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Old 11-24-2011, 09:30 AM   #221
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As cost is one of the biggest issues with people buying Apple products I'd say this situation is perfect.

My suggestion: as it is a travel computer, give serious consideration to the 11". For things like an airplane tray the 11" would fit better than the 13". Go to an Apple store and play around with both (that's what swayed me towards the 11).
That's good advice - I actually have a 10" Netbook which is actually very handy, especially on the plane. My only reservation with the 13" version was someone in front of me reclining and making it pretty much unusable on the plane.
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Old 11-26-2011, 05:38 PM   #222
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MacX DVD Ripper Pro is now available free for the first 30000 users. This version does not include updates or tech support but the price is right.

http://www.macxdvd.com/giveaway/giveaway.htm
Wow! Thanks. I was about to buy this yesterday.
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Old 11-28-2011, 10:31 PM   #223
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So I ended up taking the plunge on Friday and I am now a proud owner of a 13" Macbook Air. Thanks to everyone who helped answer my questions. It made my decision easier to be able to bounce some thoughts off of you.

I opted for the 13" over the 11" after going to the Apple Store on Thursday night and playing around with both. The 11" would definitely be better on a plane (as Russic posted), but figured that I'd go for the larger screen as 99% of my my use will not be on planes. I have found myself actively avoiding work on flights more and more lately anyway.

My initial impressions are good. The physical computer is a thing of beauty. Light and thin, yet sturdy. The display is sharp and easy to look at, and the backlit keyboard is fantastic for typing in bed or other dim places.

Mac OS is taking a little bit of getting used to. I have never really spent any meaningful time on Macs before, other than launching Firefox on a friend's computer occasionally. It feels quick and responsive, and most of my essential programs... I mean apps... are available on Mac as well, so I feel somewhat comfortable. The file system is different, and there are lots of quirks that I'll need to get used to, but that's one of the reasons that I decided to try something new.

As sclitheroe reported, PPTP is built-in and it was a breeze to get connected to my office. Remote Desktop (provided for free from Microsoft) works well to control my office PC, so the work requirements are all taken care of.

Not trying to ramble on - just wanted to thank you all for the input!

So now my questions will shift to more specific operational things, starting with this: I have read that NTFS is supported in Lion, but as read only. This held true when I tried an NTFS USB drive - I could read the files, but not write. No big deal as I can just use FAT32 on my USB drive. Tonight I accessed my NTFS drive on my Windows desktop via the network and I was able to read AND write to the drive flawlessly. This pleasantly surprised me as I was expecting it not to work. Is there a reason why I could read/write to an NTFS drive over the network?
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Old 11-29-2011, 09:28 AM   #224
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do a search on cp for threads about starting to use macs. there are lots of great tips and I know I linked to a bunch of sites that provided tips etc.

I found getting used to the OS and the quirks to be more irritating than I thought but I am still really glad I bought a mac.
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Old 11-29-2011, 09:35 PM   #225
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Is there a reason why I could read/write to an NTFS drive over the network?
Yes, because it's the Windows machine that is responsible at that point for doing write operations to the NTFS drive. The Mac and the PC are talking SMB to each other, and thus the Mac really has no idea what filesystem is underneath on the Windows side.

If you needed to write to NTFS drives locally on the Mac on an ongoing basis, you can get commercial apps like Paragon, or go the non-commercial route using things like MacFuse or OSXFuse. Personally, if I needed it, I'd go with something like Paragon simply because its tested more thoroughly and supported.
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Old 11-29-2011, 09:48 PM   #226
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Yes, because it's the Windows machine that is responsible at that point for doing write operations to the NTFS drive. The Mac and the PC are talking SMB to each other, and thus the Mac really has no idea what filesystem is underneath on the Windows side.

If you needed to write to NTFS drives locally on the Mac on an ongoing basis, you can get commercial apps like Paragon, or go the non-commercial route using things like MacFuse or OSXFuse. Personally, if I needed it, I'd go with something like Paragon simply because its tested more thoroughly and supported.
Thanks for the clear explanation. Most of my sharing will be over the network, which is good news. I converted my USB drive over to FAT32 just so I can read/write to it on both the PC and Mac, but other than that there isn't much I can foresee needing to be able to use NTFS drives for on the Mac.
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Old 11-30-2011, 09:42 AM   #227
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So my only gripe thus far with my new Macbook Air isn't OS-related, but ironically, hardware-related. My spacebar has developed an annoying squeak which is apparently somewhat common. I'm not comfortable popping it off myself to fix it, so it looks like I'll need to make a trip to the friendly nerds at the Genius Bar.
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Old 12-01-2011, 09:00 AM   #228
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Hoping to get a new 15" Macbook Pro in the new year... any idea if they will be doing a hardware refresh like they did last Feb?
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Old 12-01-2011, 09:13 AM   #229
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Hoping to get a new 15" Macbook Pro in the new year... any idea if they will be doing a hardware refresh like they did last Feb?
They just did one a month or so ago, but it was pretty minor.

Rumor is there will be a 15" MacBook Air equivalent in Q1 2012. A lot of people think the MBA & MBP lines will merge sometime in the near future - the 15" MBA may or may not be that merge.
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Old 12-04-2011, 01:37 PM   #230
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Just trying to do a little troubleshooting here....

Does anybody with a black Apple TV have issues with it staying connected to your computer? It seems every time I turn it on these days I need to pull the power and start again for it to recognize my library. Incredibly frustrating. I'm just trying to figure out if it's a network issue or an Apple TV problem. I'm guessing it's my network because I've noticed it only started getting really bad once I upped my Shaw account and brought their router into my home.
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Old 12-04-2011, 02:00 PM   #231
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Just trying to do a little troubleshooting here....

Does anybody with a black Apple TV have issues with it staying connected to your computer? It seems every time I turn it on these days I need to pull the power and start again for it to recognize my library. Incredibly frustrating. I'm just trying to figure out if it's a network issue or an Apple TV problem. I'm guessing it's my network because I've noticed it only started getting really bad once I upped my Shaw account and brought their router into my home.
Same problem with me too. However, ever since I upgraded to the new OS, it has been relatively trouble free and this problem has gone away.

I guess the only problem I have found is that when I try to connect my iPhone or iPad to use as the remote, it can't ever find the appletv...until I unplug the appletv and plug it back in again.
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Old 12-04-2011, 03:01 PM   #232
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Quick question regarding Apple Care for a MBP. I seem to remember reading something about being able to purchase Extended Apple Care before your basic 1 year Apple Care runs out. Is that still true?
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Old 12-04-2011, 03:35 PM   #233
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Quick question regarding Apple Care for a MBP. I seem to remember reading something about being able to purchase Extended Apple Care before your basic 1 year Apple Care runs out. Is that still true?
Yes. While your machine is under the factory 1 year warranty you can extend it for 2 years with AppleCare.
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Old 12-04-2011, 03:59 PM   #234
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Just trying to do a little troubleshooting here....

Does anybody with a black Apple TV have issues with it staying connected to your computer? It seems every time I turn it on these days I need to pull the power and start again for it to recognize my library. Incredibly frustrating. I'm just trying to figure out if it's a network issue or an Apple TV problem. I'm guessing it's my network because I've noticed it only started getting really bad once I upped my Shaw account and brought their router into my home.
I haven't had any issues with my atv. It's been awesome. My ps3 can't stream for shat though.
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Old 12-04-2011, 09:41 PM   #235
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Thanks for the responses. Bloody hell, just as I suspected it's a Shaw problem. I would much rather troubleshoot this through Apple than Shaw.
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Old 12-05-2011, 12:06 AM   #236
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Originally Posted by Russic View Post
Just trying to do a little troubleshooting here....

Does anybody with a black Apple TV have issues with it staying connected to your computer? It seems every time I turn it on these days I need to pull the power and start again for it to recognize my library. Incredibly frustrating. I'm just trying to figure out if it's a network issue or an Apple TV problem. I'm guessing it's my network because I've noticed it only started getting really bad once I upped my Shaw account and brought their router into my home.
I had some similar problems for a while a month or so ago but it was clearly my wireless crapping out since a reboot of the router fixed it.

Unfortunately it stopped doing it, so I can't justify a new router yet.
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Old 12-15-2011, 03:04 PM   #237
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iTunes Match is now live, so if any pirates out there are looking to buy themselves out of an eternity of karmic consequences for $28/year, now would be a good time.

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With iTunes Match, even songs you’ve imported from CDs can be stored in iCloud. And you can play them on any iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, or PC — whenever you want and wherever you are, without syncing. iTunes Match is just $24.99 a year.2

Here’s how it works: iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to iCloud for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 20 million songs in the iTunes Store, chances are, your music is already in iCloud. And for the few songs that aren’t, iTunes has to upload only what it can’t match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream and store it to any of your devices. Even better, all the music iTunes matches plays back from iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality — even if your original copy was of lower quality.
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Old 12-15-2011, 03:53 PM   #238
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When it says you can stream and store the music to any device does that mean you can download them? Essentially replacing your music with a higher quality, DRM free version? Or is it like a streaming only thing and you need constant internet connection to access them?
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Old 12-15-2011, 03:59 PM   #239
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When it says you can stream and store the music to any device does that mean you can download them? Essentially replacing your music with a higher quality, DRM free version? Or is it like a streaming only thing and you need constant internet connection to access them?
You can download them.
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Old 12-15-2011, 04:43 PM   #240
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Yep. Got my library updating now.

iTunes in the cloud is now live on Apple TV as well. (TV shows!)
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