I’ve done a post like this before, but it’s fairly old at this point in time so here we go again.
One of the best ways to find great new software for your system is by checking out what other people are running on their Macs. Every forum I follow, and every flickr group that posts desktop screenshots offers an opportunity to find something new and interesting. The readers here seem to be hip to that, and always pick something out from my screencasts. So in order to answer many of the questions I get, I’m posting my Menubar Goodies here for all to see.
- Skitch -
Screen caps will never be the same now that skitch has come into my life. When it’s out of private beta, you really need to get your hands on this! (The above image is courtesy of Skitch actually) - Virtue Desktops -
Although it’s not being developed any longer (due to Leopard’s Spaces) this is a great virtual desktop manager. (But the previous release seemed to be less buggy for me) - TagBot -
Unobtrusive yet powerful app for easily and quickly agging your files for easier organization on your system. - Visor -
Snazzy, Quake style SIMBL plugin for accessing your Terminal window for all your CLI needs. - Salling Clicker -
Even though my Samsung BlackJack has no supported services over Bluetooth with my MacBook, Salling Clicker gives me a bunch of options over what I can control with my phone. - Google Notifier -
Google’s own app for putting gmail and calendar items right at my fingertips. For best results mix with growl and let simmer. - TextExpander -
Snippet expander to save you from typing repetitive items. I’ve saved over 18 thousand characters, and counting… - Missing Sync -
Who says Windows Mobile phones can’t play with Macs? I can sync my contacts, pictures, music, etc, etc, etc, with Missing Sync. - Slim Battery Monitor -
Clearly I’ve got a lot of crap in my Menubar. Slim Battery Monitor takes up less space than the OS X equivalent and it gives me some extra options. Obviously not useful if you don’t rock a notebook. - Sound Source -
Quickly change your input and output options for your Mac’s audio. - Menu Meters (RAM and CPU load) -
I like to know what my system’s doing at all times and this is a quick way of doing just that. - OS X Time/Date Display ‘Hack’ -
This hack is awesome and will change your life. Really. - Airport -
Just being thorough… - Spotlight -
Again, thorough
Assuming you’ve got different ones that I’ve listed here, I’m sure we’d love to see and hear about them. You can post them to flickr in The Apple Blog pool, and add notes, etc. Then link them in the comments below so we can all find something new!
Hello nick,
thanks for that post. Being one of those who asked… eager to check some of the stuff out. Keep it up :)
Please post more of this. I always want to know more of these apps that have menu bar icons and how to minimize the space taken up. Can you just try to compile all of the menu bar icons.
Hey Ryan,
not sure such a list is reasonable – there’s endless apps that offer menubar residency. But hopefully this thread will grow in comments and you’ll get to see some variation and find some new things.
But I am sort of a stickler for saving space on my machine, so I’ll work on a post about all the little things I do to maximize the space I have, which in turn allows me to work more efficiently. sound cool?
The only one I use is Synergy iTunes Controller.
Great, more cool software to my already crowed menubar. Don´t do this, life with 1024×768 is hard! :-P
Now seriously, i would add two programs to that list: Jumpcut, which work kinda like iClip but free; and YouControl Tunes, to control, you guessed, iTunes and to quickly rate music. Also free, requires you only to fill a registration.
Both can be found in google or the Versiontracker.
Great look inside your set-up!
Question: Is it possible to rearrange the order of the non-OS X menu-bar items? It seems as though they just queue in order of adding them to the menu bar; the Cmd-Drag doesn’t work with add-ons. This is putting the slim-battery monitor all the way out in the center for my set-up.
Thanks!
How do I get my OS X battery monitor off the menu bar after I install slim-battery monitor?
[...] you are like me, the top right portion of your MacBook menubar is full of goodies. The Apple Blog has of most of them listed. Here are some additional ones that are [...]
I’m still looking for a menu bar goody that will show me the currently playing song in iTunes. I don’t wanna control the player, I don’t wanna see album art, etc, etc – I just want to see the tune name and artist. Anybody know of such a thing?
byrnegreen,
you can always set up and automator action to open the apps in the manner you want and insert a pause action to ensure they are opened up and added to the menubar in the correct sequence. Then just set the sequence to open at login and viola you have your menubar items in the correct sequence.