Unofficial Newbie Guide To OS X


Recommended Posts

Here ya go, this thread will be a sticky, it'll contain what I and others think are essential apps for OS X.

This will be handy for both the newb and myself, I hate it after a reinstall when I've forgot something and can't find a link.

Anyway, I'll start it off with the shareware/freeware apps I install after a format:

Camino:

In my opinion it's the best web browser on OS X, tabbed browser, very fast, high quality rendering the lot. Still young as well.

Omniweb:

Alternative browser, looks very pretty and some people will swear by it. It's more feature complete then Camino but it's a dog on Neowin.

MSN:

You're gonna need a chat client, this is the official one from MS. It's not bad, but there are better, such as...

Proteus:

This is akin to Trillian, multi client and a very very nice app. It contains all convo's in one drawer so your desktop doesn't get cluttered up with windows.

Transparent Dock:

This does exactly what is says on the tin (to quote an ad). Simply give different levels of transparency and option of custom PDF's. It doesn't work in jag atm, but this thread will be continuously updated.

ShapeShifter:

Theme changer, this is the one I use and I've had no problems with it so far. This leads me onto...

Themes:

These can be obtained in a few places, Xthemination, Interface Studio and if you're real cutting edge, Izawa themes. The themes provided by Izawa on his site need a little altering to work on non-Japanese OS X, any problems, just ask me ;)

I'll finish now, give others a chance, there's plenty of apps to go yet...

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/39650-unofficial-newbie-guide-to-os-x/
Share on other sites

Watson - If you've ever seen Sherlock 3 in action this is the app that got it started. I mainly use it for the version-tracker tab to see what new software has been released from day to day and the recipe tab.

Acquisition - with the demise of audiogalaxy (RIP) this is the best app to use for the search of mp3's

Audion 3 - Personally I think Audion ****s all over iTunes in the fact its got about 3x the features plus it supports ogg vorbis and mp3pro.

Halime - The best newsreader for OS X period. I like this loads better than Thoth

Mp3Voodoo - mp3 collections are created from folders of mp3

files including cover and back images for every album.

Many different display modes make it easy to find

desired titles even in large collections. Not essential yet cool

Snax

feature stuffed finder replacement that I find damned cool

MacVcd, 3ivx Codec, Divx Doctor 2

Everything you need for divx and vcd's on the mac.

Thats some of mine, I would include the Adobe and Macromedia products that I use but most of those are common place.

Well I can throw some out there..

Neo

Its Kazaa for the Mac. Small cpu/ram footprint

WeatherPop

Weather program for the menu bar. Shows current temp. Under the menu, you can see the forcaste, humidity, wind speed, etc

Fire

Aka Trillian for Mac. Similar to Proteus...chat with MSN, AIM, ICQ, etc. I tend to use this more than Proteus

TinkerTool

Change some extra settings not available in the System Settings.

MaxMenus

Quick menus that are very customizable. Sets hotpoints in the corners of your screen to activate the different menus. VERY handy.

LiteSwitchX

Alt-tab through open apps aka windows. OSX has a default command-tab, but I've found it very lacking

Adium

An AIM client. Easily the best AIM-only on the Mac. Possibly the best chat client on the Mac period.

All of these can be found at Versiontracker.com

Man, I think you guys pretty much hit all the essentials.

Carracho :

I've tried Hotline and Limewire but I have found Carracho to be the most reliable and have the most features. It's kinda like eDonkey and DirectConnect for Windows.

SnapperHead :

This is a fun one. It lets others view a live shot of your desktop in a web browser.

Originally posted by 212RikanMofo

hey dazzla, for the transparent dock thing, uhm wut does custom pdf's for? im not sure wut feature that is?

So you can change the background. You can have it like a rainbow, clear, pink etc. The docks in my screenshots are using plain black pdf's with transparency.

Fire About Fire

Fire is an Multiplatform Instant Messenger client based off of freely available libraries for each ?service?. Currently Fire handles ICQ communication, and Yahoo! Pager communciation. All ?services? are built off of gpl?d libraries, including firetalk, icqlib, and gtkyahoo (linux libraries).

Fire looks somewhat like AIM but is much much more. It can handle similtaneous connections to AIM, ICQ, Yahoo , IRC, MSN and Jabber IM.

Okay, I'll jump into the mix. The most indespensible program that I've found for my iBook is LaunchBar. It has all but replaced the dock (it is much faster accessing programs using keyboard shortcuts) and acts as an excellent task switcher.

Check it out. It's one of the only programs that I have registered after only using it for 30 minutes. Well worth the $20.

Cheers,

RW

  • 3 weeks later...
Originally posted by GatorZx2

Toolbar Icon Changer (TIC):

This is a great app made buy a guy over at Macfora. TIC lets you easily change the Finder toolbar icons by doing all the terminal work fo you. I don't know if this works with Jaguar but it works great with 10.1.5 .

TIC.jpeg

This is what happens when I try and do anything with that:

toolbar.png

Edit: Well, you need Applescript 1.8.3, grab it from here: http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcg...id=15315&db=mac

Works perfectly now, good find.

  • 1 month later...

CandyBar has been updated with even more great features, including easy change of the Finder Icon.

What's New In Version 1.0.1

-Qualified for use with Mac OS X 10.2.1

-Supports all new icons for Jaguar:

? Finder (yay!)

? Private Folder

? Drop Box

? Mounted Server

-Smoothicons starter set updated & expanded

-Displays progress bar on first launch when -Backing up icons

-Many little fixes and improvements

CandyBar 1.0.1

  • 3 weeks later...

now for some shortcut keys:

wanna see what your mac is doing during boot under OSX?

Hold Command-V for verbose mode

screw something up badly and need a command basic prompt to repair?

Hold Command-S for single-user mode

Command-S will probably save your life at least once if you're into heavy system mods and overclockinh utils :)

Originally posted by timdorr

now for some shortcut keys:

wanna see what your mac is doing during boot under OSX?

Hold Command-V for verbose mode

screw something up badly and need a command basic prompt to repair?

Hold Command-S for single-user mode

Command-S will probably save your life at least once if you're into heavy system mods and overclockinh utils :)

lol sometime in the next month i'll have to write a huge ms word doc as a "just in case" thing lol...

Microsoft Mactopia Downloads

thats only if you MISS microsoft (or u want msn mess)...or u own a keyboard/mouse made by microsoft thats osx compatible...

Apple Downloads Page

This page is pretty up to date for programs that are freeware/shareware/demo available for mac osx, and includes most of apple's own software (including ical and itunes)

"so your thinking that your getting a mac, and your hoping if some of your hardware (ie hard drive/cd burner) will work with the new macintosh?" check out http://www.xlr8yourmac.com they're an excellent site about hardware reviews and "how to's" to get a certain hardware product to get working with a mac...i looked around to see if there was anything on my LG dvd-rom drive...seeing if others got it to work on a mac...n yep it has :D

RBrowserLite - FREE FTP Client for Mac OS X

Meteorologist - Weather App

Beachball - Cursor changer

Curator - Image Display and Organization Application

PixelNhance - Image Enhancement Application

LimeWire X - P2P client

Goldberg X - Image & movie viewer with some image editing capabilities

KoalaCalc - Scientific, statistical, conversion calculator

Taco HTML Edit - Fully featured HTML editor with tag coloring

FruitMenu - a haxie that customizes and enhances Apple and contextual menus in Mac OS X

ClearDock - a haxie that changes the Dock background on Mac OS X 10.2

Metallifizer - a haxie that adds or removes brushed metal background in Cocoa applications on Mac OS X 10.2

  • 2 months later...
this may have been posted earlier but i could not find it so i will ask here.

can i play svcd and vcd encoded mpeg files in os x, and what about .vob's? if so, how? what do i need, etc...

thanks for the help.

Yes, you can play most formats in Quicktime which comes with OS X, as far as I've tried it worked with all my VCD's, but it's not a VCD player as such, if you want something built just for those, you should check out this, or go check macupdate, filetracker, download.com or Apple's download section for similar apps... Unfortunately I haven't a clue what a .vob file is, so I can't answer that one, sorry.

a vob file is usually a direct decode of a dvd data file. so therefore it is mpeg2 so should play in anything that plays svcd encoded files, heh. thanks for the info by the way.

woo, checked out that site and found this on the main page:

About SuperVCD Playback

If you purchase and install the Apple Quicktime MPEG2 Component, you can play SuperVCDs. The Apple MPEG2 Component is a high performace decoder that provides great playback performance even on a G3 Macintosh. To purchase the Apple Quicktime MPEG2 Component, go to store.apple.com, click the Apple Software link in the left hand column under the Software and Books heading, then scroll down to the item titled "QT 6 MPEG-2 Playback - Mac OS X $19.99".

so, looks like quicktime can play the files if i just buy that component ;). maybe i should stick to the free vlc client. hehe

  • 1 month later...
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Wow, Microsoft IS cooking lately... This only shows that they COULD improve, they just chose not to for whatever reasons. That obsession with AI was destroying them from the inside out.
    • BATorrent 4.1.0 by Razvan Serea BATorrent is a lightweight, open-source BitTorrent client built with modern C++ and Qt 6, offering a clean, fast, and privacy-focused alternative to traditional torrent apps. It supports magnet links, .torrent files, resume data, sequential downloading, per-file priorities, and even imports from qBittorrent. Power users benefit from integrated RSS auto-download with regex filtering, duplicate detection, and automatic tracker lists from Stremio. Streaming is seamless thanks to auto-detected players like VLC and IINA. BATorrent includes robust VPN tools—interface binding, auto-detection for WireGuard-based services like Mullvad and NordLynx, kill switch, proxy support, and IP filtering. A full WebUI enables remote control, while integrations with Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby automate library updates. With themes, speed scheduling, system-tray alerts, and cross-platform support for Windows, Linux, and macOS, BATorrent delivers a polished, high-performance torrenting experience. BATorrent features: Core .torrent file and magnet link support Resume data — picks up where you left off after restart Import torrents from qBittorrent Create .torrent files from any file or folder Sequential download mode Per-file priority control (skip, low, normal, high) Seed ratio limits with auto-pause DHT, PEX, UPnP, NAT-PMP RSS Auto-Download Subscribe to RSS feeds — automatically download new torrents as they appear Regex filters — match only what you want (e.g. 1080p|720p, S01E\d+) Per-feed settings — custom save path, check interval (5–1440 min), enable/disable Auto-download — matched items are downloaded automatically in the background Supports magnet links, .torrent URLs, and tags Tray notifications when items are auto-downloaded Duplicate detection — never downloads the same item twice Stremio Stremio Addon System pre-installed — works out of the box Auto tracker list from ngosang/trackerslist Streaming Play while downloading — stream video files before the download is complete Supports mp4, mkv, avi, mov, wmv, flv, webm, m4v, ts Auto-detects installed players (VLC, IINA, system default) VPN & Privacy Interface binding — lock torrent traffic to a specific network interface (e.g. tun0) Auto VPN detection — identifies VPN interfaces (tun, tap, WireGuard, Mullvad, NordLynx, ProtonVPN) Kill switch — automatically pauses all torrents if the VPN interface drops Auto-resume — resumes only the torrents paused by the kill switch when VPN reconnects Proxy support — SOCKS5 and HTTP proxy with optional authentication IP filtering — load P2P blocklists to block unwanted IP ranges Protocol encryption (enabled / forced / disabled) WebUI Remote management — control torrents from any browser at http://localhost:8080 REST API with JSON responses Add torrents via magnet link or .torrent upload Pause, resume, remove torrents remotely View peers and files per torrent Dark theme matching the desktop app HTTP Basic Auth with SHA-256 password hashing Configurable port and remote access (localhost vs 0.0.0.0) Interface 3 themes: Dark, Light, Midnight (bat/vampire aesthetic) Real-time speed graph Detailed panel with tabs: General, Peers, Files, Trackers Filter bar: search by name, filter by state (Active, Downloading, Seeding, Paused, Finished) Drag & drop .torrent files and magnet links Drag & drop reorder in torrent list System tray with notifications (download complete, kill switch events, RSS auto-downloads) Splash screen with bat animation Bilingual: English and Portuguese (BR), auto-detected from system locale Bandwidth Scheduler Alternative speed limits — set different download/upload limits on a schedule Time range — configure active hours (e.g. 01:00 to 07:00), supports overnight ranges Per-day control — choose which days of the week the schedule applies Automatically switches between normal and alternative speeds Media Server Integration Plex — automatically trigger library scan when a download completes Jellyfin / Emby — same automatic library refresh via API Configure server URL and authentication token/key in Settings System Cross-platform: Windows, Linux, macOS Auto-shutdown — automatically shut down PC when all downloads complete (60s cancellable countdown) Auto-update system (AppImage on Linux, installer on Windows, DMG on macOS) CLI arguments: pass .torrent files or magnet: URIs directly Keyboard shortcuts: Space to toggle pause, Ctrl+A to select all, Ctrl+O to open BATorrent 4.1.0 release notes: A community-driven release: everything here came straight from your reports and requests. It closes the remaining gaps with qBittorrent and fixes the Windows settings/tray/splash issues several of you hit. Fixed Settings now actually save. A whole class of preferences — speed limits (and the alternative limits), max active downloads, seed ratio, listen port, max connections, DHT/uTP/encryption, VPN interface, kill switch and proxy — weren't being persisted and reset to defaults on every launch. They now round-trip correctly. (Thanks to everyone who reported "the upload limit always goes back to 0".) Splash and tray toggles stick on Windows. Turning off the startup animation (or "close to tray") no longer reverts — the Windows registry stored these booleans as integers and the UI was misreading them. Close-to-tray hint. The first time the window hides to the tray you get a one-time notification, so the app doesn't look like it vanished (Windows 11 tucks new tray icons into the overflow). macOS Dock icon size. The icon filled its canvas edge-to-edge and rendered larger than neighbouring apps; it now uses the standard safe-area padding. Native file picker language. The "Torrent file / All files" filter in the open dialog follows the app language instead of being hard-coded. Added — qBittorrent parity Alternative speed limits toggle — a turtle button in the toolbar flips your throttled limits on/off instantly, independent of the scheduler. Follow system theme — switch light/dark automatically with the OS (Settings → Appearance). Pre-allocate disk space — reserve the full file size up front to reduce fragmentation (Settings → Downloads). Recheck data on add — optionally force a hash check when adding a torrent, so existing or partial files on disk are detected. Port status indicator — a 🔴 dot in the status bar shows whether your listen port looks reachable (UPnP/NAT-PMP + listen state; fully local, no external check). Add torrent from URL — File → Add torrent from URL (Ctrl+U) fetches a remote .torrent and routes it through the normal add dialog. Export .torrent — right-click a torrent → Export .torrent to save its metadata file. Already there (in case you missed it) Watch folder — auto-add .torrent files dropped into a monitored directory (Settings → Files). This release just surfaces it. Incomplete files already carry a .!bt suffix until they finish. Under the hood Regression tests for the settings-persistence and Windows boolean bugs. A new Qt Quick Test harness covering the startup splash and the design-system widgets. Download: BATorrent 4.1.0 | 37.5 MB (Open Source) Download: BATorrent Portable | 51.7 MB Links: BATorrent Website | Screenshot | Changelog Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Disabling open on hover, great! That was so stupid! They need to do a fix, where if a network share is disconnected, it doesn't hang when opening "This PC" for 20 seconds.
    • Microsoft releases major feature updates for stock Windows 11 apps by Taras Buria In addition to releasing new Windows 11 preview builds, Microsoft announced that inbox Windows apps now have dedicated release notes in the official documentation. At long last, users have access to all the release notes for each app, with changes listed in chronological order. Microsoft used to announce feature updates for stock apps with each build. Now, with Windows Insider release notes hosted on the Microsoft Learn website, each app has a dedicated space for its changelog, which is very useful for those who want to track new features and improvements. Alongside that, Microsoft dropped massive feature updates for six stock apps: Clock, Media Player, Calculator, Voice Recorder, Photos, and Paint. Each app packs quite a lot of changes and new capabilities, so here are the release notes. Here are quick notes so that you can jump to the app you are interested in the most: Calculator Camera Clock Media Player Paint Photos Sound Recorder Here is what is new for the Calculator in version 11.2605.9.0: More accurate square-root results — Fixed rare cases where a calculation that should equal zero (like sqrt(2.25) - 1.5) returned a tiny leftover value instead. Readable text in High Contrast themes — Settings text now shows the correct colors in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes. Fixed layout for right-to-left languages — For languages like Arabic and Hebrew, the graph, number pad, equation fields, and scroll buttons now appear correctly oriented. Reliable launch after upgrading — Fixed an issue where upgrading from much older versions could leave outdated settings that stopped the app from opening. Here is what is new for the Camera app (version 2026.2605.7.0): Zoom slider works on more cameras — The zoom slider now works on the latest cameras, respects your system zoom settings, and updates instantly when you change those settings. Full range of zoom levels — Fixed an issue where the zoom slider only showed three steps on some devices that zoom in finer increments. Front camera works on more devices — Resolved a problem that blocked the front-facing camera on certain wide-angle devices. More video resolution choices — You can now pick video resolutions that were previously hidden; the app shows a heads-up warning instead of removing them. QR links you can still use — When a scanned QR code points to something with no matching app, the link is now copied to your clipboard (with a notification) while still offering a Store search. Smarter default settings — When you haven't set a preference, the app now follows your system settings by default. The Clock app has a massive changelog with the following improvements in version 11.2605.9.0: Timers keep counting after they hit zero — When a timer runs out, it now keeps counting up (for example, -00:27:31) so you can see how far past the time you've gone. You can turn off the daily goal — Focus Sessions now include an "Off" option so you can skip setting a daily goal entirely. New 15-minute snooze option — Alarms now offer a 15-minute snooze interval. Run up to 3 countdowns at once — The Countdown Widget now supports three simultaneous countdowns, up from two. Timer Widget notifications now appear — Fixed an issue where the "timer finished" notification didn't show when the timer was started from the widget. Less clutter in Focus Sessions — Tasks you've already completed no longer show up in the Focus Session task list. More accurate focus progress — Fixed a rounding issue that could show your daily focus progress as a minute short (for example, 49 minutes instead of 50). Smoother World Clock comparisons — The World Clock compare page now loads dates as you scroll, so it feels more responsive. Up-to-date World Clock locations — Refreshed country and city names to match their current names. Correct sun and moon icons during midnight sun — Fixed an icon that wrongly showed a moon during all-day daylight in polar regions. Fixed back-button behavior in clock comparisons — Pressing back once now takes you back as expected, instead of jumping the date to 1926. Corrected the Newfoundland time zone — Newfoundland now uses the right time zone (St. John's). Disabled alarms stay looking disabled — Editing a turned-off alarm no longer makes it appear turned on. Cleaner timer cards — The expand button is now turned off on timer cards that have no time set, preventing actions that wouldn't do anything. Clearer theme setting — Updated the wording to "Choose your preferred app theme." Smoother Settings links — The "About" links in Settings no longer trigger an unexpected "switch apps" prompt. Fixed spacing in Spotify settings — Corrected uneven spacing in the Spotify settings card. Better focus visibility in High Contrast — The focus highlight in World Clock is now clearly visible in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes. No more double announcements — Screen readers no longer read the timer value twice. Countdown names read correctly — Screen readers now properly announce the name of each countdown. Keyboard focus stays put — Focus no longer disappears after you press the Timer Reset button. Clearer alarm toggle for screen readers — Tidied up how the alarm on/off switch is announced. The Media Player app received plenty of changes as well (version 11.2605.14.0): Custom captions — You can now personalize how closed captions appear, with caption styling tied to your Windows caption settings, plus a quick link to open those settings directly. "Indexing" banner in the play queue — When your media library is still being scanned, a banner now explains why some items may not appear yet. Fixed the look of selected items — Corrected a layout glitch with selected items in lists. Fewer playback failures — Improved how the app recognizes supported file types, so more files play without issues. Playlists need a name — You can no longer accidentally save a playlist with a blank name. Cleaner look for empty playlists — Improved how a playlist appears when it has no items yet. More stable play queue edits — Fixed a crash that could happen when changing the play queue while the app was switching between sessions. Clearer "missing codec" message — Improved the dialog that appears when a file needs a codec you don't have, with clearer guidance on what to do. A big update is also available for Paint in version 11.2605.61.0: Adjustable eraser transparency — You can now control how transparent the eraser is. Cleaner stamp brush strokes — Fixed visible color shifts and artifacts when using stamp-style brushes. JPEG photos save in place — Opening a rotated JPEG and pressing Save now overwrites the original instead of unexpectedly prompting "Save As." No more crash on bad image files — Opening a damaged or invalid image, from within the app, by double click, or commandline, now shows a clear error message instead of closing the app. Classic selection behavior restored — The selection outline now hides while you move, resize, or rotate a selection, just like in classic Paint. Tidier AI image panel — Fixed missing spacing at the bottom of the AI image generation panel for a cleaner layout. Visible button hover in light theme — Toolbar split buttons now show a clear hover highlight in the light theme. Snappier toolbar — Streamlined how the ribbon lays out, giving a small speed boost at startup. Fewer background crashes — Fixed a crash that could happen while background tasks were finishing up. Stable app shutdown — Prevented rare crashes when closing the app. Fixed layer removal glitch — Deleting the active layer no longer leaves the layers list in an inconsistent state. Here is what is new in the Photos app (version 2026.11060.2004.0): AI watermarking — AI-generated or edited images can now carry a visible Copilot watermark. You choose Never, Always, or Ask Every Time in Settings, with a confirmation when saving. The watermarking is off by default in settings. Better viewing of small images and pixel art — Tiny images (like 16×16 pixel art) now zoom in far more to fill the screen and stay crisp instead of looking blurry. Select scanned text with the keyboard — When text is detected in an image, you can now navigate and select it using the arrow keys, Shift+Arrow, Home/End, and Ctrl+A, with a clear focus highlight. Fixed a crash in text recognition — Resolved a crash that could close Photos while detecting text in images; the app now recovers gracefully. Easier keyboard navigation — Tabbing through the navigation bar no longer stops on hidden controls, so it takes a single Tab to move past it instead of three. And finally, here is the Sound Recorder (version 11.2605.1.0): Waveform shows with Bluetooth mics — The live waveform now displays correctly when you record using a Bluetooth audio device. No more stray scrollbar — A non-working horizontal scrollbar no longer appears at the bottom of the waveform unless you've zoomed in. Mark button ready right away — The Mark button no longer looks grayed out until you hover over it after opening the app. Markers hidden for WAV files — Markers are now turned off for WAV recordings, since that format can't store them — so they're no longer lost silently. Smoother deleting — Quickly pressing Delete and Enter to remove several recordings in a row no longer triggers a "file doesn't exist" error. Fixed a memory issue — Resolved a memory leak that occurred each time a recording started. You can find all these changelogs in the official documentation here.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Very Popular
      AndrewSteel earned a badge
      Very Popular
    • Veteran
      Taliseian went up a rank
      Veteran
    • One Month Later
      Clizby earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      Timaximus earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Timaximus earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      516
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      170
    3. 3
      +Edouard
      162
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      84
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      78
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!