Got my mac....need some help!

[drb6]

My ibook is now 3 days old and I love it
But I have some questions that I hope you will answer for me.


1. Do I need antivirus protection? I'm generally careful but I will be using Microsoft office quite a bit exchanging files with people with PCs. Oh and I am almost broke. But will be if i have to.

2. Is it better or worse for the ibook to be put to sleep instead of turning it
off at night?

3. I'm trying to reduce the space used up by Apple's stuff. Is there anything
that I can remove? I'm going through the applications and games to see what I dont need. But what about things like the languages (i've already removed these) which aren't easily visible?

4. I have one dead pixel. Is it worth it to fight and get a new laptop? What is the new laptop's chance of being deadpixel-free?

5. Should I have gotten iLife in a box with my ibook? I only got the installed
software, are these the full versions? And what do I do in case I have to do a clean install of the OS, i have no iLife cd to install from.

7. CD drive: When I put the cd in, i have to push it in about 3/4 of the way in until the ibook catches it and makes a very loud sort of crunching noise as it takes it in. The cds aren't damaged and they play fine. But I was just
wondering if this is the way its supposed to work. The cd slot in my car is a
lot smoother i stick it in 1/4 of the way in and it picks it up and rolls it
in.

Any help will be appreciated.
Oh and I have the stock 12" with 20G ipod

 

[JupiterTwo]

My ibook is now 3 days old and I love it
But I have some questions that I hope you will answer for me.


1. Do I need antivirus protection? I'm generally careful but I will be using Microsoft office quite a bit exchanging files with people with PCs. Oh and I am almost broke. But will be if i have to.

IMHO you don't need to worry for the moment. The reported amounts of Mac viruses are tiny (I'm not even sure an OSX one exists?). I don't run any thing on either of my Mac's since Virex stopped being free with .Mac

2. Is it better or worse for the ibook to be put to sleep instead of turning it
off at night?

No problems at all with putting it to sleep - it's designed to do that. Both my macs sleep rather than get put off.

3. I'm trying to reduce the space used up by Apple's stuff. Is there anything
that I can remove? I'm going through the applications and games to see what I dont need. But what about things like the languages (i've already removed these) which aren't easily visible?

there are some apps to remove the language packs. (can't think of what they are at the mo) Other things you can get rid of are the Garageband loops if you don't use those.

4. I have one dead pixel. Is it worth it to fight and get a new laptop? What is the new laptop's chance of being deadpixel-free?

Probably not worth it for one pixel - I think the fault point is 5, but I could be wrong

5. Should I have gotten iLife in a box with my ibook? I only got the installed
software, are these the full versions? And what do I do in case I have to do a clean install of the OS, i have no iLife cd to install from.

Nope, iLife is just on one of the CDs that came with it. You will have the full version, along with Appleworks. The version you might have of Microsoft Office however, is just a demo

7. CD drive: When I put the cd in, i have to push it in about 3/4 of the way in until the ibook catches it and makes a very loud sort of crunching noise as it takes it in. The cds aren't damaged and they play fine. But I was just
wondering if this is the way its supposed to work. The cd slot in my car is a
lot smoother i stick it in 1/4 of the way in and it picks it up and rolls it
in.

Can't speak for the iBook drives, but that sounds very similar to my iMac slot drive. The crunching is just a ratchet mechanism I think


Congrats on your new baby though

Hope it does you well

 

[Peterkro]

Delocalizer to remove languages.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9281

 

[katie ta achoo]

7. CD drive: When I put the cd in, i have to push it in about 3/4 of the way in until the ibook catches it and makes a very loud sort of crunching noise as it takes it in. The cds aren't damaged and they play fine. But I was just
wondering if this is the way its supposed to work. The cd slot in my car is a
lot smoother i stick it in 1/4 of the way in and it picks it up and rolls it
in.

Any help will be appreciated.
Oh and I have the stock 12" with 20G ipod

The CD drive is functioning normally. Since the iBooks are so thin, you can REALLY hear them.
I mean.. REALLY hear them.
You also hear the same noise when waking it from sleep, right?
it's just CD drive noise.

Probably the reason the car is smoother is because it is HUGE compared to the iBook's drive. It has a lot more room to work with and muffle the noise.

Rock on with your new iBook!

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

1. No you don't need any antivirus protection, there are no known viruses out in the wild that will affect Mac OS X, so you're safe for now. BUT, take regular backups of all your files, so you're ready if a major Mac OS X virus should surface (which any AV software most likely wouldn't protect you against) or, and this is more probable, your hard drive should die or the iBook lost/stolen.

2. Sleep is just fine, but under Tiger I've noticed that some buffers doesn't empty themselves properly without a reboot, so every other night I turn it off, and other nights I keep it on. But that's because I'm very pressed for space and RAM.

3. From Tiger you can actually choose not to install language support for non-wanted languages and, the real space saver, you can choose which printer drivers you don't need. If Tiger came pre-installed, you could do an Archive & Install and turn off those languages and printers you don't need. And then (when you're sure everything works, throw away the "previous systems-folder"). If this sounds too much of a hassle, try Delocalizer to get rid of unwanted languages.

4. Bad luck. I've been lucky, non of my/our three laptops have had any dead pixels. Have no idea what the odds are, though.

5. iLife should be on your system restore disks, and you will be able to reinstall iLife even if you do a clean install later, even if it's for installing Leopard in a year or two.

6. Where is 6?

7. The slot loading drive is quite load. Nothing to worry about.

Congratulations with your new iBook! It will, hopefully, bring you years of joy...

Whenever you have a problem (shouldn't be too often) or just wonder about something (might be a bit more frequently) search or browse the forums here at MR. There are good chances that someone else have asked the a question very similar to the ones on the tip of our tongue (or should i say fingers in this case?)

 

[katie ta achoo]

There are good chances that someone else have asked the a question very similar to the ones on the tip of our tongue (or should i say fingers in this case?)

You mean, you don't type with your tongue?
IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!

I wondered why my keyboards kept shorting out...



....and I've officially gone insane. That's the last time I have oatmeal cookies for breakfast.

 

[Cloudgazer]

My ibook is now 3 days old and I love it
But I have some questions that I hope you will answer for me.


1. Do I need antivirus protection? I'm generally careful but I will be using Microsoft office quite a bit exchanging files with people with PCs. Oh and I am almost broke. But will be if i have to.

As far as i know you don't need virus protection for your mac. but apparentely it is possible to pass a virus on to a PC user.

2. Is it better or worse for the ibook to be put to sleep instead of turning it
off at night?

I hardly ever turn off my pbook. Once or twice a week. It sleeps overnight, it sleeps when i travel, it sleeps in its bag

3. I'm trying to reduce the space used up by Apple's stuff. Is there anything
that I can remove? I'm going through the applications and games to see what I dont need. But what about things like the languages (i've already removed these) which aren't easily visible?

Sorry can't help there.

4. I have one dead pixel. Is it worth it to fight and get a new laptop? What is the new laptop's chance of being deadpixel-free?

have you tried rubbing the deasd pixel gently. it may not be dead, it may just be stuck. There are a number of apps to help determine whether the pixel is dead.

5. Should I have gotten iLife in a box with my ibook? I only got the installed
software, are these the full versions? And what do I do in case I have to do a clean install of the OS, i have no iLife cd to install from.

I have no idea. i didn't get a seperate disk with iLife with my pbook.

7. CD drive: When I put the cd in, i have to push it in about 3/4 of the way in until the ibook catches it and makes a very loud sort of crunching noise as it takes it in. The cds aren't damaged and they play fine. But I was just
wondering if this is the way its supposed to work. The cd slot in my car is a
lot smoother i stick it in 1/4 of the way in and it picks it up and rolls it
in.

Any help will be appreciated.
Oh and I have the stock 12" with 20G ipod

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

You mean, you don't type with your tongue?

Only when my fingers are greasy and nose is running...

 

[wdlove]

I have a G3 iBook that I leave on 24/7. Mainly for folding. It also allows for Mac OS X to run routine maintenance, daily, weekly, and monthly.

 

[Cindy]

I was wondering about the same thing as far as letting it sleep when not in use. I thought you had to turn it off when taking it from place to place.
How much battery time does it use when sleeping?

And how do you know if you have dead pixels?

 

[drb6]

thanx

thanks for all the input.

i think i'll just keep the pixel. its not very visible and i'd rather not part with my baby so soon.


one other thing i've noticed is that the mouse pointer tends to stall a bit.
even when all i have open is safari. its not a big deal but i'm just worried that the problem could blow up later and i'd like to get it sorted out and exchange books if needed.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

And how do you know if you have dead pixels?

If you don't see them, they aren't there!

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

All the newer Macs with slot loading drives seem to be terribly loud.