Once you buy your new MacBook, unpack that beauty nicely, fire it up, and update it to the latest software; You still have a lot to do…
Before you start using your device, in case there is more than 1 user using your MacBook, or Windows devices, we always suggest you create each account separately. This will allow users not only more privacy, but also more personalization and customization features. We also suggest always have a password for you device for your safety.
So once you have your account, and also updates done, there are some must-have apps you need to install, and also some websites you may need to use as software. Here are some selections of our must-have sets for essential MacBook apps you should start using immediately.
1. Google Chrome / Safari
You may still consider using Safari, but we cannot. We are fully connected to Chrome, it’s gathering our data from our every move is like having a scratcher at the right time. You can download Google Chrome from their website.
2. Mail App & Calendar / Outlook
Unless you have corporate email management over Outlook, you can continue using the default Macbook Mail app, all you have to do is open it up and add your email login credentials. The default Mail app allows you to add almost any email provider by default.
3. Apple / Google / Microsoft Office
This depends on your current features or apps you are using. You can focus on having apple solutions, google or Microsoft depending on your past experiences.
Pages are your default alternative in MacBook for Microsoft Word. You can download it via App Store. If you have a Microsoft subscription, you can also download the Words app to use on your MacBook. Another alternative way to use Microsoft Office apps are via their website. You will need a microsoft account and then you can use online. If you prefer using Google cloud, you can also use Google docs online.
Similar to document editing solutions, you can use Keynote, Google Slides, or Powerpoint for presentations, Also Numbers, Google Sheet, or Microsoft Excel for spreadsheet usages.
4. Google Drive / OneDrive / iCloud / Dropbox
Even having a physical device with a lot of space in it, we now have the feeling of what if something happens to that device nowadays. So we should use at least one of the cloud drive providers. iCloud is by default a feature in Macbook, so all you have to is set up that under settings. You can also use other solutions and download their app from their websites. They mostly provide features like mirroring or streaming depending on your desire.
5. Microsoft Teams / Zoom / Webex / Google Meet
Thanks to our lovely Covid, we are living in online meeting rooms for not only business but also personal usages. The app you want to use will depend on your friends or colleagues.
6. Whatsapp / Slack
No need for an introduction for a mostly used personal text chat app, You can use Whatsapp on your MacBook as well, which will also allow you to download files, send files to your friends using MacBook as well.
Slack is one of the best collaboration and texting tools for corporate. We will share a different article shortly about how to use slack.
7. Bitwarden
There are several password management solutions you can use, you can even use Google Crome or Safari/Mac’s default tools. In case you consider open source managed, secure password management tool, we suggest you to use Bitwarden. You can download it from App Store, you can also download it to your phone and use both devices at the same time. It also has a Chrome extension, so you don’t even need to open the app itself to get your related passwords.
8. The Unarchiver
MacBook does not support by default archive or unarchive features for most of the file formats. You can search The Unarchiver app on App Store to download it.
9. Music / Spotify / Youtube Music
You will definitely use the app for your online music service. Apple Music is default installed on your device. You can visit Spotify to download their app and Youtube Music websites to download its Chrome extension so it will act like an app or you can of course use their website to listen to your music.
10. Notion / Trello / BBEdit
If you like note-taking, after a few use cases, you may find yourself Mac’s default notes app is not enough to cover all your needs. The notion will allow you to break that bound from the Notes app. Notion app is not under App Store directly for MacBooks, but You can download Notion from their website. The additional features on notion will enhance your creativity. You can use it not only on your MacBook, but also on your iOS or Android devices, or even Windows. Notion will also allow users to share specific pages they created to increase collaboration. It also has a corporate plan for organizations. It will allow users to not only note-taking, but also planning, project management, to-do sharing. It also allows users to generate small databases, tables with small calculations, code blocks.
Planning and prioritizing are extremely delicate issues both in work life and your personal one. Trello makes these things a bit easier for you. You can download its app, or use their website to access it. It will also allow you to share your boards with others so you can collaborate on your ideas or plans, or even use it as a who has what list. Trello provides really good automation features even if you are using its free version, like archive all close items every week, assign tasks, set and view by categories
Sometimes you need a text editor, that will take out all theme-related items, or view them as a code (like visual studio) BBEdit will be a good alternative for you to do this.
11. Reminders / To Do
Sometimes we really miss Wunderlist. After Microsoft bought them, they transferred it to To Do app which is still okay, but we feel like the essence of Wunderlist is somehow gone. Anyway, if you want to use some checkbox management features, lists that require completion, etc, you can use Microsoft To Do app now.
You can also use the Apple reminders app too, Apple reminders app also allows you to share a specific list with people, set a reminder day or even location, and allow you to assign tasks to other collaborators.
12. Grammarly
Grammer or grammar or how was it again? Grammarly will work over your apps and also over your Chrome with its extension, so you do not need to worry about what you are typing grammar-wise. You can download the extension, install the app, or even use their website directly.
13. Unsplash
Unsplash community will allow you to download and get any type of imagery for free. Their licensing structure is conducted to be free! In addition to these features, they provide Unsplash MacBook app that you can download from App Store will allow you to update your background automatically daily/weekly or manually. You can also set themes under its settings, so it will only provide you that theme imagery. If you really like Unsplash like us, you can also try Unsplash Instant, the Google Chrome extension that will show a different imagery on your new tabs every time.
14. PhotoPea / Gimp
Gimp is one of the oldest free and open-source image editors. It was one of the best alternatives for photoshop. You can download it from the Gimp website.
PhotoPea is another alternative that came out shortly. To use PhotoPea, you even do not need to install any app. But on their website, you can get the small Chrome widget that will allow you to use it from your mac like an installed app.
15. VLC
Video Lan provides an open-source great video file and stream player that you can download from their website.
16. ExpressVPN
If you need to act like you are in another country, or just want to use private network access, you should use a VPN. There are several great solutions that you can use, we suggest you get a subscription. You can subscribe and also download Express VPN via their website. You can also use the same VPN service with all of your other devices.
17. Magnet
Especially on MacBook, making your windows on a specific size, or making them stay side by side are sometimes became a bit messy and took a longer time than you expected. Magnet app on App Store will make your life easier on this.
18. Disk Diag
Apple is really good at cleaning up its mess and not mostly leaving some behind. Still, you may use the Disk Diag app to clean your cache, logs, and unnecessary data.
19. Transmission
We can say that torrent is the oldest digitally similar version for a blockchain network. It allows clients to download/upload files individually as a group of others in the same network which also allows authenticating each user is downloading/uploading the same file. Downloading or uploading files using torrent is not illegal, but downloading any copyrighted material is. Well, after this small footnote, Transmission is one of the good solutions to use torrent downloads on MacBook.
20. Parallels Desktop
Do you still miss Microsoft Windows? Do you want to use Linux in your Macbook? Parallels Desktop will allow you to generate virtual machines and it will allow you to run them without restarting your MacBook. It will allow you to run them simultaneously too.
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