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Finally (semi) switched - new 12" Powerbook Arrives Friday...

Piarco

Piarco

macrumors 68030
Original poster
......so are there any essential things I need to load up?
I've already gone and got copies of Virtual PC 7 (I need to run MS Project and Visio), Office 2004, Toast 6, Firefox (got very used to it on my PC, sooo much better than that IE pap!) and MSN Messenger....
It'll be coming with the standard shipping OS (10.3 I think) so should I update straight away? I've search for most topics on Powerbooks, and its a natch that I need more memory, so I'll be ordering either an extra 256MB or 512MB at the weekend.
I was going to get the latest refresh of the 12" iBook with BTO options, BT and 60GB HDD, but I got offered the 12" 1.33ghz PB for only £50 ($90) more😀 so though with Tiger coming up and the PB being completely CoreImage compliant it'd be worth the extra.
I've also ordered a Crumpler case, and am even thinking of getting MyTV2 for a complete portable media solution for when I'm away from home.

Any other things that are viewed as must-have's, or items that are definately worth considering? And is Entourage easy to interface with my works Outlook (MS Exchange) system? I'm slightly nervous about the swithc, but damn its fun so far and I don't even have the PB yet!!!! 😀

(PS the semi-switcher deal - my mini rig (Soltek Qbic Aluminium, right at home with PB looks!) is a mighty gaming rig, and I'll be keeping it at least until Half-Life 2 is out!)
 
The 12"PB is a great computer (I just sold my rev. C for a 17" G5 iMac). Some general thoughts:
  • I am a die-hard Firefox fan on the PC, but on the Mac I have preferred Safari. Definately try both out.
  • When I had my PB, I ordered a 512MB DIMM from Crucial; it worked flawlessly.
  • I havent tried MSN Messenger on the Mac, but I have found AdiumX to be far better than Y! Messenger and AdiumX supports multiple protocols including MSN. See www.adiumx.com
  • I used my PB almost exclusively at my desk - one of the reasons I switched back to a desktop - and found the Radtech Coolpad to be very cool (pun intended).

Good luck!
 
things you need

I have a radtech coolpad as well, it is "cool" 🙂 I especially like the swiveling...

Dont get a radtech BT500 unless you like a really small mouse - I used it for a week and a half and went back to my ms mouse - if you want/need a wireless mouse though, I hear logitech have some of the best.

I have a brenthaven carrying case for my 17" PB and the one thing I really like about it is the "case within a case". It has a padded "sleeve" case for your PB that then fits into the padded main case and is kept in place with velcro on the back of the sleeve and in the case. I think it helps protect it - one more step to packing and unpacking but for me it is worth having it for peace of mind (the 17" is a large laptop - slim but large).

Good luck and welcome to Macintosh!

crazy n
 
The 12 inch powerbook is SEXY

I love my version A 12 inch powerbook. It is a great machine. Whenever I go out, which isn't often, I think everyone knows I have the sexiest damn computer ever built. It's just so damn sexy.
 
Piarco75 said:
It'll be coming with the standard shipping OS (10.3 I think) so should I update straight away? I've search for most topics on Powerbooks, and its a natch that I need more memory, so I'll be ordering either an extra 256MB or 512MB at the weekend.

Any other things that are viewed as must-have's, or items that are definately worth considering? And is Entourage easy to interface with my works Outlook (MS Exchange) system? I'm slightly nervous about the swithc, but damn its fun so far and I don't even have the PB yet!!!! 😀
Click to expand...

Congratulations, I switched a few months ago and will not be going back. The Powerbook automatically checks for updates (mine does it every Monday) so it should prompt you to install the updates anyway.

I've got Entourage working OK with my company's Exchange server. When you create a new account, there's a tab to put in Exchange server details. Entourage also has a Palm sync conduit if you have a Palm device.

I originally bought an extra 256Mb and ran with the 512Mb fairly happily for a few months. I decided to take the plunge and bought a 1Gb Samsung DIMM last week, so now I'm at 1.25Gb. I've found that because the Mac is so stable, I tend to have a lot more applications open than I did on the PC so the extra memory makes switching between apps a lot smoother.

My favorite additions are...

Compost (trash manager)
Formation (personal info manager)
Drop Drawers (tabbed containers for files/text/whetever)
Audio Hijack Pro (audio grabber and recorder)
VLC (media player)

Good luck
 
Piarco75 said:
Any other things that are viewed as must-have's, or items that are definately worth considering? And is Entourage easy to interface with my works Outlook (MS Exchange) system? I'm slightly nervous about the swithc, but damn its fun so far and I don't even have the PB yet!!!! 😀
Click to expand...

You should not have any problems connecting to your works network, I use my Powerbook at work with no problems, I can share Mac Office 2004 files with my Windows colleagues (Powerpoint is a little iffy though on compatibility). You will need the systems administrator to set you up with an Exchange connection, we could never get the connection wizard to work, and had to set up manually. This is all assuming that your company does not have a policy against staff bringing in their own computers.
 
Congrats! I switched a few days ago, got a rev C 2nd hand 12" pb and after using it for 3 days, I'll say NO REGRETS!

Love osx and I must say the powerbook is damn sexy.

BTW: I've been a PC user all the while, just switched. Anyone knows how to change the doc skins? I've seens some dock icons and skin that looks damn cool...
 
i will join in also and say how sexy the 12" pb is as i also have one (a rev. b). a good programme to get might be system optimizer x (here). it will keep everythin running nicely. just run it once a week or something like that. i would go for the 512mg of ram. i bought 256mg when i first got mine (and didnt know as much as i know now) and i quite regret it.

anyway, enjoy it! you sure seem prepared for it!
 
Cheers for all of the replies folks! It'll be with me by middady, so I'm sure I'll be posting later on 😀
I think I'll follow the general advice over memory and go for 512MB extra for the time being - 1GB is a bit to rich for me this month, and will probably have to wait until after xmas.
good to know about the auto update, and from what I hear better than XP's auto updater which will inevitably do an update which will result in a roll back of the system 😡

the Coolpad also seems to be a good move - the heat generated by the PB seems to be substantial according to all user reviews I've read - just got to find a UK retailer...
 
Congratulations!!!!
I'm a switcher since June.

The Must Have's for me...
I grabbed a few video player apps.
VLC is great- but I grabbed a couple of others - as occasionally there are the odd email video attachments that don't seem to take to it.

A close second is either Adium (multi account Instant Chat Client)
or a Torrent program.

But the real must have is Side Track!
Any PB or iBook owner should have it installed!!! Allows for scrolling horizontally and vertically on the track pad.

There a heap of nice to haves... but I'll let you play first!
Think versiontracker.com if you want to know what every one is grabbing
 
You can change the auto update settings in the system preferences, so that it will check daily, weekly, monthly or not at all. And you can quickly and easily manually check for updates at any time by selecting Software Update from the Apple menu at the top of the screen.

Enjoy your Mac - hopefully it will be arriving soon! 😀 The 12" PB is a beauty of a machine.
 
Piarco75 said:
It'll be with me by middady, so I'm sure I'll be posting later on 😀 ...
Click to expand...

Did you order direct from Apple UK?

If you did how long did it take for delivery from when you got the shipping email?

I got my email for my 15" PB and 40 GB iPod last night, so I was just wondering when I can expect it.

Cheers
 
bartelby said:
Did you order direct from Apple UK?

If you did how long did it take for delivery from when you got the shipping email?

I got my email for my 15" PB and 40 GB iPod last night, so I was just wondering when I can expect it.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Nah, got it from an independant source, who was a friend of a friend - hence the low price! Sorry I can't help - it painful waiting for something so cool to arrive!
Nice spec of the PB by the way....


Well the PB has arrived. And frankly I have no words to describe it. I'll let the puddle of drool at my feet speak for me!!! 😀 😀
So easy to set up its unbelievable, inteface is fool proof and expose is just a godsend. Speakers are much better than the other laptops in my office (Dell the lot of 'em..... poor fools!) and that did surprise me. I'll be getting the extra memory tomorrow, but I'll be putting on the software I already have, and the stuff you guys have suggested, on tonight. One question though, mainly from downloaded free/shareware stuff... how do I go about loading a program from a .dmg file? All of the programs are on my PC, so I was going to burn the files as they are onto a CD and then load into the PB. Being logical about it I guess .dmg are the equivalent to a Win .exe file?
 
Piarco75 said:
One question though, mainly from downloaded free/shareware stuff... how do I go about loading a program from a .dmg file? All of the programs are on my PC, so I was going to burn the files as they are onto a CD and then load into the PB. Being logical about it I guess .dmg are the equivalent to a Win .exe file?
Click to expand...

A general word of advice - trust the Mac to know what to do with the files, you don't have to think like a windows user any more.

A .dmg file is actually a disk image file. If you double click it, it will mount on the desktop just like a disk drive, and you can browse the contents. They are usually read-only (think of it as being like a CD) or you can allow them to be written to when you create them.

Typically a .dmg will contain the application, some release notes, and maybe a sample file or readme. All you need to do to install the program is to open up another Finder window (Click on the desktop and select File>New Finder Window) and drag the application icon from the .dmg window onto the 'Applications' entry in the other finder window. You're all done. You can now unmount the .dmg image by dragging the icon on the desktop to the trash bin (this doesn't delete it, just unmounts it).
 
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