New MB Owner With Questions

Hey all,

I made the purchase of a new White 2.0 ghz MacBook last week and was wondering about a few things before it gets here on thursday (the 3rd of august). I apologize in advance if these questions seem kind of "duh," but this will be my first Mac and though I have worked with them before, it has not been to a great extent.

--will I be able to chat with my friends that have AIM using iChat or will I have to hunt down an all-in-one program for this?

--My MB is coming with only 512mb of RAM. However, I only plan on doing a few things with it (word processing, music, maybe some minor a/v editing), will my machine run alright if I don't upgrade the RAM to a gig or should I just bite the bullet and get it done?

--With iWork, I read that there is a word processing program, is this program any good? I plan on purchasing Office for Mac, but if I have a program that will allow me to do word processing, I will hold of on this purchase until I can comfortably afford it.

--I plan to use the storage of my iPod to transport my music files from my PC to my MB. When I do this, where do I go to put my music onto my MB?

--I've read about a few problems involving the MB in terms of discoloration of where people put their wrists on the computer as well as a faulty case build (coming apart at corners). Can anyone tell me if these are reoccuring problems or if these are only isolated incidents?

--What are some good cleaning methods for the white MB's?

--Also, I thought I read somewhere about a missing manual? What is the deal with this and where can I get the information from this missing portion?


That's all I've really got for right now, but I'm sure I'll have more questions come next week when I open the box.

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer

So wait, you're saying I paid extra for a program I'm only going to have for 30 days? Because I was under the assumption that what I paid was to keep the iWork permanently.

I made the purchase mainly because it will be a little while before I end up getting the office program. I'm going to be in Washington D.C. for my fall semester of college and the director of the program informed us that the majority of our work will be exchanged via email, whether that be in the form of an attached document or simply pasted in and sent.

I live just outside of Champaign, about 10 minutes from the U of I campus. I go to Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, about an hour and a half north. I'll be in D.C. participating in a program that my university takes part in, studying at the Washington Journalism Center .

I've been wondering this, but what type of RAM would I be looking at? I'm not all that savvy on certain areas of computers and don't really know the difference between the different types of notebook ram.