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Creative Suite 3

Now that Adobe have finally announced the Creative Suite 3, the full performance gains that Apple have been promising with the Intel Macs can be realised. Unless I'm sadly mistaken, every major programme has now been made a Intel native, so there's no reason not go upgrade right now.

Apart from making the software a "Universal" package that will run on both PowerPC and Intel Macs, the big push in this release is to integrate the Macromedia MX suite with Adobe's software. Whilst not all the applications sport the new "Photoshop" redesigned interface, inter-operability between Illustrator, Photoshop, Flash and InDesign has been streamlined.

OS X Leopard

OS X 10.5 "Leopard": If you use a Mac then the Operating System is the heart of the Mac experience. OS 10.5 adds 300 improvements to the list of useful features with QuickLook, CoverFlow, Time Machine, Boot Camp, Spaces and improvements to Mail at the fore. My favourite feature? It has to be Time Machine. Backups are tedious, so anything that takes the pain away is a big plus in my view...

OS 10.5 "Leopard Server": a massively powerful, feature packed network server, that provides massive file serving performance. Ideal for design studios throwing big files about. Now with Windows authentication and the ability to authenticate clients and serve their home folder from the OS X Server. And it supports unlimited clients, something Windows doesn't do. Forget using an NT or Window 2000 Server forever.

Aperture

Aperture 2 Apple's foray into software for professional photographers gets a welcome update. But lets get one thing clear. It is not, and never has been, a replacement for Photoshop. Aperture is designed for photographers shooting in RAW mode, who want to be able to manage these digital assets in a more intelligent way.

All crops, colour corrections, heals and tweaks are stored as a series of actions that are applied to the RAW file. Editing is COMPLETELY non-destructive. You maintain a pristine "digital negative" that you can always revert back to. Ever had dust on your CCD, and shot 200 images? Bummer isn't it? Not with Aperture...

Quark Xpress 7

Quark Xpress has been the mainstay of the publishing market for over a decade. Whilst its dominance is being threatened by InDesign, the OS X native Quark Xpress 7 removes one of the last hurdles to adopting an all Intel based OS X workflow, to get the full speed gains of that shiny Intel Mac. And if you are still in the dark ages, forget struggling with Classic and Acrobat 5 forever.

Of course Sweet Apple can still supply Quark 5 for people running OS 9, and at a real squeeze we might be able to find a copy of Xpress 4.1

Office 2008

Microsoft have finally pulled their finger out and given us a Intel native version of their venerable Office suite. There aren't any revolutionary new features in Office 2008, but if like me, the sluggish performance of Entourage and Word drove you to distraction, it will make a worthwhile upgrade. And if you don't have Office, but you need to collaberate with people using MS Office, or you work in an environment that use Exchange Server for email, then Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Entourage are essential tools.

Filemaker 9

Filemaker 9 is the latest version of the best database available on any computer platform. The speed with which you can build complex relational databases with little experience is astouding. The big new feature in Filemaker 9 is that all tables are stored as one single file, rather than dozens of individual ones. And the maximum file size goes into the terrabytes. Scary.

Best of all those databases, can be shared between Macs and PCs, over the internet, with anywhere from 1 to 500 users. Filemaker Mobile lets you use your database on Palm handhelds. Filemaker Server lets you host really complex databases for many users.

MYOB Accounting

MYOB Accounting is really the only program for Macs that I have confidence in recommending for accountancy. Its not the easiest program in the world to learn, but then again accounts aren't simple. However it can handle everthing from Payroll, stock-control, invoicing, reminders, producing VAT returns and producing 100s of different reports. It also can work in a cross-platform, multi-user enviroment.

Sweet Apple uses MYOB, and find it invaluable in tracking our finances. We'd forget to chase your overdue invoices if we didn't get MYOB nagging us every time we open it up!