Posts Tagged ‘Software’

Utility Belt – Three Mac OS Programs to Help You Out

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Apple Mac laptopHey, everyone. It’s Josh from Computer Fitness again. We are a Tech Support Company for Small and Medium businesses located in Reisterstown, MD.

Handbrake

Handbrake is a great program for backing up DVDs. Bear in mind, these are DVDs you are allowed to backup legally. The best use I can recommend is family movies and the like that you are converting to a digital format. We made the transition from tape to DVD a while back, but now digital is the way to go. You can edit them, add effects, and do a lot of cool stuff. Handbrake is free and available here.

SMC Fan Control

SMC Fan Control is a great tool for controlling the fans on your Apple laptop. Exercise caution here, however, as you are meddling with forces that control how your laptop is cooled. You might be tempted to crank the fans up to keep your system cool. However, if you keep them at full blast all the time, you risk wearing them out. Conversely, if you keep them low all the time to avoid noise, you risk overheating. Be careful with this tool and, as with all software recommendations, we at Computer Fitness make no guarantees about third party software.

Steam – Great for gamers looking to use their Mac for Entertainment

Steam, available at www.steampowered.com, is a gaming platform for your Mac and PC. Recently having made the Mac part of their wheelhouse, Steam offers a variety of games from First Person Shooters like Half-Life to standard puzzle games like Bookworm. Acting as both a storefront and a program manager, Steam allows for seamless integration of its online components (features like Friends/Messaging) with standard games. Best of all is the ability to download your games onto whatever system you like. This makes backing up data worry-free, provided you have a fast Internet connection.

-Josh
Computer Fitness
Onsite and Remote Tech Support