Oct 13

Must Have Mac Apps – The Must Have Mac Software Roundup

Applications, Must Have Mac Apps, Software No Comments »

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: , , , ,

Oct 10

My Decision to Switch to a Mac from a PC

Apple, Miscellaneous, PC No Comments »

A couple months ago, my laptop computer blew up… literally. I was working on something, when it started to sizzle, then POP. Everything immediately turned off, and smoke started spewing from the computer. It was an HP laptop PC, which I never really had a problem with, until of course it blew up. Until this “incident”, I had never really considered buying a Mac, but when the opportunity/necessity to get a new laptop computer presented itself, I started to consider going Apple, and buying a MacBook. Over the years, I’ve had friends and family who all raved about Mac computers, and this seemed like the perfect time for me to give it some serious thought.

The computer that really got my attention initially was the MacBook Air. There is nothing in the market like it, and that initially sparked my interest. I found myself in the Apple store occasionally playing around with the MacBook Air, then the MacBooks and the MacBook Pros.

My old HP laptop was 17″, I like having the extra screen real estate, so I decided to buy a MacBook Pro 17″. The computer was about the same size in terms of width and height, but the depth when closed was about half, and the weight of the computer was about half as well. The MacBook Pro is a very sleek and well designed laptop, plain and simple.

So when the time actually came to make the purchase, there were a few questions that I asked myself. These are probably some questions that you should ask yourself too when considering converting from a PC to a Mac.

I’ll explore the above questions further in future articles, and to conclude this article, I’ll touch on the single biggest selling point that truly sold me on Mac OSX. The Intel based Mac and BootCamp. First of all, the fact that Apple switched to using Intel processors rather than PowerPC processors was huge, and that made BootCamp an viable option for me. I’ll be installing a copy of Windows Vista on my MacBook Pro using BootCamp. Thus far, I haven’t had any need to boot up any PC based programs while using my MacBook Pro, but I’m sure that the day will come, and when it does, I’ll have a dual boot machine that’s ready to go.

written by Brady \\ tags: , , , , , , ,