With the release of the Intel-based Macs (the latest being the new Mac mini), it's important that you understand that in order for applications to run their very fastest, the applications themselves need to be "Universal Binary" applications. This is a fancy way of saying that it can run on both a PowerPC chip as well as the Intel chip, without having to run through Rosetta (the translation software). If an application is not a Universal Binary application, chances are, it will still work, but it will run quite a bit slower than it has potential for.

So where can you go to find a listing of Universal Binary applications? Well, you can visit each developer's site individually, OR, you can visit a site that Apple has set up specifically to make it easier for you to find these applications. To view this list, go to http://guide.apple.com/universal/. From here, you can see a listing of who has Universal Binary applications available, as well as search for a specific application (with over 1,000 Universal Binary applications available already, scrolling through a list would take a while).

One thing to note with this list is that even though it's convenient, it's not completely accurate. It relies on the individual developers to submit their information to Apple. If a developer hasn't listed their application with Apple, it won't appear on this list. In that case, you may need to visit that particular site.