10 dull apps no Mac user should live without

‘Tis the season to use credit and as we give and receive things we neither love nor need, spare a thought for these 10 seemingly dull apps that any Mac user needs.

Dropbox Pro

Dull

Many use the free version and won’t see why you need to pay to upgrade.

Not dull

Along with sharing Dropbox Pro offers instant sync/live backup of up to 1TB of data, so if you set up your DropBox folder as the default Save location for documents you work on, you’ll never any document ever again – and you can remotely wipe your data from any lost or stolen device. ($9.99/month).

Evernote Premium

Dull

Evernote’s just a place for notes, right?

Not dull

If you’ve not used Evernote for time you missed when it became the way to keep everything organized: recipes to research, shopping to spreadsheet and business presentation, computational analysis to zymurgical calculations in place. In its premium version Evernote will collate all kinds of notes, PDFs, scnned business cards and more. Still don’t get it? Then read this. ($5/month).

Crashplan

Dull

You can’t see it, it’s backup and it’s online.

Not dull

Once you set up your Crashplan cloud backup service (which takes time depending on how much data you have to upload first time) you will never lose a file, photograph, document or music file again. And nor will anyone in your family as capacity is unlimited – if you can get online you’ll get your data back. ($5.99/month).

1Password

Dull

Who needs a password manager?

Not dull

Like Safari’s built-in password manager, 1Password once set up will make life a little easier. It will handle passwords for online accounts for you, but if you trust it enough it will even look after bank details, credit card numbers, passports and personal notes for you, too. All you’ll need is one single password to get into all of this. ($49.99)

Mac Backup Guru 2.0

Dull

How much backup do you need?

Not dull

Mac Backup Guru synchronises your files with your external hard disk while you work. You set the backup schedule. In the event a power surge or some other calamity kills your Mac drive, restart your Mac and it will boot from your Mac Backup Guru drive, so you lose nothing. (Used with Dropbox Pro then you won’t lose a second of data). ($29).

Breaktime

Dull

Why do I need this?

Not dull

You know you should take regular breaks from your Mac. Not taking breaks risks long term, crippling damage to your back eyes, wrists, neck and more. Still don’t care? All that sitting can even kill you (early). Breaktime makes you take the Mac breaks your body needs. ($4.99).

Alfred 2.0 + Powerpack

Dull

Do I really need an alternative to Spotlight?

Not dull

Alfred does much more than Spotlight. If it doesn’t have a shortcut for what you need, it even lets you build your own. The Powerpack upgrade lets you build workflows that automate multiple tasks, so, for example, if you often need to know if any particular movie is worth watching you can set up a workflow that searches YouTube, IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes to find out. (Alfred is free, Powerpack costs c.$26 (£17)).

WiFi Explorer

Dull

Why do I need to find these things?

Not dull

WiFi networks are great, so long as they work. WiFi Explorer is what you need when they don’t. Back, back, back in the early 21-st century when Apple launched AirPort, WiFi networks were rare. Now they’re everywhere and they all hog bandwidth. WiFi Explorer lets you see at a glance which WiFi channels are being used, how strong the signal is, and which channel you should choose for the best results when setting up your own AirPort network. ($4.99).

iStat Menus 5

Dull

“It’s clearly a budget. It’s got lots of numbers in it,” said George Bush while leading the world’s most powerful nation. If some president didn’t get numbers, why should you?

Not dull

iStat Menus monitors your Mac continuously so when you have a feeling something isn’t working correctly you can look at the facts to see if your feeling matches them: perhaps your battery really does need replacement; perhaps it really us overheating; perhaps the video card is failing; perhaps the fans aren’t firing. iStat Menus 5 gives you the facts at the click of a mouse. Like presidents probably should. ($16).

Mac Data Recovery Guru

Dull

Perhaps you didn’t know you can get your data back?

Not dull

Those images on your corrupted SD card or broken Mac HD aren’t necessarily lost forever, you just need powerful tools to recover this data from your broken drive. And that’s what Mac Data Recovery provides. ($79).

I wish good times to all of you. May luck and compassion be your guide. Happy Christmas.

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