Adium is an amazing communication app that brings together all of your chat accounts onto. From exclusive world premieres to behind‑the‑scenes interviews, original stories. Powerful Mac apps that won't break the bank. There’s something of a misconception when it comes. Every new Mac already comes with a built-in Apple App Store, which is pinned to the Dock. That means, in just one click, you will have instant access to thousands of paid and free Mac apps and we know you are excited to visit the App Store. But, before you begin downloading apps, you have to know that Apple has just updated its security settings.

Over the weekend I helped a buddy pick out a brand new Apple MacBook Pro laptop and realized that I’ve slowly but surely become an Apple Evangelist. To help my buddy and other new Apple users make the most of their new Macs here’s 45 free applications for Mac OS X.

Very simple to-do checklist that sits in your menu bar.

In addition to telling everyone about the awesomeness of Apple computers and the Mac OS X Leopard operating system I also evangelize the heck out of OpenOffice.org. In my eight years of using OpenOffice.org on Windows, Ubuntu, and Mac OS X I’ve found it to be super stable and packed with nearly all the functionality of the much more expensive (e.g. not free) Microsoft Office. So far I’ve had no need to use MS Office as OpenOffice.org provides enough applications to get the job done.

When I got my Macbook Pro three years ago I installed and used Aquamacs Emacs but after installing a fresh Leopard system I took another look at my applications and fell in love with TextWrangler. I especially love that it integrates with my SFTP browser, CyberDuck, for easy editing right on my server.

The new spotlight in Leopard is awesome but still lacks the extensive features of Quicksilver. Launching a terminal window with my first command line already inputted in just two or three key taps is a beautiful thing. You can also control iTunes directly from Quicksilver and a whole host of other sweet commands.

For the few compressed file formats Leopard doesn’t recognize out of the box, The Unarchiver will uncompress them and even has options to automatically delete the zipped file after its opened up.

Sync your facebook events with iCal.

Another to do check list application. Anxiety is more versatile than Check-Off but for me Check-Off does the job fine but if you need something more robust check out Anxiety.

I used Aquamacs Emacs for the longest time when I first got my Mac but am now loving TextWrangler. Both are solid text editing programs with their own pros and cons.

I prefer using my iPhone as my alarm, but for those who are inclined to use their laptop, Tiny Alarm is a great little app that sites in your menu bar.

A great personal finance manager. A while back I picked up Cha-Ching via a Macheist giveaway, but if I didn’t I’d be using Cashbox. Both are great personal finance applications, one is free the other isn’t but both should treat you right.

Communication

iChat is cool but Adium is much, much better. This open source application allows to connect to nearly every messaging system on the planet. The list includes AIM, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Facebook Chat, Myspace IM, Bonjour, LiveJournal Chat, Gadu Gadu and more!

The best way to interact with Twitter. Runs off Adobe Air and is fast and easy to use. I didn’t really get Twitter until I downloaded and installed TweetDeck and now I’m tweeting all the time!

Great for making cheap international calls. I also use Skype to set up a business line so my cell phone doesn’t get jammed with calls. You can also instant message, call and video chat with others over the internet for free.

Unobtrusive application/system notification. A great way to explain Growl is to provide an example. It integrates with Adium and will show a small temporary popup window whenever a contact signs on/off or sends you a message.

Allows you to move music off your iPod without dealing with iTunes. In other words, it turns your iPod into a regular disk drive.

Great alternative to Garageband for recording audio.

GimmeSomeTune is an iTunes extension that adds a lot of functionality to iTunes, but chief among them is the ability to import missing artwork and fetch song lyrics. It also integrates with Last.fm thus allowing you to have one less application running on your Mac.

Video

Expands on Mac OS X’s built in disc recording and adds a ton more file formats and options while still keeping the interface simple and speedy.

This open-source, multi-threaded video converter accepts DVD, DVD-esque (images and some .VOB files), and multimedia files and converts them to MP4, MKV, AVI or OGM / MPEG-4, H.264, or Theora formats quickly and easily.

1. iSquint

   A video converter to make your videos suitable for viewing on an iPod/iPhone.

The best media player on the planet. VLC will play nearly every video and audio format out there.

Another media player but it’s hook is that Miro allows you to setup RSS feeds for torrents and other media files for automated downloading of videos. The list of legally free videos out there is extensive and will keep you entertained for a long, long time.

Caffeine is a light weight application that sits in your menu bar. A simple click turns off the screen saver or delays it for a set amount of time. A great time saver for when you want to watch a video without getting interrupted by your screen saver. I reviewed Caffeine at Only The Internet’s Best Reviews in September ’08 and it still remains one of the highest rated items on OTIBR (scored it a 38/42).

Plugin for Quicktime letting you play Windows Media Video files on your Mac. The best of both worlds!

Not as good as Adobe Photoshop CS4 but it’s free (while Photoshop is $600). The GIMP should be just good enough for the majority of users out there and will at least tide you over until you save up for a copy of Photoshop.

A photo browser for facebook. Quick and very easy to use, PhotoBook will display all your friend’s facebook photos in a convenient album format for quick browsing.

A sweet vector graphics application.

Drag and drop interface for quickly and easily uploading your pics to Flickr.

DeskLickr will go out to Flickr and import photos and automatically change your desktop background every so often. Nice for those of us who get bored of our backgrounds quite easily.

Mac Maintenance

A graphical outline of your hard drive showing what’s using up space and how much of it. Handy for when you’re running low and need to find files to delete.

Sure the new Leopard operating system comes with Time Machine, but Super Duper is great for making bootable clones of your drive. It’s super handy for when you need to bring your Mac in for repairs as it lets you keep working with your files and setup. I’ve used Super Duper extensively over the past two weeks while bringing my Macbook Pro in for repairs and had almost no loss in productivity thanks to Super Duper and a generous friend who loaned me his brand new Macbook!

Control your Mac’s fans from a simple graphical interface. Very handy for diagnosing if your Mac’s fans are busted, as one of mine recently was. Also useful for cranking up the RPMs when you think your Mac is getting a tad too hot for comfort.

A Command Line Interface for OS X/Terminal! Clix stores literally hundreds and hundreds of commands, allowing you to click through and run them through Terminal. It’s handy even for command line experts who can’t remember all the commands or syntax.

Perhaps the most useful Dashboard widget out there. iStat Pro will display your CPU temperatures, hard drive space, network stats, fan speed, running processes (and how much CPU power they take up). All in real time from the convenience of your dashboard.

Mac OS X’s built in Software Update is great but only works for Mac OS X and other Apple applications. AppFresh will notify you when all your other applications have updates available by periodically checking osx.iusethis.com.

2. OnyX

A Graphical User Interface for all your Mac’s maintenance needs. You can perform most of these processes from the command line, but if you just got a Mac you’re probably terrified of Terminal right now.

Dragging your applications to the trash can is a very simple way to delete old or unwanted applications but usually leaves files scattered about your hard drive. Using AppCleaner will ensure all those pesky files are gone, freeing up hard drive space and lowering the chance for any conflicts.

The best FTP/SFTP/Amazon S3 browser/uploader/downloader on the planet. Drag n drop interface that is integrated with your Mac’s keychain for a no hassle upload/download experience.

Easy to setup and use local server for developing and testing your web-sites before they go live. Needless to say this gets a lot of use on my Macbook Pro.

The best RSS reader on the planet. With a free account at NewsGator.com you can sync your feeds between different locations. I love this app as it allows me to read my feeds on my iPhone knowing that whatever I read or clip (bookmark) will sync back to my Macbook Pro at home.

I love the speedy Safari, and in fact spend most of my day within its friendly confines, but Firefox has an immense library of extensions and plugins that Safari has yet to match. Besides, it’s free, what’ve you got to lose? Besides a little bit of hard drive space of course.

DeepVacuum is a graphical interface for the unix command wget, which allows you to download entire web-sites. Useful for developers who want to take a peak at a site’s code or people who wish to browse a site offline.

Simple but powerful bittorrent client.

A great way to store files in a cloud for easy access from any internet connection.

A graphical interface for TOR, the safest and easiest way to browse the web anonymously. Very useful for users who live in a country with a strict firewall or for accessing sites you don’t want associated with you. Though, I must state that if a government agency wants to find you they will, so don’t go doing something stupid or dangerous just because you’re behind a TOR connection.

There you have it, 45 free applications I recommend every new Mac user try it. Did I miss a great application? Let me know in the comments below!

Do you always find yourself browsing the Apple App Store? We’ve got good news. Every new Mac already comes with a built-in Apple App Store, which is pinned to the Dock. That means, in just one click, you will have instant access to thousands of paid and free Mac apps and we know you are excited to visit the App Store. But, before you begin downloading apps, you have to know that Apple has just updated its security settings. So, you need to grant your system access to install certain apps.

If you can’t wait to get started with using your Mac, consider installing these top free Mac apps first:

1. Adium

Do you find it time-consuming to open all your chat accounts every time you open your Mac? Perhaps the developers of Adium felt that, too, which is probably why they created this app.

Adium is a useful communication app that lets you bring together all your chat accounts, including Hangouts, MSN, Messenger, and a lot more, onto a single platform. You can customize it by downloading plug-ins to let you change certain elements such as the interface color and font style.

Once you install Adium, an animated duck icon will live in your Dock. If its color turns to green, it means you have a message. If it holds up an “Away” sign, it’s suggesting that you have set your status to Away.

2. Caffeine

If you have Starbucks, your Mac also has Caffeine. However, unlike Starbucks, it does not cost your Mac a single dollar to stay energized and awake.

When you install this amazing free app, a small coffee cup icon will be created beside your menu bar. If you click on it, your screen will instantly power up, preventing your Mac from entering the sleep mode.

Caffeine is an ideal app for those who enjoy watching movies or love long reads. With this installed on your Mac, you need not keep moving your mouse to keep your computer awake. Simply turn on this app and you are all set.

3. Dropbox

There comes a time when storage becomes an issue on your Mac. Luckily, Dropbox is here to provide our computer with more free storage.

What’s great about this app is that anything saved here can be shared with other individuals. Of course, the owner has to grant permission to them first.

Dropbox is basically a file storage app that you can access locally or through any Wi-Fi enabled device. Although it’s initially free with 2.5 GB of storage space, you have the option to upgrade your account for more storage space.

4. Transmission

Free Apple Apps For Mac

If you often download videos and software, then Transmission is for you. This app is a reliable BitTorrent client that comes with a user-friendly interface and a set of customizable options.

With Transmission, you can queue your downloads and set timers for when to stop or start them. Although it is open source, its developers claim that it does not show any third-party ads nor track its users. Thus, you are secured as you use it.

Since it does not use up a lot of your memory, rest assured it does not slow down your Mac while it’s running. Then again, just to be sure, you might want to install Tweakbit MacRepair. This amazing tool can help optimize your Mac for top performance.

5. VLC

Now, what will you do with all the videos you downloaded using Transmission? Of course, you’ll watch them. That’s where VLC comes in.

There are a plethora of media players nowadays, but nothing beats the versatility of VLC. Not only can it play almost every media file; it can also be customized to match your needs.

Free Applications For Apple Macbook

Under its surface, there is a wide assortment of features that you might want to take advantage of. You can convert videos into other formats. You can also use it to subscribe to podcasts.

6. Itsycal

The time and date in the menu bar are already very helpful when it comes to keeping up with your schedules and meetings. However, what if we tell you that there is an app you can use to have total control over your appointments?

Itsycal is an interesting app that can be used in place of your Mac’s existing clock. As the name suggests, this app adds a little but useful calendar to the menu bar with a list of your upcoming appointments.

The next time you want to organize your appointments and meetings, you know what app to use. Don’t worry. It will not cost you anything to get this app!

7. Evernote

Free Applications For Apple Macbooks

Evernote remains unbeatable among all note-taking apps, and there’s a good reason behind it. This app is easy to use. You can also organize your notes quickly and easily. In addition, it syncs with almost any web-based service you can think of.

And because it is one of the widely used apps today, it’s not surprising why its developers created numerous browser add-ons and extensions that support it.

While Evernote is initially free with basic functionalities and about 60MB of uploads allowed per month, you can upgrade your service to a premium version to enjoy more features.

8. Spotify

Apple Mac For Sale

If Apple Music isn’t for you, you can try Spotify. It’s the best alternative for those who want to try what’s outside the Apple realm.

Spotify grants you access to its whole music catalog, allowing you to search for and listen to artists, albums, and tracks at no cost at all.

If you want, you can also create your own playlists based on your music preferences. Spotify has every song genre you can think of – hip-hop, acoustic, jazz, rock, pop, alternative, and a lot more.

9. SuperPhoto

Do you love taking photos? Is photography your passion? If so, you will need a fun and creative photo app. SuperPhoto is one.

SuperPhoto allows you to experiment with photos and create something very artistic. This app comes with loads of free filters, frames, patterns, brushes, and textures for you to turn ordinary photos into something extraordinary.

Best Free Apps For Apple Macbook Pro

Like other apps in this list, SuperPhoto is free to use. But, you can upgrade for a certain fee to access more amazing features.

Free Applications For Mac

10. Unarchiver

Have you just made a switch from Windows to macOS? Then you have to ensure all your .zip and .rar files work perfectly on your Mac. Relax. It’s no big deal as long as you have Unarchiver installed on your Mac.

As its name implies, Unarchiver lets you open any .zip or .rar file in less than a minute. Not to mention, this app also supports a wide array of file formats that need extracting. Isn’t that good news?

Apple Programs For Mac

Unarchiver is totally free to use. All you have to do is download the app from the official website.

Conclusion

Mac has no shortage of interesting, useful, and free Apps. Unfortunately, we can’t include all of them on this list. If your favorite free Mac app is not here, let us know in the comments section. We’d like to know why you love it!