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Poseidon
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Joined: 15 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: 08:11 - 24 Jun 2010    Post subject: MacBook Pro newbie Reply with quote
Hi all,

After a rather large win on the horses at Ascot (2643euros from a 31euro bet if you were wondering), I bought myself one of these.

I've only ever had windows machines until now, but since I'll be starting uni in september I figured that I need to replace the 3year old toshiba satellite that has a dodgy power port and I thought the mac will see me through the entire degree.

Anyway, having never had a mac before, I am completely lost about what things I need to look out for. I sussed the basics out (iWork, safari etc) but I'm a little confused about things like anti-virus. Most people say I don't need it as it's a mac, others say I do need at least some sort of protection. Also, is there anything else I should be aware of now that I'm an apple man? Any bugs, glitches, software issues etc? I did a search on here but most threads relating to mac usage seem to be over a year old.

All help will be appreciated.

Many thanks

Drew

(Oh and the reason the win was in euros was because I was supposed to be touring Ireland, but my mate stacked his bike on the first day meaning that there was nothing else to do but drink and gamble in Dublin. I'll stick a trip report in T&E when I get some free time)
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Dom
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PostPosted: 10:03 - 24 Jun 2010    Post subject: Re: MacBook Pro newbie Reply with quote
€2643, you jammy git. Shocked I wouldn't worry about any anti-virus software and I can't think of anything major that you'd need to be aware of.

If you're using the trackpad lots then install BetterTouchTool as that lets you set up all kinds of extra gestures etc. It's very handy indeed.
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Poseidon
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PostPosted: 10:32 - 24 Jun 2010    Post subject: Re: MacBook Pro newbie Reply with quote
Dom wrote:
€2643, you jammy git. Shocked I wouldn't worry about any anti-virus software and I can't think of anything major that you'd need to be aware of.

If you're using the trackpad lots then install BetterTouchTool as that lets you set up all kinds of extra gestures etc. It's very handy indeed.

I will admit I was expecting to be completely flumuxed by a mac, but a decent understanding of windows seems to have transfered nicely to the mbp. I'm gradually thinking less "in windows I do this, so how do I do that on here" and I love the track pad... I'm really getting the hang of all the different gestures.

Oh and the bet was awesome. We'd just got back from recovering my mates bike from a ditch and I checked the teletext results. A lucky 31, 50cents stake each way and I had 4/5 winners... IIRC odds were 9-4, 7-1, 9-1 & 20-1 (Why was rite of passage 20-1 in the gold cup??? it's a bloody good horse! not that I'm complaining!!! Laughing )
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Neorion
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Joined: 08 Jul 2008
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PostPosted: 12:57 - 24 Jun 2010    Post subject: Reply with quote
ok

look at these

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343

then command (left of space) and while holding it press the space bar.

Thats the finder shortcut and you will use it a lot its the search feature.

set up your email on the mac.

Look up EXPOSE again you will use this a lot

also I think its "f4" this will show you all your website tabs in a nice round format you can then click on what you want to view. Like tabs on steroids.

If you want to burn ISO's etc then get TOAST

If you are used to windows and find you miss it for gaming etc then lookup BOOTCAMP.

this allows you full access to the hardware on the machine and you can boot into windows or OSX

Parallels - this allows you to run windows apps on top of OSX. Example being running internet explorer 8 or windows word etc as well as running OSX, its seamless and works brilliantly and you can copy paste between the 2 systems.

I only mention the windows side of things as you are a new MAC user. You will find over a small period of adjustment you wont use windows again.

I have not booted into windows on my macbook in months, but its there if I need it.

I am now going to get rid of the main PC at home and get an imac.

As for software "bugs" none that I have found.

For backups get a timecapsule if you have the money, its a backup device a network storage device and a very quick router.

Backs everything up silently and you get instant access to files in the event of a hardware failure on the mac.

Hmm not much else to say.

Apple has some good videos to get you started.

OH 1 more thing, I would say once a month or so you run the "repair disk permission" goto finder and type in utilities. Find the disk utility and run the job above.

It keeps the OS nice a stable and quick.

Enjoy Very Happy
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Kickstart
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Joined: 04 Feb 2002
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PostPosted: 13:49 - 24 Jun 2010    Post subject: Reply with quote
Neorion wrote:

I only mention the windows side of things as you are a new MAC user. You will find over a small period of adjustment you wont use windows again.


Laughing .

Had our Macbook Pro for 6 months now and still not found an adequate editor for it. All there seems to be are basic things akin to Notepad or over the top apps akin to Eclipse.

Lack of page up and down buttons is annoying (although being fair, not half as annoying as my new work laptop that has put them with the half size cursor keys). And yes I know you can use the track pad for that (although using 3 fingers to scroll to the bottom of web pages works inconsistently).

Its failure to access FAT 32 external hard disks easily is a pain (although being fair you could say the same for Windows support for Mac format external disks), and the poor number of USB ports is also a pain (even worse they are so close together I can't plug a pair of USB sticks in at the same time)

If I want to edit something that can be done on a PC then I wouldn't touch the Mac for it. But it serves as a way to browse the web while watching TV and needed as the only way to write something for an iPhone (something I need to give a try, and the reason we bought it).

Not sure on reliability. My sister and her other half bought Macbooks (not Macbook Pros), and both died at 13 months old (one was fixed a it had an extended warrenty, the other Apple quoted something silly for so it got broken for spares with bits sold on Ebay).

Being fair it does have some nice features. Screen is pretty good. Battery life isn't bad. Power connector is a lovely piece of design. The track pad is nice (my PC supports 2 finger scrolling on the track pad but it is clunky and horrible in comparison to the Mac). It boots up quickly.

I am not trying to slag off Apples, just don't really see any night and day advantage of them over PCs (or the other way round).

All the best

Keith
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Dom
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PostPosted: 14:08 - 24 Jun 2010    Post subject: Reply with quote
Kickstart wrote:
Had our Macbook Pro for 6 months now and still not found an adequate editor for it. All there seems to be are basic things akin to Notepad or over the top apps akin to Eclipse.


I use Coda, which is superb for web dev. TextMate is better for pure coding.

Quote:
Lack of page up and down buttons is annoying (although being fair, not half as annoying as my new work laptop that has put them with the half size cursor keys). And yes I know you can use the track pad for that (although using 3 fingers to scroll to the bottom of web pages works inconsistently).


Not sure about page up/page down (spacebar and shift+spacebar works for browsing, but obviously not for coding) but you can go to the top/bottom of a document with CMD+up and CMD+down.
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Kickstart
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PostPosted: 14:14 - 24 Jun 2010    Post subject: Reply with quote
Dom wrote:
I use Coda, which is superb for web dev. TextMate is better for pure coding.


Cheers, will try them. Spent ages trying to find something like that and nobody suggested those (best one previously was one for which development had been dropped). Both are paid for apps though.

Dom wrote:
Not sure about page up/page down (spacebar and shift+spacebar works for browsing, but obviously not for coding) but you can go to the top/bottom of a document with CMD+up and CMD+down.


Afraid I don't like having to use key combinations for something so common (I don't like mouse gestures either), and it is bad enough having to use the keyboard for things that could easily be on a right mouse click if the trackpad had a right mouse button. Feel like key combinations should have gone out with programming a 48k Spectrum.

All the best

Keith
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neil.
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PostPosted: 14:24 - 24 Jun 2010    Post subject: Reply with quote
Kickstart wrote:
Its failure to access FAT 32 external hard disks easily is a pain (although being fair you could say the same for Windows support for Mac format external disks),


FAT32 has never been a problem on the Mac, apart from is being a bit slow and having the 4GB file size limit, but that's the same for FAT32 on any OS. Perhaps you were thinking of NTFS, whereby you only can only mount a volume as read-only on a Mac? Even then, you can download the free NTFS-3G OSX driver and get read/write goodness for NTFS drives too. Thumbs Up

As for a text editor, have you tried TextWrangler at all?
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Dom
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PostPosted: 14:27 - 24 Jun 2010    Post subject: Reply with quote
Kickstart wrote:
Cheers, will try them. Spent ages trying to find something like that and nobody suggested those (best one previously was one for which development had been dropped). Both are paid for apps though.


They are paid, but they deserve to be. To say that the developers of Coda are perfectionists would be an understatement. Their FTP app, Transmit, is also superb. If you really don't want to fork out then TextWrangler is likely to be your best bet.

Quote:
Afraid I don't like having to use key combinations for something so common (I don't like mouse gestures either), and it is bad enough having to use the keyboard for things that could easily be on a right mouse click if the trackpad had a right mouse button. Feel like key combinations should have gone out with programming a 48k Spectrum.


Fair enough, but then you can only fit so many buttons onto a laptop. My wired Apple keyboard has all the usual page up/down/home/end keys so it's not (in this case) Apple going overboard with the simplicity thing.

You've lost me on adding a button to the trackpad though - the current Macbook/MBP trackpads are lovely to use, mainly because they're so big. Anything that made the pad smaller would be a step backwards. Given you can right click simply by using two fingers I really don't see the need for a dedicated button anyway. If you want extra control over the trackpad then install the tool I mentioned in my first post. It lets you tweak a ridiculous amount of stuff, almost certainly including a 'right click zone' if you want one.
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Kickstart
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PostPosted: 14:41 - 24 Jun 2010    Post subject: Reply with quote
neil. wrote:
Perhaps you were thinking of NTFS, whereby you only can only mount a volume as read-only on a Mac? Even then, you can download the free NTFS-3G OSX driver and get read/write goodness for NTFS drives too. Thumbs Up


Probably. Can't use our external disks without having to go and load up extra drivers which seems a bit silly for something so simple

neil. wrote:
As for a text editor, have you tried TextWrangler at all?


Will give that a try. Looks like the kind of thing I want (used to Notepad++).

Dom wrote:
Fair enough, but then you can only fit so many buttons onto a laptop. My wired Apple keyboard has all the usual page up/down/home/end keys so it's not (in this case) Apple going overboard with the simplicity thing.


Afraid I would far rather have a pair of mouse buttons (and plenty of space for them either side of the track pad) than a (for example) dedicated eject button. Same for a dedicated button for "Delete" rather than just backspace and having to use fn backspace to delete).

I agree the trackpad is lovely to use (and the equivalent on my work Lenovo laptop with Windows 7 is clunky and horrible to use to the point I will be disabling it). But would prefer a proper seperate right mouse button (and left one). For a start using a single finger prevents me from regularly resizing web pages by mistake.

All the best

Keith
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