[Neo]

Hi all,
Just saw the rumor on the front page that the MP G4 production has been halted due to issues with the systems... My order is due to ship from Outpost.com tomorrow. Being the first Mac I've ever bought, I really don't want to end up with a lemon. I'm more excited about getting this box than I have been about any PC I've built since I started building them, and problems would be a real letdown. Has anyone actually encountered any of these issues in the AppleInsider article with their MP G4s, or is this all just speculation?

[This message has been edited by Neo (edited 08-03-2000).]

[Neo]

Replying to myself... how lame can I get? No answers out there from people who received theirs already?

[realeyz]

My Dual 500 has run great since I got it. I have used Eudora, Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Netscape, IE, and a few other apps and its running awesome.

I got mine from a place called PowerMAX.

------------------
RealEyz Imaging
Animation | 3D Modeling | Visual Effects | Web Design | Compositing

[chrisford]

Originally posted by Neo:
Replying to myself... how lame can I get? No answers out there from people who received theirs already?

hello i had _some_ very slight stability issues - but i put that down to installing about 20 apps in one go...

so far - no problems (bar the jittery mouse mentioned elsewhere - and even that seems to be curing itself!)

so - its a hearty recommendation from me.

chrisford

[Neo]

Sounds excellent! I just got the call from Airborne Express - Outpost shipped it yesterday and it'll be here by noon. I'm really excited! Now, if only the monitor would get here before the end of the month. I'll have to disconnect my PC from my Optiquest V75 for now... I imagine it'll work fine.

[iMan]

Hello All,

Sorry Neo, in less you ordered a normal graphic card you can't hook up yooour optiquest because of the ADC hook-ups.

iman that is not true....there is also a standard 15 pin VGA connection in addition to the ADC connector. He will have no problem
with his monitor

[Neo]

Woohoo!!! I'm on with my new MP G4.... I feel like a fish outta water though. Any good sites on adapting to the mac for a PC user?

One other thing... for some reason, at first my DVD-ROM drive wasn't working... the light stuck on after I pressed the button... After a power cycle though it seems OK... should I worry?

BTW, even though I feel a bit clumsy right now, I'm really liking this thng... cn't wait until my matching display gets here so i don't have to sit my keyboard in such an awkward place because of that silly 3' keyboard cable!

[reader50]

A good help site for recent converts from the PC world can be found here.

I would not worry about the DVD unless the odd behavior continued.

And you should find a note in your paperwork offering a free keyboard extension cable from Apple with an 800 number to call. Unfortunately, the extension cable is on backorder according to others who have mentioned it.

Seriously, just post questions and we will try our best to answer. New arrivals from the dark side are always welcome.

[Neo]

I just discovered the built in speech synthesis... Neve even knew macs had that... as you can tell, I haven't laid an eye on a mac since we were forced to use the old fishbowl macs in a college class I had...

"The lighht you see at the end of the tunnel is the headlamp of a fast approaching train..." hehe

I saw the note about the cable extender, thing is I figure my monitor will make it before the cable.

[kingturd]

Just out of curiosity Neo... you said you ordered your MP G4 from Outpost, did you order a 450 or 500? I ordered mine from Apple and it's a 500 and I still haven't seen it yet :/

[Neo]

The one I got today is a 450, I didn't need DVD-RAM and there was no way I was paying the premium price for 2x50MHz difference.

[reader50]

Neo, on the installer disk, fire up the installer. If you scroll through the custom install options, you will see Speech Recognition. You can install just this update, for limited speech control of your Mac. Note that it supports giving some basic commands only, not free-form dictation into a word processor.

If you like it, you can go to MacSpeech and get the free ListenDo download that extends the speech recognition quite a bit.

With both installed, you can say "Apple Menu ... Calculator" and have it open the calculator. Or any other menu. Assorted other commands are supplied, and you can add your own. No voice training is required, but the more commands you set up the lower accuracy you will get. You can rename some commands, to make them sound less alike.

Have fun.

[reader50]

Further info on speech recognition in this MacWorld listing.

The step-by-step instructions you might be looking for are under The Voice Software You Already Own and The Next Stup Up.

Note that you do need a decent microphone for this to work, there is no mic built into the G4.

And I would order the free keyboard extender anyway. It is actually a USB extension cord and could be used for any USB device. You never know when an extension cord could come in handy, like if they accidentally send your new monitor to a Neo in Antarctica or something.

[This message has been edited by reader50 (edited 08-05-2000).]

[Neo]

Thanks for the info Reader50.

I've managed to crash my new Mac 3 or 4 times already... I know it doesn't have protected memory and all, so that's probably why, at least I hope I don't have a defective one... Was trying to run some apps I downloaded from the net, in particular the last program that locked the system up (mouse would move but no windows would take focus) was NiftyTelnet... I'm trying to find a nice stable ssh client I can use to get to the UNIX servers I admin when I need to on my days off. Any suggestions, guys?

I received my G4 450dp from outpost today too...

(Thanks for the tip on availability neo...

It seems to work great, very fast for photoshop, haven't tried SoundJam yet...

the keyboard is awesome, it types so nice the mouse is beautiful.

I need more mp enabled apps.

Neo,

Try "Better Telnet" make sure you get a PPC version not 68k.

I just launched mine on my mp 450, It loaded so fast i missed the title screen.

What programs have been crashing you ?

Leisureboy

[Neo]

Leisureboy:

I tried that one but it didn't seem to do SSH, only telnet, despite what I'd read. Maybe I downloaded the wrong one? So far, it's just been IE and NiftyTelnet, and when I crashed with IE I also had BetterTelnet in the background in a telnet session, so it coulda been that too...

First problem for me...

Kodak DC 280 Camera, the picture transfer application quits of error type 2 everytime I try to download pictures from my camera. (already tried reallocating memory) I used all the patches from the kodak web site.

Does any one have this problem as well, or more importantly not have this problem with their dp...

On the bright side you can still move pictures from the camera to your drive by means of photoshop plugin, it is tedious in that you have to save them all manually.

Tried calling Kodak, they don't have support on Sundays.

Thanks
Leisureboy

[blizaine]

Neo, you should be able to run IE with alot of background apps open with out crashing. You may want to a-lot more memory to IE. Default is pretty low. I have i mine set at 30MB. To do this goto the original IE Icon (not an alias) and "get info" then goto memory and up it to about 30 megs. I have an iMac DVSE and IE never ever ever crashes on me regarless what I've got going on in the background.

[iMan]

Hello All,

I just ordered my MP G4 450 Today from Apple Store It is supposed to be shipped out in 10 days and i just got normal shipping, UPS Ground. I can't beleive how long the waits are for the 17" monitor it made me mad when they said 21 day until being shipped. OhWell I am gonna have to use my old 19" monitor i got with my dell. I Hope it works it is a 15 pin VGA but, Its a Dell monitor with a Sony tube so I think it will work!

Neo,

Try PureMac for ssh terminals, and almost anything else
http://www.eskimo.com/~pristine/index.html

Leisureboy

Nifty Telnet is the only free SSH client for MacOS. And you are not "supposed" to use it in the USA due to copywrite laws.

Nevertheless, I have used it a lot and it hasn't crashed once. And I like it better than the $99 DataFellows FSecure -- the only other MacOS SSH client that I know of.

I can almost always trace crashes back to my web browser. I hope iCab gets finished soon. It is so much better (if it could only do 128 bit https, CSS, and full JavaScript).

I traced 90% of crashes on my Mac to IE 5. Needless to say, it no longer lives on my machine.

Use iCab, and IE 4.5 for those pages that iCab can't handle.