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New Imac User! Need recommendations!

X

Xodd

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 16, 2009
170
29
Hey Everyone

I have finally got my imac 21.5'' and have officially converted from windows to apple hahahaa.

I was just wondering if you guys could recommend me some softwares/apps for my imac? My imac is just a home computer and an entertainment system. I use msn alot as well, but I hate using the one provided by Microsoft for macs.

If you guys could tell me any good ones than that would be amazing :p

P.s Imac rules!
 
Xodd said:
Hey Everyone

I have finally got my imac 21.5'' and have officially converted from windows to apple hahahaa.

I was just wondering if you guys could recommend me some softwares/apps for my imac? My imac is just a home computer and an entertainment system. I use msn alot as well, but I hate using the one provided by Microsoft for macs.

If you guys could tell me any good ones than that would be amazing :p

P.s Imac rules!
Click to expand...

Adium is by far the best for IM (MSN, AIM, Facebook) basically every IM protocol, it supports. Go try it! (www.adium.im)

I guess you already know about Firefox

VLC for media playback, huge selection of formats playable!

That's about it for now really.
 
iWork (word processing, spreadsheet and presentation) is a quite nice, low cost alternative to MS Office from Apple if you need that sort of thing.

Roxio Toast is very handy if you do a lot of CD/DVD authoring/burning. Otherwise the built in capability is fine.

TinkerTool is a handy free app to customize some UI things that Apple doesn't easily give you access to in System Preferences

If you're into making music, some of the Jam Packs for GarageBand are handy

Frankly, I rarely use Firefox. Safari is a fantastic browser IMHO. But the price is right on Firefox :)

Not sure what to recommend without a little more info on what you use your current computer for
 
khollister said:
iWork (word processing, spreadsheet and presentation) is a quite nice, low cost alternative to MS Office from Apple if you need that sort of thing.

Roxio Toast is very handy if you do a lot of CD/DVD authoring/burning. Otherwise the built in capability is fine.

TinkerTool is a handy free app to customize some UI things that Apple doesn't easily give you access to in System Preferences

If you're into making music, some of the Jam Packs for GarageBand are handy

Frankly, I rarely use Firefox. Safari is a fantastic browser IMHO. But the price is right on Firefox :)

Not sure what to recommend without a little more info on what you use your current computer for
Click to expand...


I second the iWork. It is way better than the Office suite in terms of stability, user friendliness, and in the design (your work turns out better) It's also cheaper. Only drawback is some of the design elements gets mucked up if you change it to .doc, .xls or .ppt for compatibility.
 
iWork.

Handbrake + VLC

These two programs will rip dvd's to iTunes format. VERY handy. Handbrake rips the file (VLC just needs to be installed on the machine). Both are free.
 
Handbrake and VLC like people have said.

Open office if you don't want to buy iWork or MS Office.

Gimp for some photo work.

Hulu desktop is really nice on the new iMacs with the Apple Remote.
 
+1 for:

iWork (seriously I'm so glad I bought it!)
Adium (Excellent messenger and very customizable!)
Handbrake (A must on any mac)

I also like:

Paragon NTFS (Read and Write for NTFS drives.)
 
I have to say coming from Windows about a year or 2 ago, these are the apps that I needed most...

1. Parallels to run Win 7. A little note about this, I only need windows for a couple of DVD/Bluray apps I run (Any DVDHD and Clone DVD). I have an external monitor hooked up to my MBP and have Win 7 running in Parallels on that monitor, my wife thinks its 2 separate computers. She doesnt understand how it works!

2. Onyx or Snow Leopard Cache Cleaner to keep things clean and running smooth.

3. I agree with the recommendations of Handbrake also. Great app!

Also, get familiar with Expose and Spaces. Those 2 Mac features alone made switching well worth it.
 
Thanks everyone! I will deffo take your advice and download Handbrake. Ahhhh i should have got the iwork and not microsoft office 2008... damn lol
 
Xodd said:
Thanks everyone! I will deffo take your advice and download Handbrake. Ahhhh i should have got the iwork and not microsoft office 2008... damn lol
Click to expand...

It really is no different from previous versions of Office if you have used them in the past. You'll be fine.
 
Hmmm...last thread like this was closed pretty quickly, here is a few I like that have yet to be posted.

All2MP3 - Will encode just about any audio format to MP3

xACT - Great app for encoding/decoding ...splitting/combining various forms of lossless audio formats

Stuffit Expander - File compression tool

Carbon Copy Clone - Clones your HD

OmniDiskSweeper - Great app to locate the files that are filling up your iMac

Lame Library - MP3 Encoding.
 
Any apps for cleaning clutter or useless files on the imac?
 
thegoldenmackid said:
Some have already been mentioned, but here is my list.
Click to expand...

I just downloaded iStat Nano (iStat Pro seemed like more info than I needed). A very cool widget. I was surprised to see that I was using 1.9GB of RAM while running iPhoto (just viewing pics), Safari & iTunes. I may buy an extra 2X2GB of memory sooner than I thought.
 
I like Mactheripper and Popcorn for ripping/burning DVD's.

I also used to use OmniDiskSweeper for my MBP since my hard drive was full (no longer needed thanks to my 1 TB iMac HD). :cool:

I use Drive Genius 2 for first aid, defraging and slimming my HD as well.

iStat is a handy widget indeed.

I love Google Earth, but it's not Mac specific.
 
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