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New iMac - things to do?

carrollf

carrollf

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 8, 2007
225
0
Ireland
Can anyone give me a quick breakdown of what I should install (plugins etc..) now that my new iMac is up and running? I have decided to use Firefox instead of Safari (not sure if thats a good idea) but it seems better.

There are websites out there that will scan a Windows PC running IE and give a list of missing plugins - any such site for the Mac?
 
well, some things you might want to do is download Stuffit expander, so you can download some stuff that requires it

also, a new color profile could help
 
Quicksilver (Not an app launcher) - http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
Onyx - http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11582
VLC (When QT+Perian fails, for subtitles) - http://www.videolan.org
Perian (QT components) - http://perian.org
RealPlayer (BBC, etc.. much better than the Windows version) - http://forms.real.com/real/realone/mac.html
Flip4Mac (Windows Media tosh) - http://flip4mac.com/wmv.htm
Unarchiver (Handles most compression formats - rar, sit(x), 7z, etc) - http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html

Shareware
AppZapper - http://appzapper.com/
Little Snitch - http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

Also look at Camino - http://www.caminobrowser.org/ - if you prefer Firefox over Safari.
 
Firstly, I'd agree with RDS's comment about Camino. It's a great browser.

I'd also agree with bc008 regarding Stuffit. It's pretty much necessary.

I'd add Adium as an IM client.
Growl as an activity display,
CoRD for if you need to connect to any Windows machines
and TextWrangler if you use Text files a lot
and iStatPro to keep an eye on things system-wise - you can get this one to run as a Widget or on the desktop, whichever you prefer.

I would also recommend MagiCal-1. It relaces the time display on the menu bar with it's own time display and the date. Otherwise you need to click the time on the menu bar to see what date it is, or have iCal open to see the date in the icon change. But if the current date is not important, then don't bother with it.

Enjoy your new Mac.
 
rds said:
Quicksilver (Not an app launcher) - http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
Onyx - http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11582
VLC (When QT+Perian fails, for subtitles) - http://www.videolan.org
Perian (QT components) - http://perian.orgRealPlayer (BBC, etc.. much better than the Windows version) - http://forms.real.com/real/realone/mac.html
Flip4Mac (Windows Media tosh) - http://flip4mac.com/wmv.htm
Unarchiver (Handles most compression formats - rar, sit(x), 7z, etc) - http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html

Shareware
AppZapper - http://appzapper.com/
Little Snitch - http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

Also look at Camino - http://www.caminobrowser.org/ - if you prefer Firefox over Safari.
Click to expand...

Depends what commerical application you plan to use. For example if you plan to use Toast, you should be careful about Perian, they do not play well togther. I think it is actually a DivX incompatiblity on Toast's part but it is easier to live without Perian as compared to Toast.
 
Some great apps listed. I use:

Quicksilver (couldn't live without it)
Growl
Safari 3 (I like Camino, but.. yeah)
iStat Pro
Candy Bar
Little Snitch
GarageSale

Some others. Can't remember them all right now.
 
Mactheripper to rip movies from DVD
Handbrake to encode DVD rip to itunes movie
MetaX to give your movie that iTMS feeling
Shades to lower the brightness of your LCD display

Perian as already mentioned
Flip4Mac to play wmv
Temperature Monitor
iStat Pro Widget

Official Gmail Widget if you have Gmail
BBC Radio Widget
Firefox
Quicksilver
RealPlayer
VLC
 
If this is your first Mac, I would spend a while getting used to all the lovely stuff that comes with it.

Try Safari for a while! On a Mac - you're spoilt for excellent web browsers (OmniWeb, Camino, Opera, Shiira). Granted Firefox does have plenty of plugins if you need them. If you start with Safari there are several apps that will sync/copy over your bookmarks eg Bookit http://www.everydaysoftware.net/bookit/

A few have suggested QuickSilver which is an amazing "power-user" app but it has a learning curve (Mac Format mag is currently running tutorial series).

Stuffit Expander, RealPlayer are pretty essential and Onyx or Macaroni esp for regular maintenance. AppZapper is good if you intend to try lot's of different stuff and want to get rid of them cleanly later.

My favoutite app is Yojimbo information organizer - nicely balanced!

Apple.com - Mac - Downloads has tons of stuff.

Safari plugins try: http://pimpmysafari.com/about/
 
Check your Adobe Flash Player plugin. I had to download the latest version after I did the Setup Assistant. Had the Power PC version I guess. I'm not sure which version automatically comes with the new iMac.
 
quicksilver is a must. If u don't know how to use it or what it is for find out it is amazing. One of my favorite apps!
 
Jasonbot said:
Adium for IM
Safari 3 Beta for web browsing
Doomsday engine for Doom
Old mac games including doom
Limewire
Click to expand...

rds said:
Quicksilver (Not an app launcher) - http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
Onyx - http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11582
VLC (When QT+Perian fails, for subtitles) - http://www.videolan.org
Perian (QT components) - http://perian.org
RealPlayer (BBC, etc.. much better than the Windows version) - http://forms.real.com/real/realone/mac.html
Flip4Mac (Windows Media tosh) - http://flip4mac.com/wmv.htm
Unarchiver (Handles most compression formats - rar, sit(x), 7z, etc) - http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html

Shareware
AppZapper - http://appzapper.com/
Little Snitch - http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

Also look at Camino - http://www.caminobrowser.org/ - if you prefer Firefox over Safari.
Click to expand...

I highly highly reccommend those apps.

PLUS one more I'd like to add to the list....

Journler - htttp://journler.com
This software is amazing. It's basically personal journal software that works like iLife. Very useful and easy to use. I use it frequently to chronicle every facet of my life.

(And wheeeee for password protection!) :)
 
DrAtheist said:
I can't tell at the moment as the site is having problems and I can't download any, but if they're all abandonware, wouldn't they be OS9/classic, therefore wont work on any intel mac, like the OP's new mac?
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm familiar with that site and all of those games run only on OS 9. I can still boot in "Classic" mode with my iMac G5 and play those games perfectly. All the Intel users (All new macs) are out of luck, however.
 
AppFresh checks all your 3rd party apps for updates
Monolingual gets rid of unwanted languages
Versiontracker for all sorts of goodies
IStat menus to track all sorts of goodies
FastIcns to create your own icons
And much, much more...get crackin';)
 
For all you limewire people out there, I would strongly recommend using Frostwire. Same interface, and basically same app, but its just much smoother and cleaner. You can definately tell a difference and there are reports out there that says it won't "slow" down your computer as much as limewire, but i really don't notice it any with limewire to begin with. definately check it out.... azureus for torrents too!
 
Blazer5913 said:
For all you limewire people out there, I would strongly recommend using Frostwire. Same interface, and basically same app, but its just much smoother and cleaner. You can definately tell a difference and there are reports out there that says it won't "slow" down your computer as much as limewire, but i really don't notice it any with limewire to begin with. definately check it out.... azureus for torrents too!
Click to expand...

I tried it and didn't see any reason whatsoever to change from limewire to be honest. Seemed to run exactly the same at first glance, just seemed to have a different splash screen. What exactly is so different?
 
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