Must-Have Apps from the Mac App Store

If you’re a Mac user, it’s likely you heard that Apple just released a version of the app store for the Mac Desktop. To make things clear, this store doesn’t let you install iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) apps on your desktop, but instead has created a centralized place to find, download and buy apps for your Mac desktop.

I figured this would be a great time to recommend a few essential apps that have been listed in the Mac App Store. Note: This list is just my (Matt Stauffer’s) list of a few favorites, not any conclusively researched list.

Free

• Twitter: Just like Twitter for iPhone, Twitter for Mac came about when Twitter bought Tweetie and made it more powerful. This new Twitter for Mac client is also smaller and sleeker, feeling more like a widget on the side of your screen than a full-on program.
• Evernote: We’ve written about Evernote before, but now it just got even easier to install thanks to the App Store.
• Alfred: We’ll write a post about Alfred soon, but for now, know this: Alfred is one of the simplest and most powerful app launchers on the Mac. You can use it to launch your apps, find files, control iTunes, and much more.
• Caffeine: Caffeine is a small, free app that simply keeps your screen awake when you’re not interacting with it. There are plenty of uses for this, including using your computer for reading and Bible study, but the primary way I use it is to keep my screen from dimming or going to screen saver when I’m watching online TV.
• Kindle for Mac: You’ve probably heard of Kindle, and you might even have one. But did you know you can also read, buy, and sync books to a desktop application, Kindle for Mac? This app is worth it for the “Popular Free Classics” section of the Kindle store alone.

Paid

• Keynote (and Pages, iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand): For the first time you can buy individual apps from Apple’s iWork and iLife suite. This was perfect for me, since I’ve always wanted Keynote, but never been willing to shell out for the entire iWork suite.
• Aperture (for only $80 instead of $188): If you’re working with photos at a higher-than-beginner level, you’ve probably eyed Apple’s Aperture and Adobe’s Lightroom. With the Mac App Store, the decision just got a lot easier: Aperture, which retails for $188 on Amazon, is only $80 on the App Store.

If you’re a Mac user, what apps would you say are essential “must-haves”?

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