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I am starting to fall for my MBA

G

Guppy51

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 25, 2013
32
0
Hi I purchased first ever Macbook few months ago in July. To be honest, for a while I was missing my PC, since thats what I been using for the past 15years.

However as I discover more apps and spend more times on my MBA. I am starting to feel the comfort of using a Macbook, also the design and the feel of the Macbook Air is nice also.

I just want to share some of the apps that makes the macbook easier to use for me.

Alfred - All I need is to hit Opt + Space bar I can find any file instantly
Bartender - Helps organize all the icons on the top bar, I like to keep things organize
Divvy - An app that helps create hotkeys for resizing windows, before I downloaded Divvy, I really dislike using the trackpad to resize the windows
Parallels/window - Ok I know this is cheating, but some apps I just can't get on Macbook and it is so easy to run both windows at the same time. I use parallels for "Web freer" and "IE".
Adium - Before I was using Massager, and I really dislike it. Sometimes it disconnect me for no reason and is not clear if some of the messages were send or not.
Airmail - I hate the "Mail" app, it gave me problems of not sending out emails and a lot of time getting mails with a delay. But with Airmail it is easily for me to send/receive mails with my google and yahoo account.
Transmission - A nice torrent program for the Mac, I don't think I need to explain it
Chrome - Some extensions made the Mac Chrome experiences a lot more enjoyable.

I am sure I will discover more apps and way for me to like my Mac even more. I just feel like sharing this with the MBA community, hopefully I will see some replied with some great apps that I miss.
 
Nice app list. I didn't know Divvy, going to take a look at that.

I usually have AntiRSI (in the App Store) and CrashPlan (for backups) installed as well.
 
Yeah a great apps that gets overlook, it help resize your windows and you can customize the size/location and hotkeys.
 
Guppy51 said:
Can you explain the workflow a bit?
Click to expand...

You bet. Hit option-space to bring up Alfred then hit command-comma to bring up Alfred preferences. Look in there for the Workflows tab. (You need the paid Alfred Powerpack to use workflows). If you click the little + at the bottom of that screen you can see some sample workflows and pointers to make your own workflows.

You can either make your own workflows or download preconfigured workflows from other users. Workflows are used to automate anything you might regularly do on your Mac. Just a couple example of workflows I use. I have one that shows the battery level (shot below). I use one that shows my IP address in Alfred. There are some really slick ones that can add appointments to Calendar from within Alfred. Here is a nice one that does Google search auto suggest within Alfred.

WwyaMQ0.png


You can find more workflows in the Alfred support forums here. Hope this helps. :)
 
Thanks a lot, I spent the past 2 days on setting up the apps, so I need to get back to work. I will for sure try it out sometime next week, also my version is free.
 
I've been interested in trying Airmail because I've noticed Apple Mail is not as fast as it is on iOS with receiving messages. Is there an auto cap feature in Airmail?
 
Not sure about the all cap, but highly recommend you to try out Airmail :cool:
 
I installed Alfred after hearing everyone rave about it and how easy it is to use. I really haven't used it. I generally just use Finder. What am I not understanding what Alfred is about.
 
I installed Alfred, found it ridiculously complicated and strange, and finally uninstalled it. I always use spotlight search and find exactly what I need that way.
 
If one is looking only for a way to launch apps or find documents, programs like Alfred, Quicksilver, and Launchbar (my favorite) are overkill. As recommended, Spotlight is fine for that.

But programs like Alfred, Quicksilver, and Launchbar can do so much more than just serve as Spotlight replacements. All require an investment in learning and practice to uncover their real benefits. The great thing about each of them is they can be used to open apps and documents until one is ready to explore their other functions. I'll readily admit that some of the most advanced things one can do with these apps requires some scripting/programming, but each will reward patience and practice even in much simpler uses.
 
Last edited:
Alfred just looks better than spotlight and I like it shows the list and I can just hit enter or one of the number keys. Didn't know about all the extra features I will dig more into that later.

Also Xee is a great app to view pictures too. I left out that one in my op.

Here is a picture of my screen, I got the bar placed on the left hand side instead of the bottom. I think the value of "real estate" worth much more in the bottom, by putting it on the left when I max the window is enough, now I rarely need to put my chrome to full screen.

I am sure I will find more amazing things with Mac, I know there are a lot of widget works can make the Mac experience much better. I will also dig into that side later.
 

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awesome - i came here to basically say "yay - another Apple convert" and here I am learning something myself!

Delivers%20Thread.jpg
 
Jefe's MacAir said:
I installed Alfred after hearing everyone rave about it and how easy it is to use. I really haven't used it. I generally just use Finder. What am I not understanding what Alfred is about.
Click to expand...

damidget said:
Alfred is a really ridiculous app.
Seriously, why use that when the built it Spotlight function with cmd+spacebar?:eek:
Click to expand...

ApplNat said:
I installed Alfred, found it ridiculously complicated and strange, and finally uninstalled it. I always use spotlight search and find exactly what I need that way.
Click to expand...

If all you are doing is launching apps or looking for documents, I completely agree Alfred is of little use and not much of an improvement over Spotlight. Alfred's real benefit for me is some of the advanced features and workflows I mentioned in my post #6 above.
 
Weaselboy said:
+1 for Alfred. I would be completely lost without it. You should check out some of the Alfred workflows here.
Click to expand...

I haven't looked into it, but in regard to the main function ("find any file"), how is it any different than the same keyboard shortcut for finder. That always seems to suffice for me.
 
iBreatheApple said:
I haven't looked into it, but in regard to the main function ("find any file"), how is it any different than the same keyboard shortcut for finder. That always seems to suffice for me.
Click to expand...

Spotlight only allows you to open the file/document. Alfred allows you to act on the file from a list of file actions (see my screen cap). Very handy. Once you get the hang of it, doing some of these things from the keyboard with Alfred really speeds up the workflow.

But yeah... if you just want to launch a document, Alfred does not add anything to what Spotlight does there.

ebx4oAE.png
 
elyrly said:
flux- Reduce eye strain

http://justgetflux.com/
Click to expand...

Yeah sorry I got it mixed up with "Time Sink". I actually stopped using Flux, because I found that since I use my mba indoor majority of the time, the screen would go yellow around 5-6pm and it doesn't really help. I can see it would work for someone that exposes to different light setting environments while working on their mac. This app doesn't do much for me right now, since I always use my mba indoor and my room doesn't get that much sunlights, so I am constantly in the same light environment.
 
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