Some of these applications are just nice alternatives to some of my favorite Mac apps, and some are just great apps that I use at home as well. Others make it easier to sync your work between computers. Regardless, they’re all great apps and features, and I couldn’t recommend them enough.

Without further ado, I present my list for making your cubicle your own.

DropBox
DropBox I really can’t recommend enough. It’s one of the best apps out there, and I use it at work, at school, on friends’ computers, and at home. I haven’t used a flash drive in years thanks to DropBox. Just go download it. Really. Right now.

Every Web Browser
Yup, I’m talking about Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. They all serve excellent functions and, if you’re looking for compatibility, unfortunately there’s rarely a catchall solution. Obviously Internet Explorer is, sadly, sometimes necessary on Windows PCs. For regular browsing I use Chrome. For MobileMe and Apple-focused Web apps, I use Safari. And for design and Web development, I use Firefox. Too many apps? Who says you have to have a limit?

The MobileMe Beta
I just recently began using the MobileMe Beta, and it rocks. It’s so much faster, smoother, and well, just better email interface than ever before. It’s still not quite as snappy as gmail, but if you’re a MobileMe user (and if you have an iPhone I’d strongly recommend it), it’s a must. Sign up for the beta as soon as you can.

iTunes
Own a lot of music? Want to play any videos at all off the Web (with the exception of YouTube, obviously)? Download iTunes. ‘Nuff said.

Spotify
Want to play music at work? Get Spotify. Technically, it’s still not available in the U.S. But if you get an invite there are ways around this. Not that I’d ever recommend breaking the rules or anything.

GIMP
Do any photo editing? Image manipulation? At all? You need GIMP. Consider it free Photoshop. You can thank me later.

Tweetdeck
If you spend any time at all on Twitter, you need to be using Tweetdeck. There is simply no better client. Tweetdeck lets you manage multiple accounts, open multiple columns for different categories, run searches and view multimedia within the app, access your Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Myspace and more, and the list goes on and on.

Pidgin
Consider it your Windows alternative to Adium. It’s free, manages every instant messenger account you can think of, and has plenty of cool plugins to give you all the features you might need. Check it out.

I hope you found this list useful! By all means, “Like” it on Facebook and share it on Twitter using the links below.

Yesterday, at the social media breakfast here in D.C., Geoff Livingston (as well as Alex Howard and Shashi Bellamkonda, but to a lesser extent) put a huge focus on mobile.

“Get mobile, get mobile now,” he said. He’s convinced mobile is the the place to be for Internet technology, especially social media. I don’t disagree. Mobile is undoubtedly where everyone is heading–the Apple iPhone, Google Android, BlackBerry and even new Nokia phones are putting more of a focus on data, Internet usage, and apps than ever before. It’s what customers want. They want easy access to all the world’s information everywhere, all the time. The development in smart phones over the past three years gives us that.

Now there’s much talk about the upcoming Apple event tomorrow. The topic even came up just a few minutes ago on MSNBC’s morning talk show, Morning Joe. Everyone–even non-geeks–is excited about the announcements Apple will make tomorrow. Will it be the tablet? Almost certainly. Will it be new iPhone software? Maybe. Will it be the iPhone announced for multiple carriers? Well of course, since AT&T’s exclusivity contract runs out this year… right? Why wouldn’t other carriers want the iPhone on their service? Why wouldn’t Verizon want to drive millions and millions of customers to their stores to pick up the newest, hottest iPhone to use on their theoretically better, faster service? Same with Sprint.

I’m not about to suggest the iPhone will stay exclusive to AT&T–I don’t think AT&T wants it exclusive anymore. They got the first boost, it gave them what they needed to keep up with Verizon, and that’s fine. In fact, I think that Apple most likely will announce support for multiple carriers tomorrow. I’m just not so sure that’s a good thing.

Look at it this way. Before Apple released the iPhone on AT&T’s service, were there ever any major complaints about service quality for AT&T? Maybe in rural areas, as with all carriers, but never in places like New York City or San Francisco (two of the most common cities with issues for AT&T). Never were there problems with network overload, never did you hear about concepts such as a carrier simply not being able to handle the amount of usage it’s getting. Ah, the consequences of an unlimited data plan.

I think Apple set off a ticking time bomb in the form of unlimited data with their mini-computer, ultra-connected, always-online little smart phone. The iPhone has destroyed AT&T’s reputation for service, and created seemingly unreachable demand for bandwidth. There’s no going back now; a return to limited data plans would send customers away from any carrier who tried it in droves, especially current iPhone users.

“This app cannot be accessed, you’ve reached your data limit for the month.” Ha, right, like any of us geeks would deal with that kind of message popping up while we try to access Tweetie or Evernote? Not in a million years.

But my point is this. What happens with Apple releases the iPhone on Verizon’s service? On Sprint’s? On T-Mobile?

This could be bad, folks. Not doomsday scenario, end-of-mobile-service-in-the-U.S. kind of bad, but it’s not particularly good for the consumer. I’m certainly in favor of competition, but at what cost? At the end of the day tomorrow, will every customer in the U.S. be on a carrier with horrendous service because of overeager iPhone users sucking up the bandwidth from dreadfully under-equipped telecommunications companies? Will there be 18 million New Yorkers walking around cursing their service, as opposed to the few million AT&T customers now who do it?

Maybe the people in mid-size, midwestern cities will sit back all smug and laugh at all the hi-tech geeks on the east and west coasts trying to compete for data. Maybe in the end we’ll look back and all blame Apple.

Are other carriers ready to take on the iPhone burden?  What do you think? I have no doubt all the carriers will eventually upgrade their infrastructure enough to handle the increased demand for data, but it could be a while. As long as more people keep switching to smart phones–the iPhone isn’t the only one, by the way–there’s going to be more demand for data. It’ll be a while before this trend levels off.

Anyway, there’s your morning musings, folks. Have a good day.