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HELP !!!!!! Finally Switched

V

vramd

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Anyone have suggestions on must have software or accessories that I should pick up? thanks.


So, after almost a year of debate, waiting for refreshes, deciding between laptop and desktop, and trolling these boards, I just pulled the trigger on my first Mac. 20 inch 2.66 from Amazon. Got it in my Goldbox - $1345 AR shipped. Can't wait!
 
vramd said:
So, after almost a year of debate, waiting for refreshes, deciding between laptop and desktop, and trolling these boards, I just pulled the trigger on my first Mac. 20 inch 2.66 from Amazon. Got it in my Goldbox - $1345 AR shipped. Can't wait!
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Congrats...and welcome to the Mac community 😎
 
joshua_msu said:
I never get items like that in my gold box. how did you do it?
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You need to set up a new account with no order history. . .then navigate to the AppleCare for imac and check "I own it." Then wait . . . . !! It took a few days, but before I got it, I also had the 24 inch in my goldbox, and the entry level 20 inch., and a macbook pro. You may need to set up a few new accounts, but with patience, you should be able to get it. Good luck.
 
still waiting . . .

Im still waiting for delivery of my new imac. Anyone have suggestions on must have software or accessories that I should pick up? thanks.
 
Apple iWork (1000% better than Office for SOHO cos it works and it's easy to use and it's cheap!) , Airport Express (wireless music streaming from iTunes - awesome!)

Downloadable essentials ;

Handbrake (DVD ripper - free), Tube TV (rip youtube vids - free), Pixelmator (if you need an Open GL based Photoshop 'lite' that is $60), VLC (vid player - free), Google Earth ( free),

Any Pro Apps - check the Apple stuff first - it's arguably all best in class and the most stable and inexpensive way to great creative results..
 
vramd said:
Anyone have suggestions on must have software or accessories that I should pick up? thanks... I just pulled the trigger on my first Mac. 20 inch 2.66 from Amazon. Got it in my Goldbox - $1345 AR shipped. Can't wait!
Click to expand...

Start by exploring the software that comes with the computer. While you're ordering at Amazon get a copy of David Pogue's Switching to the Mac. Once you know how things are supposed to work, you can start changing it.
 
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Congrats!!!
as for accessories, the first i'd recommend is some external hdd for time machine.
 
surferfromuk said:
Apple iWork (1000% better than Office for SOHO cos it works and it's easy to use and it's cheap!) , Airport Express (wireless music streaming from iTunes - awesome!)

THANKS! I hadn't even considered iWork. Is is really that much better than Office for Mac??? And is it fully compatible???
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it is more or less compatible (iWork).
you can export to doc or ppt or xls, but can't directly save them. that means you have two versions of the file - one iWork and one exported Office compatible. that may or may not be annoying depending on your personal workflow. also, not all formatting & functions are 100% compatible. most are, but not all. so you will occasionally get warnings when you export/import office files.
 
Good Application

There is this free application called Quicksilver. You give a key combination to it, ex. alt space, and then you can launch any application by typing the first few letters.

For example, I would type alt space, and syp. This would open System Preferences.

It is a very useful way to get to programs that you don't usually use. Hope you enjoy. 😀
 
vramd said:
surferfromuk said:
Apple iWork (1000% better than Office for SOHO cos it works and it's easy to use and it's cheap!) , Airport Express (wireless music streaming from iTunes - awesome!)

THANKS! I hadn't even considered iWork. Is is really that much better than Office for Mac??? And is it fully compatible???
Click to expand...

It's just very much an Apple-take on the Office package if you get my drift. Simple, elegant, powerful, no bloat.

I use iWork in an office with a number of PC's using Office 2007 - as long as you use common fonts ( ie Verdana, Times etc) and avoid masking images and other iWork specific fancy stuff ( ie giving embedded images that lovely rounded corner look with a nice coverflow style reflection under it!) you'll find everything works together pretty well. Certainly tables, embedded images, fonts, spacing all convert very well. The only real problem is that the documents you do in iWork will look nicer if you use the iWork features and they won't translate to well but vanilla docs are fine.

It's certainly about as compatible as Office 2005 is to Office 2007 if you get my drift and after using Numbers you'll never want to go near Excel ever again!

Also you can of course just save to pdf from the same menu (pdf reading & writing built into the mac without the need for adobe acrobat) so you can send perfect versions as well.

iWork has NEVER ever crashed on me. Plus the templates are amazing - and iWork support the built in media library so all your photos from iphoto, your music from iTunes and your videos are all present to use 'drag and drop style' throughout the iWork apps in their own media browser - very nice touch!.
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i use creative suite cs3 which is 1800 so i dont recomend to buy it maybe photoshop a older version or somthing if u need it neo office or open office for a lik ms office i use 08 of ms office but its a fare mount of money so try neo office or open office
 
Question about Parallels

Also, im thinking of installing Parallels w xp. If i do that, and Parallels is open, and hook up a usb devices, say a digital camera, will the camera be recognized by the mac OS, or by windows?
 
vramd said:
Also, im thinking of installing Parallels w xp. If i do that, and Parallels is open, and hook up a usb devices, say a digital camera, will the camera be recognized by the mac OS, or by windows?
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use boot camp if u have xp its much better and i tried both i prefer bootcamp more individual i can hook anything up and its to windows of course 😀
 
do i need antivirus b/c i am using windows? can a virus affect the mac part of the computer?
 
kblesmis said:
There is this free application called Quicksilver. You give a key combination to it, ex. alt space, and then you can launch any application by typing the first few letters.

For example, I would type alt space, and syp. This would open System Preferences.

It is a very useful way to get to programs that you don't usually use. Hope you enjoy. 😀
Click to expand...

Just to let you know... you can do that already natively within OS X.

It's called Spotlight...

Just type shift-spacebar, and the spotlight window pops up.

Then type "syp" and hit enter...

And you didn't have to pay for it ;-)
 
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