New Apple User

[anamorphic96]

Can anyone suggest a few Apple Macintosh sites that have a good forum for communicating with other Mac users.

I recently picked up a new iMac. So far so good. But as usual there is an adjustment period when learning a new operating system and it would be nice to chat with other Mac owners.

Thanks

[Woochifer]

Congrats! Some things with Macs definitely operate differently, but I think on the whole you'll be a lot happier with the experience. If you use a lot of websites with Windows Media, then you'll need to download the Flip2Mac plug-in, since MS quit updating the Mac version of Windows Media Player. Otherwise, I've found that the functional equivalents for most functions on a Mac run smoother using native Mac apps.

My first bit of unsolicited advice with an iMac is to buy an external USB hard drive ASAP. Time Machine is the most intuitive and painless backup application I've ever used. I had to use Time Machine to restore my hard drive once, when the root directory got corrupted and the various drive restoration programs had not yet updated for compatibility with Leopard.

The main forums that I go to for help are Apple's support forums (by far the largest Mac community on the web), and also the Macrumors website has a very active discussion forum. The Apple discussion boards alone answered a lot of my questions when I was starting off with video editing and DVD burning using Final Cut Express (seemingly simple things like editing the video file for anamorphic widescreen required some extra steps and downloading a third party freeware app), and problems with networking my iMac with a Windows laptop.

For Mac news, I go to Macdailynews and Appleinsider. Those too have comments sections for individual stories.

[noddin0ff]

I've been a fan of forums.dealmac.com for a long time. If I have a question, 99.9% of the time I can get it answered there.

Also useful before updating software or adopting the next new mac thing is xlr8yourmac.com

If a software update has a bug, which is more and more rare, they're a good place to get the fast scoop before you act.

[kexodusc]

Yeah Apple's discussion forums are probably the best, I can usually find what I need there.

[anamorphic96]

Thanks for the input everyone. I have checked out the Mac forums and its very impressive. Will definitely be using it for my Mac questions.

One of the cool things about the Mac is the remote. I think I will be picking up a USB DAC and 500gb hard drive and turn this thing into a music server.

The more I learn about Mac's the more I'm loving it.

[Woochifer]

Thanks for the input everyone. I have checked out the Mac forums and its very impressive. Will definitely be using it for my Mac questions.

One of the cool things about the Mac is the remote. I think I will be picking up a USB DAC and 500gb hard drive and turn this thing into a music server.

The more I learn about Mac's the more I'm loving it.

Just wait 'til you start messing around with Garage Band and iMovie ...

[alt4]

I've been a fan of forums.dealmac.com for a long time. If I have a question, 99.9% of the time I can get it answered there.

Also useful before updating software or adopting the next new mac thing is xlr8yourmac.com

If a software update has a bug, which is more and more rare, they're a good place to get the fast scoop before you act.

Thanks,
will tell my son about this site...
He sleeps with his laptop mac!

[Florian]

I used to have an iMac, now i use a Macbook Pro. Gratulations!

Cheers

[anamorphic96]

Update. I had to take my iMac back due to a dead pixel that had developed on the screen. I had originally purchased the mac from Best Buy and was two days past the 14 day return period to do an exchange and they refused to swap it out for a new one. Even after speaking with the store manager. All they did was lecture me about purchasing an extended warranty.

I decided to try my luck by taking it to an Apple store and was given a new Imac in five minutes. The service I received was second to none and was informed I had one year to decide whether or not I wanted to purchase their extended warranty. Being I figured it would be sent in for service I did not bring my cables, mouse or keyboard and informed to just keep them for spares. They even took what little stuff I had stored and burned it on to a CDR. I must say I love the way they have there service department set up. Being able to sit down with a Genius and troubleshoot the problem is a great way to do business.

It's refreshing to find a company who goes out of there way to help people and stand behind there products.

[Woochifer]

Update. I had to take my iMac back due to a dead pixel that had developed on the screen. I had originally purchased the mac from Best Buy and was two days past the 14 day return period to do an exchange and they refused to swap it out for a new one. Even after speaking with the store manager. All they did was lecture me about purchasing an extended warranty.

I decided to try my luck by taking it to an Apple store and was given a new Imac in five minutes. The service I received was second to none and was informed I had one year to decide whether or not I wanted to purchase their extended warranty. Being I figured it would be sent in for service I did not bring my cables, mouse or keyboard and informed to just keep them for spares. They even took what little stuff I had stored and burned it on to a CDR. I must say I love the way they have there service department set up. Being able to sit down with a Genius and troubleshoot the problem is a great way to do business.

It's refreshing to find a company who goes out of there way to help people and stand behind there products.

FWIW, the Applecare extended warranty also comes with Techtool Deluxe, which is a hardware diagnosis and drive repair utility. I used it once to repair the drive partition when my iMac wouldn't boot up. There are other OS X utilities that can do as good (or better) a job, but figure that that the Applecare plan for an iMac costs $170 while Disk Warrior (probably the best reviewed drive utility for the Mac) costs about $100 for just the utility program.

Apple has a somewhat different motive for its retail stores than Best Buy. With BB, each store gets a specific allotment, and given how short-supplied Apple has been with most of their computer models, anything that you swap out gets taken away from that BB store's allotment. I'm not sure what would happen with your iMac if BB took it back (would Apple take it back, or would the store have to get it repaired and sell it as an open box loss leader?), but either way, it's money out of their pocket. Selling you the extended warranty is BB's primary way of making money from hardware sales. Sucks for you as a customer, but that's the behind-the-scenes stuff driving all this.

Apple's retail stores are a place to buy stuff, but also a showcase for them to build their corporate image. The design of the stores, the product demos, the in-store classes, the Genius Bar, the register-less checkouts, etc. are all done differently than a typical retail store. And while not all of it IMO works, it nonetheless demonstrates how Apple wants their customers to perceive the company. Apple stores don't worry about allotments or margins, since at their retail stores, they are the middleman and get both the wholesale and retail profit margins.

When Apple began opening its retail stores about 7 years ago, I remember just about every pundit predicting that the venture would fail big time (a la Gateway) and that it would bleed the company dry at a time when they needed every penny just to stay afloat. But, they clearly had a well defined vision for their retail operations, and their average sales per square foot currently rank at the top of the entire retail industry. And now, the media's writing story after story about how Apple's stores have set the standard that other retailers need to match, how they've become major gathering spots, how someone actually wrote a book (that subsequently got published) while just hanging at Apple's NYC store (the author couldn't afford her own computer at home), etc.

[noddin0ff]

But Disk Warrior is the best. It will fix what others can't.
Another good utility that works in Mac OS 10.4 and down is applejack (http://applejack.sourceforge.net/). I don't know if there will be an update for 10.5. But its worth keeping an eye out for. It's a little better way to do repairs than Disk Utility. I use it for monthly maintenence.

[Woochifer]

But Disk Warrior is the best. It will fix what others can't.
Another good utility that works in Mac OS 10.4 and down is applejack (http://applejack.sourceforge.net/). I don't know if there will be an update for 10.5. But its worth keeping an eye out for. It's a little better way to do repairs than Disk Utility. I use it for monthly maintenence.

Everything I've read seems to agree that DW is indeed the best Mac disk utility out there. I only mentioned Techtool because it comes with the Applecare warranty. Agree that Disk Utility is not great for repairs.

With the Time Machine backup on OS X 10.5 though, it reduces the urgency for a disk repair utility, given that you can just restore the drive from the TM backup. I use Xupport for running periodic maintenance routines.