Mac Apps I Use

If I had to choose one device to keep it would have to be my Mac. Not because I use it more than my trusty iPhone. I would pick it because it is how I make my living.

To that end we all have our very personal daily workflows. Some are way more complicated than others. Mine is fairly simple. 

There was a time in my life when I had to customize everything I possibly could on my desktop rig. These days I don’t bother.

Here is a list of software I use day to day.

Safari

Safari is a great browser that supports OS X extensions and browser plugins which gives me all the power I need to connect the web to my favorite desktop apps. I do not sync my opened sites between desktop and mobile.

Slack

Who doesn’t use Slack these days? We use it at work for most of our communication needs. Nuff said, it’s awesome. 

Evernote

I store quite a bit of information with Evernote. When I run across and interesting development article I clip the Simplified Article to Evernote as a reference. It is a great way to organize reference material. I do it through a combination of Notebooks and Tags. It’s a fantastic service and I love their native Mac and iOS Apps.

Wunderlist

I use Wunderlist to organize my personal project thoughts, so it mostly used on my home Mac and on my iPhone, but it’s a great app and service.

Reeder

I know RSS is dead, right? Not really. If you’re in the market for a beautiful, solid, easy to use RSS reader for the Mac or iOS, Reeder is a good choice.

Alfred

I only use Alfred for one thing, lunching apps. I keep my dock clean and find it easier to launch apps by smacking a shortcut and typing. I know I could do many more awesome things with it, but I don’t.

Dropbox

When I need access to a document or picture from many different places I use Dropbox.

Terminal

I use the built in terminal app. It’s used for git mostly.

SourceTree

I like using a nice application for git and SourceTree covers the bases for me. I split time between this app and the terminal. 

BBEdit

On occasion you have to edit something other than a file for the app you’re working on. BBEdit is more than capable. 

Xcode

This seems an obvious entry given the work I do. I develop iOS Apps. This is the best tool for the job.

I think that’s it, I’m composing this on my iPhone using the WordPress for iOS App, so I’m doing this from memory.

That brings me to this list.

Stuff I no longer use on my Mac

MarsEdit

At one point I used MarsEdit for all my blogging needs. The app is fine but I use iOS more and more for blogging. Like I said above, I’m using my iPhone to compose this post. Most of the time I use my iPad Mini on the weekends to catchup on all the stuff I pushed to Pocket. That usually results in a blog post right from the Mini. 

Fine software, great developer, no iOS App. For iOS I use the WordPress for iOS App.

Twitterrific

Unfortunately Twitter’s developer hostile token limits have all but killed off development of my favorite Twitter client. I have resorted to using the web site for my desktop browsing. If Twitterrific saw a renaissance on the Mac I would switch back in a heartbeat.  Thankfully Twitterrific for iOS is going strong. Here’s hoping Jack opens up Twitter to developers.