Recommended Programs

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.

 

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



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.

 

most important is get an anti theft software here is what im using and its free
and browser based

http://preyproject.com/

 

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.

 

You can get iStat Menus here: http://bjango.com/

Also, you may want to look at Caffeine, 1Password, Evernote, etc.

 

I really can't believe I forgot about 1Password. I use that on everything.

http://agilebits.com/products/1Password/Mac

 

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)

 

You can also get the free iStat Pro widget for Dashboard here: http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatpro/

 

Lots of good suggestions in this link:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=796263&highlight=best+mac+apps

 

This is not an app store app (I don't think) but Click to Flash ... invaluable in my opinion.

 

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.

 

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

 

Go here...

https://extensions.apple.com/

Scroll about half way down the page and you'll see it.

 

No.

But I believe there are extensions for Chrome that do basically the same thing.

Unfortunately I'm not a big Chrome user so I don't know much about it.

 

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