I’ve put together a list of apps that I tend to use. The ecology of apple apps is so rich at this point. In any case, here they are:
Password Management
1Password
- 
- Excellent password manager
 
 
Menu Bar
Alfred 3
- 
- Application launcher and more
 
 
Amphetamine
- 
- Keeps my mac awake
 
 
Display Menu
- 
- Quickly adjusts the display size
 
 
Little Snitch
- 
- Limits the traffic apps seem to think they have the privilege of using
 
 
Sound, Music, and Broadcasting
Audio Hijack
- 
- Useful for broadcasting music from Cubase
 
 
AudioTunes (no longer made)
- 
- really useful for making quick changes of audio format
 
 
Boom 3d
- 
- magically makes music sound better
 
 
Capo
- 
- Useful for reverse engineering music
 
 
Cubase 10
- 
- my standby Digital Audio Workstation
 
 
Gameshow
- 
- Useful for broadcasting live performances
 - about to be discontinued and taken over by Wirecast.
 
 
Grand 3
- 
- A solid piano VST
 
 
iTunes
- 
- Good stuff
 
 
Loopback
- 
- Very useful for routing music from one app to another
 
 
ScreenFlow
- 
- Standby screencasting. This with Keynote were the main apps for Being Productive
 
 
Soundsource
- 
- Simple menu bar app to direct sounds to different places
 
 
Syntorial
- 
- Super cool app for learning the useful workings of a synthesizer
 
 
VLC
- 
- Powerful, free media player
 
 
VOX
- 
- Another very useful media player
 
 
Wavelab 9
- 
- Sound wave editor. Great for anatomically dissecting sound
 
 
File Management
A Better Finder Rename
- 
- Quickly rename a bunch of stuff
 
 
Big Mean Folder Machine
- 
- Quickly separate or merge files in folders
 
 
Carbon Copy Cloner
- 
- I have an external hard drive regularly copied to another drive as backup
 
 
CrashPlan
- 
- Has been my a solid online backup service for years.
 
 
DEVONthink Pro Office
- 
- Useful for siloing different parts of my work and life. Deserves more than a couple of sentences of explanations.
 
 
Dropbox
- 
- A reliable cloud service for files
 
 
Dropzone
- 
- I’ll use this to send files from one computer to another via a Dropbox folder and a Hazel script
 
 
Finder
- 
- Main file navigation
 
 
Forklift
- 
- FTP client of choice
 
 
FreeSpace
- 
- Tells me how much space I have left on my hard drive
 
 
Gemini 2
- 
- Great for finding duplicate files and removing them
 
 
HoudahSpot
- 
- Powerful search
 
 
Hazel
- 
- An excellent file manager. Set some rules and Hazel keeps my files tidy. See my post on using Hazel to sort.
 
 
OmniPresence
- 
- Keeps my OmniOutliner files synced
 
 
Path Finder
- 
- Another approach to Finder files. I like its preview set up.
 
 
Space Gremlin Pro
- 
- Excellent visualizer for space used in my disk drives
 
 
Time Machine
- 
- Backup!
 
 
VisualDiffer
- 
- Another one of those apps that I don’t use often, but when I need it, it is excellent for what it does.
 
 
Productivity
Bartender 3
- 
- Hides or shows my menu bar items
 
 
BusyCal
- 
- My favorite calendar app – I particularly love the 2-week view
 
 
Due
- 
- My favorite timer. I love the nagging feature.
 
 
Flashcard Hero
- 
- When I need flashcards.
 
 
Freedom
- 
- I don’t really use it anymore, but it was useful to block websites
 
 
Hook
- 
- A really neat bi-directional linking system and more (Hook & OmniFocus)
 
 
Howler Pro
- 
- a fun alert
 
 
Keyboard Maestro
- 
- an excellent tool to manage key commands and more (Posts integrating Keyboard Maestro with OmniFocus)
 
 
Moom
- 
- window size and placement management
 
 
OmniFocus
- 
- my task manager of choice
 
 
OmniGraffle
- 
- great for designing concepts and spaces
 
 
OmniOutliner
- 
- an outliner that works well as a project house
 
 
Paste
- 
- copy and paste management
 
 
TextExpander
- 
- a deluxe text management app – type a few letters and make many more (posts integrating TextExpander with OmniFocus)
 
 
Workspaces
- 
- an app that can link to a number of files and documents
 
 
Figures, Billing
Banktivity
- 
- my financial tracking program of choice
 
 
Calca
- 
- a neat text-based program for quick doing calculations
 
 
Moon Invoice
- 
- for simple invoicing
 
 
Numbers
- 
- a solid spreadsheet tool
 
 
Interfaces
Firefox
- 
- internet browser
 
 
Google Chrome
- 
- internet browser
 
 
Epic Games
- 
- video games!
 
 
Firestorm
- 
- Second Life client
 
 
GOG Galaxy
- 
- video games!
 
 
Kindle
Mailplane
- 
- great for managing multiple Gmail accounts
 
 
Steam
- 
- video games!
 
 
TweetDeck
Origin
- 
- video games!
 
 
Plex Media
- 
- watch my movies on other devices
 
 
Writing, Drafting, and Text Editors
Audiobook Builder
- 
- helps me make audiobooks
 
 
BBEdit
- 
- for when I’m doing rudimentary php coding, trying to break my websites
 
 
Folding Text
- 
- a text editor to focus on individual sections
 
 
Hemingway Editor
- 
- great for helping me improvinate my sentences
 
 
iA Writer
- 
- a text editor for focus
 
 
Keynote
- 
- a solid presentation device – used for the bulk of making Being Productive
 
 
Pages
- 
- A solid word processor and text designer
 
 
MindNode
- 
- great for mind-mapping
 
 
Scrivener
- 
- the workhorse of all text programs. This is what I write books with
 
 
Ulysses
- 
- a nice all around text manager
 
 
Zettelkasten
- 
- 
a notetaking app I’ve been recently experimenting with and really excited by
 
 - 
 
Zotero
- 
- a free research assistant app
 
 
PDF Management
PDF Expert
- 
- a PDF editor
 
 
PDFpenPro
- 
- another PDF editor
 
 
Preview
- 
- an unsung hero of default PDF tools
 
 
Images
Capto
- 
- great for managing and marking up screenshots
 
 
Pixelmator
- 
- solid image editor
 
 
ScreenFloat
- 
- for when I need a screenshot to continue floating above other windows
 
 






I noticed that you have a few file manager and duplicate detector programs. I’ve tried them all. The hands down best is BEYOND COMPARE. Try it. You will never go back to another. Especially if you need to manage, organize, and condense those external backup up drives and folders. It is ten times faster at comparing and copying files than any other app out there – including GEMINI, ARAXIS Find Duplicate Files, Duplicate Detector, Tidy-UP, Delta Walker, etc.
Also, I used 1Password for years but have now abandoned it. DASHLANE is a little more modern, robust, easier, and much safer/secure pass word manager than 1 Password. Add a YUBIKEY 5 Nano to your system along with Dashlane or Last Pass, and you’ll have quick, handy, top notch, multi-factor password security.
Hey Jim,
Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll give em a shot!
– Kourosh
What about your iPhone apps? What do you keep on the home screen? Thanks!
Hey Scott,
Thanks for the suggestion – I’ll add that to my list of possible posts.
– Kourosh
Hi Kourosh,
DEVONTHINK link seems to be a blind link…would you clarify which one? Thank you. Dikran
Hi Dikran,
Fixed it – Thanks!
– KD