its support of OS X Services.

Mozilla 1.4
Timeshares with Safari on my computer. The fastest all-round performer on my dial-up setup, although broadband users insist Safari is faster there. Probably the most comprehensive and competent all-round browser for OS X if you;re only having one.

WannaBe b14
Yhis little test-only browser is indispensible for dialup denizens who do a lot of research on the Web. At least twice as fast as any standard browser when all you want is the text. Not OS X native, though, but runs great in Classic Mode

NotePad Deluxe 2.5
This little desktop database is my dumping ground for transient iformation such as press releases and article research. A super little application

DEVONThink 1.6a
I use this powerful and versatile database for more longterm storage, and also for saving snippets and articles from Safari using OS X Services. Slick! Also open Wrod documents. Handy.

Color It! 4.1
Definitely not an OS X native application (it will run on ancient 68020 Macs), but still the graphics application I use 98% of the time. Haven’t found anything I like as well, and it’s wicked fast in Classic Mode.

Captain FTP 2.7
I’ve kind of settled on the Captain for FTP work in OS X. Gorgeous interface, lots of features, and it works well, although I still use Vicom FTP Client as well.

TypeIt4Me
Wouldn’t want to be without this gem of a macro utility.

iListen 1.6.0 and ViaVoice X 3.0
I alternate between these two dictation software apps. I have no decisive preference, They both have their strong points -- Viavoice for speed, and iListen for versatility.

SpeedSearch X 2.2
My fave text search utility, and it doesn’t require indexing. :-)

POPMonitor 2.1.1
Previews and filters incoming email

Tigerlaunch
A good application launcher that lets me keep my Dock leaned down

WindowShade X
An absolute necessity, as far as I’m concerned

MouseZoom
Corrects OS X’s lazy mouse tracking

Adobe Acrobat Reader
For the ubiquitous PDFs

Cocktail
For OS X system maintenance

iTunes
You know

Other apps I use from time to time include: Nisus Writer (Classic but soon Express); ThinkFree Office (when I need Office file compatibility with formatting preserved); BBEdit Lite (great search and replace engine), and there are others, but that covers the suite I depend on for production.

What are your favorite OS X apps?

From Chris

Hey Charles!

Just a footnote to the letters regarding the double pumping in OSX... a buddy recently moved back here to the Bay Area from Colorado and is staying with his parents, who have some variety of flatscreen iMac. This is a guy who does know and use computers and is pretty much platform-agnostic, but isn't *into* them like you or others who frequent Applelinks and such, and when he was telling me about it the first thing he did was complain about how "lots of the time you have to tell it twice to get it to do something".

I gotta wonder: does Steve Jobs personally have some magic super-duper nosebleed-high-end G23 extreme-Powermac reversed engineered from Area 51 recovered alien technology that can run OSX without the double-pumping, or has he himself just gotten so used to it he doesn't care, and hopes the proverbial "Jobs reality distortion field" will take care of it for everyone else?

Chris

HI Chris;

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Every version upgrade I keep hoping that they will do something about the crummy, lame, imput device support in OS X and so far, bupkis.

And I hasten to add that I'm referring here to perfectly conventional mousing operations with a single mouse -- not my personal oddball array of input devices (which nevertheless work flawlessly in OS 9).

Charles

Kernel panics

From Paul Goodwin

I get them consistently when running Office 98 Mac in Classic under 10.1.5 on a Jan 2002 flat panel iMac . Interestingly, I ran that version of Office and 10.1.5 for a long time - many many months without any problems. The problems started back around May after a few software updates from Apple. I don't know which one caused it but I suspect iTunes. When the panic occurs and the screen begins to paint the ugly text on the screen, an Apple Audio driver is mentioned. The panics occur with or without any peripherals attached to the iMac (USB hubs or otherwise. The only way I can run Office 98 now it to boot the machine in OS9.

Paul Goodwin

Hi Paul;

Ah, the joys of running Microsoft software. ;-) I got a few of those all over the screen kernel panics in OS X 10.2.1 (although in fairness, they were not related to MS apps). Jaguar, as I've recently doscovered, has a much neater dialog that appears, but it supplies no information about what caused the meltdown. Less alarming for the uninitiated I guess.

Charles

Wordplay

From Steven Cades

Charles--

"...I would live to see the opensourcers come up with a hack ...."

And some of them are even opensourcerers.

--Steve Cades

Guess so. ;-)

Thanks for the proofread.

Charles

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore