[Nibi]

Wow, what a trip it has been. It all started when my compaq notebook broke down. I didn't mourn since it was a dinosaur anyway. So my hunt began. I needed a new notbook. My compaq was the size of a small child so the first thing I needed was a computer that was small enough to lug around campus and fit in my Crumpler Crisp suit bag. I knew it had to weigh 5 pounds or less and I wanted the most fully featured book available. Being a windows user I immediately searched through SONY's Fujitsu's and IBM's. They all offered similar specs and all for around 2000 beans. Then while shopping for a mini Ipod for my sister. And I saw the Powerbook. What's this, 12 inch screen? DVD burner? Awesome software? But its a Mac. I did some research and now I am a learned man. I have seen the greatness that is Mac. And thanks in part to this website (with the best forums) I made the plunge. I will soon be the proud owner of a 12" Powerbook G$ w superdrive, 60gig HD, and 512 RAM. I also ordered the apple bluetooth mouse, a thumbdrive and Office V.X. I simply can't wait! This is my first foray into the Mac world but I have all summer to make the adjustment. So I want to extend a thanks to all you guys and your informative posts that helped me make my decision. Any more suggestions to help a new switcher?

[iomatic]

Don't take any advice from anyone here on integrating add-ons, third-party utilities, and the like until you're perfectly comfortable with the way the OS works as a standard.

US$.02


Other questions: what will you be doing with it (too lazy to look up your older posts)? What kind of work are you in? These will probably help the group determine what advice to dispense, as well as what add-ons and third-party utilities to install.

Enjoy.

[Fellow2000]

Originally posted by Nibi:
Wow, what a trip it has been. It all started when my compaq notebook broke down. I didn't mourn since it was a dinosaur anyway. So my hunt began. I needed a new notbook. My compaq was the size of a small child so the first thing I needed was a computer that was small enough to lug around campus and fit in my Crumpler Crisp suit bag. I knew it had to weigh 5 pounds or less and I wanted the most fully featured book available. Being a windows user I immediately searched through SONY's Fujitsu's and IBM's. They all offered similar specs and all for around 2000 beans. Then while shopping for a mini Ipod for my sister. And I saw the Powerbook. What's this, 12 inch screen? DVD burner? Awesome software? But its a Mac. I did some research and now I am a learned man. I have seen the greatness that is Mac. And thanks in part to this website (with the best forums) I made the plunge. I will soon be the proud owner of a 12" Powerbook G$ w superdrive, 60gig HD, and 512 RAM. I also ordered the apple bluetooth mouse, a thumbdrive and Office V.X. I simply can't wait! This is my first foray into the Mac world but I have all summer to make the adjustment. So I want to extend a thanks to all you guys and your informative posts that helped me make my decision. Any more suggestions to help a new switcher?

1) I hope you did not buy your extra RAM from apple because they charge rediculous amounts for it.

2) I am almost 100 percent sure that you will not be satisfied with 512mb. You need to understand the OS X philosophy verses windows and just how important RAM is. It is the lifeblood of the system.

I have a 12" pbook 1ghz, I bought it with the standard 256mb of RAM and purchased a 512 stick of pc2700 (backwards compatible to 2100 for the pbook, but I can always use it later if I have something that requires faster RAM) for $99 dollars US at Fry's electronics. I will be selling my 512 stick this summer and buying a 1gig stick. 768 is just not enough.

[Nibi]

OK, RAM Is indeed Apple. I think I am gonna wait and see how my system runs and adjust the ram accordingly (from a third party from now on. I promise). I don't think I will be messing with it too much until I learn the ropes. As for uses. I am attending University or Puerto Rico Aguadilla. I am an education major and I work on a lot of graphic intensive presentations and materials. I am also the president of a student organization so it will get a lot of productivity uses.
As for personal uses, I never play computer games, only console games. All I really do at home is school work, use the internet and I am gonna start burning all our old home movies to DVD. That is about it for now, but from what I hear, once you get a Mac you find new and awesome ways to use it.

Oh yeah, after seeing my sis' Ipod I really want one for myself now.

[KP*]

Congrats on your purchase, and on switching. I have a 15" myself, but a coworker on my last show got a 12" and I was really impressed by how small and portable it is, while still feeling almost as roomy to use as my 15".

I know iomatic said don't take advice about 3rd-party utilities right away, but one app you MUST get for any Apple laptop, especially if you come from the PC world, is SideTrack. Most PC laptops come with a feature on the trackpad so that running your finger down one edge allows you to scroll. For some reason Apple doesn't include this. SideTrack gives you this feature, and also recently added tap zones, so you can assign corner taps to replicate any keystroke or click combination. It's a FREE app, and can be found on VersionTracker. It's very stable, I've never found any problems with it, and I've never heard any others complain about it here. You don't have to take my advice, but I wanted to make sure you know it exists.

Enjoy your Mac experience, it sounds like you're ready to have some fun playing with it. And yes, you will use it for things you never would have thought to do with a PC.

[Eug Wanker]

Office v.X: Make sure you apply all of the updates when you get it, if it isn't already the updated version. The first iteration of v.X was flaky but now things are good. Beware of the update process though. I think it's still the case where you have to do the updates incrementally. ie. The last update won't work without earlier updates applied first.

RAM: 512 MB might be OK for basic use, but I would have personally just gotten the 256 and upgraded directly to 768 MB with 3rd party RAM right off the bat for only a little bit more money.

SuperDrive: Stick with good quality DVD-R. Apple DVD-R is good.

I personally have little use for Sidetrack.

[Nibi]

Thanks for all the positive feedback. Sidetrack you say?, I am addicted to scroll so I will look into that. As for office, thanks for the tip. I have been living here in Puerto Rico for a year and a half (originally from NY,NY) and there is little to no Apple community. Maybe I can show them the way.

[iomatic]

You probably will have enough hard drive space, but I suggest getting an external Firewire hard drive for some of your data, especially video. I'm not sure the 12" can handle the multiple-devices-on-one-bus thing (i.e., capture from camera to external drive, if they're daisy chained--isn't there only one Firewire port?); anyway, I'd look into storing your video and project files that way (but still back them up regularly).

If it's your only computer, you could leave all these peripherals at home, do some editing, and sync them up with a great backup utility, should you need to take it with you:

http://www.prosoftengineering.com/pr...064adb92ebc9c4

Setup however you like, press a button, and go. There's my utility add-on suggestion for your needs.

[Nibi]

This is great stuff people. I don't even have the Powerbook yet and I already feel pretty well prepared. You guys are a wealth of info. The PB is my personal computer, but I have a Dell Desktop as well. But the reason I got my Powerbook is to get away from using the highly traffiked desktop. I mean between parents and siblings I can barely get time to use it. So I got the Powerbook to serve MY needs.


Are you guys professionals in the computer/ tech field or have you come across this knowledge through personal use and research?

[bbales]

Welcome! I'm typing this on my own 12-in PB, which I've loved from the beginning.

I'm probably one of the only people in the world who says, "buy Apple RAM." I know it's way more expensive, but then you never worry about flaky ram doing flaky things. (Actually, I do have ONE slot of non-apple ram for my desktop, which I bought on ebay, but even that was Apple-certified. I checked before I bought it -- it was guaranteed by Apple. And it's worked fine.)

I echo the remarks about the external hard drive for storage and backing up, by the way.

And as you've already discovered, many of the people in these forums are just an amazing font of information. I don't always get answers, but I frequently do. The people provide information and their own experiences, which can be very, very helpful.

[Nibi]

Thanks for the response bbales. This being my first Apple, I wanted to keep the system homogenous,at least until I begin to outgrow the capacities of 512 RAM. Also I didnt feel like cracking it open while it still has that new computer sheen. Just a neurotic thing on my part. I can't wait till

As for firewire hard drives, I know you can find them for under 200. So I will start doing my homework on them. Night folks. It has been a very informative day for me.

[Pierre B.]

This being my first Apple, I wanted to keep the system homogenous,at least until I begin to outgrow the capacities of 512 RAM. Also I didnt feel like cracking it open while it still has that new computer sheen. Just a neurotic thing on my part.

And wise I would add, if you can accept Apple's pricing.

If you are interested to run Unix applications, in the terminal or X11, you can optionally install Apple's X11 (along with the X11 SDK) and Fink, which will make installing and running X11 applications very easy. Fink's database of ported applications can be proved a treasure, depending on your needs.

If you are comfortable with giving OS commands from the keyboard, here are some useful OS X keyboard shortcuts.

Don't forget that with Classic (it comes with OS X, but you must have a working MacOS 9 installation--not sure if the new Powerbooks have it already), you can run almost any MacOS 9 (and even prior to that) application, but as you are a switcher, this is perhaps of little importance for you. However, there are some very nice arcade games that work only in classic, and some of them are Mac exclusive (the one that comes right now in my mind is PacMac Deluxe)

For running occasionally windows applications, VirtualPC may be a useful addition. Why I say "occasionally"? Since VirtualPC is a Wiindows emulator and, as such, is slow (so forget anything like games or whatever processor and especially graphics intensive). But for non-demanding applications (even writing and testing some code), it is just fine.

[Nibi]

I have heard of the incredible amount of shortcuts on the keyboard. I also heard that if you learn them they are excellent timesavers.

I got a lot of crap from my friends about the whole one button mouse thing, but I figure that I can learn to love it and if it doesnt work out I can buy a third party 2 button.

Virtual PC sounds cool but I doubt I would use it too much. Maybe I would use it to wow PC users

[Fellow2000]

Originally posted by bbales:
Welcome! I'm typing this on my own 12-in PB, which I've loved from the beginning.

I'm probably one of the only people in the world who says, "buy Apple RAM." I know it's way more expensive, but then you never worry about flaky ram doing flaky things. (Actually, I do have ONE slot of non-apple ram for my desktop, which I bought on ebay, but even that was Apple-certified. I checked before I bought it -- it was guaranteed by Apple. And it's worked fine.)

I echo the remarks about the external hard drive for storage and backing up, by the way.

And as you've already discovered, many of the people in these forums are just an amazing font of information. I don't always get answers, but I frequently do. The people provide information and their own experiences, which can be very, very helpful.

You do know that Apple does not manufacture their own RAM correct? They generally use Micron but I have heard reports of people receiving Samsung and Kensington as well. They simply are a reseller, just like any electronics store. Your chances of getting a bad stick of RAM are just as high from Apple as anywhere else and it does happen. Whoever sold you on the Apple certified bit got you to buy into a great marketing ploy. Sure it is guaranteed by Apple so you can send it back if something is wrong with it, but you are also guaranteed buying it from someone else.

Sidetrack is most definitely an amazing application. It is basically just new drivers for the trackpad, something Apple should have included. I have had it ever since the day I got my 12" and I don't think I could live without it now I am so used to it.

[Fellow2000]

Originally posted by Nibi:
I have heard of the incredible amount of shortcuts on the keyboard. I also heard that if you learn them they are excellent timesavers.

I got a lot of crap from my friends about the whole one button mouse thing, but I figure that I can learn to love it and if it doesnt work out I can buy a third party 2 button.

Virtual PC sounds cool but I doubt I would use it too much. Maybe I would use it to wow PC users

Don't get your hopes up about virtual PC until you try it, it is extremely slow. I would compare it to working on a pentium 2 or below.

OS X is built around keyboard shortcuts and yes, they are extremely helpful and time savers. They also show up in the menu items so you can learn them. Also, you can customize them to your hearts content, which is a really nice feature.

The one-button mouse can get annoying. I use photoshop quite a bit and rely on right clicking their as well as in Safari and other well used apps. The thing that got me frustrated was that to right-click, you have to hold down the cntrl button. This button happens to be onthe far left bottom of the keyboard and I am right handed, so you can imagine it is an extremely awkward action just to right click. My solution was in a utility called uControl. It allowed me to make the enter key (something I have never used) between the right cmd key and the arrow keys do the same thing as cntrl. Basically remapping the keyboard key but still keeping the cntrl key working also. This is extremely nice as reaching for the enter key+click is a very natural position.

[St.John]

Howdy!

I've had my 12" Powerbook for about 6 months now, and I don't use my other laptop or desktop comp any more.

Here are some cheap (ish!) and handy things:

Griffin iCurve:

http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/icurve/

Makes working with it at home much more comfortable, and helps avoid those unfortunate spillages wrecking your shiny new baby! I'm a clumsy muppet, and have nearly juiced/tea'd my shiny metal pal a few times now, only for this piece of kit to save the day.

Get a USB memory stick. They're great! Instant backup of important work, and a hell of a lot more convenient than burning CDs to pass data to friends and coworkers.

Look into a cheap USB mouse with 2 buttons and a scroll wheel. I have the wireless mouse from Apple, and it's great, but for games you need the other button and the scroll wheel, I've found. These are generally pretty cheap; this is more expensive but far cuter:

http://www.macmice.com/themouse.html

Get some good headphones. If you're anything like me, you'll end up using the comp on the move ALL THE TIME, and it makes a very pretty jukebox for when you do! You don't want cheap and nasty headphones ruining it, now do you?

Consider a cheap monitor if you don't already have one. Apple supply the widgits to connect to one with the Powerbook, and working with split screens is very useful for programming and any sort of DTP or graphics.

All the best, and enjoy it - it's an amazing machine, but the best part of it is undoubtably OSX. It's amazing!

John.

[Nibi]

Now I have to make a shopping list:

External Hard drive

iCurve ( I think I am really gonna need this soon).

Display (Apple?).

Mouse (two button, maybe macmice bluetooth).

I am gonna hold off on Virtual PC and I already own a USB memory drive.

[typoon]

Originally posted by Nibi:
Now I have to make a shopping list:

External Hard drive

iCurve ( I think I am really gonna need this soon).

Display (Apple?).

Mouse (two button, maybe macmice bluetooth).

I am gonna hold off on Virtual PC and I already own a USB memory drive.

No need for an Apple Display unless you really want one. The Powerbook comes with the adapter to connect it to a regular CRT or a DVI monitor. If you want an Apple monitor connected you will need the Dr. Bott DVI-ADC extractor.

Definitely a 2 button mouse. If you have the time check out the Bluetooth mouse thread on the forums.