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Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs
- Thread starter koam
- Start date
Burger
Member
Battersea Power Station said:
Sparrow is beautiful, it has little badges on the dock icon, it integrates with Growl well, it includes all the functions of Gmail that I use except chat, it's fast and well designed, and most of all, I don't have to log in to anything. Also, it runs in the background without a window open.
Worth it.
I prefer to use Mail.app over Gmail so I can archive my mail on my computer. It comes from many email addresses over the last 10 years. If I ever had to switch from Gmail, it'll be nice to still have my email from now even when my other email comes in. I don't really use email much though. Most of my emails are newsletters from companies that sell shit and forum notifications for other forums. (I turned them off for GAF when I discovered the Subscriptions page. I wish and prefer that all forums had that.)Battersea Power Station said:
But I prefer to use Twitter.com instead of a Twitter app on my Mac, but the awesome Twitter app on my iPad and not Twitter.com. The app is amazing and it makes me wish the same people would take the FaceBook app from the mean jerkface who decided not to make one for the iPad. (Friendly sucks. I decided. I have switched back to a facebook.com bookmark on my Dock.)
Meus Renaissance
Member
Are the reviews right that it is a resource hog? Someone quoted 20% CPU usage
Yeah, I like using Mail for gmail but it also consolidates my work exchange account and my ISP account. no point opening a separate browser when i can have all mail in one place.
while the webapp for gmail is serviceable (and what I use while on Windows, with the extension that Meus posted), I prefer the feel of the native Mail app with IMAP and, bonus, no ads
while the webapp for gmail is serviceable (and what I use while on Windows, with the extension that Meus posted), I prefer the feel of the native Mail app with IMAP and, bonus, no ads
I look at Gmail when out and about, but it keeps my email on the server until Mail gets to it then it is removed. I know I could keep all my email on the server, but I had a bad experience once where I had it set to leave the emails on the server then something fucked up and it downloaded it twice. So I don't trust keeping the mail on the server anymore. I'd rather pull it all off and remove it and avoid any problems.
lunarworks
Member
Because fuck the cloud, that's why.Battersea Power Station said:
I guess I'm just old fashioned in my preference of my mail being stored locally.
lunarworks said:
I'm pretty much with this statement. Believe it or not, sometimes we have computers when they aren't connected to the internet!
My college has embarrassingly slow internet and it is very unreliable. If I were reliant upon accessing this or that from a particular e-mail account, I would be wasting very valuable time.
Furthermore, it is nice to have a local app that centralizes my school account and internet-based accounts.
Awesome Animals
Member
I finally made the jump, and bought a Macbook Pro today!! I am as excited (probably, much, much more) as everyone here. I don't have any specific questions per se, but any tips, program recommendations, etc would be great. I did read the OP, and for the most part I agree with what he started with. I'm sure I will browse the thread, but it is a rather large one.
All I need now is some AppleTV and I will be true Apple. lol
All I need now is some AppleTV and I will be true Apple. lol
dmshaposv said:According to the interwebs, the verdict is that 10.6.7 hasn't entirely solved the problem.
People at apple discussion forums are still able to reproduce the hard freeze even with the update.
It has definitely fixed the problems for some people. I think we're dealing with multiple problems here, though...lots of users running at abnormally high temperatures when near-idle makes me think physical cooling issues are in the mix here too for some.
After hemming and hawing over various models, I finally pulled the trigger on a refurb i5 15" from mid-2010. For the price of a brand new 13", it was an easy decision.
Burger said:
I don't know what you're implying. I'm saying that I check my e-mail, it is stored locally, and I can then search my mailbox for a phone number or a document or any myriad of things that are stored on my hard drive. If you tell me I'm wrong, then I'm living in a dream world where I've been doing this for the past few years.
Meus Renaissance
Member
Having a problem.
I use my PC as a server to stream media to my Mac - connecting to it using SMB and the PC's IP address. This is a scenario. PC and Mac are both on, everything works fine. The PC is then switched off and restarted. I can't connect to it on the Mac even though the PC sees the Mac, is connected to it, and able to access the Shared Folders listed on the Mac. I have to then restart the Mac - but whilst it closes the dock and menu bar, it freezes at the wallpaper. The only way to restart it is by holding down the power button for three seconds.
I use my PC as a server to stream media to my Mac - connecting to it using SMB and the PC's IP address. This is a scenario. PC and Mac are both on, everything works fine. The PC is then switched off and restarted. I can't connect to it on the Mac even though the PC sees the Mac, is connected to it, and able to access the Shared Folders listed on the Mac. I have to then restart the Mac - but whilst it closes the dock and menu bar, it freezes at the wallpaper. The only way to restart it is by holding down the power button for three seconds.
Splash Wave
Member
I'm having trouble figuring out what I'll eventually replace my 2.5 year-old MBP. It's always plugged into a 27-inch monitor with a keyboard and mouse, accompanied by a netbook for school and whatnot. I find that these things just aren't portable enough (the MBP) what with their size, heat, and battery life. The most sensible thing to do would be to just build a 500 dollar PC for it's cost-effectiveness (I already have a case) and buy an Air or iPad, but I'd hate to lose OS X on my "primary" computer. Power consumption would also rise, and I'd lose out on space and portability of having something laptop-sized (I move semi-frequently). I guess I just wish the Mac Mini sucked less, or that the Air was more powerful. Any suggestions as to which "path" I should take over the next 2-ish years would be greatly appreciated. It's occupying my thoughts more than it should. MBA+PC seems like the most logical to me, but again, I'd rather have OS X be my primary OS.
Splash Wave
Member
Charred Greyface said:
I mean, I have a large monitor already and I'd rather not invest in something that isn't portable and that can't really be upgraded (aside from RAM).
Burger
Member
ngower said:
Just because you use IMAP doesn't mean you can't look at your recent mail without an internet connection, you can. Admittedly it doesn't store all your email locally, but I haven't yet had the need to look at an email from 2005 on my iPhone when I get into an area without coverage.
Personally, I find that having a central point for my mail on the internet (Gmail) and then have my devices (iPhone/Computer/etc) stay in sync with it, keeping the last 50 or so messages locally.
Dreams-Visions
Member
just wanted to bump this. I just used it to help a friend reclaim about 90GB of space they didn't even know was being used.Dreams-Visions said:New program I'm happy to recommend.
http://www.whatsizemac.com/
I was struggling trying to figure out what files I could move off of my SSD and onto other drives/partitions or simply delete entirely. This app shows the files on your machine and, how much space they take up For example:
I'll be moving the entire DVD Studio Pro folder to one of of my SSD and onto one of my HDD partitions, then creating a simlink. So far, I've gone from 15GB free on the SSD to 36GB free and counting.
Edit: correction, make that 45.59GB free (post DVD Studio Pro move)!
It's worth the cost of admission for this kind of functionality. I'm not sure if this kind of feature is available in another program for free, but it's saved me a ton of time and space.
out0v0rder
Member
hey that software is pretty cool, i use a similar program but its free.Jdiskreport, the features of what size mac looks much better though, i like the duplicate file finder thingy. That will really help with stretching the space on this 64gb model.
Treefingers
Member
Ashhong said:
I'm guessing they had some huge files they forgot they had on the computer.. The advantage is this program lets you easily find them.
Dreams-Visions
Member
people lose track of files over time. Especially over the course of years (his case). in my case, I had soem pro apps (like Adobe Soundbooth) making large backup copies of files I'd work on without my knowledge.Ashhong said:
Other times, I found that apps just installed a lot of "helper" files in random places. Final Cut Studio, for example, houses a lot of its files in /Library/Application Support. Like, 9GB-10GB folders! You'd never know unless you were looking for it and knew where to look. This app allowed me to find them, move those files elsewhere and symlink them back. (see image).
it also allowed me to delete other such findings entirely. <3
mrkgoo said:
Pretty much.
And yes, it shows hidden files by default
I have a bootcamp issue lately. When I'm in my W7 bootcamp, for some reason I cant access all of my files on the OSX side like I used to. I used to be able to access my music and whatnot and listen while on W7, but suddenly my folders are empty when viewing from W7. Any ideas?
List view, sort by size. CMD+J.
Doesn't have all the perks of WhatSize, but it's free and you don't have to install anything.
Also free:
http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnidisksweeper/
http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/
Doesn't have all the perks of WhatSize, but it's free and you don't have to install anything.
Also free:
http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnidisksweeper/
http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/
Treefingers
Member
giga said:
Holy shit!
Finally I know the size of my folders. Why this is not default is beyond me.
Burger said:
Actually Bootcamp got updated so that you could read the HFS partition
HFS+ read support in Boot Camp.
Boot Camp now includes HFS+ read support that enables you to access the files on your Mac OS X partition from Windows. Its read-only to prevent PC viruses from affecting Mac OS X, but you can easily save your work to your Windows partition and access it later from Mac OS X.
Treefingers
Member
Meus Renaissance
Member
Ashhong said:
By the way, have you been able to connect to another PC as a server and share files?
Treefingers
Member
XMonkey said:
Ah it seems you're right. SL can read NTFS but can't write natively.
Lord Error
Insane For Sony
Running in background without window open, it still means you have to start it first, correct? So it's like regular Mail app which also runs even if you close its window.Burger said:
It's not like facetime which can detect that someone is calling you when the application is not even started at all?
Dreams-Visions
Member
Paragon NTFS for Mac OSX v8.0 > *Treefingers said:
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/
been using it for a full year. never a single problem.
I'm going to do a backup of my HDD. I'm not sure if I want to go the Superduper route or Time Machine. I'm wondering if I can boot from an external drive. If my HDD fails would I be able to boot from the external drive, then transfer it to a new drive? I was was thinking of getting a 3.5" drive because of the price and size. IIRC it's possible to install leopard with a time machine backup. I'm just not sure which route would be best.