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just bought a new MAC

S

shelveen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 19, 2011
11
0
hello everyone

i have been a pc user for years and also a blackberry user

i got the verizon iphone when it came out and loved the interface (i was also against touch screen before due to bad experience)

i love the touch screen on the iphone

the next day i read up on a lot of things and after a lot of convincing from my brother (who lives by apple) i bought an iMac

i got the 27" i mac with 2.93 quadcore and 8 gigs of ram...i7 processor....im a normal user and dont really need all the extras

i got a lot of programs on it, but dont really know how to use it...i also got one to one

so what programs do you guys recommend?
 
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I have a late 2009 27" iMac as well (Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM).

I paid the full price for Adobe Photoshop CS4 ($699) at the Apple Store when I bought it. I wouldn't say it's worth that much after using it, but it's a great program. I bought it because I am into drawing and coloring on the computer (and using all of the effects Photoshop has to offer). If you're strictly into photography and retouching images, get Aperture from the Mac App Store for $79.

I also bought iWork '09 when I bought the Mac. In my opinion, it's a much better program than Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office feels so clunky and looks unorganized.

I have not used antivirus on my Mac (I've had my Mac for about 1 year and 2 months), and it's running just as fast as when I got it.

I went through a lot of experimenting with different web browsers, and the best one is by far Safari, so I would stick with it.

As far as an email program, I tried Thunderbird, and went right back to Mail. Mail in my mind is a better program (and it also tightly integrates with iLife).
 
thank you for your reply

i got adobe cs5 but dont know how to use it yet, the apple rep recommended it for editing.

i also got aperture, but this was a gift from my brother today.

i got iwork 2009 but havent used it much yet, i had to get microsoft office 2011 because i need the excel for work.

i have a $1000 gift card i got from my parents that i havent used yet for the apple store, but i plan on using it for more software that i might need.

i like safari, its nice and fast.

im using Mail for my work and personal email, which is nice.

its easy to use, but im getting use to it...i also love my Trackpad....but i believe this little keyboard is a little ridiculous, i order the old white keyboard the mac had previous with the full number pad, i got it on ebay for $42 with shipping.
 
Alfred
Toast
Ripit
Chrome
Dropbox
Evernote
Onyx
Google earth
handbrake
hulu
img2icns
candybar
geektool

GGJstudios will post info for any new mac user any minute now. Heres a video for any new mac user. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znWkjh-yHJc
CS5 is a great photo editing app, but it takes some practice to master it. For quick photo edits use iphoto.
Don't let anyone tell you that you need an antivirus. There are no virus's for OSX.
You went totally overboard with the specs. For a normal user the baseline i3 with 4GB of ram would be sufficient.
Welcome to the club!
 
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Wow you just dropped a lot of money on something you don't know how to use at all (Photoshop)?

Photoshop is a high end graphics tool. iPhoto does any kind of editing the average user would want to do.

I am confused on why you bought the best iMac out there but you say you don't need everything it has?

I would say that Office '11 was a good investment though... Can't go wrong there.

Generally, think about what you used to do on Windows, and type "xx Mac equivalent" in Google, and you will find what you need.
 
i just wanted to get the best thing out there because i want it to last me about 3 years.

i want to learn photo editing thats why i bought the best thing out there.

now i need to know how to transfer my 100 gigs of music from my pc to my mac. i have it on my ipod, but i dont know how to transfer it...can someone please recommend something....my pc doesnt have a blue ray burner...so i cant burn it in to disks
 
shelveen said:
i just wanted to get the best thing out there because i want it to last me about 3 years.

i want to learn photo editing thats why i bought the best thing out there.

now i need to know how to transfer my 100 gigs of music from my pc to my mac. i have it on my ipod, but i dont know how to transfer it...can someone please recommend something....my pc doesnt have a blue ray burner...so i cant burn it in to disks
Click to expand...

It's not the specs that were talking about, it's that you paid Apple's ridiculous prices for them! RAM and HDD are less that half of what you paid if you bought them from a 3rd party and upgraded yourself.

Do you have an external HDD? You should share/transfer over the network.
 
shelveen said:
i just wanted to get the best thing out there because i want it to last me about 3 years.

i want to learn photo editing thats why i bought the best thing out there.

now i need to know how to transfer my 100 gigs of music from my pc to my mac. i have it on my ipod, but i dont know how to transfer it...can someone please recommend something....my pc doesnt have a blue ray burner...so i cant burn it in to disks
Click to expand...

But I'm sure even an i3 (but most likely an i5) processor iMac would last you many years. You should return it, get an i5 one with standard RAM, order the RAM yourself and install it - will save a lot.
In my opinion the i7 is overkill for alot of users, unless you're into some heavy video editing or other graphics.

To transfer the data, use an ethernet cable (either version should be fine with the iMac) and it should automatically show the PC in the Finder.
 
whats funny..apps i use the most are standard.

Safari
iPhoto
iMovie
iChat

- then i use Photoshop, or pixelmator (which is great so far but still getting used to it)

- Then XCode/iPhone SDK

congrats on the new iMac,

i Also just got the 27' i7 got it with 4GB ram

but i got 16GB ram from newegg for $170

check them out next time you need hardware
 
thank you mr burns for the suggestion. i might go to newegg and get another 8gigs and upgarde to 16gigs total, but i dont think i need it...did you see a biig difference?

Riverside, California
 
You may want to check before you add ram to max it out. Here is a comment I posted in another thread

CAUTION: as far as the 16 GB ram upgrade, I would recommend you contact the aftermarket vendor (OWC or Crucial) before ordering the ram. There are a lot of people that have had problems when they mix ram to equal 16GB. It seems that the way to avoid problems is to replace all of the ram at once and not mix it. Any combination below 16GB can be mixed without having problems. When I increased my ram to 8GB, I just ordered 2x2 from OWC and popped them in below the factory installed ram and poof, worked like a charm. (Not really sure why the 16GB combination is so finicky, but you can search the forums and see where folks have had problems).
 
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