Soompi Mac User Group

[shortee28]

thanks.

i'm really interested in buying the Macblack, but one thing thats bothering me right now is the screen size..13.3 right? don't your eyes hurt after extended use? i'm actually considering a pro just for screen size

hmm.... it's pretty decent size for me. my powerbook g4 that i had previously was a 12". so it was a major difference to me when i got my macblack. i wanted to get the pro but didn't for 1) not enough cash and 2) 15" is too big for me.... yes i'd prefer a bigger screen, but when it comes to portability, i like the compact size of 13". the 15 or even 17 would be really helpful, but its too big for my bag and small body, a lil heavy for me, i like things light cuz i carry other equipment with me too..... the pro is obviously better in terms of specs. but it depends on what you are using it for. like what do you plan to do on your mac? graphic design, watching movies, just taking notes, gaming, etc. what do you find most important and relevant to your use? i'm in the process of searching for a 20 or 22" monitor to do some work at home, but for school, i find the smaller size easiest to travel with. i didn't have to bye a separate laptop bag just to accommodate its size. i use a regular school backpack. so it fits perfectly.

[dogs7268]

^

i'm not bringing a desktop to school just because of inconvenience, so i want my ideal laptop to be in place of a desktop. watching movies, taking notes, writing essays, gaming, surfing, and just using it in my spare time to do nothing

i took a trip to my local apple store, and i'm in love with their osx. it looks so easy and convenient for even the most technically handicapped..one thing that i wanna know more about is the dashboard and calendar. how useful are those to you guys?

[Guest zenigame]

Dashboards usefulness can vary depending on what widgets you add it. For me, I use it to check the weather, put sticky notes, calculator, calendar, system monitoring, and unit converter. I probably check it daily. There's lots of downloadable widgets that'll extend its functionality, so it's definitely a nice thing to have. PCs have had their own equivalent for a good while as well.

[j79]

^

i'm not bringing a desktop to school just because of inconvenience, so i want my ideal laptop to be in place of a desktop. watching movies, taking notes, writing essays, gaming, surfing, and just using it in my spare time to do nothing

i took a trip to my local apple store, and i'm in love with their osx. it looks so easy and convenient for even the most technically handicapped..one thing that i wanna know more about is the dashboard and calendar. how useful are those to you guys?

I agree with zenigame as far as Dashboard goes. I believe Windows 98 had something similar to Dashboard (Active Desktop? I think??) which allowed you to have small apps running on your desktop which could connect to the internet and update. It was interesting at first, but for me (and I think many others), the idea never took off because it was always "there" -- on your desktop taking up space. The same goes for Konfabulator... I thought the idea was great...I just didn't like the widgets there.

For me, the Dashboard Widgets always running are: ESPN, Dictionary, Weather, and Translator. I also use Nike Challenges (My Challenge, I believe) and Apple Remote Desktop widget.

Personally, I rarely use Calendar (iCal?)...at least I don't use it as much as I should. I do have it synced up with my iPod...I'd probably use it more if I had an iPhone

[j79]

does it matter which version of windows vista? well, if it does, i tried to install vista ultimate. and i dont think it asked me to hold c when i restart.

Actually, you're right for dual boot...it shouldn't! If you haven't tried yet, try holding C when you restart. That forces the Mac to boot from the CD ROM.

When you boot into OS X (after you remove the drive), does the disc "mount" (or show up) when you pop it in?

If that doesn't work, I've read that some people had success burning a copy of their XP/Vista discs and booting from that...

Edit--

Also, you asked if it's possible to copy the contents to a hard drive and boot from that. It is possible. If the Vista disc shows up in OS X, and you have a Fire Wire hard drive kicking around, you can "copy" the contents to the FW drive using Disk Utility.

The first thing you have to do is make an "Image" of the Vista disc. From the left column in Disk Utility, click the Vista CD "session" (not the drive name like PIONEER, MATSUSHITA, ETC...) and then click "New Image" at the top. It should prompt you to save the image at this point. The Save As name should be similar to: diskXsX (X = numbers). Choose your Macs hard drive to save (say Desktop) and then choose Save.

Once the Disk Image has been created, you then want to "restore" your external FireWire drive. Click on the drive name and you should see options similar to: First Aid | Erase | Partition | Raid | Restore appear on the right side. Click Restore. The source is the "Image" you just created. From the left panel, click and drag the Firewire disk to "Destination". It has to be the Drive name (or partition) that you're draggin and not the device (Device is always First line and disk/partition follows, indented). Click Restore and wait.

Now, when you're booting, click and hold ALT/OPTION at Boot. Your Mac will search your internal and firewire drives for any bootable drives. It may take a minute or two to complete searching.

If Disk Utility hangs (because of Copyright issues with the Vista disc), you can also use Toast to make Disc Images which can be used for Restores in Disk Utility....

Good luck dhillman!

[Guest bear]

Hi, I'm a MacBook user.

I'm having a problem with playing HQ videos. VLC & mPlayer don't seem to work.

The note on playing the videos is

Quote:

For MickEyBABy version, using x264 codecs:

If you're having problem with the video file, check if:

- you have ffdshow installed, and;

- for KLITE codecs users, just click into configuration and ffdshow video decoder and change H.264/AVC from disabled to libavcodec.

KLITE default is coreavc -- MickEyBABy version won't work under coreavc config.

this note, I assume, is for PC's

ffshadow isn't availible for mac...

what should I do?

Sorry if the question was asked and answered previously. Thanks in advance for any help.

[shortee28]

^

i'm not bringing a desktop to school just because of inconvenience, so i want my ideal laptop to be in place of a desktop. watching movies, taking notes, writing essays, gaming, surfing, and just using it in my spare time to do nothing

i took a trip to my local apple store, and i'm in love with their osx. it looks so easy and convenient for even the most technically handicapped..one thing that i wanna know more about is the dashboard and calendar. how useful are those to you guys?

hmmm... depends on how you are, are you a very organized type of person. i tried using the calendar for a bit and syncing it with my phone and all. but it became useless to me only because i usually can just remember things on my own without it being written down. as for the dashboard, depends on what widgets you have, i have istat which gives me the statistics of my laptop and how its doing, sometimes i use the calculator, and a little monthly calendar just so i can see dates in advance (you can't write anything in it or anyhting, just a normal blank calendar). i know some people that use calendar a lot and colour code everything, so if you're that much of an organizing type of person, i think it would be pretty useful. calendar can be useful too if you had peoples email in the address book too. like say if you have an event planned in your calendar, you can send the event to someone in your address book and it can sync with them... personally, don't use it much.

[Guest zenigame]

Hey Bear-

What's the filetype? I haven't run into any playback problems with vlc/mplayer/qt on mac yet, with the exception of rmvb because I don't want to install realplayer.

[Guest bear]

Hey Bear-

What's the filetype? I haven't run into any playback problems with vlc/mplayer/qt on mac yet, with the exception of rmvb because I don't want to install realplayer.

It's an .avi. Specifically, it's episode 3 of Coffee Prince. I downloaded it in 2 parts and joined with MacHachaed. At most I can

I figured it out in the middle of replying! :blush:

Just needed to update VLC and reset the x264 settings. Worked like a charm.

Thanks for the reply zenigame.

Man, I feel silly!

[Guest dhillman]

Actually, you're right for dual boot...it shouldn't! If you haven't tried yet, try holding C when you restart. That forces the Mac to boot from the CD ROM.

When you boot into OS X (after you remove the drive), does the disc "mount" (or show up) when you pop it in?

If that doesn't work, I've read that some people had success burning a copy of their XP/Vista discs and booting from that...

Edit--

Also, you asked if it's possible to copy the contents to a hard drive and boot from that. It is possible. If the Vista disc shows up in OS X, and you have a Fire Wire hard drive kicking around, you can "copy" the contents to the FW drive using Disk Utility.

The first thing you have to do is make an "Image" of the Vista disc. From the left column in Disk Utility, click the Vista CD "session" (not the drive name like PIONEER, MATSUSHITA, ETC...) and then click "New Image" at the top. It should prompt you to save the image at this point. The Save As name should be similar to: diskXsX (X = numbers). Choose your Macs hard drive to save (say Desktop) and then choose Save.

Once the Disk Image has been created, you then want to "restore" your external FireWire drive. Click on the drive name and you should see options similar to: First Aid | Erase | Partition | Raid | Restore appear on the right side. Click Restore. The source is the "Image" you just created. From the left panel, click and drag the Firewire disk to "Destination". It has to be the Drive name (or partition) that you're draggin and not the device (Device is always First line and disk/partition follows, indented). Click Restore and wait.

Now, when you're booting, click and hold ALT/OPTION at Boot. Your Mac will search your internal and firewire drives for any bootable drives. It may take a minute or two to complete searching.

If Disk Utility hangs (because of Copyright issues with the Vista disc), you can also use Toast to make Disc Images which can be used for Restores in Disk Utility....

Good luck dhillman!

thank you! it works like a charm now. the only thing that SLIGHTLY scares me is when i boot windows vista, before it boots, a black screen shows up with some weird writings that said things like "unable to boot windows vista. error. try booting bla bla bla..." and then it repeats again and again, and then vista boots up. is that the way its supposed to be?

also, when i set my osx as the starting disk, it doesnt really boot up. it stays on a white screen with a weird huge symbol floating around... sorta looks like an a-bomb symbol/logo.. it's got a circle in the middle and 3 things around it.

[dogs7268]

hmmm... depends on how you are, are you a very organized type of person. i tried using the calendar for a bit and syncing it with my phone and all. but it became useless to me only because i usually can just remember things on my own without it being written down. as for the dashboard, depends on what widgets you have, i have istat which gives me the statistics of my laptop and how its doing, sometimes i use the calculator, and a little monthly calendar just so i can see dates in advance (you can't write anything in it or anyhting, just a normal blank calendar). i know some people that use calendar a lot and colour code everything, so if you're that much of an organizing type of person, i think it would be pretty useful. calendar can be useful too if you had peoples email in the address book too. like say if you have an event planned in your calendar, you can send the event to someone in your address book and it can sync with them... personally, don't use it much.

sold. :blush:

ill update on when i actually get it now

i'm not very organized, but i have been, and it made me a lot more productive. and since i'm using it for college, i plan on being a LOT more productive, and it really seems like i have short term memory...

if only i could find some discounts for this dang thing..

[Guest PockyUpNose]

apple is coming with a new mac book pro thats 12 inches.

i just bought an ibook today off someone. =P my latest addition to my apple family LOL.

its 1.33, 12inches, and 1.5 ram..

[Guest umademesmyle]

I bought a macbook a while ago.. but i'm still trying to figure out what program to use when it comes to editing pictures..

(something similar to adobe photoshop??)

any suggestions?

[j79]

I bought a macbook a while ago.. but i'm still trying to figure out what program to use when it comes to editing pictures..(something similar to adobe photoshop??) any suggestions?

If you're looking for a free alternative to Photoshop, you can check out GIMP at http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/. If you want something similar to Photoshop but at a lower price, you could check out Photoshop Elements for Mac OS X (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelmac/).

if only i could find some discounts for this dang thing..

Be sure to order through Apple Educational Store!

[dogs7268]

If you're looking for a free alternative to Photoshop, you can check out GIMP at http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/. If you want something similar to Photoshop but at a lower price, you could check out Photoshop Elements for Mac OS X (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelmac/).

Be sure to order through Apple Educational Store!

is that the discount + rebate for an ipod nano deal?

[j79]

is that the discount + rebate for an ipod nano deal?

It is! I know they're advertising that special on the regular store, but there's also a specific section for education here: http://www.apple.com/education/store/

[dogs7268]

It is! I know they're advertising that special on the regular store, but there's also a specific section for education here: http://www.apple.com/education/store/

do you know if you could use other discounts along with that education website?

[Guest ehytee7]

do you know if you could use other discounts along with that education website?

do you mean the rebate thing for the printer and the iPod nano or other discounts??

well.. i'm not sure if i would be of help.. but when i purchased my macbook pro weeks ago.. i went for the educational discount..then since i live in Connecticut and the website says that my state has this rule or something that i'm not really sure of.. they had to give me an automatic rebate for my iPod.. so instead of paying for the iPod and getting the rebate later..they automatically cut off the price of the iPod in my total bill when i checked it out.. as for the printer.. i still have to fill up a rebate form and apply for it..

*uhm.. for the iPod, we got the iPod video instead of the nano..my dad just added $50 more..

[j79]

since i live in Connecticut and the website says that my state has this rule or something that i'm not really sure of.. they had to give me an automatic rebate for my iPod.. so instead of paying for the iPod and getting the rebate later..they automatically cut off the price of the iPod in my total bill when i checked it out..

That's awesome!! I hate mail in rebates.

Curious how many others have seen this: http://www.pixelmator.com/

It's not out yet...but it looks slick!!

[shortee28]

apple is coming with a new mac book pro thats 12 inches.

i just bought an ibook today off someone. =P my latest addition to my apple family LOL.

its 1.33, 12inches, and 1.5 ram..

gahhh!!! i wish they came out with that sooner!

like BEFORE i got my black macbook =(

but instead of 12 inch to be 13 inch....

by the way uhh... what do you mean by 1.5 ram?? =S

MB or GB?? if GB does that mean there's a 1GB card and 512MB card?