Apple Times

App Store

When searching for good applications I do not use the App Store. Obviously, the App Store is there to SELL you software and not provide access to the best software available. I downloaded most of my additional applications from the internet, for free.
In order to install 3rd party applications downloaded from the internet, you need to allow such applications to be installed. For this go to your System Preferences > Security & Privacy : General tab.
Here you need to change the "Allow applications downloaded from:" setting to "Anywhere".

Recommended applications

I have listed all the useful applications that I installed onto my Mac. Some are for free and some aren't. The applications that aren't available for free are either cheap or definitely worth the money.

Adobe software

Half a year before switching to a Mac I bought 3 Adobe products for Windows. After some phone calls and misunderstandings I was able to download the Mac versions and use them immediately with the same licenses numbers.

•  Adobe Photoshop Elements 
•  Adobe Premiere Elements 
•  Adobe Lightroom 4

Archibus (emulated)

Daily I use a facility management tool called Archibus. This application is based on the .NET framework and is a Windows only application. To my surprise I was able to install it on the Mac using an emulator called "Wine". (see later-on)

Artisteer

Artisteer is great tool to generate website designs and templates. You can chose your CMS (Content Management System) and start designing. When you have finished your design you simply generate the template. Or you can use Artisteer to write your webpages and have it pushed to the internet via FTP. The only disappointment is the lack of performance. During the evaluation period I did not notice this problem. Once I paid the fee and registered the application it just became slow.

Calibre

I already used this application to manage the e-books on my Windows PC and synchronise them to my Sony e-reader. This free tool connects to the internet and downloads a synopsis, review and book cover for your books. It also allows you to modify settings such as the fonts and convert your book to other document types like MOBI, PDF, HTMLZ,ZIP,etc.

Cheatsheet

I am a frequent user of keyboard shortcuts under Windows and switching to OS X also meant learning new shortcuts. Cheatsheet is a great application to quickly learn the shortcuts per applications. Simply press and hold the [CMD] key and all the shortcuts of current application are shown. 

Tip

One of the disadvantages of a MacBook Pro is the absence of some keys on your keyboard. These keys are accessible via special key combinations. For instance , the { character is hidden under the key strokes [ALT]+5.
Your Mac comes with 2 great tools allowing you to find these key combinations.  To activate them you need to check the box called "Show Keyboard & Character Viewer in menu bar" in your Keyboard Preferences.

The Character Viewer allows you to insert a symbol or character by double clicking on it. You can also add frequently needed symbols to your Favourites.

The Keyboard Viewer shows the hidden characters when pressing different key combinations.
Character Viewer Keyboard Viewer

Circus Ponies Notebook

This notebook application is great for taking notes during meetings.  For this I always use one of the available page templates called "Cornell Note Taking Page". It is easy to add dividers, tabs, notes, reminders, flags, etc.  If needed you can also draw a schematic overview, sync the tasks to your calendar Personally I prefer to use Notebook over Growly Notes, which resembles OneNote from Microsoft.
                     

Clipmenu

A simple and efficient clipboard recording software that keeps a history of all objects that were copied into the memory of your computer. You can customise the shortcut to show the pop-up with all copied items, the maximum number of items, etc.

Beyond Compare (emulated)

Beyond Compare is the only Windows application for which I have not yet found an equally good OS X version. I tried Delta Walker but it misses some functionalities and was not as easy to use as Beyond Compare.

Disk Order

Under Windows I used Xplorer² file manager with its dual pane panels and tabs.  Just like Windows File Manager , the OS X Finder application is also lacking these functionalities. However, Disk Order is a great file manager with the same bells and whistles as Xplorer².

Eclipse 

Filezilla

 

Growly Notes 

HDRTist 

iBackup

KeepassX

MailRaider

Microsoft Office 2011

Onyx

Oracle SQL Developer

RazorSQL 

SC Plugin

Sophos Anti-virus (free edition) 

SVNX 

TeamViewer 7 

TextMate 

Virtualbox 

VLC 

Wine & Winebottler 

WMV Player