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g.fabian

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 9, 2011
20
0
Hey there everyone I'm very new to the Mac platform. I'm a college student going to a community college about to transfer to a university. I wanted to get a new laptop because my iPad wasn't cutting it but I'm really sick of buying PC because I don't like Windows and all of the machines I've ever had go to hell after a year or so.

I purchased a used MB from someone on craigslist 2 days ago and I was just wondering if anyone had any idea of a few good programs I should install for school, or any tips or thoughts or comments whatsoever for a new mac user who is also in school.

I'm majoring in business management and I already installed a fresh copy of Office 2011.
:apple:
 
Congratulations on your purchase.

Your question really depends on your uses for your MacBook. Office is good for writing papers etc. If you are using it in class then something like evernote is great for taking notes (also available on iPad). I assume you have the iLife suite to take care of your personal media needs? If you download torrent content then tranmission is a good app to look at. Adium for chat and messaging.

This list over at lifehacker should get you started.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Also invade you didn't already know, there is no useful anti virus for Mac, all Mac anti virus does I pick up windows viruses so you don't pass them on. Sorry just had a few people talking about this so I thought it was a good idea you completely understood from
The beginning.
 
Congratulations on your purchase.

Your question really depends on your uses for your MacBook. Office is good for writing papers etc. If you are using it in class then something like evernote is great for taking notes (also available on iPad). I assume you have the iLife suite to take care of your personal media needs? If you download torrent content then tranmission is a good app to look at. Adium for chat and messaging.

This list over at lifehacker should get you started.

Thanks everyone for the replys. I'm interested in getting uTorrent or FrostWire or something so I can get some music and what not but I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how. Any useful guides out there anyone can speak for?
 
Greetings All,

I'm in a similiar situation. I'm a college student as well and doing independent studies for this semester then doing a classroom setting for the Fall Semester. However, i'm at a stand-still. I'm in the process of purchasing a MacBook or MacBook Pro now; had PC's and i'm tired of them with their tempermental ways.

Anyway, this Macbook or Pro will be used for the following:

ITunes
MS Office 2011 for Mac for word processing, spreadsheets and so on
Emails
web browsing.

Do I need a MacBook Pro or can I get away with a MacBook?? I have a budget of about $1200; but wouldn't want to spend the entire amount.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks All,
Candigrl
 
Greetings All,

I'm in a similiar situation. I'm a college student as well and doing independent studies for this semester then doing a classroom setting for the Fall Semester. However, i'm at a stand-still. I'm in the process of purchasing a MacBook or MacBook Pro now; had PC's and i'm tired of them with their tempermental ways.

Anyway, this Macbook or Pro will be used for the following:

ITunes
MS Office 2011 for Mac for word processing, spreadsheets and so on
Emails
web browsing.

Do I need a MacBook Pro or can I get away with a MacBook?? I have a budget of about $1200; but wouldn't want to spend the entire amount.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks All,
Candigrl

The white MB could handle all of that, but the entry level MBP is such a better deal. Aluminum unibody, backlit keyboard, larger HDD, 4GB of Ram.
 
You can probably get away with a MacBook however they may be getting an update soon so it would be worth while holding off.

However for an extra 150 you can get an aluminium 13" MBP with the latest core processors.
 
Anyway, this Macbook or Pro will be used for the following:

ITunes
MS Office 2011 for Mac for word processing, spreadsheets and so on
Emails
web browsing.

This is very light on the processor. I'd suggest saving even more money and buy a refurbished Macbook ($100 less than the educational price). Also you might want to consider an 11" Macbook Air for its small size and light weight. Same price as a Macbook.

If you decide on the heavier construction of the Macbook Pro, consider a refurbished older model. They run $929 I believe, and would work fine.
 
Microsoft Office 2011
Evernote
iTunes
Google Chrome
Caffiene
Cinch

Those are just a few but there are a large collection of interesting applications to get that will help you from time to time.

Oh, spaces (that's built in and it's a God-send) and hyperspaces (to customize).
 
Thanks everyone for the replys. I'm interested in getting uTorrent or FrostWire or something so I can get some music and what not but I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out how. Any useful guides out there anyone can speak for?
Avoid frostwire and limewire stick with transmission and jdownloader P2P apps like that can share your files, info and are filled with useless ads.
 
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