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[Mouse_Pad]

I've got a question for you Mac types. My parents have this crazy idea that they want to start a business where they dress people up on costumes, photograph them in front of a green screen, Photoshop them onto a background, and print it out on-site for the customers. If they want to do this with a Macbook, what kind of hardware should they be looking at and how much should they expect to spend on it?

(Never mind that my parents are infuriatingly and chronically inept with computers and this idea is doomed to fail.)

[awa64]

I've got a question for you Mac types. My parents have this crazy idea that they want to start a business where they dress people up on costumes, photograph them in front of a green screen, Photoshop them onto a background, and print it out on-site for the customers. If they want to do this with a Macbook, what kind of hardware should they be looking at and how much should they expect to spend on it?

(Never mind that my parents are infuriatingly and chronically inept with computers and this idea is doomed to fail.)

Hardware's not going to be that different on a Mac versus on a Windows laptop.

1) A Macbook, if they don't already have it. Pro would probably be better, but a normal Macbook will work.
2) A legal copy of Photoshop (not just Elements) is probably going to be necessary for this to work well. $500ish, plus however much training would cost.
3) Digital camera. A DSLR would be preferable--you probably wouldn't seem credible if you were just using a sub-$300 point-and-shoot--but you'd likely end up paying $500+ for the camera body and another $250+ for the camera lens. It's possible, if they were ever into photography in the past, that they might already have a lens--modern DSLRs are compatible with lenses from high-end film cameras, and the mounting systems haven't changed in decades. Most cameras these days are pretty strong on Mac compatibility, so that won't be an issue.
4) Tripod for camera. Let's say $20.
5) Studio lighting setup and Green Screen backdrop. You can find a starter kit for around $200, maybe a little less if you find a deal--though you're likely to get what you pay for.
6) Good-quality printer. I'd expect to pay at least $300 here; the big feature to look for would be Cyan, Magenta and Yellow ink cartridges rather than one big "color" ink cartridge. If you want to be able to provide large-format prints, it might be worth investing in a plotter, but those are expensive--upwards of a grand for a 24" plotter, and upwards of three and a half for a 42" plotter. Again, little to no concerns about doing this on a Mac versus a PC--printer drivers are widely available for Mac these days.
7) Print supplies. High-quality photo paper, replacement ink cartridges, etc.
8) All those costumes they're going to need. No idea how to estimate that.
9) A library of legal, royalty-free backdrop images to use. If you're going through a stock photography website, I'd expect to pay a minimum of $20 per backdrop image; more depending on license provisions. If they plan to commission them, I'd expect even higher. If they're planning on creating the backdrop images themselves... well, good luck to them.
10) Retail space, power, advertising, furniture, and all those other nice business overhead things. Again, no idea how to estimate that, but it'd be a big expense. Unless they're planning on starting as a part-time thing and just offering their services at a booth at comic book/anime/sci-fi conventions.

This post has been edited by awa64: Nov 13 2011, 03:52 PM

[Mouse_Pad]

I've got a question for you Mac types. My parents have this crazy idea that they want to start a business where they dress people up on costumes, photograph them in front of a green screen, Photoshop them onto a background, and print it out on-site for the customers. If they want to do this with a Macbook, what kind of hardware should they be looking at and how much should they expect to spend on it?

(Never mind that my parents are infuriatingly and chronically inept with computers and this idea is doomed to fail.)

Hardware's not going to be that different on a Mac versus on a Windows laptop.

1) A Macbook, if they don't already have it. Pro would probably be better, but a normal Macbook will work.
2) A legal copy of Photoshop (not just Elements) is probably going to be necessary for this to work well. $500ish, plus however much training would cost.
3) Digital camera. A DSLR would be preferable--you probably wouldn't seem credible if you were just using a sub-$300 point-and-shoot--but you'd likely end up paying $500+ for the camera body and another $250+ for the camera lens. It's possible, if they were ever into photography in the past, that they might already have a lens--modern DSLRs are compatible with lenses from high-end film cameras, and the mounting systems haven't changed in decades. Most cameras these days are pretty strong on Mac compatibility, so that won't be an issue.
4) Tripod for camera. Let's say $20.
5) Studio lighting setup and Green Screen backdrop. You can find a starter kit for around $200, maybe a little less if you find a deal--though you're likely to get what you pay for.
6) Good-quality printer. I'd expect to pay at least $300 here; the big feature to look for would be Cyan, Magenta and Yellow ink cartridges rather than one big "color" ink cartridge. If you want to be able to provide large-format prints, it might be worth investing in a plotter, but those are expensive--upwards of a grand for a 24" plotter, and upwards of three and a half for a 42" plotter. Again, little to no concerns about doing this on a Mac versus a PC--printer drivers are widely available for Mac these days.
7) Print supplies. High-quality photo paper, replacement ink cartridges, etc.
8) All those costumes they're going to need. No idea how to estimate that.
9) A library of legal, royalty-free backdrop images to use. If you're going through a stock photography website, I'd expect to pay a minimum of $20 per backdrop image; more depending on license provisions. If they plan to commission them, I'd expect even higher. If they're planning on creating the backdrop images themselves... well, good luck to them.
10) Retail space, power, advertising, furniture, and all those other nice business overhead things. Again, no idea how to estimate that, but it'd be a big expense. Unless they're planning on starting as a part-time thing and just offering their services at a booth at comic book/anime/sci-fi conventions.

I was really just referring to #1. But, uh, thanks!

[Deathy G1]

The plain MacBook is no longer made. I would not suggest the Air for that kind of use. Stick with the Pro.

[awa64]

The plain MacBook is no longer made. I would not suggest the Air for that kind of use. Stick with the Pro.

The plain MacBook is no longer made, but you can still buy refurbished ones.

[Scavgraphics]

I upgraded my iPad (1) to ios 5.01 and other than my comic app deleting all it's files, so far so good....EXCEPT, I have no idea what ios 5 does. Anyone know of any sites that tell me of the features I now have?

[Kup]

I upgraded my iPad (1) to ios 5.01 and other than my comic app deleting all it's files, so far so good....EXCEPT, I have no idea what ios 5 does. Anyone know of any sites that tell me of the features I now have?

Apple introduced an exciting new feature called "Wall Charger Mode" -- see, they decided that decent batter life was sooooooo 2010 and opted to include behind the scenes coding into iOS 5.0 (and .01) to magically drain your battery *without you having do so a single thing!* Its completely hands free -- just leave your iPad siting on your desk and watch it drop 1-2% battery power per hour. This allows you to remain with a wall charger at all times. Who needs wireless anyway?


But to answer your question, are you talking about 4.x to 5.0.1 or 5.0 to 5.0.1? Off the top of my head, I know that 5.0.1 restores multi-touch gestures to iPad 1. Let me know which you're asking about.

[Scavgraphics]

4x to 5.01

I'm actually seeing better battery performance now than I was b4 the upgrade.


**********************
A British article.
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/20...ed_to_use_ipad/
It's not a particularly good article, but I found the comments to be very..British which ammused me.

[Kup]

Off the top of my head:

-- Improved notifications (including a Notification Center, accessible by swiping down from the time from any screen but the lock screen). Notifications show up on the lock screen, and can easily be accessed by swiping to unlock that specific notification
-- Reminders
-- Newsstand (annoying, because its actually a folder and not easily hidden).
-- Use the volume up button to take a picture
-- Camera is accessible from the lock screen
-- iMessage (I love this feature); as a side note, I've found sending an MMS to a non-iMessage user to be exceptionally faster on 5.x. iMessage also includes read receipts/delivery receipts.
-- Twitter integration throughout the OS
-- Desktop style back/forward options in Safari (you can select which page you want to go back to instead of clicking back through them 1 by 1)
-- Annoying iCloud integration. I have most of my stuff turned off, except for Find my iPhone
-- Photo stream (part of iCloud). Again, not executed well. All photos you take are beamed across all devices, so if I take a picture of a possible gift for my wife to text to her sister, that picture gets beamed to her phone. Suddenly, she's wondering why she has a Coach purse showing up on her phone. Also, you cannot delete individual photos. Ever try to take a photo of 2 kids at the same time? You end up snapping about 15 in a row trying to get them to smile at the same time, and keep only 1 or 2. With Photo Stream, all 15 are stored in the Cloud and unable to be individually deleted
-- Ability to hide purchased apps within the App store
-- Automatically download apps/music once purchased on a device (Again, bad implementation. I purchase stuff for work that my wife and son have no need for, and will just take up space on their devices)
-- Wifi sync with iTunes (any time your device is plugged into a charger it will sync)
-- Likewise, the option to go PC free. You can activate without plugging in to iTunes, and back up to iCloud. This includes an app to manage your Time Capsule/Airport Extreme/Airport Express router (does anyone know if you can manage non Apple routers?)
-- OTA updates. Now that you are on 5.x, you can download delta updates for iOS instead of having to plug into iTunes. The latest ran 40-60 megs, rather than 600+ via iTunes. This so far requires you to be on a wifi connection.
-- Split keyboard on iPad.
-- Moveable keyboard on iPad.
-- Under "Usage" in the "General" tab in setings, you'll find the option to view how much room specific apps are taking up (So you know which to delete if you are running shy on space)

Hope that helps, and I'm sure its not an exhaustive list.

[Scavgraphics]

Thanks...I'm looking more for a "how" than a what (Like the multi touch gestures), but you listed bunch of stuff I wasn't aware of.

-- Ability to hide purchased apps within the App store

Don't get this...there's no porn apps, so why would you need to hide them?

I like the idea of iCloud calendar integration, except my non iCloudable G5 won't take advantage of it

Edit: Found the multi-touch...ooh..ahh

This post has been edited by Scavgraphics: Nov 14 2011, 04:06 PM

[Kup]

There may not be porn apps, but there are apps who's intended audience is not my son -- or my grandparents. Both share my apple id. Plus, how many times have you tried out an app, hated it, and deleted it with no intention of seeing it again -- or got the free version only to upgrade to paid a little while later? In both cases I simply don't want to see the apps again.

Multi touch is awesome. I've been using it since 4.3 or whenever it was first given to developers (I enabled it via the free XCode program from Apple's site). I barely use the home button to go back to my home screen anymore.

[PiratedTVPro]

I upgraded my iPad (1) to ios 5.01 and other than my comic app deleting all it's files, so far so good....EXCEPT, I have no idea what ios 5 does. Anyone know of any sites that tell me of the features I now have?

Get it from the source...
http://www.apple.com/ios/features.html

This post has been edited by PiratedTVPro: Nov 14 2011, 07:12 PM

[Scavgraphics]

^ Right...I was looking more for "how's"..I've found multi-touch...but like i haven't gotten like how to do reminders.

[Cranky Hippo]

Is anyone running iOS 5 on a 3rd gen touch? Is there any slowdown?

[Kup]

Can someone with a Macbook Pro take a picture and upload it of how far the screen show open? Basically....(sigh...) I wasn't watching our son and he was in the other room. I heard a "pop" and ran in to find him with my wife's computer's screen wedged between two couch cushions. To me, it appears as if the screen opens way more than it should now (and if thats the case, I'm concerned about stress on the cables that connect the display to the computer). It works fine, but both of us feel as if it opens way more than it should now.

I tried Googling about 15 different ways of wording this, but apparently I'm the first person who has ever faced this issue.....or else I'm too frustrated to type an effective Google search.....apparently no one else has ever taken a side profile with the screen open as far as it can go?

Thanks.....

[Razorsaw]

...

I just got the joke behind this thread title.

[lordtaco]

Can someone with a Macbook Pro take a picture and upload it of how far the screen show open?

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[Jesse (M_P)]

Is anyone having an issue with iMovie '11 and audio/video sync issues? I can't record videologs any longer because when I shoot video with my isight and import it into iMovie '11 (on Lion), the audio ends up getting horrible out of sync with the video. Google searches turn up other people who have the same issue but I see absolutely no resolution or fix for it.

[Benbot]

The current Macbook Pro chassis is 3 years old this month--anyone think Apple is going to change it sometime soon? It's a pretty stellar design, so I can't see how it can really be improved, but Apple usually finds a way. If anything, they need to switch it up just to keep ahead of imitators.

[lordtaco]

I think the unibody aluminum bodies are here to stay for a long time, so you will probably only see minor improvements across the lineup. I'm sure Apple has invested tons into the tooling and machinery to make them.

The iMacs, for example, went from this:

(IMG:http://i.imgur.com/D9jnu.jpg)

To this:

(IMG:http://i.imgur.com/Lx1Xp.jpg)

And I'm ok with that. Not only do they look great, they are thinner and stronger. And I don't think Apple is too worried about being copied. Other manufacturers have certainly been emulating the look of Apple's notebooks, but don't come close on build quality and materials.