What I did when I got my new mac

Published by Blake Macleod | Filed under How To, Technology

Having just purchased a new MacBook Pro I have to move all my data (music, photos, files, ect.) from my old desktop to my new machine. I also have to get the MacBook Pro set up to my liking. With the help of Eric Grossnickle I made a list of all the programs and applications that I need. Here is what I did.

I needed a way to consolidate my buddy list inside of iChat. I use gTalk and AIM and I did not want to have two contact lists open. I downloaded and installed Chax. Chax is a collection of minor modifications and additions that make using Apple’s iChat more enjoyable. It solved my unified buddy list issue and gave me a lot of cool additional functionalities like growl notification and built in log viewer.

Dropbox gives you 5GB of free online storage and has a really cool program that integrates your online folder into the Mac Finder. As you can see in the picture the Dropbox folder is highlighted, and the subsequent folders are actually stored online. Plus you can create a shared folder that your friends can have access to.

When I installed Dropbox it asked me if I wanted to install Growl. Growl is a notification system for Mac OS X: it allows applications that support Growl to send you notifications. So when a friend uploads a new file to my shared dropbox folder or logs into AIM/gtalk, Growl will flash a little notification on my screen in the top left corner (picture left). A lot of programs are starting to offer Growl notifications. Pretty cool.

Quicksilver (left) is a must have productivity app. Basically, Quicksilver allows you to do any task (send an email, play a song, search, ect.) with only a couple of keystrokes. It will take you a second to get used to Quicksilver, but once you do, you will not be able to live without it.

Then I installed Handbrake an application to rip DVDs… That is all I will say on that. I will post my Handbrake settings in the future.

Next I installed Perian. Perian is a free, open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats. This is a must, now you can watch almost any format with your QuickTime player.

Transmission for my torrents. Light weight clean and easy to use.

Flip4Mac is a collection of QuickTime components that allow you to play, import, and export Windows Media video and audio files on your Mac using your favorite QuickTime-based applications. It also allows you to view WMV content that is on the internet. This is a must have plug-in.

This is a good start. I will post more about the transition, but these are my basics. I still need to add an office app, Photoshop, Acrobat, parrelles/fusion (not sure which one yet) with xp, iBank / Cha-Ching (probably iBank for account syncing), Coda / Dreamweaver and other programs that cost money. It will take a minute to get to those.