A while back, I posted my top 10 favorite applications (in fact, it was my second post on here). Today, I want to share with you guys, my top 10 most used applications. These are the applications I pretty much have running from the minute I turn on my computer, to the minute I turn it off. So, lets take a look at them, shall we? *List is in order of left to right in how they sit in my dock.

1) Mail: I’ve only been using Mail for about 5 or 6 months now. I used to use Google Notifier, which informed me when I got a new e-mail, which I then had to open Safari and log into Gmail to read my message. Having a little icon in my dock, displaying the number of unread messages, is just fantastic. Not only do I not have to open my browser, log into an account, ect, but I can also have multiple e-mail accounts set up with Mail. The reason why I just recently started using it, is because I never understood how to setup a Gmail account with it. I always thought it was just for .mac accounts. Anyway, now that I have it all set up with 3 different account, it makes incoming and outgoing e-mails so much more enjoyable. So, being an e-mail client, I obviously have this open 24/7.

2) Vienna: I use Vienna as my RSS reader. I personally don’t need anything more than being notified when a site I like has published a new post. That’s pretty much all I use Vienna for. I’m subscribed to 42 sites, and I like to know when a site posts something new. Once Growl notifies me about the post, I open up Vienna and just read it off of the application. It saves me time from going to each site one by one. However, I just like that Vienna is free. I personally wouldn’t want to pay for an RSS reader, as I don’t feel it’s really worth it, which is why I pick Vienna as my RSS reader.

3) Safari: We all use an internet browser, and mine is Safari. I’m just used to the interface, and I feel that it runs a little faster than say, Firefox or Camino. Although, ever since Apple launched Safari 3, I’ve been experiencing nothing but problems. I have to restart it at least 4 or 5 times a day, and it just freezes a lot. Despite all of that, I’m still keen on using Safari, thus making it my browser of choice.

4) iTunes: Being a Mac user, I don’t think it should come as any surprise that I use iTunes. I love iTunes. I have over 75GBs worth of entertainment in it, and it’s just such a great way to organize my music, TV shows, movies, podcasts and more! I wouldn’t think about using anything else to do the job.

5) iCal: I use iCal to write in all upcoming days off, all upcoming concerts, when school assignments are due, important events and things of that nature. I love the interface and its simplicity. I find it to be a great organization tool for me, and I pretty much use it multiple times a day.

6) Photoshop CS3: I’m someone who spends a lot of time working in photoshop. I edit my photos in photoshop, I put together my designs in photoshop, I use photoshop to crop and size images for this site, I pretty much use photoshop for any image related task. I always have it open, just incase I need to quickly tweak something in it. I’ve been using it for over 3 years now, so I don’t know how I would be able to use anything else. It does everything I need it to.

7) Adium: Let me start off by saying; Adium blows everything else ever made, out of the water. Adium is an IM client that allows you to log into multiple IM accounts, such as: MSN, AIM, Yahoo, Jabber and much much more. It gives you the ability to customize the UI like you’d never believe. There are endless possibilities to its customization and plugins, making it my choice for chatting.

8) Twitterific: There are a few Twitter applications out there, but the one I like to use most is Twitterific. I like the simple look of it, and I’ve been using it for some time now, so I’m used to the user interface.

9) Last.FM: Being a member of Last.FM, and always listening to music, my Last.FM application stays open 24/7. I use it to scrobble the music I play out of iTunes, as well as discovering new artists.

10) iStat Menus: This little application sit in the menu bar, and lets you see a number of different things going on in your computer. Things like the computers temperature, CPU usage, Memory usage, Fan speeds, Disk space and much more. I personally find it really handy. I like to see what my computer is doing, and what’s hogging my memory.

So, like I said, these are the applications that I always have running. As soon as my computer turns on, I launch these applications, and I don’t close them until I shut my computer down.

What are some of the applications you guys use a lot?

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