The Search For Perfect Software On The Mac.

Most definitely VisualHub by Techspansion:

http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/

This is the best little program for converting video between different formats. Just choose your output format, drop your file in the task list, choose a preset and make some tweaks if desired and start it!

I have used it most recently to convert from a matroska http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matroska container format to a DVD format.

Yes, it is slow since I have a G4, but it most definitely gets the job done!

A good companion to VisualHub is ElGato’s H.264 encoder for iTunes/iPod/AppleTV--it doesn’t slow my computer down since it processes on the USB hardware dongle along with the software.

http://elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/Accessories/Turbo264/product1.en.html

Just my 2 cents worth!

Oooh, one more:
1Password:
I’ll admit it: I used to be a PasswordWallet guy.  I liked the fact that, for a while, they were the only app which seemed to have a way to access data very securely on both my Mac and my Treo.  Nice.  I’ve got waaaaay too many passwords, many of them genuinely sensitive, to be carrying around an unencrypted text file on the Palm, or have to worry about entering the same data in two different places, without the capacity for syncing them.

But 1Password is a revelation - no, strike that - it is a revolution.  In a semi-similar way to EagleFiler, 1Password uses the already-existing, system-wide-accessible Mac keychain, and creates a stellar front end for it.  You can create secure notes right in 1Password, “wallet” items, and the ever-important internet passwords.  “Wallet” items are things like credit cards and bank info, while internet stuff is, well, all the stuff you do on the net which requires a password.

Where the guys at 1Password have really made this a stellar app is in the attention (once again) to user experience and ease of use.  You sign into 1Password once (you can set it to how long you want it to wait before auto-logout for security reasons), and you can then do a host of cool stuff.  The 1Password team created browser-integration functions with custom icons for each browser (mimicking the look of each), which are installed in the main bar at the top (most look like either a lock or a key).  From there, whenever you access a page for which 1Password has a record saved, you can simply click the 1Password icon, and it will auto-fill all the information for you, just like many browsers....only securely, and no information stays stored within the browser itself.  You also have the option to create as many identities as you want (personal, shopping, gaming, angry political haranguing, porn, whatever’s your thing - and however many “things” you have, LOL.) And when you access pages at which you have more than one account - say, yahoo, for example - when you click the 1Password icon, you get a drop-down menu option to fill it with the data from ANY of those identities.  Cool.  If you turn on the “auto-save” feature, it will also automatically ask if you want to save information in a form every time you enter one on your travels through the web.

I don’t want to knock PasswordWallet - I still think they are a great app, in their way.  But the definition here is “perfect,” and 1Password gave me things that not only did PasswordWallet not give me, but I didn’t even know I wanted or needed....until I had them, and now I wonder how I could have lived without.

Best of all, there’s already an iPhone app (which I now use), in the form of a Safari bookmark on the iPhone, which you can sync just like I used to sync PasswordWallet with my Treo...and, with the upcoming iPhone SDK, I’m sure it won’t be long before the guys at Agile Web Solutions (1Password’s parent company) produce a full-fledged iPhone solution, too.  Awesome.

Although I can probably think of others if I set my mind to it, the one which comes immediately to mind is:
Eagle Filer:
Personal organization software is a very crowded field on the Mac (and, come to think of it, on the PC, too, though we Mac enthusiasts tend to be more demanding and persnickety about our apps).  And for a very good reason: not every person thinks the same about organization, nor does every person have the same needs in an organization-software app.  From full-blown CRM to simple address book to integrated email client in the style of the old Netscape Communicator, everyone wants things a bit different.

But when I found EagleFiler, I knew I’d found the organization software for me.  It was obvious from the very start of my “audition” of EagleFiler that designer Michael Tsai had devoted quite a bit of time to thinking about - and creating - a product which provides the people who use it with the greatest degree of flexibility and compatibility possible: in short, a product that he himself would be likely to desire, were he in the market for such a thing.  And that impressed me a great deal.

One of the most prevalent complaints I hear about Yojimbo is that it lacks nested folders.  Well, in Eagle Filer, you get those nested folders, in an interface that’s much like Yojimbo’s in simplicity.  You can make it as nested and complex as DEVONthink, if you want to, or as simple as Yojimbo in terms of file structure.  And it’s a flat-file system, not a database (especially a proprietary one which might come with proprietary encryption and/or special code which would render the files inaccessible at a later date if the app itself wasn’t available for some reason).  In English, this means that all of the files are stored using plain ol’ Mac file structure.  You can open them using the finder, just like any other folder of files anywhere on your Mac.  And inside, you’ll find documents saved in their original format (almost always, there are a few scattered exceptions, such as webarchives, etc.).  Again, this means you can open each of the files themselves in the original application they were created in (or in other apps which can read that format).  You open PDFs in Preview, if you want, or in Adobe Reader.  Or, you can view them right in EagleFiler’s three-pane window. 

The best way to think of it is that EagleFiler can (and does) do a bang-up, nearly-infinitely-customizable organizational front-end for your documents folder (and any others you want to have it manage), the same way that iPhoto provides this organization service for your Pictures folder, or iTunes for your Music folder.  Only, as I said, it’s infinitely more customizable than either of those two apps.  With a not-steep learning curve, EagleFiler allows you to organize your stuff, your way, and then it gets out of your way, not intruding onto your experience.  It’s fan-freaking-tastic.

David, sounds like a great idea, except that Safari doesn’t have a ‘warn when closing multiple pages’ option. It’s built in to Safari 3.x.

Just go to Safari preferences and check ‘warn when closing multiple pages’… couldn’t be easier

Macaroni to automate chron jobs, weekly permissions repair, removal of useless language resources.

http://www.atomicbird.com/macaroni

iGlasses for image enhancement of iSight cameras. $9 and no one using an iSight camera should be without it.

http://www.ecamm.com/mac/iglasses/