5 must have apps for your new MacBook Pro

OH APPY DAYS

So, your new Pro is whirring like a happy cat and you’ve just about stopped sweating with excitement. Now it’s time to load it up with some sweet apps to make best use of all that computing power – not to mention that delicious display. Here are five of the very best that come recommended by yours truly.

PIXELMATOR

A sort of simplified Photoshop made for Mac, Pixelmator is easy to use, feature-rich and properly versatile. In fact, it makes Adobe’s offering look over-priced. Yes, there are a few more advanced things that you can’t do – but, for everyone except professional image editors, it’s more than good enough.

FINAL CUT PRO

Macs are great for editing all sorts of things – including video footage. If you’re happy cobbling together simple movies with basic titles and the like, Apple’s basic iMovie softwareis plenty adept at doing just that. For more advanced tweaking, though, you’ll want its bigger brother, Final Cut Pro. It’s powerful, fast and, arguably, overkill.

BEAR

A simply stunning app for writing notes, prose and, well, anything, Bear is to jotting what the MacBook is to computing: well-executed, easy to use and wonderful to look at. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel – just makes it really, really nice.

LOGIC PRO X

There’s GarageBand, of course, and that’s a superb bit of software if you want to use your new MacBook to mix tracks, record real instruments and generally attempt to become the next Skrillex. For next-level mixing, though, it has to be Logic Pro X: equipped with all the tools for making beautiful music, it’s a chart-topping app for committed musicians.

RAYMAN ORIGINS

A colourful platformer for your MacBook, if you’re looking for a first foray into Mac gaming, this is a fun title to get you started. Sure, there are more in-depth and more graphically heavy games out there, but Rayman and his bunch of oddball mates are a wonderfully animated way to get going.