The official thread for any and all discussion related to Apple Inc.

[preshit.net]

BTW that about VisualHub?I heard about its recarnation as an OSS project.

Didn't you read this on the blog?

 

[SunnyChahal]

No I didn't
I'm away from my Mac nowadays,using Vista.Some serious gaming going on.

 

[Pat]

Bought a new macbook yesterday.
I have some questions about it:

1. In my box I received a power adapter and two additional power connectors but none of them are of Indian standard. One is two-pin flat connector (works in US/Europe) and the other two are three-pin flat connectors (works in UK, I guess). Currently I am using the two-pin one with my own US-to-India convertor. I am sure I am missing something here.

2. Could you please suggest some sites where we can find some information for people new to Macs ?

3. How can I ensure that the battery life stays at its best for as long as possible ?

4. The white macbook is a dirt/dust magnet. How can I ensure I keep it as good looking as it is right now ?

5. Actually I just want to confirm this: Upgrading RAM and hard-disk by myself will not void my warranty. Right ?

6. How much does the Apple Remote and mini-DVI adapters cost approximately ?

Some information regarding my purchase:

Macbook Specifications - 2.1 GHz Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard-disk, Combo Drive.

a. I bought it from an authorized Apple reseller in Mumbai.

b. The staff there dint exactly look like Geniuses (quite understandable)

c. They offered to install MS Office and Photoshop on my Macbook, which was surprising to say the least. (I am pretty sure they were not offering genuine licenses of those softwares)

d. The package was very minimal in design. Just the macbook, a quick-start guide, 2 DVDs, power adapter and 2 additional power connectors.

e. The battery after the initial full charge lasted for nearly 6 hours which is incredible if you ask me. (Airport,bluetooth switched off and screen brightness at less than half)

 

[preshit.net]

Bought a new macbook yesterday.

Congrats and welcome to the club. One more reason to follow SA now

1. In my box I received a power adapter and two additional power connectors but none of them are of Indian standard. One is two-pin flat connector (works in US/Europe) and the other two are three-pin flat connectors (works in UK, I guess). Currently I am using the two-pin one with my own US-to-India convertor. I am sure I am missing something here.

You don't get the Indian standard pins with the Macs. Just use your own convertor with any of those. I use the 3-pin one.

2. Could you please suggest some sites where we can find some information for people new to Macs ?

Apple's own site has a lot of information for switchers and so does TUAW.

4. The white macbook is a dirt/dust magnet. How can I ensure I keep it as good looking as it is right now ?

I don't know what sort of answer you're looking for here. It's your responsibility to keep it protected. You might want to try dust silicon covers, but I wouldn't do that.

Macbook Specifications - 2.1 GHz Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard-disk, Combo Drive.

a. I bought it from an authorized Apple reseller in Mumbai.
b. The staff there dint exactly look like Geniuses (quite understandable)
c. They offered to install MS Office and Photoshop on my Macbook, which was surprising to say the least. (I am pretty sure they were not offering genuine licenses of those softwares)
d. The package was very minimal in design. Just the macbook, a quick-start guide, 2 DVDs, power adapter and 2 additional power connectors.
e. The battery after the initial full charge lasted for nearly 6 hours which is incredible if you ask me. (Airport,bluetooth switched off and screen brightness at less than half)

Oh, the first model of the old MacBook range? How much did it cost you?

It depends on which dealer you buy it from. Mine has a fair amount of knowledge, given the fact that he deals with Enterprise solutions (Mac Pro, FCP stuff)

They give you even more s/w if you ask. Didn't you get Toast Titanium?

The battery life on the MacBooks is really impressive.

 

[Pat]

Congrats and welcome to the club. One more reason to follow SA now

I have been doing that since a long time now

Oh, the first model of the old MacBook range? How much did it cost you?

49k

It depends on which dealer you buy it from. Mine has a fair amount of knowledge, given the fact that he deals with Enterprise solutions (Mac Pro, FCP stuff)

I bought it from Unicorn at Andheri West (if you know i.e.)

They give you even more s/w if you ask. Didn't you get Toast Titanium?

Nope. They offered to install a lot of softwares, but asked me to wait an hour for it. I declined the offer. I said I will come back again if I need anything.

 

[preshit.net]

Yea, Unicorn. I know the place.

 

[SunnyChahal]

@Pat,congratulations on your purchase.For more information you can watch the help videos on Apple site.
There are many great softwares for Mac OS X out there.
Download and install perian,a plugin for Quicktime which adds support for many more formats to it.Get it from here- *perian.cachefly.net/Perian_1.1.2.dmg

Have fun with your mac!

 

[Pat]

Perian was a good one. Any other must-have softwares/libraries ?

 

[jamesbond007]

@Pat

Congratulations on becoming a Macboy!! I can assure once you start using it full time you'll fall in love with Macs!!
The best place a noob can get info about Mac is here on this very thread. All you need to do is ask your query and have a little patience.

If your work doesn't demand MS Office, I'd recommend iWork'08. Also get iLife'08.
For CD/DVD burning use BurnAgain.
For p2p use Transmission.
For ftp use Cyberduck.
For IM use Adium.
Unfortunately you missed out on Audialhub and Visualhub... but hey you know you can always get them
Get the iStat Pro widget.
Umm ... what else .... if you got fat internet connection download all the Steve Jobs keynotes from iTunes, boy they are very inspiring.
I may have missed a few essentials but don't worry other MacBoys here will post them

Don't shy away from asking queries and have fun using your Mac
Heyy isn't 49K a little over priced for older MacBook ??

 

[preshit.net]

Apart from the ones mentioned above

Growl
GrabUp or Skitch
Hazel
Colloquy

Special Important Mention: Lil Snitch

 

[Pat]

@Pat

Congratulations on becoming a Macboy!! I can assure once you start using it full time you'll fall in love with Macs!!
The best place a noob can get info about Mac is here on this very thread. All you need to do is ask your query and have a little patience.

If your work doesn't demand MS Office, I'd recommend iWork'08. Also get iLife'08.
For CD/DVD burning use BurnAgain.
For p2p use Transmission.
For ftp use Cyberduck.
For IM use Adium.
Unfortunately you missed out on Audialhub and Visualhub... but hey you know you can always get them
Get the iStat Pro widget.
Umm ... what else .... if you got fat internet connection download all the Steve Jobs keynotes from iTunes, boy they are very inspiring.
I may have missed a few essentials but don't worry other MacBoys here will post them

Don't shy away from asking queries and have fun using your Mac
Heyy isn't 49K a little over priced for older MacBook ??

The first thing I downloaded on my not-so-great internet connection is Adium. Firefox was next. Dont get me wrong, Safari is great, but I am used to Firefox and even on Leopard, I find the new Firefox to be more pleasing to the eyes than Safari.

49k would have been expensive 3-4 months back. But blame the strong dollar for everything becoming expensive these days. I actually dont need a superdrive (I have a DVD writer on my PC and also an external slim DVD writer). I would be upgrading to 2 GB anyways. The one with 2 GB and SuperDrive was about 57-59k!

 

[mmharshaa]

IIM students have a special offer every year..They will get apple mac book for just 55000 which is 80000 in the market...I am going to get one next year...

 

[Pat]

Apart from the ones mentioned above

Growl
GrabUp or Skitch
Hazel
Colloquy

Special Important Mention: Lil Snitch

Thanks. Will take a look.

Btw, we dont have Home and End Keys on Macbook. How do I go to the end or start of, say, a text-field ?

 

[preshit.net]

Command + Left Arrow and Commnd + Right Arrow
(Using Shift Selects Text)

 

[mmharshaa]

Visit this : This will solve ur problem i think

*www.starryhope.com/tech/2006/mac-os-x-home-and-end-keys/

 

[Pat]

IIM students have a special offer every year..They will get apple mac book for just 55000 which is 80000 in the market...I am going to get one next year...

Thats pretty awesome. I reckon IIM must be paying the balance, because AFAIK, the maximum discount that apple offers for education (on macbooks) is 10-12% and in your case, its nearly 30%!

Command + Left Arrow and Commnd + Right Arrow
(Using Shift Selects Text)

Thanks. That works like a charm

 

[din]

@Pat

Congrats man.

I was closely watching the baazar section of the 'other' forum and reading your post, first I thought you bought that (I mean second hand), so that deal was fixed by some other guy it seems.

Sorry for being ignorant, but mac books are always white in color ?

6 hr battery backup is really great. Please post the same with wifi switched on ok ?

Also, would you please post the full specs (if it is available in some site, even a link is quite adequate) when you get time ?

So back in India and finally a mac book too Great. Congrats again.

 

[mmharshaa]

Thats pretty awesome. I reckon IIM must be paying the balance, because AFAIK, the maximum discount that apple offers for education (on macbooks) is 10-12% and in your case, its nearly 30%!



Thanks. That works like a charm

Yes ofcourse it is...

Eagerly waiting for that time to arrive...

 

[aryayush]

The first thing I downloaded on my not-so-great internet connection is Adium. Firefox was next. Dont get me wrong, Safari is great, but I am used to Firefox and even on Leopard, I find the new Firefox to be more pleasing to the eyes than Safari.

This is exactly what Ashwin (a.k.a. drgrudge) said before we forced him to switch to Safari. Trust me, he loved Firefox far more than you possibly can and he now writes love letters to Apple for making Safari.

People who use Apple’s software on Windows have wrong preconceived notions about them. They look the same but function much, much better on a Mac. Exhibit A: iTunes; Exhibit B: Safari; Exhibit C: QuickTime Player.

Use Safari for a couple of weeks. Force yourself to live without the extensions. It’s what I call the “cleansing process”. If you still can’t live without Firefox, by all means, switch back.

Enjoy.

 

[Pat]

Sorry for being ignorant, but mac books are always white in color ?

The old ones (previous generation) are available in two colors: White or Black. The new ones (with Aluminium precision body) are different and look awesome.

6 hr battery backup is really great. Please post the same with wifi switched on ok ?

Sure. I will let you know

Also, would you please post the full specs (if it is available in some site, even a link is quite adequate) when you get time ?

*www.amazon.com/Apple-MacBook-MB402LL-13-3-inch-Processor/dp/B0013FRA0O

So back in India and finally a mac book too Great. Congrats again.

Thanks

This is exactly what Ashwin (a.k.a. drgrudge) said before we forced him to switch to Safari. Trust me, he loved Firefox far more than you possibly can and he now writes love letters to Apple for making Safari.

People who use Apple’s software on Windows have wrong preconceived notions about them. They look the same but function much, much better on a Mac. Exhibit A: iTunes; Exhibit B: Safari; Exhibit C: QuickTime Player.

Use Safari for a couple of weeks. Force yourself to live without the extensions. It’s what I call the “cleansing process”. If you still can’t live without Firefox, by all means, switch back.

Enjoy.

Honestly, I have never used any extensions on Firefox (with the exception of Flashgot). So yea, I will give myself more than a decent chance with Safari. Lets see how it goes