Before I begin, it’s good for you to know that I don’t have the new OS Leopard. I know, it’s pretty damn depressing. Also, this is my first post on gadgets, and I’m quite a huge leap from being a computer genius. I don’t own the lastest technologies, I certainly can’t do crazy stuff like stress-test them, and I don’t go around meddling with microchips and what have you. I freak out when I have to pry the keys off my MacBook to clean them for fear they’ll break. Long story short, I am your everyday MacBook owner and technology consumer. Everything you’ll read here will be from the point-of-view of a consumer, and my opinion is certainly not law. Ready? Here we go.

Tiger comes with fairly useful applications, but you know how it works: the people over at Adobe and Microsoft Office are hell bent on getting some profit for their hard work, so you can either get a legit copy and pay a mighty sum for them, or download a copy somewhere else. I don’t aim to promote piracy, but S$2,000 for Final Cut Studio? I don’t operate a bank here.

There are, thankfully, other apps that come free. Below is the list I’ve compiled, and how useful I think they are. But who cares what I think? Try them out yourself!

• Adium: This is the Mac version of Microsoft Messenger or Windows Live Messenger on a PC. Of course, there’s still MSN for Mac, and I confess to having two just in case I run into network problems (the school I used to go to somehow stopped me from signing in to MSN), but there are other reasons to have Adium installed as well. First, Adium works with many other messaging platforms, like AIM, iChat and MSN. Second – and this is most relevant to me and for anyone else having to communicate via a shared airport signal – Adium allows iChat entries to appear together with your MSN list, so you don’t have to open iChat at all. I believe that saves some RAM, but even if it doesn’t, you have one less application to clutter your screen.

• Alarm Clock: I discovered this application when a colleague of mine asked me to wake her up from her nap 20 minutes later. (Funny how you discover new stuff, eh.) I can’t remember why I didn’t just use my handphone instead, but just as well. Alarm Clock is foolproof to use; you set it like an alarm clock, it rings. If you want it fancy, you can make it play a tune from your iTunes instead of an alarm. I’m not sure if Tiger comes with a function like that, but there you go.

• Azureus: Quite the tool to use if you’re a desperate pirate. It’s a BitTorrent client, and I know there’re many, many torrent clients around, but I’ve stuck to this out of habit. I’m a stick-in-the-mud, see? I’ve heard a lot about this one taking up tremendous amounts of RAM, slowing down other processes, but for some reason this one worked best with my network settings. There’s a rumour going around that Azureus is the only client that allows you to download files in the torrent selectively, but that’s not true because Transmission gives you that option as well. If you prefer to play around to get the best download settings, use Azureus. If you like things simple without Azureus’ video search features, then use Transmission. Transmission gave me a lousy speed (5kB/s), whereas Azureus gave me 30kB/s. Of course I could be too stupid to configure Transmission.

• Firefox: This is pretty duh. Safari’s claim for being the fastest browser worked for me, and I do prefer the brushed metal interface, but I have Firefox installed as a support browser because some websites refuse to work with Safari, and vice versa. Also, there are many tweaks and plugins Firefox has that Safari doesn’t.

• MacTheRipper: You rip DVDs with this. Call it piracy, but I do like to keep a copy of what I’ve rented/watched on DVD. The ripping time I’ve achieved on average are 1.5 hours, but it really depends on the length and quality of the DVD, I think.

• Handbrake: This goes hand-in-hand with MacTheRipper, since I don’t have the space for ripped movies which can hit 7GB (extra features included). I compress the feature film using Handbrake, and the compressed AVI file (there are other options available) takes up between 600mb to 1.5GB. One bad thing: you don’t get any DVD extras. The compressing process takes longer than the ripping process, and I’ve reached about 3-4 hours before. If you have a computer with more than 512 RAM, it may take a shorter time.

• iWillQuit: A nifty application you can use to shut down/sleep/log out after a specified period of time. Say you were running a download, or an update, or even an installation through the night and you don’t feel comfortable leaving the computer running till the next day, you can program it to shut down after the download has completed. The downside: it may not work when apps have confirmation questions and alerts, because that stops the computer from shutting down. You could save your work and quit any programs you know to have such alerts, but I wouldn’t guarantee it. I tried using this with Azureus; sometimes Azureus hangs in the process of suddenly having to force quit, and iWillQuit fails to work at all (“Shut Down has timed out blah blah.”) This application comes in handy most when you’re using iTunes to put yourself to sleep, I wish Apple would incorporate such a function in my iPod. Think of the amount of battery saved after you’ve dozed off!

• VLC: This player works with almost any kind of video. I haven’t come across anything that failed to play here. It reads a hundred different codecs, has all the functions of a regular player, and has a crazy volume range. I’ve played videos using QuickTime, but the maximum volume QuickTime gives me is nothing compared to VLC. (In fact, the max volume on QT is really just the middle mark for VLC.) Awesome if you want to play videos without using headphones. Laptop speakers love to emit horrible volumes.

• OpenOffice: A must-have if you frequently find yourself unable to open Microsoft documents. I’d say get MS and save yourself the trouble, but OpenOffice makes a good substitute. Best part? You can download the full version off the official site for free. No trial, no limited features.

These are the free applications I have on my MacBook. I have others, most of them didn’t come by through the most legal of ways and I’m not proud of what I’ve done, but all in the name of knowledge and curiousity!