Now that the Z has replaced my MBP...

I find myself in a slightly unfamiliar territory. I havent used Windows for a couple of years and was wondering if anyone can help me with the following:

1) There is a feature in Back to My Mac which allows me to access any files on my home mac or office mac. It would simply be a part of your finder and not an RDP session etc. Is there anything like this for Windows?

2) I like Pixelmator on the Mac which is a good cheap alternative to Photoshop. I tried GIMP and Paint.NET but wasnt too impressed. Anything else?

3) Whats the best twitter client? I like something that has a single pane and supports multiple accounts- using Tweetie on the Mac

4) Background Windows scrolling- I loved how you did not need to make a Windows "Active" on the Mac to scroll it. Can Windows 7 do this?

5) Will Two finger scrolling get any better- its rubbish with the current synaptics driver.

6) The machine would randomly freeze/hiccup for a couple of seconds- from things like connecting to WiFi or resuming from standby. Very random and infrequent but is this still a Windows thing?

 

2) What do you not like about GIMP? If it's the interface, you might want to try Gimphoto. The interface is similar to Photoshop.

4) I don't think Windows 7 support background scrolling natively. I use a program for this ( KatMouse). It's pretty light on resources.

 

I am switching from MB Air to Sony Z, cant wait to try the Z out

 

I recently did the same switch not missing the MBA at all which is surprising.
Quite a few have already made the switch too from what I hear at macrumors.com

 

Hmm- KatMouse doesnt want to work for me. Also tried another app for that same purpose called WizMouse but that doesnt want to scroll any background Windows either.

 

With regards to scrolling try this:
two-finger-scroll - Project Hosting on Google Code

Make sure you turn the scrolling down everywhere, ie: turn the wheel down to 1 line.
I also find that scrolling on the right side of the pad is the best and most accurate.
I do agree though that the trackpad is not as good as mac's. But its not exactly rubbish.

I forgot to add, you have to edit settings in the browsers depending on what you use.
For example on opera you need to turn off smoothscrolling. Just google for it. I find chrome to be okay though.

 

I'll try to answer the ones I think I can:

I've heard of this being done with software for that purpose, but haven't tried it. Windows does come with Remote Desktop support (where you connect to another computer over a network and take control/run it within another window on the computer you're using.

Depending on the complexity of editing functions you're looking for, I've used FastStone Image Viewer to good effect. It has all but the most advanced editing tools for photos.

No idea. Never twittered...probably never will

I believe that this is a mouse driver functionality. In the Mouse settings (click on Start button and start typing "mouse"), open up device setting to turn on this functionality. Not all applications respond to this, however.

I haven't experienced that at all.

 

Dropbox. Best program ever. Dropbox.com

I believe this is a property of the application, not the operating system.

You're doing something wrong or you're just seeing what you want. I'm sure mac does the same thing, you just overlook it.

You could always install linux

 

Item #4. There is option under synaptics menu for "scroll under under pointer" that "should" do exactly what you want. Can't say I've used it though.

 

I see that option and yet selecting it doesn't do what I wanted to. Maybe I need to uninstall some of those background scrolling apps.

 

Adobe Photoshop Elements

If you want eye-candy:

Blu is nice: thirteen23 :: blu :: social media :: wpf, silverlight, and iPhone
Or Seesmic look: Seesmic Look - Seesmic

Or just Tweetdeck.

 

1)Windows support file sharing on LAN.
You have to configure the file shares or put it under HOMEGROUP then join it
4)Use the shortcut key Combo WIN+Tab for Windows Switching or WIN+D for minimise to desktop.
I don't know what exactly you want though
5)Download the latest 15.0.13 Synaptic Drivers.
Uninstall the old Drivers before installing the new ones.
Of course you need to explore and optimize the driver settings to suit your usage not like OS X where it is spoonfed.
You can refer to this guide for optimal settings.

 

As far as I know, no -- scrolling only works for active windows.

But that said, you can use the Unix X-mouse behavior: focus-follows-mouse and no-auto-raise. This means that whichever window your mouse pointer is over, that one will be active (but not raised), and scrolling in it works.
Unfortunately, to turn on this behavior, you need to either edit a registry key, or use a tool like TweakUI or X-Setup.

(If you were an X11 purist, you'd want to turn off click-to-raise too, so you can copy/paste between windows without changing their Z order. For that, you need a 3rd party utility like TXMouse.)

 

Wow- this 15.x driver has certainly improved two finger scrolling tremendously to the point where its actually reliable! Still cant get background windows to scroll- maybe some other Sony bloatware is preventing this. Also, this driver doesnt have the "Two finer Gesture" option- only 3 finger option

Windows in general still needs to a bit more "finessing" and I guess only someone from OSX can notice these things. For example, waking the computer from sleep on my MBP was instant whereas it takes the VAIO a couple of seconds. Also, when you shutdown, the shutdown screen appears and then again you see the desktop and then it goes back to shutting down. No deal breakers but its the subtle things that OSX is pretty good at.

For a photoshop replacement, I've been playing with Pacasa and I'm liking it quite a bit!

 

How can I easily transfer all the files from my MB Air to my new Sony Z, can I do it wireless or do I need to use a thumb drive??

 

either way, if you have a small amount of data it makes no difference, if you have lots, setup file sharing and use the network.

 

in regards to 6
to be honest i have been getting the hiccups as well. it differs from past typical lag i would experience on windows computers or any computer in that the mouse will freeze up for like 3 seconds. it happened to me last night when maximizing an excel file. its really not that bad, just seems really out of place when it does happen, which is once or twice every day (been writing reports this week so that equates to about once every 10 hours of use or so)

 

EXACTLY! I've had the mouse freeze as well which generally works if I lift my finger off the trackpad and put it back. Although I must say that has pretty much gone since I upgraded to Synapitcs 15.x drivers that someone has linked above.

One more question- can the finger pring sensor be utilized as a middle mouse button or something?

 

No offense but we have already told you a few times that its not possible to scroll background windows without them being active.

Secondly, I already posted a link to the two finger scroll application, did you try that out?

Someone can correct me if i'm wrong but I believe Apple has a number of patents on their touchpad software thus it isn't identical.

Lastly, I was an osx user since 10.0 and I also used Classic before that and I thinK windows 7 is better than osx. Its faster and its Ui looks better to me. I really hated the Dock in OSX it was ugly. Honestly, my computer wakes from sleep instantly.

I ditched my Santa Rosa MBP for this laptop and haven't looked back since.

Please don't misunderstand, i'm not trying to flame yo but if love osx so much I don't really understand why you made the move?

 

this what you talking about ?

WizMouse - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com

 

I stand corrected.
Nice link! Thanks.

 

I did try WizMouse and KatMouse but neither managed to scroll background windows. This is a bit weird as these apps are exactly what I'm looking for but they simply do not work for me

 

wizmouse works for me. what it does it puts the background window in the foreground without having to click.

 

I can't believe that no one mentioned MS Live Mesh for sharing files between multiple PCs. Seriously, goto www.mesh.com and sharing files folders across multiple computers and platforms will be solved for free.

 

The combination of TwoFingerScroll and Katmouse absolutely allow scrolling inactive windows as well as smooth two finger scrolling. It takes a while to get the scrolling speed settings just right, but I'm using it perfectly on my Z.

 

I just come off the phone with my 3 contacts in Singapore and all of them are now saying they have NO stock of the Z-117. I sure hope that changes before I arrive there on Wednesday............. I am traveling through Dubai Airport , maybe they will have one there????