Lewis King.

So I’ve been reading a lot of blogs recently, and Grace Smith has got a new feature on hers called “Show me your Dock!” Where designers show off their Mac’s dock and explain why and what each application icon is. I’m not cool enough to get on her blog, so I decided to create my own, right here.

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Finder: Not going to get to that one, it’s default. It’s obvious.

Mail: I use mail.app for all my email needs. It’s quick, it’s beautiful and it works. As you can see though, I have a lot of unread messages. I must get round to that. Having all the features I need, Mail.app is my favourite program for email by far.

Safari: Beta 4 is a god-send. It’s the best browser on the Mac by far, (I find firefox really slow and incredibly ugly so that’s a no-go) It’s clean, fast and renders sites very well. It’s simplicity means it doesn’t get in the way of your browsing, yet when you want it to, it’s very easy to use.

iChat: I use this only for AIM. It’s again, very quick, beautiful and works. Just like every other piece Apple software I’ve said about already. Video chat is amazing on this, the Chat features are solid, and file sharing is second to none. Yes, I know it’s just relaying a chat-protocol, But I’d want it no other way.

Adium: The best IM client, other than iChat. I use Adium only for MSN for all my old-school friends that don’t know what AIM is. I sometimes sign in to Facebook Chat, if I don’t have their MSN. That’s the resort of all resorts.

Skype: I use skype to host conference calls with clients and important people. I also conduct my podcasts through this piece of software, calling in co-hosts from across the world. The odd prank call is always nice too.

Tweetie: Seeing as I’m a twitter addict, I have to use the best. This is a fully-paid, fully functioning Tweetie build and it’s by far the best client ever on the Mac. The features are stunning, it’s beautiful (Have I said I can’t use ugly software yet?) and stable. Highly recommended.

iTunes: The ubiquitous music playing software is a big hit on my Mac. Almost always open and playing something, downloading podcasts or renting movies, it’s heaven for when I need to kick back to  a bit of CBC Jazz, or dance around my room after good news.

iCal: I use this all the time to keep track of what’s happening in my day, it also syncs with MobileMe, which is another god-send for use with my iPhone when I need quick access to my day’s plans and add to them on the go. No time to plug in, it’s done automatically, over the air.

Things: I use things to keep track of what I do within the day, when to meet deadlines and post updates to blogs, to take down adverts and upload files. It’s really great for keeping you up to date and it’s the only program in my dock to open on launch.

Times: The best RSS reader by far. Times is a stunning, quick and useable RSS reader for people fed up with lists. This makes it look like an actual newspaper and it’s again, very nice. I love Times.

Photoshop: Being a graphic designer this is obvious, photoshop is the best. I’ve been using it since I was about 11, which is pretty young if I don’t say so myself. Do I have to go into more detail? :)

Transmit: A great FTP program that lets me quickly drag and drop files from my local hard-drive to my many online sites. With built in syncing options and more, Transmit truly saves my life day to day.

Time Machine: Talking about saving lives, in pops Time Machine! This quick and easy to find button to the best invention for the Mac ever lets me fly back through history to my files of yesteryear, how they were, where they were with ease. Can’t get any better!

Finally, I’ve got System Preferences. This is pretty obvious, I like to tweak my Mac a lot, and there is no better application for it.

There we go! If you have any interesting dock controversy, please do post it below! It should make a very entertaining read!