Due to the hideous icon of WeatherVane, the app I posted yesterday, I felt compelled to post an app today with a nice, clean icon. After some scavenging, I found an excellent note-taking app called SketchBox. SketchBox is like OS X’s Stickies app, only infinitely better. Each note you make is stored in an iPhoto-esque environment with
your notes in a grid view. But, what makes the notes special is that they can store text, drawings, pictures, and even custom timers. All of these functions make for a great app with an attractive price: $0.

Rating: 5/5. Great app, amazing interface, and especially stunning icon. Perfect across the board.

Developer site:
OMZ-Software.de/SketchBox_Index.html

P.S. The gigantic 512X512 icon is available here. Seriously, look. You won’t be disappointed. It’s so crisp!:
http://FreeMacAppaDay.com/Images/SketchBox.png

WeatherVane is a simplistic tool that can show you your five-day weather forecast when you click an icon (the current temperature in your city) in your menu bar. I can see how it would be useful for people (specifically those who travel a lot), even if I don’t really use it. But in any case, it’s a nice little app with a neat function that can add to your arsenal of menu bar tools.

Rating: 4/5. Could use an update, and a new icon. Functions just fine, though.

Developer site:
SpikeSoft.net/Download.php#WeatherVane

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

Pastor is an old Mac freeware favorite of many.  It’s a very simple password management system, and a place to keep any private information you want. It also has a great password generator, and some other nice little features. It’s essentially like the ultra-popular 1Password, but free, and just a little bit watered-down. Still an awesome app, though.

Rating: 4.5/5. I like the simplicity, but some better integration with other apps would be appreciated.
 
Developer site:
Mehlau.net/Pastor

XTastes is an awesome app that helps you discover new Mac freeware apps.  It’s by the same person who made MacFreeware Update. It has a nice interface that includes a cover flow effect through all the apps in his freeware database. Unfortunately, he speaks French, so all the descriptions are in French. From what I’ve heard though, he’s working on English translations for everything. It also has a gorgeous icon.

Rating: 4/5. Really cool, but needs to be translated for the full effect to sink in.

Developer site: Eagle-Of-Liberty.com/XTastes

Developer app4mac has made a lot of nice nice apps available for free on his website. One of the nicest is RapidoSerial, which is essentially a database for storing all of your serial numbers. It has a great interface, and plenty of features to keep you busy for a while. Very impressive app.

Rating: 5/5. Useful, and looks very nice. app4mac does it again!

Developer site: app4mac.com/Action_Freewares.lasso

So, I just finished making my list of Windows apps (and Mac equivalents). It includes about 50 apps for Mac and Windows, which essentially offer the same features. The new, fancy HTML table is below! Note that these aren’t necessarily the best Mac apps, but they’re free equivalents to Windows apps.

Thanks to PolishOX for all of his help on this.

Sidenote is a clipboard-style app that lets you copy things into an expandable drawer on the the left side for later use. This is great for when you’re using multiple apps and need to copy more than one bit of information between them. It also looks really nice, and has a clean interface.

Rating: 5/5. This app is one of the most useful available.

Developer site: ChatelP.org

Update: Journler has been updated to version 2.6, and the developer is now charging $34.95 for the app. Sigh. Ironically, it was supposed to be a free alternative to MacJournal, which was originally a freeware app too.

Journler is an amazing, extremely advanced journaling app for Mac. It’s strongly based off of MacJournal, another popular journaling app that crossed into the void of shareware a while ago. It looks great and runs fast, and is also laid out cleanly.

Rating: 5/5. Truly amazing.

Developer site: Journler.com

JumpCut is a nice little app that stores text snippets in the menu bar for later access. It’s kind of like a better version of Mac’s clipboard. I use it constantly to store little things I want to use later, and it works great. Try it out for yourself!

Rating: 4.5/5. I’m not a big fan of menu-bar apps, but this one’s still great.

Developer site: JumpCut.SourceForge.net