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MacBook Pro
I was waiting until the MacWorld conference before I made a decision about getting a Mac, but since the Air is an overpriced sex toy I'm going to get a MacBook Pro. I'm studying Multimedia Design and deal with a lot of Digital video & Imagery in my course, so It's about time I get one of these machines.
As a newbie to Macs, I wanted to ask your opinions on the Pro. Firstly, I'm going to get the 15.4" 2.4GHz model unless you guys reckon the 17" is really worth it - although I don't think my wallet is prepared to stretch that far. Should I go for the "Glossy" or "Matte" display? What's the practical difference between these?
I'm getting my sister to get it while going to the U.S. to do shopping (Europe isn't good enough for her). Are there any compatibility/warranty issues between the U.S. and European models that you know of? I know the power adaptors are fine and the keyboard layout will be different, but that's OK.
Any other Mac related buying tips?
As a newbie to Macs, I wanted to ask your opinions on the Pro. Firstly, I'm going to get the 15.4" 2.4GHz model unless you guys reckon the 17" is really worth it - although I don't think my wallet is prepared to stretch that far. Should I go for the "Glossy" or "Matte" display? What's the practical difference between these?
I'm getting my sister to get it while going to the U.S. to do shopping (Europe isn't good enough for her). Are there any compatibility/warranty issues between the U.S. and European models that you know of? I know the power adaptors are fine and the keyboard layout will be different, but that's OK.
Any other Mac related buying tips?
Comments
In the end its all about what you like I guess, its just that the "Mac drones" really get under my skin.
I have a HP Vista 2GHz laptop. Maybe that's enough for the moment.
In my opinion macs are quite stiff, way to expensive, and up to par with any modern PC, the only thing that I'll admit to is that Mac monitors are easier to calibrate and have better color accuracy.
As for a serious question, how do you get to that activity manager? because every time a Mac crashes on me, the mouse stops working (I mean, it moves, but doesn't let me click on anything).
Oh God, I think I can still quote the majority of this vid.
Another thing in the 17 vs 15 inch debate is how portable does it need to be. In my company, if for some insane reason a studio or creative person needs a laptop as their primary, we give them a 15". The reason for this is its much more cost effective to have an external monitor (whether it be a Dell or Mac 20" - we have both) to give you that needed extra space. Yes, you lose it when on the go, but the cost doesn't warrant it. That is to say, unless you ONLY are going to use it portably and not have a spot you return to. Plus with an external monitor it allows for a USB hub and all your external devices (Wacom tablets, external HDs, printers, etc.) to be sitting there plugged into one cable awaiting your return.
On the Mac vs PC debate... again I'm a mac fanboy so my opinion may be skewed. But from what I can see from the CS3 suite, Quark and other design apps, the tend to lean towards the mac. Nothing so much that if you were to buy a new desktop on either side you'd notice. They'd both be "faster" than what you have now. With the PC you'll need to make sure that everything is up to speed as the PC has more system requirements than the mac (Adobe KBase info), although the specs required for both are pretty much equal.
Side by side, mac I believe is faster. But if you search online I've found both test results that "prove" both sides. Supposedly Bridge works a little better on mac than the PC. Other than that from what i can tell they're pretty much on par. So long of it all? Play with both and see which you prefer.
If you want to use a MBP as a LAPtop, you should get smcFan Control, it allows you to set minimum speeds for the Fans (3000 is silent and keeps the thing cool), as they tend to get quite warm. Main Menu does all maintenance you want.
As for Dashboard plugins iStat pro gives you all info you'd want from your system.
I prefer my displays matte, it's much more usable, the glossy stuff looks really good when it's dark, as for the rest of the time it works good as a mirror.
I use the 15" because it's more portable and has a longer battery life.
If you happen to have problems with your Mac you can always ask Google, on a Mac the chances of you having a unique problem is more than really low.
As for the video, you close an app with Command+Q or Force Quit it in the Dock or press Command+Option+Esc or use the Activity Monitor (in the Application/Utilities Folder; or press your Quicksilver hot keys, type A and it should be the first or second option. And if an app locks up (spinning ball of death) it doesn't lock the OS up, the app might stress your hardware but you can still quit it and it would certainly not shut down your Mac (I only had two kernel panics which were all probably connected to the last.fm app). Also the three buttons on every window tell you if you saved the file, if not there will be a black dot on the red, close the window, button. When you press that button the Window will close but the app keeps running, different from Windows but better imo. Windows can be hidden with Command+W or you use F9 for Expose and all open windows will shrink down and you'll have a look at all of them and when you hover over them, the name of the app will be shown. F10 will do the same only for the Windows of the currently selected app, F11 pushes everything aside and you get a free look at your desktop.
Mac OS X copies files when you drag and drop them, for Aliases you press the Command and Option Keys then drag the file. When moving files over different partitions or harddrives it copies the files, moving them on the same drive cuts and pastes them.
In the System Preferences you can set what the OS should do when you insert a Disk, in default it opens Photo Disks with iPhoto, Audio Discs with iTunes (in the iTunes Preferences you can set it up to play the tracks or to automatically rip them and eject the Disk when it's done) and DVDs with with the DVD Player (what you probably want to do anyway), if not press the apple in the upper left corner System Preferences CDs & DVDs.
Apple got rid of the old, in my opinion, ugly design. No more hook, just plain aluminum, sleek beauty.
You start the Software Update in the upper left "apple" menu, when an app has something to say it bounces, once you click it, it stops.
If you want to update a non Apple product you can use AppFresh (it works for me but is still in beat thought) to do so very easily but most apps have an option to automatically look and install updates upon start and there's also a Dashboard Widget.
You don't get in touch with the system files and the updates always worked perfectly for me, if you want to rename a file press the enter button and the system highlights the name and not the extension, when you however change the extension it asks you if you want to change it or keep the old one.
The dock works really nice, you can set it up to hide automatically, how big the icons initially should be and how big they should get when you hover your cursor over them. The top is reserved for the menu bar, which every app uses no matter where you move the window, it's also nice since the Preferences are in the same place for every app on your Mac. So moving the Dock there would be kind of dumb.
The current, least-expensive MBP configuration is an excellent laptop.
Go for matte finish if you ever use your computer where there are light sources, such as light bulbs, the sun, or phosphorescent fungus.
Don't believe the hype; there is nothing about a Mac that makes it inherently better for digital video or any multimedia application. If what you're doing can be accomplished on a laptop, the OS isn't going to make a difference.
For much of the MBP's history, there was little price gap with competing products. What you got for that premium was the slickest-looking and most solidly-built (non-toughbook) laptop on the market.
Now, Dell is competing harshly on price. It kind of suggests inferiority, but hardware-wise, they can match or exceed the MBP for much less. Exhibit A.
The only thing you can't get on a Dell is Mac OS X. Personally, I dislike it. I use it every day, and have for 2 years, and I don't like it any more. It may be "intuitive", but only for people who have never used Windows or Linux. If you have gotten used to either, the "intuitiveness" of Mac OS X will actually just be very annoying to you. Have fun figuring out all of the mission-critical, undocumented, unintuitive keyboard shortcuts.
To each their own. Like the iPhone, Mac OS 10.5 has a lot of features that aren't firsts, but are executed in a slick way. Time Machine is just another backup program, but with a nifty interface. The new preview functionality brings things like picture-viewing up to the bar Microsoft set with Windows XP's Picture and Fax Viewer. There really aren't any other new features worth mentioning.
Honestly, at this point, my recommendation is the Dell.
Thanks for your great input. I won't really be wheeling it around all that much so the 17" is extremely tempting. It's a lot of money thought.
Right now I'm working on an old Mac in Uni and putting some video together in iMovie (Which is so easy to use but you can do some nifty stuff with it) and it's working out very nicely. The glossy display it is for me then, I've no issues working near glare.
Some really useful tips there, thanks a lot for that.
I do think I'll stick with the 15" as the extra battery life is a pretty important factor. Still not sure about Matte or Glossy, but probably the latter as I'll be doing a lot of photographic and video work and need that extra polished look.
Trust me, switched on it stays that way. Really check out a glossy display before you decide to use one for the next years. A classmate of mine brought a notebook with glossy screen to school today, all of the people who looked at it didn't like the reflection and when he said he liked it that way (he paid 800 Euros and will be using it for the next years), they said that's because he' likes to look at himself.
I've seen the matte before on a friends older G4 and I really liked it but haven't seen the glossy myself. Thanks, I will check it out before I make a decision.