Macbook Pro - General questions

[calumn]

I got my macbook pro yesterday and I am already loving it - I was looking for some advice on some accessories and things.

When I got the macbook with my student discount I got a printer for £20 from apple, as well as applecare for 3 years and a £18 ipod nano and a case/sleeve for when I have to bring it travelling.

1. I am at university/college and I was wondering what accessories you would recommend me?

2. I am looking at getting an external USB hard drive - for either my music and movie collection or for time machine.

What drive would you recommend? The apple one is too expensive, I assume any standard USB one will work though?

And is it possible to partition the drive, if it was big enough, and make like a 320gb partition for time machine and then have the rest for normal storage?

3. I know everyone says there are no viruses for macs etc. and stuff, but there is antivirus software available, which there must be a reason for? Is it wise to get antivirus software for a mac, or is it completely un-needed? I have also enabled the firewall.

4. Does anyone think mobileme is worth paying that much for? The guy in the apple store said it would be especially good since I have an iphone as well. And would it work with my gmail account?

Cheers

 

[miles01110]

1. I am at university/college and I was wondering what accessories you would recommend me?

If you find yourself needing an accessory to do your work, you should buy it. Not sure how you expect us to recommend anything to you.

2. ...
What drive would you recommend? The apple one is too expensive, I assume any standard USB one will work though?

Yes, as long as its formatted.

And is it possible to partition the drive, if it was big enough, and make like a 320gb partition for time machine and then have the rest for normal storage?

Yes, with Disk Utility.

3. I know everyone says there are no viruses for macs etc. and stuff, but there is antivirus software available, which there must be a reason for? Is it wise to get antivirus software for a mac, or is it completely un-needed? I have also enabled the firewall.

Antivirus software for Mac only protects you against things that won't harm your machine anyway, making it little more than a marketing gimmick. The best defense is to not install things from unknown or suspect sources.

4. Does anyone think mobileme is worth paying that much for? The guy in the apple store said it would be especially good since I have an iphone as well. And would it work with my gmail account?

Again, "worth" is subjective.

 

[mikeo007]

Miles pretty much covered everything but I will add something to his antivirus response. As he said, there are no "viruses" for mac, so the AV software is basically a gimmick. There is still malware out there though, especially that advertising crap. The best thing to do is just be aware of what your installing. Also, I might recommend a good piece of anti-phishing software, even an addon for chrome (there should be several free ones available) if you're not well versed on internet scams and such.

 

[jbrenn]

an extra charge comes in handy Leave one where you use the computer the most and have one in you bag.

 

[KirkL]

AV is definitely a gimmick. There's an occasional Trojan or two but that's only in pirated software and stuff.

If you think you're going to need Cables and stuff, just get them on eBay (They're half as expensive)

 

[No1nfoProvided]

AV is definitely a gimmick. There's an occasional Trojan or two but that's only in pirated software and stuff.

If you think you're going to need Cables and stuff, just get them on eBay (They're half as expensive)

Cables from meritline.com are good also, especially when they have random sales for random adaptors going for $10-15 with free shipping.