My top ten software I will be depending on for the new year 2010. Every year end, I will evaluate and budget what software or tools I need for the next year.
Let start off ending the year 2009 with Time Machine, a backup utility that introduce with OS X 10.5, to backup my whole year of works that store on my machine. Since it invention, backup is no longer a hassle. I still keep my Carbon Copy Cloner to clone hardisk and other stuffs that Time Machine cannot do.
Adium an almost all-in-one instant messaging software that is always turn on, on my Air laptop. Without Adium, my thirteen inch screen will be invaded with all brands of messaging windows. Adium allows me to combine all my different brands accounts into one and skinning it user interface greatly reduce and reclaim my viewable screen property for better use by other applications.
Sociallite replaces Nambu. Socialite keeps all my social networks in one place, one login, one view, keeping it neat and tidy. If you have a thirteen inch screen like me, you will appreciate an application like socialite to manage and organize your friends and give you an overall view of what is going on among them.
In the era of Web 2.0, I am getting more and more dependent on internet, it is very important to me now that what tools allow me to work online safe and fast.
I used to use Rapidweaver daily for rapid deployment of websites. It is a very easy and fun application, but with limited blogging capabilities. Recently I change to Ecto, a weblog client on my Air laptop that allow me to draft my blog post offline and post it later on my WordPress based websites. I still use Rapidweaver for rapid deployment for website that do not need blogging.
My new favorite application is Text Wrangler. An easy and powerful text editor that now replaces my Dreamweaver and other text editors. Text Wrangler let me read web files like HTML, PHP, etc with ease and speed. It also allows me to edit and save online through FTP client, like Cyberduck.
Cyberduck is now my favorite FTP client. So easy to use and have variety of options to configure your login style. I can use it to login to my MobileMe account (formally known as.Mac) and all my FTP sites.
I love iPhoto! It is getting better with newer version. It now have face detection and geotagging but this is not what i use most of the time. iPhoto allows me to upload photos massively to my MobileMe Gallery, Flickr and Facebook. It saves me lot of time on uploading, tagging and managing them.
No more Final Cut and it complicated features to create a five minutes video. iMovies that come with OS X, let me rapidly create video and export directly to my YouTube account or export to my mobile phone. No more like the bad old days to go through codec setting to optimized video export. With iMovies you just concentrate on your creativity.
iBank helps me manage and keep track of my money. Before using iBank, I was using Microsoft Money through Parallels Desktop and that is a troublesome thing to do. iBank also has widgets for the Dashboard that allow me to update my record without opening the application. iBank now simplify my financial management.
Lastly, Viscosity, my newly acquired OpenVPN client. This award winning VPN client keeps all my internet activities safe from preying thefts and allow me to access websites that are blocked by my ISP. My internet speed is much faster and stable now.
My ten software are Time Machine, Adium, Socialite, Ecto, Text Wrangler, Cyberduck, iPhoto, iMovies, iBank and Viscosity. Not enough? Here is the Christmas bonus. Little Snapper, a web snapping utility that let me quickly snapshot websites for future reference or make comment to it. This is also another tool I will be heavily using in the new year.
Here are my top ten software plus one Christmas bonus, I will be using for the year 2010 on my 1.6Ghz Macbook Air Laptop.
