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[Sean]

iTunes gift cards work for the App Store, right?

Yep they do, I use em all the time to buy apps.

 

[Mariner]

Gracias. I appreciate the reply.

 

[giga]

You’re welcome.

 

[UtadaBarkley]

4GB of Ram...er umm..pretty much the entry level iMac.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/ho...K2-STARTING-IMAC-INDEX&cp=STARTING-IMAC-INDEX

4GB RAM has been more than sufficient for me, but I still have an OCD itch to upgrade to 12 just to have the legroom.

Is it an i3? Or c2d?

 

[Ashhong]

Yep they do, I use em all the time to buy apps.

Speaking of iTunes, I think its pretty lame that apparently you cant use gift card credit to buy "gifts" on iTunes for your friends. Wheres the logic.

 

[NumberTwo]

Is it an i3? Or c2d?

i3

 

[X-Frame]

Anyone else download Sparrow Mail?

It's so sexy, especially if I have it next to Tweetie for Mac.

 

[mrklaw]

I watched a youtube speed test of the new air, and they do a geekbench on it, get about 2950. I've never tested my 15" MBP but figure it must blow it away. 3300..

Then I look at the list of mac benchmarks and see the MBP get beaten by mac minis, and the higher specced iMacs are nuts!

 

[hoverX]

My girlfriend just bought an iPhone 4. Problem is, she is running 10.4 on her macbook and cannot upgrade to the latest iTunes. She would rather wait a while to buy a new laptop than bother upgrading to 10.6. What are her options? Can she use the phone (and the app store) without syncing it to her computer? Then when she gets a new computer in a month or so set it up then?

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Man, I can't wait to get Office 2011 from my Bookstore this week. Weird to get excited about Office apps, but they're the programs that I interface the most with, along with iTunes, Mail, and Safari, and 2008's SOOOOOOOOO BAD.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Man, I can't wait to get Office 2011 from my Bookstore this week. Weird to get excited about Office apps, but they're the programs that I interface the most with, along with iTunes, Mail, and Safari, and 2008's SOOOOOOOOO BAD.

Is 2011 supposed to actually be good or still suck like 2008?

 

[mug]

Is 2011 supposed to actually be good or still suck like 2008?

I've heard mixed things but I'm guessing anything would be better than 2008.

 

[Oyashiro]

Anyone else download Sparrow Mail?

It's so sexy, especially if I have it next to Tweetie for Mac.

Yep, I use it all the time. I was using Postbox or something like that before, but I like Sparrow a lot more. Wish it would let me customize the signature, though

 

[Blackhead]

Yep, I use it all the time. I was using Postbox or something like that before, but I like Sparrow a lot more. Wish it would let me customize the signature, though

Why would anyone use a mail client that doesn't allow the user to change the signature? :/ I hope you filed a bug report or complained or tried to do something about it...
Whatever

• How to change Signature ?
Open Preferences under the Sparrow Menu and open your mail account preferences. Double-click on any of your account to change your signature.

 

[Firestorm]

Is 2011 supposed to actually be good or still suck like 2008?

2011 Word has the References feature from Windows Office 2007 which instantly makes it 100x more usable to me while writing papers =P

Messenger 2011 is also leaps above the old Messenger Mac but it seems to crash every now and then and doesn't support multiple sign-ins (so if I'm signed in on my desktop, it will sign me out on my laptop and vice-versa). People used to Adium will likely stick to it.

I don't use any other Office programs. Never have to deal with spreadsheets and I use Adobe suite for presentations.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

2011 Word has the References feature from Windows Office 2007 which instantly makes it 100x more usable to me while writing papers =P

Messenger 2011 is also leaps above the old Messenger Mac but it seems to crash every now and then and doesn't support multiple sign-ins (so if I'm signed in on my desktop, it will sign me out on my laptop and vice-versa). People used to Adium will likely stick to it.

I don't use any other Office programs. Never have to deal with spreadsheets and I use Adobe suite for presentations.

Hmm, hopefully they have a trial up soon on their website. Has there been any word on a new iWorks soon?

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Office 2011 delivers.

 

[Animal]

Yep they do, I use em all the time to buy apps.

It actually depends on your country. In Canada for example, they won't let you use it towards apps.

 

[Animal]

My girlfriend just bought an iPhone 4. Problem is, she is running 10.4 on her macbook and cannot upgrade to the latest iTunes. She would rather wait a while to buy a new laptop than bother upgrading to 10.6. What are her options? Can she use the phone (and the app store) without syncing it to her computer? Then when she gets a new computer in a month or so set it up then?

Find a friend who will let you borrow an OS X disc and install it.

 

[Particle Physicist]

Office 2011 is so much better than 2008. I did have it crash on me today though, while I was dragging images into a file. Thank god I had saved recently, because if I lost all that work, I would have been pissed.

 

[Jasoco]

My girlfriend just bought an iPhone 4. Problem is, she is running 10.4 on her macbook and cannot upgrade to the latest iTunes. She would rather wait a while to buy a new laptop than bother upgrading to 10.6. What are her options? Can she use the phone (and the app store) without syncing it to her computer? Then when she gets a new computer in a month or so set it up then?

What kind of boyfriend are you? Snow Leopard is $29 and you don't even need Leopard to install. Buy her a copy already! Small price to pay for a gift.

 

[hoverX]

LOL It's not the price that's the issue. She barely has any room on her drive and is worried the install might not work due to space issues. I've been trying to get her to clear some room for ages.

 

[scorcho]

LOL It's not the price that's the issue. She barely has any room on her drive and is worried the install might not work due to space issues. I've been trying to get her to clear some room for ages.

if you have a spare USB drive install 10.6 onto that and boot into it by holding onto the option key while restarting the laptop. you can then copy over that install to her new MacBook to keep the syncing profile the same.

 

[Ashhong]

LOL It's not the price that's the issue. She barely has any room on her drive and is worried the install might not work due to space issues. I've been trying to get her to clear some room for ages.

SL actually decreases the amount of space that OSX uses, so she will gain space! However I'm not sure how it is compared to 10.4.

 

[LCfiner]

It actually depends on your country. In Canada for example, they won't let you use it towards apps.

FYI, you can use gift cards towards apps in Canada now. they changed that policy several months back.

I’ve done it myself and it works

 

[giga]

Make sure you have an Intel processor.

 

[Ydahs]

Just bought my first Mac (a Mini). How do I customize the mouse speed. It's sloowwww...

Anything in particular I should be checking out? I mean, I bought it mainly for iOS development, but I wouldn't mind carrying out some tasks which are better suited for a Mac.

 

[Jasoco]

LOL It's not the price that's the issue. She barely has any room on her drive and is worried the install might not work due to space issues. I've been trying to get her to clear some room for ages.

Then buy her a new HD too. She should not let the HD get filled no matter what OS you use. You should leave about 10% empty for breathing room.

 

[Blackhead]

Just bought my first Mac (a Mini). How do I customize the mouse speed. It's sloowwww...

Anything in particular I should be checking out? I mean, I bought it mainly for iOS development, but I wouldn't mind carrying out some tasks which are better suited for a Mac.

 

[criesofthepast]

Is there a way to get the mail app to show unread emails in the menu bar? I know it shows the number of unread on the dock icon but I'd prefer to be notified in the menu bar.

 

[LCfiner]

Is there a way to get the mail app to show unread emails in the menu bar? I know it shows the number of unread on the dock icon but I'd prefer to be notified in the menu bar.

not by itself.
you’ll need a third party app

http://search.macupdate.com/search.php?keywords=mail+menu+bar&os=Mac

 

[criesofthepast]

not by itself.
you’ll need a third party app

http://search.macupdate.com/search.php?keywords=mail+menu+bar&os=Mac

Thank You.

 

[Tabris]

I'm hoping someone here can assist me (will be much appreciated!) on the following questions before I go decide to buy a macbook air.

1) If I get the 4GB model of the 13", will it be fast enough to handle applications like Visual Studio and SQL Server running on Windows XP (maybe Windows 7) through Parallels where I won't really feel a difference with going with an OSX laptop? i.e. Is Parallels a huge resource hog or is it able to handle non-gaming applications good enough to not be noticed? This will be essential for work and school.

2) I have an iPhone 4 connected to work through exchange for mail, contacts and calendars for work. I also have contacts stored just on iphone for personal. I also have a home Windows 7 Desktop which has my music, apps and movies. How can I sync my iPhone between the 2 where my desktop has the music/apps/movies on to my iphone and my macbook has the contacts synced to it (down from iphone, not up to iphone). I want to sync my iphone contacts on laptop for facetime off macbook and to charge my iphone on the road, but I don't want to lose movies/music/apps on it as that's on my desktop.

3) Does OSX have the equivelency of windows 7' "libraries"? I use libraries to have both my dropbox folders and my local folders (i.e. Work Files on both under the Work Library) so I can easily move files between.

EDIT - Oh and I would want to sync my photos/videos take on iPhone 4 to my laptop only.

 

[mrklaw]

1) Parallels is a resource hog. If you're using it on its own (i.e you are in a windows desktop environment) to run non-game apps it should be fine. But if you want to use it to run Windows apps alongside OSX apps (so your OSX desktop with windows apps in), its handy but can slow things down.

2) You can sync different things from different computers - so contacts from one computer and media from another, but I'm not sure thats possible cross-platform. So one from windows, one from OSX might not be doable.

 

[Jasoco]

3) Does OSX have the equivelency of windows 7' "libraries"? I use libraries to have both my dropbox folders and my local folders (i.e. Work Files on both under the Work Library) so I can easily move files between.

Aren't "libraries" just Microsoft's fancy name for "Music", "Documents", "Pictures", "Movies", etc? Of course it has "libraries". They're not called that though as the "Library" folders on OS X are located in the root directory, inside the system folder and in each user folder. They hold all your preferences, support files, etc and let you have files that the whole system can see or ones that only certain users can see. Like different preferences for each user or fonts that are available system wide. The rest are all in your User folder.

Not sure exactly how Dropbox works or if this would screw up the OS but depending on what you want kept and shared, you could use symbolic/hard links to the folders to trick the system into using a different location for things that could be synced. OS X and Windows name their folders differently. Anyone else wanna help with that one?

 

[hirokazu]

Is 2011 supposed to actually be good or still suck like 2008?

2011 is amazing.

 

[Firestorm]

Aren't "libraries" just Microsoft's fancy name for "Music", "Documents", "Pictures", "Movies", etc? Of course it has "libraries". They're not called that though as the "Library" folders on OS X are located in the root directory, inside the system folder and in each user folder. They hold all your preferences, support files, etc and let you have files that the whole system can see or ones that only certain users can see. Like different preferences for each user or fonts that are available system wide. The rest are all in your User folder.

Not sure exactly how Dropbox works or if this would screw up the OS but depending on what you want kept and shared, you could use symbolic/hard links to the folders to trick the system into using a different location for things that could be synced. OS X and Windows name their folders differently. Anyone else wanna help with that one?

No. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-7-libraries-–-and-why-you-want-them/

 

[X-Frame]

Yep, I use it all the time. I was using Postbox or something like that before, but I like Sparrow a lot more. Wish it would let me customize the signature, though

It does let you customize the signature in Sparrow. You need to go to Accounts > Double Click on your e-mail then wala.

 

[mrklaw]

Aren't "libraries" just Microsoft's fancy name for "Music", "Documents", "Pictures", "Movies", etc? Of course it has "libraries". They're not called that though as the "Library" folders on OS X are located in the root directory, inside the system folder and in each user folder. They hold all your preferences, support files, etc and let you have files that the whole system can see or ones that only certain users can see. Like different preferences for each user or fonts that are available system wide. The rest are all in your User folder.

Not sure exactly how Dropbox works or if this would screw up the OS but depending on what you want kept and shared, you could use symbolic/hard links to the folders to trick the system into using a different location for things that could be synced. OS X and Windows name their folders differently. Anyone else wanna help with that one?

dropbox on OSX creates a new folder, so it encourages you to put docs etc folders underneath that one.

 

[LCfiner]

No. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-7-libraries-–-and-why-you-want-them/

OK, so Libraries are similar to Smart Folders in OS X.

you can set them up to include files from a variety of folders across multiple locations.

I think Libraries has an upper hand in that a folder structure is maintained within. I don't think Smart Folders can have subfolders in them even if it draws data from different folders across your drives.


As for Dropbox integration, I only ever use it in its default manner which is as a separate folder in the user directory, sitting alongside the default pictures/ music, etc folders. You can always use it as your default storage spot for your data and add it to the sidebar so it's just as easily accessible as the Mac OS provided folders. But you can't make the Mac OS pictures folder "point" to a Dropbox folder. maybe if you start messing around with symbolic links.

 

[scorcho]

Win 7's library is a bit better - it can also sort by certain types of metadata across various drives/folders, so your Music library can show and organize by album artist instead of folder view if you'd like.

 

[infiniteloop]

I've had an Airport Express for about 6 years and I'd like to upgrade it to an Extreme. Amazon has the latest generation new for $167, but Apple has a refurb for $129 or a refurb 1TB Time Capsule for $219.

I know there was some issues with the TC crapping out. Are these resolved now? Is it safe to buy a refurb Time Capsule? I've bought Apple refurbs before, and they are great, but I just a bit wary about the Time Capsule.... not sure if I should just stick to the refurb Extreme.

 

[Tabris]

1) Parallels is a resource hog. If you're using it on its own (i.e you are in a windows desktop environment) to run non-game apps it should be fine. But if you want to use it to run Windows apps alongside OSX apps (so your OSX desktop with windows apps in), its handy but can slow things down.

2) You can sync different things from different computers - so contacts from one computer and media from another, but I'm not sure thats possible cross-platform. So one from windows, one from OSX might not be doable.

1) Which is how I want to use it. How noticable will it be on the top end macbook air you think?

2) Anyone have experience on this one to advise?

 

[UtadaBarkley]

1) Which is how I want to use it. How noticable will it be on the top end macbook air you think?

2) Anyone have experience on this one to advise?

1. The SSD will help a bit in this area. But for Parallells you need as much RAM as you can come by. That 2GB ain't gonna cut it. Can you upgrade the RAM in the new airs?

 

[Kraftwerk]

Hey there mac newbie here.Just got the pro 13 inch.
i want to do some gaming and..what is bootcamp exactly and how much is it gonna cost? I want to play games liek mass effect II and when i watched some performance videos on youtube all said 'bootcamp required'.

 

[Tabris]

1. The SSD will help a bit in this area. But for Parallells you need as much RAM as you can come by. That 2GB ain't gonna cut it. Can you upgrade the RAM in the new airs?

Yeah, to 4GB. I would be suprised if 4GB isn't enough as I run VMWares at work with less ram (2GB) and don't notice any differences. Of course that's Windows 7 to Windows XP vmwares but still, if OSX struggles with that I would be disappointed.

 

[UtadaBarkley]

Hey there mac newbie here.Just got the pro 13 inch.
i want to do some gaming and..what is bootcamp exactly and how much is it gonna cost? I want to play games liek mass effect II and when i watched some performance videos on youtube all said 'bootcamp required'.

Bootcamp comes with your mac. It's nothing more than a way to partition your HDD to install Windows in order to allow you to dual boot. It's quite different from Parallels virtual machine software, which, does cost about $79.99. That program allows you to run Windows programs while still booted into OS X. If you're interested in any gaming, most likely you're not going to want to go with the VM option considering you're on a MBP.

 

[Alfarif]

I forgot how much of a bitch it was to add a hard drive and RAM to the old Mac Minis. :lol :lol And I accidentally pulled the bluetooth and airport antennas out. Ugh. :lol Oh well, upgrade complete and runs like a beast.

 

[UtadaBarkley]

I forgot how much of a bitch it was to add a hard drive and RAM to the old Mac Minis. :lol :lol And I accidentally pulled the bluetooth and airport antennas out. Ugh. :lol Oh well, upgrade complete and runs like a beast.

What are your specs... ?


BTW anyone in the market for a 2010 2.4Ghz Mini with 80GB Intel SSD preinstalled? I think I just want to get an iMac and call it a day.

 

[DJ Crimson]

Is Bowtie better than You Control: Tunes? Bowtie certainly looks sharper and a bit more customizable.