Syncing my Mac with my iPhone plus other setup frustrations

[classixuk]

I'm writing this from my new Mac Mini (arrived yesterday) and so far so good.

I've updated to Mountain Lion for free and have a few apps that are upgrading as I type.

I've got a few questions which I assume are basic, and forgive me for not searching first but the first question should indicate why...

1. Can I make the default text bigger whilst keeping the same screen resolution? I'm plugged in to a 40@ Panasonic Vierra in the living room so this all looks very small. I've found the zoom but I really could do with the text etc. just being bigger in the first place (without me having to resort to 1024px x 768px.

2. How do I set this keyboard to UK layout? I have set it to British etc. but my @'s and my " are all messed up?

3. Is there an easy way of syncing my iPhone contacts to the Mac? I bluetoothed the phone and it appears to have synced my reminders (perhaps that was through the cloud though?) but not my contacts or calendars. To be clear, on my iPhone I check about 5 different email accounts on which I also import contacts, calendars, notes etc. I'd like the Mac set up to check and sync the same. Is there a way I can copy all the settings from the iPhone easily? Come to think of it, is there a way I can copy my contacts to my iPhone instead of only seeing them in Exchange (that way they would be available in iCloud too)?

4. In Garageband is there a way of knowing what loops go with others? I tried @piano 1@ with @bassline 1@ for example and they clashed. Surely there's a button that says something like @You picked piano 1 - here's all the loops that match that chord progression/melody@

5. What is iLife 11 and should I have it? I can't find anything called iLife yet keep seeing it mentioned online.

6. How do you open a new tab in safari and how do I sync my history in the same between my iPhone and Mac?

7. What cool tricks am I missing? Is there a @set-up your mac OS guide for newbies@?

Cheers everyone. I know it's a lot of questions but I'll need to check for replies on my Laptop as the text is too tiny on this machine to be able to comfortably read.

 

[Stooby Mcdoobie]

I can answer a couple of your questions, but I don't know the answers to all of them.

5. iLife is just a suite of applications, much like Microsoft's Office suite. It's made up of a few different programs - three of them should already be on your Mac: iMovie, GarageBand, and iPhoto.

7. Here you should be able to find a guide for just about any question you may have. Here is another good place to look if you're a beginner.

Hopefully some other posters can answer your other questions.

 

[RedCroissant]

I'm writing this from my new Mac Mini (arrived yesterday) and so far so good.

I've updated to Mountain Lion for free and have a few apps that are upgrading as I type.

I've got a few questions which I assume are basic, and forgive me for not searching first but the first question should indicate why...

1. Can I make the default text bigger whilst keeping the same screen resolution? I'm plugged in to a 40@ Panasonic Vierra in the living room so this all looks very small. I've found the zoom but I really could do with the text etc. just being bigger in the first place (without me having to resort to 1024px x 768px.

2. How do I set this keyboard to UK layout? I have set it to British etc. but my @'s and my " are all messed up?

3. Is there an easy way of syncing my iPhone contacts to the Mac? I bluetoothed the phone and it appears to have synced my reminders (perhaps that was through the cloud though?) but not my contacts or calendars. To be clear, on my iPhone I check about 5 different email accounts on which I also import contacts, calendars, notes etc. I'd like the Mac set up to check and sync the same. Is there a way I can copy all the settings from the iPhone easily? Come to think of it, is there a way I can copy my contacts to my iPhone instead of only seeing them in Exchange (that way they would be available in iCloud too)?

4. In Garageband is there a way of knowing what loops go with others? I tried @piano 1@ with @bassline 1@ for example and they clashed. Surely there's a button that says something like @You picked piano 1 - here's all the loops that match that chord progression/melody@

5. What is iLife 11 and should I have it? I can't find anything called iLife yet keep seeing it mentioned online.

6. How do you open a new tab in safari and how do I sync my history in the same between my iPhone and Mac?

7. What cool tricks am I missing? Is there a @set-up your mac OS guide for newbies@?

Cheers everyone. I know it's a lot of questions but I'll need to check for replies on my Laptop as the text is too tiny on this machine to be able to comfortably read.

1. I don't know if you can make the default text bigger, but getting a magic trackpad and using the pinch to zoom feature enlarges the text and maintains the screen resolution. Or you could also use the keyboard shortcut (Command+Shift+ "+"). Pressing the combination(Command+Shift+"-") will make the text smaller.

3. Open iTunes and when it registers the iPhone as being connected, click on the iPhone under the devices menu on the left. Then once on that screen, you will see the various items that you can sync to your iPhone. Select "Info" then sync contacts. When iTunes notices the differences in your contacts list, it will prompt you to make changes and you should have no problem importing your contacts.

6. New tab you can either press (Command + T) or click on the "+" sign next to an already open tab. In iTunes, under the Info menu, there will be an option to sync Safari bookmarks and that should also sync history as well.