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PC guy here. Just got an iMac. And an iPad.

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dojokun

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So I just bought a new iMac and an iPad (Wifi, but not 3G). But this will be my first Mac computer, as I have been a PC guy my entire life.

Any recommendations on what software I should obtain, and how to obtain it? I bought iWorks (which contains Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) because they gave me $30 off for buying it with the computer. (It was $79, reduced to $49). It's the equivalent of Word, Excel, and... I forgot what Keynote is.

I'm loving the Magic Mouse, and was going to have the settings set to enable Right-clicking (I found out that Macs have had this feature for years), but I thought I'd try out what lifetime Mac users have been doing for years--treat their mouse as a one-button pony. It's not bad actually. Feels weird. But also comforting to know I can enable right-clicking if I want.

The minimalist keyboard is nice.

Anyway, recommendations on software, websites, essential basics for people using Macs?
 
dojokun said:
I'm loving the Magic Mouse, and was going to have the settings set to enable Right-clicking (I found out that Macs have had this feature for years), but I thought I'd try out what lifetime Mac users have been doing for years--treat their mouse as a one-button pony. It's not bad actually. Feels weird. But also comforting to know I can enable right-clicking if I want.
Click to expand...
No, I think most Mac people right-click.
 
Made the same switch about a year ago after more than 10 years of Windows PC. You've taken your first step into a larger world.

Glad you like the Magic Mouse, I was skeptical about it at first but now it's the by far the best mouse I've ever used. Same with the keyboard, I love those damn chiclets and I love how they are standardized across all devices so whether you're using an iMac or a MacBook or even the virtual keyboard on the iPad the keys are all spaced out exactly the same so it's easy to switch between devices.

Don't forget, Steam is coming for Mac in a couple of weeks! I am in the friends and family beta currently and it's great.

And LK is right, Mac users haven't single-clicked for many years. Definitely turn on right click and don't forget to two-finger side scroll to navigate back and forth in web pages, it's great!
 
Perian, Flip4Mac are all you'll need, video codec wise.

Adium is the best IM app ever.

Transmission for torrents. Really weird and un-Windows like for a new switcher, compared to say µTorrent, but it's worth getting used to.

We've done this before, however. I'm sure someone else will find a link to the previous thread of this type. That'll do a better job than I.
 
Wife and I are adopting a Mac platform sometime in the near future. Likely whatever is the biggest, shiniest iMac at the time. Looking forward to it.
 
Gary Whitta said:
Made the same switch about a year ago after more than 10 years of Windows PC. You've taken your first step into a larger world.

Glad you like the Magic Mouse, I was skeptical about it at first but now it's the by far the best mouse I've ever used. Same with the keyboard, I love those damn chiclets and I love how they are standardized across all devices so whether you're using an iMac or a MacBook or even the virtual keyboard on the iPad the keys are all spaced out exactly the same so it's easy to switch between devices.

Don't forget, Steam is coming for Mac in a couple of weeks! I am in the friends and family beta currently and it's great.

And LK is right, Mac users haven't single-clicked for many years. Definitely turn on right click and don't forget to two-finger side scroll to navigate back and forth in web pages, it's great!
Click to expand...

The fuck? I have a macbook and a pc and I love each equally... but dude mac is definitely not a "larger world".
 
SnakeXs said:
Perian, Flip4Mac are all you'll need, video codec wise.

Adium is the best IM app ever.

Transmission for torrents. Really weird and un-Windows like for a new switcher, compared to say µTorrent, but it's worth getting used to.

We've done this before, however. I'm sure someone else will find a link to the previous thread of this type. That'll do a better job than I.
Click to expand...
Don't listen to this guy!

J/K.

I mean if you have to, yes, but you can get uTorrent for Mac and just use iChat for chat (hopefully; Adium is a terribly written program). I prefer to convert all my video to more Mac-friendly formats using VisualHub/iSquint.


DeathNote said:
i've always heard apple users complain about the mighty mouse
Click to expand...

That's because it sucks! I have a notebook, but if I have to use a mouse, I prefer a standard, two-button Windows mouse.


BTW OP, why did you buy a Mac? What made you switch?
 
DeathNote said:
i've always hears apple users complain about the mighty mouse
Click to expand...

Probably why it's been dead for a while now, replaced with the Magic Mouse.
 
SnakeXs said:
Probably why it's been dead for a while now, replaced with the Magic Mouse.
Click to expand...
Dreams-Visions said:
did you mean Magic Mouse? I think it's more an issue of shape. unless you have small hands.
Click to expand...
yes, i meant to type magic mouse.

but if mighty mouse was in the back of my mind as the one that sucked, great.
 
Have fun. I find macs wonderful and frustrating 100% of the time. i have a windows 7 at home and mac at work.
this might be fixable, but does anyone know a way to turn off the ability of have windows open past the edge of the screen, and or open file lists not aligned to the window ( where the file list does fill the window, even after collapsing a file) also persistent programs after exiting the window annoy the hell out of me too. other than that, its all the same.
 
dojokun said:
I forgot what Keynote is.
Click to expand...

Keynote is presentation software. And it's awesome. I like it much better than PowerPoint.

Perian
Flip4Mac
Growl
Onyx
Adium
Teamviewer
Click to expand...

All this.

I'd add Skitch to that list if you want an easy way to take, host, and post screenshots.

Also, a tiny, simple utility I find myself using all the time is Grand Perspective.

Check out Panic Software's stuff. If you need an FTP, you can use a free solution like Cyberduck, but really, Transmit is the one you want. Unison for Usenet is awesome. And Candybar is pretty much the defacto standard for desktop/icon customization, unless you want to get into some really geeky technical stuff that's not as easy to use.

VLC and MPlayer for the rare video your Perian/Flip4Mac plugins won't fix.

I use Audio Hijack Pro a lot.

Delicious Library too.
 
Gary Whitta said:
Made the same switch about a year ago after more than 10 years of Windows PC. You've taken your first step into a larger world.

Glad you like the Magic Mo
Click to expand...
Wut? I'm 22 and have had Windows for about 15 years. What did you use before the year 2000?
 
DeathNote said:
Wut? I'm 22 and have had Windows for about 15 years. What did you use before the year 2000?
Click to expand...
Maybe a Mac? I was Mac up until '95 or so, then switched to PC. Switched back to Mac about six years ago (aside from my gaming PC).
 
Oh, and I forget to mention this to the OP...

You now have the ability to use Applescripts in iTunes. You are about to be amazed by what you've been missing:

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/

...


But it doesn't stop there. Learn as much as you can about Automator and AppleScript and how you can use them with your apps. If you do, you'll go from "Macs are pretty neat..." to "Holy ****! This is AWESOME!!!" much more quickly.
 
Gary Whitta said:
Made the same switch about a year ago after more than 10 years of Windows PC. You've taken your first step into a larger world.
Click to expand...

nothing says "larger world" like proprietary hardware.

and using steam as a selling point to someone coming from pc is like trying to prize a fat guy from the 24/7 all you can eat buffet with a couple of arbys vouchers.
 
Glad you're turning on single click. Don't think I've used that since I've had the option. I made the switch back to the Mac pretty much when the swivel iMac came out and soon I won't even need boot camp for anything. More and more programs are available on the Mac these days and with Steam coming out in 12 days, well, it's never been a better time to switch.

And does it matter if the hardware is proprietary? I know there's been a lot of talk recently with Steve and Flash but if it keeps all my programs running at peek performance with no chance of viruses...I'm happy.

I've got a question about the Magic Mouse though. Probably directed more towards Gary since he's in the Steam beta though. How well is it with gaming? Using my Mighty Mouse I could never take full advantage of the Heavy gunner weapon since right click was the rev up and left click was shooting. Just curious how that is if you play TF2.
 
I tried - just for fun - to use the magic mouse on Steam using bootcamp. tried it out with torchlight and Mass Effect 2.

not doing that ever again. :lol

I dug out my Logitech MX revolution and have that on standby for any games.


For new Mac users, i think the persistence of apps after closing windows can be confusing but I now prefer that behavior. I can clean up windows off the desktop quickly and then create a new one for an app in a flash without having to reload the app into memory.

On the topic of closing windows, using CMD-H to hide all an apps windows at once is great. click on the dock icon and they're all back.
 
ghst said:
nothing says "larger world" like proprietary hardware.

and using steam as a selling point to someone coming from pc is like trying to prize a fat guy from the 24/7 all you can eat buffet with a couple of arbys vouchers.
Click to expand...


you have arby's in grouch land? beef and cheeda mmmm
 
VGChampion said:
I've got a question about the Magic Mouse though. Probably directed more towards Gary since he's in the Steam beta though. How well is it with gaming? Using my Mighty Mouse I could never take full advantage of the Heavy gunner weapon since right click was the rev up and left click was shooting. Just curious how that is if you play TF2.
Click to expand...
I would never play a video game with an Apple mouse.
 
I love Apple hardware, actually, but I just couldn't bring myself to switch to a Mac as my primary computer. There are just too many things I do with my PC that can't be done on a Mac (at least without Windows). I prefer building my own boxes anyways.

What is it about the Mac that is pulling people into the fold? What does it offer that a powerful machine with Windows 7 can't? I mean, I have an iPhone simply because it DOES offer a lot of things that are not available elsewhere, but that doesn't seem to be true with the Mac computers themselves.

I'm just curious in opinions and reasoning behind selecting a Mac and why people feel it is better.
 
dark10x said:
I love Apple hardware, actually, but I just couldn't bring myself to switch to a Mac as my primary computer. There are just too many things I do with my PC that can't be done on a Mac (at least without Windows). I prefer building my own boxes anyways.

What is it about the Mac that is pulling people into the fold? What does it offer that a powerful machine with Windows 7 can't? I mean, I have an iPhone simply because it DOES offer a lot of things that are not available elsewhere, but that doesn't seem to be true with the Mac computers themselves.

I'm just curious in opinions and reasoning behind selecting a Mac and why people feel it is better.
Click to expand...
I think for the general public, not nerds like us, the virus thing probably matters, and it's been helped with how computing is mostly in the browser now so compatibility isn't a big problem anymore. We used to be tied to our OS applications, but now we're tied to the browser. Boot Camp to still use Windows and Vista's bad public reputation helped too.
 
DeathNote said:
Wut? I'm 22 and have had Windows for about 15 years. What did you use before the year 2000?
Click to expand...
The first real work computer I ever owned (aside from an old Amstrad PCW word processor) was an Apple Mac SE that I got around 1988 and after that I was on a PowerBook Duo 230. Then when I started at PC Gamer in 1993 everything was obviously PC (apart from in the art department) so from then on that's all I used. I left PC Gamer in 2000 but continued using PCs at home until last year, so overall that's about 16 years as a PC user. I had a PowerBook and then a MacBook also during those last few years but mostly as a secondary computer. Finally made the full-on switch last year after my most recent PC died and I got a new iMac instead.
 
ghst said:
nothing says "larger world" like proprietary hardware.

and using steam as a selling point to someone coming from pc is like trying to prize a fat guy from the 24/7 all you can eat buffet with a couple of arbys vouchers.
Click to expand...
I wasn't using it as a selling point. He's already made the switch. He asked what he should get and I reminded him that Steam was coming out soon, as a former PC user I figured he'd be interested in that. Sorry if any of that offended you.
 
dark10x said:
I love Apple hardware, actually, but I just couldn't bring myself to switch to a Mac as my primary computer. There are just too many things I do with my PC that can't be done on a Mac (at least without Windows). I prefer building my own boxes anyways.

What is it about the Mac that is pulling people into the fold? What does it offer that a powerful machine with Windows 7 can't? I mean, I have an iPhone simply because it DOES offer a lot of things that are not available elsewhere, but that doesn't seem to be true with the Mac computers themselves.

I'm just curious in opinions and reasoning behind selecting a Mac and why people feel it is better.
Click to expand...
I have a MacBook Pro and I built a gaming PC. I use the Mac for everything but gaming. I simply prefer the operating system.
 
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
I would never play a video game with an Apple mouse.
Click to expand...
I agree with this, the MM is great for productivity but I didn't enjoy using it to play WoW. When Steam goes fully live and stuff like TF2 is available I will definitely be back in the market for a good wireless gaming mouse.
 
dark10x said:
I love Apple hardware, actually, but I just couldn't bring myself to switch to a Mac as my primary computer. There are just too many things I do with my PC that can't be done on a Mac (at least without Windows). I prefer building my own boxes anyways.

What is it about the Mac that is pulling people into the fold? What does it offer that a powerful machine with Windows 7 can't? I mean, I have an iPhone simply because it DOES offer a lot of things that are not available elsewhere, but that doesn't seem to be true with the Mac computers themselves.

I'm just curious in opinions and reasoning behind selecting a Mac and why people feel it is better.
Click to expand...
For me, I haven't drawn the conclusion that it's "better" quite yet, but I am loving it so far.

It was a few different factors for me. The two most important factors are 1) my tax refund coming in a couple days ago and 2) I need a Mac to develop apps for iPhone or iPad.

But also I had been curious about Macs for quite a few years. When I was growing up, myself and all my friends had PCs at home (before high school I remember we called them IBM compatibles). No one had a Mac at home. The schools all had Macs and not PCs. So that's how I thought of it--PC (or IBM compatible) for personal use, and Macs at school. I guess Apple had a lot of contracts with public schools back then.

But starting in college I met a lot of people who used Mac for personal use, and even all their life. So that made me curious.

Plus I knew that Apple's proprietary hardware is way less prone to get a virus.

Also, expanding your horizons is always good in my book.
 
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343

hide app: cmd+h
quit app: cmd+q
close window: cmd+w
app switcher: cmd+tab
switch between windows in an app: cmd+tilda
search: cmd+space
sleep display: ctrl+shift+eject
quick look: spacebar on a file in finder

Control key is now command key. cmd+c, cmd+x, cmd+v, etc.

Set up expose in System Preferences. Click and hold on a dock icon for dock expose.
 
I'm all for expanding my horizons as well, honestly. I may pick up a Mac Book at some point and try using it daily for a bit. It's just that, I've been using Snow Leopard at work on a video editing station quite a bit and, while I like some aspects of the OS a lot, I really do prefer the look, feel, and functionality of Windows 7. Now, if I were comparing it to XP or Vista, I would go for Mac OS, but I really like Win 7 a lot.

I suppose for people that aren't into PC gaming, however, the need to stick with the PC is significantly lessened.

I've also found myself interested in the iPad, but upon reflection, I just can't justify it. Between my laptop and my iPhone I can do everything I need on the mobile front. The iPad seems like a neat toy, but not something that would replace a device I use on a daily basis. Has anyone here integrated the iPad into daily life in a meaningful fashion yet?
 
dark10x said:
I love Apple hardware, actually, but I just couldn't bring myself to switch to a Mac as my primary computer. There are just too many things I do with my PC that can't be done on a Mac (at least without Windows). I prefer building my own boxes anyways.

What is it about the Mac that is pulling people into the fold? What does it offer that a powerful machine with Windows 7 can't? I mean, I have an iPhone simply because it DOES offer a lot of things that are not available elsewhere, but that doesn't seem to be true with the Mac computers themselves.

I'm just curious in opinions and reasoning behind selecting a Mac and why people feel it is better.
Click to expand...
For me I just vastly prefer the OSX experience over Windows and I like not having to worry about the viruses, malware etc. I did the PC build thing too, my last two PCs were ones I built myself, but after a while the tinkering thing lost its appeal and I just wanted something with an elegant and easy user experience, stable and - yeah, I admit it - attractive to look at. I'm not a very high power user and I can afford it so I don't care that I can build a more powerful Windows PC for less money. My 27" iMac is by far the best computer I've ever owned, the screen alone is just incredible.

The only thing that kept me from switching earlier was gaming, but honestly I do most of my gaming these days on the consoles anyway and I can count on the fingers of one hand the upcoming PC-exclusive games I care about. The ones I'm interested in (WoW, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Valve stuff) are all on Mac.
 
dark10x said:
I love Apple hardware, actually, but I just couldn't bring myself to switch to a Mac as my primary computer. There are just too many things I do with my PC that can't be done on a Mac (at least without Windows). I prefer building my own boxes anyways.

What is it about the Mac that is pulling people into the fold? What does it offer that a powerful machine with Windows 7 can't? I mean, I have an iPhone simply because it DOES offer a lot of things that are not available elsewhere, but that doesn't seem to be true with the Mac computers themselves.

I'm just curious in opinions and reasoning behind selecting a Mac and why people feel it is better.
Click to expand...
I switched for the operating system. The hardware is nice but if it was running system 7, I'd still be using windows.

I just prefer the way os x handles things more than windows. I prefer that windows are document centric and not app centric. I prefer the top menu bar. I prefer expose to the Rolodex thing or alt tab. The list goes on and on

After I switched, I also noticed that the level of quality for the very best third party apps was insanely high.

and now that gaudy stripes and brushed metal are gone, I think it's the best looking os, too. Doesn't hurt.
 
dark10x said:
I love Apple hardware, actually, but I just couldn't bring myself to switch to a Mac as my primary computer. There are just too many things I do with my PC that can't be done on a Mac (at least without Windows). I prefer building my own boxes anyways.

What is it about the Mac that is pulling people into the fold? What does it offer that a powerful machine with Windows 7 can't? I mean, I have an iPhone simply because it DOES offer a lot of things that are not available elsewhere, but that doesn't seem to be true with the Mac computers themselves.

I'm just curious in opinions and reasoning behind selecting a Mac and why people feel it is better.
Click to expand...
For me it's mainly peace of mind. Less settings and visual clutter. You don't have to give a shit about hardware. Software is generally well-designed and follows a common basic design ethos. Malware is a tiny to non-existant issue.
 
Gary Whitta said:
For me I just vastly prefer the OSX experience over Windows and I like not having to worry about the viruses, malware etc. I did the PC build thing two, my last two PCs were ones I built myself, but after a while the tinkering thing lost its appeal and I just wanted something with an elegant and easy user experience, stable and - yeah, I admit it - attractive to look at. I'm not a very high power user and I can afford it so I don't care that I can build a more powerful Windows PC for less money. My 27" iMac is by far the best computer I've ever owned, the screen alone is just incredible.
Click to expand...
I like attractive interfaces as well, but I really think Microsoft did a great job with Windows 7. It absolutely competes with the current Mac OS (for the first time in MS history, really).

On the screen side, I have my PC running in my first floor office on a 23" Samsung LCD while connected to a custom floorplate I installed that runs to my home theater in the basement for use on my Pioneer Kuro and 7.1 audio setup. Can't imagine a better setup. :D Of course, I could do this with a Mac as well, I'm sure.

It's nice that it has become such a competitive platform as of late, however. It's definitely more appealing now than it has ever been.
 
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