Mac Daniel's Advice

Four Useful Utilities for OS X

Evan Kleiman - 2002.10.21

Q. Are there any replacements for Apple's dinky utilities included with OS X?

A. When you look around the "Utilities" folder on your OS X computer, you see many different applications that Apple has provided. You see even more when you look in other folders. With programs like iTunes and iPhoto, what's there to want in an Apple-included application?

Well, if you haven't noticed, the non-iWhatever programs have been pretty much neglected since version seven of the OS. In fact, many of them even have the same interface.

So what do you do when the Apple-included utilities fall short of what you need?

CPU Monitor

The CPU Monitor is supposed to give you some insight into your computer. Well, I'm not sure about you, but a little blue jumping bar doesn't really give me much information, so I use Xmonitor. It offers you all kinds of good information, like CPU usage, memory usage, IP connection status, and more.

Location Manager

Location Manager is an application many people used in OS 9.2 and earlier. However, Apple didn't find it necessary to even include it with OS X. Location X is a great replacement - it fills the void left by Apple. It has options for plug-ins and the option for third party support, which means new features can be added.

Calculator

Macs are capable of very complex mathematical equations. So why does it only come with a simple four-function calculator? Beats me! But, anyone who does anything more than simple adding needs a better one, should use Calculator+. It offers many statistics and advanced arithmetic features, as well as memory options, and its interface is less confusing than that of the other calculators available on the Internet for OS X.

Get Info

The get info box has always been the one incredibly lackluster part of the OS experience. Ever since the beginning. While we don't have applications like Snitch anymore, we do have ones like SuperGetInfo by Bare Bones Software. It adds such features, as the ability to look up type and creator and preview the file, and it is fully integra table with other Bare Bones Software Programs.

While everything might not be perfect with OS X, these utilities can make things a little better.

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