Mac Software - What I have used so far

Since I switched over to my MacBook Pro notebook last month, I have been tried to spend time getting used to the new software that comes as part of OS X and that is available for download.

So far, I have used:

Mail - While not so straight forward to set up with a Hotmail account (a Hotmail plus account is required), there were no such problems with my Google Mail account. Instructions on how to set up were easily available and everything works fine there.

Safari & Firefox - While I have mostly used Safari, I have noticed that some sites/web apps work better on the Mozilla based Firefox (Blogger included.....)

iCal - Although limited to personal use, I have started to update my iCal on a regular basis

Adium - As outlined in my last post, this has been a recent addition to my MacBook Pro as a replacement for Microsoft's Messenger for Mac. It does the job of an IM app very well nicely.

OpenOffice - A cost effective (i.e. free) alternative that provides me with the ability to review and edit Word and Excel files, both of which have opened fine after emailing them to PC using colleagues and work contacts. To be fair, I have not really given OpenOffice a real good try out, but it certainly seems to do the job.

I have fooled around with some of the other apps that come installed on OS X, and also just downloaded CSS and HTML editing programs ( I am trying to learn about building websites) but have not really tried these out yet.

Happy MacBook Pro - ing

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Mac Software - Messenger Program

One of the first things that I downloaded onto my MacBook Pro was Microsoft Messenger for Mac. Partly out of habit, and partly because when I tried to open iChat it told me I needed a .mac or AIM account (neither of which I had).

More recently I have been looking into the range of software that you can get for a Mac and have come across an alternative Messenger program called Adium.



After installation, the process to add my Hotmail account was very straight forward and all my contacts were available right away. There are some other cool features likes Tabbed chat windows



The final bit of good news here is that is available to download for free.

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MacBook Pro - BlackBerry: Update

A while ago I was looking at how I could synch my BlackBerry with my MacBook Pro and here is an update on this. The program to use for this is PocketMac for BlackBerry. Also, it is now available free!

The only problem is that this app will not work on the Mac Intel Duo machines yet. They are currently working on a workaround that will solve this problem and you can keep track of updates here

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Ten reasons to love your MacBook Pro

Surfing around Google, I came across this post from another new owner of a MacBook Pro and I agree with all of them......

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Other Apple Kit

Having made the switch over to a Mac notebook I have bought some other Apple kit to go with it. So far, I have bought myself the Apple Wireless Mouse and as of today a AirPort Express Base Station

Following up on my earlier post about the problems I experienced in getting my MacBook to log on to the Wanadoo Livebox, within about two minutes of plugging the AirPort Extreme Base Station in, I was happily surfing wirelessly. Having looked around the web a little, it seems that quite a few people are asking questions about getting apple notebooks to connect to the Wanadoo Livebox. While some seem to have success, others (me included) did not.

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