We just got a Mac...

Congrats! Which did you get? Try opening up a LOT of windows, and then pressing command(the apple button on the left and right)+F9. It's really cool. Also, mess around with your dashboard and download new widgets. I have been a big fan of my macs for a few years now. Good luck!

 

Programs that I *need* to have on my Mac:

+ Adium - IM client
+ Adobe Creative Suite
+ iStat Pro Widget - gives system stats - cpu, mem, hd space, etc
+ Firefox - web browser
+ HyperEdit - web development tool
+ MAMP - Mac Apache MySQL PHP Stack
+ Microsoft Remote Desktop - to connect to windows machines so I can use a windows desktop if need be
+ Microsoft Office 2004 - Entourage is a really good mail client, I need it to connect to Exchange
+ Microsoft Media Player - only thing I can consistently get to play wmv files
+ Skype - make calls over the Internet
+ StuffIt Expander - for opening compressed (zip, rar, etc) files
+ SuperDuper! - for manual/automatic backups
+ Toast - cd/dvd burning software
+ Unison - BY FAR the best usenet client I've ever seen
+ UnRarX - for handling par and rar files
+ VLC - for playing all media files other than wmvs

Also... my biggest gripe has been how unstable my Mac is. Granted, it is a first generation intel MacBook Pro, and I run a TON of stuff on it, so I can understand it crapping out sometimes... I've literally had to rebuild it from backup 3 times already though and I haven't had it that long. I really would suggest you get an external firewire drive that is at least the size of your Internal HD, and get regular, bootable, backups going with SuperDuper. It'll save you one day.

Good luck!

 

Yep. Firefox is great. For the new intel mac(like mine), just download flip4mac. It plays WMVs in a quicktime window, and Microsoft office is also something you need to have.

 

Also, I'm somewhat of a newbie, too, having switched this year.

Another couple of tips not relating to software you should get...

+ If you want to "lock" your computer when you're not in front of it, set up a screen saver that requires a password when you want to close it out. Then use the hot corners functionality to assign your screen saver to go active when you move your mouse to that corner. Soon, whenever you leave your desk, you'll be just swinging the mouse to that corner without thinking.
+ If you want to create a secure section of your hard drive that no one has access to:
Open Disk Utility.
Go to File - New - Blank Disk Image
Name it, change the size to whatever you want, choose AES-128 encryption, choose read/write disk image
Choose a password for the image, but DO NOT save it in your keyring
Now you'll have another virtual secure hard drive - when you want to access it, mount it, put in your password (again, don't save the password) and drag whatever files you want in there. Pretty good tip someone else showed me...

 

Congradulations! Welcome to the good side! My advice is to learn all the shortcuts, and use the apple website a lot, they actually have tips and stuff on it. It also has free apps and games for download.

Oh and the shortcuts for mac are basically the same with pc, instead of using control (cnt + c), used the "apple key" + c. Pretty soon right click will become useless. I hardly use the trackpad on my laptop anymore, it's all about the shortcuts.

Have fun with it! Which machine did you get?

 

There's no fee, unless you want to buy songs or videos. Song are $.99 each, and videos are $1.99 each. You just pay for each item you buy, not a monthly thing. You can also put a CD in and just import all the songs on it into your library with one click. Man, I'm starting to sound like a commercial. LOL.

 

I have had my Mac for about a year and I still don't know how to use it that great but I like it way better than a PC. The only thing I use a lot is "apple + C" = COPY and "apple + V" = PASTE.

If this was a PC, it would already be tore up and buggy and virii infested.

 

Don't forget Apple+X (cut) and Apple+Q (Quit). Also Apple+W for closing windows without quitting the application completely.

 

I hope this isn't something new to Macs since the Intel switch. I've had macs (and pcs) since the 80s. My macs never crash! Heck, the only time I ever turn the ibook off is when I have to restart after upgrading some software. I think it's hung up twice in two years of daily use. We also have a 7 year old imac that my kids and wife still use to this day for internet stuff. Not even they can kill that thing and I can't remember the last time it's crashed. Has to be at least two years ago. The thing even runs the latest version of OSX.

 

Shift + Apple button + 4 is to take a snapshot.. try it out

 

It's really kind of been a bummer; I've heard a million stories like yours.

Actually, though, I think I've narrowed it down to a faulty hard drive. Though it passes the hardware diagnostics on the Startup CD, I noticed that the only time it crashes is when I'm downloading large files or in the midst of a large transfer. I'm guessing there's a bunch of bad blocks on here. I'm going to run some in depth diags though to verify. Surface scans take a long time.

Either way, it's totally unacceptable for a brand new laptop to have a bad hard drive.

Has anyone seen the new Leopard sneak peak? Time Machine should significantly help with some of this...

 

well congrads. im getting the new Mac Pro which i cant wait for. i have to edmit the leopard with the time machine and etc.. was insane

for all of you who havent seen the presentation heres the link:
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/aug_2006/event/index.html

hope you enjoy

 

It sounds like you got a rare lemon. I would just send it back or bring it into an Apple store.

I have yet to crash my Mac ever since OS X was released. Some apps have crashed but the OS and CPU have never been brought down.

 

The most fun you will have is using the iLife suite (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iTunes) and seeing how rediculously easy to use they are for importing, editing and sharing photos and videos. I got my 69-year-old father-in-law who's never used a computer to use a digital camera, import photos, edit them and email them around to the family.

If you are a pro user, you also won't find a more productive, usable system.
You might also look at getting ProCare from an Apple Store for getting one-on-one training on anything you want to learn. I got this for my mother and she's starting use it all the time - instead of bothering me

 

I'll report back on this. I think it's definitely a faulty hard drive.

I just got TechTools Pro and I'm going to run a surface scan on the hard drive at some point this weekend. I really think that's where my problems are stemming from. I'm also running SMARTReporter to periodically log the SMART status of my hard drive and to have an indicator if the status changes... as luck would have it, the computer hasn't grinded to a halt (yet) since I've installed it.

Other than the occasional reboot because the system completely freezes and the catostrophic failures when I have to restore from backup, the programs have gotten less and less buggy as more and more people are releasing Universal apps! Programs hardly ever crash at all anymore.

The only good thing to come out of my troubles is that I'm now regularly backing up my HD contents to an external drive. SuperDuper is great, you can schedule it to make intelligent backups, only updating the destination drive with files that have been added/deleted. While the initial backup took a couple of hours, my nightly backup takes between 10-20 minutes.

 

Looks like the new OS X upgrade (Leopard) will come with its own advanced backup software...so, when/if you upgrade you could also check that out too.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/timemachine.html

 

I'm one of the few that loves both Mac and Windows. Congratulations on the purchase powerbook or?

 

Yup, saw it earlier this week. Looks pretty cool!

 

Not to completely throw this thread off track, but as an update...

I ran a surface scan while I was at dinner tonight. When I got back the scan was about 2/3 done, but it had already found 69 bad blocks. That would be my problem! Now, I have to go through the long process of testing my backup to make sure I can boot from it, formatting my drive by zeroing out all data so that it 'fixes' the bad blocks, booting to my external drive, and restoring all the data to the internal drive. Sounds like a hoot!

Here's my obligatory Mac tip to bring this back on topic:

The delete button does the same thing as the backspace key on a Windows box. Mac's don't have the Windows delete key, though. If you want the Windows delete key functionality, press the fn key + delete.

 

I only own Macs and hope you bought the latest one as they tend to release their new computers without telling anyone anything, next thing you know there is a new one coming out in an hour and you just bought an "older" one. Enjoy.

 

hahaha... yeah, I bought the 15in Macbook the day before the 17in one came out...

 

They just came out with new stuff again 3 days ago!

 

Yeah. That has happened to me numerous times with old iPods and my old iBook, along with other apple products. The Apple store never even knows when they are going to come out with something. It's a waiting game.