Switch Bitch

I went to my local Apple store only to have found it has been flushed clean of the Macbook I want. The guy there helpfully suggested that a new Apple Store in Freehold, NJ is having their grand opening tomorrow at 10 am. Cha-ching!

It’s a big change, but I’m ready to switch. I’ve had enough of the hacking and coaxing I’ve had to do with PCs all my life. It was fun while it lasted but I’m ready to scale back to something simple and elegant. Something I’ll feel less tempted to tweak and fuss with all the time. Funny, it feels a lot like my switch to wordpress.com.

[Note from the Opening: The store was due to open at 10 am. I knew Mac fanatics were going to camp out, so I headed down to the car as soon as I was conscious. I got there at 8:10, and there were 20 people ahead of me. At 9:00 there were at least another 30 behind me. By the time the store opened, I would guess that the line was 200 deep. BTW, I was customer #1.]

So here’s the plan:

Buy Now

• Macbook: 2.0 GHz, 60 gig version — I can finally have my own computer at school.
• iWork: Keynote and Pages have given me enough reason to stay Microsoft-free for a while.
• Filemaker Pro: I missed the memo a while back that Filemaker had matched MS Access in power and surpassed it in ease of use. Time to give databases another go.
• FileFinder: Catalog all the stuff I’ve accumulated on CDs and DVDs.
• Speed Download: A better download manager
• Super Duper: Back that thang up (free for basic backups, pay and register for scheduling and other advanced features)
• VoodooPad: Organize all my info in a wiki

Necessary Free Downloads

• iStumbler and Kismac: Sniff out wifi networks
• Firefox: Better browsing.
• Skype: Free phone calls.
• Pukka: Post to del.icio.us
• 1001: Upload photos to Flickr.
• Google Earth: Explore the world
• Smart Board software: Prepare whiteboard lessons
• Quicksilver: Launch a thousand apps
• Growl: Let apps send you notifications
• Sidenote: Desktop stickies
• Cocoa Booklet: Make PDF booklets
• VLC: To go where Quicktime won’t.
• Handbrake: Rip DVDs to MP4s
• Audacity: Edit sound files.
• Imagewell: Quick image touch-ups
• Seashore: More involved image manipulation. Bypass Photoshop and get GIMP for Macs.
• Quinn: A Tetris clone. Aw c’mon; it’s better than being on WoWarcrack.
• Text Wrangler: Better than Text Edit. Thanks Scott!
• Transmission: Bit Torrent client
• Gmail notifier: So that I can make Gmail my default e-mail client
• Adium: A pretty darn near universal IM client
• Colloquy or Chatzilla: Easy IRC
• Frotz: Play old school interactive fiction on this z-machine emulator
• Writeroom: Type without distractions
• Sketchup: Model 3D objects
• FFView: Read comic books
• Apple’s Quicktime AppleScript Pack: Useful scripts for Quicktime
• Stuffit Expander: Decompress sitx files
• Adobe Lightroom: A little more than iPhoto, a little less than Aperture. And free.
• FreeMind: Open-source java mind map creator
• Chicken of the VNC: Open-source VNC viewer
• Fugu: A Mac OS X SFTP, SCP and SSH frontend

Widgets

• Oblique: Creativity prompts.
• Sudoku: Aw c’mon; it’s better than Tetris.
• iSpeak: When you can’t stand to stare at a screen anymore.
• SMS: Send a free cell phone text message.
• Sing that iTune! (until Pear Lyrics): Find lyrics to songs.
• Google Widgets: Widgets for gmail and personalized searches
• Capture: Take pictures of my screen
• bpmWidget: Figure out the beats-per-minute of songs

Consider Buying Later

• Transmit: FTP
• NetNewsWire: Feed reader
• Endo: Another feed reader
• Ecto: Better blogging.
• Snapz Pro X: Screen capture
• Audio Hijack Pro: Record and enhance sound
• Mellel: A word processor that emphasizes the writing
• Endnote: For when I go to grad school — bibliographies made easy
• Studio Artist: More pixel pushing
• Voice Candy: Fun sound effects and filters
• Podcast Maker: Um, make podcasts
• App Zapper: Uninstall unwanted software

Any other suggestions/recommendations?

apple, mac, macbook