Saturday 6 September 2008

Top 10 apps to install on your new Mac.

Well, seeing how Isaac got a new iMac, and since I thought of getting my own soon, I thought I'll create a list of ten apps you should add to your new Mac. I hope this gets on Digg!

  1. Webkit [Webkit.org]
    It looks and feels like Safari. Well, actually, it is, but it's the development version, meaning all the new advances gets onto Webkit before getting on Safari! It's faster, and it's sufficiently stable! Only problem: they update every night, so this will make your Time Machine bloat in no time.
  2. smcFanControl [eidac]
    Your Mac CPU gets hot after a while. Especially your MacBooks. Apple refuses to kick up the fan speeds, but you want coller laptops. This app lets you manually control your fans so that they can speed up faster, or slower.
  3. Microsoft Office for Mac [Microsoft]
    You know you need it. Doesn't matter if you want it. Well, fortunately, it supports the new Office XML standard, as well as the normal Office documents. Furthermore, you can save to PDF! This feature has saved my buttocks umpteen times while I was doing my O Level project because the art room iMac doesn't have Microsoft Office, but can open up PDFs in Preview and Adobe Acrobat. Oh, by the way, for the MSN Messenger users, there is Microsoft Messenger for Mac. And it is free, even if you didn't buy Office for Mac.
  4. Countdown Widget [c3images]
    Here's a common fact: when you hit F4 on your new Mac keyboard [F12 on older ones like my MBP], you enter an alternate desktop called Dashboard. Here's where your widgets belong. Widgets are little apps that may be useful, or just for fun. Amongst the many widgets out there, this is definitely one of the must-haves. A countdown widget, so you won't have a problem counting down to your O Level paper. For example: Mine starts in 39 days, since my first paper is on 15 Oct [Art Paper 3].
  5. OnyX [Titanium Software]
    I'ld say this is one of the more technical stuff on my list, but it's definitely one of the most useful. In short, it's a mixture of different utilities to maintain your system. It gets rid of caches and files on your system that you may be unable to locate, and it verifies your partition, something you may not understand but should regularly do. [Don't ask. I don't understand what verification means in this case]
  6. Audacity [Sourceforge]
    As if GarageBand is not enough for your music editing needs and ringtone-making for your iPhone [GarageBand lets you make iPhone ringtones for free. Yes.]. Well, everyone else who needs to do more advanced music editing will like Audacity. Same as PC version. No difference.
  7. VLC [VideoLAN.org]
    Same as the PC and Linux cousin, VLc lets you play back almost all the video formats you can possibly throw at it. I find this app a bit unstable at times, which made me hate it more.
  8. FlickrUploadr [Flickr Tools]
    Unless you use Aperture [for which I'ld recommend a plug-in that lets you upload straight from within Aperture to Flickr], you'ld prefer uploading photos to your Yahoo! Flickr account using this app. Drag the photos from the Finder to the app logo in the Dock, type in the tags, and click upload!
  9. Last.fm [Last.fm]
    Not much to say about this app either. If you like a music recommendation service, I say 'Last.fm'. If you want to see what other friends are listening to, even if they're on a PC or iPod, this app helps you with that too. It also 'scrobbles' your songs so that people know what you've been listening to. Just look at my chart!
  10. Flip4Mac [Flip4Mac]
    3 words: Windows, Media, Video. If you often find yourself watching WMV files or streams, you'll need this extension for Quicktime. Sure, it won't allow you to watch DRM WMV files, but at least you get the basic codec!
I wanted to add one more app here, but it's not here yet. That's Google Chrome. I've yet to try it, but I think it'll be awesome if it can live up to its promise of being able to close only one tab when a tab gets unstable, rather than the entire browser app [glares furiously at Webkit, which happens to be a parent of Google Chrome!]

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