Finally, I got that Mac I’ve been thinking about for a long time now. This is the MacBook I bought.
I bought it from Amazon because it was cheaper than buying direct from Apple - weird. My old ViewSonic 19″ Monitor works perfectly with it, and I can finally use the digital input on it now…but I did need to buy a $20 mini-dvi to dvi adapter which was kind of annoying.
I bought an excessive amount of Ram for only $100/4GB, which is a hell of a lot cheaper than what Apple charges for memory upgrades. My old Microsoft ergonomic keyboard/mouse (kinda like this) is compatible with my new Mac, so I won’t need to buy a new (expensive) ergonomic keyboard. Microsoft still makes better ergonomic keyboards than Apple - I’ll give them that at least. The little bluetooth wireless Apple keyboard looked really cool but it seemed totally impractical for doing serious work.
My MacBook specs out of the box:
* 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4 MB shared L2 Cache
* 1 GB (two SO-DIMM) 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300); 120 GB 5400 rpm Serial ATA hard drive; 8x SuperDrive
* One FireWire 400, two USB 2.0 ports, DVI, VGA, S-video, and composite video (requires adapters, sold separately)
* Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet; Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi (based on IEEE 802.11n draft specification)4; built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module
* 13.3-inch (diagonal) glossy TFT widescreen display, 1280 x 800 resolution; Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard
So far, I am really happy to have dumped my PC for a Mac! Bye-Bye Windows. 
Although, it’s nice to know I can run windows through parallels on the Mac if I needed to for some reason, which is an awesome feature. You can’t run both Mac/Windows on a PC but you can do it on a Mac. If anyone out there has some Mac tips for me I’d love to hear them in the comments! I grew up using Apple computers and used Macs a lot in the 90’s but I have been on Windows most of time for about the last 9 years - so I’ll need to learn a few things.
P.S. - If you are considering a MacBook vs. MacBook Pro - do your homework like I did and read-up on the specs. If you don’t need the beefy graphics card or the larger screen on the MacBook Pro, the MacBook is a much much better deal, in my opinion. You can do like I did and boost the Ram for $50 or $100 and it will be sorta like a MacBook Pro with a smaller screen. (small screen doesn’t bother me since I plan to use it a majority of the time off my monitor)
*Update: here’s a great comparison chart of MacBook vs. MacBook Pro
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25 responses so far ↓
1 Jeremy Osborne // Dec 19, 2007 at 8:19 pm
I’m curious if you run into things that are actually more difficult to do on the Mac, so long after using M$.
Or is it a clean, easy switch for you?
2 Todd // Dec 19, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Actually, most everything on a Mac is easier! Some things might seem “difficult” but I think it’s more just different than difficult. Years of habit on a PC can be hard to break for some people (understandably so) but for me it has been a breeze thus far.
3 Todd // Dec 20, 2007 at 11:24 am
I just plugged my Brother laser printer printer in the USB port and it magically works! I plugged in my monitor and it magically worked too! Apple is right about Macs: things just work. No hunting around for random printer drivers and all the other BS that Windows requires.
Did I mention my MacBook came with a remote control? 
4 Grant D. Griiffiths // Dec 20, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Todd-
You will not regret the move. I have been using the Mac computer now for almost 4 years and I will NEVER go back. Drop me an email if you want to visit.
5 Todd // Dec 20, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Hi Grant, I doubt I’d ever regret it!
6 Ethan // Dec 22, 2007 at 1:05 am
tips a plenty….
have you started using “quick look”
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/quicklook.html
just pick any file text.. photo.. video.. and hit the space bar
or perhaps expose?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktTNcj0fAM4
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304786
some people really like expose with hot corners enabled.. you might give that a try…
alt-tab works just like on a pc… apple (aka command) - tab
oooo.. and if you hold down the command key on a the folder name in the top middle of a finder window and click the name.. have a look at what happens.
try dragging a file onto a folder and holding it there.. you’ll find it opens up the folder… and allows you to “navigate” that way and place a file exactly where you want.
you can type straight into spotlight as if it was a calculator (probably an idea stolen from google
I’d say that’s enough for now
7 Todd // Dec 22, 2007 at 10:11 am
Hi Ethan, thanks for the tips! I think that “expose” is now a part of the new “spaces” for leopard, but I’m not really sure:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/spaces.html
I haven’t figured out either of those things yet but I will definitely give it a shot. When I first took a peek at it the setup look a little daunting but I’ll give it another try.
I’m still learning some of the shortcuts and stuff, so I’m probably not as quick on this macbook as I could be.
8 Todd // Dec 22, 2007 at 10:14 am
whoa that is an awesome tip!
9 Todd // Dec 22, 2007 at 10:30 am
DONE!
10 Ethan // Dec 22, 2007 at 1:44 pm
good luck reading through this weekend followup tip fest!
I suppose you figured out, “spaces” and “expose” aren’t one and the same. I’d say they are complimentary.. but definitely different and valuable features in there own right.
There shouldn’t be too much intimidating about expose.. just open a bunch of applications and folders and see what happens when you hit the F9 through F11 keys.
“spaces” is not a new concept.. Like much of OS X, its roots lie in UNIX. Many flavors of unix had “virtual desktops”
3rd from the bottom on the right hand side here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
microsoft developed a “virtual desktop” tool to mimic that behavior as well, that most PC users don’t have a clue about since it doesn’t come built into the OS. While I’m giving tips, I’m a big fan of some of those other power toys for when I have to use a PC. Image resizer is great for sizing down images before putting them various places where a 3 MB photo is extreme overkill. Of course picasa has great built in functionality in that department as well
You could look through TweakUI for ages, but I have some favorite tweaks there as well if you want pc tips as well.
Getting back to the mac….
click and hold that click on an icon in your dock and see what happens. If that application is currently open, you will see a host of additional options like toggling through multiple firefox windows, quitting the app, or even force quitting if firefox ever locks up on some crappy website!
I expect you know that your macbook behaves differently with 1 finger vs. two finger scrolling. Two finger scrolling is really quite fantastic.
You probably also know that while there is only one button with which to click on your macbook, you can use any old USB two button mouse, and the right click will bring up a context menu just like on a PC. On a mac you can bring up that same context menu with a single button mouse by holding down control and clicking with that nice big single button.
Though pretty much everything most people need to do is built in with all the software that comes with the mac, apple hosts crap loads of third party software here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/
Version Tracker is also a great site for grabbing the latest and greatest third party software - http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/
While I’m basically writing a switchers bible here for you, this apple website has a lot more support for folks switching from PCs to Macs
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
There is a mac specific google blog - http://googlemac.blogspot.com/
There is a mac specific Microsoft blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/macmojo/
Here is google’s mac specific downloads page http://www.google.com/mac.html
and while firefox and safari and opera are all great options on the mac, there is a growing community of folks that like camino as well, a mac specific mozilla web browser http://caminobrowser.org/ being developed along side firefox. I’ve got it sitting on my dock now, and it’s definitely another great browser.
oh and if you like multi service instant message clients like trillian, my favorite on the mac is http://www.adiumx.com/
lots of the photo sharing services have uploading apps for the mac, but they also have export plugins for iphoto so that you can use your one killer app instead of one for each different service you might use. Of course hopefully you don’t actually upload your photos to too many different places.
http://picasa.google.com/web/mac_tools.html - picasa web albums
http://www.flickr.com/tools/ - stand alone internally developed uploader tool - free
http://connectedflow.com/flickrexport/iphoto/ - excellent third party flickr iphoto plugin - small fee
11 Ethan // Dec 22, 2007 at 2:26 pm
ooo.. last one..
Say you have your music in iTunes, and you want to automagically download the lyrics into itunes so that you have what we had included in the liner notes with every CD we ever purchased.
well…you can.. iTunes even sync those lyrics which get stored in your id3 tag to your iPod for sing alongs on the go..
supposedly this is something currently in the works that will probably be built into itunes before long via gracenote.. but I’ve been enjoying this feature for years now, and it probably isn’t going to come to the masses for a while still.
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/04/24/gracenotes-and-itunes-in-lyrics-talks/
until then just download and configure a couple widgets..
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/music/singthatitune.html
or harmonic - http://mindquirk.com/
http://www.tuaw.com/2007/03/15/howto-lyrics-on-your-ipod/
From Last FM
http://www.last.fm/group/Mac+OS+X/forum/8594/_/145978/1#f1750290
“I use two that work quite well, especially together at the same time.
Sing that iTune and Harmonic
Sing that iTune needs to have dashboard open to get the lyrics to the song, but it almost never fails on getting the lyrics.
Harmonic doesn’t need to have dashboard open, it does it all in the background, which is handy, but sometimes it has some troubles with hard-to-find lyrics”
There are a ton of other cool widgets.. but frankly I don’t spend much time using the dashboard as yet.
example
http://mindquirk.com/symphonic.htm
http://googlemac.blogspot.com/2007/12/mac-os-x-dashboard-widget-security.html
and for a history lesson on the lyrics issue, where the EFF stepped in and saved the day for music fans, from the evil music labels trying to stifle innovation because somebody might have posted the lyrics slightly wrong?
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2005/12/lyrics-browsers-itunes-and-copyright-law
http://www.redherring.com/Home/14848
incredible some of these corporate dumb f#$ks mailing off threatening lawsuits like this..
We owe thanks to the EFF and the good lawyers working for them.. in fact I think it’s time to give the EFF an end of year / tax deductable donation.
http://www.eff.org/
OK… Time to get off my ass and go do something with my day!
12 Todd // Dec 22, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Ethan, thanks for the extra tips!
I was bummed to find out picasa doesn’t have a mac version but I got the picasa mac tools for iphoto and i’m hoping that works out nicely.
I installed my excessive ram today and it was a breeze with no issues.
I’m using my old Microsoft ergonomic wireless mouse and it is working awesome…but I will need to use that control+click tip for when I’m not using the mouse.
REALLY good tip. that is cool. FF doesn’t seem to run quite as smooth on my Mac as a PC but maybe it is just me. I have had to force quit FF a couple times already…but still prefer it to Safari.
Thanks again for the insane amount of tips.
13 Ethan // Dec 22, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Dude.. Picasa was basically a PC equivalent of iPhoto. There was no good picture management app on the PC then came picasa to fill the void. iPhoto has been around for ages, you’ll love it, and the picasa album uploader plugin for iphoto will complete that “solution” for yah.
firefox mostly works fantastically for me.. I’ve had to force quit a bit.. but I’ve had it bomb out on my PCs just as much. Probably the fault of folks writing crazy ass html code..
the new safari 3.x definitely feels zippier on my mac as well, but you’ll run into the occasional page that doesn’t work quite right with safari (that seams to be disappearing with the recent expansion of safari into the new version three that runs in windows land…) of course apple will back that up safari with stats to prove it’s faster than the competition.
install camino and see how you think that compares. safari and firefox are probably all anybody really needs, but camino is an excellent third browser to throw in the mix.
14 Todd // Dec 23, 2007 at 10:25 am
iPhoto is pretty slick…I guess I just got really comfortable with Picasa so it will just take me a bit to get more familiar with iPhoto.
i’ll give that a try, but you’re probably right that firefox + safari is all you need…unless you stumble on one of those rare websites that requires IE
15 MomOfDude // Dec 24, 2007 at 8:45 pm
I have had some banking and online payment sites that refuse to recognize Firefox and sometimes even Safari. Trying to stay Microsoft-free, I go to
Netscape for my alt browser in those cases. It has worked with even the most stubborn. At this time, there is only one remaining holdout.
16 Ethan // Dec 24, 2007 at 11:25 pm
What websites continue to fail with firefox? Those are usually posted to w3c compatibility newsgroups nowadays and the company hosting the crap page gets harassed until they fix it. Last I checked, Netscape was essentially a mozilla core with some dressing.
17 MomOfDude // Dec 25, 2007 at 10:45 am
It is not one that the english language newsgroups would pick up. The cable bill that I pay for my house in Mexico is my last “netscape-only” website.
18 lisa // Jan 24, 2008 at 11:02 am
Hi,
How do you run windows on a mac? I can’t figure it out. Thanks
19 Todd // Jan 28, 2008 at 3:58 pm
hi lisa, you’ll need to purchase a software program called “parallels” or “vmware fusion” if you google or search amazon for either, you’ll find plenty of resources on the topic. hope that helps! todd
20 ethan // Jan 28, 2008 at 7:32 pm
or you can buy neither of those and just use the built in “bootcamp” software http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bootcamp.html
21 Todd // Jan 29, 2008 at 1:00 am
ethan, you are the mac master. i didn’t even realize i had bootcamp built in! once you go mac you never go back…
22 New Soul by Yael Naim #1 Song in iTunes // Feb 7, 2008 at 2:34 pm
[...] just noticed that the song from the new MacBook Air commercial is now the #1 selling song in iTunes. Whoa. Did that song/album launch the same time [...]
23 Karen Swim // Feb 13, 2008 at 5:31 am
Todd, saw your comment on Jim’s blog. Thanks for this link! This info is really helpful. I never would have thought of going the Amazon route. Thanks for sharing. I’m so jealous!
Have fun,
Karen
24 Todd // Feb 13, 2008 at 6:20 am
Hi Karen, thanks for stopping by!
25 Skitch // Mar 10, 2008 at 10:01 am
[...] Ethan for introducing me to Skitch! It’s a good thing I switched to a Mac or else I couldn’t use this. Skitch is an awesome tool for making quick screen captures and [...]
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