Just bought my first Mac!


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So I have owned an iPhone and an iPad forever, but never a Mac. Just got back from the Apple Store and purchased my first ever Macbook Pro!! I am so excited. Its actually suppose to be for my wife for college, but honestly I think we are going to make it our full desktop replacement and she can take it if needed for college. She says she doesn't want to take it to college every day.

Now 2 real questions. We purchased the wireless keyboard and wireless trackpad. I also purchased the Thunderbolt to HDMI cable so I can plug the macbook into my 22" monitor. My question is, does anyone have any good ideas on where I can put the macbook like on a stand or something? I remember seeing pics a good while ago, of people who put their Macbooks on some sort of stand sideways so it was out of the way and they used the external keyboard/monitor etc.

2nd question. Windows? What do I need to do to put Windows on this thing as a secondary OS just in case we may need it? I own Windows 7 so I have a valid key etc.

Any other suggestions for first time macbook owners?

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I know what your talking about. I seen photos too but its not that great when you put on the side because of the connections. And the price was like 250$ for the stand...which they called a dock.

Adding win7 is easy as using Bootcamp or any of the other virtual software. Drivers easy to get. It runs smooth too if you got 8 or 16 gig or ram.

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RAM is easy to replace in MBPs, just make sure you buy DDR3 SODIMMs.

Windows is easy to install. When you boot into Mac, run the Boot Camp Assistant. From there, it'll have you download additional Windows Support files (drivers/BootCamp Utility) to a USB drive, partition the main drive, and reboot to run the Win7 installer. When you get to 7's install menu, you'll have to format the BootCamp partition (since OSX will not partition it as NTFS, just FAT), then install. After installing, run the setup from the Windows Support files you downloaded earlier.

As far as making it a complete PC...it'll run pretty decent, you may have some issues with the trackpad, which is why IMO, I prefer the Magic Mouse to the trackpad if you want to use the computer as a desktop PC.

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I'd spend the additional money to get either a 27" apple display (thunderbolt or displayport it don't matter)...but if you're looking for something less...the Dell Ultrasharp 27" has the same resolution as Apple's display.

I switched from an iMac to a Mac Pro only because I couldn't stand the limitations of the iMac. The iMac is composed mainly of notebook parts (graphics card, RAM, etc) and are a pain to upgrade anything OTHER than RAM. The hard drive is near irreplaceable because of thermal sensor.

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Thanks for the suggestions. I am now thinking about what kind of USB hub to get. I am going to have to get one due to having a Printer, Blu Microphone for podcasts, Flash drive, Kindle charger, iphone charger, Jawbone charger, etc needing to plug in...

Anyone have any good suggestions? Not worried about USB3 since none of those devices support it.

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If you're not wanting to game in windows then Vmware Fusion is quite neat as you can run windows in a virtual machine then have your windows App on the Mac desktop. I think parrallels have a simular feature.

Also alfred is worth a try (The free version should be adiquate), you may or may not get on with it but I find it invaluable, I also use launchy on windows to simular effect.

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Congrats, I've been a mac user for nearly 2 years now and I think I've booted into Windows on it 3 times. I honestly can't see me switching back to a PC anytime soon.

My suggestion would be to start learning some of the shortcuts, they will make your Mac experience much more enjoyable/productive:

CMD + space for spotlight (which I use to launch most of my apps) I use dozens times a day

http://www.danrodney.com/mac/index.html

(a more daunting list)

http://guides.macrumors.com/Keyboard_shortcuts

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Just got my first mac as well (the rMBP). Almost 2 months now and I have to say the ease of use with OSX is both awesome yet annoying. Awesome in the sense that the trackpad gestures and mission control are just genius and boost productivity beyond imagination. But the ease of use comes at the expense of lack of customization on some fronts, not to mention that a lot of the mac apps are so basic compared to their Windows counterpart. Also, Finder is somehow difficult to use at times and even annoying, like the need to have the file extension in the file name when trying to rename a file. Apple needs to seriously consider recoding Finder for years osx update.

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Got my first Mac too (a MBP Retina with 16go of RAM). I?m very pleased so far? still have to lose some old Windows "reflexes", but I?m quite pleased with OS X and its simplicity

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meh, it looked nice and all when i saw it in the ads and everything. but when i started to use my sister's mac for a while, found really nothing special about it. i'm not hating or anything, but i found nothing that would win me over.

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meh, it looked nice and all when i saw it in the ads and everything. but when i started to use my sister's mac for a while, found really nothing special about it. i'm not hating or anything, but i found nothing that would win me over.

It depends on what you want out of an operating system: for me I want the power of UNIX whilst having a GUI that isn't an inconsistent clusterf-ck as with the case of Windows. If Windows is 'your thing' then all power to you :)

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What do you use mission control for? Ive had my AIR for 4 months and have yet to use or play around with it.

It's basically just a fast way to switch between applications and multiple desktops. It's pretty convenient once you get used to the trackpad gesture to call it up.

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What do you use mission control for? Ive had my AIR for 4 months and have yet to use or play around with it.

For me its a replacement for Expose (on 10.8) so it acts as a fast way of overviewing running apps & switching between them.

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Apparently Samsung product would have looked exactly like your mac and you would have saved a lot more money. :shiftyninja:

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Apparently Samsung product would have looked exactly like your mac and you would have saved a lot more money. :shiftyninja:

And if it's anything like the Samsung notebook I have in my house, you'd go though two batteries in the space of a year, the screen would be awful and the trackpad would be a crime against humanity.

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meh, it looked nice and all when i saw it in the ads and everything. but when i started to use my sister's mac for a while, found really nothing special about it. i'm not hating or anything, but i found nothing that would win me over.

I hear comments like this alot from people who use Macs but haven't paid for them.

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Just got my first mac as well (the rMBP). Almost 2 months now and I have to say the ease of use with OSX is both awesome yet annoying. Awesome in the sense that the trackpad gestures and mission control are just genius and boost productivity beyond imagination. But the ease of use comes at the expense of lack of customization on some fronts, not to mention that a lot of the mac apps are so basic compared to their Windows counterpart. Also, Finder is somehow difficult to use at times and even annoying, like the need to have the file extension in the file name when trying to rename a file. Apple needs to seriously consider recoding Finder for years osx update.

If you or others find Finder too "basic", I can recommend Path Finder by Cocoatech: http://cocoatech.com. It was designed for this purpose -- to be a "powerful Finder". The site seems to be down right now though, but they are "alive" and have updated it for Mountain Lion. They're running a blog here: http://cocoatechblog.wordpress.com. Here's a review with screenshots: http://mac.appstorm.net/reviews/productivity-review/path-finder-6-do-much-more-with-the-finder/

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If you or others find Finder too "basic", I can recommend Path Finder by Cocoatech: http://cocoatech.com. It was designed for this purpose -- to be a "powerful Finder". The site seems to be down right now though, but they are "alive" and have updated it for Mountain Lion. They're running a blog here: http://cocoatechblog.wordpress.com. Here's a review with screenshots: http://mac.appstorm....ith-the-finder/

I can't live without PathFinder. And Alfred.
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