It used to be all the passion to photograph in excruciating item the “ unbox ” of a fresh piece of gear , especially hardware that few mass ( or no one else ) yet had . unbox was great , but it ’s sort of like a nuptials or a birth : The actual effect is relatively abbreviated , and the really important stuff comes afterwards , as you spend twelvemonth together .
alike , unboxing a new Macintosh may be exciting , especially if it ’s a surprise . But the significant part come next . While Apple includes quite a fleck of software program , and offers more forfree download via the Mac App Store , what else should a new exploiter or a fresh system get ?
As a nearly 30 - yr veteran of Mac ownership , I have 10 self-colored suggestions that will make your life good by trim off the little irritation that stay in Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite and in Apple ’s bundled software . A Modern Mac substance abuser will be happier than otherwise , and a veteran user attend to brush up a system will find the clock time and effort saving quite rewarding as well .
LaunchBar
While OS X ’s Launchpad and Spotlight can , in different ways , let you chop-chop find and open apps , document , and other things , they can be maddening . Launchpad ’s interface is barely utilitarian when you have more than a handful of apps , and Spotlight search everything , rather than specific categories and in specific ways . Instead , pickLaunchBar($29 individual , $ 48 family ) , which indexes and links to all sorts of hooey : music , contact , apps , emoji , search history , bookmarker , and more .
LaunchBar can be evoke from a key stroke — I use the default Command - Escape . Then you just typewrite a few letters to pick out the thing you want , and urge on Return to launch it or open up it with the appropriate app . LaunchBar ’s bar , however , also lets you perform most Finder action with a program line - shortcut and carry out calculations .
LaunchBar can also add Clipboard depth , turning into something like the honest-to-goodness pre - OS X Scrapbook : you may revert to and cycle through former detail you ’ve copy or cut .
Default Folder
There are three component of Yosemite itself that I spend more time interacting with than any other : the Open dialog , the Save dialog ( and edition like Export ) , and Finder windowpane navigation . Default Folder($35 ) enhances all of these to your advantage in efficiency and organization .
When installed , the app envelop your clear and save dialogue in a crowd of redundant port items . On one side , you could pick out from volumes and exceptional location , Finder windows , favorited positioning , and recently visited leaflet . The file - navigation dialogs can also be countersink to snap to the last document open up or other localisation , while pressing Option plus the down or up arrow cycles backward or forward through recent folders . Another point allows a variety of Finder - style file actions immediately within the dialogue , like rename , duplicate , and move to trash .
TextExpander
I know this is gaga talk , but what if you could replace the tedious repetitious typing of common phrases with a few keystroke ? Such shortcutting engagement back decades — once live as “ macroinstruction expansion ” or “ macros”—andTextExpander($35 someone , $ 45 family ) is the modern ripe version of it .
Start with figuring out a few characters to type instead of your name or mailing computer address . Advance to using its prick for knock a few keys to insert the current date , formatting it as you like . Move to employing preassemble AppleScript to bug into URL shortener , address the roundtrip from clipboard to a lilliputian path . calibrate to its filling - in form , which permit you to compose a content with selectable filling - in values to automatize response .
Smile retool its iOS variation , TextExpander Touch($5 ) to work within the add - on keyboard approach in iOS 8 . Snippets can sync using Dropbox among Mac and iOS twist .
1Password
Security pundits , include yours truly , commend that you make a unequaled unattackable word for every situation or service you use . That ’s impossible for a human to manage , but an integrate password source and secure storage app like1Password($50 ) handles that with ease . It can create random password according to convention you lay out , or those absurd ones imposed by sites , and then firmly lay in them for you .
That would be perfectly dandy , but not abysmally useful if that ’s all it did . However , 1Password also comes with internet browser plug - ins for Safari , Chrome , and Firefox , which let you invoke the app while visiting a web site . exploit a keystroke , and it either prefills a username , countersign , and more , if there ’s only one mate ; or lease you opt among multiple accounts for a site . When creating an account , the word author can be put forward in the same way .
1Password also stores and can meet in one or more identities ( savoir-faire information ) , as well as credit - card details . version are usable for Windows , iOS , and Android , and a countersign database can be synced among them . ( The App Store adaptation is required for iCloud sync with OS X and iOS . )
The similarly boast LastPass is an alternative for those who desire to be able to advance access to password via website , which 1Password does n’t offer .
Dropbox
Keeping files up to date among multiple computers was a pain sensation for many years . It was n’t untilDropbox(free level with 2 GB to 16 GB ; 1 TB Dropbox Pro , $ 10 / month or $ 100 / year ) appeared — a forerunner of swarm storehouse — that it became unproblematic . Dropbox has a unmarried folder into which you may pose anything , and it ’s copied to its cyberspace entrepot in your account , while also synchronized to any figurer log into the same account . ( you may selectively omit specific subfolders on each motorcar . )
That would be enough , but Dropbox also offers two kind of communion . Shared booklet synchronise the contents to any phallus who have join the folder . A shared link leave any recipient role to download a file or folder , or range a folder ’s contents .
Because Dropbox go along a written matter centrally , it keeps track of every variety . former version and even deleted file are usable for up to 30 day after a change or removal , and a $ 39 - per - year rise to Dropbox Pro , scream Extended Version History , extend that to a year . Dropbox ’s iOS client lets you browse its cloud - stored versions , forward files , and download them to the app or open in other apps .
Skype
You already have FaceTime available on your computer and iOS devices . Why would you needSkype(free ) ? Because not everyone you fuck has a Mac , iPhone , or iPad , and because FaceTime does n’t come with a calling plan , even though in Yosemite , OS X can access your iPhone to make and receive telephone call to landlines and cellular numbers .
Skype has a tattered history of Mac update , but it stay the lingua franca for person - to - person and grouping cyberspace telephone calls . The service also has inexpensive calling plans for making inexhaustible headphone calls to specific countries ( such as the US and Canada ) , and cheap per - minute charge per unit without a plan or to area not include in a plan . you’re able to pay for one or more incoming “ real ” phone numeral , too , put them in countries in which you routinely receive calls , work it a local call for residents there .
It offers audio only and picture calls , as well as screen sharing , file transference , and instant messaging , along with SMS . I ’ve used Skype for years as my main incoming and outgoing business line to avoid the secure toll , and as it ’s typically higher quality than a cell call .
CrashPlan
CrashPlancan back up any natural selection of file to a topically link up driving , a local - area connection mass , a peer ’s private road elsewhere , or its cloud service — in any combining . Only the cloud storehouse comes with a fee attached , $ 4-$6 / month individual , $ 9-$14 / month family . The sept subscription option lets you pull in any of your otherwise fill-in - adverse relatives without them having to manage the details of a separate account themselves .
The peer - to - peer option lets you labor your encrypted data file to someone else ’s push anywhere on the Internet . That other somebody make you a computer code , and off your files go onto their backup intensity or a disjoined volume you could provide , offering truthful offsite patronage without a go back fee .
CrashPlan is n’t a full - system dead ringer . For that , Time Machine orSuper Duper($28 ) is a better option . Rather , CrashPlan is best at archive your documents , preferences , and applications , and can store eternal revisions of the same files for recovering old drafts .
I have about 1.5 TB put in with CrashPlan ’s cloud service across my own and several family computers , and have bank on restoring files from the cloud and local drive many times , both through its Mac interface ( including over 600 GB after a recent drive loser ) andits iOS app .
CrashPlan ’s major downside is that it continues to require Java , an extra installation in OS X for years . instal Java for CrashPlan is safe , because it ’s not enabled for use on the Web without surplus measure . Still , if that ’s a stumbling engine block , Backblaze(unlimited storage , $ 4–$5 / calendar month per computer ) comes highly recommended by many colleagues .
Airfoil
AirPlay is one of the best things about Apple ’s ecosystem of audiovisual - friendly devices , and many stringently audio devices keep going AirPlay audio playback , too , include a Yamaha telephone receiver I purchased a yoke of old age ago . But AirPlay has a number of limit . iTunes is the only Apple software that has a specific AirPlay choice , which include concurrent playback to multiple twist . Otherwise , you ’re limited to choosing a unmarried machine from heavy preferences to which to shunt all system of rules audio .
Airfoil($25 ) works around this limit point by letting you take just the audio output of any software or audio stimulant equipment and route it to one or more AirPlay - compatible receiver , including an Apple TV or AirPort Express . best still , Rogue Amoeba offersAirfoil Speakersapps , spare software for receiving Airfoil audio recording for Mac , Windows , Android , iOS , and Linux .
VLC
VLC(free ) is the Swiss Army knife of video playback software . QuickTime Player can palm popular formats in a straightforward way , but everything it ca n’t , VLC can . VLC can act net cyclosis video of all sorting , read various disc formats , and convert some file it ca n’t read . If you cope with older file formats , say , those used by people that eschew H.264 because of patent issue , or telecasting created or distributed for Windows and Unix variants , VLC is a one - stoppage store .
GraphicConverter
As VLC is to video ( and audio ) formats , GraphicConverter($40 ) is to effigy data file . While Apple ’s Preview offers a comely subset of image viewing and manipulation control , GraphicConverter has more in uncouth with Photoshop without the subscription fee now necessitate for Adobe ’s in writing - redaction groundbreaker , nor nearly as exorbitant a learning curve .
GraphicConverter can open up just about anything , offers photographic ( non - additive levels ) and paradigm - editing ( gradient , filling , and like ) tools , and the basics like cropping , canvas resizing , and up- and downsampling . I often plow to GraphicConverter ’s Browse instruction to catch images in a directory , where I can preview and see file data , as well as rename or delete them .
you could straightaway spell images from scanners and cameras ( including in RAW format ) , and GraphicConverter can upload at once to Google+ , Flickr , and other services . And if you take to litigate a bit of simulacrum — converting a folder from TIFF to JPEG , for representative — the program has simple spate processing , with more advanced options available to those who need them .
