My Developer Tools and Utilities List (2014 Edition)
I’ve often wanted to do a yearly roundup of the tools and utilities I use; if only as a log of things I use over time. I did this two years ago in 2012 and when I was thinking about getting back to blogging I wanted to update the list. The funny thing is not much has changed. I’m actually surprised that I don’t use that many tools.
Hardware
- Retina MacBook Pro - Still working with my 2012 Retina MacBook Pro with 2.3 GHz i7, 16 GB RAM, and 256gb SSD running OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
- 27" Thunderbolt Display - Still love this monitor. After a lot of time using the MacBook Pro in clamshell mode, I’ve been using it as a second screen. It makes it much easier to disconnect.
- KBC Poker 2 Mechanical Keyboard - Last year I made the switch to using a mechanical keyboard. I love this little thing. Mine has Cherry MX Blue Switches and custom Dvorak keys.
- Apple Magic Mouse - I’ve tried many mice. This is not my favorite, but it allows for some of OS X’s gestures. I think I’m going to attempt switching to tha trackpad this year.
- iPhone 6 and iPad mini Retina - These are quite obvious, but I use them every day for daily use and development.
- Timbuk2 D-Lux Laptop Messenger - I’ve switched to the messenger version of the backpack I used two years ago. I really like this bag but still love the backpack too. I’ll probably switch again in the future.
Software
Developer Tools
- Xcode 6 - I write software for iOS and Mac, this is the tool I use every day. Instruments is another app, but I’ll consider it part of Xcode.
- BBEdit - I switched to using BBEdit. I’ve tried it several times in the past, but was convinced to try it again. Now it’s part of my daily tools.
- Kaleidoscope 2 - Whenever I push new commits to Github, I check them out first in Kaleidoscope first.
- Transmit - Still the best tool for uploading via FTP or to S3.
- Dash - Update: Can’t believe I forgot this! Dash is the best tool for reading documentation. I use it so much it was really easy to forget. It feels like it is a part of the system.
Other Software and Utilities
- Alfred - Even though Spotlight in Yosemite replaces most of what I use Alfred for, I still like using Alfred more.
- Divvy - I still use divvy every day. It’s a great tool and allows me to organize my screen really quickly.
- CloudApp - I’m often sharing links, photos or files with people on the internet. Transmitting these files used to be a huge problem. Now it is easy with CloudApp. I simply hit my keyboard shortcut on a file or URL and it gets uploaded and a short link is created. I have ‘jsh.in’ mapped to it so all my links look like mine.
- Reeder - I have a huge RSS feed of many Mac and iOS development blogs and reeder has fit as my favorite reeder. I actually stopped using it for a little while but then switched back.
- Clock.app - I still keep the clock off my menu bar and use the open source Clock.app.