With a wide selection of codecs, fine control over settings, subtitling options, and easy-to-use presets, Handbrake is your best bet for converting an old-fashioned disc into a high-quality (legal or illegal. If you're ripping a DVD these days, odds are you're not outputting to a blank DVD but rather to a file on your laptop, Apple TV, media server, or mobile device. Yes, you could accomplish this merely by turning off your Airport, but Freedom is better in two ways: one, you can set a time limit - forcing you to work, say, three hours straight - and two, you can't reconnect unless you shut everything down and restart your computer, which is enough of a deterrent to keep you from that distracting "mini"-break on the World Wide Web. I've written about this before, but the little-known freeware app Freedom does one very important thing: it shuts off your connection to the outside world, allowing you to focus on the task at hand (especially writing). Fluid is a Mac-only application that allows you to implement SSBs for any web site of your choice and can be a productivity boon for web-based content creation (or consumption). Treating a site as an app also allows you to further customize it (for example, by assigning it to a Space, or in the case of Google Reader, by using Helvetireader), and leave it running instead of always sitting through page loads. A SSB allows you to run an oft-visited web site (say, Gmail, Wordpress, Google Reader) as its own application, to separate it from the rest of your tab-heavy and crash-prone browsing.
Google Chrome for the Mac is here, but it's missing a few features from its PC brethren, including the ability to operate as a Site-Specific Browser (SSB).
Cyberduck isn't the greatest FTP program in the world - some of its password handling tries too hard to ascribe to the Mac keychain, and I've gotten some errant (though harmless) overwriting prompts - but it is reliable, often-updated, and free. If you have your own website you'll want to transfer files to and from the site using a FTP ( File Transfer Protocol) program. Offering scheduling and budgeting in addition to scripting, Celtx has improved significantly since its earlier iterations (also worth keeping an eye on in this realm: Adobe Story).
If you're a professional screenwriter you're already using an industry standard like Final Draft or Movie Magic Screenwriter, but if you're more of the "aspiring" ilk it's definitely worth checking out the free and open-source screenwriting program Celtx.
Cross-platform software (also available for PC and Linux). It records live audio from any source (a microphone, a record player), imports and exports a variety of formats (including MP3, Ogg vorbis, WAV and AIFF), and allows you to apply a variety of filters and edit multitrack audio. But if you'd like a simpler way to record audio for, say, a podcast, Audacity is a free (and lighter) alternative. GarageBand ships with every new Mac and is great for recording music.
Here are twelve apps worth a lot more than their price tag suggests. The computer still should be wiped, so nothing remains on it that can be tied to the previous owners Apple ID.Your Mac may make you look more like a designer or filmmaker, but beyond the basic functions of iLife, how do you write screenplays, record audio, develop websites, convert video and all the other productive stuff you bought a Mac for? What if you spent all your money on the hardware and don't have any cash left for software? Luckily, there are plenty of creative applications available for the Mac for the price of free-99.
If the previous owner did not wipe it completely, this does not mean you get Apps for free. On used computers, the previous owner should have wiped it, so no Apps remain on it.
Only the first Apple ID that gets used on the new computer is entitled to the free Apps. Otherwise there's no reason to expect the apps for free. If you have already bought them, or have an Apple ID that got them from the purchase of a new computer then they remain available on the Apple ID that bought them. If you buy a second hand or used computer then there's no reason for you to get the Apps for free. The Apps like Numbers, Pages, iMovie etc. You are only entitled to the free Apps when you buy a new computer. They way it is currently done is by design. Putting aside the fact you just responded to a year old thread, I doubt very much it is going to change.