Apple recently announced that the Mac App Store has led to over 100 million app downloads, cementing it as the indisputable one stop shop for just about everything Mac users need or want. Today I want to place emphasis on the “just about” part, because despite these impressive numbers, there are still plenty of great Mac applications that you can’t get through this route.
Back in June, we posted an article containing 10 Must-Have Apps You Won’t Find in the Mac App Store, which included great options like the Alfred Power Pack and TotalFinder. This time we really dug deep and come up with thirty more! Some of the developers behind these great apps have simply decided not to pursue the App Store, others aren’t even allowed in due to the nature of the app. All of these apps though are definitely worth downloading and together make up a wealth of functionality and even fun that your Mac may be missing out on.
The best part? Almost all of them are free! Let’s take a look.
Macs have, traditionally anyway, not really found a true home in the business world owing to their lack of support and the limited range of compatible programs available for them. But now, that’s all changing. More and more developers are either releasing dual-versions of their programs (compatible with Windows or Mac) or releasing Mac-only business programs, making Macs much more attractive for use in the workplace.
Checkout is a great example of this. It is a POS (Point-Of-Sale) software package designed exclusively for OS X and allows you to run your retail store quickly and more efficiently. The ease-of-use of the program along with its wealth of features make Checkout a very viable solution to anyone who runs a retail store, whether in the flesh or online. Let’s take a look!
Keeping up with a calendar app is one of those things that I need to do, but am too lazy to do. I could maybe keep it up for a few days, but after that I would feel burnt out and just tired of the whole process of opening an app to write down something that I need to do later.
That’s why I felt that I clearly identified with the slogan of Quickcal, which says, “Don’t let creating an event be an event.” Does that catch your attention as much as it did mine? Then read on!
Fed up with the nasty sound of your traditional alarm clock? That annoying beeping that rouses you in the middle of the night and does not really help to start a day in a good fashion?
Why not use what you’ve already got? The music in your iTunes library, Spotify or other music services combined with your Mac? Sleepytime lets you set exactly the song you want to hear when you go to sleep or wake up.
Great news, we’ve selected five winners to receive a free copy of Gradient.app! If your Twitter name is listed below, you’ll be receiving an email from the developer shortly.
For everyone else, thanks a bunch for entering and reading AppStorm. Check back soon for more awesome giveaways, next time that list could have your name on it!
That’s right! AppStorm has now landed on Google+ and will be delivering you app related goodness right to your Stream! We’re excited to let you know that now, in addition to Twitter and Facebook, you can get involved with Mac.AppStorm over at Google+! We’ll be using Google+ to let you know about the latest app news, reviews, how-tos, and roundups. Read on to find out more…
Browsing the App Store for a decent RSS app brings you little else than Reeder, which is an amazing app, and its hoard of clones, which tend to be not so amazing. As great as Reeder is, it seems to have given developers a mad case of tunnel vision that they just can’t get over.
For this reason, I’ve been pretty excited about Caffeinated, a soon to be released Google Reader client from Curtis Hard. Though it builds on the advancements of Reeder, it stands on its own as a gorgeous new take on the RSS reader. We recently got our hands on Caffeinated for a review, read on to see it in action.
With the multiple common web browsers these days, designing websites that work on all of them can be a strain, especially when they each read CSS in different ways. Even if you’re not someone who creates websites, you’ve no-doubt heard the complaints of many a web coder about the different formats for the multiple web browsers.
JumpZero pounced on the opportunity to create what they call “the missing link between web designers and colors,” and at a launch sale of just $4.99, I think they may just have found it. Head past the break to get an in-depth look at Gradient.
Today I’d like to talk about three tech companies that have each had their ups and downs. Apple, Nintendo and Kodak: How are these companies alike? How are they different?
We’ll discuss how an industry leader falls from grace and whether or not it’s possible to be saved once that happens.
We’d like to say a big thank you to last month’s Mac.AppStorm sponsors, and the great software they create! If you’re interested in advertising, you can purchase a banner advertisement through BuySellAds, or sign up for a Weekly Sponsorship slot.
Thank you to the fantastic applications we had sponsoring each week during the month, all of which we personally recommend you download and try out!
- SpyCam – Security apps can be a pain to setup, but Spy Cam is so simple that anyone can use it. As soon as I opened up Spy Cam for the first time, I immediately knew how everything worked. You simply set the interval for how often you want Spy Cam to automatically record a movie using your Mac’s built-in camera and indicate how long each movie should be. From that point on, you can easily keep track of who is snooping around on your machine.
- PopClip – An awesome utility that brings iOS style copy and paste functionality to your Mac. It’s a great idea and the implementation is solid. I really love having these controls appear right in place and specifically find the define and spellcheck functions to be quite useful.
- Raven – An innovative new web browser that turns your favorite sites into apps. The app’s Smart Bar allows you to effortlessly switch between your favorite websites and web apps in a way that makes them feel almost native. There’s even a dedicated AppStorm Raven App!
- Disk Drill – Disk Drill recovers data from HFS/HFS+, FAT, NTFS & other file systems right on your Mac. It helps you undelete Mac OS files using its two powerful Mac recovery methods: Quick or Deep scanning. Disk Drill data recovery for Mac OS X locates and recovers deleted files from any mountable media like your main drive, external hard disk, memory cards, iPods Classic, etc.
- FreeSpace – FreeSpace is a menubar utility that can show you how much space is available on all local, connected, network drives, and disk images with a single click. All the partitions and drives are grouped into their own categories. FreeSpace also allows you to eject all connected drives by 1 click on the menu, or eject individual drives by clicking an eject icon next to each drive name.
Finally, thanks to you for reading AppStorm this month, and for checking out the software that our sponsors create. I really appreciate it – you make the site what it is!
