Just Ordered Mac Mini:Any Must haves?

[snberk103]

Alright guys, name some Apps I need to get?

Also what is some software?

Depends on what you want to do and what you are used to....

 

[canes960]

Depends on what you want to do and what you are used to....

I mean I want to know the best software for music, streaming?
I also want to edit videos.

I also need suggestions on accessories!

 

[quistlogic]

software

I use:

Caffeine (free& stays in your menu bar for easy access) - stops your monitor from dimming which is good for when you're being productive editing a paper stay idle (away from keyboard or mouse) from longer than average periods of time.

DropBox (free & stays in your menu bar): 2gigs of online storage. Easy to use and understand. Mounts just like a regular file and automatically backs up everything you throw in there. I can "recommend e-mail" this to you and you and I will get an additional .5gigs of space. 🙂

Things ($50): Great Task Management software. I use it multiple times a day. Syncs up with iCal (which you can sync with Google Calendar), and allows you to print a nice foldable ToDos page.

iTunes plugin - iConcertCal (free): scans your music and allows you to bring up a cool calendar of concerts that reflects your iTunes music.

Sequential (free): Better image viewer. Better for viewing galleries, if you're not using iPhoto. Make it your default, I did.

VLC Player (free): Plays everything and has network capabilities for streaming from a network drive or another computer. Not to mention, it plays EVERYTHING you throw at it.

AppCleaner or another Application Clean up: Makes sure when you delete an App, it takes EVERYTHING it brought away with it.

Skype (free): If you have a camera. Some people think it works better than iChat -- me included -- not that i'm some expert -- I'm not.

OpenBravo (free & open source): If you're planning on running a restaurant or store. It's a free Point of Sales software that is ready for touch screen. It's pretty tight.

 

[pastrychef]

If you looking for extra storage that you are going to access yourself, then FW is definitely the way to go. If all you going to use it for backup then a cheap USB only external is fine. You have presumably started with a mini to safe some money... no point overspending on an external HD (or APC). At some point if you need to use external storage for active files you can always add another FW drive.

Sitting through a complete backup of a system using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! is not fun and much more painful when you're backing up to a USB hard drive. In my opinion, the few bucks saved from going USB instead of FW is not a value, but I value my time.

 

[pastrychef]

Alright guys, name some Apps I need to get?

Also what is some software?

In addition to what has been mentioned, Perian and ClickToFlash.

 

[snberk103]

Sitting through a complete backup of a system using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! is not fun and much more painful when you're backing up to a USB hard drive. In my opinion, the few bucks saved from going USB instead of FW is not a value, but I value my time.

Granted, that first time back-up can take a while. :😱 But my incrementals are set for 1:00 am. It can take as long as it wants, I won't see it. And if I do see it, there was a problem I need to know about.

Since he is buying a Mini (and not a new one, IIRC) I'm working on the assumption that funds need to be stretched.

 

[JohnRN]

Handbrake along with the VLC. Love that app, I've been turning all my DVD's into .m4v's so I can watch it using my mini. 🙂 Great little machine.

John

 

[Rizvi1]

For backup you can use the include Time Machine, which incrementally and allows you recover different versions of files, even if you trashed them or written over them.
...

If you use filevault, you can't take advantage of incremental back up of files right? I think it just bakes up the entire directory?