First Mac Purchase! Suggestions?

Moots on 29/09/2013 - 18:22

Well OzB, Just purchased my first Macbook Air - 13" i5, 4GB DDR3, 128GB SSD. So far so good, purchased from JB Hifi, I called them, asked for the price and the bloke automatically asked what the best price I found was, I just said $1145. He agreed and said come in no problems. This was already down from a 10% sale which was $1249. Not bad!

I have downloaded CCleaner, Adblock (Doesn't seem to be as good as the PC version, and doesn't block YouTube Video ads).

What else do you guys suggestion. I still have not got my head around how the software works, do I really need to purchase word? cheapest place etc? and what other accessories, programs, etc do you suggest?

It's hard getting use to the mac shortkeys, even had to Google how to scroll! Never used pinch and two fingers before., well.. Using a laptop!

I've noticed they built the macbook to be only opened by Apple, I may want to upgrade RAM. Can I do it myself or does it void warranty?

Computing

Comments

  • scrimshaw on 29/09/2013 - 19:18
    +1

    The RAM on the Air is soldered directly onto the motherboard, and cannot be upgraded.
    This is what it looks like (iFixit) (circled in Red). It doesn't use removable SO-DIMM modules so you're effectively stuck with what you have.

    I'm not an Apple user so can't advise you of any OSX tips and tricks, but Microsoft Office isn't the only Office app available. There are open-source alternatives such as LibreOffice as well as freeware alternatives such as Google Drive.

    I also suggest going to http://getmacapps.com/ for all your Mac freeware downloads. It will silently perform unattended installs of the popular freeware apps for you (that you pick) without you having to click through dialogs. It's basically the same idea as Ninite.

    You can get Mac related tips from Lifehacker too.
    http://www.lifehacker.com.au/tags/mac/

    • drewbie on 30/09/2013 - 09:33

      I'll second the recommendation for LibreOffice. It's not perfect at importing MS Office documents, but it generally does a good job. And it works very well for authoring your own documents, spreadsheets, presentations, etc. The latest version is 4.1.x and is a 175 MB download.

  • sparkles on 29/09/2013 - 22:44

    Basics:

    1. Two fingers to scroll up and down the screen.
    2. Four fingers dragged down - shows all current screens
    3. Four fingers dragged up - shows desktop
    4. Four fingers left or right shows all programs running
    5. Press Command+shift+4 to selectively screen grab - will drop the picture to your desktop

    I "borrowed" Word and Excel from the interwebs.
    iSkysoft iTube Studio to download YouTube videos for later viewing.
    VLC player is handy.
    Senuti will rip your music from your iPod to your Mac.

    It feels weird at first but once you get used to the gestures and tapping you won't want to go back to a normal trackpad with clicky buttons.

  • thewheat on 29/09/2013 - 23:25

    Once you get the hang of the trackpad, you'll miss it on any other system. Learn the mult-touch trackpad gestures to get quick access to different workspaces/desktops, expose/mission control. Also hot corners are another good thing to know.

    Depending on how you use Word, Microsoft's online version (http://workspace.office.live.com/) may be sufficient but I guess the same could be said for Google Docs.

    If you're a keyboard person, or just like quick access to things, learn to use Spotlight (the little magnifying glass in the top right corner) or alternatives like Alfred (http://www.alfredapp.com/). Also in the Keyboard settings, enable Full Keyboard Access so you can press tab to move to all controls.

    BetterTouch Tool (http://blog.boastr.net/) lets you customize the trackpad and also add keyboard shortcuts.

    iStats Menus (http://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/) to add extra stats to your global menu. Or if you want something free but not as nice looking Menu Meters (http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/).

    Beware of Finder's 'replace' option as it doesn't merge files properly and can cause you to accidentally delete files.
    E.g. Folder "A" has a subfolder "test" with 2 files in it ("a.txt" and "b.txt").
    Folder "B" also has subfolder "test" with 1 file in it ("a.txt").
    If you copy B/test to A, and select replace, you will lose "b.txt"

  • Jarr0d on 30/09/2013 - 03:58
    +1

    Boot camp windows.

    • kristo on 30/09/2013 - 20:02

      Parallels is more practical than Bootcamp — for ~$70 you can run all of your Windows software side-by-side with OSX software. the demands plenty of RAM, but it's a worthwhile investment if you use Windows software regularly.
      Bootcamp is free and fairly fast, but chews up a lot of disk space and you have to restart the computer every time you want to switch from Win to OSX applications, thus there is no way to cop-paste from one to the other.

  • Idealist on 30/09/2013 - 07:42

    Openoffice is a good substitute for Word, Excel, etc. it's free.

    • Idealist on 30/09/2013 - 10:41

      Forgot to mention Openoffice plays well with Word documents etc…

  • bajillionaire on 30/09/2013 - 08:16

    Get Sophos for some good, free AV and malware protection.

  • srhardy on 30/09/2013 - 14:23

    memorykeeper free from appstore
    flash player
    flipformac (codec for windows on the mac)
    java
    ntfs for mac
    +1 menuu meters as the mac has no activity lights
    LibreOffice over openoffice IMO
    transmission for torrents
    picasa for photo cat/edit
    VLC BEST MEDIA PLAYER
    Virtualbox (VM software, install windows or linux)

  • kristo on 30/09/2013 - 20:09

    Libreoffice is superior to OpenOffice
    alternatively, if you use Microsoft Office at school/work you may be able to buy it for $15 from Microsoft's website, or you could spend $80 for iWork (equivalent to Word & Excel). if you're used to Outlook (especially in a corporate environment) you will find Mac Mail a chore to use, as it is quite basic, but adequate for beginner users.

    • srhardy on 30/09/2013 - 21:12

      ? $15 link and info , muchly appreciated!

  • srhardy on 30/09/2013 - 21:11

    +1 appcleaner (free)

  • ethereal88 on 01/10/2013 - 06:16
    +1

    Yes, I would have suggested sticking with Windows instead of buying into a horrifically locked down and restricted product/ecosystem that is heavily overpriced. You could have bought a decent Windows laptop for $600 and added a $130 mSATA SSD and come out vastly ahead.

  • srhardy on 01/10/2013 - 09:07

    You would be hard pressed to find a windows laptop like the AIR, even the windows ULTRABOOKS are priced higher and few are state of the art 4th gen intels (yet)

  • dylanando on 09/10/2013 - 15:15

    i bought an air, about a month ago. was so hard getting used to it. but now i absolutely love it, i dont see myself going back to windows again. Backlit keyboard is great too lol

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