Bought MB Pro (so far so good)

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Hey all. Bought our MB pro last week at the 5th ave location in Manhattan, and am pleased to report that I got the rebate for the iPod touch as well as the wireless HP printer a few days ago, making that a one week turn around time, which is amazing to me ! Also got the education discount, which is sweet so saved on the book and Apple Care.

Also bought a .mac account (haven't activated it yet) as well as an Airport Express and should be hooking that up today or tomorrow. I hadn't yet, because a couple of weeks ago during some electrical storms, my Linux box blew up. Which is strange, because I'd have expected the circuit breaker to cut out, but I think my PSU just kicked the bucket instead.

So I just received a good Tripp Lite surge suppressor, which I'm going to hook up the Airport and MB to. Been leeching a WiFi signal from a neighbor up till now. (he left it open, so....)

Anyway, I've been going through things learning as I go along and everything is cool thus far, but have a question or two (or three).

1. I ditched Safari and am using FF 3. I noticed that in both FF as well as in any file browser when I scroll, the movement is very jerky, not smooth. This is also the case when back deleting sentences/words. In FF I enabled auto scrolling as well as smooth scrolling, just like I had it in Ubuntu (or XP for that matter, but haven't touched xp on any personal box of mine for a couple years) yet when I use the arrow up or down to scroll the page, it will move in segments, jerking a bit at a time.

This behavior is also evident when backspacing (deleting). Rather than what I'm used to, which is the cursor moving very quickly backwards, it moves back one letter at a time, and is annoying as heck. Sure, I can highlight the word, the sentence or even the series of letters I want deleted, but that's way too time consuming. Is there something I have to enable in order to get what I'm used to having ?

2. I was going through the "spaces" preferences, and by default f12 is supposed to bring up the spaces, but in all actuality, it's f4, as is denoted by the actual f4 key on the MB pro. Each f" key on the MB pro has a symbol on it , which is associated with the task it will perform if pressed. Are these able to be changed or bypassed ? Just seems that Apple should have labeled them appropriately as to not contradict their own documentation.

3. Has anybody tried the donationware program called "Witch" ? It's supposed to offer a real "cmd+tab" function, rather than just bring the tabbed application to the forefront of the menu bar. I find the cmd+tab function on OS X to be quite dysfunctional actually. It technically should open that window/app which you're tabbing to IMO.

I also understand that expose is a sort of work around to this, and haven't tried it yet, but to me, expose in theory sounds like a complicated way to alt+tab, in that there are just one too many steps to go through in order to choose a window you want open in front of you.


Lastly, and I'm going out now to look but, do you guys/gals have any recommendations for :

1. A slip cover to tuck the MB safely (padded) away (this is the 15 inch base model) when I'm done with it.

2. A laptop stand for my desk, which will raise it off the desk for air flow, and possibly has a fan to cool the underside ?

3. A good laptop travel bag/case which is very protective, comfortable to wear, doesn't look too much like a laptop bag and possibly has power cables tucked in it (I know that APC has some stuff like this) ?

Sorry for the long post, and thanks for any info provided !

Doug
 
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Way... way too many specs to list.
let me preface this by apologizing that I'm at work and may not have had the time to fully get the gist of each question :)

2. regarding the function keys. There are two modes on the MBP, one is with the fn key held down and the other isn't. By default (IIRC) the images on the keys are the functions selected when you do not hold the fn key down. I do not believe those are programmable. The function key adjustments in the control panel is for when you hold the fn key down. You can change whether the fn key is 'down' by default or not in the keyboard preferences. (It's the use all F1, F2, etc keys as standard function keys selection)

3. cmd-tab brings the selected program into focus for me? Which is pretty much what I expect, perhaps I'll have to check out "witch" and see what the difference is.


recommendations:
I have a Booq Viper sleeve that I quite like and an rain design (http://www.raindesigninc.com/) iLap that I like for laptop work, I want the mStand for my desk. They're aluminum and thus a nice heat sink anyway so no fan (or power) needed. I toss my mbp into the sleeve and into a north face backpack, so I'm not a good travel bag user ;)
 
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Doug b
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Thanks Mike. What I am referring to with cmd+tabbing is when windows are not on the desktop, but rather minimized. Don't know if you've ever used Windows or Linux (in my case Ubuntu) before, but in that environment, when you alt tab, no matter where the program window is (unless it's in a different desktop space aka spaces), once you land on the icon associated with that program, it will bring it forward.

But with OSX, you have to have the window actually open (ie; not minimized) in order for it to come into focus. And since you'd therefore have to do something with every window such as "keep on top" (if that's even an option ?) this can become very burdensome.

This also brings me to another question, something it reminds me of when I'm using Spaces. In Ubuntu, you have the option to right click any application/program window, and a menu list will pop up asking if you want to move said window to any of the other available desktop spaces. I don't see this option with OSX's Spaces, and to boot:

Let's say I have Firefox and iChat opened in one space, but want to move iChat to another space. If iChat is minimized, I have to first bring it back into focus, before dragging it to another space. This also seems tedious. Is there a work around to this, or something I'm missing perhaps ? (I hope) You're going to say use Expose, aren't you.... :Smirk:

Oh and .. .get back to work !

Doug
 
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Turning smooth scrolling on in Firefox works for me.. maybe you shoud go to Keyboard and Mouse preference pane under System Preferences and adjust the scrolling speed there until you get something more reasonable. As for the keyboard, this can be fixed in that same preference pane under the "Keyboard" tab. Just take the "Key repeat rate" slider all the way to the right. It bugged me a lot when I first used a Mac too.

Also, don't waste your money on Witch. Ctrl+F4 gives you the functionality you seek. Of course, I think the Mac way of doing the window-switching is far superior and would recommend trying it for a bit longer. While Cmd+Tab switches between groups of windows by application, Cmd+` (the key above your left tab) switches between windows in the active application. This is incredibly handy when I want to just switch between, say, different document windows or different images open in Photoshop without having to worry about the fact I just checked that browser page a second ago by Cmd+Tabbing (whereas in Windows, having looked at that browser page means now it's plopped in the middle of your line-up of windows when you Alt+Tab). Combined with Exposé especially, the window management is superb.

If you decide to keep going with the Windows Alt+Tab method or just want a safety blanket, though, there's Ctrl+F4, or ^F4 as Apple would write it. If you decide that keyboard short cut is too awkward on the fingers, under Keyboard and Mouse preference pane, go to the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab, and scroll down to "Move focus to the active window or next window." You can change the short cut to whatever you like from there (even Alt+Tab!)

Feel free to ask any more questions.
 
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Doug b
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Thanks so much for that walk through of options ! Unfortunately, I'm not on the Mac right now, so I can't test it out. But when I get back from shopping, I'm on it. You're right obviously about trying new ways of doing something, and it all being a matter of getting used to how things work in OS X vs. other OS's, naturally. Creatures of habit we are though, so I'm sure you can understand the bit of frustration which comes with picking up a new OS and its idiosyncrasies.

Well, off for now, but you can bet I'll be back with more questions. Cheers !

doug
 
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Regarding your backspacing problems, use Command+delete to get rid of the current line of text, or Option+Delete to delete an entire word.

Command + Delete (delete line)

Option + Delete (delete word)

I think you'll find that faster than anything else ;)
 
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Doug b
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Thanks for that too. Haven't had time to try this stuff out yet, but after my haircut and a bit of house cleaning I'm gonna check it all out. By the way, I just bought a laptop bag for myself, and after a bit of looking around, I came upon the bbp line of bags, and liked the Hampton model. Did a bit more lurking around on the InternetS and saw a "refurbished" model on Amazon, which stated that it was repackaged and only the box was slightly scratched or damaged w/e and picked it up for $46 sans tax and shipping ! :) Should be here in a week or so.

I got it in Obsidian Black Now I just need a slip case for it and perhaps a stand with a fan for desktop use. I like the Vyper bags, though a tad pricey.
 
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Go into spaces and set your most used programs and assign their own space.

Itunes bottom left internet bottom right.

Photoshop and illy, wherever I want them, lightroom top right, and I keep the top left empty to go there and take a breath. I also run dual monitors so it's even more fun.
 

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