Dan Rubin @danrubin | Site | Some Work Samples

designer, singer, photographer, philosopher, polymath in training; improving the world through design. also, half-English by birth.

I use a combination of Textmate and CSSEdit, and couldn’t be happier with the two. I used to use BBEdit back in the days before editors were cool, but I left it behind the day I first encountered Textmate. For me, using an app is as much about features and functionality as it is about “feel” — I need to enjoy using it, and looking at it for hours on end. BBEdit never quite reached that level, Textmate did the first time I launched it.
CSSEdit is likely the most underrated application on the Mac for front-end developers — it does one thing (CSS), and it does it incredibly well. I’m constantly giving demos of it to people, and they all end up falling in love with it (a similar reaction to people really using a Mac for the first time). My favorite feature is the ability to view a live site, extract its stylesheets and edit them, seeing the effects in real-time on the live site.

I’ve tried Coda and Espresso, and though I love Panic for Transmit (it’s all I’ve used for FTP/SFTP since at least the OS 9 days) and MacRabbit for CSSEdit, the attempt both developers have made to squeeze so many different apps into one interface falls short. The features of CSSEdit haven’t made it into Espresso (and it feels like CSSEdit has been forgotten as well, though I hope that isn’t the case), and Coda’s file transfer feels nothing like Transmit — if both all-in-one apps incorporated the full feature set of their publisher’s exceptional standalone apps, I would be more inclined to fall for them…

The theme for me is simplicity: Textmate and CSSEdit both focus on allowing a limited set of tasks to be performed as easily as possible, and because of that they both succeed.

Niki Brown @nikibrown | Site | Some Work Samples

I’ve been designing since I was a little kid – drawing cartoons, making fake newspapers, and planning my plot to take over the world. (Just kidding). My early interests in design were heightened when I got my first computer, it was love at first sight! I made my first website in 1996, with the help of geocities and word-art.

I use dreamweaver mostly for the instant visual feedback. I tend to use the split view (code & design) since I’m 2 parts designer 1 part coder. I know that the Dreamweaver design view isn’t completely accurate (I still check designs in safari, FF, chrome, and satan…i mean IE) , but it gives me the fastest feedback on how my design looks as I code. I’m also a fan of the auto complete feature and the source formating.

I have also been using Espresso which i got with the most recent Macheist bundle, and have tried Textmate and coda. When I’m on the go with my EEEPC I use Notepad++ mostly because its free and was easy to figure out.

Chris Spooner @chrisspooner | Site | Some Work Samples

I’m a creative Designer, avid Blogger and I’m generally crazy about pretty colours and shapes.

Nowadays I tend to use Coda for all my XHTML, CSS and the odd snippet of PHP. Previously I’d been a Dreamweaver user simply because it’s the app that introduced me to web design so I simple stuck with it out of comfort. It wasn’t until I switched over to Mac that there was a selection of great looking coding apps such as Coda, Textmate and Espresso that took my fancy. I tried out all the demo versions but always went back to Dreamweaver because I’d got used to the workflow and shortcuts. I hated how Dreamweaver took years to boot up, but I also couldn’t get used to an app automatically closing my tags for me right after I’d written it after being used to DWs ‘bracket, slash’ way of working.

Nevertheless, I was still determined to switch to an alternative, so I went ahead and bought Coda on one of their discount days and stuck it out over the first week or so. Now I’m happily typing away on a swish looking app that loads at light speed, I’m also enjoying a whole new collection of features that I’d certainly miss should I migrate again!

Adii Rockstar @adii | Site | Some Work Samples

Entrepreneur, co-founder of WooThemes and general creator of Rockstar Awesomeness!

First thing you’ve got to note, is that I’m not a natural coder and that what I know, I’ve taught myself. So when it comes to choosing a development app, I use whatever works for me, because of convenience; and not necessarily because it’s a hardcore development app. Anyway… When I switched from PC to Mac 2 years ago, I had to find a replacement for Dreamweaver and my best available option at the stage was Coda, which I continue to use to this day. I love the fact that’s it’s simple and uncluttered, as I don’t need much else from my development app. I’ve tried Espresso a few times, but I think I’ve just become to used to Coda.

Chris Coyier @chriscoyier | Site | Some Work Samples

Lead cascader. Head tag closer.

TextMate is the code editor of choice on the Mac. It’s incredibly simple to add in commands that do simple things. For example, I set up command-L to wrap selected text in <li> tags. I write a lot of HTML, so that type of stuff is awesome. But yet, I end up using Coda more than any other editor. I work live right on servers most of the time and having it all integrated with FTP is priceless. I’ve been trying to switch to the ExpanDrive / TextMate combo, which I think will be the winner. What I really want is a merging of the code editing powers of TextMate with the integrated awesomeness of Coda. And to be fair, I haven’t really given Espresso a fair shake yet. I did a little Beta testing but it wasn’t compelling enough at the time to make a big impression for me.

Jeff Croft @JCroft | Site | Some Work Samples

Knowin’ nothing in life, but to be legit. Don’t quote me boy, cuz I ain’t said shit.

For pretty much all of my coding, I use TextMate on Mac OS X. When TextMate first came out, it quickly became my favorite text editor, and the bundle approach to extensibility ensured that it continued to serve my needs, even as I explored different languages. I still think it’s the best overall app for my needs today. However, I do admit that I’ve grown frustrated with the lack of a significant update to the app since it’s original release. It’s still very good, but enough time has passed that it’s time for a refresh. I will note that I’m a big fan of Panic’s software and have considered switching to Coda, especially now that there are Django and Python plug-ins for it, but I have a certain inertia causing me to stick with TextMate — sometimes familiarity rules.

Tim Van Damme @MaxVoltar | Site | Some Work Samples

Designer at Made by Elephant, blogger at Maxvoltar. Will design for a warm bed.

A bit of history: I started with Microsoft Frontpage. As I learned that writing HTML manually was the way to go, I switched to Dreamweaver. After I said goodbye to Windows and started using a Mac, Dreamweaver was terrible slow. I did some research and ended up with a combination of Textmate, CSSEdit and Transmit. When Espresso launched, I didn’t like it at first. Maybe it was because it’s a Belgian product, but I forced myself to use it for an entire week. It just clicked. It combined the simplicity of Textpattern with the sexiness (and a lot of features) of CSSEdit. Another important aspect was the workflow, a reason why I never used Coda (it looks great, and a lot of people say some really positive stuff about it, but it just isn’t for me I guess).

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Web Dev App Reviews from the Pros – Part 1, Mac

While using Screensnapr I found it a very simple and easy to use program to take and share screenshots on your Windows based PC. The program was very unobtrusive and it ran in the background without any real notifications or pop-ups. (In all reality there were times I forgot it was even running) This is very crucial for something like a screenshot app because you may need it at times and others you need it to just blend into the background. For this app to not draw so many system resources is a big perk for a screens

Setting up Screensnapr is very easy. Downloading was super quick, (the size of the app is only about 74kb total) and set up took maybe 30 seconds to unzip and open the program. Lastly using the program was simple, just press the hot key, (ctrl+1 by default) select the area you would like to capture and you are provided with a url of your image.

As to the other features I was especially fond of the custom FTP options, which let you store and access the images to the server of your choice. Also the built in url shortening could come in handy while using twitter or any other social media applications.

Features:

• Simple and minimal interface
• Light weight and unobtrusive to your computer
• Easy to use
• Custom FTP options and built in url shortening
• It’s FREE!

Rating:

Screensnapr was easy to use and was very reliable. Overall I would suggest this app for anyone on a Windows based PC.

More Screensnapr

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Screensnapr – A wicked alternative for PC users

So, take that basic concept, throw it into the cloud computing environment and you get services like SugarSync and Dropbox. Ok, so technically speaking, they are (NAS) Network Attached Storage, but please spare me my illusions. I have a RAID array!

What they do for creatives

These two services provide instantaneous backup of all of your creative work and allow you to access it from anywhere with an internet connection. If you combine one of these services with a Portable Web Toolbox, you could have a completely mobile office.

How they do it

Once you create an account, you create a folder that will hold all of the data that you would like to backup and access on-the-go.

When you save something in this folder, it automatically syncs with the app’s servers, putting your work in the cloud. If you upload something through the website, it will be saved in this folder on your computer. The awesomeness kicks in when you add in more computers.

An example setup

I currently have a pc with Windows XP, a laptop with Windows Vista and an iMac with OS X Leopard. To really give these services a run for their money, I have both of them running out of a single shared folder. This means that every file that I save gets sent to the Dropbox server, the Sugarsync server, my laptop and my pc. (I’m currently working on my mac in Espresso, but I have done parts of this post on my laptop with Dreamweaver and on an XP PC at work using notepad (by accessing the website).

Each time I click save on the html file that I am writing this post in, I can actually see the notification pop up on my PC, indicating that a file was updated. I have not actually run benchmarking tests, but I firmly believe that these service networks are faster than my home network. The simple fact that it is automated instead of manual is the real “time-saver”.

What they do different

At their core, both services function almost exactly the same. Files are saved in a folder, which get updated on the website and on as many computers as you like. The difference is how you can interact with your data with mobile devices.

From what I experienced, it seems that Dropbox focused on creating a web app for access, while Sugarsync put their focus an iPhone app. You can use each service through your mobile device to upload, download and view your files, but of the two, Dropbox has the more polished web app.

For iPhone users, Sugarsync made a rockin’ app. It is very fast and easy to navigate.

What they cost

Each service currently has a free trial that gives you full functionality and 2GB of storage. Both of them also run affiliate programs that enable you to earn earn extra space if you invite others and they sign up.

While 2GB is great for testing them out and seeing if you would like to use them, you really need more space to be working in the cloud! For Sugarsync, packages range from 30GB – 250GB and are priced from $49.99 – $249.99 per year. For Dropbox, you can choose from 50GB or 100GB packages and they are priced at $99 or $199.99 per year.

Of the two, you get more gig for your buck with Sugarsync. Either option is significantly less than the hardware that you would have to purchase to run a redundant backup on one machine.

Why you should be using them

• Automated protection against crashes. If my mac died right now, I would be able to finish this article on my laptop or my pc from the point of my last save. (As soon as I got done crying).
• Worldwide access to your files. No matter where I am tomorrow, I have the ability to access this article to edit it.
• Save embarrassment. Now I know that you are probably much more organized than I am, but I am willing to admit that I have saved files on the wrong machine and/or forgotten to save them on a usb drive before going somewhere that I needed them. If you think there’s the slightest chance that could happen to you, these services can save you some face when showing up at a client’s office to show them your masterpiece!
• Sharing. All of your items can be shared with others as well. Each service has the ability to create a shared folder that you can send invites to access.

Try them, they’re free

I suggest that you sign up for both services, save some files and then access them online and on multiple machines. This will allow you to determine which interface works best for you. Once you’ve done that, I believe that you will see how great these apps are and how much time and hassle they can save you.

As for me, I’m just happy to finally have my RAID, even if it is in a cloud!

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RAID Clouds: Backup and Syncing with Dropbox and Sugarsync

Where did the idea of Brush Pilot come from?

Well, I really wanted an app Like Brush Pilot, and after being frustrated trying the clunky java versions around and not having any luck finding anything suitable, I decided to take matters into my own hands. It was a risk, but I was certain that there were other people like me out there who could really use an app like Brush Pilot.

At what point did you decide ok, this is going to become a reality?

After I found a developer, we had some conversations about how long it would take and how much it would cost, and I decided that the benefits outweighed the risks, so I set things in motion and never looked back.

How did you take the first few plunges into the app? Sketch out the app? Hire a developer? Do it yourself?

Well, I started in Photoshop and went back and forth with my developer with how the app should look while he started the backend development. We made a few UI changes as we figured out which features we could include and after that, we started testing away.

Where did your pricing come from? Affordability? Enough to cover your overhead? etc.

I wanted it to be affordable. I know people have been waiting on this app for a long time and I wanted it to be affordable enough for anyone to enjoy it. Plus, I didn’t want to over-price it for version 1. There are still a ton of improvements we can make to Brush Pilot before it becomes a $20 app. I wouldn’t feel right charging more than $15 at this point in the app’s life.

What were the key features you wanted to capture in Brush Pilot?

Lightning fast previews was my top priority, and I have to say, my developer did a great job on that. The speed of Brush Pilot wouldn’t be possible without Spotlight technology, and I’ve had some complaints about relying on Spotlight, but let’s face it, Brush Pilot is up to 50x faster than ABR Viewer (open source Java app). I even tested it with 5.5 Gigs of brushes on an external HD and it only to 5-10 seconds to populate the file list. I’m very happy with the speed, and how lightweight the app turned out to be. Another thing I concentrated on, was the file system. I thought it was important for users to distinguish which of their brushes were installed, and which ones were not. This way you know what’s going to show up in you list of brushes when you fire up Photoshop. Also, the ability to install and delete was essential in order to truly be a useful app. I thought to myself “It’s nice to be able to preview the brushes, but if I have to open finder and move the files manually, it would just be a pain.” That’s just a few of the big ones we concentrated on.

How have you been marketing the app? (soft release? Your blog? twitter ads etc)

I started out with posting about it on my blog BittBox.com, then proceeded to Twitter, email, etc. I just recently got an affiliate program working, so if anyone has a Photoshop related website and wants to earn 20%, you can always drop me a line at brushpilot [at] gmail [dot] com.

What is something you took away from the process that people making new apps like you did would gain insight from?

It always takes longer than you think. I guess you could say the same about web design, but making an app, there are so many little things that can easily be overlooked. Test, Test, Test. Even in the early stages, send it out to people you can trust to test because everyone uses their computer differently and they might find a bug in 5 seconds that you haven’t found in 3 weeks. Also, keep an eye on Apple coming out with “Resolution Independent” UI for their software. From now on, to be on the safe side, I would do all my UI design in vector format.

Have you been bitten by the app bug or are you already thinking of something else to design?

I’m going to try and perfect Brush Pilot before I start thinking about anything else. There are still plenty of enhancements I’d like to see in version 2: Drag and Drop is a must. Renaming files, Shift + Select for installing/Deleting, full size PNG export, just to name a few.

Did you design the logo for Brush Pilot and how did you come up with the name? Has it always been called this or has it changed?

No, actually I hired a company that specializes in icon design, and they are very affordable. www.artua.com I’m a graphic designer, but icon design is a different animal, so I decided to leave it to the pros.

About Jay Hilgert (Bittbox)

He graduated from Oklahoma State University in 2005, with a BFA in Graphic Design and ended up getting a job at a small design firm in St. Louis. While in St. Louis, He started BittBox.com and after a while, ended up quitting my job to blog full time. Jay moved back to Oklahoma City where he currently runs BittBox, design fonts, and now is in the software business, so you can imagine, he spends most of his time emailing people theses days :)

Want to connect more with Jay?

Site | Twitter | App Site

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Behind the App: BrushPilot – Jay Hilgert (Bittbox)

Firefox

Use – Web Browser

Bonus – Install Firebug and the Web Developer Toolbar to complete your toolbox

Size – 27-77MB (depending on addons)

Download Portable App | Visit Main Site

Thunderbird

Use – Email Client

Bonus – Also has RSS Capabilities

Size – 25MB

Download Portable App | Visit Main Site

Sunbird

Use – Calendar, Scheduler and GTD

Bonus – Leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on

Size – 17MB

Download Portable App | Visit Main Site

OpenOffice

Use – Office Suite including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database

Bonus – Compatable with MS Office, Word Perfect and Lotus

Size – 231MB

Download Portable App | Visit Main Site

Notepad++

Use – Text Editor

Bonus – Major features include syntax highlighting and auto-completion

Size – 10MB

Download Portable App | Visit Main Site

Xampp

Use – Setting up an integrated server package of Apache, mySQL, PHP and more

Bonus – Available in both a full and lite package depending on your personal needs

Size – 221MB

Download Portable App | Visit Main Site

FileZilla

Use – FTP Client

Bonus – Has an intuitive drag and drop interface

Size – 9MB

Download Portable App | Visit Main Site

Gimp

Used For – Editing Images

Size – 67MB

Download Portable App | Visit Main Site

7zip

Used For – Compressing and Uncompressing Files

Bonus – Compress and Uncompress 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, and TAR. Uncompress RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB, and NSIS

Size – 2.5MB

Download Portable App | Visit Main Site

Sumatra PDF

Used For – Viewing PDFs

Bonus – Extremely small and starts very fast

Size – 1.5MB

Download Portable App | Visit Main Site

VLC

Used For – Media Player (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, XviD, WMV, mp3, ogg, avi, DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols)

Bonus – Can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network

Size – 32MB

Download Portable App | Visit Main Site

Toucan

Used For – Synchronise, backup and encrypt data

Bonus – Includes portable variables, point to places on you USB drive no matter what its drive letter is

Size – 3.1MB

Download Portable App

pidgin

Used For – Instant Messaging

Bonus – Works with AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo and more

Size – 50MB

Download Portable App | Visit Main Site

Your Turn

Were there any apps essential to your toolbox that I left out? Leave me a comment and let me know.

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Portable Web Toolbox

I have setup multiple apps that I run like this but one of my favorites is Instapaper. If you’re like me you have 65 tabs open in your browser and you sometimes need to clear those out and check them later. Instapaper is an app that lets you add the links to their service through an applet and then you can look at them later. Great! So now I can get rid of my 65 tabs in firefox and be more productive because I don’t have all of these other distractions.

Video How-To

Resources

Instapaper

Fluid App

Instapaper Restyled

credit to finding this add-on to TimVanDamme Site | Twitter

Fluid Icons Flickr Group

Free Menubar Icon

instapapertif

This is designed by me (chadengle) I am giving this icon away free for whatever you wish. Did you end up using the icon? Take a screen cap and add it to our flickr group.

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Using Menu Extra SSB’s for Better Productivity

Unobtrusive, intuitive, and simple to use. Espionage is designed to integrate with Apple’s Finder seamlessly, so that you can protect only the data that you want protected, and without having to resort to any special “vaults”.

Espionage is an app for locking your stuff on a mac. I had the pleasure of reviewing this app of the last few weeks and I am sold. It blends into the background, its only there when you need it and that my friends is my favorite kind of app. Now, setting up the app to work with other applications on your system is super simple. What does this allow you to do? It allows you to protect folders and app’s you want to keeps safe. Regardless if you share your computer or not some things should be kept safe, especially email. If you have any clients or anyone that you care about (I call it the “mom effect” if you get embarrassed thinking about telling them stuff) you probably don’t want that info in the wrong hands. This app gives you peace of mind from having someone snooping on your machine in your e-mail or whatever else and when it comes to business and clients no one can be to careful.

ScreenShots:

Highlighted Features:

Application Associations

Espionage already works seamlessly with folders in the Finder, and now 2.0 brings that level of integration to other applications. Just as you can double-click on a folder to unlock it, you can now launch an application to unlock its data on-the-fly. Click the play button above to see this in action.

Sparsebundle Support

Introduced in Mac OS X Leopard, sparsebundles mean faster backups for encrypted folders. Instead of resending the entire folder, only the changes will be sent. Speaking of backups, Espionage 2.0 includes built-in backups functionality that makes it easy to restore your encrypted folders.

DelayedLauncher

built-in You’ve encrypted your Mail folder, but you’ve got it on your list of login items. That can cause problems if it launches before Espionage does and discovers that its data has been encrypted. DelayedLauncher was the solution to this in 1.x—now it’s built-in as a checkbox.

Support for Separate Keychain

Don’t want to use your login password as Espionage’s master password? No problem. Espionage 2.0 gives you the option of storing your folder passwords in a separate keychain, protected by a custom master password.

Protect Individual Folders

No longer is it necessary to encrypt your entire home folder just to protect your email or your chat history. Espionage can protect individual folders, allowing you to easily secure sensitive data for applications like Mail, iChat, and Adium without the penalties of encrypting too much.

Built-in Backups

Espionage comes with built-in backups, custom-fitted for the way it works with folders. This means it no longer matters whether the folder is locked, or unlocked. Espionage will backup your folders safely and efficiently, making it easy to restore them later if disaster strikes.

Full Feature List:

If you want a full feature list or a ton more information as well as forums check out their site or check them out on twitter.

Site | Twitter

Rating:

This app is simple and easy. Takes virtually no effort to set it up and use it. I love it and think its a must have if your a mac user and need some extra app security.

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Review: Espionage 2.0 The Tao Effect

Seesmic releases an update to their app

iPhone 3.0 Software Update Launches

TweetPsych Launches

iPhone 3GS ships and is ready to buy.

Sirius-XM Finally Comes to the iPhone Platform

Facebook Launches Usernames

Photo by pshab

Tweetdeck refresh + iPhone app

(read our review here)

Shaun Inman Launches Fever

(read our review)

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This Week in Apps – 6.15-6.19

1. Launchy combined with AutoHotKey

I love quicksilver on mac but have yet to find a single comparable app for windows. The best solution I’ve found so far is using Launchy in conjunction with AutoHotKey. If any readers have a better solution please feel free to leave a comment and let me know.

AutoHotKey lets you create custom hotkeys for launching programs and opening files as well as create better keyboard, joystick and mouse macros to handle repetitive tasks. For all of your other application launching needs, as well as a range of other options, there is Launchy. To get the most out of Launchy I highly recommend Take Launchy Beyond Application Launching.

2. Foxit Reader

I have a pretty fast computer and it still takes a minute for Adobe Acrobat to open a .pdf file. For much quicker PDF viewing, I highly recommend Foxit instead. Foxit is small and fast and uses a very small amount of your system resources and even lets you annotate the file you’re reading. Some advantages of Foxit Reader:

• Incredibly small: The download size of Foxit Reader is just a fraction of Acrobat Reader 20 M size.
• Breezing-fast: When you run Foxit Reader, it launches instantly without any delay. You are not forced to view an annoying splash window displaying company logo, author names, etc.
• Annotation tool: Have you ever wished to annotate (or comment on) a PDF document when you are reading it? Foxit Reader allows you to draw graphics, highlight text, type text and make notes on a PDF document and then print out or save the annotated document.
• Text converter: You may convert the whole PDF document into a simple text file.
• High security and privacy: Foxit Reader highly respects the security and privacy of users and will never connect to the Internet without users’ permission. While other PDF readers often silently connect to the Internet in the background. Foxit PDF Reader does not contain any spyware

3. Google Services

I’m talking about a number of the services Google offers here. Mainly Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs. I love having all of this info at my fingertips regardless of where I am or what computer I’m on. I would honestly be completely lost without these outstanding web apps.

Google Calendar is a must to help me keep myself organized. With Google Calendar you can set recurring or one-time appointments and tasks, have different colored tags to help keep different kinds of tasks straight, and import any of your Remember the Milk lists for full integration into your calendar. You can also set up email or text alerts to remind you about upcoming events.

Google Docs is a free, online office suite. I love it because I have access to my docs anywhere and on any computer and it also keeps me from having to have an office suite on my hard drive. I’m not a fan of MS Office due to it’s pricetag and I’m not a fan of Open Office because it’s such a resource hog. I have yet to come across anything that Google Docs can’t handle including opening and exporting a document with pretty much any doc type you could need.

Gmail is simply an amazing email client that allows you to access any of your email accounts, from anywhere with any computer. Zen Habits has a terrific article on on how you can Turn Gmail into your Ultimate Productivity Center.

4. RescueTime

Rescue Time is a productive freelancer’s best friend and a lazy freelancer’s worst enemy. Once installed it keeps track of everything you do on your computer as well as tracking every website you visit if you use Firefox. Getting weekly reports on exactly how you spend every second of your time can be a real eye opener and show you exactly how productive you’re being (or not being in some cases). I’ve also found it to be very helpful when I start getting off track in pointing out how unproductive I’m being giving me a gentle nudge to work more and play less.

5. Toggl

While rescue time is great for letting you know how and where you’re spending your time, you’ll still need a time tracking app that you can edit and control for your projects. For instance, knowing that you spent 20 hours this week in your text editor won’t help you when you need to know how long you worked on individual projects. That’s where Toggl comes in.

Toggl is an online time tracking application that is very quick and easy to set up and allows you to track the time you spend on your projects with just a couple of mouse clicks.

6. Mind42

I usually try to take a couple of hours out of each week just to sit down and brainstorm. Mind mapping is a great way to do this and Mind42 is a wonderful free online mind mapping application. If you don’t know what mind mapping is you really don’t know what you’re missing out on. The next time you’re struggling for ideas, go read the Wikipedia article on mind mapping and give it a try.

Mind42.com is a browser based online mind mapping application. With Mind42.com installing mindmapping tools is no longer needed – for a hassle-free mindmapping experience. Just open the browser and launch the application when needed.

7. Memento

I’m an avid note jotter and Memento is the first app that took over my regular pen & notebook. Note that while Vista isn’t listed as a supported OS, I’ve been using it for months with no problems.

Here are some of Memento’s key features:

• You can choose each individual note’s color and size.
• All notes are automatically saved every minute
• New notes always open on top of other windows
• When you close Memento it saves the current configuration so that when you reopen the program, notes are exactly as they were when you closed it.

8. VirtuaWin

One of the things I really miss when I have to work in windows instead of linux is multiple desktops. They save so much time when you have to have multiple programs open at the same time. I’ve tried a few different applications that are meant to serve this purpose but none have been as consistantly stable as VirtuaWin.

VirtuaWin allows you to have up to 9 different desktops, each of which can be highly customized. The basic app is small and fast without any unnecessary features. However, you can install modules for any added features you might need making this a fairly powerful application.

9. Remember the Milk

I make to-do lists like I jot down notes so I need a great GTD (Getting Things Done) application to keep me sane. I’ve tried many different apps on multiple operating systems and, while I really enjoy some, I have yet to find one as complete as Remember the Milk. And when combined with Google Calendar, you have a scheduling tool that’s not to be underestimated.

Remember the Milk is a must have application for any list lover!

10. Picasa

Even though I use photoshop for major projects, I really like picasa as both an image manager and to do simple tasks such as editing images for my blog. It also comes with Picasa Photo Viewer, a gorgeous and fast image previewer.

The photo viewer is a fast, lightweight application for viewing images on your desktop or through Windows Explorer. Installed with Picasa 3, it lets you to take a quick look at images without having to fully open the Picasa 3 program.

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10 Free Apps to Fuel your Productivity

Unblab

Unblab is a webmail service created with the hope that you will use it as little as possible. You can:

• 1. Finish your email in less time.
• 2. Do something else.

That’s our goal. That’s unblab.

Site | Twitter

Ego

Ego gives you one central—and lovely—location to check web statistics that matter to you. With support for Feedburner, Google Analytics, Mint, Squarespace and Twitter, you can quickly view the number of visits to your website (including daily, hourly and monthly numbers), feed subscription totals and changes, and how many people are following you on Twitter.

Site | Twitter | iTunes

LittleSnapper

LittleSnapper is a screen grab app with an incredibly clean user interface and amazing functionality.  It allows you to take screen shots of entire sites, images snippets of pages or whatever you wish that is on your screen. Then you can tag them, edit them, share them with your co-workers for a project, share your inspiration with your friends or just keep yourself for later in life. This app has many uses and even has a compatible iPhone app.

Site | Twitter

SUBERNOVA

SUBERNOVA is a web based project management tool to help solo designers, writers, bloggers, etc manage their projects, milestones, clients, track time, get reminders for important deadlines, automatically remind their clients of overdue invoices, schedule emails and manage project related links and inspirations all in one intuitive and elegant user interface.

Site | Twitter

Espionage

Unobtrusive, intuitive, and simple to use. Espionage is designed to integrate with Apple’s Finder seamlessly, so that you can protect only the data that you want protected, and without having to resort to any special “vaults”.

Site | Twitter

Delivery Status Touch

Delivery Status touch will let you track packages from UPS, FedEx, USPS, DHL, TNT, and many more. You can track orders from Amazon, Apple, and others before they even ship. Your full tracking details are just a tap away, and you can also search for your package’s location in Google Maps. Best of all, you can sync tracking numbers with our free Dashboard widget or with any web browser. You can also grab deliveries straight from mobile Safari with just a couple of taps.

Site | Twitter | iTunes

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6 Apps with a Good Web Presence

Whether your a seasoned app user or your a new app user and wondering what you should download first you should check out Fluid App or Mozilla Prism. These apps allow you to turn a website into a full fledged app. This means that you can be constantly updated on your favorite sites without have to surf to them in your browser. This allows you to utilize your favorite online places in a much, easier more effective approach to using your computer.

So what is this useful for? For example: You can turn your favorite RSS reader into a desktop application and reserve your web browser for the things you are surfing/browsing. But why stop there? You can turn digg, flickr, delicious, facebook any site that you could think if into its own full supporting app. Pretty cool huh? If you want more information on these apps check out Mozilla Prism or Fluid App. There will be more tutorials coming later on that show some of the ins and outs of these apps. Go download and be happy! :)

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2 Apps You Need In Your App Arsenal

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Tweetie – For Mac Review