What’s On Tera’s Mac: The High End—Part 2.

OK, I’ve discussed what’s on my Mac from all but two angles. 1) the high end (non-Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, Macromedia), and 2) the low end. The low end comes tomorrow.

High end applications? That could use a definition or two. Usually, high end means nearly professional level (or, professional), a strong player in a specific niche, high quality with a solid list of features.

Some non-Apple, non-Microsoft, non-Adobe, and non-Macromedia applications that come to mind (your mileage may vary) include (but are not limited to) the following:

Roxio’s Toast
This should be difficult to argue against. Toast does more in the way of CD and DVD burning than any other application I know. Yes, Mac OS X burns CDs. iDVD and Studio DVD Pro burn DVDs.

Toast does more. CDs, DVDs, VCDs, SVCDs, Data Backups, digital stills to movies, and on and on. Is it a high end application? Yep. Toast with Jam is even better.

BBEdit
If you don’t edit programming or HTML or CSS or any kind of code, BBEdit is waaaaay too high end for you. It’s arguably the best code and text editor on any platform (I see some bloatware creeping in to recent upgrades, though), comes with a tool box that bulges at the edges and continues to work very well, despite a hefty price tag.

Of course, without the hefty price tag, it wouldn’t be a high end application, right? Can’t you use a dozen other applications that do the same things and cost a bunch less? Yes. I use it anyway.

PhotoToMovie
It’s difficult to say much that’s bad about this application. Basically, PTM puts the iMovie Ken Burns Effect on steroids and lets you take a digital still image and convert it to a movie. That means adding motion to something that’s not moving like a digital photo.

The options add soundtracks, Bezier curves, text, and more. Drag and drop a dozen digital photos into PTM, arrange, set the transitions, export as a QuickTime movie, DV movie clip, or whatever. Then import into iMovie, FinalCut Pro or iDVD.

The only thing it’s missing right now is audio scrubbing.

iView Media Pro
If you like iPhoto because it stores your digital photos nice and neat, try the 21 day trial of iView Media (or the Pro version). With iPhoto you get a rapid way to view all your photos, make a few adjustments, export here and there, and import.

Not much else. It’s free, you know.

iViewMedia Pro handles up to 128,000 media files—per catalog, and multiple catalogs are available. Oh, I forgot to mention. This is “media” not just photos. Any kind of graphic file—JPEG, MP3, Movies, PDFs, and much more. You can store your files wherever you like. iVMP simply keeps track of them.

You can batch file rename, import media direct from cameras, drag and drop to applications, burn CDs, DVDs, etc. The built-in viewer lets you view digital photos, view and play movies, MP3s, create playlists.

Does it sound like iPhoto married iTunes, had an affair with iMovie and produced iViewMedia Pro? Hmmm. I thought so.

ColorConsultant Pro
There must be a dozen color wheel applications available for Mac OS X. This is the best. All the color wheel names I can’t pronounce are included, with easy export, too.

While I use iPick for quick color numbers, CCP is what to use when color is important—designing a graphic, a web site, a brochure, a document. Nice.

Finally, VideoCue and IntelliPrompter
I hesitate to put these applications on the list, because they do similar things (teleprompt) but much differently, and there are other “high end” applications still to be mentioned.

For example, if you’ve been reading my reviews you know I like OmniWeb browser better than Safari. For now. But it’s high end, not free. I like ImageCaster for creating web cams. SuperDuper! for backups. StyleMaster for CSS, AlphaButton for graphic buttons.

They’re all great applications with good reviews. Generally, they’re considered “high end” because you pay and there are free versions (or much lower cost versions) available.

What makes VideoCue and IntelliPrompter worthy? First, they’re definitely “high end.” Both have a price tag that’ll make the iLife users wince, gag, and double over in cramps.

If you’ve ever wanted to sing while recording in GarageBand (try it—it’s a private karaoke on your Mac) these are two applications to try. But they do much more and their approach to teleprompting could not be more different.

VideoCue is the most fun because you can add effects to the timeline—audio, photographs, video, character generation (text) which show up as you read your text (or sing). VC can export the whole production so it looks like a news reporter’s report on TV. It’s a very well-done application.

VC varies significantly from IntelliPrompter which only does teleprompting. But every feature you can think of is available. Slow down, speed up, import Word docs, change font size, and much more.

Both are great applications.

There are others worthy of mention, too. Like Watson (which does much of what Sherlock does now), which will not longer be developed.

Those are a few of the high end applications on my Mac. What’s on yours? What high-end, non-Apple/Microsoft or non-Adobe/Macromedia applications do you use? Share your list with other readers. Click on the Comments link below.