Mac software recommendations

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chris_meier

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Hi

I got an iMac in May this year, but haven't had a chance to use it properly until now.

I've done the basics for now, setting up multiple desktops suited to my needs, setting up contacts, mail, messages, etc. and am now ready to start installing some software that again caters to my needs. Primary use will be Internet browsing, research and writing (blog posts, University papers, etc.). Although I will be researching software on the Internet, any input from Mac users here would be appreciated:

  1. E-mail (I'm trying out Postbox - 30 day trial. I'm not keen on Sparrow following the Google acquisition, and also not that mad about the native mail App)
  2. Browsing - I've gone with Safari because of the ease of syncing open pages and bookmarks with my iPad
  3. Writing - I have Office, but prefer using markdown Apps. I currently have iA Writer, other ssuggestions?
  4. Security - I am trying out 1Password, but comments and input are welcome here too
  5. Google Reader - I have Reeder on my iPad, should I go with that on my Mac too, or is there a better option?

Aside from that I already have Dropbox, SugarSync, Evernote and Pocket (I use Instapaper on my iPad, but like that Pocket has a native Mac App), along with TuneUp for cleaning up my music, Calibre for managing my eBooks, Wunderlist for tasks, etc., and The Unarchiver for zip, far, etc.

What can you recommend, or what comments do you have on anything I already have.
 
I like to use pages (for report writing) on both my mac and ipad... It keeps everything in sync as well keeping versions on my mac...

BUT THERE IS A DOWN SIDE:

1. Pages on ipad changes the layout of the document.
2. Footers on ipad does not support tables.
3. Spell checking compared to office 2010 is really bad.
4. Don't export to .doc formats, it gets messy

Thus, I use pages if I am not going to export to MS Word and only to pdf. Also edit the file on iPad up to the point where I start to consider layouts and tables (like table of cont.
 
(1) - Try Thunderbird if Mail.app is not up to your standards. Personally, I have used built-in client since early days of OS X and had no issues with it.
(2) - Ja, I mainly use safari but there is a thread on here about other browsers. Get at least one other, for those sites that look like they are misbehaving.
(3) I use pages - no idea what Bertin's issue is with the spelling - please expand Bertin. Check out macupdate.com for others
(4) Never cared about things like that - I memorise my passwords
(5) no opinion

Greg
 
1. I got Sparrow on special and it works well for me - never had any problems.
2. I use Chrome (and sometimes Firefox) because it syncs with my Android phone ;)
3. I use nvAlt but perhaps checkout: http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/productivity-roundups/35-markdown-apps-for-the-mac/
4. I use KeyPass - mainly because of some shared databases for work
5. I use Google Reader as well - haven't found a reader that has any more functionality than the webapp
 
Thanks for the input.

  1. I ended up buying Postbox. The UI is okay, similiar to most other clients, but I like the way it threads conversations and allows for easy sending to Evernote. It's also a heck of a lot cheaper now than when it was first released.
  2. On Windows I used Chrome, and while I still have it on the Mac, I doubt I'll use it that often since as stated I like the way Safari syncs with my iDevices.
  3. nvAlt looks interesting, although the biggest difference is that iA Writer is also a "distraction free" markdown editor. The developer for nvAlt has quite a large collection of scripts and snippets that look quite interesting. For my University papers I might end up investing in Papers, while I have Scrivener for any other writing I do.
  4. I'm terrible at remembering passwords, and also don't believe in using just one password for all sites. 1Password turned out to be quite powerful, with a very easy to use UI, and it also syncs well with my iDevices (iOS App is a separate purchase).

Thanks also for reminding me about the Appstorm site and MacUpdate, I'd visited them in the past, but forgot about them and they're both very good at highlighting potentially useful software.
 
chris_meier said:
Thanks for the input.

  1. nvAlt looks interesting, although the biggest difference is that iA Writer is also a "distraction free" markdown editor. The developer for nvAlt has quite a large collection of scripts and snippets that look quite interesting. For my University papers I might end up investing in Papers, while I have Scrivener for any other writing I do.

Thanks also for reminding me about the Appstorm site and MacUpdate, I'd visited them in the past, but forgot about them and they're both very good at highlighting potentially useful software.
Click to expand...

I used Papers 2 for my Masters. It was a pleasure using it. It doesn't pull in all the metadata of an article (PDF / Webpage etc.), so you should capture it. But using it to reference is awesome. It creates fields in a Word document where you want to place a reference and also do it according to the proposed standard. I had to use APA 6, but where my fellow students had to double check their reference, mine was done in 5 minutes.
 
chris_meier said:
Thanks for the input.

  1. I'm terrible at remembering passwords, and also don't believe in using just one password for all sites. 1Password turned out to be quite powerful, with a very easy to use UI, and it also syncs well with my iDevices (iOS App is a separate purchase).

Thanks also for reminding me about the Appstorm site and MacUpdate, I'd visited them in the past, but forgot about them and they're both very good at highlighting potentially useful software.
Click to expand...

MacUpdate also has daily specials - as does macappdeals.com (actually, they list all specials)

I have only ever heard good things about 1Password. And multiple passwords is probably the best bet - I use a standard plus and addition per site. So for myBB, password would be something like Standard Word + 2 x length of URL as numbers. That's how I get around remembering thousands of passwords.
 
As developer I use Firefox (because it has plugin for SQLite), and I use the TextWrangler editor, although I'm considering using TextMate, as I hear/read that it has better support for programming languages.

I find the mail client annoying, as it doesn't always shutdown when you quit. Still weighing the options there. Not too stressed as I read my mail on my iPad anyhow.
 
My 10c

1. I've been using Mac Mail for nearly five years now. Prefer it to any other Mac mail client out there but that could just be familiarity... Outlook/Thunderbird/Postbox/Sparrow are all meh IMO.
2. Safari FTW with Chrome as a back-up.
3. I love writing... MS Word is awful (Those ribbons! My eyes, my eyes!), iA is okay, Scrivener is pretty cool as well but I always seem to come back to Pages. It's $10,00... Learn to use the Inspector... Profit.
4. 1Password is really cool... Works nicely with Mac's keychain, on your iPad and phone as well. Good call.
5. I love Reeder. It's on my Mac, pad and phone and I use it all the time. Have a look at Pulp if you're still not sure, it also works on your Mac and iPad.

The rest of your list is already pretty good... Check out Flip4Mac & Perian for .wmv video in QuickTime, Unison for NZBs, Transmission for torrents, Speed Download as a download manager, TeamViewer for remote access, SketchBookPro or Pixlemator for graphics, Aperture for photography and iFlicks which are all my must haves. My nice to haves are Tweetbot, DaisyDisk, Alfred, TidyUp and, dare I say Sophos or Avast.
 
1. Thunderbird
2. Chrome & Safari
3. OpenOffice
4. TrueCrpyt, 1Password & Little Snitch
5. Google Reader
 
What do you suggest for accessing my old Windoze PST files? I am a new convert and need to access old win PST file backups?
 
Quad said:
What do you suggest for accessing my old Windoze PST files?
Click to expand...
You mean Outlook files <shudder>?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Storage_Table#Entourage_and_Outlook_for_Mac

Get someone with Office 2011 for Mac to convert those messages for you. Outlook is not included in the Home and Student edition.

Just save them to a bunch of plain text files, dump them in a directory somewhere and Spotlight will keep track of them for you. If you are going to insist on having them available as emails, there's trouble ahead. But that's true whenever you switch mail clients.
 
www.lastpass.com also quite good for syncing passwords amongst browsers and mobile phones.

i stick to gmail's webmail (apps and regular gmail) in pinned tabs on Google Chrome, nothing beats googles search.

Also prefer using Chrome as my browser on iPhone due to its sync.

I do a lot of web development and prefer Chromes developer tools (each to their own) - have shifted from using Firefox and their Dev tools / Firebug.

www.skitch.com and www.evernote.com - skitch is fantastic for screenshot sharing and syncs to your evernote account.

www.spideroak.com for encrypted cloud backups.

http://www.activestate.com/komodo-edit - komodo edit for all my programming needs :-)

http://www.sequelpro.com/ for MySQL stuff

Trillian or Adium for IM

:-)
 
For my academic papers I've decided to go with Papers - it allows you to change the style of your citations (Chicago Manual, APA, etc.), something I couldn't find in Mellel.

I'm quite terrible at maintaining order on my computers, so have also invested in Hazel to help automate labelling and sorting of files, etc. I still need to explore it more as it becomes even more powerful when combined with Automator workflows and shell scripts.

I'm still exploring productivity apps (specifically GTD oriented ones) to better manage my time in terms of Task/Assignment due dates, etc. It has to be something that has both an OS X and iOS app. I looked at Wunderlist, since so many people talk highly of it, but it is too limited in terms of breaking a task down into sub-projects, etc. though I'm waiting to see if their soon-to-be-released major update doesn't now include that. OmniFocus seems too "big" for my current needs.
 
1. Apple Mail works brilliantly once you switch your "Outlook" logic off. That being said I don't like it when using multiple mailboxes, which is why I switched to Sparrow. Now why the hate for Sparrow just because Google bought them? Use the Free version and give it a proper go...especially if you have a GMail account.

2. I use Safari for the same reason to sync all my stuff between my iOS devices and all personal stuff. I use Google Chrome as my "work" browser and also sync all that stuff to my iOS devices and Google Chrome there.

3. You can have a go at iWork but if you didn't like Apple Mail chances are you won't be able to make the transition to iWork. I'm one of those people who like things plain and very simple so actually do a lot of my writing in good old Textedit (which also saves to iCloud) or TextWrangler (a free App) that also has various coding syntaxes.

When I do serious writing though I actually use Google Docs as it's easier to have someone edit it for me or comment on it as I simply share the document with them.

4. Good old Filevault encryption combined with Keychain. I think the moment you want to use something third party for "security" you've pretty much already given the security away.

5. Do you want to read on your Macbook? Because if you already have an iPad (presumably) I wonder why exactly you would want to do this.



Stuffit Expander is a good one to have for Archives, but then The Unarchiver probably does that job for you already.

Adium - Best Instant Messenger on the planet.

Burn - Optical Burner application that does a few things quite nicely, especially burning MP3 CD's for your car.

Carbon Copy Cloner - Haven't needed it of late but good to have around.

CCleaner - Yes you get it on Mac.

CloudApp - Automatically uploads screenshots and you can manually Cloudload other stuff as well, nicely integrated.

Crashplan - If you want backups onto another machine with Crashplan running and you have bandwidth to spare. If you want plain and simple local backups Time Machine is a better solution.

Cyberduck - FTP / SFTP / Cloud Storage Application.

Flux - Changes the colour profile of your display based on the time of day.

Gimmesometune - iTunes extras like fetching covers and lyrics and stuff. Bit broken of late though.

Handbrake - All-in-wonder video converter.

iGetter - Download Manager

Plex & Plex Media Server - If you want to stream/transcode stuff to another device this is a good one to have.

XBMC - Better than Plex if you want a local media centre application and don't need to stream anything or have devices on the other end that can do their own transcoding.

Skydrive - Microsoft Cloud Sync.

Teamviewer - Remote Connectivity and Free for personal use.

Tincta - Text editor for coding.

Tunnelbear - Free VPN for 1Gb per month.

Virtualbox - If you need to run Windows/Linux this is a free solution over Parallels/Fusion.



Think that's about it. There was something else I wanted to mention but forgot all about while making that list for you.
 
chris_meier said:
For my academic papers I've decided to go with Papers - it allows you to change the style of your citations (Chicago Manual, APA, etc.), something I couldn't find in Mellel.

I'm quite terrible at maintaining order on my computers, so have also invested in Hazel to help automate labelling and sorting of files, etc. I still need to explore it more as it becomes even more powerful when combined with Automator workflows and shell scripts.

I'm still exploring productivity apps (specifically GTD oriented ones) to better manage my time in terms of Task/Assignment due dates, etc. It has to be something that has both an OS X and iOS app. I looked at Wunderlist, since so many people talk highly of it, but it is too limited in terms of breaking a task down into sub-projects, etc. though I'm waiting to see if their soon-to-be-released major update doesn't now include that. OmniFocus seems too "big" for my current needs.
Click to expand...

It might be overkill but have a look anyway.

http://tenderapp.com
 
chris_meier said:
For my academic papers I've decided to go with Papers - it allows you to change the style of your citations (Chicago Manual, APA, etc.), something I couldn't find in Mellel.

I'm quite terrible at maintaining order on my computers, so have also invested in Hazel to help automate labelling and sorting of files, etc. I still need to explore it more as it becomes even more powerful when combined with Automator workflows and shell scripts.

I'm still exploring productivity apps (specifically GTD oriented ones) to better manage my time in terms of Task/Assignment due dates, etc. It has to be something that has both an OS X and iOS app. I looked at Wunderlist, since so many people talk highly of it, but it is too limited in terms of breaking a task down into sub-projects, etc. though I'm waiting to see if their soon-to-be-released major update doesn't now include that. OmniFocus seems too "big" for my current needs.
Click to expand...

While you're exploring, there are always Things, Evernote, Bento and Daylite... Project managers can become expensive 'tho, so take advantage of the free trials wherever you can, just to make sure the app works best for you.


EDIT: Is it just me or are the forums broken this morning? Really slow, trouble posting...Damn you MTN hosting!
 
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