A new mall opened up yesterday in my area and they have an Apple store. This will be my first time really getting hands on with a Mac. Give me some stuff to do to "test" it.
Have fun. Apple stores are pretty neat places and they are definitely the best looking computer stores around.
I am curious to know what you think about the store (the experience, the visual layout, the sales staff, etc.). Please post back your experiences there.
For a background of me, I'm a college student in my 3rd year as an Information Systems major. Most of my coding is in Java but I have been checking out .NET a lot lately. I work as a Network Tech in our department with UNIX/Linux and Windows 2000/2003 servers. So, I have a very strong background in computing and most of my experience has been with Windows for client side work.
It was pretty nice, and I was perfectly fine with the speed of a 1GHz G4 iMac they had on display. I would say it's pretty comparable to my 1.7GHz P4-M Dell laptop. All of the hardware I came in contact with impressed me. I really like the look of the G4 towers and the iMacs. Nice and quiet too.
OS X was pretty nice too, but I had a harder time getting around than I do on my XP machine. Of course that's because I'm used to it. I really wish I could use a Mac over the period of a couple weeks, to get an honest feel for it. I found it hard to see what was actually running on the system. Every time I exited a program from the top left, something else popped up I didn't even know was on.
I spent most of my time on a 1.25GHz G4 which had 768MB RAM. iTunes was really cool. I was jamming away the whole time I was on the machine. I happily found the Terminal and wrote some java code in TextEdit (I think that's what it was called). It was nice to have a Sun Java compiler built into my OS. I was writing Java code, listening to iTunes, chatting on iChat and the MSN client, and watching the Nemo DVD with no slow down. Pretty impressive for "older hardware". Safari was another impressive program. Very fast, sleek, standards compilant, and overall easy to use. After awhile, I really didn't know what to do with it. I enjoyed what I had done, but I couldn't think of anything else I could do. I really wish they had JBuilder and the Remote Desktop client for Windows on those machines. I could have had more fun.
I did get some seat time on the G5, but I found it no faster than the G4. I wasn't exactly punishing either system, so I didn't expect to see a speed difference.
Overall, I was impressed. I'm not sure if I'd buy one, because I've really started to get into .NET programming, but I'd love to have one.
OS X was pretty nice too, but I had a harder time getting around than I do on my XP machine. Of course that's because I'm used to it. I really wish I could use a Mac over the period of a couple weeks, to get an honest feel for it. I found it hard to see what was actually running on the system. Every time I exited a program from the top left, something else popped up I didn't even know was on.
I'm assuming you 'exited' by clicking the red button?
That's not how you exit a program. That just closes a window. It's quite possible on a Mac to have a program running with no open windows.
To see what's running, look at the dock. The running programs have black triangles under them.
To quit a program, you go into the menu with the program's name, and choose Quit.
OS X was pretty nice too, but I had a harder time getting around than I do on my XP machine. Of course that's because I'm used to it.
XP is sometimes faster to use because of its wealth, nay, overabundance, of buttons on the navbar and sidebars. But the default toolbar set in OS X is relatively sparse in the default set. You can add a myriad, nay, plethora of buttons by control-clicking on the bar and clicking "customize toolbar".
Haven't been to the store here yet (I'm curious to go since I made it to the final interview round for a Mac Specialist position and didn't get hired... I wonder who beat me out.)
A few things I noticed on the Apple.com page about the Short Pump store (here) are bugging me:
1. Pouncy should be Pouncey on the map. The name of the road is Pouncey Tract Road.
2. There's a period missing after Dr on the map. There's a period after Ste in the address for the store, so there should be one after Dr. for consistency's sake.
3. The iCal link is correct, but the text refers to the North Michigan Ave., Chicago store. That's probably the most visible mistake.
you can also quit from the dock, click on icon and hold down, actually you can do more than quit from the dock, but that's the first option. (going from bottom to top)
Comments
I am curious to know what you think about the store (the experience, the visual layout, the sales staff, etc.). Please post back your experiences there.
For a background of me, I'm a college student in my 3rd year as an Information Systems major. Most of my coding is in Java but I have been checking out .NET a lot lately. I work as a Network Tech in our department with UNIX/Linux and Windows 2000/2003 servers. So, I have a very strong background in computing and most of my experience has been with Windows for client side work.
Don't wear black, you'll be bothered by other customers who think you work at the store (unless you want too, of course).
When confronting the G5 try to resist touching and stroking it. (Fat chance.)
Buy something.
That's all.
you wouldn't want to stain the walls after getting all excited now..
(sorry I'm still on that microsoft bdsm mouse)
OS X was pretty nice too, but I had a harder time getting around than I do on my XP machine. Of course that's because I'm used to it. I really wish I could use a Mac over the period of a couple weeks, to get an honest feel for it. I found it hard to see what was actually running on the system. Every time I exited a program from the top left, something else popped up I didn't even know was on.
I spent most of my time on a 1.25GHz G4 which had 768MB RAM. iTunes was really cool. I was jamming away the whole time I was on the machine. I happily found the Terminal and wrote some java code in TextEdit (I think that's what it was called). It was nice to have a Sun Java compiler built into my OS.
I did get some seat time on the G5, but I found it no faster than the G4. I wasn't exactly punishing either system, so I didn't expect to see a speed difference.
Overall, I was impressed. I'm not sure if I'd buy one, because I've really started to get into .NET programming, but I'd love to have one.
Originally posted by CompiledMonkey
OS X was pretty nice too, but I had a harder time getting around than I do on my XP machine. Of course that's because I'm used to it. I really wish I could use a Mac over the period of a couple weeks, to get an honest feel for it. I found it hard to see what was actually running on the system. Every time I exited a program from the top left, something else popped up I didn't even know was on.
I'm assuming you 'exited' by clicking the red button?
That's not how you exit a program. That just closes a window. It's quite possible on a Mac to have a program running with no open windows.
To see what's running, look at the dock. The running programs have black triangles under them.
To quit a program, you go into the menu with the program's name, and choose Quit.
Amorya
Originally posted by Amorya
To quit a program, you go into the menu with the program's name, and choose Quit
That's what I did.
OS X was pretty nice too, but I had a harder time getting around than I do on my XP machine. Of course that's because I'm used to it.
XP is sometimes faster to use because of its wealth, nay, overabundance, of buttons on the navbar and sidebars. But the default toolbar set in OS X is relatively sparse in the default set. You can add a myriad, nay, plethora of buttons by control-clicking on the bar and clicking "customize toolbar".
A few things I noticed on the Apple.com page about the Short Pump store (here) are bugging me:
1. Pouncy should be Pouncey on the map. The name of the road is Pouncey Tract Road.
2. There's a period missing after Dr on the map. There's a period after Ste in the address for the store, so there should be one after Dr. for consistency's sake.
3. The iCal link is correct, but the text refers to the North Michigan Ave., Chicago store. That's probably the most visible mistake.
Originally posted by CompiledMonkey
That's what I did.
you can also quit from the dock, click on icon and hold down, actually you can do more than quit from the dock, but that's the first option. (going from bottom to top)