Apple’s Little-Known Xcode tools (free) Download contains 40 free apps for Web Developers!

Whether you are a seasoned web developer that eats dashboard widgets for breakfast, or a novice graphic designer always on the lookout for a useful free tool; If you’re on a Mac you need to download Apple’s free Xcode tools. It’s a pretty hefty download (924 MB) but it contains 41 apps. Depending on your level of expertise, you may not even use half of them, but there is at least one tool for every level of the playing field. My favorite, being a graphic designer is the Icon Composer. No need to search for a freeware icon maker, apple provides it for you.

All you have to do to download Xcode tools is create an account (also free) with “Apple’s Developer Connection” (ADC)- very similar to “Adobe Labs.”

• Link to ADC Sign-Up Page

Once you sign up, ignore the “buy a premium membership” stuff, and browse around until you find the xCode download. Premium ADC members pay extra for early access to upcoming source code, etc. (like Leopard, for example)

A list of Apps contained in the Xcode tools and some screenshots:

Graphics tools: OpenGL Shader Bulider, Pixie, Quartz Composer, OpenGL Profiler, OpenGL Driver Monitor, Core image Fun House.

Web Objects Tools: Web Objects Builder, Rule Editor, WOALauncher, WebServicesAssistant, EOModeler.

Utilities: CrashReporterPrefs, Filemerge, Help Indexer, icns Browser, Icon Composer, IORegistryExplorer, PakageMaker, Property List Editor, USB Prober, Accessibility Inspector, Accessibility Verifier, Bluetooth Explorer, PacketLogger, Clipboard Viewer, BuildApplet, Repeat After Me, SRLanguageModeler.

Performance tools: MallocDebug, ObjectAlloc, Quartz Debug, Sampler, Spin Control, Thread Viewer.

Java tools: Applet Launcher, Jar Bundler, JavaBrowser.

Audio tools: AU Lab.

Uncategorized: Interface Builder, xCode.

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