I just switched my life over to a 17-inch MacBookPro. Don’t worry Microsoft fans. I still have Vista and Office 2007 loaded too.
I asked the 2500+ people following me on Twitter what their ideas were for me to load up and in just the first minute got dozens of suggestions. Here’s some of the first:
@kirkmarple says “Vista.” Heh, already got it loaded. With both BootCamp and Parallels.
@rpechler says “start with iUseThis.”
@davewiner says “audio recorder, brain dead simple MP3 recorder and azureus, bittorrent client”
@endacrowley says “transmit by panic software for ftping, aperture for more advanced photography, adium for chat and twitteriffic for Twitter).”
@cbee says “Transmit, Onyx, iClip, WhatSize, DeskTopple, Typeit4me.”
@CamonZ says “optimized binary of firefox for Mac.”
@MHJohnston says “Quicksilver.”
@FANLESS says “icecoffee, menumeters, copypaste & Growl, all found via http://www.macupdate.com.”
@davewiner says “graphicconverterpro — paint program.”
@matthendry says “Triple Boot via BootCamp.”
@DonMacAskill says “AdiumX, NeoOffice, Yojimbo, Spanning Sync, Missing Sync (if you use a SmartPhone or Windows Mobile), iTerm, Twitterrific.
@johncruz says “You better get twitterrific.”
@pierre says “LaunchBar is a must if you prefer keyboard to mouse.”
@derrickpeters says “‘tickr‘ for flickr.” (now replaced by Slide).
@cbee says “Amadeus and/or Audacity, Wiretap Pro, Flip4Mac, File Juicer, Pipette.”
@autodidactus says “Where do we start, Scoble? Twitterific, VLC, WireTap Pro, Transmit, Adium.”
@autodidactus says “I’ve found myself quite hooked on Monocle lately.”
@lightandshadow says “Letterbox, plugin for Mail.app.”
@joshowens says “perian.org — a nice codec pack for all those lovely bittorrent TV shows, etc.
@edwardsterkin says “seismac.”
@tuz says “Appzapper for uninstalling, Colloquy for IRC if you do that, NetNewsWire for free reading, write room for uninterrupted writing.”
@edwardsterkin says “VoiceCandy.”
@R2C13 says “I like pathfinder.”
@edwardsterkin says “ChatFX.”
@parislemon says “Definitely have to check out delicious library to organize your media: http://www.delicious-monster.com/”
@kevinrailsback says “Synergy.”
@tuz says “Disco for a light weight burner, Paparazzi for screenshotting entire Web pages to jpeg or pdf, transmission for torrents.”
@bigwebguy says “virtuedesktops (at least until leopard spaces).”
@kevinrailsback says “Desktopple (hides all the icons/files on your desktop for a clean look).”
@MHJohnston says “Growl is also a good bet for notifications– ties into a lot of apps.”
@rpechler says “my ‘must have’ Mac apps.”
@derrickpeters says “Sailing Clicker turns phone into remote for computer and a second vote for Growl.”
@jaseone says “TextMate is the best text editor out there.”
This is all in the first 10 minutes on Twitter. Lots of very passionate people hanging out on Twitter lately. Oh, and can you pick the SmugMug CEO out of the list above?
What about you? What utilities or apps or services do you think every Mac user should load?
XTorrent http://www.xtorrentp2p.com/
BluePhoneElite http://mirasoftware.com/BPE/
(great app for your mobile phone)
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XTorrent http://www.xtorrentp2p.com/
BluePhoneElite http://mirasoftware.com/BPE/
(great app for your mobile phone)
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Monolingual.
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Monolingual.
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You missed this link to my tips page: http://www.sauria.com/blog/articles/mac-tips-and-tricks.html
Ted
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You missed this link to my tips page: http://www.sauria.com/blog/articles/mac-tips-and-tricks.html
Ted
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I think I’m missing something about Twitter. You and LaPorte are always talking about it, and I am just not getting it yet. Maybe it is because I don’t have any friends yet, but I do not see the attractions yet.
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I think I’m missing something about Twitter. You and LaPorte are always talking about it, and I am just not getting it yet. Maybe it is because I don’t have any friends yet, but I do not see the attractions yet.
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I’d have to say CyberDuck > Transmit, and for torrents, nothing beats transmission.
osx.iusethis.com is a great resource as well.
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I’d have to say CyberDuck > Transmit, and for torrents, nothing beats transmission.
osx.iusethis.com is a great resource as well.
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My ‘must-have’ Mac Apps: http://rexisexcited.com/2007/04/05/my-must-have-mac-apps/
(I just wrote this up in response to the tweet)
Rex
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My ‘must-have’ Mac Apps: http://rexisexcited.com/2007/04/05/my-must-have-mac-apps/
(I just wrote this up in response to the tweet)
Rex
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Quicksilver, and it’s worth getting in deep before you decide it’s the same as LaunchBar. An introduction:
http://www.twit.tv/node/4413
And a pretty awesome example of how much it can do:
http://www.themerlinshow.com/ep/008-howto-quicksilver-application-menus
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Quicksilver, and it’s worth getting in deep before you decide it’s the same as LaunchBar. An introduction:
http://www.twit.tv/node/4413
And a pretty awesome example of how much it can do:
http://www.themerlinshow.com/ep/008-howto-quicksilver-application-menus
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Nice. I just recently switched to a MacBook as my primary machine (I’m a .NET developer by day), and I’m fairly happy with it now that I’m adjusting. I still keep a copy of Windows around in VMWare Fusion, though. 😉
Anyway, you might want to check out NicePlayer as well: http://niceplayer.sourceforge.net/ — I like it a lot better than the actual QuickTime client.
For FTP, Transmit is the best client I’ve seen, but if you’re like me and don’t use FTP frequently, you might try CyberDuck instead: http://cyberduck.ch/
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Nice. I just recently switched to a MacBook as my primary machine (I’m a .NET developer by day), and I’m fairly happy with it now that I’m adjusting. I still keep a copy of Windows around in VMWare Fusion, though. 😉
Anyway, you might want to check out NicePlayer as well: http://niceplayer.sourceforge.net/ — I like it a lot better than the actual QuickTime client.
For FTP, Transmit is the best client I’ve seen, but if you’re like me and don’t use FTP frequently, you might try CyberDuck instead: http://cyberduck.ch/
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The CEO of SmugMug is DonMacAskill. In any case, I am sure we, mac users, keep tons of utilities. some are nice to have but they just sit there in our /Applications folder unused or used very rarely (I have 154 so far) but there are few that I use religiously. They are
quicksilver
adium
1001
aperture
appzapper
baywatch
betterzip
CoRD
DejaMenu
Delicious Library
Democracy
Edgies
DropCopy
iCal
Inbox
Journl
NeoOffice
NetNewsWire
Onyx
Pandoraboy
Photo Drop
Photomatix Pro
Textmate
Think
Tweetbar
Xslimmer
I maintain an iusethis profile: http://urltea.com/3uv
I also invite all of you to stop by at http://macapper.com where we write about mac apps.
ps: Scoble, you just made a wise investment on the 17″ MBP. Let us know on twitterville how it works for you in the next couple of weeks.
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The CEO of SmugMug is DonMacAskill. In any case, I am sure we, mac users, keep tons of utilities. some are nice to have but they just sit there in our /Applications folder unused or used very rarely (I have 154 so far) but there are few that I use religiously. They are
quicksilver
adium
1001
aperture
appzapper
baywatch
betterzip
CoRD
DejaMenu
Delicious Library
Democracy
Edgies
DropCopy
iCal
Inbox
Journl
NeoOffice
NetNewsWire
Onyx
Pandoraboy
Photo Drop
Photomatix Pro
Textmate
Think
Tweetbar
Xslimmer
I maintain an iusethis profile: http://urltea.com/3uv
I also invite all of you to stop by at http://macapper.com where we write about mac apps.
ps: Scoble, you just made a wise investment on the 17″ MBP. Let us know on twitterville how it works for you in the next couple of weeks.
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I didn’t see the Google Notifier listed. If you use Gmail, it’s pretty handy, although if you are getting 400 non-spam messages a day it might be too annoying.
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I didn’t see the Google Notifier listed. If you use Gmail, it’s pretty handy, although if you are getting 400 non-spam messages a day it might be too annoying.
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Now there’s a headline I never thought I’d see Robert Scoble blog.
Quicksilver, http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/, is always my number one. I feel naked without it. My brain is hard wired for it, so imagine how stupid I look when I sit down in front of a Mac without it, typing “ctrl+space safari”…
AppZapper or AppDelete… you’d be surprised how much is left behind after uninstalling an App by dragging it to the trash.
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New Google Desktop. Love it.
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New Google Desktop. Love it.
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Now there’s a headline I never thought I’d see Robert Scoble blog.
Quicksilver, http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/, is always my number one. I feel naked without it. My brain is hard wired for it, so imagine how stupid I look when I sit down in front of a Mac without it, typing “ctrl+space safari”…
AppZapper or AppDelete… you’d be surprised how much is left behind after uninstalling an App by dragging it to the trash.
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I second Quicksilver and NetNewsWire, and I’ll add SpamSieve.
P.S. What tipped you to the 17″ rather than the 15″? I’m getting ready to move from a G5 PowerMac to an MBP because I’m going to need the portability now. Spec’ing the 15″ the way I want it (2.33GHz, 160GB HD) brings it within $150 of the price of the 17″, but I’m wondering – is something that big really manageable to carry around?
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I second Quicksilver and NetNewsWire, and I’ll add SpamSieve.
P.S. What tipped you to the 17″ rather than the 15″? I’m getting ready to move from a G5 PowerMac to an MBP because I’m going to need the portability now. Spec’ing the 15″ the way I want it (2.33GHz, 160GB HD) brings it within $150 of the price of the 17″, but I’m wondering – is something that big really manageable to carry around?
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i forgot to add smcfancontrol to the list, especially a must if you do a lot of editing of photos(like me), videos, or other intensive tasks on your macbook[pro]. http://urltea.com/3ux
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i forgot to add smcfancontrol to the list, especially a must if you do a lot of editing of photos(like me), videos, or other intensive tasks on your macbook[pro]. http://urltea.com/3ux
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Brandon: Twitter is lame. Especially if you have no friends. But I’m addicted!
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Brandon: Twitter is lame. Especially if you have no friends. But I’m addicted!
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Why a 17-inch? Cause I need resolution more than I need portability. The 17-inch fits fine in my backpack.
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Why a 17-inch? Cause I need resolution more than I need portability. The 17-inch fits fine in my backpack.
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Welcome to the darkside! For video blogs: Democracy. And I just got Joost today… wow!
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Welcome to the darkside! For video blogs: Democracy. And I just got Joost today… wow!
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NoteBook from Circus Ponies… http://www.circusponies.com/
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NoteBook from Circus Ponies… http://www.circusponies.com/
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I just posted my list, http://mcdevzone.com/2007/04/05/my-must-have-applications
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I just posted my list, http://mcdevzone.com/2007/04/05/my-must-have-applications
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Quicksilver
Saft (love the customizable contextual menu for search)
vienna
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Quicksilver
Saft (love the customizable contextual menu for search)
vienna
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Audio Hijack Pro, NewsFire (it’s not free like NetNewsWire and it’s not Google Reader, but it’s a fine RSS reader if you’re offline (which happens to the best of us from time to time.) SoundSoap2 is for cleaning noisy soundtracks.
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Audio Hijack Pro, NewsFire (it’s not free like NetNewsWire and it’s not Google Reader, but it’s a fine RSS reader if you’re offline (which happens to the best of us from time to time.) SoundSoap2 is for cleaning noisy soundtracks.
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And I just got Joost today… wow!
Yeah, with this new beta round, they have come a long way, contentwise too. I think Joost has lasting power…
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And I just got Joost today… wow!
Yeah, with this new beta round, they have come a long way, contentwise too. I think Joost has lasting power…
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superduper, a backup application, is indeed super duper! http://urltea.com/3vu
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superduper, a backup application, is indeed super duper! http://urltea.com/3vu
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Quicksilver!
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Quicksilver!
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1. Quicksilver
2. Pukka (quick way to post to del.icio.us)
3. Yojimbo
4. NetNewsWire (the pay version–it’s worth it)
5. SubEthaEdit for colaborative notetaking at meetings & conferences
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1. Quicksilver
2. Pukka (quick way to post to del.icio.us)
3. Yojimbo
4. NetNewsWire (the pay version–it’s worth it)
5. SubEthaEdit for colaborative notetaking at meetings & conferences
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Quicksilver, Transmit, Adium, VLC (on any OSX), ImageWell, Twitterific, NetNewsWire.
But most of all Quicksilver, Quicksilver and Quicksilver. 😉
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Quicksilver, Transmit, Adium, VLC (on any OSX), ImageWell, Twitterific, NetNewsWire.
But most of all Quicksilver, Quicksilver and Quicksilver. 😉
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Woot! Here’s my absolute must haves:
Camino
Quicksilver
Notational Velocity
I list my other favorites on iusethis. Enjoy the mac! 🙂
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Woot! Here’s my absolute must haves:
Camino
Quicksilver
Notational Velocity
I list my other favorites on iusethis. Enjoy the mac! 🙂
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Youd be a fool not to install AppleJack http://applejack.sourceforge.net/
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Youd be a fool not to install AppleJack http://applejack.sourceforge.net/
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Like everyone else: Quicksilver
Did into applescript of course, but there is definitely also a place and time for Quickeys, a keyboard macro system.
“Yep” if you deal with a lot of PDF files. Just wonderful.
Typeit4me or Textexpander.
Netmonitor and LoadinDock to see what the system is doing.
Cleardock (unless and until Transparentdock works with Intel macs)
Finderpop!!
Saling clicker.
Steermouse.
Welcome back from the dark side.
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Like everyone else: Quicksilver
Did into applescript of course, but there is definitely also a place and time for Quickeys, a keyboard macro system.
“Yep” if you deal with a lot of PDF files. Just wonderful.
Typeit4me or Textexpander.
Netmonitor and LoadinDock to see what the system is doing.
Cleardock (unless and until Transparentdock works with Intel macs)
Finderpop!!
Saling clicker.
Steermouse.
Welcome back from the dark side.
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In the spirit of “teach a man to fish”, where to look for things:
versiontracker.com
macupdate.com
macosxhints.com
And a couple I forgot:
Fastscripts
Keycue
Witch
Shapeshifter if you want to customize the looks
Uno for a simple makeover
Tinkertool to set user interface parameters
Tinkertool System or Onyx or Cocktail for system maintenance
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In the spirit of “teach a man to fish”, where to look for things:
versiontracker.com
macupdate.com
macosxhints.com
And a couple I forgot:
Fastscripts
Keycue
Witch
Shapeshifter if you want to customize the looks
Uno for a simple makeover
Tinkertool to set user interface parameters
Tinkertool System or Onyx or Cocktail for system maintenance
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Has anyone suggested Monolingual or Delocalizer to remove language files that are unnecessary? These apps save hundreds of megabytes. http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/ and http://www.bombich.com/software/local.html
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Has anyone suggested Monolingual or Delocalizer to remove language files that are unnecessary? These apps save hundreds of megabytes. http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/ and http://www.bombich.com/software/local.html
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also – With this tweet script http://blog.codahale.com/2007/01/15/tweet-twitter-quicksilver/ and twitterific, I’m twittering via Quicksilver. (is that meta enough for you all?)
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also – With this tweet script http://blog.codahale.com/2007/01/15/tweet-twitter-quicksilver/ and twitterific, I’m twittering via Quicksilver. (is that meta enough for you all?)
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I really like PandoraBoy. For People who want something similar for their local iTune collection let me recommend the great new utility and iTunes plugin The Filter. http://www.thefilter.com. Still in beta, though.
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I really like PandoraBoy. For People who want something similar for their local iTune collection let me recommend the great new utility and iTunes plugin The Filter. http://www.thefilter.com. Still in beta, though.
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Congratulations Robert!
Here’s one I didn’t see mentioned yet that I highly recommend:
http://www.flip4mac.com/products.htm (The Windows® Media Components software allows you to play, import, and export Windows Media video and audio files on your Mac using your favorite QuickTime-based applications.
Have you hooked up the new MBP to your 30″ Cinema Display yet? Having that as an option is pretty impressive.
All the best,
Andrew Darlow
Editor
The Imaging Buffet
http://www.imagingbuffet.com
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Congratulations Robert!
Here’s one I didn’t see mentioned yet that I highly recommend:
http://www.flip4mac.com/products.htm (The Windows® Media Components software allows you to play, import, and export Windows Media video and audio files on your Mac using your favorite QuickTime-based applications.
Have you hooked up the new MBP to your 30″ Cinema Display yet? Having that as an option is pretty impressive.
All the best,
Andrew Darlow
Editor
The Imaging Buffet
http://www.imagingbuffet.com
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thanks for printing this list!
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thanks for printing this list!
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Wow…lots of interest in this blog! Guess I’ll chime in with a link to Flip4Mac’s new dvd imagin app, HERE
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Wow…lots of interest in this blog! Guess I’ll chime in with a link to Flip4Mac’s new dvd imagin app, HERE
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This is great Robert. I’ve totally ignored the Mac OS since I got Vista up on my MacBook. I’ll put these suggestions to the test over the weekend.
Cheers,
++Alan
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This is great Robert. I’ve totally ignored the Mac OS since I got Vista up on my MacBook. I’ll put these suggestions to the test over the weekend.
Cheers,
++Alan
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My husband bought me one for my birthday and I LOVE it! I don’t have any tips yet, but surely appreciate that you’re sharing the tips that you receive with us.
Regards,
Lisa
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My husband bought me one for my birthday and I LOVE it! I don’t have any tips yet, but surely appreciate that you’re sharing the tips that you receive with us.
Regards,
Lisa
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I’d recommend not using a damned thing in the way of system enhancements until you’ve spent some time really using the OS’s provided features. There’s a lot more than you may think.
I use TypeIt4Me because well, I type. A lot, and a lot of it is repetitive. If you don’t, then it’s not so useful.
For carrying the thing though, talk to Brenthaven. I have their Video Pro bag, and you can practically put a small child in it. I’ve had to kick my cat out of it a few times.
I’d be very wary of system mods until you hit a need that you simply cannot meet any other way. Mods are, well, *mods*. A modified system creates uncertainties and unexpected behaviors. Those can, and often do create more problems than they solve.
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I’d recommend not using a damned thing in the way of system enhancements until you’ve spent some time really using the OS’s provided features. There’s a lot more than you may think.
I use TypeIt4Me because well, I type. A lot, and a lot of it is repetitive. If you don’t, then it’s not so useful.
For carrying the thing though, talk to Brenthaven. I have their Video Pro bag, and you can practically put a small child in it. I’ve had to kick my cat out of it a few times.
I’d be very wary of system mods until you hit a need that you simply cannot meet any other way. Mods are, well, *mods*. A modified system creates uncertainties and unexpected behaviors. Those can, and often do create more problems than they solve.
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I have nothing to add, except for SnailMail for printing envelopes. It uses the Address Book database, and, although the envelope printing options in Address Book have been getting better with each new version, I still find SnailMail much more useful for that task than Address Book.
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I have nothing to add, except for SnailMail for printing envelopes. It uses the Address Book database, and, although the envelope printing options in Address Book have been getting better with each new version, I still find SnailMail much more useful for that task than Address Book.
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Scoble, I saw that you are feeling the heat of the MacBook Pro. You should download this utility which I have found makes a huge difference. I set my machine to a minimum of 3000 and it keeps it nice and cool even when multitasking.
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Scoble, I saw that you are feeling the heat of the MacBook Pro. You should download this utility which I have found makes a huge difference. I set my machine to a minimum of 3000 and it keeps it nice and cool even when multitasking.
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Quicksilver is the first thing to put on the machine. It is incredible. Talk to Merlin Mann about using it.
Adium is good
Growl
Rather than parallels or bootcamp I use CrossOver by codeweavers (www.codeweavers.com). I don’t use a lot of windows apps, and i don’t want to purchase a license for it. I bought crossover ($60 I think). It is based upon Wine and allows me to run Project 2003 and Visio 2003 without having to boot into an image or own the OS.
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Quicksilver is the first thing to put on the machine. It is incredible. Talk to Merlin Mann about using it.
Adium is good
Growl
Rather than parallels or bootcamp I use CrossOver by codeweavers (www.codeweavers.com). I don’t use a lot of windows apps, and i don’t want to purchase a license for it. I bought crossover ($60 I think). It is based upon Wine and allows me to run Project 2003 and Visio 2003 without having to boot into an image or own the OS.
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Also forgot the tools from omnigroup (www.omnigroup.com). I use OmniOutliner, omnigraffle, and omniplan quite a bit. If you are a “Getting things done” fan, there is an add on for Omnioutliner called Kinkless GTD (www.kinkless.com).
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Also forgot the tools from omnigroup (www.omnigroup.com). I use OmniOutliner, omnigraffle, and omniplan quite a bit. If you are a “Getting things done” fan, there is an add on for Omnioutliner called Kinkless GTD (www.kinkless.com).
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Now that you can run windows applications in OSX via parallels I can see that the reasons for owning a Windows PC are growing less and less, but I still like my ThinkPad running XP.
The build quality on Apple worries me, not to mention the size and weight of the damn things. And perhaps, to an extent, the price.
However I gotta admit Apple make a tempting choice for the computer prosumer and I’m not surprised you switched.
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Now that you can run windows applications in OSX via parallels I can see that the reasons for owning a Windows PC are growing less and less, but I still like my ThinkPad running XP.
The build quality on Apple worries me, not to mention the size and weight of the damn things. And perhaps, to an extent, the price.
However I gotta admit Apple make a tempting choice for the computer prosumer and I’m not surprised you switched.
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I would listen to all episodes of MacBreak Weekly EVER and get their “picks of the week.” You could even use Alex Linsday’s products, because you do a video podcast!
there was actually a blog once somewhere that was keeping track… but they stopped.
Finally: My most used apps are Quicksilver (seriously, join this cult–check out 43folders.com for information); Adium, MainMenu, and Growl. All Mac-Exclusive, all completely indispensable. I literally install quicksilver on every computer I sit down at.
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I would listen to all episodes of MacBreak Weekly EVER and get their “picks of the week.” You could even use Alex Linsday’s products, because you do a video podcast!
there was actually a blog once somewhere that was keeping track… but they stopped.
Finally: My most used apps are Quicksilver (seriously, join this cult–check out 43folders.com for information); Adium, MainMenu, and Growl. All Mac-Exclusive, all completely indispensable. I literally install quicksilver on every computer I sit down at.
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Robert, I’m almost there. I gave my PC till the end of the year to convince me to keep it. 🙂 My countdown to mac here:
http://www.jimkukral.com/countdowntomac.html
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Robert, I’m almost there. I gave my PC till the end of the year to convince me to keep it. 🙂 My countdown to mac here:
http://www.jimkukral.com/countdowntomac.html
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*wondering if one of those shiny new apps crashed his system, or he got one of those, rare I’m sure, Apple laptops that doubles as a cooking device*
My modus operandi is still: (1) wait until a definite need presents itself, (2) research several products that fill that need, (3) get reviews from as many sources as possible, (4) install the “winning” application and don’t install anything else soon before or afterward so that undesirable aftereffects can be attributed only (or mainly) to the new app.
Rinse and repeat.
Why would most people, for example, want to replace/augment the built-in CD and DVD burning capabilities? They seem perfectly adequate to me.
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*wondering if one of those shiny new apps crashed his system, or he got one of those, rare I’m sure, Apple laptops that doubles as a cooking device*
My modus operandi is still: (1) wait until a definite need presents itself, (2) research several products that fill that need, (3) get reviews from as many sources as possible, (4) install the “winning” application and don’t install anything else soon before or afterward so that undesirable aftereffects can be attributed only (or mainly) to the new app.
Rinse and repeat.
Why would most people, for example, want to replace/augment the built-in CD and DVD burning capabilities? They seem perfectly adequate to me.
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Use Ubuntu 🙂
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Use Ubuntu 🙂
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Nice one Robert!
I would have to recommend:
Spamsieve
Super Duper
Handbrake
Visual Hub (converts stuff to Apple TV format)
Cyber duck for FTP
NeoOffice
Yep for PDFs
ENJOY!
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I’ll echo the sentiment of “don’t go gung ho” on too many new apps. Get to know what comes with the system to begin with. There’s a lot there.
Learn to use Automator. If you’re more ambitious, learn AppleScript. Learn the iLife apps. Buy one of the better third party manuals for OS X (not having read one in a long time, you’ll have to get reccomendations elsewhere)
Having said that, there are a few apps worth looking at right away.
For posting to your blog, there’s ecto. It works with all major blogging platforms, including WordPress.
For a feedreader, I recommend NetNewsWire (Excellent for managing a huge number of feeds).
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Nice one Robert!
I would have to recommend:
Spamsieve
Super Duper
Handbrake
Visual Hub (converts stuff to Apple TV format)
Cyber duck for FTP
NeoOffice
Yep for PDFs
ENJOY!
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I’ll echo the sentiment of “don’t go gung ho” on too many new apps. Get to know what comes with the system to begin with. There’s a lot there.
Learn to use Automator. If you’re more ambitious, learn AppleScript. Learn the iLife apps. Buy one of the better third party manuals for OS X (not having read one in a long time, you’ll have to get reccomendations elsewhere)
Having said that, there are a few apps worth looking at right away.
For posting to your blog, there’s ecto. It works with all major blogging platforms, including WordPress.
For a feedreader, I recommend NetNewsWire (Excellent for managing a huge number of feeds).
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Scoble, you’ve been using Macs for years and years. Do you really not know what apps you want to use on it? 🙂
The real reason for my post is John Welch and Shawn Levasseur’s posts, which seem to have been made with the impression that you’ve never used a Mac before (“be careful not to install too many apps until you’ve gotten used to the system” (paraphrasing)).
Let it be known that Scoble is not a Mac newbie by any stretch of the imagination, so such patronizing isn’t necessary. 😉
BTW, I agree with Shawn in recommending NetNewsWire.
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Scoble, you’ve been using Macs for years and years. Do you really not know what apps you want to use on it? 🙂
The real reason for my post is John Welch and Shawn Levasseur’s posts, which seem to have been made with the impression that you’ve never used a Mac before (“be careful not to install too many apps until you’ve gotten used to the system” (paraphrasing)).
Let it be known that Scoble is not a Mac newbie by any stretch of the imagination, so such patronizing isn’t necessary. 😉
BTW, I agree with Shawn in recommending NetNewsWire.
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Peter: I haven’t used a Mac as my main machine. And I wasn’t asking about main apps, but rather utilities. I’ve heard of some of these in the list, but hadn’t tried most of them yet. So, this list is very useful and because it’s from people who I know, I know I can get some help with them.
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Peter: I haven’t used a Mac as my main machine. And I wasn’t asking about main apps, but rather utilities. I’ve heard of some of these in the list, but hadn’t tried most of them yet. So, this list is very useful and because it’s from people who I know, I know I can get some help with them.
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“Newbie” is a relative term, and is only useful if you have a comparator.
I’m regularly surprised at how people tart up their systems like a dockside whore on payday, and then complain it’s slow or whatever.
As well, if you learn to really use what comes standard, that knowledge applies to EVERY Mac you may ever touch. If you only learn with a dozen utilities and addons, that knowledge is less transferrable. because I run my system as clean as possible, the OS-level things I do work on any mac.
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“Newbie” is a relative term, and is only useful if you have a comparator.
I’m regularly surprised at how people tart up their systems like a dockside whore on payday, and then complain it’s slow or whatever.
As well, if you learn to really use what comes standard, that knowledge applies to EVERY Mac you may ever touch. If you only learn with a dozen utilities and addons, that knowledge is less transferrable. because I run my system as clean as possible, the OS-level things I do work on any mac.
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Keyboard Maestro is a great little utility to create shortcuts for often repeated phrases, non-critical passwords and the like.
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Keyboard Maestro is a great little utility to create shortcuts for often repeated phrases, non-critical passwords and the like.
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I can’t believe nobody has mentioned Little Snitch…
A must have! Check it out at http://www.obdev.at
Highly recommended.
Congrats on the new machine and welcome to the cult … er … club!
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I can’t believe nobody has mentioned Little Snitch…
A must have! Check it out at http://www.obdev.at
Highly recommended.
Congrats on the new machine and welcome to the cult … er … club!
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I don’t check the blog for two days, and look what happens! Congratulations. I’ve been a developer for 10 years and have never had the need for a pc. Unfortunately, mine is only the 15 in. …I think i have macbook envy now.
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I don’t check the blog for two days, and look what happens! Congratulations. I’ve been a developer for 10 years and have never had the need for a pc. Unfortunately, mine is only the 15 in. …I think i have macbook envy now.
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Wish I would have seen your twitter… it was sent to me from a friend. Please stop by iboughtamac.com
I’m in your shoes, just a couple months ahead! Welcome!
Brent
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Wish I would have seen your twitter… it was sent to me from a friend. Please stop by iboughtamac.com
I’m in your shoes, just a couple months ahead! Welcome!
Brent
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Robert:
Yes! Welcome to the club. I’d recommend:
Snapz Pro
Transmit
AppZapper
Keynote (in iWork)
Mousepose
SuperDuper
Yojimbo
Webstractor
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Robert:
Yes! Welcome to the club. I’d recommend:
Snapz Pro
Transmit
AppZapper
Keynote (in iWork)
Mousepose
SuperDuper
Yojimbo
Webstractor
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I’ll break the mould and not suggest any third-party software.
How about a link on “Basic Mac Os X Security”? That seems like a good idea – we all know Bill Gates himself has had to remark on how dangerous the Mac is, and has Bill ever been known to play fast and loose with the truth? 🙂
Be that as it may, until John C. Welch does a column on Mac security, this is probably the best short guide:
http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/security/basic_mac_os_x_security
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I’ll break the mould and not suggest any third-party software.
How about a link on “Basic Mac Os X Security”? That seems like a good idea – we all know Bill Gates himself has had to remark on how dangerous the Mac is, and has Bill ever been known to play fast and loose with the truth? 🙂
Be that as it may, until John C. Welch does a column on Mac security, this is probably the best short guide:
http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/security/basic_mac_os_x_security
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Scrivener is a writing app that’s very flexible, has note card organization, a customizable full screen mode and a bunch of other really nice touches. While programs like Word are geared for “document creation”, Scrivener is geared more for “writing”. http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html
Sorry about the excessive use of quotes, It’s too early for me to think clearly.
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Scrivener is a writing app that’s very flexible, has note card organization, a customizable full screen mode and a bunch of other really nice touches. While programs like Word are geared for “document creation”, Scrivener is geared more for “writing”. http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html
Sorry about the excessive use of quotes, It’s too early for me to think clearly.
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“Oh, and can you pick the SmugMug CEO out of the list above?”
Bet he uses tickr for flickr.
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“Oh, and can you pick the SmugMug CEO out of the list above?”
Bet he uses tickr for flickr.
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iclock
http://www.scriptsoftware.com
is essential and often overlooked because it runs all the time and replaces the old os x clock with some really useful time functions (alarms, timezones, various options for the menubar, app menu, to do list, etc..). i use the info it provides many times a day.
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iclock
http://www.scriptsoftware.com
is essential and often overlooked because it runs all the time and replaces the old os x clock with some really useful time functions (alarms, timezones, various options for the menubar, app menu, to do list, etc..). i use the info it provides many times a day.
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BBEdit (not TextMate!)
Transmit (not Fetch or Interarchy)
OmniOutliner (not Yojimbo)
SuperDuper, of course
Read up on the Command-shift 3 and 4 variations and command line “screencapture” before wasting money on a screen capture utility (and there also the freebie Grab utility bundled)
Give Pages and Keynote a try
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BBEdit (not TextMate!)
Transmit (not Fetch or Interarchy)
OmniOutliner (not Yojimbo)
SuperDuper, of course
Read up on the Command-shift 3 and 4 variations and command line “screencapture” before wasting money on a screen capture utility (and there also the freebie Grab utility bundled)
Give Pages and Keynote a try
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Developer Tools.
One of the best things I did since switching to OS X was register with Apple Developer Connection (it’s free). http://developer.apple.com/tools/
The utilities include Property List Editor, allowing easy editing of the .plists in your library/preference and elsewhere.
Another useful download, if you like the server side of OS X like Xgrid, has been the Server Admin Tools 10.4.
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Developer Tools.
One of the best things I did since switching to OS X was register with Apple Developer Connection (it’s free). http://developer.apple.com/tools/
The utilities include Property List Editor, allowing easy editing of the .plists in your library/preference and elsewhere.
Another useful download, if you like the server side of OS X like Xgrid, has been the Server Admin Tools 10.4.
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My 5 most often used applications are:
* Quicksilver
Keyboard interface for OS X
http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
* 1Passwd (the product I developed)
Never type your online passwords again.
http://1passwd.com
* FileChute
The fastest way to share screenshots (at least until iChat Screen Sharing arrives).
http://www.yellowmug.com/filechute/
* TextExpander
A must have if you do a lot of typing.
http://www.smileonmymac.com/textexpander/
* Adium
The best instant messaging client.
http://www.adiumx.com/
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My 5 most often used applications are:
* Quicksilver
Keyboard interface for OS X
http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
* 1Passwd (the product I developed)
Never type your online passwords again.
http://1passwd.com
* FileChute
The fastest way to share screenshots (at least until iChat Screen Sharing arrives).
http://www.yellowmug.com/filechute/
* TextExpander
A must have if you do a lot of typing.
http://www.smileonmymac.com/textexpander/
* Adium
The best instant messaging client.
http://www.adiumx.com/
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For RSS newsreading, get Vienna. It’s free and open source and being constantly developed. It’s also very simple to use and get started with.
http://www.opencommunity.co.uk
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For RSS newsreading, get Vienna. It’s free and open source and being constantly developed. It’s also very simple to use and get started with.
http://www.opencommunity.co.uk
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Handbrake (DVD ripper)
Google Desktop
Google Earth
RAR Expander
iAlertU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkAtRfA1UXc)
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Handbrake (DVD ripper)
Google Desktop
Google Earth
RAR Expander
iAlertU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkAtRfA1UXc)
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Oh, and the Mirror widget of course…
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/webcams/mirror.html
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Oh, and the Mirror widget of course…
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/webcams/mirror.html
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I highly recommend Camino. It’s gecko power and versatility built specifically for the Mac.
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I highly recommend Camino. It’s gecko power and versatility built specifically for the Mac.
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I know two amazing apps not on your list (both OS X)..
– AppFresh: automatic software update tool for any mac application. http://metaquark.de/appfresh/
– Homezone: Monitors Airport networks and Bluetooth devices, and you can automatically trigger any actions you’d like http://metaquark.de/homezone/
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I know two amazing apps not on your list (both OS X)..
– AppFresh: automatic software update tool for any mac application. http://metaquark.de/appfresh/
– Homezone: Monitors Airport networks and Bluetooth devices, and you can automatically trigger any actions you’d like http://metaquark.de/homezone/
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ten semi-obscure programs you shouldn’t be without is a good list with details
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ten semi-obscure programs you shouldn’t be without is a good list with details
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Dump MS Office for Mac. GO NeoOffice. I bet you could easily live w/o your crap.
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Dump MS Office for Mac. GO NeoOffice. I bet you could easily live w/o your crap.
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‘grats on the new purchase, Robert. Lots of suggestions there. ; )
Personally, I’d use OS X for at least just a little while without downloading anything just to get a feel for it, but once you’ve done that: Quicksilver FTW. Also Adium if you need a multi-protocol IM client (which I’m sure you do).
Also, it’s interesting you got this machine just 2-3 months before Apple will release the Leopard (whose “secret” features are still an enigma wrapped up in a mystery). Was that a factor at all in your decision? Will you be upgrading if you like what you see?
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‘grats on the new purchase, Robert. Lots of suggestions there. ; )
Personally, I’d use OS X for at least just a little while without downloading anything just to get a feel for it, but once you’ve done that: Quicksilver FTW. Also Adium if you need a multi-protocol IM client (which I’m sure you do).
Also, it’s interesting you got this machine just 2-3 months before Apple will release the Leopard (whose “secret” features are still an enigma wrapped up in a mystery). Was that a factor at all in your decision? Will you be upgrading if you like what you see?
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You’ve probably had a lot of people recommend you Quicksilver. Here’s a good screencast for an intro and how to get started with Quicksilver:
http://mymacbuzz.com/2007/01/28/tutorial-introduction-to-quicksilver/
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You’ve probably had a lot of people recommend you Quicksilver. Here’s a good screencast for an intro and how to get started with Quicksilver:
http://mymacbuzz.com/2007/01/28/tutorial-introduction-to-quicksilver/
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SuperDuper – Lot’s of people are recommending it, but not saying why.
SuperDuper and an external drive is the perfect backup solution. Keep a complete BOOTABLE clone of your machine at all times. (Maybe more than one)
If my drive fails, I could firewire my machine to my backup drive and boot right up and keep working.
If my machine dies completely, I could get a new one, Boot it up to the external drive, run SuperDuper, and be back exactly where I was in a few hours.
I think anyone who’s not maintaining at least a complete clone of their drive for back-up purposes is insane.
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SuperDuper – Lot’s of people are recommending it, but not saying why.
SuperDuper and an external drive is the perfect backup solution. Keep a complete BOOTABLE clone of your machine at all times. (Maybe more than one)
If my drive fails, I could firewire my machine to my backup drive and boot right up and keep working.
If my machine dies completely, I could get a new one, Boot it up to the external drive, run SuperDuper, and be back exactly where I was in a few hours.
I think anyone who’s not maintaining at least a complete clone of their drive for back-up purposes is insane.
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err… that’s “stock” experience 😉
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How about just using the stuff that came with it for a while before you load all kinds of crap on it?
Mail.app
Safari
iMovie
iTunes
iPhoto
iChat
Pages
Keynote
Address Book
iCal
Stickies
Seriously – the great thing about the Mac is that it comes ready to do real stuff… it’s not like Windows where you have to load 300 crappy sharewarez on it… please get a feel for the stick experience first…
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How about just using the stuff that came with it for a while before you load all kinds of crap on it?
Mail.app
Safari
iMovie
iTunes
iPhoto
iChat
Pages
Keynote
Address Book
iCal
Stickies
Seriously – the great thing about the Mac is that it comes ready to do real stuff… it’s not like Windows where you have to load 300 crappy sharewarez on it… please get a feel for the stick experience first…
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err… that’s “stock” experience 😉
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download for Mac OSX that enables automatic Wi-Fi connections to hotspots, muni networks….
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download for Mac OSX that enables automatic Wi-Fi connections to hotspots, muni networks….
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Hey Robert : add MacJournal (fantastic) and MindManager for Mac – Proteus (IM) works better for me than Adium
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Hey Robert : add MacJournal (fantastic) and MindManager for Mac – Proteus (IM) works better for me than Adium
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For editing documents and listening to iTunes, a Mac is fine. Oh, and surfing the net…
for those of us who want something with style and substance, there’s the Asus carbon-fiber laptops.
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For editing documents and listening to iTunes, a Mac is fine. Oh, and surfing the net…
for those of us who want something with style and substance, there’s the Asus carbon-fiber laptops.
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WinXP: you’re funny! I guess you didn’t understand that if you have a Mac you can run both MacOSX +AND+ Windows (either XP or Vista).
I have two OS’s on my machine. Are you saying having only one is better? Sounds like sour grapes to me.
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WinXP: you’re funny! I guess you didn’t understand that if you have a Mac you can run both MacOSX +AND+ Windows (either XP or Vista).
I have two OS’s on my machine. Are you saying having only one is better? Sounds like sour grapes to me.
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Robert — I searched your blog before asking this question, but didn’t find an answer to my upcoming question. And, I know that I can run Windows on my new MacBook Pro, but I’d prefer to not do that.
My question is, “what is the best replacement for the new Mac user for Microsoft Outlook?”
I asked more than 20 people this same question at Web 2.0 Expo and noone had a good/crisp answer. I also have done a number of google searches, and noone seems to agree. For all its warts, the ease of use/single app functionality of Outlook and its synchronization across Exchange Server to phones, etc. is really a timesaver for many people.
Do you know if there’s a consensus on the best way to approximate (or transcend) this utility?
– Entourage
– Mail / iCal / Address Book synch?
– Gmail / Cal / Mail / iCal synch?
– Zimbra
– other?
Thanks,
Dave
p.s. A good post on this by someone with your blogosphere outreach would be really helpful for converts, which I expect will only be increasing post-Vista…
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Robert — I searched your blog before asking this question, but didn’t find an answer to my upcoming question. And, I know that I can run Windows on my new MacBook Pro, but I’d prefer to not do that.
My question is, “what is the best replacement for the new Mac user for Microsoft Outlook?”
I asked more than 20 people this same question at Web 2.0 Expo and noone had a good/crisp answer. I also have done a number of google searches, and noone seems to agree. For all its warts, the ease of use/single app functionality of Outlook and its synchronization across Exchange Server to phones, etc. is really a timesaver for many people.
Do you know if there’s a consensus on the best way to approximate (or transcend) this utility?
– Entourage
– Mail / iCal / Address Book synch?
– Gmail / Cal / Mail / iCal synch?
– Zimbra
– other?
Thanks,
Dave
p.s. A good post on this by someone with your blogosphere outreach would be really helpful for converts, which I expect will only be increasing post-Vista…
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In the last month, business associates are all beginning the Mac switch. When my XP workhorse died, I bought an iMac with Parallels to run the windows apps I can’t live without. Now, I’ve fallen in love with how everything just works and does so with panache. For me, Vista put me over the edge…I bought a notebook with a gig of ram that runs the hard drive incessantly for nearly an hour with no apps running. I’m thinking I should sell it for a macbook…
Dave Schappel: .Mac might be the answer for you
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In the last month, business associates are all beginning the Mac switch. When my XP workhorse died, I bought an iMac with Parallels to run the windows apps I can’t live without. Now, I’ve fallen in love with how everything just works and does so with panache. For me, Vista put me over the edge…I bought a notebook with a gig of ram that runs the hard drive incessantly for nearly an hour with no apps running. I’m thinking I should sell it for a macbook…
Dave Schappel: .Mac might be the answer for you
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I couldn’t do without WebnoteHappy (http://happyapps.com), a utility I’ve not seen mentioned. It’s a bookmark manager that integrates del.icio.us. I have loads of bookmarks that haven’t been tagged/categorised/cleaned up/annotated from before del.icio.us came along, and WnH lets me search my library without differentiating between “del.icio.us” and “local.” I can quickly add stuff to it and then post it to del.icio.us at my convenience. The searching bit is key for me, since searching del.icio.us is so slow. I’ve also configured NNW to post to del.icio.us using WnH, which is handy.
I never had a need for a bookmark manager when I used Windows, because I only ever used one browser. Not having found a favourite on OS X yet, I frequently switch between Safari, Camino (lub), Firefox and OmniWeb (lub), depending on the task at hand. I’ve added a global keyboard shortcut to system prefs that makes cmd-d add an URL to WnH instead of the browser I happen to be using at the time. Works a treat.
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I couldn’t do without WebnoteHappy (http://happyapps.com), a utility I’ve not seen mentioned. It’s a bookmark manager that integrates del.icio.us. I have loads of bookmarks that haven’t been tagged/categorised/cleaned up/annotated from before del.icio.us came along, and WnH lets me search my library without differentiating between “del.icio.us” and “local.” I can quickly add stuff to it and then post it to del.icio.us at my convenience. The searching bit is key for me, since searching del.icio.us is so slow. I’ve also configured NNW to post to del.icio.us using WnH, which is handy.
I never had a need for a bookmark manager when I used Windows, because I only ever used one browser. Not having found a favourite on OS X yet, I frequently switch between Safari, Camino (lub), Firefox and OmniWeb (lub), depending on the task at hand. I’ve added a global keyboard shortcut to system prefs that makes cmd-d add an URL to WnH instead of the browser I happen to be using at the time. Works a treat.
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For those in the design industry, perhaps, Linotype Font Explorer is THE answer when it comes to font handling. Tired of FONTBOOK?! forget it, go to
http://www.linotype.com/fontexplorerX
oh, almost forgot! IT FREE!
Enjoy!
Many thanks for this list!
Found it to be quite useful!
Greetings from argentina
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For those in the design industry, perhaps, Linotype Font Explorer is THE answer when it comes to font handling. Tired of FONTBOOK?! forget it, go to
http://www.linotype.com/fontexplorerX
oh, almost forgot! IT FREE!
Enjoy!
Many thanks for this list!
Found it to be quite useful!
Greetings from argentina
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