Thinking of getting an iMac Intel...

[iGirl]

... And just wondered if anyone has one already and how they have found it?

I have an iBook G3 laptop already, but that's pretty crappy as it's so slow and about 3 years old now, so I got a windows pc 2 years ago.

My windows pc has majorly messed up with the internet explorer getting corrupted and I've just had to majorly reconstruct the whole system as windows don't give you restore disks anymore which was a lot of time and effort. I am so sick of how s*** windows is in comparison to macs.

I would really like to get this intel Mac as its much faster and also the macs are much more stable than windows.

Seems like an allround winner - but has anyone got any experiences/comments?

Thanks

 

[Ric]

Hi there and welcome !

I have had a play on the new Intel Mac's, all the included software runs very well and fast...what software are you wanting to run ?

It may take a while for some software to get "optimized" (rewritten) to work nativley on the Intel Mac's.

It all depends on what you use your Mac for really ?

regards

Ric

 

[iGirl]

Thanks for the reply Ric

Well I am doing a degree in internet technology at University and hope to be a web designer professionally eventuallu. I design web sites in the mean time of course, and so use a lot of graphics/imagery heavy programs.

I though the Mac would be better for designing and it seems more designer friendly than windows.

I'd need to use photoshop which i know you can get in mac format, but preferably paintshop pro, which i use on my pc and don't know if mac will support it.

Macromedia flash, fireworks, dreamweaver etc as well as all my html programs I need to use.

Do you think an Intel Mac would suit?

Thanks, I appreciate your time

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

the Mac is made to design ;-) Photoshop was originally made for the Mac !

I have used Flash, Dreamweaver and Photoshop on an Intel iMac, they all work fine.

Photoshop for doing 'web' work is fine, if you are doing heavy photo manipulation you need to wait till Photoshop is a Universal Application (ie it runs natively on Intel).

If you have an Applestore near you, try and pop in, they have all those Apps on there Intel Macs, so that you can have ago...

There's no Paintshop Pro for the Mac...but if you are wanting to go into the 'industry' then Photoshop is the way to go...

Are you thinking of an iMac or the MacBook Pro ?

regards

Ric

 

[iGirl]

That's great then

I am gonna get an iMac, the 2ghz one

You say Photoshop will run natively on the intel macs, does that mean it runs slower at all? Previous experience of the 'classic mode' on my ibook certainly proved that!
And in that case will I be able to run my windows version of photoshop or do I need the mac version?

Also, I have sims 2 on pc and wondered if you can play that on the intel macs or do I have to buy a mac version? Do you know what they're like to play games on?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

I don't think you've read the Photoshop bit as I meant it...it won't run natively at the minute...not till it's a Universal App.

You can not run 'any' Windows software on the Mac...not unless you partition the drive and install windows on one partition. This may not be as easy as it sounds...

It's not quite like the old Classic days...Photoshop runs at the same speed as though it's on a normal PowerPC iMac...when it gets turned into a universal App it should run at twice the speed, in theory !

regards

Ric

 

[iGirl]

I see what you mean

So basically I'd have to buy Mac versions of any software I need?

And Mac will be bringing out Universal software shortly that means it runs extra fast?

I'm going to an Apple store later this month to test one out so I'll ask the people there.

I have an external hard drive that needs to be partioned or something to work on a mac and hopefully they'll be able to recommend how to do it as most of my work is saved on there. Obviously I could transfer it over to my mac using my USB pen drive and CDs but it's time consuming!

Thanks again

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

...So basically I'd have to buy Mac versions of any software I need?...

If you already own Photoshop for the PC, the I would ring Adobe and just tell them that you used to have a PC but have now changed to a Mac, they 'may' allow you to crossgrade to the Mac version for free !

I have done it in the past ! You are normally only allowed to do it once per product (Adobe, Macromedia and Quark normally allow this). So if you change the license from PC to Mac you won't be allowed to change it back again !

I don't thing you'll be able to do this with the Sims ;-) but you could always try !

And Mac will be bringing out Universal software shortly that means it runs extra fast?

Yes as soon as 'Adobe' update it...but depending on what they do they may do it as a 'Pay for it' upgrade...At the minute Photoshop CS2 is on version 9.0 so they may make lots of new features in it, rename it version 10.0 and make it run on both Mac's ! And then charge us to upgrade...

I'm going to an Apple store later this month to test one out so I'll ask the people there.

Good plan, take a nice hefty Photoshop file with you on CD, one that you would normally work on...then you've got a decent file to test once you're there.

I have an external hard drive that needs to be partioned or something to work on a mac and hopefully they'll be able to recommend how to do it as most of my work is saved on there. Obviously I could transfer it over to my mac using my USB pen drive and CDs but it's time consuming!

Depending on how the drive is formatted...do you want the drive to work on both PC and Mac's ? if so...

If it is FAT32 then you can just plug it into the Mac and it will appear !
You can then read/write files to it like normal !

So you could have the drive at home , work on a Photoshop file...take the drive to uni and plug it into one of there PC's and work on it some more !

If it is NTFS then again the Mac will mount it, and allow you to access the file from the Mac...but you can't make any changes to it !

If you just want to copy your work off...just plug it in and it will mount on the Desktop...then just copy across. No special software is required.

Then once everything has copied across and you have checked it out, if you just want to use the drive on a Mac, then reformat it as HFS+ Journaled...


regards

Ric

 

[iGirl]

Thanks for reply

The hard drive is a toshiba usb 2.0 hard drive. All it says on the box is something about minimum requirements then says PC.... Etc so no mention of Mac.

I asked in PC World and they said it would have to be partitioned. But they can't always be trusted so I'll plug it in my mac when I get it and see.

I'll ask Macromedia and Adobe about swapping versions, didn't know you could do that.

How do I find out whether the hard drive is a fat32 or ntfs?

 

[bluekatt]

even if its 3 years old a icebook is never **** ;p
to see if a drive fat 32 or ntfs right click on its icon and select properties
if your running win xp its most likley ntfs

oh and never ever ver run IE on a windows machien unless your a masochist a newbie or clueles
IE is just asking for trouble use netscape opera anything !
preferbly firefox but even an older mozilla will do
anything is better then that piece of archaic mosaic based trash named ie