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Mac OSX Noob thread of OSX noobs

I

I should be doing hw

Member
Going to be getting a Macbook Pro 13" in a few weeks, should I go for the 2011 or the 2010 model? I'm hearing conflicting things about the downgraded graphics card. I'm thinking of using a Mini Display to HDMI to play 720p videos off it onto my HDTV, should either be fine doing this?
Gaming itself really isn't an issue as I have a desktop for that, the video output is my main concern with it.
 
T

TUSR

Banned
Demigod Mac said:
didn't see this mentioned too often, so if anyone hasn't tried it yet:

http://adium.im/

this program is borderline the reason to own a Mac. it's that good.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I used it. Seemed slow and clunky when I got around to it. Don't really think it replaces or anything, just a good way to put together the fragmented IM spectrum...

Does Windows 7 put a lot less strain on bootcamp then XP does?

I feel like im going to over heat my laptop and break it using W7
 
U

UnluckyKate

Member
Demigod Mac said:
didn't see this mentioned too often, so if anyone hasn't tried it yet:

http://adium.im/

this program is borderline the reason to own a Mac. it's that good.
Click to expand...

The best part is that there's TONS of custom skin, smileys icons and animated dock icons for it. I hate the green dock in my dock so I've got EVE from Wall-E movie that pop out with her face displaying things. You can also customise your conversations windwos like clip board... Very great software
 
A

Ashhong

Member
I should be doing hw said:
Going to be getting a Macbook Pro 13" in a few weeks, should I go for the 2011 or the 2010 model? I'm hearing conflicting things about the downgraded graphics card. I'm thinking of using a Mini Display to HDMI to play 720p videos off it onto my HDTV, should either be fine doing this?
Gaming itself really isn't an issue as I have a desktop for that, the video output is my main concern with it.
Click to expand...

You will be fine with either one in regards to video output. What is the price difference between your options?
 
I

I should be doing hw

Member
I can get a refurbished 2010 model for $1089AU or a 2011 for $1250AU with a student discount (rrp $1399AU).
It's not that big of a difference, and I'm sort of leaning towards the 2011 model simply because it's newer, unless you can dissuade me. The differences between the two are a 350Gb HDD, a 720p webcam and an i5 processor as far as I can tell. I can't really get a definitive answer an how much of a difference the i5 makes in everyday use. It's just that my shitty older laptop from 4 years ago had a C2D in it, I'm not sure I want another one in '11.
 
Z

Zinga

Banned
I should be doing hw said:
I can get a refurbished 2010 model for $1089AU or a 2011 for $1250AU with a student discount (rrp $1399AU).
It's not that big of a difference, and I'm sort of leaning towards the 2011 model simply because it's newer, unless you can dissuade me. The differences between the two are a 350Gb HDD, a 720p webcam and an i5 processor as far as I can tell. I can't really get a definitive answer an how much of a difference the i5 makes in everyday use. It's just that my shitty older laptop from 4 years ago had a C2D in it, I'm not sure I want another one in '11.
Click to expand...

I would definitely get the i5, sandy bridge is a huge upgrade imo :)
 
S

Seraphinianus

Banned
those integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics cards sound like shit from a gaming standpoint.
I kinda hate how there's a 2.7 ghz i7 model with that shit card, yet none of the models with real GPUs have that good of a processor.

Though, I have a feeling their next line of MBPs will be a little more gamer-conscious.
 
A

AlexMogil

Member
cooljeanius said:
Repair is $750, the cheapest new Macbook Pro is $1199. I'm pretty sure the hard drive isn't damaged, I checked it myself before bringing the computer to the Apple Store. If I put it in an external enclosure, could I still use it? Like, are there SATA-to-USB connectors or something?
Click to expand...
There are lots of those USB to SATA connectors. You don't have to pay a bunch for them either. Just get the cheap one.
 
C

cooljeanius

Member
Well, I decided to send my dead MacBook Pro into Apple for repairs, mostly because the price difference was still big enough. Hopefully it comes back okay soon...

Treefingers said:
Welp I've moved back to using Safari, and the one thing I missed most were the awesome GAF extensions Chrome has. So I've started working on porting them! :) And in the process I've learned a bit of javascript. Thought I'd share with you guys.

Two done today, next I'll tackle multi-quote.

NeoGAF User Highlighter:
http://cl.ly/6kQS

NeoGAF Avatar Blocker:
http://cl.ly/6jvt

Let me know what you think. :)
Click to expand...
I thought the User Highlighter had already been ported to Safari? I dunno, it was on the Safari on the laptop I'm sending off for repairs, so I can't really check for sure right now...
 
T

Treefingers

Member
cooljeanius said:
I thought the User Highlighter had already been ported to Safari? I dunno, it was on the Safari on the laptop I'm sending off for repairs, so I can't really check for sure right now...
Click to expand...
Hmm don't know, I couldn't find it myself.

Anyways I'm working on an extension that combines a whole bunch of these things. =) Should be done today or tomorrow and I got updates working so I can keep adding features to it.
 
T

th3dude

Member
On the topic of Gaf addons (not really OS X specific, forgive me), but are there any good FF4 Gaf addons? FF4 is my browser of choice by far in OS X.
 
T

Treefingers

Member
sn1pes said:
On the topic of Gaf addons (not really OS X specific, forgive me), but are there any good FF4 Gaf addons? FF4 is my browser of choice by far in OS X.
Click to expand...
There are a bunch of awesome userscripts available for the Greasemonkey extension, I don't think there are any standalone GAF extensions though.
 
S

Seraphinianus

Banned
ok, so I've formatted a 800gb partition to ntfs and had no idea that macs can't write to them. I had no idea ntfs was a microsoft-specific format.

what now?! I tried a Paragon NTFS trial and my macbook stopped recognizing the drives. Turned off the driver and they popped up again.

*grumble* it's always something with computers. *grumbe*
 
L

luoapp

Member
Smision said:
ok, so I've formatted a 800gb partition to ntfs and had no idea that macs can't write to them. I had no idea ntfs was a microsoft-specific format.

what now?! I tried a Paragon NTFS trial and my macbook stopped recognizing the drives. Turned off the driver and they popped up again.

*grumble* it's always something with computers. *grumbe*
Click to expand...

I have 3 NTFS hard drives in my mac pro and one attached through USB right now. Which version of OSX are you using?
 
S

Seraphinianus

Banned
luoapp said:
I have 3 NTFS hard drives in my mac pro and one attached through USB right now. Which version of OSX are you using?
Click to expand...

snow leopard. you can write to them?

i can read, copy from them. but i can't copy to them or alter files. maybe i;m missing something here...
 
S

Seraphinianus

Banned
Ashhong said:
Just format the NTFS partition into MacOS Journaled or w/e it's called using Disk Utility
Click to expand...



I use it on my windows 7 partition too, though. It has all my steam games and stuff-- afaik, macos journaled is read-only on windows 7? plus, it's full of data and I have no other way of backing it up at the moment, so I don't want to lose it.
 
A

Ashhong

Member
Say what? Your bootcamp partition should be its own thing. Put all the games and Windows specific stuff onto your bootcamp partition. I guess if you cant back anything up that's a problem..
 
G

guest1321

Member
Hey so I have a macbook, iphone, and ipad. when i am home i want to use one of the peripherals as point which i can push music to. Ex. I am sitting in my room, and listening to music through itunes. I am about to go make dinner so I want it to continue in the kitchen. I know how airport works but given that it would cost more money i don't want to buy one of those blocks. So basically If i have my idevice in the other room, can i somehow set that up as one of the speakers that iTunes would recognize. Bother are jailbroken if that helps.
 
S

Seraphinianus

Banned
Ashhong said:
Say what? Your bootcamp partition should be its own thing. Put all the games and Windows specific stuff onto your bootcamp partition. I guess if you cant back anything up that's a problem..
Click to expand...


nah, my bootcamp partition is the minimum size + a few gigs. I knew I wouldn't use it enough to take away the space from my osx partition (I think this macbook only has a 120gb hdd.)
 
D

Dreams-Visions

Member
Smision said:
nah, my bootcamp partition is the minimum size + a few gigs. I knew I wouldn't use it enough to take away the space from my osx partition (I think this macbook only has a 120gb hdd.)
Click to expand...
okay okay. just do:

luoapp said:
you can (1) use MacFUSE/NTFS-3G ( I am using)
(2) Enable native NTFS read/write support
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090913140023382
or
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=785376
Click to expand...
and ignore the rest of the conversation.

Personally, I recommend Paragon NTFS 9...but it's not free. Either way, any of these will give you read-write support to your Windows 7 partition and any other NTFS drives you might connect to it.
 
P

Particle Physicist

between a quark and a baryon
Shit... So I get the pinwheel of death in iTunes instantly when I click on Podcasts in my library. Fuck. What the hell do I do? This is a huge problem.. I have a bunch of lectures in my podcasts that I need to view.

:(


EDIT

Never-mind. I don't know what I did, but it's working now.
 
K

killertofu

Member
Alright something weird is happening...

I went to put my MBP into it's sleeve, I come back a few hours later and its hot. I figured it didn't go to sleep and eventually the battery died.

I come home, let it cool down and turn it on...for some reason it's forgotten my Wifi passwords? (And didn't know what time/date it was) Other than that though, I thought it was fine...go to my car to pick up something. Come back and the laptop rebooted...asking me for the wifi password again (Again, with no idea of what time or date it was)

Has anyone encountered this problem before? Right now I'm trying to do a Time Machine backup, but it's still scanning my files...
 
S

Seraphinianus

Banned
apparently paragon fucked with my bootcamp partition?

I was getting some bsod on boot and this is the only thing that could have touched the partition recently. I hadn't done anything weird in windows on my last boot, so it's the only variable I could think of. Disabled and deleted the program...

I fixed it by using a "last known good config" boot. anyone else had this happen?
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
I went into Best Buy to pick up a laptop charger replacement. I had a chance to try out the MacBook Pros and Airs and the iPads. Damn I really want one now! I told myself I wouldn't buy one until next year when the MacBook Pro complete revision comes out or the iPad with a Retina Display.

Now I don't know whether I would want a 15 or 13 inch machine. They were really solidly built.

The thing that I believe will be the hardest thing to get used to is the X button being on the left side. I noticed that you couldn't stretch say a website window all the way horizontally. It just stayed in the center, but allowed dragging as well. It still didn't allow any stretching. Was I doing something wrong?
 
B

bananas

Banned
Trojita said:
I went into Best Buy to pick up a laptop charger replacement. I had a chance to try out the MacBook Pros and Airs and the iPads. Damn I really want one now! I told myself I wouldn't buy one until next year when the MacBook Pro complete revision comes out or the iPad with a Retina Display.

Now I don't know whether I would want a 15 or 13 inch machine. They were really solidly built.

The thing that I believe will be the hardest thing to get used to is the X button being on the left side. I noticed that you couldn't stretch say a website window all the way horizontally. It just stayed in the center, but allowed dragging as well. It still didn't allow any stretching. Was I doing something wrong?
Click to expand...

Current version of Mac OS X only lets you resize windows from the bottom-right corner of the window. The next version, Lion, lets you resize from any side like in Windows.

No, I don't know why it took so long for them to implement that.
 
W

Wallach

Member
Trojita said:
I went into Best Buy to pick up a laptop charger replacement. I had a chance to try out the MacBook Pros and Airs and the iPads. Damn I really want one now! I told myself I wouldn't buy one until next year when the MacBook Pro complete revision comes out or the iPad with a Retina Display.

Now I don't know whether I would want a 15 or 13 inch machine. They were really solidly built.

The thing that I believe will be the hardest thing to get used to is the X button being on the left side. I noticed that you couldn't stretch say a website window all the way horizontally. It just stayed in the center, but allowed dragging as well. It still didn't allow any stretching. Was I doing something wrong?
Click to expand...

Consider getting the baseline 13" model and resell it when the new MBP hits. That's what I'm doing.
 
A

Ashhong

Member
Make sure you wait a week, as Apple is doing the free iPod promotion starting next week. Sell that off for another 200$ off the Macbook price.
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Ashhong said:
Make sure you wait a week, as Apple is doing the free iPod promotion starting next week. Sell that off for another 200$ off the Macbook price.
Click to expand...
Do they ever allow substitutions? I wouldn't mind ponying up the difference to get an iPad.
 
W

Wallach

Member
Trojita said:
Do they ever allow substitutions? I wouldn't mind ponying up the difference to get an iPad.
Click to expand...

I don't think so. It's a specific promotion for "Back to School" so it is only for students or education workers.
 
B

bananas

Banned
JAVK said:
Is there a way to sync my non-iPod MP3 player (Sansa Clip+) with iTunes? I know I can drag and drop files, but I love the way iTunes handles my podcast collection.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Nope. At least not out of the box, I don't think.
 
D

Drewsky

Member
I use a Logitech MX 518 on my iMac and was wondering if there's any way to get the back and forward buttons to work? Thanks, if anyone can help.
 
A

Ashhong

Member
Trojita said:
Do they ever allow substitutions? I wouldn't mind ponying up the difference to get an iPad.
Click to expand...

You can only substitute for higher capacity iPod Touches

It wasn't officially announced that its starting next week, but Macrumors says it is, and this is about the time they usually do it.
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Ashhong said:
You can only substitute for higher capacity iPod Touches

It wasn't officially announced that its starting next week, but Macrumors says it is, and this is about the time they usually do it.
Click to expand...
:(
 
I

I should be doing hw

Member
Ashhong said:
You can only substitute for higher capacity iPod Touches

It wasn't officially announced that its starting next week, but Macrumors says it is, and this is about the time they usually do it.
Click to expand...
Is this going to apply to the US Apple store only? I just realised the offer wouldn't really make any sense in Australia at this point in time.
 
T

TUSR

Banned
Drewsky said:
I use a Logitech MX 518 on my iMac and was wondering if there's any way to get the back and forward buttons to work? Thanks, if anyone can help.
Click to expand...
IMO the best mouse ever made. I still have mine.
 
H

hirokazu

Member
I should be doing hw said:
Is this going to apply to the US Apple store only? I just realised the offer wouldn't really make any sense in Australia at this point in time.
Click to expand...
The back to school deal runs from around mid-January to February or so every year in Australia.
 
T

TUSR

Banned
hirokazu said:
The back to school deal runs from around mid-January to February or so every year in Australia.
Click to expand...
I assumed it was more then just North America, pretty much wherever Apple ships to.
 
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