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Just got my first MAC MBA i7 1.8ghz / 256

M

MiamiC70

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Original poster
Oct 16, 2011
416
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Just got my first MAC MBA i7 1.8ghz / 256 yesterday along with a 27" thunderbolt display to go with it. :)

I have been a Windows guy since before Windows, LOL.
Have a lot to learn and am working through some of the differences.
Installed bootcamp Windows 7 64bit "just in case" and overal am very impressed with ease of uses and asthetics on the MBA.

One HUGE letdown is that the power and the thunderbolt ports are on opposite sides so it is less than elegant when I dock it to the 27".
The other is NO ports for external speakers? What where they thinking?
 
The other is NO ports for external speakers? What where they thinking?
Click to expand...

If the headphone jack isn't enough than what were you thinking buying a macbook air....
 
MiamiC70 said:
Just got my first MAC MBA i7 1.8ghz / 256 yesterday along with a 27" thunderbolt display to go with it. :)

I have been a Windows guy since before Windows, LOL.
Have a lot to learn and am working through some of the differences.
Installed bootcamp Windows 7 64bit "just in case" and overal am very impressed with ease of uses and asthetics on the MBA.

One HUGE letdown is that the power and the thunderbolt ports are on opposite sides so it is less than elegant when I dock it to the 27".
The other is NO ports for external speakers? What where they thinking?
Click to expand...


Congrats, I'm also getting the same MBA model TODAY, in fact.

I'm also a pre-Windows gal (shall I say DOS? lol) but use my husband's MBP from time to time so the transition should not be that difficult I hope. Unfortunately, I still have to work with MS Visual Studio, and alot of other MS products for work so I'm definitely going to have to use bootcamp.

How difficult was it to get Win 7 installed using bootcamp?
 
GoGoGadget1 said:
How difficult was it to get Win 7 installed using bootcamp?
Click to expand...

Bootcamp comes pre-loaded on the mac but you need to be able to run Windows 7 off a disk (using external drive) or off a USB pen drive. The setup process once you've done that is quite pleasant

I would strongly suggest giving Parallels a go if you're not using Windows for many programs/processor intensive work. It allows you to run Windows 7 as a VM and Mac at the same time. You can easily switch between the two and battery life seems to be better compared to just running windows. You can also use "expanding drives" so you don't have to worry too much about diskspace allocation/partitioning (as you can only partition the drive once - you have to reinstall windows to adjust the partition size for bootcamp)
 
Come on they could not have put audio out on the 27" display? would be much more elegant than having to plug in thunderbolt, power and a 1/8" audio. Not a deal breaker just seems like would ahve been simple addition and made life easier.
 
I just bought the same setup a couple days ago. I agree that the display should have audio out, but hey... they sell it for the same price as the non-Thunderbolt display so not complaining. I just ordered a $10 USB sound card that I'm going to plug into my USB hub and I believe that will solve the problem pretty cheaply.

If you are new to Mac, I highly recommend the book by Pogue called "Switching to the Mac". Its available for different versions of OSX, so make sure you get the Lion version. This book is a reference that is written from the Windows mindset so its perfect for the "I know how to do xxxxx in Windows, but how do I do it in OSX?" questions.
 
Congrats! welcome to the strong side of the force. 1 month since i made the jump from windows to Mac with my MBA, and so far is been awesome! i love my Air. i think i`m getting my thunderbolt display in december, maybe cuz is between the display or an iMac 21.5". don't know yet, i have a couple of months to decide.
 
jamesr19 said:
Bootcamp comes pre-loaded on the mac but you need to be able to run Windows 7 off a disk (using external drive) or off a USB pen drive. The setup process once you've done that is quite pleasant

I would strongly suggest giving Parallels a go if you're not using Windows for many programs/processor intensive work. It allows you to run Windows 7 as a VM and Mac at the same time. You can easily switch between the two and battery life seems to be better compared to just running windows. You can also use "expanding drives" so you don't have to worry too much about diskspace allocation/partitioning (as you can only partition the drive once - you have to reinstall windows to adjust the partition size for bootcamp)
Click to expand...

Nice. I didn't know bootcamp came preloaded. While I don't plan on buying an external drive, I will set up my husband's MBP drive for sharing so I should be able to use that for access to an external drive. That or a USB stick.

What would you consider processor intensive work?
I'll need 2 versions of Microsoft Visual Studio (2008/2010), Silverlight, Team Foundation Server, DDS, MS Project, etc...but I could probably get the MS admin stuff by purchasing myself a copy of Office for Mac.

Do you know if MS Office for Mac comes with MS Project? For my day job, I really need to be able to edit things with MS Project & Visio, and run 2 instances of Visual Studio for coding purposes.

If you think I can get by using Parallels, then this would seem like a no brainer simply due to the expanding drive functionality.

Thanks a bunch for your suggestion, I really appreciate it. :)
 
GoGoGadget1 said:
Nice. I didn't know bootcamp came preloaded. While I don't plan on buying an external drive, I will set up my husband's MBP drive for sharing so I should be able to use that for access to an external drive. That or a USB stick.

What would you consider processor intensive work?
I'll need 2 versions of Microsoft Visual Studio (2008/2010), Silverlight, Team Foundation Server, DDS, MS Project, etc...but I could probably get the MS admin stuff by purchasing myself a copy of Office for Mac.

Do you know if MS Office for Mac comes with MS Project? For my day job, I really need to be able to edit things with MS Project & Visio, and run 2 instances of Visual Studio for coding purposes.
Click to expand...

Project is Windows only. MS Office 2011 comes with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. The Air should be able to handle the applications you plan to run.

Note that Boot Camp can't use a "shared" DVD drive. You'll need a USB DVD drive or a USB key to install Windows. That said, if you can download an .ISO file (e.g. from the download version of Windows), Boot Camp Assistant can make a USB key that will work for your Air. Alternatively, Parallels can use a "shared" DVD drive or an ISO file copied directly to your desktop.
 
I used the USB method was pretty painless and everything working as should.
Installed Windows on a 60GB partition along with MS Office 2010 on one side and MS Office 2011 for MAC OSX on the other.

My big issue is how do I not lose the edits and changes I have made to my itunes library over the last 5 years? I have the music files on a Lacie 5Big NAS device so not worried about that but I am worried about losing all the edits and stuff that are part of my Windows iTunes now. Any pointers or places I can go to read up on?

I "read" that I can export my itunes on windows side then import on my OSX side and that should work. Also, I was reading up on OSX migrator but both seem a little hairy. that is this weekends project.
 
i've got the exact same (11" )

i've never plugged it into anything, except my tv for a few minutes (just to see how it worked with 2 monitors)

i'm really impressed with how easy it is to work with multiple programs, through the use of those gestures.

for doing the same in windows you either need to tab around 100 times per minute or have more than 1 monitor.

i really love that.

i dont have windows installed though. I see no need for it, yet. :) (edit: just realised i started all the sentences with "i" :D)
 
convergent said:
I just bought the same setup a couple days ago. I agree that the display should have audio out, but hey... they sell it for the same price as the non-Thunderbolt display so not complaining. I just ordered a $10 USB sound card that I'm going to plug into my USB hub and I believe that will solve the problem pretty cheaply.
.
Click to expand...

which usb sound card did you order ???
 
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