10 Must Have Mac Apps

On 1st August, 2011 - As the publication of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion - the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system, now more and more Mac users have updated their systems to Mac OS X 10.7. Here we list 10 Must Have Mac Apps for you on Mac.

NO.1 Web Browser - Safari 5.1

Designed with the Mac in mind, Safari emphasizes browsing, not the browser. In new full-screen view, the browser frame is only a pixel wide, and you can hide almost the entire interface if you choose. So there’s nothing to distract you from an article, video, or photo album. Navigating web pages is easy with new trackpad gestures; flip through web pages with a swipe, and double tap or pinch the trackpad to zoom in on text or images. Safari also features Reader, which lets you peruse articles sans annoying ads. Or save articles for later with Reading List. And since pages render fast in Safari, you won’t miss a minute of the web.

Free Download: Safari 5.1 for Mac

NO.2 International Calls - Skype 5

Skype is an instant messenger and communications app. It is best known for its ability to connect to people all over the world. With it, you can call any Skype users for free and have real-time voice conversations with them. Also, if you put money on your account, you can call any phone line in the world from your computer. If you would rather type than talk, Skype has a good enough IM system, complete with emoticons and file attachments.Video conferencing is a great feature of Skype. The newest versions allows you to chat with your contacts, see them and let them see you. You can even activate video chat in full-screen, where you see your contact in a big, full-screen image, and you see yourself in a small square at the bottom.

Free Download: Skype 5 for Mac

NO.3 Video Editor - iMovie

iMovie is a proprietary video editing software application which allows Mac, iPod Touch 4th generation, iPhone 4 and iPad 2 users to edit their own home movies. iMovie has been a Mac OS X only application bundled in the iLife '11 suite of Macintosh applications. iMovie imports video footage to the Mac using either the FireWire interface on most MiniDV format digital video cameras, the USB port, or by importing the files from a hard drive. To some incompatible formats, users could download Mac video converter to convert the video and then import. With iMovie, the user can edit the video clips, add titles, and add music. Effects include basic color correction and video enhancement tools, and transitions such as fade-in, fade-out, and slides.

Free Download: iMovie

NO.4 Graphic Editor - iPhoto

iPhoto is a great tool to edit and view your photos with. This program is a great way to organize your pictures and display them in a slideshow. Each picture can be transformed using pre-set effects and its brightness can be corrected. It is a photo-manager-editor - what a big deal! I mean, it does neatly organize all of your files in albums (or lists), you choose, and you can share those albums on the web. I guess it is quite unique. Most photo managers don't have the ability to upload pictures to your Facebook page, but iPhoto can do it for you. You can even tag people in your albums within the program, which I think is the best integration of a program with a network ever. Of course, it's a part of iLife '11 as well as iMovie.

Free Download: iPhoto

 

NO.5 Video Player - VLC for Mac

VLC media player is a free and open source media player and multimedia framework written by the VideoLAN project. VLC is a portable multimedia player, encoder, and streamer supporting many audio and video codecs and file formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It is able to stream over networks and to transcode multimedia files and save them into various formats. VLC used to stand for VideoLAN Client, but since VLC is no longer simply a client, that initialism no longer applies. The default distribution of VLC includes a large number of free decoding and encoding libraries, avoiding the need for finding/calibrating proprietary plugins. Many of VLC's codecs are provided by the libavcodec library from the FFmpeg project, but it uses mainly its own muxer and demuxers.

Free Download: VLC Player for Mac

 

NO.6 Archive Decompression - StuffIt Expander

StuffIt Expander is a very powerful archive decompression tool. It looks a bit deceiving, and I bring this up because when I first used StuffIt Expander I didn't think much of it. The application's main window is very small, with only a few buttons, and I was just making the switch from Windows, so I was accustomed to using WinRAR, WinZIP and the like. Those apps pop-up a window when you open an archive, and they often show warnings and errors. StuffIt Expander does none of that. It does one thing : takes files out of archives. So, by dragging, for example, a RAR file onto the main window, StuffIt Expander automatically uncompresses that archive. By default, the files are uncompressed onto the same folder as the archive, but you can customize the app to place folders into other folders as well.

Free Download: StuffIt Expander for Mac

 

NO.7 Office Software- Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac

Create professional documents and presentations with the most-used productivity software for the Mac. And since Office for Mac 2011 is compatible with Office for Windows, you can work on documents with virtually anyone, anywhere. Be on the same page with Office for Mac and Office for Windows, including new features in Office 2010. Whether you’re looking to share files or work together online, now you can do it with complete confidence, knowing that Office for Mac is most compatible with Office for Windows. With Office being used on more than 1 billion Macs and PCs worldwide, you can work with practically anyone you want, how you want, wherever you want—with no worries.

Free Download: Microsft Office 2011 for Mac

 

NO.8 BitTorrent Client- uTorrent for Mac

uTorrent is a lightweight BitTorrent client written in Cocoa. There are but a few native BitTorrent clients for the Mac, and, honestly, uTorrent is the best. It is impressive how quick uTorrent is. The interface is clean and very intuitive and performance-wise, you can't do better. I have been a Vuze user since I made the switch to Mac from Windows. Using uTorrent after using Vuze is like driving a Ferrari after driving a pick-up track. Torrents are downloaded very fast. Browsing and selecting files is blazing quick, too. With uTorrent you can download and seed torrents, select specific files to download or download the whole thing, set upload and download limits and automatically stop seeding after a certain ratio has been achieved, and more.

Free Download: uTorrent for Mac

 

NO.9 Map Viewer - Google Earth

Google Earth is a virtual mapping and topography tool by Google. It is an exceptional piece of software that allows you to roam around the world and watch satellite imagery and maps for every country in the world. When you start it, you will see a virtual globe and it will automatically zoom in on your location. You can zoom in or out or even use the search field to look for specific locations. You can view both satellite images or maps or a mixed mode that puts streets and map markers on top of satellite imagery. All in all, Google Earth is a very advanced map tool. It is entertaining for the average user but I see lots of uses for it in the fields of geography and topography. It is fast and smooth and, in a nutshell, it is a must-have.

Free Download: Google Earth for Mac

 

NO.10 Antivirus Tool - Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 for Mac

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 for Mac gives you advanced, constantly updated security against Internet threats – without impacting on your computer’s performance. It protects all of your most valuable files: sensitive information, music, photos, and more against the increasing number of viruses aimed at your computer. It gives you peace of mind as you browse the Internet and use online banking, and it stops you passing on malware to other types of computers your friends and colleagues use.With more than 30,000 new Internet threats identified every single day, your Mac – and more importantly the precious stuff you keep on it – is only ever one click away from a virus attack. Protect it all, simply and effectively, with Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 for Mac.

Free Download: Kaspersky Antivirus 2011 for Mac

 

With the above 10 Mac Apps, you could have an unforgettable experience on your Mac OS X. What are you waiting for? Go ahead and have a try!