Comments on: mac in the box

Question: mac in the box

Pants! — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:11:18 -0800

So i just got myself an iMac yesterday. Of course, I like it. But what cool things can I do with it that I probably don't know about? Also, what should I be concerned about or not do? I know a lot about Windows and PCs, but next to nothing about this fancy new machine on my desk.

By: blaneyphoto

blaneyphoto — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:18:09 -0800

My brand new iMac had a wonderfully disastrous hard drive failure - physically broken mechanical parts - that resulted in a complete loss of years of work. So although this may not happen to you, back up your data. Now. Really.

By: mphuie

mphuie — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:21:37 -0800

Macs and PCs can do pretty much the same things. The sky's the limit. You may look 'cooler' doing it on a Mac though. YMMV.

By: HotPatatta

HotPatatta — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:26:30 -0800

You can stare at the the 'Flurry' screensaver for hours.

By: Foci for Analysis

Foci for Analysis — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:27:49 -0800

Get to know the userland and the command line.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:28:41 -0800

your imac comes with a built in microphone and webcam that you can use via ichat to video chat with people. enjoy. it's a blast.

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:32:52 -0800

It's a very small thing, but I have never, ever seen a PC that you could "sleep" without disastrous side effects (usually related to the audio interface). Since switching to an iMac, I put it to sleep every night and only reboot it for system updates. Saves electricity and time.

Exposé is fantastic, too.

By: KenManiac

KenManiac — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:41:12 -0800

plenty of things. check out PhotoBooth. fun for the whole family. rip all your CDs into iTunes, and never have to get up to search for a song again. open GarageBand and make your own songs quick and easy. make a movie with iMovie. make your own web page with iWeb.

lots of these things you can do on a PC too, but the Mac comes with usable apps, not annoyware that works for a month and then complains until you buy it.

plus the lack of virii and malware, not to mention the even more annoying norton 'reminders'.

TextEdit will open, edit and save Word docs, or if you need more, check out Pages and Keynote. No need to buy Office. NeoOffice is free and works very well.

there's many many good free apps out there, as well as many good troubleshooting and informative websites.

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:45:00 -0800

widgets.

Also, what are your hobbies? What things are you into? How do you spend your time? There are widgets, iCals, and other things that can help make knowing about, organizing, or planning to do these other things easier.

By: kickback

kickback — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:09:33 -0800

I'd encourage you to play around with leopard's fabulous new 'local network aware' finder. Share some folders on any other computers, and they'll magically appear in the left sidebar. Install a vnc server on any other boxes you're running, and you're able to launch a remote desktop session from the same sidebar in the finder, with zero configuration on the client end.

By: daser

daser — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:12:58 -0800

Assuming your iMac came with Leopard, buy an external hard drive to use as your Time Machine drive. Backups are imperative and with Time Machine, they are automatic.

By: meehawl

meehawl — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:18:58 -0800

lack of virii and malware

Not entirely accurate. Quicktime is particularly vulnerable to exploits on both Windows and OSX. Some of these are now live and being seeded through poisoned Google hits. Update it like yesterday.

By: mkultra

mkultra — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:45:14 -0800

Some variant on this question gets asked every week. Search the archives.

By: PatoPata

PatoPata — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:46:28 -0800

Here's something I didn't know about: you can easily turn your iMac into a wireless router. My iMac is connected to a cable modem; to access the internet wirelessly with my Windows laptop, I just turn on Airport and Internet Sharing on the iMac. The range is decent--I can work downstairs or out in the garden with the Mac on the second floor.

To do this:
- Open System Preferences
- Click Network, then turn on Airport
- Still in the System Prefs window, click Sharing, then Internet, and then Start.

Of course, I'd rather work on the iMac, but my clients require some Windows software. And I'm not schlepping my iMac out to the garden.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:52:06 -0800

While your iMac is on, hit the F12 button. Those things that pop up on your screen are widgets and you can download more.

Learn to use Expose, it's lifesaver.

By: 40 Watt

40 Watt — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:19:25 -0800

Exposé is indeed the shit. I can't count the number of times when I'm on my PC at work and I try to flip my mouse into the lower right corner thinking it'll move all my windows out of the way.

I've been a Mac user since the beige toaster era and I'm still surprised by the things it can do.

I've picked up a ton of useful info by reading some Mac-related blogs via RSS, which allows me to quickly sift out the more fanboyish blather from the truly interesting. I've discovered a bunch of great software and hardware tips by reading Daring Fireball, Infinite Loop, MacSlash, The Apple Blog, and The Unofficial Apple Weblog on a daily basis.

And to read those RSS feeds, I'd suggest the world's best Mac RSS reader NetNewsWire.

Other things you can do?

Catalog and organize your books, CDs, DVDs and games.
Do some image editing on the cheap.
Play classic video games.
Find alternatives to default Apple software (some of which you may prefer, coming from the Windows world)
Do some stargazing.
Record some streaming audio.
Write some stuff.
Rip some DVDs.
Make some stop-motion animation with your iSight.
Keep track of your library books.
Make some old-school electronic music.

And don't forget to look at all the bazillion other AskMe posts on the same subject.

By: The Deej

The Deej — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:20:55 -0800

You played with the remote and Front Row already right?

Maybe you didn't. A friend of mine had her new Mac for a few months when I mentioned the remote while talking to her on the phone. "Oh, is that what that is?" she said. I instructed her to point it at the screen and push menu. She audibly gasped.

So, yeah, do that.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:31:01 -0800

also, get quicksilver.

By: 40 Watt

40 Watt — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:37:54 -0800

or Butler.

By: mullingitover

mullingitover — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:21:14 -0800

I recommend setting up Espose with hot corners. I have the bottom left set to 'show all windows,' the bottom right to 'desktop,' top right to Dashboard, and top left to screensaver. It makes these tasks into gestures you can do with the mouse, and it's really handy.

I also recommend getting the Electric Sheep screensaver.

By: verb

verb — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:53:00 -0800

Second the poster who said that you should get to know the command line. I sent the 80s and early 90s on a Mac before making the jump to Windows for work. Last year I poked my head back in and started using a MacBook and it was a real eye-opener.

As a Windows user, I was accustomed to a somewhat crippled command line. Ironically, the Mac's command line is now the real workhorse. It's a full UNIX shell with access to all the goodies you'd expect on a *NIX box. I've been in love ever since.

By: rokusan

rokusan — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:00:24 -0800

Expose, Dashboard and Spaces are huge timesavers.

I'm a big fan of setting middle-mouse button to All Windows, myself, and using that as my "switcher" but even the default F9-F10-F11-F12 are worth memorizing.

By: Paragon

Paragon — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:17:19 -0800

Lifehacker loves it some Mac software.

By: D.C.

D.C. — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:35:41 -0800

Hold down command["cloverleaf"]-control-d while mousing over text in Safari or other apps which use Apple's Cocoa frameworks.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 05:52:29 -0800

Thank you muchly for asking. I too have made the leap to Mac, via a MacBook. It is odd to discover myself clueless about what I might want, after 20 years of windows. Alas, I didn't think of Stellarium, and was on a trip this past weekend and the stars came out.

By: DudeAsInCool

DudeAsInCool — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:42:06 -0800

There are tons of creative developers who love providing all kinds of applications for the Mac. You can check them all out here at Apple, and see what floats your boat:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/

By: Mcable

Mcable — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:22:01 -0800

Get an external Hard Drive and set up Time Machine. It's the best and easiest backup system I've ever seen, and it's saved my ass twice since I bought my new iMac two months ago.