Bye PC, Mac Got Me

I’m a huge fan of online documents, and love the ever-changing and ever-growing feature set of Google Docs, so it should come with no surprise that I am a big fan of Precipitate.

Precipitate lets you search for and launch the information you have stored in the cloud from within Spotlight or Google Desktop for Mac. It currently supports the following services:

• Google Bookmarks
• Google Docs

Precipitate works by creating files on your machine that are imported by Spotlight, then periodically checking in with the server and updating the local files to reflect any changes. Note that changes may take up to an hour to be visible in local searches.

written by Brady \\ tags: Google, Google Docs, must haves, spotlight

Since purchasing my MacBook Pro, I’ve been scouring the internet for the best Mac apps – preferably free apps, that can be installed to make me just as, if not more productive than I was on my PC laptop. I’ve found quite a few great apps thus far, and have started my own list of Must Have Mac Software and Mac Applications.

Mac News Online put together The Ultimate Mac Apps List that has some great freeware and shareware programs. They’ve also got a great “More Info” link on each app that gives you a great overview of each program when you click on it.

Q8mug put together the type of list that I was looking for – Must-Have Mac Apps for the new Mac Switcher! Being a PC convert, this list is exactly what I was looking for because it offers many programs that are comparable to PC programs. If you to are a PC convert, I’d recommend checking this page out.

MacInstruct put together a list of Twenty Must-Have Mac Apps that I’ve been living by thus far. Every app on this list is something that I’ve give some serious time either reading about and/or trying and testing.

FreelanceSwitch has gathered a larger than the rest list titled 35 Absolutely Essential Mac Apps. This list has apps for every type of Mac user. Don’t forget to check out the comment section, there are quite a few reviews and other recommendations.

Mind Mining Medium (say that 3 times fast!) has a part one list which consists of only free apps. If you’re on a budget, be sure to check out Must Have Mac Apps: Part I – Free Apps.

I’ll be posting more of the Top Mac Apps lists soon, but these were some of the ones that I found particularly helpful.

written by Brady \\ tags: best applications, Leopard, Mac, must haves, OSX

As a recent convert from a PC, I’ve slowly been realizing not only that is the Mac OSX operating system great, but I’ve also realized that there are many programs that need to be installed in order to be able to complete all of the tasks that I normally do from day to day on my PC.

Adium

First and foremost comes unproductivity. That’s why Adium is on this list. Adium is a full featured chat program/instant messaging client that can be used to connect to all of the most popular platforms: AIM, MSN Messenger, Jabber, GTalk, Yahoo!, Facebook, MySpace IM, ICQ, Mobile Me, and more. Adium is easy to configure, has more options than you can dream of, and just works great.

NeoOffice

Now if you’re looking for an office suite and don’t want to fork out the $349 to pickup a copy of Microsoft Office for Mac, you’re in luck because NeoOffice allows you to open/edit/save all of the popular Microsoft Office file formats. Not only that, but it is based off of the OpenOffice suite, but extended with OSX features and functionality. A must have!

FireFox

One program/application that will be a familiar item for many PC users will be FireFox. Still known as one of the best web browsers, FireFox is hard to beat with its speed and ease of use. The ability to install add-ons has made FireFox the leader of the browser war, and it functions just as good as any other browser on the Mac.

VLC Media Player

QuickTime is great for MOV files, but when you need a media player that will play other video formats, VLC Media Player is a great place to start. VLC Media Player is a simple, no frills player. It has a clean interface and is simple and easy to use.

If you have any comments, suggestions or recommendations, please leave a comment as I’m still new to the Mac and would love to hear what any of you seasoned veterans prefer to use.

written by Brady \\ tags: best applications, best programs, instant messaging, media player, must haves, office suite

Since switchin to Mac, I’ve been looking for a good FTP program that will get the job done with features similar to that of FTP programs that I used on my PC – Ipswitch’s WS_FTP Pro, CuteFTP, etc. After searching for quite awhile, it was obvious that there were 3 leaders.

1. Fetch – Shareware: $25.00
2. Transmit – Shareware: $29.95
3. Cyberduck – Free

Seeing that I just spent over $2G’s on my new MacBook Pro, I decided to go with the freeware version of Cyberduck to start, and I must admit that thus far, I’m very happy with it. It really is plain and simple, and took no time to learn or get used to. I installed it and immediately was able to FTP to my site and transfer files. Some of the best features of the Cyberduck FTP Client for Mac are:

• Browser – Simply open and FTP site and browse the documents just as you would on your Mac. You also have the option to use QuickLook, the handy new feature that is built into OSX Leopard.
• WebURL – If you specify the corresponding website when setting up your FTP connection, you’ll be able to open up the corresponding web URL without having to open your browser and type in the address. Handy, especially when editing and working with non-dynamic HTML based sites.
• Integration – Cyberduck allows integration into the OSX platform, allowing Cyberduck to become the default handler for all FTP/SFTP connections.
• Activity Window – Gives a current status of all open transfers.
• Keychain – Stores all passwords in the System Keychain.
• Amazon S3 – Allows easy connection and access to Amazon’s S3 file storage service. Great for backing up files.
• Synchronization – One of the best features, this allows you to directly synchronize local and remote directories, and prior to synchronizing, Cyberduck will display a listing of affected files and directories so that you can see what will be changed/updated prior to starting the sync.

written by Brady \\ tags: FTP

As I’ve stated before, I am a web developer and I’ve always got the need to connect to a Windows Server somewhere via Remote Desktop. CoRD (Cocoa Remote Desktop) has given me the perfect solution for connecting to Windows Servers and Windows based PC’s, just as easy as using the Remote Desktop Client that is built into Windows itself. CoRD has given me the perfect option for connecting to my office Terminal Server, as well as managing and maintaining my other servers.

CoRD Remote Desktop for Mac OSX is a great option if you need to connect and manager any of the following:

• Windows Server 2000
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Server 2008 (hopefully coming soon)
• Windows XP (Home, Professional or Media Center Edition)
• Windows Vista (Home Premium, Business, Ultimate)

written by Brady \\ tags: CoRD, Microsoft, remote desktop, Windows Server