What Applications Are included with the Mac, and what do they do? This is the first question we’ll answer in our new continuous series on simplifying the Mac. We’ve created a huge guide to simplify and demystify each and every app, and even some hidden ones, on your mac, so even a new mac user will never have to say “What does that app do”? We want to make this resource available to as many OSX users as possible, so, if you find it interesting, please share this on your preferred social network so that others may find it.

Here’s a Breakdown of EVERY app on a new, pure (untouched by man) Mac:

• Activity Monitor: Think of Activity Monitor as the live weather report and doctor of your computer. Activity Monitor is where you monitor RAM (Random Access Memory) use, disk use, CPU (processor) use, and internet. This is a useful tool if your computer is slow and you don’t know why, you want to quickly close a program, or you want to fix something yourself.
• Airport Utility: Airport Utility is built specifically to manage an Apple Airport which is their version of wireless router which they sell. This is used to set it up, change settings, and fix.
• App Store: The App Store is where you can find a curated collection of applications for your mac. There are many free, as well as paid, which can be bought using an itunes account. Apple carefully controls these apps so that they are safe for download, and most likely decent apps.
• Applescript Editor: Most users will neverApplescript as much of its’ original use is now redundant and over-complicated. It was meant as a programming interface for simple tasks by end-users (“designed to exchange data between and control other applications in order to automate repetitive tasks”) but there are better ways to do this, such as through the newer apple program, Automator ( Next app down).

• Automator: Automator is a simpler, easier version of Applescript Editor which allows you to really easily create and schedule scripts (using mostly fill-in-the-blank and premade scripts) which can be used for repetitive tasks such as converting a file type, or printing a file.
• Bluetooth File Exchange: Bluetooth File Exchange is exactly what it sounds like: It uses Bluetooth (a short range wireless technology) to allow direct file transfer from device to device.
• Boot Camp Assistant: Want to run Windows on your Mac? That is what Boot Camp is meant for, and this is the app to set it up. The Assistant sets up a partition (a piece of your hard drive reserved specifically for Bootcamp) where your version of Windows will run, and helps you to easily set up Windows so that it will run natively on your Mac.
• Calendar: Keep appointments, and important dates with this digital calendar which can remind you of events via alerts, and syncs with iCloud and Google Calendar (among others I believe).
• Calculator: This app is a basic calculator built into your computer. It’s no graphing calculator but you can do some decently complex functions by changing the mode to Scientific or Programming (sine, cosign, ASCII and Unicode).
• Console: This is another app most users will never use by themselves. This is an app for reading your computer’s log (a complex journal of everything that goes on on your computer) and running diagnostics to find problems, and view errors. This is more for IT and technical people, so I’m not going to cover it much more here.
• Contacts: This is an app for managing and keeping all of your contacts, and their emails, phone numbers, addresses, or whatever info you keep on them. If you’re really a player, you can add some custom fields to describe them. It also syncs via Apple’s iCloud to your iPhones, and iPads.
• Dashboard: The dashboard is an area where you can run widgets (single-function mini applications).  Widgets you can keep here include Local Weather and Time, Stock Monitor, Sports Headlines, and puzzles. [Read more...]

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