Honorable

Apr 27 2009

Best Freeware of 2006

Welcome! Let’s get to it, the year in freeware 2006:

Best on the Web:

The Google Browser: Browser Sync and Toolbar beta

Google grabs top web browser honors – without a browser. With tools to synchronize your data between computers and drag-to-window Word and Excel editing the Web OS is here.

Honorable mention: Firefox 2, Flock 0.7

Freeware Classic:

NeoOffice

OpenOffice.org meets Aqua. We know OpenOffice.org is working on a Mac native version, but for now count on NeoOffice to let OpenOffice.org 2.0 loose from X11.

Honorable mention: Abiword

System Extension:

Quicksilver

This free application has grown from a novelty to a whole new way to use your Mac. QuickSilver has a cult following and powerful time-saving features.

Honorable mention: YASU, rooSwitch lite

Best Plugin:

PodTube

This was the year of YouTube. Get PodTube and get all those dancing ninja clips off YouTube and on your iPod.

Honorable mention: Flip4Mac WMV, Growl

Best Cross-Platform:

Firefox 2

With 2.0 Firefox is fast and more Mac-native that 1.x. Hundreds of cross-platform extensions help Firefox deliver a great experience on both OS X and Windows.

Honorable Mention: YamiPod

Best Mac Switcher:

Skype

Skype introduced a feature-par version for the Mac, including support for video calling.

Honorable Mention: Google Earth

Best Web Service:

activeCollab

This web service is a do-it-yourselfer. The ability to enjoy Bascamp-like project management online for free is indispensable to the creative Mac professional.

Honorable Mention: Writely (now Google Docs), NetVibes

Best Mac-Only:

ImageWell 3

With version 3, ImageWell is only getting better. New features offer a better interface and more editing tools to know out and upload images easily.

Honorable Mention: iSquint, Xcast

Pro App:

Scribus

This Open Source page layout application runs without X11 support and includes powerful document management capabilities.

Honorable Mention: Google SketchUp

Road Warrior:
iStumbler

iStumbler sniffs out WiFi, Bluetooth and Bonjour. You won’t find a free wireless detector with a more refined interface and feature set.

Honorable Mention: Chicken of the VNC, Hotspot Shield

What a year! Here’s to more great free software in 2007. Thanks for reading!

Brian

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Apr 27 2009

Best Freeware of 2007

Free got better this year, here’s how:

Best on the Web: Safari 3 beta/MobileSafari/Safari for Windows beta

Its always a slug-fest for king of the browser heap. This year, we went with a browser that has expanded its reach to Windows and into your pocket. in 2007 Safari saw a promising beta (with features like contextual search and spell check), moved to Windows and best of all, debuted on the iPhone. Screenshot shows Safari 3 beta with excellent SafariStand add-on.

safari3bstand Best Freeware of 2007

Honorable mention goes to the fast and streamlined Opera 9.5 beta and the maturing social browser Flock.

Freeware Classic: NCX

In the year of the iPhone, it is only fitting to recognize Apple’s gone-but-not-forgotten handheld, the Newton. Kept alive by an active community, the free utility NCX is the OS X reincarnation of the old Newton desktop sync utility NCU. NCX is evidence of longevity off the Apple community.

NCX Best Freeware of 2007

It is also worth mentioning that past freeware classic winner OpenOffice.org released its first native OS X alpha version this year. So next year is already looking good.

Best App Killed by Apple: Virtue Desktop

No emails, we’re just having fun here. Not quite as bad as Tiger’s Dashboard/Konfabulator ruckus, it is fair to say that the ever-useful Virtue Desktop may have seen its day.

Back to my Mac will probably ding Chicken of the VNC, another great free utility.

Best System Extension: Think

think1 Best Freeware of 2007

This year was big on distraction-free computing. Think is a great screen-dimmer that looks cool and forces distractions into the background.

Honorable mention goes to Google Desktop Search for coming to the Mac (although it is debatable how much we needed it) and RCDefault a great little app for managing file associations.

Best Mac-only: Skitch

I don’t see how any windows user could not drool over this one. Skitch has a great interface, easy to use tools and flexible sharing options.

Honorable mention goes to xPad, a great free text editor and Bean, a free and slick word processor.

Best Technical Performance: MacFUSE

This gem came out of nowhere to add NTFS, WebDAV, SSH and FTP support for mounting remote file systems. MacFusion makes this new feature easy to use. Check it out.

iPhone App: AppSnap’s jailbreakme.com

It could not have been more simple or clever: free your iPhone or iPod touch by simply loading a webpage. Oh, and lets fix a major vulnerability while we’re at it. Genius!

Look for more in this space as 3rd party apps go legit in 2008!

Lifetime Achievement Award: ImageWell

imagewell2 Best Freeware of 2007

We first featured ImageWell in 2003 and it has tacked on features ever since. It was the first and remains among the best quick image editors and has since spawned a whole new category of Mac app.

Another great year! Be sure to check back with us in 2008 for more great Mac and iPhone freeware.

Brian

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