Progression of an Apple User
Simple progression of a typical Apple user.
There is an interesting progression on how people use their Macintosh computers.
When people first start using the computer they will load up the dock with every application they know. Users will load up the Dock with applications just so they can have access to it.
Then they move to the Dashboard and start using that accessing their applications. Recently the Dashboard becomes to look more like the iPhone/iPad application launching point. At this point users are managing the Dashboard and moving more common Apps to the first page and creating all sorts of groups.
At some point in the computer life cycle users realized that it's more productive to use Spotlight Search (Or Alfred, QuickSilver, Launchpad ) to access their applications.
To launch an application, using Spotlight Search you simply click on the Command-Space and then type in the first few letters of the application's name. You don't have to worry about moving the mouse to click on the Doc icon and there's no need to navigate countless icons in the Dashboard. This is highly useful when you want to access some of your favorite applications very quickly.
If your looking to find new applications, you should look outside of the Apple's App store. Apple has some code requirements that some developers can't change. In addition, some companies don't want to pay Apple any royalties to appear in the store, after all software margin is getting small.
Here are three places that I usually use to expand my software horizon:
- MacLife and MacWord Reviews. They offer some good insights to Apps including their competitors.
- Twitter - A few Twitter users have good information on product announcements: 9to4Mac and dealmac.
- AppStorm Round Ups - Good source to find out about new applications. You find the strength each application has.