Just bought new macbook pro

[sk24iam]

My dell inspiron screen died after 5 years, today I decided to buy a Macbook pro 13. I plan on buying a sleeve for it, upgrading the ram, and purchasing Microsoft office. Are there any free apps that are recommended for all mac users?

Also, are there any tests I should do to make sure there is nothing wrong with it?

 

[EndlessMac]

Are there any free apps that are recommended for all mac users?

There are quite a bit of free apps out there. It would be a lot easier to tell us what you need but it might also be easier to add them when you need them rather than overwhelming yourself with everything at once. Since you mentioned Microsoft Office there is a free office suite called NeoOffice. It's based on Open Office if you have ever heard of it. It can open many Microsoft Office files and save in those formats but if you want full compatibility with Microsoft Office then you probably will have to get Microsoft Office for Mac. You can at least try it out and see if it works for you before buying Microsoft Office. Another popular office suite is Apple's iWork but it's not free.

 

[WardC]

Download VLC player for Mac -- it's a must have and it will play practically every video format under sun - including all of those that QuickTime player will refuse to play.

 

[palmerc2]

-Picasa is a big help sometimes, and its free
-If you find the screen to be bright there is a program called Shades to dim the screen
-if you don't want your screen to go to sleep / dim / screensave theres a program called Caffeine
-Handbrake is good if you want to take a DVD and put it into a format to be played in .mp4 which you can put on ipod, iphone, psp, or just play on your computer
-iPodDisk is good if you want to take all the music from your iPod, and transfer it to your iTunes
-UnRarX, almost a necessity - comparable to WinRarX....Zipeg is also good.
-MPlayer OSX will play practically any video type

 

[Sneakz]

Download VLC player for Mac -- it's a must have and it will play practically every video format under sun - including all of those that QuickTime player will refuse to play.

Be sure to grab 64 bit VLC

 

[sk24iam]

Ok thanks, I will look into these. When I first started using OS X, the dock would scroll through the applications. Now the dock is stationary showing all the applications. How do I change the dock back to default?

 

[WardC]

Ok thanks, I will look into these. When I first started using OS X, the dock would scroll through the applications. Now the dock is stationary showing all the applications. How do I change the dock back to default?

Right click the dock at the divider on the right side, next the trash...then pull up -- it presents you the option to turn magnification on or off.

 

[airplaneman]

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=571489

 

[sk24iam]

Even though my harddrive on my previous laptop is still good, the screen in my Dell no longer has a power supply to it which forced me to make the new purchase. I'm wondering if there is a way to take the music I have on my ipod touch and transfer it onto my macbook pro. Anyone have any personal experience with this?

 

[harperjones99]

-if you don't want your screen to go to sleep / dim / screensave theres a program called Caffeine

You can disable this in System Preferences as well under Desktop & Screensaver by setting it to "never" and under Power management by unchecking "automatically reduce brightness before display goes to sleep". No added program needed.

I am also not sure why you would need a program to dim the screen...if set brightness to 0 the screen is black and I can't see it at all...I run it at 75-80% normally and I have sensitive eyes.

sk24 I use Open Office and it's fine for all my needs as an average user and I have never wished I had MS Office instead.

 

[bcburrows]

Even though my harddrive on my previous laptop is still good, the screen in my Dell no longer has a power supply to it which forced me to make the new purchase. I'm wondering if there is a way to take the music I have on my ipod touch and transfer it onto my macbook pro. Anyone have any personal experience with this?

I use ipodrip - always been good to me

 

[darngooddesign]

Are there any free apps that are recommended for all mac users?

I love vague questions like this.

Free apps that do what?

I can cand you one that draws circles on the screen but do you really want it?

 

[skorpien]

Even though my harddrive on my previous laptop is still good, the screen in my Dell no longer has a power supply to it which forced me to make the new purchase. I'm wondering if there is a way to take the music I have on my ipod touch and transfer it onto my macbook pro. Anyone have any personal experience with this?

Senuti is another iPod to Mac utility. If it'll be a one time deal, download the trial and get all of your music off your iPod, then make a backup other than your laptop's HDD. Or, if your old laptop's completely hooped, you may consider opening it up and seating the HDD in an enclosure. That way you could pull everything you need off of the drive. And then you could format it and use it as a spare/backup!

 

[bass93]

Even though my harddrive on my previous laptop is still good, the screen in my Dell no longer has a power supply to it which forced me to make the new purchase. I'm wondering if there is a way to take the music I have on my ipod touch and transfer it onto my macbook pro. Anyone have any personal experience with this?

Yes, download Senuti (google it). They have a free trial that you can use. If you want to buy it, I think it's like $18 or something. I did that when my old computer died. It worked really good.

For some free programs to download:
ClamXav - A free virus protection for Macs. I use this because even though a virus for a Mac is very rare, you can still get one.
HandBrake - An amazing DVD ripper
MacTubes - YouTube downloader
NeoOffice - Office suite
VLC
Plex - A super good looking, great functioning media center
Senuti
Seashore - I just downloaded this yesterday, but it looks like some pretty good software. It's a photo editor that looks a little bit like Photoshop.
SMC Fan Control - Pretty much what the name says.

I hope this helps. Have fun using OS X

 

[sk24iam]

Thanks for all the responses... WHile I have this post going I'll ask some more questions...

My mbp sits in my bedroom at home all day while I am at work. During the day now the room gets pretty cold since no one is home. Is this bad for the battery?

Also, I'm looking to buy a sleeve. It doesn't have to be anything great since I rarely take the mbp anywhere but it will be for traveling on the road. The sleeve will go in a backpack when traveling. Does anyone have any experience with an ebay sleeve such as this one? http://cgi.ebay.com/Netbook-Sleeve-...ltDomain_0?hash=item414a3e6c98#ht_2199wt_1024

 

[skorpien]

Operating temperature: 50° to 95° F
(10° to 35° C)
Storage temperature: -13° to 113° F
(-24° to 45° C)

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP541

You'll be fine if the temperature doesn't dip below -13° F (-24° C).

Also, I don't trust the quality of those sleeves from eBay. I have an incase sleeve for my 13" Alu MB (before they added that infernal P ) and it fits like a glove. The interior of these sleeves is by far the best material I've felt of any other manufacturers' sleeves, and it has enough cushion to protect it if you place it in your backpack. It'll run you more than an eBay sleeve, but I highly recommend them.

 

[cfitz7111]

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP541

You'll be fine if the temperature doesn't dip below -13° F (-24° C).

Also, I don't trust the quality of those sleeves from eBay. I have an incase sleeve for my 13" Alu MB (before they added that infernal P ) and it fits like a glove. The interior of these sleeves is by far the best material I've felt of any other manufacturers' sleeves, and it has enough cushion to protect it if you place it in your backpack. It'll run you more than an eBay sleeve, but I highly recommend them.

With eBay you get what you pay for, buy cheap, and it will be a cheap product.

 

[sk24iam]

I have recently downloaded and installed Mozilla Firefox. Is it supposed to be automatically added to my applications folder? I don't see it in there. How come everytime I open firefox it puts an icon on my desktop? What is that?

 

[Punker]

I'm pretty new to the Mac Scene, but these are the ones i can't live without:

- Quicksilver (free) : http://www.blacktree.com/
Application launcher and file finder, much better than spotlight imo

- Path finder : http://cocoatech.com/
IMO, this is much better than finder and it can fully replace it without being a memory hog. Now its possible to browse files with tabs, cut and paste, etc. Its a much better version of finder

- Little snitch http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html
Used to control what goes out, what comes in: network manager

- SMC Fan Control (free) : http://www.eidac.de/
Monitor fan speed and temps

- LiveStation (free) : http://www.livestation.com/
Watch streaming TV form your laptop, channels from around the world.

- Super flexible file synchronizer : http://www.superflexible.com/
My files backup application. Dont want to have a complete system backup(thats why i dont use time machine), only my work folder and pics.

- VMWare Fusion 7 + Windoes 7
I need this for testing my websites in IE and also developing in .net from time to time.

 

[Ann P]

AppCleaner, it's a must have! Really helpful if you're going to be installing and deleting new apps. If you haven't already done so, get Adium. It lets you log on multiple chat clients at the same time (more than that of iChat's).

http://freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/
http://adium.im/

Oh, and congrats on your new machine.

 

[stars_fan]

I have recently downloaded and installed Mozilla Firefox. Is it supposed to be automatically added to my applications folder? I don't see it in there. How come everytime I open firefox it puts an icon on my desktop? What is that?

All you do is drag the Firefox icon over to the applications folder to install. Doesn't sound like that is what you did.

Double click that firefox icon on your desktop and it should pop open a box to do what I said above.

 

[skorpien]

I have recently downloaded and installed Mozilla Firefox. Is it supposed to be automatically added to my applications folder? I don't see it in there. How come everytime I open firefox it puts an icon on my desktop? What is that?

That's the disk image that you downloaded. It mounts itself on the desktop, where you can launch it (as though you slid a CD into your computer). Depending on the app (been a while since I've installed Firefox), you'll either need to click and drag it into your Applications folder, or it will have an installer file that you need to double click. If there isn't already a shortcut to the Applications folder on the disk image, then open a finder window to Applications and click and drag the Firefox icon from the disk image to that folder. Also, you may want to click and drag the Firefox icon from your Applications folder to your dock. This'll place a shortcut for you so that you're not continuously opening the Applications folder to launch it.

 

[sk24iam]

I have installed, added to applications, and added to my dock. Whenever I open firefox, the icon still pops up on my desktop. I tried "ejecting" it but it still reappears upon reopening firefox.

 

[EndlessMac]

I have installed, added to applications, and added to my dock. Whenever I open firefox, the icon still pops up on my desktop. I tried "ejecting" it but it still reappears upon reopening firefox.

Are you sure you didn't drag the ".dmg" file into your dock instead of the application itself? Read this installation guide.

There are basically two ways to install programs in Mac. The most common is getting a Disk Image (.dmg) file which is basically a self contain software/application. You then have to copy the whole application over to your hard drive. You will understand it better if you think of it as copying something over like you do with a flash drive or external hard drive. Like with a flash or external drive the drive shows up on your desktop and you then find the files you want and drag/copy them over to your computer's hard drive. That's basically what you are doing when you install applications.

Most people put their applications in their "application" folder. What confuses people is that you can run some applications from the dmg file but you will always know you are running from the dmg file when it shows up on your desktop as it seems to be doing for you. It's just like you can open files from your flash/external drive when you see them but they aren't on your computer's hard drive until you copy them over. Make sure to only open software from your applications folder. This way you will know for sure that you have copied them over to your computer's hard drive.

The other way to install applications is very similar to Windows in that when you open it, it will open a window and walks you through the progress of installing the application by asking you to install. That's usually saved for more complicated applications that need more work then a simple drag and copy over to your computer. A word of caution when installing. Anytime you are asked for your password, make sure you are installing a trusted application. It's okay if it's an application you trust. Most applications won't ask for your password.

 

[alphaod]

I have installed, added to applications, and added to my dock. Whenever I open firefox, the icon still pops up on my desktop. I tried "ejecting" it but it still reappears upon reopening firefox.

Please refer to this guide:
http://guides.macrumors.com/Installing_Applications_in_Mac_OS_X