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MBP FTW
Well, as you may have seen from my Flickr page, I welcomed a new bundle of joy into my home this past week: a shiny new MacBook Pro (15″ 2.16GHz, 2GB RAM, 120GB [5400RPM] HD.) So then I had to pull some things over from the G5 and start setting it up. I put the G5 in Firewire mode, and started importing music first. Wow, was that ever cathartic! It was almost like cleaning out your closet from the house you grew up in… I started dumping music that I hadn’t listened to in years, and laughing at some of the junk I used to think was awesome. A lot of it went back to the Napster heyday.
Instead of dragging all my software over, I just downloaded (or reinstalled) the stuff that I needed. I didn’t want to bog the laptop down with apps that I would never use. It went in this order:
World of Warcraft
Quicksilver
Firefox
Adium 1.0
Growl
AppZapper
Twitterific
smcFanControl (Ryan told me about this… good for keeping the laptop cool when playing WoW)
What apps would you go and download immediately? What can’t you live without? I need some more suggestions!
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Good question. I was just running down a few with Aaron Crocco of The Geekcast (http://thegeekcastpodcast.com)for a shared show with MacNation (http://www.macphilly.com/wordpress). Ironically, we both kept turning to online apps like anything from ZoHo.com (very cool). But, still, there are a few that I can’t live without. – though you got my number 1: QuickSilver. Imagine that, even with Spotlight I still rely on QuickSilver all the time.
- Google Notifier
- CyberDuck ($10 shareware)
- Amadeus II (now Pro) $40
- xPad
- QuickTime Pro
- Handbrake
- Skype
- WeatherManX (for the dock with detail information)
- Weatherpop (for the menubar)
- wClock or MenuCalendarClock
- DesktoppleI can’t live without Word or Excel either, or VLC or the Adobe suite either – but those are the ones I’d load first so I could have everything set while I was installing all the other stuff
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Word. I need some of this apps too!!
I a mac daddy newbie.. so I don’t have a lot.I love appzapper..i have to buy that..or is there a hack!
You probably should get bootcamp/parrells or mac office..
or what do u use for office documents?
I hear open office is good, but I like Microsoft office.i need to get warcraft and an external drive.. i may get that tonight..any suggestions..
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when i installed new stuff onto my MB, i have:
-spanning sync (ical/gcal sync)
-onyx (for system maintenence)
-data backup (er…for backup)
-transmission (torrent)
-iTerm (terminal, just better)
-dashcode (for version 2.0 of teh Belmont widget)
-Final Cut Express HD (videostuff)
-SubEtheEdit (text editor)
-ecto (blogging)
-Xcast (RSS reader)
-address-o-sync (sync addy books over bonjour)
-Audio Hijack Pro (good for podcasting)
-Awaken (alarm clock)
-Chmox (windows CHM viewer)
-Chicken of the VNC (chicken-based vnc-like goodness)
-EasyDMG (make dmgs…just easier)
-Perian (codecs for QT)
-Google Earth (take advantage of 3d goodness)
-iAlertU (motion-detecting security device)
-iPresentIt (powerpooint slides for your ipod)
-iSquint (video converter)
-MacVCDx (VCD player)
-pzizz (sleep-helper-upper)
-SeisMac (detect earthquakes with your mac)
-Snes9x (SNES emulator)
-Switch (audio converter)
-TubeSock (d/l youtubes and convert automatically)
-Twitteriffic (twitting?)
-Appzapper (zap stuff)thats all i have for now! enjoy macbook-like nirvana on a pro-like level!
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What is this twitteriffic program? I have looked at the website.. Nothing really impressive to me.. or do I just not get it? LOL
also I would like to include Final Cut Pro & DVD tutorials.. I don’t know what I would do with out it because that is why I got a Mac in the 1st place
I concur on the cyberduck..
nick schmidt
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Big and essential stuff:
—————————
NeoOffice
(for office-y needs)Adobe Create Suite 2
(for creative work/hobby stuff)Small but essential stuff:
—————————Transmit
(for all things FTP)NetNewsWire Lite
(for all things RSS)Journler
(for my diary needs)
http://journler.com/Delivious Library
(to keep track of all my media – DVDs, CDs, Books)VLC
(best media player EVER and a less of a memory hog than Quicktime)Azureus
(for bittorrent stuff)On the Job (for tracking projects) http://www.stuntsoftware.com/OnTheJob/
Cha-Ching
(to keep track of my cash. Sweet sweet app!)
http://www.midnightapps.com/chaching/iScrobbler
(iTunes/Last.fm plug-in thingie)Smultron
(for code editing needs) -
Here’s my “stuff I can’t live without”, but obviously, ymmv.
TextWrangler – lite-ish version of BBEdit.
Azureus for BT – it used to suck, but the memory management is much better now.
Cyberduck – Free FTP client
Pacifist – Allows you to install individual packages from your Mac OS X DVD.
Microsoft RDC – Free app that lets you remotely connect to a PC. (Great for VPNing into the office)
tn5250 – I don’t think you use AS/400. Probably useless for you.
Skype – Of course!
Flip4Mac – Plugin for Quicktime, letting you play WMV files.All of the above are freeware or shareware.
Congrats on your new purchase!
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#21 written by Chris 4 years ago
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I’m in need of a new Mac myself, so congrats on your new family member. Every other day I’ll build a Mac on the Apple Store online, but I hesistate to press the “Buy Now” button. I’m doing my best to wait until June, for the rumored release of Leopard. Why wait? Well, when I bought my PowerBook G4, it came with Panther and then the following month Tiger was released. I fell just a few weeks behind the curve where I could’ve upgraded to Tiger for free or cheaper, but no… I had to pay in full. So I’ve tracked how Apple releases products and honed my skills.
Anyhow, I have these apps on my Mac (in no particular order):
- Podcast Maker – http://www.potionfactory.com/podcastmaker/
- Google Earth – http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html
- OverView
- Norton AntiVirus – don’t hate me
better safe than sorry
- HandBrake – http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21117
- MTRipper
- iShowU
- RapidWeaver – http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/3
- YouControl (Multipe neat apps) – http://yousoftware.com/control/
- Solitare – http://www.lavacat.com/
- Sound Studio – http://www.freeverse.com/soundstudio/ -
Some sweet FREEware:
SIDENOTE – notes pop out of the side of your screen (a la the dock). Makes Stickies obsolete.
MENUSHADE – dims the menubar then glows when you reach for it. Not absolutely necessary, but then neither is a brand spanking new MacBook Pro =)
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/sidenote.html
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#25 written by kkc 4 years ago
Appzapper sounds pretty useful. Will have to check that out.
Firefox and Adium are pretty much my main tools. Everything else is run in Terminal
One suggestion I have that nobody mentioned is getting a multiple desktop switcher. The one I use is Desktop Manager:
http://desktopmanager.berlios.de/index.php
I can’t live without it. Once you use one it will be hard to go back. I think 10.5 will have one built in.
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u(or is it y?) torrent!