Weblog of a “Switcher”

Since I switched to OS X and the Macintosh, I have looked over a bunch of freeware and shareware applications for OS X. I have accumulated quite a bit, but there are a few applications that I feel are must haves for any OS X user, especially switchers.

General Applications

KeyCue (approx. $31.08): For folks that have just switched to Macintosh, this is a utility that displays all the keyboard shortcuts for an active application. By just holding down the Command key for a short time, KeyCue will display a screen that shows all the available keyboard shortcuts and their names.

KeyCue was a great tool to help me get started learning keyboard shortcuts. I don't really use it now so I can't really say it's a true "must have" application, but it's a great help.

TextMate ($63.00): Ask any Mac user what application they use for editing text and 99% of them will say TextMate. TextMate is about the most flexible text editor I have ever seen. It supports a ton of file types all with color syntax highlighting. It also has something called Bundles that allow you to script the editor to do just about anything you can do with text. There is a repository of hundreds of bundles that have already been written.

There are other good text editors out there, even a few free ones, but if you are going to do anything at all serious with text, TextMate is the way to go.

GeekTool (free): GeekTool is a general purpose utility that allows you to display just about any data on your desktop. You can display text, graphics, and even run shell commands. I use it to display my systems Uptime, a list of the top CPU intensive processes and all mounted drives with space used, free, % capacity, etc...

This tool is not for everyone, but if you like the idea of displaying status info, it's worth a look.

SoundSource (free): This little MenuExtra gives you convenient access to all your sound options and volume controls. You can change where Output, Input, and System sound settings all from a menu in the menubar. A really useful free MenuExtra utility.

Cents ($4.99): I only recently came across this little gem. If you tend to buy a lot of shareware, this little MenuExtra will help you keep track of how much you have spent. Thanks to Cents, I am keeping my shareware spending in budget instead of going crazy as I have in the past.

TextExpander ($29.95): When I first heard about TextExpander, I didn't think much of it. When I first checked it out, all I saw was that it expanded typing macros. So if I typed ssig, it would type a letter signature in for me. Ehh.

Well, it didn't take me long to realize just how powerful this type of utility is. I use it all the time now. I have quite a few macros that I use all the time to enter email addresses or my website address. All I do is type "wweb" and it types in 'http://www.metzener.com/switcherblog/' for me. Plus you can download snippet groups that help you correct common typing mistakes, HTML and CSS snippets and many others that TextExpander users have contributed.

TextExpander is the second application I install on new OS X installations.

Default Folder X ($34.95): This utility extends standard file open and file save dialogs by giving you access to a bunch of features that you will find you can't live without. You can setup folders with shortcut keys like OS X's Command-D for the Desktop folder. You can create a list of favorite folders. You have access to Spotlight comments when you save a file so you don't have to switch to the Finder to add Spotlight comments. There is a preview pane so you can see what the file you are about to open looks like, again without having to switch to Finder.

Application Cleanup Tool

This is a tool that isn't absolutely necessary, but if you are a neat freak like I am, when I delete an application from my Applications folder, I like to make sure that I get rid of all the support files that are associated with it. You only need one of these applications:

• AppZapper - $12.95
• CleanApp - $10.00
• AppCleaner - Free

Launcher Application

Trying to find an application in the Applications folder can get very daunting when you have hundreds of applications in that folder. You can use Spotlight to launch applications, but there are other programs that make looking for applications and other files easy and fun:

• Quicksilver - Free
• LaunchBar - $19.95

Quicksilver is an amazing launcher program, but it's also pretty complicated and rather daunting. If your the kind of person that likes to learn programs like Quicksilver, then more power to you. I personally couldn't wrap my head around it and LaunchBar has a lot of power yet it's much easier to figure out.

Windows Virtualization

If you are switching from Windows, you will probably want a way to run your favorite Windows applications on your new Macintosh. You could use Boot Camp and install Windows in a secondary drive or partition. However, if you don't need the speed that running Windows natively just like in your old Windows box, there is a choice where you can run your Windows applications along side OS X applications by using Virtualization. There are two popular choices when it comes to Windows Virtualization:

• Parallels - $79.99
• VMWare Fusion - $79.99

Both Parallels and VMWare Fusion are pretty similar. Each has advantages and disadvantages. However, it appears that VMWare are coming up with newer features more frequently than Parallels and are a little better than Parallels. For instance, VMWare Fusion supports more than one processor in the virtualization and it also supports multiple monitors; Parallels currently doesn't.

Security Tools

1Password: 1Password ($34.95) is a program that allows you to store sensitive data like Credit Card numbers and Social Security Numbers on your computer without having to worry about someone gaining access to that data. Better still, if you have an iPhone or Palm device, you can sync all that information to those devices and have access to your sensitive data anywhere.

1Password works with pretty much every browser on the Mac so that you don't have to type that information in by hand. You can use 1Password's wallets to auto enter Credit Card info or 1Password's Identities to auto enter name and address info. You can also use 1Password to remember website passwords.

System Monitoring Tools

iStat (free) and iStat Menus (free): iStat and iStat Menus are great system monitoring utilities. iStat has a great look and is very configurable and iStat Menus allows you to put specific monitoring items in your menubar where they are readily visible. The best part is that they are free.

GrandPerspective (free): This is a utility to visualize the space used on your hard drives. At first, I wasn't a big fan of this type of disk space utility. However, I applied it to my Time Machine drive and was able to locate a couple of folders that I could exclude that otherwise take up way too much space. I really don't need to back them up so I wind up saving a ton of space in my Time Machine backup drive for more important files.

Net Monitor ($12.00): I always like to see what is going on with my internet connection as far as download and upload speeds. This little utility allows you to visualize the network traffic to and from your computer very nicely. Its very configurable and is nicely affordable.

Growl (free): Growl is a notification utility that pretty much every Mac application supports. It pops up a configurable window when ever an application finishes a task and reports it to Growl. Downloading or uploading files in CyberDuck or when NetNewsWire adds new articles after scanning the feeds or when a file finishes being saved. Growl is one of those utilities that should be installed right after you install OS X. Actually, it should be incorporated into OS X, but so far Apple hasn't done this.

Internet Tools

Firefox (free): Safari is a great browser and I use it pretty much all of the time now. I keep Firefox around for when there is a site that doesn't support Safari, there are still sites that don't support Safari I'm afraid. I keep Firefox extensions down to a minimum. I use AdBlock Plus and NoScript and thats about it. The more you add, the slower Firefox will get.

CyberDuck (free): I have used other FTP clients, but CyberDuck 3.0 has got to be the best "free" FTP client I have seen. CyberDuck has support for Amazon's S3, WebDAV, FTP and SFTP. Actually, I have a license to Panic's Transmit, but I still use CyberDuck.

Chicken of the VNC (free): There are a couple of decent VNC clients out there, but Chicken of the VNC is still my favorite. It has a goofy name, but it's a strong VNC client. You can use Chicken of the VNC to access your older Windows boxes or even access Mac's, but with iChat's screen sharing features and .Mac's "Back To My Mac", using VNC with Mac's really isn't necessary unless you want your Windows box to be able to access your Mac.

NetNewsWire (free): I have used a bunch of RSS feed readers in my days on this Earth. I rarely used a desktop client until I took a second look at NetNewsWire. I mostly used web based readers like Google's Reader client. Once I got my iPhone, I found Google's reader was a little too cumbersome. So I took a second look at NetNewsWire and NewsGator (NetNewsWire's web based client). NewsGator's iPhone interface is pretty solid and easy to work with and it sync's perfectly with NetNewsWire so you don't wind up reading the same article more than once.

P2P Client

Everyone using a computer will need a BitTorrent client at one point in time or another. There are plenty of legal BitTorrent downloads out there and a good P2P client is important to make sure you can download those files easily.

I have two suggestions:

• Xtorrent (free / Pro version $25.00)
• Vuze [was Azureus] (free)

Xtorrent not free, but I really have fallen in love with it. Xtorrent has a free version which limits bandwidth, has a limited feature set and some nags, so it's probably not a great free BitTorrent client. I personally like it because its interface is a little simpler and configuring it is a bit easier.

One of my favoriate features of Xtorrent is it's ability to search for torrents from within the client. It does a great job of finding torrents too.

Vuze is a very powerful free BitTorrent client. Tons of configuration options and ways to watch torrent downloads and is cross-platform. Pretty much the de-facto standard of BitTorrent clients. If you don't want to pay for a client, Muze is the one to use.

Video Tools

VLC (free): Is an all-purpose media player that handles just about every format out there. There isn't much more to say about VLC other than it's a must for anyone who likes to watch videos on their computer.

HandBrake (free): HandBrake is a great tool to convert video formats to other devices like the iPod, iPhone or even an XBox 360. Just point a ripped DVD as the source and HandBrake does the rest.

MacTheRipper (free): Speaking of ripped DVD's... MacTheRipper does just that. Take any DVD, and MacTheRipper will remove the encryption and Region code and store the results to your hard drive. You will then be able to use HandBrake to convert the video to any device you want.

Perian (free): This is a must for anyone wanting to use their Mac, be it a Mac Mini or MacBook/MacBook Pro as a media center computer. Perian allows you to play videos of just about any format with ease and using QuickTime. You will be able to use Front Row to watch videos just like you can with any video purchased from iTunes.

Games

Klondike Forever (free): I would be remise if I didn't mention at least one game. Klondike Forever is a great freeware solitaire game. Fantastic graphics and enough options to fit anyones preferences.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Mac, Macintosh, switch, Switcher

This is the OS X Leopard Desktop as configured after setting up Leopard for the first time. There really isn't all that much, and most importantly, notice that there are no program icons on the desktop part of the screen (this would be under the Hard Drive icons over on the right side there). Apple doesn't subsidize their hardware by selling their soul to adware/crapware programs like Windows based computer manufacturers do. Maybe this is a big reason that Macintosh computers cost a little more than Windows based systems do, but I'll tell you what, I would much rather pay the extra money for a well designed computer that doesn't put adware/crapware on my new computer than to have to pay a computer manufacturer "protection money" to have them not install adware/crapware on my new computer.

I want to basically break down what you see on your desktop so that you know when someone tells you to add a program to your Dock, you will understand what they are talking about. So lets get started...

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Dock

The "Dock" is the tray of icons at the bottom of the screen (by default) that shows running application icons as well as application icons that you place on the Dock yourself on the left side of the dashed line separator and "Stacks", documents and minimized application windows on the right side. I need to mention here that the image of the Dock in the above screen shot is not the default Dock graphics. I have used a program to change the image of the Dock to my liking.

When you see the desktop of your new computer for the first time, the Dock contains icons from iLife as well as a couple of system applications. The list of applications on the above Dock are as follows:

• Finder
• Dashboard
• Mail
• Safari
• iChat
• Address Book
• iCal
• Preview
• iTunes
• iPhoto (part of iLife)
• iMovie (part of iLife)
• GarageBand (part of iLife)
• Spaces
• Time Machine
• System Preferences

You might notice that there is something a little different under the Finder icon than all the rest of the icons. That glowing blue circle under the Finder icon tells you that Finder is currently running.

The left side of the Dock is used to allow the user to easily launch programs (similar to Windows "Quick Launch" Toolbar). Adding applications to the Dock can be done in several ways. The most popular ways are to find the application in your Hard Drive (Application folder by default or the folder that you copied the application to), then drag the icon from the Finder window to the Dock. When you do this, the other icons on the Dock will separate to make room for the new icon to be dropped. Then when you drop the icon, it will be there from that point on.

You can also add an application to the Dock after running it. If you right-click (or hold down the Control key and click) on the application icon that you want to stay on the Dock, a pop-up menu will appear:

As you can see, the popup menu item "Keep in Dock" allows you to add an application icon to the Dock. You can also tell OS X Leopard to launch the application when you log in to your account with the item "Open at Login". You can go to where the application is stored on your Hard Drive by using "Show in Finder". "Hide" allows you to make the application window disappear from the screen. You can make it reappear by clicking on the application icon again. The final item "Quit" allows you to quit the application from the Dock.

If there are menu items above "Keep in Dock", those are added by the application. In the above screen shot, Safari allows you to create a new browser window and if there are more than one browser window open, you can select the active window with a list of items that will appear at the very top of the Safari popup menu. In the above example, there was only one Safari browser window open.

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OS X Menu Bar

This is the only Menu Bar you will ever find on a Macintosh running OS X. Well, so long as you are not running a Java application or running an application that uses X11. (Don't ask)

There are two sections of the Menu Bar. On the left side of the Menu Bar is the application menu. Actually, there are 2 sections of the left section of the Menu Bar. The first is the Apple Menu Bar Item. This is the menu bar item that uses the '' (Apple symbol). This menu bar item is always there. It contains items like Software Update, System Preferences, Log out, Restart, Shutdown, etc...

The rest of the left side of the menu bar is for the active application. For example, in the above screen shot, you see "Finder" right next to the Apple Menu Bar Item. This is because the Finder is the active application. So all the Menu Bar items on the left side in that screen shot are for the Finder.

The right side of the Menu Bar are for what are called Menu extra's. These are little applications that can be used to give you status information, date and time, your account and the ability to switch to a different account in OS X, and most importantly, Spotlight.

Spotlight is the small icon that looks like a magnifying glass. Spotlight is the way cool tool that helps you locate files, documents, mail messages, PDF's, Dictionary definitions, and even calculate simple formulas. For Example:

When you put words or file names into Spotlight, you will be given a list of items found in various locations on your account. As you can see from the screen shot on the left, Spotlight finds Definitions, Applications, System Preferences, Documents, Folders, Email Messages, Images, PDF Documents, Webpages, Movies, etc... You can configure Spotlight to display that list in a specific order and you can also tell Spotlight not to search in specific folders. You can also use Spotlight to do quick and dirty calculations as seen on the right side screen shot. It's great for times when you don't want to bring up the Calculator application to get the answer to a simple formula.

The right side of the Menu Bar is something like Windows "Notification Area or System Tray". It's not exactly like it, but it's darn close.

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Desktop Icons

Actually the area for Desktop Icons is pretty much the entire desktop and I have a small section highlighted in the screen shot. I just wanted to show where the icons start displaying from since it's different from Windows. With OS X, desktop icons will start appearing from the upper right side of the desktop flow down till there is no more room and then flow left. In Windows, they start appearing in the upper left of the desktop flowing down till there is no more room and then flow to the right.

Also like Windows, you can configure "Finder" to make certain items appear first. I say Finder because the Desktop and all it's icons are a part of the Finder at this point. Displaying the Finder's Preferences will give you a ton of options. 

In the first pane (or General pane) of the Preferences window here, you can see for checkbox items. Hard disks, External disks, CDs, DVDs, and iPods, and Connected servers. Each item allows you to either display or not display those items on the desktop if they are present. This is a much easier setting to find than in Windows when you want to either show or hide the My Computer or Network Neighborhood icons.

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Finder Window or Application Windows

Finally, this is a Finder application window. When OS X starts up for the very first time, it opens a Finder window pointing to your "Home" folder. The Home folder is a folder that OS X sets up for each user account created. The above screen shot shows "Guest" because I logged into the Guest account to take the screen shots for this article. Your Home folder will be named whatever you used for the "short" version of your account name.

The Home folder contains all kinds of other folders. In the picture above, you can see that the Desktop folder is stored there as well as a Documents folder, a folder where files downloaded from Safari will be stored called Downloads, a Movies folder, a Music folder where iTunes stores all the music you buy or add to iTunes (If you have iTunes configured to keep track of the files for you), Pictures is where iPhoto keeps your pictures (again, if you have iPhoto configured to handle storing pictures for you, and a few other folders like Sites which you probably won't use unless you are going to use OS X's built-in Apache web server.

The Public folder is a place to put files that you may want to share with other users of the computer. You see, only you can access your Home folder. Other users can't even open the folder to look inside. They can see your Public folder, so if you have a picture you want to copy to a different user, you can put that picture in your Public folder. The other user can then go to /Users/{your home folder}/Public and see the files you have placed there.

The Library folder is also a very special folder. This is where OS X stores all kinds of information from programs you have run and System Preferences you have set. If you look inside the Library folder, you will see a whole bunch more folders. If you use GarageBand for instance, you will find a lot of files that GarageBand can use like Loops and Sounds in /Users/{your home folder}/Library/Audio. Program preferences are mostly stored in the /Users/{your home folder}/Application Support folder.

That pretty much covers the OS X Leopard Desktop. In the next installment, I'll cover some of the major applications that come free with your new computer.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Mac, Macintosh, switch, Switcher

So you are ready to turn on your new Macintosh for the first time. For me, this is really a great time. It's like that new car smell. It only happens once, but it's a great experience.

When a Macintosh turns on for the very first time, the first thing you will see is a dialog asking what language you will be using your computer in. After answering the language dialog, you are taken to a short "Welcome" movie where the "Welcome" is displayed in pretty much all the languages that the Macintosh supports.

Welcome
Now you are presented with a screen to select the Country or Region you live in. This helps OS X setup the format for money, time and other region specific formats. If you wait a few seconds and you have speakers connected (built-in or external), you will hear the computer talk about voice-over options and how to turn it on or get more information on voice-over for the Mac. Select the correct region in the list and then click the Continue button to proceed.

Select Your Keyboard
The next screen asks what keyboard layout you are using. It will default to showing versions of the language and region you previously selected. With English and United States, you will be asked to select between a U.S. or Canadian keyboard. Select the correct keyboard and click Continue to proceed.

Do You Already Own A Mac?
This screen will ask if you already own a Mac. If you do, you will be walked through transferring your software and data from your older Macintosh to the new one. If this is a new computer or you are switching from Windows to the Macintosh, you can select "Do not transfer my information now" option and press Continue to proceed. If necessary, you can always run a program called "Migration Assissant" later to transfer programs and data from an older Mac.

Enter Your Apple ID
This screen asks for your Apple ID. If you don't have one yet, you can click Continue to move to the next screen, but if you have one (probably do if you ordered your new Mac in the online Apple store), you can enter that information now. If you are worried about privacy you don't have to enter any data here at all. This is just to make your life a little easier later when setting up .Mac.

Registration Information
This screen will help you register your new computer with Apple so that Apple will have information about your new computer if you need to call them later. Just fill in all the fields and press Continue to proceed. If you want, you can read about Apple Privacy Policy by clicking the "Privacy Policy" button.

A Few More Questions
This screen helps Apple better sell their computers. You don't have to select any data on this screen if you don't want to, but I don't think the info is very personal either. Click Continue when you are ready to move on.

Create Your Account
This screen is very important, you will be asked to create a user account on your computer. You can create more accounts after you finish setting up the OS for the first time. Just enter your Name in the first field. The second field is for a short version of your name. After you setup your OS you won't be able to change this name, so make sure to select a good one. If your name is Jerry Smith, a good short name is 'jerry'.

Next enter the password you will want to use with this account. You don't have to enter a password, but I really suggest entering one. This way, only you can log into your account and software won't be able to install something behind your back. Enter your password a second time to ensure you typed it correctly.

The last field asks for a Password Hint. I suggest not entering anything here. If you can remember your password with a hint, odds are, that hint might be enough for someone else to break into your account. If you are the only one that will be using your computer and this computer isn't a notebook computer, it's probably OK to put something here. Now just click Continue to proceed.

Select a Picture For This Account
This is pretty cool. Every computer except the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro (interesting that the cheapest and most expensive computers don't come with iSight cameras) comes with a built-in iSight web camera. Since this is the case, you will probably see a screen with a window that has the output of the built-in iSight camera displayed. This allows you to use the built-in iSight camera to take a picture to use with your account.

If you don't want to use a picture of yourself for the picture used in your account, you can select "Choose from the picture library" to pick a picture that comes with the computer. You can change this picture at any time when you have something you really want. Click Continue to proceed again.

Complete Your Mac Experience
This screen is basically an ad for .Mac (dot Mac). .Mac is a service that Apple provides that gives you some nice features, but it's a bit pricy. $99 a year. There are plenty of arguments on both sides of the fence for .Mac. I actually have a .Mac account. I use it mainly for the "Back To My Mac" feature that allows me to use my MacBook "anywhere" in the world to connect to my Mac Pro which allows me to get files, send files, control it as if I were sitting at my Mac Pro and more.

The screen tells you all that .Mac can do for you. Personally I like the "Back To My Mac" and Syncing feature. You can sync data on one Mac computer to another Mac computer and back. If you travel and have a desktop and notebook Mac computer, this will be very helpful.

You can signup for a trial account that I think lasts for 60 days so you can see if it's worth using. You can't sign up for the trial account in this screen, but later when you go to the .Mac website. As always, when ready, click the Continue button to proceed.

Thank You
After a short amount of time configuring your computer to the settings you selected during the process, you are presented the "Thank You" screen. Your finished.

Press the Go button and OS X will startup for the very first time.

Create A Second User
At this point, it's a very good idea to create a second "Administrator" user. This way, if something happens to your account, you will have the Administrator account to use to setup a new "Standard" user account later.

Also, make sure the account you setup when setting up OS X for the first time is a "Standard" account. Unlike Windows, you don't need to be an Administrator to run software. OS X is perfectly capable of running and installing programs as a Standard account. This is the safest way to run your computer. Especially if you are unfamiliar with computers and security.

There are a few programs that require Administration level access to install. Printer drivers or software that will run for all accounts instead of just your account. You can use the Administrator account and password to install those, even when you are logged into your Standard account.

To make sure your account is a Standard account, launch the System Preferences program. You can easily do this by pulling down the "Apple" menu (Menu item with the  symbol at the far left side of the menu bar. The 4th or so item down is "System Preferences...", select that menu item and System Preferences will start.

Select the Accounts item in the line of "System" icons and you will see something like this:

As you can see, my personal account is set as an "Admin" account. To change this to Standard, you will need to click on the little lock on the lower left portion of the screen. That little lock ensures that no important options are changed without proper approval. You will be asked for your account password to proceed.

To change the account to a Standard account, uncheck the "Allow user to administer this computer" checkbox. The account will be a Standard account after you log out and back in again.

While you are in the Accounts Preferences, you should add an Administrator account. Click on the little "+" button under the list of accounts and "Login Options" item on the left side of the window.

You will see a sheet (a "sheet" is the small window that slides down from the upper part of the window like the one above when you click the "+" button) appear with fields that are the same as the ones you used to create your initial account when setting up OS X for the first time. I suggest entering 'Admin' for the name and 'admin' for the short name, use a good secure password and no hint here. This is the account that if someone logs into your computer with, can do just about anything to your system. You want to make sure that only you can log in with this account or someone you allow to administer your computer. Don't turn FileVault protection on unless you know what that is.

Click the Create Account button when you are finished.

Now click the little open lock icon to lock the screen up again.

You can change your account picture here by clicking on the current picture. You can select from the list of icons that Apple provides, or you can select "Edit picture..." where you will then be able to adjust the picture, select a picture from your iPhoto library, or from a picture on your Hard Drive, or even take a picture with your built-in iSight camera.

At this point, go ahead and quit System Preferences and log out of your account. This way you will be accessing your computer as a Standard user from that point on and you will be much safer doing so.

System Preferences
At this point, I suggest starting System Preferences again, and going into each of the "preference panes" to see what they can do for you. Go ahead and change some of them if you feel comfortable doing so.

Basically, if you don't feel comfortable making a change, don't. However, there are certain preference panes like Appearance that you will want to look at to make changes to the way the Scroll Bar Arrows appear. If you are coming from Windows, you might want to have them set to be at the top and bottom of the scroll bar instead of both the up and down arrows being at the bottom.

If you want to play with some of the slightly scarier settings, log in with the "Guest" account, you can make all kinds of changes to see what they will do. If you are not asked for an administrator password, you are changing an option that is specific to the Guest account. When you are finished playing, log out of the Guest account. The way the guest account works is that when someone logs out of the Guest account, all data and options created during that the session the user was logged in for will be removed so that the next "Guest" that logs in sees a clean account just like the previous "Guest". This is a great way to experiment with preferences.

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In the next installment I will go over what you see on the screen when you first log into OS X. The Desktop, Dock, Menu bar, etc...

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Mac, Macintosh, switch, Switcher

So, you have gone to your local Apple store or the Apple website store and bought your new Macintosh. The box is in your home and you are ready to begin. So let's go over what to do next...

Unboxing
One thing you will find with Apple is that they know how to package a product so that it is not damaged in shipping. It probably causes the cost of the product to got up by a fair amount, but I have to say that I feel it's worth it so that when you are finished unpacking your new expensive toy, it's in pristine condition.

I get the feeling that Apple takes great pride in making sure that their products are well packaged. It shows in everything they sell. From their Mac Pro all the way down to a lowly cable converter.

To show what I am talking about, here is a link to an Engadget article unboxing an new iMac: Apple 4G iMac: first unboxing, impressions. Here is a link to Ars Technica article doing an unboxing, also of a new iMac: Unboxing the new, anodized aluminum iMac.

Here is a short video of the same thing: (Sorry, there is a few ads in there)

Apple Macintosh owners are usually very proud of their new purchases and like showing them off when ever possible.

Connecting
So now everything is out of the boxes, time to connect up all the cables and power cords.

Depending on the model of computer you purchased, there may be as few as 3 cables to plug in or there maybe more. With the iMac, you will have a power cord, the keyboard and the mouse. You will then be ready to turn it on.

The notebook computers will only need to have the power brick plugged in and connected to the computer. Notebooks usually are shipped with about an 80% charge on the battery to start with, but it's pretty much a good idea to plug in the notebook to make sure you have power for getting the system setup.

The Mac Mini will have what ever you already had as far as cables to plug in, or if you purchased a monitor, keyboard and mouse because it was your first computer. Then you will have a few more. The little booklet that came in the box with the computer will have a good description of what needs to be connected in order to get started. If you are unfamiliar with your new computer, it's probably a good idea to read that little manual just to make sure you don't mess anything up.

Mighty Mouse
I would like to take this moment to mention that if you are switching from a Windows system to a Macintosh. You will probably want to use your old mouse with your new Macintosh. You can download the latest drivers for the Mac here: Download Mouse and Keyboard Software. You don't need to install mouse drives for a USB mouse that you were using on your old computer. However, it the mouse has more buttons than 3, to take advantage of the extra buttons, you will need to install the drivers.

Also, if your mouse is not a USB mouse, you can use it too. You will need a PS-2 to USB converter, but the Macintosh will recognize the mouse and use it just fine. (My parents use an older PS-2 mouse)

I personally am not a fan of the Mighty Mouse Apple sells. For someone who has never dealt with left and right clicks, the Mighty Mouse is a fine transition to a multi-button mouse. However, for someone used to Windows and more importantly gaming, the Apple Mighty Mouse is not a good choice. The biggest problem I have found with it is it's lack of support for detecting when both the right and left buttons are pressed at the same time. Apple feels that if both fingers are on the surface of the mouse (the Mighty Mouse determines which button is being pressed by touch), that the user is treating the mouse like the older Apple mice. Gamers use both buttons on mouse as another action pattern. For example, World of Warcraft takes both buttons being held down to tell the game that the player wants to look around when they move the mouse around.

Your Old Keyboard
If you are using a special keyboard, be it a gaming keyboard or an ergonomic keyboard. You are probably used to that keyboard and probably won't like or want to switch to a new keyboard.

You can use your old keyboard, even if it isn't a USB keyboard. You will need to use a PS-2 to USB converter to interface the keyboard to the computer.

There is a small caveat with using non-USB keyboards with Macs. After a reboot, you will have to disconnect the keyboard then reconnect it in order for the keyboard to be responsive. At least this has been my experience with my parents Mac Mini. After that disconnect/reconnect, the keyboard works perfectly.

Also, you might want to change some key mappings so that the Control, Alt/Option, and Command/Windows keys are in the correct place for true Macintosh users. In the System Preferences, in the Keyboard & Mouse system preference:

If you click on the "Modifier Keys..." button at the bottom left:

You will get a "sheet" to appear that allows you to remap four modifier keys to do something other than what they usually do:

Now, a veteran Mac user might want to change the Caps Lock key to "No Action" so that they won't accidentally change the state of the Caps Lock. (This is what I do) However, you can change the modifier keys around in so that a Windows keyboard is laid out similar to a Mac keyboard. To do that, you will want to swap the Option and Command keys. The "sheet" will look like this when you have finished swapping those keys:

This will also benefit yourself when you go to someone else's Macintosh that happens to have an Apple keyboard. You won't be confused over where the Command and Option keys are.

External USB/FireWire Hard Drives
I also want to bring up external hard drives too. Now that you have a new computer, it's probably a good thing to start backing it up. Especially since you have Leopard with Time Machine that automatically backs up your computer without you having to do anything at all.

What you will want to do is buy an External USB or FireWire Hard Drive that is 2 times the size of your internal Hard Drive storage or more. So if you have 250GB's of Hard Drive storage in your new iMac, then you would want to get a 500GB External Hard Drive. The reason for this is so that you have enough space on the External backup drive for your entire internal hard drive and future incremental backups that will go on day by day for months in the future.

Trust me when I say that backing up your computer is probably the most important task you will ever perform on your computer. You will most certainly regret not doing it the day you lose a hard drive to wear & tear or some other reason.

Speakers
Every Macintosh comes with some form of built-in speaker system. Some are pretty darn good like the iMac, and some are a complete joke like the Mac Pro and MacBook Air. If you plan on listening to music or watching a movie on your new Macintosh, you will probably want to look into getting some decent computer speakers.

There are a lot to choose from and fall into anyones budget. Make sure you can actually listen to the sound quality before you purchase any speaker system. You don't want to spend your hard earned money only to find that the speakers you just purchased are even worse than what came built-in to your computer.

The next installment will cover turning on your computer for the first time, setting up OS X and adjusting the computers preferences to your personal tastes.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Mac, Macintosh, switch, Switcher

Last time, I talked about the desktop computers that Apple sells. This time, I'm going to go over the notebook line. So lets begin...

MacBook: This is Apple's entry level notebook computer. It's base price is a very reasonable $1099. There are choices that can be made to increase CPU speed and the color. However, even the top of the line 2.4GHz MacBook with a 250GB HDD is only $1499.

To be fair, you can get some down right cheap Windows notebooks that cost only $500. However, the processor that they have in that notebook is no speed demon. Mind you, for $50 more, you can get a 1.73GHz Dual core chip. It's not the Core Duo line, but it's probably pretty reasonable.

However, the problem here is that you want to get away from Windows, right? There has always been a problem with Apple and the price they sell their computers for. However, anyone who owns a BMW or Volvo knows that they could buy a much cheaper car to get them from point A to point B, but they are going to have a lot more fun with the BMW/Volvo than they would with a Yugo.

The same goes for the Mac. Yes, you can buy cheaper computers, but if you want quality workmanship and a really stable OS then Apple is really the way to go. Anyway, I digress...

The MacBook is suited for students going off to college and basically someone who wants to have the freedom of a notebook computer. Even the 2.1GHz MacBook is going to run quite quickly. It comes standard with 2GB's of RAM and 120GB's of HDD space. This is a great configuration. You won't need to upgrade anything to get full use of this system. However, if you do want to upgrade it, it's very easy to add 2GB's more RAM and even upgrade the Hard Drive. I have done both and it really is a piece of cake.

With other notebook computers, you have to unscrew the keyboard from the computer to get at the Hard Drive if you want to upgrade it. With the MacBook, it's just a matter of removing the battery and unscrewing 3 screws that hold a small piece of metal to the side wall of the battery compartment. You then have access to the RAM slots and the Hard Drive.

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MacBook Air: OK, I'm probably going to get some flack for this, but unless you just want to be the one on your block that owns a MacBook Air, I would suggest holding off on this notebook for a little while.

Don't get me wrong, it's an absolutely gorgeous notebook computer that is truly as light as a feather and incredibly thin. It's just that it's lacking some basics that I personally can't do without. A consumer replaceable battery is the big one. As a notebook computer owner myself, I know that notebook batteries start to lose their uptime range fairly quickly. My 2 year old MacBook is down to about 2.5 hours of usage on a single charge. The battery is able to charge up to about 80% of it's original capacity.

Now with Windows notebook computers, the ones that are cheap, I don't see this as a big problem since you would probably be replacing the computer after only a few years due to it being fairly underpowered.

With the MacBook Air, I can see keeping it (assuming you don't accidentally throw it away with the sunday paper) for quite a few years. It runs at 1.6GHz (not super fast, but still pretty good considering it's running OS X) with 2GB's of RAM and 80GB's of HDD space. Really not a bad configuration. However, there are some other limitations too. No CD-ROM drive of any kind, only 1 USB port, no Firewire. So, if you need a CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive and can't use the software based sharing method (you want to watch a movie on a plane with it), you are stuck buying a DVD drive made specifically for the MacBook Air and you loose the USB port in doing so.

So who is this machine suited for? I would have to say the traveling business person who needs a notebook computer with them all the time. It's light, only 3lbs. and yet still has a full sized keyboard and a 13" widescreen display. However, for just a few hundred dollars less and 2lbs. more you can get a top of the line MacBook that otherwise is pretty much the same keyboard/screen size, just all the rest of the computer that the MacBook Air doesn't come with.

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MacBook Pro: This machine is the Mac Pro of the notebook line of Apple computers. It's fast, has a great graphics card, 200-250GB Hard Drive and 15" or 17" widescreen display.

This machine is for anyone who wants a notebook computer to replace a desktop computer. It is used by all kinds of professionals including video production. It's not cheap by any means, but were talking a powerful desktop computer that fits in the size of a notebook computer. The 15" is just a fraction of the weight of a MacBook at 5.4lbs. and the 17" is 6.8lbs. so they are not light, but they are not overly heavy either. (I'm thinking Dell XPS M2010 which weighs a whopping 18.3lbs.)

If you have the money and want a notebook computer that can do just about anything, the MacBook Pro is definitely one to consider.

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There is something that all the Apple notebook computers have in common. Something that protects them from being destroyed by a clumsy co-worker or relative. What I am referring to is the MagSafe power connecter that comes standard with all the MacBook notebook computers.

As you can see, the connector is pretty much flat, it's held in place by a strong rare-earth magnet. If for some reason, someone kicks the cord when walking by, all that happens is the connector pops out of the computer harmlessly. You just pick it back up, place it next to the receptacle on the computer and it will attach itself back to the computer and you have external power once again.

With any other brand of computer, if that scenario happened, either the computer would be pulled to the ground, or the connecter would damage the receptacle in the computer to a point that you quite possibly would never be able to charge up the notebook again.

That connecter has saved my MacBook twice already. Both times I had brought it to work to use in a training meeting. Someone walking by in front of me caught their foot in the cable and the power popped right out. It's so easy to do that I don't think the person even knew they did it. I just reached over and plugged it back in and continued working.

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So that covers all the computers that Apple sells today (4/26/08). Trust me, when WWDC comes this June, there will probably be some differences. Maybe just some upgrades in processors or CPU speed, or they may even refresh a line of computers completely. The current rumors are that there will just be an upgrade of hardware, nothing more. With Apple, you can never be sure until after Steve Jobs' keynote speech.

The next installment: You have bought your new Mac, now it's time to set it up and get familiar with how it works and what the differences are between OS X and Windows.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Mac, Macintosh, switch, Switcher

So, you have decided on getting a Mac, but you have no idea which one of the several Macintosh computer systems is right for you.

Apple offers 6 base Macintosh computers, 3 are desktop computers and 3 are notebook computers.

Desktop computers:

• Mac Mini starts at $599
• iMac starts at $1,199
• Mac Pro starts at $2,299

Notebook computers:

• MacBook starts at $1,099
• MacBook Air starts at $1,799
• MacBook Pro starts at $1,999

Each computer can be customized to your needs, some have more options than others.

The Macintosh that best fits your needs is one that will do what you need it to do for as little as possible.

Lets look at each model and see what they are best suited for. Starting with desktop models we have...

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Mac Mini: This computer is about as bare-bones as a computer can be from Apple. It doesn't come with a mouse or keyboard or any other peripheral for that matter. What is pictured above is pretty much it along with a power cord and a few cables and cable converters.

This computer is for the computer owner who already has a system and is going to replace that system with the Mac Mini. If you already have a monitor, a USB based keyboard, computer speakers, etc... Then this computer can be a great replacement.

One of the most amazing features of this computer is it's size. It's 6.5" wide by 6.5" deep, by 2" tall. That's it. It pretty much dwarfs any other desktop computer out there. Yet it packs some pretty decent power.

This computer is best suited for the user who uses the world wide web and email and maybe writes a few letters. The base $599 unit is more than capable of performing those tasks with ease. The base Mac Mini comes with 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, 80GB Hard drive and a 24x Combo drive DVD player/CD-RW burner.

There are some that consider using the Mac Mini as a Multimedia hub for their home entertainment system. With a wireless Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, the Mac Mini can be placed next to any home entertainment system and not really look like a computer. It can be setup to display full 1080p resolution to an HD television.

There are a few drawbacks using a Mac Mini vrs. an AppleTV. The biggest being that the Mac Mini is not allowed to play HD quality movies rented from the iTunes Store.

On the other hand, you can install some video playback codec's (little programs that allow you to play video files like DivX or XviD encoded movie files), you will be able to play movies you have ripped from DVD's in your DVD collection without having to actually use the DVD's. You can store those movies as well as other media like pictures and songs on a more powerful desktop computer somewhere in the house. Using the Mac Mini's built-in WiFi capabilities, you can connect to your repository of media and play them on your home entertainment system with very little effort. (I do this myself with my MacBook notebook computer right now.)

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iMac: The next step up in the line of desktop computers is the iMac. It comes in two base varieties, the 20" and 24" models. The iMac has gone through quite a few variations of designs, some were OK designs and some were more like "What in the world were they thinking?" At least in my opinion.

The current design of the iMac has to be one of the most beautiful computers I have seen. Clean lines, brushed aluminum and black-bordered glass make this iMac stand out heads and shoulders above the rest.

The iMac line of computers have 4 base priced choices starting at $1,199. Each can be configured in several ways except for the graphics they use. The lowest end model comes with a lower end graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB of GDDR3 memory), where the other three base price units have a higher end graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 memory).

This system is best suited for someone who is going to be using their computer in a home office or for playing games. iMac's can have it's memory expanded by the user, but that's about it. The Hard Drive and graphics card are built into the unit and pretty much require a experienced technician to upgrade them. In fact, both the Mac Mini and iMac's are build around notebook technology hardware with the exception of the iMac's Hard Drives. What I mean by this is that there is a lot of hardware crammed into as small a space as physically possible. This allows the units to have some pretty extensive power without taking up too much physical desktop real estate.

The downside to this kind of design is that once the user configures their system when purchasing it, they can't "upgrade" the system themselves to keep up with the ever improving technology.

For that reason, Apple created the Mac Pro...

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Mac Pro: The big daddy of Apple's line of desktop computers. This computer has it all and room for much more. It starts at $2,299 and can be configured to nearly $20,000. It has room for 2 3.2GHz Quad-core Intel XEON processors (8 cores), 4 1TB Hard Drives, 32GB's of RAM, and several choices of graphics cards.

This computer is best suited for the serious gamer and up to professional media producers like Television stations, movie production companies, etc... It's a serious computer with some serious speed.

This computer is probably not for most home users. Unless you want the ability to upgrade video cards, Hard Drives and RAM when needed. Since I bought one of the first Mac Pro's to come off the assembly line, I only have 2 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo XEON processors (4 cores), but I am able to add RAM as needed, currently at 6GB's and Hard Drive space which is currently at 1.125TB's taking up 2 of the 4 Hard Drive bays. My Mac Pro cost me right around $3,600. This is close to twice what I normally paid for upgrading Windows systems, but I don't expect to need to get a new system any time soon.

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Before ending this installment, I want to mention that when you do purchase an Apple computer, stay as far away from buying Apple RAM as you possibly can. Apple charges quite a premium for it's RAM. Something that us Mac users can't quite figure out. For any system other than the Mac Pro, buying RAM is just a simple matter of going to just about any online store and buying standard RAM DIMM's. The Mac Pro requires a special kind of RAM in order for the RAM to run as fast as possible. The RAM comes with heat sink's on them and are called "Fully Buffered". Something that the other Apple computers and other computers in general don't use. Because of this, Mac Pro RAM will cost more than just about any other computer's RAM. However, that RAM allows the Mac Pro to run faster than just about any other computer being produced.

You can also purchase Hard Drives from third parties to save some money too. I upgraded my MacBook's Hard Drive recently from 60GB's to 160GB's for about $150 and can now use the old 60GB drive in the enclosure that the 160GB drive came in.

This requires you to install the RAM or Hard Drives. The Mac Mini is very difficult to upgrade, but not impossible. There are videos on the internet that walk you through the process. If you don't feel comfortable doing it, either find someone you trust to do it or go ahead and purchase the better RAM/Hard Drives from Apple. Smaller improvement steps don't cost as much as large improvements.

The Mac Pro is a cinch to upgrade and usually only takes a couple of minutes to install both RAM and Hard Drives. Just about anyone can do it, even someone that doesn't have much technical savvy.

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The next installment will conclude the Apple product line of computers with their notebook line.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Mac, Macintosh, switch, Switcher

These days, when it comes to choosing a desktop operating system, there are really only 3 choices:

• Windows
• OS X
• A Linux distribution

Not really a lot, but the Linux choice has many sub-choices if that is a path you are looking to follow. Linux has many, many distributions to choose from. Some really good and some no so much. There is a strong consensus that Ubuntu is a great choice for a Desktop Linux distribution. It certainly seems to be the most frequently updated of the bunch.

The key to deciding on what OS you want to go with falls into really one important question. What are you going to do with your newly purchased computer? If all you are ever going to do is surf the web and read email, then any OS will do. Make sure you are setup as a "Standard User" and not an administrator when you log in and it's likely you will never run into any problems.

However, if you are planning on playing games, programming, experimenting, working with photos or home videos, or pretty much doing anything more than web surfing and email, then the decision becomes a bit more challenging.

When I decided to move away from Microsoft to something different, I did spend some time looking into Linux as an option, Ubuntu specifically. I have installed and played with a few Linux distributions over the years. RedHat (back in the days when they had a general consumer distribution), SUSE, Knoppix, Debian, and a couple of others that are not around anymore.

My history with Linux is not a very happy history. I tend to kill Linux installations pretty quickly. Usually around 2-3 weeks after installing a distribution, I will have killed it to the point that the computer has to be reformatted. I tend to install software, a lot of it, to check the programs out. For some reason, I kill Linux when I do this.

The real problem here with Linux is a matter of being able to correct problems that occur. Trust me when I say problems will occur, it's just a matter of being able to get the correct information to fix those problems. There are a lot of places to go looking for help with a problem you might encounter with a Linux distribution. However, no matter how nice the community that is behind the distribution, you will need to have a pretty good understanding of how to deal with computers and operating systems in order to solve problems that pop up.

I was never able to understand the solutions offered me when I posted questions regarding the problems I saw. This very well might have been due to my not being able to formulate a question that let the community help solve the problem. Or it just might have been a problem in understanding the answer. Either way, I determined pretty early on that Linux was not for me.

This really leaves only one other solution, Macintosh and OS X.

When I first go into computers back in the late 70's, my first computer was Apple Computer's Apple ][. I have owned the Apple //e, the Apple IIgs and even a Macintosh (128K). I moved on to an Amiga 500, and later an IBM clone and the start of my nearly 15 years in the Windows platform.

During those 15 years, I was working for a company that produced educational products for both Windows systems and Macintosh systems. So I purchased a dual processor G3 Macintosh back in 2000. In those days, Apple was still in OS 9, but they were seeding developers with OS X beta disks. I managed to get my hands on OS X 10.0 beta and started playing with it. However, it wasn't very long and I had managed to kill the Macintosh due to my usual pattern of installing programs to check them out.

I wasn't able to clean up the mess that was my Macintosh box, so I sold it to the company I was working for and gave up on Apple.

Speed ahead a few years to 2006 when Microsoft was releasing Vista to a limited number of public beta testers. As I stated in part 1 of this series, I saw that Microsoft Windows Vista was not the way to go. So I took advantage of the fact that my current employer had a few Mac Mini's in the office and I sat down behind one to check out what had happened to OS X in the just over 5 years since I last looked at one.

I already knew that Apple had made a decision to switch (even Apple can be called a switcher) to Intel and the Mac Mini we had at the office was actually not one of those systems. Still, it was a very speedy little system that performed quite well. I knew about some of OS X's special features; Spotlight, Exposé, etc... So I spent a couple of days off and on looking at it trying to decided if I wanted to take the plunge as it were.

I would suggest when switching from Windows to Macintosh, that you too pick a lower-end system like a Mac Mini or MacBook notebook computer to start with. This way, you can "check your tolerance" of OS X without spending too much money.

My first Mac in quite a few years turned out to be a MacBook notebook computer. Someone who switched recently was someone named David Alison. He was a Windows user for over 24 years and made the switch this February. He has been chronicling his transition ever since.

Once you have decided on switching to the Mac, the next decision is which Mac is right for you. This seems like a perfect point to end this installment.

The next installment will go over making the decision of which Mac is right for you.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Mac, Macintosh, switch, Switcher