I am finally switching to MAC!

I don't use any backup programs. I have external drives and just drag and drop all of my important stuff every day. If my hard drive fails or I need to reformat I have no worries.

I have the little 500 gig travel hard drive that fits in a pocket for when I'm not home and as soon as photos go on the MacBook they are transferred to the hard drive.

Google is great for documents too. Just email them to yourself and they are safe in the cloud!

Dropbox is another option and you can access stuff from any computer by just logging in.

And for all my best photos Flickr is my friend. They are uploaded full size and safe in case of fire, flood etc :)

Dragging your important stuff to another drive can work very well. The advantages of SuperDuper though, is worth considering.

1. It takes about a minute to set up
2. it can operate automatically
3. Most importantly, if your drive dies and you need your Mac right away, you can boot from your Superduper drive and just keep on working. You can't do that when just dragging your files - you would have to wait until a new drive is available etc.
 
I think both have their advantages and disadvantages. If that backup gets corrupted and you don't know until you need it then your buggered. And you can't just pick and chose files or photos as you need them.

I have so many gigs in photos that there is no way I would have them all together in One backup. But each to their own.

Like I say. Multiple backups in multiple places is the safest thing.
 
I think both have their advantages and disadvantages. If that backup gets corrupted and you don't know until you need it then your buggered. And you can't just pick and chose files or photos as you need them.

I have so many gigs in photos that there is no way I would have them all together in One backup. But each to their own.

Like I say. Multiple backups in multiple places is the safest thing.

Superduper verifies the backup, and of course it takes a few moments to boot from it if you really want to be sure. To be honest, I don't see any advantages at all of simply dragging files across.

FWIW, I use SuperDuper to clone daily. Current work projects are auto-synced with Dropbox. Ideally a second Superduper clone is made weekly and kept elsewhere, though I do miss an occasional week. All critical documents are copied online.

My photos are different:
1. The main working library is backed up daily with the core backup
2. On loading photos, a second copy is imported to another external drive: LR has a nice auto operation for this.
3. The photo folders is backed up to yet another drive daily, automatically using Chronosync
 
Hello everyone!! Typing this post from my MBA!!! So far so good. Things running smoothly. Installed Flash to play videos. Will try out some of the suggested apps.

Thanks again everyone!!
 
Armando, and other enlightened ones more generally, which is your primary photo editing software on the Mac...LR or Aperture?

Watching this thread with relish...though it's not helping me actually convince my better half of the need to switch. I know one sure way but.....it would be a shame to spill this glass of water perched precariously near my laptop as I type :daz: To be entirely honest the reason the water hasn't spilled....yet...is down to the fact that I've invested in LR3, CS3, Photomatix, CEP, SEP, etc., on Windows so I'd hate to start all over again. But would be keen to know whether my choices would be expanded or restricted with Apple.
 
I know Adobe allows you to cross-grade, fwiw. My mother's done that twice: once when taking her Photoshop Mac->Win, and later the reverse when she switched back.
 
I use LR on my desktop. An Adobe CSR told me a while ago that I'd be able to download a Mac version of LR at no additional cost if I made a switch to Mac.

I'm not familiar at all with Mac software. I only bought the MBA because it's so portable and relatively more powerful than my ASUS net book using Intel Atom. Ok ... it looks really cool too!!! In any event, I'm definitely not an enlightened one! :)


Armando, and other enlightened ones more generally, which is your primary photo editing software on the Mac...LR or Aperture?

Watching this thread with relish...though it's not helping me actually convince my better half of the need to switch. I know one sure way but.....it would be a shame to spill this glass of water perched precariously near my laptop as I type :daz: To be entirely honest the reason the water hasn't spilled....yet...is down to the fact that I've invested in LR3, CS3, Photomatix, CEP, SEP, etc., on Windows so I'd hate to start all over again. But would be keen to know whether my choices would be expanded or restricted with Apple.
 
I use elements 9 on the imac which I have had since last Xmas and am only now starting to completely understand how to use it fully. It does a fair bit for <$100. I think I will probably invest in the color efex and silver efex plugins at some point in the future.

I recently purchased the snapseed app for editing on the iPad and am very impressed with that too.
 
congrats with the switch :) Too bad I can't help software wise though.

I'm currently thinking of either a) an imac b) investing in more camera kit (smaller set up). Amazon UK have some good prices, so I'll also use the affiliate links when I make up my mind
 
Armando, and other enlightened ones more generally, which is your primary photo editing software on the Mac...LR or Aperture?

Watching this thread with relish...though it's not helping me actually convince my better half of the need to switch. I know one sure way but.....it would be a shame to spill this glass of water perched precariously near my laptop as I type :daz: To be entirely honest the reason the water hasn't spilled....yet...is down to the fact that I've invested in LR3, CS3, Photomatix, CEP, SEP, etc., on Windows so I'd hate to start all over again. But would be keen to know whether my choices would be expanded or restricted with Apple.

Lightroom and Photoshop Elements. I use iPhoto for jpg storage of my best shots (after I work on them in LR), so I can share them more easily with family, do books printings, etc.
 
Thanks again everyone!!

My first impressions of the MBA. Wow ... slick interface, fairly common sense for the most part; speedy start up times for the computer itself and apps; pretty fast web surfacing on Safari; nice backlit keyboard; silent; fairly cool for the most part except when running video.

I got the 11" version, and it feels almost like a full size laptop. I keep thinking I accidentally got the 13" version! It's probably due in part to my using the ASUS netbook which has either a 9" or 10" screen, and a reduced sized keyboard.

I don't understand why Apple didn't squeeze in a SD reader in the MBA 11". There's space, at least looking at the MBA from the outside. Probably another marketing differentiator between the 11" and 13". I get the feeling that another generation or two, and Apple will finally trickle the SD reader down to the 11". I dislike the incremental improvement approach that most manufacturers take (and especially Apple).

App Store is a great idea and Microsoft needs to do something similar. On the other hand, App Store interface still needs to be improved all across the board (Mac, iPad, iPhone, iTune). Apple needs to create more subcategories for the apps to make shopping easier. I also couldn't find a way to sort the apps (at least in the Mac version) based on ratings. Or price.

Do most people that use Macs run MS Word or use Pages? We use MS Word/Outlook/Excel/Powerpoint at work. But wondering if I really should invest on that or just use Pages. If I don't run Outlook on my MBA, does anyone know of any other apps that runs smoothly with a Exchange Server?

Next upgrade will be an iMac to replace the desktop running a slow AMD Athlon. The prices of last year's iMac's have dropped quite a bit. No Sandy Bridge on last year's stuff, but the top of line built-to-order iMac from last year appears to be fairly competitive with this year's top of the line pre-configured iMac. And about $500 cheaper.
 
Armanius,

1. I do run MS Office on my Macs, but it is rarely essential. The latest version of Mail works nicely with Exchange and is easy to set up: give it a try. I use Word only rarely, mostly relying on Nisus for word-processing and Numbers for spreadsheets. If you can afford it, and for the avoidance of doubt, by all means get Office for Mac. Nothing wrong with it.

2. For your iMac, consider buying online from Apple, using the refurbished section of the store. All our recent Macs (work and home) have been purchased this way. Essentially, these machines are rebuilt to fix whatever ailed them, and they come with full warranty. Some great deals.
 
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