Droplr is a great file-sharing tool that allows you to easily upload any files, images, or notes. It can auto-upload screenshots and give you a short link, or you can highlight any file and press a key-command (defined by the user) to have the file automatically uploaded and the short link copied to your clipboard. File size is limited to a very reasonable 5 megabytes per upload, and a free Droplr account gives you 1GB of storage. Unfortunately, the short links it gives you have an advertisement in the top-right corner, but the ads are very well-designed and unobtrusive. Uploads can be tracked through Droplr’s gorgeous online file browser, which lets you organize your uploads and view them easily. Overall, Droplr is a fantastic file sharing service that I find myself using just about every day.

Rating: 4.5/5. Beautifully designed, fast, and an extremely useful service–requires a Twitter account.

Developer site:
Droplr.com/Hello

AddressBookSync matches your Facebook friends to your OS X Address Book contacts. It then adds profile avatars, birthdays and location info to your contact cards. Obviously, it can’t sync that information if your friends didn’t fill in those fields on their profile. AddressBookSync also allows you to manually match a Facebook friend to a contact that it doesn’t recognize. This is helpful for friends who, for example, only have their last initial and not their full name on their profile.

Rating: 5/5. This app works exactly as advertised. It is the perfect antidote to birthdate forgetfulness, and a great way to add contact photos to your address book.

Developer site:
DanAuclair.com/AddressBookSync

DropLink is a new Mac app that’s in the beta stages currently, but looks very promising. Essentially it’s a droplet that sits in your Dock and lets you upload a file by dragging it to the DropLink icon. Once the upload finishes (indicated by an out-of-the-way progress bar and a Growl notification), the link is copied to your clipboard. It’s simple, yet effective reminder of the usefulness of minimal applications that can make your life that much easier.

Rating: 5/5. Perfect, great Growl integration. I can only hope this will be kept free!

DropLink.me

NatsuLion is a nifty little native Twitter application that I just discovered this weekend. Unlike most of the Adobe AIR-based Twitter apps out there, NatsuLion has a fresh, slick feel that’s sure to make you feel at home. It has all the functions you would want from a Twitter client, including checking your friend timeline, and recognizing @-calls. But NatsuLion does better than that! You can select a user you’re following, and see your conversations between you and them, manage read/unread tweets, create favorites, and even enable Growl notification support. Also, it has a spiffy translucent background in the main window. For those of you guys that are using Twitter, definitely give NatsuLion a try.

Rating: 4.5/5. Feels nice, but it’d be excellent to make it menubar-based (like Twitterrific).

Developer site:
NatsuLion.org

DownloadMonitor is an innovative little app that adds back some of the functionality lost by users of Safari. It can react to conditions of downloaded files on your computer, which is truly something that Apple should have thought of. It’s basically the download manager that wasn’t included with your browser. It has full AppleScript and Automator support, and an awesome little HUD window indicating downloading status. Pretty cool.

Rating: 5/5. Great UI, easy to use, functions well.

Developer site:
pfau-SoftwareDevelopment.de

net4mac is a Mac-exclusive social networking application that’s a lot like Facebook.  There’s just one big difference–it’s a native desktop app based around Apple products. It has a lot of similar features to Facebook, like Groups, Events, a calendar, and a main profile page. One downside is that the network is only available from a Mac system with net4mac already installed, so when traveling, you can’t use it. But, all in all, it’s a pretty fun way to connect with other Mac users around the world. Hopefully it will grow over time.

Rating: 4/5. Great concept, but has a small user base.

Developer site:
net4mac.com

AOL Radio is a nice little app that lets you listen to a ton of genre-listed radio stations online.  There are more than 200 stations to choose from, so you know there’ll be something you like.  Surprisingly, AOL made a really nice user interface for it that looks right at home on your Mac.  It’s nice to get a decent selection of music without having to think about it.  And really, they have everything covered: Sinatra-Style Big band Jazz, Video Game Scores, Klezmer, Baroque, Industrial, and Blues Women, to name a few less-common genres they have stations for. It also has an identically functioning app for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Rating: 5/5. Great interface and ease of use, and an array of awesome stations.

Developer site:
DAOL.AOL.com/Software/Mac

There are two types of people on the internet: people who like Safari, and people who don’t. I personally like Safari because it’s extremely fast, and very simple. Sometimes, though, it would be nice to have some extra features. That’s where Glims comes in. Glims is a Safari addon that adds a ton of functionality and features to the otherwise minimal web browser. Here are some key features that the developer listed on his site:

• Adds thumbnails to Google.com search results
• Adds thumbnails to Yahoo.com search results
• Adds search engines to the default Google search tab
• Adds full-screen browsing capability
• Adds Favicons to tab labels
• Undo “Close Tab” (cmd-z)
• Re-opens last session when Safari starts
• Auto-Closes download window
• Type-ahead support (auto cmd-f)
• Sets the focus on the search field when opening a new window
• Adds Amazon’s information banner on Google.com search results
• Adds Amazon’s information banner on Yahoo.com search results
• Adds a “Max Window Size” menu item to resize the Safari window
• Forms autocomplete always on
• Dated download folders
• Localized to Japanese, French, Greek, and German

Overall, this app is definitely a must-have for anyone who uses Safari.

Rating: 5/5. Works perfectly, and the features are awesome.

Developer site:
MacHangout.com

Wikipedia is one of the best sites on the web, because of its endless amount of information.  But, since there’s so much, it’s easy to get lost. That’s where Pathway comes in. Pathway is an all-in-one browser and tracker app for Wikipedia. On the bottom, you have a standard view of Wikipedia. Above that, there’s a map with the active Wikipedia page in the middle, with a web of related topics branching off. When you click a link in Wikipedia, Pathway automatically creates a path to that page for you in the map, so you can see where you’ve been, and how you got there. With this knowledge you can find things on Wikipedia with ease. Pathway can also save maps as documents for later viewing, which is a nice addition.

Rating: 5/5. Nice interface, excellent functionality. Very useful when researching something to see what it links to.

Developer site:
Pathway.Screenager.be

AcqLite is a P2P (peer to peer) app for Mac that used to be extremely popular, since it’s a nicer alternative to the notoriously bloated LimeWire. But, unfortunately it appeared as if the developer stopped updating it after the 0.2.9 release in July of 2007. But, just yesterday, the developer released version 0.3, which has vast improvements over the old versions. This one is Leopard-compatible, and is significantly faster than any P2P app out there right now. Its features are comparable to Acquisition, another nice Mac P2P app, only AcqLite is free (hence the name). If you do any P2P file sharing at all, and need a nice, free client, AcqLite is a must-have for you.

Rating: 5/5. Clean interface, easy to use, and fast.

Developer site:
AcqLite.SourceForge.net