Everyone and their dog has weighed in on the death of Steve Jobs. Will that stop me from throwing my hat into the proverbial ring? Hell no. I’ll try to keep it brief, though.

As a teenager in the mid-to-late 1990s, I was an ardent PC guy, while my best friend at the time was hardcore Mac. I never understood his fascination with this little niche market of computers that didn’t have a lot of games software and didn’t seem to be all that different from windows machines, save for the lack of a command prompt (I was ignorant of the terminal at that point).

Fast forward twelve years or so, and you’d see me purchasing my first Mac – a mid-2009 MacBook Pro, second hand (from a guy who works for Microsoft, no less). This came after two years in college, where most of the labs, recording studios and video edit suites ran Macs. The power and simplicity drew me in and when it was time for a new laptop there was only one clear choice.

Since then, the elements of my Apple ecosystem have grown significantly.

And I can say with certainty that every one of these things is the best product in each category that I’ve owned.

So long, Steve, and thanks for all the fish great technology.

Apple’s been spending a lot of time in the past couple years making innovations in iOS. The iPhone, iPod touch and iPad’s technology has changed the way we interact with devices and now Apple is bringing those innovations back into Mac OS X with Lion, which will be available this summer.

Last time I wrote, I talked about the onset of some really nice desktop apps that have taken over web-based services. One of them was Sparrow, which has since come out of beta and is available in the Mac App Store. At the moment, I think Sparrow is definitely worth the ten bucks, but after seeing Apple’s preview of OSX Lion and the changes they’re making to the native Mail application, I have a feeling Sparrow’s days are numbered.

Sparrow Mail Client for Mac

Mail 5 for Mac takes the layout from its iPad counterpart and, in doing so, cleans up the mail viewing process, much in the same way Sparrow does. Actually, pretty much exactly the same way Sparrow does. This is going to be a problem for Sparrow’s developers, considering that its main selling point was its simplified layout and the great number of features its program lacks in comparison to Apple Mail.

Apple Mail 5 for Mac

So I ask you all: does Lion’s new Apple Mail make Sparrow obsolete? What do you think you’re going to use for email in Lion?

As a new Mac owner, I had a lot of catching up to do when it comes to figuring out what applications will best suit my needs. Some are easy to figure out – the Adobe Creative Suite CS4 Master Collection, Microsoft Office 2008 Mac, iLife ’09 and iWork 09 were early acquisitions.

But then it came down to the nitty gritty. The little daily-use apps that help workflow, help me remember things, and generally get stuff done. So I turned to my friend Mike Tighe, a web developer in Calgary who I met when we were both working at Critical Mass. He’s a wealth of information and he didn’t disappoint when I asked him what applications I should download for my shiny new Mac. So without further ado, I give you Mike’s list of the best, the brightest, the all-time must-have Mac apps.

• 1Password for storing login information and autofilling forms on the web.
• Adium for MSN, Google Talk, AIM and Facebook Chat
• AppZapper for uninstalling programs
• Coda for web development – coding, text editor + file transfer + svn + css + terminal + books + more = whoah.
• Evernote for note taking
• Google Chrome for fast browsing
• Jing for screencasts and screen grabs
• OmniGraffle for diagrams / information architecture
• OmniOutliner for notes
• OmniFocus for time management
• Silverback for UX testing
• Versions for SVN
• Twhirl for Twitter (Mike likes Twhirl, my suggestion is Tweetie)
• Transmit for FTP
• VLC for video

I have to say that I’ve not tried all of these apps just yet but the ones I have started using have been really useful. Below, I’ve added a few of my own favourite apps that weren’t in Mike’s list.

• Skype for cheap long distance / video chat
• Growl for notifications + GrowlTunes for iTunes notifications
• Chromatic Tuner for tuning guitars + other instruments
• Logic Studio for music production
• Final Cut Studio for video editing
• Handbrake for DVD ripping
• Toast for CD/DVD burning
• Picasa for photo organizing (if you don’t like iPhoto)
• Parallels Desktop for running Windows apps

I couldn’t imagine really needing much more software than that … but if you guys can think of anything essential that I’m missing here, by all means, comment away. And by the way, thanks Mike!

My sister just got the iPhone, which I have had (and been in love with) for quite some time. Anyway, she asked me for a list of apps that I use, to get her started. I decided it might be good to share this with everyone, and maybe you can comment back with some that you love and can’t live without.

Apps I Use Every Day

Facebook
Tweetie 2 (twitter app)
Google Mobile (has voice-activated searching)
Evernote (for keeping track of ideas)
Remember the Milk (for tasks)
Remote (to remote-control your computer’s iTunes library)
CameraBag (neat photo taking app with filters)

Apps I Use Rather Frequently

Flixster Movies
Air Canada
Bump (contact sharing app for iPhones)
Urbanspoon (restaurant suggestion app)
Epicurious (recipes)
LinkedIn (social network for business)
eBuddy (multi-platform instant messaging app – MSN/Google Talk)
Photoshop mobile (photo editing app)
Shazam (recognizes music and tells you what it is – from the commercials)

Other Fun Things

PocketGuitar
Ocarina (flute application – blow into the microphone and press on the buttons to make sounds)
Boxcar (push notifications for twitter)
Kijiji
NESynth
Rogers My Account
FS5 Hockey – air hockey game
Tetris
Shrek Kart (like mario kart)

That’s about all for now. have fun! You might also consider jailbreaking your phone to allow it to install apps not sanctioned by Apple. These are things like MyWi (which turns your phone into a wireless network hub, so you can access your phone’s internet connection from any laptop, anywhere), a flashlight application, et cetera. There are myriad customizations you can do to your phone with an app called Winterboard, but be wary. It may slow down the phone’s performance.