Ever since I got my macbook I get fed up using a windows. Numbers aren't the only difference, it's the OS. I've used windows computers that numerical should be better than my mac, and my mac kicked ass. I'm probably getting a macbook pro for graduation.

I ran xp on bootcamp for a few months because I needed to use xcel for about an hour then just deleted the partition. Everything else works on a mac, don't be swayed the wrong way.

 

It should come with a miniDVI to DVI adapter, at least it came with the computer in the box. If you need others/ any, don't buy at the Apple store. They charge $30 per adapter; you can get them for much less on Amazon

 

I'm not sure if it will come with it or not. The auction did not state that it does, so I might just buy one so I have everything I need when it arrives to test it out.

 

Ok, got the Mac Mini and am posting from it now. It actually came yesterday via USPS but I wasn't home so I had to go pick it up today. It was packed nicely, and looks brand new. I confirmed that it indeed has the 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 Ram. It did end up coming with a VGA and a DVI video adaptor. I bought a Mini Port (not sure if that is the actual name) to HDMI cable from Amazon that came yesterday. I have it hooked up to my Dell 20" LCD. I would like to upgrade that eventually, but looks decent for now. I am using my wireless Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse for now. I would like to get a set of the bluetooth Magic mouse and keyboard though. Is there anywhere to get good deals on them?

Anyway, I will be playing with it for a while and trying to get comfortable with it. Also have to load some of my software and see how they run on Mac's OS. I think I will try and install VMWare or something similar and run Windows on it as well. I am not sure how to install it all yet, if anyone has any good tutorials to post that would be great. I don't see myself using it that much on this machine, but I do have Windows only software for work that I would like to test out before upgrading my work laptop to a Mac.

 

I just noticed Boot Camp is preinstalled and I just have to download some software. Definitely seems easy enough. Is there a difference between Boot Camp, VMware or any other similar software?

 

With Boot Camp you reboot the mac into Windows. With Vmware the Windows runs on top of OS X. Vmware costs money. You can usually find a deal on Parallels and Virtual box is free.

 

Congrats on the Mac Mini - looks like you got a good deal too!

I don't run Boot Camp or Vmware but my understanding is that with Boot Camp, you either run Windows or OSX - you have to log out of one and reboot into the other OS. With Vmware or parallels you run them simultaneaosly so you can switch back and forth between the two instantly. However, your computer resources are split between the two so, for instance, each OS will get half or, in your case since you have 8gb total, 4 gb your RAM.

Not sure about the others but I can't stand the Magic Mouse. I went out and bought a regular bluetooth mouse with the scroll wheel. Yes, it was kind of cool to be able to swipe and do some gestures on a mouse but it was too low profile and made my wrist ache. If there's one thing that Apple has not done well, in my opinion of course, is mouse design. I'd suggest going to an Apple Store or Best Buy and play around with the Magic Mouse before you decide, especially since it's pretty pricey.

 

Thanks. I was thinking about going to Best Buy later since there is no Apple Store close to me. I noticed with the Microsoft mouse I am using that I can right click and still get a menu similar to that on a PC (ie. copy, paste, delete...) I like the fact it can do that, and I am fairly certain that I would lose that with a Mac mouse, I could be way off though. The mouse is a bit buggy, and could simply be due to batteries. I have to change them to see. It moves fine, but I have to click several times on certain things to accomplish what I am attempting to do. The keyboard is ok for the most part. I am not sure if one of the buttons substitutes for the Apple button. If the batteries fix the issue with the mouse, I might just stick with this setup for a while.

 

Congratz but add me to the list of mac haters. My macbook pro mysteriously awoke with a green and pink lines across the screen after my brazzers pass expired. No error codes no nada. I made an appt. with the apple store and guy plugged in his mac reader doohicky. After extracting the code, the apple specialist stated, " You no longer have Astro Glide Protection and total charges will amount to $700+ for a motherboard replacement." I politely declined, grabbed my purse and proceeded to Exit. -True Story
Later in the day I did get a call from a specialist who decided to cover the cost of replacement. I have since given the mac to the significant other and I'm going back to custom PC's.

 

Actually, if you get the Magic Mouse you can set it to have the right click. Since the entire top surface is a touch sensor, it can tell the right side from the left and detect your doing a right(or as they call it 'Secondary') click. I love the Apple Bluetooth keyboard, one of my favorites that I've ever used. Batteries lasted me a year on the keyboard. But just FYI on the mouse, try it at the store first because a lot of people on MacRumors complain that the ergonomics suck for them. You could always get the Magic Trackpad if the Magic Mouse doesn't work for you.

 

Welcome to the club!

 

Thanks.

So I texted my customer today to see what time I could stop by. We have sorta become friends over the past year. He said he was at the Apple Store picking up a Airport Extreme with the Time Capsule built in. I said perfect, and asked him to pick up the mouse and keyboard for me. It is about 45 minutes from my place to the nearest Apple Store, so this saved me a lot of time.

I just set them both up. I can see how some people would not like the mouse. It is low profile and I can see it hurting your wrist if you are on it for long periods of time. I really like it though. It works well, I can right click, and I love the swipe to scroll feature I will have to get used to the keyboard however. It looks great on the desk, but is so much smaller then my old keyboard. I just have to get used to it. I think in the end I will like it as well. The Mac stuff definitely looks sexier then all the PC stuff on the market.

 

The magic track pad is great as well. Use them both in tandem is nice.

 

I have the RemoteHD app on my iPad that, as well as allowing full control of the Mac, also can be used as a trackpad. I will use that for a bit and see if I would use it along side the Magic Mouse. If I do, I'd just end up getting the Trackpad as well.

 

I'm curious as to what is the best option between VMWare, Parallels, and Bootcamp.

Now I know Bootcamp would require rebooting into Bootcamp, while the others do not. Would I have to supply the OS for any of the solutions or does Parallels for instance include everything I need? Incidentally I am downloading the trial version of Parallels right now to try.

 

You need to supply the OS.

 

I feel like I am working on a PC still. I downloaded the trial version of Parallels and attempted to install. It gets all the way to end of the install and says it must Restart. I click restart and I get a message saying there was an error, I have the option to quit of show the error. Click show the error and nothing happens. Click quit and it closes the program, restarts the computer, and when it boots back up, the program was not installed. Retried the install and same thing happens.

 

Welcome to Macs

Hint, they work just like any other PC.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sourc...f6RyOA&cad=rja <--- PDF guide for Parallels just in case it might help.

 

Oh Man, don't tell me that. I switched because I am tired of the issues I have had on my PC machines

 

To better understand all the features available on your mac mini, I suggest installing the program called "Mactracker". It's available in the Apple App Store... http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mactr...30255202?mt=12

I ran into issues when I was installing Parallels when I first made the switch to mac. Was the mac mini fully updated prior to installing parallels? You can check by simply clicking on the apple logo in the menu bar at the top and choosing software update which will check to see if you have the latest and greatest. Also, depending on which build of OS X you have installed, hopefully the version of parallels you are installing doesn't have any issues with that version of OSX. In my previous experience, I found out that the version that was shipped to me when I purchased Parallels was an older build that didn't work with Snow Leopard.

 

I use bootcamp and parallels. So i have the option of both - using the full power of the computer in windows, or running a program quickly in tandem.

 

I would definitely like the ability to open up a virtual window and run PC based programs. I have CCTV cameras that will only display on a PC. It would be a major PITA to have to reboot everytime I want to simply view them. I'll have to see what I can figure out with Parallels. Can you give a comparison review between Parallels and Bootcamp though? Would be interested to see the differences other then have to boot into Bootcamp.

 

When you run bootcamp, you are using 100% of the computer's power to run windows. It is literally running a PC on mac hardware (which nowadays, isn't any different from traditional PC hardware). So i can run games, for example, with bootcamp. With Parallels or any virtualization software, you are sharing the resources of the computer with the OSX side, so the computer is running 2 operating systems at the same time. As a result, windows does not run nearly as fast in parallels as it does in bootcamp.

What I do allows me to have the best of both worlds. I installed windows via bootcamp, which creates a separate partition on your hard drive for windows. After installing windows and installing the bootcamp drivers within the windows environment (includes drivers for your mac hardware), reboot into OSX, and direct parallels to run windows from that partition....It is an option somewhere. Parallels will then read your copy of windows from your bootcamp partition. Using this setup, you can run windows either in a dedicated environment (bootcamp) OR you can run it in Parallels as a virtual OS. The choice is up to you and the best part is that you only have ONE copy of windows installed on your machine. This is all assuming you have the most recent version of Parallels. As far as the detailed instructions for all this, bootcamp comes with instructions which you can print off, or you can google it.

 

magic trackpad >>>> magic mouse

 

So I think I may be buying my first (used) mac to play with.

I found this today in CL



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Looks like i'lll be picking it up tomorrow if all goes well. I believe this model is a 2006-2007 model.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl...nch-specs.html

First thing I am going to do is bump the memory to 4GB (Max Supported)

Then install Lion as Lion supports the Core 2 Duo Processor. Looked through some forums and consnesus is that it runs ok on this model.

 

Eh, the white iMacs are pretty outdated. I didnt think they were intel.

 

Yup I just want to get my feet wet since i've never messed with a mac before.

Not looking for a power house. If I end up falling in love, then I will get a current model of course. If not back on Craigslist this goes

 

Welp I just picked it up and she is purdy! Not one scratch, stain or blemish. She said she barely used it and babied it.

Best news? It's not a 17", but it is a 20" model! Talk about a good surprise!

So I got a 20" iMac in Pristine condition for $225. I don't think that's bad

Just picked up 4GB ram, about to install it in a little bit and then download Lion

Here are the specs: http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl...nch-specs.html

On ebay this model is still fetching about $450+ http://completed.shop.ebay.com/Apple...=p3286.c0.m283

 

Why you trying to steal my thunder?



































j/k

Congrats.

 

LOL Thanks

 

Here she is with her fresh coat of Lion



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I have to say, I am extremely impressed with how snappy a 5 year old iMac is! It blows away my windows desktop!

 

I wish Apple would hurry up and release 10.7.1 already. I'm tired of having video playback problems and random slow downs. If 10.7.1 doesn't fix my problems I'm going back to Snow Leopard.

BTW, good luck with your white iMac. Looks nice. Good price too!

 

Nice Will

 

Thanks dude

I just purchased the magic mouse. I think i'm going to have a mangasm all over it. Somebody stop me from buying stuff for this thing please.

 

Didn't get the wireless keyboard too? Its pretty nice as well. I also picked up a $40 set of Logitech speakers with a sub. I didn't need the best sound, and they definitely suffice. Hard to believe the same company the gives us the craptastic Harmony line can produce a decent product.

 

Its a sickness

 

You're not helping

I'm trying not to keep buying stuff lol

 

Oh and I just installed Office 2011 I likes

 

I feel you. I didn't want to spend more money either, but in the end I am glad I did. Its a much cleaner look.

 

Yup I hear what you're saying. I'm about to throw my old desktop out the window.