What do you recommend for me: MacBook Pro, iMac or Mac Pro?

I haven't decided what Mac I should buy. It's pretty hard for me. I'm fascinated with the iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro. But I'm not sure what Mac is good for me. For now, I use my laptop for web browsing, sometimes photoshop and writing stories on notepad. But I'll probably do more later on such as developing 2D games and making music on GarageBand. I might make my own website with podcasts and possibly take advantage of Mac OS X's DVD creation software. I will also dual boot (Windows & Mac OS X which I'll use the most) and play games on it.
Money isn't a real problem. I only have $1,000 at the moment. But I'm going to get a job soon. I won't buy a Mac until the job is stable.
I don't know what to buy and not sure which one is the best for me. I like all 3 of them! I really like portability because I can take it anywhere. But I already have a notebook (not a Mac). I need a Mac that will last me a couple of years. Again, I'm afraid that newer stuff will come out and my computer will be inferior. lol.
So I'm hoping someone can help me come up with a decision. You guys/gals know more about computers than me. I'm new to Macs too. I became interested in Macs last year when I saw the Power Mac G5. I thought the tower looked awesome and then I started playing around with it.

I've never had an iMac wear out. My last one lasted four years and the guy who bought it from me on eBay reports that his is doing fine. It got HEAVY use in a dusty environment.
And Apple has been refining the iMac for years now. I keep hearing you emphasize durability, so that is why I am pushing it for you. No laptop will last as long. They operate at higher temperatures and take a beating. My Mac Book Pro already lost its back-lighting and has something wrong with the DVD eject feature. All repairable for free with Applecare, which I recommend. But my iMac will outlast my desire to own it, this I know for certain. I have the 20 inch and wish I had gotten the 24. If you're interested in my new 20", I will sell it to you for 1/3 off what I paid for it, and it comes with a transferable 3 year Applecare warranty. This way I could purchase the 24". It hadn't come out when I got the 20".
But first, come to the conclusion that you don't need an Apple laptop. That's the threshold decision.
Best of luck to you.

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I just purchased MBP and it is my first Apple computer. How concerned should I be about virus software and what do you recommend for security software?

I just purchased MBP and it is my first Apple computer. How concerned should I be about virus software and what do you recommend for security software?

1. This comment applies to malicious software ("malware") that's installed unwittingly by the victim of a network attack. It does not apply to software, such as keystroke loggers, that may be installed deliberately by an intruder who has hands-on access to the victim's computer. That threat is in a different category, and there's no easy way to defend against it. If you have reason to suspect that you're the target of such an attack, you need expert help.
2. All versions of OS X since 10.6.7 have been able to detect known Mac malware in downloaded files, and to block insecure web plugins. This feature is transparent to the user, but internally Apple calls it "XProtect." The malware recognition database is automatically checked for updates once a day; however, you shouldn't rely on it, because the attackers are always at least a day ahead of the defenders.
The following caveats apply to XProtect:
It can be bypassed by some third-party networking software, such as BitTorrent clients and Java applets (see below.)
It only applies to software downloaded from the network. Software installed from a CD or other media is not checked.
3. Starting with OS X 10.7.5, there has been another layer of built-in malware protection, designated "Gatekeeper" by Apple. By default, applications and Installer packages downloaded from the network will only run if they're digitally signed by a developer with a certificate issued by Apple. Software certified in this way hasn't actually been tested by Apple (unless it comes from the Mac App Store), but you can be reasonably sure that it hasn't been modified by anyone other than the developer. His identity is known to Apple, so he could be held legally responsible if he distributed malware. For most practical purposes, applications recognized by Gatekeeper as signed can be considered safe.
Gatekeeper has, however, the same limitations as XProtect, and in addition the following:
It can easily be disabled or overridden by the user.
A malware attacker could get control of a code-signing certificate under false pretenses, or could find some other way to evade Apple's controls.
For more information about Gatekeeper, see this Apple Support article.
4. Beyond XProtect and Gatekeeper, there’s no benefit, in most cases, from any other automated protection against malware. The first and best line of defense is always your own intelligence. All known malware circulating on the Internet that affects a fully-updated installation of OS X 10.6 or later takes the form of so-called "trojan horses," which can only have an effect if the victim is duped into running them. The threat therefore amounts to a battle of wits between you and the malware attacker. If you're smarter than he thinks you are, you'll win.
That means, in practice, that you never use software that comes from an untrustworthy source. How do you know whether a source is trustworthy?
Any website that prompts you to install a “codec,” “plug-in,” "player," "extractor," or “certificate” that comes from that same site, or an unknown one, is untrustworthy.
A web operator who tells you that you have a “virus,” or that anything else is wrong with your computer, or that you have won a prize in a contest you never entered, is trying to commit a crime with you as the victim. (Some reputable websites did legitimately warn visitors who were infected with the "DNSChanger" malware. That exception to this rule no longer applies.)
Pirated copies or "cracks" of commercial software, no matter where they come from, are unsafe.
Software of any kind downloaded from a BitTorrent or from a Usenet binary newsgroup is unsafe.
Software with a corporate brand, such as Adobe Flash Player, must be downloaded directly from the developer’s website. If it comes from any other source, it's unsafe.
5. Java on the Web (not to be confused with JavaScript, to which it's not related, despite the similarity of the names) is a weak point in the security of any system. Java is, among other things, a platform for running complex applications in a web page, on the client. That was never a good idea, and Java's developers have had a lot of trouble implementing it without also creating a portal for malware to enter. Past Java exploits are the closest thing there has ever been to a Windows-style "virus" affecting OS X. Merely loading a page with malicious Java content could be harmful. Fortunately, Java on the Web is mostly extinct. Only a few outmoded sites still use it. Try to hasten the process of extinction by avoiding those sites, if you have a choice.
Java is not included in OS X 10.7 and later. Discrete Java installers are distributed by Apple and by Oracle (the developer of Java.) Don't use either one unless you need it. Most people don't. If Java is installed, disable it — not JavaScript — in your browsers. In Safari, this is done by unchecking the box marked Enable Java in the Security tab of the preferences dialog.
Regardless of version, experience has shown that Java on the Web can't be trusted. If you must use a Java applet for a specific task, enable Java only when needed for the task and disable it immediately when done. Close all other browser windows and tabs, and don't visit any other sites while Java is active. Never enable Java on a public web page that carries third-party advertising. Use it only on well-known, password-protected, secure websites without ads. In Safari 6 or later, you'll see a lock icon in the address bar with the abbreviation "https" when visiting a secure site.
Follow these guidelines, and you’ll be practically as safe from malware as you can be.
6. Never install any commercial "anti-virus" or "Internet security" products for the Mac, as they all do more harm than good, if they do any good at all. If you need to be able to detect Windows malware in your files, use the free software ClamXav — nothing else.
Why shouldn't you use commercial "anti-virus" products?
Their design is predicated on the nonexistent threat that malware may be injected at any time, anywhere in the file system. Malware is downloaded from the network; it doesn't materialize from nowhere.
In order to meet that nonexistent threat, the software modifies or duplicates low-level functions of the operating system, which is a waste of resources and a common cause of instability, bugs, and poor performance.
By modifying the operating system, the software itself may create weaknesses that could be exploited by malware attackers.
7. ClamXav doesn't have these drawbacks. That doesn't mean it's entirely safe. It may report email messages that have "phishing" links in the body, or Windows malware in attachments, as infected files, and offer to delete or move them. Doing so will corrupt the Mail database. The messages should be deleted from within the Mail application.
ClamXav is not needed, and should not be relied upon, for protection against OS X malware. It's useful only for detecting Windows malware. Windows malware can't harm you directly (unless, of course, you use Windows.) Just don't pass it on to anyone else.
A Windows malware attachment in email is usually easy to recognize. The file name will often be targeted at people who aren't very bright; for example:
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!!!!!!!H0TBABEZ4U!!!!!!!.AVI♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.exe
ClamXav may be able to tell you which particular virus or trojan it is, but do you care? In practice, there's seldom a reason to use ClamXav unless a network administrator requires you to run an anti-virus application.
8. The greatest harm done by anti-virus software, in my opinion, is in its effect on human behavior. It does little or nothing to protect people from emerging threats, but they get a false sense of security from it, and then they may behave in ways that expose them to higher risk. Nothing can lessen the need for safe computing practices.
9. It seems to be a common belief that the built-in Application Firewall acts as a barrier to infection, or prevents malware from functioning. It does neither. It blocks inbound connections to certain network services you're running, such as file sharing. It's disabled by default and you should leave it that way if you're behind a router on a private home or office network. Activate it only when you're on an untrusted network, for instance a public Wi-Fi hotspot, where you don't want to provide services. Disable any services you don't use in the Sharing preference pane. All are disabled by default.

Internal BluRay burner recommendations for Snow Leopard on a new Mac Pro?

We're finally getting new Mac Pro's...hallelujah!! I was just wondering if anyone out there could recommend a good internal BluRay burner that will be compatible with the Intel Quad Core, Snow Leopard, and FCP7. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Melanie

Melanie Dupre wrote:
We're finally getting new Mac Pro's...hallelujah!! I was just wondering if anyone out there could recommend a good internal BluRay burner that will be compatible with the Intel Quad Core, Snow Leopard, and FCP7. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Melanie
Hi Melanie
Why does it have to be an internal Blu-ray drive? How many computers are you getting?
I would recommend purchasing the OWC Mercury Pro FireWire 800/400, eSata, USB 2.0 SATA 5.25 Case Kit and choosing your own SATA Blu-ray burner to install in the case. That way you can connect it to just about any MacPro, MacBook Or even a PC if necessary.
Here is a link:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MRSFW8U2/
Or if you don't want to build your own, OWC has several that they have built for you but I haven't been keeping up with any other them enough to recommend a specific Blu-ray burner. In any case, here are a couple likes.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MRF8BDSD12XT/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MRF8BDSD12X/
Ron

Lion designed for MacBooks and iMacs, not Mac Pros?

Seems to me that most of the major features of Lion only benefit folks using trackpads, which means mainly MacBook and iMac users. If you're a mouse-user all that built-in swiping and tapping is useless. To some degree, the same is true with Air Drop,great if you're mobile, but not so necessary otherwise. So, since I do 95% of my serious computer work on a Mac Pro, I see no benefit in upgrading to Lion. The only features that seem relevant are some of the lesser touted features like auto-save and maybe Mission Control, although that seems a bit meh to me.
Anyone care to tell me why I should invest $29 in this alleged upgrade?

Nostatic1
I upgraded, had a look and then decided to go back to Snow Leopard. Lion was a bit buggy for a start, but like you I have a Mac Pro, and do a lot of design type work, not as a profession though. Auto save worries me, as I want full control over when I save when designing stuff. To have to go back through lots of saved versions to get to the one I want to keep would seem to me to just be creating more work for me. As I understand it, it only works in apps that are adapted to use it, so my old CS3 would not do it, but that direction worries me if I don't have control over it.
A lot of the new features can be switched off if you don't like them, which is what I did, so why upgrade? The new iCal and Address Book are horrendous looking too!!! Gaudy is the term that comes to mind. So is the full screen version of Photo Booth. Those types of apps look OK on the iPhone, but look horribly out of place on a Mac, where they have already taken all the colour out of the program window borders to leave a pale grey. I couldn't bear to look at them, and had to replace those bits of the apps with graphics of my own.
My advice is not to do anything for at least a while. It seems that an awful lot of posts in this forum are people wanting to know how to alter Apple's defaults and to switch things off. I am hoping Apple is watching and taking notice.
It seems to me that Apple has taken the success of the iPhone and iPad as its inspiration to change the Mac. I have an iPhone and I find the apps like address book that reopen where you closed them a pain. Usually I don't want that same person again, and I have to navigate back to my groups, then out again to get to the right person. It would be much simpler to always start at groups. I cannot imagine doing serious design work with my finger on an iPad. The two should remain separate entities.
This is the first upgrade that I have reverted from in 18 years as a Mac user, and the first time I am really getting worried that Apple is going off in the wrong direction - and the first time that Steve Jobs is not at the helm. I don't have a good feeling for the future.

What would you recommend for this setup?

I just recently found Arch, and I love it so much I want to use it more.
I have been working on converting my media center pc's to Linux, and want some advice before moving forward. Here is what I have:
Living room (Main Media Center, 6 TB of storage, PS3)
Bedroom 1 (Media Center, Wii)
Bedroom 2 (Media Center, Xbox 360)
Bedroom 3 (Media Center)
Kitchen (Media Center)
I don't think the gaming systems matter, but wanted you to have the full picture.
What I would like to do is have a setup where the Living Room Media Center could be a media server for the other rooms, and also handle media for the TV it is connected to. Most of the movies we have are of two different formats:
VIDEO_TS folders for standard dvd's
MKV for HD movies
Is this type of setup possible with Arch, or should I use a Distro like XBMC completely?

I've been using several DLNA-servers on Arch for two years now. I started out with coherence (lacks transcoding support), fuppes (lacked surround sound support), mediatomb (no srt subtitles AND surround sound together), and now I'm using pms(-svn) that does all I've ever needed.
1 small problem: since an update several weeks ago, libmediainfo is not working together anymore with pms: pms crashes on indexing with libmediainfo and sometimes on playing a movie file. On the PMS forums, there is one other user complaining about the same problem, but that's about it.
That's why I recently installed minidlna and I'm very impressed by this little program, but it doesn't play MKV or FLAC iirc. For now I've settled on PMS without libmediainfo, which means from time to time, a movie isn't played in 5.1 (whenever a movie file has two audio streams, the first one is played instead of choosing the 6 channel audio as default).
Anyway: I'd recommend a dlna-server on arch anytime. The protocol is getting more and more support - even TV's are sold with good dlna-support out of the box... If all goes well, my new house will be ready next summer and it will be dlna-powered all the way.

What kind of case/skin do you recommend for my new macbook pro 13"

what kind of case/skin do you recommend for my new macbook pro 13"what kind of case/skin do you recommend for my new macbook pro 13"

I've got a Tucano for my MBP 15inch and its very good - http://www.tucano.com/shop/second-skin-elements-for-macbook-air-13.html try this site.
Mike

Which email service do you recommend for macbook pro?

which email service do you recommend for macbook pro? we have an HP desktop with Windows Mail that is sync'd to laptop Mail currently.

Vista is an operating system, Windows Mail is a mail client and Windows Live is an e-mail provider, 3 entirely different things, try this, what does your e-mail address consist of after the @sign?

I have a great number of Hi8 video tapes and I would like to burn them onto CDs through MacBook Pro (ME665LL/A), but I do not know how to transfer those footage into Mac. What would you recommend?

Hello everybody! My question is; my parents and I have a great number of video tapes (Hi8 and mini DV) and since I purchased a MacBook Pro (ME665LL/A) I would like to burn them onto CDs, but I do not know how to transfer those footage into Mac. What would you recommend(it can be a software, a hardware or combination of both)? By the way, I also purchased an external DVD-RW(Asus SDRW-08D2S) separately.

Just Google "convert hi8 to dvd" and you'll find a number of software/hardware combinations that will allow you to do what you want. One important piece of the puzzle is whether or not you still have access to the video recorder(s) that the movies were shot on.
Good luck,
Clinton

What kind of power regulator will you recommend for an vintage Mac Pro tower with 2 displays?

What kind of power regulator will you recommend for an vintage Mac Pro tower with 2 displays?

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What's the price for a MacBook Pro Retina Display Top Case with battery in the US?

I'd like to know what´s the price for a MacBook Pro Retina Display Top Case with battery in the US.

Here you go.

HT4889 Just got a new macbook pro. Trying to migrate data from a MacPro to the macBook. MacBook will recognize the Mac Pro but not vice versa. Using Mac OS X 10.6.8 on the Mac Pro(powermac G4. The Mac Pro searches in vain for the MacBook. What should I do

Just bought a new MacBook Pro. Attempting to migrate data from a power mac G4 running Mac OS X 10.6.8 using a firewire.
Mac Book will recognize the Mac Pro but the Mac Pro just continues to search for the Mac Book. What should I do?
Dave VanHorn
[email protected]

Put the G4 into Target Disk Mode and open Migration Assistant on the new MBP. Your G4 needs to be running 10.5.8.

HT4061 as of lately my iCloud mail box as been full of junk mail ....... in iCloud preferences you can only send 99 different address directly to trash? what Virus & Malware do you recommend for my iMac, iPad and iPhone ............ thank you !!!!

as of lately my iCloud mail box as been full of junk mail ....... in iCloud preferences you can only send 99 different address directly to trash? what Virus & Malware do you recommend for my iMac, iPad and iPhone ............ thank you !!!!

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What brand of printer do you recommend for my imac 27?

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I bought a Hewlett-Packard M451dn color laser jet. I'm happy with it.
I selected it after having a horrible experience with a low-cost Xerox color laser jet.
The things I like the best:
Fast warm-up time. No waiting around like solid-ink printers from Xerox have.
No odor. Solid-ink printers have a smell like baked crayons.
Very good print quality - real Postscript.
Duplex printing (both sides of the paper)
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What internet security do you recommend for apple products

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None. The best security is to backup your data frequently, and using WPA2 encryption on wireless routers. Otherwise basic good practices include:
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2. Do not do things that might slow your Mac down:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6921
3. Do not install updates except directly from reputable vendors websites, and the Apple Mac Store.
4. Do not follow instructions of popup windows or banner ads.
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7. If you use Windows on your Mac, the same security rules for Windows on a non-Apple machine apply as an Apple machine.

What do you recommend for me: MacBook Pro, iMac or Mac Pro?

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