Purchasing first Mac (also first powerful computer I've owned) any secrets / tips from experienced users?

[peaceninjah]

Title says it all;
I'm getting my first powerful computer, a Macbook Pro 15, and I'm sure there's a few things to be learned as a beginning Mac user.
I'm primarily interested in any info regarding settings & preferences that I should change immediately or possibly any programs that come preinstalled that I should uninstall or disable.
Any advice is much appreciated, thanks!
peace & love #_#

 

[nickmannawar]

I have been using macs as long as i can remember (however i have recently looked in to getting a pc), and would be glad to give you some tips. But first What do you plan to use this for? Gaming? Business? Everything?

Since it's new, you should have OSx Lion. I would definately take a look in the trackpad section of sytem preferences, I know i changed alot of those. Check out your utilitis folder too.

One important way to simplify your mac is learning key board short cuts. To this day i am still learning new ones, some useless, some really cool. Of course there is Command c and command p (copy and paste), but there are also some useful ones like command a which will allow you to highlight all text (great for quickly deleting or copying something). Another useful shortcut is command+option+esc which will allow you to force quit applications. As far as useless but cool goes, command+option+control+8 will invert the colors of your screen. If you play minecraft or other games, you will need to know that fn is needed to use the f1, f2, f3... commands in the game. For more on minecraft ask me in my Everything Minecraft post...

For applications you might want, there is of course the microsoft office ones (word, excel, powerpoint...). However you might want some applications such as Evernote, an app used for taking notes (syncable with iphone). OR Divvy, an app used for seprating you screen clearly.

I don't want to go on and on about stuff you might already know or not need... So enjoy your Mac, and feel free to ask me any more questions!

 

[shalou]

I bought the same system last march and really like it. One thing that stud out right way was the operating temp of the pro. They do run hotter than most systems so you should keep an eye out until you get to know how your machine will act in different situations. I installed an app called smcfancontrol. It will allow you to adjust the fan speed manually. I'm not trying to alarm you but its a good idea in my opinion to keep all electronics running as cool as possible if you can. One thing that comes with your new MAC is dashboard. With this app you can monitors what is going on with your machine. I was surprised to see all the unnecessary things running in the background. The app will let you manage and kill memory. Also if you haven't bought it yet, consider the anti glare screen. I'm so glad I did. Hope this helped.

 

[mac_mogul]

The MacBook Pros run hot but they are designed to run hot. If for some reason it exceeds a temperature deemed safe by Apple, it will shut down.

If you have never used an iOS device, you'll want to change the scrolling functions. OS X Lion uses a more natural 'flicking' scrolling system rather than traditional trackpad scrolling. However if you're accustomed to iOS devices then I would highly recommend leaving the scrolling settings at default as it presents a much more uniform experience.

iStat Menus are a cool add-on utility to help you keep track of memory, battery, cpu, temp, etc. I think its in the Mac App store now. It used to be freeware back in 2006 lol.

Speaking of, the Mac App store is going to be your best source of add-ons and utilities. Check out the popular items for more info.

Other than that you don't really have to do much with it other than just use it. Apple is known for care-free computing so there's no need to tinker or optimize because it takes care of itself.