iMac G5

[v12v8]

Just bought one. Having been used to PC's, I'm quite impressed. Anyone else got any views on it (good or bad)?

[chrisjl]

I'm on day 2 of my Powerbook ownership (having come from Windoze/Linux). I'm not yet a convert though. This ones definately going back as it's not actually flat (or in more PH-speak, it's corner weights are a bit out) - it rocks when I lean on the area in front of the keyboard.

Some of the Mac-iness takes some getting used to - menu bars always stuck to the top edge of the screen, apps that don't actually quit but just close all of their windows.

Imported a few years worth of digital photos into iPhoto yesterday, and unless I'm doing something wrong, it seems to be a less effective photo organiser than Picasa (free download) is on Windows - it doesn't seem to want to maintain the grouping of photos at a finer granularity than by year (unless you go through the tedious process of creating your own albums as you go).

I'm just about to transfer my iTunes library across, so we'll see how well that goes..

[wildeep]

chrisjl said:

it doesn't seem to want to maintain the grouping of photos at a finer granularity than by year

If you select view>film rolls, it will arange by the day the images were imported, does that help?

[jmorgan]

On a G4 but never had a pc windoze for personal use. I have the later for work. I find Mac OS a lot better and fun to use.

Just started to get to grips with iPhoto but finding it not as awkaward as I first thought. I was keeping a seperate file to back them up incase I badgered it up but not anymore.

I don't have the apps not quiting problem? Is that just clicking the x or closing from the menu?

[PiB]

I got a dual G5 last spring and really like it. I'm coming from a long line of PC's. Chris, you have to get used to the quick keys. Press control + Q to end your programs when your done rather than close the windows. Lot's of quick keys to be learned but once so, it's quick & easy. Of course there is the Control + mouse click to get the same thing as a right click on a PC. USB plugs everywhere and I didn't need to install any software to run my digicam (have not really organized many pictures so can't comment on that). I like how my usb memory stick thing just shows up on the desktop were as with a pc it's a pain, takes longer, opens a folder rather than a desktop item and or saving to it on a PC is tough when your searching through all the drives - which is it again e:, f: ? ? Also the MAC ms products transfer over to PC ms programs well, Word Powerpoint etc. I also don't have to worry about getting all the various programs to stop all the spyware and virus problems with PC's that always require yearly renewals. (There is virus software for Macs though? ? ?) I turn on my computer and it's there instead of some PC's morning grind just to get going. I can drag and save almost any image from the internet, digi cam etc. To really get the most out of this thing I need to get a power book and do the satellite data transfer thingy, what do they call that?

But recently some PH forums are not opening properly and I get a little ;lsdkjfdl; ;lsdjf;l (jibberish) at he top when I use the Safari browser while in my macs MS Explorer it works. Some other pages have problems with macs accessing them from what I can tell. Sometimes Explorer will do it and other times not. My mac has crashed from time to time but I just turn it off and on and it's okay. Other times you can "force quite a program" but that is rarly necessary. Usually, when I have problems, it's a matter of a bad start up and I need to hold down the power key for 5 seconds. Be sure to down load the latest updates from apple (register etc) After buying an Apple AFAIK there are a bunch of updates to get online that increase stability and sharpen up the machine with the latest stuff. If you like PHTV be sure to get MS media player for Macs. Occasionally this is an area where there are problems. Sometimes just clicking the video again and it will play. I have some .avi's that won't play properly. Quicktime is okay but it doesn't play certain .avi's I think. The keyboard looks good but isn't perfectly ergonomic so I have a small % increase in miss-strokes.

There are a lot of cool little apple tricks that you will be impressed with just be sure to be willing to learn the quickkeys and anything else. Unfortuanly, it doesn't correct my illiterate English and spelling.

>> Edited by PiB on Friday 12th November 04:05

[davidson]

Going from PC to Mac is like going from 1981 Lada to an Aston Martin...................On a more practical level, OS X does take a bit of getting used to if you've been on PC's for years as I had. Stick with it though everything really is in different league. The difference in quality, aesthetics, and performance of the hardware and operating system is quite simply astounding........

[chrisjl]

jmorgan said:

I don't have the apps not quiting problem? Is that just clicking the x or closing from the menu?

That's me needing to adjust to the Mac way - I keep assuming/expecting clicking a red circle with a cross to be exit, and I have a blind spot for the application menu, thinking it's just a label telling me the current app name.

The inconsistant behaviour of the green button is annoying - there might be a pattern to it, but I've not spotted it. Sometimes it works as maximise, sometimes it just causes a window to change to a different size and jump sideways a bit (!?)

I might not have been seeing iPhoto at it's best as I imported 4 years worth of pictures in one go. What I did do though was create a couple of Albums, populate them with pictures, and burn those Albums to a CD (all quite painless). But how do I conveniently delete everything I just burnt to free up the space? Deleting an album only deletes the association of pictures, not the pictures themselves. And deleting a photo from within an album does just that - it still exists in the global album. I do like the way the albums reappear while the CD is in the drive - very good for organised archiving.

Now to find replacements for CoolEdit, PSP, WinSCP, UltraEdit, Beyond Compare,...

>> Edited by chrisjl on Friday 12th November 09:23

[Davidson]

There is a fantastic Mac magazine called iCreate, (available at all good book stores) in one of the recent issues I recall an app called diet which clears up that mess in iPhoto. The mag is full of useful tips. One of the things I do find odd is that OS X and the apps do so much more than is first obvious, but you need serious playing / assistance to find it.

[jmorgan]

chrisjl said:

The inconsistant behaviour of the green button is annoying - there might be a pattern to it, but I've not spotted it. Sometimes it works as maximise, sometimes it just causes a window to change to a different size and jump sideways a bit (!?) I might not have been seeing iPhoto at it's best as I imported 4 years worth of pictures in one go. What I did do though was create a couple of Albums, populate them with pictures, and burn those Albums to a CD (all quite painless). But how do I conveniently delete everything I just burnt to free up the space? Deleting an album only deletes the association of pictures, not the pictures themselves. And deleting a photo from within an album does just that - it still exists in the global album. I do like the way the albums reappear while the CD is in the drive - very good for organised archiving. Now to find replacements for CoolEdit, PSP, WinSCP, UltraEdit, Beyond Compare,... >> Edited by chrisjl on Friday 12th November 09:23

Is that the menu hide button? Doesn't appear on every window.

I was lucky in that I started iPhoto with a clean slate. So organised into albums. If I delete them from the main pain, they do seem to be deleted for ever. After I have backed them up of course.

If you go to your user folder, then back up the iPhoto library that is in Pictures, then delete, that seems to do the trick. Though I am still getting used to it so don't take my word. When I back it up by selecting the albums then burn, it creates an iPhoto disk that is a bit bigger than just the pics direct.

I have started to create iPhoto CD that you can work off. So when the size gets to the size of a CD, back up and delete and start a new. Personal choice and HD space I suppose if you want to keep the old ones on.

Must get the book. The file location does seem a bit hap hazard

>> Edited by jmorgan on Friday 12th November 11:43

[jmorgan]

PS, this is quite a handy directory
www.macpicks.com/

[wildeep]

chrisjl said:

But how do I conveniently delete everything I just burnt to free up the space? Deleting an album only deletes the association of pictures, not the pictures themselves. And deleting a photo from within an album does just that - it still exists in the global album.

click on the images you want to remove and hit delete then select the file menu and click "empty trash".

[chrisjl]

wildeep said:

chrisjl said: But how do I conveniently delete everything I just burnt to free up the space? Deleting an album only deletes the association of pictures, not the pictures themselves. And deleting a photo from within an album does just that - it still exists in the global album. click on the images you want to remove and hit delete then select the file menu and click "empty trash".

But what I've just burnt is a set of images grouped by manually created album. Doing what you've suggested just removes them from that album. Looking at the "everything" album, they're scattered all over the place. Having gone through the process of picking them out once to create the themed album, I don't want to have to go through that again to delete them. NOTE: This problem may go away for future "properly" imported photos, rather than the current "bulk import" of everything that was on my PC.

Edited to add, and then correct:
Right, I've just deleted the entire iPhoto album, and and am now importing my old photos folder by folder - dragging a Finder folder into the 'album' pane creates a suitably named and populated album. That solves the tediousness of recreating the grouping of the photos. Select-all, then Alt-Apple-Delete inside an album seems to completely delete that set of photos.

>> Edited by chrisjl on Friday 12th November 17:54

>> Edited by chrisjl on Friday 12th November 18:07

[Andy M]

PiB said:

Unfortuanly, it doesn't correct my illiterate English and spelling.]

Edit -> Spelling -> Check Spelling As You Type

Having 'switched' about 2 years ago (to a 14" 800mhz iBook) I now have a dual 2.5 G5 as well as a 17" Powerbook and love them both - they make my work a lot easier.

Take some time to learn how the computer works and you'll never look back

Useless tip: press ctrl + alt + apple key + 8

[toppstuff]

Agreed. I switched to G4 powerbook and now a G5 desktop from PC.

Best thing I ever did.

I will NEVER use windows by choice ever again.

[jmorgan]

Andy M said:

[ Useless tip: press ctrl + alt + apple key + 8

ooooooooo b+w with glowing edges

[chrisjl]

Those of you that are complete converts to the Apple way of doing things - what do you find them to be most effective for?
As much as I wanted to like it, the PB15 just isn't living up to expectations, and I'm not prepared to pay £1750 for such a productivity hit that would take months to work my way out of. I can make Windoze/Linux do what I want, whereas OSX and the whole iLife bundle seem reluctant to let me stray from the 'one true path'. I really have tried to get into the Apple way, but as soon as this secure delete is done, it's going back in the box.


>> Edited by chrisjl on Saturday 13th November 18:28

[Bodo]

chrisjl said:

I can make Windoze/Linux do what I want, whereas OSX and the whole iLife bundle seem reluctant to let me stray from the 'one true path'. I really have tried to get into the Apple way, but as soon as this secure delete is done, it's going back in the box.

I don't have administrating experience with OSX boxes, but isn't it possible to run X11 and its applications? Depending on the configuration hassle involved, it could be worthwhile to use like that!?

BTW, a bit O/T, does anyone know how I get a terminal window open on the OSX desktop? I tried to work with Unix commands, but didn't know how to get a prompt...

[wildeep]

Bodo said:

BTW, a bit O/T, does anyone know how I get a terminal window open on the OSX desktop? I tried to work with Unix commands, but didn't know how to get a prompt...

Applications folder>Utilities>Terminal.app

[Bacardi]

Bodo said:

I don't have administrating experience with OSX boxes, but isn't it possible to run X11 and its applications? Depending on the configuration hassle involved, it could be worthwhile to use like that!?

It's an option to check when you install X or download it from Apple X downloads. I had GIMP and Open Office running with no problems.

Bodo said:

BTW, a bit O/T, does anyone know how I get a terminal window open on the OSX desktop? I tried to work with Unix commands, but didn't know how to get a prompt...

The Terminal is found in the utilities folder, within the application folder.

HTH

[Bodo]

Thanks Gentlemen!