This is a public service broadcast. If you have a new Macbook and are likely to ask me “Andy, what do I need on my Macbook?” then this might be an ideal read. This is especially relevant to first time mac users.
Being that I am now regularly finding myself being asked by friends about my Essential Selection, I have decided it would be far more sensible to jot it down here so that the links are all in one place.
Some of this stuff is very obvious, some is hardware, some is software, some is more Mac general than just for Macbooks. Use the bits you need.
Parallels
In my opinion Parallels is the best virtualisation software on the market. Alternatives include VMWare Fusion (a free beta, but with no right click support for Macbooks), Crossover (again free, allowing Windows applications to run in OS X directly) and Apple’s BootCamp (a beta likely to be bundled in Leopard, OS X 10.5, but requires a reboot to switch from OS X to Windows). Parallels supports any common version of Windows, however I’ve yet to find a way of installing anything without a bootable CD, so that rules out anything pre-Windows 2000 for me.
Memory
Although this is mixing hardware with software, I think it’s critical to point out the Macbook sees marked performance of virtualisation software with a memory upgrade. My logic is the sooner you buy it, the better value for money it becomes as you will get more use from it. Macbooks support up to 2GB of memory, and I recommend you buy from Orca , who offer a high quality product at a percentage of the cost of Apple’s branded stuff.
Unfortunately your Macbook will have come preloaded with two 256MB sticks (unless you customised at purchase) and these have to be totally replaced. Thankfully you can do the job yourself and it takes only a matter of minutes. The instant power boost is very noticeable and you can now happily run OS X and multiple instances of Windows at the same time with no lag. Everything else starts to act sharpish too.
(Note 1: go for the full upgrade straight out as having to again replace two 512Mb for two 1Gb down the line is going to be much more expensive in the long run).
(Note 2: keep your old memory. Not only is it pretty worthless coming in such small units, but if you ever have problems you should swap it back in to see if your upgrade was causing the issue).
Quicksilver
I’ve never heard anyone say they didn’t like this free little application , and amongst friends we’re pretty sure this is going to be swallowed up by Apple for use in Leopard (doing a ‘ CoverFlow ‘). If you’ve not discovered Spotlight yet (the inbuilt search mechanism in OS X), don’t worry about it, just go and download this instead. Quicksilver is a keyboard based search and task manager that ticks over silently in the background. Alt + Space brings up the small dialogue and from here you can open, close, move, edit, lookup, and execute pretty much anything on the computer. Enabling some of the extra plugins are a must, including:
- Dictionary Actions
- Text Manipulation Actions
- Apple Address Book Module (for searching contact details too)
- Extra Scripts (for shutdown and other shell actions)
You really can’t beat this program. It may take a few days to get used to, but it speeds up productivity no end – and that’s coming from someone who was initially sceptical.
The iSync Plugin For Your Phone
This might not be essential for some people; my W800i used to connect with iSync without a plugin, but my K800i isn’t so keen, so use this free download to remedy that.
There is no excuse not to keep your phone up-to-date with your address book and calendar with Bluetooth being so straight forward, and it provides a quick and easy way of ensuring if you were to lose either one of the pieces of kit, at least you’ll have a backup.
Flip4Mac
Quicktime is great, but you can’t play Windows Media files on there, so get the free version of Flip4Mac which gets over the proprietary movie format problem. Alternatively, if you don’t like Quicktime, VLC pretty much plays everything even if it isn’t much in the way of eye candy.
Colloquy
As an IRC newbie, this is the only app I’ve tried for, but it seems to work fine if you’re into that kinky chatroom stuff.
Remote Desktop Connections
Mac-on-PC, PC-on-Mac. No, this isn’t some geek porn mag, it’s the fantastic way you can use VNC or Microsoft’s Remote Desktop client to access another computer remotely. Although you may already be familiar with this stuff across a single platform, you might not know it’s also possible to do it across different OSs.
iWork
Throw away PowerPoint and start using Keynote for presentations. You will blow away any PC audience with this type of demo and the tools are very simple to pick up. I have less experience with Pages , but I hear very good things. Both applications come with the annually updated, fairly-reasonably priced iWork suite (only fairly-reasonabley priced because they update it annually).
Games
I am a fan of patience when wireless cannot be accessed. For this I recommend Solitaire XL . A little fancier than it’s Window’s counterpart it’s perfect for train journeys and lectures.
If you’re willing to experiment, Ambrosia Software’s Aperion X will stick to you like a heroin habit. Don’t pay for a licence otherwise the the 15 levels limit is removed and you could end up playing until infinity, and that simply won’t pay the bills.
Finally Macdoku is an interesting, free Sudoku generating app. I’ve yet to work out if I actually like it as I’ve not yet managed to complete a single game, and I’m not entirely sure it’s possible. You shouldn’t be wasting your time playing games anyway.
Salling Clicker
A little luxury, Salling Clicker means those with Bluetooth enabled phones can control their iTunes collection using their mobile. Unlike using the provided IR controller Apple give you, Bluetooth means this method works over longer distances and without line-of-sight. A nice addition is that you will magically be able to see the artwork on your phone screen, do direct searches and create playlists on the fly wherever you are in the house.
Honourable Beasts
Adium is free and allows you to run all your favourite messaging protocols at once. For the layman, that means you can run MSN, iChat, Google Talk, Yahoo! and a few others through one applications. Multiple account sign-in (polygamy) is also possible.
CyberDuck is a free FTP application which comes bundled on the install disc, but can also be downloaded. Maybe not the best FTP app out there, but it works.
Netfixer takes full-page screenshots of websites. There are other programs that do this but as I’ve not used them, I can’t comment.
If you’re not content with just screenshots, SiteSucker retrieves an entire site as HTML and with links and images intact. I use this all the time for local copies of dynamic sites to show to clients in case of an emergency. It can be a real lifesaver when the internet fails to work.
Using StuffIt Expander will help you unpack most forms of common archive. OS X copes with some standard ones, but this fills the gaps nicely.
A Couple Of Indispensable Websites
If you want to find free Mac software, I can highly recommend http://www.FreeMacWare.com as this is where much of my free software selection is made from. For software generally, try http://osx.iusethis.com . I subscribe to feeds from both these sites and something good usually turns up every couple of days.
A Couple Of RSS Feeds
If you are the sort of person who doesn’t listen to anyone else’s opinions, blindly argues the case for anything white and shiny and cries when you drop your iPod, then whatever you do don’t visit these sites. You will kill yourself through dehydration, salivating yourself to death from all the silly little rumours about upcoming product launches. Only subscribe to AppleInside or MacRumours if you think you still have a strong enough grip on reality. Little speculation you read on here transpires, but they are good places to go for the latest news on software/firmware updates and product discussions.
Software I’m Not Sure About
While Microsoft Office dominates, I’m not so sure about forking out for a license for my Mac, so I’m currently using OpenOffice . Unfortunately it’s not yet a universal binary, which means it won’t run at full performance on Intel Machines (all Macbooks fall into this category) and you have to run X11 (installed from your Tiger installation disc) everytime you want to use it. They are working on making it native, but it’s not quite baked yet.
If you have bought a Macbook since they started using Intel Core 2 Duo chips, you might or might not be aware that Apple secretly was shipping them out with the next generation wireless cards in them (801.11n draft). Most wireless home and office networks are currently 801.11g (the version before this new one) so you can’t really use it yet, but none the less if you want to ‘enable’ the extra functionality you need to pay £1.25 to download the official update from here . You have to pay for it due to a legal situation regarding selling products with hidden features.
And that’s about it. There is other software I use, but it’s specific or just bundled with OS X anyway. I’ve yet to pick my mac based text editor yet, but I know that TextMate comes highly recommended. If there is anything I’ve missed that is a good shout, drop it in the comments.
I can heartily recommend Transmit as the best <span class=“caps”>FTP</span> client for the Mac. I read great reviews for it when I was going for the freeware, which I choose Cyberduck. But Transmit is infinitely better.
For a BitTorrent client (if you are in to that) there is Azureus. But recently I’ve been using the extremely lightweight yet functional Transmission client.
I am yet to be convinced about Quicksilver, I don’t think I truely ‘get it’.
Finally, with the help of a tiny addition in the form of hardware – get a Migila TV digital receiver. This combined with EyeTV is a simply amazing piece of kit.