Simplify OS X

[lmcintyre]

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[justind.clark]

The best webmail service with POP support or in general is Gmail.

 

[MarkMS]

I just ordered my dad a refurb macbook pro. I wanted to get some ideas on ways to make it easier to use. Has anyone used any good password managers, or other third party apps? I want to set him up with a POP email account in mail.app, what is the best service? Any other settings or tips to make it 50 year old man friendly? He WAS a windows user. I also want to do remote desktop, but I'm behind a pretty serious firewall here at school so I would need something web based.

1Password is one of the best password managers out there. Their awards speak for themselves. The only con is that it's $40. I'm sure there are good, free ones out there, but this is the only one I've ever used.

As for a POP3 account, I'd go with Gmail. Has a good web interface and IMAP access.

For remote desktop, you can use the built-in features of OS X. You can also check out different flavors of VNC servers (Vine Server aka OSXvnc). I really don't know how to do remote desktop through the browser in OS X. In Windows XP, you can use tsweb. Actually, you can do web based remote logins though third party services like logmein.com. There is another service for Macs, but I can't remember it. Maybe if you search on Google, you'll be able to find it.

 

[11800506]

Another alternative emulating the remote desktop feature is to set up an AIM account for you (assuming you don't have one) and your dad so that you can screen share with him. I believe there even is an option where you can set it to accept any requests so all he would have to do is open iChat.

 

[odinsride]

I highly recommend logmein.com for your remote needs. I've been using it for the past year and it's come in very handy so many times.