I'm going to buy a MacBook on Monday. Questions/concerns.

Hey folks! First post here. On Monday I'm going down to the Apple Store to buy the midline white MacBook. I can't wait! I just have a few questions and concerns which I know will be quelled by this community. I'll use a numbering system so it will be easy to follow which answers correspond to which questions.

1. When I was demoing one of the MacBooks they had out at the Apple Store, I noticed it loaded Word and Excel pretty darn slowly. Is this how it's going to be when I purchase mine? Do Microsoft apps just load slower than native apps like iPhoto? I didn't even test any native apps... I just don't want a slow laptop.

2. If I go to Starbucks, McDonalds, or any other Wi-Fi equipped business - will the MacBook be able to connect up just fine? Also I have a Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router at home. Will it work on this?

3. How do I find out if a program works with Mac? I have several programs I use on my PC that I'm hoping to be able to use on my Mac. These programs include PowerISO, Trillian, VLC Media Player, Skype, and Google Talk. Thanks!

4. Will all the movies I have on my PC work with Mac? Do I need special programs to run DivX, XviD, etc?

I'm sure I'll have more questions, but thems the basics! Thanks for reading and answering - hopefully when I sit down with my brand new MacBook I won't feel like a complete noob!

Symon

Welcome, Symon. I'm new here too but I can answer a couple of your questions...

1. I am currently using the 30 day trial of Word 2004 that came on my MacBook and it does load a bit slower than the native mac apps. I don't know why this is but I imagine it's just because of Microsoft's narcicism

2. I see people at Starbucks all the time with their MacBooks but I don't know if they are using the net... I know Linksys modems do work so you're in luck there.

3. I know that VLC and Skype work for sure, and I'm pretty sure Google Talk works. As for the others, there should be an option to download the app for Mac OS X on the site if they do work.

4. DivX Player works on the mac so I think you'll be OK.

Welcome again.

chontos said:

1. I am currently using the 30 day trial of Word 2004 that came on my MacBook and it does load a bit slower than the native mac apps. I don't know why this is but I imagine it's just because of Microsoft's narcicism

Click to expand...

No, this is because Office for Mac:2004 is not a universal binary yet. It runs under Rosetta, so it will run a bit slower. I have 1GB of ram and it's not that slow. When I had 512MB of ram it did lag a lot. So ram does help. Office for Mac:2008 is going to be universal so it will run smoothly on your intel mac.

Netty4mac said:

No, this is because Office for Mac:2004 is not a universal binary yet. It runs under Rosetta, so it will run a bit slower. I have 1GB of ram and it's not that slow. When I had 512MB of ram it did lag a lot. So ram does help. Office for Mac:2008 is going to be universal so it will run smoothly on your intel mac.

Click to expand...

Good to hear about Office 08.
Is there a release date yet?

I'm not sure about a release date. I think it's still in beta.

As for Trillian try downloading AdiumX.

todd51 said:

As for Trillian try downloading AdiumX.

Click to expand...

I agree. If Adium was available for Windows I never would have used Trillian in the first place.

Good news about 08. Thanks for clearing that up.

Office 08 is supposedly coming out before the end of 2007. Probably October/November-ish. These are just things that I've heard.

yes, you can connect really easily to places with wifi, it normally just pops up a little box that asks you if you want to connect it's really that easy. as for power iso, if you spring out for toast, it is much better, and i'm almost positive it can burn iso's, it can burn everything else!

Everything listed will work on your mac. I know the feeling that you have about it. Trust me, it is worth it in the end. I have a $1500 PC sitting right next to me right now, and it has been used only once since I have got my macbook. I <3LOVE<3 this thing.

I hope that your experience is just as good as mine. I would also advise you to download firefox for mac, it works a lot better than safari imo.

-Xander

actually if you like firefox, you should go with camino, it is just like firefox, but has more of a mac-look to it, and is written in cocoa, so it runs a lot faster then firefox, but it uses the same rendering engine, so pages appear the same, and it is just as compatible.

Symon said:

1. When I was demoing one of the MacBooks they had out at the Apple Store, I noticed it loaded Word and Excel pretty darn slowly. Is this how it's going to be when I purchase mine? Do Microsoft apps just load slower than native apps like iPhoto? I didn't even test any native apps... I just don't want a slow laptop.

Click to expand...

That is because Office 2003 is not a Universal Application and is running under Rosetta under Emulation. The new Office when it's released will run at full speed.

Symon said:

2. If I go to Starbucks, McDonalds, or any other Wi-Fi equipped business - will the MacBook be able to connect up just fine? Also I have a Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router at home. Will it work on this?

Click to expand...

Yes, I take my iBook all the time to those kinds of places and it connects easily. I own 2 WRT54G's here and the Mac connects to both without a problem.

Symon said:

3. How do I find out if a program works with Mac? I have several programs I use on my PC that I'm hoping to be able to use on my Mac. These programs include PowerISO, Trillian, VLC Media Player, Skype, and Google Talk. Thanks!

Click to expand...

For Power ISO you can get either Toast (Pay) or Burn (Free) I know PowerISO is really an ISO manager and the applications I mentioned are burning programs, but handle ISO Images. For Trillian you use Adium. Works with all chat services just like Trillian. For Google Talk you use Adium. Works great. For VLC you use the OSX version of VLC. Same with Skype.

Symon said:

4. Will all the movies I have on my PC work with Mac? Do I need special programs to run DivX, XviD, etc?

Click to expand...

Yes, you can download and install Flip4Mac and Perian and DivX and you will be able to play most all movies. If one will not play there is always VLC!

Hope that helps and if you have any issues when you get the Macbook, be sure to ask away!

Thanks so much for your responses everyone. I'm so excited - I thought I was going to have to order it online to recieve the student discount and free iPod, but it turns out all I have to do is stroll down to the store and they'll take care of me!

Now I just have to wait for the RAM to arrive from Newegg.

Symon

Symon said:

Thanks so much for your responses everyone. I'm so excited - I thought I was going to have to order it online to recieve the student discount and free iPod, but it turns out all I have to do is stroll down to the store and they'll take care of me!

Now I just have to wait for the RAM to arrive from Newegg.

Symon

Click to expand...

Why did you decide you needed more RAM?
From what you appear to be using your laptop for 1 gig is more than enough.

Title27GT said:

Why did you decide you needed more RAM?
From what you appear to be using your laptop for 1 gig is more than enough.

Click to expand...

I have heard that upgrading to 2GB of RAM on the Macbook is extremely worthwhile. Also, as a PC nerd, I can't stand to have less than 2GB in any machine, especially since that is currently the "sweet spot."

I realize I won't be doing any memory intensive work at first, but I may down the line. The RAM is fairly cheap from Newegg, and heck, it'll make me feel better.

Symon

I can confirm that upgrading to two gig makes it FLY. Even using the usual applications, having 2 gig of room makes for an overall more pleasant experience. Not that one is not enough, it's just that two is waaaay better.

Plus it's currently pretty cheap, relatively speaking. You should try it for awhlie with just the one gig, then put in the two. The comparison will be obvious, if not easy to articulate in a post.

I already bought my mac with 1G... how do I go about upgrading it?

chontos said:

I already bought my mac with 1G... how do I go about upgrading it?

Click to expand...

First, buy 2 1gig sticks, pop out the battery, remove that long metal strip (don't take out the nails, just loosen them) pop the old RAM out, pop the new RAM in. ;D

Yayy for some reason I had a feeling it wasn't possible... I heard that you can't upgrade macs

Is there a good website to get it from? Also, what's a good brand?