As I was working on my mac today I realized that there are a number of applications that I use on a daily basis, without fail. I’m sure many of you have your handful of apps that get worked everyday. I’m also always interested in learning of new apps that may improve my workflow or even just offer up some new interesting features even if I just try it out temporarily. Obviously the ones that prove to be most useful will be saved and make their way into my dock. Without further adieu here are the applications that I use day in and day out.

iTunes is usually the first application I start up when turning on my computer. I hardly ever do anything on my mac unless there is music playing. As many will agree, iTunes has a great user interface for playing practically all my forms of media. Whether its music, movies or podcasts it all starts here for me. With my two roommates that share a love for music like I do its always nice to tap into their libraries over our network. I’m also lucky to have a roommate that recently purchased an Apple Tv which has definitely been an addition to our entertainment setup in our living room.

The second application I usually open is entourage. Here I’ll check both my work email and personal email just to stay in the know when not in the office and respond to those that ask questions regarding my blog. Seeing as how my blog is relatively new, those emails are limited but I’m hoping that they continue to grow and I can get to know all of you that share common interests with me. I know many have complaints about entourage and I do have some of my own but I love the previewing pane flexibility and displaying my inbox to the left vs. top/bottom. Entourage has proved to be a reliable email application for me that has allowed me to setup numerous accounts quickly.

Newsfire is a program that I’ve recently started using as I’ve really become interested in blogging. Newsfire is my RSS reader of choice as recommended by many across the web. This app lets me keep all of my RSS feeds in one place. It is so effective that I spend most of my time catching up on news etc via this app rather than wondering the web. It has an extremely intuitive user interface and I can’t say one bad thing about it. It is probably my favorite app that I use currently.

Although the amount of my time surfing the web has been drastically reduced due to Newsfire, There are still a number of sites that I often visit within Safari. Safari is still my browser of choice as I find it to be the fastest although many agree that it takes up a significant amount of the machines power. Once I have my machine I doubt that I will notice much at all.

With the start of my blog I found the need to use a desktop blog editor that would allow me to write posts without logging into the my wordpress account via the web. Ecto has been great since I’ve started using it. I find it extremely easy to setup and publish my posts with never visiting my wordpress admin site. I know there were a few other options out there but after obtaining advice from many others on the web I felt Ecto was the right choice.

Azureus has been my bit torrent client of choice as it has been most responsive to all torrents I’ve encountered. Transmission would sometimes not recognize certain torrent files and I’ve parted ways with it and utilize Azureus has my main app. As I am interested in music etc I find Azureus a great way to download large files quickly and easily with its user friendly interface. If you have walked away from this app I would definitely give it another try with its most recent updates.
As I become more experienced with my photography skills I continue to learn techniques within Photoshop CS3 that help bring my photos to life. I’m extremely interested in trying out Aperture but for now Photoshop has never let me down. There are also a great amount of free downloadable actions that you can download that are fun to play around with.
I don’t know what I would do without Adobe Bridge. Every-time I import my RAW files from my Nikon D50 I use bridge to sort them prior to bringing them within the Camera Raw plugin of Photoshop CS3. its extremely easy to use and moves quickly through all my files. It is definitely properly named as it bridges my tasks almost effortlessly.
Cyberduck has been my FTP client of choice. I’ve heard a lot of great alternatives but this is FREE and extremely easy to use. I wouldn’t say I use this often but as I’m learning more about blogging and the great plugins available I do find myself uploading files to my site often.

Thats about it for my tride and true applications. What apps are you rockin’ on a daily basis? What gets you through your work day effectively? I would love to hear so please do share!

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Apple, Workflow. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.