Help with Mac/PC compatibillity

[Wish_4_A_Mac]

Hey guys,

I'm new to this I'm from North Wales,UK.

Help! Thinking of getting a powerbook. Currently I own a Sony Vaio notebook with Windows XP. I am getting very tired of Windows. I have lots of questions that none of my friends can answer, because they all have pcs!

Would be grateful if anyone could help me with any of the below....

1. Will all my old documents work? Is it possible to simply get a crossover cable and port everything directly over to the Mac or is there more to it that that? Will the Mac understand all the pc files like text documents, Microsoft office files (I take it I will need Microsoft Office for the Mac - will it understand office files created on a pc), jpegs, gifs etc.?

2. I have an ipod. Not all my mp3s fit on it. I have data CDs with mp3s on them created with itunes on the Vaio. Will the Mac read these or are they formatted differently on Macs? What about cds created with roxio cd creator? Would a version of Itunes on the new powerbook be able to authorise copying of files from the ipod onto the music library of the powerbook?

3. Does anyone have a Sony Ericsson P900 phone with a Mac? Will I be able to bluetooth documents between the two? Is the same software available on Macs as for PCs for synchronization/backup etc.?

4. What about the internet? This is where I'm really ignorant! :bone: I take it the users of this website must largely be Mac owners! Can Mac owners "see" all of the internet? Can the web browsers on Macs display all the web pages created on pcs on the internet correctly or are there compatibillity issues when viewing sites created with things like Flash?

I know it's a lot of questions, if anybody could at least partially help I would be most grateful,

Regards.

 

[ChicoWeb]

1. Will all my old documents work? Is it possible to simply get a crossover cable and port everything directly over to the Mac or is there more to it that that? Will the Mac understand all the pc files like text documents, Microsoft office files (I take it I will need Microsoft Office for the Mac - will it understand office files created on a pc), jpegs, gifs etc.?

Yes, all your major program files are cross platform. If you have an .xls on your PC, it will work on your apple. Yes, jpegs, gifs, are all of the same, even psds. Pretty much every file you create can be read on apple. Not exe though.

2. I have an ipod. Not all my mp3s fit on it. I have data CDs with mp3s on them created with itunes on the Vaio. Will the Mac read these or are they formatted differently on Macs? What about cds created with roxio cd creator? Would a version of Itunes on the new powerbook be able to authorise copying of files from the ipod onto the music library of the powerbook?

You will not have to reformat you iPod for Apple. If it was vice versa, then yes. There is 2 different ways to format your iPod, both PC, and Apple, but the way you've described it, it will work on both. iTunes will work fine with understanding all your mp3's from your PC.

3. Does anyone have a Sony Ericsson P900 phone with a Mac? Will I be able to bluetooth documents between the two? Is the same software available on Macs as for PCs for synchronization/backup etc.?

I don't have that phone, but you can use bluetooth with the new powerbooks seamlessly between them. No Problem.

4. What about the internet? This is where I'm really ignorant! :bone: I take it the users of this website must largely be Mac owners! Can Mac owners "see" all of the internet? Can the web browsers on Macs display all the web pages created on pcs on the internet correctly or are there compatibillity issues when viewing sites created with things like Flash?

You can see everything a PC user would see. HTML files are cross platform files. You will have no issues with this. Hope this helps, but basically you can do everything on your apple as you did on a PC, just smoother

 

[Wish_4_A_Mac]

Not sure about ipod bit

Thanks so much for the help , you gave clear answers that confirmed a lot of things I already suspected from reading some of the other threads.

I don't think I made question 2 very clear though, or maybe I didn't understand your answer. Let me try and explain...

I hope to avoid formatting my ipod! (lots of good music on it with playlists I really don't want to lose) I have all my MP3s that backed up onto CD-Rs using I-tunes in a "Data CD" format (i.e. about 120 mp3s per CD) I am thankful for this because I once had an "ipod crisis" (it corrupted and I lost everything - temporarily )

What I was getting at was, can the macs read cds formatted using a pc, or do macs format cds in a different way. If macs are different, I'm sure there must be software to get around this...

I know that Itunes on windows or a mac will be able to "see" mp3s on any ipod once connected, but what I didn't know is whether itunes will permit me to copy the mp3s directly from the ipod onto a new powerbook. (Itunes wouldn't "know" that it was my new powerbook as opposed a friend's who I was illegally copying mps3 onto)

You see, I could put the CDs containing mp3s onto the new powerbook and import mp3s that way if itunes didn't let me copy mp3s directly onto my new powerbook. This would be a pain, because I guess this way I would have to format the ipod to allow it to communicate with the new powerbook.

I suspect that I will not have to import using data cds and reformat the ipod by the looks of things, am I right?

 

[Padawan]

The Mac shouldn't have a problem reading the CD you made and letting you copy the MP3's from it. However, you can't import music from an iPod into iTunes without a 3rd party application.

 

[ChicoWeb]

If its just data format, then yes, he apple will recognize it just as a PC would.

 

[Wish_4_A_Mac]

Thanks

Thanks for the help, guys. Great website by the way. I have just read other threads about when the g5 powerbook is going to come out. Seems it won't be with us for a while, but maybe we'll see a dual G4 or something first.

Thing is the current g4s don't depreciate very quickly. I was looking for a 17" and even ebay doesn't have anybody selling them for that cheap! Still - would you blame them? I guess it might be worth getting a new one direct from the apple store....