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back to article Ten free apps to install on every new Mac

Apple provides plenty of free software to get you started with a new Mac. But there are some gaps, and a number of the firm's own freebies have been improved upon by some equally inexpensive alternatives. Here, then, is our selection of the ten apps you should download onto every new Mac you buy. RH Numbers Adium Adium is …

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  1. Ian Ferguson

    www.utorrent.com

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    uTorrent

    Tiny, efficient torrenting app. Can't live without it!

    I'm confused by your claim that Time Machine can't restore apps, though - of course it can! When I got my new iMac, I simply used Time Machine to restore from my external HDD that had a backup from my MacBook (with a previous version of the OS, no less). Restored files, OS setup, applications, everything - but with the new OS.

    Absolutely amazing in my opinion. Sure, Time Machine is short on options - but after using it for a while I now understand why; it just works!

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  2. Hans 1

    http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14414/mactheripper

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    mac the ripper

    Just rip any dvd with this thing of beauty ...

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  3. Aaron 10

    http://perian.org/

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    Perian

    This free plug-in gives codec support to QuickTime for all major video formats, including OGG and MKV, as well as subtitle support. While it is a close second to VLC for its formats, the fact that it integrates into QuickTime and therefore exports videos is a huge boon.

    Side note: The Squared 5 MPEG Streamclip download link is broken.

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  4. Oscar

    www.microsoft.com

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    Windows 7

    Biggest productivity improving move I've made with the mac mini I've got at work :D

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  5. Steven Walker

    http://blacktree.com/?quicksilver

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    Quicksilver

    I cannot take this list seriously as it does not include Quicksilver. I put it at number one. It is quite brilliant and has completely changed how I use my mac. I ignore the Dock and have no desktop icons. I can open any file, program, address, mail recipient or just about anything else with half a dozen keystrokes.

    If you have a Mac install it now and soend a few hours playing with it and learning. If you have Ubuntu 10.4 there is a very passable clone.

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  6. Graeme Hayes

    Monolingual......

    Great idea but it completely screwed my MacBook. Luckily, I had a backup of the data and it only took a short while to undo the damage.

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  7. MrHorizontal

    http://code.google.com/p/tunnelblick/

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    TunnelBrick

    OpenVPN client for Mac OS X, allows you to use an OpenVPN server without knowing anything about OpenVPN and just double-clicking on the .ovpn config file provided by VPN providers. In the days of increased spying activity - which even though Labour are out of government will still linger for too long, privacy is important.

    TunnelBrick is free, while the better Viscosity (http://www.viscosityvpn.com) is $7.

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  8. Johnny Thrust

    http://store.steampowered.com/

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    Steam

    Not a Mac user, would rather claw my own eyes out, but it's nice to see Valve have implemented their Steam platform on Mac, making having fun on the little white gits should be a little easier to do!

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  9. runebinder

    http://blog.boastr.net/

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    BetterTouchTool

    If you have a multitouch trackpad or magic mouse you can program extra gestures, makes the user experience so much better. As an added bonus it enables Windows 7 snap features for OS X as well, an essential download and free.

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  10. John H. Maw

    Little Snitch

    Little Snitch controls what information can be sent from your machine to the internet. All sorts of things try to phone home on your bandwidth. With Snitch, you get the say about which do and which don't. It should make it much harder for people to get into from your computer. Not free, but not costly either.

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