Finally bought the MBP!! Hints/Tips??
Discussion
Well after a long lead-in time and many questions here, i have finally gone out and bought a new apple MacBook Pro! Actually quite glad i waited as the specs seemed to have been upgraded several times in the time i have been looking and finally look like they may have settled a bit. I ended up with the 15" 2.1Ghz/1Gb RAM/ 100Gb hard drive combo. Just took an off the shelf one in the end, no upgrades really needed.
So, this is my first mac and i must say i have been a little bit disappointed with the depth of some of the user-help bits in the literature considering i am converting from a solely MS past. The help files on the computer are ok - particularly the look up chart of MS terms and apple variations. Much of the OS sems to be very similar once you work out the differences though and after a weekend of fiddling i am more or less up on basic understanding. Definitely miss that right click mouse button though, control-click is a bit of an arse about face way of speeding things up.
Just really after any hints and tips for newbies to the Apple way of life; maybe some useful mags to buy/web pages to hop on to for further info, etc. We are setting up an internet connection this week, so as yet haven't been able to access any help/tips that may otherwise be online (at work at moment).
One thing - girlfriends MP3 player and digi camera appear only to have MS drivers although i think we can get around that just doing drag/drop in finder. Is there another way..? I noted last night there were some camera files already in the OS but i haven't tried them yet, i-music iseems fine.
Other than that quite chuffed with my purchase. First new computer for nearly a decade and its pretty amazing what they can do these days, hope it stays on the straight and narrow though. Last laptop wasn't a happy ending
Over to you seaseoned macophiles!
So, this is my first mac and i must say i have been a little bit disappointed with the depth of some of the user-help bits in the literature considering i am converting from a solely MS past. The help files on the computer are ok - particularly the look up chart of MS terms and apple variations. Much of the OS sems to be very similar once you work out the differences though and after a weekend of fiddling i am more or less up on basic understanding. Definitely miss that right click mouse button though, control-click is a bit of an arse about face way of speeding things up.
Just really after any hints and tips for newbies to the Apple way of life; maybe some useful mags to buy/web pages to hop on to for further info, etc. We are setting up an internet connection this week, so as yet haven't been able to access any help/tips that may otherwise be online (at work at moment).
One thing - girlfriends MP3 player and digi camera appear only to have MS drivers although i think we can get around that just doing drag/drop in finder. Is there another way..? I noted last night there were some camera files already in the OS but i haven't tried them yet, i-music iseems fine.
Other than that quite chuffed with my purchase. First new computer for nearly a decade and its pretty amazing what they can do these days, hope it stays on the straight and narrow though. Last laptop wasn't a happy ending
Over to you seaseoned macophiles!
For the camera - just plug it in - 99% will work without any drivers being required. iPhoto will load up and away you go...
For the MP3 player, again most will just mount as a volume so you can drag/drop files. iPods are far more integrated.
I believe mouse right-click is configurable (check System Preferences) on the MacBook, but I've not tried it (my laptop being an old 700Mhz G3 iBook). Certainly almost all multi-buttoned mice will work without drivers being required. I used to use a Logitech cordless, but recently switched to a Mighty Mouse which I love.
You might find some of the following useful sites:
www.osxhints.com/
www.xlr8yourmac.com/
www.macnn.com/
www.tuaw.com/
The official Apple forums are good too - just so long as you don't insult Apple
For the MP3 player, again most will just mount as a volume so you can drag/drop files. iPods are far more integrated.
I believe mouse right-click is configurable (check System Preferences) on the MacBook, but I've not tried it (my laptop being an old 700Mhz G3 iBook). Certainly almost all multi-buttoned mice will work without drivers being required. I used to use a Logitech cordless, but recently switched to a Mighty Mouse which I love.
You might find some of the following useful sites:
www.osxhints.com/
www.xlr8yourmac.com/
www.macnn.com/
www.tuaw.com/
The official Apple forums are good too - just so long as you don't insult Apple
You mean the black MacBook - the MBP is only available in aluminium.
One thing worth doing before you get too attached to the laptop is to ensure you're getting the 2.16 GHz you've paid (handsomely) for. Search for CoreDuoTemp application - this installs a small kernel extension to read the CPU core temperature. Also download the Cinebench benchmark application, and run this a couple of times whilst running the CoreDuoTemp app.
The CoreDuoTemp app will show your current CPU GHz and temperature. If you're getting temps over 90˚C under load, and the CPU is throttling back to 1 GHz whilst doing real work, then you've got one of the MBPs with duff thermal control.
Apple have had either an assembly QA problem or a supplier component problem with the MBP - a small but significant proportion of MBPs (esp. the faster ones) have heat problems and won't run at their stated GHz. When you pay extra for the faster CPU, you want to get the performance!
Mine was a duff one, Apple took it back and are delivering me a new one.
In the meanwhile, I picked up a black MacBook to replace it, and it rocks. I'd only bother with the MBP now if you really need the discrete graphics (i.e. if you do motion video or use Aperture and Photoshop all the time).
One thing worth doing before you get too attached to the laptop is to ensure you're getting the 2.16 GHz you've paid (handsomely) for. Search for CoreDuoTemp application - this installs a small kernel extension to read the CPU core temperature. Also download the Cinebench benchmark application, and run this a couple of times whilst running the CoreDuoTemp app.
The CoreDuoTemp app will show your current CPU GHz and temperature. If you're getting temps over 90˚C under load, and the CPU is throttling back to 1 GHz whilst doing real work, then you've got one of the MBPs with duff thermal control.
Apple have had either an assembly QA problem or a supplier component problem with the MBP - a small but significant proportion of MBPs (esp. the faster ones) have heat problems and won't run at their stated GHz. When you pay extra for the faster CPU, you want to get the performance!
Mine was a duff one, Apple took it back and are delivering me a new one.
In the meanwhile, I picked up a black MacBook to replace it, and it rocks. I'd only bother with the MBP now if you really need the discrete graphics (i.e. if you do motion video or use Aperture and Photoshop all the time).
m12_nathan said:
I am on there as _Nathan_, posting from my black macbook :P
I thought I remember seeing the name but for the life of me I can never find anything with their search function.
Have you had a 12" Powerbook before? I'm just wondering how the new (black) MacBook compares with it, seeing as black is the fastest colour?
Actually, seeing as you've got the silver car and I've got the aluminium Powerbook, and I've got the black car and you the black MacBook, I think it's only right we do a swap. Computers of course.
Silver is definately faster than the polishers choice of black <looks around for Zod>
It's my first Mac so I cannot offer a comparison, just ordered more RAM for it as 1GB isn't enough for my needs, and they say MS software is bloated! I'm loving it, OSX is very nice indeed, got parallels installed for fast OS switching, battery life is excellent too.
It's my first Mac so I cannot offer a comparison, just ordered more RAM for it as 1GB isn't enough for my needs, and they say MS software is bloated! I'm loving it, OSX is very nice indeed, got parallels installed for fast OS switching, battery life is excellent too.
m12_nathan said:
Silver is definately faster than the polishers choice of black <looks around for Zod>
It's my first Mac so I cannot offer a comparison, just ordered more RAM for it as 1GB isn't enough for my needs, and they say MS software is bloated! I'm loving it, OSX is very nice indeed, got parallels installed for fast OS switching, battery life is excellent too.
It's my first Mac so I cannot offer a comparison, just ordered more RAM for it as 1GB isn't enough for my needs, and they say MS software is bloated! I'm loving it, OSX is very nice indeed, got parallels installed for fast OS switching, battery life is excellent too.
Balls to it, I've ordered one. With 2gb of RAM.
I've heard they're releasing a faster grey one next week
RAM and HDD are user upgradeable so you could cancel your order, buy a standard config one which will be quicker to arrive and get RAM from www.crucial.com/uk for less money, wish I'd done that!
RAM and HDD are user upgradeable so you could cancel your order, buy a standard config one which will be quicker to arrive and get RAM from www.crucial.com/uk for less money, wish I'd done that!
Don't buy MB or MBP RAM from Crucial. It's expensive too. This stuff from Scan is reliable and a more reasonable price: www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=353418
Macs can be picky about RAM, and RAM flakiness is the most common hardware fault and can be a bastard to diagnose. It can also silently corrupt data, which can find its way into your backups before the RAM starts causing kernel panics etc.
As a result I'd go for decent brand memory, and the most important thing if you use your machine to make money - fast no quibble lifetime warranty. Crucial may be pricy (though not compared with Apple!) but their customer service is spot on. Any time after purchase, if your RAM fails or acts shady, they will replace next day.
As to quantity, unless you're massively strapped for cash then max it out to 2 GB. Given that old PPC applications (i.e. non Universal, biggest culprits being MS Office and Adobe CS2) run in the Rosetta emulation layer, any one of these apps uses pretty much twice the RAM. If you run a bunch of these apps then you'll run out of RAM rapido. Running into swap on laptops is universally bad, even if you've got the 7200 rpm HD.
As a result I'd go for decent brand memory, and the most important thing if you use your machine to make money - fast no quibble lifetime warranty. Crucial may be pricy (though not compared with Apple!) but their customer service is spot on. Any time after purchase, if your RAM fails or acts shady, they will replace next day.
As to quantity, unless you're massively strapped for cash then max it out to 2 GB. Given that old PPC applications (i.e. non Universal, biggest culprits being MS Office and Adobe CS2) run in the Rosetta emulation layer, any one of these apps uses pretty much twice the RAM. If you run a bunch of these apps then you'll run out of RAM rapido. Running into swap on laptops is universally bad, even if you've got the 7200 rpm HD.
Edited by cyberface on Tuesday 6th June 17:09
I'm running real no-name RAM in my MBP and it's fine (Transcend in case anyone is wondering). A friend is running 2Gb of the Cosair (which is a very good brand used by many testers to benchmark systems) in a MB and it's fine too.
This whole Macs are picky about RAM this is a bit of a fallicy. A MB or MBP is going to be about as picky as any other x86 laptop based on that particular Intel chipset.
This whole Macs are picky about RAM this is a bit of a fallicy. A MB or MBP is going to be about as picky as any other x86 laptop based on that particular Intel chipset.
robbieduncan said:
I'm running real no-name RAM in my MBP and it's fine (Transcend in case anyone is wondering). A friend is running 2Gb of the Cosair (which is a very good brand used by many testers to benchmark systems) in a MB and it's fine too.
This whole Macs are picky about RAM this is a bit of a fallicy. A MB or MBP is going to be about as picky as any other x86 laptop based on that particular Intel chipset.
This whole Macs are picky about RAM this is a bit of a fallicy. A MB or MBP is going to be about as picky as any other x86 laptop based on that particular Intel chipset.
I admit that the original 'myth' came about with PPC machines - Apple released a firmware fix for G4 machines that tightened the RAM speed spec requirements in Open Firmware... this caused some problems with third party RAM at the time.
However any OS that aggressively caches and uses *all* the RAM will highlight problems with RAM much faster than an OS that doesn't. I saw plenty of this with shoddy old PCs that ran Windows 95 perfectly but crashed regularly running NT 4. OS X, like most unix-type OSes, aggressively uses as much RAM as possible.
If you're going to buy cheap RAM - definitely run the extended hardware test multiple times before using the machine in production.
If it's just a home machine and data corruption won't kill you, then no problems. I wouldn't use no-name RAM in a prod box though, but that's just me.
m12_nathan said:
I've heard they're releasing a faster grey one next week
RAM and HDD are user upgradeable so you could cancel your order, buy a standard config one which will be quicker to arrive and get RAM from www.crucial.com/uk for less money, wish I'd done that!
RAM and HDD are user upgradeable so you could cancel your order, buy a standard config one which will be quicker to arrive and get RAM from www.crucial.com/uk for less money, wish I'd done that!
Don't worry, it's good RAM at a good price and I'll do the fitting myself.
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