MAC Hints and Tips

[EggChaser]

I won a MacBook in a competition and all I know about Macs could be written on the back of a fag packet.

Planning to keep it as was looking at them anyway for potential photo/video editing purposes and it will also help with my job

I am obviously going to be Googleing for stuff but if anyone has recommendations for useful utilties and or websites then feed them through to me.

For starters I gather the Garmin software is not MAC compatible and the way round that is to install a Virtual XP machine on the MAC - anyone got the details of the virtual software?

I also can see a need to remotely control a Windows machine - is there an RDP client for the MAC?

Is it possible to move a portable USB HDD drive between MAC and Windows is this limited by the file system on the USB drive?

Anyone recommend an anti-virus product (preferably free)?

 

[Loiq]

I won a MacBook in a competition and all I know about Macs could be written on the back of a fag packet.

Ans same here

Planning to keep it as was looking at them anyway for potential photo/video editing purposes and it will also help with my job

Ans I'm just changing to a MAC as well

I am obviously going to be Googleing for stuff but if anyone has recommendations for useful utilties and or websites then feed them through to me.

Ans www.apple.com first get a mouse which has right click

For starters I gather the Garmin software is not MAC compatible and the way round that is to install a Virtual XP machine on the MAC - anyone got the details of the virtual software?

Ans Later Mac's are dual boot so it's either PC or MAC bloody funny when you drag files from oneside to the other and it converts it...

I also can see a need to remotely control a Windows machine - is there an RDP client for the MAC?

Ans. Not sure

Is it possible to move a portable USB HDD drive between MAC and Windows is this limited by the file system on the USB drive?

Ans. YUP as long as it's compatible

Anyone recommend an anti-virus product (preferably free)

Ans. Leave Mac as it is and you won't need antivirus

 

[Bryn]

I won a MacBook in a competition and all I know about Macs could be written on the back of a fag packet.

Planning to keep it as was looking at them anyway for potential photo/video editing purposes and it will also help with my job

I am obviously going to be Googleing for stuff but if anyone has recommendations for useful utilties and or websites then feed them through to me.

For starters I gather the Garmin software is not MAC compatible and the way round that is to install a Virtual XP machine on the MAC - anyone got the details of the virtual software?

I also can see a need to remotely control a Windows machine - is there an RDP client for the MAC?

Is it possible to move a portable USB HDD drive between MAC and Windows is this limited by the file system on the USB drive?

Anyone recommend an anti-virus product (preferably free)?

Garmin Bobcat is the programme you should stick on to start with... but as you correctly state Mapsource will not go on....

Bootcamp is the thing you'll need.. HD partitioned with a copy of windows installed....

I've only had the iMac around 3 months and at the moment keep the old pc at the side of it in case I want to use mapsource....

I'm no expert and learning as I go

My daughter's PC geek boyfriend, who incidentally works as a techician in the IT dept at Loughborough university says there's no need for anti virus software if just using mac as a mac....

 

[POG]

Loads and loads of Mac hints and tips, bootcamp set up, links, blahdi blah :

OVER HERE

 

[EggChaser]

Thx for responses so far, found at least one answer myself - MAC RDP client
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/remote-desktop/default.mspx

 

[Slowdown]

Go to any Apple store - Southampton, Kingston, Regent Street etc etc...

They do free workshops on loads of different software products and functions (like moving from a PC to a Mac.

Then you can book 52 weekly training sessions at any store for £79

Or book in at the Genius Bar where they'll show you how to do something you're flummoxed with

http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/regentstreet/

it's not something you can get in the world of Windows......

 

[sparkplug]

For starters I gather the Garmin software is not MAC compatible and the way round that is to install a Virtual XP machine on the MAC - anyone got the details of the virtual software?

I also can see a need to remotely control a Windows machine - is there an RDP client for the MAC?

Is it possible to move a portable USB HDD drive between MAC and Windows is this limited by the file system on the USB drive?

Anyone recommend an anti-virus product (preferably free)?

Garmin (finally) do a mac version of the software - info here

For RDP you can either do it by running something like bootcamp, VMware or Parallels or you can do it from the Mac OS with this

USB drive should pose no problems at all - hot swap and enjoy. You might get some odd 'desktop db' type files appearing, but ignore them and the rest should be fine.

I've been working with macs since around 1990 and have never known a virus. That's in a commercial environment as well as a personal one. I'd really not bother with antivirus...

A website you might get a lot from... switchingtomac

*phew*

hope that helps

 

[Loiq]

my mac just started playing music all by itself...? while i was om the forum then when I dropped the forum it stopped does it know something I don't

 

[Slowdown]

my mac just started playing music all by itself...? while i was om the forum then when I dropped the forum it stopped does it know something I don't

You know my XP laptop did the same. I suspect we're on the same black list....

 

[EggChaser]

my mac just started playing music all by itself...? while i was om the forum then when I dropped the forum it stopped does it know something I don't

My XP system also did that - I thought it happened when I opened one of the latest Caption threads but not 100% sure.

Thx for all the tips on Bootcamp and the new Garmin MAC stuff, along with the How To videos on the MAC site looks like I will be able to use some basics before I start to dig into the guts of the Linux style command line.

Pity I couldn't get the MacBook home this evening, but I went to work with no luggage on the GS and no straps so my new toy is locked away in the office till tomorrow.

 

[cookie]

USB drive should pose no problems at all

couple of things...

needs to be FAT32 format to be read by mac and pc.

when you delete something off it on a mac, you won't gain any space until you empty the trash. possibly the single dumbest aspect of macdom?

 

[EggChaser]

couple of things...

needs to be FAT32 format to be read by mac and pc.

when you delete something off it on a mac, you won't gain any space until you empty the trash. possibly the single dumbest aspect of macdom?

Hmm that might give me a small problem, need to check the format on my disks, I know that the work HDD ended up formatted with NTFS as I was playing with Virtual Server images so files larger than 2GB, not sure if I did the same thing to my personal HDD.

Thx for the warning.

 

[cookie]

you could use mac journaled format for the drive and use a pc program like macdrive to access it.

but...i tried it briefly, and couldn't get it to work properly.

edit: just found this

 

[Slowdown]

If you're moving large amounts of stuff between the two then get an external firewire drive - much faster than USB and much more capacity! I just got a 1TB drive on special for £100 - USB, Firewire and eSATA

 

[cookie]

or just network them. i've not had problems swapping files like that.

true, the macs see the pc, but the pc can't see the macs, but it doesn't matter as i just do everything from the mac end. i could probably fix it, but can't find the enthusiasm. it's only a pc after all

 

[Slowdown]

or just network them.

Gigabit hubs are quite cheap too these days

You could partition the external drive 50/50 Fat32 and HFS(Mac) and share files between the PC and the Mac AND run TimeMachine on the Mac to backup everything....