Newbie's (Potential Switcher to Mac) Unusual Questions

I am considering switching to a Macbook pro and have never used the Mac OS/Leopard before. I would be grateful for any advice:
1.My work involves a lot of creating and delivering ppt. Is Keynote better than Powerpoint 2008? Briefly, how?

2.Can one combine slides from ppt and keynote together to form a new presentation?i.e. can we insert slides from a pre-existing ppt into keynote and vice versa?

3. Can Leopard do Skype, and Google Talk voice & IM?

4.Is it compatible with Blackberry curve and Slingbox Pro?

5.Can i connect the MBP/Leopard to a big screen PAL or NTSC LCD TV and browse on the big screen?

6.Can i rip regular DVDs or CDs using the MAC OS like we do in the PC world?

7.Lastly I am keen to wait for the much anticipated Penryn tech refresh? What significant changes can we expect in the next refresh of the MBP and is it worth waiting for? When is it likely to come?

Im grateful to everyone for helping me with your replies.

 

#2 keynote and PP have some minor issues between each other

#6 can you define regular ???

 

Any PAL or NTSC DVD.usually a copy of the original.

 

1) Keynote is nice and easy to use compared to PowerPoint...highly preferred by many and cheaper as well...but if you know you will be working on PPT files between Macs and PCs, best to stick with Office for Mac for full compatibility. The next version of Office for Mac is 2008, being released in early 2008, probably January.

3) Yes. Skype does have a Mac version, and Google Talk just uses the web browser and works fine. As for if these work with Leopard, probably yes, if not, they will probably issue a patch soon to make it compatible. No worries.

7) Hard to say. The MacBook Pro is due for a redesign, but hard to say when that redesign will happen. It could happen with the Penryn update, or it might be Montevina in Q2 2008, or it could be Nehalem in H2 2008.

 

3) I believe Google Talk uses the Jabber protocol, and is therefore compatible with iChat

6) CD's can be ripped with iTunes, and I believe DVDs can be ripped using "Handbrake"

 

thanks everyone...any other responses much appreciated.

 

6. Use MacTheRipper for DVDs.

 

1.My work involves a lot of creating and delivering ppt. Is Keynote better than Powerpoint 2008? Briefly, how?
I prefer Keynote to ppt. From personal experience with both, Keynote is more user friendly, has a LOT of great looking slides, as well as tons of user created ones that you can get free online, and im talking really good pro-like templates. A lot nicer animations, transitions, etc, etc. And iWork costs less than half of what the crappiest office package costs.

2.Can one combine slides from ppt and keynote together to form a new presentation?i.e. can we insert slides from a pre-existing ppt into keynote and vice versa?
Yes you can, but some animations or fonts might not export. Other than that you will be fine.

5.Can i connect the MBP/Leopard to a big screen PAL or NTSC LCD TV and browse on the big screen?
Yes. If your tv has an hdmi connection, you can get a dvi to hdmi cable.


6.Can i rip regular DVDs or CDs using the MAC OS like we do in the PC world?
Yes. I use handbrake for dvd's, itunes for cds.

7.Lastly I am keen to wait for the much anticipated Penryn tech refresh? What significant changes can we expect in the next refresh of the MBP and is it worth waiting for? When is it likely to come?
I don't think it's worth waiting for. The MBP as it is has more than enough power to meet 99% of consumer's needs. Unless you do some kind of freakish pro thingy. Any improvements brought with penryn would probably translate to a 5-10% increase in real world perfomance (no matter what apple says) and with a machine as fast as the mbp, the increase in performance wouldnt be that noticeable i think. If you need it now get it now, if you can wait do so, but I wouldn't cause I'm impatient

 

thanks for your detailed reply.

can blackberry and slingbox pro work with leopard?

The tech refresh apart from the faster processor wont it bing other changes? Better form factor? blu ray maybe?something else?

 

3. Can Leopard do Skype, and Google Talk voice & IM?
Yes you can download skype for mac. You can also use Gtalk with Safari, or with iChat so that will have you covered. iChat also works with AIM and .mac email addresses, as well as jaber protocol which lets you also use yahoo and msn and pretty much every other im protocol with ichat, but it's kind of hassle. If you use that many accounts it's better to get multi-im programs like Adium (which rocks).

4.Is it compatible with Blackberry curve and Slingbox Pro?

Yes, BB curve is compatible, but not out of the box, you have to download the missing sync for blackberry devices, which costs $39. It does not support bluetooth sync, only usb. And it isn't tested for leopard, their website says a new version is 'coming soon'. If I had a curve it would be worth it to me, but I don't, and I think it's one feature apple should really get off their lazy a$$es and start working on it to add more support for newer phones.

 

How to say what they plan to do with the Penryn update...so far only Penryn itself is "confirmed".

As for Blu Ray, if Apple goes HD, it will be Blu Ray, as it officially supports Blu Ray. However, if you ask me, if Apple planned to go Blu Ray, I would say they would've already did. From the looks of it, Apple probably isn't going to add Blu Ray until its more clear that it is the winner (Blu Ray was winning, but its back to 50-50 again).

 

Answer in my post above. I'm not sure about the slingbox pro, will look into that for you. As for the tech refresh, it's really up for grabs. Nobody knows really. People can go on and on about rumors but at the end of the day no one knows for sure, so if you end up waiting until January for a new mbp and only see speed bumps, you would have wasted 2 months without enjoying a macbook pro, imo. Now on the other hand they might add blu-ray, as well as case redesign. If you did buy it early you might feel bummed, but really the mbp is an awesome machine right now and you cant go wrong with it. If it was too much pain to bear then you could just sell it and get the new one. Macs have a really good resell(sp?) value, specially if it's almost new.

 

thanks a lot everyone.

 

Just a note, keynote allows you to export as quicktime, which imo is a better way to ensure cross-platform compatibility, unless you need to edit the file later, in which case you just export to powerpoint.

 

thanks.i presume since i have zillions of previous ppts, pictures, excel sheets, i can import them slide by slide, as needed into a new keynote ppt as well?i.e. the reverse of what u r suggesting?

 

Yeah that works too, just don't be bummed that you might have to spend some time readjusting font sizes, some tables, etc.

 

thanks a lot.

lastly i presume the touchpad does the usual tap and double tap like in the PC OS?

 

Yes, you can tap the trackpad to do a left-click. If you want, you can also tap the trackpad with two fingers to create a right-click. Very convenient.

 

And use the trackpad for vertical and horizontal scrolling by using two fingers, also very convenient and beats out those edge scroll features on other machines by miles.

 

Yes, I agree. The scrolling "strip" found on many PC notebooks annoy me so badly. They work only half the time for me.