My 1st Mac arrives tomorrow - A couple of questions

I'm getting my 1st Mac tomorrow, I've been following the UPS tracking (from Prague?) and it's going to be here tomorrow.

iMac 24" 2.8ghz, 4gb Ram, 500gb HDD and I can't wait. My Dad (who lives 1000's of miles away) recently bought a 20" similar spec iMac and isn't getting to grips with the change from PC very well.

Just a couple of quick questions...

Q1. Am I correct in my assumption that all I will need to remotely operate his Mac over the internet to help him configure things is iChat?

Q2. How's the quality of the internal Webcam? I currently have a Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 which Skype detects and uses high quality Video on my PC.

Q3. I was going to buy a 500gb Time Capsule for my Dad which would hopefully be connected via Wireless N. He has never backed up in his life so the setup & forget nature of this seems perfect. I've been put off by the mixed reviews of the apple site though. Is this any good? For me I'll just use a local USB HDD with Time Machine or Superduper I reckon, but for him something running 24/7 in the other room seems ideal.

Q4. I play no games what-so-ever and I don't want to boot into a windows partition ever, but how practical is it is install Vista64 for use windowed (paralles?) on a machine of my spec? I think I'll still may need Windows for some work/outlook related stuff, at least during my transition to Mac)

Thanks,

Mark.

Q1: Not sure what you mean

Q2: I've heard is good, crystal clear

Q3: Time machine would be good for him because it's easy. Is he working and doing important stuff on it? Because if it's just for regular stuff I would trust it would break down.

Q4: There's Neo office or iwork or office for mac if you need stuff like that even a mac mail app you probably wont need vista

one tip i have to give.

you MUST sing the theme music from 2001 as you slowly pull the mac out of the box.

that's it.

iguy said:

Q1: Not sure what you mean

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On the PC I frequently helped him with spreadsheets, programs he didn't know how to use, email configuration and general stuff by using the "Ask for assistance" feature in Messenger. I'd heard that there is a similar feature in iChat, is this correct? Can I (with his permission) take control of his Mac over the internet to show him how to do something? Right now I know VERY little but I'm sure I'll pick it all up pretty quickly and would like to help my Dad out.

Q2: I've heard is good, crystal clear

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Good to know, I can safely pass my Logitech Webcam on to another family member

Q3: Time machine would be good for him because it's easy. Is he working and doing important stuff on it? Because if it's just for regular stuff I would trust it would break down.

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No, he's retired, just photos, videos & other irreplaceable stuff I guess. eMail/contact backup would be most useful but I understand that emails backup is limited under TimeMachine? I take it you meant "you would trust it wouldn't break down?

Q4: There's Neo office or iwork or office for mac if you need stuff like that even a mac mail app you probably wont need vista

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I'm hoping you're right, I already bought iWorks08, however there are a ton of apps I've bought on the PC that it is going to take me a time to find the best MAC alternative to, in addition we have custom macro scripted spreadsheets & word templates for work that from time to time I need to edit. Can you Remote Desktop into a PC from a Mac?

mcjacksonnelson said:

you MUST sing the theme music from 2001 as you slowly pull the mac out of the box.

Click to expand...

Will do, and perhaps "Welcome to the Machine" as well for good measure.

Thanks,

Mark.

Hey just a heads up.... this is my first Mac too... and I love it but what made it so much easier for me was for example Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, it's fully compatible (actually the same programs just the newest versions) I love the program. I actually have the iWork which is also great. Very smooth transition. ie: if have older word, excel, powerpoint docs... they open in Office mac seamlessly. Actually the program as are SO much better since it's a 2008 release. Check it out: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/Office2008/default.mspx

But that's just my take on it... I do love this mac.. Just wish I had one years ago.

if you are avid about sharing files with him and stuff like that you could use mobile me and he could log into your account and browse your mac and take all the files he needs and vise versa. just a thought

Q1. Yes you are correct, this can be done in iChat (Link to Apple support article below)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iChat/4.0/en/11883.html

Q4. If you need to install Windows with Parallels it's a pretty straight forward and painless experience. Your machine will handle it fine, especially with the 4GB RAM. Parallels lets you allocate how much RAM the Windows partition will use when it is in use, so you could set this at 2GB and OSX would still have 2GB to play around with in the background. When Parallels is switched off the full 4GB will revert back to OSX use.