Chapter 1. Setting Up Your Mac

Inside modern Macintosh computers lies the incredible power of one of Apple's G3 or G4 microprocessors, supercharged chips no larger than a postage stamp. These miniature technological wonders have the capability to process millions upon millions of computer instructions every second; in fact, the G4 processes billions of instructions, which puts it in the supercomputer class. In addition, your new computer comes with a sharp, bright color screen; a graphics accelerator; a fast CD drive, or maybe even one that can create DVDs; a built-in modem; and lots and lots of great software.

A microprocessor is a little electronic component that crunches numbers and gives your computer its incredible computing power.

A graphics accelerator is a chip that makes the images on your computer's screen show up very, very fast.

A modem is a clever device that turns the ones and zeros generated by your Mac and other computers into analog signals that can be sent back and forth over telephone lines.

In the first part of this chapter, I'll talk you through installing and setting up your Mac. Then we'll talk about the OS X operating system that you'll use to make full use of your Mac's digital media capabilities.

Although many of you have worked on other Macs or the computers from that other platform (Windows), I realize that some of you are first-time computer buyers . So I'm going to cover a few basics in this first chapter, such as how to figure out what plugs in to where and how to use the mouse. If you've already installed and used computers, you'll be able to advance to Chapter 2, "Exploring the Desktop," in much less time.