As a software developer, blogger and daily web surfer, I think it would be great if I could share with the rest the tools I frequently used. If you have any of the tools you think is essential but not mentioned, just leave me a comment. I will try it and update it if I find it useful.

Just to let you know, I have 2 computers, one Windows desktop and a Macbook. So I try to pick on the tools that I could have the data synchronized between the 2 machines. Here are some of the tools I used on daily basis.

Blogging

• Microsoft Live Writer (win) – Microsoft has the best blogging tool and it is FREE! If you are running any blogs, you surely will be using it and won’t look back.
• MarsEdit (mac) – After comparing this with other tools on Mac, only development of MarsEdit remain active. Quite a lot other blogging tools died down. But unfortunately this is no where near to Microsoft Live Writer.

Hosting

• HostGator – If you are looking for a web hosting that is affordable, here is the place. Quick and responsive customer service.
• Exabyte – A Malaysia local web hosting, speed is fast if your visitors mostly come from Asia.

Web Surfing

• Google Reader (web) – Recently a lot articles pointing that RSS is dying, but is it really so? I’m totally disagree, at least I know I’m getting over 2,000 web sites updates through Google Reader. Can’t imagine how I can live without it, surfing by clicking the link one-by-one on my bookmarks?
• Google Chrome (mac/win)- Amazing super fast web surfing experience!
• Reeder (mac) – An amazing Mac application that integrates the Google Reader, it buffers well all the data into Macbook.

Taking Notes

• Instapaper (web) – I use it to mark all important notes to be read later or synchronize for web sites among the 2 computers.
• Evernote (mac/win) – To jot down important ideas and notes. It definitely works well for both my computers.

Hardware Devices

• Amazon Kindle – I love reading, nothing can beat reading on a physical device. How to get Kindle ships to Singapore and Malaysia.
• Macbook – So far my best laptop.
• Canon 500D DSLR – Use it for photograph shooting.

Social Network App

• Tweetbot (iOS) – Tweeting on iPhone, this is the best iOS app.
• Hootsuite (web) – I use this for all the scheduling tweets and Facebook status update.

Coding Tools

• Sublime Text (mac/win)- A code editor I discovered recently and immediately I love it! Lightweight code editor works with charm.
• Notepad++ (win) – very useful code editor on Windows.
• TextMate (mac) – Before discover Sublime Text, this is the TextMate I have been using on Mac.
• Vim (mac/linux/win) – A strong tool I used on Terminal, I think that is the only thing that can help me under Terminal.
• SmartGit (mac/linux/win) – I use Git a lot of version control. So this is the most impressive GUI works on all OS.

Graphics Editing

• Photoshop (mac/win) – No need me to say more for this app.
• Lightroom (mac/win) –  This is a must application to process all my photograph. The work flow is completely smooth by processing all my RAW images to later publish online.
• Pixelmator (mac) – I use this on mac because I find it is more than enough to fulfill all my requirement.
• Picasa (mac/win) – It is a quick and fast method to handle my photo and most important is upload to Google Picasa. I have used this after abandoned my Flickr Pro account.
• Irfanview (win) – Useful image viewer and simple processing features works excellent. Too bad I can’t anything similar and yet lightweight on Mac.

Instant Messengers

• Windows Live Messenger (win) – After abandoned ICQ, immediately all my friends join MSN.
• Digsby (win) – A good app that combined all my instant messenger access in one place.
• Trillian (mac/win) – I use this on Mac, so far I find it has more frequent updates than my previously

File Download

• JDownloader (mac/win) – This is an Java app for download those file sharing sites service such as hotfile.com, fileserve.com, filesonic.com and wupload.com. It is frequently updates, so don’t worry the changes of hosting sites.

Time Management

• RescueTime (mac/win) – Getting a weekly report on my time used on computers.
• Google Calendar (web) – The coolest thing is the free SMS alert whenever I couldn’t online. Also use it to synchronize across different platform and including mobile devices.

File Synchronization

• Dropbox (mac/win)- I have 13GB of spaces through refer links. Making files synchronize for my 2 computers.

Mailbox

• Postbox2 (mac/win) – I use this on my Windows desktop.
• Mail.app (mac) – I used Postbox before OS Lion, but after the upgrade, Mail.app seem to gain back the advantage.