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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > I bought one now what??

I bought one now what??
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MacBoston
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Join Date: Sep 2004
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Sep 16, 2004, 07:45 PM
 
Ok I'm a new powerbook owner (1.5gig 15inch, 512k, 80gig 5400 HD, 128meg ATI, Superdrive, Backlite keyboard etc) and it gave me about 30secs of buyers remorse until it seemlessly sync'd with my bluetooth phone (it took me 2+hours to get a usb-bluetooth adapter running at 70% on my home desktop PC)

First of all I have to say I really don't understand the "should I wait to buy questions". There will always be something better around the corner. I finally rid myself of that demon by understanding the following:

1. Faster processor=more battery drain, the 1.5 took a hit on battery life from 1.33mhz, who knows what a dual core G4 will do. Maybe they will come out with a larger battery which is find by me. Caveat: some fancy new g5 tecnology that is more effecient and also more powerful would be nice

2. G5 is a long way off, I give it a year although seeing the imac there is hope for something a little sooner.

3. 95% of the people will never use the power of a 1.5 g4. I'm an architect I do 3d modeling, CAD, intensive photoshop and with 512k I get good performance. I plan on maxing out to 2 gigs of ram and I'm sure will increase the performance substanially. Yes its slow if you toss around 200meg photoshop, but that brings up the question "do you really need that resolution" Unfortunately most people have little understanding of resolutaion and file size, big is better, only if big is needed

4. New is more $$$$, has anyone forgotten these things use to cost close to 4k all decked out??

5. The g4 book has been thorougly tested. I'd rather buy a rev C product then one hot off of the designers table.

The only drawback I have seen so for that it gets a tad war if you keep it on your lap for long periods of time. Thank God winter is just around the corner

Ok...The reason I was really posting is to know what are the must have apps.
IE 6, Mediaplayer....I'm not talking about specialty stuff just the ones to make my powerbook experience 10times better.


Cheers
( Last edited by MacBoston; Sep 16, 2004 at 08:07 PM. )
     
Leo the 3rd
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Join Date: Nov 2001
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Sep 16, 2004, 08:22 PM
 
The best thing I can recommend is O'reilly's Missing Manual book http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/macxmmpanther/ - assuming you are new to Mac OSX. If not, it's still a good reference book to have on your shelf.

As for apps, Temperature Monitor is great for monitoring you systems tempature. If you need FTP client (GUI instead of the Terminal CLI) then Transmit works well. Also, I love Salling Clicker - must own for Bluetooth fans.

And get some protection for your investment - protect your screen - Radtech makes nice keyboard cover which doubles as a nice cleaning cloth for the case and screen. Also get a nice protective carrying case (see the sticky at the top).

And most of all enjoy and ask questions here. The folks are helpful. Good luck
     
NittanyToto
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Join Date: Jul 2004
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Sep 16, 2004, 09:08 PM
 
I just got my PB a couple months ago and have found a few apps thanks to this board that I love.

VLC - watching and listening to media files
Newsfire - good rss reader
quicksilver - free program that lets you open programs by just typing in part of the name

Thats just a few that I enjoy, hope it helps
     
alligator
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Minnesota
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Sep 16, 2004, 09:39 PM
 
Get the following:

MacJanitor

Fetch Art for iTunes

and the screen calibration software that everyone posts about here on the forums. These are great freeware items.
     
Leo the 3rd
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Sep 16, 2004, 10:17 PM
 
SuperCal is the screen calibration tool.

Originally posted by alligator:
Get the following:

MacJanitor

Fetch Art for iTunes

and the screen calibration software that everyone posts about here on the forums. These are great freeware items.
     
Lancer409
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Semi Posting Retirement *ReJoice!*
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Sep 17, 2004, 02:25 AM
 
now what...? .. enjoy it you rascal! .. hehe

seriously though .. good points .. but it's still hard to rationalize it when we are parting with a lot of cash. i understand the hesitation. then agian, i got the rev c right when it came out .. so lucky me .. hehe funny thing was ... i was going to buy it a few days earlier .. and instead i walked back into the store a few days later to a new revision... more stuff ... cool

No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
     
ryju
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Sep 17, 2004, 10:23 AM
 
How can you get any work done with only 512k ram?

Upgrade to at least 512MB.
     
   
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