My must-have Mac programs

I like to keep everyone informed of the software tools I use daily and since I’ve had the MacBook Pro (MBP) long enough to get pretty comfortable using it I’d like to touch briefly on the apps I’m using with it and why.  My experience with the Mac has been much different than Kevin’s and I couldn’t be happier with it.  It is lightning fast and sometimes I think it didn’t register a mouse click when in fact the action is already finished.  I have been using it for podcasting and the sheer speed of the MBP has blown me away.  I used to encode the OnTheRun with Tablet PCs podcast on the HP tc1100 which took 40 – 45 minutes as that is a CPU intensive process.  It takes 3 minutes on the MBP!  Yowza!   Read on to see what apps I use on a daily basis on the Mac.

When I first got the MBP the one program that nearly everyone said was a must-have for the Mac is Quicksilver.  I am only just beginning to experience the power that is Quicksilver(QS) for the Mac and it is quickly becoming indispensable.  It is rareto see a utility so powerful and yet so simple to operate.  I haveredefined the trigger key to invoke Quicksilver to the Command-spacewhich I can invoke with one hand.  It is so cool to invoke QS, type aprogram or document or anything else I want and have the programinstantly find the file I want and better still know exactly what Iwant to do with it.  I am just beginning to define my own customtriggers which I’m pretty sure is when QS will really become a "can’tlive without" utility for me.  And it’s free.

I have been assimilated into the Mac environment very quickly, no doubta tribute to the intuitiveness of the OS.  With all the web work I do the browsing toolkit is very important and I’ve got quite an arsenal on the Mac to help with my work.  I simply love Firefox on theMac and with Google Browser Sync my two platform browsing is alwayssynchronized.  Firefox is so quick on the MBP and it might be my imagination but it seems to be faster than the version on Vista.  I’ve played with Safari and Camino a fair bit but Firefox is my browser of choice.  Google Reader handles my RSS feed work just as well on the Mac as on the Windows platform and it’s pretty cool.  I’ve added the ClipMarks add-on to Firefox for snipping important stuff from the web for later referral, and the All-in-one Sidebar has become indispensable.  I’ve installed both add-ons on the Windows platform, too.

I send a lot of podcast files over FTP and I’ve come to love Transmit, shareware app for the Mac.  It’s a simple to use FTP client and it’s become a favorite app of mine.  Like a lot of Mac apps, it just works well.  Speaking of podcasting, so far I am using Audacity to record and mix the podcasts because I am very familiar with it.  I’ve only tried GarageBand briefly but it looks pretty powerful so I plan more investigation with it.  Maybe there will be enhanced podcasts in the future.  :)

The very first program I installed on the new MBP was Parallels, complete with a full install of Vista Ultimate.  There are few things cooler than seeing Vista running in a window on the Mac desktop.  I haven’t run into anything that won’t run under Vista yet, in fact I successfully got the Zune software running in the virtual environment, but we won’t go there again.  Running Vista applications in coherence mode on the MBP is really sweet, with the program presenting itself on the Mac desktop as just another application.  I sometimes run Outlook on the Mac in coherence mode and it is awesome to see it running "natively" on the Mac.

I find myself running Outlook on the Mac less often since I installed the full Mac Office 2004.  Entourage is playing mostly fine with my Exchange Server although it won’t sync tasks and notes, no doubt because Mac Office is getting long in the tooth.  The next version is slated to appear later this year and I’ll be jumping on it very quickly.  One observation about Mac Office 2004, even though it’s been out for a few years it is surprising to me to find a lot of Office 2007-like features in all of the apps.  No question the Mac version was more advanced than the Windows counterpart when it was introduced.

The MBP was tailor-made for entertainment and it’s no surprise it really shines in this area.  I use iTunes to handle my music, videos and photos and keep it all synced with the iPod.  Watching movies on the 17" screen in Front Row is simply wonderful.  I’ve been a big fan of Pandora for streaming new music and since Kevin found PandoraMan for the Mac it’s been a daily fixture.  I love how Pandora determines what music I will like based on what I tell it and it’s a great way to find new music I wouldn’t find otherwise.  PandoraMan is a great way to interface with the online service and I highly recommend it.

It’s no surprise that I use Skype a lot on the Mac, and the iSight web cam works well with it.  I do find that the Windows version of Skype has some useful features that are not on the Mac version but it’s not a deal killer.  I am surprised that there are no settings for the iSight camera, though.  Maybe I just haven’t found them yet but I’d like to be able to adjust the brightness and similar settings for the iSight but can’t find where to do that.  Let me know if I’m just missing them.

This has been a brief overview of the apps I am currently using on the Mac.  Each of them plays an important part in the tasks I perform every day and the coolest thing is if there is a Windows program that provides a function I can’t duplicate on the Mac side I just install it and run it under Parallels.  That’s just plain cool.  :)

P. S.  I bought an Apple Mighty Mouse with the MBP and it’s quickly become my favorite wireless mouse.  The little trackball is extremely useful for scrolling and once I mapped the right button to do a right-click interfacing with the Mac became much easier.  I know a lot of people have a love/ hate relationship with the Mighty Mouse but I love mine.

P. P. S.  I sure wish Apple would put an SD slot on the MBP.  It would make getting photos and videos into the Mac much easier!

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