Official Apple Thread

[Nomi]

Is iSight really that big of an improvement over a $50 usb camera?

Not really. It's better than a lot of the Logitech stand-alones I've seen, but it's still a fairly mediocre webcam.

[Beefy Hits]

I don't ever use the iSight for video chatting, but it's been really handy as an emergency digital camera for small things, since I don't actually have a dedicated one. For simple snapshots, it does the job, and it's nice to have it there if I ever need it.

I really don't see the use of it other than for video messaging and taking the random faceshot for lame internet pic postings.

I've never seen anybody use it as a digital camera stand-in. What's the megapixel rating of it, anyway?

[Nomi]

Oh, I know it's crappy. I don't have an alternative though, and this is free and already there, so I use it from time to time. The pictures look like the crap from really old, really low-quality 3MP cameras, haha.

[Beefy Hits]

Oh, I know it's crappy. I don't have an alternative though, and this is free and already there, so I use it from time to time. The pictures look like the crap from really old, really low-quality 3MP cameras, haha.

I guess if you're just going to post them to the Internet, all you really need is 3MP max anyway. I have an old 2MP canon that I use and most pics turn out just fine.

[raystorm]

I bought a macbook pro the other day and so far its a fine laptop. Its my first apple product so I'm just getting to grips with OSX. I moved my gaming pc to my hdtv (with my 360 and modded xbox) and plan on putting Vista on that machine and use this macbook for general net and productivity usage.

I just learned how to install apps (the whole drag and drop into app folder and stuff) but just read that to uninstall stuff you have to just drag 'em to the trashbin?? I noticed that 2 things are taking up lots of space on my hdd..Garageband and a ridiculous amount of printer drivers. I don't play any instruments and don't intend on ever making any music so I want that out. Whats the best way to dump that?


Also, do any of you have any favorite OSX sites/forums?? yea yea..I can google it but fuck that, I'm sure you folks have personal favorite OSX sites you can share.

At the moment I have only installed Firefox (Safari is just fine for me so far but maybe Firefox will have its uses), Flip4Mac (for all the wmv stuff all over the net), Disk Inventory (how I found out about all those printer drivers and garageband stuff taking so much space), StuffIt Expander and downloaded the latest BootCamp to put in xp some day if I ever need to.

I'll take a look at those apps from the first page of this thread and continue my osx education.

[torgo]

I just learned how to install apps (the whole drag and drop into app folder and stuff) but just read that to uninstall stuff you have to just drag 'em to the trashbin?? I noticed that 2 things are taking up lots of space on my hdd..Garageband and a ridiculous amount of printer drivers. I don't play any instruments and don't intend on ever making any music so I want that out. Whats the best way to dump that?

You hit OSX's serious flaw right away. App management sucks on OSX. If it truly was "drag to app folder to install, drag to trash to uninstall" it'd be amazing. But it's not 75% of the time. Garageband is a great example, there is no clean, conclusive way to uninstall it. You just drag it to the trash and all other files related to Garageband that you can find, most are in /Library/Application Support

Apps that are installed via installers, while installing them keep an eye out for any uninstall option. Sometimes it's in the menubar of the installer app (in that case the installer is also the uninstaller), sometimes it's a lil script tucked away in a folder somewhere. If it has an uninstaller, hang onto it.

But hey, that's seriously my only complaint against the entire OS, so that's really not too bad. You're going to love your MacBook, mine has made computing desirable again.

[Josh]

I have sex with my mbp every day.

[Shin Johnpv]

I have sex with my mbp every day.

that would explain why the keyboard sticks so much




anyway on topic of Mac shit, does anyone know of a disc burning program for it? One of my friends bought a new DVD burner for her mac but she didn't go through apple for it, I can't remember if she said if it was internal or external. Anyway she can't get IDVD to recognize it and Toaster I forget what she said about why that wasn't working with it. So my question is does anyone know of any other disc burning software for the mac or why the drive might not be recognized by idvd?

[mollipen]

I just learned how to install apps (the whole drag and drop into app folder and stuff) but just read that to uninstall stuff you have to just drag 'em to the trashbin??

There are also apps that require installers. To be honest, as torgo said, app management under OSX currently is a bit flaky. Some apps you can drag to install, drag to uninstall, and you're fine. Some apps you can drag to install, but then if you just drag to uninstall, they leave a bunch of files in various places behind. Some app have installers, but those installers may or may not have an uninstall feature.

Something I would look into is an app called AppZapper. For any program you want to uninstall, you just drag the app itself onto AppZapper's window, and it will find everything that goes with it automatically.

I noticed that 2 things are taking up lots of space on my hdd..Garageband and a ridiculous amount of printer drivers. I don't play any instruments and don't intend on ever making any music so I want that out. Whats the best way to dump that?

Stuff like print drivers, to be honest, unless they are seriously making a dent in your hard drive, I'd just leave them. You never know when you might be in a situation where you'll want to print, and they'll be handy.

As for GarageBand, go to the Finder and do a search for "GarageBand." Trash everything it finds. There you go.

Also, do any of you have any favorite OSX sites/forums?? yea yea..I can google it but fuck that, I'm sure you folks have personal favorite OSX sites you can share.

First place to start is always the official forums on apple.com. After that, the MacRumors forums aren't bad.

Flip4Mac (for all the wmv stuff all over the net)

You're also going to want to grab Perian, which greatly helps with other stuff like Flash, Divx, Xvid, etc. Coming from the Windows world, you may think QuickTime sucks, but on a Mac, once you get a few codecs installed, the QT Player is actually pretty decent and will do most of what you need it to do.

[mollipen]

anyway on topic of Mac shit, does anyone know of a disc burning program for it? One of my friends bought a new DVD burner for her mac but she didn't go through apple for it, I can't remember if she said if it was internal or external. Anyway she can't get IDVD to recognize it and Toaster I forget what she said about why that wasn't working with it. So my question is does anyone know of any other disc burning software for the mac or why the drive might not be recognized by idvd?

I believe that the latest version of iDVD works with external burners, so she must have an older verison.

Have her check out Burn - it's free, and while it isn't fancy, it can do a whole lot for how simple of an app it is.