[j79]

Hey Guys!

Today is Apple's World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC)!

Hopefully Jobs will reveal some of those "secret" features of Leopard

hi there. i just got a macbook pro this afternoon... but now im really confused in terms of how to get around things... u know. anyone willing to offer any help to any questions i may have?

Hi dhillman,

Sorry it's a late reply. But, I'm sure if you have any questions, we'd all be willing to give you a hand. So, definitely feel free to ask any questions you may have.

[Brusky]

my macbook pro's on order. should be here next week! ahhhhhhhhhh =D

[shortee28]

previously i owned a PowerBook G4 12" Superdrive (80GB hardrive, 256RAM-didn't have money to upgrade)
i had mine since my first year university, so like end of 2004.
just last september i sold it and bought the new black MacBook Intel Core Duo (Core1 duo, not core2)
i miss my powerbook dearly, simply cuz it was my first laptop, my first mac, my first baby!!
but i see it once in a while cuz i sold it to my bestfriend =)
currently searching for a decent monitor to do a dual screen.
i need the workspace for my homework(i study graphic design)
ummm... currently with my laptop, i own the apple mightmouse, a 4x5 wacom graphire tablet
a 100GB maxtor external hardrive.. that's about it....
as for software, adobe creative suite 2, microsoft office, adium, final cut pro HD, the usual mac software.. umm can't think of anymore at the moment...

started using macs in grade 10 at school for my media arts class. purchased my mac for university...
love macs to the fullest! =)

hopefully by next year, after graduation, i'm gonna purchase a desktop mac. we'll see what's out at the time powerpc for sure though..

[ryancm]

hrm. added a mac to the collection back in september and i don't think i'll ever regret it!
White Macbook
1gb ram and an 80 gb harddrive
sometimes use parrallels w/ xp pro

i know its nothing special, but here's a pic

[j79]

Brusky - congrats man! I know a few people who own a MacBook Pro and absolutely love it. I think it'll be my next mac to replace my PowerBook

Shortee28 - if you're looking for suggestions for the lcd monitor, may i suggest dell? apple and dell share lcd panels, but dell tends to spec them higher (better contrast ratio, more inputs..) and the price is great!

ryancm - congrats! love the picture!

[j79]

Oh, here's a shot of my set up~!

[shortee28]

Oh, here's a shot of my set up~!

i love your setup! i'm so jealous...
have you thought bout getting the icurve for your laptop?
that's if you're doing the dual screen thing
which looks like your doing but not sure..
my friend has one, its pretty cool,
takes it up and brings it approx height as the monitor...
which i might add, i wanted that cinema display so baddd
but its too expensive for me =(
thanks for the tip though in dell monitors...
i shall get check up on those... thanks =)

once again, love your setup

[Brusky]

15.4" 2.4GHZ macbook pro arrived monday morning with my free nano ;D got it, applecare, and the nano for $2600. adobe cs3 to come soon!

can anyone recommend a good mid/full sized mouse?

and j79, that's such a clean setup man - love it! baller $$$ haha

[wysiwyg]

I'm planning on purchasing a Mac Pro and I'm not sure which options to add.

Graphics

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB (single-link DVI/dual-link DVI)
2 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB [Add $179]
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI) [Add $299]
3 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB [Add $359]

Wireless Options

None
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module [Add $35]
AirPort Extreme card (Wi-fi) [Add $59]
Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme [Add $95]

Also, I noticed on the Apple website, university students get a free iPod Nano. What kind of information will they need in order to get a Nano?

[j79]

Thanks Brusky and shortee28!!

I'm planning on purchasing a Mac Pro and I'm not sure which options to add.

Graphics

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB (single-link DVI/dual-link DVI)
2 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB [Add $179]
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI) [Add $299]
3 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB [Add $359]

Wireless Options

None
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module [Add $35]
AirPort Extreme card (Wi-fi) [Add $59]
Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme [Add $95]

Also, I noticed on the Apple website, university students get a free iPod Nano. What kind of information will they need in order to get a Nano?

Hi wysiwyg,

The last few times I've ordered products through Apple's Education store, there was no "validation" required on my end. I'm not sure if it's an "honor" system or if they actually validate with the school you're a student there, but I've never been asked to prove I'm a student. So, I believe as long as you order your set up through the Education store, you should get a free Nano thrown in.

Not sure which graphics card set up I'd go with (probably the ATI with 512MB RAM, unless you're planning some serious dual monitor setups...) but for the Wireless, I'd definitely go with the Bluetooth and AP Extreme option. When I purchased my PowerMac, I held out on the Bluetooth thinking I could throw in the module later -- turns out it's pretty hard to find and install a bluetooth module. So, now I have a Bluetooth dongle taking up a USB port all cause I wanted to save 40 bucks

[j79]

I got a hold of the developer build and decided to throw it on the PowerBook...



First impressions:

Fairly stable. The semi-transparent menu bar was hideous. Really like Spaces.

Didn't get a chance to play with Time Machine (didn't want to set up an external for it...). Wasn't very impressed with the "Flip View" for Finder (might be nice for a folder filled with photos) but the "Quick View" is very handy.

The new Dock grew on me (after a while, didn't mind the new "perspective") but really don't like the blue glowing orbs to indicate an open Application (prefer the black arrows).

Stacks are interesting. Would prefer them to be available outside of the Dock... (maybe a stack of files on the desktop...)

In my screenshot, I applied a hack to the menu bar which is the reason it's opaque. Here's one more screenshot "earlier" in the day. The hack wasn't applied and I was demonstrating Stacks...



Personally, Spaces is what will make Leopard a must own for me. While Virtual Desktops are rather "old news", it's a welcomed feature. What's great is you can bind applications to specific "spaces" which will allow them to launch in that specific space -- switching between applications (alt-tab) will automatically move you to that space. And you can get an overview of all your spaces moving windows and applications around. Very slick.

[shortee28]

hmmm.... i'm still debating whether or not to get leopard..
usually i'd want to just cuz i want the latest...
just by viewing your screenshots, i'm not really liking the new flipped dock...
maybe it'll take time for me to get used to as well.. but i don't know...
and i have to agree with you with the blue glowing orbs..
i'd prefer the black arrows, i like simple things..

i'm not exactly quite clear on how stacks operates
i'm more of a hands on learner.. so i think i should find a way to test that out myself..
by the way, on the dock in the first screenshot, is that the icons for CS3?
cuz i recall one of my friends mentioning its new icons..
if it is... i think its dumb, i'd prefer and actual image...
this one's soo boring.. anyways!

as for spaces, once again, i think i need to experience that myself before i can make a judgement...

thanks for the post btw j79...

[SeviE]

Hi.

I see most of you guys use Mac for surfing. Anyone uses them for hardcore gaming? Because im deciding between a 15"4 2.4gHz (similar to Brusky's Mac) for gaming. Of course il use bootcamp to play the game.

[zenigame]

I love macs! Looking forward to Leopard.

PowerMac G5

[wonny]

hey to all you mac users...

my current laptop (IBM) is dying, basically screwing up...i need a new laptop..

so i was condsidering getting a macbook and had a few questions to ask =]

- does it support other languages? ie can u type in another language?
- was is hard/ confusing to switch to mac from windows?
- do you/can you still use basic windows programs on it, eg word internet explorer
- is there something like the 'control panel'?

im sorry if these questions have been answers before or are just stupid,
but thankyou in advance for answrering them ^^

[chriskong37]

hey to all you mac users...

my current laptop (IBM) is dying, basically screwing up...i need a new laptop..

so i was condsidering getting a macbook and had a few questions to ask =]

- does it support other languages? ie can u type in another language?
- was is hard/ confusing to switch to mac from windows?
- do you/can you still use basic windows programs on it, eg word internet explorer
- is there something like the 'control panel'?

im sorry if these questions have been answers before or are just stupid,
but thankyou in advance for answrering them ^^

hi there,

im the owner of a thinkpad t60, like it quite alot but have a macbook pro which i use here and there. from my experience i can answer your questions:

1. yes, mac's support typing in foreign languages and displaying them. i find the chinese characters in mac displayed more smoother compared to vista or xp (this is just my opinion).

2. i found it quite hard to switch from windows to mac, hence i still use windows as my main os. it was mainly because i became so conditioned to the way windows worked and i had little time to relearn an os. general differences between a mac, the dock (ovious), shortcut keys (example, a new tab in firefox was CTRL+T in windows, in mac it is ALT+T). i could not find any "device/hardware manager" in mac which i had gotten so use to in windows. theres more, so ill add them when i revisit my mac.

3. most major companies make mac compatible counterparts compared to their windows suites. for example, theres a version of photoshop, firefox, divx for mac. messenger plus isn't compatible. microsoft do produce a office suite (containing: word, excel, powerpoint and entourage [their version of outlook for mac]) for macintosh however it does not compare to what they produce for windows imo. theres a version of windows media player for mac as well, but this is version 9 and quite old. microsoft use to make internet explorer designed for mac however this has been discontinued and consumers encouraged to move to apple's browser "safari" (i ended up moving to firefox on the macbook). there is also a version of msn messenger for mac (however, does not compare to windows live messenger on windows and messenger plus will not run on it). word of warning though, if you use nokia, their phone suite will not work on a mac, im not sure about other manufacturers.

4. "system preferences" is mac's version of the control panel for their operating system. its simplistic and easy to use and has what most people need. to access system preferences, one would click on the apple powerswitch icon (as i call it) located on the dock, see j79 post, its the 2nd icon to the left.

note: mac will release "bootcamp" out of beta in their next release leopard (10.5) which will allow users to run both mac and windows in a multiboot environment. so this will allow you to have both os'es.

hope this helps!

[laihanSUPERJUNIOR]

Hello,
I was going through this topic when I saw this thread. I'm using a imac and I'm encountering tons of problems because it's kind of not user-friendly at times and I go crajee. But my dad gave this mac to me and told me that I'm going to love it. But no, I'm not loving it. I can't download so many things because the system doesn't support what I want to do. T_T(example clubbox)
But there's a good thing about macs though I think it's very fast.
Last question, is there anything I can do about the MSN messenger because MSN messenger in Macs doesn't have the features that windows have. (Like sharing files)

[.......]

i have the osx, but how do you screenshot on a mac?

[chriskong37]

Last question, is there anything I can do about the MSN messenger because MSN messenger in Macs doesn't have the features that windows have. (Like sharing files)

WELL,,, from what i know there messenger on mac doesnt compare to windows live messenger and i predict that it probably never will. its prolli one of those perks microsoft has for people using windows.

if you would like features like sharing folders, etc you will prolli need to use windows on your mac.... i suggest that you run virtual pc on your mac. this will allow you to run windows and os x at the same time (windows would run in a smaller window while os x would run in the background). however, one needs a genuine copy of xp or a microsoft operating system to do this. another suggestion i can think of is bootcamp which will allow you to run windows on your mac: http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/.

there are alternatives to msn that use the microsoft messenger network. one is called 'amsn' (im not sure what difference there is between msn from microsoft and the customised amsn made by an individual). a quick google for it should be able to explain what differences there are for ryou.

this is all i can think of, sorry if it isnt much help.

[zenigame]

For screenshots

command (apple) + shift + 3
for entire desktop

command + shift + 4
for selected portion

command + shift + 4 and spacebar
for selected window