New MacBook

Last week I replaced my iBook with a MacBook and thought I'd share comments:

• As with any Apple product, it's full of pleasant surprises. Most tech products aren't as good as you're hoping for. Every Apple product I've owned has exceeded expectations. Lovely stuff
• Leopard has a piece of software called "migration assistant", which promises to bring all your applications, files and folders across from your old machine with minimum effort. When I tried it, my applications came across but my documents didn't. I had to go back to the Apple Store, restore my new machine to factory settings, and start from scratch. It only worked when I migrated as part of the the initial set up
  
• I've never really likes the design of Apple laptops (especially at the lower end of the range), but it looks and feels far nice in my hands than it does in photos
• Speaking of photos, one of the chef benefits of an upgrade is being able to sort out my photos. Due to a lack of space on my old iBook i'd set up multiple iPhoto libraries and stored most on a external hard drive. This compounded the well known problem with iPhoto, which is that it's very hard to manage original files - you can mess about with 'albums' all you like, but that doesn't affect the actual photo. In addition any modifications saves as a separate file, so before you know it you have multiple copies of the same picture. The current version of iLife professes to solve all this with the concept of "events". It takes some time to get your head around this, but:
  • The right way to think about it:
    iPhoto Albums = iTunes playlists
    iPhoto Events = iTunes albums

This is very useful - each photo can appear in one and only one 'event', and you can merge or split events if a collection spans multiple dates. This works a treat for new imports, however i've had a tough time importing current photos. Although iPhoto now has an automatic duplicate detector, this doesn't apply for the duplicates made by the old machine. Thus I've imported a great deal of copies. The inability to drag and drop photos into events is frustrating, and the best way I've seen to do it

One way of doing it:
To move photos in Events view mode, you need to first flag the images to be moved, select the destination event, use the Events » Add Flagged Photos to Events menu item to move them, then select the Flagged entry in the RECENT section of iPhoto, and unflag the photos

Once you've done this a few times it's very easy. However then you're in the situation of having perfectly arranged events, comprised of duplicates. I've had to manually go through and delete photos (and marvel at the quantity of photos I'd thought were long deleted), but now realise that I'm left with thumbnails in some cases. Everything is backed up, so once i've identified the problems I'll manually copy across original files. This is a problem with previous versions of iPhoto.

• Having Leopard means I can finally sync my iPhone to my laptop. This has created an added benefit of the software update, which means my mapping software can tell where I am (very useful for when I'm lost). The ability to edit and create new icons for the home screen is great fun
• I don't see the point of 'Dashboard'. It doesn't serve any purpose
• I also bought Microsoft Office 2008, which is a clear improvement on Office X. I'm still trying to work out why themes and templates are separate, but it'l do
• I also bought a new external hard drive for back up. Leopard has a piece of software called 'Time Machine' which automatically hooked up to my new drive and backs everything up whenever I plug it in. It's a beautiful silver tower and therefore  don't mind it being on my desk, and *touch wood* I can finally get some piece of mind about losing files when backing things up

In conclusion, whatever slight failings the MacBook/Leopard/iPhone system that I use has, I genuinely can't understand why anyone has anything else.

 

Comments

[Gabriel]

Do you dual boot Windows or so you use Parallels (or whatever it's called)?

[aje]

No need for Windows, don't touch it

[darren]

just to let you know it is "peace of mind" unless you are planning a lobotomy. Enjoy your new macbook.

[Tedious]

Dashboard is the "ishtar" of Mac features. You either love it or hate it.

Personally, I'd be lost without the "App Update" widget (and it's sister "Widget Update"), the "Gas" widget, and the "Weatherbug" widget.

I have plenty of others, but these 3 are on my "always in the dashboard" list.

Also: have you tried using Spotlight as your App launcher? It's an addictive habit to just hit Command-Space and type a few letters.

Oh, well. Different Strokes. It takes all kinds. To each their own. ...and all that.

[aje]

yes, spotlight is easier to launch applications than the dock but i'm suspicious about having too many ways to do the same thing

[MOAT]

I recently updated from a iBook G4 to a MacBook and the transition was relatively harmless. My roommate actually had the same MacBook so I was familiar with the new programs.