There are lots of inexpensive tools on the Interwebs that are really useful. I like finding them.

I like finding free little third party programs that add useful functions to the already great Mac OS.  I download lots of these, but there are only a few that I use on a very regular basis.  (Sorry PC users, these are predominantly Mac-only programs.  But I’m sure there are plenty of PC alternatives for all of these applications.)

iStat Menus: This application allows you to view information for 8 different processes in your computer right in your menu bar.  You can check out the status of your CPU, RAM memory, hard drive space, network connection, internal temperatures, fans and power and bluetooth connection.  It also gives you a great replacement for the default date/time display on the menu bar – when you click on the time, a small calendar pops out.

[update - 8.28.09] – It seems that the latest version of iStat Menus will not work with Mac OS 10.6.  Waiting for update…]

Skitch: I talked about this one in an earlier post.  It allows you to take a picture of anything that is on your computer screen.  It comes with some basic editing tools, or you can open any screen shots taken in any other image editor you wish.  It’s more useful than you might think.

Caffeine: Have you ever been watching a video on Hulu or YouTube and your Mac’s screen keeps dimming to save power because it thinks its idle?  Each time it does this, you are forced to jiggle the mouse or touch the track pad to brighten the screen again.  Annoying, right?  Well Caffeine puts a little icon on your menu bar that, when turned on, overrides your computer’s desire to dim the screen.

You Control: iTunes: This is a free utility that gives you complete control over iTunes from the menu bar.  This highly customizable app gives you access to iTunes controls; it displays the current track, artist and album when the track changes; and you can navigate your entire music library from the menu bar button so don’t have to open iTunes nearly as often.

Notify: This little program works just like the Google Notifier, but better.  It keeps track of what’s in your Gmail inbox, displays Growl (see next program) notifications when new mail arrives, has a great interface, and supports multiple accounts.  The big reason why I switched to this program from Google Notifier was that it can check for new messages every minute – GN will only check every 15 minutes.  I also never used GN’s Google calendar notifier feature, but if you do, you can just turn on the calendar notifier and run Notify along with Google Notifier.

Growl: This has been around for a long time, and is a must-have app for Mac owners.  It allows many Mac applications to give you small messages that pop up on your screen when new actions occur in them or new information about them is available.  Once installed, applications that use the program will automatically detect Growl and will begin giving you messages when needed.  All notification settings for each application are highly customizable from the Growl Systems Preferences control panel.

Cooliris: This is a plugin for Sarari 3 & 4 and Firefox that displays pictures and/or videos from websites on a really cool 3d wall within your browser.  It simply gives you a much faster and more interesting viewing experience when you are searching the web for pictures or videos.  Definitely check it out and give it a whirl.

Handbrake: Like ripping DVDs onto your hard drive?  You need this free program.  Its a robust application for converting DVD video into many different computer-friendly video file types.

Hulu Desktop: This application was created by the Hulu folks for making Hulu video even more watchable.  This very slick application can be controlled with the Apple remote, and will make you never want to go back to watching Hulu at Hulu.com again.

Tweetie: This is a slick little Twitter application that is the sidekick to the popular iPhone app with the same name.  There are lots of applications out there to control your Twitter account(s), but I am really comfortable with this one.

MacJanitor: There are a number of “cleaning” functions that your Mac does throughout its day that boosts its performance and clears out unneeded data that can bog down its system.  However, because some of these functions are scheduled to begin late at night, if you shut down your Mac every night they run very rarely.  MacJanitor allows you to start any of these process anytime you want.

Evernote: I devoted an entire post to this one a few weeks ago.  Check it out.

And if this list isn’t good enough for you, check out IUseThis.com – a site where people can submit and vote on Mac applications.  I check there regularly to see what applications people are using.

Related posts:

Evernote Rocks.