Noob Questions

[Frankie!]

Hey all! Just have a few questions about Apple/Macs in general, hoping for some feedback.

1. I recently purchased a late 2012 Macbook Pro, i5 2.5ghz processor, retina display, HD4000 video, 8GB ram, 128GB SSD. It also has a year and a half left of Applecare+ which is nice. I paid $750 - did I overpay?

2. I really enjoy the simplicity of the Mac OS mixed with the functionality. What are some neat tweaks, settings, or even applications you like to use on your desktop/laptop?

3. I am currently on Lion and plan on updating to Mavericks tomorrow - thoughts? Should I try out the Yosemite beta? What are the major differences between Yosemite and previous versions?


Thanks for all of the noob questions - sorry if any of this is even repetitive. Looking forward to getting started on my Macbook

 

[Bending Pixels]

Yosemite is anticipated to be released on October 16th, so you really don't need to sign up for the beta. Apple's site describes what's new in Yosemite. The new features are actually pretty useful.

As to app's, much depends upon what you do. I use mine primarily for photo editing (using Lightroom and Photoshop), and starting to learn video editing (recently purchased Motion 5).

 

[maflynn]

1. I recently purchased a late 2012 Macbook Pro, i5 2.5ghz processor, retina display, HD4000 video, 8GB ram, 128GB SSD. It also has a year and a half left of Applecare+ which is nice. I paid $750 - did I overpay?

Seems about right to me.

3. I am currently on Lion and plan on updating to Mavericks tomorrow - thoughts? Should I try out the Yosemite beta? What are the major differences between Yosemite and previous versions?

I'd wait till apple rolls out 10.10 officially at this point, its so close to being released.

 

[ss.soulbeat]

2. I really enjoy the simplicity of the Mac OS mixed with the functionality. What are some neat tweaks, settings, or even applications you like to use on your desktop/laptop?

An App I cannot do without is BettersSnapTool ! Helps a lot resizing windows. I got addicted to this kind of windows snapping when I was a windows 7 user. This is a killer App, for me. Install, config and forget you're using it. It works great !

 

[nudoru]

2. I really enjoy the simplicity of the Mac OS mixed with the functionality. What are some neat tweaks, settings, or even applications you like to use on your desktop/laptop?

My short list of critical system utilities

Moom - better window management
Witch - better app switcher than CMD-Tab
Hyperdock - running app previews like Windows when you hover over the dock icon
Hazel - file system automation
1Password
Bartender - clean up the icons on the right side of the menu bar
Fantastical
Popclip