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When choosing which laptop to buy, it makes sense to know what comes with it. And the most significant part of the decision is to know what software you get with the computer.
First, I want to mention that whether you buy Macbook Pro or Air the software bundle that comes with them is absolutely the same. You don’t get more programs if you spend more on the Apple laptop.
So, what software comes with a Macbook?
Any Macbook comes with macOS (operating system) and built-in (free) software such as Time Machine, FaceTime, Safari, and Apple Music and TV. Macs do not come with games, antivirus, MS Office, or Final Cut Pro.
Here is a full list of built-in apps that come with every Mac:
How about MS Office and programs such as Word and Excel? I will touch on this topic after I give an overview of all the built-in apps first.
Software That Comes With Every MacBook Air/Pro
macOS Catalina
Every computer needs an operating system. The operating system performs basic operations such as starting programs, reading data from the disks, controlling the display and sound, etc.
All apps that run on any computer use operating system in order to interact with the user or various computer components.
Is it OSX or macOS? For a long time, the operating system on Mac was called OSX. You can still hear some people use this term. However, in 2016, Apple renamed it to macOS, so we will use this term going forward.
Each year Apple releases a new version of macOS. They used to be backward compatible, i.e., they supported all Mac models produced in earlier days.
Mojave was the first macOS which could not be installed on some of the oldest Macs. I expect every next release will have similar restrictions. So, if you have an older Mac, check you can upgrade it to the latest OS.
Siri on Mac
Siri is a great virtual assistant tool which can increase your productivity if used properly.
What can Siri do? Most people use Siri to search for something on the internet. All you do is ask Siri a question, and it will transform the voice command to a text which will be sent to a search engine. Once Siri gets results, it will tell what it had found.
Another use is to find anything on the Mac. For instance, Siri is great when you need to find a document you worked on last week.
In my opinion, the most powerful feature of Siri is controlling Mac and connected devices. For instance, you can ask Siri turn off Wifi and Bluetooth, raise or lower the sound volume, send a message, set the alarm, take a selfie, etc.
And finally, people use Siri when they are bored. Siri can tell jokes, find the music you want to listen or read the news.
Safari
Safari is an internet browser that gets pre-installed on almost all Apple products.
Is it the best browser? Definitely, not, but it does the work. The advantage of Safari is that Apple wrote it specifically for Apple computers. So, it supposed to have some edge over other browsers in terms of energy usage and speed.
If you don’t like Safari, you can always download your favorite internet browsers, such as Chrome or Firefox.
Mail is fairly simple built-in email client. You can do things that any email client does: write and read emails, send attachments, sort and find messages, organize messages in folders. If you a regular email user then Mail client will be enough. Power users will find features limiting and will most likely invest in better solutions.
I use Mail to combine various secondary emails accounts in one place. I don’t use any desktop clients for my primary email, because I don’t want my messages to be stored on the computer in case if it ever gets stolen or lost.
FaceTime on Mac
If you have an iPhone you probably already know what FaceTime is. With FaceTime, you can make a video call to anyone who has FaceTime installed on his/her Mac or iPhone/iPad. You can also make a group call. In both cases, FaceTime uses Wifi as transport.
Additionally, FaceTime on Mac can connect to your iPhone and make a regular phone call.
Messages on Mac
If you have an iPhone, you probably noticed that messages sent to someone who has an iPhone have blue color while non-iPhone users get green messages. It’s because Apple uses proprietary messaging protocol when sending messages between Apple products using Wifi instead of the cellular network.
What does this mean for you? It means that you can send messages to iPhone or Mac users from your Mac without having a cellular connection. Also, it means that these messages do not count to your SMS limit (if you have one in your mobile plan).
Unfortunately, to send messages to Android friends, you still have to have an iPhone which Mac can use SMS.
News app
With the News app on Mac, you can follow a channel or even a specific topic of interest. Apple will aggregate the news and send them to you periodically. You can read them in the app and then like or even share.
In 2019 Apple launched a subscription service called News+. It’s a paid service. With this service, you can get stories from premium newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal or Time.
Books app
If you frequently purchase books from the Book Store, they will appear in the Books app. You can see books in all (or almost all) Apple devices, including MacBook Pro. If you don’t buy books or prefer to use Amazon, then you don’t need the app.
Stocks app
Besides following news, you can also follow stock prices. With the Stocks app, you can add ticker symbols to your watchlist. You can also view stocks in the Notification center on Mac. Stocks app also allows seeing price charts with multiple ranges.
Overall, it’s a very basic app for an average investor — nothing to write home about. Serious investors may find the app lacking functionality.
Home app
The Home app is a program that may become very big in the future when we all going to have smart homes. If you have a device that can be controlled over the network you can add it as an accessory to the Home app.
Once installed, you can then control lighting, temperature, home security, TV, and speakers. The list is endless. Besides issues commands and changing things in real-time you can set schedule.
For instance, you can set up the thermostat to start heating the house right before you arrive home. And all of this can be controlled thru Siri which will manage the Home app and its accessories.
Voice Memos
My personal favorite. Whether you are recording the lecture in class or just recording your notes for the next blog, Voice Memos can capture your recordings. You can then replay or even edit recordings, although editing capabilities are not too impressive. You can later transcribe voice memos to a text.
Notes app
Apple has a rudimentary note-taking app. Whether you need to save a recipe or make a to-do list, you can use Notes. This is not the best app by all means, but it comes with some neat features. You can attach different media such as pictures, videos, and even locations on the Maps.
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There is also a collaboration feature. What is the best mac. You can share a note with multiple people and work together. I’ve never tried it myself because I believe Google Docs is a much better and simpler tool to use for this purpose.
Calendar
Each computer needs a calendar app, and Macs have a pretty good one. As most applications in macOS, this one integrated with other programs on your laptop. So, if you need to add a location on Maps in your calendar event, you can do it. Other features include sending and receiving invites.
Calendar app obviously connected to your Mail app so you can see all meetings from all Mail accounts in one place. You can also color-code your calendars so you can quickly spot events related to family, work, or others.
Overall, it’s a relatively simple app. I always have it on my Dock because I keep forgetting which date it is ?
Contacts
I don’t use the Contacts app at all. With this app, you can aggregate multiple contact lists in one giant collection. But I don’t see any need for that. I prefer to keep contacts on my phone, not a laptop.
Reminders
Another app without a clear purpose. I use Reminders on my iPhone, but on the Mac, I don’t see a need for it when there is a much more powerful Calendar app. And if I need to take notes to collaborate with other people, I can use the Notes app.
Photo Booth
While most of us use MacBooks for work and study sometimes, we want to have some fun, and Photo Booth is super fun to use. With this app, you can quickly snap a selfie of yourself or yourself with friends.
Prefer videos? Not a problem, you can shoot videos with Photo Booth as well. If you need time to set up the scene, there is a default three-second countdown before taking a photo. You can also use various effects to make your photos funny. And finally, you can use any image to create a custom backdrop.
Preview
Preview is a very powerful tool on your Mac. When I switched from Windows to Mac, one thing I was missing was an MSPaint program. It took me some time, but I finally learned how to use Preview to edit images for my blogs. In some case, Preview is even better than my old favorite.
For instance, Preview keeps a history of changes you made to the image even after you close the app. In fact, I don’t know any other standard file editing software other than Preview, which allows you to go back in history after you saved the changes and close the program.
Another area where Preview can be useful is PDF annotations. You can add text, signature, or even shapes to any PDF document. And again, Mac keeps the history of changes so you can always go back in time.
Time Machine
Speaking of going back in time, Time Machine is not a fantasy novel. On the Mac Time Machine is a backup tool. If there is one thing that I would like you to remember from this post is you need a backup strategy for your computer. Things happen (virus, crash, documents accidentally deleted) and often the best and only remedy is to restore the old image of your MacBook from the Time Machine device.
I wrote a very detailed blog post about Time Machine and other possible backup tools, so please check it out: Time Machine on Mac: How it Works, Best Practices and FAQ
Apple Music
For a long time, iTunes was an audio and video player that came standard with any Macbook.
However, it was split into multiple apps with macOS Catalina and the role of iTunes was taken by Apple Music.
There is an Apple Music store where you can purchase music and rent movies. You can join Apple music as a subscriber, and you can manage your subscriptions there.
Apple TV
Another app that spawned from iTunes. You can use Apple TV to watch your favorite shows, movies and Apple TV+ channel.
Apple Podcasts
Apple Podcasts is the last part of iTunes that became a standalone app. You can subscribe to podcasts and listen them with this app.
App Store
While the list of built-in apps in macOS is good enough, you will always need more programs. There are two main ways to get new programs on MacBook: download from the vendor web site or buy from Apple Store.
If you have both options, I suggest you always go through Apple Store route. Apple has very strict requirements for any app they host in their stores. At the minimum, they all free from viruses. And yes, Macs can get viruses. Another advantage of the App Store is the ease of updates. You can configure the app to install updates automatically same way you configure the operating system updates.
And finally, any app you bought from the App Store you can download again if you deleted it. If you downloaded the app from the vendor web site, the process of downloading and finding a license might be quite complicated.
So this was a brief overview of built-in apps that come pre-installed on any new MacBook. There other applications that you can install for free. Specifically, there are two popular software suits: iLife and iWork.
iLife apps
Initially, the iLife software suite consisted of multiple apps, most of which were discontinued. The only two apps left are iMovie and GarageBand.
GarageBand
The GarageBand lets you play, record, edit, mix, and share music! You do not have to worry that you do not know a single note. Everything is there. Just open the application, select an instrument, then press the notes that tingle your ears. As easy as that, you can create your music. You can also add your voice by recording it.
iMovie
iMovie, on the other hand, gets you in touch with your video skills. It is the perfect application for neophyte video editors. It provides a user-friendly interface but lets you turn your raw footages into one creatively edited video. Personally, I use iMovie to edit my YouTube videos, and I found it very easy to learn and use.
iWork apps
There is a suite of apps that mimic Microsoft Office functionality, and they are free for anyone using macOS: Numbers, Pages, and Keynote. You can download all three from the App Store.
- Numbers is an alternative for MS Excel. You can save Numbers spreadsheets as Excel documents or import Excel documents in Numbers.
- Pages is an alternative for MS Word. You can save Pages documents as Word files and edit Word documents in Pages.
- And Keynote is an alternative for Powerpoint. As you already understand, it is possible to work with Powerpoint documents in Keynote.
What Apple empathizes is that with iWork, you can work on MS Office documents just in different apps.
Apple provides a way to share the documents built-in iWork apps through the iCloud or Box. Another neat feature you can use Touch ID to lock and unlock the iWork documents.
Software That DOES Not Come With Macs
MS Office on Mac
iWork may be a viable alternative to MS Office, but feature-wise it’s nowhere near to Microsoft suite. Fortunately, Microsoft ported the big trio of apps to macOS. These apps look a little different than Windows counterparts (key combinations are different), but they are very close. If you had experience working with any Office apps on Windows, you would quickly figure out how to edit documents on Mac.
Does MacBook Pro come with Word or Excel? No, Macs do not come with MS Office pre-installed. Although it is free to download, remember that you still have to pay to have an account for the Microsoft office to be activated in your MacBook Pro. The Microsoft Office from the App Store only gives you a 30-day free trial.
It uses six individual ink cartridges to achieve superior colour fidelity and prints photos at a sharp 4800 x 1200 DPI resolution. Top mac laptop 2019.
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How to get Microsoft Word or Excel on MacBook for free?
There are three possible ways to get Word or Excel for free:
- Get Office license at work. For instance, your account may allow you to install up to five copies. So you can install one at the work computer and one at home. But first, ask permission from your manager.
- Get Office license in college. Most colleges in the US provide free Office licenses.
- Download from pirate web sites. I do not recommend doing this for two reasons: it’s illegal and very hacked programs contain viruses. In fact, if you see any link with a promise of a free Word install, know it’s a scam. Don’t click on those links!
There are, however, two ways to get MS Office for less money:
- Get a student edition. In this case, you either need to be a student or know someone who’s a student.
- Some sites may offer to sell Microsoft apps for deep discounts. What they do is they have volume editions, i.e., multiple licenses they paid for. Then they sell those individual licenses. All you need is to download the program and apply for the license. Is this legal? I don’t know. As they say, consult with your attorney.
Photoshop
Does Photoshop come with MacBook Pro/Air? No, it does not. Adobe offers 7-day free trial version after which it is required to subscribe for one of their plans: Photography ($9.99/mo), Photoshop ($20.99/mo) or Creative Cloud Apps ($52.99/mo). Students and teachers can get Creative Cloud Apps for $19.99/mo.
Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro X
Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro X are the most popular Apple apps, but unfortunately, they are not free. Moreover, they are very expensive. You can buy Logic Pro X for $199.99 and Final Cut Pro X for $299.99 from the Apple App Store.
Antivirus Apps
I often hear people saying that Macs don’t get viruses, however, I know that this is not true. It is true, however, that macOS has some rudimentary defense against malware, but if you are serious about security you need to either download a free antimalware app or buy a commercial one.
Zoom, Skype and Teams
Most video conferencing tools, such as Zoom and Teams are free for Macs. They have some internal limitations, but there is nothing specific to Apple products.
Games
Apple computers do not come with games included. So, if you are a fan of Fortnite or Civilization you have to purchase them. The same applies to Steam games.
There is no even Solitaire or Minesweeper on Mac (my favorites on PCs).
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Jul 18,2019 • Filed to: Download Music • Proven solutions
What's the best program to download music on mac? does anyone have some good suggestions?
Do you have the habit of listening to music while you are working on your Mac? Now you do not have to use any other device to download and listen to music. You can download and listen to all your favorite songs using your Mac. There are quite a few free music downloader for Mac (MacOS 10.12 Sierra and 10.13 High Sierra included) that are available in the market for free download. You can simply download and install one of these applications and you will be able to download music from just almost any websites on the Internet. If you use a suitable music downloader for Mac, you no longer will have to depend on your Internet connection to listen to the favorite music. There are numerous music downloader apps that you can use to download and store music in your Mac. You will be able to download and listen to the songs and audio files offline, without the need for any Internet connection. Search online for all the music downloaders for Mac available in the market. You will surely find the most suitable one online. Given below is a list of top 10 video downloaders for Mac that you can use to download and listen to your favorite music:
iMusic:
The iMusic is the music downloader for MacOS 10.12 Sierra that will let you download from over 3000 music sites on the web. There are also different video sites that are supported. The software supports ID3 tags and also identified information about the music or the files you are downloading. For example, the audio recorder app for Mac can gather information like artist, genre, album, and various other details about the application. This downloader can help you to download music and videos in very high quality in the MP4 or MP3 formats. You will also be able to export music and audio files from the iTunes library. This application can also help you to burn the stored music files to a CD or DVD.
iMusic - Best Music Downloader for Mac/Windows/iPhone/Android You can't Miss
- Download music from YouTube, Vimeo, VEVO, Dailymotion, Spotify and more music sites.
- Record music to help capture any live sessions or online music.
- Backup and recover the iTunes Library automatically.
- Clean up the dead or broken downloaded music tracks on your iTunes Library .
- Transfer Music from iTunes to iPhone/iPad/iPod/Android easily.
- Fix ID3 tags like artist name, song title, year and genre.
How to Download Free Music on Mac by iMusic
Before download free music on Mac, come to iMusic's official site:https://www.aimersoft.com/imusic.html to download the free trial of iMusic.
Step 1. Run iMusic to DOWNLOAD Tab
Click “DOWNLOAD” in the “GET MUSIC” window. After then you can see a URL paste box as well as access to several popular music sites.
Step 2. Copy URL and then Paste in the Blank
Open YouTube or any music streaming site, Copy the URL of the song on the site. Then paste the URL of the song to the URL paste box in iMusic, check the needed music format and click “Download”.
Option 2: Another option for downloading is to navigate to the music site from those indicated below the URL blank, then search the music you want to download. Play it , then click the 'Record' Button on the right corner. This Method suits for some music sites like spotify.
Step 3. Find Downloaded Songs in LIBRARY on Macs
Once completed the music downloading for macs, the downloaded songs will be automatically added to your iTunes Library automatically. Click 'LIBRARY', then download icon on the left side to check out the songs.
Note: The above mentioned steps can be used to download YouTube music to MP3 format. All the downloaded songs are saved in iTunes Library directly. You need to click “LIBRARY” menu in iMusic, then the download icon on the left side of the pop-up window to check them. Whenever you need to transfer these songs to iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android phones, even to computer, just check them and click the export option to send them to the device or computer.
Part 2. Other 9 Best Music Downloader for Mac Sierra
Media Drug
It is another superior music downloaders for Mac that is available in the market. It is probably the best free software you can get. You will be able to browse the albums and download those with ease. When you are searching the market for the music downloader apps, you will see that there are not many applications that can download the complete song albums and media files. However, Media Drug can. It is one of a kind music downloader for Mac that can easily download full music albums. There is an integrated music player, which can be used to listen to the music that you've already downloaded. The whole downloading experience can be done without any problem. If you want to have a whole new experience in listening to music, you must download this Media Drug downloader for Mac.
SoundCloud downloader
This application or the music downloader can work brilliantly with SoundCloud. It can make the whole experience of downloading videos fast and in an effective manner. There are millions of files that you can download using this music downloader application for Mac. It supports simultaneous downloads and the application features easy interface.
MacX YouTube music downloader
It is one of the best music downloader applications that you can use with Mac. This music downloader program works on Mac OS X 10.5 or higher, including El Capitan. It takes just a few seconds to download the music from the YouTube. With the help of this software, you can download YouTube music for free. With MacX, it is possible to download in different resolution and format. It is an intelligent application that can help in automatically detect and download the music from the source website. Like many other music downloaders, you do not need to copy and paste the URL of the song videos or music files anywhere to be able to download the music. With this software, downloading music is splitting fast as compared to other downloaders in the market. It maintains high quality of the videos. Now you can download and listen offline to all the music files that are there on a website like YouTube.
Jaksta
This is one of the best music downloader application for Mac. It can download music and can automatically tag and identify songs. It is easy, yet powerful to use to download music in your Mac. To use this software, you need to download it first. Then, you must follow the following steps:
- You need to open your browser and play a song on any of the desired website. With the help of this music downloader, you can even download videos from YouTube too.
- As you open a song or a video, you can see it appear in the Jaksta Music Recorder. The application will show various details about the song like the title and the artist name.
- Now you need to hover over the song. An icon of iTunes (already installed in Mac) will appear. The Jaksta Music Recorder will automatically download and copy the song to the iTunes library of your Mac as a tagged MP3 file.
The Jaksta is a music downloader application that can even convert a video file into an MP3 file while downloading. While downloading, the downloader maintains the perfect digital copies of the songs that you hear. The download happens at up to 10 times faster than the playback speed of the files. Even when the videos are converted to the MP3 files, highest quality is maintained. You can use the free version of the application to download music to Mac; however, there is a paid version of the application too.
jEar
It is an application that can make it easy for you to retrieve the download links from the websites that allow music downloads. It is a simple downloader that you can use with ease. To use this software, you need to install Java. Now, you can open the application and search for the desired song. After this, you need to click the Download button and wait for the download to finish. Downloading music files using this downloader is easy and convenient. With just a few clicks, you will be able to download the files of your choice. However, as this downloader uses Java, often a lot of memory is consumed by the application.
Wondershare YouTube Music downloader
This application is specially designed for the Mac users. With the help of this application you can download music from a site like YouTube. You will be able to save all the downloaded music in your Mac and enjoy those anytime you want. The latest version of Wondershare can help the users to download HTML5 music. Downloading music is faster and easier with the Wondershare application. However, one major drawback of this application is that it is not compatible with the Mac OS X 10.9. However, this app is soon to be updated with the new version of this application solving this issue for the Mac users.
Tribler
This is an application that can help the Mac users to download music and songs from the desired locations on the Internet. It is fast and is amazingly fast as an application. You do not just able to download the desired songs and videos, but can also view and enjoy the music and the videos using the integrated player. It is another of the torrent clients and you can download torrent videos using this downloader.
Grappler
This music downloader for Mac is free and is considered to be one of the most user-friendly applications with the Mac users. Not just music, this application can also help the Mac users to download videos and various types of audio files from the web. Thus, you can use this software to download almost any video by browsing through an infinite collection of songs. The audio files and music you download will get automatically saved to the Mac folders.
Abelssoft
If you are looking for a top quality music downloader application for Mac, Abelssoft is the name you can trust. With the help of this application, you will be able to download millions of songs from the YouTube with the best quality assurance. To use this application on Mac, you simply need to enter the artist name or your favorite song title in the search box of the application. You'll get all the results from the YouTube. Choose the one that you were looking for and the download will start automatically. You can use this application to download video files from YouTube too. There are different formats in which you can download the audio files like MP3 and OGG.
So, what are you waiting for? You must choose a software to download music directly from the Internet. We highly recommend iMusic to you ! You will be able to download the desired music files and use your portable devices to listen to those even in an area where the Internet connection is poor.