Help with Apple Mac please

[marknorton]

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I've always used a PC, never even touched a Mac but they do seem to the PC of choice for image work, so I'm thinking of buying one but need some help from those of you who already use one. Ideally, I want the Mac to integrate with my existing peripherals and PC network which has to remain for work reasons.

 

- MacBook Pro - screen size: 13, 15, 17? Or, in practice, would the Mac Pro be better and stay with a PC laptop?

 

- Can you dock the MacBook it to avoid replugging everything?

 

- Wireless?

 

- How do you back up your Mac?

 

- Can it share files on a Windows wireless network

 

- Tempted by the 30" display, anyone use a KVM switch for the dual DVI connections to allow hot keying between a PC and the Mac?

 

- Does a PC USB keyboard and mouse work on a Mac?

 

Sorry if the questions are dumb, thanks for your help from this Mac newbie!

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[Guest guy_mancuso]

MacBook Pro - screen size: 13, 15, 17? Or, in practice, would the Mac Pro be better and stay with a PC laptop?

 

I like the 15 inch becuase it is not to big for field work

- Can you dock the MacBook it to avoid replugging everything?

 

I don't thing there is a docking port by Apple at least but it really is not to bad , i bought a extra AC plug just for the desktop and leave the other in the latop bag and even have 2 mice

 

- Wireless?

 

Yes and works very nice for internet and also has bluetooth

 

- How do you back up your Mac?

I use external firewire drives and there are some great backup software toback up the system also on a external that you can boot from in case there is a problem

 

- Can it share files on a Windows wireless network

I believe it can but i made a COMPLETE switch, laptop and desktop

 

- Tempted by the 30" display, anyone use a KVM switch for the dual DVI connections to allow hot keying between a PC and the Mac?

 

The 30 inch Cinema is very nice and i believe you can use a KVM switch, That needs confirmation though

 

- Does a PC USB keyboard and mouse work on a Mac?

 

If the Mac has those drivers built in but there are combos's that work with both from Logicitech

 

Sorry if the questions are dumb, thanks for your help from this Mac newbie!

 

Mark i am fairly new also to the Mac but i really love it and i came from 20 or so years with the PC. BTW Adobe will switch the license for free also

__

[vic vic]

mark hi...

 

i never use pc so, i can talk only about mac...

 

choosing the computer is up to u... if u need mobility - it is mac-book-pro... personally - i have latest powerbook15" (a model before the newest mac-books-pros)... it is great generally - i mean the size. mobile enough and big enough to work with photos. and it is great when u have also tower g5 macs with 30 dispaly.

if u want only one computer - maybe the 17" is better as it gives u more working space.

personally, i would rather upgrade my modible computer to 15" again in most powerful configuration, but only after i will get my leaf digi camera (who knows maybe in a couple of months there will be even stronger configs from apple.. it is digital - u have to get the latest things in ordr to avoid constant upgrades).

 

also - i think that basically - the imac is very good too. it is powerful enough to use proffesionally for photography (at least with small camera files like m8) and it is with really good monitor i have to admit. the 20" is great - the 24 should be about the same but bigger.

 

yes.. most of the files u have on pc will be on mac too.....

photos are photos... no problems here... exapt the gamma gradation settings which can be overcomed eassily.

documents for example... the .doc files are supported with PAGES (and text edit too).. this is writting software made by apple... i love it and write my thesis phd with it... it is fully comfortable with pc computer of my proffessor. and also u can have office windows microsoft on your mac too if u want.

 

wireless... almost everything is wireless on mac... most of the stuff is biult in, some accessories will do the rest (like the airport base).

 

30 display - amazing... the 23 is smaller but exactly the same if u want to avoid the high price of 30.

 

ya - u can use the normal keyboards with the usb... no problems for most.. keyboard - i would suggest still to go with mac, but mouse... well - your choice.. the newest mac mouse is vary comfortable there and integrated into the operation system very well with some great functions that help in practical use....

 

 

backup the mac... no problems too.. there are various nice softwares that can help u doing it and keep lists for u etc, but the methods of back up are endless.... disks dvd, external harddrivers... it is eassy. no worries.

 

about sharing files wireless windows.. dont know ...

but sharing woreless macs is no problem at all.

[DaveEP]

I use both Mac and windows PC. MAC operates on a Windows network very well, and can access all the usual Windows shared resources (shared hard drives etc).

 

Windows can also access shared parts of the MAC too, although I have yet to figure out how to share an external MAC (firewire) drive to a windows computer. If any one knows how to do this, please let me know!

 

Yes, you can use a USB PC keyboard, but be aware that there are some differences, like the drive eject button is not there (although I think you can use F12 - not sure), and of course the volume keys are missing. The 'Windows' special keys are also not mapped in the same way, and the command key make also take some finding....

 

USB mice work.

 

I have a 15" PowerBook, and will likely upgrade to the 15" MacBook Pro, although I have looked at the 17" many times..... still can't make a decision!

[Eoin]

Mark,

 

The MacBookPro is wide screen and I found the 17in gave the best results for overall picture size for editing. The MacPro tower would always be better for your main editing platform given the option(in the future) to upgrade the graphics card and memory beyond 2GB and larger HDD's. The option exists to dual boot the intel macs into windows also.

 

I have not seen a docking option for the MacBookPro, but like guy I have several AC adapters which are left at various working places.

 

Wireless and wired networks are no problem, windowsXP, 2003 server networks may require a slight change in the registery entries. I can't remember what exactly but it has something to do with encriped passwords within 2003.

 

I use a firewire drive for backup

 

You can share files wireless and wired with Windows.

 

I don't know about the KVM but. If you ever plan to use Apple Aperture, you need all the graphics power you can get and this really shows if you use say a desktop and two displays.

 

I only use the Apple USB keyboard and mice, I also use the Apple wireless(Bluetooth) KB and Mice also.

[larry]

Mark,

 

There's nothing technical that I can add, but I've been using Macs at home since 1985 and have always been pleased with their performance and user interface. I've used a PC at work for 11 years, and at the risk of being flamed, it's a very bumpy and convoluted ride compared to the Mac. You'll find the Mac interface to be more seamless and easy to navigate, and of course, it is better for graphics. Good luck -- although you won't need it.

 

Larry

[Michael-IIIf]

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- MacBook Pro - screen size: 13, 15, 17? Or, in practice, would the Mac Pro be better and stay with a PC laptop?

 

Only you know what your requirements are. Laptops are great but at the end of the day there is nothing like a stonking desktop with a mother display for image work. The ideal solution is both desktop and laptop, do the grunt work on the desktop and carry the laptop to see clients.

 

- Can you dock the MacBook it to avoid replugging everything?

 

No. And that's another reason to have a desktop because bit by bit your MacBook Pro will become a desktop as you plug in external drives, USB hubs, ethernet cable, external display, power cord, eventually there are so many add-ons that they simply tie the machine down. Since I treated myself to a G5 desktop two years ago I've rediscovered how useful an untethered portable laptop is. My five year old PowerBook Ti has had a new lease of life because of this.

One useful thing to remember. You can connect any two Firewire Macs together using what's called Target Disk Mode. This allows one Mac to treat the other as an external drive which makes transferring large image directories a breeze. Much faster than any network protocol.

 

- Wireless?

 

Seamless. Apple were the first to deploy it.

 

- How do you back up your Mac?

 

Very easily. Look at http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html a brilliant piece of software that will also allow you boot from your backup on a Firewire drive. You might wish to consider Apple's .mac service. It's expensive as an email service but I am willing to pay the price because of the seamless way it backs-up to an internet server, and keeps all my addresses, calendars, passwords, and email rules, synchronised across both my Macs, my cell phone, and my iPod - and I can even get to them through any web connected PC. Very handy.

 

- Can it share files on a Windows wireless network

 

Yes.

 

- Tempted by the 30" display, anyone use a KVM switch for the dual DVI connections to allow hot keying between a PC and the Mac?

 

Dunno.

 

- Does a PC USB keyboard and mouse work on a Mac?

 

The keyboard would not be worth the hassle because it won't have the command key. Mac keyboards are cheap. Any USB mouse will work on a Mac - again Apple were the first company to deploy USB.

 

Good luck - you won't regret it.

 

Ask any more questions you like - either here, or PM me - always willing to help.

 

Michael

[marknorton]

Thank you all for your feedback, thinking the Mac Pro might be the way to go...

[kamilsukun]

- MacBook Pro - screen size: 13, 15, 17? Or, in practice, would the Mac Pro be better and stay with a PC laptop?

Ideal screen size for MacBookPro is 15. MacBookPro 15 is also very fast computer. 13 a bit small for photo editing. 17 is not that portable in practice. Mac Pro is the ultimate Macintosh but it is big, expensive and still like rock. Using MacBook Pro 15 with an external monitor is luxury. At least for time being. Keeping the menus and folders in the original screen and editing the photo on the big one really is comfort.

 

- Wireless?

Excellent.

 

- How do you back up your Mac?

Retrospect, a very experienced software and a firewire external disk.

 

- Does a PC USB keyboard and mouse work on a Mac?

You might prefer Mac keyboard and mouse for full optimum usage. There are wireless options but the mouse becomes heavier and changing batteries is not a joy in middle of your work. Wired ones recommended.

[topoxforddoc]

Mark,

 

Like all things in life, you buy the tools that you need. Macs will interface fine with PCs, PC networks, wireless networks etc. File sharing and swapping is no problem unless you have files embedded in a PC only programme (eg MS Access). So from the technical problem, it's easy; it may take you a few days to get used to the way Macs work.

 

I have had an assortment of Mac desktops and laptops over the years and like the ease of use and almost complete lack of maintenance. My backups (photos and my medical/business stuff) are all done onto external firewire drives which are removed and stored safely elsewhere when we are away from home.

 

Having a desktop is a lot easier for doing desk based tasks - I wouldn't like to do a lot of work on a laptop alone. Laptops are great for when you need to go on the road ie assignments away from home, urgent press photo uploads etc.

 

The balance of my computer work now is almost all desk bound. I am not a pro photographer and as many of you know I am a surgeon. My need for a road tool has diminished. Even giving medical lectures can now be done just by me taking a USB flashdrive or two. So at home I just have two desktop macs - a Mac Pro and an old G4 powermac. I've not bothered replacing my old (now dead) Powerbook with a new one.

 

The Mac Pro is great if you need ultimate expandibility (up to 3 TB of storage on board) and if you are into processor intensive apps such as video or audio recording. Otherwise for most people a good old iMac will do fine. For almost the same money as a 17 inch Mac Book Pro, you could buy an iMac 20inch (ok go for th 24 inch if you're feeling flush after Christmas) and a 2GHz white Macbook (midrange model). That would give a you the ability to use the right tool for the right job - heavy picture/PS work on a desktop and stuff on the road with your macbook.

 

That's my view on things. Hope it helps and have a Happy New Year.

 

Best wishes,

 

Charlie

[andit]

Hi Mark,

 

Here's my two cents worth of advice regarding Mac's and PC's. I switched to a 17" MacBook Pro about 7 months ago. That was one of the best decisions that I have ever made.

 

I don't use USB to connect the mouse or keyboard, I connect via bluetooth - no cables. Backup you can do using either USB or Firewire. I have a Samsung 19" external screen that I still use for my Windows PC from time to time. The great thing about this screen is that it has a 2ms response time, and has both DVI and VGA ports. So, I connect the Windows box via VGA and the Mac on the DVI port. It's a simple matter of pressing one button on the screen to switch between these two computers. Aperture is brilliant to work with in the two screen configuration - or if you're bored, work on one screen while watching a dvd on the other screen (all from the Mac of course).

 

All files are shared wirelessly, as is printing and internet access.

 

One thing that I want to add here. In all these months I have not managed to hang the Mac once yet - and I punish this machine. The Windows machine would have fallen over many times, well, I could not do half the things I do now at the same time.

 

Hope this helps you a bit.

 

Andreas.

[dhoelscher]

...

 

Windows can also access shared parts of the MAC too, although I have yet to figure out how to share an external MAC (firewire) drive to a windows computer. If any one knows how to do this, please let me know!

 

Since a Mac formatted volume (HFS) can't natively be read by a PC, you need a translator ... a company called MediaFour has a product which allows PCs to read Mac volumes ... it works really well ..

 

Mediafour | MacDrive 6

 

DH

[Guest stnami]

Mac laptops are a bit of a pain to calibrate accurately, I would not rely on one for accurate colours and white balance, I use a 17'' and a 23'' Cinema. With photoshop the windows, tools etc are on the 17 screen and all the working images are on the cinema screen, same with RAW Developer and hopefully this will be possible with Lightroom when the money version comes out

[Stevez4]

Now that there two different screens available for laptops it's likely that some Mac users will get sucked in to editing on the glossy version. But it's a trap. Don't edit on a laptop.

 

The most accurate monitor screen, I think is the 24" Intel Dual 2 Core IMac.

We switch machines each year as they improve. And unless you need vast speed, I think you'll like it. Apple stores are the best place to buy from

since they offer a fourteen day return which will cost you 10 or 15%. Its a small price to pay for testing a three thousand dollar machine.

 

I don't own stock in Apple.

[mitchell]

Mark,

 

I switched years ago and think Mac is great.

 

There is a nice backup program called "Backup" that comes with .mac. As mentioned previously .mac is expensive for email, but I got it for Backup and I'm glad I did.

 

You can easily set it up to automatically backup any specified or all files, to any specified device, on any schedual you choose.

 

Generally speaking, Apple programs are better designed to avoid needless steps, irritation, and to run seamlessly.

 

For me that is a godsend. For someone as technically adept as you, you may miss the challenge of a PC. !:^)

 

Best,

 

Mitchell

[steve_l]

for backup, the nexst version of the OS, due soon, will have built-in backup, you just need to assign it a dedicated (outboard, for a laptop) drive.

 

as mentioned, using both the built-in and an outboard display is a joy - on the Mac you just drag little icons around to show how you want the display (cursor) to flow - I have my big display on top of the laptop, menus on the laptop, images on the big display. some do it right or left. automatically resets if you go portable or return to 2-display.

 

also as said, I had a hard time calibrating laptop, never got it really right, but new ones should be better.

 

with a usb hub, cables aren't that much of an issue, really - display, firewire, USB. power, audio sounds like alot but takes only a few seconds to do.

 

15" is more portable and less fragile than the 17" - it is so thin, the old 17" used to have peroblems with flexing and cracking. don't know about the new one.

 

whatever you do, get Apple Care. you have a problem, a return shipping box comes to you the next day anywhere in the world (pretty much) and the problem is taken care of.

 

and at first, it will be a bit of a chore - some things are just different and your intuition will be wrong. For example, don't attempt to rename the root drive ("My Computer" on a PC) after you assign a name at installation. It seems that this is a Unix thing that, if you rename it, you will have to wipe the machine and start over to make it work correctly again (yeah, I speak from experience). But just find a Mac person to ask before doing things for a while and you will be fine.

[Guest Bernd Banken]

Hi Mark,

 

this could be your best decision, made in the very late 2006...

 

Here is a link from the apple hp in which some questions and hints are answered and given:

 

Apple - Support - Switch 101

 

In my family with two sons studying in different places, six Macs are running more or less 24/7 with no issues. We are no IT nerds, just only user of different software. It's from music, office suits (MS) iDVD and all the other stuff from Adobe to Apple.

As the English say, OSX works like a breeze, very smooth and elegant.

 

Beneed the soft aquatic surface, the strict Unix is working and protecting you against viruses and other malware.

 

Just visit the apple hp and drift around, make a download of iTunes for free and get the impression how an Apple program looks like and works, even you don't have a Mac at the moment...

(Be careful - iTunes will collect all your music and sorts it, so if you are using a different jukeboxprogram so stop here.

 

A sidenote: In the german forum we have a very capable MacMaster, Michael nick "mjh".

I know him from a german Mac forum.

 

One question: Do you have a RayBan?

You'll walk in future on the sunny side of the street...

 

Cheers

Bernd

 

EDIT:

 

At the 7. or 8th of January there is a convention please wait to get the newest information about hardware release or software news. Thanks.

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Mark as Bernd indicated there could be more info from that convention and also there is leopard coming which is a newOS for the macs that really looks great. you can go to the Apple site and there is a leopard preview section on what the next version will look like and such. Also CS# beta is universal codeand hopefully very soon it will be live for the Intel macs.Also no one mentioned this i don't think there is Boot camp that can run a complete PC OS system off another hard drive using the same box.

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[stunsworth]

One question.

 

I have a MacBook and an XP desktop The XP machine has some shared drives that I share with the Macbook. This works fine and I can access the files, but... I have to reconnect manually every time I power up the two machines. This typically happens when I travel with the Macbook. I get back home, start up the XP machine, then open the Macbook, but I've lost the shared drives. If I reconnect to them manually then there isn't a problem.

 

Is there any way to have the MacBook automatically reconnect to the shared drives when they are available?

 

Thanks, hope this makes sense :-)

[sagarwal]

MacBook Pro - screen size: 13, 15, 17? Or, in practice, would the Mac Pro be better and stay with a PC laptop?

 

The main reason a colleague of mine still chose a PC laptop over a MacBook Pro as recently as 2 weeks ago is the display resolution on the laptop itself. Apple laptops still don't have high enough resolutions comparable to PC laptops, so if that is very important to you, you should take a closer look at this aspect. Since you also mentioned a 30" display, I'm guessing it won't be a factor. For a long time, I had a similar reason to not switch, and then realized there's no way I'm going to do any fine-tuning of images on a laptop display anyway, so it doesn't matter whether I get a PC or a Mac. Then, considering how well integrated everything on a Mac is, I opted for a 15" MacBook Pro, and boy am I glad!

 

- Can it share files on a Windows wireless network

 

I'm not sure what you mean Windows "wireless" network. I have used the MacBook in a network of Windows computers though, and had files transferred between a Mac and PC. I found it easier to share a folder on the Mac, then access it from a Windows machine. I couldn't get it to work the other way around - some problem with SMB authentication that I didn't spend too much time debugging (especially since I got something to work).

 

It might be a good idea to see if the new features of Leopard are useful to you. I found the "Time Machine" really cool. After a certain point in time (no good guess, but could be a month or two), all new Macs will probably come with a voucher for a free upgrade to Leopard. Buy before that, and you'll end up paying about $125 in the US. Leopard is supposed to be released in 'spring 2007'.

 

Good luck with your decision.