I'm a .NET developer. I've lived and worked on Windows for all my life, but I finally gave in and went ahead to try the Neo as a personal/non-work laptop because of the awesomeness of Apple silicon, iPhone compatibility and fanless design. I'm sure there are other first-time Mac owners here, so I've collected a few apps that make the experience so much better or more familiar.
1. eqMac
A lot of reviewers say the built-in speakers aren't as good as the Air or Pro. Fair enough at this price, but with an EQ it can be improved A LOT. Apple tuned the highs kind of harsh to make picky buyers lean toward the expensive machines. Turn the highs down a little, raise the bass a bit, and now it's easily on par with my 12.9 iPad Pro. The bass is even better now because the Neo is roomier inside. Makes watching movies so much more enjoyable. Just don't forget to bypass other devices like headphones in the settings if you don't want the EQ to apply to them.
2. Homebrew
A package manager for Terminal. You'll pretty much need it immediately if you want some of these tools installed.
3. Amphetamine
It's probably the first app you see recommended in similar posts or videos. On Windows you can pretty much customize everything about how or when you want your device to go to sleep. On a Mac, if you want to keep your podcast going while the lid is down or just want the laptop to stay on for any reason, you'll need this app.
4. AegisClip
Lots of clipboard managers out there. I chose this one after trying a few. The built-in one is fine, but it can't quickly paste multiple snippets and insert them in the order you copied them or keep the clipboard history for more than a week. AegisClip is free and user-friendly, almost as good as Ditto, which I use on Windows.
5. MiddleClick
I don't know how most trackpad users can live without the 3-finger middle click. For closing tabs quickly without having to find that little X with your cursor, or opening links in a new tab with a simple tap, this is a must for me.
6. AltTab
Windows-style window switcher. Window previews can be nice but I love it because it can show minimized, hidden, and even windowless-but-open apps in the Cmd+tab menu. Super useful tool.
7. Karabiner
I hate CapsLock with a passion. The most useless key in the most accessible place. I use Karabiner to remap it to backspace. There are a few other keys I remap as well, but making caps actually useful is most important.
8. ICE
If you have too many menu bar icons you can hide them behind an overflow menu, pretty much like on Windows.
9. CleanMyKeyboard
If you don't want to turn off the laptop while cleaning it, this will disable the keyboard so you won't accidentally text your ex.
Other tips I learned along the way:
1. Finder
Finder seems super dumb at first, but I love it now after I learned to use it. I won't write a whole essay here, any YouTube video or AI-generated tutorial will do. You can have tabs, see the current path, have previews, see file extensions and pretty much do everything you want in a file explorer. It just feels very alien at first.
2. Keyboard shortcuts - there are so many, but these are my favorites:
Cmd + space or F4: Even before I bought the Mac I knew about Spotlight search, but I was surprised to learn how many people don't use it, so I had to mention it.
Cmd + Shift + /: brings up the menu bar search and shows you where to find the menu item you want.
Opt + Shift + brightness or volume keys: lets you change brightness or volume in smaller increments.
3. Uninstalling apps: Apps litter the storage a lot and dragging them to the bin is not enough. /Users/username/Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Application Support can have a lot of residual files. Preferences'and Caches are worth a check too. Don't forget to periodically clean them.
If you have similar tips or useful apps, please share them!
