Second Mac on its way

Hi Everyone. I'm new to these forums, so I just wanted to introduce myself.

I got my 1st Mac (a MacBook Pro) last year to use as a personal computer. (I spend all day at work on Windows PC doing software development in Visual Studio, so was looking for something different.) I'm totally a halo effect switcher due to pleasant experiences with iPods and iPhones. I'm pleased with the MBP and Mac OS X although I haven't used it nearly as much as I would like to, and am still a Mac OS X newbie.

Once the iPhone SDK was announced last year I was excited to use my new Mac to try my hand at iPhone programming. But life got in the way, and I've been too busy to really get going at it. Anyway, now that I'm ready to buckle down and get serious about making some iPhone apps in my spare time, my wife has commandeered my MBP for the most part. (She needs a laptop and it's the only one we have that doesn't belong to my work.) I could have bought her a new laptop, but she's happy with the MBP and migrating all her stuff off of it would be a pain, so instead I ordered a new Mac Mini for myself. So we will soon be a 2 Mac household. The Mini will work better for programming for me since I'll have it hooked up to a 24" monitor and use a KVM switch to move between my main work computer and the Mac Mini with a press of a button (already tested it with the MBP and it works great). I also might finally move my iTunes library from PC to Mac and use the Mini as a dedicated iTunes server (something I could never do with the MBP due to its portable nature).

I'm a MobileMe subscriber (indispensable to me for syncing PIM info between PCs, the MBP, and 3 iPhones) so I'm hoping this will ease setup of the new Mini (I set the MBP to sync everything to MobileMe).

Can't wait for it to arrive next Monday!

I am also a Mobile Me subscriber. And I just bought a MacBook after having an iMac for a year. Having Mobile Me made it really easy to get up and running right away with the MacBook. I synced everything, so I had calendar, bookmarks, mail accounts even dock items set up the same way on the MacBook immediately. I actually had a Mobile Me representative help me with the initial syncing because I was not sure if I should set up the mail on the MacBook first and then sync. The answer was that you set up Mobile Me syncing in preferences and it automatically builds your mailboxes for you. If you have been using your Mobile Me email almost exclusively you will find your messages downloaded to your new computer after the initial sync.

I really like Mobile Me because I have a domain that I have hosted through Mobile Me and that literally pays for the service.

Right now I have very little on my MacBook and I am basically just using it for mail and web surfing away from the iMac at home. It's nice to be able to go out on the deck or sit on the couch instead of being at the desktop. But over time I will decide what applications I want on the MacBook.

Enjoy your new purchase.

Terri

What really made setup a snap was not just MobileMe, but Migration Assistant. When my mini arrived and I was setting it up, my MBP was out of town with my wife, but Migration Assistant was able to copy over all my user accounts, their files, applications, preferences, etc. from its Time Machine backup. So I didn't need a single install disk or download to have Office for Mac, iWork, Firefox, Skype, etc. all installed on my new machine. Talk about a great user experience.

And now MobileMe is keeping everything in sync between the 2 Macs.

I'm really enjoying the new mini. Still haven't gotten any programming done on it yet, but it's a great media server (I finally moved iTunes from Windows to Mac). Front Row makes me wish I had this thing hooked up to my living room TV instead of my office monitor. Maybe I'll need a 2nd mini or else an AppleTV...