

Ask HN: What are the best unique Mac apps? - maguay

Mac users: what unique Mac-only apps do you use that couldn't be had on Windows? What apps with unique innovations do you see in Mac apps that you're not seeing on other platforms? I'm doing a bit of research for an article idea...<p>I'd asked this on Twitter earlier, and got some nice feedback, including Kaleidoscope, BBEdit, Courier, Reeder, MarsEdit, Acorn/Pixelmator, NvAlt, Fantastical, Sparrow, Versions, Adium, and Coda.<p>Thoughts?
======
ianterrell
Alfred! <http://www.alfredapp.com/>

It's the natural successor to Quicksilver. When I had to work on Windows
boxes, I never could find a replacement that felt anywhere near as good.

------
dylanrw
Textmate, although there are a few apps in the win env. that try (E-TextEditor
is great). Quicksilver/Launchbar - This is a biggy, I used to use Enso by Aza
Raskin back in the day before I switched.

Ultimately it was these two programs that did it for me. Those and a terminal.

------
runjake
Notational Velocity. There are Windows clones, but they suck really bad.

Really, with the Mac, it's the frameworks.

Acorn and Pixelmator are great and all, but I think that Paint.NET on Windows
matches or exceeds them.

------
Someone
Compared to Excel, Numbers has many disadvantages:

\- fewer features \- cannot handle huge spreadsheets \- slower

, but it feels so much better. In particular, allowing multiple cell grids on
a sheet and allowing users to name columns and rows are good ideas (I know it
was done before, but AFAIK, nobody is shipping that at the moment). It also
helps that it takes effort to have it make ugly charts (Excel has improved
here, but it is as if it doesn't dare commit to a design choice for fear of
losing some customers)

------
veyron
I'm surprised no one pointed out Growl. There's GNotify for linux but it's
nowhere near as polished.

And in the growl package, there's an extra called growlnotify, which lets you
pipe data from processes and show the output in growl form. I use this
extensively.

------
octopus
Two more examples for you:

Xcode, TextMate.

Adium is actually a clone of Pidgin, Pidgin can be used on Windows and Linux,
so this is not a good example of a Mac only application.

~~~
xuki
Adium Is actually very different from Pidgin. I mean the core is based on
Pidgin but the UI makes it unique and more useable (IMO).

~~~
eps
Yeah, Pidgin on Windows is an usability joke.

------
alain94040
Don't forget the obvious ones: iMovie, iPhoto. Yes, Apple makes them, but if
you ever had to support a Windows user and figure out where their pictures
are, you'll love iPhoto.

------
ricg
Just released DesktopShelves <http://kitestack.com/desktopshelves> (my own
app)

Also take a look at Skitch.

~~~
ApolloRising
This looks fantastic - Downloading now

~~~
juanipis
can't reply to the thread, so i'll just post here.

<http://www.secretgeometry.com/apps/cathode/> cathode is a beautiful mac only
app that makes my windows based officemates real envious

and i also have an app of my own that dont have a windows equivalent:
<http://twitjustice.org>

~~~
juanipis
another i found on hn way back, bit.ly/ijXuHY

------
pogos
Logic Studio. There is Cubase on Windows that comes close in functionality but
is nowhere as intuitive and easy to use.

------
tobylane
CloudApp, Growl, Adium, Seashore and Fuzzyclock? Just simplicity. Ignore
iTunes for your article.

------
mcrider
Sequel Pro -- Awesome free MySQL manager for mac. Transmit -- Great FTP
client.

~~~
ajtaylor
Thanks for the pointer. My new $job uses mysql and Sequel Pro looks like a
great mysql tool. Bonus points for being open source!

------
eekfuh
SubethaEdit

Terminal (jk)

~~~
Travis
What do you use as a replacement for terminal? It was freezing my comp for 2-3
seconds when I'd switch spaces, so I moved to iterm2, and it's not great...

I'd like to see something that does a better job allowing me to distinguish
sessions to different servers (diff background colors, etc.)

~~~
there
i just use x11.app and run a bunch of xterms in a tiled window manager
(ratpoison). as for colored windows for servers, see
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2089389>

