Friday
Oct012010
List of Suggested Mac OS X Apps
Friday, October 1, 2010 at 16:56
So I just emailed a friend of mine a list of Applications to get for his new Macbook Pro. I posted it to my Facebook account as a reply to a comment, but when I tried to post it as a Status Update Facebook choked on it. Needless to say, I thought this might be a good blog post. Especially considering I haven't post one in months here. This is directly from the e-mail and not edited for the blog:
OK, so here are a few things to get for your new Mac:
Connect360. It allows you to play media from your mac through your xbox. if you don't have the mac connected to the tv it's cool to have. you can also stream music from your mac to play via the xbox while playing games. http://www.nullriver.com/products/connect360
GPG (the free PGP software). It shouldn't be too tricky to install, but I don't know how to transfer your key you created in the past to this one. You might need to create a new one. Anyway, if you want to install it in Mail, this is the only way to do it. It didn't work with Mail for a long time, so the next time Apple upgrades Mail, it might break. http://www.gpgmail.org/
VLC. VideoLAN (I don't know what the "C" stands for). This will play anything out there. Like I said before, sometimes quicktime won't play some video files. It's not a necessary program to have, but tons of people swear by it. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Flip4MacWMV. This allows WMV (Windows Movie Files - Windows Media Video I think) to be played in the Quicktime player. There's a free and paid version. http://www.telestream.net/telestream-products/desktop-products.htm
AppDelete. This will completely delete all aspects of a program. In Mac OS X typically when you trash an application it's deleted. However there may be a few other files associated with the app hanging around. This finds them. However, it only works if you take the app itself and drop on on the AppDelete icon. OK, looks like there's an Orphans option that finds files that don't have an app associated with it. http://www.reggieashworth.com/
Audacity. It's an audio editor app that's free. Not sure how much of this you'd want to do, but it's functional. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Firefox stuff. NoScript. There's plenty of other extensions to get for various things, but this should be the one that everyone has. It helps prevent unwanted scripts from running and harming your system. JS exploits can happen on all OSes. So if you're gonna go surfing it helps to have this running. Just search for it in FF.
Hulu Desktop. It's only good for me for old TV episodes. The movies on there pretty much suck. http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop
LittleSnitch. OK, so the Mac is pretty much virus/trojan proof. HOWEVER, it's not perfect. Just in case something does get installed, or you have a legitimate program that's "phoning home" and want to know about it, this proggy is a must have. It also appeals to the geek in me. It can be annoying at times. Sometimes an app will make multiple calls to multiple servers. When you see that happen there is a setting that allows you to give a blanket approval to all requests for that app. At first you'll need to approve everything; including Mac apps. Just like when you first start using NoScript on FF. http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html
Skype. Really only if you want to do video chat with people when they don't have an iChat account. I rarely use it, but it's pretty cool. http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home
TextWrangler. OK, so you have Text Edit which is fine. But if you want to do some serious text editing but not use Word, this is it. One example of needing this is if you want to make those e-mail sigs I have. Text Edit won't save it correctly, and Word will screw it up. I don't know why, but that's what I've experienced. And it's free. http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/
Transmission. Looking for that torrent of Iron Man 2? Once you find it, you this to download it. It's small, easy to use, and doesn't consume all your resources like Vuze. All it does is download. So unlike Vuze which lets you browse media, Transmission is a single purpose proggy. http://www.transmissionbt.com/
TrueCrypt. Need to hide those secret plans to overthrow the government or just don't want the pesky TSA to look at your porn, this thing is bullet-proof. You can completely encrypt your entire system or individual folders. Create hidden partitions and directories that's impossible to find. For my iMac I don't use it mainly cuz it's a desktop. However, for a laptop, it's something I'd recommend. Better than using FileVault in the system preferences. And it's free. http://www.truecrypt.org/
WireTapStudio. Need to record audio from anything your Mac is playing? This will do it. Was more useful for me when every iTunes song was copy-protected, but still has a use. Has a free trial. http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/wiretap/
Temperature Monitor. It monitors the temps of your Mac's components. Not a must have, but it's something to have in case you want to check out how hot you're Mac is getting. Free. http://www.bresink.com/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html
Growl. This is the the one program I would miss if I uninstalled it. It's a system notification app. It tells you when a new mail message comes in, new tweet, what song is playing, when a device it plugged in, etc. You'll also need to get GrowlMail and HardwareGrowler from the same site. It's so integrated in my system that I expect it when I work with windows machines. http://growl.info/
Cocktail and Onyx. They both do essentially the same thing. They are a way to clean your system and check various aspects of it. Onyx is probably a bit more powerful/geeky. Cocktail: http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php Onyx: http://www.titanium.free.fr/forums.php
MakeiPhoneRingTone. Don't want to spend $0.99 to make that song a ring tone in iTunes. This will do it. Though you'll need to create a version of the song that's no more than 30 secs. Actually it can be up to 40. That's where Audacity comes in to help. Same company makes Audio Hijack Pro which is similar to WireTap Pro, and some other cool little proggies. Free. http://www.rogueamoeba.com/freebies/
Amadeus Pro. If you don't like Audacity and want to use a paid app for sound editing, Amadeus Pro is pretty good. http://www.hairersoft.com/AmadeusPro/AmadeusPro.html
Disk Inventory X. This gives you a visual layout of files on your disk. Exremely helpful in finding huge files that are taking up disk space. Make sure you download the UNIVERSAL Beta. The regular 1.0 won't work as I found out today creating this list. What's really important to me about this app is that you can identify files that are taking up too much space and delete them from the app. Other's I've seen and used didn't let me do that. Free. http://www.derlien.com/
Monolingual. Eliminate all those language files you don't need when installing an app. Free. http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/
PeakExpress 6. For even more audio editing power. It's not free. http://www.bias-inc.com/products/peakExpress6/
Ableton Live. This is if you want to get back into some DJ stuff. Much more powerful than Garage Band. And if you get RB3 then you can use the Keyboard with it via MIDI. Definitely not free, but they do have a free trial. http://www.ableton.com/live-8
Synergy. It's a keyboard controller for iTunes. I use it all the time to stop and start iTunes. I know that now the mac keyboard has buttons for that, but it's my habit to use this thing. Not free, about $10. Listed at 9.95 Euros. http://www.wincent.com/a/products/synergy-advance/
Finally, for weather, I've used a few apps. Right now I use WeatherVane. Sits in your menu bar. http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/weathervane.html There are others if you search for them. Accuweather Stratus is pretty cool and sits on your desktop. http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/marketplace/index.cfm?event=marketplace.offering&offeringid=10960&marketplaceid=1
One more thing. Glims for Safari. Adds some features to it. What I like the most is the search bar customization. http://www.machangout.com/
Hope this helps. There are some other things out there, but these are just about all of the apps I have installed minus a few that are specific for me or being super geeky ;)
OK, so here are a few things to get for your new Mac:
Connect360. It allows you to play media from your mac through your xbox. if you don't have the mac connected to the tv it's cool to have. you can also stream music from your mac to play via the xbox while playing games. http://www.nullriver.com/products/connect360
GPG (the free PGP software). It shouldn't be too tricky to install, but I don't know how to transfer your key you created in the past to this one. You might need to create a new one. Anyway, if you want to install it in Mail, this is the only way to do it. It didn't work with Mail for a long time, so the next time Apple upgrades Mail, it might break. http://www.gpgmail.org/
VLC. VideoLAN (I don't know what the "C" stands for). This will play anything out there. Like I said before, sometimes quicktime won't play some video files. It's not a necessary program to have, but tons of people swear by it. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Flip4MacWMV. This allows WMV (Windows Movie Files - Windows Media Video I think) to be played in the Quicktime player. There's a free and paid version. http://www.telestream.net/telestream-products/desktop-products.htm
AppDelete. This will completely delete all aspects of a program. In Mac OS X typically when you trash an application it's deleted. However there may be a few other files associated with the app hanging around. This finds them. However, it only works if you take the app itself and drop on on the AppDelete icon. OK, looks like there's an Orphans option that finds files that don't have an app associated with it. http://www.reggieashworth.com/
Audacity. It's an audio editor app that's free. Not sure how much of this you'd want to do, but it's functional. http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Firefox stuff. NoScript. There's plenty of other extensions to get for various things, but this should be the one that everyone has. It helps prevent unwanted scripts from running and harming your system. JS exploits can happen on all OSes. So if you're gonna go surfing it helps to have this running. Just search for it in FF.
Hulu Desktop. It's only good for me for old TV episodes. The movies on there pretty much suck. http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop
LittleSnitch. OK, so the Mac is pretty much virus/trojan proof. HOWEVER, it's not perfect. Just in case something does get installed, or you have a legitimate program that's "phoning home" and want to know about it, this proggy is a must have. It also appeals to the geek in me. It can be annoying at times. Sometimes an app will make multiple calls to multiple servers. When you see that happen there is a setting that allows you to give a blanket approval to all requests for that app. At first you'll need to approve everything; including Mac apps. Just like when you first start using NoScript on FF. http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html
Skype. Really only if you want to do video chat with people when they don't have an iChat account. I rarely use it, but it's pretty cool. http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home
TextWrangler. OK, so you have Text Edit which is fine. But if you want to do some serious text editing but not use Word, this is it. One example of needing this is if you want to make those e-mail sigs I have. Text Edit won't save it correctly, and Word will screw it up. I don't know why, but that's what I've experienced. And it's free. http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/
Transmission. Looking for that torrent of Iron Man 2? Once you find it, you this to download it. It's small, easy to use, and doesn't consume all your resources like Vuze. All it does is download. So unlike Vuze which lets you browse media, Transmission is a single purpose proggy. http://www.transmissionbt.com/
TrueCrypt. Need to hide those secret plans to overthrow the government or just don't want the pesky TSA to look at your porn, this thing is bullet-proof. You can completely encrypt your entire system or individual folders. Create hidden partitions and directories that's impossible to find. For my iMac I don't use it mainly cuz it's a desktop. However, for a laptop, it's something I'd recommend. Better than using FileVault in the system preferences. And it's free. http://www.truecrypt.org/
WireTapStudio. Need to record audio from anything your Mac is playing? This will do it. Was more useful for me when every iTunes song was copy-protected, but still has a use. Has a free trial. http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/wiretap/
Temperature Monitor. It monitors the temps of your Mac's components. Not a must have, but it's something to have in case you want to check out how hot you're Mac is getting. Free. http://www.bresink.com/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html
Growl. This is the the one program I would miss if I uninstalled it. It's a system notification app. It tells you when a new mail message comes in, new tweet, what song is playing, when a device it plugged in, etc. You'll also need to get GrowlMail and HardwareGrowler from the same site. It's so integrated in my system that I expect it when I work with windows machines. http://growl.info/
Cocktail and Onyx. They both do essentially the same thing. They are a way to clean your system and check various aspects of it. Onyx is probably a bit more powerful/geeky. Cocktail: http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php Onyx: http://www.titanium.free.fr/forums.php
MakeiPhoneRingTone. Don't want to spend $0.99 to make that song a ring tone in iTunes. This will do it. Though you'll need to create a version of the song that's no more than 30 secs. Actually it can be up to 40. That's where Audacity comes in to help. Same company makes Audio Hijack Pro which is similar to WireTap Pro, and some other cool little proggies. Free. http://www.rogueamoeba.com/freebies/
Amadeus Pro. If you don't like Audacity and want to use a paid app for sound editing, Amadeus Pro is pretty good. http://www.hairersoft.com/AmadeusPro/AmadeusPro.html
Disk Inventory X. This gives you a visual layout of files on your disk. Exremely helpful in finding huge files that are taking up disk space. Make sure you download the UNIVERSAL Beta. The regular 1.0 won't work as I found out today creating this list. What's really important to me about this app is that you can identify files that are taking up too much space and delete them from the app. Other's I've seen and used didn't let me do that. Free. http://www.derlien.com/
Monolingual. Eliminate all those language files you don't need when installing an app. Free. http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/
PeakExpress 6. For even more audio editing power. It's not free. http://www.bias-inc.com/products/peakExpress6/
Ableton Live. This is if you want to get back into some DJ stuff. Much more powerful than Garage Band. And if you get RB3 then you can use the Keyboard with it via MIDI. Definitely not free, but they do have a free trial. http://www.ableton.com/live-8
Synergy. It's a keyboard controller for iTunes. I use it all the time to stop and start iTunes. I know that now the mac keyboard has buttons for that, but it's my habit to use this thing. Not free, about $10. Listed at 9.95 Euros. http://www.wincent.com/a/products/synergy-advance/
Finally, for weather, I've used a few apps. Right now I use WeatherVane. Sits in your menu bar. http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/weathervane.html There are others if you search for them. Accuweather Stratus is pretty cool and sits on your desktop. http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/marketplace/index.cfm?event=marketplace.offering&offeringid=10960&marketplaceid=1
One more thing. Glims for Safari. Adds some features to it. What I like the most is the search bar customization. http://www.machangout.com/
Hope this helps. There are some other things out there, but these are just about all of the apps I have installed minus a few that are specific for me or being super geeky ;)
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