New Imac Observations

[turbo36]

Really stepping up in the technology wars now; 3 days ago I got the Motorola Droid and yesterday a new Imac.
I went with a 27" monitor with a Quad-core processor. The monitor contains everything, there is no "box" under the desk box or wires - everything communicates wireless.

I unpacked it, plugged it in, turned on the mouse and keyboard, plugged in the cable modem and 5 minutes later I was on the web. From sealed box to surfing was maybe 15 minutes. Setting up the printer was the only thing frustrating because it hung a couple of times - WHERE IS MY DEVICE MANAGER???

I haven't set up the time capsule yet but that will give me my wireless network as well a 1TB backup/network storage device to stream my music from.


First impressions.
Holy cow is this thing fast!!!! No virus protection slowing things down.
Pages load immediately.

I can have multiple applications open at the same time and this thing doesn't hang of seem to slow down. Wow! Wow! Wow!

The monitor in unbelievable, I can have 3 full size 8 1/2 x 11 documents on the screen at the same time

I love cover-flow to find files or pictures

Lots of little cute little Apple quirks that will drive me crazy until I learn their way of doing things or how to switch them to act like the PC commands.

Oh so that's what a "bookmark" is!

Even at the fastest setting the mouse is still too slow.

The keyboard is very small but works well, lot's of room on the desktop now for my work papers.


After watching a few videos I'm getting the whole idea of the the Apple way of doing things. Very Cool!

Overall I am very impressed, I plan to return to the Apple store today to get my wife a MacBook to use so she can work on her stuff while sitting in her favorite chair.

 

[CurlyDave]

I have had Macs for over 20 years, and they are great computers.

 

[MikePA]

I have an iMac 24" and I agree. While Windows7 is much better than Vista and XP, OSX 10.6.2 is still a little better than both. I use Parallels to run Windows7 Premium on my iMac since there's no Mac version of Quicken.

 

[eepete]

There's no such thing as too much acreage (screen space), too much horsepower (processors) or too many implements (monitors). My MAC pro dual quad processor machine has 6 screens on it. The one on the left is a HDTV, and that's a PC program under parallels running a PCB design program. Also have a monitor for the surveillance cameras. I have three programs that are only available on a PC, hence the need for parallels.

MikePA, you are wise to run Quicken under parallels. We (ok, my wife on her iMac) converted to the MAC one and it is really bad.

Turbo36, there are some brain dead moments in Apple land. Half of what I like is because it's truly good. The other half is because the PCs are so bad that anything that works is better. I tried Vista when it came out, and decided to jump ship to a MAC. I wish Safari (sometimes on the MAC and always on the mobile platforms for the iPhone and iTouch) would render bitmap images (.bmp). If you see a little question mark in a box on your browser, that's the problem. Safari also sometimes does not work with certain web sites and their Java scripts. You may want to download a copy of Firefox for when this happens. Unfortunately, too many web sites never test their stuff on Apple machines.
The DVD support on an Apple is terrible (authoring), so that needs all outside hardware and software. I think they were trying to protect Apple TV which is not a good deal. Printers, once installed, are OK but there are some quirks there with the default printer and what printers are called. We have 2 printers that are the exact same model, and sometimes this causes problems.

I hate the keyboard, and will replace it soon. We also have a iMac and a Macbook Pro. Still have the old PC on the electronics work bench for stuff that has to use it (related to the programs that run on a PC).

Snow Leopard is nice, but, sometimes it takes longer for an app to launch than before. I may need to tweak my power settings, it might be interpreting them differently.

At any rate, enjoy.

Pete

 

[MikePA]

MikePA, you are wise to run Quicken under parallels. We (ok, my wife on her iMac) converted to the MAC one and it is really bad.

Yep, I tried the Mac version as well as iBank (a native Mac app) and neither holds a candle to Quicken2009 for Windows. Parallels runs Windows7 quite well.

 

[turbo36]

There's no such thing as too much acreage (screen space), too much horsepower (processors) or too many implements (monitors). My MAC pro dual quad processor machine has 6 screens on it. The one on the left is a HDTV, and that's a PC program under parallels running a PCB design program. Also have a monitor for the surveillance cameras. I have three programs that are only available on a PC, hence the need for parallels.

MikePA, you are wise to run Quicken under parallels. We (ok, my wife on her iMac) converted to the MAC one and it is really bad.

Turbo36, there are some brain dead moments in Apple land. Half of what I like is because it's truly good. The other half is because the PCs are so bad that anything that works is better. I tried Vista when it came out, and decided to jump ship to a MAC. I wish Safari (sometimes on the MAC and always on the mobile platforms for the iPhone and iTouch) would render bitmap images (.bmp). If you see a little question mark in a box on your browser, that's the problem. Safari also sometimes does not work with certain web sites and their Java scripts. You may want to download a copy of Firefox for when this happens. Unfortunately, too many web sites never test their stuff on Apple machines.
The DVD support on an Apple is terrible (authoring), so that needs all outside hardware and software. I think they were trying to protect Apple TV which is not a good deal. Printers, once installed, are OK but there are some quirks there with the default printer and what printers are called. We have 2 printers that are the exact same model, and sometimes this causes problems.

I hate the keyboard, and will replace it soon. We also have a iMac and a Macbook Pro. Still have the old PC on the electronics work bench for stuff that has to use it (related to the programs that run on a PC).

Snow Leopard is nice, but, sometimes it takes longer for an app to launch than before. I may need to tweak my power settings, it might be interpreting them differently.

At any rate, enjoy.

Pete

Good Lord! How do you keep it straight? Next time I see the Black Helicopters I will know who's controlling them.

 

[turbo36]

Update:
The time capsule loaded correctly but the printer gave me fits until I deleted and tried again. Now I'm waiting for my wife's new powerbook to charge and then I will set that up.

A side note; What a bunch of goofy kid's work in those Apple stores!!! Yesterday I worked with a business partner that just happened to be in the store helping out, he was very knowledgeable and didn't treat me like a Neanderthal. Today I went back to get the PowerBook and was handed off from one kid to another cause I was "asking technical questions man"! Eventually a sales person with a little grey in his beard came over and all was good again.
What is it with the youth of today? Do they think anyone over thirty is an technology idiot? I started programming with "zeros and ones" so I do "GET IT" it's just I have spent the last 35 years using technology to make a living and not as a hobby. Anyway, so far this has been fun.

 

[turbo36]

Oh man I'm a kid in a candy store! Turned on the PowerBook and 5 minutes later I'm surfing the net and printing to the wireless network printer. I think I'm going to sell my Microsoft stock and buy Apple!

 

[Lloyd_E]

Turbo...

I have been running Macs since the IIci - whopping 60 meg drive!!!
Running the dual quad 27" as well. Upgrade your working Ram to 8 or 16 gig and she will
fly even more. I have a terabyte of storage on mine - missed a deal on an Iomega terabyte
external drive the other day... only $98 bucks...

Enjoy....

Lloyd

 

[eepete]

Yeah, regarding my nickname for the "genius" bar, the 1st word is "dumb".

When you do tech support over the phone, it will take about 15-20 minutes to get through the 1st layer. My favorite was the tech support for email problems where at that entry layer, they could not send or receive emails from customers. Finally bumped up a notch and started to work on the problem.

At the store, I've had the same experience. Ask your question/state your problem at it's full geek best and blow through the youth. You'l either get gray hair or the one guy in the back who understands stuff.

BTW, I started on a PDP-8, if you know what that is.

Time capsule is a big win, you can also make the new laptop use it. Do a trial delete of some test file and recovery so you have played with it before you need it.

As for all the screens, when I do circuit boards, I use a 32" monitor for the board, and the other 5 monitors can show me 12 different data sheets for parts I'm working with. When I did PCBs on a light table, I used to have two tables on each side for the data books. The little 24" monitors are the cheapest part of the system, get good bang for the buck there. The video card that handles 2 monitors is only about $160 or so. Now the 32" ones are bit pricy, but, it's great to have one for landscape (PCB layout) and in portrait (software).

If you really like the apple Kool-aid, check out the iPhone. Happy hacking!

Pete