Just got my first mac 3 days ago...

Hello everyone,

I'm from Pakistan and i just got a macbook for myself 3 days ago. This is my first mac and I was quite apprehensive about getting it and took sometime to decide whether I should get one or not. I took my risk and boy oh boy I'm so happy that I did take this huge step. I don't know about later but uptil now, I am just loving using my macbook everyone second. No offense but I don't even feel like looking at my PC anymore.

Anyways, I have a few questions, which I thought I should ask here. I did check a few basics for the switchover users to get an idea about things. However, I would appreciate if you could kindly respond to my queries. If these things have been asked before then my apologies...

1. For my word processing requirements, which one is the best option??? iWork or MS Office for Mac?

2. I used utorrent on PC to download torrents and I pretty much liked it. I know utorrent is now available for mac but can anyone tell me any other good software for Mac to download torrents or is this one good enough?

3. As a mac user, what are the things as far as the internal maintenance is concerned that I should be concerned about on a regular basis?

4. Can anyone tell me about the battery? Since we are having major load shedding issues in Pakistan so I was wondering how to ensure a good battery life. I did charge my battery fully for the first time and then utilized the whole of it and then again charged it full and now using my battery, however, can anyone briefly tell me how the battery works and what if my electricity goes while the system is being charged. In that case, will the battery cycle would be wasted?

5. I used to use Faststone Image viewer and image resizer in my PC. Can anyone suggest me a good program equivalent to that and I'd appreciate if its free.

Right now, I can only think of these questions and I'd highly appreciate if you could answer these. If anything else comes in my mind, which I'm not clear about, I'd surely post that later. Please help me out here kindly.

Thank you

Regards

mjq1986 said:

1. For my word processing requirements, which one is the best option??? iWork or MS Office for Mac?

Click to expand...

I use MS Office for Mac simply because I find it easier to navigate plus my Uni gave me the student edition for free. I like all the programs better than iWork's equivalent and Mail.

mjq1986 said:

2. I used utorrent on PC to download torrents and I pretty much liked it. I know utorrent is now available for mac but can anyone tell me any other good software for Mac to download torrents or is this one good enough?

Click to expand...

I use Transmission as it's a really light app and very easy to use.

mjq1986 said:

3. As a mac user, what are the things as far as the internal maintenance is concerned that I should be concerned about on a regular basis?

Click to expand...

Download OnyX which will run scripts automatically but you can also run them manually and do your own cleaning with it.

mjq1986 said:

4. Can anyone tell me about the battery? Since we are having major load shedding issues in Pakistan so I was wondering how to ensure a good battery life. I did charge my battery fully for the first time and then utilized the whole of it and then again charged it full and now using my battery, however, can anyone briefly tell me how the battery works and what if my electricity goes while the system is being charged. In that case, will the battery cycle would be wasted?

Click to expand...

Apple suggests this as the best way someone could use a MB / MBP battery:
-Someone travels to work via the train and uses their MB on the way.
-At work they plug in their MB while at their desk.
-On the way home they use their MB again on battery.
As a tip - never take the battery out as this can limit the processor speed. Basically plug it in when you can and is convenient and use it on battery when you need to.

mjq1986 said:

5. I used to use Faststone Image viewer and image resizer in my PC. Can anyone suggest me a good program equivalent to that and I'd appreciate if its free.

Click to expand...

iPhoto which comes with your MB (you'll have the '09 version methinks) is a fantastic photo app.

Hope this helps!

Yeah, thanks a lot. It did help a great deal, however, I'd highly appreciate if you could elaborate on the battery usage more?

Should we use it on AC power as well when we are at home or is it better to utilize the battery power on regular basis to ensure that its work fine?

Well when I'm at home I typically have my MBP plugged in at my desk as that is where I do most of my work. However I'm typing this while sitting on my bed after watching a film and I've spent a few hours today downstairs on it as well.

Just use it how you need to use it - it is a notebook remember!

I would keep it plugged in as much as possible, and only unplug it when you absolutely can't be near an outlet. You don't have to fully discharge the battery first, in fact, letting it fully discharge before plugging it in is a strain on it. Don't remove the battery from the Macbook when it's plugged. Mind the temperature, heat depletes a batter more than anything, including heat from the computer itself.

You should also recalibrate the battery every couple of months or so. Find out how here:
Mac OS X 10.4 Help: Calibrating a MacBook or MacBook Pro battery

You can export resized pictures from iPhoto, but I'm not sure how much control it gives you. You might want to try Resize 'Em All or one of the other free apps on macupdate.com.

New Mac

For your word processor, download AbiWord, it's free and very good. Congrats on your new toy. Van

mjq1986 said:

1. For my word processing requirements, which one is the best option??? iWork or MS Office for Mac?

Click to expand...

To be quite honest, I actually prefer OpenOffice.org. In my opinion, MS Office 2008 for Mac is not worth the money. iWork is coming along nicely, but is still a work in progress. OpenOffice.org does a decent job and is completely free. You might as well try it and see if you like it, then spend the money if you find it inadequate.

2. I used utorrent on PC to download torrents and I pretty much liked it. I know utorrent is now available for mac but can anyone tell me any other good software for Mac to download torrents or is this one good enough?

Click to expand...

I like Transmission. Simple, elegant and easy to use, I've never found a reason to try any other.

3. As a mac user, what are the things as far as the internal maintenance is concerned that I should be concerned about on a regular basis?

Click to expand...

Maintenance isn't needed frequently, but about once every 3 months, I use the maintenance and optimization tasks in Onyx. Also, I'd highly recommend AppleJack, which runs only in "single user mode". It's one of those things that's handy "just in case".

4. Can anyone tell me about the battery? Since we are having major load shedding issues in Pakistan so I was wondering how to ensure a good battery life. I did charge my battery fully for the first time and then utilized the whole of it and then again charged it full and now using my battery, however, can anyone briefly tell me how the battery works and what if my electricity goes while the system is being charged. In that case, will the battery cycle would be wasted?

Click to expand...

Batteries are consumables. The best you can do is try to prolong its useful life. In general, that means avoiding constant deep discharges (completely draining it all the way). Here's a good guide to prolonging the useful life of your battery.

5. I used to use Faststone Image viewer and image resizer in my PC. Can anyone suggest me a good program equivalent to that and I'd appreciate if its free.

Click to expand...

Take a look at CocoViewX. I've never seen Faststone Image viewer, but CocoViewX reminds me a lot of ACDSee, a popular Windows app for viewing massive quantities of images and doing basic edits.

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for your tremendous help and support. It was nice to see so many responses. I am new here and I already feel like an old member, the way everyone treated me. Thank you for a warm response and welcome everyone.

I am just slightly confused about one thing, which is that if I plug in my macbook to AC power most of the time and as it has been written in some places that at least fully draining out the battery power and recharging it completely once a month would be good enough so will that be ok?

I don't carry my macbook a lot and I mostly use it in my room or at times downstairs but thats very rare so if I keep it connected to the electrical outlet most of them and use battery on rare occasions like once or twice a month or more than that then will that be enough?

One more thing guys. Since I'm in Pakistan so we major power breakdowns here due to electricity issues. After every 3 hours, the electricity goes for one hour. So for example if my macbook is switched off and if its getting charged and the light goes and later on when the light comes to recharge it from where it left it (since the computer was shut down) so will that waste a battery cycle or does that mean that the same battery cycle will continue to be charged?

I'd highly appreciate if you could kindly clarify these concerns of mine.

Thank you.

mjq1986 said:

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for your tremendous help and support. It was nice to see so many responses. I am new here and I already feel like an old member, the way everyone treated me. Thank you for a warm response and welcome everyone.

Click to expand...

That's what we're here for.

I am just slightly confused about one thing, which is that if I plug in my macbook to AC power most of the time and as it has been written in some places that at least fully draining out the battery power and recharging it completely once a month would be good enough so will that be ok?

Click to expand...

The point I was trying to make is that over time, regardless of how well you treat it, that battery will eventually become useless. There are many theories as to how you can extend it's useful life, but most of them are just theories - batteries are simply not an exact science.

In general, the best way to prolong your batteries life is to avoid complete discharges (i.e. draining the battery all the way). I have seen some people recommend doing a full drain and recharge once per month to calibrate the battery, but in my opinion, it's not necessary unless you're having a specific problem.

I don't carry my macbook a lot and I mostly use it in my room or at times downstairs but thats very rare so if I keep it connected to the electrical outlet most of them and use battery on rare occasions like once or twice a month or more than that then will that be enough?

Click to expand...

Yes, it should be fine.

One more thing guys. Since I'm in Pakistan so we major power breakdowns here due to electricity issues. After every 3 hours, the electricity goes for one hour. So for example if my macbook is switched off and if its getting charged and the light goes and later on when the light comes to recharge it from where it left it (since the computer was shut down) so will that waste a battery cycle or does that mean that the same battery cycle will continue to be charged?

Click to expand...

The cycle count should only increase when there has been a complete drain on the battery (i.e. run on battery until it completely dies).

cwa107 said:

Batteries are consumables. The best you can do is try to prolong its useful life. In general, that means avoiding constant deep discharges (completely draining it all the way). Here's a good guide to prolonging the useful life of your battery.

Click to expand...

I could be wrong but is it not a good thing to drain the battery completely once in a while? I thought I had read that somewhere.

vansmith said:

I could be wrong but is it not a good thing to drain the battery completely once in a while? I thought I had read that somewhere.

Click to expand...

Yes, I have read that as well, but my experience differs somewhat.

I do IT support at a large company. In my office, I have about 150 laptops. About 90% of them sit in a docking station fully charged most of the time. I've found that the longest lasting batteries are the ones that are never drained. In fact, I have some (now used as loaners) that are 5 years old and still hold a useful charge.

Now, the ones that are frequently discharged tend to get about 2 years before they're basically useless. Machines that travel semi-regularly usually last just a little bit longer, but the common theme is that the less they are discharged, the longer they tend to last.

With older types of batteries, it was a good idea to let them drain completely before charging it again. With lithium batteries, it's NOT a good idea to let them discharge completely. Just keep it plugged in as much as you can and use it on battery power when you're away from an outlet. It's not bad for it to run on battery power for a little bit each day.

I've been using it this way for almost a year now and my battery health is at 85%, just about where it should be.

Thanks once again guys. Well if you suggest that the battery shouldn't be drained out completely then at what percentage, should I plug in the electric outlet if I'm working on battery power? Any idea?

I haven't used it on AC power yet. I charge the battery fully and then use it till its near 10-15% and then connect it again to charge it as I was afraid that connecting it to the electric outlet most of the time would destroy its battery life but since most of you guys told me that using AC power mostly won't harm it so that clarified my confusion quite a lot.

Other than that, how can I really check the health of my battery? Is there any software or any add-on to do that?

mjq1986 said:

Thanks once again guys. Well if you suggest that the battery shouldn't be drained out completely then at what percentage, should I plug in the electric outlet if I'm working on battery power? Any idea?

Click to expand...

The specific percentage shouldn't really matter, just avoid completely draining it (i.e. less than 20%).

I haven't used it on AC power yet. I charge the battery fully and then use it till its near 10-15% and then connect it again to charge it as I was afraid that connecting it to the electric outlet most of the time would destroy its battery life but since most of you guys told me that using AC power mostly won't harm it so that clarified my confusion quite a lot.

Other than that, how can I really check the health of my battery? Is there any software or any add-on to do that?

Click to expand...

Apple menu => About This Mac => More Info => Power => Battery Health section.

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: SMP-bq20z951-3989-81b
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: bq20z951
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 002a
Hardware Revision: 000a
Cell Revision: 0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 401
Fully charged: No
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4222
Health Information:
Cycle count: 7
Condition: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 1685
Voltage (mV): 11303



Cycle count is 7, which is kinda strange since I don't remember charging it 7 times. What do you think about the other things?

Looks like an almost new battery to me. The cycle count is not really an exact science because there is nothing inside the actual cells that meters their amount of storage (although there is some logic that makes guesses about the health and capacity of the cells).

Thanks cwa107. You have been a great help throughout this time. I don't have any words to thank you for giving me such wonderful tips and guiding me throughout. I surely look forward to learn a lot from you.

Thank you.

Another free Office-type application suite to consider is NeoOffice (http://neooffice.org). It is basically OpenOffice customized a bit more for the Mac. I haven't used it a lot yet but so far it's been more than enough for my needs. Probably can't go wrong with either application suite.

-BDQB

Use Vuze as your torrent downloader. I did have utorrent on my mac(which i got 6 days ago and am LOVING it) but it was slow and didnt work very well. Vuze is amazing and works flawlessly.