- Joined
- Jul 14, 2007
- Messages
- 35
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- Points
- 6
- Location
- Singapore
- Your Mac's Specs
- 30gb Black iPod Video || White MacBook 2.0GHz 1GB-RAM & an absolute beauty
Hi!
Rather long introduction here, many questions below. Hope you'll bear with me!
I'm 22 and have been a PC user for a decade. The first time I used a Mac was about 3 years ago when I had a really short stint at a newspaper, and I fell in love with the interface and the mouse (of all things, I know ). I am not very hardware-savvy at all, but I adapt easily in terms of usage to software changes and that once-weekly month's worth of stint did not render me completely incompetent at using a Mac. Rather, I only managed to be wooed by what Mac has to offer.
I'm starting out at university as a part-time student at the end of this month. Due to the demands of school assignments (from what I can tell, they are pretty intense) and the fact that I am keeping my full-time job, I am contemplating getting a laptop so I can work during my breaks and travel to/from school. I'm sick of using Windows at home and at work because they *rarely* work as they should, so I have been doing researches on getting a Mac. I mainly need to write up documents for school, surf the net, chat on MSN Messenger, listen to music... basic stuff.
I'm looking at the lowest-end MacBook, with DIY memory and hard-disk upgrades. I have no need for a Superdrive (are they as problematic as what I have read?) because I figure I can transfer the files onto my current PC when I need to burn them. I have no need for a fabulous graphic card even though I really want to play SIMS 2 flawlessly on my new laptop (not priority because I rarely play it anyway, my current PC always hang when I have the disc in ). I just need a relatively light, value-for-money, safe (in terms of not having my files disappear or the system crash on me) laptop I can lug around.
I read that MS Office made for Mac is really pretty bad; laggy, unreliable, etc. My main concern is whether PCs would be able to read Word documents saved from Mac software like iWork because I'm supposed to send my assignments to my tutors in a (presumably) .doc file. Speaking of iWork, it does not come pre-installed so I'd have to purchase it separately? Any good substitute for MS PowerPoint and Word or is iWork decent enough? AppleWorks?
Also, we all know Leopard is to ship with all new Macs in October (beginning or end is anyone's guess). I have been reading up on as much as I can about this new OS and it seems an absolute dream to have. I understand that the current Tiger OS is great, but I am considering holding out until October. From past experience, are newly released Mac OS problematic? I know new software is being developed as we speak, and getting cheaper. I would die before I go over to Vista btw.
Say if I get the MacBook now, and install Leopard later to realise I hate it (assuming, don't heap hate!), would the install/restore DVDs that ship with the original MacBooks allow me to go back to Tiger? Like I said above, I am only good at using software, the technical part is not my forte at all.
There are a few other things I thought I wanted to ask about but forgot; will ask when I recall them. Thanks for all the help in advance all the same!
**
A rather random thing I thought I would share. I got myself an iPod Video the day it was released (and although someone told me prices had dropped a few months/a year after I got mine, I would not have postponed getting my Precious for so long anyway) and got engraving straight from Apple because I figured I could wait 2 days. Anyway I was one of those who took 46546536 pictures of unwrapping the box, and goodness! Beautiful isn't it??
I'm digressing again. The main point of this entire short (?) bit is to tell how I got around the unnifty auto-scan thingy Apple has. I wanted my iPod Video to read the same as my own LiveJournal, but was disallowed to do so because of a vulgarity. So I tried it again, replacing the spaces in between with a period. Didn't work.
I tried it again with underscores. Worked beautifully. ;D
(I'd have posted a picture if I could, but vulgarities are not allowed and I respect that. Not sure if I should have taught how to get around it though... uh-oh.)
Edit: Need to explain that it's not a big whoaaa-you-shouldn't-have-done-that vulgarity, to me anyway. It is the equivalent of a female dog, and is a generally close-to-heart nickname (with 'coffee nut' in front) a close friend called me for fun. A bit childish I know, but eh, aren't we all?
Rather long introduction here, many questions below. Hope you'll bear with me!
I'm 22 and have been a PC user for a decade. The first time I used a Mac was about 3 years ago when I had a really short stint at a newspaper, and I fell in love with the interface and the mouse (of all things, I know ). I am not very hardware-savvy at all, but I adapt easily in terms of usage to software changes and that once-weekly month's worth of stint did not render me completely incompetent at using a Mac. Rather, I only managed to be wooed by what Mac has to offer.
I'm starting out at university as a part-time student at the end of this month. Due to the demands of school assignments (from what I can tell, they are pretty intense) and the fact that I am keeping my full-time job, I am contemplating getting a laptop so I can work during my breaks and travel to/from school. I'm sick of using Windows at home and at work because they *rarely* work as they should, so I have been doing researches on getting a Mac. I mainly need to write up documents for school, surf the net, chat on MSN Messenger, listen to music... basic stuff.
I'm looking at the lowest-end MacBook, with DIY memory and hard-disk upgrades. I have no need for a Superdrive (are they as problematic as what I have read?) because I figure I can transfer the files onto my current PC when I need to burn them. I have no need for a fabulous graphic card even though I really want to play SIMS 2 flawlessly on my new laptop (not priority because I rarely play it anyway, my current PC always hang when I have the disc in ). I just need a relatively light, value-for-money, safe (in terms of not having my files disappear or the system crash on me) laptop I can lug around.
I read that MS Office made for Mac is really pretty bad; laggy, unreliable, etc. My main concern is whether PCs would be able to read Word documents saved from Mac software like iWork because I'm supposed to send my assignments to my tutors in a (presumably) .doc file. Speaking of iWork, it does not come pre-installed so I'd have to purchase it separately? Any good substitute for MS PowerPoint and Word or is iWork decent enough? AppleWorks?
Also, we all know Leopard is to ship with all new Macs in October (beginning or end is anyone's guess). I have been reading up on as much as I can about this new OS and it seems an absolute dream to have. I understand that the current Tiger OS is great, but I am considering holding out until October. From past experience, are newly released Mac OS problematic? I know new software is being developed as we speak, and getting cheaper. I would die before I go over to Vista btw.
Say if I get the MacBook now, and install Leopard later to realise I hate it (assuming, don't heap hate!), would the install/restore DVDs that ship with the original MacBooks allow me to go back to Tiger? Like I said above, I am only good at using software, the technical part is not my forte at all.
There are a few other things I thought I wanted to ask about but forgot; will ask when I recall them. Thanks for all the help in advance all the same!
**
A rather random thing I thought I would share. I got myself an iPod Video the day it was released (and although someone told me prices had dropped a few months/a year after I got mine, I would not have postponed getting my Precious for so long anyway) and got engraving straight from Apple because I figured I could wait 2 days. Anyway I was one of those who took 46546536 pictures of unwrapping the box, and goodness! Beautiful isn't it??
I'm digressing again. The main point of this entire short (?) bit is to tell how I got around the unnifty auto-scan thingy Apple has. I wanted my iPod Video to read the same as my own LiveJournal, but was disallowed to do so because of a vulgarity. So I tried it again, replacing the spaces in between with a period. Didn't work.
I tried it again with underscores. Worked beautifully. ;D
(I'd have posted a picture if I could, but vulgarities are not allowed and I respect that. Not sure if I should have taught how to get around it though... uh-oh.)
Edit: Need to explain that it's not a big whoaaa-you-shouldn't-have-done-that vulgarity, to me anyway. It is the equivalent of a female dog, and is a generally close-to-heart nickname (with 'coffee nut' in front) a close friend called me for fun. A bit childish I know, but eh, aren't we all?