Help me, Apple. Please.

Date: October 23, 2007
Time: at 1:23 pm
Posted in: in apple, microsoft, technology
Comments: Comments (0)

Everyone knows that I’m an outspoken Windows user. I’m running Windows Vista on 5 machines in my house (completely stable, mind you), and a server in my house is running Server 2003. My desktop is specced out from a custom build.

That’s why it’s interesting that I’m writing this right now. Over the last few years, I’ve slowly grown an appreciation towards Apple’s OS X. As much as I’m surprised to say it, I have actually (and am currently) debating becoming one of the so-called “switchers” at least in part.

Let me say first of all that I’m still a die-hard Windows user. Windows has been great for me. Vista is a solid upgrade over XP. But whether or not Vista or Windows has been a good experience for me (and it has), Windows is slowly becoming a dying brand. There’s a massive amount of bad PR against Windows, regardless of whether it’s justified bad PR or not (which most of it isn’t). Windows has lost respect … and I’m doubting that unless Windows 7 pulls off a miracle, it will never get it back.

At this point in time, like I said, I’m seriously considering switching most of my daily work to a Mac machine. The issue of not being able to run the same applications is a moot point now. It wasn’t 5 years ago, but it certainly is now. While OS X inherently doesn’t have as many applications availble for it, there’s plenty of alternatives. The rest you can pretty much run flawlessly inside of a Virtual machine such as Parallels or VMWare Fusion.

Previously, as a power user, the main reason holding me back from getting a Mac was the hardware performance. Regardless of whether or not Apple refused to believe it, both Intel and AMD had much more powerful chips than the G3, G4, or G5 at any point in time. The benchmarks were overwhelmingly in favor of the PC.

That, again, is a moot point since the transition to Intel chips. The only difference between a Mac machine and a PC now is the type of BIOS system that Mac uses.

The other thing that was holding me back was the software. As a hobbiest .NET developer, I rely heavily on applications such as Visual Studio 2005 or SQL Server 2005. You can’t run these on a Mac … or can you? Only recently has Parallels and VMWare Fusion fully supported both of these. I can run both of them in a Virtual Windows installation without any problems at all.

At this point there’s only one single thing holding me back from getting a Mac and getting the best of both worlds (Windows and OS X) … the price. As a power user and someone who is wanting to run development and enterprise-level applications such as Visual Studio in multiple instances and SQL Server 2005, an iMac + a Virtual machine just isn’t going to cut it. I’d be required to get a Mac Pro. Even with the education discount (and the discount I get from working for Best Buy), I’d still be forking out $2300 at a minimum. And that’s only with 1GB of RAM and an 250GB HDD. That’s pathetic.

In order for my needs as a power user to be met, I’d need to spend around $3200+ for a Power Mac. Considering I have 3 machines currently sitting on my desk, I honestly can’t justify that cost. And it’s not that I can’t justify it … if I had that kind of money freely avaiable, trust me, I’d buy a Mac Pro in a heartbeat. The fact of the matter is that I can’t. Even as a college student who is 1) living at home for free and 2) receiving a 100% free education thanks to the state of Florida, and 3) making a respectable amount of money working as a Geek Squad agent in Best Buy, I just don’t have that kind of money to spend.

Apple: If you’re reading this, I beg of you. Help me. Help those of us who are in the same position. There has to be SOME way we can do this without having to spend that much money.

Help me, Apple. Please.

An Apple OS X Experience

Date: August 21, 2007
Time: at 2:54 pm
Posted in: in apple, hardware, itunes, microsoft, operating systems, software, technology
Comments: Comments (2)

At this point in time, I’m exclusively a Windows user, with Vista as my primary operating system. Over the last few months, I have actually thought about becoming a “switcher” at least temporarily. I’m considering getting a 20″ iMac so I can experience Apple OS X firsthand, something which I’ve only been able to do at work, or at the Apple store. I really do want to learn more about Apple OS X and become as productive with it as I am in a Windows environment.

That being said, I took a trip to Orlando yesterday to do some shopping. While I was at one of the malls, I decided to take a trip into the Apple store to see the new iMac (which, in my opinion, is actually the first good looking iMac design). I stood in front of a 20″ iMac for about 30 minutes or so. There were a lot of things I enjoyed about the experience, but even more annoyances. Below is the list of what I found particularly annoying just from that 30 minutes.

  1. Maybe I just didn’t find it, but where exactly can I find out how much memory or CPU is being used in real time? That’s annoying.
  2. When I click the close button on a window in OS X, I expect the application to close. Period.
  3. Why, exactly, can I only resize a window by using the handle on the bottom right-hand corner? What if I have the bottom of the window already positioned exactly where I want it?
  4. Please, please, do not allow the desktop to display when Photoshop or Final Cut Pro or any other application like it is open. It confuses me what application is active and I really don’t want to have to look at the Apple bar to tell. OS X really needs to have this changed.
  5. Put a real scroll wheel on a mouse like everyone else. I kept launching Dashboard when trying to left click.
  6. And please allow me to secondary click a Dashboard widget to change its properties.
  7. In iTunes, which I launch a video, why can I only resize the window proportionally? And can we please merge the library and play window into one? Reasons like this are why I stay away from Apple iTunes or Winamp for Windows. Windows Media Player is annoying as heck sometimes, but it’s certainly better than dealing with that
  8. Apple’s Safari is a horrible user experience. Period. I was surprised that it was worse on OS X than it was on Windows.
  9. OS X’s Wireless network switching is annoying. Seriously, if I have 2 wireless devices, what then?
  10. Secondary/right click is a godsend. OS X better start supporting it fully like everyone else.
  11. OS X Mail looks more like a to-do list than an email client. The iPhone’s SMS system is actually pretty nice. Can’t you make Mail look similar (leaving out the conversation dialog balloons)?
  12. This is not so much as an OS X issue, but more of the overall experience. Most of my primary phone calling is done through Skype. It’s utter trash on OS X. Even Chris Pirillo thinks so, and he’s leaning towards switching to a Mac way more than I am.
  13. Mr. Steve Jobs, stop saying iPhoto ‘08 is Web 2.0 compatible. I tried it firsthand, and it is not anywhere close to being this arbitrary “Web 2.0.”
  14. Slot-loading DVD/CD drives are evil. What if I have a miniDVD that I recorded on my camcorder? I don’t care if it doesn’t look “cool,” please go back to a tray.
  15. Apple’s .Mac is a total waste of money and you’re developers time. Either fix it to what it should/could be, or drop it entirely.
  16. And why in the name of the Holy Steve Jobs do I have to pay that much for an Apple brand computer? This is the 21st century!

I’m torn at this point as to whether or not I should get an iMac. Windows Vista has a ton of annoyances, and I really wouldn’t mind switching to another platform such as OS X as there are, at this point, just as many “popular” applications that will run on OS X as Windows, and for the rest I can run Apple Mac Parallels or VMWare Fusion. But OS X has just as many annoyances, if not more, that really need to be fixed before I’ll ever consider switching entirely. Who knows … maybe in the future I will. I’m definitely more tolerant of Macs that I was 3 years ago.

Universal to offer their entire catalog for free download

Date: August 29, 2006
Time: at 2:54 pm
Posted in: in apple, microsoft, music
Comments: Comments (0)

That title is not false hope. It means exactly what it says. Vivendi Universal Music Group will be releasing their entire music catalog online for free download. (source)

Vivendi Universal, the world’s biggest music group, has signed a deal to make its music catalogue available on a free legal downloads service.

Under the agreement, Spiralfrog will offer Universal’s songs online in the US and Canada.

New York-based Spiralfrog will launch its service in December and make its money by carrying adverts on the site.

Needless to say, this is absolutly incredible news. I, and many many others, have long been saying that free music helps the industry in the long run. People who download music are more inclined to buy more of the artist’s albums, go to shows, support them through other merchandise, etc. I remember reading a statistic that was published awhile back that right after the RIAA started cracking down on p2p music sharing, record sales dropped 7%, 15% the next year.

Free music helps the industry. It always has. It most likely always will Period. I don’t care what the RIAA says.