Oh Sh**, I'm a Mac!

I thought they'd changed that in Lion?

Oh my god are you serious? Thanks for the heads up, I will be careful in case it hasn't been changed.

What a bizarre design decision.

This is no longer true. It now asks you if you'd like to merge or overwrite.

Is there any reason I might not want to sign into my work MBP with my personal Apple ID? I have an iPad (mine, not work's), but no other Apple devices, and I think I have iCloud off on my iPad. I segregate work stuff from personal stuff most of the time, I wouldn't want to suddenly find that my employer might legally be entitled to my personal data because I signed into my Apple ID on their computer.

If I shouldn't do that, should I make a new Apple ID using my work email, or should I just skip that whole process?

The second I started using Scrivener, I began kicking myself for not getting it sooner. At that price, it's a no brainer for anyone who spends any time writing.

That bundle also includes a couple of adventure games that I hear are really good.

I don't know about the legality, but I'd recommend creating a separate Apple ID just for convenience's sake. Apple's going heavy into unified iCloud across everything, and it's still pretty half-baked in a lot of places. And it doesn't give you particularly fine-grained control of what gets synched. If you're concerned about cross-contaminating work stuff with personal stuff, then using the same account is going to be a hassle.

Downsides: None of the Apple stuff makes switching Apple ID's particularly easy. (Maybe it's easier if you have separate log-ins for work and personal use, but I haven't tried it). Also, there's still no way to merge two separate Apple IDs. So if you, say, inadvertently bought something with your work ID, you couldn't transfer it to your personal device(s).

Can anyone recommend any good personal journal software? What I'm looking for is something that allows me to record my thoughts on any given day with a minimum of UI interference. A lot of the solutions I've seen so far seem pretty heavily biased in terms of multimedia shit, which I am not interested in. I want something that will keep a running record of my thoughts with a minimal amount of intrusion. Halp?

I'm always seeing recommendations for Day One (App store link), although I've never tried it myself.

One note? With bullet points!

Evernote and just make a dedicated diary notebook?

New iTunes is out. It looks gorgeous and so far it's been much smoother than previous versions. It's a lot more streamlined too.

New iMacs went on sale today as well. I'm going to buy one of the higher-end 21.5" variety, either at a local store or ordering online. I've been trying to justify getting a 27" version, but I can't do it. They're too big. I haven't been gaming as much as I used to anyway, and with a newborn at home I see that trend continuing. I'm sort of miffed that I'll have to buy an external optical drive (I rip a lot of CDs), but there's nothing I can do about that.

I like the idea of the wireless mouse and keyboard, but I'm thinking not having a number pad would drive me nuts, and I'm slightly concerned about the mouse. Am I going to hate the "magic mouse" for gaming, or is it just fine?

You get used to the wireless keyboard. Not having a numpad isn't as big a deal as I thought, but it can be annoying not to have dedicated home/end/del/etc. keys. There are equivalent shortcuts using the FN key, but it's not the same.

The Magic Mouse is absolutely godawful. Don't use it for anything. Use any other USB mouse for games and a Magic Trackpad for everything else.

Don't get a wired mouse. Part of the beauty of the iMac is the "everything wireless" nature. Get a decent third-party bluetooth mouse; they'll work with the Mac just fine. I like the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 8000 (or whatever model number they're using now).

100% truth. Magic Mouse is an abomination; you'll look at the iMac and wonder how something as horrible as the Magic Mouse could've been made by the same company. It's particularly bad for gaming since it will interpret everything as a right-click or a scroll wheel press.

I always go USB keyboards and mice since I irrationally hate recharging batteries. The Apple wired keyboard is particularly nice since it has a USB port on either side to plug in a mouse, but the wireless keyboard is all right too. A bluetooth mouse would probably be fine if you can find one you like; the only affordable wireless mice I've seen have used that annoying dongle. I use one of the few remaining Logitech corded mice; I think it's the base model of their "Gaming" line.

I love the magic mouse -- you just need to toggle some settings to enable right click and other gestures that you like. Scroll (both vertical and horizontal) with inertia is a UX affordance that once used to, anything else is inferior).

Picked up a magic trackpad and still getting used to it -- finger taps and swipes work great but one thing not 100% comfortable is selecting text -- while a finger tap suffices for a click, it takes some conscious doing to apply pressure with one finger, then drag another. Getting attuned now to starting the motion with a thumb… …but being able to drive from the trackpad is powerful.

AFA keyboards go, had to pickup a full size keyboard for the iMac (still wireless) as while the missing number pad did not dismay, the truncated form of other keys -- arrow keys, pgdn, pgup, etc.… did.

Thanks for the advice, guys. I'm afraid I lied to you before about getting the 21.5". I ordered the higher end 27" model, with the video card and fusion drive upgrades. It was a little spendy, but I feel like I got the best dollar to performance ratio (I could be full of shit.). The only thing I don't like about it is its hugeness. The smaller one is a great size, but I balked at spending $200.00 for an extra 8 Gb of RAM. The 27" RAM is user upgradeable. (sp?). Anyway, I configured with the trackpad and wireless keyboard, and will buy a decent mouse as suggested. Thanks again.

I lied to you guys about lying to you guys. I talked myself out of the 27" model, cancelled my order, and bought the higher-end 21.5" one today. I had them swap out the mouse for the trackpad. I...yeah. They had a 27" model in the local Apple Store and the thing is just too big. I would have loved a 24" model. Anyway, I'm about to start setting it up. Wish me luck. I don't think I've touched an Apple computer since seventh grade.

My macbook seems to have developed a problem: it is discharging the battery quite rapidly. I first noticed this problem a few days ago. I just did a quick nonscientific test, and the battery discharged 3% in ten minutes. That doesn't seem like much when I do the math (that'll give me about five hours of operating) but it seems a lot faster than it was just a few weeks ago, when the battery reserves subjectively seemed endless. The past several days I can't work on it for more than a few hours before having to charge it.

I've gone through the basic troubleshooting steps (rebooted, watching activity monitor to see if anything is chewing up the CPU) and I'm not getting anywhere. Has anyone else had this problem? Any suggestions on further troubleshooting?