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100 Best Mac Apps Of Year 2012

Best-Mac-Apps-Of-2012

Another year has gone by and it’s been a good one for OS X apps. Continuing our tradition from previous years, here is a list of some the best apps we covered during the last one. 2012 was split between two versions of OS X; Lion and Mountain Lion. Each of these versions had their own share of features that inspired developers to create apps. We came across a fair number of Mac apps meant to deal with the problems users experienced when they upgraded to Mountain Lion. Apart from these OS-centric apps, we reviewed the usual utilities for everyday work; productivity apps, music players, to-do lists managers, system tweakers and more. With the new year now in full swing, you might want to see if a little something from last year will help you enjoy a better user experience.

1. Sleep No More (Easily delay OS X Mountain Lion system & display sleep by set time)

Sleep No More

2. Now Playing (Get a “Now Playing” alert from iTunes in Notification Center)

now playing

3. Hiss (Reroute Growl alerts to OS X Mountain Lion Notification Center)

Hiss notification

4. Blue Butler (Have your Mac Shut Down, Logout or more when a Bluetooth device is in/out of range)

Blue Butler

5. Ripcorder Screen (Record multiple Mac screens with highlighted clicks and no time limitations)

Ripcorder-free-Screen-Recorder-for-Mac

6. Nitro (Simple OS X to-do list app that syncs to Dropbox & Ubuntu One)

7. Should I Sleep (Keep Mac display awake while you’re in front of the webcam)

8. Any Send (Share files between Macs over WiFi from the Menu Bar)

Any Send

9. Eggy (Use keyboard shortcuts to tweet, update Facebook & send messages in OS X)

Eggy

10. iSnap (Get Windows 7 Aero snap / snap-to-side & shake-to-minimize features on Mac)

iSnap snap window

11. Desktop Groups Lite (A Fences-like desktop organizer for Mac OS X)

12. Cappuccino (An elegant Google Reader client that lets you read, manage & share feeds)

Cappuccino

13. Pocket (Formerly Read It Later; lets you bookmark web articles and strips them of website theme and ads for clutter-free offline reading)

Pocket

14. Found (Desktop search for Dropbox, Google Drive & Gmail files)

Found

15. Flutter (Play/pause iTunes or Spotify with hand gestures in front of the webcam)

flutter

16. CleanMyDrive (Remove DS_Store & Thumbs.db from mounted drives for clutter-free cross-platform file transfer)

CleanMyDrive

17. CornerClick (Assign any app, file or action to Hot Corners in Mac)

CornerClick hot corner

18. iClapper (Clap to control iTunes or trigger any action)

iClapper notification

19. Launch it! (Open multiple apps & websites with a single keyboard shortcut)

Launch it add app

20. Exhaust (Login items manager that lets you set apps launch delay & quit interval)

exhaust main

21. Grooveshark Player (Enjoy Grooveshark’s web interface on your Mac desktop)

Grooveshark Player

22. iClouDrive (Sync files between Macs through iCloud the Dropbox/iDisk Way)

iClouDrive

23. Amelita (Use context menu options from the Mac Menu Bar)

Amelita

24. Hot Mouse Flower (A hotkey-triggered virtual keyboard for OS X)

Hot Mouse Flower

25. Collections (Desktop viewer & editor for Google Docs & Instagram)

collections Google Docs

26. ReFind (A bookmarking app for your frequently-accessed folders)

ReFind

27. Right Zoom (Get Windows-like maximize behavior in Mac)

Right Zoom  apps

28. Rename (Edit file names & add Spotlight comments in bulk)

Rename

29. Tagit (Easily add tags to files/folders, search exclusively by tags)

Tagit

30. CheatSheet (View a complete list of keyboard shortcuts for any app)

CheatSheet

31. Simplayfy (Search music & control iTunes from the Menu Bar)

Simplayfy

32. Ctrl Alt Delete (Quickly view all active apps & background processes and force-quit them)

Ctrl Alt Delete

33. Snip (Region-centric screenshot tool that lets you add text & shapes to your snaps)

Snip draw

34. SlideMode (SlideMode makes it easier to select text with the trackpad using a hotkey and two finger swipe)

SlideMode

35. Mashduo (Compare iTunes libraries & export a list of missing songs)

Mashduo options

36. InsomniaX (Disable sleep on idle or lid close while on battery or AC)

InsomniaX

37. MagicPrefs (Modify what apple magic mouse & trackpad gestures do)

Mac Trackpad preferences

38. ShowOrHide (View hidden files without using terminal command)

ShowOrHide

39. Booknote Importer (Save bookmarks to an Evernote notebook)

Booknote Importer

40. SocialShoutings (Post to Twitter & Facebook in one go)

SocialShoutings Lite

41. Boxerapp (Import and play any DOS game on your Mac)

Boxerapp library

42. SyncDifferent (Sync files between as many folders as you want)

SyncDifferent

43. Chaperone (Track time spent on tasks & the apps used to do them)

Chaperones new task

44. CryptoDock (Free encryption tool that lets you set a unique decryption key for each file)

CryptoDock

45. AmbiLauncher Lite (Launch any app or script by moving the mouse over left edge of screen)

AmbiLauncher Lite peferences

46. TunesTEXT (View & edit lyrics of iTunes tracks and embed them into songs)

Screen Shot 2012-04-23 at 10.14.06 AM

47. iConvert (Convert videos, extract audio & send them to iTunes)

iconvert 2

48. Broomstick (Hide & reorder third-party Mac apps’ Menu Bar icons)

broomstick main

49. Cloak (Secure untrusted/public internet connections)

preferences

50. Maintenance (Run system optimization & cleaning and rebuild tasks in one go)

maintanance 3

51. File Viewer (File viewer for 60 audio, video, image, web and text file formats)

File Viewer open

52. Commenteer (Add comments to all files in a folder at once)

Commenteer preferences

53. TinkerTool (Tweak Mac Lion default tools, UI elements & overall usage)

tinker tool

54. XtraFinder (Adds several useful file & folder options to Mac Finder)

XtraFinder options

55. Todoist (A simple project & task organizer for your desktop)

Todoist tasks

56. Screensaver + Free (Lock screen replacement with pattern unlock that supports mouse input)

Screensaver   free

57. Notifications for Facebook (View & access Facebook notifications from the Menu Bar)

Notifications for Facebook alerts

58. SmoothCursor (Set different acceleration for mouse & trackpad)

SmoothCursor preferences

59. TopHat Folders Menu Lite (Access your favorite & most used folders from Menu Bar)

TopHat Folders Menu

60. DropboxAppSync (Sync app data across systems through Dropbox)

DropboxAppSync

61. Lock Me Now (Use an easy keyboard shortcut to lock your screen)

Lock Me Now

62. SmartStop (Automatically stop and resume iTunes playback when headphones are unplugged and plugged back in respectively)

SmartStop

63. LaunchOnTime (Schedule apps to launch at a specified time)

LaunchOnTime

64. InstantPhotoColor (Color images without losing their details)

InstantPhotoColor before after

65. iFileX (Easier way to search files by name, size, modification & creation date)

iFileX search results

66. iTweaX (Tweak hidden Mac OS X features & run maintenance procedures)

iTweaX tweak finder

67. UpShot (Upload screenshots from OS X to your public Dropbox folder)

UpShot preferences

68. Slate (Rearrange windows to a previously recorded layout)

slate

69. Intelligent Scissors (Remove photobombers & unwanted items from your photos)

Intelligent Scissors

70. Grandview (A completely distraction-free writing pad for the easily distracted)

Grandview

71. Plaster (Easily set any image as a folder’s icon)

Plaster remove

72. MovieShare (Wirelessly copy videos between Macs & iOS devices with ease)

MovieShare

Paid Apps

1. Unclutter (Get an omnipresent clipboard, file storage area & notepad)

Unclutter

2. iDesktop (Group different files on each desktop space in Mac)

iDesktop

3. Cream (Compact RSS reader with Instapaper, Pocket & Readability support)

Cream

4. Replacr (Simply drag and drop multiple TXT and RTF files to find & replace text in them)

Replacr text

5. Multi Monitor Wallpaper (Crop, stretch & set a single background across multiple Mac displays)

wallpaper-extend-2

6. Simple ShutDown Timer (Schedule Mac shutdown, restart & sleep)

Simple ShutDown Timer

7. Desktop Tidy (Clean files from desktop & sort into folders according to format or age)

Desktop Tidy

8. CloudPlay (Search & play music from iTunes, YouTube and SoundCloud right from the Menu Bar)

CloudPlay

9. Flv Crunch (Audio/video converter with a unique crop feature)

Flv Crunch crop

10. Precise Screenshot (Create a pixel-precise frame for taking screenshots)

Precise Screenshot

11. Disk Scope (View per library/directory storage usage in Mac)

Disk Scope scan

12. PDF Toolkit (Compress PDFs, extract text and images in different sizes)

PDF Toolkit interface

13. Windownaut (Allows excellent window arrangement via keyboard shortcuts)

layouts

14. Mailsum (Email client that tells you how well you handle your mail)

Mailsum

15. Scrapbook (Clipboard manager that remembers copied items even after system restart)

Scrapbook Folder

16. ReSpaceApp (Provides easier desktop spaces navigation & window management)

ReSpaceApp

17. Snapheal (One of the best tools out there to retouch & remove unwanted objects from images)

Snapheal erase

18. HyperPDF (Magazine reader that mimics iPad’s reading experience)

HyperPDF

19. Instant (Add Instagram-like filters to your images)

Instant shoot

20. Nifty (Create custom, global shortcuts for various app-specific functions)

Nifty buttons

21. Lock Your Screen (The mothership of screen lock apps for Mac)

Lock Your Screen locked

22. App Zap (Completely remove apps & all files associated with them)

App Zap app files

23. Dammit (Speed dial to open stacks of apps, files or folders)

Dammit

24. Gemini (Scan for and clean duplicate files & folders from your system)

Gemini  scan

25. iRamDisk (Create virtual RAM disks in Mac & mount as drives)

iRamDisk

26. Mindful (View the day’s iCal events & reminders on the desktop)

Mindful

27. HardwareGrowler (Displays hardware & network change notifications)

HardwareGrowler hardware

28. File Storage Companion (Transfer files from Mac to iOS over Wi-Fi without using iTunes)

File-Storage-Companion

So which of the lot are your favorites? Did you find any apps that didn’t know about? Let us know in the comments if you feel we’ve left anything out.

You might also want to check out our other end-of-year compilations:

150 Best Windows Apps Of 2012

35 Best Windows 8 Store Of 2012

150 Best Android Apps Of 2012

100 Best iOS Apps Of 2012

50 Best Cydia Tweaks Of 2012

40 Best Windows Phone Apps Of 2012

12 Comments

    • Pocket is listed. As for Tweetbot, I love it on the iPad but I still think charging $20 for the Mac version because they can’t get enough tickets from Twitter is a lame excuse at best. There are other cheaper or free alternatives.

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