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Mac Thread - G3 phone thing is out. Have you heard of it?

LewishamLewisham Registered User regular
It's the Mac Thread - Fan the fanboy flames

1023.gif

When should I buy my Mac?
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com will let you know the lowdown on when to pull the trigger. Students get 10% off at the Apple Store for Education.

What upgrades do I need?
You need as much RAM as you can afford. But don't buy it from Apple, go to http://crucial.com and buy it there, it's orders of magnitude cheaper.

I have my Mac, I need sexy applications!
You can Google for all of these. If you ever need applications for other needs, head over to http://macupdate.com . Satan got all the clicky-linkys. Isn't he nice?

CHAT
Adium - The only chat client you need...
Colloquy - ...unless you IRC, in which case you need this too

RSS
NetNewsWire - The best RSS client
NewsFire - The second best RSS client, if you don't like NNW

TEXT EDITING
TextMate - A text editor for programmers, amazing functionality, well worth the handful of euros.
Smultron - A great free alternative to TextMate
TeXShop - If you write papers using LaTeX, this is the best editor to get the job done on Mac OS X. You should also look into BibDesk for your BibTeX repository.

CSS
CSSEdit - The best CSS editor money can buy, on any platform. Saves me hours of time scanning CSS files daily.

WEB BROWSING
There's more than Safari (but Safari is arguably best).
Camino - If you like the way Firefox renders, Camino is the Mac-native browser that uses Firefox's rendering engine, Gecko.
Firefox - If you can't live without FF, it's OK on Mac, but not native. So you lose niceties like the Cocoa window widgets, and keychain access.

MEDIA
VLC - Plays pretty much any format on Earth.
Mplayer - Popular rival to VLC.
Perian - Popular codecs like Xvid packaged as Quicktime components, so you can watch these videos in any Quicktime-enabled program.
Audio Hijack - Record the sound output from any program on your Mac.
Airfoil - Divert any audio you want to your Airport Express.
Handbrake - Handbrake is your one-stop DVD rip shop.

KEYBOARD NAVIGATION
Yes, you can do better than Spotlight for application launching.
Quicksilver (info / direct download) - The benchmark keyboard navigation program. Free and open-source, heavily customisable.
LaunchBar - A lightweight alternative to Quicksilver. Less features, but noticeably faster.

BITTORRENT
Transmission - Transmission is hands-down the best Mac native BitTorrent app. Download the nightly build, and you'll get blocklist functionality as well.
Azureus - Azureus runs pretty well on Mac OS X, but it's Java code-base does mean it is slow, and just a little bit ugly. The plugins help a lot.

OFFICE
Microsoft Office - Still the best option, but the current version is really expensive. Get a second-hand copy of Office X 2004 off eBay. If you absolutely need VBA support, you have to use the 2004 version -- support has been removed in 2008.
NeoOffice - A Mac wrapper for OpenOffice. Much better than wrestling with X11.
iWork '08 - The office suite developed by Apple. Keynote is a PowerPoint killer, Pages is perfectly capable as a Word replacement and Numbers is a good (basic) spreadsheet editor (note that I didn't say Excel replacement)

TWITTER
Twitterific - If Twitter is the crack, Twitterific is the dealer.

MOUNTING FILESYSTEMS
MacFuse - MacFuse allows all sort of fancy disk mounting, including drives connected via SSH. Really nifty.

WEB SERVER
MAMP - You could use the built-in server, or you could get MAMP and have an Apache/MySQL/PHP install out of the box.
CocoaMySQL - A great GUI to manage MySQL databases.

I could keep going, but I'm tired now.

Lewisham on
«13456744

Posts

  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    I'll dig up links to all those for you.

    Satan. on
  • JasconiusJasconius sword criminal mad onlineRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    There are 4 macs in my house and none belong to me.

    I plan on getting a Macbook Pro in June when they are alleged to get an update.

    Jasconius on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited April 2008
    Once again I express my growing love (and hardon) for TextMate.

    Echo on
  • LewishamLewisham Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Satan. wrote: »
    I'll dig up links to all those for you.

    Updated. Thanks chap :)

    Lewisham on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    Once again I express my growing love (and hardon) for TextMate.

    Do you code? I don't code, I write papers. So it'd have to be knockout for regular writing for me to leave Pages.

    Satan. on
  • LewishamLewisham Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    Once again I express my growing love (and hardon) for TextMate.

    My only problem with TextMate is the integration with Xcode is not as tight as I would like, but I don't know if that's a TextMate thing or an Xcode thing.

    I use TextMate for my work, usually about 7 hours a day. I can't use anything else now.

    Lewisham on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    Oh and I snuck in a link for iWork and put the VBA disclaimer in for Office since that keeps coming up around here lately.

    Satan. on
  • LewishamLewisham Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Satan. wrote: »
    Echo wrote: »
    Once again I express my growing love (and hardon) for TextMate.

    Do you code? I don't code, I write papers. So it'd have to be knockout for regular writing for me to leave Pages.

    Yeah, it's an editor for coders.

    Do you use LaTeX at all?

    Lewisham on
  • Uncle LongUncle Long Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Finally getting around to using handbrake. If the results are pretty decent I'll be excited to trim down the space taken up by movies on the ol' iBook G4.

    Uncle Long on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    Lewisham wrote: »
    Satan. wrote: »
    Echo wrote: »
    Once again I express my growing love (and hardon) for TextMate.

    Do you code? I don't code, I write papers. So it'd have to be knockout for regular writing for me to leave Pages.

    Yeah, it's an editor for coders.

    Do you use LaTeX at all?

    No, but I should have been a bit clearer. I'm an English/Film Studies major, and my papers are usually critical and theoretical analysis about film. LaTeX is definitely a thang for the scientific and research-oriented set.

    Satan. on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    Uncle Long wrote: »
    Finally getting around to using handbrake. If the results are pretty decent I'll be excited to trim down the space taken up by movies on the ol' iBook G4.

    Do yourself a favor and find a representative scene of the DVD. Queue up multiple encodes of said scene using different presets, tweaks etc. to your liking. I use the film preset with an MP4 container and the bitrate up at 2600, but your mileage may vary depending on the quality desired.

    Satan. on
  • JaninJanin Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Pop in a link to Perian, if you would -- it's a Quicktime component that supports Flash video, Matroska, Vorbis, etc. It makes the media situation on Macs much easier to deal with.

    Also, Audio Hijack, which allows the audio output of any program to be captured for later use.

    Janin on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    Yeah, add in VLC as well as that will play damn near anything you throw at it, even stuff that Perian doesn't support or has poor support for (720p+ MKV / x264 files for example).

    Satan. on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited April 2008
    I just discovered Airfoil for OS X and Windows. It lets you stream sound from a specific application to one or more different computers, effectively turning them into remote speakers.

    Great for playing stuff on the Macbook in the couch but have the sound from the desktop computer with proper sound.

    Echo on
  • Epyon9283Epyon9283 Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    Once again I express my growing love (and hardon) for TextMate.

    TextMate's performance on large files sucks. Other than that its fine. Its just annoying that free editors like Smultron can handle files that TextMate chokes on.

    Epyon9283 on
  • Epyon9283Epyon9283 Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Satan. wrote: »
    Yeah, add in VLC as well as that will play damn near anything you throw at it, even stuff that Perian doesn't support or has poor support for (720p+ MKV / x264 files for example).

    I prefer Mplayer. It has far better subtitle support. I use these builds:
    http://www.haque.net/software/mplayer/mplayerosx/builds/

    Epyon9283 on
  • LewishamLewisham Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Man, you guys are pushy ;)

    All this OP responsibility - it's exhausting!

    Lewisham on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited April 2008
    Epyon9283 wrote: »
    TextMate's performance on large files sucks. Other than that its fine. Its just annoying that free editors like Smultron can handle files that TextMate chokes on.

    What definition of "large" are we talking about here?

    Echo on
  • Folken FanelFolken Fanel anime af When's KoFRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Satan. wrote: »
    Lewisham wrote: »
    Satan. wrote: »
    Echo wrote: »
    Once again I express my growing love (and hardon) for TextMate.

    Do you code? I don't code, I write papers. So it'd have to be knockout for regular writing for me to leave Pages.

    Yeah, it's an editor for coders.

    Do you use LaTeX at all?

    No, but I should have been a bit clearer. I'm an English/Film Studies major, and my papers are usually critical and theoretical analysis about film. LaTeX is definitely a thang for the scientific and research-oriented set.

    Yeah LaTeX is the standard for all mathematical papers. I use it for all my academic papers and even for the quizzes and tests I write for my students.

    I'm curious, what is this TextMate you speak of and what does it have to do with LaTeX?

    Folken Fanel on
    Twitter: Folken_fgc Steam: folken_ XBL: flashg03 PSN: folken_PA SFV: folken_
    Dyvim Tvar wrote: »
    Characters I hate:

    Everybody @Folken Fanel plays as.
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited April 2008
    I'm curious, what is this TextMate you speak of and what does it have to do with LaTeX?

    TextMate

    Probably the most popular non-wordprocessing editor for OS X. Tons of tools to help writing in whatever language you want. I've only really tried it with Textile so far, but I'll give it a spin with some PHP and web design this week.

    edit: here's a screencast showing some LaTeX writing in it.

    Echo on
  • iTunesIsEviliTunesIsEvil Cornfield? Cornfield.Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    Once again I express my growing love (and hardon) for TextMate.
    It's a very nice text editor, I just have a really (really) hard time paying ~$60 for a text editor. Even a very nice one. :?

    iTunesIsEvil on
  • Epyon9283Epyon9283 Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    Epyon9283 wrote: »
    TextMate's performance on large files sucks. Other than that its fine. Its just annoying that free editors like Smultron can handle files that TextMate chokes on.

    What definition of "large" are we talking about here?

    Files that don't contain line breaks will cause it to choke. This normally happens with XML.

    Epyon9283 on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    Epyon9283 wrote: »
    Satan. wrote: »
    Yeah, add in VLC as well as that will play damn near anything you throw at it, even stuff that Perian doesn't support or has poor support for (720p+ MKV / x264 files for example).

    I prefer Mplayer. It has far better subtitle support. I use these builds:
    http://www.haque.net/software/mplayer/mplayerosx/builds/

    I tried Mplayer but it just really doesn't feel as mature as VLC (as sucky as VLC can be sometimes). I do remember Mplayer choking hard on a few 1080p files, but that might have been a hardware + software issue.

    Satan. on
  • Folken FanelFolken Fanel anime af When's KoFRegistered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    Once again I express my growing love (and hardon) for TextMate.
    It's a very nice text editor, I just have a really (really) hard time paying ~$60 for a text editor. Even a very nice one. :?

    Yeah that does seem pretty sweet, but I can't afford to spend the cash on this right now when I have a decent editor (TeXShop) already. I'm graduating in May, but maybe when I start school again in the fall I might be able to get some deal for it, who knows.

    TeXniscope looks pretty sweet though. Being able to click on a pdf to bring my cursor directly to the relevant TeX code is pretty damn awesome.

    Folken Fanel on
    Twitter: Folken_fgc Steam: folken_ XBL: flashg03 PSN: folken_PA SFV: folken_
    Dyvim Tvar wrote: »
    Characters I hate:

    Everybody @Folken Fanel plays as.
  • MurphyMurphy Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    So far I've tried every note taking program out there for the Mac and none have been as nice as OneNote. :( I guess I'll stick with Journler for now, because it's free, but I am not happy about it!

    Murphy on
  • KrisKris Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Akilae729 wrote:
    Does anyone else have have any problems with adium starting really slowly. It takes this thing about a minute from when i start it until my contact list pops up. Im logging into an AIM account, a MSN account, and a GTalk account. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

    Yeah, I have the same problem. I only connect to MSN, but it takes around a minute to finally connect and show my buddy list. Unfortunately, because I'm only using one protocol, I dunno if the problem is specific to MSN, or if all others are like that too.

    Kris on
  • LindenLinden Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    Once again I express my growing love (and hardon) for TextMate.

    I have a few disagreements with it myself, mostly in the folding* and completion† features, but it's quite good.

    * Cannot fold with indentation alone
    † Please, options to click, move both ways through a visible completion list, etc.

    Linden on
  • JaninJanin Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Linden wrote: »
    Echo wrote: »
    Once again I express my growing love (and hardon) for TextMate.

    I have a few disagreements with it myself, mostly in the folding* and completion† features, but it's quite good.

    * Cannot fold with indentation alone

    It's able to do this with Python. It's a little broken (requires de-indents) and I'm too lazy to fix it, but it is at least possible.

    Janin on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • ronzoronzo Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Kris wrote: »
    Akilae729 wrote:
    Does anyone else have have any problems with adium starting really slowly. It takes this thing about a minute from when i start it until my contact list pops up. Im logging into an AIM account, a MSN account, and a GTalk account. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

    Yeah, I have the same problem. I only connect to MSN, but it takes around a minute to finally connect and show my buddy list. Unfortunately, because I'm only using one protocol, I dunno if the problem is specific to MSN, or if all others are like that too.

    if you're using leopard, i think MSN has some issues, having something to do with long server connect times on the server end. There is a stop gap fix for this on the adium site somewhere.

    ronzo on
  • AridholAridhol Daddliest Catch Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Loving the new macbook (great keyboard) and I'm wondering what kind of budgeting/money management software you guys recommend?

    Keep in mine I'm canadian so if it connects to online banks it has to support canada and I'm looking for free or (very)inexpensive.

    Aridhol on
  • MephistophelesMephistopheles Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    So, I love Transmission as a torrent manager, the only problem I have is that downloads are incredibly slow. It normally hovers around my UL rate, and I have never seen it go above 80KB/s. These are all well seeded torrents. Typically I notice that Transmission only downloads from about 10% of connected peers.

    Port forwarding is not always an option. In XP, on uTorrent, this is not an issue at all.

    Mephistopheles on
    "Friends are just enemies in reverse."
    - Gary Busey
    A Glass, Darkly
  • contrabandcontraband Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Aridhol wrote: »
    Loving the new macbook (great keyboard) and I'm wondering what kind of budgeting/money management software you guys recommend?

    Keep in mine I'm canadian so if it connects to online banks it has to support canada and I'm looking for free or (very)inexpensive.

    in the last thread erryone was gettin' down with cha-ching

    contraband on
    sigxw0.jpg
  • LindenLinden Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Janin wrote: »
    Linden wrote: »
    Echo wrote: »
    Once again I express my growing love (and hardon) for TextMate.

    I have a few disagreements with it myself, mostly in the folding* and completion† features, but it's quite good.

    * Cannot fold with indentation alone

    It's able to do this with Python. It's a little broken (requires de-indents) and I'm too lazy to fix it, but it is at least possible.
    foldingStartMarker = '^\s*(def|class)\s+([.a-zA-Z0-9_ <]+)\s*(\((.*)\))?\s*:|\{\s*$|\(\s*$|\[\s*$|^\s*"""(?=.)(?!.*""")';
    foldingStopMarker = '^\s*$|^\s*\}|^\s*\]|^\s*\)|^\s*"""\s*$';
    

    There might be something here, but folding support (at least with the Python grammar I have) is still limited. Though I could certainly adopt this particular approach (type definitions, for instance, would seem easy enough to fold at) even the Python grammar doesn't quite reach the level I'm hoping for.

    Linden on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    Murphy wrote: »
    So far I've tried every note taking program out there for the Mac and none have been as nice as OneNote. :( I guess I'll stick with Journler for now, because it's free, but I am not happy about it!

    I feel your pain

    I used OneNote since the first version (let me tell you, that was excruciating) on a variety of Windows-based laptops. When I bought my Air and sold my Dell laptop, I had to switch. I did a lot of looking and finally settled on Circus Ponies' NoteBook. They offer an academic discount, as well. I had to drop in a few keyboard shortcuts via System Preferences to make it behave like OneNote but it's honestly the best emulation of OneNote I've found.

    Satan. on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    Aridhol wrote: »
    Loving the new macbook (great keyboard) and I'm wondering what kind of budgeting/money management software you guys recommend?

    Keep in mine I'm canadian so if it connects to online banks it has to support canada and I'm looking for free or (very)inexpensive.

    This doesn't fall into your price range, but I'm a big fan of iBank. I only have version 2 (I didn't really need Cover Flow for my freakin' financial transactions, thanks) but it works perfectly. YMMV in Canada.

    Satan. on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    So, I love Transmission as a torrent manager, the only problem I have is that downloads are incredibly slow. It normally hovers around my UL rate, and I have never seen it go above 80KB/s. These are all well seeded torrents. Typically I notice that Transmission only downloads from about 10% of connected peers.

    Port forwarding is not always an option. In XP, on uTorrent, this is not an issue at all.

    That's kind of a thing for BitTorrent clients. Did you check your speed limit preferences? I don't remember if that's turned on by default. I use Transmission once a month, if that, so I don't really remember what the initial preferences are like. I know with a well-seeded torrent it maxes my connection both ways.

    Satan. on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited April 2008
    Okay. Support question time.

    I've had problems with the camera since I got the Macbook. It had about 50% chance per reboot to not work and not show up as an USB device in the system profiler. I googled and did an SMC restore as recommended by the Apple KB, but it's still wonky -- right now does show up in the system profiler, but it started automatically when I booted and when I test it with iChat I get a black screen from it and nothing else. Ditto with other apps that can use the iSight.

    Since I did the SMC restore file/protocol associations keep resetting to default every time I reboot. Safari is always the default browser, iChat the default IM client etc.

    And the most annoying of them all: the plastic frame is warped. On the left side it's clearly warped if you take a close look at it -- it's as if the screws there aren't tightened enough. I can push it in with an accompanying plastic squeaky noise. D:

    So, time to yell at Apple support, right?

    Echo on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    Left side of the keyboard? I think that's a known issue for whatever reason, but don't quote me on that.

    You're still having issues with your iSight? Take it in or make a phone call, that thing is screwed.

    Satan. on
  • iTunesIsEviliTunesIsEvil Cornfield? Cornfield.Registered User regular
    edited April 2008
    Satan. wrote: »
    Aridhol wrote: »
    Loving the new macbook (great keyboard) and I'm wondering what kind of budgeting/money management software you guys recommend?

    Keep in mine I'm canadian so if it connects to online banks it has to support canada and I'm looking for free or (very)inexpensive.

    This doesn't fall into your price range, but I'm a big fan of iBank. I only have version 2 (I didn't really need Cover Flow for my freakin' financial transactions, thanks) but it works perfectly. YMMV in Canada.
    iBank looks so damn delicious, and it will sync with the iPhone so you can enter transactions on the phone and have them sync back to iBank. Unfortunately you've gotta have a .Mac account for that, and I have a tough time paying for that when I've got my own spaces on teh intarwebz that I already pay for. Plus the program's like $60.

    Can you guys tell I'm kinda stingy about the software I pay for? I feel like there are assloads of more free, quality software for Windows than Mac. I chalk this up to the smaller dev community in the Mac world who would kind of like to eat and live indoors. I had a friend the other day try to tell me it was because "the entire Mac culture, developers et al, is all about money. They're just a bunch of money-grubbing whore bastards." I stopped listening to their points when that came out.

    iTunesIsEvil on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited April 2008
    For the record, iBank, NoteBook and CoverSutra (MacHeist) are the only programs I paid for on my Macs and for all of them I paid a reduced price.

    The reasons there are assloads more free software for Windows than Mac is just sheer number of developers. While yes, the Mac culture in general likes to spend a bit more than the Windows culture in general (more mature audience, let's be honest) it's not just due to that. Windows developers have their fair share of douchebags overcharging for crap software.

    Satan. on
This discussion has been closed.