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Most useful apps for Air on app store?

S

SpiffyChee

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 22, 2005
46
0
So I have been a windows 7 only user for the past few years, and with lion and my new air, I'm really enjoying the mac os again. Since I bought my new air on a student purchase, they gave me a $100 app store gift card and since I don't have an iPhone or iPod touch, I really don't know what in the world to do with it. I rarely buy music on iTunes..

The app store is overwhelming to me since I haven't really used mac apps in a while and sure I could just let my 100$ credit just sit there till I notice something, but that could take a long time...

In your opinions, what are the most useful/fun apps on the app store?
 
So far I've bought iWork and Reeder. Haven't found anything else I'm interested in so far. The cost of some of these apps are on the high side so it shouldn't take long to run through the gift card.
 
If you're a big gmail user then Sparrow is a rather neat email alternative to Mac Mail. I like it because it replicates the gmail labelling system, but it does depend on whether you've set up rules to filter your mail with labels.. Try it - there's a Sparrow Lite option.
 
I can't recommend The Unarchiver enough. It uncompresses every format, and is free.



Mactracker is a great free database of Mac models and specs if you need that sort of thing.
 
As a Windows 7 user I am sure you'll really like Cinch, which replicates the 'Snap' feature from Windows 7.

I've also downloaded MPlayerX, which is a good/prettier alternative to VLC.
 
iclearmemory, if you do a lot of multitasking with your air then your ram usage can often get close to 3gb and even 3.5, this app clears up ununsed memory, ranging from .2 gb to about 1gb or more depending on what you are doing. Great app for a buck
 
MPlayerX

You have to have it for playing any media files! Far more better than VLC and also QuickTimes
 
That app is a silly waste of money. The OS handles memory quite well.

Catdog12349 said:
iclearmemory, if you do a lot of multitasking with your air then your ram usage can often get close to 3gb and even 3.5, this app clears up ununsed memory, ranging from .2 gb to about 1gb or more depending on what you are doing. Great app for a buck
Click to expand...
 
DarwinOSX said:
That app is a silly waste of money. The OS handles memory quite well.
Click to expand...

Personally I bought a RAM cleaner for 59p. It is hardly a fortune, and it does clean up about 400-600mb each time I use it, so.

OP, you said you were a student. Depending on what you are studying, MindNode Pro is actually a very useful piece of software. It is basically used to creating mind maps very simply. Its really easy to use, and its very easy to put pictures into the maps, link your points, etc. I use it for studying, and it genuinely helps.
 
Catdog12349 said:
iclearmemory, if you do a lot of multitasking with your air then your ram usage can often get close to 3gb and even 3.5, this app clears up ununsed memory, ranging from .2 gb to about 1gb or more depending on what you are doing. Great app for a buck
Click to expand...

Memory freeing utilities are the underdogs of scams. Completely and utterly useless.

OSes (especially Linux and OS X) do an excellent job at managing memory. Don't think for a second that you can do better manually. Greater amounts of "free" (unallocated) memory don't equal more "useable" (allocatable) memory. OSes make room by unloading and paging away as needed, and they do it well.
 
Is lightroom on the store? If so I'd probably buy that since it offers more options than PSE and Aperture if you're mainly editing photos.

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ccsicecoke said:
MPlayerX

You have to have it for playing any media files! Far more better than VLC and also QuickTimes
Click to expand...

No.

No.

No.

VLC is by far better.
 
stevenpa said:
Is lightroom on the store? If so I'd probably buy that since it offers more options than PSE and Aperture if you're mainly editing photos.

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No.

No.

No.

VLC is by far better.
Click to expand...

I moved from VLC to MPlayer, I won't go back.


On the App store I bought:
iWork, LimeChat, Unarchiver, xCode

Off the internet I got:
Adium, Cloud, Dropbox, MPlayer
 
VLC vs. MPlayerX (or command-line versions: MPlayer and mplayer2):

I have settled on VLC after having tried both for years. Video played back through VLC is consistently sharper, easier on the eyes, and less CPU intensive -- across all the video files I have played, and across all computers I have compared both players on (desktop Radeon 5970 software and hardware decoding, notebook Radeon 6750M, notebook HD 3000, notebook NVIDIA 320M).
 
Last edited:
I have Suffit Expander. Is this any different than The Unarchiver?
 
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