In My Experience... | Mac websites roundup. (1701)

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[ Posted by Dan on May 29, 2003 | 10 Comments ]

Eric emailed me about Mac software yesterday after an iBook compulsion buy (good for you!). He hasn't been a Mac user since System 7 ruled the roost, so there is no doubt he meant it when he had no clue what the good current apps are. Here's a few resources to get up to speed...

Useful Mac: Useful Mac is a tight list of good software for Mac OSX. The site doesn't try to be a listing of all Mac software, or attempt to sell stuff to you, etc. They just list what's good, in a nicely organized UI, and for the most part, I agree with most of their choices.

VersionTracker.com: VersionTracker does try to be a listing of everything in the Mac software universe, and pretty much catches all of it. If a new rev of something comes out, they know of it. My only complaint is the use of window.status code to show you one url, but the href over to another, and then use window.location to load the URL you thought you were going to get in the first place.

MacNN.com: A long time ago I used to be a daily Macintouch.com reader, but for some reason, I switched over to MacNN a while back. The site just feels more like a news site to me, and has less ancillary data/info associated with the articles. It's sort of like the USA Today of Mac news sites.

LoopRumors.com: There are many Mac rumors sites out there, and they tend to snipe at each other, speculate wildly, and report normal (well known) news. These folks seem to keep it clean, and usually keeps things up to date. SpyMac.com is another one to check out.

Dev Tools, Dev Tool, Dev Tools!: It's an absolute must to install the Dev Tools for Mac OSX. All of the goodies like cvs and scp are in there (not to mention gcc3). You can download the Dev Tools from the Apple Developer site (you have to register, but can do so without paying out any cash). I also have an extra Dev Tools CD that I got at the O'Reilly Tech conference, so if anyone wants that, I'll be happy to mail it out.

That list should at least get anyone started. If anyone has anything add, please do.

Yeah, MacNN is nice... if you like reading the news hours after MacMinute.com already posted it.

-Posted by on May 29, 2003 03:24 PM

Dear Anonymous, I've never even heard of MacMinute before, but will check it out. Thanks.

-Posted by Dan on May 29, 2003 03:34 PM

I'm surprised you haven't. They're publisher founded MacCentral and sold to Macworld. Plus, they're one of the handful of sites that Apple chooses to advertise with. They are always first on breaking news.

-Posted by on May 29, 2003 03:50 PM

For new software, it's MacUpdate baby! I check out their "Hot Picks" from time to time to read about all the latest apps.

-Posted by Joshua Kaufman on May 29, 2003 04:00 PM

Yea MacNN back dates stories, but MacMinute still beats their back date. I heard that the editor over there is on speed, that's why he never sleeps. He's like Matt Drudge without the stupid hat and the groupies.

Seriously though, MacMinute is where it's at.

-Posted by Jon Gales on May 29, 2003 04:07 PM

Oh, forgot to mention. If you're after a community check out MacMerc. I help run it, but I actually do like it.

And yes, MacUpdate rocks. If you type in a URL like:

http://macupdate.com/romeo

it will do a search for 'romeo'. Very cool, and a nice time saver.

-Posted by Jon Gales on May 29, 2003 04:13 PM

Thanks for the links guys. I've started checking them out even though my as-yet-unnamed iBook has not arrived yet. I can say that I was happy when I found out that Ambrosia (http://www.ambrosiasw.com) was still kickin. I always loved their games. I also can't wait to play a little (or alot) Spaceward Ho, a game that consumed an unhealthy amount of my late teens.

Can anyone enlighten me as to what difference there is between an iBook and a "tiBook"? My best guess is than a tiBook is actually a PowerBook?

-Posted by Eric on May 29, 2003 05:29 PM

Let's not forget to mention that Eric should immediately download NetNewswire and subscribe to the RSS feeds of all these sites!

-Posted by josh on May 29, 2003 05:32 PM

Omnigroup.com -- OmniWeb browser and hte rest of the omni* products are great.

Safari if your ibook didn't come with it... apple.com/safari

uh... well... that's about it from me. All I do with my ibook is surf the web and check email; nothing else runs fast enough for me (MM studio, photoshop, etc) though I have them on there in case I need to do an edit and can't get to my desktop for whatever reason.

-Posted by JC on May 29, 2003 07:13 PM

Oh, and don't forget www.macosx.com where you can rely on regular rumors of:
OSX for x86
Apple switching to Intel
Return of the Newton (god I wish)
and of course the ever popular Apple is going to/should buy _____ and ________ is going to/should buy apple.

But also lots of good information and support for hardware and software issues.

-Posted by JC on May 29, 2003 07:15 PM

Comment posting has been turned off because I don't have enough time and will to deal with the constant comment spamming. I'm very sorry and will fix this sometime soon (soon = before 2004 ends).