Best Games On Apple App Store For Mac

Apple today published its annual Best of 2016 charts for the App Store, iTunes Store, and iBooks Store, naming photo editing app 'Prisma' as the iPhone App of the Year and 'Clash Royale' as the iPhone game of the year.
Released in June of 2016, Prisma is designed to turn photographs into works of art using a range of different filters. Prisma garnered a lot of interest in 2016 and continually introduced new art filters.
Clash Royale, named Apple's best game, first came out in March of 2016. A card based game, Clash Royale encourages players to collect dozens of cards from the Clash of Clans universe and duel other players.
Apple also chose top apps and games for the iPad, Apple TV, and Apple Watch, with all of the top picks listed below:
iPhone App of the Year:Prisma
iPhone Game of the Year:Clash Royale
iPad App of the Year:Sketchbook Motion
iPad Game of the Year:Severed
Apple TV App of the Year:Twitter
Apple TV Game of the Year:Riptide GP: Renegade
Apple Watch App of the Year:MySwimPro - Personal Swim Trainer
Apple Watch Game of the Year:Field Day
Mac App of the Year:Bear
Mac Game of the Year:Life is Strange
Apple has named face-shifting app 'MSQRD' as the runner up for best iPhone app, and swipe-based game 'Reigns' as the runner up for best iPhone game, both of which are showcased alongside the winners in the main banner in the App Store.
Two new App Store sections, '10 Best Apps of the Year' and '10 Best Games of the Year' further break down the best apps chosen by Apple's editors, highlighting apps like Quartz, Vogue, Hyper, Plants vs. Zombies, Rodeo Stampede, and more. There are separate sections for both iPhone and iPad apps and games, each with different picks.
There are also a selection of apps in categories that include games playable on one hand, card-based games, celebrity games, video making apps, tap-based games, productivity apps, shopping apps, indie games, coding apps, and more.
In the Mac App Store, Apple has also published a full list of its picks for best Mac apps, with selections that include Spark, Polarr Photo Editor, Mini Metro, Doo, XCOM 2, Darkest Dungeon, Day One, Layers of Fear, and OmniGraffle 7.
Finally, Apple has announced the top apps based on overall App Store charts throughout the year, with Snapchat winning Top Free iPhone App and Heads Up! winning Top Paid iPhone App. For the iPad, YouTube was the top free app and Minecraft: Pocket Edition was the top paid app, while Netflix was the top free Apple TV app and Earthlapse TV was the top paid Apple TV app.
All of Apple's best app picks can be found in the App Store, with similar lists available naming the best music, TV shows, movies, and books in the iTunes and iBooks Stores.

1. Fun Games On Apple App Store
2. Apple Store Download For Pc

CarPlay, Apple’s feature that brings communication and entertainment functions to the built-in screen in your car using iPhone apps, appears on a lot of aftermarket displays and new cars that. The app could also do with a manual – right now you’re thrown in the deep end and need to deduce controls. Haunted Rooms: Escape VR is available for free on the App Store. Insidious VR. The best way to describe this one is to call it a zippy little experience in the world of Insidious. Following a brief build up, you’re subjected to a succession of short but effective jump scares.

The Mac App Store is full of all manner of apps, from simple utilities to complex programs. New apps are published every day, making it hard to find the best of the best — which is where we come in. We've gathered the best free apps for the Mac, all in one place so you don't have to go digging.

My criteria for apps on this list

In researching the best free apps for the Mac, I started by using Apple's category list. This makes it easier to cover the wide variety of content available. If an app is on the Mac App Store, it is in one of the 21 categories that Apple has listed.

Because this is a 'free' app list, I tried to only include apps that are truly free or whose functionality is not diminished without an in-app purchase. You will see some apps that have premium content that can be unlocked with an in-app purchase, but I've included them on the list because I feel that the free content is noteworthy.

Since this is a list of apps, I'm not including services that only have websites without a dedicated app (there are two exceptions to this rule on the list, but they are totally worthy of rule-bending).

I've included some apps that are not available in the Mac App Store. That's because some of the best apps in a given category are so much better than any Mac App Store counterpart that I couldn't exclude them.

Though this list is long, it is by no means complete. There are just too many free Mac apps available to include everything. If you don't see your favorite free Mac app on this list, please add it in the comments section with your reason for why it stands out. (Remember: It has to be truly free or the free version of an otherwise premium app that is noteworthy.)

Business

Slack

Slack is a must-have app for anyone working remotely with others. It is the best business chat app around. The Mac app is a chat window, so you can keep your conversations going without having to log into a web browser every time. You can have multiple accounts running at the same time and there are dozens of helpful bots that you can add to any chat room.

Wave

Wave is one of those exceptions to the rule of no services without a dedicated app. It is a free software tool for small businesses. You can use it for invoicing, receipts, accounting, and more. You can also add credit card processing and payroll for a small additional fee. It is set up to work with what your business needs are. If you don't need a feature, you aren't paying for it. If you only need a feature sometimes, you only pay when you use it. Because Wave is dedicated to making small business tools work the way small business owners need them to, I've included it on this list.

Developer tools

Xcode

Xcode is the macOS, iOS, tvOS, and watchOS developer's handiest tool. It supports coding for Swift, Objective-C, Python, and a whole lot more. It can build universal binary files to run on PowerPC and Intel-based computers, and developers can create apps for 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. It's got everything an Apple coder needs.

TextWrangler

When it comes to coding, nothing keeps your characters more organized than TextWrangler. The text editor works with a wide variety of coding syntax and even has color coding for different programming languages. You can easily access files on FTP and SFTP servers. It is also a fantastic app for non-programmers for its many smaller details, like line wrapping, email templates, and quote styles. It is one of the best free code editors around.

Atom

Atom is another fantastic, free text and code editor for the Mac. This one is not available in the Mac App Store, but is highly rated among programmers. It has a built-in package manager with wide support for a number of different packages. It integrates with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Node.js and allows programmers to code across platforms. It is highly customizable so that you can create the most ideal coding atmosphere to help keep you working quickly.

Education

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is another exception to my rule that a service must have a dedicated app, but it is such a fantastic learning website, rich with online study courses of all levels — for free — that I had to include it. You can learn the colors of the rainbow or the Pythagorean Theorem. It covers basic subjects and works you into deeper involvement, just like you would start off taking basic classes in school and move into more advanced curricula. You can also prepare for the SAT, MCAT, GMAT, IIT JEE, and NCLEX-RN with excellent study guides. It is a great resource for getting started or back into your education.

iTunes U

Right inside the iTunes app on your Mac is a universe of knowledge. There are thousands of specialized courses, which you can download for free, that are lead by professors at some of the most popular colleges in the world. You can learn statistics from Harvard, business from Stanford, psychology from Yale, and much more. Subjects cover architecture to women's studies, with practically everything you can think of in between. To access iTunes U, open iTunes on your Mac and select it from the menu.

Entertainment

HandBrake

HandBrake is a free, open-source software program that lets you convert practically any media file to MP4, M4V, or MKV. You can convert your entire DVD or Blu-ray collection into digital form to watch on your Apple TV without having to pay someone to do it for you. You can quickly choose which type of device you want your file to be transcoded to support (like iOS or tvOS) and then get to converting within just a few seconds. For more advanced file conversion fans, there are a number of great features to help you perfect your digital movie catalog.

VLC media player

VLC is the best free, open-source media player for the Mac. With it, you can play nearly any media file, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MKV, WebM, WMV, and much more. It has a number of customizable features so you can create your ideal viewing situation or set up your music listening experience the way you want. It does support DVD and Blu-ray decryption through the libdvdcss library if you are so inclined to use it.

Spotify

If you're not using Apple Music (actually, even if you are), Spotify is the next best music streaming service for the Mac. With the Mac app, you can listen to thousands of songs across all genres. It includes a useful playlist section so you can keep track of your favorite music. It also has a great music discovery section where you can see what's trending or music you might like based on what you've been listening to. The social aspect makes it one of my favorite free social media apps for the iPhone, too.

See also

Finance

Debit & Credit - Personal Finance

If you prefer to keep track of your finances manually, Debit & Credit is a great checkbook balancing app (I know, no one balances a checkbook anymore). You manually enter every transaction and income, and you can keep track of what you're spending with the budget list. The report feature is the best. You can view your spending habits by category, where you spend, your income and expenses differences, whether you are able to save, and more. There is an in-app purchase to unlock more than two accounts, but if you only have two bank accounts, you don't need the premium service.

Money Wiz 2 ~ Personal Finance

Money Wiz is a great personal finance tracker for balancing your bank account. The free version lets you manually add account information like income, expenses, and account transfers. If you sign up for the monthly subscription, you can connect your online bank accounts and have the work done for you. You can also create a budget (though you can only track one budget before being asked to upgrade). You can also set up a schedule reminder to keep you on track for paying bills that are due at the same time each month. It features a few more customizable features, like creating a new category for income and expenses, as well as creating financial reports based on your net worth, cash flow, and balance over time. Money Wiz works better with the subscription upgrade, but is very useful for keeping your checking accounts balanced.

Graphics & Design

GIMP

GIMP is pretty much the open-source version of Photoshop. You can fix minor photo errors, like light balance and contrast, or manipulate your image using the masking and removing features, similar to that of Photoshop's. You can also add filters, resize, create layers, mix up background objects, and a whole lot more. It's the best free version of Photoshop you can use on the Mac.

Autodesk Sketchbook

Autodesk is famous for its artists' apps, which feature a rich selection of brushes that seem hyper-realistic. You can use it to create vector graphic images, illustrations, and photorealistic works of art. There are dozens of customizable pens, pencils, and paintbrushes, and the color palette is so robust that you can perfectly match practically any color in the world. The free download comes with dozens of amazing tools, but you can upgrade to the pro version to unlock even more options. It is a graphic artist's best tool on the Mac.

Health & Fitness

Time Out - Break Reminders

Taking a moment for oneself is one of the most difficult health and fitness steps to take. We get so caught up with our busy schedules that we forget to stop for a moment. Time Out forces you to take those little breaks by dimming your screen so you can't use it for a specified amount of time. You can set up small breaks every hour, micro-breaks every 15 minutes, and lunch breaks to get your eyes off the screen for a half-hour or so. You can configure how long the breaks are and how often you take them. It'll make your eyes, your muscles, and your heart a little bit healthier every day you use it.

Relax Lite - Stress and Anxiety Relief

When the stress of the day starts to overwhelm you, use Relax to help you take things down a notch. It is a simple window with relaxing visual images and calming music that includes special tones to help cue your breathing exercises. There are guided meditation sessions you can take part in and deep-breathing exercises that will help you focus and reduce stress. Sometimes, you just need to check out for 10 minutes in order to be a more productive person.

Lifestyle

iBooks Author

If you fancy yourself a writer, Apple's iBooks Author is the perfect app to get your work published without having to sign a publishing contract. You can use Apple's pre-made templates to help facilitate the perfect design. Add images, a video introduction, book cover, and more for a more immersive experience. With the multitouch widgets, you can make your pages interactive. Add photos, audio, Keynote presentations, and 3D objects. When you've finished you can upload it to the iBooks Store with the in-app export tools. You'll be a famous author before you know it!

Trillian

How many chat and messaging programs are you signed up with? If it's more than one, you need Trillian. It combines all of your chat and messaging accounts into one simple interface so you don't have to switch between apps to talk to your friends and family. You can chat through Facebook, Twitter, Google Chat, Yahoo, Bonjour, and more, all in one window. Chat services are delineated by color coding, so you know where a message is coming from. If you have too many chat channels and want to keep them all in one place, use Trillian to keep them organized.

Medical

Complete Anatomy

You've never seen the human body the way it is presented in this medical book. It shows you the entire make up of the body's systems. For free, you can examine, in interactive 3D, the entire skeletal and connective tissue layers, including names of bones, surfaces, insertion points, and more. You can zoom in on specific areas of the body for detailed interactions and animate muscle movements. You'll learn more about human anatomy than you ever thought possible.

Music

Audacity

Audacity is one of the best free audio editors. You can record live audio for podcasts, turn tapes and records into digital music, and edit tracks. If the original recording is a little too bright, you can add a filter to bring down the highs. Trim the excess off of the front or back of a recording, and even blend one track into another. It is very easy to use, so you don't have to be a professional recording artist to get into it.

Cross DJ Free

DJ programs can be a pain in the pocketbook. If you're just learning the ropes or want to have a homegrown dance party, don't spend the heavy cash. Cross DJ makes it possible for you to spin the beats without the expensive software. It features waveforms, beat sync, track cueing, loops, digital scratching, and more. It accesses your iTunes library directly, so you don't even have to load up new music. You may eventually upgrade to a more robust DJ app, but this is definitely a great starter program.

Shazam

The popular song identification program that was folded into Siri on the iPhone is also available on the Mac. Shazam listens to your music and tells you what you want to know about it. While it's running, it will tell you the name of a song and artist. While you're listening to tunes, it will automatically create a playlist of tracks you can listen to with Apple Music (when available), even if you are currently listening to music with a different service. Click a track to see lyrics and watch music videos on Shazam's website, too.

News

RSS Bot - News Notifier

RSS Bot is like having a news feed right in your Menu bar. When you log in, you can add any RSS feed to it and then quickly view new content with a single click. You can set up the service to notify you when new posts are published, or just check on things yourself when you have the time. If you read a blog that covers more subjects than you are interested in, you can set up a filter that will only show you articles that match keywords you designate.

Pocket

Pocket is sort of like the folder your mom used to keep with newspaper and magazine clippings in it. You can save articles, videos, recipes, and more, right in Pocket for reading later. It's the perfect app for people who like to browse the entirety of the internet with no real focus, but don't have the time to read everything they come across. Save articles for offline viewing so you can read new content while you are on the bus or at the park. The app has a nifty tool that highlights the most important articles of the day, so you can read content organized by priority.

Photography

Fun Games On Apple App Store

Fotor

Fotor is a super easy photo editing app for the Mac that lets you create fun and unique projects from your collection. You can adjust the lighting, tweak the white balance, add a fun border, lay on a filter, and even add text boxes. It supports batch editing, so you can stylize all of your vacation photos at the same time. The collage tool lets you create pages with multiple photos that you can customize to your liking. It is a fun, simple way to edit your photos without the complex tools that you need to know about with Photoshop.

Polarr Photo Editor Lite

Polarr is a basic photo editing app with excellent tools for image adjusting. You can adjust color, light, clarity, highlights, shadows, and more. Add effects like color shadows, lens distortions, vignettes, and filters. This app works best when you are trying to enhance your pictures, not when you are trying to get artsy with them. If you can't seem to get your picture just right, trigger one of the helpful tutorials to learn how to brighten dark images or properly add white balance. There are dozens of pro-level tools, but they are designed to be used by anyone.

See also

Productivity

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is the best task manager app you can get without paying for it. You can create different lists and add time-sensitive projects to them, create tasks with recurring due dates, and share your lists with others. It syncs across Mac and iOS, so you can take your lists with you everywhere you go. You'll always be ready to take care of business. You can set due dates for tasks and reminders to help keep you on task. You can also include subtasks for specific projects and leave yourself a note if you need more details. Tag a task as important and it will move to the top of your list.

Evernote

Evernote is like that basket you have next to the couch or that drawer in your kitchen that has everything in it. You can clip web pages, link status updates, add music, store pictures, create new notes, and share anything you want with others. Not only is it the perfect junk drawer for every digital thing you could possibly want to save, but it is also totally organizable so your junk looks more like a perfectionist's desk. You can make checklists, set reminders, drop notes into existing documents, annotate pictures, and all manner of stuff. It does practically everything except fix the kitchen sink.

TickTick

TickTick is a great choice if you want an easy to use task manager that is still powerful enough to help you feel productive. TickTick is completely cross-platform across 10 different platforms, and you can even access all of your tasks on the web. Adding tasks can be done with a keyboard shortcut, you get instant reminders, flexibility with recurring tasks and priority levels, checklists, and sync. There are no restrictions, but you can go with TickTick Premium for more features like grid views of timeline and calendars, smart lists, sub-task reminders, and more. They're nice bonuses, but you can get the basic functionality (which is more than enough for most) for free.

Microsoft OneNote

If Evernote isn't really your thing (you do need a subscription to get the most use out of it), then consider Microsoft OneNote. Think of OneNote as your digital notebook for capturing everything: thoughts, discoveries, ideas, notes, etc. You can create multiple notebooks for different topics or subjects, and each notebook can hold an unlimited number of notes. Your notes can include just plain text, drawings, PDF documents, files, web snippets, and pretty much anything else you would possibly need to reference later.

See also

Reference

Kindle

If you love reading eBooks, then the Kindle app is a must-have for your Mac. With the Kindle app, you'll get access to your collection of Amazon Kindle books, and Amazon Whispersync means they'll also be accessible on your other devices too, including iPhone and iPad. Whispersync will keep track of the last page you read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights, so you simply pick up where you left off on your Mac, Kindle, iPhone, or iPad. The Kindle app also lets you sample books for free, and you can purchase directly from the Kindle bookstore, or import your own eBooks.

Mactracker

Apple geeks, pay attention. This little reference tool is going to impress you. It features detailed information on every single Apple product ever made, including things like processor speeds, original price, and current selling price. Did you know that the first Macintosh only had 1 MB of memory? With Mactracker, you will know all about all the Macs. And, you can input your own Apple devices, too. So you can keep track of what you own and whether it is still under warranty. It covers more than just Mac's too. You can look up servers, PowerBooks, and every software update for every device.

Megawords

Sometimes, you're just trying to find that perfect word, the one that rhymes perfectly for your song or the one that is similar to the word you are thinking of, but works better in a sentence. Megawords is a simple little app that gives you a wealth of information in just a few seconds. You can look up anagrams, find rhymes, and even get a little help with crossword puzzles. Type in a word to get the dictionary definition, synonyms, and even geographical information if the word happens to also be the name of a place.

Social Networking

Friendly for Twitter

Friendly for Twitter is a lightweight app that lets you log in to all of your Twitter accounts, and then some. Friendly acts as a lightweight chrome around the Twitter web app, so it's fast and light. You can also add your Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, WhatsApp, Pinterest, Linkedin profiles, and more. Friendly also gives you two options to view Twitter: Twitter Mobile or Tweetdeck styles, so you can pick the one that suits your needs.

Tweetdeck

If you're using Twitter primarily for publishing, marketing, or just a power-user, then you may want to look into Tweetdeck. It's a flexible Twitter app that lets you have multiple columns side-by-side, so you can see more tweets in a single glance. The app also recently gained nice features like Dark Mode and custom themes.

PhotoFeed - for Instagram

Apple Store Download For Pc

Can't get enough Instagram? Then you should download PhotoFeed - for Instagram on your Mac. This simple app allows you to log in to your Instagram account, so you can browse your feed, like photos, and leave comments. You know, without having to go on your phone! It's basic, but it gets the job done. You do need to have an Instagram account to use it though, as it won't work without a login.

Travel

Apple Maps

Apple's built-in mapping service is really convenient to have on the Mac. You may not realize how often you look up the location of something while on your computer, but it is a fairly common occurrence, at least for me. Having Maps integrated with every aspect of your Mac makes it easy to look up directions from anywhere, like an email, a website, or a contact card. Siri can use Apple Maps to help you find all manner of locations in just a few seconds. It's already on your Mac and works great with all of the other built-in apps, too.

Google Earth

You may think of Google Maps as a means to get from point A to point B, but there is so much more to discover on this big blue marble than just driving directions. You can virtually travel the globe, visiting cities you'll never get to in real life. Walk around Manhattan with Street View, visit the swelling seas, and even look up to see the stars above you. With the time travel feature, you can go back decades to see what your house looked like, long before you lived there. Google Earth is less of a mapping service and more like a wealth of global information at your fingertips

Utilities

f.lux

f.lux is the original maker of soft, yellow-hued lighting for digital screens. You can set it to your local time and your screen will automatically start to dim and turn a slight yellow color. You can customize the effect by increasing or decreasing the intensity and there are additional color effects, like 'Movie mode' and 'Darkroom' which drastically alter your screen's lighting, but under specific circumstances that you choose. f.lux is designed to help relieve eye strain due to late-night computer use. It is a great utility to have on your Mac.

Parcel - Delivery Tracking

Thanks to the mega-boom in online retail services, we are getting packages delivered more often than ever before, and not just during the holidays. Parcel is easy to use. All you have to do is copy a tracking number and then click on the plus (+) button in the Parcel app and the carrier information will be added automatically. You can add a title description and then keep an eye on how much longer before your package will be at your doorstep. You can add a widget to Notification Center and use Spotlight to look up tracking information. You can only track three packages at a time without an in-app purchase, but the premium price is only $2.99 per year.

The Unarchiver

If you regularly get large files sent to you, you'll love what the Unarchiver can do for you. It quickly unzips compressed and archived files from a number of different sources, including Zip RAR, 7-zip, and more, and it will open older archives from Stuffit, ARC and ISO disc images. As easy as it is to use Apple's Archive utility to simply unzip large files, the Unarchiver takes care of older content that can be a real pain to get open, since it uses smart detection to encode files correctly so that you won't end up with a bunch of garbled text. It is a fantastic secondary utility for opening files on your Mac.

See also

Video

GIPHY Capture - The GIF Maker

Giphy, which supplies the single largest collection of GIFs across the internet, has a GIF maker so you can join in the fun. It features a recording window that you place over anything you want to record. You can capture still shots or videos (iTunes movies will go black under the GIPHY Capture app due to copyright protection). After recording the section you want to use as a GIF, you can edit it by trimming, resizing, and looping it. You can also add a caption to turn it into a meme. When you're done, you can upload it to Giphy.com to share with the rest of the world. Who knows, maybe your GIF will go viral.

Smart Converter

Consumption of entertainment is going digital and it is much easier to simply watch one of your DVD or Blu-ray discs as a digital file right in iTunes instead of having to walk over to your shelf, find the title, walk over to your player, insert the disc, and hit play. With Smart Converter, you can turn all of your movies, TV shows, and homemade videos into files that you can watch from whichever device you prefer. It is specially designed to make it easy to resize and convert files into content fit for your Apple TV, Mac, iPad, or iPhone, but you can also select and convert for dozens of devices, including non-Apple products. When the conversion is finished, simply add it to whatever streaming service you use with your device and your content is ready to watch. It is super easy to use for conversion beginners, too.

Blender

Blender is an open-source video creation app that lets you make animations, 3D models, games, and more. It supports modeling rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, composition, and motion tracking. Because it is open-source, developers are constantly creating and sharing tools that others can use, such as textures, 3D character builds, and cartoons. If you are ready to take your animation to the next level, Blender is the best option for free on the Mac.

Weather

WeatherBug Lite

If you just want a quick glance at the current temperature, WeatherBug Lite is just what you need. It is a Menu bar app that always shows the current temperature and weather condition. All you have to do is look up. If you want more information, you can click on the Menu bar widget to get an hourly forecast and a current weather radar. If you really want to get into the nitty-gritty, click on a stat to open WeatherBug on the web, where you can find out about windshield, sunrise, rainfall, and more. WeatherBug Lite is the perfect little at-a-glance weather app because it's always on.

Your favorites?

Though this list is long, it is by no means complete. There are just too many free apps available for the Mac to include everything. If you don't see your favorite free Mac app on this list, please add it in the comments section with your reason for why it stands out (Remember: It has to be truly free, or the free version of an otherwise premium app that is noteworthy.)

August 2019: Removed apps that are no longer free or available. Added Kindle, Microsoft OneNote, TickTick, Friendly for Twitter, Tweetdeck, and PhotoFeed - for Instagram. These are the best free apps for your Mac!

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Best Ssd For Mac Pro 2008

If you have an old MacBook Pro with one foot in the grave, the single best thing you can do to breathe new life into it is replace its traditional spinning hard drive with a solid-state drive. There's a reason that all modern MacBooks and the vast majority of all laptops sold today use SSDs. They are more energy efficient, more reliable and quieter than hard drives with magnetic, spinning disks. And they aren't nearly as costly per gigabyte as they once were.

• Best Ssd For Macbook Pro Late 2008
• External Ssd For Mac

A very simple way to replace the hdd with the ssd: have the hdd in, connect the ssd in a separate holder (eg Icy Box), CLONE the hdd to ssd (eg with Carbon Copy Cloner), shutdown, take the hdd out and the ssd in, start: the MBP should start with the ssd.

I replaced my 2011-era MacBook Pro's 500GB hard drive with the 500GB Samsung 850 Evo. The whole procedure took less than an hour (not counting the half a day it took to clone my MacBook's hard drive to the SSD). Really, the hardest part of the whole thing was tracking down a size 6T torx-head screwdriver for the four torx screws that help hold the hard drive in place. (I found them at my local Ace Hardware.)

Get everything you need to upgrade your Mac Pro 2008 SSD for a total system performance and capacity boost. All OWC SSDs backed by a lifetime warranty. Hey guys, today we finally see the results of our labor. Was it worth it to put this PCIe SSD in an old Mac Pro 2008? Are we seeing an upgrade in disk speed and performance?

As you'll see in the video below, my colleague Sharon Profis resurrected her 2009 MacBook Pro with an SSD and agrees with me that the process is simple and straightforward. And hugely effective. So, let's get to it!

Now playing:Watch this: Upgrade your MacBook with an SSD

What you'll need:

• A 2.5-inch SATA SSD (I used the Samsung 850 Evo)
• SATA-to-USB cable or dock
• Tiny screwdriver to open your laptop
• Torx head screwdriver for disassembling the hard drive
• SuperDuper (download it here)

Step 1: Prep the SSD

Start by connecting the SSD to your computer with a dock or cable. Once it's connected, launch Disk Utility (searchable through Spotlight), and select the SSD from the left sidebar. Then, click the Erase button at the top of the window and then click Erase. No need to change any settings, unless you'd like to give it a new name. This will format the drive and prep it for the next step.

Next, launch SuperDuper, and set it to clone your Mac's hard drive to the SSD. If you gave it a new name in Disk Utility, it'll show up as such. Then choose Backup All Files, and click Copy Now.

This could take anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours, depending on how much you have stored on your hard drive. When the process is complete, eject the SSD and shut down your computer.

Step 2: Remove the hard drive

In case you missed it in the previous step, shut down your computer.

Remove your MacBook's back cover by unscrewing the tiny screws. Put them in a small container as you remove them; they are easy to misplace.

When the cover comes off, touch a metal part to release the static electricity. At this point, you might want to clean the inside of your Mac. I found that after years without cleaning, mine was full of dust. Use a soft brush or gentle bursts of compressed air to release the dust and grime.

To remove the hard drive, use the regular screwdriver to unscrew the two black screws belonging to the bracket securing the hard drive. Remove the bracket and set it aside.

Gently lift the hard drive. You'll see that a SATA ribbon is attached to one end. Carefully wiggle the connector -- not the ribbon itself -- to disconnect it.

Remove the four torx screws attached to the hard drive and set aside. At this point, you can store your hard drive away or convert it to an external hard drive. You're done with it.

Step 3: Install the SSD

Grab the SSD and screw in the four torx screws you removed from the hard drive. Then, carefully attach the SATA ribbon to the SSD, and insert the drive in the same configuration as the previous drive.

Re-attach the bracket. And finally, replace the back cover using the tiny screws.

If you made it this far without fumbling, congratulations! That was probably easier than you were expecting.

Now turn on your computer. It may take a couple of extra seconds as it gets acquainted with the new drive, but generally speaking, starting up your computer will be much faster than the past. You'll also notice that programs launch faster, saving files takes less time, and it feels less sluggish overall.

Editors' note: This story was originally published on October 4, 2016 and has since been updated to include new information.

Samsung SSD 850 Evo (120GB)

• Review
  Samsung SSD 850 Evo review: Top performance for a low price

Apple's new Mac Pro has some Mac users buzzing: the tiny machine appears to be crazy fast, and it's a total redesign of the system - replacing the giant aluminum box of yore with a tiny little black cylinder. But should you replace your Mac Pro with the new one? If you want to get as much bang for your buck, upgrade your aluminum Mac Pro with an Solid State Drive (SSD).

There are different options available for Mac Pro-compatible SSDs, and we're going to look at two of them here: a SATA-based SSD and a PCIe-based SSD. The bottom line is that you're going to see a huge increase in speed either way; it's just a question of what your budget will allow.

To give you some sense of how significant the difference in speed is, I've borrowed a couple of different products from Other World Computing (OWC). One is a SATA-based SSD - the Mercury Extreme 6G, the other is closer to what the new Mac Pro has - it's a PCIe card with SSDs on it, OWC's Mercury Accelsior_E2. Both the SATA SSD and the PCIe card have 240 gigabyte capacities, which were pretty comparable to the original 320GB 3.5-inch hard drive that came with this Mac Pro. All of them are running fresh copies of Mountain Lion 10.8.4, with up to date security patches.

Making the most of what you have

Obviously the older Mac Pro won't be as fast as the new one, but don't think that your aluminum monolith is completely useless. SSDs have come down in price quite a bit, and if you shop around it's now possible to pick one up (albeit with limited storage capacity) for under $100.

While SSDs cost a lot more per gigabyte than hard disk drives, the difference in speed is amazing. Your Mac Pro will be faster to boot, it will launch applications faster, and it will read and write data faster. How much faster? That depends on which option you choose: SATA or PCI Express (PCIe).

SATA

Serial ATA, or SATA, is the backbone of the aluminum Mac Pro's local data storage interface. Inside your Mac Pro are four SATA bays, each of which can accommodate a 3.5-inch hard disk drive. SATA is also used to connect the internal optical drive (or drives) your Mac Pro comes with.

What makes the SATA bays particularly easy to work with is the Mac Pro's 'sled' design - each drive mechanism is mounted on a tray that easily slides out and slides back in, locking the drive into place without needing to manually connect any ribbon cables. It's quick, it's easy and it's trademark Apple elegant, even within the brutalist architecture of the Mac Pro.

The various Mac Pros that have come out over the years differ in speed, interfaces and basic construction, but they all share common features. The internal drive bays are one of those features that's remained a constant through the Mac Pro's evolution, so regardless of which model of Mac Pro you use, it's going to be pretty similar.

Apple's made it very easy to get access to those drive bays, and to put in (and remove) drives. To get inside your Mac Pro, you just lift a lever on the back of the box, then slide out the side panel.

The only tool you'll need is a Philips head screwdriver. The screwdriver is used to actually mate the drive to the tray to hold it in place. But you don't need your own screws - they're built into the sled. The screws match up with mounting holes that are already pre-drilled onto all 3.5-inch hard disk mechanisms.

SATA SSDs are, by and large, designed with a 2.5-inch hard drive in mind, because that's what's used in most laptops - and laptops are very popular. Mounting a 2.5-inch SSD into a 3.5-inch hard drive sled isn't tricky - you just need a simple drive adapter to get the job done. OWC also offers a replacement drive sled that does the job, if you're using a 2009-era or later Mac Pro.

Best Ssd For Macbook Pro Late 2008

Once you've got the drive in, it's a simple matter of booting up the Mac and running Disk Utility in the Utilities folder. Create a partition map to your liking just like you would a hard drive and you're in business. Easy peasy.

PCIe

SATA is terrific because it's easy to work with and it's ubiquitous, so there are a lot of products - both hard drives and SSDs - designed to use it. But it has its limitations. One of them is its bandwidth. The SATA interface on the Mac Pro has a top transfer speed of 3 gigabits per second.

But there's another option if you're interested in maximum performance: go straight to PCI Express (PCIe). PCIe is the expansion card interface on the Mac Pro, the one you use for graphics cards and whatever other expansion cards you want to install. And there's a lot more bandwidth to work with - 10 gigabits per second.

By going PCIe, you're going to more closely align your Mac Pro with Apple's new black, cylindrical Mac Pro. It uses the same connection, eschewing SATA for a direct PCIe link. The same goes for the new Haswell-equipped MacBook Airs that shipped earlier this year.

Installing a PCIe card in the Mac Pro is, in some ways, easier even than a SATA drive. Once you've powered the Mac Pro down and have the side panel off, you simply unscrew a retaining plate near the back of the Mac Pro. Once it's out you can install the new card. You don't need any tools - the retaining bolt's screws can be finger-tightened (and untightened). Once installed and once the Mac is powered, you simply run Disk Utility, and you should see a fresh drive ready for formatting.

One nice thing about the Accelsior E2 and other PCIe-based cards - most of them have removable SSDs on them. Which means that over time, if you need more space, you should be able to simply buy larger SSDs and replace them without having to replace the card all together.

External Ssd For Mac

There are a few caveats, depending on the age of your Mac Pro. Early Mac Pros (models built in 2006 and 2007) sport PCIe 1.0 slots that don't perform as fast as later models, so you will be bandwidth-limited on those machines. 2008 models and beyond, like my eight-core Mac Pro, have faster PCIe 2.0 slots. The 2008 model has two 16x slots, and one is occupied by the stock video card. If you're only using one video card, you can use the other for the SSD and see maximum throughput. In any of the other 4x slots you're going to see slower performance. 2009 and newer Mac Pros will see the best performance out of any available slot.

Fast as hell

So what are the benefits of using an SSD? Let's take a look. For comparison's sake, I've run some tests using digital video hardware maker Blackmagic Design's free Disk Speed Test app, available for download from the Mac App Store. This will give you an idea of the devices' raw throughput.

First up is as close to bone stock as I can get: My 2008 Mac Pro with its factory-original 320GB Seagate hard disk drive, recently reformatted and running a fresh copy of Mountain Lion 10.8.4 with all the latest patches installed.

The drive registers about 101.3 megabytes per second write speed and about 94.4 megabytes read speed using Disk Speed Test. There were brief, sustained periods of faster write speed, but that's about where it settled - having said that, I expected better. Maybe it's because it's a five year old drive that's sat idle for a couple of years. Regardless, it's nowhere near the ceiling of a SATA interface, which is closer to 384 megabytes per second.

Next up is the Mercury Extreme 6G, OWC's fastest 2.5-inch SATA SSD.

As you can see, performance has more than doubled. Sustained writes clock in at 241.4 MB/sec, while sustained reads are even faster at 266.6 MB/sec. Again, this doesn't hit the ceiling of SATA bandwidth, but it comes much closer.

Last, but not least, is the PCIe-based Accelsior E2:

This thing smokes any other comers. Write speeds blast at about 332.8 MB/sec while read speeds peg the redline of the graphical needle on measurement tool, coming in at 630.9 MB/sec. Astonishing.

You get what you pay for

The performance difference between the average stock hard drive and any SSD is going to be distinct, so don't get too caught up in performance comparisons. You can spend a lot of money getting absolutely the fastest SSD you can afford, but whether it will be worth it is dependent on the age of your machine and its capabilities, as well as what you intend to do with it.

The real showstopper for most of us is price and capacity. For what you'll pay for a 128 gigabyte SSD, you can easily get a two terabyte hard disk drive. (That'd be 24 times the capacity of the 128 GB SSD). PCIe SSD is an even pricier and more specialized option. As a practical example: As I posted this article, you can buy a 2TB Seagate Barracuda hard drive for under $100 from Amazon.com. A 128GB SATA SSD from OWC costs $127.99. A 120GB PCIe SSD from OWC is priced at $329.99. Other manufacturer's prices will vary dramatically, but you get the point: the faster the storage system is, the more you pay.

That means you're not going to replace hard drives with SSD as a primary storage system any time soon. The price has to fall much further and chip density has to improve before there can be anything close to parity.

Best of both worlds

For now, SSDs are most economical and effective when they're used in conjunction with conventional hard drives, much as Apple has done with 'Fusion' drives on newer Mac models. You get the capacity of a regular hard disk with some of the benefits of an SSD.

It is possible to 'roll your own' Fusion-style device, though it requires using the Terminal and a command line interface. But even before you get to that, you can use your SSD as a regular boot volume. Use it to store a few critical applications and maybe a modest folder of frequently accessed documents, but continue to use SATA-based hard disk drives for everything else: a massive iTunes library, for example, or the apps and utilities that you want on hand but don't use every day.

For an added boost of performance, you can configure multiple drive mechanisms in a RAID - an array that you create using Apple's Disk Utility. You can also see a significant performance increases by 'striping' data across multiple drive mechanisms. Combine that with a fast SSD boot volume and you'll be amazed at how much fresher your Mac Pro feels.

The aluminum Mac Pro isn't perfect - it's big, it sucks up a lot of juice and it's been outclassed by Macs with newer features like USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt. But that doesn't mean the Mac Pro is entirely useless, either. It still crunches data hellaciously fast and it's built to last.

Putting in an SSD offers your Mac Pro a new lease on life with a dramatic improvement in performance that will be an eye opener. Consider the pros and cons and decide what your wallet will bear. But in the end, it may turn out that putting in an SSD is the best thing you've done to give your Mac Pro a bit more time before replacing it altogether.

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What Is The Best Internet Browser For Playing Games On Mac?

1. What Is The Best Internet Browser For Windows 10
2. What Is The Best Internet Browser For Playing Games On Mac Damage Control

What Is The Best Internet Browser For Windows 10

Zynga’s Farmville is a very heavy game. It uses a lot of resources from both your browser and your computer. It helps to both manage your resources, and manage what you have on your farms. First let’s take a look at what types of resources it uses. Managing Your Computer Resources One resource that Farmville uses is RAM. Best router for mac 2016. What RAM stands for is Random Access Memory and this is the memory your computer uses to power the operating system and anything else that it is running at a given time, including the game.

Best vr system for mac. Sony's PlayStation VR is our current Editors' Choice for virtual reality, offering the most polished and easy-to-use tethered VR experience with a relatively reasonable price tag. The leader in VR gaming technology (and our number one best VR system) comes from Oculus Rift. In many cases, they are credited with inventing VR gaming technology. This VR system works best with any computer that operates on Windows 8.1 or Windows 7. The best VR headsets, whether you're looking for powerful PC-connected VR or mobile headsets that work with your smartphone, we've tested the lot. VR on a Mac is both possible and fantastic these days, as long as you have the right hardware to accompany your shiny new iMac Pro. An HTC Vive transforms your whole room into a portal to new worlds, and does so at a relatively low price.

For more about what RAM is and how it works, click To find out how much RAM your computer has on a Windows system, open Windows Explorer, right click on computer and left click on properties. As you can see on this system, there is 8 GB of RAM and an i5 processor. The more RAM you have, the more things your computer can run at a time or the heavier your farm can be and still load effectively. The better your processor, the faster your computer can process information. Best external disc drives for mac. If you have 4 GB of RAM or less, you will need to keep a much closer eye on what else your computer is running while you are trying to farm.

What Is The Best Internet Browser For Playing Games On Mac Damage Control

While this will help you to use more resources than the RAM you have alone, using the page file and writing to the hard drive is much more time consuming than writing to RAM and your game/browser/computer will lag and run slower if the virtual memory pagefile is in use. Top 10 Best Online Football Management Games Despite being the most popular sport on the planet, and the success of FIFA, PES and Football Manager combined, there is a lack of what you would call Online Football Management Games.

Best Photo Book Maker For Mac

The Mac’s Best Photo Slideshow Maker Monday, February 10, 2014 My Mac is loaded up with about 20,000 or so photos, mostly stuffed into iPhoto for storage, but thousands of the better photos also in Aperture. The FreePrints Photobooks app changes all that with the fastest, easiest way to create beautiful photo books—right on your iPhone, iPad or Android device. And best of all, with the FreePrints Photobooks app you get one 5x7 standard softcover photo book every month for FREE!

1. Best Photo Book Maker App

Our test compares a 'standard' hardcover book approximately A4 size using default options for paper type and number of pages, cover type and binding. It also covers the downloadable photo book software for Windows and Mac computers and online (web-based) software where applicable. Our expert testers give each photo book service a thorough workout (see ) to help find the ones that: • have the easiest to use software • provide the best image quality • give you the best quality finished book For more information. Our interactive comparison tool helps you find the services that offer high-definition printing, connectivity with popular image sharing sites including Instagram, Facebook and Flickr, and softcover or hardcover options. Our Recommended list will help you see quickly which services come out on top.

If you think there are better graphic design computers out there, then please let us know in the comments below. This list includes top computer manufacturers such as Asus, Apple, Acer, and Dell. Now you have all the basic understanding of what are the most critical hardware requirements for the best matching PC for you.

If you getting married, that one of the best things you ever have done in your life or not. Just kidding its depends on your life partner.

Best Photo Book Maker App

However, there are lots of things you’ve to consider in the wedding such as making a wedding photo books. The wedding albums are one of most important thing you’ve to consider because in future especially in every wedding anniversary you going to watch your complete wedding photos with your life partner along with kids. Its 21 century and its time for latest technologies that includes wedding photo books online in your case. Which means you can easily make your own wedding photo albums through several professional wedding albums online. Just use Google search by typing “Create Wedding Album Online” and you can get lots of best wedding albums software.

Best Pastas For Mac And Cheese

• Most Popular Mac And Cheese Recipe
• Easy Mac And Cheese

Best floor plan app. We're making over the ultimate comfort food, macaroni and cheese, in every way possible — bacon, lobster, avocado, and every kind of speciality cheese you can imagine. The pumpkin puree in this mac and cheese adds fiber, as well as body and color, so less cheese is needed. Whole wheat pasta and baby spinach bump up the health factor even further.

Mac and cheese always sounds good, right? It's a barbecue-joint staple and favorite for home cooks of all ages. And it's one of the most searched recipes on Epicurious as soon as chilly weather sets in. Sadly, we've been disappointed too many times by a gloppy, bland cheese sauce or—what's worse—a dry, gritty mess. What we want in our mac and cheese is perfectly cooked pasta. Best 4k ips monitor for mac mini.

Most Popular Mac And Cheese Recipe

Best video recorder for mac. Enrobed in a rich, velvety cheese sauce. With a light, crunchy topping. We want the kind of casserole that's dangerous to have in the house because you just can't stop eating it.

Easy Mac And Cheese

Our Best Mac and Cheese Recipes Lacey Muszynski April 30, 2018 Whether you try it baked with a crunchy topping or served straight from the slow cooker, this is a great place to start if you’re learning how to make mac and cheese.

Best Image Resizer For Mac

• Simple Image Resizer

Simple Image Resizer

Batch Image Resizer lets you resize, rename, rotate, and add borders to multiple images for Web publishing and sharing. If you have ever needed to resize multiple pictures for your Web page, then this program is for you. With this appliction, you can resize, rotate, add a transparent border, and save pictures with an icon preview. Best of all, it uses batch mode processing - so you can manipulate multiple pictures at once! Also, it allows you to grab the first page of a PDF file, convert it to an image, and resize it. Batch Image Resizer now also allows you to watermark your files. Best mac lipstick for asian. This feature is extremely useful for web developers because you can now resize your images and copy-protect them all in one step!

The Epson Expression ET-2550 is a latest all-in-one wireless printer that features one click connect WiFi-Direct option that will connect the printer with your Mac. The printer comes in with free cartridge that will keep your printer functioning for up to 2 years. Best wireless printer for mac 2012. 1-16 of over 1,000 results for 'best wireless printers for mac' Showing selected results. See all results for best wireless printers for mac. Canon Office and Business MX922 All-In-One Printer, Wireless and mobile printing. $95.00 (52 new offers) See newer version.

Best Widgets For Mac

For all intents and purposes, the acts like a little USB thumb drive — but it fits flush into the SDXC card slot instead and appears on your Mac like an external drive that is always on, always available. The is a tiny drive that you can combine with your built-in drive to create a single “fused” storage system on your MacBook Air or Pro. The, on the other hand, also uses the SDXC card slot but it combines with your built-in storage to form a single “fused” drive. It appears as a separate storage option to your Mac’s operating system. Best flash drives for mac 2015.

To open Dashboard: • Click the Dashboard icon in the Dock, or open it from the Applications folder. • If Dashboard is set as its own space, swipe from right to left across your trackpad using two fingers. • Enter. Choose the Dashboard space to switch to it. Once you're in Dashboard, you should see some widgets appear, such as the World Clock or Calculator.

• Best Widgets For Macbook Air
• Best Dashboard Widgets For Mac

You can move these widgets anywhere you want by simply dragging them with your pointer. To activate a widget, just select it. For example, once you click the Dictionary widget, you're ready to type a word in its search field. Click the Stickies widget to type a note or two. To see all the widgets on your Mac, click the add (+) button in the lower-left corner of the screen. This enters the widget browser.

Not only does this beautiful widget display the lyrics of the songs being played on your Mac, but also shows the album artwork, artist, song name, in addition to the playback and sound controls, right from the Notification Center.

It shows you all the widgets installed on your Mac. To add a widget to Dashboard, click an icon in the widget browser. Or start typing the name of the widget in the search field and click the widget to add it to your Dashboard. You can even add more than one copy of the same widget. Best to do list app for mac.

This can be useful if you need to track time in multiple time zones, or want to create multiple Stickies. Download and install more widgets by clicking the More Widgets button. This takes you to the Apple Dashboard. Some widgets allow you to customize them so that they display information that applies to you. For example, add and remove your favorite stocks from the Stocks widget, or choose a time zone or city for the World Clock widget. To customize a widget, look for an info (i) button.

Click this button to view its settings: • Open Dashboard as described above. • Move the pointer over each widget. Widgets with settings or options have a small info button (i) in one corner.

Best Widgets For Macbook Air

• Click the Info button to see the settings you can change. Information about products not manufactured by Apple, or independent websites not controlled or tested by Apple, is provided without recommendation or endorsement. Apple assumes no responsibility with regard to the selection, performance, or use of third-party websites or products. Apple makes no representations regarding third-party website accuracy or reliability. Risks are inherent in the use of the Internet. For additional information.

Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Advertisement How long has it been since you used your Mac’s Dashboard? If you’re like most users, it’s been a long time – and that’s too bad. While many users have forgotten it’s there, the Dashboard can be a quick way to check a wide variety of information, from tracking packages to sending texts to finding special characters. It doesn’t help that Apple seldom issues updates for this widget screen, though Mavericks did bring You probably already know about the major features of the latest, free upgrade for Mac OS X. Here are the hidden ones. The main problem, in 2013, is that decent widgets can be hard to find.

With that in mind, here are 11 actually useful widgets worth installing even if you’ve forgotten the Dashboard still exists. Know When To Expect A Package A package is coming. You want to know when. Is the widget you’re looking for. This handy tool, and seemingly supports every delivery service on earth. It even notifies you as your package moves around the planet, making it useful even if you rarely check the Dashboard itself.

Best Dashboard Widgets For Mac

If you get packages regularly, and own a Mac, there’s no excuse: you should be using this widget. Keep Up With The Weather Weather happens pretty much everywhere, I’ve noticed. Keeping track of it is also probably the single best argument for something like the Dashboard: it’s information you only need occasionally, but want quickly when you do. I showed you There are many ways to find the weather forecast on your Mac, but nothing beats a dedicated app.

Here are six of the best., but my personal favorite tools is the Seeing radar, forecasts and a text description all at a glance is hard to beat – even if this particular widget is ugly. If you don’t need all that information, and want something beautiful, I’d recommend the default widget that comes with your Mac.