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The Mac Thread - New Laptops and an Overpriced Cinema Display

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Posts

  • HallucinogenHallucinogen Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Nope.

    Edit: Poop. Too slow.

    Hallucinogen on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • smokmnkysmokmnky Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    So i took the plunge today and bought a refurb Macbook (2.1 core2/120gig HD/1gig ram). The iPhone really is a gateway drug. So is there anything straight away that I should know coming from PC to OSX? I've only had limited use with I think 10.2 and that was just loading Firefox and making sure a website loaded properly.

    Also are there any good sites that I can check out about how to get the most out of Garage band? I plan on using this as a recording/editing machine for a small podcast I do.

    smokmnky on
  • HallucinogenHallucinogen Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    I don't mean to scare you, but I've only ever had and heard about bad experiences with refurbs...

    Others would disagree and have had good experiences but, personally, I don't trust refurbs at all. Based on experience, not opinion/assumption. I would go so far as to suggest you return it if you still can, and get a new one.

    Hallucinogen on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • smokmnkysmokmnky Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    I don't mean to scare you, but I've only ever had and heard about bad experiences with refurbs...

    Others would disagree and have had good experiences but, personally, I don't trust refurbs at all. Based on experience, not opinion/assumption. I would go so far as to suggest you return it if you still can, and get a new one.

    Nah, its got a full warranty from the Apple site. I'm not to worried about it. I have a RL buddy that has 2 refurbs and never had any issues with them. He's had 2 because he went from a 15in to a 17in Pro.

    smokmnky on
  • HallucinogenHallucinogen Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Interestingly my RL buddy had a refurbed MBP 17" and he had to have the display replaced 4 times before Apple finally gave him a brand-new one.

    I got a refurbished display in mine when the original died. The "new" refurb was even worse than my defective display. The guy at the repair centre said, "That's the way they are, none of them are perfect." The whole bottom half of the display was several values darker(uneven backlighting). I'd say that's far from functional, let alone perfect.

    Hallucinogen on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • smokmnkysmokmnky Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Interestingly my RL buddy had a refurbed MBP 17" and he had to have the display replaced 4 times before Apple finally gave him a brand-new one.

    I got a refurbished display in mine when the original died. The "new" refurb was even worse than my defective display. The guy at the repair centre said, "That's the way they are, none of them are perfect." The whole bottom half of the display was several values darker(uneven backlighting). I'd say that's far from functional, let alone perfect.

    Well if it sucks I'll send it back but I don't plan on it right now.

    smokmnky on
  • ArcticXCArcticXC Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Weird, I've only heard good things about refurbs and haven't heard of anybody having any sort of problems. Go figure.

    ArcticXC on
  • The Reverend Dr GalactusThe Reverend Dr Galactus Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    We have a refurb iMac or two at the office, and I've forgotten which ones are refurb and which are new.

    Can't speak for portables, though.

    The Reverend Dr Galactus on
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  • smokmnkysmokmnky Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Glad to hear it, as I said before I've never heard bad things about refurbs, but that's not my questions, anyone have any insight on
    So is there anything straight away that I should know coming from PC to OSX? I've only had limited use with I think 10.2 and that was just loading Firefox and making sure a website loaded properly.

    Also are there any good sites that I can check out about how to get the most out of Garage band? I plan on using this as a recording/editing machine for a small podcast I do.

    smokmnky on
  • joshua1joshua1 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    so i set up the airtunes, so both PC's can steam music. (its sooo good). But it seems that now I cannot share iTunes libraries anymore.... any suggestions?

    joshua1 on
  • joshua1joshua1 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Huh.... my fully functional airport just turned itself off... in the middle of streaming..... what gives?

    joshua1 on
  • joshua1joshua1 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    so after getting off from applecare, turns out my express is broken. :(

    Sorry for they 8 hojillion questions, but upon looking at the crucial memory website, the offer "kits" and the straight sticks..... whats in a kit? In my day ram was practically plug and play.

    joshua1 on
  • Uncle LongUncle Long Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Are you talking about RAM? A ram kit is usually just 2 * XGB of whatever speed you're getting. Instead of buying a single 2 GB stick, you could get a 2GB kit of 2 1GB sticks.

    Uncle Long on
  • joshua1joshua1 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    yeah, I was talking ram.... I fail at reading comprehension. Cheers.

    joshua1 on
  • Shady3011Shady3011 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Posting from my new 3G iPhone. I need to know what apps I absolutely need to make my iPhone super awesome.

    Shady3011 on
  • joshua1joshua1 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Is there a way to transfer my iTunes music without just straight out copy paste of the library files? I need to stock my new iMac with some songs.

    joshua1 on
  • theantipoptheantipop Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Shady3011 wrote: »
    Posting from my new 3G iPhone. I need to know what apps I absolutely need to make my iPhone super awesome.

    Pandora - internet radio
    Shazam - identifies recorded music (even gives you links to youtube vids of the song!)
    SportsTap - great sports app, at least for American sports, but does have some football leagues

    theantipop on
  • SzechuanosaurusSzechuanosaurus Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited July 2008
    smokmnky wrote: »
    Glad to hear it, as I said before I've never heard bad things about refurbs, but that's not my questions, anyone have any insight on
    So is there anything straight away that I should know coming from PC to OSX? I've only had limited use with I think 10.2 and that was just loading Firefox and making sure a website loaded properly.

    Also are there any good sites that I can check out about how to get the most out of Garage band? I plan on using this as a recording/editing machine for a small podcast I do.

    I think most Mac OS stuff is fairly self-explanatory, but then I've been using Macs and PCs for years, so I'm quite comfortable switching between the two these days. There's nothing that you need to know for your personal safety, but there are a few quirks.

    For example, programs don't run 'in their own window' as they do on the PC. They sort of occupy space in the Dock and, when they're the active application, take control of the bar at the top of the screen. This means that you can't close applications by just clicking the X on the master window (because there is no master window). Indeed, you can close all the windows in an application and that application will still be open. You need to either Quit the application from it's app menu in the menu bar at the top of the screen, Command+Q when the application is active, or right click on the application's icon in the dock and choose Quit.

    I guess a few shortcut keys would come in handy to know.

    The 'command' key is the one with the Apple logo and the weird symbol with five circles - one in the middle and four around it's edge. I think it's largely analogous to the Control key on PCs, so a lot of sort cuts - especially editing short cuts like copy and paste - cross over from PC to Mac

    Command+ A - select all
    Command+X - cut selection to clipboard (removes it and copies it to your clipboard)
    Command+C - Copies selection to clipboard
    Command+P - Paste selction
    Command+Z - Undo last action (all these also work in the OS, so you can copy or cut files and paste them to new locations and also undo actions if you accidentally move files you didn't want to etc.

    Command+Backspace - move selected file to trash
    Command+Alt+Backspace - empty trash

    Command+Q - quits almost every application
    Command+W - closes the currently active window
    Command+H - hides most applications
    Alt+Command+H - usually hides all the other applications except the one you are using
    Command+Tab - cycle through open applications (whether they are hidden or not)

    Um...to be honest, you'll figure all this stuff out yourself. There are alternative screen management systems to hiding apps which other people prefer to use, it's best to just read through the manuals and help and mess about to figure out what system works best for you.

    Szechuanosaurus on
  • Epyon9283Epyon9283 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    The menus show the keyboard shortcuts associated with actions. Since some people have had issues with recognizing the symbols, here is what they are and what they mean. They probably won't appear correctly on Windows:
    ⌘ is the command key
    ⌥ is the option (alt) key
    ⎋ is the escape key
    ⌫ is the delete key (backspace)
    ⌦ is the delete key (delete to the right, on a laptop its fn+⌫)
    ⇧ is the shift key

    Also, and this drove me insane at first but the home and end keys work differently than on Windows. On OS X, they bring you do the beginning and the end of the document, not the beginning and the end of the line. They also don't change the insertion point when they bring you there.
    ⌘+left will bring you to the beginning of the line
    ⌘+right will bring you to the end of the line
    ⌥+right or ⌥+left will bring your cursor one word left or right.
    Holding shift while performing the above actions will highlight the line/word.

    Cocoa apps (most new apps that aren't from adobe or MS), have neat text editing features. One of which is word completion. Begin typing a word and hit ⌥+⎋ and it'll bring up a list of words that can complete what you're typing. Also, in cocoa apps, if you want the definition of something quickly, put your mouse over the word, hold down control+⌘ and then hit the d key. It'll pop up a little dictionary over the word. Neato.

    Epyon9283 on
  • smokmnkysmokmnky Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Szechuanosaurus & Epyon9283 thanks, that was the kind of stuff I was looking for. God knows I would have become frustrated with copy/paste trying to use ctrl+c and ctrl+p. I'm pretty excited for it, tuesday can't get here soon enough :)

    smokmnky on
  • GrimReaperGrimReaper Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Well, I handed my Macbook Pro in today at an Apple reseller place that does AppleCare stuff. They'll be sending it to Apple to get repaired, I managed to reproduce the issue.

    From what i've figured out I think the cable connecting the display to the graphics chip is loose. I managed to reproduce it by lowering the display slightly and it went all funky.

    So, i'm now without my Macbook Pro until it gets repaired. :(

    GrimReaper on
    PSN | Steam
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  • ArcticXCArcticXC Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    So uh... anyone have recommendations for iPhone screen protectors and/or cases?

    ArcticXC on
  • Mike DangerMike Danger "Diane..." a place both wonderful and strangeRegistered User regular
    edited July 2008
    ArcticXC wrote: »
    So uh... anyone have recommendations for iPhone screen protectors and/or cases?

    Seconded. (I assume anything that works for the iPhone will also work for the iPod Touch.)

    Mike Danger on
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  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited July 2008
    Hey, how do I add an URL for entries in the address book? The pre-made Apple contact has one, but I can't add it to individuals.

    Echo on
  • Epyon9283Epyon9283 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Echo wrote: »
    Hey, how do I add an URL for entries in the address book? The pre-made Apple contact has one, but I can't add it to individuals.

    Go to preferences -> template. In the add field drop down box, select URL. Now you'll have a home page entry on address book entries.

    Epyon9283 on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2008
    Saar wrote: »
    Satan. wrote: »
    Where did he buy it? How soon did he buy it? At the time of this post we're all of 12 days out from the 2.0 software launch, so it's extremely likely the old stock hadn't cycled.

    I'm not sure where he bought it but it was definitely purchased between 07.15 and 07.19. I showed him the apps on my phone told him how to acquire them. That's when I saw he was running 1.1.4.

    I can understand that the stock may had not been refreshed, but I would think there would be a check in iTunes on a first run that would say "Hey, this dude is registering a newly purchased product, with outdated software. Free update for you".

    My guess is old stock. As I'm relatively certain I said before, new iPods leaving the factory after the January update got the new software.

    Satan. on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2008
    Septus wrote: »
    Aurora Feint is kind of fun, but also massively slow on the non puzzle portions of the game.

    And the non-puzzle portions of the game are really unimpressive.

    The update fixed a lot of a sluggishness, so give it another go. Also, before the update I never could use the items that I had earned. Now they're all over the place as blocks. The Tower is really useless it seems, a six year old could figure it out.

    Satan. on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2008
    Lewisham wrote: »
    I saw a dude with a Macbook Air on the train yesterday.

    He looked bad-ass. The tapered edges look so much nicer than the utilitarian Macbook Pro.

    Well, it helped that I was wearing a t-shirt that said "I AM BAD-ASS". :P

    On that, I've decided I'm going to sell off my iMac and go to my Air and iPhone full-time. I just don't use the iMac that much anymore, only to watch TV shows or films. I can get a Popcorn Hour to take care of that part. I think, computing power wise, I should be alright with just the Air.

    Satan. on
  • Shady3011Shady3011 Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    ArcticXC wrote: »
    So uh... anyone have recommendations for iPhone screen protectors and/or cases?

    I got the Invisible Shield on my iPhone. While I don't make it a habit to drop my things, it's basically impervious to scratches with the thing. My only gripes are the installation process and the feel of it. The latter of those two is inherent with screen protectors though.

    Shady3011 on
  • Satan.Satan. __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2008
    Hardtarget wrote: »
    Does anybody know of a good free Mac Burning program? I found some program called "Burn" but it's kinda shitty and I'd rather not pay for Toast.

    Burn is about the only other solution. Disco is a nice burning app, parlor tricks aside, and I'm using that and iTunes to handle my burning needs. Unfortunately Disco isn't free.

    Satan. on
  • SzechuanosaurusSzechuanosaurus Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited July 2008
    ArcticXC wrote: »
    So uh... anyone have recommendations for iPhone screen protectors and/or cases?

    The Power Support screen protectors are great. Improve the use of the touch screen as well as protecting it and, unlike some screen protectors like the Belkin ones, they cover the whole glass face (with cut-outs for the speaker and home button), not just the viewing area.
    Echo wrote: »
    Hey, how do I add an URL for entries in the address book? The pre-made Apple contact has one, but I can't add it to individuals.

    Sure you can. Click on an individuals name in the contact book, then press the Edit button on their Info screen (top right corner). Scroll down to Add new URL, press it and put in a URL. Press Save (top right corner) and then Done (top right corner).

    Edit - oh wait, are we talking iPhone or and actual Apple computer here?

    Szechuanosaurus on
  • dodosdodos Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Does anyone else feel that by using Apple's computing products that you're limiting yourself with what's available in the world of computers today? For instance, if you want to use Mac OS X you can only buy an Apple Macbook or iMac. But if you want to use Windows or Linux, you can buy from a wealth of laptop and computer providers or even build your own. I guess it goes back to the anomaly of Apple not licensing it's OS to any other computer provider, but I just wanted some input on what other people thought.

    dodos on
  • wunderbarwunderbar What Have I Done? Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    dodos wrote: »
    Anyone else feel that with using an Apple computer and operating system, you're sort-of restricting yourself on the computer with what's available in the world of computing today? I guess the same can be said for anything Windows or Linux, even Dell or Toshiba; it's just I feel that with using an Apple computer and an Apple OS (and I'm not complaining, they're both excellent products) that I'm just severely limited with what different companies can provide (such as all the laptops / computers that are made with Windows from Sony, Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo, etc.).

    I'm sorry, but I don't understand at all what you just said.

    wunderbar on
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  • dodosdodos Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Don't do drugs, kids.

    dodos on
  • RonenRonen Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    dodos wrote: »
    Does anyone else feel that by using Apple's computing products that you're limiting yourself with what's available in the world of computers today? For instance, if you want to use Mac OS X you can only buy an Apple Macbook or iMac. But if you want to use Windows or Linux, you can buy from a wealth of laptop and computer providers or even build your own. I guess it goes back to the anomaly of Apple not licensing it's OS to any other computer provider, but I just wanted some input on what other people thought.

    So by buying anything we're missing out on anything else available? Erm I mean... Yeah. That is kinda how it works for those who can't afford everything.

    And you can run windows or Linux on a mac.

    Ronen on
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  • ThaumaturgistThaumaturgist Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    I took the plunge today. I bought a 15" MacBook Pro with the educational discount. Man this thing is sexy. Now I gotta remember how to use a Mac...

    Thaumaturgist on
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  • Iceman.USAFIceman.USAF Major East CoastRegistered User regular
    edited July 2008
    I too bought a Macbook today.

    Now what?

    Also, I forgot I HAD a student discount until just now.

    Though I did just graduate, I still have a perfectly valid ID.

    Dammit.

    So, question. I was looking at some pictures form a trip to the zoo with my ladyfriend, and I was trying to browse through them without closing the "Preview" window (thats what the program is called, yes?)

    Anyways I says to use command + arrow key to go next and previous, but I do that and nothing happens. Ideas?

    Iceman.USAF on
  • EchoEcho ski-bap ba-dapModerator mod
    edited July 2008
    I played with my buddy's Macbook Air.

    I want one. :| So light compared to my regular Macbook! And yet the touchpad is so much bigger on it!

    Echo on
  • ZoolanderZoolander Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    I too bought a Macbook today.

    Now what?

    Also, I forgot I HAD a student discount until just now.

    Though I did just graduate, I still have a perfectly valid ID.

    Dammit.

    So, question. I was looking at some pictures form a trip to the zoo with my ladyfriend, and I was trying to browse through them without closing the "Preview" window (thats what the program is called, yes?)

    Anyways I says to use command + arrow key to go next and previous, but I do that and nothing happens. Ideas?
    Yeah, it's not like the Windows photo viewer in the sense that you can just open one of the photos in the folder and be able to browse through the rest of the photos in the folder.

    You have to select all the photos that you want to browse through and right-click>open. Kind of annoying, but meh.

    Zoolander on
  • noobertnoobert Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Just got a dev environment up and running on my MBP.

    Work and education is going to be so much better now, but it feels like I'm taking a pretty large risk with all my eggs in one basket.

    Guess I'll have to be pretty diligent with my backups.

    noobert on
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