Getting prepated to order macbook

rodo · 2 Jan 2009 at 15:38

Well I've almost finished selling all my old tech stuff to get a mac book white for uni. The spec I'm likely to go for is 4GB Ram, 120GB Hard drive and get a dvi converter to connect it to my samsung monitor (and get wireless keyboard and monitor when I get the funds).

I don't have any experience with apple software. I guess some questions I have:
- Will iwork documents be compatible with windows as all my work needs to be windows compatible to be marked?
- Can you install windows messenger or a mac variant which I can use my hotmail account on?
- Does leopard come included when you buy a new mac from the apple store online?

No doubt I'll think of some more questions...

rodo · 2 Jan 2009 at 16:01

Slogan said:
- Yes.
- Yes.
- Yes.

-yay
-yay
-yay

Thanks

rodo · 2 Jan 2009 at 16:11

I think that should do for now. I'm a pretty simple user! I would assume the apple wireless mighty mouse and keyboard would work with the macbook?

rodo · 2 Jan 2009 at 16:15

Fantastic, well I'm looking forward to hopefully a lot less problems than what caused me to get rid of my windows rig

rodo · 2 Jan 2009 at 17:38

Well it literally is for reports in text with the odd image in it. Maybe even a table or two

rodo · 2 Jan 2009 at 21:16

Fillado said:
This might put a downer on things, but you'll end up with formatting problems and such exporting to MS Office sooner or later (unless you do incredibly simple Word documents). The iWork file format isn't compatible with Windows itself (hence you having to export it to an MS Office file), infact it's probably the most proprietary office file format there is!

If you need things in MS Office files, bite the bullet and get MS Office 2008 for Mac...but even then you can run into trouble with some files

Makes me wonder if I'm better off getting iwork or getting MS office 2008 for mac... I don't want to buy both :confused:

rodo · 3 Jan 2009 at 00:18

One more: every now and then I do some basic image cropping, lightening etc for uni projects.. very basic stuff.

I have been using photoshop on my old windows PC. Is there anything that comes with leopard that will suffice to do these basic things or will I be looking at a software purchase?

rodo · 3 Jan 2009 at 00:26

Justin said:
iPhoto will come with your new Mac, will do everything you want there and more.

It's basically a simple image editor and organiser in one, very handy

Sounds like more than I could ask for! Well will hopefully order next week and get rolling. Do most people install firefox instead of using safari? I've seen a mix of people using both.

rodo · 4 Jan 2009 at 20:18

In terms of budget. I have the choice of either getting the new macbook with 2GB of DDR3 OR the white macbook with 4GB of DDR2..

Which is better for general web, itunes, movie watching?

rodo · 4 Jan 2009 at 21:48

tweakinfreak said:
Can't you get a new MBP and source the RAM elsewhere and install yourself?

Or is that not an option?

Not at the moment. I'm kind of looking at one or the other. I'm just wondering in terms of RAM whether 2GB of DDR3 or 4GB of DDR2 would be more effective for my type of usage.

rodo · 4 Jan 2009 at 22:01

Actually given the software and other hardware I need anyway it's going to be the mac book white based on price

rodo · 11 Jan 2009 at 09:43

Could someone please tell me how much the following would cost with a HE discount? (please don't mention 3rd party RAM - I've had nightmares with it in the past

)

Macbook White
- with 4GB RAM

Mini DVI to DVI adaptor

I-work 09

Carry case

Thanks

rodo · 11 Jan 2009 at 10:15

DireEmblem said:
think its iro, 14pc discount but i dont have access to the store atm i'm afraid( back home)

Same as - trying to find someone on a campus

rodo · 15 Jan 2009 at 21:11

Well I ordered my macbook white today - third apple product I will have had, the other two being ipods. Also got me a DVI adaptor so I can put it into my monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse (will see if I love it or hate it) so I can write essays from my bed

rodo · 19 Jan 2009 at 21:53

Anyone know where they ship apple stuff from. My macbook and stuff got shipped today it says but delivery date is 28th which seems a bit long

rodo · 23 Jan 2009 at 20:51

Well I got my new macbook today. I've been on it for a few hours now and I think it's nearly all set up! It really couldn't have been easier, the hardest thing was setting my monitors resolution to be happy with it. The laptop seems to have everything on it's screen and then if I want to use something on my 22 inch monitor I just drag it across!

The only thing that I can't figure out it...

I have a number of Video files and I want to set it so that .avi's are always opened with VLC, however whenever I set it to always use this program it doesn't seem to remember it for all avi's except for the video I tried to set it on. Can someone point me in the right direction for this?

rodo · 23 Jan 2009 at 21:18

likwid said:

Brilliant thank you.

Well I managed to replicate my macbook onto my monitor which I think will be better than using 2 windows. Next question... is there anyway to be able to close my macbook lid and not have it lock down? I'm just thinking in terms of watching movies at night and no need to have it open too.

rodo · 24 Jan 2009 at 12:14

Hmm one more thing.

When I select restart it powers down then I just seem to get the white screen and the fan tends to go on.

I then have to press the power button and it goes off and then I press the power button again the computer turn on as from the beginning and proceeds to load as normal. Am I missing a trick here?

rodo · 24 Jan 2009 at 12:22

rodo said:
Hmm one more thing.

When I select restart it powers down then I just seem to get the white screen and the fan tends to go on.

I then have to press the power button and it goes off and then I press the power button again the computer turn on as from the beginning and proceeds to load as normal. Am I missing a trick here?

Removed external HDD and it seems to restart then - I think it must have been getting confused with boot disks possibly.

All I can say is this macbook is great. It's just so simple.

I need to figure out a way to get my external hard drive to detect. At the moment if I turn on from scratch it won't detect it. I need to plug it in again or turn it off and on again for it to show up. Anyone got any advice on setting externals up - is this something I have to live with?

rodo · 24 Jan 2009 at 20:53

likwid said:
Go into disk utility (search from spotlight in top right corner). You will see your disks, select it from the list and you should have an option to mount.

Should this stop me having to do this everytime I turn the mac off and on?