An update for you Macaholics out there

Yes, I love the Mac. I've got four of them at home (and a new one coming in as soon!) and my desk in my office sports one, too. With the news that 40% of college students say their next computer purchase will be a Mac, it's apparent that students love them, too!

With that, here's 5 free, cheap or built-in applications on the Mac that you might want to consider.

1. GhostReader: easy text-to-speech I posted back in January 2007 about ConvenienceWare's TextParrot. Since then, they've gone through an overhaul, re-introducing the product with the same great Acapela voices and making it even easier to create iTunes audio tracks from your documents. Fast, clean, and simple to use. Did I mention it's easy?
2. Stop-It!: timer Widget Need someone standing over you to help you keep on track? Tend to get lost in a task and need help getting to class on time? This handy little Dashboard Widget can do that for you in simple, customized ways!
3. TextEdit: language support in a plain brown wrapper Don't be fooled by it's simple interface; TextEdit has some incredibly advanced features that can hugely benefit those who struggle with written language. Even better, TextEdit is built in to every Mac and has been for years and years. It's stable as a rock, too. Need text to speech? TextEdit can Speak your document. Need word prediction? Start typing a word, then press Esc - you'll get a list of words from which to choose. No, it's not flashy... but it's there, all the time.
4. Skim: make PDFs your friend Research shows that most people read 20-40% slower when they read digital text than when they read print. In addition, you read more shallowly, focusing less on the details and reading with less retention capability. Make some changes to that trend with Skim! Annotate, highlight, snapshots, and much, much more. Best of all, it's open source and free.
5. Premier Literacy goes Mac: a plethora of tools The great tools that SOU students have been enjoying on the PC for the past couple of years are now available on the Mac. Previously known as Premier Assistive Technology, Premier Literacy offers Etext Reader, Talking Word Processor, Universal Reader, and all their pals. Fabulous.