2012 is coming to an end, and I thought I would take some time to share the tools, web sites, and other development resources that I've been using throughout this year as a reference to both new and old developers who may not have heard of some of them before. Most of these products are integral parts of my work flow, and I am not sponsored by any company or person responsible for these products, so this is just an honest list of what I use on a day to day basis.
Apps
Xcode (free) - The iOS and Mac IDE that everyone has a love/hate relationship. I was very much disappointed with the earlier versions of Xcode 4, but it is continually improving and is definitely much better today than it was mere months ago. I must say that it is much more stable and usable when RAM isn't scarce.
Sublime Text 2 (free trial, $59) - While I use Xcode for all Mac and iOS development, I prefer a lighter editor for other tasks like web development, script writing, etc. With many great text editors out there on the market, I found it difficult to settle with one, but Sublime Text's unrivaled speed and flexibility won me over. This is a great editor for control freaks who like to customize every aspect of their text editing experience, and Sublime Text 2 has no shortage of extensions, preferences, and styles that make it suitable for almost any type of task.
Gitbox (free trial, $19.99) - Gitbox is a git client for minimalists. It gets rid of all the buttons and options of traditional clients that try to be a wrapper for everything the command line interface can do. It has great keyboard shortcuts, and all the common functions are just a few clicks away. Combine that with support for submodules and a pleasant native Mac UI, and you have a winner.
Kickoff 2 (private beta) - Collaboration is a huge part of my workflow, and Kickoff just makes everything so much easier by combining all the important functions into a clean, single window interface. I can't say much more, but Kickoff will rock your socks off when it launches publicly.
Kaleidoscope 2 (public beta) - Kaleidoscope was always the best looking diff tool for the Mac, but it lacked the powerful functionality of other, less appealing tools. Kaleidoscope 2 brings the best of both worlds, and maintains a beautiful UI while providing much needed features like merging and folder diffs.
Mou (free) - I write all my code documentation and blog posts using Markdown, and Mou is the best Markdown editor I've ever used. It features a novel split pane editing concept where you can see the raw text and the generated HTML preview simultaneously.
xScope ($29) - xScope has about a million different functions to aid in everything from picking colors from the screen (e.g. from a mockup) to precisely measuring pixel dimensions. A must have tool for implementing custom user interfaces.
Skala Preview ($5.49) - I'm no designer, but I use this app all the time to preview mockups on my iDevice. It has some pretty useful features like direct connection to Photoshop so you can watch your mockup live update on device as you work.
Slicy ($29) - I don't always slice my own assets, but when I do, I use Slicy. Generating assets using Slicy is as easy as renaming layers in your PSD to the names of image files to generate, then dropping that PSD file on Slicy. It can even automatically update the generated assets when you make a change to the PSD.
Tokens (free for one app) - Beautiful and simple tool for generating and sharing promo codes for your apps in a single click.
Dash (free trial, $9.99) - Dash is an excellent improvement over Xcode's built in documentation browser. It presents everything in a much more useful layout, and has support for just about every other library and language you can think of as well (e.g. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, OpenGL, Android, Arduino, etc.).
CodeBox ($9.99) - Elegant code snippet manager with Dropbox sync, smart groups, and support for many syntaxes.
Anvil (free) - Testing sites locally can be a somewhat cumbersome process, but Anvil does away with all of that. It puts all of your local sites in a neat popover accessible from your menu bar, and assigns local .dev URLs to all of your web sites. It works with all static HTML sites and Rack apps. In addition to Anvil, the same guys have shipped a full featured app called Hammer that handles even more tasks related to managing local sites.
Fetcher (free) - Simple app for testing POST/GET requests.
Services
GitHub (free for open source) - I'm continually amazed by how much time I spend using GitHub. It's a great way to share your work, collaborate, discover other exciting projects, and find lots of resources to use when building your next project.
Dropbox (free for 2GB) - Simply the best cloud storage and sync service ever. File sharing via short links and shared folders are a valuable asset to collaboration.
TestFlight (free) - Beta distribution, crash reporting, and analytics. Hard to believe that you get this much for free.
HockeyApp (plans starting at $10/mo) - Similar functionality to TestFlight, with a few more bells and whistles like a built in discussion forum for your app, and the ability to collect crash reports in a production environment.
App Annie (free) - Analytics and rankings for the iOS/Mac App Stores and Google Play, with daily emailed reports. Good way to keep an eye on how your app sales are doing.
Web Sites/Blogs
NSHipster - My favorite Apple development blog ever. NSHipster focuses on things you don't already know. With articles on a weekly basis, it introduces you to new classes and concepts that don't get as much attention as they should. If you want an easy way to expand your knowledge of Foundation, UIKit, and many other frameworks, NSHipster is the way to go.
CocoaControls - A collection of curated open source controls for OS X and iOS. If you're thinking of implementing a custom control, there's a good chance that someone may already have a great implementation of it.