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Sarge
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I'm in the market for a new laptop and what better time than Xmas to give myself a shining new toy. I've always been a PC / Windows user but I've grown fed up with the inborn quirkiness and security issues of the OS from the Redmont corporation, not to mention the long long wait for Vista; plus I've had a couple of hardware issues with my Sony Vaio FS115Z laptop.
So I'm thinking the unthinkable and moving to Apple's c I've set my sight on this beauty: MacBook Pro laptop 15" 2.33GH with Intel Core 2 Duo. It ain't cheap but it's fully speccied and now with Boot Camp software I can have my cake and eat it. I can install Windows Vista in a HDD partition, load Windows OS when I need to run proprietary software or play Windows games.
I'm after any feedback from anyone who owns a Macintosh (better still if he/she has recently switched over from Windows), so to get a flavour of what to expect from an Apple computer and OS X.
cheerio
Sarge
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 6:19 pm on Dec. 21, 2006
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Skip
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Do it Sarge! Like you, I was sitting on the fence, worried about implications of making the switch back before they introduced the G4 17". The day they announced that model was the day I jumped in and bought into OS X.
Trust me: After the one week or so of transitioning you will be in a perpetual state of intuitive bliss. Everything works better together in OS X- all the technologies inside, the peripheral hardware, and the third party software. Plus, you leave behind the fear of malware and viral pests nuisances.
Just last month, I sold that 17" for 35,000 Baht. It was working just as well as the day I bought it and appeared as though it were still in the prime of life.
There's far more resources available out there than you think to support you as end user, too. Like versiontracker.com for instance, where access to 35,000+ programs awaits. The user comments there are particularly valuable. Being a new to OS X switcher, I would advise a membership there, even if briefly.
You'll find the BTF of OS X here: MacNN.com Forum another here: Mac Rumors Forum
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 6:51 pm on Dec. 21, 2006
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Sarge
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cheers mate, for your positive input and links provided. Much food for thought.
Sarge
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 7:06 pm on Dec. 21, 2006
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DaffyDuck
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The machine you selected, the Core 2 Duo MacBook at 2.33GHz, is an excellent choice. The new systems come with 2GB of RAM memory, and make sure the hard drive is 5400rpm model (the default is). I just upgraded from my prior Core Duo 2.0GHz to the same model you picked, and am very satisfied.
Skip already pointed you to the two most valuable resources. You may also consider investing in a dot-Mac account - it will allow you to do far more than just email and data storage, once you start using iLife. If you have a digital camera, or DV camcorder, you will never use anything else but iLife.
If you have a Nokia phone with Bluetooth, even more avenues open up for you (using the phone as a wireless modem, for starters). You will simply note that everything just simply *works*.
Regarding Windows compatibility, go get Parallels Workstation for Mac OS X (Parallels) instead - it allows you to run Windows in a window on the Mac, dragging and dropping files between Mac and windows - at full native speed. Further, if you have BootCamp installed, you can share that BootCampm partition between Parallels, or rebooting into Windows if you want to run games. Parallels is the best solution to run Windows on the intel Macs.
Finally, when running windows, install http://www.hitmanpro.nl on the windows partition, to forestall the virus and malware issues.
Oh yeah, and plenty of Mac software available at Panthip, etc...
Welcome to the other side.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 12:57 am on Dec. 22, 2006
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Sarge
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one of the things that would make the wifey happy is to merrily type away in her native Thai, using a laptop with a dual English-Thai keyboard. Is there in BKK a reputable Apple dealer where I can purchase the below selected system (with all the add-on extras) ? I'll be in town mid Jan.
The system:
MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.33GHz
Apple USB Modem
3GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 1x2GB, 1x1GB
SuperDrive 6X (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW)
2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS
160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
MacBook Pro 15-inch Glossy Widescreen Display
Magsafe Airline Power Adapter
dual English-Thai keyboard
Sarge
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 1:56 am on Dec. 22, 2006
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bimmher
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I was going to post you should ask the duck. Wondered when he would reply to your post 
The duck knows about Apple, if interested I would listen to his advice on the topic 
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 2:02 am on Dec. 22, 2006
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DaffyDuck
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Quote: from Sarge on 4:20 pm on Dec. 22, 2006
dual English-Thai keyboard
Just picked up exactly that during my last trip.
Pretty much any regular Mac dealer (two of them in Panthip, at least two in Fortune IT, 'legit' AppleCenter in Siam Discovery, I think 5th floor. Costs about 2000 THB, or 2500THB.
Or, you could pick up any old PC USB keyboard, and plug it in, and it will work just the same.
Most Macs in Thailand come with the international menu enabled, or you set it to be enabled in your System Preferences. Subsequently, you end up with a little 'flag' in the menu bar that you can pull down to select whatever language you want to type in.
I would suggest setting up three users on yoru MacBook - the 'admin' user that you create when you first set up the MacBook. Name it something 'admin' or 'generic' like (mine are usually given the name of my business, since they are business expenses and that drives the point home), then create a user account for yourself, and one for your wife. Leave your's set to English, and your Wife's set to Thai - you can leave both keyboards active, so now depending on who logs in, and what keyboard they type in, it's all set automatically.
Avoid the stickers for keyboard, as the MacBook keyboard is self-illuminating, and stickers would interfere with that.
Plus, having two accounts also makes sure that each can set their own desktop backgrounds, sounds, settings, browser bookmarks, etc... and a great way to keep your BTF bookmarks private. Make sure to set up passwords for both users, though 
Depending on when you get it, and the next time I'm in bkk, I'd be more than happy to look at your system and help you with any questions you may have, or assist you with configuration advice (like, there's a few shareware utilities that are good to have, and they'd constitute a worthwhile $25 extra spent on your system).
Any other questions, drop me a PM, or keep them in this thread for the benefit of everyone.
(Thanks, bimmher, for the vote of confidence)
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:45 am on Dec. 22, 2006
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Skip
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In addition to all those retailers mentioned: The Mac store in Siam Paragon- in front of Kinokuniya books and the True Internet cafe shop- has the best assortment of trendy Mac accessories in the city. Their sister shop, on Thong Lor Avenue, at the J-Avenue shopping center is also worth a look.
My personal favorite Mac software shop is on the fourth floor of Panthip. It's down the center aisle, leading back from the atrium, on the right side of the next corridor behind the one fronting the atrium.
Look for the shop windows covered in sheets of paper printed in program thumbnails. Their quality is very high and they replace any software with no questions asked. Very good selection, too.
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 7:25 am on Dec. 22, 2006
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Sarge
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Thanks bros for all the info, advice and kind offers to help; just a few précis in regards to some of the points raised so far:
Dual English-Thai keyboard: I’m after a laptop that incorporates such keyboard (and not as separate entity) and that is why I’m considering to purchase the computer in BKK as you get that as a standard.
User accounts: At the moment with my Sony Vaio I'm running Windows XP Professional and I have set up 2 accounts: Admin for myself and Guest for the wife, mine is password protected, hers is not. Each account is personalised with different IE7 favourites, desktop settings, background themes etc.. I need to make the password foolproof as she once craftily managed to crack it and then go online with my msn messenger account. Don’t ask how I found out ….. it was quite funny at the time but it also gave me a scare. I don’t know how OS X or the upcoming Leopard go about these things but I plan to test drive it at my local Apple dealer in Sydney.
Bluetooth Phone: I have a Nokia N73 with Bluetooth, which I purchased at Emporium Shopping Centre in October. It sports dual English-Thai keyboard (and software). I’m quite happy with it.
Boot camp v Parallels: The former is proprietary Mac software, which will be incorporated in Leopard OS, the latter is a 3rd party offering. They work differently and as I understand it they also give different performances. While boot camp requires that you boot into Windows, parallels on the other hand let you switch seamlessly between the 2 OS, the drawback is that everything run slower (in parallels mode) and you can’t really play Windows games. You better off doing that under boot camp partition. I guess that I will use a combination of both.
Software: now that is the biggie. The dilemma is, do I purchase fully fledged Windows software and run them under Windows Vista environment (in boot camp partition mode) or instead do I buy Mac versions and run them under Leopard OS? I explain; in the business world everything is run on PC using Windows XP Professional so I use MS Office 2003 Professional suite (mainly Excel, Outlook, Word & Power Point), Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional; these are the bread and butter applications I work with everyday. So even if the Mac is intended for personal use (I do have a business PC laptop in the office) I, from time to time, take work home and need to run business applications. The things that concerns me is that while the upcoming Adobe CS3 (Adobe Creative Suites 2) will be available as universal binary, meaning that it runs natively in both PC & Mac architectures. In other words the application will be fully featured and have same feel in both OS environments. Conversely MS Office 2004 Professional Edition for Mac (MS Office 2004 Professional Edition for Mac) is not universal binary product and I’m not sure which features will be missing in the Mac version. I wonder if I’d be better off buying MS Office 2007 Professional Edition for Windows and run it under Vista OS in boot camp partition mode or go all the way Apple and run everything under its OS and just using Windows Vista for the occasional games and visiting websites that only work under PC browsers. That's the decision I have to make and I'm carefully considering it. It's over AUS$2,600 worth of software, so I wanna get it right first time on.
iLife 06: It sounds like a great application but I’ll stick with old and trusted Adobe Creative Suite 2 (CS3 when it becomes available in March '07) for the time being as it’s the standard used by most computers worldwide.
Apple shops in BKK: my usual 1st port of calls is Fortune Tower and Panthip where they are more flexible in customizing systems and amenable at the idea of haggling the price down.
Guys, let me know if I'm missing anything
cheers... Sarge
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 3:02 pm on Dec. 22, 2006
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DaffyDuck
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Quote: from Sarge on 5:26 am on Dec. 23, 2006
iLife 06: It sounds like a great application but I’ll stick with old and trusted Adobe Creative Suite 2 (CS3 when it becomes available in March '07) for the time being as it’s the standard used by most computers worldwide.
Two almost completely unrelated products.
iLife does not replace CS2 or vice versa.
http://www.apple.com/ilife/
While CS2 is just the collection of Adobe's Creative products. While you certainly can use Photoshop to organize and edit your pictures from a digital camera, it is not recommended - that's what iPhoto is for.
iLife is:
- iPhoto - to edit and organize your digital camera images and movies with.
- iMovie - ditto, for your DV camcorder or other movies.
- iDVD - to create a DVD with any of the above
- iTunes - to store your digital music, rip your CDs, and deal with your movies, and TV shows.
- Garageband - need a soundtrack? Want to make a podcast? Wanna make music?
- iWeb - dump it all out onto the web.
The above is a really short summarization of what iLife does, but the fact is also that iLife '06 comes standard with every Mac, so like it or not, you have it when you buy your Mac. Once you start using it, you will be spoiled.
As for localized / dual-keyboards on a MacBook -- I have not seen any localized Thai/English keyboards on Apple laptops. The external solution (or ugly stickers) is what you will need to contend with. One of the more customized stores may be able to accomodate you, maybe - I just haven't found it.
Parallels - latest public betas have far improved graphics drivers, coming to within 90% of the native speed of the machine - hence why I would recommend to use Bootcamp (if needed) for gaming, and Parallels for everything else. Now that you can share a Bootcamp partition with Parallels, the issue of redundant space is no longer a factor.
Lastly, software - you are having the usual concerns of a Windows switcher with regards to software, but I can assure you that even when run under Rosetta emulation, MS-Office 2004 does just fine on the Mac, and you can upgrade it to MS-Office 2007/Mac when it is released around the 2nd quarter of 2007. The two versions of the software have parity (in fact, until Office 2007/Win the Mac version of Office 2004 had better features than the Windows counterpart).
Thus, if you have a Mac, you may as well remain with a Mac solution of the software you are going to run, as you will benefit from the integration and features of the Mac side as well, versus just running your Windows app in a virtual ghetto.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 6:24 pm on Dec. 22, 2006
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