Tips appreciated - new mac owner

[joshwm]

I'm starting school in the fall and I'm going into advertising so I figured the best computer for my field would be a mac. I've owned pcs my entire life so I'm really at a loss for where to start when I get my new iMac. I ordered a 20" white iMac with 250GB HD 2GB ram and the rest.

I see that a lot of people purchase more ram from third party sites like crucial And newegg. For some reason I was under the impression tat opening it up would void the warranty, is that not the case here?

Also any starter tips for when I first take it out of the box would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks on advance!

 

[gehrbox]

I see that a lot of people purchase more ram from third party sites like crucial And newegg. For some reason I was under the impression tat opening it up would void the warranty, is that not the case here?

Adding memory does not void the warranty. The iMac comes with a booklet that gives instructions on how to do it.

Never buy your memory from Apple. It is easily twice the price of memory available from places like NewEgg.

If you are not going to be running Windows in a virtual machine (using Parallels or VMWare Fusion), editing large image files or making elaborate movie edits and effects you will not likely need more then 2GB. The biggest performance gain in OS X comes from going from 1GB to 2GB of RAM.

There are numerous quality applications that can be had for free on the Internet. For example, consider NeoOffice instead of buying MS Office.

 

[richard.mac]

upgrading the RAM on the iMacs is the only upgrade you can do without opening the case so it doesnt therefore not voiding the warranty. just follow this guide.

Apple's support site is very useful for beginners so i suggest you surf around the iMac support page and the Mac OS X support pages (you can tell which version of Mac OS X you are using by clicking "About This Mac" in the  Menu. Also open "Mac Help" in Finder's Help menu for a full breifing.

Apple's Find Out How page is certainly useful.

 

[gentlegiantcrai]

I recommend upgrading the ram, the computer runs a lot nicer. Yes, it does not void the warranty, and I have read that Apple geniuses, do not really care if you have official Apple Ram in your computer. And yes RAm prices from apple are ridiculous high. Crucial is where I bought mine, it even comes with a tool that showed me what memory was right for my imac. good luck with your upgrade.

 

[corylei]

The most important shortcuts I had to get used to on the mac were:

Apple + Tab | this is similar to Alt-Tab but switches between entire applications (So from Word to MSN, rather than between individual windows)

Apple + ` | The ` is the same key as the ~ key. Basically this shortcut allows you to switch between windows within an application.

Apple + Q | This shortcut will Quit an entire application (and any Windows open in that application)

Apple + W | This shortcut will close the active window.

Also note that an application does not fully close unless you Quit it (by Apple + Q) or by clicking on the application name in the menubar, and pressing Quit.

Setting up wifi internet is done in the Internet Connect application, which can be accessed from the Applications folder, or by clicking on the wifi reception indicator in the top bar.

Quicktime will not play movies in fullscreen mode unless you buy PRO, but I recommend NicePlayer, which is available free somewhere on the internet.

Microsoft Office for mac is setup quite differently from the Windows version when you first open it. I personally suggest setting it up to be similar to Windows by going View > Toolbars > Formatting (make sure it's checked), and get rid of the horrifically inefficient Toolbox.

So there are the few tips I can think of for now. Hope it works out well for you.