I recently bought a new iMac computer, and I installed about 30 different applications on the first day. They are applications I consider essential (or at least mighty desirable for my purposes). I’ve covered programs 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, and 16-20. Below, applications 21-25.
21.Viewfinder (OS X, £15) This is a pretty specialized application that I use to search through Flickr for Creative Commons licensed images that I can run on Boing Boing. I enter keywords (the example shown here is a search for “cigar box guitar”) and Viewfinder returns all the Flickr images it can find that have the keywords in the tags, titles, or descriptions, and can be used under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. I’ve been using the demo version for many months and it has all the functionality I require.
22.ViewIt (OS X, $22) This is a super-fast image organizing and viewing utility. It’s much faster than iPhoto or Preview, and offers thumbnail and full-screen viewing modes. I use it to go through my massive image folders that I’ve filled with the retro illustrations I’ve snorked off the Web over the last 15 years.
23.AppZapper (OS X, $12.95) I try out a lot of apps, and I delete most of them within minutes of opening them for the first time. But when an app is dragged to the trash, the extra files associated with the application stay on the hard drive. I don’t know why OS X doesn’t get rid of these orphaned files automatically. I use AppZapper to make sure all the preference and support files get zapped along with the application file.
24.Camouflage (OS X, free) This menu bar utility doesn’t do anything but make all the icons on your desktop disappear. I use it when I give a Keynote presentation, so that when the audience sees my desktop, they are fooled into thinking I’m a tidy person.
25.Disk Inventory X (OS X, free) This gives me a visual indication of the amount of storage space the files on my hard drive are taking up. It’s a great way to find hard-drive hogs (like big movie files I don’t want any longer) and delete them.
