initial switcher impressions

[ry4n]

so i just got my 12" ibook and i've been using it for over a week now..

initially i thought it was pretty slick.. goes to sleep and wakes up instantly.. OSX seems neat, flashy but neat.. quiet, not very hot.. overall nice computer.. but i would have to say while i'm very impressed with apple harware the software sucks..

ichat - doesn't connect to aim, actually has the option grayed out.. doesn't save preferences..

iphoto - wont let me add photos to library.. says they are the wrong format or contian no data, but they open in preview just fine

safari - nice that its integrated, slow as hell.. firefox runs circles around it..

mail - nothing impressive here that outlook or eudora doesn't do, and seems pretty sluggish..

i also have a few hardwear gripes.. no scrolling trackpad is just ridiculous.. my 3 year old hp does that.. and the battery is weird.. i initially charged it and then ran it empty, and then charged it again.. since then its been run off power and the battery % has slowly decresed.. it shows 95% right now fully charged.. am i losing battery life or what?

overall.. hardwear wise i'm impressed so far, as long as nothing goes bad on me.. but software wise i'd say apple has some catching up to do to windows as far as not-so-computer-savvy users are concerned..

 

[iGary]

You battery meter is fine. I'd dig up the Apple doc on it, but I'm tired of reposting it. 95-100 per cent is normal. You should allow the battery to drain once a month and charge back up, though.

iChat - check your preferences.

iPhoto - what types of image files are you trying to import?

Safari - I've used both and can't tell the diff.

Mail - Sluggish, how?

Catching up to Windows? Are you enjoying not worrying about viruses or spyware at all?

 

[ry4n]

iphoto i'm trying to add jpegs that came straight out of the camera

as far as the virus/spyware issue, in 15 years i've never had a virus, and spyware isn't a problem if you don't allow it to be.. people who get spyware tend to not be paying enough attention to what they are putting on their computer..

i'm not going to deny that i enjoy OSX however.. i was just stating my concerns..

 

[applemacdude]

apples software is actually bettr than their hardware

must be a bad lemon of software reinstall everything?

 

[ravenvii]

There's a program called SideTrack that'll solve your scrolling complaints.

Mail is fine for me, much faster than LookOut.

Safari is fine to me. Try Firefox or Camino if you don't like Safari.

Dunno what's wrong with your iChat and iPhoto, though. Sorry.

 

[ocellnuri]

Your iChat problems must be related to your configuration settings, and not the software itself. iChat has been rock solid for me, and much better than anything AOL ever put out.

 

[Macaddicttt]

For trackpad scrolling, check out iScroll 2. The hardware is capable, but for some reason Apple only enables it in the new PowerBooks. It's a great little program that will fulfill all your scrolling needs. I don't know how I lived without it before.

 

[auxplage]

Safari is slow, but very nice. I, personally, use Camino which is extremely fast and looks beautiful (faster than FireFox for me), and though it is in beta, it very stable and has never crashed on me.

 

[fistful]

this is just a guess on my part but possibly you need to change the file permission or unlock the file. You could also after opening it in preview, save it then see if you can import it into iPhoto. I've had a similar problems when moving files from my PC to my Mac and that seemed to remedy it.