OK... a few days in so I'll give a little bit of an update!
Well I think I've finally gotten all of my stuff moved over and sorted out, got all the new Mac versions of my Apps and starting to use it as I would my normal laptop.
I have to say, I absolutely love it. I'll break my thoughts down into a few sections... For reference I'm coming from a Sony Vaio SZ laptop
Hardware
This thing just screams build quality and reliability. Being a single block of aluminium, you don't get any flex in the keyboard when you're typing or resting your hands on the laptop. The glass trackpad is beautifully smooth and the multi-finger gestures are brilliant. I usually tap to click, but for dragging items around, having the positive feedback of clicking down on the whole trackpad is nice.
I love the screen on mine, my Vaio was a glossy screen as well so it's not a big difference. I got the 9CA89 screen which people seem to say is the best, no dead/stuck pixels and no problems with dust behind the glass etc. I still need to calibrate it properly, but out of the box it's beautifully crisp.
I know people say the backlit keyboard is a gimmick, but I really find it useful, as I often sit with my laptop in front of the TV with the lights down low. The fact that it auto-adjusts to fit with the lighting conditions is also great as it's not dazzling me if it's very dark.
Now the big one. Battery life. This was my main reason for going Mac and I have not been disappointed. When fully charged it reads 4+ hours, which, coming from 1hr 30 is unbelievably good. I'm still working out the best way to charge it, but once a day does me for moving about the house etc. I'll see how it fairs out in the real world when I get back to uni.
Software/User Interface
The user interface is taking a little getting used to as a lifelong Windows user. I'm having to ditch my old routines of using the start button, run box etc. But I'm getting there. Now that I've properly set up Spaces, it's brilliant being able to keep iTunes open in one window and be one keyboard click away from Firefox, Word or a PDF. I think this'll really come into its own when I've got an essay to write, as I can keep multiple PDFs open, fullscreen and easily switch between them and my word processor at the central space.
I've been able to find a Mac version of everything I use so far, and haven't had a chance to explore Garage Band or iPhoto yet but I've heard great things from other switchers. I'm also thinking about getting Scrivener for my dissertation, and maybe EndNote as well.
Gripes/Stuff I can't work out how to do...
As yet I can't figure out how to make a shortcut for my download folder on my desktop - any help?
It's a little bit annoying having such a full dock at the bottom, but no real alternative as yet I can't decide what I'll need open on a daily basis or how to put stuff back in the dock if I do get rid of it. I'd also like to give my icons a bit of a facelift.
I'm also struggling with using an external VGA to my TV to watch DVDs, I can't get it to work in my TV's native 1366*768 and can't get VLC to zoom in like realplayer did on 4:3 stuff with black borders.
Sometimes clicking at the bottom right of the trackpad isn't recognised as a right click which can be a bit annoying. Also the current version of Firefox doesn't support all the multi-finger gestures and I prefer it to Safari.
Scrolling through PDFs also seems excrutiatingly slow, despite scrolling in everything else seeming quite fast - any ideas on that?
The main problem is figuring out the 'Mac way' of doing things that I've been doing all my life on windows. On first glance I'm finding it a lot harder to organise my files and folders using Finder vs Windows but hopefully that'll come with time.
On that note, does anyone know a good beginners guide of how-to on Mac vs Window? The Apple one is a bit long and convoluted.
All in all I'm unbelievably happy, and I think this'll come into its own when I start properly working with it now that everything is set up and my Internet connection is working properly again.
