Laptop Info Today

Posts Tagged ‘osx’

Being a more of a Windows based user, it is a rarity that I’m covering any MAC stuffs at all on my blog.

Not to undermine any MAC OsX users out there but it’s actually rare that that you see any users carrying a MACBook instead of a Windows based laptop.

Anyway, this is special MAC edition post that I’ve made today and I hope it will be useful for my MAC OsX visitors of this blog. This is a post on the “must have” and  ”good-to-have” applications for those who have MAC OsX on their laptops.

Do note that all the applications I have written below are all available free for download and use.

Let’s get started :-

1. SketchBOX  - This neat application allows you to insert notes to your desktop …. call it a “Note Manager”
2. Tudos - This is a dock expansion for you to store all of your applications.
3. iClockr -  A project and tasks management application.
4. OnyX/Deeper - This is utility tool that will maintain, optimize and personalize your MAC OsX.
5. EverSave - The tool that saves your work during crashes.
6. Burn - A burining application for MAC OSX.
7. AppCleaner -  A small application that allows you to throughly uninstall your unwanted applications.
8.  Carbon Copy Cloner -  A cloning, backup up and synchornize tool for your files.
9. SpotLook - A GUI for your desktop search.
10. Photobook - Facebook photo browser for MAC OsX.
11. FMenu - Facebook evenmt notifier.
12. TwitterPod - Twitter client for MAC OsX.
13. Adium -  Universal Internet Messaging Application
14. Cooloquy - Internet Chat Client.
15. NeoOffice - Office suite for MAC OsX
16. Thunderbird - E-mail application
17. Vienna - RSS/Atom Newsreader
18. Skim - PDF Reader and Note -Taker.
19. iStumbler - Utility to detect Wi-Fi signals.
20. Classic FTP - An easy to use FTP client
21. Firefox 3 - Web browser.
22. Camino - Web browser.
23. Opera - Web browser.
24. Audacity - Sound and audio editing software.
25. QLab - Control audio, video and MIDI 
26. Ultramixer - Professional DJ Software 
27. SimpleSynth - Plug in your MIDI keyboard and play.
28. VLC Media Player - Multimedia player
29. Real Player - Real player for MAC OsX.
30. Jing - Captures images and records video.
31. Frame By Frame - Stop motion movie creation application.
32. Sweet Home 3D - Interior design application software.
33. Blender - 3D content creator software.
34. GIMP - A photoshop alternative and image editor.
35. 7zX - Compression archiever. 
36. UnRarX - Uncompressed RAR files.
37. Perian - Adds all popular video formats for Quicktime.
38. Handbrake - DVD to Mpeg-4 converter
39. Senuti - Transfer iPod songs back to your iMac or MacBook.

This is the list that I can think of at the moment. If you have better suggestions … drop a comment on to this post and share it on this blog.

Hope this lists is sufficient for your needs …. till next post ….

I was approached by one of my colleagues today for whom is having difficulty on how to edit and export his music (from .wav to .mp3) on his laptop.

He wanted to have this done using a freeware and of all the softwares he stumbled, it is all pay per use.

Well, I recommend a software called Audacity.

Audacity is a tiny music editor that works very well (even if it is running on a laptop) and the trick about getting your .wav file to export to .mp3 format is that you need to patch the software with a file (dll) called lame_enc.dll which is available for free at dll-files.com.

It is a cross-platform software which means it works on Microsoft Windows, Mac OsX and Linux operating systems.

There is a lot of features that Audacity has to offer like :-

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
• And more!

But if you are into serious sound editing, softwares like Sony’s Soundforge for example is a great and value for money software.

In Windows or linux we are fond of seeing users migrating to OpenOffice.org.

Why?

Simply because it’s open-source and it’s free.

However what about the Apple MAC users?

Based on the OpenOffice.org, the open source community build Neo Office.

Let’s go into further details.

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