Thinking about switching

So i've been lurking a bit, not a die hard computer buff, but I do understand some basics. Been reading some posts trying to figure out if I should make the leap. Looking at a Macbook Pro (refurb?), mainly for music, email, web, photos, some docs, videos.
I'm really tired of my HP slowing down for no reason and I'm hoping the Apple stuff is a little bit more immune to that. Anyways here is a few questions:

How well does iCal (if at all) sync with Google calendar?

I have a 250gb Iomega ext. hard drive, I believe it will be compatible but I've been reading about NTFS and Fat32 formatting, how easy this to do? And (newb ques.) will I have to remove all the files before doing this?

Is there an equivelant to Foobar on the mac? Something small that will play a song quickly. Itunes takes a bit, if it has to open.

How good does the bluetooth mighty mouse work? (might be the wrong section for this question) I've tried some bluetooth mice in the past and they really sucked (horrible connection stability).

How good is the video out to the TV (40 inch lcd). Don't need HD, just a veiwable screen so I can websurf a bit on it. I do this with my HP and its pretty nice, just a VGA hookup.

Thanks

1. It syncs fine. I use gSync.
2. Very easy, but if you a reformatting you will need to take anything you want to keep off it as you'll lose the data.
3. Probably, hard to imagine there wouldn't be but I can't think of one right now.
4. Don't have one, sorry.
5. Don't know about that one either!

Bodhizafa said:

So i've been lurking a bit, not a die hard computer buff, but I do understand some basics. Been reading some posts trying to figure out if I should make the leap. Looking at a Macbook Pro (refurb?), mainly for music, email, web, photos, some docs, videos.
I'm really tired of my HP slowing down for no reason and I'm hoping the Apple stuff is a little bit more immune to that. Anyways here is a few questions:

How well does iCal (if at all) sync with Google calendar?

I have a 250gb Iomega ext. hard drive, I believe it will be compatible but I've been reading about NTFS and Fat32 formatting, how easy this to do? And (newb ques.) will I have to remove all the files before doing this?

Is there an equivelant to Foobar on the mac? Something small that will play a song quickly. Itunes takes a bit, if it has to open.

How good does the bluetooth mighty mouse work? (might be the wrong section for this question) I've tried some bluetooth mice in the past and they really sucked (horrible connection stability).

How good is the video out to the TV (40 inch lcd). Don't need HD, just a veiwable screen so I can websurf a bit on it. I do this with my HP and its pretty nice, just a VGA hookup.

Thanks

Click to expand...

If your external HD is FAT 32, you won't have any problems with the Mac reading and writing to it. HOWEVER... As I am just now (at this moment) finding out, the Airport Extreme won't play nice with that format if the partition is formatted as "Master Boot Table". I was just on the phone with support, and was told that I had to (best suggestion) reformat the drive to HFS Journaled and use GUID partition scheme because this mac is Intel based. They suggested this based on This article

I know this doesn't pertain to your specific question right now, but you might find it useful at some point.

As for a different music player, I HATE iTunes for several reasons, (speed opening is NOT one of them, I find its speed to be fine based on the fact that it has to query a database) so I searched out another one, and found Cog to be a good solution for what I partially needed. It doesn't fulfill every need I have, but it's a good alternative and something you might appreciate. Filling the playlist is as simple as filling up the "drawer" then dragging every artist from the drawer to the main playlist window. Not sure about gapless playback on it though, either.

I'm sure the mouse is fine. I mean, it had better be stable for the money they charge for it ! Personally speaking, I don't like mighty mice at all. I love my Logitec wireless and wouldn't settle for anything less. I also wouldn't do bluetooth for a mouse, but that's just me.

Can't help you with the last one, sorry.

Doug

Cool, thanks for the replies. I'm really digging the MBP's, probably way more computing then I need but hey. Is there anything I am missing that I should know about that might annoy me with a Mac compared to PC?

Bodhizafa said:

How good is the video out to the TV (40 inch lcd). Don't need HD, just a veiwable screen so I can websurf a bit on it. I do this with my HP and its pretty nice, just a VGA hookup.

Thanks

Click to expand...

The Video output is fine for movies and photos on almost any screen, but if you want to be able to read small textm you need a 1080p HD TV of a pretty high quality to do that. The output signal is fine, it's down to the quality of your TV.

I would not use VGA, because the signal gets converted from digital to analogue, then back to digital again, losing some clarity. Use HDMI.

Bodhizafa said:

Cool, thanks for the replies. I'm really digging the MBP's, probably way more computing then I need but hey. Is there anything I am missing that I should know about that might annoy me with a Mac compared to PC?

Click to expand...

My only gripes after a few days are:

1) No native way to sync my Windows Mobile handset, and from reviews, I can't tell whether third-party apps (e.g., Missing Sync) work well with Entourage 2008 or whether things get moved around and screwed up here and there.

2) Entourage doesn't support return receipts. Yes, there are comments all over the Web arguing that return receipts are basically useless. I disagree. For me, they serve a purpose.

CoMo said:

My only gripes after a few days are:

1) No native way to sync my Windows Mobile handset, and from reviews, I can't tell whether third-party apps (e.g., Missing Sync) work well with Entourage 2008 or whether things get moved around and screwed up here and there.

Click to expand...

If you sync Entourage with iCal (by adding Entourage as an iCal calendar), then any sync software will work with Entourage, either directly or indirectly via iCal. Missing Sync works directly with Entourage anyway.

Zoolook said:

If you sync Entourage with iCal (by adding Entourage as an iCal calendar), then any sync software will work with Entourage, either directly or indirectly via iCal. Missing Sync works directly with Entourage anyway.

Click to expand...

Even E 2008? And with no problems? From some of the reviews I read, it wasn't clear. But if those are mistaken, then I'll use Missing Sync.

Is there a DVI to HDMI converter? I thought audio went through HDMI?

CoMo said:

Even E 2008? And with no problems? From some of the reviews I read, it wasn't clear. But if those are mistaken, then I'll use Missing Sync.

Click to expand...

I use it to sync my Blackberry to Entourage and have no issues. I sync tasks, address book and notes (I don't sync the Calendar, but I know it works).

Zoolook said:

I use it to sync my Blackberry to Entourage and have no issues. I sync tasks, address book and notes (I don't sync the Calendar, but I know it works).

Click to expand...

Entourage 2008? Just want to make sure.

All I need to sync is my appointments, tasks and contacts. Syncing e-mail, too, would be nice but not a must-have.

on the player issue. The OS will play songs itself without opening iTunes. But saying that I love iTunes, but for most, like blue cheese, you either love it or hate it

CoMo said:

Entourage 2008? Just want to make sure.

All I need to sync is my appointments, tasks and contacts. Syncing e-mail, too, would be nice but not a must-have.

Click to expand...

Yes, I have Office 2008, I am using Entourage 2008.

Zoolook said:

Yes, I have Office 2008, I am using Entourage 2008.

Click to expand...

Sold. Thanks.