Essential Mac Apps for Your new iMac/Macbook

With Macs becoming more and more popular within the PC world but more the Laptop world, more and more people are developing an interest for getting the best new apps for your brand new iMac/Macbook. The App Store is a great place to find all these applications as it offers up a wide variety of different productivity, entertainment, games and many more types of apps. We’ve decided to compile a list of Essential apps for your new iMac/Macbook that will enable you to start off your new Mac life on the right foot with the right suite of apps.

Caffeine (Free)

Caffeine is a great application for those that get frustrated with their laptops’ screen automatically turning off when they leave it alone for too long. It’s a really simple programme that just sits in your menu bar at the top and allows you to click it on and off. You can simply have it on all the time or click it off if you wish to allow your Mac to sleep.

This app is good for those people who love to work long hours in their office but often find themselves needing a break and going to make themselves a cup of coffee but don’t want the trouble of having to tap a button and sign back in whenever you return to your machine.

Evernote (Free)

Evernote is an application that is far from a Mac exclusive but certainly one that is a necessity for anyone that wants to keep their notes in check wherever they go. Evernote, for those of you who don’t know is an advanced Note-taking application that has been around for a long time and as a result has earned incredible respect within the business world.

Evernote recently introduced Work Chat which allows you to not only communicate between other Evernote users, but also allows you to send and receive Notebooks and Notes from them too. Definitely check this app out!

DropBox (Free)

Everyone who has ever needed to use Cloud storage will have heard of the well-respected DropBox and deservedly so. Not only does DropBox offer an easy and simple set-up process to allow you to store all your files within the cloud, but it also offers a Mac application that places your DropBox media right within it’s own file on your computer allowing you to very easily transfer one data from one file to your DropBox without having to either open up a separate app or open up a browser to upload it.

DropBox isn’t really well known for no reason and is a must for anyone who either already uses DropBox and intends to use it to store their files or anyone who feels insecure about their files and wants them to be either backed up or merely accessible from another device if needed.

Steam (Free)

Now Macs may not be dedicated gaming computers and if you’ve bought one for this purpose then maybe you made the wrong purchase. However recently Apple have been working closely with Intel to provide some fairly decent power inside those aluminium casings. In addition, with the rise of Indie games via the Greenlight access on Steam, having a powerful computer is becoming less and less important.

Steam is a free client that you can download from their sight that allows you to download games, see your steam library, chat to other friends and unlock achievements. It’s simply the perfect companion for anyone who wants to game on their brand new Mac.

Alfred (Free)

With the introduction of Yosemite, Apple introduced a brand new spotlight that took not only visual cues but also feature cues from the previously famous Alfred. Now with the introduction of the new Spotlight, some may say there’s no need for Alfred but there’s still many things you can do with this application that Spotlight can’t yet do.

It has lots of features such as the ability to search the internet, search certain websites and the ability to assign it to certain buttons. It’s an application that needs a download and needs a play around with to experience it’s true power.

Spotify (Free)

Spotify is obviously a service that most people have heard of, it’s the biggest music streaming service in the world and there’s a good reason why. It’s not only a free service but it also offers an enormous range of songs for every genre of music.

The Spotify for Mac recently received a visual update to bring it in line with the rest of it’s applications. It nows offers a cleaner, darker user interface but still offers the incredibly easy way to browse and find new music. Spotify offers its service as free with ads or you can then Subscribe to a paid service for $9.99 for no ads and unlimited skips too.

PushBullet (Free)

PushBullet is an application that I couldn’t live without and is an application that does so many clever little things that if you fully take advantage of can save so much time when it comes to synchronising between different devices.

Just a few things you can do with PushBullet are: push content from your phone to mac and visa versa, copy links on your mac and paste them on your phone and visa versa, send and reply to text messages straight from your computer, reply to Whatsapp, Facebook messenger, Telegram and Hangouts messages straight from your computer too. It has so many cool features and definitely deserves a look from any new Mac owner.

 

Those are 7 key applications that every new Mac owner should think about downloading before they begin their journey with a Mac. They are all applications that surely enhance your life and will enhance your productivity, entertainment and ease-of-use with your brand new Mac.

What’s great about Macs is that there is a dedicated App Store that you can download applications from. This means there a thousands of different apps for you to explore with new ones being introduced every day, so go and explore and post in the comments if you find any more you feel deserve to be this list.