Mac Must Knows

Games are a great for when you get bored. I like to have a few on my computer for whenever I need to kill some time. Here are my 5 favorites that are fun...and free!

1. Sauerbraten:
   Proof that not all free games are simple and boring. Sauerbraten is a great 1st Person shooter game. Your can play it by yourself but when you get bored of that you can also play online. With tons of different levels and the ability to make your own, Sauerbraten is definitely one of my most favorite free games.
   Click Here for more information.
   
   
2. Quinn:
   Want something more classic and simple? Try Quinn!
   I would have to say it's the nicest free Tetris I've ever played. You can play on the same computer with your friend, or over the internet as well. The entire game graphics are customizable so you can even make it look just how you like. Fans of Tetris definitely need to check this game out.
   Click Here for more information.
   
   
3. Stepmania:
   Dance Dance Revolution is definitely one of the coolest games I know. It's not as good on a computer, but it's still a party to play. Stepmania is a free DDR type game for mac. Great fun!
   Click Here for more information.
   
   
4. Pac The Man X:
   Once again another classic game for the mac. Pac Man. Pac the Man X has the classic feel and at the same time a newer sort of look. You can play with 1 or 2 players at a time, on over 130 levels. Not enough? You can even make your own. Another really nice classic game.
   Click Here for more information.
   
   
5. SuperTuxKart:
   I think I've covered everything except one other type of game. Racing!
   This game reminds me a lot of mario kart. You can play as a wide range of characters in different game modes. Your friends can also join in because it allows you to play against up to 4 people.
   Click Here for more information.
   

Who ever said you need money to have fun? Try these games, I'm sure you'll be impressed at the quality.

Happy Gaming!

Did you know that you can run Leopard in tons of different languages? And not only leopard, most of your applications probably have a few language translations.

All this language support takes up space though. And more then a few megabytes. Getting rid of the language files you don't need could easily scrape 5gb off your hard drive.

So how do you choose the ones you want and get rid of the ones you need?

It can be done with a program called "Monolingual". It let's you choose the language files you want to use and get rid of the ones you don't.

Start by opening it up.

In the languages section check all the languages you aren't going to use and uncheck the ones you will.

Next simply click remove and your done!

You'll be amazed at how much space this saves.

If you've used a computer you probably have used instant messaging.

Instant messaging is great for chatting with all your friends online.

When it comes to clients for instant messaging there are tons for Windows but few for Mac.

The big one many people used is "Windows Live Messenger". On Windows it's great... on Mac, not so much.

If you are used to "Windows Live Messenger" and like it's features then you may want to try aMsn.

The way it is set up is much more similar to Windows Live Messenger. It also has most of the features of Live Messenger like video and audio chat.

Perfect, so what's the downside?

Well aMsn does not perform as well as Adium. There is yet to be a stable release of it to come out. Updates for aMsn are also much less frequent so if you have a problem you need to switch or wait a while.

The next option is the one I use. It's called Adium.

Adium is truly a Mac instant messenger. It is very similar to iChat without the Video and Audio chat.

This sucks because you can't use the lovely iSight camera that comes with all (other then the mini and pro) Macs.

On the bright side though, Adium is much more stable, gets more updates, and is the MOST customizable instant messenger client out there for Mac.

You can change almost everything about it. The colors, the emoticons, the message styles, the window styles, the icons... almost everything.

Their site has plugins, emoticons, sound sets, service icons, status icons, apple scripts, message styles, window styles, dock icons and other things.

You can download hundreds of things to customize Adium and make it however you want.

The only edge aMsn has on Adium is the Video and Audio chat. Although these are really cool features to have I would say, survive without them for now. Adium is currently working on bringing Audio and Video chat to Adium. It shouldn't be long so keep your ears open.

So there you have it, aMsn and Adium. Both great, I'll leave it up to you to decide.

Adiums Website: http://adiumx.com/

aMsn Website: http://www.amsn-project.net/index.php

Enjoy!

#1 On my list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is Quicksilver.

Finally we have Quicksilver. I put it as #1 on the list... not necessarily because I ranked everything from best to worst... but this is definitely my favorite.

I call Quicksilver a application quick launcher... but it's soo much more!

I'll try describing it to you but I'll most likely fail so excuse me if that happens. The best way to understand it is download it and try it yourself.

Quicksilver allows you to do tasks like open applications, manipulate files, run scripts send e-mails and more... only using your keyboard.

This application will make everything you do go 10 times faster... literally.

Say you want to open an application... say iTunes.

Now I could go to the application folder and do this but that takes a lot more time then using Quicksilver. I would open it by:

1. Opening quicksilver using my chosen "trigger" (a combination of keys you press to start Quicksilver. I use Option + Space.)
2. Type "i" (Quicksilver indexes everything on your computer, typing "i" makes it search for things with/relating to "i")
3. If you use iTunes all the time, Quicksilver will figure this out and iTunes will be at the top of the list for things to open.
4. Hit enter and iTunes opens.

This takes all of 2 seconds.

Quicksilver doesn't only let you open apps, you can open bookmarks with it, find and open files and so much more.

Check it out because me explaining it will take up too much space.

Quicksilver Website: http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/what_is_quicksilver

You can download and find out more about it there.

Enjoy!

#3 On my list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is ClamXav.

One of the reasons you bought your Mac was most likely the thought of "No Viruses". And good for you because it's true, Mac hardly has any viruses for it.

But even though there's not many doesn't mean you can't get them.

Your computer has all your pictures, music, videos, documents, files... why take the chance losing that all?

Even if it's a low chance, it's a chance so be cautious. This is why I will recommend ClamXav.

It's a free Virus Scanner that works just as well as the few other virus scanners you can buy.

You don't need to scan everyday or every week (not that you would want to, ClamXav is quite slow) but every 1 or 2 months would be nice.

This way you can always be sure your stuff is safe and nothing has found it's way on your computer.

Definitely try it out, it's not a big thing to have and it may save you a lot of stress in the future. Here's the website.

ClamXav Website: http://www.clamxav.com/

#4 On the list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is Firefox.

Today on mac there are 2 main browsers, Safari and Firefox.

Safari boasts extremely fast load times while Firefox has it's endless amounts of add-ons and plugins. So which to choose?

Well both are great browsers. Before I tried the new Firefox (Firefox3) I would have said Safari. It's fast, blends in with the OS X interface, perfect.

The current stable Firefox (Firefox 2.0.0.14) seems to be a bit slow on mac and also doesn't look too great (in my opinion).

Firefox3 is tottaly different though. They've changed the look to match the rest of the OS, it's faster and works much better. And it's still it Beta.

Safari is great but cannot stand up to the amount of features and add-ons you can get for Firefox.

For the moment feel free to stay with Safari, but when Firefox3 comes out your gonna want to give it a try.

You won't be disappointed.

Firefox Website: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Current Firefox3 (Beta 5) Download Site: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

#5 On the list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is "Onyx".

After using your mac for a while it is going to accumulate junk type files, permissions get changed and so on.

This can cause your computer to slow down and so on.

For this reason it is good to have a application to clean out the crap and check that everything is working alright. There are a few applications that do this but my favorite is Onyx.

Why?

Well all these applications do pretty much the same thing... Onyx just does it for free.

You can get a variety of different apps but they cost money and do the EXACT same thing. Why pay?

Onyx also lets you get at some of your Mac's hidden features allowing you to customize things like your Dock, Finder, Dashboard, Login, Safari and other things.

Onyx is a great application to have to do regular cleaning and change hidden preferences.

Definitely worth looking at.

The Onyx Website: http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html

#6 On the list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is "The Unarchiver"

Everyone who's used a computer has surely come across compressed file. Stuff like ".zip" or ".rar".

These types of files/folders require the files to be extracted. This means a special program.

My last mac came with "Stuffit Expander" which did all this. I used that and it did the job.

Recently though I got a new mac and it didn't come with this. Instead of just going for the "Stuffit" again I decided to see what else was out there. After some research I found "The Unarchiver".

The Unarchiver is a fast and simple file extractor that works better then the one built into Mac OS X.

Why is it better then Stuffit? Cause it's free!!

Every computer needs a file extractor and the Unarchiver is as good as it gets.

Check it out here:

The Unarchiver Website: http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html

#8 On the list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is Perian.

Have you ever tried playing a video file only to have Quicktime tell you that for it to be played you need a special codec or plugin.

I used to have that problem all the time and it made me go mad! Most people will either download tons of things, trying to find the one that they need OR just use a different media player all together.

Well I'm here to tell you there's a much easier third option. Download Perian.

It allows quicktime to play all types of video files it couldn't play before.

It doesn't make Quicktime as good as say VLC (great media player) but it will make most files work. This also saves you the time of having to say Open With... --> VLC for every video file you want to play.

It you use Quicktime or couldn't before because of lacking the right software, check out Perian.

Perian makes Quicktime just that much better.

Perian Website: http://perian.org/

#9 On the list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is Growl.

When I first heard of this I thought "What's an event notifier". Well it's exactly what it says it is.

Growl is an app that displays notifications for other applications.

Say I receive an e-mail in Mail. Growl will pop up a message telling me. If I'm using Adium (MSN Messenger type app) it notifies me when people log on, when I receive messages and so on.

You may think "I don't need that" but it's actually quite handy. You'd be amazed at how many apps work with it.

Download it and try it out.

Growl Website: http://growl.info/