PC or Mac

Millionaire

judderman62 - The speed of the mouse can be easily changed in system preferences, standard setting is quite slow but I have mine flying across. So that's sorted.

The erratic movements could be due to the surface the mouse is on and how shiny it is, thus affecting usage. I always use a leather mouse mat and found it much better then a desk surface on many mice I have used.

You can use other Mice, not a big fan of the mini mouse personally as I don't like the scroll ball which can be erractic when it gets dirty. I personally use a Logitech Laser mouse which works flawlessly and settings can be changed for mouse button functions.

Speed - My Macbook is very very quick on most things so cannot understand why the iMac would be so slow other than the last time I vistied a apple store they had virtually every application open on the display machines which obviously would cause some lag esp if you clicked on something that wasn't.

Safari Im guessing its slow due to a shared wireless connection instore, maybe? Safari is very quick though I prefer Firefox personally.

littleowl

judderman62 wrote: »

well I did one of those personal shopping sessions today and then had a bit of a play with an Imac.

Gotta say I was surprisingly and disappointingly underwhelmed

Can't put my finger on much of why except a couple of things:

1) Mouse response was rather erratic and needed a lot of movement on desk for not that much movement on screen ***BUT*** I guess one can change such settings and maybe the surface it was on was not ideal for an optical mouse. Also lack of ability to have a page back when on internet with a thumb button - would feel I'd lost an arm without that - guess I'd have to use a mouse with a back button ...***but*** would the back button work on a mac ?? any one know ?

2) Speed of the thing I have oft heard said that the macs are very quick and the current imac with 4gb is reckoned to work at "blistering speed" ...ehmmm no, no , no ,no . Utter b*ll**ks. Indeed very much the reverse was true - snail through treacle springs to mind - can't believe how slow it was - launching progs - ms office took an age. As for page rendering in safari soooo slow why do people claim they are fast - they most certainly are not. Do those of you who have macs use safari or do you use firefox ?

Was very dissapointed as had got to the stage where I was pretty much 80-85% decided on a mac and this has knocked me back somewhat .

i will do at least another 1/2 such visits as I still would quite like to get one but today's experience left me rather deflated and underwhelmed

I don't recognise the problems you experienced. I find my 24 ins iMac easier and quicker to use than any PC I have ever had. In fact I found myself wondering how I managed to put up with a Windows PC for over ten years before I bought the Mac.
Programmes open quickly, Safari is much superior to Internet Explorer and the sheer ease of use and lack of resource-hogging software makes the Mac a dream. I hesitate to say this but it really does 'just work'. It doesn't need nannying along and the elegant interface of Leopard is a revelation after Windows - and I have been through every iteration of that since Windows 95.
Perhaps the store was not an ideal environment for testing the Mac (although, admittedly, it should be). Don't give up. I will never go back to a Windows PC and am now hoping to buy a Macbook Pro as well in the near future.

marksoton

Have to concur with the three posts above. The only time safari has run slow is when the network i am connected to has been poor.

A quick spring clean using onyx seems to keep everything else in check.

Give it a couple more tries Judderman , if you are used to windows it can be a bit of a " culture shock ".

Encantador

My main reason for looing at a iMac is the need for a all-in-one computer, having looked at what`s in places like Currys/PC World etc, anything that looks reasonable is near the price of the iMac anyway.

My priorities are.....
To be able to use Microsoft Office docs and Outlook.
Use on wireless netwerk and talk to Windows PC`s.
Edit and store photos, ideally using Photoshop or similar.
Edit and store video.
Skype
Incredimail.
Picassa
Possibly occasionally use specialist Windows software to control camera attached to computer (tethered).
Print to Dell laser printer on network.
Use wireless keyboard and mouse (ideally).
Add a second monitor.

Can anyone help with whether any of the above will be a problem and if I would be better buying any additional software to achieve the above, if so what? is it best to buy software with the machine or seperately.

Thanks
P.S. Does this look like a good deal?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320360188879&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNARL:GB:1123

judderman62

thanks all esp millionaire - and yes the surface was highly polished wood and I did think that might have contributed to the not so great response form the mouse. Yes I would probably consider using an alternate mouse - so back buttons defo work do they ?

Yes definitely intend to go play a few more times and I still lean strongly towards mac as I do want to leave the sheer hell of windows/microsoft behind and I somehow don't think Linux would be for me.

thanks again for all above replies most helpful :beer::beer::T

judderman62

Encantador wrote: »

My main reason for looing at a iMac is the need for a all-in-one computer, having looked at what`s in places like Currys/PC World etc, anything that looks reasonable is near the price of the iMac anyway.

My priorities are.....
To be able to use Microsoft Office docs and Outlook.
Use on wireless netwerk and talk to Windows PC`s.
Edit and store photos, ideally using Photoshop or similar.
Edit and store video.
Skype
Incredimail.
Picassa
Possibly occasionally use specialist Windows software to control camera attached to computer (tethered).
Print to Dell laser printer on network.
Use wireless keyboard and mouse (ideally).
Add a second monitor.

Can anyone help with whether any of the above will be a problem and if I would be better buying any additional software to achieve the above, if so what? is it best to buy software with the machine or seperately.

Thanks
P.S. Does this look like a good deal?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320360188879&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNARL:GB:1123

to my mind no - the 24in 2.66ghz one with larger hard drive and double the ram is only about £149 more from apple themselves and you can knock of the £20 delivery fee off ebay if you pick it up yourseld from nearest store - I think for that small a difference I'd rather buy it direct from Apple themselves -what back up would you have if one bought off ebay should develop any issues ?

Marty_J

Encantador wrote: »

To be able to use Microsoft Office docs and Outlook.

You can get Microsoft Office for Mac - in fact, it was released for the Mac before it was released for Windows. OpenOffice is also an option.

Use on wireless netwerk and talk to Windows PC`s.

All Macs come with wifi cards, and can network with PCs.

Edit and store photos, ideally using Photoshop or similar.

Macs come with iPhoto, which is excellent for organising and editing photos. If you want more editing power, there's Photoshop (which was first released for the Mac), or its little brother Photoshop Elements.

Edit and store video.

All new Macs come with iMovie and iDVD.

Skype

You can get Skype for the Mac. I use it all the time with the built-in iSight camera.

Incredimail.

You can't get Incredimail for the Mac as far as I know, and good thing too; it's an awful program.

Macs come with Apple Mail, which is excellent.

Picassa

Available for the Mac.

Possibly occasionally use specialist Windows software to control camera attached to computer (tethered).

There are various ways to use Windows programs on a Mac. You can dual boot with Windows, run Windows in Parallels Desktop, or use CrossOver Mac.

You might find your camera manufacturer has Mac software for doing the same thing.

Print to Dell laser printer on network.

You shouldn't have any problems with that.

Use wireless keyboard and mouse (ideally).

All new Macs come with Bluetooth, so you should be able to use any bluetooth mouse and keyboard.

Apple's wireless keyboard and mouse are a bit on the pricey side, but they're very good. The keyboard in particular is excellent.

Add a second monitor.

iMacs have a Mini DisplayPort, which can be adapted to fit either DVI or VGA connections. They can support a 30 inch external monitor with a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels.

P.S. Does this look like a good deal?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320360188879&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNARL:GB:1123

It's OK I guess. Nothing to get excited about though.

You'd do better trying to find someone who can use Apple's educational discount, and then buy direct from them.

Jaffa.

Marty_J wrote: »

You can't get Incredimail for the Mac as far as I know, and good thing too; it's an awful program.
.

I used to use this! it's a lot more fun than your other email client. It's a shame they don't make a mac version.:p

As for the ebay listing theres no picture of the actual item, says it all.

judderman62

as regards word and excel if you are only doing pretty basic stuff I believe you can use pages and numbers (macs versions of word n excel) and they are pretty compatible anyways - I prob would not bother buying office for mac.

I have started using google docs for a lot of that sort of stuff - clearly not perfect if any of the docs are of a personal/confidential nature.

Encantador

judderman62 wrote: »

as regards word and excel if you are only doing pretty basic stuff I believe you can use pages and numbers (macs versions of word n excel) and they are pretty compatible anyways - I prob would not bother buying office for mac.

I have started using google docs for a lot of that sort of stuff - clearly not perfect if any of the docs are of a personal/confidential nature.

Thanks for the reply.

I mainly want to be able to keep all the docs I already have on the iMac and open/edit any I am sent in the future.