[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Any Apple Users? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 6/24/2006 1:00:03 AM EDT
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I might buy an Apple MacBook lap top with the pentium processor in it and everything. They are priced pretty well, especially the refrubished ones that Mac has on their site. Primary use will be for my 46 gigs of music and browsing the net. So do you all think of the Macs for these applications? |
| Using my Powerbook right now -- would pick up a Macbook or Macbook Pro if I had the resources to do so. Nothing but good things to say about mine. I've had, and currently possess, a Windows PC for the past 10+ years. The Powerbook was my first Apple product (yes, didn't get an iPod until I got one free with the computer). Now that they're Intel based, it's easy enough to run OSX and WindowsXP at the same time. |
It's trendy because only 5% of the computing population uses them. Don't you see that? I'll say this about my Macs. I have two and will be getting a third here in a month or two. You get what you pay for. TANSTAAFL. |
| Great! I am using a powerbook G4 right now. I will advise against the refurbs on the web though. Those have had a problem and went back to Apple for fixing. However if you are near a Apple store go in and asked them what refreshed macs they have. These are macs people bought and returned because they couldn't afford them or they are floor models that they are selling off. These are usually great deals. I bought my powerbook that way and saved $600 as oppossed to new and it came with the same exact warranty as a new one. |
I bought my iBook as a refurb off the web. No problems over a year later. I'll buy another one if they have something I want. |
"They" don't lock up; but it sounds like yours does. What's the problem. 95% of the time it's a software issue. I did Apple tech support for a few years. IM me; maybe I can help. BTW, you might try opening your email, go to the menu and select "help" and go from there. |
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I have switched back to Mac after ten years of Windows (my last Mac was an LCII). I bought one of the new MacBooks (dual 2.0 Ghz Pentium, 1 gig RAM, 60 gig storage) two weeks ago. 1) Screen resolution and brightness on the new MacBooks is really something. Even Mac users are surprised. 2) I love widgets for being able to get a lot of info really quick without looking like I am doing anything during a meeting. 3) Safari is nice 4) OS X is pretty fast and smooth - and considering that I interface with a 4,000 node Linux cluster it is a nice platform to learn terminal commands on. 5) Most software that you would want is bundled - and it all works effortlessly. 6) PC files port very easily 7) The iSight camera is pretty high quality. It takes grainy camera phone pictures in low light but in a good environment it can be remarkably crisp. 8) Interoperability with peripherals - I have a new 30 gig iPod (I got it for $90 with the laptop) and the Motorola SLVR phone with Bluetooth and iTunes - the Mac makes it a lot easier and faster to exchange files and songs. 9) Oh yeah, the programs! People make some really nice freeware for the Mac that helps productivity. GET QUICKSILVER. Even if you just use the keyboard shortcut feature to jump around your hard drive it is very much faster than manual navigation. 10) Price - I went ahead and jumped on the MacBook because I was shopping for a new Dell laptop to replace this Anus and I noticed that the Dell in similar configuration was only ~200 dollars cheaper - and then I got the 10% student discount plus $280 in rebates on the Mac. So it was a no-brainer. |
| I used Macs exclusively for over ten years. They are much more user friendly and I've never had any problems with worms, viruses, or crashing. Of the 5 or so Macs I've owned I've only had one hardware issue. The display control went out on my iBook after 2 years. I called Apple at 2:00 in the afternoon, by 10:00 the next morning there was a pre-paid shipping container on my doorstep. I packed up the machine and called in to schedule a pick up for the next day. The computer was back at my house, repaired two days later. Apple paid for overnight shipping both ways. IMO, that level of customer service is priceless. |
I have to agree. I bought OSX in beta and since I've converted I can count on three fingers how many times my machines have locked up. OSX is rock-solid. I have (at work) had occasional problems with Adobe Illustrator crashing at the worst possible moment, but that's an Adobe thing, not an Apple thing. I love my Macs. I have a 2.5ghz dual G5 desktop (that I'm typing this on) and a 500mhz G4 (upgraded from 400mhz G3) Powerbook 2000 laptop that's still going strong for web surfing and managing the spreadsheets of my ammo and magazine stash. 
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The refurbs have the same basic warranty as the new ones, and they offer all the same warranty extensions too. |
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Mail sucks! Get another program for your email app if your serious about keeping email for the long haul. The Mail app is integral to the OS and can't be reinstalled as a stand alone product, instead the whole OS needs to be reinstalled. I've worked with apple about this problem on two computers a number of times. The problem was never found and a complete reinstallation of the OS and trashing of the old Mail files was necessary to get going again. So years of inportant emails gone just like that. This has happened more than once by the way. Inexcusable in my opinion. The email app should be rock solid. I wish I could tell you which app I prefer instead as I haven't ponied up the cash for Microsoft Office and Eudora has a tendency to "forget" the p'words to your email accounts which is annoying to say the least. If anyone knows of a rock solid email app for the Mac I would love to know about it. Otherwise the Macs are solid, dependable and virus free which are good enough reasons to consider owning one. |
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I've been using Macs since I was 3. I can remember my dad's old Mac SE, back in the days when everyone had B&W screens and when 1024kb floppy disks were considered "big". I'm on a dual-processor Mac G4 right now. I bought it a few months after I turned 18 in 2002. You can do anything on a Mac that you would do on Windows, and it is usually faster, too. IMO, Windows can be pretty sluggish because of all the "eye candy" in the apps. It's almost enough to cause you to have ADD. Macs have always had the edge when it comes to graphics design and processing. A Mac is significantly more expensive, though. Mac software is much more available now than it was a few years ago, and Mac-specific applications, in my experience, tend to be excellent and of better quality than their Windows equivalents. The problem is when Windows programmers try to make a Mac version of their software and do a really poor job of it because they cut corners with the programming and debugging. There are no memory leaks, a Mac doesn't tend to require being restarted as often as Windows. My Mac has been running without being turned off or restarted for almost an entire month now. About the only thing I've found lately that my Mac can't do is play certain .AVI files because the correct codecs aren't available for Macs. Macs are also more secure because hackers and the like tend to focus on writing Unix and Windows virii (yes, that's the correct plural form of virus) and by default, Macs are shipped with the built-in firewall turned on and all ports closed. Additionally, the control panels are easier to configure on a Mac, which is an aid to users without a technical background. Windows virii will not run on a Mac. However, with the recent advent of the Pentium chip in Macs, I worry that this may have made the Mac less secure than it once was. The Mac OS does have certain safeguards that prevent applications from performing certain actions (like reformatting your HD) without asking for administrator permission. And there is no Mac equivalent for .exe files (I'm thankful for that). |
How the fuck do you know if I own or have owned one? Just so happens I have, and still own a few apple products. Recently go into a debate with a friend over this, he went off and bought a macbook pro and spent over $3500 on it. I bought another dell laptop (dell desktops suck major balls) My $2400 dell was able to do batch processing faster, open programs faster, boot faster, load web pages faster, encode movies faster, render ae faster, play cd2 and quake 4 faster and better  And was a hell of a lot cheaper.It does have 20gb less HD but for the money save I can buy a 500gb nas and have money left. |
Get viruses faster, crash faster, need to be replaced faster ... about the only thing that happens slow in the PC market is modernizing the OS. You always get what you pay for ... I've never understood the PC people with their "But PC's are sooooo much cheaper" attitude. Show me one product where the superior quality model is always the cheapest .... doesn't happen. |
Funny, I haven't had a virus on a pc in over 3 years, and can't recall the last time I crashed. Every once in a while a program might crash but I simply close it when it does.  I recall those cute little emacs or whatever they where called that looked like toilets. Those things crashed all the time, we had those my senior year for school. Total crap. And as far as cost goes I can spend $90k just on a single tower for a windows pc if I really wanted to but who the fuck wants to? I am not doing any crazy ass genome work  Mac users like to think they are top shit because they own mac's what they fail to realize is that many of us can afford a mac with out hesitation. But we prefer not to waste our money, still penty of hookers and blow... and they always come before a mac 
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I bought a Macbook Pro a couple of weeks ago; here are my observations: 1. If there's backspace key on it, I haven't found it yet - but I've learned to work around that. There may be a permanent workaround for this... I haven't worked up the nerve to do it. 2. There are lots of reports that they get hot. Really really hot. This one is more comfortable in my lap than my Toshiba - but neither is intolerable. 3. If you run XP via "boot camp", make the partition bigger than the 7 gig I allowed myself. Also be aware that Boot Camp is scheduled to end in 2007, Hopefully the next update of OSX will incorporate the final version. 4. Only one touchpad button is a trick to get used to; I attached a regular two button mouse - which helps. 5. There are also reports that their wireless setup <I can't remember what its called> drops the connection. This does seem to happen. It also seems to be easy to repair: I may be wrong, but when my connection seems slow, I reconnect to my network via about three mouse clicks and I'm back in business. Despite this, I beleive I'm getting significantly wireless performance out of the Apple. 6. I'm not qualified to judge whether OSX is "better" than Windows. I think it's more virus resistant than a windows machine, but as I understand it, thats because that stuff is primarily written for Windows. IMHO, if you use Boot Camp, you lose some of this natural protection. 7. I bought this computer because I've had a change in profession <from prosecutor to petroleum landman> and I needed a more portable computer. I 'plannned" to run the OSX version of Open Office for my daily work (Boot Camp, running Access, was my back-up plan) I was surprised to find that Open Office won't work on an Intel Mac. However, NeoOffice has a version for Intel Macs coming out July 1; I will be checking that out. 8. Managing your music accross two platforms is tricky. I haven't worked out a system that really works for me yet. 9. "Finder", the OSX analogy to Windows "Explorer" doesn't display thumbnails, or at least I haven't figured out how to turn it on. Nor is there an equivalent to "Paint". It appears that there may be a whole new skill set I'll have to acquire that I hadn't anticipated. And finally, 10. The "Kool-aid" thing. This will take a bit longer. When I go to spend the amount of money a laptop costs these days, I'm not comfortable oredering over the Internet. I want to put my hands on the item. So I can't give you a point to point comparison, but it seemed to me that comparable windows laptops were maybe a few hundred dollars cheaper. If, in fact, there is a price difference between comparable laptops, what do you get for the difference? a. a magnetic power cord - doesn't rip off the plug if you trip over it. It also comes loose while you are working. So, minimal points for that. b. backlit key board - very cool if you use your laptop in the dark. c. "photo booth" - an app that uses the built in webcam to take pictiures of your face and distorts it, sort of like a funhouse mirror. This could probably be done with a windows unit, once you think of doing it. Now, of course, this is subjective, but this stupid little feauture has been worth the price difference for me. I've literally seen two people cry from laughing so hard, and these aren't people disposed to that. d. Does it work, right out of the box, like they say? Pretty much. It's a little more intuitive. Getting on the Internet was a snap; but then again, I don't find it that difficult, first-time, in Windows, either. At this point, two weeks into it, I'm satisfied. I wanted a new laptop that was significantly lighter than my Toshiba, and didn't want to give up performance. I have Windows' Access available for work, and my windows apps for all those occasions when OSX is just too much for the moment, plus I get to keep myself entertained playing with something completely different. As to your specific question, do you use an Ipod and Itunes; and is a lot of your collection purchased thru Itunes? I still haven't jumped thru all the hoops on this one myself, so read everything you can and avoid making some irrevocable mistakes. 46 gigs is entirely too much to lose. |
| All of my music is on my iPod. Don't worry, I know to turn off auto update on iTunes so it doesn't clear it out too. I'm just running off of a Pentium 3 Thinkpad right now and it's real frustrating with how slow it is when I am running multiple windows and programs and trying to edit all my music at the same time. |
Spend the money and get a Mac. When you do, get the lowest amount of RAM with the most empty ports and load up on cheap RAM later. I'm typing this on my first Mac that I bought two years ago... The thing has crashed ONCE when I first got it and that was my fault. We've had our PC and Mac for the same amount of time and that fucking PC barely runs... I'll never own another PC. Gotta run, there's Quad racing on ESPN2 right now.  Get a god video camera and have a blast making movies on IMovie. ~Dg84 |
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Regarding the Macbook Pro: some of the earlier batteries are having swelling+failure problems-- apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/22/1828232 Not all though, but be aware if you're shopping for a Mac. ...... I don't have a lot of interest in Macs, and it's tough to see how my XP machine could run any better. When booting the developer image on PC's became possible I was kinda interested, but my PC hardware was not nearly ideal for it. It could be done on most any PC but having a specific hardware configuration made OSx86 have a lot less problems, so I never tried it. Most of the people I know [online] who tried booting the developer image have either wiped it or never use it, because they don't have any software, or they are used to the Windows software they already had. People who already had real Macs mostly kept on using them. There was a grand theory that the unwashed masses would all switch to using OSx for free on their PC's as fast as they could--but obviously a lot of people who could be doing it still haven't bothered. The main "advantage" cited of being able to dual-boot was that you could use WindowsXP for gaming, and Mac OSX for everything else--but Mac still doesn't support very good video hardware, due to its factory-spec'd nature. OSx86 just doesn't run on a system set up with top-end gaming video. -and Macs are overpriced. Apple has consistently charged among the highest margins of any computer-manufacturer in the US, even though the costs are comparable. If you think they're worth it or not is another matter--but it is true. The cheapest PC's now have dipped under $300, sometimes with monitor included. ~ |
The delete key on the keyboard is the backspace key (Key next to the += key), the problem is there is no delete key. Some Mac OS X apps use shift-backspace as delete, but if you are using XP in bootcamp, you are out of luck without a USB keyboard. That said, I haven't used bootcamp on my Macbook Pro. Does the delete key in bootcamp work as a real "delete" key or the backspace?
in Mac OS X, hit the control key and click, that's the right mouse button.
No real trick, I just copy my itunes music folder to all my various computers, but I keep one computer as the main on for importing an such, then I can just wipe out the others and copy over the music from that one.
Switch finder to column view, that will show a preview of the highlighted file, but no, there is no real folder level thumbnail view like windows. I'm surrounded by Mac's (though I'm typing this on a Dell laptop, as my step-son is using my MacBook Pro) At work I have two Intel Core Duo iMac's, a G5, various ibooks and powerbooks. At home I have a MacBook Pro and a 12" powerbook. I'm a UNIX sys-admin, so Mac OS X fits in perfectly. I'm a hug fan of it's ability to connect to networks, the MacBook Pro is thin, streamlined, and just works. It's a very versitile platform too. I bought Parallels Workstation to be able to create intel virtual machines to run Linux, Windows XP, etc. for those apps that won't work or there are no equivilents for under Mac OS X. Chris |
I do use the Connection Doctor. Sometimes it fixes it, sometimes it don't. The problem is, you can download the mail, then check it with a web browser, and sometimes there's a ton of mail that didn't get downloaded. Yes, I have it set to delete them off the server when they download. Naturally, since it's an Apple, you can't just delete the account and reinstall it, or you lose all the mail you already downloaded.  Basically, their mail is totally unreliable in our experience This is a very new powerbook (pre Intel) with OSX. Also, I got screwed on $100 of bluetooth devices for the printer, only to be told it can't be done, but that is a whole other Apple store/HP story I bought the wife the Apple - our first - to make my life easier - less tech support. Didn't work. 
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If you want a 13" macbook pro look at this first. www.rkcomputer.net/store/index.php/action/item/id/57/prevaction/category/previd/1/prevstart/0 I have one and LOVE it. It has alot of the same hardware. I Put in a 2ghz cpu and 2gb of 667mhz ram and its still cheaper. The owner of the store has been a PLEASURE to work with and will gladly answer your questions. -Foxxz |
The problem with complaining about the quality of Microsoft OS's on PC's is that there is an alternative--Linux is "ultra-stable and secure" and it runs on the same hardware already, and it's free. The only problem with using Linux is that the software for it is unfamiliar--but that's the same argument that exists against switching from any OS to any another.
---Yes, , , but what's also usually true is that competition forces prices down and quality up. Apple had their separate platform for years, and so essentially had no competition, and no incentive to do that. You don't see much variation in what WindowsXP costs, but you can spend $300 for a desktop PC. Where is the $300 Mac? There isn't one. Apple also claimed for years that their PPC architecture and OS was technically superior, but when it frequently couldn't match PC's in testing performance, they always had the backup excuse that "since the platforms are different, no direct comparisions were possible". On technical merits PPC was better, but in practice it was very questionable if their (higher-priced) computers performed any better than PC's of the same era did. And then Apple dropped that OS for a BSD-based one, and dropped the PPC architecture and went to X86. If the earlier stuff really was better, then why did they abandon it? ~ |
thanks to your post, i just noticed my inbox has exactly 30,000 messages.  btw, moving or copying your Mailboxes folder in your user /Library/Mail will allow you to archive, store, back them up to wherever you want. then just import them back into mail after you recreate the account. |
Thanks for your comments, I'll try to clarify... The "delete" key on my MacBook Pro deletes text to the left of the cursor, which makes it = to a windows "backspace" key. So I guess there is a "backspace" key; it's just labeled "delete". I read somewhere that some users "remap" the key that has the apple on the left, and the propeller on the left, the one to the right of the space bar, as a delete key, which is where I expect a true delete key to be. What struck me as weird about it is that they recommended doing the remap in Windows. How is that going to affect what is going on in OSX? Or is it that you can do it in Windows and not in OSX? <but wouldn't that mean you can do things in Windows you can't with Apple? I am shocked.> Or is it that the function of the keys is set in the hardware and not the OS? |
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Will i be able to run Soul Seek off of OSX? I use it constantly for downloading music and would be lost without it. www.slsknet.org |
You can, but it looks like the installation is well.....fun. http://captnswing.net/howto/nicotine/ |