I'm fixin' to join the cult of The Steve and get a Mac Book Pro. Primarily for QuickTunes, Final Cut and surfing the interweb. I plan to swap out my PCMCIA EVDO card for a USB EVDO card so I can use it with the Mac for wireless broadband. Also, I want to be able to work with MS Office files from PCs..
Are there killer apps that I should get?
it comes w/ i tunes which is a great music/mp3 manager. i use an apple airport express with airfoil to stream from computer to stereo remotely (w/o hardwire connection). great to see you are "both." that always made the most sense to me.
The killer apps are the simple mac apps, like iMovie and iDVD, if I don't need Final Cut Pro's features for a project, I always use iMovie.
You need the free quicktime plugin Perian to give you a ton more playback codecs as well as Flip4mac to get playback of most WMV. With those two installed you'll be good for 98% of the video that is out there.
For free utilities / small programs check out VersionTracker (i.e., for things like UnRarX which gives you a GUI for expanding .rar archives.)
There is a small but militant subset of Mac users who swear by QuickSilver for launching apps (site is down at the moment but you can get it from versiontracker.) I'm not one of them, but YMMV. Textual explanation here. YouTube video explaining it is here .
Also, if your workspace has bright light behind you it might be worth checking out the matte screen at the apple store before going with the glossy. This choice is one of the better things about the MacBook Pro (vs. the standard MacBook which is only glossy.)
Yes, it's a cult. I had to tell The Steve my personal contact information, including my phone number (555-1212), before I could use my new computer.
All is good so far. Some impressions:
- I had to double check the label on the box. It's so damn big I thought they slipped me a 17" rather than a 15". I typically buy the smallest thing Dell has on the market.
- I'm liking the backlit keyboard. Nice touch.
- Firefox on the Mac sure is a lot like Firefox on the PC. Unless there's a compelling reason to use Safari, I like having the same program.
- After a couple hiccups I got my new USB727 EVDO gizmo working with the Mac. I've been an EVDO user so long that I was overdue for Verizon's "new every two years" free upgrade. I think I'll get a little USB extender cable so the already wide computer isn't extra wide. The USB727 can take an external antenna -- an increasingly rare feature on cell phones -- which is nice for out of the way locations, such as my office at work. (Entirely too much Faraday caging going on in that building. The EVDO card should be fine, but phone calls are crackly.) BTW, EVDO Rev. A kicks butt. Should have upgraded a long time ago. DSL speed tests show 1 to 1.4 Mbps vs. typical performance of 200kbps with old card.
- Flash video works right out of the box.
- Built in speakers aren't bad.
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Are there killer apps that I should get?
- mark 8-28-2008 4:13 pm
it comes w/ i tunes which is a great music/mp3 manager. i use an apple airport express with airfoil to stream from computer to stereo remotely (w/o hardwire connection). great to see you are "both." that always made the most sense to me.
- bill 8-28-2008 4:44 pm [add a comment]
The killer apps are the simple mac apps, like iMovie and iDVD, if I don't need Final Cut Pro's features for a project, I always use iMovie.
- L.M. 8-28-2008 5:02 pm [add a comment]
You need the free quicktime plugin Perian to give you a ton more playback codecs as well as Flip4mac to get playback of most WMV. With those two installed you'll be good for 98% of the video that is out there.
For free utilities / small programs check out VersionTracker (i.e., for things like UnRarX which gives you a GUI for expanding .rar archives.)
There is a small but militant subset of Mac users who swear by QuickSilver for launching apps (site is down at the moment but you can get it from versiontracker.) I'm not one of them, but YMMV. Textual explanation here. YouTube video explaining it is here .
- jim 8-28-2008 6:46 pm [add a comment]
Also, if your workspace has bright light behind you it might be worth checking out the matte screen at the apple store before going with the glossy. This choice is one of the better things about the MacBook Pro (vs. the standard MacBook which is only glossy.)
- jim 8-28-2008 6:49 pm [add a comment]
Yes, it's a cult. I had to tell The Steve my personal contact information, including my phone number (555-1212), before I could use my new computer.
All is good so far. Some impressions:
- I had to double check the label on the box. It's so damn big I thought they slipped me a 17" rather than a 15". I typically buy the smallest thing Dell has on the market.
- I'm liking the backlit keyboard. Nice touch.
- Firefox on the Mac sure is a lot like Firefox on the PC. Unless there's a compelling reason to use Safari, I like having the same program.
- After a couple hiccups I got my new USB727 EVDO gizmo working with the Mac. I've been an EVDO user so long that I was overdue for Verizon's "new every two years" free upgrade. I think I'll get a little USB extender cable so the already wide computer isn't extra wide. The USB727 can take an external antenna -- an increasingly rare feature on cell phones -- which is nice for out of the way locations, such as my office at work. (Entirely too much Faraday caging going on in that building. The EVDO card should be fine, but phone calls are crackly.) BTW, EVDO Rev. A kicks butt. Should have upgraded a long time ago. DSL speed tests show 1 to 1.4 Mbps vs. typical performance of 200kbps with old card.
- Flash video works right out of the box.
- Built in speakers aren't bad.
- mark 8-29-2008 7:01 am [add a comment]