Macbook Pro and my favoritest application

Recently, I switched from my HP PC laptop at work to a Macbook Pro. Even though I’m not sure if I would rather have a Mac or a PC when it comes down to it, but the new Intel Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro is a much nicer laptop than my last one for sure. In term of UI and Operating System, I’ve not tried Vista yet, but I definitely like the Mac OS X UI much better than Windows XP.

So far, I find the lack of software applications for the Mac can be quite frustrating especially for someone as frugal as I am. For instance, at work, to connect to my development machine, we have to use SSH/SCP protocol. After a few weeks of searching endlessly for a Mac FTP application that would allow me to SSH/SCP, I found exactly 2! What the hell is up with that?! It’s so frustrating. One of them is free and one costs $35. The free one, Fugu, is incredibly barebone in terms of functionalities and features. The shareware one, RBrowser is actually okay, but in my opinions, it’s not entirely up to par (could be possibly due to the fact that its UI is a bit awkward for an FTP application) with WinSCP (which is completely free for Windows OS). I just wish that somebody would port WinSCP over to Mac OS X!

My commute to work is pretty long, given that I live approximately 50 miles away, the drive is at least 1.25 hours on a VERY good day. Lately I’ve been trying to get some audio books on my MP3 player for the commute. Unlike the rest of the world, I do not own an iPod and probably won’t for a while. I have this old, obsolete, raggedy Creative Nomad Zen Xtra MP3 player, that looks like it should belong in the museum. To my dismay, this dinosaur MP3 player of mine is not officially Mac OS X supported by Creative. I was upset to find out that there was no way to transfer MP3s onto my faithful MP3 player. Until tonight when I stumbled upon this wonderful application, XNJB by Richard Low. It is a godsend to my commute and my wallet (it’s free)! Now I don’t have to spend 200 bucks to buy Zune or any other non-iPod MP3 players, I can use my old one! This application does everything. It also allows me to create playlists!

Sorry, commenting closed for this article

1

- Derek - 565 days ago

I hope your long commutes won’t be that bad from now on, man! My drives aren’t as long as your’s but hey, I feel for ya.

And if it makes you feel any better, while i DO have an iPod, it’s one of the first ones released. So that makes me old school there. hahah :)

2

- Norm - 564 days ago

I am waiting until Leopard is released. Hopefully won’t be waiting for too long.

3

- Son - 561 days ago

Derek, thanks man! Hahaha…see you soon down south!

Norm, you have a Mac? Or you’re just a fanboy with PC?! Or you’re just saying that because you’re you! I dunno though…I wouldn’t mind switching back to a PC…I kinda missed all my favoritest applications on there.

4

- Chris Newman - 553 days ago

what about transmit or cyberduck – do those have what you need? transmit isn’t free but I have a license and its been well worth the $$$. cyberduck is freeware:

http://www.panic.com/transmit/
http://cyberduck.ch/

5

- Son - 552 days ago

Hey Chris! Howdy. Thanks for the links! I actually have tried both of them. They are both great Mac apps. However, I find that it’s hard to believe that Transmit, one of the best FTP apps out there for Mac, does not support SSH/SCP at all. It’s a sweet little app that I wouldn’t mind getting used to. With that said, recently, I’ve figured out a way to get FTP/SFTP working on my development machine such that I can now use Transmit to connect to. So far so good! :)

If you know of any other sweet apps for Mac that you would like to share, please do send those links this way! I’m always interested in searching for the best apps that can increase my productivity and effectiveness at work. Thanks!

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