Advice for Mac Newbie

[pk314]

Hi everyone,

I just got my very first rMBP and its the first Mac I have ever owned!

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone could give me basic advice on how to setup my new rMBP such as settings for display etc, and if possible, give me advice on basics such as which web browser is the best for Mac. Anything would be helpful as I'm not familiar with the Mac OS at all and have been a PC user for my whole life.

Thanks in advance!

 

[S.B.G]

Congratulations on your new Mac and Welcome to MacRumors!

The display settings should probably be left alone as Apple will ship it with them at their best setting for that Mac. But if you want to explore them, you can open System Preferences --> Displays. You'll probably see it selected at 'Best for display,' but you can select 'Scaled' and play with the configurations.

As for a web browser, it comes with Safari which is a great browser for many. But you have the choice of downloading Firefox, which is also a great browser or Google Chrome, another great browser. There are others too, but those are the top three. Which one to use is typically a users preference since they all deliver quite well.

 

[Clix Pix]

Also: go to your local bookstore or order from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/OS-Mavericks-The-Missing-Manual/dp/1449362249

David Pogue has been authoring these "Missing Manual" books for several years now and they are a real godsend to the new Mac user. This will tell you everything you need to know and a lot that you didn't realize you needed to know.

 

[pk314]

Congratulations on your new Mac and Welcome to MacRumors!

The display settings should probably be left alone as Apple will ship it with them at their best setting for that Mac. But if you want to explore them, you can open System Preferences --> Displays. You'll probably see it selected at 'Best for display,' but you can select 'Scaled' and play with the configurations.

As for a web browser, it comes with Safari which is a great browser for many. But you have the choice of downloading Firefox, which is also a great browser or Google Chrome, another great browser. There are others too, but those are the top three. Which one to use is typically a users preference since they all deliver quite well.

Thank you! I'm excited to start learning about my new Mac. I think I will go with Firefox since that's what I've used for my PC.

What about the battery? I read the articles that Apple has posted on how to extend the life of the battery but I was wondering if there are some user settings that would help make the battery go longer on a charge like the brightness or keyboard backlight settings? As you can tell I'm pretty clueless haha.

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Also: go to your local bookstore or order from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/OS-Mavericks-The-Missing-Manual/dp/1449362249

David Pogue has been authoring these "Missing Manual" books for several years now and they are a real godsend to the new Mac user. This will tell you everything you need to know and a lot that you didn't realize you needed to know.

Thank you! I'll certainly take a look at it

 

[S.B.G]

Thank you! I'm excited to start learning about my new Mac. I think I will go with Firefox since that's what I've used for my PC.

What about the battery? I read the articles that Apple has posted on how to extend the life of the battery but I was wondering if there are some user settings that would help make the battery go longer on a charge like the brightness or keyboard backlight settings? As you can tell I'm pretty clueless haha.

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Thank you! I'll certainly take a look at it

Here is Apple's official page about battery's and here is a page maintained by one of our forum users, packed with lot's of useful information.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

Turning the screen brightness and keyboard brightness down will probably impact the longevity of a charge the most as well as how much or little video (DVD's, iTunes or YouTube) you play while on battery.

 

[Clix Pix]

Which rMBP did you get? The newest ones (released in October 2013) have really great battery life (compared to the older predecessors). I've got the 13" rMBP and I'm still marveling over its battery life in comparison to the machine it's replacing, the first-gen MBA. I'm really loving it!

Before fooling with Firefox or Chrome as your browser, why not give Safari a try? I personally prefer Safari, although I do have Chrome available for the few times that a website doesn't play well with Safari. Back in my Windows days I found Firefox to be rather cumbersome and annoying. Trying it on my Mac I still wasn't thrilled, so that one has gone by the wayside for me, but I do know that others really do like it. A matter of personal preference....

Safari is native to the Mac and it isn't a situation like IE and Windows where it's just not a good thing to even think of using it. Give Safari a whirl -- you might be very pleasantly surprised!

 

[pk314]

Here is Apple's official page about battery's and here is a page maintained by one of our forum users, packed with lot's of useful information.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

Turning the screen brightness and keyboard brightness down will probably impact the longevity of a charge the most as well as how much or little video (DVD's, iTunes or YouTube) you play while on battery.

Thank you!

----------

Which rMBP did you get? The newest ones (released in October 2013) have really great battery life (compared to the older predecessors). I've got the 13" rMBP and I'm still marveling over its battery life in comparison to the machine it's replacing, the first-gen MBA. I'm really loving it!

Before fooling with Firefox or Chrome as your browser, why not give Safari a try? I personally prefer Safari, although I do have Chrome available for the few times that a website doesn't play well with Safari. Back in my Windows days I found Firefox to be rather cumbersome and annoying. Trying it on my Mac I still wasn't thrilled, so that one has gone by the wayside for me, but I do know that others really do like it. A matter of personal preference....

Safari is native to the Mac and it isn't a situation like IE and Windows where it's just not a good thing to even think of using it. Give Safari a whirl -- you might be very pleasantly surprised!

I have the 13in rMBP 2.4/8gb/256gb. I don't do much heavy usage so I'm hoping to get the 9 hours that Apple claims.

The only reason I went with Firefox is because they recently updated it and I really like the new look and also I'm so familiar with Firefox as to the settings since its pretty much the same as Windows but I'll give Safari a try to see if it works for me.

 

[Gjwilly]

Thank you! I'm excited to start learning about my new Mac. I think I will go with Firefox since that's what I've used for my PC.

As an other recent Mac convert myself I would suggest sticking with Safari for at least a month.
I also started out looking for all of my old PC apps but then decided that since I had decided to try a Mac that I should really try the Mac.
There are a few PC apps that I still miss but on the whole, I've found different OSx apps that I find preferable to my old PC apps in almost every category.
I used to use uTorrent but then switched to Transmission.
I used to use VLC but then changed to MPlayerX.
etc.
Give the Mac and OSx at least a fighting chance before trying to force it into your PC expectations.
My $0.02 anyway......
Enjoy your new computer!

 

[pk314]

As an other recent Mac convert myself I would suggest sticking with Safari for at least a month.
I also started out looking for all of my old PC apps but then decided that since I had decided to try a Mac that I should really try the Mac.
There are a few PC apps that I still miss but on the whole, I've found different OSx apps that I find preferable to my old PC apps in almost every category.
I used to use uTorrent but then switched to Transmission.
I used to use VLC but then changed to MPlayerX.
etc.
Give the Mac and OSx at least a fighting chance before trying to force it into your PC expectations.
My $0.02 anyway......
Enjoy your new computer!

Funny you should mention VLC and uTorrent as I literally JUST downloaded those, I had never heard of Transmission and MPlayerX before you mentioned them.

 

[Clix Pix]

Thank you!

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I have the 13in rMBP 2.4/8gb/256gb. I don't do much heavy usage so I'm hoping to get the 9 hours that Apple claims.

The only reason I went with Firefox is because they recently updated it and I really like the new look and also I'm so familiar with Firefox as to the settings since its pretty much the same as Windows but I'll give Safari a try to see if it works for me.

Hey, you've got the twin of my rMBP! I absolutely adore mine, and I have definitely found that the battery life is amazing, almost as amazing as with my iPads (which have spoiled me). Like you, I don't do a lot of heavy, serious stuff on this machine so the battery life has been quite good for me. I use this mainly for email, forums, some web browsing and watching videos on YouTube, watching movies downloaded from the iTunes store and also listening to music. Anything which takes a lot more in the way of "oomph" I let my iMac handle and also I don't worry a lot about the capacity on this machine, since again the iMac (1 TB "spinner" drive) or a couple of external hard drives can take care of that, anything that I want to stash and keep. This thing is so fast, I'm just delighted with it.

VLC is great! Terrific program to have! MPlayerX is a new one to me -- have to check that one out! Also, Flip4Mac, if you haven't already heard about it.....

 

[satcomer]

Look at the Mac themed web sites (and bookmark them):

1. MacRumors.

2. MacUpdate - Lists most all OS X updates for download

3. Accelerate YourMacintosh - If you ever want to hardware hack your Mac.

4. MacOSXHints - If you want to get in BSD Unix part of OS X to software hack your Mac

5. LoopInsight - A cool Mac/Music themed Blog

6. GeekCulture - A Really cool blog and web comic

7. MacWorld News - Still a semi cool Mac news site

8. Well known TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products - If you ever use a Mac with a third party router you should keep the site bookmarked.

9. RamSeeker - If you ever buy RAM for your ac look at this price comparison site

10. BareFeats to see the speed testing site for Apple products with hardware and software

11.MacWindows.com - If you ever have to put a Mac into a Windows domain

There are many other sites that I haven't linked but others might have some cool Mac themed web sites.

Have Fun.