Official CAG Mac thread

Tybee

Tybee

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Well, now that all of the CAG principals (CheapyD, Wombat, the Shipwrecks) have made the switch to Macs (I'm pulling the trigger on a MacBook Pro this week myself), it seems appropriate to inaugurate a thread devoted solely to that platform. If the mods aren't comfortable having it in this forum (even though the Mac technically IS a PC), feel free to move it to the Lifestyle and Off Topic forum.

This thread can be for Mac-specific questions, software and hardware recommendations, tips and tricks, etc. I've used a Mac Pro at work for a couple years now, but this will be the first Mac I've used at home. Really looking forward to it.

So maybe a good question would be why did you guys switch to the Mac (assuming you haven't been using them since the beginning)? What's your favorite thing about them? Least favorite thing?

P.S. - I know there are a lot of Mac haters on CAG, and you're entitled to opinion, but please refrain from trolling this thread. Thanks.
 
I know nvidia just brought out a bunch of video cards just for macs.


NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT for Mac

Quadro FX 5600

GeForce 8600M GT

GeForce Go 7300


Anyone tested any of them yet or currently using one ?
 
Yeah, the MBP I just ordered has a NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT with 512mb of ram. All the reviews I've read says it screams, including running games in Bootcamp (or the rare few supported natively under OSX).
 
[quote name='Tybee']So maybe a good question would be why did you guys switch to the Mac (assuming you haven't been using them since the beginning)? What's your favorite thing about them? Least favorite thing?[/QUOTE]
Okay, I'll bite.

I'm one of those graphical artist types who has been using Macs for years. However, more specifically I'm an animator, and several animation packages run much better on Windows (Flash) or are only available for Windows (certain 3D apps). I also like some PC games, many of which have never been ported to Mac.

The first computer I ever bought for myself was a Dell, but then I got an iBook (one of the models with the Logic Board issue... it's been replaced at least twice... bleah). Once the Dell got too old and slow, I got a Mac Pro. The Boot Camp beta had recently come out at the time, so that was a major selling point. I love Mac OS but needed Windows for things Macs can't run.

As for what I like/don't like, I sort of answered that in the last sentence above :)

One other thing I don't like about Macs is less about Apple and more about Adobe. They're still making certain apps for Carbon instead of Cocoa, which is why the Mac version of Photoshop CS4 will be 32-bit instead of 64-bit. Annoying as hell -_-
 
I bought a macbook this past month and I love it so far. After going through 4 windows laptops in the past 2 years for various reasons, I finally said screw this and went with a nice compact macbook. Its not a beast like my desktop which is just what I wanted. Bootcamp is just the icing on the cake because now those rare windows only aps aren't left out. I hope this machine will last me longer then my other laptops because I have fallen in love with apple.
 
I think we should also mention out current system.

I have an aluminum 24" iMac

I've also had

first -Quadra 605
Power Mac 7200/90
Powerbook 1400
G3 (blue and white) 300
G4 "quicksilver" 733
iMac G5 17" 1.8 Ghz

Concurrently with these, I've also built many PCs to run AutoCad. Until I boot Camp'd the iMac
 
Grown up on Apple products since my older brother was a big fanatic and ended up working for Apple when he was 20. Currently I have the latest iBook, still running strong but I intend to get a MacBook Pro as soon as possible. I'm somewhat considering a desktop but my parent's have an iMac and I just don't like the look. iCAGs 4 life!
 
I've got the base model Macbook before the redesign (13.1", 512MB) that I've upgraded to 2GB RAM for much cheaper than Apple charges for it. Considering picking up a G4 tower to be the workhorse of the family.

I switched essentially for security and ease of use. My Windows laptop (a Toshiba tablet) was constantly having trouble with downloaded programs and viruses (admittedly, probably my fault), and I've had zero problems with my Mac. It took a little while to get used to, but once I got the hang of it, it's wonderful.
 
I'm planning to get a macbook pro before the summer is out. I've always been a Windows/Linux kind of gal, never ever thought I'd own a mac as I'm a gamer. I currently own a self-built desktop and a Sony Vaio notebook.

A few reasons made me decide to jump in. One is pure curiosity. I haven't used Mac OS extensively since high school in the late 90's, and apple has made some nice advancements. The macbook pros are aesthetically very pleasing, and I've heard mostly rave reviews. I'm holding out on buying one until the 9-series nvidia video cards get added, and that will give me the option of doing some light gaming on the road with VMWare/Boot Camp. Also, the option of booting into Windows for those rare occasions when I absolutely need it is nice. Finally, I'm a little bit sick of some of the things that happen with Windows. I realize no OS is perfect, but I'm ready to try something new. I will keep my desktop for gaming/writing at home and probably eventually sell my Vaio.

Oh, and I am a screenwriting graduate student who would like to occasionally edit video projects.
 
I use macs but their quality is going down in recent years. I barely bought a new mac book like 2 months ago and the speaker makes a weird rumbling when I use first use the speaker when they haven't been on in a while. That and when I use earphones it makes these weird beeping and squeal sounds. Maybe I should go to the mac store to see what is wrong with it.
 
For some reason my family had a series of Macs as the main shared computer when I was growing up, so I've always been more familiar with them and I've just stuck with them. Last summer I finally replaced my six-year-old G4 with a Mac Pro that I use as my main machine. I also have an XP box that I use for a games and Web development. I have yet to try out dual booting/Parallels, but it sounds very cool. I'd like to get a laptop at some point in the future, but because of Parallels I'd want an Apple laptop, and I also really want it to be a tablet PC so I can draw on it. So who knows when I'll end up getting one.
 
[quote name='metaly']For some reason my family had a series of Macs as the main shared computer when I was growing up, so I've always been more familiar with them and I've just stuck with them. Last summer I finally replaced my six-year-old G4 with a Mac Pro that I use as my main machine. I also have an XP box that I use for a games and Web development. I have yet to try out dual booting/Parallels, but it sounds very cool. I'd like to get a laptop at some point in the future, but because of Parallels I'd want an Apple laptop, and I also really want it to be a tablet PC so I can draw on it. So who knows when I'll end up getting one.[/quote]
Dual booting is so easy its not even funny. I love how Apple just full out lets you dual boot and will help you do it.
 
I'm so excited. My 15" MBP comes tomorrow! I was going to get the 17", but I wanted the LED backlighting, and I'll probably get a big desktop monitor to use it with later this year.

Those of you with laptops, what kind of case/bag are you using? I really like the stuff from Built NY, and I ordered their Cargo Laptop Sleeve to go with mine.
 
I don't use Parallels, but I do have VMWare Fusion, because I have ~4 or 5 stats package programs that only run on Windows. Fusion's main advantage over Parallels is that it will boot from your Boot Camp partition (Parallels doesn't) - so it's an easy transition if you already have a Windows partition on your computer, and it will allow you to solo boot Windows if you want (typically for gaming, if you must).

Combined with the 'spaces' aspect of Leopard, and I have my web (Firefox/Thunderbird) window - and ctrl-down arrow takes me immediately to my Windows desktop, a ctrl-right to get to my office suite and stickies, and a 4th panel is just there (I may use iMovie on it).

Spaces is my single favorite addition to the Mac OS.
 
I'm a long time PC guy, but I have been toying with the idea of getting an iMac...

I was actually introduced to computers on the Apple II series and then used Macs throughout the 68k series of machines. I switched to PCs because they were much superior for gaming and were much more appropriate for hobbyists/ DIY guys like me... ironically, the Apple IIs were like this initially, but Apple really cut down on slots and customizability with the Mac line...

Now, I'm generally more busy with real life, so I don't have as much time to build and customize my own systems. Vista is a disaster and I don't do as much PC gaming anymore. Plus, Macs now use the exceptional Intel Core 2 Duo processors and can easily dual boot into Windows. For these reasons, I've been toying with getting an iMac or a Mac mini to have a simple solution, but I still can't get over a few annoyances:

* iMac has no video-in! Most monitors have at least both VGA and DVI inputs, and some have s-video and component... on the iMac, there is no extra direct video input, so it can't be used as a 24" monitor for the 360, etc.

*Mac mini and iMac both have very anemic GPUs, especially the mini.

*Macs still have a huge price premium... I guess you are paying for design and convenience, but the markup is still a bit too high for my tastes.
 
So what are some of your favorite widgets and shareware Mac programs? I recently found Desktopia, a nice desktop rotator.
 
Seconding Adium, although it's been acting funny for me lately. It takes forever to connect and I have to allow it access to Keychain every time.

Other stuff: Quicksilver (awful Website, sorry) is an excellent application/file launcher. Depending how much time you want to put into learning it, you can do a lot of crazy things with it like edit files and send email. I use to control iTunes from the keyboard and as an app launcher because it's quick and convenient. (And hey... Just for fun I tried typing in "cag" and it was ready to link me to the deals forum. :D)

You Control Tunes - Speaking of iTunes control, this gives puts the currently playing song's rating in the toolbar and pops up a tasteful overlay whenever the song changes. I used to have two different widgets that would display the song title/rating in the toolbar, but Leopard broke them so now I use this.

Finally, MenuCalendarClock is a handy calendar widget for the toolbar.
 
My PS3 doesn't detect my iMac on my network. I can't access any of my pics, music, or videos on the PS3 like I was able to when I had a windows PC. Anyone know if this can be done or am I just SOL?
 
As far as I know, there isn't a go-to media sharing solution for OS X. I used MediaTomb a bit when I first got my PS3, which is free but was really not user friendly. (I had to launch and close it from Terminal, and it took forever to index my file library.) I've read that Connect 360 (despite the name) will be adding PS3 support in the future, so that may be worth the $20 if it works well and you use the media streaming features a lot.

I'm sort of just grabbing at strings with this, but if you have an Intel iMac and Parallels, maybe you can run some Windows media server in Parallels and have the PS3 connect with that. The dual-booters in this thread might be able to help you out, or at least say whether this would even be possible.
 
[quote name='blueshinra']The only non-Apple widget I use with any regularity is iStat Nano, a system monitor.

My favorite freeware apps are the chat client Adium, which is way better than iChat, and Cyberduck, an FTP app which is fairly simple, but gets the job done.[/quote]

Yeah, Cyberduck is a great FTP app. Been using that one for a while at work and put it on my MBP as soon as I got it. I'm also using Connect360 (with a 360, not a PS3).

Anyone know if there's a Mac app that lets you access XBL info (who's on, what they're playing, messaging, etc.)? Would be easier than going to the site.
 
Proud Macbook owner. While I'm not a graphic artist or on-the-go video editor guy, I still enjoy having it. The only issue I've ever had was the defective battery issue, but the Apple store replaced it at no cost.
 
[quote name='magiic']I will be joining the club soon :)[/quote]

Welcome! Whatcha gettin'?

Just out of curiosity, what sort of torrent software are you guys using on your Macs? I've been using Bits on Wheels, which I like very much, even though it's a couple years old and doesn't appear to be getting updates anymore. It has a really cool 3D graphical representation of all of the peers you're connected with and how packets are moving.

To search for torrents I was using the Torrent Finder toolbar in Firefox, but last week's release of Firefox 3.0 seems to have rendered it unusable. Not a Mac-specific question, but how do you guys search for torrents?
 
[quote name='Tybee']Welcome! Whatcha gettin'?

Just out of curiosity, what sort of torrent software are you guys using on your Macs? I've been using Bits on Wheels, which I like very much, even though it's a couple years old and doesn't appear to be getting updates anymore. It has a really cool 3D graphical representation of all of the peers you're connected with and how packets are moving.

To search for torrents I was using the Torrent Finder toolbar in Firefox, but last week's release of Firefox 3.0 seems to have rendered it unusable. Not a Mac-specific question, but how do you guys search for torrents?[/QUOTE]
I use Azureus which I guess is called Vuze now. It's bulky and not sleek at all. It has a search bar on it but I haven't really tried it out.
 
[quote name='AngellicLulu']I use Azureus which I guess is called Vuze now. It's bulky and not sleek at all. It has a search bar on it but I haven't really tried it out.[/quote]

You should give Bits on Wheels a try. Runs very smooth for me, and I'm running the latest version of Leopard. I know some people have had issues with crashing, and I have had it go down on me two or three times in the two months I've been using it, but it's easy enough to just start it up again and pick up downloads where it left off.
 
I will be getting a Macbook Pro
My only concern right now is it seems like these have a ton of hardware issue and I do not have an apple store where I live
 
I was going to recommend µTorrent but I think it's still Windows-only. Then I remembered, you can get a copy of Parallels for $50 (normally $80) right now from MacHeist. Great if you're interested in running some Windows apps without having to dual boot.
 
[quote name='metaly']I was going to recommend µTorrent but I think it's still Windows-only. Then I remembered, you can get a copy of Parallels for $50 (normally $80) right now from MacHeist. Great if you're interested in running some Windows apps without having to dual boot.[/QUOTE]

VMWare Fusion is much better, as it boots from your Boot Camp partition (so you can solo boot Windows as well when you want to).

I'm also really digging (I hate to say it) MS Office 2008, but it is ***ridiculously*** incompatible with Expose's Spaces, which is one of my favorite Mac OS additions.
 
I'm gonna be getting a mac really soon. I just can't decide between a macbook pro and 24" Imac. Anyone got any suggestions.
 
Man, I've been really wanting to purchase an iMac, but the one thing that worries me is not being able to upgrade the machine. I'm wondering just how long it would be before my mac becomes out of date. Still, I'm really fed up with my PC and would love to just get a mac and not have to worry about all that comes with keeping a PC stable.

Does anyone know if installing your own ram violates your warranty on macs? I was thinking about buying from womeone other than apple if I do get one.
 
[quote name='chewster777']Man, I've been really wanting to purchase an iMac, but the one thing that worries me is not being able to upgrade the machine. I'm wondering just how long it would be before my mac becomes out of date. Still, I'm really fed up with my PC and would love to just get a mac and not have to worry about all that comes with keeping a PC stable.

Does anyone know if installing your own ram violates your warranty on macs? I was thinking about buying from womeone other than apple if I do get one.[/QUOTE]
No installing RAM does not. When you go in for repairs though, make sure you have your original RAM.
 
[quote name='miyamotofreak']No installing RAM does not. When you go in for repairs though, make sure you have your original RAM.[/quote]
Thanks for the info! I think I might make the mac jump soon!
 
Anyone has any thoughts or predictions on whether Diablo III will be Intel Mac only?

I really hope not. I still have my beloved PowerPC. It's still going strong.

I was really disappointed that Apple was ending PowerPC support with Snow Leopard. I still think it is a bit early. But I guess that's how it goes.
 
[quote name='electronicthroat']Anyone has any thoughts or predictions on whether Diablo III will be Intel Mac only?

I really hope not. I still have my beloved PowerPC. It's still going strong.

I was really disappointed that Apple was ending PowerPC support with Snow Leopard. I still think it is a bit early. But I guess that's how it goes.[/QUOTE]
I think it'll be intel only. Which sucks cause I'm on a G5.
 
Just sold my Mac cube to a buddy at work, thus ends my year or so expirence messing with macs. It was pretty easy to upgrade the ram and HD, to my suprise

But I will tell you if I ever buy a Laptop again Macs will be first on my list. Followed by an ASUS EEE pc.

I just was never impressed with the iMacs enough to shell out the bucks for one to make it my main computer.

But you guys that use macs, do any of you use the older iMacs?
 
[quote name='electronicthroat']

I was really disappointed that Apple was ending PowerPC support with Snow Leopard. I still think it is a bit early. But I guess that's how it goes.[/quote]

I think this can pretty much confirm them only support Intel Macs :(
 
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