10 things i wish i could find on MAC

I am overwhelmed with my new MacBook pro but after an intensive week of usage there are at least 10 things i wish i had on it:

• A mac version of Babylon : the best tool ever for translation
• A version of Windows live writer: sorry guys, but Ecto (not free) and Qumana (free) just don't do the job for desktop blog client
• A correct equivalent of OutLook: Entourage sucks. Period. No possibility to integrate html links in emails, no sync of notes and todos with Exchange server, poor customization...however VERY fast compared to outlook
• An open iTunes: i hate iTunes. no need to come back on this. I want to sync my iPod/Iphone on several computers without having to think about where i first synced it. I want to be able to export my podcast library. I want to sync over wifi and not cable. in addition iTunes is not designed to best manage your iphone apps/contacts/calendar. they need to build something else.
• An IE emulator: many websites specially in israel are not designed for mac/firefox/safari. there are many things i simply cannot read
• A correct Desktop tool for syncing/backuping my Blackberry with my MAC. PocketMac is just a nightmare. Specially with Entourage.
• A version of Snagit for MAC. simply the best screenshot tool ever made. I found a free great one called ImageWell but not as good as Snagit
• A complete version of Google Talk with VOIP: there NO solution to use VOIP with Google talk on mac. No mac version of Google, no VOIP integration with iChat and Adium
• A web tool bar in Word: there is a tool bar that was really useful to me in Word for Windows called Web Tool bar. That was indicating the location of the file you are working on in your computer. i just had to copy/paste the link in an email for example and that was it. Here i need to open an attachement and look for the file again
• A proper version of Plaxo for Entourage: problably an Entourage problem more than a plaxo problem, but there is no clean way to sync all your entourage data with Plaxo.

I know i could overcome some of this by installing Parallels/VM Ware and run Windows. But i want only one os and everything available at hand. Do you see other things you wish you could find on Mac?

Other than that, i really do not miss my PC. Actually when i go back to it from time to time i realize how slow and how bad it is conceived.

update: a reader on twitter pointed me to IEs4OSX which is exactly what i was looking for. it enables me to emulate Internet Explorer on OSX with no need to install windows. Simple to install and works just fine

Mac

Comments

[Johnson ColmanEmmanuel ARNOUD]

For screenshots, have a look at Skitch (http://plasq.com/skitch), it's a really good tool that I use everyday since I installed it on my mac.

For offline blogging, nothing like Livewriter but Marsedit is really cool (http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/)

[Emmanuel ARNOUD]

Gasp, I don't kniow who is that Johnson Coleman in front of my name ? I will be glad if you can fix it :)

[Ouriel Ohayon]

Thanks. I actually have tried them but none of them actually convinced me...yet

[Louis Choquel]

For screen capture, try Snapz Pro X: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/

For your Word Web toolbar trick, if your goal is to locate the file you're working on, try this instead:
* Command-click on the window title pops up a menu with the path to the file, and you can open any folder in the hierarchy
* If the file is saved you have a tiny icon of the file next to its name in the window title. If you click on it for 1sec it becomes a proxy that you can dragndrop anywhere (to an email for instance). If the file is modified since your last save, the icon is semi-transparent and you can't drag it, which is consistent because there is a difference between your window and the file on disk.

Note: it works on every app including on Office 2004, but I haven't tried on Office 2008.

[Jerome]

http://www.markspace.com/missingsync_blackberry.php

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/premium/ with a IE shortcut in the Dock; but it's a wrong issue. The real problem is that most of hebrew websites always sucked and got 5 years late.

And yes, Skitch is the most efficient tool for screenshooting.

Have you tried http://code.google.com/p/ipoddisk/ ? Ok it's not a sync solution, however it's pretty good...

[Ohad Eder Pressman]

osx has internal support for taking screen-captures.

Apple+Shift+3 - captures the entire screen
Apple+Shift+4 - lets you clip a rectangle out of the screen

if you hold down ctl as well it will save the screenshot into the clipboard rather than to a file on your desktop.

[divarvel]

To replace iTunes, you should check the Amarok project, some people want to make it work with MacOS.

[Ouriel Ohayon]

Thanks Ohad, actually i think i have tried all the trics and softs for screenshots for Mac, including Skitch, SnapPro. But nothing even gets closer to SnagIt which is by far the best screencapture tool

Thanks Divarvel. will look. Actually i already use floola which is perfect but not compatible yet with iPhone

[microwaver]

Ohad,

You can enable a IE plugin in Firefox, so that would solve that problem. And you can always try parallels :)

[Then use windows...]

its free (in emule)
today it even safer than mac and everything is working on it (until it crushes :()