This is when today’s ‘hottest’ service in technology comes in. Cloud computing is a service whereby shared resources, data, and software are provided to computers and other devices over a network, usually via the internet. Apple’s version is the iCloud, which upon its introduction has replaced Apple’s MobileMe. Apple iCloud was introduced by Steve Jobs during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June of 2011–an event that announced the OS X Lion and the iOS 5 for the iPod, iPhone and the iPad.

iCloud in a Nutshell

iCloud, simply put, is a hard drive in the sky. It allows you to quickly access your data from your devices: Macbook, PC, iPhone, iPod and iPad. This data can be anything and everything you can think of: your music, applications, contacts and photos across all your devices. As long as you are connected, you can access your important images and documents when you’re on the go.

Image from Lets Go Ditigal

Cloud storage is not a new concept. It has been around for a while, but since iCloud’s introduction it has become a growing tech trend. Through cloud computing, cloud storage provides password-protected access to your online storage space. Cloud storage can be used as additional space and a back up copy of your hard drive. Moreover, it is an effective way to make the files available to your other gadgets and devices.

iCloud is not the first online storage service by Apple. MobileMe preceded iCloud, and offered synchronization services at an annual fee. MobileMe was created to ensure synchronization of data between all devices–including e-mails, calendars, contacts, photos, and iWeb and iDisk services. Apple then revamped MobileMe, merging its features with their newly offered Apple iCloud service. Since then iCloud has replaced MobileMe, with more features and more flexibility.

Like MobileMe, the biggest advantage of iCloud is its Apple software integration. This makes the iCloud the most practical cloud storage choice, especially if you own mostly Apple products: Macbook, iPod, iPad, iTouch, the like. It ensures that all data is continuously synchronized while connected to the internet. The iCloud can even include Apple devices owned by your family members and household, too.

The iCloud is now available to all Mac devices in the iOS 5 operating system, and Macs with the OS X Lion operating system. iCloud is free and comes with all the new devices. After getting an account for iCloud, you get 5 gigabytes worth of storage, for free. iCloud backups happen when you’re not using the device.

But, is iCloud Ready for Us?

iCloud does not offer the option to stream your music and videos from the cloud (as of writing). It would’ve been great if users could have the option to play the media content directly instead of the need to download it first. Partial backups are made while you are sleeping, and changes include personal device settings, text messages, ring tones, app data, e-books, videos and apps you bought from iTunes. In addition, backups are done automatically in case you upgrade your OS or new hardware.

iCloud still isn’t perfect, though. One example: iCloud users are limited to the software designed to access that particular cloud. iCloud service is available as long as you have internet access, but still requires an application to manage and synchronize the connection to your data.

The Photo Stream still has many flaws. iCloud only syncs and spreads photos taken during the past 30 days. Which is annoying especially if you want to look at pictures from more than the past 30 days–maybe you want to show off your daughter’s graduation months ago or remember last year’s family reunion. It can be an inconvenience that Photo Stream doesn’t have this option. Aside from that, you can’t delete anything off the Photo Stream–just hope you do not sync any embarrassing or scandalous photos accidentally.

The first 5 GB is free, but if the free storage space is no longer sufficient, you can get iCloud storage plans at $20 a year (15 GB), $40 a year (25 GB) and $100 a year (55 GB).

There are still some flaws and gaps here and there. it’s limited in features, but still quite convenient to use. It’s useful, fantastic as a free back up service but not yet worth the money for a storage plan. The big ‘boom’ moment for Apple didn’t come with the iCloud yet.

Other iCloud Alternatives

Box.com

One of its most promising features is its recent availability to the iOS; making it a good contender as Apple’s main competitor. While iCloud boasts in keeping your apps, photos, music and videos in place, it is certainly flawed in sharing documents with others. Box on the other hand, is a champ and it even comes with the Google Docs integration.Upon downloading and signing up, you get a whooping 50 GB of free storage space–now compare that to iCloud’s meager 5 GB. Moreover, Box allows you to stream photos and music from the cloud to the AppleTv via Airplay. It cannot accept bigger uploads more than 100 mb– but at a staggering 50 GB of free storage, we’re not complaining at all.

Amazon Cloud Driver

The Amazon Cloud Driver is similar to the iCloud in terms of services and purchasing content. However, the former is more indiscriminate in a particular OS, so it does well on both Mac and PC but it doesn’t have the deep OS integration iCloud offers on the Mac and iOS systems. After sign up you get 5 GB of free storage. If you need more space, Amazon offers storage plans at 20 GB to 1000 GB. Now, you don’t have to worry about losing your files if your hard drive crashes, or gets lost or stolen.

Dropbox

Dropbox does not offer iCloud’s deep Mac OS integration, but is compatible with the Mac, Windows, Linux and all major devices the iPhone, iPad, Blackberry and Android phones. Dropbox offers 2 GB free storage space upon signing up. It offers storage plans up to 100 GB for subscriptions. Unlike the iCloud, all types of stored files will be counted against your total storage space limit.

SkyDrive

This is Microsoft’s version of the iCloud, but designed more to sharing documents, photos and videos between multiple users.SkyDrive offers free storage for up to 25 GB. SkyDrive offers integration with Microsoft products, just as iCloud is with Apple.

Humble Beginnings

Apple was founded by the ‘two Steves: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. They were two very different teenagers, but both are geniuses in their own way. Both Steve’s grew up in San Jose, California– now better known as Silicon Valley.

Before they became billionaires and founders of the coolest company in the world, they were teenage outcasts. Three decades ago the two Steve’s were mere college dropouts, Jobs from Reeds and Wozniak from Berkeley. The two Steve’s met at Hewlett-Packard, while Jobs was working as a summer employee and Wozniak as a calculator manufacturer.

The Woz was an especially gifted engineer of his time, making and selling illegal devices that he made. One particular device allowed users to make free long distance calls (which was a big deal in the 1970s  when long distance calls were expensive). Wozniak had done so by hacking into AT&T’s long distance network. An ironic beginning if you think of it, since AT&T is now perhaps one of Apple’s most important business partners.

Later on, Jobs convinced Wozniak to make self-made computers with him. While Steve Wozniak merely enjoyed creating machines, Jobs had always seen the marketability of personal computers. To start their own company, they sold their most precious possessions. Jobs sold his Volkswagen Bus and Wozniak sold his programmable HP calculator. They gathered $1,250 and started their business in Jobs’ basement.

Start of the Great Company

It was in Steve Jobs’ tiny basement that they invented the first personal computer. On April Fool’s Day, 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak released the first Apple I computer and started the company Apple Computers.

The first Apple machine made use of a TV as a display system–a great addition since most machines of the time had no display at all. Text was faster than teleprinter at that time, typing at 60 characters per second. It also had a bootstrap code on ROM for easy start-up. Like a car, the Apple I computer had a hood that the owner could open up and tinker with the machine. Users were encouraged to open and tinker with the computer; to make it better, to make it faster and to add some features.

Byte Shop, a local computer shop, offered to buy 50 of the computers if it came fully assembled, paying US $500 each. The two couldn’t afford to pay for the components, so Jobs approached Cramer Electronics to get components on 30 day terms. With that, the two Steve’s spent days on end building the computers, delivered it on time and paid his supplier with a neat profit for their efforts and for the next order.

Steve Jobs invited Ronald Wayne, a 41-year-old former colleague from Atari to join in their Apple start-up. Jobs offered Wayne 10% of the company, although he kept his job at Atari and worked for Apple at night. The partnership with Ronald Wayne didn’t last long, though. Twelve days after Apple’s release, Ronald Wayne sold his 10% share for US $800. A meager sum if you consider the fact that Wayne’s 10% share would’ve been worth US $35.3 billion today.

1977 – 1980s: Fast Growth

After Apple I, Wozniak now thought about making a bigger and better machine. Since they now had the money from the sales on their first computer, Wozniak moved on and made an improved version, the Apple II. The computer was presented on April 16, 1977 during the West Coast Computer Fair. A Japanese chemist named Toshio Mizushima became interested in the Apple II prototype, and later on became the first authorized Apple dealer in Japan.

Image from Old Computers

The Apple II, also known as the Apple ][, became known as the most popular computer of all time. The TV interface was completely redesigned. It could handle text, graphics, and later on, color. It became more ready-to-use than its predecessor, since the Apple I required you to plug parts together & type the code to run the program.

Image from Tony Olsen

By this time Apple needed more money to grow as a company. The solution came from an angel investor named Mike Markkula, who was referred to him by Don Valentine and in turn was referred to by Regis McKenna. Valentine, after first meeting the young and unkempt Jobs, told McKenna: ‘Why did you send me this renegade from the human race?’ He was uninterested in funding Apple, but recommended Markula. Jobs visited him and convinced the would-be investor the market potentials of personal computers. Markkula invested $92,000 in Apple and a bank loan of US $250,000.

Markkula held a huge influence particularly in the formative years of Apple. Wozniak even credits Markkula for Apple’s success more than himself. He provided the adult supervision to the young Jobs and Wozniak. He served as a mentor to Jobs teaching him the the ins and outs of business and management. Aside from helping the company obtain credit and capital, he brought in Michael Scott to be the first president and CEO of Apple. He promised his wife to stay at the venture for four years, he eventually stayed for two decades. Markkula is responsible for recommending the floppy disk drive, after Markkula discovered that the checkbook balancing program he had written was too slow on the data cassette.

Apple’s most famous success is the famed Macintosh. It was the first computer to successfully use a graphic user interface and mouse. The series was thought of by Jef Raskin, an Apple employee who envisioned a low-cost, user-friendly computer for the everyday customer. Macintosh was named after Raskin’s favorite type of apple. Jobs was working on his own Lisa computer during this time, but immediately took over the Macintosh project when the failure of Lisa was clear and the future of Macintosh was bright. See the 1984 Macintosh ad here.

Image from Quality in Print

By 1980s Jobs was still young and unexperienced. He made many marketing mistakes that greatly affected Apple sales. Jobs still lacked the discipline to run the company . Thus Jobs lured Sculley away with the pitch: ‘Do you want to sell sugar-water for the rest of your life or come with me & change the world?’

Jobs and Sculley during their 'friendlier' days

 Sculley was believed to be the perfect choice into bringing business success, stability and management know-how into the company. He raised the Macintosh price from US $1,995 to US $2,495, to use the extra money for advertising campaigns.

There was an internal power struggle in Apple–Sculley and Jobs regularly clashed. Sculley was traditional, but Jobs was more non-linear: he held meetings after midnight, and called new meetings early in the morning. In the end, the board of directors including Mike Markkula sided with Sculley. Jobs left Apple consequently, his pride in tatters.

The Era of Apple without Jobs

Come 1990s, the IBM PC was now dominating the operating system industry. Apple tried to battle the PC threat by introducing Quadra, Centris and Performa. The new Macintosh computers failed miserably, partly due to poor marketing, plus too many models introduced with minor differences in the tech specs. Aside from the computers, Apple released an early personal digital assistant or PDA (they coined that term, in fact) called the Newton. The venture failed, but it would later be the inspiration for future handheld devices such as the Pocket PC and Palm Pilot.

Image from Tony Olsen

By this time, Apple was considered ‘one of the worst managed companies in the industry’. John Sculley was then replaced by  Michael Spindler, and in turn by Gil Amelio. Stock value was low, and the company was losing billions of dollars. There was no visionary to lead them. How could Apple survive when the founders are no longer active?

Meanwhile, Jobs acquired Pixar, a visual effects and animation company. Soon afterwards he founded another company called NeXT. The computer venture did not succeed because of its high price, but it later became the basis for the Mac OS X. It also became the initial platform for Tim Berners-Lee with inventing the World Wide Web concept.

Apple’s Renaissance

Since Steve Jobs’ comeback, Apple regained its former enthusiastic spirit. From 1998 to 2000, their sales were slowly but surely rising. One of Jobs’ first moves as CEO was to develop the iMac, with the integrated CRT display and CPU in a clean, streamlined design. The computer was a huge success, selling one million units a year. There was a resurgence of Apple products and the company started to focus on the design and aesthetics of its products.

Later on, the company would introduce other innovative products like the iBook and the Power Mac G4. It also introduced the new operating system Mac OS X, which had been based on NeXT.

But the boom of Apple’s success today can be traced back to one gadget: the iPod. It was released on October 23, 2001 The iPod can store ’1,000 songs in your pocket’. It was Apple’s first venture in digital music players, a gamble that paid off so well that it led to other innovative products: the iPod Mini, Shuffle, Classic, Nano, and later the iPod Touch, iPhone and the iPad.

In fact, Apple revolutionized the music industry. It created a new music download service, the iTunes Store, with music downloads of only $0.99 per song or $9.99 per album. The iTunes Store was launched in 2003, and garnered 2,000,000 downloads in 2 weeks, all purchased on Mac computers. Apple later released a Windows version for iTunes, further expanding their market base.

The iTunes Store did not stop at that. They later provided free and paid videos and applications for downloads for the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Today’s Apple products are simple, clean and minimalist. Everything is simplified: all the unnecessary features are taken out and only the essentials remain. And because of its style and simplicity, Apple created a huge fan following and has grown exponentially over the decade.

On May 26, 2010, the stock market of value of Apple overtook that of Microsoft. It was the only time in 20 years that Microsoft was lower than Apple, which would’ve seem ‘unimaginable’ 10 years ago.

On August 25, 2011, news went out that Steve Jobs had resigned as CEO of Apple, and would be succeeded by Tim Cook. On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs passed away due to complications of pancreatic cancer.

The Bright Future of Apple

What are Apple’s most recent plans? The iPhone 4S, the Mac OS 5 and the iCloud, for starters. The iPhone 4S is quite exciting, especially the Siri feature. Siri lets you use your voice to command various functions: send messages, make calls, schedule meetings and more. Siri can recognize your voice, understand what you say, and can even talk back. If you don’t believe us, you can see the video here.

Before Jobs’ death, he recently unveiled Apple’s plans for their new headquarters in Cupertino. The modern and futuristic building allows room for 12,000 employees. It is environmentally friendly and will use renewable energy sources and trees will be abundant in the area. The company hopes to move to the new headquarters by 2015.

Indeed, the passing away of Jobs was too early and too unexpected. But the timing couldn’t have been more right–the iPhone and iPad were a huge success that it surpassed the company’s expectations in revenue and profit. Apple can finally stand on its own, ready to conquer the future without the help of Jobs’ regular involvement. After Jobs, Cook is now the CEO as design genius Jonathan Ive and marketing mastermind Phil Schiller, and they will continue to surprise and inspire us.

The date was October 5, 2011. Apple released the news through press release that Steve Jobs has passed away. Although they didn’t say why, it was later found out that he succumbed to the complications of pancreatic cancer.

At first, his death was met with disbelief as people shared the news through blogs and social networking sites. The Steve Jobs, deceased? It’s hard to imagine the world without the spectacled, black-shirt-and-jeans genius that he is. What will the world do without him?

One anonymous fan immortalized Jobs with the quote: ‘Three apples changed the world: one that Eve ate, the second one that fell on Issac Newton’s head and the third one that Steve Jobs built.’

Photo by: Noah Berger

 Photo by: Noah Berger

Image by Pietro Zuco

Photo by Pietro Zuco. Apple fans in Ginza, Tokyo pay their respects with digital candles–on their iPhones and iPads, what else?

Photo courtesy: Jonathan Mak

Upon the release of the news, a visual tribute with the classic Apple logo and Steve Jobs’ silhouette in the apple bite. It had a simple, short caption, saying ‘Thanks, Steve’. It was designed by a 19 year old Hong Kong based artist Jonathan Mak. It quickly went viral, spreading across the whole blogosphere.

Things You Didn’t Know About Steve

Steve Jobs is almost like an open book to us. He created the coolest company, Apple. He is also a major stockholder for Pixar. He brought to us the generation’s gamechangers, such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Despite Jobs being a public figure, he has some well-kept secrets. Here are some things you may not know about Steve Jobs:

On the Company’s Name Apple

The story of how Jobs’ and Wozniak’s company became known as Apple is actually a funny one. Steve Jobs was three months late to filing its trademark, so Steve Jobs threatened his colleagues that if they couldn’t come up with a better name by the end of the day he’d have to go for his favorite fruit, Apple. He did, and the rest is history.

His Annual Salary as Apple’s CEO is…

Jobs has an outrageously low salary of only $1 a year since 1997, the year when he became Apple’s CEO. Jobs once said ‘I get 50 cents a year for showing up, and the other 50 cents based on my performance.’

The meager income seems unnecessary because of his 5.5 million shares of Apple, which are now worth more than Apple and Intel combined–at $388 billion and showing no sign of slowing down. He also sold his shares of Pixar that’s now worth $7 billion.

Steve Jobs being Fired from his own Company

Steve Jobs, founded Apple with Steve Wozniak when he was 21. He became a millionaire by 23, and was fired from his own company by 30.

He hired Pepsi-Cola executive John Sculley to help the then troubled company. Soon after it was found that John Sculley and Steve jobs didn’t get along, and the two great minds clashed. Sculley had trouble with increasing the low Macintosh sales and the creative chaos Steve Jobs had unleashed. Sculley decided Jobs had to go, the board sided with him, and he was out.

It’s devastating to be fired–and tenfold when you’re fired from the company you created and built. It was a humiliating public defeat, but Jobs was adamant all throughout the rough years and returned stronger and wiser from the experience.

On How He Lied to Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak

Image from Gizmodo

This happened back in the day, when Steve Jobs worked for Atari as a programmer. He was appointed to create a game called ‘Breakout’, with the agreement of $700 and additional $100 for every chip eliminated in the machine. He promised Atari to submit the design within four days. Jobs has little interest or knowledge in it, so he recruited Wozniak and agreed to split the money 50-50. The deadline was met for Wozniak didn’t sleep for four days straight. Wozniak reduced the chips by 50, and Atari gave them US $5,000. Jobs however lied to Wozniak and gave him only $350, half of $700 (instead of the real bonus $5,000).

On Steve Jobs’ Trademark Fashion

Image from FastCompany

The trademark of the great Steve Jobs is his everyday uniform: the black turtleneck, Levis 501 denim jeans and New Balance sneakers. In fact, Jobs revealed that he has over a hundred of them. But not many people know the back story of it. Isaacson’s biography of Jobs ‘Steve Jobs’ reveals:

On a trip to Japan in the early 1980s, Jobs asked Sony’s chairman Akio Morita why everyone in the company’s factories wore uniforms. He told Jobs that after the war, no one had any clothes, and companies like Sony had to give their workers something to wear each day. Over the years, the uniforms developed their own signatures styles, especially at companies such as Sony, and it became a way of bonding workers to the company. “I decided that I wanted that type of bonding for Apple,” Jobs recalled.

Sony, with its appreciation for style, had gotten the famous designer Issey Miyake to create its uniform. It was a jacket made of rip-stop nylon with sleeves that could unzip to make it a vest. So Jobs called Issey Miyake and asked him to design a vest for Apple, Jobs recalled, “I came back with some samples and told everyone it would great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea.”

In the process, however, he became friends with Miyake and would visit him regularly. He also came to like the idea of having a uniform for himself, both because of its daily convenience (the rationale he claimed) and its ability to convey a signature style. “So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.” Jobs noticed my surprise when he told this story, so he showed them stacked up in the closet. “That’s what I wear,” he said. “I have enough to last for the rest of my life.” (excerpt from Isaacson’s ‘Steve Jobs, quote courtesy of Gawker.)

His Future Plans for Apple

One of Steve Jobs’ last presentations was the unveiling of his future plans for the new and state-of-the-art Apple headquarters. The new HQ will sit on 150 acres close to Pruneridge Avenue and Wolfe Road. There is no single straight piece of glass in the building, noted Jobs.

Image from Yahoo News

Parking will go underground, and Jobs plans to increase the 3,700 trees to double. He also wants to add apricot orchards, a nod to his neighborhood when growing up. Structure will be fueled by natural gas. Construction will commence in 2012 and open by 2015. The structure looks spectacular, like a picture out of science fiction novels. It’s sad that Steve Jobs did not live long enough to see his dream become reality.

Inspiring Words from Steve Jobs

•  “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Image from Digital Media Academy

• “That’s been one of my mantras: focus & simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
  – BusinessWeek interview, May 1998

Image from Addwater Agency

• “Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works.”

• “Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” - Stanford Commencement Speech, June 2005

• “But Apple really beats to a different drummer. I used to say that Apple should be the Sony of this business, but in reality, I think Apple should be the Apple of this business. “

• “I want to put a ding in the universe.”

• “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.” - Stanford Commencement Speech, June 2005
  
  

Other Inspiring Tributes to the Late Steve Jobs

 Aside from Jonathan Mak’s inspiring tribute, many fans have produced wonderful artworks from all over the world. This is a great testament to how Jobs inspired millions of people to be creative, to think differently. Here are a few creative tribute from various fans with the same voice: ‘Thanks, Steve!’

Steve Jobs and Apple’s DNA by Charis Tsevis

Illustration by Charis Tsevis (Tsevis Visual Design)

Illustration by Charis Tsevis (Tsevis Visual Design)

Steve Jobs Tribute by Federico Mauco

Tribute to Steve Jobs by Federico Mauco

Steve Jobs by Bryant Arnold

by Bryant Arnold

Steve Jobs Iotacon by Andy Rash

by Andy Rash

Steve Jobs 1955-2011 by Simona Marino

RIP Steve Jobs by CandyExplosives

Steve Jobs Portrait by Genis Carreras

Special Thanks to Steve Jobs! by MENGAD

Steve Jobs: 1955-2011 by Kristian Hay

Steve Jobs by seyhanargun

Steve Jobs in Pop Art by setobuje

Steve Jobs Tribute by Materialize 127

Steve Jobs by ThatCrookedMind

Thankfully, there are plenty of Mac apps out there to keep you in check. Here are our top 20–to do lists, documents, spreadsheets, task management and other productive office applications. The Macbook is a great innovation (thanks to Apple and the late Steve Jobs, bless him). Many of these applications aren’t free though, but we know that good things are never free these days although these apps are worth more than what you pay for.

1. Apple iWork

This is the first Mac App (or Apps, for that matter) you should purchase. It’s the Mac version of Microsoft Office, albeit cheaper and more ‘Mac’ compatible. iWork includes the following apps:

• Pages – a text editor with rich word processing and page layout features. The app has hundreds of templates to create newsletters, stationery, invitations and resume. A helpful tool for both students, teachers, professionals and everyone in between. Export files into doc, pdf, and ePub files.
• Numbers – a spreadsheet app that can organize numerical date to tables, charts and graphs. It can perform various calculations with mathematical formula
• Keynote – an application to create and play professinal presentations. It has plenty of beautiful and professional templates, transitions and effects to choose from. Best of all, it supports many file formats, and can be exported to Powerpoint, Quicktime (iPod, iPad and iPhone), HTML and PDF. It can be opened directly to iTunes, iWeb, iDVD and YouTube.

Price: US $79.99 (or $27 each for Pages, Numbers and Keynote when bought separately)

2.PDF Pen

Probably one of my most favorite apps in the list. I’m a frequent user and reader of PDF files, so the PDF Pen is a great tool when reviewing and taking notes for PDF text. Make corrections, edit scanned documents, erase information and so much more. You can even scribble your singature on a PDF contract via the PDF pen.

Price: $59.95

3. 1Password

Have you ever forgotten a password? Now you’ll never have to again. 1Password is a password manager, that’s both secure and convenient. It provides maximum anti-phishing protection via a web form filling and automatic strong password generation. Keep all your confidential information of your online accounts, credit cards, ATM cards and other identities.

1Password is the best password manager out there–take our word for it. 1Password is available for your Mac, iPhone, iPad and even your PC and Android phone.

Price: $49.99

4. Paperless

In today’s highly digital world, everyone is going Paperless. Today’s generation rely on digital documents, because it is faster, more efficient and more economical. You need an app of the same name to manage your digital documents. Paperless is a great productivity app, and it’s good for the environment too. It’s a win-win situation here.

The iPad was initially met with much skepticism and mocking, but now there is no doubt that this is one of the best, most ingenius gadgets of the 21st century. It’s handy and lightweight, thus it’s so easy to carry around anywhere. This makes us, as designers, more efficient and maybe more creative with our work.

But there are literally thousands of apps available in the Apple Store–how do you separate the treasures from the garbage? Or the ‘needs’ from the ‘wants’? It’s hard to choose applications because the options are many–perhaps too many. Thus, we make things easier for you by coming up with this list, or the top iPad applications for designers and creatives. Here they are:

1. A Digital Drawing Pad

A digital Drawing Pad allows you to draw with your iPad when you need to illustrate something and you don’t have pen and paper on hand. It’s a faster method of drawing, and best of all you can erase them in a click or tap, so you’re saving paper and ink at the same time.

Designers aren’t the only ones who can benefit from a digital drawing pad application. They are great for presentations, design studies, product concept designs, illustrations, storyboards, and more. A digital sketchbook iPad app is a must-have for architects, digital artists, interior designers, students, professionals and entrepreneurs. There are plenty of sketchbook apps for designers to use, such as:

• Adobe Ideas - $5.99

• Sketchbook Pro – $4.99

• Artist’s Touch - $4.99

A great application for painters, artists, or even just for people that are feeling artistic. You can create different effects and rendering from various art mediums such as pencil, oil, watercolor, pastel and more.

2. Quick Sketchpad

Sometimes, you don’t need a heavy application with plenty of features to perform a task. If you need a light and fast app just to illustrate diagrams, a quick map sketch, or fast note taking, there are iPad apps that can do that for you.

• Penultimate – $0.99

• Jot! - Free

• Sketchpad - $0.99

Another lite app that’s designed to create quick notes and fun doodles during class. To create a new page, just tap the page curl on the bottom right corner and it will change papers.

5. Vector Drawing Tool

Vector based illustrations and technical drawings are sometimes needed or preferred over rasterized drawings. Because vector images are mathematically defined rather than pixel-defined, they can be scaled down or enlarged no matter what the size without any loss of quality. Here are some apps for vector drawing capabilities perfect for beginners and pros alike.

• iDraw - $8.99

iDraw has had plenty of rave reviews, often said to be among the best vector-based drawing pads for the iPad. iDraw has all the tools to create technical illustrations and drawings.

• Freeform – $9.99

6. Font Tools

• iFontMaker - $6.99

7. Website Tools

Be updated with your latest stats whenever, wherever you are. There are many different stat updaters for your various accounts: your blogs, social networking sites, Google ads, Youtube videos, just to name a few.

• Ego - $2.99

Ego is a web stats application-in-one that can support Google Analytics, Squarespace, Twitter, Tumblr, Vimeo, FeedBurner and Ember.

• Analytics HD – $6.99

An awesome iPad app for Google Analytics, giving reports of their web traffic, referring URLs and multiple metrics. The app can handle multiple accounts.

This article is here to help you and presents 45+ of the most useful, efficient and awesome apps to keep you on top of the edge every time you use your iPhone – be as productive as possible wherever you go. The apps collected in this article range from advanced bookmarking services to simple photo effect tools. These fantastic apps will help you increase your productivity greatly and get the best from your iPhone. You might ask if you can afford all that? Don’t worry, most of these apps are actually free or at a ridiculously low price for the value you get.

Organizing

These apps will help you to organize your notes, photos, bookmarks and synchronize them across your computer and other compatible devices. The USB flash era is over – DropBox is the new ultimate service for transferring files quickly and efficiently.

1. Evernote (free)

Evernote for iPhone lets you create notes, snap photos, and record voice memos that you can then access any time from your iPhone, computer, or the web.

2. ZooTool ($1.99)

Zootool for iPhone makes it easy to bookmark, organize and share your favorite images, videos, documents and links from all over the web.

3. Dropbox (free)

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. After you install Dropbox on your computer, any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, your iPhone and iPad and even the Dropbox website! With the Dropbox app, you can take everything that matters to you on the go.

4. inClass (free)

inClass, the amazing student organizer, is here to help you survive school. No matter how complex your school schedule is inClass will help you keep track of all your courses and even alert you before class so that you are never late again. Not only that, but it will help you keep track of your tasks by reminding you that one is due soon, so no more procrastination.

Business

Take your business with you in your phone. These apps will help you track, manage and take care of your finances and business.

1. Mint (free)

Personal finance tools from Mint. Track, budget and manage your money on-the-go. Sign up for a Mint account, add your online banking accounts and access your personal finances — all from your iPhone. Get started for free.

2. Billings Touch (free)

Billings Touch takes the Apple Design Award winning time tracking and invoicing experience from the Mac and puts it in your pocket.

3. Outpost 2 ($19.99)

If you use Basecamp, you use it because you want to be productive. You use it because you want a simple solution to what once was a big problem for you. Now, you can use Basecamp on your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad just as you’ve always wanted to.

4. MiniBooks for FreshBooks ($14.99)

MiniBooks puts the popular web invoicing software FreshBooks in the palm of your hand. Manage your clients, send invoices, run timers, and record payments, all while on the go. Plus, MiniBooks fully synchronizes with your FreshBooks account, so you have access to your account even when you’re off the grid. All this for less than FreshBooks’ monthly subscription fee.

5. Scanner Pro ($6.99)

Scanner Pro transforms iPhone into portable scanner in your pocket. It lets you scan multipage documents, email them and even upload to Dropbox, MobileMe iDisk or any other WebDAV enabled server. Evernote integration is there too.

Task Management

To-do lists, RSS readers, project management, brainstorming – keep track of your everyday life in your pocket. These amazing apps will help to get things done right.

1. 42tasks (free)

42tasks is a tasks management and collaboration app, with cloud synchronization. The 42tasks app will boost your productivity. You can organize your to-do lists and tasks, assign them to other people, share projects and view custom reports.

2. Remember The Milk (free)

Take your to-do list anywhere with this feature-packed app; never forget the milk (or anything else) again. Remember The Milk (RTM) for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad connects with the popular online service of the same name. With millions of users worldwide, Remember The Milk is everywhere you are: from mobile to the web to apps including Outlook, iCal, Gmail, Google Calendar, Twitter, and more. Learn more at www.rememberthemilk.com

3. Springpad (free)

Springpad is a free application that lets you quickly and easily save ideas and information you want to remember on the web, on your iPhone and on your iPad.

4. Instapaper ($4.99)

Save web pages for later offline reading, optimized for readability on your iPhone or iPod touch’s screen. Featured by Apple and critically acclaimed by top blogs, newspapers, and magazines.

5. Things ($9.99)

Things is a beautifully focused and amazingly intuitive task manager. Other to-do applications either oversimplify or are too difficult to use. Either way you are not getting stuff done. Things instead has the right balance between ease of use and powerful features.

6. Quickie to Do ($1.99)

Fastest to-do list in the store, perfect for ad-hoc, spur of the moment lists. Simple and efficient, a pleasure to use.

7. LocationMinder ($1.99)

LocationMinder allows you to set reminder alarms that trigger based on location. Even when the app is not running, you will receive the reminders when you reach the area. Designed specifically to work with a new technology in the iPhone 4 for very low power consumption and high accuracy.

8. Wunderlist (free)

Wunderlist makes it downright simple to organize your daily life. Just create a list and start filling it with things that need to be completed. Keep track of your more important tasks with reminders and notifications.

9. Reeder ($2.99)

Google Reader client with dozens of useful features.

10. MobileRSS (free)

MobileRSS is a fully-featured Google Reader client for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. We’ve built a ton of powerful and exclusive features onto an elegant and familiar design platform which makes reading the news fun again. We think you’ll like it! This free version of MobileRSS has ads which can be removed by upgrading to the ad-free MobileRSS

Designer

Are you an author on Envato marketplace or just need quick access to your FTP server? These apps will suit designers, developers and other creatives who just love to paint on their phone.

1. cliqcliq Colors (free)

Colors is an easy-to-use color picker for discovering, converting, and managing colors and palettes.

2. WhatTheFont (free)

Ever seen a great font in a magazine ad, poster, or on the web and wondered what font it is? Whip out your iPhone and snap a photo, and WhatTheFont will identify that font in seconds.

3. Leaflet ($1.99)

Leaflet is an iPhone app designed for Envato marketplace publishers. Keep track of all of your account related information including comments, earnings breakdown, statement list and receive push notifications for both new sales and comments. You can also respond to comments and view individual statement entries all in one beautifully designed interface.

4. FTP On The Go (1,59 €)

An FTP client for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

5. Zen Brush ($2.99)

Zen Brush is an app that allows you to easily enjoy the feeling of using an ink brush to write or to paint. It allows anyone to easily perform fluent strokes while not compromising on the fascinating texture of a real ink brush. Create works that radiate the right atmosphere by choosing the best background template from our large collection.

Photography

Picture can save a thousand words. These apps will help to keep your memorable pictures safe, share them with your friends and enhance them with cool effects right in your phone.

1. Instagram (free)

3.75 Million users love Instagram! It’s a free, fun, and simple way to make and share gorgeous photos on your iPhone.

2. Adobe Photoshop Express (free)

Adobe Photoshop Express software lets you use simple gestures to quickly edit and share photos from your mobile device. Enjoy having your photo and video library right in your hand — without wasting your device’s valuable storage space.

3. Photopod ($0.99)

Take all your photos from Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, Tumblr and Dropbox everywhere you go, on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Find the photos you want to see in seconds, edit and crop them or instantly upload the photos you just took with your iPhone to multiple networks without the need to open a new account.

4. PhotoSync ($1.99)

PhotoSync will transform your photo handling forever. It‘s the first app that makes wireless transfer of your photos/videos from or to your computer and other i-Devices – a breeze. PhotoSync also transfers to Dropbox, Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, SmugMug and FTP. You need never use a cable again.

5. QuickShot with Dropbox ($0.99)

QuickShot simplifies the process of uploading photos to Dropbox. Every picture you take is immediately uploaded without the need for any additional actions. It has all the familiar camera features found in other apps, plus a few not found anywhere else. Queue multiple photos, upload photos in the background, and access all of the standard camera functionality from QuickShot’s simple interface.

6. Camera Plus (free)

Camera Plus is a free camera app for your iPhone 4, 3GS, 3G and iPod touch to capture photos instantly with some great controls, add cool effects and share them with your Facebook, Twitter or Flickr friends on-the-fly!.

Social

Twitter and Facebook aren’t the only social networks out there. Play photo games, write diary, listen to thousands of mixes straight away from your phone.

1. Piictu (free)

Part photo game, part social camera, piictu is a fun + simple way to talk and play with piics from your mobile phone.

2. Momento ($2.99)

Momento is a unique diary/journal writing application which provides a quick and easy way to privately record moments throughout your day. Connect with popular web services, such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, Foursquare, Gowalla, YouTube, Vimeo, Digg and Last.fm, to collect and display your online activity as part of your diary.

3. 8tracks Radio (free)

8tracks is handcrafted internet radio — a “social” alternative to Pandora. Featuring hundreds of thousands of mixes created by people who know and love music, the 8tracks iPhone app gives you easy, free and mobile access to the best collection of playlists on the web.

4. Skype (free)

Call, video call and instant message anyone else on Skype for free with Skype for your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

5. Path (free)

Path is the simple and private way to share life with close friends & family.

6. GroupMe (free)

Free group messaging with anyone you know. Works on any phone.Now works over data—no text plan required.

7. Spout ($0.99)

Introducing Spout, the newest way to enjoy news, messages, tweets and comments; delivered to your screen as a beautifully rendered up-to-the-second display of social content.

8. Bump (free)

Bump makes sharing with people as simple as bumping two phones together. Just pick what you want to send, then hold your phones and gently bump hands with another Bump user. And now, you can message with your friends who aren’t near you – just add them as a friend inside of Bump and start messaging immediately — it’s kind of like a long-distance “virtual bump”.

Other

All the other fantastic apps that doesn’t fit in any other category. Check out Ben the Bodyguard trailer to find out what I’m talking about.

1. Fast ($1.99)

Fast is an innovative writing system that will save you time when typing your sms, mail, or more generally any text. The feature that differentiates Fast from other writing systems is that Fast learns from what you write, and updates itself by drawing from your vocabulary.

2. Ben the Bodyguard (3,99 €)

Ben protects photos, contacts, passwords and other sensitive stuff on your iPhone or iPod touch. He’s your own personal security expert. Peace of mind on the go with a distinct attitude and opinion. Ben’s guarantee — “Your secrets are safe with me.”

3. Gas Cubby ($4.99)

Gas Cubby is the ultimate tool for tracking gas mileage and vehicle maintenance. Whether you’re a hypermiler, or just want a reminder to change the oil, Gas Cubby will save you money and keep your vehicle operating at its peak.

4. blip.me (free)

blip.me is a fun, useful, and free way to turn your mobile phone into a push-to-talk walkie-talkie.

5. Find My iPhone (free)

Find My iPhone is free for anyone with an iPhone 4, iPad, or 4th generation iPod touch (iOS 4.2 or later required).* Just sign in with your Apple ID on your qualifying device and turn on Find My iPhone to allow you to locate it. Then use the same Apple ID to turn on Find My iPhone on your other iOS 4.2 (or later) devices including iPhone 3G, 3GS, or iPod touch (2nd generation or later). Find My iPhone is also included with a MobileMe subscription.

6. Rowmote Pro ($4.99)

Rowmote Pro is the ultimate wireless remote, trackpad, and keyboard. A gorgeous universal app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, with everything from a multitouch trackpad to full extended keyboard support, and with no-configuration control of dozens of the best Mac applications, it is a must-have for any home media center or presentation.

7. Free Full Screen Private Browsing (free)

Finally, you can view all your websites privately and in full screen for free. This is the simple, no frills web browser you’ve been waiting for.

8. Where (free)

Join more than 4 million people who rely on Where everyday to answer the question, ‘Where should I go next?’

9. quiQR ($1.99)

quiQR — Real-time QR code reader and creator

Being a UX Enthusiast working mostly on the web, the web UI terminologies and interactions patterns are obviously a part of my daily work life, where I build user experiences by creating wireframes and interfaces which help the user accomplish a task easily. The various interaction patterns have always fascinated me and have left me wondering how closely a human-computer interaction is being related to some obvious real-time objects that we interact with, in real-time – enter the metaphors in Human-computer interaction.

As humans, we learn new concepts when they are correlated to some existing systems, which we are already accustomed to and this is the base principle followed by HCI experts while giving birth to new interaction patterns and UI elements which help the user to interact with the system much better.

Here is an effort to list some of the UI elements/terminologies which were heavily inspired from real-life objects, to make things simpler for the user.

The ‘Mouse’, and ‘Mother of all Demos’

The Metaphor: Mice
The Concept: Hardware resembling the mice which enables point and click on a computer screen based on x and y coordinates

The starting of the ‘Graphic Interfaces’ era was marked towards 1968 when Douglas Engelbart of Stanford Research Institute, presented a direct manipulation on a computer screen, a standard typewriter keyboard, and a rolling box called ‘Mouse’. The term mouse was obviously coined due to the appearance of the device, which resembles a mouse. This presentation finally became the turning point for the whole generation of computers, and was called ‘The Mother of All Demos’, and paved the way for richer and usable GUI based applications.

The ‘Desktop’ metaphor

The Metaphor: Desktop
The Concept: Desktop refers to the area behind the windows in a GUI using this metaphor

A term which you would not miss using in an average day at work! The ubiquitous ‘Desktop’ metaphor, which was introduced way back in the 1970s at the Palo Alto research center, still persists because of the human tendency to easily recall something when related with a real-time object.

The main reason for this introduction was due to the fact that most of the users of computers at that time didn’t have a computer science background, and they were using the system for accomplishing tasks like producing, distributing and presenting business documents. Hence, the term ‘Desktop’ instantly clicked among the users and was adopted as standard terminology up to now.

Pull-down menus and Dialog Boxes

The Metaphor: Pull-down menu / Dialog box
The Concept: The type of interaction where a list of items will be displayed as if they are pulled down when clicked on a single element. Dialog box refers to a single forced window which communicated a message to the user.

In 1984, Macintosh – The first Graphical UI computer terminal, was released by Apple and two new elements were also born – ‘Pull-down menus’ and ‘Dialog boxes’. Larry Tesler with Bill Atkinson worked together to introduce this really useful interaction to the world.

Pull-down menus/Drop-down menus play an important role in defining the information architecture of high-scale applications with huge amounts of data. This element is literally inspired from the way they interact with the user when clicked on them.  Similarly, ‘Dialog box’ which actually enables a ‘dialog’ between the computer and user, is yet another example of literal inspiration implemented in UI element terminologies.

The Dock

The Metaphor: Dock (a platform built out from the shore into the water and supported by piles; provides access to ships and boats)
The Concept: UI element that typically provides the user with a way of launching, switching between, and monitoring running programs.

By 2000, Apple was back with some out-of-the-box innovations in UI. ‘The Dock’ concept was introduced in the Mac OSX by that time, which was actually an area docked to the bottom of the screen with the launch icons commonly used applications, which helps switching between applications.  The dictionary meaning of ‘Dock’ is ‘a platform built out from the shore into the water and supported by piles; provides access to ships and boats’. This is one of the trademark interactions of a Mac OSX machine still.

Spotlight and Dashboard

The Metaphor: Dashboard of a vehicle, where all the controls are laid out.
The Concept: A section where all the important functions of an app or a system are laid out upfront.

Later on, Mac OSX saw the addition of a couple of more new concepts – ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Dashboard’. Spotlight was the global search spot for the entire OS located at the top right of the Mac OSX screen. It is designed to allow the user to quickly locate a wide variety of items on the computer, including documents, pictures, music, applications and lots more. With the literal meaning ‘spotlight’, this was yet another addition to a UI element which related to a real life object / metaphor.

Dashboard, on the other hand, is an application for Apple’s Mac OS X operating systems, used for hosting mini-applications known as widgets. Inspired from the real world ‘dashboard’ for vehicles, which is the control panel having all the controls and knobs needed to keep the vehicle in control, this term is also now commonly used in applications, where all the main functionalities are grouped in a single page and termed ‘Dashboard’ (a very common example is the WP Dashboard ).

Carousel

The Metaphor: The Carousel machine for children which rotates.
The Concept: UI element where the contents are rotated in a timely basis.

With the usage of jQuery in front-end engineering, this term has become very common in modern day web design. Carousel is a jQuery plugin which facilitates the display of images/blocks in a rotating pattern similar to the large rotating machine with seats for children to ride. This plugin is very widely used to showcase photos and items on a webpage.

Accordion

The Metaphor: The music instrument which is played by compressing and expanding.
The Concept: UI element with compressible and expandable list of items.

Accordion is a vertically stacked list of items (e.g. labels or thumbnails). Each item can be “expanded” or “stretched” to reveal the content associated with that item. There can be zero or more items expanded at a time, depending on the configuration. With the wide adoption of jQuery, Accordion has gathered popularity in web UI. The inspiration comes from the musical instrument ‘Accordion’. It is played by compressing or expanding a bellows whilst pressing buttons or keys, causing valves, called pallets, to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel, called reeds, that vibrate to produce sound inside the body.

Widgets

Wikipedia says Widget is an element of a graphical user interface (GUI) that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or a text box. The defining characteristic of a widget is to provide a single interaction point for the direct manipulation of a given kind of data. The term has a direct relation with the term ‘Gadget’. When used in computer terminology, the term ‘Window gadget’ was gradually converted to ‘Widget’, and once ruled the roost in desktop applications. Still widgets play an important role in many OS’s, and is a popular term in web and desktop apps.

Breadcrumbs

The Metaphor: The trails of pieces of bread.
The Concept: A navigational guide denoting the current hierarchy level in which the user is.

This is an integral part of an application, and plays an important role in the information architecture of the same. This little element keeps the user informed about his current location in terms of the web application. Especially while exploring a huge web site/app, having multiple levels of navigation, the user often gets lost after digging deep into some specific page. With a breadcrumb, the user can easily understand the hierarchy of the page which he/she is browsing and can navigate between levels easily. Now the story of origin of breadcrumb dates back to your nursery school times :D! Yes… Do you remember the ‘Hansel and Gretel’ fairy tale and how they escaped from the wicked witch? The breadcrumb trail that Hansel left for their family to follow is the actual inspiration for our little ‘breadcrumb’ UI element.

Radio Buttons

The Metaphor: The buttons in old-time radios.
The Concept: A UI element used to receive input from user, where the input is a boolean value.

This little button, which stands for a Boolean value has a story of its own to tell. Back in the day, the car radio had toggle buttons, ie., when one of the buttons was pressed, other buttons would pop out, leaving the pressed button the only button in the “pushed in” position. Yet another inspiration!

Progress Bar

Once adoring the flash pre-loaders, the progress bar is everywhere. This component, that conveys the progress of a task, was inspired from something that was created way back in 1896, by Karol Adamiecki, popularized by Henry Gantt around 1910-1915s. The Gantt Chart – used to represent work breakdown structure of a project and dependency relationships between various activities is the primary inspiration for the progress bars which is prevalent all around on computer based UIs.

These are just a few of the numerous relationships that exist in the world of computer based UI, and all these point to the intellect of the human mind, which always pushes the limits and discovers new ways to better our world. Please feel free to share your thoughts on these and suggest other elements which you have come across at any point of time in your career. The domain of UI is expanding with more and more media burgeoning day by day, like the mobile space, virtual reality, gaming and much more, and lets keep our fingers crossed and witness some groundbreaking concepts in days to come.

Read on to see whats coming next in the 2nd iteration of tablet’s world Giant iPad.

Apple's Invite sent to Media outlets (Showing the iPad screen in background)

Some expected updates for new Apple iPad 2 are:

1. The iPad 2 is expected to be slimmer and airier as compared to its predecessor, also with larger speakers and an “improved display”, which will provide better experience in vivid sunlight. But Retina display is not expected as it won’t be economical provided the display screen size but we are not certain of it as there are so much rumors about display of to be announced iPad..

2. It is expected to have both front and back-facing cameras for FaceTime and Photo Both. Not having a front facing camera was a super let down in the original iPad. We are sure Apple wont let iCustomers down this time.

3. Some sources are also expecting iPad 2 to have Verizon support. So there will be a Verizon iPad along with the original AT&T iPad. Three versions of iPad 2 are probable. One will be Wi-Fi only, other will feature Wi-Fi and UMTS, the 3G technology utilized by AT&T and the third model will support Wi-Fi and CDMA, used by Verizon, reported by DigiTimes.

4. DigitalDaily reported that “iPad 2 will likely run on a 1.2GHz, dual-core, ARM Cortex-A9 chip and Imagination’s SGX543 GPU architecture–a big improvement over the SGX535 Apple uses today. And it will have double the RAM–512MB, same as the iPhone 4. ”

An iPad 2 listing has been briefly spotted at Amazon Germany, potentially revealing the technical specifications of Apple’s next-generation tablet via Softpedia

Along with iPad 2, it is believed that new iOS5 will get its preview at the start of the show, which is expected to present new voice navigation features, certainly new map applications and probably Cloud/MobileMe/iWork/iLife integration. And notifications have to be getting updated.

We will be posting news after the event but if you want to see the live stream of show, you can head to Apple’s official website (For Mac and iOS users). In case you don’t have one, you can always stop by Engadget’s live blog here.

Conference will start  at 10 a.m. PT!

1. The MacBook In Black

1.1. Sleek Laptop Mockup

2. Aluminium MacBook Pro OSX

3. HydroPRO -HP- Mac Edition

4. Stainless mac

5. The Mini. Mac Mini

6. Concave Mac Icons

7. Capital Icon Suite

8. Apple mac mini icons

9. Slick Drives

10. Mac mini Icon

11. Mac Pro Psd + Png + Ico

12. Mac Box Icons

13. iMac

14. Apple iMac icons

15. iMac 2008

16. G5 System

17. Float

17.1. Sleek Phone Mockup

18. TiSystem

19. Agua

20. iMac icon

21. New iMac 07

22. Icons 2 by Lecoupdulapin

23. Refresh Snow Leopard

24. Macbook and remote iKons

25. Nimble Folders

26. The Pro. MacBook Pro

27. Slick Drives Remake

28. Apple Mug Icons

29. Black Leopard Icon Set

29.1. Sleek Screen Mockup

30. Onibari Leopard Made

31. PoleStack

32. W R E N

33. Wooden Slick Drives

34. Ive Drives

35. HD StorageBox

36. Platinum Drives

37. Exempli Gratia

38. Lacunae

39. XIII

40. DA ID

41. 27″ iMac Icon OS X

42. The MacBook In White

43. The Anodized Behemoth

44. Carbon Light Folders

45. Mac USB Icons

46. Wireless Mighty Mouse

47. Smoothicons 14

48. eWorld X: eHardware

49. Totem Pole

50. Nano icon set

1. Firefox

Each and every computer user knows about Firefox which is the most used open source web browser having huge amount of extensions and add-ons, there is no need of detailed description for Firefox.

2. Camino.

Camino is another open-source web browser which ensures to provide the best possible browsing experience for Mac OS.

3. OmniWeb

OmniWeb is an other open source browser for Mac OS providing very powerful interface to enhance your browsing experience in as many ways as possible like built-in web shortcuts and unique drag-and-drop tabbed windows.

4. Thunderbird

Thunderbird glorifies your emailing experience with high level of security and privacy.

5. OpenProj

OpenProj is an open source project management solution which can be used in replacement of Microsoft Project.

6. Adium

Adium is specially developed for people who love instant messaging. It supports all major chatting platform including AIM, MSN, Yahoo and Gmail.

7. NeoOffice

NeoOffice is a complete set of office applications mainly including word processing, presentation, drawing and spreadsheet for Mac OS X. It can import, edit and exchange files with other office programs like MS Office.

8. OpenOffice

OpenOffice is an open source office software for Mac OS X offering word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and much more.

9. Disk Inventory X

Disk Inventory X is a disk usage ability which shows the sizes of files and folders in a graphical way.

10 jEdit

jEdit is an open source and extensively used text editor for programmers for Mac OS X, which is written in Java.

11. Celestia

Celestia provides you a great experience of exploring the universe in three dimensions.

12. Stellarium

Stellarium is a free planetarium which shows realistic sky in 3D, exactly same what you see with your eye or any telescope.

13. Jomic

Jomic is an open source application distributed under GPL, which is a strong comic book viewer, stored in PDF, CBZ or CBR. It support various image format like JGP and PNG, it also features two page mode for better reading experience.

14. Stepmania

Stepmania is a rhythm game and dance revolution clone which can be connected to external dance pads.

15. Cocoalicious

Cocoalicious is an excellent open source del.icio.us client for Mac OS X, by using which you can manage your del.icio.us bookmarks from desktop.

16. Plex Media Center

This application reduces the gap between you Home Theater and Mac using a very awesome user interface which links you to your media files. By using Plex you can play diverse audio and video media formats and you can also stream online media.

17. Seashore

Seashore is an open source image editor of Mac OS which features gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for text as well as brushes. It also supports multiple layering and alpha channeling.

18. SMARTReporter

SMARTReporter reports about any hard disk failure before it actually happens. It will use Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology to do so; one warning will be enough for you to think about backing up data right then.

19. RSSOwl

RSSOwl is an easy to use and extremely flexible RSS, RDF and Atom news feed reader for Mac OS X.

20. Pixen

Pixen is an advance graphic editor specially designed to facilitate pixel-artists.

21. FreeWRL/FreeX3D

FreeWRL is an open source VRML/X3D browser which fulfils your OS X 3D graphics needs.

22. Scaletron!

Scaletron is an electronic scaling calculator specially designed for graphic and web designers to calculate enlargements and reductions of artwork.

23. ffmpegX

ffmpegX is an open source and powerful Video Transcoder for Mac OS X, which supports huge number of formats for encoding like DVD, SVCD, VOB and more.

24. OpenSong

OpenSong is an open source application developed to manage lyrics, chords, lead sheets, computer projection of your music.

25. iStumbler

You can use iStumbler on your Mac to discover WiFi routers, Bluetooth devices, Airport networks and more.

26. BibDesk

BibDesk is an open source bibliography manager for Mac, which will keep track of your bibliographic information and the associated files or web links.

27. GnuCash

GnuCash is easy to use and free financial accounting software for your personal or small-business use. It includes all major features which any accounting software should have.

28. SimplyBurns

SimplyBurns is an open source and simple CD / DVD burner for Mac OS X.

29. Juice

Juice is developed for a person who wants to listen online audio programs but cannot, due to, whatever may the reason be. Juice allows you to capture and listen to missed podcasts anytime in future.

30.HandBrake

HandBrake is a multi platform and multi threaded video transcoder specially designed of Mac OS X providing excellent output quality.

31. Inkscape

Inkscape is an awesome replacement of Adobe Illustrator which is a vector graphic editor. Features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones and other important features.

32. Cyberduck

Want to browse FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Cloud Files, Google Docs and Amazon S3? Try Cyberduck which is a splendid open source tool for browsing.

33. Gallery

Gallery is a web-based photo album organizer, helping you to blend photo management smoothly into your own online projects. It is very easy to install and use, it includes resizing, rotating, automatic thumbnails and more.

34. Komodoedit

Komodo Edit is an open source language editor that will help you in writing codes easily. It is a multi-language editor supporting Perl, Python, Tcl, PHP, Ruby and JavaScript. It writes codes faster because of its auto-complete feature, it also provides support for adding third-party libraries.

35. JUnit

JUnit is an extremely useful framework for writing and running automated Java testing.

36. Jext

Jext is an awesome open source code editor written in JAVA. Apart from JAVA, it can edit many other types of source codes for example, source code of XHTML, JSP, PHP, Python Ruby etc.

37. Scintilla

Editing and debugging source codes are basic and fundamental need of any developer, “Scintilla” can help them in doing so. It is a free source code editing application which includes important features like error indicators, syntax styling, code completion and call tips.

38. FullSync

FullSync is n extremely expandable and customizable file synchronization and backup tool, especially made for developers but its basic functionality is very simple which can be used by everyone.

39. Angry IP Scanner

Scanning IP is very crucial for network administrators and other enterprises like banks and government agencies. For this purpose Angry IP Scanner is best choice as it is open-source and cross-platform network scanner specially deigned to scan IP addresses and ports in a very simple and fast way.

40. MUTE

Mute is a peer-to-peer file sharing network that enables us to search and download easily with privacy. It is a fast and native application with no java or python.

41. Apcupsd UPS control software

Apcupsd is software for monitoring power management and controlling most of the APC UPSes. During an event of power failure, this program will inform the user about power failure; hence giving a warning to save important data before system gets shutdown.

42. TV-Browser

TV-Browser is a digital and java-based TV guide which collects daily TV programs from internet and arranges them in a form of a TV guide. It supports a huge amount of skins and plugins, making customization comfortable. Its only purpose is no make TV guides; you cannot watch TV using TV-Browser.

43. MacLibre

MacLibre provides an excellent collection of free software for Mac OS X from categories of Internet, multimedia, Office and other utilities.

44. Moodle

Moodle is an education course management system which can be used by educators to make informative online learning websites.

45. Synergy

Synergy enables you to share a single mouse or keyboard between multiple computers having different operating systems, without any special hardware.

46. Blender

Blender is very handy 3D content creation suite, having all major features required in this kind of software including very sleek interface, awesome animation, UV unwrapping, real-time 3D game creation, Imaging and composing, shading, rendering and modeling.

47. Skim

Skim is a powerful PDF reader and note-taker for OS X, which can be used as an alternative of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

48. AppleJack

AppleJack is an effective troubleshooting assistant for Mac OS X which runs in single user mode and it is very user-friendly and easy to use. With this you can troubleshoot your computer even without GUI.

49. PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is a Linux New Media Award winning and powerful object-relational database system.

50. MAMP

MAMP is an easy to use program which is used to start and stop the servers. It is a powerful completion of Apache, PHP and MySQL for Mac OS X, it is very easy to remove as it do not modify any part of normal Mac OS X.

51. NetBeans

NetBeans is a free and open source program which provides, software developers, an integrated development environment. You will get every needed tool to create website, applications, professional desktop, it also supports C/C++, PHP, JavaScript, Groovy, and Ruby.

52. WineHQ

Windows OS has much bigger library of applications than Mac OS, so if you want to run any Windows applications on your Mac OS X then WineHQ can help you in doing so with ease and flexibility.

In the end we would like to hear your recommendations and suggestions about open-source applications. :)