Apple
Ask the MACist
My latest column is here. So much writing to do so little time. I’m gonna have to link here occasionally but i will try to update as well. But for now . . .
Soon I will relate the story of why I decided to go back to my 12“ Powerbook and not keep using my 13” Intel MacBook. Until then.
Dress like a Mac
Now this is useful. Go here for the full scoop. Now, I’m off to get me some cool Mac threads!
New OS, thy name is Leopard
in case you have been living in a hole or something, apple released details on its new upcoming OS, codename Leopard, this week. all the gory details can be found at the various sites that cover this type of thing. for me, either engadget or the unofficial apple weblog are where i would go for all the goo deets.
for the moment, i’m more interested in the new version of leopard server, set to be released at the same time as the version for the desktop user. things like shared calendar via an ical server, a wiki server, an ichat server and many other things make this a great leap forward for apple in the server space and may help to move more people to the mac platform and replace those annoying microsoft exchange installations.
oh, i guess i should fess up and also say that i am really looking forward to getting my hands on a new mac pro desktop. those baby’s look pretty sweet (well, they look like a g5 tower but the specs are sweet in any case). although, i think i will wait for leopard to be closer to release before dropping 3 or 4 grand on a new computer and monitor combo. in the meantime, the 20“ iMac core duo is doing just fine, thank you.
New iMac, Bootcamp and playing games
after moving into the new place i realized that it was a great opportunity to get rid of stuff i really don’t need and could do without or could substitute something else for. so, out went the big g5 tower (to my bro, sam). out went the big pc tower (to my friend shaun) and in came the new 20" intel iMac from Apple. not just any new 20" intel iMac mind you. i sprung for the extra video ram (doubled it to 256 megs) and maxed out the ram to 2gb. a must, really. ram is pretty cheap these days and is a great way to improve performance for not that much money. if you have the means i definitely suggest maxing out the ram in any Mac you purchase. you won’t be sorry you did.
what does this all mean and why should you care? you might not unless you enjoy the occasional game of half-life 2 or other pc only game. or, you want to run outlook or some other pc app that has no mac counterpart. like the macbook, i decided to install bootcamp and use the iMac as my new windows machine on the desktop. i did this mostly to see if it would replace my pc tower as a gaming machine. the short answer is yes. absolutely.
in fact, using the iMac booted into windows xp provided a superior gaming experience than i previously had on my windows gaming box. the iMac performed very very well. so, it has replaced two machines for me and now i have much more room on my desk to pile up other stuff i need to get to. so, if you are looking for a great gaming machine and want to play pc games and mac games, the intel iMac is a great choice. it also does other stuff like check email, browse the internet and normal computer things.
i have not tried it with very many other pc games yet. i felt that half-life 2 was a good game to start with given that the system requirement of the game are quite high. it a beautiful game to see and it looks great on the 20" monitor of the iMac and its even in widescreen 16 x 9. very cool. i won’t go into the whole installing boot camp procedure here as its kinda boring. suffice to say that i installed it and used it in the normal way without any changes. installed windows xp w/sp2 without a problem and was in windows and running soon afterward.
the one change that turned out to greatly improve things was that i ditched the ati drivers that bootcamp puts on the driver install cd and instead used other video drivers from the super genius over at omega. these drivers rock. much better than the lame ones that bootcamp wants you to use. after making this change i got greater frame rates and no freezes or anything.
to be honest, i had no freezes prior to replacing the drivers but i did see the increased performance from these drivers that i hoped. so, if you go to all the trouble to do all of this, be sure to get the omega drivers and use them. one other note. you can’t install drivers that you get from the ati website so don’t bother downloading them at all. even though the video card in the 20" imac is technically an ati x1600 it doesn’t mean you can actually use the drivers from ati. you can use the omega ones and you should.
so over the last couple of months i have cut the number of computers i have at home in half. two laptops into one: the macbook. and two desktops into one: the iMac. not to mention that the iMac runs so much quieter and cooler than the g5 tower its not even funny. the g5, while a great machine, is really hot and really noisy. now i can actually enjoy music in my office again and not have to turn it way up to drown out the sounds of the g5 tower. i am much happier now.
in other news, i made a couple of posts at Laist lately and will also be heading down to san diego in july to cover the big san diego comic con. i haven’t been in several years and this will be my first time in a long time mostly as an observer and attendee. the last couple of times i was there with a film project or something and was too busy to really look around.
so this time should be fun. although, its not all fun. there will be a little business too. i will be making a few notes for Laist as well as meeting with a few people regarding some upcoming projects that i can’t talk about at the moment. very secret and all that you know. suffice to say that i might be going back into yet another business i was in a long time ago. at least a little bit. or, maybe more than a little bit. what can i say? i like to keep busy.
Macbook update
quick update on the new macbook. got matched 2gb of ram from other world computing and installed it today. what a difference! now this macbook flies. much better with more ram. not really a surprise but damn, really nice.
applications load faster, graphics are snappier and all in all a much better user experience. don’t get me wrong, it was useable before with just the stock 512Mb but for me, just barely. this makes a huge difference.
as we are moving this weekend (yes, on memorial day weekend. feel sorry for me?) i won’t get a chance to replace the 80Gb hard drive that came with the macbook with the new 120 GB i got at the same time as the ram. after we move and after i finish putting in the new drive, its time to install bootcamp and (shudder) windows xp. then, the circle will be complete. or something like that.
i’ll report back when i’m done with all the fun and exciting details. oh, one more thing. i really don’t love the keyboard at all on the macbook. the more i use it the more i don’t like it. unfortunately, its the biggest problem i have with the macbook. its just not very responsive and is harder to type on then the old one on my 12“ powerbook.
if i could take that keyboard and put it on the macbook, then i would have a perfect machine. alas, it is just one of those things that i will have to deal with i guess. more later.
Macbook in the house
so, got the macbook now. just took it out of the box and starting to put it through its paces.
first impressions:
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it’s black
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it’s matte
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the glossy screen is better than i thought it would be
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the keyboard is more annoying than i thought it would be - the keys are a little too far apart for me
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performance is pretty good even with the stock 512MB of ram. i’m sure it will be much better after i put the 2 Gigs in
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its hasn’t gotten too hot yet. i even tried it on my lap wearing shorts and it was fine. no hotter than my 12“ powerbook
more to come but that’s it for first impressions. all in all pretty cool so far.
(btw - the photo is from the good folks at engadget, not me)
Happy Birthday Macintosh
1984 won’t be like 1984. on this date in 1984 apple introduced the macintosh and things were never the same. oddly enough, steve jobs hate the macintosh and tried to kill it. of course, he later changed his mind, took over the project and the rest is, as it is often said, history.
now with steve jobs poised to take a seat on the disney board and apple scoring record profits from sales of ipods and even a few macs, the little company has come a long way. pretty soon, steve may be able to realize his dream of making apple a bigger and better version of sony.
its been 22 years now and the mac and apple show no signs of slowing down. all of the doom and gloom predictions of the past have given way to glowing reviews and almost universal praise. apple has become a media darling. i guess when it works it really works. of course, it could have just as easily gone the other way. as smart as steve jobs is, luck has played a factor. luck always plays a factor. so, here’s to luck.
who knows what the next 22 years will bring. hope i’m still around to find out.
Mac World Stuff
well, the stevenote at mac world expo is over. sadly, no “media center” mac mini or anything like that. however, we now have some pretty cool new things to play around with. and here they are:
the new MacBook Pro (say so long to the Powerbook name) which runs on Intel Dual Core processors and looks basically the same as the 15" Powerbook. i’m sure a redesign of the casing is in the works. just not for today.
also, a new Intel based iMac with the same look as its G5 based brothers. also with Intel Dual Core processors. that’s cool. unless you just got an iMac last week.
and, osx 10.4.4 is out today. its for “old” macs as well as new Intel macs. runs on both. i’ve been using it for a few weeks now and it seems to work just fine. still, i might wait a few days for the initial early adopters to install it and have problems before i would rush out and get it. also, updated the iLife suite to iLife ‘06 (catchy name, eh?) including the new iWeb app which lets you create web pages and share your photos, podcasts or blogs with the world at the touch of a button (or a mouse, as the case may be).
there is also an update to the rest of the iLife apps which take advantage of the new .mac features announced today. all in all a pretty cool package to get your stuff up and seen.
the mac book is a step in the right direction but still not enough to make me really want one. yet. i’m waiting for a 12" version with all flash based hard drive that weighs 2.5 pounds. that would really be something.
as for the iMac i might pick one of those up to check out. but maybe after the first revision. i’m a little tired of being an apple beta tester after my experiences with my first dual 2ghz g5 tower. these macs are just the first step this year anyway so its not over by any means. by the end of the year, it will be all Intel all the time. i can wait. plus, my G5 tower is working just fine at the moment so what’s the rush?
it would have been nice to get a mac-mini based hd dvr that runs mac osx and allows you to stream audio and video and record it to dvd like tivo-to-go does for windows (maybe even for the mac soon). not yet though. i would bet money that its just around the corner. i guess i can put my amex away. for now.
for the rest of what’s hot (or not) from the stevenote, go to apple.
Another Flock Post - featuring news of the internets!
I find it interesting using the new browser called flock. So easy to get it going and to blog about something you see on the internet. Its almost like instant gratification (almost). Anyway, here’s some of the stuff going on around the internets today:
Phone companies may soon try to block those free calls you are making via skype. What, do they want to keep their monopoly going or something?
The sci-fi channel has renewed “stargate:sg-1” and “stargate:atlantis” for another year. this makes “stargate:sg-1” the longest running sci-fi show in history, beating out the “x-files”. Also, sci-fi i expected to renew “battlestar galactica” for a third season as well. After all, bsg is the highest rated show on the sci-fi channel and critically acclaimed so it would make sense to renew it. Not that TV execs always do things that make sense. How does one explain “everybody loves raymond” staying on the air for so long?
And, laser etching for your powerbook and ipod (hence the pic above). This is pretty cool. Now if only i could be away from my precious powerbook or ipod for the time it takes to get it laser etched. What?
Also, over at TUAW, they have a video of someone who was able to get Apple’s new software Front Row to run on his Mac Mini even though it is only “officially” supported on the new iMac G5. That didn’t take long. Come on Apple, take a hint and let it run on all of your computers. I think they will soon enough.
finally, an article about one of my favorite subjects, nanotech, talks about the state of the technology and where it might go. good read. we now return you to whatever it is you were doing before (gaming, porn, both?).
Apple does it again
well, i guess apple really likes press “events” because they had another today announcing even more stuff. what, you may ask? well, updated powerbooks (15" and 17") as well as new powermac g5’s with up to four processors (yes, you heard it). well, its really two actual chips but they have dual cores so that’s like four (more or less).
also, they announced something that i had been anticipating: a “pro” level photo manipulation app like photoshop called “aperture”. not exactly like photoshop, more like iphoto for pros. it has quite a few features that photoshop has but does them a little differently. all in all, its not an exact replacement for photoshop so maybe that’s why adobe doesn’t seem to be angry about it (at least not yet). it comes out in a few weeks but i am trying to get my hands on it sooner to check it out.
i have also been fooling around with the new ipod (the one with video and in black, of course) and have been putting my own video on it as well as a few shows i purchased from the itunes store. after only working with it for a few hours, i can say that the screen is better than i thought and that watching a tv show for only 40 minutes or so wasn’t that bad. the worst part was holding the ipod and looking down at it for so long. my neck started to get stiff.
sure, “Lost” looks much better on my big TV in all of its High Def glory but i can’t fit my TV in my pocket so one has to make some allowances. battery life seemed to be ok as well. i made it through at least on show and still had over half the battery left. no bad. i don’t have any long plane trips planned in the near future so i won’t be able to test the battery life to its fullest but i will try and see what happens.
as for the rest of my life, working as always. business is good. have a few other “entertainment related” projects that look to come to fruition so that could be fun. it might be nice to make a movie again. or, it could be a huge pain in the ass. really, it will probably be both.
Again, Black iPod is the new black.
mmmmmm . . . black ipod video. today, apple announced a bunch of new stuff. video ipods, new imac with built-in camera and itunes 6.0 with video and television shows that you can buy. pretty cool stuff.
sadly, no updates to the powerbooks or to any of the other pro machines. i guess they really might be waiting and will only be shipping intel powermacs and powerbooks. although, the year isn’t over yet.
i bet they sell a ton of video ipods today.
Mac Mini PVR fun and more!
great article on how to use your Mac Mini (mac mini not included) as a TiVo style device. of course, i still prefer tivo but this is pretty cool anyway. plus, and i don’t really want to talk politics right now, tom delay gets in trouble again. innocent until proven guilty but it does make you think. and its even in texas. that’s gotta sting.
and where will google go next? free wifi in san francisco and beyond? new set of microsoft office-like software? space? who knows but these guys sure know how to stir the speculation pot. they are almost as good at it as steve jobs. almost.
lastly, my work schedule seems to be getting a little better so i hope to be putting fingers to keys more often again. i like doing this and hopefully can with regularity. thanks for your patience and readership. its appreciated.
Jobs: RIAA "greedy", music pirates will "burn in hell" and other nice things
yes, steve says all that right here. and in other news from around the internets:
apple released an update to itunes 5.0 which will supposedly fix the problems created by itunes 5.0.
apple also upgraded the .mac service to include, among other things, 1GB of combined storage for mail and idisk (not enough for the money even though i have two.mac accounts. i know) new, improved backup 3.0, and something i don’t quite understand yet, the ability to create groups in homepage. i guess that will come in handy later. yawn.
apple will begin shipping intel based macs in june of 2006. i’ll be clearing a space on my american express card just for that day. should be interesting. now, if i only had space on my desk or even in my office for another computer then we would have something. or, if we had a wheelbarrow, that would be something too.
and for you brains reading this, here’s a list of the “100 greatest theorems”. go nuts.
Bad day on bourbon street and Apple news
all i can say about this is i’m glad i’ve been to New Orleans so many times and have experienced that great city and its people. because, New Orleans is no more thanks to Hurricane Katrina. at least the one that i knew and loved. of course, i also feel bad for the people that were hurt and killed and happy that the death toll isn’t higher.
it could have been worse, i guess. now, of course, there is looting, people shooting each other and all the other things that come out during a time like this. most will rise to the occasion and try to help. some will see this as an opportunity and exploit it. i feel sorry for the ones that are going to exploit it. they must have very empty lives. or maybe they are just assholes.
it sort of seems strange to talk about other things going on around the internet but what the hell. here goes:
first, some related stuff. the New Orleans version of Craigslist is being used to help Katrina victims reunite with family and friends. if you know something about someone who is there or want to find out something, it might be a good place to go.
over at yahoo, they have a slide show of Katrina images. some are hard to look at.
apple is preparing some stuff for the devoted mac user (myself included) that should arrive, or at least be announced shortly. among the new items is a major update to the .mac service featuring the new, improved backup 3.0 and exclusive dashboard widgets just for .mac people (try to control yourself).
if they can fix all the problems with isync and get my stuff to sync correctly, i would be really happy. really, that’s all they would have to do. i don’t need new backup software. just make isync work like it used to before you “improved” it.
also, apple is expected to announce the long-rumored iTunes phone the week of september 7th. they have even given out invites to a “special media event” at the moscone center in san francisco to show off whatever they are going to show off. could be interesting. or maybe it could even be a video ipod. after all, they do let you download music videos at the itunes music store. september 7th is right around the corner.
i for one, can’t wait to see what’s next.
People are crazy and other news of the world
this is sad. its a shame what people are willing to do to save some money. i love the mac too but really, get a grip people. and i have to wonder if the Richmond Police slept through the lecture about crowd control at the police academy.
in other more positive news and tidbits from around the web:
the Xbox 360 is about ready for production (i want mine)
want a Dell computer? here’s how to get the best deal on a new piece of Dell technology from a guy who should know.
Intel (my new fav chip maker) is going to deliver dual core chips sooner than expected. now if only Motorola and IBM could have delivered something earlier (or even on time. 3Ghz G5 anyone?).
run Windows on your PSP. wasn’t that supposed to be impossible? much like running IntelOSX on non-Apple hardware was supposed to be. but that didn’t take long either.
an interesting take on the future of gaming on the mac, especially with the pending switch to intel chips. personally, i hope the switch leads to more games for the mac. and really, it should be easier to code now that we are all one big Intel family. maybe we will even get games released on both platforms at the same time? i can dream, can’t I?
and, hurry before this is gone. if you want one of the cool, black Motorola Razr phones for free (after rebate) check this out at Amazon.com. looks like its Cingular only but still, free is pretty cool.
Apple - the final countdown
no, not a mid-eighties rocker ballad. it is, in fact, come to the final countdown for my g5, still in the hands of the glendale apple store. but here’s a miraculous bit of news that i got just yesterday. a nice young man from the store called and told me that due to them having my computer “for so long” and not being able to repair it, they have decided to give me a new one.
yes, you heard it right (or read it, actually). apple is giving me a new computer to replace the one they cannot fix. is this a great country or what? kudos to the entire team at the apple store glendale and especially my new best friend conan. i think this is what could be called outstanding customer service.
granted, i did originally pay over 3 grand for the computer only a year and a half ago and i do have apple care and i did leave the computer there to be fixed almost a month ago and i already replaced it with a new g5 tower at my expense but hey, at least they are finally doing the right thing. i think its very cool. it makes sense. if they can’t fix it, they should just replace it.
i have heard of apple doing this before but not very often. i’m sure this is a last resort type of thing. not something that they want to do. but its nice to know that they will, if they have no other option. and i didn’t even have to ask them to do it. it might also help that my mac consulting company is a preferred consultancy for the store and that i am personal friends with the top managers. so, as they say, your mileage may vary if you try to get them to replace your mac.
regardless of my personal relationships, its just nice that a company will take the steps necessary to satisfy a customer. it gives me hope in these uncertain times of intel chips and sagging ipod shuffle sales. despite all the turmoil, i think things are going to turn out ok. at least in my little apple computer world. its the rest of the world i’m not so sure about.
in other news not necessarily about me (yes, there is some, believe it or not):
apple scraps their shiny new “switch” campaign without firing a shot.
apparently, the rumors of drm preventing you from installing osx for intel on a non-macintosh are not so true after all.
martin sargent, late of the screensavers and unscrewed fame, returns to the web, ready, it seems, to get back to work.
CBGB’s gets to stay put.
and, my favorite news anchor, peter jennings, died recently of lung cancer. he was a class act and loved the daily show. was he cool or what? RIP peter.
Follow the money (or not)
it’s odd to me. one of my jobs is in the technology field doing consulting and such. so, i feel that i have a pretty good idea how things like computers work. at least, i know enough to make them work when they are bad. at least until things get really, really complicated.
Imagine my surprise then when not one, but both, of my primary computers, my g5 tower and my powerbook, decided to take a dump in the same week. i know, i was as amazed as you are. these are apple computers after all. known for their quality and reliability. or so i thought up to this week.
i think something is going wrong with apple computer. no, not that they basically abandoned all of their “64 bit computing is the bomb” hype they have been spinning for the last few years to make us not feel the pinch of the speed gap with pentium chips. no, i’m talking about a simple thing like quality control.
in the good old days, around the time right before the first iMacs and the return of iSteve, apple computers could be counted on to be well-built and last a long time. but, for the last few years, i have seen the number of problems with various apple products increase quite a bit. my own machines have also been affected.
i had one of the first white iBooks and it had to have the motherboard and video assembly replaced. then, i had a bad video card in my G5 tower and it had to be replaced. now, the G5 has a bad power supply and also has some odd freezing issues (when it will turn on at all) and it needs to be fixed again.
and, my powerbook is also starting to show signs of a bad video cable with wavy lines appearing on the screen when the screen is at certain angles. and its not just me. i haven’t done the math but a rough guess would put the number of hardware problems at about 20% at least for my mac-based clients. everything from bad power supplies, melted capacitors, bad motherboards (or mid-planes as the call them sometimes), dead hard drives and a host of other issues that never cropped up with this kind of frequency a few years ago.
i know, as things get more complicated they tend to have a greater chance of something going wrong. and, as apple sells more computers, the number of people reporting problems is also going to rise. i worry about all of this because i see a pattern. the once great company seems to be heading down the road where it must sacrifice one of the things that made it great in order to appease the bottom line.
apple has never been the company for everyone. they are a niche player either by accident or by design. and of course, market factors are also a consideration. i just hope that in the pursuit of dollars and expanding market share that they don’t loose sight of what made the company “insanely great”. they need to remember to “think different”. (i just wanted to see how many slogans i could get in one paragraph).
money is great. we all love money because we can buy shiny things and pay the rent. but in the end, all we really have is who we are and what we do. people and companies alike are defined by it. apple needs to remember where it came from and who it is before it does something really stupid like switch to intel processors or something.
actually, that might turn out to be a good idea. if ibm can’t deliver then they needed to get the boot. i kind of wish that apple had turned to amd instead of intel. you know, one underdog to another. i guess it would be no big thing to make another switch to amd if intel can’t do what iSteve needs it to do.
i can see the future and its a shiny silver box powered by quad pentium 5 processors running osx 11. maybe that’s when the machines will realize that we humans were the problem all along and deal with us accordingly. it could happen. or maybe i saw that in a movie once. either way, it looks to be an interesting next few years in the tech world.
in other news, while in Vegas over the weekend we ran into that kid from “home alone” and the dark haired girl from “that seventies show” at the Mandalay Bay while playing blackjack. you would think that after all those movies and several years on a hit tv show they would have been at a higher limit table. i guess they like their money too. as in, they like it where it is. in their pockets. we could all learn a lesson from that.
This time the rumors are true
Yes, its true. Apple is switching to Intel. I can feel hell freezing over right now. However, I think its a smart move if Intel can provide better, faster, stronger chips than IBM can. Apple needs faster chips and needs them in large quantities and for less money. I think Intel can deliver on this.
Who really cares what is under the hood? It’s still the same great OS and the same great hardware. In other words, its still a Macintosh. Let’s hope this leads to less expensive Macs. That would be cool.
Laying Low and Putting Tiger To the Test
I have been busy for the last week or so. Thanks, in part, to the good folks at Apple Computer putting out a new version of OSX that has, shall we say, a few “issues”. There are many things to like about Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger. Features such as Spotlight, the new iChat AV, new Mail, improved speed and a host of other features make it a great upgrade in most cases. There are some problems and some annoyances that I have been dealing with not only on my own machines, but on machines of people I work with as well.
As always, MacFixit has the scoop on many of the problems as well as some solution that have worked for other users. Macintouch also has a cool matrix of reported software incompatibilities. And, there is, of course, the Apple Tiger Discussion Forums. No matter what, always make a complete backup of anything you care about on your computer before installing a major upgrade like Tiger. Better safe than sorry.
It’s no secret that people are having problems. Take your pic as to where to find a possible solution or work-around for any issues you might be having. There might be one or it might take a little time for one to be available. No matter what third-party software vendors do, i’m sure we’ll be seeing Mac OSX 10.4.1 sooner rather than later.
I'm not a crook (or maybe I am)
I just found out that I’m a crook because I use an iPod and iTunes. At least according to Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates' whipping boy.
I wonder if he might be biased in favor of his own company when it comes to who should be your music vendor of choice? He also thinks that Apple and the Mac are the wrong platform if you want to have a digital home of the future. I really think that Steve has been sipping a little too much of the Microsoft Kool-Aid.
I know, I am not the best person to speak in an Apple versus Microsoft debate. I make no secret of the fact that I think the Mac is a superior platform for most things that most people want to do with their computers. I am writing this here entry on a Macintosh right now.
In my more recent career as a tech guru I am often asked which computer to purchase by one or more eager folks with some money burning a hole in their pockets. Many of them are paying clients and some are just family members or friends looking for some free advice. Either way, my answer usually leans towards the Macintosh.
However, the real answer depends upon what the person or the company is doing and plans on doing with their computer or computers. For the individual, who is doing basic computing such as e-mail, browsing the web, digital pictures, music and that kind of thing, The Mac is a fine product and can do all of those things, and much more, extremely well.
If the person or company want to go farther and more importantly, want to have some sort of collaborative environment with group tasking, calendars, etc. then I would tend to steer them towards the Windows side of the street and go with something like Microsoft Exchange.
I’m sure many of you are gasping for meaning with this revelation and to that I can only say that my job as a tech consultant is to provide the best solution that best fits the needs of the client. As much as I might want it to, the Mac can’t do everything and has some severe shortcomings when it comes to the corporate environment.
Now, I realize that their are probably many ways to put together several applications that will do close to the same job as Exchange but kludging together a solution is not in the client’s best interests and therefore not what I am going to recommend to them.
What does all this mean to the average user? Not too much. For the normal user and small business that doesn’t require complex collaborative software and is looking for basic file, print and web functions, the Mac running OSX would be a fine choice and I have recommended it many times. The Mac is shown in the best light when it is used for creative endeavors such as photos, music, graphic design, video editing and the like.
When it comes to more specific needs, especially for the business customer, Windows can fit the bill and does so quite well. I would actually choose it over linux at this point as well until linux emerges more into the consumer space and out from the “geek” closet.
That said, I still prefer the Mac over Windows, especially at the consumer level, because of its ease of use and reliability as an OS. I have many computers (too many, really, just ask the wife) but I still use a Mac daily to get my work done. It just works.
Oh, I also want to plug the good folks at TiVo for one of the greatest invention of the last ten years. I just picked up a new TiVo series 2. It was very easy to set up and also joined my wireless network with ease. Now I can stream pictures from iPhoto and music from iTunes into the living room and play them over the television. All with the included Home Media Option. That’s cool.
If you don’t have a TiVo, go out and get one. It’s that great. You can trust me, I’m not really a crook.
Later.