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Get This Mac Party Started! |
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You have your Mac - now what?
You have all the hardware you need? You have all the software you need? The Mac is set up for you to start using it straight away. When you are at the FINDER (DESKTOP/MAIN SCREEN), you can always go to HELP>MAC HELP? and THE HELP VIEWER will launch. Click on the "little house" and you will be presented with some choices including: What's New in Panther? Typical Customer Issues New to Mac OSX? If you indeed new to the Mac and want some guidance. If you signed up for .Mac, there is a section with Quicktime movies on how to start using the computer. You can also check download the manual from Apple directly or ask questions at the official Apple discussion forums. And if you're close to Apple's retail stores, there are FREE classes everyday (except on Sunday) - look up the city closest to you to what classes are being offered and when. Of course, you can stop by the Genius Bar to ask any questions or if you're near a crowded one, you might consider making an appointment or by signing up for ProCare which lets you sign up a week in advance. If you would prefer to read and follow printed instructions, there are several hundred Mac books but for beginners, here are some of the best ones: |
| Books
- Mac Basics & More ... |
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Teach Yourself Visually Mac OS X v. 10.3 Panther by Ruth Maran, Kelleigh Johnson If you're the sort of person who likes a lot of photos to see EXACTLY what they're talking about, this book and this series is great. This book does cover a lot of ground but if you're familiar with the Mac just a little, this book might be a little too basic but this book leaves no beginning stone unturned or un-photographed. Mac OS X Tiger for Dummies by Bob LeVitus Why some people might be put off by the "Dummies" in the title, they are some of the best intro books every written - and not just the Mac books here but for every subject under the Sun. If you feel you are comfortable around the Mac and you just want to know the scoop on the latest Operating System (OS) version – nicknamed Tiger (10.4) – this is a great intro book. Macs For Dummies, Eighth Edition by David Pogue If you completely new to Macs, this might be the book you want to pick up first or together with the Panther “Dummies” book. It gives you a broad over-view of Macintosh’s, peripherals, software and general info. It doesn’t cover using the latest OS as in depth as specific books but if you want a great intro to everything Mac – this is a great place to start. Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition by David Pogue Yes, most of the best Mac books are all written by the same people … if you’re the type of computer user who might want a nice over-view of everything Mac & OS 10.4 but also want more intermediate and advanced info such as on Security, Firewalls, Sharing, Fonts, etc … then this is a great book that covers all the basics and moves onto the intermediate and touches upon the advanced subjects. If the others are sort of high school books, this is a college textbook that covers ALL the topics. David Pogue is a great writer who makes it all entertaining also. The MISSING MANUAL series of books are all great so if you’re ready for more specific subject books, definitely check out the MISSING MANUAL series of books. Mac OS X Bible, Tiger Edition by Samuel A. Litt There might be a smidge more info in the MacBible versus David’s Pogue’s MISSING MANUAL series but it’s not as entertaining of a read but you can’t really go wrong with either. Both are packed full of useful intro and intermediate info. The “BIBLE” series are also all very comprehensive but just not as fun to read to read as the Pogue books … Dr. Mac: The OS X Files, Panther Edition by Bob LeVitus While still fun to read, the Dr. Mac book is definitely for advanced users and people who need to troubleshoot. If you’re the type of person who likes to keep their info handy for future emergencies, this is a fun and great book to have around. Note - this is the PANTHER (10.3) edition, this is unfortunately no Tiger (10.4) version. Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition by David Pogue For those intermediate/advanced users of Windows who are switching to a Mac, you will find this entertaining and useful. David Pogue has his website here. |
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The Macintosh iLife '05: An Interactive Guide ... by Jim Heid While most of the above Mac books either touch upon the included Mac iLife software (itunes, iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto & GarageBand), for those who are spending a lot of time on the computer on those applications, you’ll want to learn much more – the Jim Heid book is comprehensive and fun to read. This is the new edition which covers iLife ’05 (latest version - released in January 2005). His website is also great – click here. You can even get a preview in video of some of the chapters ... Robin Williams Cool Mac Apps, Second Edition : A guide to iLife 05, .Mac ... (BTW, that is NOT the actor/comedian Robin Williams). |
| Our
Mac Shareware Recommendations Of course there are dozens of other applications that you want to use on a daily basis that are freeware, donationware or shareware. Freeware is just that - applications that are free. Donationware means the honor system – you can either “donate” a specific amount or any amount through a link on their website. Shareware tends to be for more elaborate software with a specific cost – usually you can use it for a few to 30 days fully featured or with some features off and then – you need to enter a registration number. Of course now with broadband, most software makers offer a demo version that allow you to use it for a set period of time before deciding – with most new Macs, there is even a 30-day MS Office Trial version so most shareware these days are really just demos. Two great places are MACUPDATE.COM and VERSIONTRACKER.COM - While their database searches are not the greatest, it’s fun to check in to see what’s new – often there’ll be some software that serves just a need you had but thought no one would design anything for that … :-) They also offer software to keep track of everything you have downloaded to make sure it’s all current. Personally, we find that intrusive and overkill but it’s there if you like to use a lot of shareware apps and need to keep them up-to-date and you functioning. You can also look through a section on Apple's website devoted to everything Mac software related. It is a massive database though and more useful if you're looking for something very specific (Right side - look and click on CATEGORIES you want). Our recommendations are just to get you started - the great thing about 99.9% of shareware is you can download and try it out to see if it serves your needs - and then toss if not. They will usually warn you if you are going to try something that could upset the Apple cart (literally in this case) so if you’re not comfortable, don’t stray too far from the recommended list here – everything here is pretty benign. It’s usually things that muck about the system that cause or can cause problems – most “regular” applications won’t do much damage except not work. If you know what you’re doing, by all means – go have fun but if you don’t – you are warned. If the application has an UNINSTALLER – you are in good shape. If it doesn’t – be sure you feel comfortable. |
| INTERNET Firefox 1.x Firefox is/was born from the ashes of Netscape Navigator. If you last used that 10 years, Firefox is a completely different animal and if you are using Internet Explorer – STOP and switch to this or the included free SAFARI browser from Apple. The most obvious reasons are two of its features – TABBED BROWSING and NO POP UP WINDOWS (both also offered on SAFARI). Tabbed Browsing lets you open up TABS (like manila folder tabs in a filing cabinet) so you can open 2 to 15 pages and then close only what you want without having to keep going back and forth to the main page. Pop-Up Window blocking is pretty obvious. Select it and you block 99.9999999% of windows – every 6 months or so, a pop up window might sneak in there but very, very rare. While SAFARI looks a little nicer, we prefer FIREFOX’s managing-bookmarks features a little better but it’s your choice and preference. We also like the fact that there is a customizable search tab built in and you can download extensions (SAFARI has a search tab but it's not really customizable) - to search Goggle, instead of having to first go to Goggle.com, just type in the right hand column. Search eBay, Amazon or Dictionary.com the exact same way - plus hundreds more extensions to add! For older Macs, there is also Camino (also from Mozilla)- just as fast but rougher around the edges. While you get a free email application from Apple, MAIL - we hate it - it looks clunky and just seems weird. We still like ENTOURAGE best but that's only because we are used to it. THUNDERBIRD, the free email client from Mozilla is also as nice. You can click on the link to download and try it out. INTERNET UTILITIES CyberDuck There are dozens of FTP client software for the Mac but if you want something basic and free, can't go wrong with Cyberduck. YummyFTP If your needs are a little more advanced, you can also try out YummyFTP. PageSuckerX If you need to download everything from a website including files,graphics, etc ... PageSucker is what we've been using for close to TEN years. It's not perfect but it does exactly what it's supposed to without overly complicating things. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! URL Manager Pro While all browsers let you store hundreds of bookmarks in organize folders, if you are like us with THOUSANDS of bookmarks, you'll want something slightly off-site so you can back it up easier and not strain your browser to load all those bookmarks when you only need to access ABE VIGODA-DEAD OR ALIVE.COM only once in a while - then you'll want URL Manager Pro - our choice. And don't overlook SHERLOCK, the great internet utility included with your machine! INTERNET MUSIC UTILITIES Clutter Clutter is one of those brilliant little pieces of joy that contribute to Mac computing - how often have you thought - wouldn't it be great to see the CD cover of the track I'm listening to? Well, launch Clutter, launch iTunes - play music and Clutter will go out and search Amazon's website and bring back the CD cover for your desktop! And there's more, you can even drag the cover to your desktop so if you ever want to listen to that track, just double click on it - very cool and works EXACTLY as it says - it's brilliant and it's FREE. See, life is pretty good on the Mac side :-) Stream Ripper X If you listen to streaming audio and wish you could save the stream or individual files, this is a great freeware app - the interface is a little odd but for stations that send out its stream in with track data, Stream Ripper X can save them as mp3 files - pretty cool. If you want some extra features like scheduling, they also sell a different version called RadioLover for a very reasonable $15. And if you want to record Real Audio or Windows streaming, they also sell iRecordMusic - you can get both for $30. Radio Recorder Haven't actually tested this out but if you'd like to record internet stations and transfer to your ipod (you can try this out first before purchasing WireTap or Audio HiJack). UTILITIES WireTap Pro While Stream Ripper is exclusively for radio, if you want radio streaming recording capabilities AND be able to record "whatever" is playing on your Mac whether it's a DVD, a game or of course, streaming audio - WireTap Pro is nice. Audio HiJack Pro Has been around longer for the Mac and has many fans so you can decide whether WireTap Pro or this serves your purpose. Carbon Copy Cloner While OSX is great, it's hard to back up. There are lots of files that require "permissions" before copying - it's for your protection but it can be annoying if you're attempting to back up. CCC takes care of all of that with just a few clicks of the button. It is easily better than every other Mac backup application as it does not back up in some weird format but as an EXACT copy so you can plug in the backup & be ready to go. Depending on what you decide to back up - including applications and personal files, it might fit on a DVD or you might need a hard drive - with most 80-100 GB hard drives under $100 - it's a cheap, cheap way to backup if you have crucial files you CANNOT lose. CCC is donationware. MacJanitor The next free utility you should download is MacJanitor. His page explains it best. It is something you should run every so often as you would with real housekeeping. Cocktail Another great utility for Mac maintenance though this is aimed at a more advanced user so if you read the description page and it doesn't make much sense to you, you don't need Cocktail - at least not yet :-) MUST HAVE VLC VLC is one of those near perfect application-gems. It's a video player but that's sort of like saying Michael Jordan could play basketball. It will play virtually every format you throw at it - from DVD to VCD to all the MPEG flavors. Oh, and it will play virtually any digital audio formats from Mp3 to OGG to Matroska (WTH?) ... here's the entire list! Anything that Quicktime or the Apple DVD Player won't play - VLC almost certainly will. And of course, it's FREE. There is also MPlayer which will on rare occasions play a file that VLC cannot but it's pretty rare and you need to download a few other files to get it to work but it's also free. OTHER USEFUL Omni Dictionary Free dictionary for when you are not online ... though the phrase 'not online' doesn't really mean anything to us ;-) AUDIO UTILITIES Audacity If you want a simple audio recorder - FREE EasyWMA Converts pesky WMA files to Mp3. Of course, it does NOT convert DRM-protected WMA files. But otherwise, works great and the files sound great. Ready2Play Drop on icon to hear any audio file (mp3, aiff or wav) or even set it to randomly play a song from a selected folder. Easier than opening up itunes or QT if all you need to do is hear one song or an audio file. ITUNES UTILITIES Of course, the BEST itunes add-ons are really Applescript ones - sure, you can write them yourself but how about a couple hundred to pick from already to go? Ain't life grand? They've literally thought of everything! Apple's iTunes Applescripts - good starter set. Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes - 300+ and Counting! MacScripter iTunes Applescripts - Not as well organized as Doug's. iTMS Extractor Simple and straightforward. If you like a video playing in the itunes music store and want to capture it to your hard drive. Launch iTMS Extractor. Play video. Click on SAVE VIDEO in iTMS Extractor. It takes a few seconds and it doesn't work on every machine but you'll know if it works on yours and hey, it's free so you have nothing to lose. IPOD UTILITIES There are thousands of great ipod utilities but for now, the most important is how to get your music back from the ipod to a hard drive. There are literally dozens of apps that will copy tracks from your ipod back to your hard drive. We're not going to go over the reasons you might need to do so but from PLAYLIST MAGAZINE, here's a nice recap. Our personal feeling is that the app for doing this should be easy to understand - here's my ipod, here are the tracks - here's where I want the files copied to ... iPod Rip Looks the nicest and does it nicely. Sensui Or if you prefer donationware, Sensui is nice also for moving tracks from ipod to Mac. ICONS/DESKTOP About the only thing we dislike about the ipod is the bare hard drive icon so it's time to replace it! It sounds much harder than it actually is. First, check out some replacement icons. Here are three of our favorite sites: InterfaceLIFT, ResExcellence and PixelGirl. There are thousands of other sites but these are three of our favorites. You can also check out IconFactory - slow with new choices but lots of older choices - click on each one to see a sample. Choose the ones you like - download them to your hard drive. Most are compressed and will be to be uncompressed. Now, select your hard drive replacement icon. Click on it ONCE. Hit COMMAND-I or get info. An "about" box will appear. Click ONCE in the graphic box on the top left (where the icon is). Hit COMMAND-C or COPY. Close that window. Click on hard drive icon ONCE. COMMAND-I (or GET INFO). Click ONCE on bare drive icon. Hit COMMAND-V or PASTE. Your hard drive icon should be replaced with one of your choosing. You can go through and change about 99% of your system icons this way. Better yet, you can also make folders with distinctive icon replacement choices - drag them into your dock and you can access multi-folders and multi-levels deep just by hovering your mouse near it. Very cool! There is an app called CANDYBAR that lets you do multiple changes across the board but personally we don't like mucking about the system that much. These same sites also offer you multitudes of desktop images if you get bored of the Apple ones. Go to SYSTEM PREFERENCES, select DESKTOP & SCREEN SAVER. The rest is pretty self explanatory. You can load one image of direct it towards a folder and changes images from 15 to 60 minutes. DASHBOARD WIDGETS Don't forget to check often at the Apple site for the latest WIDGET. (OSX 10.4 Tiger only). |
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