Top Applications You Should Install On A New MacBook

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There is loads of great software available for MacBooks but sometimes it can be a little overwhelming deciding what software to install.

The following is the software I personally use for a number of tasks.

Everyday MacBook Apps

• Web Browsing: Sorry Safari, I just have to install FireFox because of all the great plugins and addons.
• Mail: I used to use a POP mail account but now I manage it all through Gmail, however, there is a nifty application called Google Notifier, which adds a little icon to your menu bar showing you how many new emails you have. Also works for Google calender but at the moment I’m using iCal.
• IM: I use Adium for instant messaging, it integrates really well with OS X and is far superior to the Mac version of MSN. I also use Skype so I can video chat with friends.
• Music: Mostly I just use iTunes to handle my music playing needs but I do like to use the last.fm plugin and also a handy menu bar app that scrolls what music is currently playing and also has play controls called You Control Tunes.
• Video: I use VLC for playing videos because it can pretty much handle any type of video you through at it.
• Torrents: I’m using Transmission for any [legal] torrenting I do. It’s really lightweight and easy to use.

Development MacBook Apps

• Text Editor: I’m using TextMate at the moment because it seems to be everyones favorite text editing software for the mac. However, I’m thinking of switching to Smultron.
• IDE: I have Eclipse installed for Java development and Aptana which I’m planning to start testing out for some web development.
• FTP Client: I use Cyber Duck for doing file transfers. Seems pretty solid to me.
• Server: I use MAMP instead of the preinstalled Apache/PHP because it’s just far easier to manage. Wouldn’t use it as a production server but it’s great for local development.

Misc. MacBook Apps

• IRC: I’m a bit of a geek and like hanging out on the Freenode IRC server, for which I use Colloquy to connect to.
• Poker: I like to play a bit online poker now and then and play on PokerStars as they have a mac client available.
• Launcher: I use QuickSilver as my program launcher, it also has many advanced features if you learn about them [future post!].
• Archiving: For handling zip and rar files I’m using The Unarchiver.

If there are other great Mac applications you recommend feel free to add them in the comments.

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