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Mantronix

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 21, 2007
177
0
Louisiana
Hello I'm a switcher and a Mac newbie. This is my 1st post on the forum and I plan on buying a IMac 24" soon. I need some help on which programs are a must have for Mac owners. I already have a few such as AppZapper, Adium, Stuffit, Mactheripper, Toast and Quicksilver. I already have Photoshop CS2 through my job and I've been looking at Aperture and Final Cut for video editing. My primary purpose is graphics/digital photography and later videography but I'm also looking for everyday Mac software. Any other suggestions?
 
Hello I'm a switcher and a Mac newbie. This is my 1st post on the forum and I plan on buying a IMac 24" soon. I need some help on which programs are a must have for Mac owners. I already have a few such as AppZapper, Adium, Stuffit, Mactheripper, Toast and Quicksilver. I already have Photoshop CS2 through my job and I've been looking at Aperture and Final Cut for video editing. My primary purpose is graphics/digital photography and later videography but I'm also looking for everyday Mac software. Any other suggestions?

You might want to wait until June to buy the iMac, or even October.
 
Azureus - Bittorrent
Shakespeer - DC++
Microsoft Office for Mac - Gotta do my papers somehow

and for widgets...

iStat Pro
 
Transmission is banned by some trackers, YMMV.

That may still be true, but most of the trackers should start unbanning it because release 0.71 (released yesterday) has fixed the issues that caused its banning in the first place.

Like TPAM said, though, YMMV.
 
"Essential" is pretty much job/task specific, but I really like Mellel, as an additional option for word processing, for its crashless, easy to use features, and tap it frequently for presentations where columns and matrices are needed. It's shareware, but $US 25 is nothing.
 
I'm getting my first Mac in 2 days and I can use your knowledge. Plz keep in mind I'm a switcher, that's why I have so many insecurities.

1. For internet, should I use Firefox, Safari or Camino ?
2. For mail, there's the mail in MacOS. My question is, can I check my gmail and yahoo mail using Mail in MacOS? (or should I use another program)
3. For video viewing, (wmv, avi ...) should I get something like Flip4Mac or WMP for Mac or both!??!
4. I intend to buy iWork but should I get NeoOffice (only for excel files)?
5. What about Xcode for C++ programming?
6. Last, but not least, should I download MSN for Mac or amsn !?!

Thank you very much.
PS: If you have any recommendation, feel free, it would be appreciated
 
I'm getting my first Mac in 2 days and I can use your knowledge. Plz keep in mind I'm a switcher, that's why I have so many insecurities.

1. For internet, should I use Firefox, Safari or Camino ?
Start with Safari, the add firefox for anything that doesn't work in Safari.

2. For mail, there's the mail in MacOS. My question is, can I check my gmail and yahoo mail using Mail in MacOS? (or should I use another program)
I think you should be good to go.

3. For video viewing, (wmv, avi ...) should I get something like Flip4Mac or WMP for Mac or both!??!
If you want to see any wmv. files you will need the Flip4Mac quicktime plugin.

4. I intend to buy iWork but should I get NeoOffice (only for excel files)?
Definitely get NeoOffice. It will only cost you the time it take to download it. Give it a try out before you commit to buying iWork.

You can see what I have loaded on my MacBook at http://osx.iusethis.com/user/hey_sparky Plus you can find lots of other stuff that might interest you.
 
for widgets, i second the istat pro, I am currently running istat nano, and it is great to know what your computer is doing!

For web browsers, I recommend starting with safari also, if it ain't broke, don't add another program for no reason! second, if you want more out of your browser, I recommend first using camino, firefox for the mac has gotten a little bloated for my tastes.

a must also is flip4mac, another second, or third nomination, it works wonders!

for all the switchers reading this.. start with as much bare bones system as you can manage, then if you NEED an app to do more, then find one!

also check out the web site... http://www.macupdate.com... they have new apps and widgets added daily!
 
Definitely check these out!

Quicksilver - Quick Launcher (Free)
AppZapper - Application Remover (Shareware)
ClamXav - Anti-Virus software (Free)
Firefox - Web Browser (Free)
Onyx - Multifunction Utility (Free)
The Unarchiver - File Extractor (Free)
Xslimmer - Application Slimmer (Shareware)
Perian - Video Support For QuickTime (Free)
Growl - Notifier (Free)
Transmission - Torrent Downloader (Free)
VLC - Video Player (Free)
NetNewsWire - RSS Reader (Free)
Adium - Instant Messenger (Free)

This is a long list of all my favorite apps.
There's good stuff there so check it out!
 
Definitely check these out!

Quicksilver - Quick Launcher (Free)
AppZapper - Application Remover (Shareware)
ClamXav - Anti-Virus software (Free) 2nd
Firefox - Web Browser (Free) - Flock (free)
Onyx - Multifunction Utility (Free) 2nd
The Unarchiver - File Extractor (Free)
Xslimmer - Application Slimmer (Shareware)
Perian - Video Support For QuickTime (Free)
Growl - Notifier (Free) 2nd
Transmission - Torrent Downloader (Free)
VLC - Video Player (Free)
NetNewsWire - RSS Reader (Free)
Adium - Instant Messenger (Free) 2nd
Istumbler - WIFI looker upper (free)
Capture me - image capture (free)
Virtualbox - Windows parallel (free)
Soulseex - Music Download software - was soulseek (free)
Neo Office - Word n that (free)
JAP - Hide IP (free)

This is a long list of all my favorite apps.
There's good stuff there so check it out!
Just a quick list update and 2nd'ing
 
need a MAC OSX Intel time attendace application with biometric support?

We have a construction company and need a daily attendance control application for our Intel Mac with OSX 10.54 for about 100 staff ?? Does anyone knows of such hardware/software that would work?
 
The good news is that this subject has been discussed repeatedly in several threads, so there's a good chance you'll find all the information you want by searching the forums to see what has already been discussed. Here is an example of the threads you'll find. MacRumors Guides are also a great resource. Finally, if you Google your thread title, you'll find many more resources. If you don't find your answer there, let us know and we'll be happy to help! :)
 
Bean!

Bean is a way cool word processor. It's a step up from Text Edit without being big and bulky.

I think Caboodle is cool, too, for storing snippets, though the free version of MacJournal does a really good job, too.
 
biometric = fingerprint ID support

Guys thanks but what I need is a fingerprint time attendance hardware/software for MAC OS X that would allow me to have all the workers to punch in and out of the job site and generate automatically their hours.
 
Guys thanks but what I need is a fingerprint time attendance hardware/software for MAC OS X that would allow me to have all the workers to punch in and out of the job site and generate automatically their hours

Did you try a Google search? I found several hits.
 
Post I made on another forum in response to the same question:

On my Macbook Pro I'm running:
Photoshop CS3 ($650-$1000) - I need it for my Uni classes. If you don't have the budget for CS3 I'd go with Pixelmator ($60) You could use The Gimp (free) but you have to use it through X11 which feels kind of messy.
Aperture ($200) - Love Aperture for organizing and doing basic edits of my photos. iPhoto is probably fine too though.
AppCleaner (Free) - some apps wont be completely removed just be deleting them, so I use AppCleaner.
Awaken ($13) - iTunes alarm clock. iTunes Alarm (free) works too though.
Burn (free) - OS X does have disc burning capabilities, but Burn's a bit better.
CandyBar ($30) - Easiest way to customize icons and dock.
Cha-Ching ($40) - My favorite money management app. The other option is Money ($40)
DEVONnote ($20) - I use it for note taking with automatic wiki links.
Final Cut Express ($200) - I do video editing for people as a side income, iMovie is probably fine for most people. iLife 08 is free with OS X, but I would probably download the, also free, downgrade to iMovie 06. The interface seems more logical.
FotoMagico ($49-$129) - Great slideshow creating program. iMovie can produce ok looking slideshows as well though.
Google Earth (free) - it's just fun
HandBrake (free) - DVD ripper and encoder
iScrobbler (free) - iTunes Last.fm client
iWork 08 ($80) - iWork has a much better interface than Office. It's also just as good as Office for word processing, and hands down better that office for presentations, spreadsheets could use some work, but they're acceptable by my standards.
Missing Sync ($40) - iSync doesn't have great syncing capabilities for my Treo, Missing Sync fixes that
NewsFire (free) - My favorite RSS reader, people seem to like NetNewsWire (free) as well though.
Quicksilver (free) - Amazing keyboard interface.
The Unarchiver (free) - Unarchiving program, if you need to unarchive .sitx files than the only option is Stuffit Expander (free)
Transmission (free) - Favorite torrent program.
Transmit ($18) - Favorite FTP client. Cyberduck (free) is good too.
Perian - Codecs for Quicktime.
Flip4Mac - WMV codecs for Quicktime.
 
have google it but....

All google complete hits on this are for WINDOWS... all other partial hits are for OS X, biometric or time attendance software BUT NOBODY in the MAC community apparently has never used the whole system and provided feedback.

So again I need to know if anyone on a MAC have used this software/hardware system?
 
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