Handpicked Software

You may not have given much thought to the right side of the Apple menu bar, or maybe you think Dashboard widgets have usurped the humble Menu Extra (menu bar app). But there are still plenty of useful goodies available to fill in all that empty space. How many apps can you fit in your menu bar? Here are 18 of the best free menu bar apps for OS X.

Amua Last.fm player, with detachable song info panel and Growl support, but I wish it allowed you to assign shortcut keys to the Love, Skip, and Ban commands. Note: I’ve experienced occasional crashes, but it’s great when it works. Universal

ABMenu Access your Address Book from the menu bar. Several options let you control the arrangement of contacts, and a floating window displays detailed information. PPC

Alarm Clock Set unlimited repeating or one-time alarms. Wake up to any file or playlist in your iTunes library (or download the sample alarms, which include nature sounds). An “easy wake” option gently increases the volume over time and you can hit snooze using your Apple remote. Universal

Atomic Beef Add items to the Atomic Beef menu by putting them in the Atomic Beef Menu Items Folder, then launch them from the menu. Atomic Beef offers instant image previews and sports a fancy animated atomic icon. Universal

Butler Butler describes itself as “The Original Many-Tricks Pony.” Here are a few of Butler’s tricks: launch applications, open files, manage bookmarks, search the web, control iTunes, and give Spotlight a kick in the pants. Compare with Quicksilver, below. Universal

Camouflage Is your desktop cluttered with icons? Camouflage won’t clean up your desktop, but it will sweep the icons under the rug leaving pure wallpaper. Handy when you need to grab a quick screenshot. Universal

Delibar Delibar won’t let you post to del.ico.us, but it organizes your bookmarks for easy access, displaying recent posts and grouping bookmarks by tags. You can also export a HTML page. Universal

DiskSpy MenuMeters (below) offers a disk activity monitor and much more, but DiskSpy’s icons are more conspicuous and there are several themes to choose from. Universal

GmailStatus Gmail notifier lets you display the number of unread messages, play an alert when new messages are received, and open Gmail with a hotkey. PPC

GimmeSomeTune Another iTunes controller, but GimmeSomeTune is fully customizable and offers a detailed info window, lyrics display, and automatic cover fetching from Amazon. Universal

Google Reader Notifier Displays unread items in your… Google Reader account. Universal

HimmelBar Automatically scans your applications folders (or any other folders you specify) and displays applications and files sorted by folder. Not as sophisticated as Butler or Quicksilver, but sometimes simpler is better. Universal

iSnip iSnip’s Clipboard History remembers multiple clippings and lets you store hundreds of text snippets and paste them from the iSnip menu. Quickly convert clipboard text to a snippet with a shortcut key. PPC

LunaMenu Displays the current phase of the moon. You can also display a floating moon on your desktop, or open a window with more information. Now you’ll know when it’s time to howl. Universal

MenuMeters A longtime favorite, MenuMeters can display any or all of four different meters: system load, disk activity, current memory usage, and network throughput. Universal

MainMenu Run a fistful of maintenance tools and scripts. There are lots of maintenance apps, but MainMenu is the quickest way to toggle invisibles on or off, or force empty the trash. Universal

Quicksilver A Swiss Army Knife of an application launcher, Quicksilver catalogs your applications and frequently used folders and lets you search them adaptively, then perform commands on the results (think Spotlight on steroids). Plug-ins add virtually unlimited functions, like running scripts, dialing phone numbers, and sending instant messages. Is there anything Quicksilver can’t do?

WeatherDock WeatherDock displays more information than the Weather widget (including a 10 day forecast) and saves you a trip to the Dashboard. You can save multiple favorite locations, have WeatherDock speak the weather report (or notify you when the weather changes), and display a floating desktop icon that hides itself when the cursor mouses over it. Universal

Bonus: DejaMenu Not really a menu bar app, DejaMenu puts the application menu in a contextual menu. Instead of having to mouse up to the top of your screen, invoke DejaMenu with a shortcut key (or assign it to the scroll ball on your Mighty Mouse, like I did), and you’ve got your application menus at the tip of your cursor. Universal

Bonus: HotService HotService moves the Services menu to the main menu bar, where you can get to it with one click. PPC

Did I miss one of your favorite menu bar applications? Add it to the comments.