Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop  (Read 5697 times)

Offline annette

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 5353
  • Gender: Female
I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop
« on: November 29, 2009, 09:08:43 pm »
My brother surprised me and bought me a MacBook Pro laptop this week for my birthday.  Wow, what a surprise this was.

You see I had been complaining to him about this problem with the decktop (Malware) and then my Dell laptop came to almost a halt.  Almost thought it was not going to ever open up again.  Well it opened up and I leave it open, something has slowed it down to a crawl. Very frustrating.

I just have been so so sick of all the potential viruses and such. 

Anyway, been playing around with it for a few days now and getting used to things.  Not that hard to adjust, but have to transfer all my stuff from the Dell to the Mac and haven't figured that all out yet.  I have made an appointment with my computer guy to help me, although he is basically a PC guy, but recently has learned about Macs because so many of his customers have moved to Macs

I will let you all know how it all goes.  I am very excited to own this new laptop and hope I don't have the problems associated with the PC.

Annette

Offline HAB

  • HEAVENLY BEEKEEPER
  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 622
Re: I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop
« Reply #1 on: November 29, 2009, 10:35:33 pm »
You've got a Great Brother!! :bee: :bee: :bee:

Offline JP

  • The Swarm King
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 11709
  • Gender: Male
  • I like doing cut-outs, but I love catching swarms!
    • JPthebeeman.com
Re: I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2009, 12:54:37 am »
Oh shoot Annette, Happy belated birthday!!!


...JP
My Youtube page is titled JPthebeeman with hundreds of educational & entertaining videos.

My website JPthebeeman.com http://jpthebeeman.com

Offline Koala John

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 138
  • Gender: Male
Re: I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2009, 08:40:27 am »
Hey congratulations Annette, thats great news!
Shouldn't be too hard to move your documents over, things like Word and Excel documents you can generally just copy to an external hard drive or burn to CD/DVD, and your Mac will happily read them and save them to your Mac hard drive. Things like your mail and internet book marks may be slightly more complex, but in general shouldn't pose too many problem with some patience and Googling.
Have fun,
John.

Offline John Lee Pettimore

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 114
  • Gender: Male
Re: I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop
« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2009, 12:27:47 am »
Congratulations!

Posting this with MacBook Air...
"If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." Samuel Adams.


Offline annette

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 5353
  • Gender: Female
Re: I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop
« Reply #5 on: December 03, 2009, 02:08:27 am »
Hey congratulations Annette, thats great news!
Shouldn't be too hard to move your documents over, things like Word and Excel documents you can generally just copy to an external hard drive or burn to CD/DVD, and your Mac will happily read them and save them to your Mac hard drive. Things like your mail and internet book marks may be slightly more complex, but in general shouldn't pose too many problem with some patience and Googling.
Have fun,
John.


I had my computer guy come over last night and he moved everything over from the PC to the Mac.  I was surprised that he was actually able to bring over all my email addresses, but they converted sort of sloppy and not in the groups I had them in. OH well, I will have to reorganize them myself.  

All my documents came over just fine.  Now my photos from Adobe did not make it. Well he did get them over and I transferred them to IPhotos, but then I decided to delete the original folder of photos from the PC and bingo, I lost all the photos.  He is going to get into the backup of my PC and restore them again and we will try again.  Sure do not want to lose all these wonderful photos I have.

There is definitely a learning curve, although if I can do this, anyone can. I could not have done all the complicated stuff that my PC guy did. And he is really just a PC guy and doesn't know much about Macs.  But he is learning.

I did set up the email program all by myself and was even able to figure out how to switch identities (because I have multiple email addresses) My favorites came over in a folder, but many were missing so I just deleted them and will start new with the bookmark program we have on the Mac.

So far I really like this little laptop.  Very light weight which was important to me and it seems pretty easy to navigate around once all the hard stuff is transferred.

Do you think I need to get the extended warranty??

Oh forgot to mention that I installed I works (which is the microsoft word, excel equivalent) so all the documents that came over from the PC went right into that program really nicely.

Offline Koala John

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 138
  • Gender: Male
Re: I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2009, 02:31:11 am »
Hi there Annette,
Sounds like you've made fantastic progress and will be a Mac expert in no time at all!

Regarding the extended warranty:
These are quite popular, and a lot of people buy them as it gives them piece of mind, because parts costs when they are out of warranty can be expensive, particularly the screen. Even though I can buy this warranty at cost, I don't buy them and don't mind taking the risk of a repair bill once it is out of warranty. The reason is two fold: Firstly, the laptop has a limited useful life anyway - in three to five years it will be a bit tired and slow and will be time to replace it with a newer model. Secondly, the extended warranty does not cover a common problem with laptops - theft or dropping. i.e. if you drop it and the screen breaks, it's not covered under warranty.

So personally I don't buy it, but many if not most people do. Hope that helps.



Offline annette

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 5353
  • Gender: Female
Re: I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2009, 12:17:57 pm »
I hope that is not true about it getting tired in 3-5 years. Isn't it possible to clean it up somehow to pep it up again.  These are very expensive machines and not something to be bought again in say 3 years time. That was the wonderful thing about the PC's in that they are so inexpensive now so no big deal about getting new ones every few years. (It is just the fear of the viruses that made me switch, but with a good backup system things could be recovered)

I thought memory could always be added if they need more room. So tell me why they would slow down so quickly.

You see this is all new for me and I want to make sure I am doing the right thing for the long term.


Offline Kathyp

  • Global Moderator
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 20339
  • Gender: Female
Re: I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop
« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2009, 12:36:19 pm »
the main reason for computer getting slow is that they have crap on them.  bits left in the registry, cookies that are hidden from superficial cleaning, backup stuff...microsoft is bad about that.

the average computer user does not know how to clean this stuff out, and eventually, they give up and buy another computer.

another reason is that programs evolve and eventually your computer can't run newer graphics, etc. efficiently. 

people don't defrag.  as you take off and put on new programs, parts get scattered.  it takes the computer a long time to find all the parts and make the program run well.

stuff gets pinned to the start up and booting up your computer takes longer and longer.  most of that startup can be disabled without hurting performance.

even if you don't know how to dig into your computer, learning to dump temp files, cookies, and old backups, is a must.  don't know how apple compares on this, but have your apple wiz show you what you need to do to keep your computer clean.
Someone really ought to tell them that the world of Ayn Rand?s novel was not meant to be aspirational.

Offline annette

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 5353
  • Gender: Female
Re: I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop
« Reply #9 on: December 03, 2009, 12:58:13 pm »
Yes Kathy I know about all this for the PC. But was wondering why the apple would get sluggish in a few years time. Would think the Apple could be cleaned up also, but I will wait to hear from more experts on this.


Offline Koala John

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 138
  • Gender: Male
Re: I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop
« Reply #10 on: December 04, 2009, 07:39:44 am »
Hi Annette,
Sorry I didn't mean to get you unduly worried. Macs are less susceptible to running more slowly over time, because they are less susceptible to spyware and viruses. They are not immune from them though, and over time, other things can cause a slight decrease in performance - nothing too concerning though.

What I was referring to was more that over time, we all want to install and use the latest and greatest software, and want to do more complex things with it -  For instance, Microsoft Office in a few years will be a monster that takes a lot of processor speed to run, and even some seemingly simple things you do on the internet will use more advanced plugins and scripts that takes more processor speed to run quickly.

In summary, enjoy it and don't worry too much about the future, just remember though that any new computer, because of its complex nature and our constant "progress" with technology, is not going to be useful for as long as a good brood box will!

Offline annette

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 5353
  • Gender: Female
Re: I now own a 13 inch MacBook Pro laptop
« Reply #11 on: December 04, 2009, 12:36:01 pm »
Thanks for the explanation. I am really enjoying it right now and very easy to navigate around. Also very light weight so I can take this baby anywhere I go.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions from everyone.

Annette