Day One is an incredibly beautiful journaling app for iOS and OS X. Featuring painless Dropbox-powered syncing between clients and an extremely straightforward interface, Day One makes it easy to journal wherever it’s convenient for you.

The Mac client includes a quick journaling feature accessible from the menubar, as well as inspirational messages (which are surprisingly nice), global hotkey support, and a powerful and fast search implementation. It can also remind you to write throughout the day with a configurable notice in the menubar.

The iOS client is a bit simpler, but includes some unique features of its own: PIN protection, pull-to-sync, and even TextExpander support. It’s also Universal, so users with an iPad can enjoy an excellent native version as well.

Developer Bloom Built is dedicated to improving Day One, and more features are on the way for both the OS X and iOS clients. Upcoming additions include password protection, journal exporting, categories, Markdown and other formatting support, a calendar view, a full screen writing mode, and more (via the Day One app website).

Verdict:
Day One is a gorgeous journaling app that eliminates the hassle of syncing and allows you to focus on your writing. I’d highly recommend it to anyone who already journals, or is looking to start.

Day One – $9.99 for Mac OS X, $1.99 for iOS (Universal)

Flux is an ingenious app that automatically adjusts the while balance (coldness or warmth) of your Mac’s screen based on the time of day. In other words, your screen becomes slightly more yellow as it gets darker outside. The white balance settings are adjustable, and if you choose the slower of the two transition settings, you won’t even notice the change from day to night. However, as soon as you disable Flux, you’ll immediately notice the harsh blue screen cast. Flux also makes it easier to transition for working on a screen to sleeping, as the color becomes less harsh over time. I’m not sure how I lived without it.

Flux – Free

A collection of features, an abundance of information, and a complicated interface are all things that weren’t in developer Robocat’s mind when Thermo was being created. Instead, they created a gorgeous design and a minimalistic displaying of the current weather (even the word “weather” is an exaggeration here). The thermometer’s “mercury” changes color according to the temperature displayed, which offers a quick check at just a glance. Thermo seems to be made for seeing whether or not you should wear a sweater or just a t-shirt.

Thermo’s virtual thermometer displays the previous day’s temperature, the current temperature, and what it actually feels like, taking into account the wind chill. It’s a great alternative to some of the more overcomplicated displays of weather currently offered, including Robocat’s more advanced yet still attractive weather app, Outside.

Thermo is free, but there’s a slightly obtrusive iAd at the bottom with an “x” that, when clicked, prompts you to pay $0.99 in-app to remove ads. The thermometer isn’t obstructed, but the bottom of the interface is cut off, which may convince users to upgrade.

Verdict:
It’s hard to recommend an app like this to just anyone when it really depends on your needs and your taste. But if you’re looking for a simple, beautiful alternative to Apple’s traditional weather app, then Thermo is without a doubt the most viable option.

Thermo – Free, $0.99 upgrade for ad-free version

Byword is a modern, minimalist writing app for Mac. In essence, it’s a basic text editor, but several key features set it apart. Byword includes five default typography settings, all of which have been carefully designed to make for clean, legible documents. One of the smoothest parts of Byword is that as you begin to type, the interface controls gradually fade away. That said, the only controls displayed by default are a scrollbar, a full-screen toggle, and a find and replace tool. One of the most ingenious innovations in Byword is that instead of populating the writing space with buttons, all of the formatting controls are contained in a popover menu. This small control, inspired by a similar element in iOS, allows you to change the selected text’s size and alignment, or make it bold, italic, or underlined. The popover can also create a bulleted list, or highlight portions of the text in yellow.

Another excellent feature of Byword is “focus mode,” which highlights only the lines near the cursor. You can set the number of lines to focus on with keyboard shortcuts, or set it to highlight the current paragraph. All other lines fade away almost entirely, allowing you to focus on a single portion of text at a time. This feature is surprisingly helpful in combating writer’s block.

Byword can be run in a windowed or full-screen mode. It’s loaded with simple keyboard shortcuts, and includes support for printing and exporting to PDF format. Weighing in at just 688kb, the app itself is fast and lightweight. The development team is currently working on a word count feature and a dark background setting, and more functionality is still to come. However, it’s really the selective incorporation of features that makes Byword special, and even in a 1.0 release, an impressive balance of function and form has been achieved.

Verdict:
Byword is a fantastic writing app with extraordinary polish. The included features have been meticulously chosen, and are all easily accessible without impeding your writing experience. Byword is a great choice for the casual writer who’s more interested in writing than messing with document formatting and settings.

Byword – $4.99 on the Mac App Store

Flare is a brand new photo post-processing tool from the geniuses over at The Iconfactory. Flare has a variety of presets that can transform the look of your photos with a single click. The presets are very high quality, and if you’re not satisfied with the selection, the Iconfactory has also made additional presets available for download at flareapp.com/presets. Flare also allows you to crop and rotate your image before or after applying presets. For photographers looking for a greater deal of control over the editing process, Flare includes a fantastic editing panel with loads of user-editable effects. Each effect is categorized into one of three groups: Color Effects, Lens Effects, or Creative Effects. These effects can be applied in many different ways: you can change the opacity, blending mode, and blending mask of each adjustment layer, and add borders or frames to your photos.

Importing a photo into Flare is as easy as dragging it right into the icon. Photos can even be dragged directly in from Photoshop, Aperture, or other editing programs. One of Flare’s best features is the ability to undo infinitely. Many photo editing programs only save a limited number of history states, but Flare allows you to undo all the way back to the original state if necessary. There’s also a handy switch that toggles between the original or processed photo so you can see your changes. If you’re pleased with your adjustments to a photo and want to apply them yourself, you can save them as new presets, or save a photo as a snapshot to continue working on it later. When you’re done processing a photo, you can save the finished product as a file, send it in an email, or upload it to Flickr directly from Flare.

Verdict:
It’s not fair to compare Flare with post-processing powerhouses like Adobe’s Lightroom 3 or Photoshop CS5, since they appeal to an entirely different market. Flare has little to no learning curve, and produces nice results with minimal effort. The most impressive aspect of Flare is the design work. Every effect, texture, and border is hand-crafted, and the attention to detail really shows. For amateur or hobbyist photographers looking to improve their photo processing skills, Flare is a great choice at an unbeatable price.

Flare – $9.99 on the Mac App Store

Air Video is the best video streaming solution for iOS. It allows you to convert videos to iOS and iTunes-compatible MP4 files, and stream them to your device. Air Video really shines in its ability to simultaneously convert and stream video. The buffer time is extremely low, and even high quality, non-MP4 video formats stream quickly with virtually no quality loss. Of course, Air Video can also stream video without converting it with no quality loss, assuming it’s already encoded in an iOS-compatible format. Air Video requires a companion server app to be installed and running on your computer, but the setup is essentially painless. Since Air Video is a universal app, you can purchase it once, and it’ll run on any iOS device you have.

Air Video gives you a great level of control over the video conversion and streaming process. You can select from multiple audio and subtitle tracks, control the maximum resolution and quality, boost audio tracks, and change the maximum allowed video bit rate for live conversions (there are unique settings for local and remote wifi connections, as well as streaming video over 3G).

Verdict:
Air Video solves both major problems with viewing videos on iOS devices: the limited video format support and the lack of hard drive space. It allows you to watch videos of any format without waiting through long conversion or syncing periods, and filling your device with large video files. With Air Video, you simply connect to your server and start playing your videos. It’s almost too easy.

Air Video (Universal) – $2.99

I’m not usually one for computer games. Machinarium is a notable exception. The hand-drawn visuals are the best I’ve ever seen in a point-and-click adventure game, and the atmosphere is completely engrossing. In Machinarium, you play as a little robot in a massive, machine-based world. A robot gang known as the “Black Hat Brotherhood” is terrorizing the city of Machinarium, and have kidnapped your girlfriend. Your job is to find her and stop the Black Hat Brotherhood in their oily tracks.

The game begins in a junkyard just outside of Machinarium—you’ve been dropped off in several pieces, and have to put yourself back together. There’s almost no introduction or exposition in the game (and interestingly, not a word of dialogue), but the first level teaches you the basics, and the story tells itself from there. One of the most interesting parts about Machinarium is that when you stand still, your character will daydream about his girlfriend, or give subtle hints to the current puzzle in the form of pictographic thought bubbles. The game’s goals and mechanics are simple: you’ll spend most of the game solving small logic puzzles and playing simple mini-games.

The puzzles in Machinarium are often difficult and require creative thinking, and there’s no avoiding getting stuck from time to time. Machinarium has an excellent hint mechanism, as well as a full-blown guidebook built into the game to prevent frustration. However, you’re limited to one hint per puzzle, and to access the guidebook, you have to play a minigame that takes a few minutes to complete each time you open the book. This ingenious solution keeps players from getting stuck for long periods of time, but also discourages them from waltzing through each puzzle with the help of the guidebook.

Machinarium really shines in its art direction. The meticulously hand-drawn levels and animations are absolutely beautiful. The art style has a definite steampunk feel, and the deteriorating buildings and robots make for an incredible visual experience. The music in Machinarium also deeply contributes to the overall feel of the game. The soundtrack is the best I’ve ever heard in a video game, and quickly sets the mood as you enter Machinarium for the first time. The sheer versatility of the music and the variety of styles expressed is extremely impressive. At times it’s almost silent (especially during the prison sequence, which was one of my personal favorites), but its ambient sounds are perfect in every situation.

The environment that the visuals and sound create in Machinarium is truly engaging. It makes the player wonder what exactly happened in the world—there are no humans (or any animals, for that matter), but the city is filled with robots, and in some places, plant life. The robots manage to convey personalities without saying a word. Street musicians play through the night, robotic cats cross electrical wires, and older robots seem to just sit outside and do nothing all day. The love story permeates the entire game though, as you’re constantly reminded of your first priority: to save your girlfriend.

Verdict:
Machinarium is one of the best games I’ve ever played. There is absolutely no weakness to point out. Playing Machinarium is a powerful experience, and playing it a second time is just as rewarding. The story is powerful and reminiscent of a Pixar tale (WALL-E comes to mind). I’ve already raved about the art style and music, but they truly create something special. I can’t even imagine the work that must have gone into Machinarium, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Machinarium – $20 (with soundtrack). A free, online demo is also available.

iA Writer is the ultimate minimalist writing tool. The interface is little more than a navigation bar and a keyboard. There are no settings, and few advanced editing features. However, it does show you how long it would take to read your text (a unique and useful feature), as well as a basic word count. Writer also adds a row to the keyboard, allowing you to access punctuation and move the cursor between words. Undoing or redoing is as easy as swiping left or right with two fingers.

Writer’s most innovative feature is “focus mode,” which allows you to remove all interface elements from the screen, and lowers the opacity of text you’re not working on. It leaves just three lines for you to focus on, and is actually quite effective in combating writer’s block. Writer also syncs with Dropbox, allowing you to transfer text files between your iPad and your computer. Files can also be sent via email or iTunes File Sharing. Bluetooth keyboard compatibility is an added bonus.

Verdict:
iA Writer’s utter simplicity is its greatest feature. There is no unnecessary functionality, and it really lets you get down to distraction-free writing. The typography is clean and smooth, and the interface is virtually perfect. I have yet to see a better writing app for the iPad, and at a just one dollar, it’s an absolute steal.

iA Writer for iPad – $0.99

Tracks is an awesome menubar-based app that allows you to browse and play songs from your iTunes library quickly and easily. It includes an array of user-definable keyboard shortcuts for controlling iTunes, and integrates with Growl and Last.fm. One of the most interesting features of Tracks is that it allows you to preview songs in the iTunes store without using iTunes itself. In essence, Tracks simplifies a lot of iTunes actions while integrating with other services.

Verdict:
Tracks is extremely convenient and makes controlling iTunes a breeze. The global shortcut support is great (and something many people buy dedicated apps for), and with Tracks, there’s really no reason to use the main iTunes interface again.

Tracks – Free (today only!) on the Mac App Store

Anxiety is an extraordinarily lightweight to-do list application. With a minimal HUD-based interface, Anxiety stays out of the way until you need it. Clicking the slick menubar icon brings up the task window, and pressing return allows you to enter a new task. Once a task is checked off, it automatically disappears from the list. You won’t waste any time with Anxiety, and it never nags you to complete tasks.

Verdict:
Anxiety fits perfectly in my workflow. Many to-do list managers try to over-organize content with tags, dates, and projects, while Anxiety cuts all of the unnecessary bulk. That said, basic iCal integration is appreciated. And since Anxiety is free, there’s reason not to give it a shot.

Anxiety – Free