Somewhat new to Mac

[bingochips16]

hey all
I'm fairly new to Mac, I've used them multiple times and I'm very experienced with computers in general, but I've never had a Mac as my personal computer. I'm getting my new Macbook 2.4 ghz (white) in about a week, and i plan on upgrading the RAM myself from 2 gigs to 4, which I've seen on youtube is fairly easy. basically I'm just wondering if there's anything that you all recommend I should do when I first get my mac, apps i should check out, set up that I should do, stuff like that.
all advice is appreciated, thanks.

 

[AndyK]

Adium / iStat Pro / Newsfire.

See the link in my signature on how to get them.

 

[bingochips16]

oh yeah i totally forgot..from all the experience out there..whats the best way for me to transfer all my data, which is around 40gb of music, documents, movies, files, etc. to my new mac. i know that they can do it at the apple store when i go to get my computer, or i can do it over the network, through USB cable. basically what i'm wondering is whats the most efficient way to migrate everything.

 

[DoFoT9]

oh yeah i totally forgot..from all the experience out there..whats the best way for me to transfer all my data, which is around 40gb of music, documents, movies, files, etc. to my new mac. i know that they can do it at the apple store when i go to get my computer, or i can do it over the network, through USB cable. basically what i'm wondering is whats the most efficient way to migrate everything.

goodluck getting it to transfer over USB! lol....

uumm if you have a home network then using ethernet would be easiest (but fairly difficult to setup).

if your not that confident then i would recommend taking it in to the apple store and getting them to do it.

an external HD would be ideal for you though, or a very large flash drive haha

 

[bingochips16]

i'm really confident in being able to do it over my network myself..the only issue that i would have is putting it all into the shared folder and having to sort it all out later..if i do it at the apple store how does that work out..will all my my files be for the most part in the appropriate folder or will they just be in the shared folders

 

[shoveland]

I feel the easiest way to xfer files is by connecting a CAT5 cable between PC and mac. Enable sharing on your PC of the files you wish to transfer, then make note of your PC's IP address. Go back to your mac and from finder hit cmd+k and then enter smb://your ip address

this will let you automatically transfer stuff by mounting the shared folder like a drive on your mac

 

[bingochips16]

that does sound like a really good alternative...i was planning on buying an external hd anyway..if i were to simply copy/paste the files from the pc to the ext.hd and then to the mac would that be slower than connecting the cat5 cable and doing the above?

 

[shoveland]

I've never done an AB between the two, so I guess I can't help there. I have just always liked the cable option as there's no disconnect/reconnect and it can be going on pretty easily in the background as you're doing other things...plus it's cheap

 

[DoFoT9]

i'm really confident in being able to do it over my network myself..the only issue that i would have is putting it all into the shared folder and having to sort it all out later..if i do it at the apple store how does that work out..will all my my files be for the most part in the appropriate folder or will they just be in the shared folders

ok if your sure you can choose this method.

there is NO need to move any folders, just go to "sharing properties" of the folders/locations you wish to share and thats that, hell you could even share the whole C drive and locate folders via that (its how i do it).

I feel the easiest way to xfer files is by connecting a CAT5 cable between PC and mac. Enable sharing on your PC of the files you wish to transfer, then make note of your PC's IP address. Go back to your mac and from finder hit cmd+k and then enter smb://your ip address

this will let you automatically transfer stuff by mounting the shared folder like a drive on your mac

yea thats probably a nice way to do it, but getting them to talk to each other is a pain in the butt, especially if your sitting on a PC trying to access the mac files, although sharing from the PC and using the mac is probably the easiest way, apart from USB ext HD.

that does sound like a really good alternative...i was planning on buying an external hd anyway..if i were to simply copy/paste the files from the pc to the ext.hd and then to the mac would that be slower than connecting the cat5 cable and doing the above?

i guess it would be about the same speed, if you have a gigabit capable card in your PC then it would be a bit faster (30mbps>50mbps, smaller files usually transfer slower because of verification and stuff) and a USB HD can be anywhere from 15mbps>40mbps depending on the model, internal HD quality of cable and again the size of the files.

so you have 2 main options haha.

 

[bingochips16]

my parents have an iMac and i took an extra cat5 i had and directly connected the two..i just copied like 15 gigs of music over in like 6 minutes no problem..i just dragged and dropped...so that problem was solved..thanks for the suggestions everybody...back to the original question...are there any apps or processes i should go through as soon as i get my macbook...post installation of 4gb ram and the migration of my files

 

[DoFoT9]

my parents have an iMac and i took an extra cat5 i had and directly connected the two..i just copied like 15 gigs of music over in like 6 minutes no problem..i just dragged and dropped...so that problem was solved..thanks for the suggestions everybody...back to the original question...are there any apps or processes i should go through as soon as i get my macbook...post installation of 4gb ram and the migration of my files

1. run through software update
2. download istat pro
3. VLC
4. change the default background so you dont look n00bish.
5. download handbrake
6. download adium

cant think of anything else right now..

 

[bingochips16]

awesome thanks..any and all other tips are very welcome

 

[vandozza]

1. run through software update
2. download istat pro
3. VLC
4. change the default background so you dont look n00bish.
5. download handbrake
6. download adium

cant think of anything else right now..

all awesome suggestions!

i might add -
1. i personally prefer istat menus to istat pro, all the system info you need in your menu bar. looks awesome. both istat menu and pro are free.
2. as well as vlc for media playback, also get perian. perian allows quicktime to play nearly all media files as well. some people prefer the native quicktime app over vlc. its a personal preference. but perian will get divx xvid etc playing through quicktime.
3. get skitch (its in open beta now, eventually will cost, but its pretty cool)
4. appfresh to keep your non-apple applications up to date.
5. firefox with adblock plus, or safari with safariadblock for the best browsing.
6. transmission is the best torrent application, free!
7. netnewswire or newsfire for RSS. Both awesome. Both free.
8. cyberduck for FTP
9. onyx for fiddling around with system settings (BE CAREFUL)
10. appzapper for uninstalling applications
11. skype, miro, evernote, things, smultron, coda, textwrangler, openoffice/neo office, the unarchiver, colloquy (IRC) are all apps worth a download to check out!

 

[DoFoT9]

^^ all very good suggestions!

i prefer bits on wheels over transmission, it just seems to get faster downloads for me (even though it has been discontinued for man yyears)

 

[vandozza]

i prefer bits on wheels over transmission, it just seems to get faster downloads for me (even though it has been discontinued for man yyears)

that's an app i have never heard of. will have to look it up.
i blame the slow transmission speed on local adsl1 speeds, not my choice of torrent client

have you kept up to date with transmissions progress?

over the last few releases it has grown greatly, i can't imagine going back to utorrent or azureus now.

 

[DoFoT9]

that's an app i have never heard of. will have to look it up.
i blame the slow transmission speed on local adsl1 speeds, not my choice of torrent client

have you kept up to date with transmissions progress?

over the last few releases it has grown greatly, i can't imagine going back to utorrent or azureus now.

haha yea i have ADSL2+ and it is still extremely slow, i have to upload at my full 100kbps to get a download speed of 100kbps, i think its just down to people being selfish after they finish downloading.

yes im always updating transmission, its getting faster in terms of stability and the program itself, it still doesnt connect to all hosts yet. i use bitlord on the PC, its the best program ive used so far.

azures = the badness, always crashes on me

 

[bingochips16]

ok well i torrent a lot now so i'll definitely be getting transmission...i use utorrent now..and by far my favorite feature is the selective downloading...like you can choose which parts of the torrent you want..does that same feature come in transmission or is that a utorrent only thing

 

[liptonlover]

good apps... these are what I use a lot, you didn't really specify for what.
stickies are indispensable for me
grab is great if you need a quick screenshot of part or all of the screen.
R-Name to change the extension/name of a bunch of files at once.
Photoshop Elements, obviously for image editing.
TextEdit is great if you don't need a heavy text editor.
The rest is stuff like my development apps, built in standard apps, and games.

 

[GGJstudios]

Welcome to Mac and welcome to MacRumors: Forums! I think you'll find both to be great experiences! I know you'll get lots of answers regarding your specific questions, but I'd like to offer two tips to help you:

1. Before you start a new thread to ask a question, then wait for responses, many times you'll find a quicker answer by searching the forums first. It doesn't always work, but many times you'll find previous discussions that answer your questions, without starting new threads and without having to wait around for people to respond.
   
2. When you do post a thread, if you make the title something specific, like "Best method to transfer files from PC to Mac" or "Recommended apps for new Mac user", you'll likely get more responses and more on-target responses than "Somewhat new to Mac".

I hope this helps your experience on the forums!