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The Top 5 Bare Mac Essentials
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
So here you are, facing your beautiful new Mac, wondering what sorts of applications you simply must install.
After being in this very situation many times myself, and helping numerous friends with their new Macs, I have developed a list of apps that I simply cannot live without.
- Turn Text into Art with Art Text 2
- Earnings Up, More than one Billion Apps Sold and, coming soon, an Exciting Apple Future!
- iPhoto ‘09: Tips and Tricks [Faces Edition]
- A turbulent shift is upon us on a global scale, where is Apple in this maelstrom?
- What is going on with the iPhone 3.0?
- What’s in Store for iPhone 3.0?
- New Affordable Macs and iPod minutia?
- Snail Mail: Alive and Well But Made Easy on Your Mac
- How your Mac can help if you’re “On Call” for your Medical or Dental Practice
- A Medical Library in Your Pocket for the Healthcare Professional
- Making Dinner Reservations on your iPhone Without Hassle and Without Talking to Anyone!
- Free Music on your Mac, iPhone or iPod Touch at Home, in the Car or at the Office!
- Apple’s Continued Success Despite Tough Economic Times
- Apple Mac, It’s Your Birthday!
- Doctors, Disease and Apple Stock
- The App Store Hits 500 Million Downloads and 15,000 Apps!
Reader Comments
hmurchison said:
Hmmm let’s see. A new fresh Mac install would have to have.
1. iWork. I just don’t need the heft of Microsoft Office 2008. I really prefer small apps that are nimble.
2. 1Password- I have WAY too many login and I standardized most of them for sanity’s sake.
3. VLC- It plays stuff I’ve never even heard of.
4. Pixelmator- Again the theme of functional lightweight apps. This is one to watch for graphic editing. Photoshop elements who?
5. NetNewsWire- Hallelujah when this went free. One of the first things I open to start my day. I’ve got smart folders which cull topics I’m interested in.
5 Apps I’m looking at for the near future.
1. DEVONThink Pro 2.0- Artificial Intelligence, multiple db, new UI. This may leap to the front of document repository for me.
2. Launchbar 5- I’ve avoided launchers for a while but LB5 may finally get my business. The new version is chock full of ehancements and I’m using Spotlight more than ever now.
3. MailTags and Mail Act-on- Do you want your OS X mail program to be BETTER than Outlook. Install these two programs. Metadata tagging and automated rules done very smartly. Whether you do GTD or just want to manage your inbox more effectively these two products from http://www.indev.ca will renew your faith in Apple’s email program.
4. Omnifocus- I admit I’m usually one of those people who isn’t on task enough and thus issues that should have been taken care of become 4 alarm fires. I’ve purchased David Allen’s book and I’m ready to increase my productivity. Omnifocus seems to be one of the best GTD apps.
5. MobileMe- Say what you want about the shaky launch I’ve read the tea leaves and MobileMe has significant room to grow. Taking my calendar, contacts and Photos online is something I want to do. iDisk for cross platform file storage and sharing is a boon as well.
Honorable Mention:
VMware Fusion- No reason to not enable support for another 100 thousand apps.
IPhone 3G- The next refresh will be my ticket to ride.
Bill Smith said:
Thanks for the valuable information. Just purchased my first mac today (17” macbook pro). Saw that it did not come with squat for software. Your information really gave me a starting point.
MacDood said:
My Mac has about a dozen Must Have Mac utilities. I don’t care much for QuickSilver—too geeky for me, and the developer seems to have jumped ship.
For me, among the top installs on a new Mac are Drag Thing, SuperDuper!, ChronoSync, PathFinder, AppFresh, and YoJimbo.
I prefer AppFresh to MacUpdate or VersionTracker because it’s less money, works well, though not perfectly, and doesn’t bog down with too many bells and whistles.