Everyone these days has a top X list of apps post, and I want to do something similar, however, I’m going to focus on the apps that I use everyday.

I wish I could say I was a mac user at work, but for the moment, I’m still using a windows machine in the office. At home, however, it is mac all the way.

These are not in any particular order.

Safari is my browser of choice. I love Firefox, but Safari is slick, fast and easy to use. It just doesn’t get much better.

To keep the browser world happy, add Xmarks to keep bookmarks synchronized between browsers (Safari and Firefox), and machines.

Firefox is wonderfully extensible. It’s a solid browser, and easy to use.

Firefox is the workhorse browser for developers. With wonderful extensions like Firebug, Greasemonkey, FoxyProxy, Firefox can be really powerful and useful.

The only negative is speed. Adding the extensions slows things down.

1Password from Agile Web Solutions stores passwords, helps generate strong passwords, autofills information like credit card and demographics, even keep secure notes.

I just recently learned about the 1PasswordAnywhere access option, so I can now access my secure passwords even from windows machines at work. Very handy.

Combine the power and flexibility of 1Password with Dropbox, and you have a solid, secure solution for storing information.

Blogging software for the mac. MarsEdit takes all the guesswork out of writing blog posts. Forget the blog software inline text editors.

With MarsEdit, you have the option of writing posts offline. It also helps manage media, offers previews of posts, tagging support, and more.

TextExpander diligently watches what you are typing, looking for trigger phrases. When the trigger phrases are found, TextExpander replaces the trigger phrase with predefined text, images, whatever. These ‘snippets’ can be simple one word autocorrect phrases, or complex rich text documents.

The new version has many improvements. One wonderful addition is the introduction of fill in variables for snippets. See the site for great examples.

Dropbox is one of those apps that you don’t know you need till you try it. It will quickly fill holes you didn’t know where there. It’s simple, fast and just works (I keep saying that, must be a trend).

The concept is pretty simple. A small piece sits on your machine, and is tied to a Dropbox disk folder. Anything put in the folder is synced to the cloud, and any other of your machines with the same Dropbox account.

Need to share a file? Just drop it in the public folder and send the link to your friends. They can download the file. If the files are images, they can be viewed online in a slideshow. Just great and easy to use features.

Dropbox keeps a history of files, so restoring accidentally deleted files is a breeze. The web interface is easy to use, and the iPhone app is wonderful.

Hazel keeps stuff organized. You use the app to setup rules to act on files / folders based on age, use, size, whatever. It can move files automatically to iTunes, append the date to file names, whatever you need or want.

I have rules setup on several folders, primarily to delete or move files based on file names and ages. For example, if a file or folder in my download folder is labelled red, then it is automatically moved to the trash.

Not much to say about this one. It adds system monitor icons to the menubar. Us nerds need to know what is going on.

I am such a fan of this software. Many, many folks have written wonderful reviews of Scrivener, so I wont try and do that here. I’ve mentioned Scrivener a few times on the site, so check out previous posts.

As a wanna-be writer, Scrivener is a piece of software I use everyday. It just works. Better than that, it works the way I want to work. I’m currently working on a rewrite of my last NaNoWriMo novel, and making good use of Scrivener’s spit split screen functions.

I love TextMate! Maybe it’s the programmer in me, but I love a good text editor. When I want to write, or work on words, I don’t want distracted by appearance. I’ve written a couple of posts about Textmate, and should probably write more.

Got to have email. On the laptop, I like the advantages of a thick client, but it’s hard to beat gmail. I think my compromise is the best of both worlds. The compromise is imap. My mail stays in gmail, so I get the same mail experience on my laptop, iPhone, and work machine (through browser).

LaunchBar is fairly recent addition to my daily use list. In the old days I was a huge quicksilver fan, but when development stopped / shifted, I decided to try just the spotlight for a while.

It works, but I sure did miss quicksilver. Then I heard about LaunchBar on the Mac Power Users podcast and decided to give it a try. I ended up buying it a couple of days into the free trial. It just works, and I love it.

I’m just getting started with Aperture. It’s very solid. I’ll write an in depth post when I have more exposure

Great video app. Quicktime is good, but limited in what it will play. VLC is another app that just works. It doesn’t require thinking about.

That’s it for now. I’m always on the look out for new time savers and solid mac apps. I probably should add some others to this list, for example OmniFocus and OmniOutliner, but they aren’t everyday apps. Most days, but not everyday.