The Best Mac Apps & Utilities The Mac collection includes mostly lesser-known apps so the usual suspects likes Evernote, Dropbox, OneNote, or Google Drive are all missing from the list. Also, all the apps listed below are compatible with Yosemite, the current version of Mac OS.

Let’s get started. – Easily send files and folders of any size from your Mac to another device be it a Windows PC, iPhone, iPad, Android phone or a Mac itself.

– This is a useful windows management app for Mac that lets you move and with configurable keyboard shortcuts. You can also move windows between multiple displays too. – Use your iPad or iPhone as an extra display for your Mac. Connect the iOS device to the Mac with the USB cable and use the touch-screen to interact with your Mac apps. – You can by simply tapping your iPhone screen or your Apple Watch without having to type any passwords. – Always run your images through ImageOptim before upload them on to your website. The Mac app will crush the size of your image files without affecting the visual quality.

– If your Mac desktop is cluttered with folders and files, you can hide all the icons with a single click or with a keyboard shortcut. – Download entire websites includes images, PDF files and mirror them on your local disk for offline browsing. Like but with a visual interface. – Deleting the.dmg file is not enough. If you are to properly uninstall any Mac app, you need to delete the residual hidden files as well and that’s where App Cleaner can help. – A download manager for your Mac that splits the file into multiple parts and downloads the individual parts simultaneously for faster downloads. Can pause and resume downloads too.

– Time tracking software for your Mac that sits in the status bar for quick access. Add #hashtags to tasks and your tracked hours are also synched with the web. – This will turn your favorite website into a real desktop app for Mac that will reside in the Applications folder and you can launch from Spotlight search. – The perfect FTP client for Mac OS X that just works. You can create droplets to instantly upload files to your favorite destinations from anywhere. – It helps your Mac stay awake. Click the Caffeine icon in the menu bar to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep or from dimming the screen while you are watching videos.

– Your Macbook goes to sleep as soon you close the lid. The NoSleep extension will keep the screen awake even when the lid is closed so you can continue downloading files over the network.

– This will put your favorite websites in the menu bar so you can access them from any screen with a single click. The sites can be configured to auto-refresh on open. – You can easily with Dropbox or Google Drive without having to move them to a common folder. – Stop procrastinating. This open-source Mac app that will temporarily block access to time-wasting websites, emails and everything else that you find distracting. – This is a for Mac that can help you permanently block access to certain websites from your computer.

– Not exactly a Mac app but a that you cannot do without. It lets you log into online accounts that require without requiring the phone. – An easy-to-use screen measurement app where you take a screenshot of an area and then use the built-in controls to measure the dimensions of any element inside no matter how tiny it is. – You can easily publish status updates, share links and photos to in one go from the menu bar itself. – It helps keep your Mac desktop screen clutter free by automatically hiding app windows that are inactive or haven’t been used for a while. You can even choose to hide windows as soon as they lose focus. – It connects your Android phone to the Mac.

You can access messages, manage photos, and more, wirelessly. – A universal copy-paste solution for all your devices including the Mac. Copy something on your phone and it instantly becomes available on the Mac’s clipboard and vice-versa. – A useful compression utility for Mac that can handle all the popular zip formats including RAR, TAR, MSI, EXE, GZIP and even ISO file. It can extract sounds and images from Flash and PDF files too. – Access the files and folders on your iPhone or iPad inside this Finder-like app and copy images, videos and other files from the iOS device to your Mac easily. – This helps you convert video files and and offers tons of options to fine-tune your GIF images.

– A key mapping application for the Mac that lets you remap existing keys to perform a different command. For instance, the CAPS lock key can be configured to work as an Escape key. – It lets you easily configure the behaviour of existing gestures of your Magic Mouse or or define new multi-touch gestures. – A folder monitoring app that lets you specify rules and the files added to these watched folders are automatically arranged based on your rules. You can run complex rules too, like run Apple Script, when a file is added.

Also see:. – An like app but for your Mac. Multimarkdown composer 4 4 4 free download for mac. The browser window will float on top of other windows and you can also change the translucency level. – It make it easy to copy or move files to your favorite folders and you can also upload files to web destinations right from the menu bar. – Access your favorite from the Mac’s menu bar.

Get notifications when new items are available and apply filters to only show articles that match certain keywords. – It provides Finder like access to your favorite folders and Mac apps from the menu bar. You can launch apps, access documents and files inside folder right from the menu bar. – It automatically dims the brightness of your screen based on the time of the day – warm at night, bright during the day – so your eyes feel less strain.

Also see the. – The app helps you learn Mac keyboard shortcuts.

Every time you use the mouse to perform an action, the app displaying the equivalent shortcut as a notification. Also see, it display all the available shortcuts for the currently active app.

Best Free Mac Utilities

– If you have through Apple Bootcamp, BootChamp will save you a few clicks. It adds an icon in the menu bar that will you restart your computer into Windows mode directly without having to press any keys during start-up. – A text expander program that accelerates your by replacing pre-defined abbreviations with corresponding phrases. For instance, say;sig to add your in the Gmail window. – It adds more power to Spotlight search on your Mac. You can search different, quickly add events to your calendar, create reminders, run and more all from within Spotlight.

– Apple has vastly improved Spotlight with Yosemite but Alfred is still a better app at finding files both on your local disk and online. – If your 256 GB SSD on the Macbook is running low on space, use the Disk Inventory app to quickly discover large files and folders that are hogging up the space. – From the makers of BitTorrent, Sync helps you keep files and folders on all your computers and mobile devices in sync with each other but without using the cloud. There are no size limitations either. – If you have too many app icons cluttering the menu bar of your mac, Bartender can bring some order. It lets you hide the menu item you don’t need or you can push them to the secondary bar that will not show by default.

– From the company that, CloudUp lets you quickly upload and share local files and screenshots from the menu bar. – The invisible app improves your drag and drop workflow. Select one or more files and the app will offers a list of actions that you can perform from resizing the files to sharing via AirDrop to moving it to another destination and more. – A clipboard history manager for your Mac that preserves snippets copied to the clipboard and also gives you quick access to your frequently used files and folders. Use or if you only need a basic clipboard manager. – You can specify terminal commands and the app will add the text output of those commands to the menu bar that can also be configured to auto-updated at set intervals.

For instance, ‘ipconfig getifaddr en0’ will print your current IP address in the menu bar. You can also have these as desktop widgets with. – Whether you are looking to convert videos from one format to another or need to extract videos from a DVD, HandBrake is probably the only utility you need. Is powerful too but works only from the command line. – If you are to, like the sound coming out of the speakers, you would need SoundFlower to route that sound to the recording app instead of the speakers. – Record quick screencasts of any area of your desktop screen and save the video files locally or publish them online. It can record mouse clicks and sound too.

The other alternative is. – Like the speaker volume, you can now reduce the volume or completely turn off the mic from the menu bar or through keyboard shortcuts.

Should come handy for online meetings and voice chats. – It provides access to hidden settings, you can perform system maintenance tasks and also configure system apps like Finder, Spotlight and Dock. Is also a good alternative. Also see: Wherever possible, I have included the Apps Store links because the store not only make it easy for you to install apps on your Mac but, in the case of paid apps, you also have an option for.

The Mac Observer Express Daily Newsletter Site Navigation. October 20th, 1999 Norton Utilities for Macintosh 5.0 Contact and Other Information Manufacturer: Product Home Page: Description: Repair, Recovery and Optimization Utilities Address: Symantec Corporation 2500 Broadway Suite 200 Santa Monica, CA U.S.A. Price: US$99.95 List US$49.95 Upgrade Telephone: 1-310-453-4600 Fax: 1-310-453-0636 Requirements PowerPC Processor Mac OS 8.0 or Higher 24 MB RAM 16 MB Available Disk Space CD-ROM Drive Internet Connection for LiveUpdate System Used For Testing Power Computing Power Center Pro 210 Newer 300 MHz G3 Upgrade Mac OS 8.6 Review Norton Utilities 5.0 Adds Must Have Features Norton Utilities for Macintosh 5.0 by Introduction If you've been using a Mac for any length of time, you've no doubt come across Norton Utilities, which was originally introduced on the Mac platform in 1989. This package has consistently provided utilities that complement and often surpass those included by Apple. Approaching its 10th birthday, we are pleased to see that this package is keeping up with the times. Version 5.0 enhances existing programs, and adds new features to the entire suite.

Documentation The printed documentation consists of a booklet in the CD case. It contains info that will help you get started quickly.

For more information, you can take advantage of the Norton Utilities Help and Norton Utilities Shortcuts guides, available after you install the package if you have Apple Guide activated. Main Norton Utilities Screen (Click for Full Sized View) Installation The installation is very straightforward.

You can choose an Easy Install, which installs all components, or a Custom Install, where you can select which components to install. We decided to go for the gusto and do an Easy Install. Once the installation is complete, you'll be given the option to Restart your system.

Where Are Utilities On Mac

Since many components will be activated only after a restart, you should choose this option. Be sure to eject the Norton Utilities CD-ROM after you choose Restart. Since the CD-ROM is bootable (useful if your system is really messed up and can't boot from the hard drive) many systems will boot from it if it is still in the drive. Operation During system boot time, you'll notice some extra icons marching across your screen.

Specifically, several FileSaver components will be installed, as well as a Scheduler and the DiskLight utility. A Norton Utilities icon, placed in your Apple Menu, can be used to launch the main interface. From here, you can launch most other utilities, including Norton AntiVirus if available. In every application, a Utilities menu will allow you to quickly jump to any other Norton application. DiskLight Control Panel Norton FileSaver (Click for Full Sized View) DiskLight During the restart, you'll probably notice the DiskLight component of the package.

It displays a tiny hard drive icon in the upper left hand corner of your screen. It will flash when there's disk read activity, and show the same icon with a small 'w' next to it during a disk write.

Good for those of us who remember the old days when all hard drives had some sort of cool blinking light. FileSaver Once you reach the desktop, a small window for the FileSaver utility will let you know that it is scanning you hard drives. FileSaver does three things. First is a scan for general disk problems. It can identify problems that the Mac OS scan may miss, plus it also scans volumes other than your startup volume.

The second FileSaver feature updates disk directory info, and the third tracks deleted files and folders. These last two features can collect additional information which can be used by the UnErase and Volume Recover components, covered shortly. The scans can be scheduled during startup, shutdown, or after an improper shutdown. They can also be scheduled after a certain amount of idle time, or at a specific time. The defaults of At Shutdown and After Improper Shutdown should suit most users. Norton Disk Doctor (Click for Full Sized View) Norton Disk Doctor This is probably the most commonly used component of the package.

It can check for defective media, partition table damage, directory damage, and problems with individual files. The defective media check is handy, but takes time since it has to scan your entire hard drive. In the Mac Observer Labs, the media check of a 8.5 GB drive took nearly 30 minutes. Unless you have a very old drive on the brink of failure, you probably don't want to do this check every time. Likewise for the scanning of individual files, which took about 10 minutes to scan the aforementioned drive with about 50,000 files on it.

For most users, doing a regular scan of your partition tables and directory structure will prevent most mishaps. But if you have a drive which you think is seriously damaged, you can go to the Preferences menu and enable all checks. New in 5.0 is a Live Repair feature, which borrows from the latest Apple Disk First Aid, and allows repair of the boot disk without booting a CD. Another new feature is Undo, which can undo changes in case a repair makes things go from bad to worse.

Messy Hard Drive Before Optimization (Click for Full Sized View) Nice Neat Hard Drive After Optimization (Click for Full Sized View) SpeedDisk This component will help defragment the files on your drive. Over time, files stored on your drive may occupy noncontiguous sections of the drive, increasing access time. SpeedDisk will reorganize the files so they occupy contiguous portions of the drive. A Check Disk option will graphically display your file layout, and calculate the degree of fragmentation. You can choose from several different optimization profiles, such as General Use, Multimedia, Software Development, CD-ROM Mastering and Recently Used Files.

There are options to verify the media, directories and data before the optimization. This is strongly recommended since optimizing a damaged drive can make your drive inaccessible. We say this from experience, since previous optimization attempts with various utilities have resulted in unusable disks. Just to be safe, make a full backup! Fortunately, the Speed Disk operation successfully optimized the drive in the Mac Observer Labs, without any damage whatsoever.

New in 5.0 is the option of also optimizing your directories, which can provide a greater performance boost than just rearranging files. Norton UnErase (Click for Full Sized View) UnErase and Volume Recover The UnErase utility will allow you to recover files or folders that have been accidentally deleted. If you are also running FileSaver, it will greatly increase the chance that you'll be able to recover a lost file or folder. Filtering allows searching for lost files based on name, type, content and size. Although nothing can replace regularly scheduled backups, UnErase can help in a crisis. If you have a disk that you can no longer boot from, or can no longer see on the desktop, then Volume Recover may be able to help.

Like UnErase, it can do a better job if you are also running FileSaver. LiveUpdate New to 5.0 is a LiveUpdate feature. Like similar technology found in the Windows version of Norton Utilities, QuickTime 4 and, more recently, Mac OS 9, you can either manually check for or schedule updates to the program's components. If you have Norton AntiVirus installed, it will also update this program and, more importantly, your virus definitions.

System Info, Wipe Info, Fast Find System Info can be used to benchmark the CPU, FPU, disk and display performance of your system. You can then compare this info to profiles available for other common Mac configurations. For the paranoid and/or security conscious, the Wipe Info component can erase a specific file or folder, disk, or unused space. Once you get rid of something with Wipe Info, not even Norton Utilities can recover it, so be careful!

Fast Find is similar to the Find File feature of Sherlock. Although it can only search by name or kind, when searching by name, we found it at least 50% faster than the Apple counterpart.

FireWire Norton Utilities 5.0 offers support for FireWire devices. Conclusion Norton Utilities offers a comprehensive package of utilities to help with device repair, data recovery and optimization for your system.

Despite frequent backups, bad things happen to good people, and these tools can help you get up and running quickly. We are pleased to see that Norton Utilities is maturing with such features as Live Repair, Live Update, Undo and FireWire support. Norton Utilities 5.0 should be a part of any Observer's suite of tools. Final Score (Maximum Score is 5 Gadgies) 5 Gadgies Pros Bootable CD-ROM Updates via Internet Can Now Repair Boot Disk Undo Feature in Disk Doctor Cons None Podcast Podcast - We also offer Yesterday's News Podcast Podcast - We also offer Mac Products Guide New and updated products added to the Guide.

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