switched to mac. now what?

[crystalnox]

Thks for the suggestions. Have been looking into the videos on YouTube for guidance over the last few days. Thus far windows is still far easier to operate for me but not as bad as first started.

Well I got a macbook becos I want to save a few bucks from a equivalent spec machine ( a lenovo or asus of similar spec I look at cost much more than 2k). My original preference samsung no longer sells laptop. Wanted to get a sony, but the sales rep ignored me when I made my enquiries.

guess I will have to live with the decisions I made. This shall be a lesson learned for me. Will see if I really miss the mt4 platform before deciding if I should run it with wine

You don't have to live with it, go learn how to boot camp and you'll have your 'windows laptop'.

 

[carfan]

What do you want to do with your Mac?
Or what are the usual things you do on Windows that you want to do with Mac now?

I for one have totally dropped Windows from home use.
Switched from mouse to trackpad and have continued to enjoy computer life on Mac.

 

[tt32003]

I've also jus bought a used MBPR 15" (mid 2012) recently.
Now still exploring with it,
Came with Office 11 and lightroom preinstalled so don't have to worry about that.

I'm using it mainly to surf the net.
Found safari pretty useless.
Ghrome seems to work well.
My favourite browser opera seems to have some problem on the mac. Can still run smoothly but cannot put an icon on the dock.
Does firefox work well on the mac ?

Can play FM2014 with no problem, find it smoother than my i5 win 7 desktop.

Trying to re rip my CD collection using itune to 256 AAC (to save space on my ipod).
Finding it a big hassle to copy out the ripped files from itune on to an external HDD as it will take up a lot of space on the SSD.
Somehow cannot copy a whole album as a folder.

And btw is there a need for an anti virus software ?

 

[tinky123]

I've also jus bought a used MBPR 15" (mid 2012) recently.
Now still exploring with it,
Came with Office 11 and lightroom preinstalled so don't have to worry about that.

I'm using it mainly to surf the net.
Found safari pretty useless.
Ghrome seems to work well.
My favourite browser opera seems to have some problem on the mac. Can still run smoothly but cannot put an icon on the dock.
Does firefox work well on the mac ?

Can play FM2014 with no problem, find it smoother than my i5 win 7 desktop.

Trying to re rip my CD collection using itune to 256 AAC (to save space on my ipod).
Finding it a big hassle to copy out the ripped files from itune on to an external HDD as it will take up a lot of space on the SSD.
Somehow cannot copy a whole album as a folder.

And btw is there a need for an anti virus software ?

there's no need to install anti virus software, as of now.

 

[B772ER]

Trying to re rip my CD collection using itune to 256 AAC (to save space on my ipod).
Finding it a big hassle to copy out the ripped files from itune on to an external HDD as it will take up a lot of space on the SSD.
Somehow cannot copy a whole album as a folder.

you can actually put your entire iTunes media folder on an ext HDD and point iTunes to load the library from there, only catch is that the HDD needs to be plugged in otherwise iTunes cannot detect the songs

https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449 is your guide

 

[tt32003]

you can actually put your entire iTunes media folder on an ext HDD and point iTunes to load the library from there, only catch is that the HDD needs to be plugged in otherwise iTunes cannot detect the songs

https://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449 is your guide

Thank.

What i need to know is how to copy out the ripped albums from itunes to an external HDD.

In windows it's very easy just copy from Music to the ext HDD>

In OSX doesn't seem to be that simple.

 

[derrickgoh]

I've also jus bought a used MBPR 15" (mid 2012) recently.
Now still exploring with it,
Came with Office 11 and lightroom preinstalled so don't have to worry about that.

I'm using it mainly to surf the net.
Found safari pretty useless.
Ghrome seems to work well.
My favourite browser opera seems to have some problem on the mac. Can still run smoothly but cannot put an icon on the dock.
Does firefox work well on the mac ?

Can play FM2014 with no problem, find it smoother than my i5 win 7 desktop.

Trying to re rip my CD collection using itune to 256 AAC (to save space on my ipod).
Finding it a big hassle to copy out the ripped files from itune on to an external HDD as it will take up a lot of space on the SSD.
Somehow cannot copy a whole album as a folder.

And btw is there a need for an anti virus software ?

I tried using Safari, Chrome & Opera but somehow they never felt right. Guess I'm too used to Firefox.

You should be able to put an icon for any software on the dock. Back when I was trying out Opera, I managed to put the icon.

Antivirus for Mac has always been a hot debate. Just like the debate over whether you need a disk defragmentation software. You can Google for more info so I'm not gonna start World War 3 here by bringing up the pros and cons.

But if you feel you need one, you can try Clam XAV which is free. Or you can opt for something from Intego. I am using their Mac Internet Security 2013 which comprises their Virus Barrier and Net Barrier.

Some have reported their system slows down a lot or even become unstable after installing antivirus. Thank God so far I've not had such issues. Have installed it for over a year and my system has NOT crashed or hung after installing Mac Internet Security 2013, nor has it become visibly slower.

 

[duhduhduh]

Never installed AV.

Anyway best browser in mac is safari. because of the trackpad gestures.

hoping for chrome/opear to be more enegry efficient

 

[chenaz]

Never installed AV.

Anyway best browser in mac is safari. because of the trackpad gestures.

hoping for chrome/opear to be more enegry efficient

i think that too.

trackpad gestures is too imba. switching application or going bak of webpage is simply too easy.

 

[Arandalo]

My 2 cents

1. Configure trackpad settings to your liking (eg. secondary click at btm right corner, uncheck scroll direction: natural) and other system preferences as well.
2. Install Flash Player
3. Install AdblockPlus extension for Safari if it's your primary browser (only working extension for blocking youtube ads)
4. Watch mac beginner videos (eg. cmd-opt-v to paste, cmd-shift-3 to screenshot, shift-opt-cmd-v to paste without text formatting)
5. Install RightZoom (maximises windows fully)
6. Install AppCleaner (great for uninstalling programs)
7. Install The Unarchiver (great for unpacking rar files)
8. Install NoSleep (prevents system from sleeping especially useful for downloading files and running programs overnight)
9. Install ClipMenu (great free clipboard history manager)
10. BetterTouchTool (add window snap feature from windows and customise additional gestures to trackpad and mouse)
11. Install VLC, Office 2011, Spotify, Pocket, Google Drive and any other commonly used programs

PS: Some of them can be found in the Mac App Store, the rest just do a google search

 

[ylime87]

hi!

planning to get a mac.. but hmm all the programs above need to be bought am i right?

i would only require microsoft office for now...

 

[tushar310]

what is the "Other" section that is occupying more than 20 GB of Data.

is it part of the OS or junk files?

 

[dEv_]

1. Configure trackpad settings to your liking (eg. secondary click at btm right corner, uncheck scroll direction: natural) and other system preferences as well.
2. Install Flash Player
3. Install AdblockPlus extension for Safari if it's your primary browser (only working extension for blocking youtube ads)
4. Watch mac beginner videos (eg. cmd-opt-v to paste, cmd-shift-3 to screenshot, shift-opt-cmd-v to paste without text formatting)
5. Install RightZoom (maximises windows fully)
6. Install AppCleaner (great for uninstalling programs)
7. Install The Unarchiver (great for unpacking rar files)
8. Install NoSleep (prevents system from sleeping especially useful for downloading files and running programs overnight)
9. Install ClipMenu (great free clipboard history manager)
10. BetterTouchTool (add window snap feature from windows and customise additional gestures to trackpad and mouse)
11. Install VLC, Office 2011, Spotify, Pocket, Google Drive and any other commonly used programs

PS: Some of them can be found in the Mac App Store, the rest just do a google search

add OnyX to the list.

 

[erwinrommel]

1. Configure trackpad settings to your liking (eg. secondary click at btm right corner, uncheck scroll direction: natural) and other system preferences as well.
2. Install Flash Player
3. Install AdblockPlus extension for Safari if it's your primary browser (only working extension for blocking youtube ads)
4. Watch mac beginner videos (eg. cmd-opt-v to paste, cmd-shift-3 to screenshot, shift-opt-cmd-v to paste without text formatting)
5. Install RightZoom (maximises windows fully)
6. Install AppCleaner (great for uninstalling programs)
7. Install The Unarchiver (great for unpacking rar files)
8. Install NoSleep (prevents system from sleeping especially useful for downloading files and running programs overnight)
9. Install ClipMenu (great free clipboard history manager)
10. BetterTouchTool (add window snap feature from windows and customise additional gestures to trackpad and mouse)
11. Install VLC, Office 2011, Spotify, Pocket, Google Drive and any other commonly used programs

PS: Some of them can be found in the Mac App Store, the rest just do a google search

Paragon NTFS will be useful too. Can write to NTFS formatted hard disks and use it like a regular hard disk.

And also configure your Mac nicely. Spaces, Hot Corners, Dashboard, adding second languages, etc... All these seem trivial, but it makes the Mac so much more useful than a Windows laptop.

I think