Newbie Mac Questions

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Want to put one on my Christmas wish list...... but have a couple of questions:

1. is the MacBook and the Imac equal? or is one better then other?
2. is 2gb memory enough?

3. what if I want to run some Window applications? is boot camp good enough or should I go with Parallels? more memory?

4. Silly question: how do I use my SD card with the Mac? On windows computers I have a built SD card reader drive..... do I need to use an external card reader with the Mac?

Thanks for any help.......

DesertPhotoNut said:

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Want to put one on my Christmas wish list...... but have a couple of
questions:

1. is the MacBook and the Imac equal? or is one better then other?

Click to expand...

Not to be sarcastic, but one is stationary, one is mobile. One has a much larger monitor with better resolution. The iMac is marginally faster. Really a matter of whether you want a stationary computer or a laptop

DesertPhotoNut said:

2. is 2gb memory enough?

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For most things 2 gigs is plenty, and you can always add more down the road yourself. Changing out memory is simple and relatively inexpensive. If you are going to run many programs simultaneously, and if you are going to run Windows through Fusion or Parallels, more memory is probably good. Don't buy it from Apple though. Too expensive.

DesertPhotoNut said:

3. what if I want to run some Window applications? is boot camp
good enough or should I go with Parallels? more memory?

Click to expand...

Boot camp turns you Mac into a Windows only computer. You boot either into Windows or OS X, not both. It runs totally full speed and makes a very quick Windows machine. However, running Windows in Fusion or Parallels is much more efficient and allows you to run Windows programs alongside OS X programs with ease.

DesertPhotoNut said:

4. Silly question: how do I use my SD card with the Mac? On
windows computers I have a built SD card reader drive..... do I need
to use an external card reader with the Mac?

Click to expand...

No Macs have built in card readers. Easy to use a $20 external card reader.

DesertPhotoNut said:

Thanks for any help.......

Click to expand...

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Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/

I keep accumulating SD card readers with each SD card that I buy. The cheap USB ones work fine.

DesertPhotoNut said:

4. Silly question: how do I use my SD card with the Mac? On
windows computers I have a built SD card reader drive..... do I need
to use an external card reader with the Mac?

Click to expand...

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Thanks so much. that does answer some my questions

oh and yes I did realize one is mobile and one not I should have said system wise which one is better or are they fairly equal.....

and gotcha on the SD card.... am spoiled by the built in card readers now! LOL

DesertPhotoNut said:

1. is the MacBook and the Imac equal? or is one better then other?

Click to expand...

Apples and oranges, so to speak. First determine if you need a laptop or desktop, brand and models aside. If you need a laptop, then do you need the extra features of the Macbook Pro over the Macbook (FW800, bigger screen, more disk space, faster graphics)?

You should compare desktops against desktops, and laptops against laptops.

I have a new Macbook Pro (2.53ghz with a 7200rpm hd) and a recent iMac (2.53 ghz 20"). They both have 4gb ram. Performance feels pretty much the same. If I had to choose between the 2 machines I'd take the laptop since these days I really need the portability.

DesertPhotoNut said:

2. is 2gb memory enough?

Click to expand...

This is a photo forum, so assuming you want to use some resource-intensive image processing software possibly alongside a running Windows virtual machine you had better get 4gb ram.

DesertPhotoNut said:

3. what if I want to run some Window applications? is boot camp
good enough or should I go with Parallels? more memory?

Click to expand...

If you use Windows just for games, and those games are resource-intensive, then you should just use boot camp, and you'll want to avoid the (non-Pro) Macbook. If you use Windows for productivity (MS Office, etc) then you should probably go with Fusion or Parallels so you can run OS X and Windows at the same time.

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http://www.pbase.com/gzillgi
http://www.pbase.com/gzillgi/wedding_portrait

Beowulff said:

DesertPhotoNut said:

4. Silly question: how do I use my SD card with the Mac? On
windows computers I have a built SD card reader drive..... do I need
to use an external card reader with the Mac?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Me too, they mostly come with USB converters these days.
As long as you format at FAT32 your MAC will read it: hard drive or key.

You've had good advice about memory I think, but whatever you do, please go for it. I recently bought a Vista laptop for my son mostly to play games and it's such a pleasure to get back to my Mac. Vista works fine for me mind, but it's no more lovable than XP. It's just something to get used to and learn to work around

It's not something you can see just looking at the specs but the more you use the mac the more you appreciate how much you can do so quickly.

And although you might only have 3 programs for the Mac instead of 50 for Windows, the 3 will all work perfectly, be intuitive and be well written whereas the 50 will be mostly buggy junk which will mess up your registry when you uninstall them.
Ian

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WOW!! thanks everyone for the input....... I really appreciate it........

I am not sure whether I want to go with the laptop or the desktop, that was why I was sort of asking if system wise they were pretty equal......

I used to always just have a desktop but it crashed and my hubby bought me a laptop...... and now that is just about all I use! My kids have taken over the desktop cause it plays all of their games.

yes obviously I do the photography and need to edit. Right now I use Adobe Elements and PSPX2..... Picasa..... and d/l the Nikon program (forget the name of it)

ok, so it looks like 4gb of memory is what I really need.......

I only really have a few programs that I use on a regular basis on Windows so I think I will be ok. Now to find the best price and decide what will work the best for me

Macintosh's are pretty much fair traded. You might find a deal with $100 off the list price. Or you could use the education store discount on Apple if you are a teacher, or a student, or have access to either of the above. Beware buying extra RAM from Apple. They charge about twice what it's worth. Buy aftermarket RAM from someone like MacSales.com (OWC) and install it yourself. It's a snap, and the memory comes with complete picture instructions. You can save over $100 this way.

Please prepare for the fact that OS X is different than Windows and will take some getting used to. Get a good book such as "Switching to Mac OS X: The Missing Manual" by David Pogue or "The Mac OS X Book" by Scott Kelby, or "The Little Mac Book" by Robin Williams.

Then, be prepared to fall in love.

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Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/

Hi,

Don't discount refurbished Macs! I just got a 15.4" MacBook Pro (early 2008) 2.4 ghz for about $1400 including shipping. Same warranty and I figure now some tech had to sign off on this not some assembly line so they give a little stronger effort and make sure they work.

Same warranty and software as new.

And yes get OWC or my favorite Crucial memory upgrade. I just paid $55 for 4g ram a couple weeks back!

BTW I'm running a small photo business on the laptop. It works great and my eyes have adjusted so I get the results I'm after.

HTH

BL

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thanks so much. I am thinking that the refurb is the way to go...... not to sure about adding my own memory? that doesn't void the warranty?

if I run bootcamp I have to have a copy of windows correct (and parrallel too) ..... is that hard to install?

i know more is better but if I do start off with only the 2gb will it be ok to run either of those two programs for the windows?

Adding memory is easy on a MacBook and doesn't void the warranty. Apple designed the MacBook to allow the user to change memory.

As far as card readers go, I rarely use one anymore. I attach a USB cable and download from the camera. That way, I never have to touch the SD or CF cards in my cameras, limiting the chance they could be damaged or lost.

By the way, more memory in a computer is a good thing, but the standard 2 gigs that come with the new MacBooks are plenty to run all the programs you will want to use, and run them at the same time. In fact, that's true on my original MacBook, with only 1 gig of memory.
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http://www.pbase.com/davewyman
http://www.davewyman.com

DesertPhotoNut said:

if I run bootcamp I have to have a copy of windows correct (and
parrallel too) ..... is that hard to install?

Click to expand...

Yes, you will need a valid licence for Windows. You can run it under Bootcamp with no other software - but that then means you can't easily swap files between the two systems - it would be more like running two separate computers. If you didn't mind copying files onto an external hard drive or USB stick to transfer between OS X and Windows, that would be fine.

If you use Windows-only software a lot, and especially if you want to move files easily between the two operating systems, then you will want either Parallels or VMWare Fusion (two competing products from different software companies). That way you won't have to close down your computer and restart it every time you want to access a different software package. (I use Fusion, but I believe both are OK and do about the same job.)

However, unless there is some software that you absolutely need, and will only run under Windows, why not make a complete switch to Mac? There aren't many packages which genuinely have no alternatives for OS X (although of course there are some, they tend to be quite specialized). I find it a pain to have to work in Windows through Fusion - although I can get things done, it's not effortless and enjoyable, like when I can work just with Mac software.

Anyway good luck with your choice - both the iMacs and Macbooks are good machines. If you plan to get a Macbook and make it your primary machine, consider getting an external monitor, especially for photo editing.

jack

Laptop screens, including every MacBook I've seen, are very angle-sensitive, so it's hard to get your images correct on them. The iMac is a lot better in this respect.

I haven't seen the new LED-lit MacBooks; maybe they finally got good.

I use a MacBook for photo editing but I attach a separate monitor. I like this solution because now I have a good portable computer and a good editing station.
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Leonard Migliore

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thank you all so much. you are really helping with the decision making

I am looking at software now......

am trying to find a web editing program......that would just be a Mac program..... and no I can't afford Adobe. LOL

I have been using Namo Web Editor..... it's kind of quirky but does what I need it to do and I know the program

I have Elements and PSPX2.....

a few other programs that I use also, but I will be keeping at least one windows machine so all would not be lost if I didn't have it on the Mac....would be nice but not necessary......

Or go with San Disk Ultra 2 + (that's Plus) SD cards. They snap in half revealing a male USB plug. Then plug them straight into the USB port. I have a bunch for my G9 and they're great. I like them because it's incredibly convenient to take the card out of the camera, "break" it in half and pop it into the USB slot. No muss, no fuss.

They are a little more expensive than regular San Disk Ultra II cards though, so if you're buying a lot of cards it might be cheaper to get a card reader.

jack

Alpha Doug said:

Alpha Doug said:

4. Silly question: how do I use my SD card with the Mac? On
windows computers I have a built SD card reader drive..... do I need
to use an external card reader with the Mac?

Click to expand...

No Macs have built in card readers. Easy to use a $20 external card
reader.

Alpha Doug said:

Thanks for any help.......

Click to expand...

--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may
vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/

Click to expand...

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A few of my photos:
http://www.jackkurtzphotography.com or
http://www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=4177 or
my PhotoShelter Archive
http://pa.photoshelter.com/user/kurtzjack

If you really into coding, Coda is a great app. More GUI-like apps are Sandvox and Rapidweaver (the latter might be too expensive). And for simple things iWeb which comes free with every Mac.

iWeb, which comes free with the iLife suite of applications, is a surprisingly capable web site creator. Great for most simple web sites.
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Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/

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I did see that Iweb........ but I already have my own site and template that I use...... but was unsure if that can be imported into Iweb and used or not and whether I can them save it and upload it to my domain? via FTP

The sales person (ok, yes I was at Best Buy) didn't know about that..... but I did get to play with the computers.........while chatting with him.....

So if I can import my website and edit it in Iweb I will be pretty set ..... if not I will just have to run it on bootcamp/parallels etc. ....

What did you originally create the site with?

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Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/

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I used the Namo WebEditor....... like I said, it's kind of aquirky program but it does what I need it to do and I kind of like it!; just a simple site, nothing fancy.... but it is a WYSIWYG program which I like..

I have to admit, my coding skills are minimal now.....