First time using a Macbook

Get Pages, Numers, Keynote, Garage Band, iMovies becuae they are nice and for free.
It then depends on your needs what apps to get. What are you using your macbook for?

Also get into settings and adjust the trackpad.
Enable 'tap for click' and put the mouse speed to max. The default speed is hindering and slow.

For the battery question: http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

Enjoy.

 

A good first step might be to set up a back up strategy.

Time Machine comes with your Mac, so that's a place to start.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1427

Personally, I use SuperDuper to create a bootable clone of my entire Mac on an external hard drive.

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/superduperdescription.html

Many people Carbon Copy Cloner for the same purpose.

http://www.bombich.com/

 

https://www.apple.com/support/macbook/new_user/

 

Getting a Retina? Figure out which resolution scale works for you. The default on 15" is 1680x1050 and the default on 13" is 1280x800. For some people, they prefer 1080p on 15" and 1680 on the 13". Play with them to see which works best.

Go into System Preferences and look around. There's things like hot corners where putting the mouse to a corner does things like sleep, opening Mission Control or Exposé. After setting those up, I didn't need four finger gestures which are a little difficult for me.

Also go into the Trackpad settings and look at the video example of each gesture to get a feel for what you can do with it.

The Trackpad gestures is one of the top reasons switchers from Windows claim to never switch back. (Myself included)

Set up an iTunes account and go on the App Store. There's a lot of very useful applications like iStats Pro and also Flux.x for adjusting brightness and tint based on the time of day. If you find an app you like but can't afford, Google it because there's a chance the developer has the DMG file free but only charges on App Store to recoup App Store tax.

Download VLC for your videos because it's just that much better.

Oh and buy a keyboard cover. Water is ultimate destroyer of MacBooks. A fingernail amount of water can fry your logic board and they can cost anywhere from $650 for a non Retina to as much as $1300 for a Retina to replace (labor NOT included).

 

Here’s my list from the last time I answered a question like this.

 

Whatever you do, don't put a film on the screen, it wrecks havoc on colours, plus it usually looks like crap within a month.

 

The default on the 15" is only 1440x900.

1680x1050 on the 15" rMBP is a scaled resolution.