# I am an iMac



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

It happened...

Today typing on DBSTalk for the first time from a Mac. I had been looking for an upgrade for a while anyway, but what pushed me over the edge was a desire to work with the iPhone SDK (only available on Mac OS)...

So... I'm an iMac 2.8Ghz Intel Dual Core w/ 2GB RAM, 320 GB hard drive, and a huge 24" widescreen display. This thing is pretty slick and fast performing. DBSTalk looks sharper and more colorful even than on my PC!

So I guess I'm on the dark side now (or am I one with the Force finally)...

I figured I'd post and see who else is using a Mac and look for good application selections, particularly any freeware type stuff. I know some of the pay-apps I want to buy soon... but any cool free/shareware apps I'm open to suggestions.


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

And your grass is greener now !  Yeah, "sharper an more colorful" like new 120 Hz LCD with same static content. Funny.


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

P Smith said:


> And your grass is greener now !  Yeah, "sharper an more colorful" like new 120 Hz LCD with same static content. Funny.


While I was probably overembellishing... the truth is actually partially true 

My PC is a Pentium 4 @ 2 GHz... and my video card has 128MB of video RAM, and runs at 1680x1050 resolution.

My iMac is much much faster, the video card has 256MB of DDR3 RAM and runs at 1920x1200 resolution.

So the grass truly is greener


----------



## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

Welcome! I switched over to a Mac over a year ago a love it. 

Be careful though, Apple products tend to multiply very quickly. Soon after I got the iMac I got a Macbook and Apple TV plus a bunch of other odds and ends.

One thing I would recommend is to put 4GB of RAM in that puppy. RAM is cheap these days online. It's worth it.

I do a lot of HD video work. The iMac (and even the Macbook) handle it without a problem. No lockups or massive slowdowns. Gotta love it!

I don't regret the switch for one second and even convinced a few other family members to take the plunge. 

Enjoy your new toy.


----------



## SteveHas (Feb 7, 2007)

Welcome to the club guys.
My wife and I have been ardent Mac people since 1988.
We still maintain a PC presence in the house, but the Mac life is much better to be sure.
More expensive yes, but a safe, stable, reliable information appliance to be sure


----------



## fwlogue (Dec 6, 2006)

I bought my first Mac (a Mac Book) several months ago. I love it. I am seriously thinking about upgrading my desktop to a Mac.


----------



## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

I think what I like best about Macs is the integration. All of my bookmarks, calendar items and contact lists are synched between my iMac, Macbook and iPhone using ".me" and the "cloud". Very handy and takes the work out of having three different devices updated.


----------



## ibglowin (Sep 10, 2002)

For you have seen it now! 

Hope you enjoy it. We currently have 5 macs (and 2 pee cees) at our house plus an AppleTV so yes they can and do multiply if your not careful!


----------



## flexoffset (Jul 16, 2007)

Welcome to the Mac side. Been a mac user since 1984.


----------



## braven (Apr 9, 2007)

Wish we were a Mac family, but I'm just too cheap. Everyone I talk to loves 'em. Hope you enjoy the new Mac.


----------



## dshu82 (Jul 6, 2007)

Have had the 20" iMac since June, iPhone over a year and will never look back. Full convert......


----------



## machavez00 (Nov 2, 2006)

Welcome! I'm on my fourth, my second iMac. I bought The first iMac after my LC II died. Bought the Al iMac when I discovered my Power Mac could not run the new iMovie


----------



## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Congrats on the new hardware! As those who read here know, I use both platforms and are equally critical of both. Now, as far as people who grow their hair out like Justin Long... my opinions are a little harsher.


----------



## tunce (Jan 19, 2006)

Very nice! I have been with Apple since the Apple IIe! I am a IT Director and our company uses both "brands" and we have way less issues with the Macs.

I have an iMac, MacBook, and a G4 tower at home oh and two "pc" laptops.


----------



## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

I have a G4 Mini, but will probably need to be replaced soon by something newer.

I run some of the standard free stuff, like Firefox and OpenOffice and my wife really likes the Pysol solitaire game. There are also tons of free apps available via macports or fink, if you are interested in working with Unix.


----------



## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

Congrats on the "big switch"... :lol: It's a decision my wife and I made about a year and a half ago with zero regrets. And the "mulitplication factor" is no joke.. :lol: We started off with 1 phone, then bought another, then bought two MacBooks, then an Apple TV, then a Mac Mini, then 2 new iPhone 3G's, then another Apple TV... 

edit: Forgot the Airport Xtreme...


----------



## Phil T (Mar 25, 2002)

My daughter wanted a MacBook for college instead of a notebook PC. She took me into an Apple store and I have been hooked ever since. I have a Macbook Pro and a Time Capsule. Starting to think about an I Mac. :facelick:


----------



## ronton3 (Mar 15, 2006)

My first computer was a revision B Imac, I now have a G4 733 that I hope to replace soon with a new Mini when they come out, Macupdate.com has software, macsurfer.com is a good spot for Mac news, if you have software that you use on windows and want a mac equivalent sometimes you can put the windows name in a google search screen then follow with a space and then Mac. You can bet someone else has tried to find something and will have some responses, there are Mac forums at macworld.com. Camino is a good browser.


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

My first computers were TRS-80s way way back in the day... then a Commodore 64... but my father got into Desktop Publishing with a MAC SE/30 so I actually had one of those before my first IBM-style PC. We also had a IIcx or something thereabouts as well... but those are kind of ancient.

I've been into the Apple store before to browse, and they kept looking attractive... and the stars finally aligned.

Since this one came with 2GB I was ok taking the store config... but already am looking at placing an order for 4GB online since it doesn't cost much to max this puppy out.

The only thing I'm not liking at the moment is the mouse. Even the guy at the Apple store said he replaced his mouse pretty quickly. I've grown too used to ergonomically-designed mice so this one is hard for me to grip firmly and comfortably. I actually like the keyboard profile.

I always forget about OpenOffice.. I need to look for that. The apps that come with this machine are actually pretty slick, so I've been doing that mostly.

For the moment am using Safari/Mail that came with this... but might end up getting Firefox/Thunderbird. Mail isn't bothering me but I miss some of my Firefox extensions.. still, before I went and downloaded those I wanted to give the default apps a fair shake in case I liked them better.


----------



## Galley (Apr 3, 2007)

I've got the same iMac. Rock on!


----------



## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

Sorry it's taken me so long to get back on this...

1st cool thing to download is called iStat... http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatmenus/
It puts a very cool system monitor up in the menu bar on the top...

2nd is called Flip4mac... http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/flip4macwindowsmediacomponentsforquicktime.html
It allows you to play WMV files...

Hope you're still enjoying your new machine! Feel free to ask any questions!


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

AirRocker said:


> Sorry it's taken me so long to get back on this...
> 
> 1st cool thing to download is called iStat... http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatmenus/
> It puts a very cool system monitor up in the menu bar on the top...
> ...


Thanks for the links... Flip4Mac actually came in handy when I finally visited the ACC Web site for the first time since they have embedded videos in WMV format.

Still playing around with things... and trying to be productive every once in a while too.


----------



## Phil T (Mar 25, 2002)

On Friday I bought a new 20" I-Mac 2.66, 320g hard drive with wireless keyboard and mouse. The speed on this puppy is great and it works great on my network with my 2006 2.16 MacbookPro. Right now my Vista machine is only being used for Directopc. and Media Share. If they get Slingplayer going on the I-phone That will be my next toy this summer.


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

That's actually the one I originally was going to get... but I sold myself on the larger 24" monitor more than anything else so I jumped up one level to the 2.8 GHz model for primarily that reason.

I think you and I got about the most bang-for-the-buck of the iMac models currently available.


----------



## Brandon428 (Mar 21, 2007)

:joy:Welcome you won't be dissa..(crap it froze...not) say goodbye to the constant reboot. I won't lie though I have had to reboot mine 2-3 times since I've had it about 7-8 months but compared to my PC which is 2-3 times a day.lol Congrats.


----------



## tomkarl (Jan 6, 2009)

My Intel MacBook is the best Windows machine I've ever owned! Bootcamp easily partitions the drive to have it dual boot. 

Of course, I only ever boot it up in windows when I need to do some work stuff.


----------



## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

tomkarl said:


> My Intel MacBook is the best Windows machine I've ever owned! Bootcamp easily partitions the drive to have it dual boot.
> 
> Of course, I only ever boot it up in windows when I need to do some work stuff.


I agree. My macbook runs Windows better than any other Windows laptop I have owned. Macbooks are expensive but it's hard to deny that the hardware is quite good.


----------



## bobnielsen (Jun 29, 2006)

Phil T said:


> On Friday I bought a new 20" I-Mac 2.66, 320g hard drive with wireless keyboard and mouse. The speed on this puppy is great and it works great on my network with my 2006 2.16 MacbookPro. Right now my Vista machine is only being used for Directopc. and Media Share. If they get Slingplayer going on the I-phone That will be my next toy this summer.


Install EyeConnect and you can also do Media Share. It integrates with EyeTV, as well.


----------



## Phil T (Mar 25, 2002)

Stewart Vernon said:


> That's actually the one I originally was going to get... but I sold myself on the larger 24" monitor more than anything else so I jumped up one level to the 2.8 GHz model for primarily that reason.
> 
> I think you and I got about the most bang-for-the-buck of the iMac models currently available.


I was going to go 24" but the for the room and desk it put it on, the 20" is just the right size.

My wife could not believe the boot up time of 20 seconds as opposed to 3 to 4 minutes on my HP Vista 3800.


----------



## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Yeah, I don't dread shutting my iMac down for the night since it starts up so quickly the next time.

I did have one time where I had a weird freeze during shutdown... just once. I used to have a Windows PC that froze every single time I shut it down. Granted, I had problems with that machine.. but still.

Honestly I was going to get the 20"... but got persuaded into the 24". Sometimes the 24" is a bit large for me where I have it sitting in my living room.. but it's really nice for watching full-screen (widescreen really) movies on it. Based on my viewing distance, it has an effective size to my brain very close to my 65" HDTV across the room from the same sitting distance.

So now I can consider viewing online content from my iMac a little more seriously than I did with my old PC.


----------

