The 15 Best Mac Apps to Make Everyday Life Easier. Apple's macOS is a good operating system, but it's missing some key ingredients. Most of these apps aren't free, but all have free trials you. If you think you might need an FTP app, CyberDuck is an oldie but a goodie - and can be downloaded for free. If you go to the Mac App Store, it'll cost you £17.99.
How fast does your MacBook need to be to comfortably code iOS apps with Xcode? Is a MacBook Pro from 2-3 years ago good enough to learn Swift programming? Let’s find out!
Here’s what we’ll get into:
Xversion 1 3 600. I’ve answered a lot of “Is my MacBook good enough for iOS development and/or Xcode?”-type questions on Quora. A few of the most popular models include:
These models aren’t the latest, that’s for sure. Are they good enough to code iOS apps? And what about learning how to code? We’ll find out in this article.
Since 2009 I’ve coded more than 50 apps for iOS, Android and the mobile web. Most of those apps, including all apps I’ve created between 2013 and 2018, were built on a 13″ MacBook Air with 8 GB of RAM and a 1.3 GHz Intel i5 CPU.
My first MacBook was the gorgeous, then-new MacBook White unibody (2009), which I traded in for a faster but heavier MacBook Pro (2011), which I traded in for that nimble workhorse, the mighty MacBook Air (2013). In 2018 I upgraded to a tricked out 13″ MacBook Pro, with much better specs.
Frankly, that MacBook Air from 2013 felt more sturdy and capable than my current MacBook Pro. https://bimihardte1971.mystrikingly.com/blog/does-mac-select-cost-money. After 5 years of daily intenstive use, the MacBook Air’s battery is only through 50% of its max. cycle count. It’s still going strong after 7 hours on battery power.
In 2014, my trusty MacBook Air broke down on a beach in Thailand, 3 hours before a client deadline, with the next Apple Store 500 kilometer away. It turned out OK, of course. Guess what? My current MacBook Pro from 2018, its keyboard doesn’t even work OK, I’ve had sound recording glitches, and occasionally the T2 causes a kernel panic. Like many of us, I wish we had 2013-2015 MacBook Air’s and Pro’s with today’s specs. Oh, well…
Sign up for my iOS development course, and learn how to build great iOS 14 apps with Swift 5 and Xcode 12.
When I was about 11 years old I taught myself to code in BASIC, on a 100 Mhz i486 PC that was given to me by friends. It had a luxurious 16 MB of RAM, initially only ran MS-DOS, and later ran Windows 3.1 and ’95.
A next upgrade came as a 400 Mhz AMD desktop, given again by friends, on which I ran a local EasyPHP webserver that I used to learn web development with PHP, MySQL and HTML/CSS. I coded a mod for Wolfenstein 3D on that machine, too.
We had no broadband internet at home back then, so I would download and print out coding tutorials at school. At the one library computer that had internet access, and I completed the tutorials at home. The source codes of turn-based web games, JavaScript tidbits and HTML page snippets were carried around on a 3.5″ floppy disk.
Later, when I started coding professionally around age 17, I finally bought my first laptop. My own! I still remember how happy I was. I got my first gig as a freelance coder: creating a PHP script that would aggregate RSS feeds, for which I earned about a hundred bucks. Those were the days!
The world is different today. Xcode simply doesn’t run on an i486 PC, and you can’t save your app’s source code on a 1.44 MB floppy disk anymore. Your Mac probably doesn’t have a CD drive, and you store your Swift code in a cloud-based Git repository somewhere.
Make no mistake: owning a MacBook is a luxury. Not because learning to code was harder 15 years ago, and not because computers were slower back then. It’s because kids these days learn Python programming on a $25 Raspberry Pi. On rusty trails (2016).
I recently had a conversation with a young aspiring coder, who complained he had no access to “decent” coding tutorials and mentoring, despite owning a MacBook Pro and having access to the internet. Among other things, I wrote the following:
You’re competing with a world of people that are smarter than you, and have better resources. You’re also competing against coders that have had it worse than you. They didn’t win despite adversity, but because of it. Do you give up? NO! You work harder. It’s the only thing you can do: work harder than the next person. When their conviction is wavering, you dig in your heels, you keep going, you persevere, and you’ll win.
Winning in this sense isn’t like winning a race, of course. You’re not competing with anyone else; you’re only really up against yourself. If you want to learn how to code, don’t dawdle over choosing a $3.000 or a $2.900 laptop. If anything, it’ll keep you from developing the grit you need to learn coding.
Great ideas can change the world, but only if they’re accompanied by deliberate action. Likewise, simply complaining about adversity isn’t going to create opportunities for growth – unless you take action. I leapfrogged my way from one hand-me-down computer to the next. I’m not saying you should too, but I do want to underscore how it helped me develop character.
If you want to learn how to code, welcome adversity. Be excellent because of it, or despite it, and never give up. Start coding today! Don’t wait until you’ve got all your ducks in a row.
The recommended system specs to run Xcode 11 are:
Looking for a second-hand Mac? The following models should be fast enough for Xcode, but YMMV!
When you’re looking for a Mac or MacBook to purchase, make sure it runs the latest version of macOS. Xcode versions you can run are tied to macOS versions your hardware runs, and iOS versions you can build for are tied to Xcode versions. See how that works? This is especially true for SwiftUI, which is iOS 13.0 and up only. Make sure you can run the latest!
Pro tip: You can often find the latest macOS version a device model supports on their Wikipedia page (see above links, scroll down to Supported macOS releases). You can then cross-reference that with Xcode’s minimum OS requirements (see here, scroll to min macOS to run), and see which iOS versions you’ll be able to run.
Best apps for macbook pro retina display. Awesome! We’ve discussed what you need to run Xcode on your Mac. You might not need as much as you think you do. Likewise, it’s smart to invest in a future-proof development machine.
Whatever you do, don’t ever think you need an expensive computer to learn how to code. Maybe the one thing you really want to invest in is frustration tolerance. You can make do, without the luxury of a MacBook Pro. A hand-me-down i486 is enough. Or… is it?
Want to learn more? Check out these resources:
Sign up for my iOS development course, and learn how to build great iOS 14 apps with Swift 5 and Xcode 12.
What apps should I download for My New MacBook Pro or any other Mac device? Your search ends here as we present you with the list of the best apps for Macbook Pro 2020 or other macOS based devices i.e. Mac PC, Macbook etc. Keep reading to find out the essential apps for Macbook, which will help you in the long run.
Well, we have characterized all the must-have applications for your MacBook Pro and any other MacOS based device, based on different categories like Productivity, Entertainment, Social & other user needs. 2019 macbook air storage upgrade. Check them out & download the ones you find the best apps for new Mac machines.
Disk Clean Pro
| Best choice |
Systweak Anti Malware
| Best choice |
Google Drive
| Best choice |
Disk Clean Pro is a wonderful tool for Mac as it comes with some of the finest tools to optimize Mac. This can clean the junk, temporary files, user, and system cache easily to free storage space. Disk Clean Pro can also detect the duplicates and large files that are hogging space on your Mac. It comes at an affordable price of $4.99 only, making it the best-paid apps for Mac.
This is one of the most useful apps for Mac to improve its performance. Disk Clean Pro serves as an excellent tool for memory optimization, and hence the speed will be enhanced as well.
Systweak Anti Malware is one of the essential apps for Macbook as we all know no device is safe. One must get a security tool to monitor it at all times, and Systweak Anti Malware can do this the right way. It will easily detect the presence of malware on your computer and remove it. This is one of the best Mac programs as it has an up to date database for malware, which helps scan the latest computer virus.
This must-have app for Macbook Pro comes with different scanning options for convenience. You can schedule scans with this new software for Mac, which is incredibly useful for all users who often forget to scan the system from time to time. Shows you all the threats and infected files with its location in the Quarantine section. You can easily remove all the malicious elements with their help and get rid of them from your Mac.
Both the cloud storage services are household names at this point as useful apps for Macbook. The chances are that you already know the merits of Dropbox & Google Drive. Having any cloud storage solutions, you can get quick access to all your files & folder. With Google Drive, you can work on documents, spreadsheets & presentations even without the Internet. With Dropbox, you can synchronize the data of multiple computers at once place. Both of these services are the best free apps for Macbook Pro.
Both the universal cloud storage services have their own set of merits & disadvantages. If you ask us, Google Drive is a compelling choice as it brings 15GB of space along with best-in-class web apps. At the same time, Dropbox is a good choice for users who don’t need extra web services other than 2GB cloud storage.
Download Google Drive Or Dropbox.
Usually, it’s advised to keep at least 10% free space from your whole Mac storage to ensure smooth working. If you are on your way to transfer your old photos to your new Mac, then make sure you keep your library duplicate-free. Finding & removing identical & similar images can be a tedious & time-consuming task. But if you use a dedicated duplicate finder utility like Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro, you can organize & declutter your Mac in the easiest way possible.
Hate trying to remember every single password for every account you’ve ever used? Well, 1Password is a must-have app for MacBook Pro when it comes to storing all your passwords at one secured location in an encrypted vault. The vault gets locked with a single master login password for maximum security. The password manager keeps track of your security questions for different sites & helps you auto-fill them for a hassle-free process.
1Password is the best MacBook Pro app to install, as it works fantastically well for randomly generating strong, unique & secure passwords by auditing your existing passwords. This ensures that you don’t reuse any of them & keep altering them for better security. 1Password offers a 30-days free trial; after that, you can spend $4 per month to continue using the service.
VLC is another best app for MacBook Pro to install. It works perfectly well with minimal fuss once you start using it. The media player can play almost any audio/video files you throw at it. While most users would probably only use it to watch media, it also offers a decent set of features that most of the advanced users would enjoy. For instance, VLC offers lots of editing tools to help you adjust the file properties & for an enhanced watching experience.
Its interface may sound a bit intimidating to novices, but once a user gets used to it, it is easy to access its various tools. This best free app for MacBook Pro comes packed with a wide range of codecs, making it a universal player. If you are a power user with a huge media collection, VLC is absolutely the best Mac program to give a shot.
Several studies show that short bursts of regular movements throughout the day are better for your health than longer workout sessions. But in our busy lives, that’s not always an easy proposition to execute. Thankfully, MacBook Pro has some best apps like Time Out – Break Reminders, which help users remember when to take breaks. With Time Out, the app can strategize how long each kind of break would last & the period between each break.
While you are on a break, a progress bar is shown to evaluate how long until it is over. You have the buttons to postpone or skip the break. Additionally, you can choose to display a notification, play a sound, speak some words, or just run a script to remind it’s time for a break. This will prove to be one of the good apps for Macbook.
If you’re looking forward to getting started with Podcasting or music recording, then Audacity is a great option to consider. An excellent app for MacBook Pro, Audacity is a free, open-source audio editing software that helps you make your recordings, remove digital noise, chop, combine & mix clips. You can rely on the audio editor to apply special effects, alter frequencies with Equalization, Bass & Treble.
Just install this free app for MacBook Pro, start importing different file formats, and alter the audio files with multi-tracking editing options. Talking about the interface, Audacity features a huge selection of powerful tools to remove vocals for the music track, reduce noise & access other handy wizards for professional results.
Can’t get enough of Instagram? Then you should install Flume For Instagram on your machine. It’s an excellent app for MacBook Pro that provides a unique social experience. You can upload high-resolution images & videos in square & non-square format. Besides this, you can use it to navigate your Insta feed, like, comment & more, making it the best new Mac apps to have.
To use this best free app for MacBook Pro, just install it > log into your Instagram account & just like your smartphone, you can browse feeds easily. Besides Flume, you can try using Photo Feed, App Insta for Instagram & Uplet to help you browse Instagram directly from your Mac machine.
From irreplaceable family pictures to the presentation you’re working on, every data is needed to be protected. Without a proper backup system in place, you can lose all those files in a blink of an eye. Fortunately, there are certain top apps for MacBook Pro, like Right Backup, that come with an automatic 12-hour scheduler to update your stored data every 12 hours. Since everything is stored in a secured cloud space, you don’t need to worry about protecting your data on Mac.
Right Backup, a useful app for MacBook Pro, comes compatible with multiple platforms; hence you can access your data anytime, anywhere from any device using the same Right Backup account. To get your lost data backup with the utility, all you need to do is log in with your account & start retrieving important files, photos, videos, documents in a few clicks
One of the best & widely used solutions for viewing & editing PDF files is iSkysoft PDF Editor. It’s a complete suite of PDF editing tools to help users manipulate texts, images, links & other elements without any hassles. You can use this best app for MacBook Pro to crop, rotate, extract, split, add watermarks, change background colors & do a lot more. Talking about the interface, iSkysoft has a simple & intuitive dashboard that makes editing, organizing, review, converting & protecting super-easy.
Users can download & use the free trial version to try all the features once before they spend money to get the premium version. It promises a 30-day money-back guarantee as well if a user comes unsatisfied. You can read more about this top app for MacBook Pro here!
This is just a small selection of some of the Best Apps For MacBook Pro. There are plenty of other applications & utilities out there for each work. If you’ve got any Favorites, leave us a note in the comment section below!
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