Apple is shipping me stuff --- making the move over!

Well -- I have vented here how I have grown to hate my Vista setup---- I purchased an iphone a few weeks ago and have really been impressed with Apple since--- well I pulled the plug yesterday and ordered from Apple-- refurbished 24inch 2.4 --iMac.

I was going to order new 20inch but found a good deal on the 24inch 1.4 ($1,499.00)- I also purchased the extended plan for an extra $119
I ordered 4 gigs of ram from Crucial ---- now will need a little help on how to install it.

I am going to pick up Aperture---I have never used it but have read great things about it. Will pick up CS3 for Mac---

I am looking forward to working on a computer that does not give me the blue screen treatment.

Can any Apple addict give me ideas on the best way to set it up to ensure max proformance?
I am considering getting photomechanics software program to help me run through the photos to weed out quickly--- I tend to take tons and now with Vista --takes tons of time for me to rule out the bad ones.

Thanks!

Hi Scott,

You can use Aperture to view and sort all your shots. You can rate the ones you like and turf the ones you don't rate.

Watch the free apple aperture vidoe tutorials:
http://www.apple.com/a​perture/tutorials/

If you want to save disk space, I suggest that you turn off Time Machine when you download your picks and sort them. This way you don't have wasted disk space on pics you don't want to keep. When your done deleting the ones you don't want, turn Time Machine back on and it will automatically back up your library....that is of course if you got 2 hard drives or have an existing hard drive you are using.

One other thing to consider if you are using and existing hard drive - you may have to reformat it.

Hey thanks for the tip sf1 --
I did not realize that aperature was that versitle. I will have to get acqainted with it---I am excited about the move to apple and think this is a step in the right direction for me.
Time Machine must be another apple feature that I have never heard of--- thanks for the tip.
I think that apple reformats the hard drives when they do the refurbish. I hope so!

stathunter wrote in post #5188989
Hey thanks for the tip sf1 --
I think that apple reformats the hard drives when they do the refurbish. I hope so!

Your machine will be just like any new machine out of the box.

Thanks silvertree---thats exactly what I expect from apple. I have high hopes for this computer.......it will for me be a vast improvement over my blue screen vista!
I am a pretty heavy computer user and run a few on my desk at one time--- only because I have issues--- it would be nice to have this one be the one trustworthy computer I can count on. We shall see!

Check out how much RAM there is on your computer. Refurbished Macs often come with more RAM (and bigger harddrives, though less likely with iMacs) than what they specify.

My refurbished iMac came with 2GB of RAM instead of 1.

I actually have to send the extra RAMs I bought from Crucial back to them.

stathunter wrote in post #5188989
I think that apple reformats the hard drives when they do the refurbish. I hope so!

Hi stathunter, no doubt that apple will do that. What I meant was that if you have an existing external hard drive that you are using on you present Vista system, that will probably need to be reformatted.

The RAM install is easy...below the power cord, there's a little door thingy that flips open, and the RAM sticks are right there...just plug and play, basically.

If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask. I think you will enjoy OS X.

sf1 wrote in post #5188749
Hi Scott,

You can use Aperture to view and sort all your shots. You can rate the ones you like and turf the ones you don't rate.

Watch the free apple aperture vidoe tutorials:
http://www.apple.com/a​perture/tutorials/

If you want to save disk space, I suggest that you turn off Time Machine when you download your picks and sort them. This way you don't have wasted disk space on pics you don't want to keep. When your done deleting the ones you don't want, turn Time Machine back on and it will automatically back up your library....that is of course if you got 2 hard drives or have an existing hard drive you are using.

One other thing to consider if you are using and existing hard drive - you may have to reformat it.

Time Machine should automatically have Aperture in the do not back up list, which Apple recommends. This is not an issue however if you have an external drive for storage, you can set up a Vault in Aperture that will back up all of your images with only one click. The nice thing is when you back up your vault it only updates the changes rather than making a completely new huge file. Do not include Aperture in your Time Machine backup.

stathunter wrote in post #5187575
. Will pick up CS3 for Mac---

Do you already have CS3 for Windows? If you do give Adobe a call, I believe you can trade over the version.

I always import to the same folder then create subfolders, then i exclude that main folder in the time machine preferences. I then backup up my pictures to a drobo that way i have soem redundancy and my time capsule doesnt get full.

You may or may not need to exclude the Apeture library this will explain:

http://docs.info.apple​.com/article.html?artn​um=306853

Thanks for all the help guys.........great info. I am really looking forward to my new machine--- looks like according to FedEx it is now coming Saturday-------crap! The only day I am not going to be around to sign for it! It was origionally coming early next week. Great something else I have to deal with........cant win sometimes.

I picked up Aperture and CS3 for Mac yesterday---

I am considering getting an external hard drive to start fresh with the Mac............I am guessing that external hard drives work on both PC and Mac...is that correct? I did a quick search and it looks like the lacie's are compatable with time machine.

Why not run the current cs3 in windows via bootcamp ?

Works well and you can have all the plugins you like that wouldnt work within mac

stathunter wrote in post #5194064
I am considering getting an external hard drive to start fresh with the Mac............I am guessing that external hard drives work on both PC and Mac...is that correct? I did a quick search and it looks like the lacie's are compatable with time machine.

Yes, they do. However if you want to share your external between OS X and Windows you need to format it in FAT32, which will limit your partitions to 32GB. That is very easy to do via the disk utility located in the Applications-->Utilities folder. Incidentally, there are a couple other neat utilities in there to check out as well.