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Must have apps for rMBP
- Thread starter phas3
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Would need to know what you expect to do with your MBPro.
I have no interest in editing videos, but that might be your daily life
Some folks may tell you that your new rMBP comes standard with all the must have apps that you need, but they don't know what you want (but you could tell us)
I have no interest in editing videos, but that might be your daily life
Some folks may tell you that your new rMBP comes standard with all the must have apps that you need, but they don't know what you want (but you could tell us)
pretty much just regular web browsing, video watching, a few lightroom/photoshop edits and school stuff lol
VLC seems appropriate. Pages, Keynote, Numbers are also useful for your situation.
I'd say Spotify is a must too as it it's a great way to discover music for free.
Steam if you enjoy a bit of light gaming as it has better choices than the Mac App Store.
I would definitely recommend dropbox app or box.net app if you need to back up your homework. This is a great way to do it, without actually having to do it.
Dashnote is an awesome simplenote widget for jotting down anything.
I like Dropbox to keep my files synced. With referrals, I have 30GB of FREE dropbox storage (I also know someone from Dropbox so I get free storage). I don't pay a dime.
Flux is nice if you want to keep working on in the night. It takes a bit of time getting used to it, but endure and in the night, turn it off and see how much difference Flux really makes! It's amazing.
If you like rss, ReadKit is pretty nice but Reeder is going to get an update soon to support Feedly so I'm looking forward to that.
I like Airmail, because it's simple and gets the job done. It also supports gmail keyboard shortcuts which is awesome!
Droplr/CloudApp. They are menu bar apps. You can drag screenshots/files to the menu bar icon and it automatically uploads that file and copies the link in your clipboard. I prefer Droplr because it has Notification Center support.
Caffeine is nice if you want your Mac to not go to sleep for a specified amount of time.
The Unarchiver from the Mac App Store unzips, untars, unrars, unstuffits, well basically it can extract most archive files.
Apple's iWork Suites. They're free, and for my needs, they are much better than Microsoft Office. And iWork for iCloud is just like Google Drive except it's faster and doesn't suck. You can even collaborate with people on files you upload, even if they don't have iCloud. It's similar to Google Drive, but again, much faster.
Alfred is a must have app. You can use it as a launcher but I recommend paying for the Powerpack. Then look at the stuff it can do with Workflows (you can get them here: Alfred Workflows):
Protip: Don't download any anti-virus/clean my mac/free memory/fix disk type apps. You don't need them. Practice safe computing, don't download any unsafe files and you will be fine. There are no viruses that exist in the wild so an anti-virus program will just slow your mac down without doing anything useful. Clean my mac is useless, and the mac can take care of itself without you doing anything.
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Boom - $5 from the App Store. It will make your rMBP sound amazing. Basically it is a program that can boost the audio output when you need but the most useful feature for me is the equalizer. I never knew how bad a stock rMBP sounded until I installed this app.
gfxCardStatus - free off the internet. Let's you know if you computer is using the integrated graphics card or discrete graphics card (this will only apply if you have a 15" rMBP with a dGPU - if not - just ignore). It helps me figure out which programs are requiring the dGPU - which drains the battery much faster - so that I can plan accordingly.
Memory Clean - free off the App Store. This program displays in your menu bar how much free memory you have - if you wish - and then when automatically "clean" it if it reaches a certain threshold you set - which means it will recover some of the inactive memory and set it as free memory.
OpenDNS DNSCrypt - free off the internet. This program will encrypt your DNS traffic but also is great at automatically changing your DNS servers to OpenDNS - which can easily block certain family unfriendly sites (i.e. porn).
gfxCardStatus - free off the internet. Let's you know if you computer is using the integrated graphics card or discrete graphics card (this will only apply if you have a 15" rMBP with a dGPU - if not - just ignore). It helps me figure out which programs are requiring the dGPU - which drains the battery much faster - so that I can plan accordingly.
Memory Clean - free off the App Store. This program displays in your menu bar how much free memory you have - if you wish - and then when automatically "clean" it if it reaches a certain threshold you set - which means it will recover some of the inactive memory and set it as free memory.
OpenDNS DNSCrypt - free off the internet. This program will encrypt your DNS traffic but also is great at automatically changing your DNS servers to OpenDNS - which can easily block certain family unfriendly sites (i.e. porn).
Don't install this. The mac can manage memory by itself, and it's even nicer with Mavericks. You can view memory status if you want by launching Activity Monitor in /Applications/Utilities folder.
Inactive memory, despite what other people think, actually helps speed up launching recently used Apps, so by freeing it, the only thing you are doing is slowing your mac down. Why would you want to do this?
Because sometimes after using certain programs - which have been closed - there can still be inactive memory left over which isn't needed. Will it speed up opening one of those apps you were using before? Probably. But when I close an app I'm usually done with it for a while - and I routinely get below 1.5 GB free memory from all the programs I use. I understand that inactive memory can be used as free memory - but I personally like seeing how much total free RAM I have at times when I'm running multiple apps - in case I need to close some.
Is Mavericks good at managing memory? Sure. Is it perfect? No. This app helps supplement that. Besides, this app isn't set on default to clean the inactive memory - you have to select that option. And while you can see the memory stats in activity monitor - this program makes it quite easy to see right in your menu bar.
You never have to manage memory. Drop that habit. I rarely look at my free memory now because I don't care about it.
As I said before, freeing up inactive memory is useless. The OS does this automatically if more free memory is required. Mavericks tries to use as much RAM as it is possible, since free memory is wasted memory. I have 16GB. I only have 2GB free. Does this mean I need to free up inactive memory? No, I never have to worry about it because most of inactive memory is cache and this actually helps speed up apps as you use them.
I always keep Activity Monitor open since I like to see CPU and my energy usages. But I ignore the memory tab because since I have 16GB, it's basically useless to me.
I'm sure you are trying to be helpful, but we all have different ways we do things. Again, Mavericks does a pretty good job at a managing memory, but if you search you will find plenty of people who have tried running various programs where Mac OS X hasn't freed up the inactive memory and they get errors.
And to me it doesn't make sense that you are telling me I shouldn't be worried about my free memory, that I should "drop that habit", yet you keep activity monitor opened to monitor CPU usage. Mavericks does a pretty good job of managing that as well - so why worry about that either? I know I don't.
Microsoft Office 2011 or LibreOffice
Growly Notes
Adium
Firefox
Steam
menumeters
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Yeah, the whole premise of an app like that makes no sense. If something needs more ram, it overwrites the inactive memory automatically...just like every other major OS out there.
Growly Notes
Adium
Firefox
Steam
menumeters
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Yeah, the whole premise of an app like that makes no sense. If something needs more ram, it overwrites the inactive memory automatically...just like every other major OS out there.
Your browser of choice, a media program (VLC is handy if you "acquire" videos), Adobe CS, and iWork or MS Office. If you want Office I'd say wait a few months until 2014 is available (likely) and use Pages and such in the meantime. You can also get note taking apps if you want, but they're not completely necessary for most schoolwork (although I started college before tablets were incredibly popular and you did everything on your laptop).
Two apps I used a TON in college:
Evernote. Kept / keeps my school and work notes all organized into notebooks. Very handy, and is accessible from anywhere.
Mathematica. This was available for free through my university. I never would've made it through calculus without this awesome app.
Evernote. Kept / keeps my school and work notes all organized into notebooks. Very handy, and is accessible from anywhere.
Mathematica. This was available for free through my university. I never would've made it through calculus without this awesome app.
After hers in the workforse as a software engineer in aerospace I've gone back to grade school, full time. Here is what I think
You can do just fine with the iWork suite. I use Pages for all my wringing and can do APA format papers with it just fine. Most of the required formats APA, MLA and the like are very easy.
I use Keynote for presentations. Although I typically save them in Power Point format so I can present them on the computers that in in conference rooms and class rooms. Those to are the big ones. Microsoft office works OK as well but iWork can mostly translate the file formats well enough.
iCloud is very us full. I keep documents I'm working on there and can pul them up on any computer I'm at.
What to get next depends on what you are studying. For example I use Final Cut Pro X just yesterday to create a video presentation. But you could just as well use iMovie.
I don't like any of those note taking apps. Pages works well enough and I can keep my notes in iCloud.
I'd buy the 13" "air" as it s lighter. my MBP is good but the newer Macs are lighter. Get a neoprene sleeve with a zipper. Those hard plastic shells offer no protection.
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That is the other thing to check, some apps may be free at your school. Mathmatica is very good but it kind of depends on your major. It would be useless if you are a dance major. But good for any kind of technical degree.
Same with Xcode. I have it but it is not needed unless you are writing software.
Maybe the paid up Evernotes is better? I did not see the point of the the free version over using a word processor. Bt I still prefer PAPER, then retype your notes. It is a lot of work but you want to learn better or just get it done?
That's just my opinions. In grad school it's different because you are more focused on reading, research and writing, mostly wringing. Pages Will do APA format
I use an online app for bibliography management but the most used app for this is "end notes". DOn't know if a Freshman would need something like that, maybe a history major?