Best Of The Mac App Store
by Tim Chaten
January 7, 2011
Introduction
The Mac App Store brings an exciting new way to find and buy apps for your Mac. There are a little more than 1,000 Mac apps at launch. Here are some of the best free and paid Mac apps currently available.Games
Chopper 2
Chopper 2 brings you yet another way to play the popular iOS game. The Mac app is very similar to the iPad version of the game. The Mac app includes iPhone or iPod touch control, just like the iPad app. The game can be played without an iOS device by using the keyboard and mouse/trackpad. The gameplay is the same and the app is a great experience on the Mac too. The price is great at only $0.99. If you haven’t purchased Chopper 2, now is a great time to pick it up for the Mac, iPad, and iPhone.The Incident
The Incident is a wildly successful and popular game for iOS. The Mac version takes advantage of the keyboard for control. It would be great if in the future you could actually control the game by using an iPhone or iPad, but right now it is just the keyboard. The keyboard is a more precise way to control the game and the translation to the Mac is very well done.Angry Birds
Angry Birds has finally made it to the Mac. The Mac version looks beautiful and runs great. Angry Birds is controlled by either a trackpad or mouse. The game will automatically select the bird for you and you simply use your trackpad/mouse to aim and shoot. It can take some getting used to. You may experience accidentally shooting birds because of this automatic bird selecting. However, the app is fantastic and worth the $5.
Crosswords
Crosswords is the Mac version of the same app for the iPhone/iPad. The app syncs your puzzles across your Macs, iPhones, and iPads. The sync is a great way to play your same puzzles everywhere. The app provides new puzzles every day from tons of different sources. The app is very polished and a fun way to kill some time on your Mac.Productivity/Creation
RapidWeaver 5
RapidWeaver 5 is one of the very best ways to create web pages on the Mac. One great example of a Mac centric RapidWeaver site is Don McAllister’s ScreenCastsOnline that was built and is maintained with RapidWeaver. The app is much more powerful than iWeb. The app also ends up with very clean and great code, which is something iWeb is not the best at doing. RapidWeaver is one of the most powerful web creation tools for the Mac and a must have for those wanting to start creating great online content.
Evernote
Evernote is a free app for the Mac. The app syncs with all of your other Evernote devices like your iPhone and iPad. The Mac app features stacks of notebooks for easier organization and easy access to shared notebooks. The Mac app helps you keep all of your vital information everywhere you go. This free app is an absolute essential to any Evernote user.OmniFocus
OmniFocus is one of the best GTD/ToDo apps for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. The Mac app syncs wirelessly with all of your iOS devices over Wi-Fi or 3G. The app is very powerful and is truly an app for those that need to “professionally” manage their tasks and goals. OmniFocus is a go-to app for those that need to manage tasks in a truly great way.
Things
If OmniFocus is too advanced or you don’t understand the interface, then Things is a great alternative. The app has a very simple interface and can be easier to understand how it works than OmniFocus. The app is less powerful, but will serve many very well. The app does sync with your iOS devices through a local Wi-Fi sync. Currently the app does not support 3G syncing, but that will be added in a future update. If you are looking for an alternative to OmniFocus, then this is a great app to try.MindNode
MindNode is a free mind mapping app for the Mac. If you are looking for a simple and elegant way to collect your thoughts visually, then this is the app to get. The app will export in a wide variety of formats including: FreeMind, OMPL, PNG, TIFF, PDF, RTF, and HTML. Creating your mind map is simple and easy to do.OmniGraffle
If you are looking for a more powerful app to get your ideas out visually, then OmniGraffle is the app to get. The app is very flexible and can be used to create logos and different graphics with ease. There is an iPad version of the app which natively reads and writes the OmniGraffle format. There is a pro version of the app as well. The pro version works with Visio files, and includes subgraphs, shared layers, notes, tables, document scale, presentation mode and much more. Both of the apps are great and integrate extremely well with the iPad.OmniOutliner
OmniOutliner is the best outliner app for the Mac. The outlines can hold more than just text. The app supports images, audio, and video. If you need to create beautiful outlines, then this app will do the job. The app does support AppleScript for automating your outlining. The app is very flexible and can be used to plan events, write screenplays, track expenses and much more. The app will work natively in the next few months with their upcoming iPad app.PearNote
PearNote provides a great note taking environment on the Mac. As you take notes, audio can be recorded and synced to your typed text. The app allows you to click on a word and play audio recorded at the same time. The app also supports video recording as well as Keynote, PowerPoint, and PDF files. The interface is very clean and is one of the best apps for note taking on the Mac.
GarageBand
GarageBand is a very advanced and yet simple multitrack audio editor and recorder for the Mac. The app now includes some of the more powerful features found in Logic Studio such as flex time and groove matching. The app also includes music lessons to help you learn guitar or piano. The app supports enhanced AAC audio file exporting. This format allows for chapter markers with URLS and images. If you are looking to create music or podcasts, then this is one of the best Mac apps available to do the job.iMovie
iMovie is one of the easiest and fastest ways to edit and publish your videos. The app includes a very quick and easy way to create movie trailers of your own videos. The app also includes some great audio editing abilities and supports multiple audio tracks. The app can even do voice enhancements to disguise or have fun with your videos. The app also includes different themes to help you in creating a more polished video. If you are looking for a fast and easy way to edit videos on the Mac, then this is the app to get.
Photography
Aperture
Aperture is Apple’s premier application for photo editing on the Mac. The boxed version costs $199 making the Mac App Store version a bargain. The app features many of the same features as iPhoto such as Faces and Places. The app is a much more powerful and advanced app compared to iPhoto.iPhoto
The iLife suite is a great set of apps by Apple to help you manage, create, and edit your digital life. iPhoto is the iTunes for photos. In the app you can store all of your photos, edit photos, publish photos to Facebook and other online sources, and much more. The app also includes Faces and Places. The Faces feature uses facial recognition software to help you find pictures based on the people who are in each image. The Places feature takes the GPS location provided by many images to create a map of all of your images. The app also features a beautiful full screen mode. The full screen mode feels very iPad-like. The app also allows you to create calendars and other physical products that can be ordered right within the app. iPhoto is a great app for anyone looking to manage photos and do quick edits.Pixelmator
Pixelmator is one of the best image creation and editing apps for the Mac. If you are looking for an alternative to Photoshop, then this is a great one to consider. The interface is simple and elegant. The app includes over 20 tools for selecting, cropping, painting, retouching, typing, measuring, and navigation. The app also has over 130 filters and over 15 color correction tools. The app includes many different export options and is definitely worth a look.
SketchBook Express
SketchBook Express is the free version of Autodesk’s SketchBook Pro. The free version has a lot to offer. The app is optimized to be used with pen-based input and includes gesture-based marking menus. The app includes up to six layers and an assortment of different tools for image creation and editing.iWork
Keynote
Keynote is one of the best presentation apps for the Mac. The app has been ahead of PowerPoint for many years and continues to provide Mac users an edge that Windows users do not have. The app includes tons of beautiful templates and amazing tools for working with multimedia within presentations. Magic Move is a new feature that allows for your transitions and animations to flow even better. The app integrates with an iPhone remote control app and an iPad version is available for finishing up presentations and presenting on the iPad.
Numbers
Numbers is a visually appealing spreadsheet app for the Mac. The app may have fewer features than Excel, but the resulting spreadsheets will look better and be easier to create. The app can create both 2D and 3D graphs. The app can import and export into the Microsoft Excel format. This export and import works great with simple files. If you are working with complex files sometimes the conversion is not perfect. If you are looking for a simple and elegant spreadsheet app for the Mac, then this is a great one to use. There is also an iPad version that allows you to work with your Numbers files on your iPad.Pages
Pages is a great word processor for the Mac. The interface is cleaner and easier to understand than Microsoft Word. The app natively creates ePub files for publishing your own eBooks. The app will open Microsoft Word files that you can edit and send back as Word files. Pages is available on the iPad as well. Pages is a great option for anyone needing to create documents on the Mac.Other Great Apps
iFlicks
If you are tired of not having good meta data for your iTunes videos then this is the app for you. IFlicks integrates with iTunes and ties into internet sites to provide automatic meta data for your videos. The app will pull down release dates, actors, directors, producers, writers, content rating, description and much more. The app works with videos already in your iTunes library and videos you want to add to iTunes. If you add a bunch of videos into iTunes, then this is a great app to get.
