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Thinking about switching to a Mac? Think again

ArthurDaley said:
Today on a deadline...
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Nothing personal, but IMO you'd have to be crazy to migrate to a new *platform* with a deadline one day away, staring you in the face.

In those circumstances I wouldn't even migrate to a new computer on the same platform (PC, Mac, whatever) with a deadline if I absolutely wasn't forced.
 
So my last post was to say I appear to get no audio input from a microphone plugged into the line-in and asking if anyone has any ideas?
 
"The line-in jack is different than a microphone jack. A line-in jack does no amplification while a microphone does. So you will need some USB converter for your headset. Such thing would be a Macally iVoice II or a Griffin iMic or just get a USB headset."
from here

"Analog audio line input is accepted through a 3.5mm mini phone jack which does not provide power to a connected device, so you must use self-powered peripherals. The sound input jack accepts line-level stereo signals up to 24-bit stereo 44.1-192kHz sampling rate. It also accepts a stereo miniplug-to-RCA cable adapter for connecting stereo equipment to the computer."
from here

And locally ... "Alright, being the n00b I am, I bought a headset with analog outputs, thinking the microphone would work with my mac flawlessly, just like everything else. HAHAHAHA! So, I went ahead and tried to find out how to fix the problem, and it turns out I need an iMic or some other sort of preamp ..." (start of a MacRumors thread) from here.

Cheers
 
Thanks folks - I get it after Googling up some points above - at least on one end it means something is not broken. But it means the 20 (yes 20) headsets I have will now not work, at least not without a USB converter. Really annoying that there is no normal mic in in addition to a line in. I've read via Googling it up that some folks are buying quality analogue headsets for Skype then loading XP on their MBP to place Skype calls which seems lame.
 
Your Skype experiences are odd. :confused:

I don't have a microphone nor headset and I successfully use the inbuilt microphone and webcam in my MBP with Skype to video conference with my sisters overseas.

No problems with audio levels or quality in all our calls in the past 18 months - and that is via a wireless connection.

(great tour of the house and rennovations via MBP :)

Ang
 
I use the draytek router with both my iMac and MacBook with no problems what so ever. I suggest upgrading the draytek firmware as there was a known problem with the wireless implementation on the draytek.
 
ArthurDaley said:
1) It seems my newish and expensive DrayTek (~350USD) router and my MBP don't like each other. No matter what settings I play with it drops, and has a fairly weak signal compared to what the PCs get. But it seems that on all the cheap routers I could find, there was no problem. That sucks a bit. Not sure which end is at fault.
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You could try calling the company or e-mailing them, or going to their site/Googling the issue if you haven't already. You say that using G works for now, that's good. It should. I had a weird issue though with my old one. Deleted it in System Prefs, then also deleted in it in my Keychain, then ran Onyx to clear the caches and restarted. You can even try to reinstall the latest OS update if you can. Then re-add it. That might not help you either if you've already done so, but I'm wondering why you didn't just buy one that had N capabilities if you paid that much. Might need to still play with it if you still have issues.

My USR sucked with my Mac, but I had problems with it on my PC too. I got a refurb Apple, and it's pretty good. For an N, it wasn't that expensive either.

2) Reinstall of OS fixed eject issue. Shame I had to reinstall Leopard on a virgin machine to get Leopard to eject blank media. It would not even show desktop icon for inserted blank media before the reinstall.
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I always re-install from scratch on a new machine. I hate the default. Give you the option to deselect some things you may not need too.

3) Trying ForkLift right now but it's not as good as Directory Opus on PC. There must be more dual-pane file manager things out there?
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The only one I know of is PathFinder, but I didn't like it. I use others to enhance Finder, like Default Folder X, but it may not help you with this particular thing you want to do. Try searching Version Tracker or MacUpdate to see if they have something.

4) Nothing I can do about it, so if it is a very short business trip and I only need the Web browser, I just take my titanium Sony Vaio.
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I have to ask what kind of Sony you have. In my experience, accept for the ultraportables, Sonys are usually bigger than the same sized Mac equivalent. The 15" is going to be bigger than a 14 or 13", but it's one of the smallest, lightest, 15" I know of.

Keep posting if you have issues. Apple and Macs aren't perfect, don't let anyone tell you they are. They're just nice. As you've seen. When they work.
 
I remember when purchasing my iBook, which was my first Mac, I was so disappointed... Now I still have my good ole' G4 iBook, and my PC XP 3000+ gets less time than my Mac :D
 
ArthurDaley said:
3) A main interactive element daily is the "file manager" but Finder appeared worse than Windows File Explorer and a LOT worse than 3rd party Windows file managers like my favourite Directory Opus.
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When I switched, I hated navigating through files until I got Quicksilver (download link: http://download.blacktree.com/download.php?id=com.blacktree.Quicksilver&type=dmg&new=yes)

I suppose it's not an all out navigator, but it's fast as hec and keeps my dock and desktop clear.
 
ArthurDaley said:
Someone tell me "It Just Works"?
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Apple's sales staff would be happy to tell you that, but I won't.

First off, "It just works" is a marketing theme that generally refers to all the basic, simple things that Macs get right that can and often do go completely and inexplicably haywire on PCs. "It just works" doesn't refer to every nook and cranny of the OS and the machine. That's simply not possible for any company to achieve and realistically nobody should come to Macs expecting that. A lot of Mac-haters will often pretend that Mac users run around parroting this "it just works" thing but in reality, few of us (that I'm aware of) do that. Those few who do should be slapped. Repeatedly. And hard.

Secondly, if you're new to the platform, you should expect a learning curve, even when shifting from Windows to a more intuitively designed interface in OS X. You're still going to have to get the hang of things and that will take some time. I hope you hang in there. As someone who uses both platforms equally, I can guarantee that it's worth the effort.

Now, the good news and the bad.

The bad news is that things will still not work occasionally. Sometimes, things will crash. Sometimes peripherals will disappear. Sometimes bizarre and inexplicable error occurs. On very rare occasions, the computer will freeze. Hey, $#!t happens, even on a Mac.

The good news is that fixing those things is generally easier on a Mac and rarely involves reinstalling the OS as is common troubleshooting practice on Windows PCs.
 
Thanks for the replies.

On the bad news side it seems to me at least with novice eyes that the Mac sucks for processing my HD video which was one reason I bought it for see https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=5287219

On the good news side lots of people including at this site tell me to stick with it and a friend I trust said "switching to a Mac is like going to rehab. You'll be miserable for 3 or 4 weeks, but after that, you'll be glad you switched!"

I'm putting a fair degree of trust in others by not taking this machine back to the shop. And the internal battle I have is if I take it back then what in the next year or so -> Vista = no chance. So it seems I have no option but to crossove.r
 
It does sound like there's some stuff not working as it should, which is a shame.

Some things do work fine, just differently than you're used to is all.

I personally don't mind the barebones Finder, but it's certainly not as full-featured as Explorer was in XP (from what I can remember, haven't booted into Windoze in 2 years now).

Maybe Xfolders is an application that you would find useful? It's free, so it can't hurt to try it, right?

Xfolders
 
Give it a few months and you'll discover an ease of use and a truly satisfying pace of work that will make you certain you made the right choice...

If you really want it you will eventually find the Mac is the 'happy way'...
 
"satisfying pace of work" - that is what most folks are saying and was a factor in wishing to switch. Good folks I trust have promised me I will be more productive on the Mac and really that is my aim as the one thing I lack more and more is time, and I don't have time to be reinstalling Windows, fighting a million stupid small things with it, rebooting, putting up with disc thrashing sessions (for no obvious reason) etc.

OS X does feel a million times better than XP, at least to me. It's just so painful when after 10 years of Windows 7 days/week that every basic action requires thought and is frictional - everything - even dragging stuff to the burn folder had me puzzled as to where it was storing the files but now I see it is symbolic links.

My notion just to switch my work to a new platform and keep going was a bad one, so I'm back to working at the PC and as I get time, moving certain tasks to the Mac with the view to completely switch over in the coming month or so. I've got hold of some books on OS X which clarify to me the "workings", just need time to read more.

I'll give you an example thing I am stuck with today as I transfer video onto the Mac - how the hell do you see how much space is used and unused against each partition. There seems to be nothing quick/visual that shows this. It would be even nicer if it just showed hard drives instead of other things it sees as "mounted". You know - just show me my hard drives, partitions, what is used and unused on each - pie chart it even.
 
ArthurDaley said:
how the hell do you see how much space is used and unused against each partition. There seems to be nothing quick/visual that shows this. It would be even nicer if it just showed hard drives instead of other things it sees as "mounted". You know - just show me my hard drives, partitions, what is used and unused on each - pie chart it even.
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Activity Monitor (in the Utilities folder), select the Disk Usage tab, your pie chart is served :)
 
ArthurDaley said:
Thanks folks - I get it after Googling up some points above - at least on one end it means something is not broken. But it means the 20 (yes 20) headsets I have will now not work, at least not without a USB converter. Really annoying that there is no normal mic in in addition to a line in. I've read via Googling it up that some folks are buying quality analogue headsets for Skype then loading XP on their MBP to place Skype calls which seems lame.
Click to expand...

I use the internal Mic on my iMac and MacBook on Skype without any issues. I suspect they didn't include a Mic In as the internal one is perfect good.
 
Activity Monitor -> just checked it out, very nice

I will checkout pathfinder

As for mic, I want a headset one as I record podcasts etc.
 
ArthurDaley said:
I'm putting a fair degree of trust in others by not taking this machine back to the shop. And the internal battle I have is if I take it back then what in the next year or so -> Vista = no chance. So it seems I have no option but to crossove.r
Click to expand...

You can always ditch OS X and install XP or Vista on your Macbook Pro. But I say stick with OS X.
 
You can always ditch OS X and install XP or Vista on your Macbook Pro. But I say stick with OS X.
Click to expand...

I made the move for a change of OS. The MBP hardware is heavy and clunky (a bad form factor overall) compared to the titanium Sony Vaio's I normally buy. It would be super cool to have OS X on the Vaio. I did see someone with OS X on non-Apple hardware but I understand it took a bit of effort!
 
ArthurDaley said:
I made the move for a change of OS. The MBP hardware is heavy and clunky (a bad form factor overall) compared to the titanium Sony Vaio's I normally buy. It would be super cool to have OS X on the Vaio. I did see someone with OS X on non-Apple hardware but I understand it took a bit of effort!
Click to expand...

I normally only buy Vaio's as well, so my switch to the Mac side was tough...no one, i mean NO ONE makes hardware like Vaio's.

Anyways, be sure to give Quicksilver a run around: http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/what_is_quicksilver
 
ArthurDaley said:
I made the move for a change of OS. The MBP hardware is heavy and clunky (a bad form factor overall) compared to the titanium Sony Vaio's I normally buy. It would be super cool to have OS X on the Vaio. I did see someone with OS X on non-Apple hardware but I understand it took a bit of effort!
Click to expand...

szsiddiq said:
I normally only buy Vaio's as well, so my switch to the Mac side was tough...no one, i mean NO ONE makes hardware like Vaio's.

Anyways, be sure to give Quicksilver a run around: http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/what_is_quicksilver
Click to expand...

When you say 'hardware' you mean 'outside design' right? Because hardware to me is the insides (although semantically it would also cover the outside design).
 
Apple WiFi dropping issue

Now after reading this http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1441 I see others have the same problem I have - the WiFi on my new Mac Book Pro drops every hour or so even though signal strength is full and I have to run the network diagnostic thing which then basically spits back a message of effect "are you stupid the Internet is fine" and bang it works for another hour or so.
 
So because you have problems with an Apple computer no one else should buy one.

Millions and millions of users and growing are more than happy.
 
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