My must-have Mac programs

I like to keep everyone informed of the software tools I use daily and since I've had the MacBook Pro (MBP) long enough to get pretty comfortable using it I'd like to touch briefly on the apps I'm using with it and why.  My experience with the Mac has been much different than Kevin's and I couldn't be happier with it.  It is lightning fast and sometimes I think it didn't register a mouse click when in fact the action is already finished.  I have been using it for podcasting and the sheer speed of the MBP has blown me away.  I used to encode the OnTheRun with Tablet PCs podcast on the HP tc1100 which took 40 - 45 minutes as that is a CPU intensive process.  It takes 3 minutes on the MBP!  Yowza!   Read on to see what apps I use on a daily basis on the Mac.

When I first got the MBP the one program that nearly everyone said was a must-have for the Mac is Quicksilver.  I am only just beginning to experience the power that is Quicksilver (QS) for the Mac and it is quickly becoming indispensable.  It is rare to see a utility so powerful and yet so simple to operate.  I have redefined the trigger key to invoke Quicksilver to the Command-space which I can invoke with one hand.  It is so cool to invoke QS, type a program or document or anything else I want and have the program instantly find the file I want and better still know exactly what I want to do with it.  I am just beginning to define my own custom triggers which I'm pretty sure is when QS will really become a "can't live without" utility for me.  And it's free.

I have been assimilated into the Mac environment very quickly, no doubt a tribute to the intuitiveness of the OS.  With all the web work I do the browsing toolkit is very important and I've got quite an arsenal on the Mac to help with my work.  I simply love Firefox on the Mac and with Google Browser Sync my two platform browsing is always synchronized.  Firefox is so quick on the MBP and it might be my imagination but it seems to be faster than the version on Vista.  I've played with Safari and Camino a fair bit but Firefox is my browser of choice.  Google Reader handles my RSS feed work just as well on the Mac as on the Windows platform and it's pretty cool.  I've added the ClipMarks add-on to Firefox for snipping important stuff from the web for later referral, and the All-in-one Sidebar has become indispensable.  I've installed both add-ons on the Windows platform, too.

I send a lot of podcast files over FTP and I've come to love Transmit, shareware app for the Mac.  It's a simple to use FTP client and it's become a favorite app of mine.  Like a lot of Mac apps, it just works well.  Speaking of podcasting, so far I am using Audacity to record and mix the podcasts because I am very familiar with it.  I've only tried GarageBand briefly but it looks pretty powerful so I plan more investigation with it.  Maybe there will be enhanced podcasts in the future.  :)

The very first program I installed on the new MBP was Parallels, complete with a full install of Vista Ultimate.  There are few things cooler than seeing Vista running in a window on the Mac desktop.  I haven't run into anything that won't run under Vista yet, in fact I successfully got the Zune software running in the virtual environment, but we won't go there again.  Running Vista applications in coherence mode on the MBP is really sweet, with the program presenting itself on the Mac desktop as just another application.  I sometimes run Outlook on the Mac in coherence mode and it is awesome to see it running "natively" on the Mac.

I find myself running Outlook on the Mac less often since I installed the full Mac Office 2004.  Entourage is playing mostly fine with my Exchange Server although it won't sync tasks and notes, no doubt because Mac Office is getting long in the tooth.  The next version is slated to appear later this year and I'll be jumping on it very quickly.  One observation about Mac Office 2004, even though it's been out for a few years it is surprising to me to find a lot of Office 2007-like features in all of the apps.  No question the Mac version was more advanced than the Windows counterpart when it was introduced.

The MBP was tailor-made for entertainment and it's no surprise it really shines in this area.  I use iTunes to handle my music, videos and photos and keep it all synced with the iPod.  Watching movies on the 17" screen in Front Row is simply wonderful.  I've been a big fan of Pandora for streaming new music and since Kevin found PandoraMan for the Mac it's been a daily fixture.  I love how Pandora determines what music I will like based on what I tell it and it's a great way to find new music I wouldn't find otherwise.  PandoraMan is a great way to interface with the online service and I highly recommend it.

It's no surprise that I use Skype a lot on the Mac, and the iSight web cam works well with it.  I do find that the Windows version of Skype has some useful features that are not on the Mac version but it's not a deal killer.  I am surprised that there are no settings for the iSight camera, though.  Maybe I just haven't found them yet but I'd like to be able to adjust the brightness and similar settings for the iSight but can't find where to do that.  Let me know if I'm just missing them.

This has been a brief overview of the apps I am currently using on the Mac.  Each of them plays an important part in the tasks I perform every day and the coolest thing is if there is a Windows program that provides a function I can't duplicate on the Mac side I just install it and run it under Parallels.  That's just plain cool.  :)

P. S.  I bought an Apple Mighty Mouse with the MBP and it's quickly become my favorite wireless mouse.  The little trackball is extremely useful for scrolling and once I mapped the right button to do a right-click interfacing with the Mac became much easier.  I know a lot of people have a love/ hate relationship with the Mighty Mouse but I love mine.

P. P. S.  I sure wish Apple would put an SD slot on the MBP.  It would make getting photos and videos into the Mac much easier!

Comments

[Scotty]

You haven't purchased an Express Card memory card adaptor yet?

[joey]

a few more for you mac newbies...

-try camino out, it doesn't have as many plugins as firefox, but it blazing fast compared to it. They do have a plugin community but not as extensive.
-adiumx is a great IM client
-handbrake is a must (best dvd ripper on earth), also if you need to transcode to various formats visualhub does the trick but its not free
-sidenote is kinda fun for some quick notes
-twitterific is rough but does the trick
-missing sync for syncing with your iapps and your windows mobile/blackberry device with itunes support
-clean archiver for sending compressed files that strip .dsstore madness
-foldershare for synching with other computers..

[peter]

I don't think Transmit is a free ftp client, unless its one by someone else then Panic

[Tonio Loewald]

Transmit isn't free. It's commercial/shareware from Panic.com. (I use it too, it's good value but not free.) There are several free ftp options though.

[James Kendrick]

You guys are all correct as usual. I didn't even realize Transmit was shareware as it presented no dialogs to inform me of that and with over a week of usage I encountered no limitations. I love the program so I just paid for it and unlocked it, although I still don't know what the limitations were. $29.99 is kind of steep for an ftp client but I like the program so it's worth it to me.

[James Kendrick]

Scotty, what would I need an Express Card adapter for? I don't carry the MBP around so I don't need EV-DO for it. If the cable goes out at home (happened last weekend) I just share the EV-DO from my P1610.

[Scotty]

My favorite FTP/HTTP tool is Speed Download 4 http://www.yazsoft.com/

The killer feature for me is that it auto-tunes itself to wring as many bytes per second as possible from HSDPA, Clear Wire, EDGE, Starbucks and DSL as I move around with my MBP C2D.

Possible Express Card for your MBP so you can read your SD card(s) http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product_Code=IOR+GFR202SD&JRSource=PriceGrabber.datafeed.IOR+GFR202SD

[Drew]

I have a Mac too but this new employment by Apple is really getting rediculous...! Just tell us what you're likes and dislikes are and stop it with the " better than Windows" remarks at the end of every sentence. I am a fan too,of both! Let journalism live at it's true form!

[James Kendrick]

Drew, the Apple job was an April Fool's joke, as noted by the SLOOF LIRPA at the end of that post. I also don't think I've indicated that the Mac is better than Windows, ever. Different tools for different needs. I've always preached that and never try to tell someone that something I use is better than everything else.

[Mike Cane]

>>>I used to encode the OnTheRun with Tablet PCs podcast on the HP tc1100 which took 40 - 45 minutes as that is a CPU intensive process. It takes 3 minutes on the MBP! Yowza!

Holy flippin bleep!!

But OK, now, what I don't understand for KEVIN: WHY is he bothering to run Parallels on his MBP (when it is WORKING, snark, snark!)? I thought his Q1 was his To-Go kit. Or has he wanted to replace that with the MBP? This kind of stuff is keeping me awake nights!

[Kevin C. Tofel]

I'm enjoying Filezilla on both the Mac and PC side for my FTP needs. Open source, works well and free.

Mike, although I've installed Parallels on the MBP, I haven't used it for days (even when I have or had my MBP working, that is). I still get heavy use out of the Q1P as it's the topic of a post that just went live...from the Q1P. You can go to bed now; we wouldn't want you staying awake as we know how cranky that makes you. :)

[Terry]

Get steer mouse to provide much more functionality for your mighty mouse.

[Scott Sterling]

Your photo of Outlook running on your desktop shows Parallels in the Dock NOT running. How's that work??

[Bill_in_Germany]

James - a good 3rd party utility to boost iSight brightness/contrast plus other goodies:
http://www.ecamm.com/mac/iglasses/

A free utility to manually control your keyboard backlighting:
http://labtick.proculo.de/

Free time-saving menu bar sound input/output selector: SoundSource - a must-try, James!
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/freebies/

Welcome to the Mac community!

[James Kendrick]

Scott Sterling, that's because I ran Outlook from an Outlook Parallels icon I put on the Mac desktop. You can see it on the dock and it does show that it's running. The generic Parallels icon on the right of the dock is the one I put there in case I want to run the entire Vista environment, something I now rarely do.

[Scott Sterling]

James, thanks for the response. I've been using Parallels since way before it was released, and I didn't know about this feature. I guess you're saying that its part of Coherence? What did you do to create the app-specific icon in the Dock?

[Scott Sterling]

James, never mind, I figured it out. Cool. You're new to Mac and already teaching me new tricks!

[Nikoooo]

For FTP there's also cyberduck. Good free tool.

[Mike Cane]

Probably some duplication. I've sat on this for a few weeks, just posted it today:

Reference: Mac OS X Software
http://mikecane.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/reference-mac-os-x-software/

[Richard Chacon]

James, you might try BonEcho, a optimized version of firefox for intel Macs.

I also recomend Audio Hijack pro, great application for recording and podcasting.
Linein is also a freeware app that allows audio pass thru from the line in jack to the line out.

I have a MacBook Pro as well, but my "fun" Mac is my Mac Mini hooked up to my Vizio 42" LCD TV. Nothing like using Front Row and a program called DVD assist to play my personal DVD's on a widescreen, with optical out to my surround system.