Got My iMac

[harry454]

Anyways, so heres my story, my windows pc started acting up and started shutting itself off ever time by itself randomly, so one day it went to the point it overheated and the motherboard and processor got fried, smoke came out of the fan on the processor. Since the parts in the computer were old it was like impossible to replace them, so me and my mom went to best buy and I got a 20 inch 2.66 GHz iMac which I price matched with the Canadian student apple store, it came out to 1488 + tax. Overall I'm impressed soo much this machine is amazing, now I can see why people say there's such an amazing difference when switching! I've been lurking these forums for quite awhile now, so I pretty much learned a lot of stuff just off here on how to use it and etc. My switching over wasn't even that hard, I figured out everything within minutes! My iMac doesn't have any of the issues the previous 20' iMacs had, my screen its mint! Everything is mint! Anyways, I just have a few questions, is there any software you guys recommend? Also any tips and tricks I should learn? hahah, Thanks a lot guys this forum it soo insightful and teaches you a lot with its fellow members!

 

[karenflower]

Congratulations! Great to hear that you're enjoying it so much.

Here's a nice list of some cool freeware to download: http://botw.org/articles/mac-freeware-apps.htm

Quicksilver and Adium are the best IMO.

 

[co mac noob]

My iMac doesn't have any of the issues the previous 20' iMacs had, my screen its mint!

I know this has been discussed ad nauseum elsewhere, but I've been busy reading up on power supplies since I got my Mac last week (see Aluminum iMac random crashes) and don't have the energy to get up to speed on the display issues. I'm usually not all that sensitive to monitor quality, so I just ignored all the complaining. But the gradient issue is pretty obvious when I bring up a full-screen window with a solid background, or one of the test pages people have posted. Does yours not have that?

Can somebody save me the trouble of reading all of the 500-post threads about the 20" iMac display, and just tell me whether the gradient issue is common to all Alum 20" iMacs, or whether it's a defect in some units that merits an exchange? The colors change very noticeably with the viewing angle too, but I'm always sitting right in front of it so I don't care about that. Sorry for the thread hijack.

 

[harry454]

nope I tested it, mine doesn't have the issues, and thanks for the link

 

[Senor360]

Congrats!

And welcome to the 'family'. I'm sure you'll discover new things each day as it gets used. These forums are a great source of info. Hope to help out someday.

 

[duncyboy]

Congratulations on the purchase and welcome to the iMac club

I switched about 7 weeks ago and haven't looked back. I don't even care that my iMac is way out of date following the update- it does everything I want and then some.

I honestly can say I haven't any screen issues. I've tried the calibration and test pages and if there IS a fault there, I can't see it.

Tips and tricks-

Left-click and hold on a window then change Spaces using the keyboard- it'll take the window with it.

Go fullscreen with Quicktime (CMD & F) then press CMD 1, 2 or 3.

A simple one but one that drove me insane- if you're in Coverflow or maybe List view- if you wanna drag a file to another folder you have to click and hold on the file name- not just the highlighted blue bar.

In Finder enable "Path Bar" at the bottom- it makes dragging files "Up" out of Folders easier.

Have you checked out the Mosaic screensaver yet?

Good software:

Handbrake for file and DVD conversions.
iPhoto Buddy for multiple iPhoto libraries.
Seashell is a good, free Photoshop type app. Very basic but covers most of the simple tasks.
Onyx is a good maintenance app for manually running scripts.

Hope this helps and, more importantly, I hope you enjoy your Mac. I've had some issues and it hasn't always been plain sailing but overall I love my iMac

 

[harry454]

Thanks for the tips duncyboy, where abouts can I get mosaic screensaver you mention? haha

 

[Muncher]

Congratulations on the purchase and welcome to the iMac club

I switched about 7 weeks ago and haven't looked back. I don't even care that my iMac is way out of date following the update- it does everything I want and then some.

I honestly can say I haven't any screen issues. I've tried the calibration and test pages and if there IS a fault there, I can't see it.

Tips and tricks-

Left-click and hold on a window then change Spaces using the keyboard- it'll take the window with it.

Go fullscreen with Quicktime (CMD & F) then press CMD 1, 2 or 3.

A simple one but one that drove me insane- if you're in Coverflow or maybe List view- if you wanna drag a file to another folder you have to click and hold on the file name- not just the highlighted blue bar.

In Finder enable "Path Bar" at the bottom- it makes dragging files "Up" out of Folders easier.

Have you checked out the Mosaic screensaver yet?

Good software:

Handbrake for file and DVD conversions.
iPhoto Buddy for multiple iPhoto libraries.
Seashell is a good, free Photoshop type app. Very basic but covers most of the simple tasks.
Onyx is a good maintenance app for manually running scripts.

Hope this helps and, more importantly, I hope you enjoy your Mac. I've had some issues and it hasn't always been plain sailing but overall I love my iMac

To add to the list:

Tricks and tips:
Cmd + Option + Ctrl + 8 = invert screen colors
Cmd + Shift + 3 = Screen Capture, saves pic of screen to desktop
Cmd + Shift + 4 = Selective Screen Capture, click and drag rectangle to take pic of everything inside

Apps:
Freeware:
smcfancontrol - app - allows for manual fan speed adjustment
istat pro - widget - readout for anything you need to know about your computer
GIMP - app - image editor, requires X11
NeoOffice - app - free clone of MS Office
Commercial:
Freeze Frame - daemon - allows user to completely freeze an app, no matter what
Tangerine - helps to sort itunes library by providing BPM and beat intensity - really cool

Enjoy!

 

[eXan]

Thanks for the tips duncyboy, where abouts can I get mosaic screensaver you mention? haha

System preferences

Also when playing a video full screen in quicktime press cmd-4

Ah, and never press ctrl-option-cmd-8 ... it will blow up your computer

 

[harry454]

nooo cmd + opt + ctrl +8 = sickkk colours lmao, I just wish the dock stayed the same colour other wise the top black bar looks so slick

 

[duncyboy]

Thanks for the tips duncyboy, where abouts can I get mosaic screensaver you mention? haha

This explains it better than I can: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8uI4We_Qg0#