Tools we use: The best Mac apps for working remotely
The Yahoos of the world may be eliminating telecommuting, but the fact is, working from home is easier than ever. I work from home myself, so I’m clearly biased, but many companies find that home-based workers are more productive than their office-based brethren. Here are the Mac apps and web-based tools I use to make working from home work.
HipChat
That's not Messages. It's HipChat. Tip: To keep from getting the two confused, don't put their very similar icons side by side in the Dock.
You need a question answered quickly, but aren’t sure who to ask. You’re working with a group under the gun, and need to have a rapid back and forth about who’s doing what. These are the times when group chat comes in handy. From Altassian, HipChat is an app for group chat. It’s free for teams of five or fewer; after that, the cost is $2 per user per month. Its closest competitor is Campfire from 37Signals (pricing varies).
Macworld picked HipChat in part because the service has a couple of options Basecamp lacks: Besides chatting in various rooms with your coworkers, you can also initiate direct one-to-one conversations within HipChat.
HipChat allows for both group and one-on-one conversations. That means you won't miss out on what coworkers are talking about.
As a remote worker, I aim to be highly responsive. I know that when I worked in an office, and a telecommuter didn’t reply to an IM within seconds, visions of my colleague eating potato chips and watching television immediately leapt to mind. HipChat helps mitigate the risk of nonresponse for workers regardless of their locales: If you receive a message in chat (one that uses your name in a group, or any one-to-one message) and you’re idle, the service shoots you an email to let you know.
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