[pamelaubeda]

I am an architecture student and a soon to be "switcher". I'm starting with a bang by getting the 17"alPB as well as the 23" cinema display (and an ipod, and a base station )

I'll be using this machine for a lot of design related work...CAD, photoshop, illustrator, flash etc...

I will also be new to OS X (have used the horrible OS 9) and I was just wondering if people could comment on the ways they have "personalized" or picked up on useful tips or tricks or especially what they plan on doing with OS X on their new 17" powerbooks in order to make it just that much better (i.e. ideas of using the extra screen real estate, power, etc)

Thanks!

[AssassyN]

I'm gonna tell ya this nicely before someone flames you, lol, but to be honest, no one has their 17" PB's yet.

Apple was "supposed" to start shipping them at the end of Feb., but they still have not shipped the first one, so no one actually has any experience with them yet.

The only way to really "upgrade" them as of now is to boost the RAM from 512megs to 1GIG.

Great to hear you're switching! I too am a switcher, and the 17" PB will be my first Apple computer also.

[pamelaubeda]

Either you didn't completely read my post or you just don't understand what I'm getting at. Let me clarify:

"I will also be new to OS X (have used the horrible OS 9) and I was just wondering if people could comment on the ways they have "personalized" or picked up on useful tips or tricks"

Meaning...if you have OS X right now on a machine...what have you done to personalize the experience of using it, or what tips/tricks have you figured out about it that are super useful.

"or especially what they PLAN on doing with OS X on their new 17 powerbooks in order to make it just that much better (i.e. ideas of using the extra screen real estate, power, etc)"

Main word there..."PLAN". What do people PLAN on doing with their new wide screen powerbook setup regarding OS X

[AssassyN]

Ah, my bad.

Check out www.osxfaq.com for tons of OSX hints and tips.
Also check www.macosxhints.com

[SplijinX]

I am recent switcher myself, and loving the 12" PB. Getting around on OS X is pretty simple and quite easy to learn, picked up all the basics in one sitting. Since you are getting an external display, I�m assuming you�ll also invest in a keyboard and/or mice. The keyboard on the 12� and 17� are the same and the feel is incredible, probably one of the best laptop keyboards available out there.

The track pad, well�it works. If nothing else get a USB optical mouse. I think the drivers could use a bit of tweaking. Coming from the PC side, it feels a bit awkward, but it was like that for a couple of my friends and they have since gotten used to it. Still with the Photoshop and CAD, a two or more button mouse could come in handy.

As far as screen real estate is concerned, you can have two windows/programs opened side-by-side and work with them simultaneously instead of having to switch back and forth between windows, say IE and Word side by side so you can find research online and type up a paper or something. Furthermore, since you are getting 23� cinema display, you can span them and have 2 displays working together (the laptop and cinema). Check out the second picture on the right for an example: http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/icurve/#

Along the lines of using all that extra power, I think you�ll enjoy the iLife bundle that it should come with. With iTunes you can obviously transfer music to and from your iPod and there are a couple headlines today about them coming out with a fee-based music delivery service, which will make getting music more reliably and legal. iMovie, iPhoto, and iDVD may also come in handy with documenting your projects and perhaps creating a �digital portfolio�. You can document your works with a digital camera, import and archive in iPhoto, create slide shows and documentaries in iMovie, and finally burn it onto a DVD with iDVD and send them off to professors and future employers, etc.

You can create quite a few professional looking projects out of the box, and if you need more, there are plenty of other professional tools you can upgrade to.

Just out of curiosity, what type of CAD are you planning on running? I currently run AutoDesk AutoCAD 2002/Mechanical Desktop but I don�t think they offer anything for OS X (I could be wrong). I know there are plenty of CAD titles, but I�m not sure how much different they are to use.

Hope this sparks a couple of ideas, good luck with your purchase, and hope everyone else gets their 17� PBs soon =)

[Hollywood]

Originally posted by pamelaubeda:
I am an architecture student and a soon to be "switcher". I'm starting with a bang by getting the 17"alPB as well as the 23" cinema display (and an ipod, and a base station )

I'll be using this machine for a lot of design related work...CAD, photoshop, illustrator, flash etc...

I will also be new to OS X (have used the horrible OS 9) and I was just wondering if people could comment on the ways they have "personalized" or picked up on useful tips or tricks or especially what they plan on doing with OS X on their new 17" powerbooks in order to make it just that much better (i.e. ideas of using the extra screen real estate, power, etc)

Thanks!

Unbelievable.

Not that you are a switcher, but that a student can buy the whole bunch. What you will get for free is a lesson in "Bewaring patient". This time Apple will succeed in their own SlowTime . We all keep on dreaming that the 17" will be available on friday.

Enjoy the day,
and even more if the notbook arrives.

[BkueKanoodle]

...(i.e. ideas of using the extra screen real estate, power, etc)

Thanks! [/B]

What extra power?

Its still the same CPU as the tibook. Besides the screen size, some badly implemented DDR ram, and a couple of bells and whistles, there's not a lot of difference between the performance of the 2.

[Over Achiever]

Originally posted by AssassyN:
The only way to really "upgrade" them as of now is to boost the RAM from 512megs to 1GIG.

Actually, the ultimate configuration is 2 GB of ram

But it'd cost over $2500...so yeah...not feasible yet.