New Mac Owner with ?s

[Redmen34]

Hi everyone. I have been reading these forums for awhile now to help prepare myself for finally making the switch and purchasing my first Mac. I ended up buying a 15" Powerbook. I could not wait any longer to buy since my old Windows notebook was falling apart on me. So I picked up my PB on Tues and so far am really liking it, although I am still figuring things out. I have a couple questions that I was hoping you could help a Mac newbie with.

First, is it okay to keep the PB always plugged in through the AC adaptor with the battery in it? Does having it plugged in all the time effect the battery life?

Second, I was looking at some web pages with videos in them and when I click to watch the movies opened with Quicktime in the browser window and I could not find an option to make the video larger. Is this possible to do in the browser or is there a way to set it so when you click on a movie link it will open Quicktime separately?

Seems like I had one more question, but I can't remember it now. Thanks for any help you can give and thanks for all of those people who post good information on these sites that make the buying process much easier. So far I am really happy and excited about my purchase. I love the backlit keyboard!! Apple is so good at the little details that make such a huge difference!!

 

[Veldek]

First, is it okay to keep the PB always plugged in through the AC adaptor with the battery in it? Does having it plugged in all the time effect the battery life?

AFAIK (and I never owned a laptop), the battery only charges if it has less than, say, 95% capacity. This means, that it won't affect your battery life if you leave it plugged in.

Second, I was looking at some web pages with videos in them and when I click to watch the movies opened with Quicktime in the browser window and I could not find an option to make the video larger. Is this possible to do in the browser or is there a way to set it so when you click on a movie link it will open Quicktime separately?

I don't think you can change the resolution, if you watch it in a browser window. You can download the file, by Alt-clicking the link or right-clicking it and select the Save option.

 

[spinne1]

First, is it okay to keep the PB always plugged in through the AC adaptor with the battery in it? Does having it plugged in all the time effect the battery life?

No, and yes.
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

Second, I was looking at some web pages with videos in them and when I click to watch the movies opened with Quicktime in the browser window and I could not find an option to make the video larger. Is this possible to do in the browser or is there a way to set it so when you click on a movie link it will open Quicktime separately?

I am not aware of a way to make it bigger in the browser, nor have it open Quicktime separately (although you could do this in OS 9), but I do know you can do a couple things: download the clip instead of playing it (control-click, then "Download Linked File" (in Safari for example). If the clip is streaming only, then there are ways to capture it and save it, but I'm not sure what they are. Google for ["capture stream" os x] or something like that.

Also, if you want more convenient use of Quicktime, consider purchasing Quicktime Pro, which for about $30, gives the ability to easily save any Quicktime clip with a control click from within the browser window. Then you could open the file with Quicktime Player to make it bigger.