Got my First Mac. But I have some questions

thatotherdude24

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Got my first Mac today and so far I am in love. I do have a few questions so far, I will most likely add to this as I come up with more:

1. I did a lot of remote desktop from my Windows 8.1 machine to other 8.1 machines. I do not see a RDP app preinstalled on my MacBook, I saw one in the app store for $80, is there any other options that aren't so pricey? What about VNC programs?

2. Goes along with 1, I use RDP from outside networks to get onto my home computer and have ports forwarded to my 8.1 machine and so on. Is this possible to do with my MacBook? Remote into it from outside networks?

3. What is empty trash vs secure empty trash?

4. How productive are Apple's office apps? Pages, Numbers and so on. Do they work for your needs?

5. I tried Airplay from my Mac to my Apple TV but it looked awful. On my Apple TV my Mac screen only covered 1/4th of my TV screen, is there a trick to make it full screen on my Apple TV?

Before my Mac I tried out the Surface Pro 2. It is a wonderful device and I liked the touchscreen and my biggest thing I liked was the pen, however I do wish it was compatible with more programs. I ended up returning the SP2 for the Mac because of functionality, on anything other than a hard surface the SP2 was pretty bad. The type cover 2 attached to the Surface on your lap is too flimsy.....way way too flimsy. When I decided the SP2 wasn't for me I looked at other W8.1 laptops but the more I thought about it I didn't like the direction where Microsoft is going as of now. I feel mobile OS's and desktop OS's should be separate. Microsoft is trying to be everything to everything rather than everything to somebody. It's not possible to be everything to everybody without something suffering. Anyways, thank you for the help.
 

mikeo007

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Re: New To Mac

1. Download the Microsoft RDP app from the Mac app store, free and one of the better RDP apps out there.

2. Port forwarding would be independent of your machine, so anything you could do with your windows machine should be doable with your Mac.

3. Answered above

4. Pages and Numbers are similar to Word and Excel, but with more of an emphasis on a published product. Think of Pages as a mix of Word and Publisher and Numbers as a mix of Excel and Publisher. Keynote IMO is better than Powerpoint. More flexibility and better built-in graphics.

5. Are you Airplay mirroring? It should fill screen based on your current resolution. If you're extending the desktop, it will fill based on the resolution you select for your second desktop. Either way, try changing the res on your Mac to match the TV and see if that improves it. I usually mirror at 1280x800 on my 13" Macbook pro which fills almost the entire screen on my TV.
 

anon(4698833)

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Re: New To Mac

Apple's iWork suite works perfectly for me...I don't even use any of the Office tools anymore because my iWork tools serve the same purposes, but have the Apple polish and look to them that I prefer.
 

thatotherdude24

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Re: New To Mac

5. Are you Airplay mirroring? It should fill screen based on your current resolution. If you're extending the desktop, it will fill based on the resolution you select for your second desktop. Either way, try changing the res on your Mac to match the TV and see if that improves it. I usually mirror at 1280x800 on my 13" Macbook pro which fills almost the entire screen on my TV.

I will play with it some more today and see how it goes. I didn't know if there was any special settings I had to change/setup.
 

thatotherdude24

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Re: New To Mac

Microsoft has a free RDP app in the Mac AppStore which works just like the Windows version.
To remote into a Mac, you use VNC not RDP. On the Mac go into Preferences, Sharing and turn on Screen Sharing. Then on the other PC, you need a VNC client (there are many free ones available for Windows pcs). I'm not sure offhand which ports you need to open on your router but I'm sure a quick Google will tell you. . If the other PC is another Mac then you do t need a VNC client because it is built in.

I am getting the impression that OS X is similar to Linux just with a different UI.
 

thatotherdude24

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Re: New To Mac

Apple's iWork suite works perfectly for me...I don't even use any of the Office tools anymore because my iWork tools serve the same purposes, but have the Apple polish and look to them that I prefer.

If I was to type a document in Pages and somebody opens it in Word will the formatting be different? I understand the fonts will be.
 

thatotherdude24

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Re: New To Mac

Another question I have thought of....what is the best option to connect my MBP to my 2 external monitors? For a 3 monitor setup, I have a plugable dock but it does not support OS X.

Edit: I did manage to get the plugable dock to work with my MBP. Scaling is so much better on OS X than it was on W8.1.
 
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thatotherdude24

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Re: New To Mac

The memory usage monitor is so much more in depth than Windows or anything I have ever seen. Can somebody help me out please? I read the Apple website but don't entirely understand. I attached a screen shot of the activity monitor...how much available RAM do I have?
 

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mikeo007

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New To Mac

The memory usage monitor is so much more in depth than Windows or anything I have ever seen. Can somebody help me out please? I read the Apple website but don't entirely understand. I attached a screen shot of the activity monitor...how much available RAM do I have?

You have 2.5 GB in use in that screenshot. Osx does a lot of caching and makes full use of all of your available memory. But it can free it up at a moments notice if another application requests it.

The number you really want to watch out for is swap used. Once you start using swap, things may slow down a bit.
 

thatotherdude24

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Re: New To Mac

You have 2.5 GB in use in that screenshot. Osx does a lot of caching and makes full use of all of your available memory. But it can free it up at a moments notice if another application requests it.

The number you really want to watch out for is swap used. Once you start using swap, things may slow down a bit.

So with running 3 monitors is 4gb RAM enough? I don't do heavy photo editing or intensive tasks. I do cropping and color manipulation of photos but other than that Pages and web browsing.
 

thatotherdude24

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Very true. I never reboot my MBP except for OSX upgrades. It's extremely stable.

4GB is probably ok with 2 monitors plus the MBP screen itself but if you're in IT you know that more is always better.

More is always better. I was going to get the i5/8/256 model but Best Buy was out of it and I had already driven an hour, I really didn't want to drive back later in the week. I ask because to be honest all my training and experience is in Microsoft products so I don't know much about Apple. Some OS's require more hardware than others, Windows 7 when running for 2+ days will consume upwards of 2gb just idling. I don't know if Mac OS is resource intensive.

A general question for you or anybody else......I had my MBP sitting on my desk today and the light was shining on it and noticed there is a dent in the top next to the Apple logo. It's small but noticeable in the light. Is this common as to some imperfections may happen as like you hear with many products or should I be calling Best Buy?
 

thatotherdude24

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Re: New To Mac

So by my understanding with this screenshot only 720mb is actually in use meaning over 3gb would be free?
 

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