New Switcher
Ok, I'm so excited I just have to tell someone…
After about 2 months of reading everything I could about Macs on this forum, dpreview (Mac Tools), and every other Mac related website I could, I finally decided to switch. Last night I ordered one of the new 20" Intel iMacs with 2Gb of RAM and the upgraded video card. As a software developer developing Windows applications, it was a really big decision for me. Other than spending most of my lunch hours for the last month at the local Apple store, I've never really used a Mac. I've been going to the Apple store several times a week to try to learn and to get as familiar as I could with them.
Now that I've ordered it, I can't wait for it to get here! My primary motivation for switching is for my photography. I've been needing to upgrade my software for a long time now, and I don't want to go out and buy Windows versions since I've been "Mac curious" for sometime now. Don't laugh, but I'm still using Photoshop 5.5. I want to eventually run Aperture and Photoshop CS3. I know the UB version of Photoshop will not be out for maybe another year (hopefully sooner), so I'm hoping to find alternate tools in the mean time to hold me over. I'm thinking about trying PS Elements since it's a watered down version of Photoshop. Maybe it will run faster than Photoshop would with Rosetta.
Anyway, even though I haven't been active on this forum, this forum (especially Andy's post) has been very helpful in getting me to the point to where I was comfortable enough to take the plunge and finally switch. I've also followed Andy's post on dpreview. Thanks to Andy and everyone else that has contributed to this forum.
BTW, I've also recently made the switch from Pbase to Smugmug. I spent four years with Pbase, but finally decided to switch because of the incredible support that is available through Smugmug/Dgrin as well as the customization capabilities that Smugmug offers. So far, I love Smugmug!
Some stupid questions
I am seriously considering a mac laptop and have read all of the mac threads here. If some of the mac gurus don't mind I have some stupid questions:
I: use Adobe Elements 3 on a pc. It has a great cataloging program. I think the mac version doesn't have this feature. Is Adobe photoshop album a good substitute?
2: I have an external hard drive. From all of my reading over the last week, I will have to reformat this drive to use it with the laptop. I will keep my windows computer to run garmin software until Garmin release their mac software but plan to use the laptop for everything else.
3: Apple.com has 2ghz processors in the Ireland/uk store and has 2.16 ghz processors in the US store. Is there a big difference?
4: I have always used internet explorer and outlook express. I have read about safari and firefox. Which is the best? ( i warned you the questions were stupid )
5: The applecare plan is expensive. Is it worth it?
6: I have a netgear router. Will there be any problems getting the mac to work with this?
I: use Adobe Elements 3 on a pc. It has a great cataloging program. I think the mac version doesn't have this feature. Is Adobe photoshop album a good substitute?
No, since Photoshop Album is currently not under development for the Mac. Adobe doesn't do that one, since the Mac comes with iPhoto, a basic cataloging application. Some like it, I loathe it, since it does all kinds of stuff under the hood that I can't control. So I went for iView Media Pro, an excellent cataloging application. And you get to use the same license on both Mac and Windows computers. Since you'll be having a Windows desktop around as well, this might come in handy for you too.
I'm skipping the questions on the portable hard drive and the speed difference. All I know is that I kept my portable hard drive (a LaCie one) in FAT32, so I can hook it up to both Mac and Windows without any issues. Dunno if that's the best solution, so I'll keep my ears open on that part of your questions.
As for the speed, I think that all stores will offer the same options in the end, but the speed bump the not yet released Macbook Pro has received may be too recent to get trickled down to all country sites. I'm not sure of that though.
4: I have always used internet explorer and outlook express. I have read about safari and firefox. Which is the best?
I prefer Firefox over Safari, simply because it seems better supported at different sites. As my email application, I prefer Thunderbird over Mail.app, simply because I had my database get corrupted in Mail.app, so I lost confidence. I never had any issue using Thunderbird on OS X.
5: The applecare plan is expensive. Is it worth it?
I never bought it, but then again, I only had a cheap iBook, that wouldn't be too pricey to replace. If I'd have spent much more on my notebook, I would have went with Apple Care. In the experience in my family, Apple products can break, even after the initial warranty time. You get to decide on Apple Care until your standard warranty period is over BTW, so you don't have to decide that at the time of your purchase.
Thanks for your help Marlof, as always answers lead to more questions.
All I want the laptop for is internet / email and basic photo editing using elements or a similar program. I have checked out the prices on the macbook, powerbook and ibook and there is a substantial difference in price.
Will the ibook handle my modest needs? I could wait and get the macbook later in the year but the price difference is €2,000 .
It totally depends on what your needs in the "basic editing" is.
I have a 3 year old iBook G3 800 MHz with 640mb of RAM. It does fine for e-mailing, webbrowsing, word processing, on-the-road offloading of images. It is not very good at basic editing (it *is* 3 years old, with an ancient processor to boot), but still very doable. I use it to run PSE3 and Olympus Studio. Heck, I recently even edited some DV movies on it with iMovie, and that was still doable. Barely, but doable.
A current iBook would have a much speedier G4 processor. If you also max out the RAM, I'd say it'd be ok for basic editing.
Personally, I tend to like my notebook to be as small as possible. It is not my main computer, and will only have a fill in job to do. Portability is important to me. The downside is that the current small Apple notebooks (12" iBook and Powerbook) only have 1024x768 resolution. I can edit on such a screen, but it isn't perfect.
The other thing I don't like is that the 12" doesn't have the superdrive for DVD burning. You'd have to get the 14" (bigger, but with the same resolution) to get that. If this would be a show stopper for you, you also might want to check the 12" Powerbook, since it can be equipped with the Superdrive, and it also has some additional goodies (like the ability to use a real additional screen, in stead of just mirroring the notebook screen).
And if you want to play the waiting game: it is rumored that this year the Intel based iBook will be released. I really don't know if that's true. I just know that I'll wait to replace mine until the Intel based iBook is in its second revision (Rev , to give Apple come time to work out the initial problems that their Rev A hardware sometimes has.
Edit:PS: I don't know if it's wise to order a G4 Mac right now. I've noticed with the G3 that support for two technologies ago (intel Mac -> G5 -> G4 -> G3) will fade. The latest iLife officially is not supported on my G3, that was two technologies ago. I really don't know how long the G4 will be supported, since their notebooks never ran anything faster than that. May be one of the real gurus could shed a light on that.
2: I have an external hard drive. From all of my reading over the last week, I will have to reformat this drive to use it with the laptop.
What file system is it currently formatted with? (my computer, right-click on the drive, select properties) If it's NTFS, then yes you'll need to copy the data off and reformat it. If it's FAT32, the Mac will be able to read it just fine (though some folks will say you should reformat it, it's not necessary in the short term).
Marlof and Stephen, thanks for the help. I played with an Imac today and the osx is brilliant. I think I will sit on the fence for a little while longer while Apple changes all of it's range to intel processors. Again, thank you for the advice, it is very helpful.
Thanks David, I will include it when I buy. (note the word when, )
Word on the street is that the MacBook Pro will be 64 bit in October. My guess is that the iBook Intel will come out at that time and that the 32/64 bit difference will be what really sets them apart in the lineup.
I neglected to opt for it when I bought my mother her iBook, I'm now kicking myself for that.
Note to anyone out there that might be regretting it, you can buy the extended applecare at any time during the normal full coverage waranty, ususally 30, 60, or 90 days, depending on the product. But after that.... too bad, so sad.
SmugMug Sorcerer - Engineering Team Champion for Commerce, Finance, Security, and Data Support http://wall-art.smugmug.com/
I neglected to opt for it when I bought my mother her iBook, I'm now kicking myself for that.
Note to anyone out there that might be regretting it, you can buy the extended applecare at any time during the normal full coverage waranty, ususally 30, 60, or 90 days, depending on the product. But after that.... too bad, so sad.
Comments
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Let me be clear. Apparently, you don't know how to spell. Richard.
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
??
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Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Gud. Gladd that weere in agremant abut that.
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Ok, I'm so excited I just have to tell someone…
After about 2 months of reading everything I could about Macs on this forum, dpreview (Mac Tools), and every other Mac related website I could, I finally decided to switch. Last night I ordered one of the new 20" Intel iMacs with 2Gb of RAM and the upgraded video card. As a software developer developing Windows applications, it was a really big decision for me. Other than spending most of my lunch hours for the last month at the local Apple store, I've never really used a Mac. I've been going to the Apple store several times a week to try to learn and to get as familiar as I could with them.
Now that I've ordered it, I can't wait for it to get here! My primary motivation for switching is for my photography. I've been needing to upgrade my software for a long time now, and I don't want to go out and buy Windows versions since I've been "Mac curious" for sometime now. Don't laugh, but I'm still using Photoshop 5.5. I want to eventually run Aperture and Photoshop CS3. I know the UB version of Photoshop will not be out for maybe another year (hopefully sooner), so I'm hoping to find alternate tools in the mean time to hold me over. I'm thinking about trying PS Elements since it's a watered down version of Photoshop. Maybe it will run faster than Photoshop would with Rosetta.
Anyway, even though I haven't been active on this forum, this forum (especially Andy's post) has been very helpful in getting me to the point to where I was comfortable enough to take the plunge and finally switch. I've also followed Andy's post on dpreview. Thanks to Andy and everyone else that has contributed to this forum.
BTW, I've also recently made the switch from Pbase to Smugmug. I spent four years with Pbase, but finally decided to switch because of the incredible support that is available through Smugmug/Dgrin as well as the customization capabilities that Smugmug offers. So far, I love Smugmug!
I'm still working on my new site, but here's what I have so far: http://www.bkphotography.smugmug.com
Thanks again!
Brian
bkphotography.smugmug.com
thewinningshots.smugmug.com
Congrats! I prefer to call it an upgrade, rather than a switch!
Let me know what if any help you need in the Mac world!
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Come on in - the water's fine!
Welcome aboard. I think you'll like both upgrades.
http://wall-art.smugmug.com/
Haven't heard a peep out of you. Everything going well in Mac Land?
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
The MacBook Pro's have faster chips that were announced a month ago, too. They got upgraded before they even shipped!
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
I am seriously considering a mac laptop and have read all of the mac threads here. If some of the mac gurus don't mind I have some stupid questions:
I: use Adobe Elements 3 on a pc. It has a great cataloging program. I think the mac version doesn't have this feature. Is Adobe photoshop album a good substitute?
2: I have an external hard drive. From all of my reading over the last week, I will have to reformat this drive to use it with the laptop. I will keep my windows computer to run garmin software until Garmin release their mac software but plan to use the laptop for everything else.
3: Apple.com has 2ghz processors in the Ireland/uk store and has 2.16 ghz processors in the US store. Is there a big difference?
4: I have always used internet explorer and outlook express. I have read about safari and firefox. Which is the best? ( i warned you the questions were stupid
5: The applecare plan is expensive. Is it worth it?
6: I have a netgear router. Will there be any problems getting the mac to work with this?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Seamus.
No, since Photoshop Album is currently not under development for the Mac. Adobe doesn't do that one, since the Mac comes with iPhoto, a basic cataloging application. Some like it, I loathe it, since it does all kinds of stuff under the hood that I can't control. So I went for iView Media Pro, an excellent cataloging application. And you get to use the same license on both Mac and Windows computers. Since you'll be having a Windows desktop around as well, this might come in handy for you too.
I'm skipping the questions on the portable hard drive and the speed difference. All I know is that I kept my portable hard drive (a LaCie one) in FAT32, so I can hook it up to both Mac and Windows without any issues. Dunno if that's the best solution, so I'll keep my ears open on that part of your questions.
As for the speed, I think that all stores will offer the same options in the end, but the speed bump the not yet released Macbook Pro has received may be too recent to get trickled down to all country sites. I'm not sure of that though.
I prefer Firefox over Safari, simply because it seems better supported at different sites. As my email application, I prefer Thunderbird over Mail.app, simply because I had my database get corrupted in Mail.app, so I lost confidence. I never had any issue using Thunderbird on OS X.
I never bought it, but then again, I only had a cheap iBook, that wouldn't be too pricey to replace. If I'd have spent much more on my notebook, I would have went with Apple Care. In the experience in my family, Apple products can break, even after the initial warranty time. You get to decide on Apple Care until your standard warranty period is over BTW, so you don't have to decide that at the time of your purchase.
Probably not. I've had no problems whatsover hooking my iBook to different routers, regardless their brand (Linksys, Microsoft, Apple).
All I want the laptop for is internet / email and basic photo editing using elements or a similar program. I have checked out the prices on the macbook, powerbook and ibook and there is a substantial difference in price.
Will the ibook handle my modest needs? I could wait and get the macbook later in the year but the price difference is €2,000
I have a 3 year old iBook G3 800 MHz with 640mb of RAM. It does fine for e-mailing, webbrowsing, word processing, on-the-road offloading of images. It is not very good at basic editing (it *is* 3 years old, with an ancient processor to boot), but still very doable. I use it to run PSE3 and Olympus Studio. Heck, I recently even edited some DV movies on it with iMovie, and that was still doable. Barely, but doable.
A current iBook would have a much speedier G4 processor. If you also max out the RAM, I'd say it'd be ok for basic editing.
Personally, I tend to like my notebook to be as small as possible. It is not my main computer, and will only have a fill in job to do. Portability is important to me. The downside is that the current small Apple notebooks (12" iBook and Powerbook) only have 1024x768 resolution. I can edit on such a screen, but it isn't perfect.
The other thing I don't like is that the 12" doesn't have the superdrive for DVD burning. You'd have to get the 14" (bigger, but with the same resolution) to get that. If this would be a show stopper for you, you also might want to check the 12" Powerbook, since it can be equipped with the Superdrive, and it also has some additional goodies (like the ability to use a real additional screen, in stead of just mirroring the notebook screen).
And if you want to play the waiting game: it is rumored that this year the Intel based iBook will be released. I really don't know if that's true. I just know that I'll wait to replace mine until the Intel based iBook is in its second revision (Rev
Edit:PS: I don't know if it's wise to order a G4 Mac right now. I've noticed with the G3 that support for two technologies ago (intel Mac -> G5 -> G4 -> G3) will fade. The latest iLife officially is not supported on my G3, that was two technologies ago. I really don't know how long the G4 will be supported, since their notebooks never ran anything faster than that. May be one of the real gurus could shed a light on that.
What file system is it currently formatted with? (my computer, right-click on the drive, select properties) If it's NTFS, then yes you'll need to copy the data off and reformat it. If it's FAT32, the Mac will be able to read it just fine (though some folks will say you should reformat it, it's not necessary in the short term).
my words, my "pro"pictures, my "fun" pictures, my videos.
But I did just buy an ibook 12" for use with my 350D/rebel xt mainly for use on a long (3 month) holiday to the US pretty soon.
Plan to use that and smugmug for storing my pics somewhere safe during the trip.
It appears that it is currently:
Shipment Picked Up SHANGHAI, SH, CN 14 Feb 2006 11:00
I want it too hurry up!
Ive never had a MAC before and have found reading this thread very useful.
Thanks
My www. place is www.belperphoto.co.uk
My smugmug galleries at http://stuarthill.smugmug.com
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
Seamus.
Thanks David, I will include it when I buy. (note the word when,
Word on the street is that the MacBook Pro will be 64 bit in October. My guess is that the iBook Intel will come out at that time and that the 32/64 bit difference will be what really sets them apart in the lineup.
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
AMEN.
I neglected to opt for it when I bought my mother her iBook, I'm now kicking myself for that.
Note to anyone out there that might be regretting it, you can buy the extended applecare at any time during the normal full coverage waranty, ususally 30, 60, or 90 days, depending on the product. But after that.... too bad, so sad.
http://wall-art.smugmug.com/
1 year for laptops and desktops.
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
er, duh, yes... I don't know why I was thinking the shorter time periods.
http://wall-art.smugmug.com/
QUICKER!!! QUICKER!!! :cry
not that long though i suppose
My www. place is www.belperphoto.co.uk
My smugmug galleries at http://stuarthill.smugmug.com
just the few days it will spend sitting in customs in AK.
http://wall-art.smugmug.com/
Whats AK? my order tracker currenly shows 24th feb for delivery.
My www. place is www.belperphoto.co.uk
My smugmug galleries at http://stuarthill.smugmug.com
Alaska. A lot of computers & things coming from from China go through customs there (nominally a 2-3 day process, from what I understand).
my words, my "pro"pictures, my "fun" pictures, my videos.