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Most Useful Applications

S

shawsinio

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 29, 2006
167
0
UK
Im fairly new to macs, so was hoping all you veteran users could tell me what applications you find most useful (not normal things like iPhoto or whatever), but little things you use in your widgets all the time perhaps? or applications that always seem to be running in your dock, that you just wonder how you ever managed without!

be cool to see all your replies

shawsinio
 
j26

j26

macrumors 68000
Mar 30, 2005
1,722
609
Paddyland
For ripping my dvds I use Mac The Ripper and Handbrake - it's great to have a backup copy and I can watch films on the go.

For text editing I use NeoOffice which is pretty fully featured, but can be slow to open, so I keep AbiWord on hand as it opens quickly. I also have VoodooPad which is a kind of Wiki on your mac and is very handy for notes, or for keeping odd bits of information (I don't like stickies - they dominate a 12" screen)

iPhoto Buddy is great for keeping your photos in separate library. Scenic shots go in one and family photos and such like go in the other. Sometimes it's easier to have a couple of libraries.

PDFLab is great for splitting pdf files which makes it easier for me to keep information in the correct place.

Windows Media Player for playing wmv's.

I don't have Tiger yet, so I don't use widgets.
All of the above are free or shareware, except VoodooPad, but there is a free VoodooPad Light that is free.
 
flyfish29

flyfish29

macrumors 68020
Feb 4, 2003
2,175
4
New HAMpshire
The yoda widget is the best!

No not really...

I like Macjanitor to do all the maintenance tasks quick and easy.
Go to versiontracker.com to get it- it is free which is always nice!

Product Description:
Freeware utility to run the system's daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance scripts.
These scripts are normally run between 3am and 5am, and will not be run if you shut off your Mac at night. This can allow log files to grow very large, and prevent system databases from getting backed up.
With MacJanitor, you can run these scripts 'by hand' periodically without having to use the Terminal to keep your Mac OS X machine in top racing form.
Excellent for laptop users and others who shut off or put their Macs to sleep at night.
 
celebrian23

celebrian23

macrumors 65816
Mar 12, 2006
1,186
0
Under the sun
this may seem silly, but my favorite widget is preinstalled- the unit conversion. I find myself constantly wondering what 20,000 euros is. Or how much 25 kilos really is. Or what 15celcius feels like. or how many feet are in 7 miles. I can easily do this math without any difficulty
 
flyfish29

flyfish29

macrumors 68020
Feb 4, 2003
2,175
4
New HAMpshire
celebrian23 said:
this may seem silly, but my favorite widget is preinstalled- the unit conversion.
Click to expand...

May....may...it IS silly! :D :D

Next thing you know we will hear you saying how we need a great calculator app. just like our windows counterparts!!!

New commercial..."hello I am a PC.

"And I'm a Mac and I have this great new App...Unit Conversion...it rocks my widget world!"
 
solvs

solvs

macrumors 603
Jun 25, 2002
5,684
1
LaLaLand, CA
I like the unit converter widget. Great for cooking. The built in spellchecker and thesaurus are nice too. 3rd party I use:

Artrage
Audacity
Carbon Copy Cloner
Cocktail
Deafult Folder X
Divx
FFMPEG
Flip4Mac
FruitMenu
Google Earth
Image Tricks
ImageWell
iSquint
Mplayer
Onyx
Real
Romeo
Seashore
Service Scrubber
Temp Monitor
TinkerTool
Toast
VLC
Witch
WMP

Most of which are free or cheap
 
dmw007

dmw007

macrumors G4
May 26, 2005
10,635
0
Working for MI-6
celebrian23 said:
this may seem silly, but my favorite widget is preinstalled- the unit conversion. I find myself constantly wondering what 20,000 euros is. Or how much 25 kilos really is. Or what 15celcius feels like. or how many feet are in 7 miles. I can easily do this math without any difficulty
Click to expand...

I also find that widget quite helpful. :)


My other favorite one is the "chuck norris facts" widget which will display a randomly selected "fact" about chuck norris out of a database of 500+ "facts". :)


For example,

When an episode of Walker Texas Ranger aired in France, the French surrendered to Chuck Norris just to be on the safe side. :D

-or-​

There are no races, only countries of people Chuck Norris has beaten to different shades of black and blue. :D
 
count chocula

count chocula

macrumors 6502a
Apr 7, 2006
937
0
noun. a particular place or position
dmw007 said:
My other favorite one is the "chuck norris facts" widget which will display a randomly selected "fact" about chuck norris out of a database of 500+ "facts". :)


For example,

When an episode of Walker Texas Ranger aired in France, the French surrendered to Chuck Norris just to be on the safe side. :D

-or-​

There are no races, only countries of people Chuck Norris has beaten to different shades of black and blue. :D
Click to expand...

that is a good one, but some of them are kinda weird..
 
C

chairguru22

macrumors 6502a
May 31, 2006
661
154
PA
celebrian23 said:
this may seem silly, but my favorite widget is preinstalled- the unit conversion. I find myself constantly wondering what 20,000 euros is. Or how much 25 kilos really is. Or what 15celcius feels like. or how many feet are in 7 miles. I can easily do this math without any difficulty
Click to expand...

havent needed to use the unit converter since school is out but im studying to become an engineer and this WILL DEFINITELY come in handy since converting units the long way is a pain in the ass, very prone to stupid mistakes, and prof. LOVE to mess you up that way.
 
puckhead193

puckhead193

macrumors G3
May 25, 2004
9,570
852
NY
i just downloaded road trip effect pro..nice little plugin for imovie. You know how on tv shows when they show like a map an a plane travling accross to point a to b. It does that real easy. You can use one of their maps or your own and same with the icon that goes across...
Also adium for AIM


edit - my 3,000 Post!
 
7

72930

Retired
May 16, 2006
9,060
4
MS Paint

I am a fairly new switcher (got a macbook on the first day), and would definitely never want to use windows again. I am not a gamer, I only play on consoles, and find most apps have a better mac equivelant. Unfortunately though, I sometimes need quick, simple drawings, and I have to say that there is nothing better than the awful MS Paint; I now use seashore, and previouly used GIMP, but have found it annoying that seashore does not, and correct me if Im wrong, have a simple straight line drawing option. I even prefer using photoshop under rosetta than on a PC.
 
discoforce

discoforce

macrumors 6502a
Jan 27, 2004
575
0
Vermont, USA
psychofreak said:
I am a fairly new switcher (got a macbook on the first day), and would definitely never want to use windows again. I am not a gamer, I only play on consoles, and find most apps have a better mac equivelant. Unfortunately though, I sometimes need quick, simple drawings, and I have to say that there is nothing better than the awful MS Paint; I now use seashore, and previouly used GIMP, but have found it annoying that seashore does not, and correct me if Im wrong, have a simple straight line drawing option. I even prefer using photoshop under rosetta than on a PC.
Click to expand...

It's in "early" beta, but you may want to try out Poster Paint. Created by our very own Demi-God RobbieDuncan.
 
jadekitty24

jadekitty24

macrumors 65816
Oct 19, 2005
1,369
0
The poor section of Connecticut
Menu-Shade is one that comes to mind. It's a handy little app that will shade your menu-bar or even add "fake transparency" to match it to your desktop. Sort of making it seem "invisable". Then you just move your mouse over the menu-bar and it reappears, quite like the Dock when you have it set to "automatically hide and show the dock". Not crucial, but definitely helpful for me...I get distracted way too easily.
 
K

kiwi-in-uk

macrumors 6502a
Sep 22, 2004
735
0
AU
psychofreak said:
I am a fairly new switcher (got a macbook on the first day), and would definitely never want to use windows again. I am not a gamer, I only play on consoles, and find most apps have a better mac equivelant. Unfortunately though, I sometimes need quick, simple drawings, and I have to say that there is nothing better than the awful MS Paint; I now use seashore, and previouly used GIMP, but have found it annoying that seashore does not, and correct me if Im wrong, have a simple straight line drawing option. I even prefer using photoshop under rosetta than on a PC.
Click to expand...

discoforce said:
It's in "early" beta, but you may want to try out Poster Paint. Created by our very own Demi-God RobbieDuncan.
Click to expand...

Also Rita. Excellent for simple diagrams.
 
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