[shodipo]

I got a 2014 MacBook air after using windows for the last 10years
Any must have apps to install
And tips to fully optimize usage
P.S Im in the medical field

[robertk328]

Congrats on the new (to you) MacBook Air! Some of my most-used/most-needed apps:

• smcFanControl: https://www.eidac.de
• Pages, etc. from Apple if you don't have MS Office Pages - Apple
• Spark (email) https://sparkmailapp.com
• Tweetbot for Mac https://tapbots.com/tweetbot/mac/

I think that's it for now.... but I may remember more later

[shodipo]

Thanks ill check those out

[cuttheredwire]

VLC Player: Official download of VLC media player, the best Open Source player - VideoLAN

I love writing in iA Writer, but Byword is also good; both are paid apps. MacDown or FocusWriter are decent and free. There are all writing tools.

https://ia.net/writer/
https://www.bywordapp.com/
https://macdown.uranusjr.com/
https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/

Wait for sale on Pixelmator: Pixelmator

LastPass: https://forums.imore.com/e?link=http...token=NCsLo6Cy

And ya, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and Safari all work better than I expected.

[cuttheredwire]

By the way, Xcode is a sweet developer environment and free. Not sure if you know how to code or are interested, but its fun to play with.

https://developer.apple.com/xcode/

It also can be used to put the emulator Providence on iOS:

https://github.com/jasarien/Provenance


Do you use an iPhone or an iPad too?

[shodipo]

Yeah i use an iPhone

[Spencerdl]

Congratulations on your new Macbook Air and welcome to iMore. Enjoy

[robertk328]

LastPass: https://forums.imore.com/e?link=http...token=IAMhw3Nt

Lastpass for sure!

[cuttheredwire]

Yeah i use an iPhone

iA Writer and Byword sync via iCloud pretty nicely. VLC has some nice features to look into; very powerful on iOS or macOS. LastPass syncs too, but via its own servers. Spark (email) actually syncs settings via iCloud, which is surprisingly nice.

Side note: Readdle Documents is a must has iOS app. iA Writer and Byword both can actually open text files that are saved in Documents. iOS is still heavily sandboxed, but bridges have been built for devs will to support them. Good stuff to know.

[shodipo]

I initially enjoyed using mail for MacBook but for some reason it downloads all my 5000 plus read emails offline which takes up over 1gb of space

And I tried spark but it seems to be energy intensive(activity monitor shows it uses more power even than safari on numerous tabs)

Right now I'm not using any desktop mail client
I just wish gmail had a macOS app because that's what I use on the iPhone simply because I get mail in real time and don't have to wait for the iOS mail app to sync

[robertk328]

And I tried spark but it seems to be energy intensive(activity monitor shows it uses more power even than safari on numerous tabs)

FWIW, mine never shows up in the "Using significant energy" dropdown in the menu bar (under the battery) but Safari is there now due to tabs, but usually isn't.

[Bazza1]

If you need to do Microsoft Office-compatible documentation with colleagues, and not want to rely on cloud software to do it (Apple's own Pages, et al can do it, but it can be a 'challenge'), but don't want to blow the big bucks of the Office Suite right off, then the free LibreOffice (https://www.libreoffice.org/download/download/) is a good bet. The programs allow you to set them up to Save As... MS-Office files by default, and the translation is generally very good.