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Oreen Scott · Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Posts: 179 Location: Oaxaca, Mexico

This is like closing the barn door after the cows have left, but yesterday I spent a small fortune on the new Mac Air. Why? Portability.

The lap top and a duffle bag will be my major expenses, and my main travelling companions for quite a while to come.

It will take me 6 months, I think, to know whether I've made the right decision.

Do any of you care to express a point of view on the Mac Air.

I'm also switch from PC to Mac. Our Art Director here at the Winnipeg Free Press tells me I won't regret the decision. But. . .he's an artist. . .what does he know? Wink

Samantha · Joined: 25 Oct 2003 Posts: 2038 Location: Mexican Riviera

I would seriously consider installing LoJack prior to travelling. Our cable internet company cooperated with local police recently to recover a foreigner's laptop that was heisted in a B & E. The program is non- removable and sends a signal as to it's location every time it's turned on. Armed with this information, the police knocked on the door of the house where the laptop turned up. The local newspaper reported it as a "chip", but it's actually not.

http://macenstein.com/default/archives/362

http://www.lojackforlaptops.com/

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

I'm not impressed by the Mac hype. Not bad machines, but not all that special or different - Apple is a good example of a company with an advertising campaign that's better than the actual product.

guatetaliana · Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:08 am Post subject:

Oreen, you and I must be on the same wavelength - non-backpack-owning Mac-using people going against the grain.

I'm not positive what I think of the MacAir (the no CD drive thing freaks me out a little...) but I LOOOOVE my MacBook. I have been using almost exclusively Macs for about 6 years now and I am very happy. I can still do fine on a PC, but I always feel like PCs are so much more trouble. After my husband started using my Mac (back when we were dating), he totally converted as well. So much so that he bought me my MacBook as an engagement present. His sister just bought her first laptop (MacBook as well) and adores it.

One big difference I notice between Mac & PC - you don't spend nearly as much time dealing with virus protection and crazy shut-downs and all the fun that happens on a PC.

I think the main thing about making the switch is to make sure to get all the trappings of the PC you can to ease the transition. Definitely Office Suite, and I recommend browsing with Firefox (tends to work way better than Safari on pages designed for Internet Explorer). I can't remember what else were some of the tricky things to get used to, but if you have any questions or get frustrated, I'm eager to help!!

jillford64 · Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 397 Location: Sin City

Can't speak for the Mac Air (it looks nice and I think the portability would be great), but good luck with the switch over. I hope you have an easier transition than I did.

I am a long-time PC laptop user who bought a MacBook to bring to Mexico because it was smaller and lighter than my PC laptop and I was unduly influenced by my boyfriend and his friends who are all Mac users. At the beginning I loathed and hated the MacBook, but now I am merely aggravated by it on a daily basis. I'd suggest you also get a Mighty Mouse if you are used to using "right click" a lot on your PC and if the Air touch pad doesn't have that function. It is aggravating to have to use a keystroke for that. At first for me, the functionality of the delete key (backwards from a PC keyboard) and the lack of a backspace key made me want to scream and throw it against the wall. Now I just use the f-word a lot when I am editing something.

Based on the hype (I agree with ls650's assessment), I expected the Mac to be super intuitive and user friendly, but I see no difference. The Mac does boot a lot faster because you don't have to deal with virus software, but my MacBook locks up on a regular basis and has a consistent problem with a particular software update. I will say that it is a lot easier for me to type in Spanish on the Mac with the accent marks, �, etc. A Mac can also convert documents to directly to pdf format, which a Windows based PC cannot without additional software and I do like that. Now that I am back in the US, I'm also back to using my PC laptop for work (I use Word and Excel all day) and I only use the Mac for iTunes, checking email, writing emails in Spanish, and watching DVDs.

guatetaliana · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 2:21 pm Post subject:

By the way, what jillford mentioned about right clicking has a couple solutions besides buying an external mouse. The best one is to change your mouse settings with the keypad.

1) Go to "Applications" ---> "System Preferences"
2) Click "Keyboard and Mouse"
3) Click the "Trackpad" tab
3) There is an option in there to either tap both fingers on the trackpad and click for right-click, or my favorite, just tap both fingers on the trackpad to get the right-click function. I actually really prefer this to right-clicking on a PC. But maybe some people don't.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304720

Here's a helpful Mac document for Windows users making the switch. It's too bad the stores don't make this standard literature when you buy a Mac, it would save a lot of people a ton of hassle.

Oreen Scott · Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Posts: 179 Location: Oaxaca, Mexico

I'm trying to get all my files transferred to the Mac. If that can be accomplished before I leave I'll be happy.

I thought the electronics store techs would correctly transfer my files.

They took every piece of garbage buried deep in my PC and put it into the Mac Air. Furthermore, nothing is in folders. Over 6,000 files of stuff I can't use. For this I paid $100??? Grrrr!

I feel a fight coming on when I return to the store to lodge my complaint and request a return of my money and a removal of the files they transferred.

I suspect I'll end up transferring everything myself.

Since I use itunes on my PC, I easily transferred all my songs to the Mac Air. But, so it seems, I have to verify each song on my new computer that was purchased at the Apple itunes store. I don't know if this needs to be done one at a time or not.

I didn't purchase Microsoft Office. On my PC I use Microsoft works.

The Future Shop sales people sold me iworks saying that iworks would automatically convert my documents from Microsoft works to iworks. DOES NOT!! Another Grrrr!!!

Furthermore, when I got home with my lovely small Mac Air I couldn't connect to the internet, unless I went wireless, which I'm not going to do.

So, I had to go back to the store and purchase an accessory to place in my one UBS port that allows ethernet connection. $50 bucks poorer for this little accessory I returned home.

I could go on. . .but let's just say I'm not at the point where I can compare a PC to a Mac. . .

What, no backspace key??? What's up with that?[/u]

Oreen Scott · Joined: 11 Jan 2008 Posts: 179 Location: Oaxaca, Mexico

Well, it seems I over reacted. It's a good thing I didn't go to the computer store when I was feeling put upon 'cause I would've made a fool of myself.

I'm using my MacBook Air now, and I seem to like it. The screen is incredibly bright. It's kind of comfortable typing with it sitting with comfort on my lap. I'm not finding the transition too difficult, other than losing all my ebooks because I foolishly purchased Microsoft reader format. I'm also not able to use my Spanish or Italian flash cards because they are not Mac compatible. And, I have the same problem with my graphics.

I've not been using the Mac long enough to compare, but I do like the lightness and convenience of the MacBook Air.

It ought to fit well with my traveling lifestyle.

Added bonus, it's pointing out my spelling errors as I type on the forum.