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Scuba629

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 14, 2010
249
5
Getting my MBA on Tuesday. I have a $100 dollar gift card to spend in the apple store and want to pick up either VMware or Parallels. I am not sure which is better but I have used VMware before so that most likely will be my choice unless some suggest otherwise.

As the title says are there any apps I must/should get from the apple store? Or from another place?

I was thinking about getting Microsoft Office but it has quite a few bad reviews. So im not sure?

So far I have...

Dropbox
HandBrake
World of Warcraft
Starcraft 2
Trillian(like iChat but does all the chats)
Skype
Chrome(seems to be the best besides Safari)
Adobe Flash Player
Adobe Reader
Logmein

Any others? I'm also looking for a 13 inch case that will keep it protected from scratches. Looks like others also recommend a USB hub and external hard drive too.

Thanks for the help
 
Get the hub and external drive only if you are certain you will use them. I haven't needed either with the MBA.

If you use ebooks get Calibre (free), and if you do a lot of math/calculations you could try Soulver from the app store, love the program.

Chrome is what we use. Also, we use both iWork and MSOffice. iWork's Keynote is vastly superior to Powerpoint so if you do presentations just get the iWork suite, it's pretty good (I also like Numbers better than Excel).

Also, Office isn't horrible. But you can tell it's a Windoze program, as I always can when using PC programs on the Mac. Plus it comes with a bunch of stuff we don't uses, including Outlook, Remote Desktop, etc. Mac OSX programs are way better than the Office suite programs for these kinds of tasks.
 
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Photoshop Elements 9 recently hit the App store. Its cheaper then the actual boxed version too.
 
Aside from what was mentioned above, I have two to recommend. I also got a $100 gift card... having difficulties spending it all. I already have the Microsoft Suite... and I obtained the iWork suite outside of the card... so spending it all is somewhat difficult, as it seems like the Mac App store isn't exactly littered with absolutely must-have apps for the average user.

The two apps I'd recommend are:

- Byword
- Angry Birds

:D

Angry Birds you should probably have heard of. It's pretty fun to pass some time on, and it's rather cheap. I think it's $5.

Byword I purchased for $10 and it's worth it to me. It's a particular kind of word processing program. If you search it, you just have to read up on it and you'll see what it's about. It's quite simple... I wish it were $5, as that would be a more appropriate price... but it's $10. That's what I paid and I'd do it again... it has already been useful for me. You might not care for it, but it's worth a look.
 
Just so you guys know the $100 gift card works on the iTunes store and the iBooks store. So you can buy music, book, or iPhone apps instead if you can't spend it all. The credit is tied to your Apple ID.
 
I like to have iStat Menus on all my computers.

I personally use Reeder for all my RSS needs (it has even been updated for Lion with full screen support).

You already use a lot of the Apps I use.

Office 2011 for Mac is actually pretty good for a Microsoft product.
 
Go to www.appshopper.com

Click on the Mac button in the upper left. Then click on the Top 200 button. Those are the 200 most popular apps. You can sort by price, rating, etc. There's also a pull down menu that says "All Categories". You can change that to Games, Utilities, etc, to see the top 200 in each category.

You can use Appshopper to set email alerts. Pick an app you like and click on the name. Under the price you'll see two buttons: Own It and Want It. Click the Want It button. You will get an email alert whenever a new version is released and/or when the price changes up or down. It also shows the price history, so you will know how low it's gone in the past.

It's an absolute must site for me.
 
Cynicalone said:
I like to have iStat Menus on all my computers.

I personally use Reeder for all my RSS needs (it has even been updated for Lion with full screen support).

You already use a lot of the Apps I use.

Office 2011 for Mac is actually pretty good for a Microsoft product.
Click to expand...

Picked up Reeder as I use it on my iphone 4 too. Didn't know there was a mac version too. Thanks!

Where did you get iStat Menus? App Store? I see a couple others using it so why not. :)

Ill most likely end up with Microsoft Office. :)
 
Bob Coxner said:
Go to www.appshopper.com

Click on the Mac button in the upper left. Then click on the Top 200 button. Those are the 200 most popular apps. You can sort by price, rating, etc. There's also a pull down menu that says "All Categories". You can change that to Games, Utilities, etc, to see the top 200 in each category.

You can use Appshopper to set email alerts. Pick an app you like and click on the name. Under the price you'll see two buttons: Own It and Want It. Click the Want It button. You will get an email alert whenever a new version is released and/or when the price changes up or down. It also shows the price history, so you will know how low it's gone in the past.

It's an absolute must site for me.
Click to expand...

Great Site! Wish most weren't games as I want to find the useful apps first. :)
 
Cinch, which brings the 'Snap' feature from Windows 7 to OSX.

Pretty good IMO, though they've ramped up the price recently.
 
Are you creating any documents, spreadsheets, presentations ?
If ues I advice to install OpenOffice (free) or IWorks (paid)
 
This is not an app store app (I don't think) but Click to Flash ... invaluable in my opinion.
 
lukekarts said:
Cinch, which brings the 'Snap' feature from Windows 7 to OSX.

Pretty good IMO, though they've ramped up the price recently.
Click to expand...

Cinch was once an easy recommendation but they went crazy with the price. If it was .99 or 1.99 it would sell a lot better.

It is one of those Windows 7 features that should be copied by Apple.

I use it, but rarely recommend it since the 6.99 price is steep for a window management app.
 
Cynicalone said:
Cinch was once an easy recommendation but they went crazy with the price. If it was .99 or 1.99 it would sell a lot better.

It is one of those Windows 7 features that should be copied by Apple.

I use it, but rarely recommend it since the 6.99 price is steep for a window management app.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Cinch is super handy, but the pricepoint is a bit out there.
 
offline rss

Guys ,

please let me know if pulp rss or reader rss will work without an active internet connection ? Kinda offline rss reader ? Any feedback is appreciated
 
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