The "Hi... I'm a Mac" thread

[3oneday]

Yeah, a bus-powered 500gb USB drive can be had for not much more than $100 these days.

Can I buy that at the same time you reckon ? Am I wasting my time at a place like JB Hifi for this stuff ?

[Courty]

Can I buy that at the same time you reckon ? Am I wasting my time at a place like JB Hifi for this stuff ?

Probably cheaper at JB Hifi or WOW.

[AndyP]

Officeworks and Dick Smith are options too.

[Fishman Dan]

3OD - Take a walk to the Apple store if you're at all interested, including things like TimeCapsule for backups without thinking.

Happy to hold your hand if you're a little bit tentative (but not in a gay sort of way).

[3oneday]

Went Friday actually, but interested in the Time Capsule thingo. Is there really much price difference at these other stores ? They said they would match anyone prices anyway ?

[Courty]

You can use Time Machine with any external drive. Time Capsule allows you to backup up wirelessly... but is it worth the extra expense?

[adlo]

A guy I work with picked up an ex display 500 gig Time Capsule from Harris Technologies for $350 which seemed good.

Otherwise, I just grabbed an Airport Extreme, which looks like it will make more sense long term.

[Fishman Dan]

I've fired up the new MacBook Pro and done just about everything I need to do on Day 1. I downloaded all updates, configured things such as mail and installed Skype. Anything else? I'll have to start copying all photo's etc across tomorrow, and find a way to migrate my iTunes library from my old clunker of a PC to this beast.

I had a look at the BootCamp setup, looks like a job for me on the weekend. Question - has anyone here set up their Mac's for BootCamp, and if so, how much space did you dedicate? It's not too much of an issue with 320 gb at my disposal. I was thinking about 30-40 Gb - it won't be used for much more than opportune PC applications, and perhaps a game or two (Unreal Tournament GOTY edition ).

Courty - thanks for the tip re Time Capsule. I had no idea it could be done with any USB device, therefore an AirPort Extreme is probably a better option for me right now.

[Courty]

I've fired up the new MacBook Pro and done just about everything I need to do on Day 1. I downloaded all updates, configured things such as mail and installed Skype. Anything else? I'll have to start copying all photo's etc across tomorrow, and find a way to migrate my iTunes library from my old clunker of a PC to this beast.

Little Snitch/ Perian/ Transmission/ Adium

I'll post more as I think of them.

[AndyP]

I had a look at the BootCamp setup, looks like a job for me on the weekend. Question - has anyone here set up their Mac's for BootCamp, and if so, how much space did you dedicate? It's not too much of an issue with 320 gb at my disposal. I was thinking about 30-40 Gb - it won't be used for much more than opportune PC applications, and perhaps a game or two (Unreal Tournament GOTY edition ).

Have you looked at Parallels or VMWare Fusion, which will run from the OSX environment to run your Windows stuff?

[Fishman Dan]

My brother mentioned last night that he can give me Parallels - is there any difference between the 2 products performance-wise?

[AndyP]

I haven't used Fusion, but a friend does and recommends it. Parallels runs super slow on my Macbook, but it should be fine on the Pro.
With those two you'll be able to run your OSX apps concurrently with the Windows stuff, which you can't do with Bootcamp.

[kpac]

Interesting Andy... I've use parrallels and Fusion and i'd go parrallels every time. Far superior speeds and integration imo..... worth a google fish. I also did bootcamp for a while, it is a valid option, you just have to figure how you are going to use the windows side.
ie: if some days you want to use windows for progams/work/games/watever, for a decent period of time then i'd recommend BC.
Parrallels/Fusion are more setup for people that are going to use OSX all the time, but need to access windows programs for reasons.
It's hard to figure out early, but i use to draw on autocad some days - thus i went BC. Since i dont do that anymore, i now run parrallels for the occasion when i need to access something from windows....

[AndyP]

If you've found Parallels to be faster, then maybe Fusion will be just as slow for me, and it's not worth changing over. I was going to give Fusion a try to see what it was like

[Fishman Dan]

The real reason for BootCamp will be to install a couple of games that I play with mates every so often (i.e. - not very often!). There is some work-specific stuff that may be of benefit, but not to the extent that I would need to boot into Windows.

The Parallels/Fusion angle is for the more general use, largely my wife who want to connect to her office via VPN, because their IT guy can't sort out a Mac VPN client. Funnily enough, most of the directors at her work all have Mac's and he still can't sort this out!

I downloaded the Windows 7 RC package last night - just not sure whether to try this first or stick to XP.

[Courty]

A mate of mine has run a beta of Windows 7 via Parallels and said it is miles faster than XP or Vista.

[Fishman Dan]

May as well have a crack at it when I've got little/no data to stuff around with. Decision made! I'll have a crack tonight I think.

[markTHEblake]

Sneak Preview of the upcoming $500 Mac Netbook

[henno]

How well supported is the hardware MTB?

(I assume that's yours.)

[markTHEblake]

Of course its not mine, it would be illegal to install a hacked OS X on a non Mac hardware

I heard everything works. as long as you follow the instructions.
the only caveat is it wont autologin to a wireless network, so its an extra click to get going. Too confusing for the typical Mac user i agree.

i cant get Netbook Ubuntu to install though and thats annoying. for some reason i cant make me a boot flash drive installer thingy. I will just get the ISO installer eventually.

[Fishman Dan]

Why waste clicks? There's so much to do in life that we should automate as much as possible

PS - Installing Windows 7 in my BootCamp partition was almost entirely click-less. Can't really say the same for your adventure!

[adlo]

Mac rubbish

[Yossarian]

Agreed windows is the bomb!

[adlo]

Windows is phat!

[virge666]

When does my iPhone get updated to version three so I can receive MMS and have proper working Bluetooth ??

Bloody rubbish - the iPhone is absolutley fantastic at everything except being an actual phone.