who has a mac?

Shaggz

A strong 7
looking to possibly switch from a windows based system for the home computer. is mac really all that and more? basically for image and video editing. any reccos or pitfalls to avoid would be appreciated.
 

743power

Shop: Bicycle Pro
Shop Keep
I'm on a mac. It's a G4 powermac I bought in '02 or '03, I don't remember. dual 1.42 powerpc's. I bought it for graphic design work and video editing, and it has been nothing but flawless and perfect in all of those years.

I'm actually looking into complimenting it with a new macbook pro this time next year, only because everything is shifting to intel compatibility and the speed of the new macs is sooooo much faster than mine.

I can probably help you with specific questions if you have any. I've been working on macs for a long time and have converted a good handful of friends.
 

pixychick

JORBA: Ringwood
JORBA.ORG
I use a mac and am always amazed when given instruction on how to do things with windows, how many steps there are with windows. mac seems so intuitive and is done in just one step. iphoto, imovie all very easy. Not even sure what crashing is. All this said from a computer illiterate.

I think you need to run both systems to use GPS data though.
 

Shaggz

A strong 7
is there a way to run a windows environment on a MAC for the GPS issues pixy mentioned? what is the difference between the imac and the mac pro? i assume that the mac pro will be overkill for my needs.
 

743power

Shop: Bicycle Pro
Shop Keep
my GF is an interior design major and she uses a macbook pro with "bootcamp" to dual boot with XP for autocad.

I believe the newest osx release should come with the bootcamp software, so all you would need is a copy of xp with sp2.

Imac is a pretty powerful little computer for most people. I'm sure it will run imovie or even final cut and premiere. The mac pro is a freakin powerhouse that will be more than sufficient for just about anything.
 

lancerracer

Active Member
I switched from a pc to my macbook last year. I absolutely love it. Everything just works. It is so easy to install most things (digital cameras etc.) I even replaced my 8 track digital recorder and now use garage band (a mac program) to record my music.
 

ChrisG

Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
Me too.

I'm figuring on making the switch as well, though perhaps not until next year. We use the computer for very simple applications, but I just think Apple makes the coolest stuff. I do get frustrated with the PC locking up and freaking out at times for no apparent reason.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Steve - out next laptop is going to be a Mac. My wife worked with them for years. If you want to talk to her you can give me a ring today. I'm home sick so we're all here.

Here's some Garmin/Mac stuff:
http://www8.garmin.com/macosx/

Not sure what to make of that. We'll still have PCs in the house so the GPS will likely be hooked to one of those.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
We have an imac, the first of the new style a few years back. My wife does freelance graphic design work with Adobe CS, which takes up a crap load of resources. We have not had problems with performance and the graphic quality is top notch. I have not been able to get my garmin 205 to work with the mac, I usually download it at work but susposedly you can get it to work. You can run Softwindows or Virtual PC (might have a different name now) but they tend to run slow. Would be ok if you are just using to pull you GPS data.

One thing I really like about MAC is how they handle internet temp files, for whatever reason you comp doesnt get bogged down like PC's tend too. We have had the comp for 3 years now and it is still going strong. It is worth the extra money...
 

clarkenstein

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
JORBA.ORG
i just made the switch to a mac desktop and i love it. i use it for practically everything now except for watching TV - home recording, excel, you name it. i would recommend switching over from windows.
 

NJ-XC-Justin

KY-DH-Freddy
Honestly PCs have the most riduclous interface I could imagine creating. Every time I have to use one I think it's created by a child. The Mac interface makes sense -- it's intuitive. I couldn't care less about where things on the computer lie -- yet on my Mac I know where everything is. Fonts, system prefs, history, etc.

Photoshop (and not the less expensive LE or Element versions) is necessary for image editing. Get nothing else. I have not done one day's work without it in 10 years. Get it no matter what computer you have.

When buying a Mac, ANY Mac will do. Don't let someone steer yu towards a 3 grand computer because we want to do graphics -- they did the same thing 5 years ago and today's bottom-of-the-line Mac is 20X faster than that day's top model.
 

Shaggz

A strong 7
good thoughts all around. other than the obvious, are there other advantages to the mac laptops over the imac?
 

NJ-XC-Justin

KY-DH-Freddy
Oh by the way, NO VIRUSES FOR MACS. EVER. Reason enough right there.

As for laptops v home stations, i would say it depends on how much you use it and how mobile you need it to be. laptops by definition perform not as well, get hotter, and have more tempermental screens. if you don't need to be mobile, get an iMac I say. But if you would like that freedom and don't expect to do more than an hour or 2 of work a day, a macbook would be sweet (and if you wi-fi your home you can go online anywhere in the house :)).

that said i worked full-time from home on a G3 powerbook, running every design app simultaneously, for 2 full years and it worked great almost the whole time. (Though in hindsight i would have gotten a desktop.)

search MTBR for Mac-friendly GPS sites (a la motionbased). they exist.
 

Glancing Aft

Active Member
I've been on a Mac for about 3 years. Have both a mac mini and imac and love them both. I don't use them for professional video or photo editing but as far as leisure editing and organization I can't think of a better platform!

I have an older Garmin GPS 60CS that I've been waiting for motionbased support for. Still waiting and waiting. Once they have it up and running though I will never have to turn on a windows computer in my house again! :)
 
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NickDavid

New Member
First off.. you don't have to be a designer to use a mac. Get that out of your head.

Second, I've been using Mac's for 7 years now. Switched from PC's which I've used my whole life.

You will encounter a problem or 2 occasionaly, but it's much less than a PC. You also, at the moment, don't have to worry about virus or spyware. The computer always runs fast, providing you didn't cheap out on your ram.

Buy a 17" laptop and it's the only computer you'll need. I highly recommend it!

Photoshop (and not the less expensive LE or Element versions) is necessary for image editing. Get nothing else. I have not done one day's work without it in 10 years. Get it no matter what computer you have.

Not true. There are many opensource programs that give you the ability to edit images. Photoshop is not the only one, but I find it to be the best. It's also expensive, so if you're on a budget, you can download a free opensource program.

Viruses are possibly, but highly unlikely.

And ANY MAC will not do. This OS needs at least 1gb of ram to operate smoothly. Do not cheap out and buy a basic model. Trust me. Go for the 2gigs and you won't have to upgrade or buy a new model for a long time.

I believe GARMIN offers MAC support now, if it's not garmin, it's one of the other big name GPS guys.

Yes, you can also run a windows environment on a mac, in 2 modes. One is a complete bootup mode and the other gives you the ability to run windows while running mac osx. Honestly, once you learn how to find the software you need, you'll have no use for a PC. I have NEVER needed a PC in the past 5 years. Macs now have tons of software that works in place of a pc program. Plus, you won't have to go and buy a microsoft office program.
 
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Spylab

New Member
I am surprised how many Mac users there on on this local board alone. You can add myself, my brother, and best friends Bryan (fastbandit) and Ryan (timekiller) to the list of Apple computer owners.

Besides the above mentioned items, let me add that spyware is completely eliminated, you aren't concerned with stumbling through 3000 .dll files when something goes awry, Mac screen gamma (1.8) is a print industry standard for calibration, and all the proprietary software that is bundled with a new Mac is useful, efficient, and has a strong support backing.

I use PCs at work, and every day am reminded that I will never own another Windows machine at home.
 

J-Dro

Well-Known Member
After reading all these Mac accolades, I almost get the impression that a Mac is as good at everything as a 29er.:D
 

jbogner

NYCMTB: President
JORBA.ORG
For Garmin users, Project Bobcat...

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=3886

I've been a mac owner for 16 years. There is no easier platform for video editing, photo management, and all those other nice little things that people like to do with their computers.

If you like to do work with you computer, buy a Mac, if you want to work on your computer just to get it to work, stick with PC... ;)

Macs these days give you plenty of options, too- with the dual boot capabilities of Intel Macs, and the virtual machine software that allows you to run Windows inside a window on your Mac desktop with very little performance hit, you can have your cake and eat it too.

And yes, I am a mac user who also rides a 29er. Coincidence? ;)
 

NJ-XC-Justin

KY-DH-Freddy
And ANY MAC will not do. This OS needs at least 1gb of ram to operate smoothly. Do not cheap out and buy a basic model. Trust me. Go for the 2gigs and you won't have to upgrade or buy a new model for a long time.

Dude, RAM is a handful of dollars and takes all of 5 minutes to install. It is most certainly not worth paying a thousand extra dollars for a top-level Mac just for $70 of RAM. If your stock Mac has 512K you drop $40 adn get it up to a Gig.

You pay the big bucks for processor speed (well fast enough in any Mac), hard drive space (ample in any Mac unless you're a serious video guy, in which case you should have a separate hard drive anyway) and graphics cards (also upgradeable). There is no cheaping out with a Mac. Again, today's "lowest" model was 2005's best, and no one complained in 2005 using the same OS and same programs.
 
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