Mac Must Knows

#7 On the list of "Top 10 Mac Applications" is Xslimmer.

Xslimmer is a great app that "slims" your applications. It can take your 500mb Applications and shave them down to 200mb.

How?

Applications are full of other stuff you don't really need.

Language support files are the big one. These are used if you want to use whatever app in a different language.

It's great that you can use iTunes in everything from Chinese to Spanish but nobody does. Most people use only 1, maybe 2 and barely ever 3.

Xslimmer let's you choose the languages you want to keep and deletes the rest. Doing this to all your applications will save you tons of space.

This application is great. It frees space, speeds up your computer and makes your applications load faster.

Unlike most of the other applications which are free, Xslimmer costs 12.95 but's worth every penny.

Check it out.

Xslimmer Website: http://www.xslimmer.com/

#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/

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

Transmission is definitely my favorite of all the bittorent clients. If you want to know the runner up though it would have to be Azureus, so that's what I'll compare it to

Azureus does have a ton of features, way more then Transmission, and that's great... but do you really need them all? Not me! Most people change one thing and leave it at that.

There are other things (like RSS) that Azureus does that Transmission doesn't but I don't need them that much.

I have chosen Transmission over Azureus because it just flat out works better on Mac. That and it also looks MUCH nicer and cleaner then Azureus.

You'll also find it's much more easier to set up then Azureus. You can go into preferences and it has tabs that even a beginner could understand.I've used both.

Azureus and it's many features were great for really customizing the client. However on the other hand it was slow and just doesn't look like a mac app. Transmission on the other hand just works. It's small, simple, fast and just gets the job done.

Check out Azureus too, but for something quick to get the job done, Transmission is the way to go.

When I first got my mac I wanted to juice it up with all the coolest apps. There are tons of cool apps out there, but they all do different things and not everyone needs ALL of them.

So I've made a list of all the Apps I've ever used and came up with a list of 10 that I think are the most useful. I don't care who you are, these are good to have... and most of them are free! :)

My list of 10 have apps is:

1. Quicksilver - Quick Launcher (Free)
2. AppZapper - Application Remover (Shareware)
3. ClamXav - Anti-Virus software (Free)
4. Firefox - Web Browser (Free)
5. Onyx - Multifunction Utility (Free)
6. The Unarchiver - File Extractor (Free)
7. Xslimmer - Application Slimmer (Shareware)
8. Perian - Video Support For QuickTime (Free)
9. Growl - Notifier (Free)
10. Transmission - Torrent Downloader (Free)

These Apps are sick! Google them right now! I'll leave it at that. I'll post much more detailed info on all of these next.

Till then, go, find these!

Alright, my first post!

So what's this thing and what's it all about?

This blog is all about my computer of choice, my operating system of choice: Mac!

I love my Mac and obviously so does everyone else, it's popularity has been growing over the years. It's more secure, more user friendly and in my opinion... nicer looking :).

So I love my mac, good for me, you still haven't explained what all this is about!

Well with Mac I have found problem. Finding good help for it, finding good software for it... it's a bit harder then with a PC. I look for hours for the best software, the coolest widgets, the best tips. And no complaining, I enjoy this and learn a lot... but wouldn't it be nice if that was all in one place?

Well if I'm doing all the research why not make it?!

This blog is to take everything and put it in one spot. The best widgets, the best applications, the best tips... and hey why not... The lastest Apple news.

If you like to know about the latest and greatest stuff when it comes to your Mac, bookmark now! It's all I intend to give.

Let's do it! :D