Macintosh computers come complete with almost everything you need built into the computer. Let’s take a minute to see what comes with an “out of the box” Mac. With the included built-in software, you can edit movies, pictures, and music, as well as manage your email, calendars, and contacts. In fact, so much is included preloaded with your computer that you probably won’t have to buy many additional programs later. Let’s go over what you’ll see on your dock at the bottom of the screen when you turn on your computer.
The first thing you’ll notice is the Finder. The Finder is the windowing system for the computer, however, you’ll notice it most with the translucent bar at the top of the screen. The Finder allows you to exit applications, as well as access preferences, file, edit, etc. menus
The next app you’ll see on your dock is Dashboard. The panel allows you to access widgets. You can access the Dashboard by clicking the icon in the Dock or by pressing F12 on your keyboard. You can add and remove widgets by clicking the “+” sign at the bottom left of your screen, as well as download new widgets from Apple.
Mail is the next app you’ll see, it’s the basic mail app. You will be prompted to enter your email account information into the app when you launch it for the first time. Mail also allows you to take notes and make to-do lists along with the usual, automatically compose, send and receive emails from your account.
You will then see Safari. Safari is one of the first Mac web browsers. Safari is considered to be one of the fastest browsers out there and allows you to keep RSS feeds in order, create RSS feeds from selected parts of a web page, and have excellent system integration. operative.
Agenda is the next app you’ll see. The address book allows you to enter all the contact information of anyone you know, including phone numbers, web pages, and of course, addresses. You will find that this app also has excellent integration with other apps on your system and is more useful in other apps than on its own.
You will then have iCal. iCal has become the standard for calendar applications on the Internet. iCal lets you easily manage your upcoming events and easily syncs with your iPod, iPhone, the web, and other computers you may have. Preview is another application that is quite defiling within your computing experiences. The preview is what opens every time you open a PDF document or image. You probably won’t open this from the Dock very often, but it’s most likely crucial for normal computing.
Next we have the iLife suite. The iLife suite is probably the most exciting part of your new Mac. iLife includes iMovie, Garage Band, iPhoto, and iDVD. iPhoto is a photo management app, every time you plug in a camera, iPhoto is what you see. iMovie is a video editing app, if you ever have a digital camcorder and plug it into your computer this is what you will see as well as if you ever want to manipulate the video. Garage Band is a music creation and editing app. Garage Band comes with many built-in instruments, loops, and many useful features that you can use to create your music. iDVD is exactly what it sounds like, it lets you take videos and convert and dress them up so you can simply insert a DVD and burn it so you can play it on any DVD player.
iTunes is probably the most well-known app on Mac and Windows computers. iTunes is the world’s largest music store as well as a great music management app. If you have a music file, iTunes may be able to play it. Next, you will see Spaces. Spaces can be used to form virtual desktops, which can help you divide up where your apps are on your Mac and help free you from screen clutter. Spaces can be accessed by pressing the icon in your Dock, pressing F8, or by assigning a hot corner in System Preferences.
Time Machine is the penultimate app in your Dock. Time Machine is a backup application. Time Machine will back up anything you ask of it to an external hard drive that you connect to your computer via USB or Firewire. The last, and possibly the most useful app you’ll see is System Preferences. System Preferences lets you set up your computer exactly how you want it, and lets you configure any of the built-in features of Mac OS X. Remember, all of these applications come standard with any Apple computer, whether it’s a Mac Book or a Mac Pro or nothing at all. the middle: no need to buy all those extra programs or apps like on a PC.