April 27, 2011

Completing a trilogy of UI blog posts today…

Menu Bar Icons

MailMate notification - The fantastic lightweight IMAP mail client from Benny Kjær Nielsen.

CoverSutra - A recent discovery I use to control iTunes without needing to switch back to the main application window.

PopCharX - This utility saves me so much time finding the right characters.

Skitch - Essential for marking-up screenshots and hosting by blog images.

TextExpander - I rely on this to correct common spelling mistakes but also for it’s ability to shorten URLs and insert text from snippets.

DeliBar - I use DeliBar to capture things I would like to become bookmarks’ while I’m away from my main computer, sending them to Pinboard.

I Love Stars - In the same way that CoverSutra lets me control iTunes when it’s not visible, I love stars lets me assign ratings. I definitely give it ★★★★★

f.lux - The jury’s still out on this utility that changes my computer display to a warmer night mode automatically.

Tags - One of a number of applications that allow me to use OpenMeta to manage files.

QuickCursor - The great little utility allows you to use your favourite text editor to input data into web browsers. The great advantage of this is it does away with the need for an input manager.

App Tamer - The idea is that this pauses an application when you switch away from it, then automatically restarts it when you start using it again to save battery life.

Slim Battery Monitor - I’ve had this on every Mac I’ve ever owned and it does just what it says on the tin.

TextSoap7 - TextSoap is one of those apps that’s barely visible but saves a huge amount of time. I’ve previously written about it and since then it has been updated and gained a menu bar icon as a result.

MenuMeters - Another of those apps I have used forever. Here it is set to display network, traffic, memory usage and CPU levels. Very useful to see if anything is hogging your computer.

Apple’s standard language and text input menu, airport indictor and clock.

Search - This is Tags’ Enhanced Spotlight.

Software


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