My new MacBook (and iOS programming)

billybob476 · July 07, 2011, 09:24:07 AM

There's been a bit of a conversation going on in the shoutbox so I figured I'd make a thread.

I've ordered myself a fancy new 15" MacBook Pro (2.2GHz intel i7, 4 gigs of ram, high rez screen etc). My main goal with this is to get into some iOS app development. I'm excited to get my hands on it and really see what a mac can do. Currently it's sitting atthe UPS hub in Louisville and should be delivered by Monday. I'll post some unboxing pics and chronicle my opinions and experiences getting into OSX in general and iOS app development here.

If anyone knows of any Mac applications you think are must haves then feel free to post!

And no, I'm not "changing teams" or anything like that, I still have 3 PCs at home and won't be giving them up anytime soon :)

billybob476 · July 07, 2011, 09:28:34 AM

Also, as I was mentioning in the shoutbox, I went with a MacBook instead of an iMac for two reasons:

1. With Fran going back to school I don't have the desk space to support both my fancy gaming PC, an iMac and have a separate workstation for Fran to do school work.
2. My Dell laptop that I do most of my "on the side" development work on is getting on in years and just isn't as snappy or reliable as it once was, I like having a laptop and have always really liked apple's offerings there (from an aesthetic sense at least)

Bryancd · July 07, 2011, 09:32:19 AM

...we'll get you eventually... :)

Needless to say I love my 15" MacBook Pro.

billybob476 · July 07, 2011, 09:38:30 AM

Well considering I'm an iPhone, iPad and now MacBook owner, I'm well on my way. I live in Microsoft land at work (we're a "gold certified partner") so I should diversify a bit. :)

Dangelus · July 07, 2011, 09:41:08 AM

Joe have you ever used OS X before?

I found it a small learning curve but once I got into the swing of it I found it very natural to use. It's a great robust OS.

In terms of apps, that's a difficult one. It has all the equivalents of Windows apps that you might use etc. What I have found is that the choice is somewhat limited compared to Windows, especially Freeware, but the apps generally run a lot more efficiently and they are very stable.

The Mac App Store is excellent, prices are OK but you have the advantage of free updates and you can install on multiple Macs for free.

billybob476 · July 07, 2011, 10:00:46 AM

I got my hands on a G4 iBook quite a few years ago for two months (my mother ran the 'computer classes' at the school she taught at). I asked her to bring me one because I wanted to play with OSX, so I have some outdated familiarity with the OS.

I guess it's little things that take getting used to. I know I never really got used to the file system, it seems disorganized to me.

As much as I don't want to, I know I'm gonna need MS Office (at the very least for the Remote Desktop client so I can connect to my machine at work).

At some point I know I'll probably want iMovie (though I can't decide if I want it on iPad or just on the mac).

Dangelus · July 07, 2011, 10:03:57 AM

Yeah the filesystem really does show it's Unix heritage but the "Finder" is quite easy to use with a bit of practice.

billybob476 · July 07, 2011, 12:43:16 PM

My package just left Louisville, Kentucky, love UPS' shipment tracking.

Bryancd · July 07, 2011, 01:15:54 PM

Damn it! I HATE losing...

billybob476 · July 07, 2011, 01:19:19 PM

Well, it still has to get waaaay up to Canada. :)

EDIT: This seems appropriate

Jobydrone · July 07, 2011, 01:33:07 PM

I use Handbrake (free) constantly to convert video files into iPhone/iPad friendly formats for viewing on those devices.

There's a little program I acquired (I forget what it's called but I can find out if you want) that allows the Mac OS to transfer files to and from NTFS formatted hard disks. You will probably find this useful if you have files stored on portable drives that you've used for your Windows based computers.

There's a free program called Maxx that I use to convert lossless Flac audio files to MP3 for use on the iPhone.

Also there's a free program called UnRarX for joining/expanding compressed Rar files that you may run across here and there.

When I get home I'll see if I've forgotten any good ones.

billybob476 · July 07, 2011, 01:37:27 PM

Awesome suggestions. It's the little apps you forget about. I use handbrake on my windows machine, defintiely gonna get the mac version.

Rico · July 07, 2011, 03:02:56 PM

I found Handbrake terribly slow for converting on a pretty good PC compared to other programs like DVD Fab. Congrats on the MacBook Joe. My son really likes his a lot. But he still has his gaming rig for LAN parties and "serious gaming" stuff.

Dangelus · July 07, 2011, 03:21:13 PM

OS X will read NTFS partitions out of the box in 10.6 and it can be set to write enabled too with use of the command line. It is believe Apple switched off this feature due to certain stability and corruption issues. If I remember correctly the app that Jody is referring to is a graphical frontend that enables this feature.

A lot of the quality "multimedia" apps are multi-platform such as Audacity, VLC and Handbrake. There is a distinct lack of free or reasonably priced DVD ripping software for Mac although I believe Handbrake will decrypt DVDs out of the box in OS X.

By the way, iTunes is SUPERB in OS X as opposed to the horribly bloated and buggy Windows version.

Jobydrone · July 07, 2011, 03:28:10 PM

Handbrake works very fast on my iMac. I didn't know there was a PC version. I believe it was originally Mac only software.

The NTFS enabler is called Paragon. It's not free but worth it. There might be a free alternative, not sure.

Flip4Mac enables WMV files in quicktime.

Filezilla has a Mac OS version for accessing FTP (thanks for the tip on that one Rico)

PS3 Media Server enables streaming of PS3 supported video and music files from the Mac hard disk to the PS3 via WiFi.