So I got a MacBook

[Sam334]

Well, I went a bit above my budget and got myself a shiny new toy (also needed for school and such). I got the 13" 2GHz model with a gig of ram. Spent yesterday messing around with OS X whatever, putting pictures on there, installing software, etc. However, I have a few questions for those of you who are seasoned Mac OS folk...

I have my entire C drive of my desktop pc shared and subsequently my itunes music folder). I figured out how to access the drive, but I would like for the shortcut to the drive to automatically appear when I'm using the laptop in my apartment's wireless network instead of having to open the HDD and then go to the network, etc.

Also, I want to add the networked music to my iTunes library but have it stay on the networked folder (so as to save hdd space). I was able to do this with my old Dell notebook by just opening the networked folder, dragging, then dropping the whole folder onto the iTunes Library. However, the music is physically copied over onto the notebook's hdd when I try and do this within OS X. Any ideas?

Any other random program suggestions or interesting stuff to do within OS X? I downloaded Adium for my messaging was satisfied with it.

Thanks in advance

 

[AmigaMan]

try the instructions here on how to automount a windows share: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031022164821984
As far as adding your music you have on your Windows drive to your iTunes library without actually importing the music files, I'm not sure if that's possible. Maybe you could stream it from your Windows box or share it via Bonjour? I'm not an iTunes expert though.

Enjoy your new Mac!

 

[ubercaffeinated]

Seriously enjoy it. The build quality is nice, and OS X is just another OS. All in all a pleasant experience. Nothing special.

 

[AmigaMan]

You might also want to check out this blog post. While it's for keeping your itunes library on an external drive (rather than on a windows share) the concepts should be the same.

http://www.tuaw.com/2006/09/19/how-to-k...nes-library-on-an-external-hard-drive/

Also found a program called VibeStreamer in the comments for that blog post which may be more to your liking http://www.vibestreamer.com/

 

[Sam334]

Thanks for the help and links.

The iTunes issue was a lot easier than I thought, lol.

In the Advanced section of the iTunes' preferences, uncheck "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library" tada

Tried out Smackbook; loved it, but it was a bit sensitive when picking up the laptop and such.

So far, so good.

 

[International Machine Consortium]

Originally posted by: AmigaMan
try the instructions here on how to automount a windows share: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031022164821984
As far as adding your music you have on your Windows drive to your iTunes library without actually importing the music files, I'm not sure if that's possible. Maybe you could stream it from your Windows box or share it via Bonjour? I'm not an iTunes expert though.

Enjoy your new Mac!

Share teh library on your Windows machine, then play it via the MacBook. Make sure you set iTunes up to Share (Preferences, Sharing tab). The Windows machine will be set to "Share my library on the LAN" (or similar) and the MacBook will be set to "Look for Shared libraries"

Also, go get yourself an AirTunes unit (Airport Express) and pump iTunes to your powered speakers or stereo. Very cool. Your friends will say "ooooh" and "Ahhhhh".