[manhattan$]

hi everyone,
i am just about to switch over to a Mac 17" powerbook from using a sony vaio for the last few years! ive been drooling over a friends Mac for the last year or so and i have now decided it is the right thing to do!
anyway i have a few questions before i place my order.

is the .Mac bundle worth the £49?

are there any promotional codes available as ive seen an offer for £18 off but cant find the promo codes anywhere on the site?

what bt scrolling optical mouse would you reccomend?

thanks for your help!

paul.

[Detrius]

The .Mac bundle is for you to decide. I went with it.

Any two button scroll mouse will be fully supported out of the box. If you have more buttons, you can also assign them to Exposé without installing drivers. I like my Microsoft optical mouse.

[Lateralus]

Welcome aboard.

And I recommend the Logitech MX900 as a Bluetooth choice. Logitech's mice are fantastic.

[Maflynn]

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
Logitech MX900 as a Bluetooth choice. Logitech's mice are fantastic.

Actually I would say the MX700 is a better deal cheaper and it works out of the box. With the MX900 there's no native support from logitech to map the buttons. Yes there's third party apps available but for $20-$30 price difference you expect better compatability. I also found the tracking to be much slower then the 700.

Just my $.02. If you perfer a corded mouse then the MX500 is exactly the same as the 900/700.

btw incase the OP didn't know the difference; the mx900 is bluetooth, the mx700 is infrared and the mx500 is corded. You would think the software for the mx700 would work for the 900 but its doesn't

I returned the 900 and picked the mx700 myself, love it a great mouse and cheaper to boot.

Mike

[JKT]

Edit: As a newbie Mac user, there is one thing that could be highly beneficial to you with .Mac, assuming you have a broadband or equivalent connection - they have a series of online training manuals for OS X and .Mac for viewing that will show you a lot of the basics for using OS X. Why Apple doesn't include them with new macs is beyond me, but that is another story... you can access them via the free trial too IIRC, so you don't necessarily have to pay for .Mac to get access to them.

You can use .Mac for a free 60 day trial (I think some of the features are disabled... go to www.mac.com and read about it to find out more) if you want to find out if it's worth it for you.

Personally, I find it invaluable - mainly for iSync, iDisk and Homepage, less so for .Mac e-mail (it's good to have, but I have my work account too, so it isn't 100% vital to me) and Backup (I have external hard drives and much better third party synchronisation software for that, but again it's useful to have).

iSync is excellent for keeping all my address books and iCal events on my work and home computers, and on my phone synched.

To me, .Mac is useful if:

1. You want to publish photos, etc to the web in nicely designed pages but have no inclination to learn how to or the time to write html etc. (HomePage - it has its limitations but it is very good on the whole). The integration with iPhoto is excellent for this.

2. You need to keep multiple computers, and/or your mobile phone, and/or your online web-mail address book in sync with your primary machine - iSync is very good for this.

3. You like to keep your browser bookmarks in sync (either Safari or OmniWeb 5) on multiple machines, and in the case of Safari - available to you from any computer, anywhere.

4. You find Web-Mail useful (.Mac Webmail has a very attractive and very easy to use interface).

5. Although it isn't strictly necessary for iChat, it is nice to be able to use it through your having a .Mac account name (FWIW, if you register for the trial of .Mac, you get to keep the username and password once the trial expires so that you can continue to use it with AIM/iChat).

If you have a need for 3 or 4 of those, then .Mac is well worth the money. If it's only one or two, then it is debatable.

P.S. The freebies you occasionally get (games etc) are OK but sometimes not relevant to you (either because they simply don't interest you, or because they don't apply to your country as they are US only).

[bbales]

I echo the vote for .mac -- particularly for isync and keeping calendars on my desktop and powerbook synchronized.

i've made a couple really simple web pages and that was kind of fun, too. Yes, it's $100 a year. I've only had it about 6 months but, again, it's been very useful. I haven't used idisk much, but have very recently realized I've been foolish. So, as others said, it's up to you, but it does come in handy. I did the trial, first.

Also -- to JKT -- what synchronization software do you use. When once again spending time copying a 330 MB documents folder from my desktop to my laptop I determined this was a nutty use of time and I really do need to get something to keep the two in sync. But I want to be able to control deltions, too -- I don't want the computer to keep saving something on a computer when I've already throw it away, but only in one place. (Hope that made sense.)

[manhattan$]

thankyou everyone for your help,
also i have an xda2 / mda 2 pocket pc mobile does any of you guys know if it will be compatible as in syncing and transfering files and bluetooth as the pocket pc runs windows pocket2003?

right im off now to order my new powerbook!

regards ,
paul.

[JKT]

Originally posted by bbales:
Also -- to JKT -- what synchronization software do you use. When once again spending time copying a 330 MB documents folder from my desktop to my laptop I determined this was a nutty use of time and I really do need to get something to keep the two in sync. But I want to be able to control deltions, too -- I don't want the computer to keep saving something on a computer when I've already throw it away, but only in one place. (Hope that made sense.)

I use FoldersSynchronizer X from www.softobe.com, which is good for what I need it for, although with hindsight, I probably paid too much for it as there is equivalent software out there to try out that costs less (FWIW, I bought it quite a few years ago, prior to OS X even, and got a free upgrade to the OS X native version, so I shouldn't complain... it does what I want it to do and more). It's able to do full synchs and backups (i.e. either keep all drives/machines in sync so that they mirror each other exactly, or backup all files to one disk without removing the files you've deleted from the main computer). It also has scheduling, exclusion rules (so that e.g. if you don't want to copy your GB's of .mp4 files in the sync/backup), and is able to backup to different machines simultaneously. I think it is also able to create a bootable mirror of your hard drive on an external, but I've never tried that.

The developer is not a native English speaker so their info/instructions can be a little tricky to comprehend sometimes, but this is what the bumph says from their site:

FoldersSynchronizer is a nifty and populare shareware utility for Macintosh (Classic and MacOS X Panther and Jaguar) for Synchronizations and Backups.

• FS can backup the whole MacOS X boot disk (Panther or Jaguar).
• FS can work with root privileges, even if the user logged in as simple user.
• FS can exactly sync/backup the files/folders deleted or renamed (Exact Sync and Exact Backup features) and delete the orphan files/folders.
• FS can automount volumes automatically.
• FS Session options: Timers, Multiple Folders, Filters, Exclude, Conflicts, Run AppleScript, Automount Volumes, Settings.
• FS can execute in a single task, one or all the Sessions defined in a FS file.
• FS can show the "Items to be copied" Preview List.
• FS can save/display/send_via_email, short or detailed Log Files (always or only if an error occurred).
• FS can use a "modification date delta seconds" value when calculating the most recent file.

P.S. If you go to the software forum, there is a sticky at the top that lists common applications for various things, of which backup software is included

[JKT]

Originally posted by manhattan$:
thankyou everyone for your help,
also i have an xda2 / mda 2 pocket pc mobile does any of you guys know if it will be compatible as in syncing and transfering files and bluetooth as the pocket pc runs windows pocket2003?

right im off now to order my new powerbook!

regards ,
paul.

Ah, a tricky question - unfortunately iSync can't do this natively IIRC (I suspect it is an MS issue in that they don't want to support synching to a Mac), but there is third party software that attempts to let you do it. Try searching at www.versiontracker.com for sync software (e.g. Missing Sync for Pocket PC. I have no experience of this, so...

However, Bluetooth works fantastically on my Mac with my SE T68i and from what I have read on the web, the mac implementation of BT puts Windows to shame.

[bbales]

Originally posted by JKT:
I use FoldersSynchronizer X

P.S. If you go to the software forum, there is a sticky at the top that lists common applications for various things, of which backup software is included

Thanks much. I didn't think to look for "backup software" because I already have that. I'm looking for syncing. I had a couple names, one of which is FoldersSynchronizer, so I'm happy to hear your positive review. (In case anyone else is looking, the other is ChronoSync.)

Thanks for the help and the real-life experience.

[bbales]

And Manhattan -- I forgot! Welcome. You will love your new PB, I'm sure. (I have a 12-inch, revision A, and 15 months later I still love it.)

Keep reading these forums for hints and tips. They are invaluable when you need to know something and don't know where to turn.

[manhattan$]

thankyou bbales , and everyone for a warm welcome!

ive just placed my order for :

17" powerbook /5400 hd / 128 graphics card.

and a free hp 5150 printer! (well £9.99 after chq back)

and the .Mac subscription as i am a Mac newbie

looks like delivery will be on or before the 24th may!