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Awesome Mac features...that you don't use?

Features of Mac OS X I never use:

Spaces (I have one balky app that doesn't get along with it, so I have to turn it off)
Cover Flow (totally useless to me, as icon view and list view give all the information I need)
Parental Controls (no need for it, I'm not a parent)
Safari (the only thing I ever use it for is Private Browsing, a feature I wish Firefox had)
iMovie (no interest or hardware for making movies)
iDVD (same reason as iMovie)
iWeb (I handwrite my HTML pages in TextEdit)
Expose (believe it or not, I still multitask the old, Mac OS 9 way)
 
I'm actually a little surprised that there are so many unused features by so many. I think I use all of the aforementioned in some capacity or another. I actually wanted to upgrade from my PowerBook for the built-in iSight. Exposè and Spaces are must-haves. Front Row I use all the time when I'm not at home and want a beautiful way to play my tunes (works great w/ remote). I've used every one of the iLife programs at one point or another, and the organizer apps are great, too.
iChat is awesome.
I suppose I don't use Automator, but, then again, it has come in handy once or twice, so I'm happy it's there.
Oh, and Safari is worth the switch just for Web Clips.
And Time Machine is the absolute best backup program I have ever used.
Sorry to be such a Macubater, but I think al these features are excellent!
 
I'd say Time Machine (no use in keeping deleted data), front row, automator, coverflow (use it sometimes for something new/but always switch back), iDVD. etc
 
DaveF said:
Excepting budget limits and crazy people with 500+ GB of data, I honestly can't understand why anyone would choose not to use TimeMachine.

But I've been burned, having lost photographs from a hard drive crash, and I had put off doing a manual backup of "other important stuff". Hopefully you're more diligent than I was with your backup process.

But for $130 for an external 500GB drive and you're good to go. After losing irreplacable vacation photos of my dad and me, I've got to evangelize Time Machine as a great and effortless backup process for the everyman.

To my original question: Parental Controls seem like a great feature for families, but I'm not a parent... 🙂. The Webclip Dashboard tool is really neat, but I just can't find a use for it. The Leopard-provided Movie Showtimes widget was the last widget I really needed. (Though my wife uses it, to track CD rates at our bank.)
Click to expand...

If my both my computers die, I still have a copy of most important data from them (Aperture library, iTunes, university work, passwords, etc). I don't need a full backup of my system - its unnecessary in my case and takes A LOT of space. And no, 500 GB hard drives are not 130$ here - a lot more. So why pay for stuff I don't need?

I also lost once about 4 gigs of VODs that I downloaded form internet (on my 64kbit/sec connection O_O ) and some photos, but that was because I was stupid and though I had a copy of them on another Mac...
 
iSight, Frontrow, coverflow, iDVD, iMovie 08 (I only use iMovie HD), Spaces, iChat and iWork, despite buying the full version. 😱 Hardly use Dashboard either.
 
i can't live without expose and spaces. great features.

I hate the dashboard because the apps are never preloaded. I never use coverflow except for music, i think its the worst way to find anything in terms of documents. I never use front row, I don't htink i've ever used my remote at all. I do use the camera but not often
 
I didn't use Exposé until I upgraded to Leopard, and I didn't really start using Spaces until a week ago, when I needed both Word and Adobe Reader open but didn't have enough screen space. A few features that are pretty useless for me are Time Machine and GarageBand. The first because I don't have the money to buy a 1TB external drive needed to backup my iMac and MacBook. GarageBand because when I need to edit an audio file, Audacity fits my needs just fine. I also have no need to iSync or iWeb and since Preview has been able to resize images, have not had to use Automator.
 
Features I do not use:

Automator
iDVD
iMovie

I actually REALLY like the iSight feature b/c I can use it to take pictures of our baby when I'm wearing her in the Bjorn while I work and for the occasional iChat with friends who don't get to see her often.

There might be other features, but the #1 that I don't use that I know is a good one is Automator. Maybe some time I'll use it.
 
Automator
Time Machine
Mail (I use Gmail's web interface; I don't see any reason not to)
Spaces (Tried it for awhile, but there were some inherent annoyances)
 
Features that I don't use but I think are cool (many people seem to be forgetting about this part of the question) are

Video editing - (iDVD, iMovie) In an ideal world I'd have enough time, energy and attention to get into video, but in this world at this time I just don't have the opportunity to do video.

PCMCIA slot - it's good to know it's there in case I ever need it, but so far I've never needed it.

dvi output - ditto

iWeb - it'd be cool to make webpages easily with iWeb, but I'm not willing to buy .Mac service because I don't think it's a good deal. (p.s. can you use iWeb and just have it export the html and media files in the proper directory structure so I can just upload it to my free webspace?)

.Mac - cool features, but not worth the money.

Photo Booth - would be fun, but I've got no video cam.

GarageBand - I used to do a lot of music composition, but again, I've got no time and energy now.

Fast User Switching - although I've got several users created for myself, I only really use one, so I turned off Fast User Switching to save resources, but now I never get to see the cool cube spin animation!

FileVault - it'd be nice to know that all my data is safe against prying eyes, but I've really no need for it, so it's not worth risking the extra problems I'd have in recovering from a disk problem if I ever have one.

Bluetooth - wireless connections to mouse, keyboard, phone, etc. would be cool, but I'm on a laptop and I've got an old phone so I've got no use for it.

Time Machine - I hope to employ this soon, but as of today I haven't set it up.

Folder Actions - could be super useful, but I haven't had time to set any up.

Smart Folders - ditto


That's about all I can think of for now.
 
Automator / Applescript (are these any good? I'll never know because Bash scripting is what I know, and it seems more powerful to me)
Safari (firefox is better)
Frontrow
Coverflow
Dashboard

Actually, I have to say that I don't think any of these features is "great". Why would anyone not use a feature that perceive as great? I suppose I've listed things I don't use that some others think are great.
 
mason.kramer said:
Automator / Applescript (are these any good? I'll never know because Bash scripting is what I know, and it seems more powerful to me)
Click to expand...

AppleScripts (and thus Automator actions) can incorporate shell scripts. They're mostly used to tie together OS X applications, rather than command-line type stuff.
 
Spaces - I rather have a secondary ACTUAL monitor
Timemachine - I dont ever recall searching for a file I have previously deleted, besides Superduper is the kind of backup manager I need.
 
Biggest one for me is Time Machine... I think it's bad ass, but I don't have an external (hoping to get Time Machine once I get a job)

I've never used image capture (I don't have a digital.)

Also don't use (actually don't even know how to use) Automater. Used it for changing my dock (a script someone made) but now that I have Candybar I don't need it... I mean it sounds cool and all but...meh.
 
motulist said:
Features that I don't use but I think are cool (many people seem to be forgetting about this part of the question) are

PCMCIA slot - it's good to know it's there in case I ever need it, but so far I've never needed it.
Click to expand...
That makes me think of my FireWire port. It seems like a great thing for faster external hard drives and video cameras, but I just don't need it. I use USB hard drives and don't have a FW camera. (I secretly wish it were another USB port instead.)
 
I know not all of these are new or awesome but...

Address Book - Don't have anyone to put in there since my phone doesn't sync with it and I talk to people over MSN, etc.

Automator - Don't have anything to Automator

DVD Player - I use Front Row

iCal - only rarely. I don't have anything to track, really.

iChat - Use Adium and Skype. Will use iChat if it allows MSN support.

iPhoto - don't take photos

iWeb - I use Dreamweaver

Stickies - Have widgets for that instead

Time Machine - Don't have an External drive but would use it if I did

Webclip - Don't find a use for it.

Parental Controls - It's my computer and I'm not restricting myself, nor do I have any other users.

And that's about it, I think.
 
I think that there is one awesome Leopard feature most people don't use (I do sometimes): search in Help menus.

Thinking about it, I use most of what OSX has to offer, I think, but not Time Machine or Spaces. I also don't use CD sharing, parental controls, Security settings or .Mac
 
iMovie, because I don't have a camcorder
iDVD, because they won't put superdrives in MacBooks
Automator, because I don't get it
Time Machine, because my 250 LaCie is too small to backup my 250 internal 😕
Numbers, because I have yet to get started on sorting my finances. Actually, I might just start now.
 
I rarely if ever use the backlight keyboard on my 15" Powerbook. it's cool, I just never use it, especially on battery power.

Automator is neat, too, but again, never use it.

I would like to use Garageband, but it takes up too much disk space, and I don't have a keyboard to hook up to it..

Got rid of iWeb, too. don't have a .Mac account and don't have the money or need to host a web page elsewhere, either.

And to you people that don't use Expose: you're crazy. Of course, i have it set up as a hot corner...can't imagine having to press a button....
 
eXan said:
If my both my computers die, I still have a copy of most important data from them (Aperture library, iTunes, university work, passwords, etc). I don't need a full backup of my system - its unnecessary in my case and takes A LOT of space. And no, 500 GB hard drives are not 130$ here - a lot more. So why pay for stuff I don't need?
Click to expand...
Well, two computers sharing files is almost as good as a Time Machine system 🙂 And I didn't notice you're in Russia -- I have no idea have hard drives cost there. Hrm...Makes me wonder if this great little pastry shop I once visited in St. Petersburg is still open... 🙂

psychofreak said:
I think that there is one awesome Leopard feature most people don't use (I do sometimes): search in Help menus.
Click to expand...
I can't bring myself to put that in the "awesome" category. It's a neat idea, but I've not found it that useful. It seems if I can't find a menu item, I'm so far off in what I think it's called that the Help won't find it either. And Help is mediocre at best, often useless and the new interface is step backwards, that I often search online before using Help. I doubt I'm alone.
 
psychofreak said:
I think that there is one awesome Leopard feature most people don't use (I do sometimes): search in Help menus.
Click to expand...

it's definitely one of my favorite features in leopard, and it makes it much easier to get by with new programs i'm not familiar with. key command is command-shift then forward slash.
 
I have never used garage band but have heard it's fun. Also, i think the pdf functions built into osx are underutilized, at least by my friends
 
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