Opportunity only knocks once. Fedex too!

[CanadianDonkey]

Well, Fedex came to my door this morning with a shexy black macbook for me.

Unfortunately, I was asleep, and missed him, and now I won't be able to get my hands on it until I'm off work tonight. I'm not too bummed out about it, considering that their estimated arrival time was stated 5pm, Thursday night, and on top of that, apple stated that I should have expected it no earlier than April 4th, I guess I should consider myself lucky that it showed up this soon, right?

Anyways, once I get it, and finally join the secret macbook owners club (You guys DO have a club, right?!) what are some recomendations that I do with it? You know, useful programs and whatnot? I heard that quicksilver is the greatest program of all time, any other useful apps I may not know of? And what about protecting my mac? I know that it's not nearly as prone to virus and other problems that a certain other OS is, but I'd still like to take the best care possible.

Looking forward to your guy's feedback.

 

[Tallest Skil]

And what about protecting my mac? I know that it's not nearly as prone to virus and other problems that a certain other OS is, but I'd still like to take the best care possible.

Protection... well, data redundancy is nice, if that's your bag.

The only real protection you need is protection from theft. I don't use Undercover yet, but it seems like an incredibly powerful app.

 

[vansouza]

Let us know once it arrives and some one will let you know about the secret hand shake.

 

[DaveWonders]

Useful programs:

If you use Safari as a browser, get Inquisitor and SafariStand plugins

AppZapper, although it's not free.

Transmission for torrents

Install Perian and Flip4Mac for all video codecs

Quicksilver for keyboard shortcuts

Handbrake if you rip DVDs

Adium to replace iChat

And a million others, depends on what you do! Sometimes it's helpful to make a list of the Windows apps you rely on and we can chime in on what the good Mac counterpart is.

 

[Mikey-]

I'm sure you'll enjoy your new Macbook.

 

[SFStateStudent]

Yeah, the secret handshake...

and the "keys to the castle!"

 

[CanadianDonkey]

I'm sure you'll enjoy your new Macbook.

I just got home, been fiddling around with it for about 40 minutes now, and I just love it.

I havn't really gotten a feel for it, still poking around, but I'm just absolutly in love with the look of it. I like how you can set the background to change randomly, and I love the screensavers. I mean.. windows doesn't have word of the day screensavers!!!

I'm also liking the trackpad. It's not as fluid as a mouse (obviously) but I like the twofinger scrolling and the doubletapping. Great idea, apple!

Anyways.... yeah. love it.

 

[munson]

Get:

VLC - All your media playing needs.
iWork - Sort of like MS Office but WAY better (too bad it's not free)
StuffIt Expander - Free expander for .zip's, .rar's and almost all other compress files
Also, get yourself some cool/useful Widgets. They make life easy.

 

[CanadianDonkey]

Ok... I already got a problem with it...

I was messing around, and found iwork, or whatever it's called, and I clicked on the "Tour iWork" icon, and then up popped a full screen image... basically just a grey screen, with the words iwork 08 in big letters. But it's appeared to freeze on that. I'm stuck, I can't get out of it, and I've tried every possible key combination I could think of... any help, please.

 

[OZMP]

command+option+esc= force quit
if that fails, you should be able to reset using the power button.
I have found machines to play up for the first few hours of use, then the problems go away, could just be because i transfer things from machine to machine instead of clean installs, or could just be new comps.

Cheers,

 

[MacDaddy08]

You guys are letting the cat out of the bag way to early. This guy isn't even a member yet, what is wrong with you? Telling him about the hand shake and castle allready? Crazy talk.

Anyway, to be serious for minute. Download flip4mac. It is a program that allows you to view certain videos online. Don't use safari, download firefox. Safari is close relative to Windows explorer and has security vulnerabilities just as explorer does. There are a ton of cool programs for Mac so I wouldnt know where to start with naming them. I would buy the hard plastic protective case for the outside also, as well as a Marware palm rest protector. Otherwise, your Macbook will be scratched and have palm marks in no time.

Enjoy your new Mac.

 

[CanadianDonkey]

You guys are letting the cat out of the bag way to early. This guy isn't even a member yet, what is wrong with you? Telling him about the hand shake and castle allready? Crazy talk.

I suppose I don't get the key until after I've popped my Mac cherry? .... or would it be a mac apple?

Har harr........ har.

I hear crickets?

 

[SFStateStudent]

Everything Mac...

Ok... I already got a problem with it...

I was messing around, and found iwork, or whatever it's called, and I clicked on the "Tour iWork" icon, and then up popped a full screen image... basically just a grey screen, with the words iwork 08 in big letters. But it's appeared to freeze on that. I'm stuck, I can't get out of it, and I've tried every possible key combination I could think of... any help, please.

explains your current situation, (it's the thick white manual in your MacBook box) so, check out Chapter 4, pg. #44 for restarting your BlackBook. iWorks '08 maybe just a trial, and you have a certain amount of time to buy it at a reduced rate. It's pretty cool, but you may want to go with Office:Mac 2008 if your more familiar with Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Entourage. Good Luck. Keep us posted on your progress. (Don't be afraid to check out the Tutorials at apple.com/mac and you'll be a MEMBER in no time.)

 

[CanadianDonkey]

ok... I just downloaded firefox. but whenever I try to open the application, I get a warning saying

"Firefox is an application which was downloaded from the internet, are you sure you want to open it?

Firefox is on the disk image "Firefox 2.0.0.12.dmg", safari downloaded blahblah blah"

and then a disk image appears under my hard drive on the desktop.... did I do something wrong?

 

[NC MacGuy]

ok... I just downloaded firefox. but whenever I try to open the application, I get a warning saying

"Firefox is an application which was downloaded from the internet, are you sure you want to open it?

Firefox is on the disk image "Firefox 2.0.0.12.dmg", safari downloaded blahblah blah"

and then a disk image appears under my hard drive on the desktop.... did I do something wrong?

No, nothing wrong. Standard Apple message saying you are about to open something downloaded and practice safe computing.

 

[CanadianDonkey]

No, nothing wrong. Standard Apple message saying you are about to open something downloaded and practice safe computing.

yes, but how do I make it so I can click the firefox icon on the dock and the application simply pops up without that warning and without the disk image appearing on the desktop? because that happens every time I try to open firefox.

 

[NC MacGuy]

yes, but how do I make it so I can click the firefox icon on the dock and the application simply pops up without that warning and without the disk image appearing on the desktop? because that happens every time I try to open firefox.

Open up the disk image, drag firefox app to your favorite folder - usually application for applications. Close and "eject" disk image.

Easiest way is to then drag the Friefox icon from folder to dock. Click on dock icon and it should open.

 

[CanadianDonkey]

Open up the disk image, drag firefox app to your favorite folder - usually application for applications. Close and "eject" disk image.

Easiest way is to then drag the Friefox icon from folder to dock. Click on dock icon and it should open.

ok, that seems to work. Thanks. My problem was I was dragging the firefox app from the disk image straight to the dock. Don't know why that doesn't work, but whatever, all seems fine now.

 

[NC MacGuy]

ok, that seems to work. Thanks. My problem was I was dragging the firefox app from the disk image straight to the dock. Don't know why that doesn't work, but whatever, all seems fine now.

Because the dock icons are only aliases of the actual app. You first needed to add the app to your HDD from the downloaded unzipped imaginary disk.

Also if you want to delete the dock icon, it will not erase the app from its happy home. Just drag it to the side and like poof, it disappears! You can still open it via folder or recent items or add it to your sidebar.

You'll get it in time...

 

[CanadianDonkey]

Because the dock icons are only aliases of the actual app. You first needed to add the app to your HDD from the downloaded unzipped imaginary disk.

Good to know...

Also if you want to delete the dock icon, it will not erase the app from its happy home. Just drag it to the side and like poof, it disappears! You can still open it via folder or recent items or add it to your sidebar.

Yeah.. I like the little puff of smoke animation. Its these little details that make the mac experience so much better than windows.

 

[Nichod]

Welcome! I'm somewhat a new mac user myself. Though its new for me only at home. First personal Apple computer! Though it will be my work at home as well. I have used Apple computers at work and college many times though.

As far as the case is concerned. I'd recommend a crumpler. The MacBook School Hymn bag is perfect in my eyes. But if you want something to carry additional items, books, camera, etc. they have other excellent choices. I wouldn't recommend the hard shells everything I have read states they can be just as damaging. The shell isn't exactly soft when it hits your Macbook. The nice thing about the Hymn bag is that it is soft and you can work out of it.

 

[CanadianDonkey]

Welcome! I'm somewhat a new mac user myself. Though its new for me only at home. First personal Apple computer! Though it will be my work at home as well. I have used Apple computers at work and college many times though.

As far as the case is concerned. I'd recommend a crumpler. The MacBook School Hymn bag is perfect in my eyes. But if you want something to carry additional items, books, camera, etc. they have other excellent choices. I wouldn't recommend the hard shells everything I have read states they can be just as damaging. The shell isn't exactly soft when it hits your Macbook. The nice thing about the Hymn bag is that it is soft and you can work out of it.

mmm, I figured I would just get a neoprene sleeve for it, then I can just put it in any backpack, like one of the ones I currently have.

 

[SFStateStudent]

You might want to be careful...

mmm, I figured I would just get a neoprene sleeve for it, then I can just put it in any backpack, like one of the ones I currently have.

putting your MB into a neoprene sleeve and then shoving it into your backpack with 2-3 textbooks, b/c that will put undue pressure on your MB and cause the spacebar and keyboard to leave impressions on your screen and eventually scratch it. Temporarily, you can place the foam insert in between the screen and keyboard or even the black microfiber cloth can be placed over the touchpad, keyboard and spacebar area, (as NC MacGuy had shared with me earlier) to protect your screen from scratches. I speak from experience. You should be good to go!

 

[CanadianDonkey]

good suggestion, ill take it into consideration when i go back to school

anyways, i have another question (what? really?)

earlier today, I was trying to transfer some files over from my external harddrive, and i just drag'd and dropped a folder into my home folder, and when I did, it popped up, and it was transparent, figure it was just transfering, as the folder was very large. Anyways, my question is, is there someway for me to find out how long the transfer will take? Because my experience with windows, whenever I do something like that, a window pops up with a little animation, a loading bar, and whatnot, telling me how long it will take, but with a mac, i don't see anything. so.... yeah, any info on this, much appreciated.

 

[LightDemon69]

good suggestion, ill take it into consideration when i go back to school

anyways, i have another question (what? really?)

earlier today, I was trying to transfer some files over from my external harddrive, and i just drag'd and dropped a folder into my home folder, and when I did, it popped up, and it was transparent, figure it was just transfering, as the folder was very large. Anyways, my question is, is there someway for me to find out how long the transfer will take? Because my experience with windows, whenever I do something like that, a window pops up with a little animation, a loading bar, and whatnot, telling me how long it will take, but with a mac, i don't see anything. so.... yeah, any info on this, much appreciated.

That is odd, normally a window will pop up and tell you it has transferred "X of so much data", and an approximate of how long it will be, just like Windows. Maybe you accidentally hid it underneath another window? You can use Expose to show all windows, which I believe if F3 on the new MacBooks (just look on the F keys and find the one with the small picture of 2 or 3 windows, and press it). This will zoom out and show all the windows you have open, and you just click the one you want.