Best free Mac programs

Best free Mac programs to download

Top free software for OS X, iPad and iPhone

We've presented the best ones below – they're all really fantastic and, best of all, they're all free.

A number of these applications, while still great as a free version, also have more fully featured pro versions. So if you really enjoy one, you can consider spending the extra money.

Best free Mac media tools

1. Boxee Online

TV channels put a lot of their content online for free, but you usually have to go to their websites to find out what's available. Not with Boxee.

This app lets you browse through episodes of shows from sources such as YouTube, among many others. It also pulls in media from your Mac. The interface can be controlled via the keyboard, an Apple remote or the free Boxee app available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

It's a doddle to navigate, enabling you to quickly find sports, movies, music or photos to enjoy on your computer. For entertainment on your Mac, Boxee is hard to beat.

2. Vuze

BitTorrent clients have received a bad rap over the years for enabling users to download copyrighted material for free. Vuze is no different in this respect. That said, downloading via BitTorrent is not illegal and, should you be accessing legal material, you're fine.

Even better than that, Vuze will act as a media player for most formats and even convert files for playback on your devices, including iPads and games consoles. You can even stream video from Vuze via Wi-Fi to compatible devices such as the Xbox 360, making it more of an ideal media viewing solution than a nuisance to society.

3. Flip4Mac

There's been little love lost between Apple and Microsoft over the years, and the same extends to their media formats. The dreaded .WMV (Windows Media Video) file is the scourge of the Mac OS X operating system and will not run natively in QuickTime.

Fortunately, the free Flip4Mac software will eradicate this headache and, once installed, lets you forget about formats and enjoy the video you are after. The WMV player also allows for Windows Media files to play back in Safari as well to help you enjoy a more complete browsing experience. A must-have install to alleviate format folly.

4. HandBrake

 

Those looking to bring their movie collection into the modern world should certainly consider HandBrake for all their ripping needs. This simple app can grab a movie from DVD and encode it into a variety of formats for playback on your Mac, iPhone or iPad.

Those with the new Apple TV will also be able to create compatible files from their movie discs and add them to iTunes without having to fiddle around with DVD players and tons of cases. The app can even retain the chapter selection features and subtitles of your original disc.

While ripping a DVD to your Mac can take some time (and please respect copyright) if handled right, the outcome makes accessing your entertainment a great deal easier. The latest version of HandBrake introduces a live preview feature that allows you to check the quality of your rip before committing to hours of encoding too. You can also use HandBrake to convert video files into different formats.

5. Spotify

Spotify came from out of nowhere and took the music lovers of Europe by storm. This is streaming music done right. This service is free to those who can handle an advert every three songs or so. It offers a catalogue of more than 10 million songs of all genres, which stream instantly through the Spotify app.

It can also link to your iTunes library so all of your favourite tracks are in one place. You can log in from multiple Macs using your Spotify account, create playlists, share music with friends and more.

One of our favourite features is the innovative collaborative playlist, where your friends can add tracks over the internet for you to listen to. If you wish, you can pay to upgrade Spotify to a premium account, at which point you become ad-free.

And for £9.99 per month you can even have the same service on your iPhone with music stored for offline playback.

6. VLC

VLC is one of those apps you can turn to if QuickTime and other media-playing apps won't work with a media format you want to use. Initially, you might wonder why you'll ever need this app, but if you ever stray beyond the bounds of the iTunes Store and download video from another online source, you're more than likely to encounter a problem – that is, it's not playing properly in iTunes or QuickTime.

Converting the video with HandBrake is always an option, but, to be honest, using VLC is simply quicker. The app can handle DVD playback as well as more obscure formats that crop up from time to time.

Files that are missing pieces or broken can still be played in VLC to the best of its ability and it provides a wealth of codecs to help your Mac handle all kinds of media file formats.

VLC is an application that every Mac user should have installed for when their media won't behave.

Social apps for Mac

7. AddressBookSync

The Address Book app on your Mac is great for organising contacts and syncing them to your iPhone. However, the problem is with so many contacts held, continually adding information and profile pictures can become a time-consuming task.

AddressBookSync is an ingenious tool that connects to your Facebook account to pull in your friends' birthday info as well as images from their accounts into your Mac's Address Book. This is particularly handy for iPhone users with images appearing on screen when a contact is calling.

8. Adium

The chances are you have an account for more than one instant messaging client. With so many available from iChat to Windows Messenger through Google Chat and Yahoo! it's not surprising.

So, do you leave all of these clients open and consuming memory or do you find an all-in-one solution? If you want the latter, Adium is your app.

Compatible with more IM clients than you probably knew existed, Adium combines all your accounts into one easy-to-use solution so you can keep in touch with all your contacts regardless of the service they are using.