the iPhone was the hook.!

gotpancakes · 05-19-2008, 05:47 PM

and now I'm looking into getting a mbp. In the coming weeks. I just graduated highschool and I'm using my grad money for it.
few questions.. Never spent more than a few min. On a mac at a time and Since I'm learning video editing this summer I think it will be great to have. How easy is "easy" when coming off of 10+ years of PC?
relability as far as virus protection etc..
Will I LOVE! It?
is it good to buy now. Or is there an updated one to be released soon?
any other tips tricks etc would love to know thanks!

freakydeaky dutch bastard · 05-19-2008, 05:58 PM

I recently bought a MacBook after owning PC(s) for the last 10+ years, too. Boy is it nice. Everything is so simple on the Mac. There's no crap; nothing but the essentials. I'm still impressed with how it handles installing and removing applications. Five minutes after I pulled it out of the box for the first time I was up and running. I just entered my wifi passwd and I was golden. That has been my experience since then, too. Everything just works like it should--no bloat.

You're gonna love it.

patrickj · 05-19-2008, 06:02 PM

LOL - iPhone = gateway drug.

I switched recently (6 weeks ago or something) after many years of PC only use and many years of working supporting PCs / networks etc. I have found the overall switch very easy, and am loving it overall. I don't know about the video editing stuff, but for day to day usage, if you're relatively tech savvy, I think you'll find it quite easy. There are also some good resources around for help - this place of course, the Apple 'switcher' or Mac101 site, and lots of others. Plus, it is easy to run Windows via Boot Camp or a virtual machine - so if you still want to or need to fallback on Windows for some apps or activities, it's easily do-able.

As for antivirus protection, I know many here will say it's probably not necessary on a Mac, but I feel better having something. I have been using Avast's quite good (and free) edition. Don't think it has found anything untoward so far on the Mac side (though it has squawked about a few things on my XP virtual machine where I also run it) - but I feel better having it around.

Lincoln · 05-19-2008, 06:10 PM

You will love it.

Like Apple says, it works right out of the box and there is no bloatware. As far as safety goes, I use nothing for virus protection on my Macs and I've never had any issues. If you need to run a Windows app for some reason, I suggest using VMware Fusion - you don't have to partition your drive to use Windows.

Since you're into movie editing, I highly suggest you order the MacBook with FinalCut Express on it. FinalCut is Apple's amazing movie editing/producing application. You can have FinalCut pre-installed for $200. Here's Apple's page on FinalCut.

- John

dturner · 05-19-2008, 08:16 PM

I have had my MBP just short of 3 months after 10+ years of windows. I can't add much more than what the above post have stated. EVERYTHING
is so seamless and effortless. If you are on a network it is detected with no typing a million addresses to get it to work. Same with adding a printer. Unlike windows, it is truly "plug and play".
Things work a little differently but takes no time to adjust and will be saying to yourself "this makes more sense" and you will get more done because mac's seldom crash or freeze for no reason.
MBP comes with imovie, but as John said if you are into serious editing FinalCut is the way to go.
To answer your last question, the MBP's were recently updated with the new touchpad features and now should be a great time to buy.

PS: You will be blown away at how the mac and iphone work together.

acosmichippo · 05-20-2008, 02:41 AM

+1 to all of the above. I made the switch in February and never looked back.

Napoleon_PhoneApart · 05-20-2008, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by patrickj

LOL - iPhone = gateway drug.

Damn! You stole my thunder!

patrickj · 05-20-2008, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by Napoleon_PhoneApart

Damn! You stole my thunder!

Sorry. Didn't even use my own thunder to do so either. Saw that line in a short but great post at the Gear Diary site and just instantly recognized / agreed with the feeling ...

gotpancakes · 05-21-2008, 02:36 PM

is there an option to get the MBP in black.. like the Macbook.. aaand is the leap from 2.4GhZ processor to 2.5Ghz worth the extra $500!!.?

acosmichippo · 05-21-2008, 04:08 PM

no black.

and there are more differences between the two models than the processor. You also get more video memory (512MB vs 256MB... which will help if you plan on using multiple displays, gaming, or video/picture editing), and a bigger hard drive (250GB vs 200GB). I happen to be using multiple displays, and being that this is my only computer, i want to be able to use it for as many games as i can. I also have a ton of music/videos stored on my HD as well as a Bootcamp partition, so the bigger hard drive was a bonus (i could have easily replaced it if i wanted, so it wasn't a huge deal)... so i thought it was worth it for my situation.