[ Mac] New Users

[CMcK]

I'm a Safari user. It's rendering is accurate and has a simple UI. Firefox still doesn't look like a Mac application.

[ChrisF]

Until theres a 64 bit version of Firefox that's properly compatible with Snow Leopard, then it's Safari all the way for me.

[randombs]

Quick question, maybe it's already been asked/answered, but:

I just sold my 13" Unibody Macbook Pro to a mate and I have an older white regular 2008 model 13" Macbook. I just put the hard drive from it in here and OSX(10.5.8) has booted up just fine and everything is working as it was before.

Just wondering, is there anything to bear in mind if doing this? Could there be any pitfalls I'll find out about later? It's just working, it didn't even take longer to boot so it must have all the necessary drivers present (in spite of the uMBP being a newer model with nvidia graphics whereas this has Intel onboard, as well as other hardware differences), but maybe I've spent too long with Windows to just be happy when things go well!

[Brad]

OSX arrives with every driver for every supported bit of hardware mate so yeah, should all be fine. Quite often big companies will set up one mac with everything they need and then, using Disk Utility, back that up and then restore it to all their other macs and that system works just fine.

[laruso]

I use OmniWeb. It's like Safari on steroids.

i thought id give Omniweb a go after reading your suggestion ... and its blazing fast. thanks for letting me know!

[randombs]

OSX arrives with every driver for every supported bit of hardware mate so yeah, should all be fine. Quite often big companies will set up one mac with everything they need and then, using Disk Utility, back that up and then restore it to all their other macs and that system works just fine.

Wow that's cool, I was under the impression that restore discs had specific drivers (which is why I couldn't use my uMBP OSX discs to install Leopard on my white Macbook) whereas the retail OSX discs had all the drivers

[analog dog]

Well the day has arrived that I never thought would come,I've finally cracked and bought a new 27 inch Imac!
So after being a PC user since year dot I come here with cap in hand to rinse all you learned mac scholars of information

1:Video Convertors-I hear handbrake is the best solution for this?
I like to download the odd video here and there,is this the all in one stop solution it appears to be?

2:Safari.
After using firefox for years safari is entirely new to me,can I import my PC based bookmarks etc into Mac safari?

3:Gaming
I'd love to give my 8gb of ram and spanking new gfx card a run out (especially on that sexy new screen)
What is the game to do this?
I was thinking about Crysis any other suggestions?
Also can I use my xbox controller,if not,any other suggestions for a gamepad?

Sorry if these questions a daft but I really am a TOTAL mac virgin!
PS:Any other suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Many thanks

[samanosuke]

1. Yes, Handbrake is the absolute bollocks.
2. Dunno
3. Your best bet is to set up boot camp and use Windows 7 instead, but if you do want to play games under OS-X there is an Xbox 360 pad driver for Mac available here:

http://tattiebogle.net/index.php/ProjectRoot/Xbox360Controller/OsxDriver

[analog dog]

Thanks buddy

[Taka]

Well the day has arrived that I never thought would come,I've finally cracked and bought a new 27 inch Imac!
So after being a PC user since year dot I come here with cap in hand to rinse all you learned mac scholars of information

1:Video Convertors-I hear handbrake is the best solution for this?
I like to download the odd video here and there,is this the all in one stop solution it appears to be?

2:Safari.
After using firefox for years safari is entirely new to me,can I import my PC based bookmarks etc into Mac safari?

3:Gaming
I'd love to give my 8gb of ram and spanking new gfx card a run out (especially on that sexy new screen)
What is the game to do this?
I was thinking about Crysis any other suggestions?
Also can I use my xbox controller,if not,any other suggestions for a gamepad?

Sorry if these questions a daft but I really am a TOTAL mac virgin!
PS:Any other suggestions would be greatly welcomed.
Many thanks

Handbrake is fantastic, and lets you customise a fair bit. It's optimised nicely for multiple cores too, so will make short work of conversion and encoding tasks.

If you're happy with Firefox for Windows, why not just stick with Firefox for Mac. You can skin it to look like Safari and can retain most, if not all of your add-on's and extensions that you use on Windows. Bookmarks should be simple to export and import so long as they're saved in .html format, which I'm sure most browsers do by default.

Not a PC or Mac Gamer, though as has been suggested, if you're keen to test out the hardware then it's best to use Bootcamp and get a Windows partition setup for gaming purposes. Mac gaming is still way behind compared to Windows so any of the latest Mac games will have been out on Windows already for several months at the very least.

Learn some of the keyboard shortcuts, they're far faster than using the GUI a lot of the time. Pressing enter on the keyboard does not open something, rather it just allows you to rename it (Apple key and O opens things). Pressing the red X in the top corner does not shut a program down, it merely closes the window (Apple and Q shuts things down properly). There's plenty more out there.

Welcome to the club!

[fishbowlhead]

Just remember that if your setting a windows partition you still need to install antivirus, firewalls and all that rubbish, as windows will still be suseptible.

[analog dog]

thanks for the replies fella's
It's a whole new world out there!

Edit:If I want more ram do I have to buy it from apple or is it cheaper elsewhere?
ta

[CMcK]

Get it elsewhere. Apple are still a wee bit pricey for RAM. Try Crucial.

[Ginger Tosser]

Chances are the memory from Crucial is the same a Apple use anyway. I always use Crucial, so long as you select the correct computer the Ram will always work fine.

[Taka]

Another vote of confidence for Crucial. As much as I like Apple, the store employees do like telling porky pies saying that their RAM is guaranteed to work with their Macs. If the Crucial RAM you get doesn't, you're just as entitled to send it back to get a refund or exchange for some that does work.