Posts tagged: iStat Menus

ConvertIt - A great little app that can be used to convert images to multiple image formats really quickly. Just drag and drop on the icon. I’m running it as a menu bar app only but it can be configured to run in the Dock as well.Delibar - App to manage all my Pinboard bookmarks. Also an iPhone appDropbox - Just to make sure everything is in syncTextExpander - While I don’t use it to its fullest extent, it is great for typing long repetitive strings in the TerminalLocation - Just the Mac OS X Lion icon letting me know what apps are currently using my Mac’s location data.Sidekick (Previously NetworkLocation) - I use this to automate my Mac depending on where it is. For example when I get into work it will drop my volume, mount the work server drive and open up Remote Desktop Connection. I used to use AirPortLocation but since the dev isn’t supporting Lion I’ve had to switch. I only hope the devs of Sidekick add more features in the future.CloudApp - Used on almost a hourly basis to upload pictures, links, etc. for easy sharing.unDock - Great for cleanly ejecting all manner of drives be they network, Time Machine or USB/FW ones. Allows you to run scripts as well.Seamless - Transitions songs from iPhone to Mac and back again.Hazel - There isn’t enough room here to say all the good things that I want to about Hazel. If you don’t have it, get it. Think Folder Actions on steroids that have been given Green Lantern’s ring, is Superman’s secret brother, & has been soaked in cosmic rays.Time Machine - Just to monitor how everything is running.Wi-Fi - Because I’m constantly having to change networks.iStat Menus 3 - This app is great. It lets me monitor what my Mac is doing at a glance and if I need more information I simply click on one of the stats to bring up a full menu. I’ve got it monitoring my Disk Activity, Network, Disk Usage, Memory, CPU, Battery, & Date and Time. (From James Smith)

ConvertIt - A great little app that can be used to convert images to multiple image formats really quickly. Just drag and drop on the icon. I’m running it as a menu bar app only but it can be configured to run in the Dock as well.
Delibar - App to manage all my Pinboard bookmarks. Also an iPhone app
Dropbox - Just to make sure everything is in sync
TextExpander - While I don’t use it to its fullest extent, it is great for typing long repetitive strings in the Terminal
Location - Just the Mac OS X Lion icon letting me know what apps are currently using my Mac’s location data.
Sidekick (Previously NetworkLocation) - I use this to automate my Mac depending on where it is. For example when I get into work it will drop my volume, mount the work server drive and open up Remote Desktop Connection. I used to use AirPortLocation but since the dev isn’t supporting Lion I’ve had to switch. I only hope the devs of Sidekick add more features in the future.
CloudApp - Used on almost a hourly basis to upload pictures, links, etc. for easy sharing.
unDock - Great for cleanly ejecting all manner of drives be they network, Time Machine or USB/FW ones. Allows you to run scripts as well.
Seamless - Transitions songs from iPhone to Mac and back again.
Hazel - There isn’t enough room here to say all the good things that I want to about Hazel. If you don’t have it, get it. Think Folder Actions on steroids that have been given Green Lantern’s ring, is Superman’s secret brother, & has been soaked in cosmic rays.
Time Machine - Just to monitor how everything is running.
Wi-Fi - Because I’m constantly having to change networks.
iStat Menus 3 - This app is great. It lets me monitor what my Mac is doing at a glance and if I need more information I simply click on one of the stats to bring up a full menu. I’ve got it monitoring my Disk Activity, Network, Disk Usage, Memory, CPU, Battery, & Date and Time.
(From James Smith)

Flux - I’ve hidden the icon since I couldn’t figure out how to change it. Tints the screen a warmer tone at night.Vienna - RSS reader. I wish I could figure out how to disable the unread menu count though.Gmail Notifr - nice and simple.Echofon - Twitter app.nvALT - great for quick note-taking.Delibar - for access to my Delicious bookmarks.CloudApp - quick file uploading.Calendar - calendar that shows iCal events.CalendarBar - I’ve hidden the menubar icon and checked “Show badge inside icon” in the the preferences, so I end up with just the number of events I have for the day.CaffeineFocusbar - pop-up reminders to keep me focused.MenuWeather Lite - current condition icon and temperature.iStat Menus - battery and time.Spotlight Most of the custom icons are from the Clean icon set (no longer available), modified to fit different apps. The CloudApp icon is from here. (From mashimero)

Flux - I’ve hidden the icon since I couldn’t figure out how to change it. Tints the screen a warmer tone at night.
Vienna - RSS reader. I wish I could figure out how to disable the unread menu count though.
Gmail Notifr - nice and simple.
Echofon - Twitter app.
nvALT - great for quick note-taking.
Delibar - for access to my Delicious bookmarks.
CloudApp - quick file uploading.
Calendar - calendar that shows iCal events.
CalendarBar - I’ve hidden the menubar icon and checked “Show badge inside icon” in the the preferences, so I end up with just the number of events I have for the day.
Caffeine
Focusbar - pop-up reminders to keep me focused.
- current condition icon and temperature.
iStat Menus - battery and time.
Spotlight
Most of the custom icons are from the Clean icon set (no longer available), modified to fit different apps. The CloudApp icon is from here.
(From )

(full size) Most of my menubar icons are used as indicators for monitoring certain aspects of my system. I rarely click on any of them as I do almost everything via the keyboard. From right to left:Spotlight: I really should get rid of that one as I never use it. Instead I’m using LaunchBar for searching.Clock: With weekday display.iStat Menus Calendar: To keep an eye on the date. Also helps me keep track of several world clocks.Input Method: I’m mostly using my Austrian (German) keyboard. Also gives me access to Kotoeri (Japanese) as well as keyboard viewer and character palette.Battery: Obviously I’m on a MacBook Pro, so having charge status visible is vital.Volume: To keep an eye on the audio output. I use the keyboard to actually change volume. Rarely used to check audio input and output (by holding ⌥ while clicking it).AirPort: Mostly used for monitoring my WiFi connection. Rarely used to actually connect to a network as my MBP usually knows the networks I connect to. Even more rarely used to gain technical details about the associated to access point.Displays: Put quite on the right hand side on purpose if a projector uses a very low resolution and my Mac decides to mirror displays. That way I can still easily get to it, just in case. Think of it as an emergency icon. (I could probably get rid of that one as I usually use LaunchBar to open the Displays PrefPanel anyway.)Time Machine: I never fully trust Time Machine. This helps me to check if it is working properly.iStat Menus CPU Bars: To keep an eye on my CPU’s load. Rarely used to spot a CPU hogging process. (I usually do that in a Terminal via Visor. (See below!))MenuMeters: A paging indicator (to know of excessive swapping action) and my memory usage pie chart. (iStat Menus doesn’t have a paging indicator). Too bad I cannot turn off the chart and have only the paging indicator there, or have iStat Menus give me a paging indicator instead.iStat Menus Memory: Memory usage graph to easily spot applications that suddenly grab a huge chunk of RAM.VPN: To connect to my customer’s networks all around and to protect my connections when using untrusted networks. (So pretty much any network except for my own.)Dial up: To connect one of those pesky USB UMTS/3G modems.iStat Menus disk monitors: To keep an eye on disk usage. The leftmost is my system partition and usually way too full for my SSD to be comfortable.iStat Menus disk throughput: To check for SSD/HD/USB stick speeds during lenghty copy operations or when recovering data from faulty media.MenuMeters network graph: Gives more comprehensive info of my interfaces and a cubic root scaled graph which I prefer over iStat Menu’s way to display this data. Also shows connection status and IPv6 info.iStat Menus network monitor: Doesn’t really work on my MBP, maybe I should get rid of it.Bluetooth: I toggle Bluetooth via an AppleScript I run via LaunchBar so it’s just there to indicate Bluetooth is turned off as I usually don’t need it except for very rarely tethering stealthily to my iPhone (without a dock cable).iStat Menus temperature: Of my GPU (right) and CPU (left) and many more sensors in the menu when opened.AppleScript: Rarely used, I maybe should get rid of it.iSync: Actually only used to access the “Sync conflicts” dialog when I need to. I don’t sync with MobileMe as I don’t trust my data to it.Keychain: My indicator to make sure all my keychains are locked when I have to leave my machine. (I use the keyboard to actually lock my screen whenever I have to leave my screen, even if only for a moment.)ClamXav: Open source antivirus to check the occasional download for malware so I don’t accidentally send something infected on to some poor Windows soul. Should catch the few Mac native malwares as well as macro nasties.Growl: Only to restart Growl when it has gone wonky again. I should be able to get rid of that one as the last update has fixed a lot of instabilities. Notifications themselves are to be kept at a minimum and for emergency information only.Espionage: “Encrypts folders” by putting their contents into a .sparsebundle and automounting said image in place of the folder. Makes selectively encrypting data comfortable.MacFusion 2: Simple GUI frontend to MacFUSE comfortably access remote filesystems via SSH or to mount FTP servers with write support in the Finder (which it still doesn’t do natively for no apparent reason).Visor: The ultimate accessory to access a Terminal in the blink of an eye. (Yeah I know, one shouldn’t blink at any give time.)SMARTReporter: Displays the S.M.A.R.T. status of all internal disks and goes red alert if a disk thing it might go bad in the not too distant future. S.M.A.R.T. is never guaranteed to tell you about impending disk failures. So please always have a least one good and current backup! Better more than that!gfxCardStatus: Allows me to manually switch from integrated to dedicated graphics on my MacBook Pro to get some additional battery life when on the road (and I don’t need the graphics power).Keyboard Maestro: To remap a few keys and have instant triggers for a few things like being able to control my iTunes volume via the volume keys (and being able to set the system volume with the same keys separately). Comes in very handy when using iTunes with AirPlay speakers. Haven’t yet found many other use cases for me yet.AirVideo Server: The Mac server part to watch movies from my MacBook Pro on my iPad via the corresponding iOS AirVideo client app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad (Universal). Does on-the-fly transcoding of video files that are in a format which cannot be played back directly on iOS devices.TextExpander: The swiss army knife of text input manipulation. Saves me countless hours of typing action for boilerplate foo and also does a lot of practical stuff like URL shortening with j.mp for twitter or entering obscure Unicode characters. (Disclosure: I am the author of these free TextExpander snippets.)Dropbox: For occasionally sharing a few files with the family. I don’t use it to sync files across my own Macs.Dropbox: Another Dropbox account for the austrian chapters of Cocoaheads, the international Mac and iOS developer’s community. To better distinguish between them I use one icon in monochrome and one in colour.SizeUp: Window manipulation with the keyboard to which I am seeking an alternative as it doesn’t allow me to assign the keyboard shortcuts I want to have. (Mainly using the fn key which is not an option with SizeUp.)Degrees: A simple display of the current outside temperature and weather conditions. Very handy when working in the data center catacombs where you don’t have a window.AeroFS: A privately synched filesystem not unlike Dropbox but without the cloud server to keep your data a little more confidenial than Dropbox. (Currently in private beta.)OmniFocus: Shows the due and overdue tasks of my favorite todo management application. (Please don’t ask about the count…) Also available as OmniFocus for iPhone and Omnifocus for iPad which perfectly sync with each other over my private WebDAV server (or other ways if you prefer). (From Pepi Zawodsky, Mac OS X Server systems administrator and iOS developer)


Most of my menubar icons are used as indicators for monitoring certain aspects of my system. I rarely click on any of them as I do almost everything via the keyboard.
From right to left:
Spotlight: I really should get rid of that one as I never use it. Instead I’m using LaunchBar for searching.
Clock: With weekday display.
iStat Menus Calendar: To keep an eye on the date. Also helps me keep track of several world clocks.
Input Method: I’m mostly using my Austrian (German) keyboard. Also gives me access to Kotoeri (Japanese) as well as keyboard viewer and character palette.
Battery: Obviously I’m on a MacBook Pro, so having charge status visible is vital.
Volume: To keep an eye on the audio output. I use the keyboard to actually change volume. Rarely used to check audio input and output (by holding ⌥ while clicking it).
AirPort: Mostly used for monitoring my WiFi connection. Rarely used to actually connect to a network as my MBP usually knows the networks I connect to. Even more rarely used to gain technical details about the associated to access point.
Displays: Put quite on the right hand side on purpose if a projector uses a very low resolution and my Mac decides to mirror displays. That way I can still easily get to it, just in case. Think of it as an emergency icon. (I could probably get rid of that one as I usually use LaunchBar to open the Displays PrefPanel anyway.)
Time Machine: I never fully trust Time Machine. This helps me to check if it is working properly.
iStat Menus CPU Bars: To keep an eye on my CPU’s load. Rarely used to spot a CPU hogging process. (I usually do that in a Terminal via Visor. (See below!))
MenuMeters: A paging indicator (to know of excessive swapping action) and my memory usage pie chart. (iStat Menus doesn’t have a paging indicator). Too bad I cannot turn off the chart and have only the paging indicator there, or have iStat Menus give me a paging indicator instead.
iStat Menus Memory: Memory usage graph to easily spot applications that suddenly grab a huge chunk of RAM.
VPN: To connect to my customer’s networks all around and to protect my connections when using untrusted networks. (So pretty much any network except for my own.)
Dial up: To connect one of those pesky USB UMTS/3G modems.
iStat Menus disk monitors: To keep an eye on disk usage. The leftmost is my system partition and usually way too full for my SSD to be comfortable.
iStat Menus disk throughput: To check for SSD/HD/USB stick speeds during lenghty copy operations or when recovering data from faulty media.
MenuMeters network graph: Gives more comprehensive info of my interfaces and a cubic root scaled graph which I prefer over iStat Menu’s way to display this data. Also shows connection status and IPv6 info.
iStat Menus network monitor: Doesn’t really work on my MBP, maybe I should get rid of it.
Bluetooth: I toggle Bluetooth via an AppleScript I run via LaunchBar so it’s just there to indicate Bluetooth is turned off as I usually don’t need it except for very rarely tethering stealthily to my iPhone (without a dock cable).
iStat Menus temperature: Of my GPU (right) and CPU (left) and many more sensors in the menu when opened.
AppleScript: Rarely used, I maybe should get rid of it.
iSync: Actually only used to access the “Sync conflicts” dialog when I need to. I don’t sync with MobileMe as I don’t trust my data to it.
Keychain: My indicator to make sure all my keychains are locked when I have to leave my machine. (I use the keyboard to actually lock my screen whenever I have to leave my screen, even if only for a moment.)
ClamXav: Open source antivirus to check the occasional download for malware so I don’t accidentally send something infected on to some poor Windows soul. Should catch the few Mac native malwares as well as macro nasties.
Only to restart Growl when it has gone wonky again. I should be able to get rid of that one as the last update has fixed a lot of instabilities. Notifications themselves are to be kept at a minimum and for emergency information only.
Espionage: “Encrypts folders” by putting their contents into a .sparsebundle and automounting said image in place of the folder. Makes selectively encrypting data comfortable.
MacFusion 2: Simple GUI frontend to  comfortably access remote filesystems via SSH or to mount FTP servers with write support in the Finder (which it still doesn’t do natively for no apparent reason).
Visor: The ultimate accessory to access a Terminal in the blink of an eye. (Yeah I know, one shouldn’t blink at any give time.)
SMARTReporter: Displays the S.M.A.R.T. status of all internal disks and goes red alert if a disk thing it might go bad in the not too distant future. S.M.A.R.T. is never guaranteed to tell you about impending disk failures. So please always have a least one good and current backup! Better more than that!
gfxCardStatus: Allows me to manually switch from integrated to dedicated graphics on my MacBook Pro to get some additional battery life when on the road (and I don’t need the graphics power).
Keyboard Maestro: To remap a few keys and have instant triggers for a few things like being able to control my iTunes volume via the volume keys (and being able to set the system volume with the same keys separately). Comes in very handy when using iTunes with AirPlay speakers. Haven’t yet found many other use cases for me yet.
: The Mac server part to watch movies from my MacBook Pro on my iPad via the corresponding iOS AirVideo client app for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad (Universal). Does on-the-fly transcoding of video files that are in a format which cannot be played back directly on iOS devices.
TextExpander: The swiss army knife of text input manipulation. Saves me countless hours of typing action for boilerplate foo and also does a lot of practical stuff like URL shortening with j.mp for twitter or entering obscure Unicode characters. (Disclosure: I am the author of these free TextExpander snippets.)
Dropbox: For occasionally sharing a few files with the family. I don’t use it to sync files across my own Macs.
Dropbox: Another Dropbox account for the austrian chapters of Cocoaheads, the international Mac and iOS developer’s community. To better distinguish between them I use one icon in monochrome and one in colour.
SizeUp: Window manipulation with the keyboard to which I am seeking an alternative as it doesn’t allow me to assign the keyboard shortcuts I want to have. (Mainly using the fn key which is not an option with SizeUp.)
Degrees: A simple display of the current outside temperature and weather conditions. Very handy when working in the data center catacombs where you don’t have a window.
AeroFS: A privately synched filesystem not unlike Dropbox but without the cloud server to keep your data a little more confidenial than Dropbox. (Currently in private beta.)
OmniFocus: Shows the due and overdue tasks of my favorite todo management application. (Please don’t ask about the count…) Also available as OmniFocus for iPhone and Omnifocus for iPad which perfectly sync with each other over my private WebDAV server (or other ways if you prefer).
(From , Mac OS X Server systems administrator and iOS developer)

Dropbox - I use Dropbox to backup everything that I’m working on. I am a Pro User, with 50GB almost filled up.Visor - I spend a considerable amount of time in the day in in the command prompt, and Vizor gives me a quick Quake-like hotkey to open up a command prompt.Flux - When I happen to be working at odd-hours, I’d like to try and save my eyes as much as possible. Flux automatically changes the temperature of my display based on sunrise/sunset times.Caffeine - Prevent my Mac from going to sleep, by giving it some Caffeine.SSHKeychain - Painless SSH key management. Also, establishes SSH tunnels for me. Neato!Bluetooth - I like to know what is connected to my machine at any given time.Wi-Fi - Yup. I use it.Keyboard - I have to keymaps setup - one for US English and the other for Russian. Quick toggle between.iStat Menus - At a glance, I can see what is happening on my system. CPU/Memory/Clock shown, expands to show additional information about Disk IO/Usage/Network/etc. I like the World Clock provided by iStat Menus.TunnelBlick - OpenVPN management for OS X.Spotlight - Typically, I use Alfred.Watts - Neat little tool that tells me how and when to calibrate my laptop battery. (From frymanet)

Dropbox - I use Dropbox to backup everything that I’m working on. I am a Pro User, with 50GB almost filled up.
Visor - I spend a considerable amount of time in the day in in the command prompt, and Vizor gives me a quick Quake-like hotkey to open up a command prompt.
Flux - When I happen to be working at odd-hours, I’d like to try and save my eyes as much as possible. Flux automatically changes the temperature of my display based on sunrise/sunset times.
Caffeine - Prevent my Mac from going to sleep, by giving it some Caffeine.
SSHKeychain - Painless SSH key management. Also, establishes SSH tunnels for me. Neato!
Bluetooth - I like to know what is connected to my machine at any given time.
Wi-Fi - Yup. I use it.
Keyboard - I have to keymaps setup - one for US English and the other for Russian. Quick toggle between.
iStat Menus - At a glance, I can see what is happening on my system. CPU/Memory/Clock shown, expands to show additional information about Disk IO/Usage/Network/etc. I like the World Clock provided by iStat Menus.
- OpenVPN management for OS X.
Spotlight - Typically, I use Alfred.
Watts - Neat little tool that tells me how and when to calibrate my laptop battery.
(From frymanet)

Notes: 15 1/13/12 — 8:21pm Filed under: #Bluetooth  #Caffeine  #Dropbox  #Flux  #Input  #SSHKeychain  #TunnelBlick  #Watts  #Wi-Fi  #iStat Menus  #iStat Menus CPU  #iStat Menus Clock  #iStat Menus Memory  #Visor  #submission 
Scroll Reverser, Dropbox, Skitch, Adium, Hazel, Playback, Isolator, Air Video Server, Photo Desktop, ChronoSync, Boxcar, Facebox Pro, iStat Menus, Spaces, Lock, Bluetooth, VPN, iChat, AirPort, Keyboard, Sound Volume, Date, and Spotlight. (From Matfi)

Scroll Reverser, Dropbox, Skitch, Adium, Hazel, Playback, Isolator, , Photo Desktop, ChronoSync, Boxcar, , iStat Menus, SpacesLock, Bluetooth, VPN, iChat, AirPort, Keyboard, Sound Volume, Date, and Spotlight.
(From )

Dropbox - online storage, file sharing, data syncing (syncs 1Password across my Macs and iPhone)Droplr - I use it for uploading pics and screenshots to numerous placesCloudApp - same as Droplr but I use this more and it has a nice web interface as wellShoveBox - has become my go to notes/snippet keeper. Had it for almost a year before I really started using it but happy I did.Caffeine - keeps my MacBook Pro awakeMainMenu - great utility to fix permissions, force quit apps, eject volumes, clear cache, and tons moreiStat Menus - I use it for battery because of the drop down it provides that has all my diagnostic info as wellStandard AirPort, Volume, Clock and Spotlight (From Bostonguy3737)

Dropbox - online storage, file sharing, data syncing (syncs 1Password across my Macs and iPhone)
Droplr - I use it for uploading pics and screenshots to numerous places
CloudApp - same as Droplr but I use this more and it has a nice web interface as well
ShoveBox - has become my go to notes/snippet keeper. Had it for almost a year before I really started using it but happy I did.
Caffeine - keeps my MacBook Pro awake
MainMenu - great utility to fix permissions, force quit apps, eject volumes, clear cache, and tons more
iStat Menus - I use it for battery because of the drop down it provides that has all my diagnostic info as well
Standard AirPort, Volume, Clock and Spotlight
(From Bostonguy3737)

Quicksilver - The new versionDropbox - (of course)Hazel - For everything that can be automatedProximity - Automatically syncs mobile when in range and Bluetooth turned onMagic Prefs - Magic mouse improvementsFacebook Notifications - Undistracting and quite efficientiStat Menus - CPU, Memory, Netspeed and Date/Time System - Networking, Time Machine, iSync, Volume and Spotlight (From Mario Fischer)

Quicksilver - The new version
Dropbox - (of course)
Hazel - For everything that can be automated
- Automatically syncs mobile when in range and Bluetooth turned on
Magic Prefs - Magic mouse improvements
- Undistracting and quite efficient
iStat Menus - CPU, Memory, Netspeed and Date/Time
System - Networking, Time Machine, iSync, Volume and Spotlight
(From Mario Fischer)

Clipboard History - For saving clipboard items including images.Dropbox - Don’t think I have to explain.Pastebot Sync -  A great way to share copied items between a Mac and an iPhone.Caffeine - To keep my Mac from going to sleep.iStat Menus - Had some problems with the CPU usage and the temperature a while ago. That’s why I’m monitoring them.Wifi - Need to switch the Wifi network from time to time.Input source - I use three different languages (English, Korean and Japanese) on my Mac. Battery - Actually, another iStat Menus.Time and Spotlight. (From Camino)

Clipboard History - For saving clipboard items including images.
Dropbox - Don’t think I have to explain.
Pastebot Sync -  A great way to share copied items between a Mac and an iPhone.
Caffeine - To keep my Mac from going to sleep.
iStat Menus - Had some problems with the CPU usage and the temperature a while ago. That’s why I’m monitoring them.
Wifi - Need to switch the Wifi network from time to time.
Input source - I use three different languages (English, Korean and Japanese) on my Mac. 
Battery - Actually, another iStat Menus.
Time and Spotlight.
(From Camino)

Scroll Reverser: Inversed scrolling like in Lion.Keyboard Maestro: Automation Maestro. One of my favorite tools. I use it for such a lot of stuff.Dropbox: No explanation required.AirPortiStat Menus: System status in menubar. (Network, memory, CPU, day and 24h clock)Watts: Calibration monitor.Spotlight (From Andreas, of Mac OS X Screencasts and MOSX.Tumblr.com)

Scroll Reverser: Inversed scrolling like in Lion.
Keyboard Maestro: Automation Maestro. One of my favorite tools. I use it for such a lot of stuff.
Dropbox: No explanation required.
AirPort
iStat Menus: System status in menubar. (Network, memory, CPU, day and 24h clock)
Watts: Calibration monitor.
Spotlight
(From Andreas, of Mac OS X Screencasts and )

LittleSnapper - making screenshots and capturing inspiring web sitesMailplane - my e-mail client of choiceOmniFocus - managing all my tasks and projects thereReadNow - amazing desktop app for the ReadItLater service (similar to Instapaper, but better)Twitter - I tried bunch of other Twitter apps and came back to the official one. It’s neat and gets the work doneDropbox - I was a SugarSync user for a while, but now I’m using Dropbox for all my current documents and keep SugarSync for long-term archives (due to its flexible selective sync features)Skype - I’m working a lot with people overseas, so I need IM and VOIP a lotTextExpander - I didn’t understand for a long time why people use text-expanding apps, but once I started to use one - there’s no turning back. It’s SO good!RescueTime - this is a new app for me, I’m trying to be more conscious about how I’m spending my time and RescueTime keeps track of all my computer activitiesPomodoro - amazing Pomodoro timer that is integrated with OmniFocus and helps me to work on my tasklist in short 25-min burstsIsolator - another productivity app that helps me to focus on one app at a timeCinch - simple window manager that allows me to quickly arrange windows side by sidegfxCardStatus - controls which videocard is used when I’m plugged in and which when I’m running on battery. It really helps to save battery a lotCalendarBar - all of my calendars (yes I have more than one) are on Google and I tried to use many calendaring apps and frankly this little gem does 90% of what I needf.lux - really saves my poor eyes when I work late at nightCaffeine - I rarely use it, but sometimes when you’re watching videos or making a presentation it’s indispensableTransmit - FTP/S3 client of choiceEvernote - I’m a big fan and use it to store lots of reference materialsSpacesiStat Menus - configured to show time, battery and CPU, with a bunch of other information available through a drop-down menuLanguage Bar - I’m bi-lingual, so I switch a lot between English and Russian Every other default icon (except Spaces) including Spotlight (I use Launchbar anyway) is removed since I either don’t need it or have a better alternative. (From Xenocid)

LittleSnapper - making screenshots and capturing inspiring web sites
Mailplane - my e-mail client of choice
OmniFocus - managing all my tasks and projects there
- amazing desktop app for the ReadItLater service (similar to Instapaper, but better)
- I tried bunch of other Twitter apps and came back to the official one. It’s neat and gets the work done
Dropbox - I was a SugarSync user for a while, but now I’m using Dropbox for all my current documents and keep SugarSync for long-term archives (due to its flexible selective sync features)
- I’m working a lot with people overseas, so I need IM and VOIP a lot
TextExpander - I didn’t understand for a long time why people use text-expanding apps, but once I started to use one - there’s no turning back. It’s SO good!
RescueTime - this is a new app for me, I’m trying to be more conscious about how I’m spending my time and RescueTime keeps track of all my computer activities
Pomodoro - amazing Pomodoro timer that is integrated with OmniFocus and helps me to work on my tasklist in short 25-min bursts
Isolator - another productivity app that helps me to focus on one app at a time
Cinch - simple window manager that allows me to quickly arrange windows side by side
gfxCardStatus - controls which videocard is used when I’m plugged in and which when I’m running on battery. It really helps to save battery a lot
CalendarBar - all of my calendars (yes I have more than one) are on Google and I tried to use many calendaring apps and frankly this little gem does 90% of what I need
f.lux - really saves my poor eyes when I work late at night
Caffeine - I rarely use it, but sometimes when you’re watching videos or making a presentation it’s indispensable
Transmit - FTP/S3 client of choice
Evernote - I’m a big fan and use it to store lots of reference materials
Spaces
iStat Menus - configured to show time, battery and CPU, with a bunch of other information available through a drop-down menu
Language Bar - I’m bi-lingual, so I switch a lot between English and Russian
Every other default icon (except Spaces) including Spotlight (I use Launchbar anyway) is removed since I either don’t need it or have a better alternative.
(From Xenocid)