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Tips for a New Mac User

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Daniel is the producer of the Apple Universe podcast. He made this video for us, with his top five tips for beginning Mac Users.

  • There is no “menu bar” on a Mac, like there is for Windows. On the left hand side of the Mac screen, you will see the Dock with your applications on it. At the top of the screen, you’ll see a thin white bar. This is Mac’s version of the “menu bar”. This includes things like the clock, view, edit, go, help, and the Apple icon.
  • Get to know your applications. Both a Mac and a PC come with applications native to their Operating System. Many of them do inherantly the same things, but they work very differently. Take the time to get to know the programs, and how they run, before deciding which you like better.
  • The User Interface on the Mac is much different than on a PC. In my opinion, the Mac UI is just sleek and gorgeous. An example of the differences though, is with the “close”, “maximize”, and “minimize” buttons in each. In Windows, you have the little cirlce with the red X at the top right corner to close a program, the square with the two smaller squares for maximizing, and the square with one line in it to minimize. In a Mac, “close” is a red light/circle at the top left, “minimize” is a yellow circle/light, and “maxmize” is a green circle/light. That’s just one of many small differences that take getting used to.
  • There is a big difference in the way software updates work on each of the Operating Systems. Make sure you get to understand how this works on a Mac right away, so you can make sure everything stays up-to-date.
  • A Mac is simply more stable, and virus-free. I have too many anti-malware programs on my Windows computer, which bogs it down. With a Mac… I simply don’t need them.

I’m glad Chris asked me to do this video for him. I wanted to share my tips with you all, and also promote a big event I will soon be at. From January 14th – 18th is the 2008 MacWorld Expo. On the 15th at around 5pm, I will be joining people like Robert Scoble, Cali Lewis, iJustine, and Jason Snell for a panel discussion all about Mac! I will be recording this discussion as my 100th episode of Apple Universe. I am very excited about this, and hope you’ll join the audience if you attend MacWorld 2008.

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