I want to love it, really, I do...but:

Do I like my new MacBook? Of course. Lots of cool stuff here. BUT, it's also preventing me from doing some of the things I enjoy doing. Like...

1. CNN - I can't watch any of the news clips. It tells me I need Windows Media Player. I've downloaded and installed it (9 for Mac). CNN doesn't recognize it. Any advice?

2. When I post a picture to my blog (@ typepad.com), I could see the picture when using my PC. Now, I only see HTML (?) For laughs, I tried it at Blogger, too. Same thing. (This isn't an awful thing, but it seems so 20th century. I thought an Apple would add, not subtract, from my online experience.)

3. iPhoto. Yuck. I'm used to opening a picture, playing around with it, and then saving it as a new file (IF I like the result). What's this having to copy the picture first, then play around with it? (I miss CompuPic.) Am I missing something?

Thanks for whatever advice/suggestions you can offer.

For #1, you might want to try Flip4Mac WMV:

http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv.htm

For #2, I'm not sure - that sounds strange. Work fine for me (cPanel and Blogger). Maybe try using another browser - Firefox, Camino, and Opera 9 are good options.

For #3, well, I like Picasa for Windows much better. I'm slowly getting used to iPhoto...I'd suggest consulting the help file to see how the saving feature works. Or wait for another Mac Forums user to explain it, because I sure don't know how

rbryantc said:

Do I like my new MacBook? Of course. Lots of cool stuff here. BUT, it's also preventing me from doing some of the things I enjoy doing. Like...

1. CNN - I can't watch any of the news clips. It tells me I need Windows Media Player. I've downloaded and installed it (9 for Mac). CNN doesn't recognize it. Any advice?

2. When I post a picture to my blog (@ typepad.com), I could see the picture when using my PC. Now, I only see HTML (?) For laughs, I tried it at Blogger, too. Same thing. (This isn't an awful thing, but it seems so 20th century. I thought an Apple would add, not subtract, from my online experience.)

3. iPhoto. Yuck. I'm used to opening a picture, playing around with it, and then saving it as a new file (IF I like the result). What's this having to copy the picture first, then play around with it? (I miss CompuPic.) Am I missing something?

Thanks for whatever advice/suggestions you can offer.

Click to expand...

1. Flip4mac should work, but that doesn't really SOLVE the problem. The real problem is that you watch CNN instead of Fox.

3. Yeah, its system is weird. I just got used to it, because I love the 'enhance' and 'exposure' tools so much, as well as the UI (in full screen mode). I guess if you're missing anything, it's a higher end photo editing program.

2. Definitely should not be happening. There must be some sort of settings issue somewhere.

In response to #3, when you edit a picture, it creates a copy of the original somewhere. If you browse around on your hard drive it's somewhere. I'm not sure exactly where, but I've found it before.

Let me know if you need help and I'll spend a few minutes looking around myself.

rbryantc said:

Do I like my new MacBook? Of course. Lots of cool stuff here. BUT, it's also preventing me from doing some of the things I enjoy doing. Like...

1. CNN - I can't watch any of the news clips. It tells me I need Windows Media Player. I've downloaded and installed it (9 for Mac). CNN doesn't recognize it. Any advice?

2. When I post a picture to my blog (@ typepad.com), I could see the picture when using my PC. Now, I only see HTML (?) For laughs, I tried it at Blogger, too. Same thing. (This isn't an awful thing, but it seems so 20th century. I thought an Apple would add, not subtract, from my online experience.)

3. iPhoto. Yuck. I'm used to opening a picture, playing around with it, and then saving it as a new file (IF I like the result). What's this having to copy the picture first, then play around with it? (I miss CompuPic.) Am I missing something?

Thanks for whatever advice/suggestions you can offer.

Click to expand...

For 1 and 2, try installing Firefox. I use Safari a lot, but I've found that it doesn't always like browser plug-ins. Firefox is nice, fast and seems to be more compatible plug-ins and sites using technologies geared more towards windows users.

I'm not super impressed with iPhoto myself. Finder lets you view thumbnails so it's easy to see what you are about to open. If I'm going to open and work on images, I've been using Photoshop Elements 4 for the Mac, the Bridge is pretty handy.

I can play videos fine using Safari on CNN.com.
I am not using Flip4Mac, either.
Yes, it didn't detect the WMP installed, but you have an option to continue to the video anyway. I did this and all of the videos I chose played fine.

D3v1L80Y said:

I can play videos fine using Safari on CNN.com.
I am not using Flip4Mac, either.
Yes, it didn't detect the WMP installed, but you have an option to continue to the video anyway. I did this and all of the videos I chose played fine.

Click to expand...

From your profile, it looks as though you're using a G4... I believe the problem exists for people with the Intel Macs...

rbryantc said:

I'm used to opening a picture, playing around with it, and then saving it as a new file (IF I like the result). What's this having to copy the picture first, then play around with it? (I miss CompuPic.) Am I missing something?

Click to expand...

You basically solved the problem right there: iPhoto uses a different concept of handling photos. On your mac, photos are not just files, they are photos, and the concept of thinking is different when you use iPhoto. You have to get rid of files and folders-thinking, and accept iPhoto as a manager. If you need to do photo manipulation but still want the original, then you mustn't be making changes that you want to keep permanently, so iPhoto isn't it for you, because iPhoto tries to enhance the photos you already have (while it still stores originials to revert back).

You'll want something like photoshop or Aperture.

About Nr. 2:

You probaly just post your pics by dragging them into the editor in the browser. Well, Safari tries to follow standards, and these websites use software that doesn't work on all browsers, but you can se firefox that will support weird text editors online.

Also check the settings of your blog site for non-rich-text-editor possibility.

Actually CNN will say it doesn't detect it even when it's installed. I believe there is an ignore or continue anyway button. Choose that and everything will work fine after you have Flip4Mac installed.

WMP will NOT work on Intel Macs. F4M will work but badly, 2.1 will be universal and it works very well.

Not to disprove you scweb,

But

wmp Will Work On Intel Macs on intel macs!

slyydrr said:

In response to #3, when you edit a picture, it creates a copy of the original somewhere. If you browse around on your hard drive it's somewhere. I'm not sure exactly where, but I've found it before.

Let me know if you need help and I'll spend a few minutes looking around myself.

Click to expand...

iPhoto does save the original photo, as well as the modified picture. In your home\Pictures\iPhoto Library folder, you will see an "Originals" folder and a "Modified" folder. I'm bet you can guess what is in each of these folders.

But I also agree, a dialog to confirm changes would be nice.

just hang in there man. For some the transistion can be rough, but once in place you won't want to budge!

cdawg said:

iPhoto does save the original photo, as well as the modified picture. In your home\Pictures\iPhoto Library folder, you will see an "Originals" folder and a "Modified" folder. I'm bet you can guess what is in each of these folders.

But I also agree, a dialog to confirm changes would be nice.

Click to expand...

Is that for iphoto 5 or 6? I'm on 5 and I've looked where you suggested and can't find an "Originals" or a "Modified" folder.

I too have tried to force myself to accept iPhoto's paradigm, but after a while, I've just had to give up. I just don't like it.

Try QPict. It is shareware (and not cheap, around $35) but it seems like a better iPhoto for the areas of photo organizing and viewing. A key feature for me is that it will open your photos at 100% zoom (or any setting that you preset). iPhoto simply refuses to do this, instead zooming to fit the available window. On a photo by photo basis you can make iPhoto use 100%, but it automatically reverts back to "zoom to fit window" on the very next picture. So, QPict is a better viewer, and a very nice organizer as well. It is NOT a photo editor at all.

I understand that Adobe Lightroom is a similar product - a viewer, organizer, but not an editor.

For editors, there are plenty out there, but I am not aware of any native Intel ones yet. That doesn't mean there aren't any, just that I am not aware of them.

For free, you can get GIMP.app, the excellent open source Photoshop equivalent. It requires you to install Apple's X11, but after that runs very well. I use it frequently.

For about $90, you can get Adobe Photoshop Elements 4, an excellent (but PPC only at this time) photo editing package.

I am SURE that there must be some simpler photo editors out there, with a similar set of capabilities to iPhoto. Anyone?

Do keep in mind that Apple's very own Preview has some limited editing capabilities now. Have you tried this out yet?

Techno Mutant said:

Not to disprove you scweb,

But

wmp Will Work On Intel Macs on intel macs!

Click to expand...

I downloaded WMP 9 from the Apple site and the few AVI's i had played fine on my Intel Mac as well. Although i am looking forward to the F4M intel version.

the vlc media player is really nice, I use it over wmp on both windows and macs, it plays like every player, and TONS of codecs (sp?) are supported.

http://www.download.com/VLC-Media-Player/3000-2200_4-10497763.html?tag=lst-0-1

cjay said:

Is that for iphoto 5 or 6? I'm on 5 and I've looked where you suggested and can't find an "Originals" or a "Modified" folder.

Click to expand...

I'm running ver. 6.

WOW! - To All, Thanks!

Great ideas, great suggestions. It took me all of seven minutes to fall in love w/ Firefox: I'm viewing CNN clips (sorry, Fox watchers), blogging happily, tabbing this and that.... In general, I'm having a ball.

I'm still hunting for a photo-editing package that I like, but I'll find it.

The greatest thing of all? I truly feel like I'm USING my Mac instead of being USED (and often abused) by PCs (and by you-know-who).

And, I love the forum. Thanks to all.

I love my mac there is nearly 0 lock ups and everything runs so smoothly and there is just so much out of the box i have bought one app so far and that was just to have a game to play in my downtime. I have only had to use force quit a few times now. As far as iphoto goes sometimes i feel its a little beneath me but its ok. And on the cnn subject it opens up in quicktime lol.

glad you came around mate. another happy apple user