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I finally made the switch!

I

insomniac321123

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 23, 2006
342
0
I have finally done it! I ordered my first mac, a 2.0 mbp, this afternoon! I just wanted to thank all of you, these forums helped a lot in my decision.

I do have a couple of questions. What do I need to do when I first get it? It is my first laptop as well.

Also, is it usually delivered according to apple's estimated delivery or is it usually early? I went ahead and got the 2-3 day shipping.

Thanks again,
Insomniac
 
Congrats! Which size did you get, the 15" or the 17"?
I'm quite jealous.

To answer your 2nd question first, no body really knows. I think if Apple says 2-3 days, they're pretty good. I can just give you my experience, where I ordered my mac mini and got it almost a week earlier than I expected it (after it was delayed a month)...but this was when the first mac mini's were introduced.

To answer your 1st question...

You'll want a nice clean place to use it (like a desk). If you plan on moving it, you should really invest in a sleve or case as well.

Personally, I would get a bluetooth mouse and keyboard if you plan on using the computer at a desk a lot.

Some people get a 2nd power adapter, to keep one at work and one at home. I would recomend doing that if you will be taking it from work and home every day.

Some people will tell you that they wipe the computer and reinstall it without all of the languages and printer drivers, but unlike with XP, all it will do is save hard drive space, not impact performace.

Keyboards are known to scratch up screens on laptops, especially if the screen is pushed up against the keyboard while it's closed. This often happens if you put your laptop in a backpack. To prevent this, some people buy screen covers. I think that's what they're called. They're basically a piece of cloth that goes over the keyboard to protect the screen while it's closed.

Some programs that you might want to look into are (in no perticular order)
Adium (iChat replacement)
MS Office (although I'd muddle through with OpenOffice.org until MS does a Universal Binary (UB))
Handbrake (good for ripping DVD's)
Cyber Duck (FTP)
Sentui (iPod Ripper)
Roxio Toast

Also, if there's anything you ever have trouble doing on a mac, ask around...pleanty of people are willing to help!
 
thejadedmonkey said:
Some people will tell you that they wipe the computer and reinstall it without all of the languages and printer drivers, but unlike with XP, all it will do is save hard drive space, not impact performace.
Click to expand...

There's a freeware app called Monolingual that will do that for you without wiping and reinstalling. Look on www.versiontracker.com for it.
 
I ordered and STM bag and a screen protector at the same time. I have heard that you should calibrate the battery. How do I go about doing this?

By the way, its a 15 inch

insomniac
 
Welcome to the club! I switched early 2003, but I had been using Macs for years at work so it wasn't that big of a transition for me ;)

All rechargeable batteries should be calibrated, there should be instructions that will come with your new computer. Basically, just run it on battery power only until it's drained (the computer will give you a warning about this and go into sleep mode). Then plug it back in and recharge it back to full.

Some say you should do this a couple times. It seems like to me doing it recalibrating every once in a while lets the machine measure how much capacity the battery can hold, since will slowly drop as the battery ages.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
Congrats! Which size did you get, the 15" or the 17"?
I'm quite jealous.

To answer your 2nd question first, no body really knows. I think if Apple says 2-3 days, they're pretty good. I can just give you my experience, where I ordered my mac mini and got it almost a week earlier than I expected it (after it was delayed a month)...but this was when the first mac mini's were introduced.

To answer your 1st question...

You'll want a nice clean place to use it (like a desk). If you plan on moving it, you should really invest in a sleve or case as well.

Personally, I would get a bluetooth mouse and keyboard if you plan on using the computer at a desk a lot.

Some people get a 2nd power adapter, to keep one at work and one at home. I would recomend doing that if you will be taking it from work and home every day.

Some people will tell you that they wipe the computer and reinstall it without all of the languages and printer drivers, but unlike with XP, all it will do is save hard drive space, not impact performace.

Keyboards are known to scratch up screens on laptops, especially if the screen is pushed up against the keyboard while it's closed. This often happens if you put your laptop in a backpack. To prevent this, some people buy screen covers. I think that's what they're called. They're basically a piece of cloth that goes over the keyboard to protect the screen while it's closed.

Some programs that you might want to look into are (in no perticular order)
Adium (iChat replacement)
MS Office (although I'd muddle through with OpenOffice.org until MS does a Universal Binary (UB))
Handbrake (good for ripping DVD's)
Cyber Duck (FTP)
Sentui (iPod Ripper)
Roxio Toast

Also, if there's anything you ever have trouble doing on a mac, ask around...pleanty of people are willing to help!
Click to expand...

A couple other apps I use are Himmelbar (freeware - equivalent to Start>Programs) and Pathfinder (cheap $35 program that greatly enhances Apple's Finder). And wait until you start experimenting with the Widgets. Many of them are specific to a particular interest group. But, you can spend a long rainy weekend (I am from Seattle) just trying them all out.
 
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