MacMembraneThere are peels everywhere…

I could write a hundred of these posts – and I might try! Here are 10 lesser known but excellent freeware apps and utilities for your Mac.

GeekTool

Display virtually anything on your desktop. Text files, images (both local or online) or text commands can easily be displayed and updated at an interval you define. But I won’t waste my keystrokes. Check out this excellent post at Lifehacker for info on how to set up GeekTool. I use it to keep my todo.txt visible at all times as a motivator.

Download GeekTool from Tynsoe.org.

Caffeine

When the walls start closing in, I like to take my Mac out on the town to get some work done. Caffeine is the easiest way to keep your unplugged notebook from nodding off too quickly. Click the menu bar icon to launch Caffeine, or Command click to set a sleep time. No messing around with Energy Saver preferences. Super easy to use and, in the right circumstances, super useful.

Download Caffeine from Lighthead.

Alarm Clock

Alarm clock lets you wake up to any song in your iTunes library. It has some great features and an easy to navigate interface. Before I bought a proper alarm, I used Alarm Clock for over six months and it never got me fired from my teaching gig. Best freeware alarm clock available.

Download Alarm Clock from Robbie Hanson.

Disk Inventory X

You’re good at managing the files on your Mac, but one day you wake up and notice that you’re quickly running out of hard drive space. Where did all those gigabytes go? Disk Inventory X will show you! DIX’s beautiful interface gives you a graphical representation of your hard drive and everything on it. Delete those unnecessary monster files and regain your memory. An application I wrote about previously.

Download Disk Inventory X from Derlien.com.

Img2icns

Img2icns is a small application that will quickly convert images to .icns files – the type of images that OS X uses for file, folder and application icons. If you want to customize the appearance of your Mac, img2icns is an essential utility. Read Create Icons Quickly with Preview and Img2icns for a thorough how-to.

Download Img2icns from Shiny Frog.

MacTheRipper

MacTheRipper will rip a DVD to your hard drive quick and simple. It will also tear out any copy protection that manufacturing injected into the disk. After you’ve ripped the disk to your drive, fire up HandBreak and compress the files in half the time.

Download MacTheRipper (from Softpedia). MactheRipper.org’s download link is currently dead.

SizzlingKeys

My favorite iTunes controller, Sizzling Keys lets you assign keyboard shortcuts to every standard iTunes function in a clean preference pane. An elegant floating info panel displays album art and song info, as well as iTunes events. It’s lightening fast and rock solid.

Download SizzlingKeys from Yellow Mug.

JDarkRoom

I recently added WriteRoom to a list of shareware apps that I use, but if you want something free that performs a similar function, try JDarkRoom – a luxurious full-screen writing environment! The preferences are a bit high-brow, but they aren’t difficult to learn.

Download JDarkRoom from Code Alchemists.

Backdrop

Backdrop is a simple application to hide the files, folders and connected drives on your desktop with a solid color or a picture. It’s the quickest way I know to grab clutter-free screenshots, but it can also be used to help you concentrate on your work by letting you focus on a single application. If backdrop isn’t your cup of tea try Think, which I previously wrote about.

Download Backdrop from John Haney Software.

Jumpcut

When I’m writing a blog post, I’m constantly copying a bunch of text from different sources – web addresses, quotes and images, among other things. Jumpcut is saves a history of your clipboard and lets you select which clipping you’d like to paste. It’s a big time saver, and it will also save you when you accidentally overwrite your clipboard contents.

Download Jumpcut from SourceForge.

Looking for more? Try 10 Freeware Apps for a Fresh Mac or (Another) 10 Outstanding Freeware Apps. If you aren’t adverse to shelling out a few bucks, you’ll like these 10 Unbeatable Shareware Apps. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to grab the RSS Feed!