Allen Approved v2.0!
With school starting right around the corner I’ve found myself helping lots of friends by setting up their new Macs. One of the great things about owning a new Mac is that they don’t come with all that annoying trial version and shareware software preinstalled. This is helpful since it helps keep the machine running smoothly, but are a few free or inexpensive applications that I find myself recommending to lots of friends who are setting up new Macs.
First of all, always remember that if you’ll be installing Microsoft Office onto your new Mac that you need to delete the Office 2004 Test Drive from the Applications Folder before installing your full version.
Chax: An iChat enhancement add-on. My favorite feature of Chax is the tabbed iChat window. If you’re working on a portable machine where screen real estate is at a premium, tabbed iChats will let you keep track of and switch between all your iChats without constantly activating Exposé.
VLC Player: An alternative to QuickTime. The best feature of VLC Player for most people is its ability to play full-screen movies without having to pay for QuickTime Pro.
Flip4Mac: An alternative to Windows Media Player. Flip4Mac allows Mac users to avoid using Windows Media Player by giving QuickTime and Safari the ability to play Windows Media Player files.
coconutBattery: An enhanced version of the battery meter in your portable machines menu bar, coconutBattery gives you detailed battery level information and shows you how long your battery currently lasts compared to when your machine was new.
MenuCalanderClock: An enhanced date and time menu bar viewer. My favorite feature here is this applications ability to pop-down a monthly calendar.
Firefox: An alternative to Safari. Works well for sites which don’t seem to load correctly with Safari.
Google Earth: Google Maps without the browser –this is just plain fun!
Dog-matic: The Small Dog Electronics dog Dashboard Widget!
.Mac Trial: Create with iLife, share and backup with .Mac. The only reason not to try .Mac is that you’ll want to buy it when your 60-day trial is up!
WidgetKiller: Turn off Dashboard and Widgets. Most people love Dashboard, I’m not too crazy about it and I’d rather save the RAM by disabling my Widgets.
Enjoy!