Im new to Macs! Advice much appreciated!
Hi
Ive pre ordered the macbook pro. Never touched a Mac in my life (except for checking my email in the apple stores) and current lap and desktop are Sony Vaios.
Anyways, im making the jump for now to see what its like.
I just hope i dont run into software incompatibilites..! (media players, office, adobe, photoshops, messenger etcetc)
Am planning to get a few airport express and hook them up to the varius sound systems around my place so can control the music via my laptop (and hook my nano up too)
Also planning to sign up to T mobile wireless network thing so can use my laptop in starbucks.. is that the best option? From what i can see, throughout London and most of America, its a pretty widespread network... i think you can buy one hour options or prepaid at the stores anyways..?
Well, any advice on what else i can do to optimise the laptop? Anymust have software for everyday use?
Thanks
Ive pre ordered the macbook pro. Never touched a Mac in my life (except for checking my email in the apple stores) and current lap and desktop are Sony Vaios.
Anyways, im making the jump for now to see what its like.
I just hope i dont run into software incompatibilites..! (media players, office, adobe, photoshops, messenger etcetc)
Am planning to get a few airport express and hook them up to the varius sound systems around my place so can control the music via my laptop (and hook my nano up too)
Also planning to sign up to T mobile wireless network thing so can use my laptop in starbucks.. is that the best option? From what i can see, throughout London and most of America, its a pretty widespread network... i think you can buy one hour options or prepaid at the stores anyways..?
Well, any advice on what else i can do to optimise the laptop? Anymust have software for everyday use?
Thanks
Comments
Can't comment on the new books any better than what has been printed or said about them, but about software incompaitibilities, the files produced are generally cross-platform, but the actual programs will need to be Mac versions unless they are run using VPC from Microsoft. Intel Mac versions of programs are rolling out thjis year and beyond... You may want to read up on universal binaries if you haven't already.
Anout the wireless thing, I've heard others like it, but that is seems expensive. Maybe that's improved, though...?
EDIT: Oh, and there are other threads about this kind of thing if you search...
Ive been browsgin around from what i gather:
MSN messenger is available to macOs as a free dl
Office is avail (2004 version)
IDvd comes with the mac for burning Dvds
Itunes for music
safari as an internet browser, comes with mac
ive got an HP ipac PDA that comes with outlook, not sure whether that outlook is mac compatible? but u can get outlook for Mac.
Comes with Quicktime which should cover most multimedia stuff
and Safari reads pdf files..
photo editors?
Those are the more common stuff i use. I like to keep things simple, so the fewer the programmes, the better.
Adium Instant Messenger - Adium
Camino (Internet Browser) - Camino
Ecto - desktop blogging client - Ecto
EMACS (Text Editor) - Aquamacs EMACS
FinderPop - FinderPop
iClip Lite - iClip Lite
LaunchBar 4 - LaunchBar 4
MacJournal, Write & Calc - Mariner Software
Mail App - Apple Mail App
Mail Appetizer - Mail Appetizer
Menu Meters - MenuMeters
Smultron (Text Editor) - Smultron
SubEthaEdit (Text Editor) - SubEthaEdit
VLC Media Player - VLC
I'm also anxious to hear how things work out with your Macbook Pro!
so now, ill have both laptops running together so a side to side comparison will be interesting!
Originally posted by sammick
I don't think I'd jump into Office for the Mac just yet--since you have the Vaio--Office for the Mac is not native to the new machine--YET
The updater will be free. That's what Roz Ho said at MacWorld.
side notes:
make sure you bring office for mac 2004 up to the latest version (11.2 or something like that)... also if you get "compile error in autoexec module" its very easy to fix (just google it)
warnings:
you will have to play around to see how for the office documents, fonts, layout etc, are preserved, and to what extent, between your vaio and your macbook pro
recommendation:
put Powerpoint in the trash and use Keynote3 Universal Binary 8) ... also, maybe put Word in the trash and use Pages 2 Universal Binary ... finally, consider OpenOffice 2+ on your PC.
..... I like to keep things simple, so the fewer the programmes, the better.....
this is definitely the best strategy when using windows. when using mac though, you'll see... you won't be as scared to install and try out different applications, set different settings and all that
put Powerpoint in the trash and use Keynote3 Universal Binary 8) ... also, maybe put Word in the trash and use Pages 2 Universal Binary ... finally, consider OpenOffice 2+ on your PC.
You are funny, but maybe serious, too.
edit: honestly though i still love Excel on the mac. no alternative there. Yet!
Originally posted by sunilraman
edit: honestly though i still love Excel on the mac. no alternative there. Yet!
I'm just curious, have you looked at Mariner Calc by Mariner software?
Mariner Calc
Originally posted by MrSin
I'm just curious, have you looked at Mariner Calc by Mariner software?
Mariner Calc
hey... actually, not really... i'll check it out
While the file browser (the Finder) is pretty good at browsing your file system. It is missing a lot of power user features. For a really nice alternative Mac OS X file browser check out...
Path Finder (version 4 was just released)
http://www.cocoatech.com
It has a lot of features and is pretty powerful.
-----------------
Also here's another nice little tip.
On Mac OS X, if you select a file and choose File > Get Info from the Finder, you will be presented with a properties dialog for your file. At the top of this dialog is a box called "Spotlight Comments". You can type whatever you want inside this box (description of the file, keywords, etc.).
Then you can use Spotlight (OS X's built-in search technology) to search your files for text you have entered in these comment boxes.
For example, I download a lot of PDF articles everyday. Sometimes I can't read them all in one day. So what I do is type "Status: Not Read" in the Spotlight Comments' field to flag these PDFs as files I haven't read. Then later I just type "Status: Not Read" into Spotlight's search box and all the PDF's I have tagged appear. It's pretty useful.
Ive been using windows all my life so never had issues with compatibility etcetc so im still completely clueless about this whole rosetta business. i just hope i can install office 2004 and it'll work!
Reading about all this tech jargon, i suddenly feel maybe i should cancel my macbbok pro and stick to my newly fixed vaio! haha
Just plug it in and go-------and have fun.
Originally posted by guile99
ok thanks everyone.
Reading about all this tech jargon, i suddenly feel maybe i should cancel my macbbok pro and stick to my newly fixed vaio! haha
Guile99, I'm a computer technician - worked for Sperry Univac starting in 1978 - then Unisys Corp. I'm no longer in the computer industry but, for 23 years I was DOS and Windows all the way. On September 4, 2005 I bought my very first Apple and Laptop / notebook computer, I'm here to tell you - Please, give it a go! My super go daddy 2.4 GHz Windows XP Pro desktop PC now sits idle waiting for the grandkids to visit for it to even get powered on, I kid you not! In closing, I bad mouthed Apples and Macs for YEARS, now I am so sorry for missing out on really great computing during those years. In my opinion, and for what it's worth, you 'owe' it to yourself to experience a platform that "simply works!"