Bootcamp questions.

[bryank89]

I'll soon be looking to purchase a laptop for college but prior to doing so I need a few questions answered.

According to my understanding BootCamp is still beta and a final release is not expected until OSX Leopard is released later this year (October). This brings up a few questions.
1. How effective is BootCamp in its current release?
2. Are many changes expected between now and the initial final release?
3. If I purchase a mac laptop now with Tiger how much should I expect to fork over for Leopard down the road?

Also, in using BootCamp I've read that it will only work with XP SP2 releases.
I own a copy of XP SP1 and since my purchased have updated the OS accordingly to SP2. Is there a safe and easy way to essentially copy my current hard drive to a partition on a future MacBook or MacBook Pro hard drive such that I have the option to boot to OSX or my current Windows desktop?

I hope thats not too hard to follow. If anyone needs clarification I'll do my best provide it.

Thanks,
Bryan

 

[jonnyd]

1. Seems pretty good. It runs Windows just fine. So far I haven't found anything it won't do, but I believe there are a few issues.

The alternative is Parallels, which runs in OSX, rather than bootcamp which allows you to boot Windows. Parallels has a few issues too, but there's a new version about to launch which adresses many of them. Click for info

Bootcamp as it is now will only install with XP sp2 (or Vista, I think).

If you have SP1, it simply won't work, I have tried it. There is a solution, which I posted about in this thread. See the second half of the post for a quick how-to.

I don't think you can just copy your current hard disk over, you'll have to do a fresh install of Windows. You can then network the two machines and grab your files.

I'll let other posters correct bum info / answer other questions.

 

[bryank89]

Thanks jonnyd for the links.

For the sake of not cluttering this forum with numerous other threads I'd like to ask a few more questions.

Aside from purchasing Office 2004 for OSX, or booting Windows what is the simplest and safest means of viewing and editing Windows documents on a mac so that they may be accessed by Mac and Windows users alike?
​

Concerning Wireless Connectivity...
The MacBooks like many laptops are "Pre-802.11n" capable. In other words the wireless functionality of these cards are based on the draft specifications for 802.11n. Publication for N is not due to September 2008. Should I be concerned that any future changes 802.11n specifications may render these "Pre-N" cards worthless in terms of taking advantage of the newer technology?

Lastly (sort of)...
Does Mac provide a program similar to Microsoft's OneNote that would be suitable for taking notes for multiple courses with the incorporation of images and sound files?
Do the MacBooks (including Pro) have a built in microphone that would the laptop to function as a voice recorder?
Does Mac provide a means to convert audio input into text?

Thanks again,
Prospective Mac User Bryan

 

[jonnyd]

Thanks jonnyd for the links.

For the sake of not cluttering this forum with numerous other threads I'd like to ask a few more questions.

Aside from purchasing Office 2004 for OSX, or booting Windows what is the simplest and safest means of viewing and editing Windows documents on a mac so that they may be accessed by Mac and Windows users alike?
​

Concerning Wireless Connectivity...
The MacBooks like many laptops are "Pre-802.11n" capable. In other words the wireless functionality of these cards are based on the draft specifications for 802.11n. Publication for N is not due to September 2008. Should I be concerned that any future changes 802.11n specifications may render these "Pre-N" cards worthless in terms of taking advantage of the newer technology?

Lastly (sort of)...
Does Mac provide a program similar to Microsoft's OneNote that would be suitable for taking notes for multiple courses with the incorporation of images and sound files?
Do the MacBooks (including Pro) have a built in microphone that would the laptop to function as a voice recorder?
Does Mac provide a means to convert audio input into text?

Thanks again,
Prospective Mac User Bryan

Well, first of all don't be shy about asking questions - people here enjoy answering them.

That is, when they can . . . you're obviously researching this carefully.

I can tell you that Office for OSX produces Excel and word files that are completely compatible with the Windows versions - there's an option to check compatibility, but i have never seen it find any differences. I use 2004 on a mac, and office XP on Windows, and swap files around all the time. There's no version of Access however. It has powerpoint and an outlook replacement called entourage, neither of which I use.

 

[snoslicer8]

Thanks jonnyd for the links.

For the sake of not cluttering this forum with numerous other threads I'd like to ask a few more questions.

Aside from purchasing Office 2004 for OSX, or booting Windows what is the simplest and safest means of viewing and editing Windows documents on a mac so that they may be accessed by Mac and Windows users alike?
​

If you don't wish to purchase Mac Office 2004 to edit your documents, you can download Open Office or Neo Office for free. They're open source, and completely MS Word/Excel/etc compatible.

Concerning Wireless Connectivity...
The MacBooks like many laptops are "Pre-802.11n" capable. In other words the wireless functionality of these cards are based on the draft specifications for 802.11n. Publication for N is not due to September 2008. Should I be concerned that any future changes 802.11n specifications may render these "Pre-N" cards worthless in terms of taking advantage of the newer technology?

The actual term used for these cards is "Draft-N", meaning that they have specifications agreed upon to be a likely candidate for a final 802.11n specification. Chances are extremely likely that if anything is changed away from current specs, these issues can/will be fixed with software/firmware updates.

Lastly (sort of)...
Does Mac provide a program similar to Microsoft's OneNote that would be suitable for taking notes for multiple courses with the incorporation of images and sound files?

OmniOutline comes pre-installed on all Macs now, you can try this out. If not, you can take a trip to Opensourcemac.org and they'll have something there for you.

Do the MacBooks (including Pro) have a built in microphone that would the laptop to function as a voice recorder?

All Intel Macs have built-in microphones paired with their built-in iSight cameras to be used for video/audio conferencing via iChat. They are aimed at the user, so I'm not quite sure how well they would work out for recording lectures or the like. However, a simple corded microphone from CompUSA or wherever will automatically take over when plugged into the Mic input jack on the side of the MacBook, which you could aim at your speaker.

Does Mac provide a means to convert audio input into text?

This one's got me stumped. Macs provide a great way to speak text in a very human sounding voice, but I'm not sure about in reverse.

 

[bryank89]

thanks slicer for the correction on 802.11n and for all the answers.

Since my second post I've found a few speech to text applications: ViaVoice (IBM) and iListen (MacSpeech). Both of which are rather pricey and likely aren't practical for the many voices I'll encounter during my college career.

 

[jamesx]

"This one's got me stumped. Macs provide a great way to speak text in a very human sounding voice, but I'm not sure about in reverse."


How can you do this???

 

[snoslicer8]

"This one's got me stumped. Macs provide a great way to speak text in a very human sounding voice, but I'm not sure about in reverse."


How can you do this???

It's called VoiceOver, and it's built-in to Mac OS X. If I recall correctly, it may be part of the system preferences, not sure on that one though. You can choose a key combination to have your choice of voices read whatever is currently active on the screen to you.