Help! Buying my first Mac!

[Reach9]

Hey all,

First of all, this is my first post on the forums. I've looked through the main forums for a while, but never registered. Great to be here!

I'm making the switch to Mac in about 4 days.
I've always used PC since the day i touched a computer, however I recall using iBooks during my middle school design classes. However, my preference was PC.
(this is my current laptop: http://www.dell.com/ca/p/inspiron-15/pd so you can tell what a big leap it will be for me to buy my first Mac)
After owning an iPhone, and looking at Macs in the Apple Store I realized what I was missing.
I'm a Business student in University, and there have been numerous times when my battery would die half way through a lecture (2hrs 15mins on the best days). Being frustrated at Windows is an understatement.
I do some graphic designing on the side as a hobby, but I think the baseline would be fine for some casual designing.

So i hope to start the next year in a great way.
I've chosen to buy a baseline Macbook Pro 13" because of the affordability, battery life, comfort and portability. Moreover, i won't require crazy speed like the new iX's so the Core2Duo is fine for me.

Now, in order to transfer my files i plan to use an external harddrive, however some say that they only work for PC. Why is this so? If it uses USB 2.0 it should be able to work for the Macbook Pro as well, right?
Do you have any cheaper yet quality external harddrives that you can recommend? Looking at around 500GBs.

Second question, which sleeve would be the most bang for your buck and portable? I was thinking Neoprene Sleeve Plus.

Last question, how do i go about buying CircusPonies Notebook 3.0? Do i just download the trial and then purchase a serial key (does it get emailed?) from them when the trial runs out?

Again, great to be here! I'm absolutely estatic about getting my MacBook Pro!

 

[regieferg]

for the hard drive:
you could get a hard drive that is formated for ""ntfs"". Then get software called ""NTFS-3G"" to beable to read/write the ntfs hard drive.

this is what i use to back up files between mac and pc.

 

[ideal.dreams]

Congrats on your soon-to-be Mac!

When I switched from PC to Mac back in December, I just used a WD 1TB drive and put all of my files on it (Desktop, Documents, Music, etc). I plugged it into my Mac after I was done setting it up, organized my files folder by folder as I copied them over, and I was good to go.

I don't really use a sleeve for my Mac, so I won't be able to help you on this one. I put it in and out of a briefcase daily for work, and asides from that, it's not in a case. To be honest, I don't like them .

For your last question, I'm not sure, but in my experience of buying software for my Mac, you just download the trial, if there is one, and then you can purchase the PRO version or buy a serial number. It's pretty straightforward, you shouldn't have any trouble with it.

Good luck!

 

[Reach9]

Thanks for the feedback guys, really appreciate it.

A WD 1TB drive actually seems ideal for me, thanks!

So do I get the software mailed to me? Or can i pick up CircusPonies Notebook 3.0 from my local Apple Store?

 

[ideal.dreams]

Thanks for the feedback guys, really appreciate it.

A WD 1TB drive actually seems ideal for me, thanks!

So do I get the software mailed to me? Or can i pick up CircusPonies Notebook 3.0 from my local Apple Store?

Well what exactly is it? You could probably just buy the download online. If it's more of a professional software, you can choose to have a hard copy mailed to you. I'm not too sure though.

 

[macagain]

Let the geniuses do it for you!

The Apple Store used to offer a service to transfer everything from your windoze machine to your new Mac. You should check if they still offer that... I think it might have been free I seem to recall. If they still do it, it's definitely the way to go.

Welcome to enlightenment!

 

[Reach9]

hey ideal.dreams, it's a note taking application, similar to Microsoft Word.

Hmm, last i heard about it was that they charged for that. But i'll check again, thanks!

 

[Reach9]

Btw, will I get a discount for the new iLife '11 since i'm buying the Mac now?