Mac Setups: Project Manager’s iMac

Nov 9, 2013 - 28 Comments

iMac desk setup of a project manager

Yes, back by popular demand are Mac Setups posts! After a lengthy multi-month hiatus, we are going to start covering weekly Mac and Apple setup posts again, so get your desks ready, cameras out, answer a few questions about what you do, and send us your submissions!

To kick things off again, we’re starting with the nice and clean desk setup of Jason B., an ICT Projects Manager who relies on his iMac to get the job done. Hardware shown on this desk includes:

  • iMac 21.5″ Core i7 – runs OS X & OS X Server, and Windows 8 via Parallels
  • iPad 4 32GB
  • iPhone 4S 16GB for work
  • iPhone 5 64GB for personal
  • Apple Wireless Keyboard
  • Apple Magic Trackpad
  • Apple Magic Mouse
  • 2TB Time Machine backup drive
  • Airport Extreme router

For those interested, the screen saver running on the iMac is called Fliqlo and is freely available from here, it continues to work in OS X Mavericks but does require the Flash plugin to be installed.

Send us your Mac desks & Apple setups!

Do you have an Apple setup or Mac desk you want to share? We want to see them! Take a good picture or two (the better quality the picture the more likely it will be posted), include a brief list of hardware visible along with what you use the Apple gear for, and send it all over to our group box at: osxdailycom@gmail.com – better yet, answer the following questions so that we can help turn this into a more informative series:

  • What hardware does your current Mac / Apple setup consist of? Is there a specific reason you chose that setup?
  • What do you use your Apple gear for? Java development? Working on your bachelors? Video editing? Criticizing OSXDaily.com Mac setups posts? Everything? Let us all know what you do!
  • What apps do you use most often? What apps could you not do without? Do you have a favorite app for Mac or for iOS?
  • Do you have any Apple tips, productivity tricks, life hacks, or otherwise helpful information you want to share with others?

We may edit answers and photos submitted as appropriate. We also default to include only a posters first name and last initial only.

Thanks to our Facebook fans who resoundingly voted “yes” to bring these back, if you have any comments or suggestions let us know!

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Posted by: OSXDaily in Mac Setups

28 Comments

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  1. For a taste of the 250+ project management software tools out there currently take a look at the introduction on PM Advisor which breaks the tools into 4 categories: personal productivity, collaboration, all-in-one/PPM and specialist.

  2. GCP says:

    I’m wondering why this person keeps their AirPort base station under their iMac. That’s a device that rarely needs to be touched, so why keep it front and center on the desktop? The iMac’s aluminum body being so close to the device certain can’t be helping the range of its signal either.

    • Maybe he’s using an Ethernet cable to connect the iMac to the AirPort?

      • Jason B says:

        Exactly :-)

        The AirPort is connected to a business internet connection that has no wireless extenders in the area I work in. I had jumped one of the business network points to it but I also use my MacBook on my desk sometimes and was sick of swapping the connection over. I was more sick of not having a wireless connection though as I also look after out iOS devices that get deployed via our MDM solution as it was a project I oversaw and ended up enjoying it and taking on the work……it’s not easy when you don’t have wireless though so an Airport that had been sat in a drawer for a while came in handy :-)

  3. T says:

    Tried the Fliqgo screensaver on mavericks but it didn’t work… Installed flash and still didn’t work. When the screen saver launched it posted a message and said it doesn’t work on the current operating system.

  4. DiRTDOG says:

    What about the iPad app for the clock which one is that?

  5. Imran says:

    I’m interested in knowing if anyone has found a perfect MS Project alternate yet? That’s the only app for which I have to keep Windows on BootCamp.

    • p says:

      OmniPlan is a popular solution for Mac users looking for an MS Project alternative, it’s different but has many great features

    • mboblett says:

      My company is finally moving away from MS Project and looking at Trello (perfect if you love swim lanes) and Jira (about a third of our clients- all of our largest ones- already use Jira, so there would be a lot of efficiency in doing so).

    • Not probably only a program, but many.
      There are alternatives like ProjectLibre (OpenProj), Basecamp (web based), GanttProject…. just Google for “MS Project Mac alternatives” and you should find a few.

      I know there’s a good alternative called “Open Workbench”, but it’s only for Windows afaik (still you could run it using a virtual machine).

    • Jason B says:

      As mentioned above, I use ConceptDraw Office 2, but that is a personal preference rather than a company mandated one.

    • Tiberiu says:

      RationalPlan is another solution. Maybe it is not perfect but it is worth to try.

  6. Ionut says:

    Would be great to have also a list of apps which they use, as well.

  7. TE says:

    Being a PM – not the one with this setup, though – I could tell you that there is no “one tool” for project management.

    The most important tool will be an email client. If you have a distributed team, add Skype, Lync etc. Communication is the largest part of the job. After that, Word, Excel and Powerpoint (some can use Keynote here, but most of the world uses Powerpoint – and going with the flow causes less problems you don’t need here).

    After that, everything will depend on the project…

    • Jason B says:

      Agree completely! I spend most of my day between my email, my phone and webinars or tele-conferences.

      I use Word and Powerpoint for Mac 2011 as well as ConceptDraw Office Project 2.

  8. Boise Ed says:

    I have a question too. Why do the iPad and iMac show different times?

    • Boise Ed says:

      Never mind. I read it as 10:06, but I see now it is 16:06.

      • MotionMan says:

        That begs that question why one would use 12 hour time on one device and 24 hour time on another.

        • Jason B says:

          Hiya, this is my desk…..sent the pic in ages ago and had completely forgot about it until I got the email from OSXDaily :-)

          The iPad app is call ClockStand for iPad and, strangely, does not have 12\24 hour option.

  9. Dustin Hunter says:

    Just my 2 cents, but liked the old layout better, where you could scroll and see all the different setups without having to click away and look at each separately.

  10. Babak says:

    Hi. I have a question. which application do you use for your job? I mean for project management

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