Allen's Interests

iPad Fanatic

Paul Zanetti, Australia

The 'iPad Era' dawns

How a 'perfect storm' will make iPad the biggest cultural phenomenon since The Beatles

Computerworld By Mike Elgan, March 27, 2010

Computerworld - April 3 is the big day, when everything changes. Are you ready?

I think the iPad is the most important launch in Apple's history -- bigger than Mac, iPod or iPhone. More important, I think it's the most important cultural phenomenon of this generation. It's bigger than technology.

I'm no fanboy. I've tried to envision some conceivable series of events that might leave the iPad as only moderately successful, but I can't come up with any. All circumstances, facts and events in technology, media and elsewhere seem to point to the same inexorable outcome: The iPad will be huge.

Pundits, bloggers and gadget enthusiasts are talking about the iPad like it's just another device, on a par with other devices. My view is that the iPad is utterly unique.

I and the others part company because they're looking at the device, for the most part, and I'm looking at the markets. That's markets with an s. There are many of them.

The success of a consumer electronics product depends not on how powerful, functional or fully equipped something is, but entirely on the answer to a simple question: How many people will buy it? And how many individuals buy something depends on how many types of people buy it.

Normally, when we tech journalists or others consider a product, we have one type of person in mind: people like ourselves. When a new gadget comes out, pundits say "I want this, and therefore it's going to be successful." That's just faulty reasoning.

When you look at the massively popular tech products, only those with the broadest possible appeal, spanning the greatest number of groups or types of people, truly succeed. Examples include Google, Facebook and cell phones.

I'm predicting that old people, toddlers, baby boomers, teenagers, twenty-somethings -- OK, all age groups will use the iPad in significant numbers. It will be the first consumer electronics product in recent decades to match the age demographic of the TV.

Everyone from engineers to neo-luddites will buy iPads. It will be the first device in recent years to match the technical-enthusiasm range of the cell phone market.

Gamers, readers, TV watchers, movie enthusiasts will get one.

Schools, churches, libraries, small businesses, restaurants, nightclubs, malls and other organizations will put them to use.

Pilots, teachers, public speakers, artists, contractors, writers, and other professionals will enhance their careers with iPads. The Pentagon will go nuts for this thing.

The combination of touch, rich media, third-party applications and familiar (iPhone-like) user interface make it ideal for people who would never dream of buying most other categories of consumer electronics.

In addition to thrilling existing types of users, I think iPad will convert people. For example, I believe many people who have never embraced gaming will be converted into gamers by the iPad, much like the Wii did but on a much larger scale.

iPad just wants to have fun
A blog called PadGadget did some digging in the iTunes "Preview" database, which shows apps not shipping yet but coming soon. Many of these were clearly iPad applications, because they used designators like "HD" or "XL" to distinguish them from iPhone versions. Most of them were games. Here's a partial list:

• Ammoin HD
• Azkend HD
• Flight Control HD
• Grind HD
• HD Recovery
• Labyrinth 2 HD
• NBA Hotshot HD
• Numba HD
• Plants vs. Zombie HD
• Sparkle HD
• Worms HD

(Since the blog was posted, the titles have all been removed.)

Big deal. There will be games on the iPad. We already knew that. What matters is that iPad is an incredibly appealing casual gaming platform -- a kind of portable, Internet connected Wii that comes free with your tablet.

Some of the biggest runaway hits are likely to be connected games. Chess games played by people on other sides of the ocean. Multiplayer first-person shooters are going to be enormous.

And I think iPad will be the first gaming platform where traditional board games will become a major category -- games like Monopoly, Scrabble and Battleship. I also expect it to mainstream Vegas type games like Texas Holdem, Roulette, slot machines and so on.

That's important because gaming is one area where iPad sales will enjoy something called "network effect," which is when the value of a networked system increases as more people join the network. The more people play connected games on iPad, the more valuable it is to users. The more valuable it is to users, the more game developers will create games for it. The more games there are, the more users. This cycle continues until iPad has millions of dedicated games fans and more games than any other platform.

Remember when Windows clobbered Mac in part because all the games were on Windows? The reverse will be true on touch tablets. All the games will be on iPad. Toss in remote, connected play and -- forget about it. The iPad will be the Mother of All Gaming Platforms.

iPad goes to work
In addition to converting users, I believe it will transform professions.

Education, for example, appears ready to aggressively embrace the iPad. (Any sort of school buying iPads in bulk, in "packs" of 10, will get a $20-per-device discount.)

The iPad is ideal for education because it will be easy to develop for, cheap to buy, easy to carry and store (no cables, peripherals and so on) and will come with seemingly infinite content and media.

As with games, the network effect phenomenon will affect education. It won't take long for apps to emerge that pull together courseware with downloadable instruction and live lectures, events and so on. It will become a medium by which far-flung schools help each other. But you can't get in on all this collaboration unless you're using the iPad. So schools will. Students will. Teachers will. iPad will be very big in education.

Pilots -- both profession and private -- have been clamoring for something like this for decades. The pilot supply industry will go crazy with the iPad, creating what are now called "electronic flight bags," as well as charting and navigation products.

The military is already embracing the iPhone. The iPad is even better because of its size and superior firepower.

Many other professions, from real estate to medicine will jump into iPad app development, and create new markets.

The media is the iPad's 'killer app'
In the realm of books, magazines, newspapers, TV, movies and other media, iPad is poised to take over. In addition to offering its own conduits for all this -- the new Bookstore and the existing iTunes stores for music, movies and TV -- the iPad will co-opt existing channels.

For example, for people reading classic books via Google Books, the iPad will become the best place to do that. They'll be able to read all Project Gutenberg tiles -- 30,000 free classics -- and all Amazon Kindle books. Because the iPad will be the best place to read not just one channel of books but all channels, readers will gravitate toward the iPad. This big reading audience will attract book publishers and eBook related app developers (already huge on the iPhone).

The iPad is obviously perfect for viewing video, including TV shows, movies and YouTube-like videos. Of course, the iPad can't play Adobe Flash-based videos. But I believe Apple will win this battle. If video producers of all kinds want to stream to where the eyeballs are, they're going to have to offer non-Flash alternatives -- and they will.

Will the iPad succeed? Oh, yeah. As Joe Biden would say, this is a big f***ing deal.

But more important than that, I believe the iPad will become such a cultural phenomenon that it will become a symbol or an icon of the coming decade. Future generations might refer to the two-thousand and teens as the "iPad Era."

I know I'm going to catch a lot of flak for this column. I'll be accused of being an Apple fanboy and worse. I will be told that netbooks are better, or Windows- or Linux-based tablets will do better. I'll be told that iPad will just be a niche product of little significance.

My answer: Wanna bet? If so, get an iPad. It's going to take over online gaming, too.

Mike Elgan writes about technology and global tech culture. Contact Mike at mike.elgan@elgan.com, follow him on Twitter or his blog, The Raw Feed.

Loan Application

 joyoftech.com

21st Century Library

Manny Francisco, Manila, The Phillippines 

PC vs. Mac: The Straight Scoop

A couple of months ago, I discussed how I had used Windows-based computers for many years, and how I plan to continue to use a PC for my tax-preparation business for the foreseeable future. I also told about how impressed I am with Apple products and now also have a Mac on my desk. (You can read my prior post here.)

It can be difficult to find an unbiased article comparing PC's and Macs. I believe the following article by Harry McCracken does a good job of comparing the two systems fairly. 

PC vs. Mac: The Straight Scoop

By Harry McCracken, 2/23/2010, - FOXNews.com

Beyond the ads, the hype, and the nerdy debate, both Windows and Mac machines have their pros and cons. Here's a level-headed guide to choosing which one is right for you.

Apple's iconic series of ads pits Justin Long (right) as a Macintosh computer against John Hodgman (left), a PC. For consumers, the choice is more complex than in the ads, however.

Want to start a fight between computer geeks? Bring up one simple question: PC or Mac? 

Windows advocates will start accusing Mac users of being members of a fancy-pants cult. Mac fans will maintain that Windows users are the undiscerning owners of hunks of generic junk. It's a pretty undignified squabble, and both Microsoft and Apple egg it on via contentious TV ads.

Me, I'm cheerfully agnostic: I recommend both Windows PCs and Macs all the time, and use them both, too. The last computer I purchased was a thin-and-light Asus laptop running Windows 7; the one before that was a 15-inch MacBook Pro. When it comes time to buy a new machine, I'll consider both options. And if your budget permits, I recommend you do the same.

The PC-or-Mac debate has been raging for more than a quarter-century, but making sense of it requires considering the situation as it stands at one moment in time. Here's my take on things as of early 2010.

Cost. Venture into the computer department of a store like Best Buy, and you'll find scads of computers priced well under $1,000 and a handful for a grand or more. The former are almost all Windows machines, and many are respectable choices. The latter, however, are nearly all from Apple -- hence the common perception that Macs are way overpriced.

Every time I do the math, though, I come to the conclusion that the cost of Macs isn't out of whack with that of similar Windows machines. Apple isn't selling $750 notebooks for $1,500 -- its portables tend to use higher-end processors, mostly have aluminum cases rather than plastic ones, are typically thinner and lighter than garden-variety laptops and run longer on a battery charge than many of their Windows brethren. The Microsoft-powered laptops most directly comparable to Apple's MacBook Pro line, HP's Envy models, actually cost more than roughly equivalent Macs.

Another point to consider: All Macs come with Apple's excellent iLife suite, which provides tools for editing, organizing, and sharing photos, video, music, and more.  Bargain-basement PCs come with much more basic software at best.

Bottom line: You certainly don't need to splurge on a system in the Mac's price range to be a happy computer user. But with computers, as with most things in life, you generally get what you pay for.

Selection. The best thing by far about Windows PCs is the sheer unending variety of choices. They come in every size from teeny-tiny to extra-large. There are boxes with touchscreens, Blu-Ray players for high-definition movies, and TV tuners that let you watch and record cable and satellite TV. You can buy a PC that's pink, or transparent, or designed to be as close to indestructible as possible.

Apple, meanwhile, makes Macs in nine basic variants: the basic MacBook laptop, the MacBook Pro laptop in 13", 15", and 17" models, the MacBook Air ultraportable, the Mac Mini microdesktop, the iMac all-in-one desktop in 21.5" and 27" models, and the Mac Pro power desktop. And the company doesn't do Blu-Ray, TV tuners, touchscreens, and other features that are commonplace in the Windows world. In short, getting a Mac requires that you buy into one company's take on what's important. 

Operating systems. From early 2007 until late 2009, Microsoft's operating system was Windows Vista. It was short on fixes for long-standing Windows annoyances, and often sluggish and crashy even when pre-installed on new PCs. It was a powerful argument in favor of buying a Mac -- especially since OS X, Apple's operating system, was (and is) a slick piece of software that stays out of your face rather than complicating your life.

In October of last year, however, Microsoft shipped Windows 7, the solid upgrade to Windows XP that Vista never was. OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard remains more consistent, and less quirky, and some PC makers muck up Windows 7 by larding it up with demoware, adware, and other irritating extras. But the gap between Apple and Microsoft's offerings is as small as it's ever been. If you're a basically content Windows XP user, you've got less reason than before to contemplate switching to a Mac when you buy a new system.

Security. The vast majority of the world's hackers spend the vast majority of their time making trouble for the vast majority of computer users. That's why almost all known viruses, trojan horses, and other malicious applications attack only Windows PCs. Including really dangerous ones that can steal your credit-card and banking information. Recent releases of Windows security suites such as Norton Internet Security are pleasanter to use than their predecessors, but they're still not exactly entertaining.

Buying a Mac doesn't let you simply opt out of worrying about computer safety, however. For one thing, Mac owners are equally vulnerable to the growing number of threats that target social networks and other online venues, not Windows-based computers. Still, a Mac owner who runs no security software is vastly less likely to be the victim of a successful attack than a Windows user who's protected up to his eyeballs.

Service. The best time to think about whether a computer company builds reliable machines and backs them well is before you plunk down any money, not after something goes wrong. No manufacturer ships defect-free systems or makes every customer happy: At the moment, for instance, Apple is dealing with widespread complaints about faulty iMac screens.

Even so, the company has a more consistent reliability and service record than any of its Windows-centric rivals, as shown by surveys conducted by both PC World and PCMag.com. Check out these studies for invaluable real-world data before you buy from any major company.

The best thing of all about the PC-or-Mac decision? Despite what impassioned partisans may contend, it's not a big, existential question. Whether you buy a Windows system or a Mac, you'll find that the Web is the Web, that good software (much of it free) is plentiful, and that printers, cameras and nearly all other hardware work fine. Hey, they're just computers, folks -- and the only thing that really matters is choosing one that fits your needs, taste and budget.

Harry McCracken blogs at Technologizer, his site about personal technology. He's also the former editor in chief of PC World. Follow him on Twitter as @harrymccracken.

 

Cool Guy!

Cagle Cartoons 

What the Apple iPad Means for Photographers

As a big fan of Apple products, and recently getting back into amateur photography, I found this article by Michael Reichmann at The Luminous Landscape to be especially interesting.

For All of Us
Apple has always been a trend setter. The Apple II wasn't the first home computer, but it defined what one was. With the Mac Apple didn't invent the GUI interface and the mouse, but it made them practical. Apple didn't develop Unix, but it made it an everyman operating system with OS-X. The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, only the best. And with the iPhone Apple showed the world what a smartphone could and should be like. Of course with the iTunes Store Apple has reinvented music retailing.

Now we have the iPad. Day one isn't the time for conclusions – only speculation. But, I wouldn't be at all surprised if with the iPad Apple once again offers up an industry game-changer, in this case doing for the book, newspaper, and magazine industry what they did to music with the iPod and iTunes.

But there are lots of pundits out there commenting and prognosticating on this, and so I'll leave the broader topic of how the iPad is going to change the course of civilization to others. We'll be inundated with opinions and forecasts in the days and weeks ahead. Instead, I'd like to focus on what the implications of the iPad are for photographers, both amateurs and pros.

As a Photographer's Tool
From the perspective of photographers what we have in the iPad is a 1.5 lb, 1/2 inch thick, 9.7 inch high-resolution screen with 10 hours of battery life and up to 64GB of storage. So the question becomes – what can we do with it? Of course it can be used as an in-the-field or studio image backup and review device. The questions are – how to we get images into it, and when we have, other than storing them, what can we do with them?

We don't have a lot of technical details at this point, but what is clear is that the in and out are wireless (WiFi and Bluetooth) , via the proprietary 30 pin docking connector, USB using a standard iPhone / iPod type connector, and an accessory SD card reader.

A device like the Eye-Fi SD card will allow wireless transfer of files directly in the field from ones camera to the iPad. There will undoubtedly be interface devices from third parties, maybe even camera makers themselves, that will allow direct connection of cameras to the iPad, via USB or the docking connector, as well as various devices using other transfer protocols. I would imagine that even direct tethering is possible given an appropriate interface adaptor, though USB is a bit slow for cameras that produce large files, as we've recently seen with the Leica S2.

The real issue is software. The iPad runs a variation of the iPhone's operating system. And, though it's based on OS-X, it isn't OS-X, and therefore standard image processing applications such as Aperture, Lightroom, Capture One and Photoshop won't run on it. This means that it will be up to companies like Apple, Adobe, Phase One and others to create image processing apps for the iPad. (Maybe Photoshop Mobile for the iPhone and iPod Touch is a harbinger of things to come from Adobe).

We know at this point that the iPad with its 1GHz processor is fast enough for animated games, and to support the programs in the new iPad version of IWorks, and with up to 64GB of storage it isn't hard to imagine the ability to do basic image import and processing with the iPad.

While the 9.7" iPad has a pretty good screen for image review, of course it can also be connected via its docking connector to a video projector for slide shows and presentations using Keynote in iWorks, or whatever other image display software becomes available.

The first impression is that as a tool for photographers the iPad has great potential, but it isn't necessarily a game changer. Where it may well be a transformative device is on the effect that it will have on the publishing industry, in particular newspapers, magazines, and books, and therefore on the photographers that create these images as part of their livelihood.

Actually, it'll also be a pretty cool device for showing ones portfolio to prospective clients and others.

For Professionals
The most interesting aspect of the iPad for professional photographers is what the implications may be for the profession. If the pundits and prognosticators are right (not to mention major newspapers and magazine publishers), in a couple of years millions of us will be using the iPad and similar devices to read much of what today we read on paper.

This being the case, with screen-based magazines, in many cases rather than photographs in an article being stills, they will be stills that at the touch of a finger may become a motion sequence. A shot of the winning touchdown in a Sports Illustrated story on the Superbowl becomes a video clip of the action. A photograph of a child being rescued from the rubble in Haiti becomes a short vignette on efforts to save the rescued child's life, and comments by the medical staff on their travails.

We already see this trend on sites like ours, where traditional product reporting and tutorials are sometimes accompanied by video segments. These enhances the written word and stills, illustrating aspects which words alone sometimes can't capture. We see a variation on this theme on current newspaper web sites that features video segments along with reproductions of text stories that appear in the printed edition. It's called convergence.

Reporters and photographers that shoot for newspapers have for several years now been shooting with small cameras that are video capable so as to be able to feed the online version of the paper. Image quality is on the low side, so one of the most popular cameras among newspapers for this application, the rugged little Canon G series, has been adequate for the task. But when glossy magazines like Sports Illustrated and National Geographic move to the iPad environment, they will want high quality video along with their high quality stills.

This leads to closing the circle when it comes to Combocams. DSLRs that shoot high quality video have till now seemed a bit like an actor searching for his part. Cool, but – who needs it?

Sure, there are lots of Indy film makers who are all over Combocams like a cheap suit, but since shooting and especially editing video properly is a new and none-too-easy craft a lot of pros have ignored the video side of their DSLRs as almost redundant. Well, not anymore.

With the iPad magazines of all ilks will be crying for video segments, and photographers that don't understand this needs, and who can't meet it, will be made redundant. This is already happening in the advertising side of the industry where the more successful photographers have been offering to produce not just the print side but also the TV advertising component on the same shoot. Many that have are thriving. Those that haven't are having a tougher time in an already difficult economy than they otherwise might.

As sometimes happens in the world of technology, 'till now the tail seems to be wagging the dog. That's been the case with Combocams. But with the iPad and how it will likely change the world of magazine publishing, the dog will be taking full control of what gets wagged, and how.

Which brings us to the whole issue of the merging of stills and video in a single device. Thus far what we have seen from Canon and Nikon especially, are still cameras that can shoot video. Image quality is one thing though usability is another. Both companies have failed miserably in terms of providing appropriate user interfaces, and handling, and viewing. Nikon has the excuse that they have never made a video camera. Canon has no such excuse.

But those days are numbered, because if companies don't start thinking and building new cameras creatively, and quickly, others will eat their lunch. I'm thinking of Panasonic, and RED in particular.

Panasonic, with their GH1, has shown that they get it. Maybe not as much as they might, but by providing a dedicated motion button, a high quality electronic viewfinder, and silent autofocus lenses, they at least demonstrate that someone in the company has actually taken their products out for a spin in the real world. (One only needs to look at the cottage industry has has grown up around the Canon 5D MKII to appreciate how much help this camera needs to become usable in a professional shooting environment.)

You can read the rest of this article and much more at The Luminous Landscape.






 

How 'bout them Apples

That's me!

Thanks to CagleCartoons! 

Is the Time Right to Buy an E-Reader?

I have been watching the progress of electronic book readers  for the past couple of years. When Amazon's Kindle first appeared in 2007, I was very tempted. However, I decided to take a "wait-and-see" attitude. Now, after a couple of years, and several new reader devices have hit the market, I am seriously considering the purchase of one.

The Amazon Kindle faced its most formidable rival to date as of early December, when bookstore behemoth Barnes & Noble began shipping its e-reader, the Nook.

 That is why I found this article By Harry McCracken of  - FOXNews.com timely and extremely interesting.

Is the Time Right to Buy an E-Reader?

By Harry McCracken - FOXNews.com

The book industry's digital evolution is well underway. But 2010 promises to be even more exciting than 2009. Here's why you should hold off buying these hot gadgets. 

Bleeding-edge curiosity. Geek status symbol. Mainstream crowd pleaser. From digital cameras to MP3 players, that's the path every major new category of gadget has followed. And the e-book reader is headed down the same road. 

Many tech experts consider this holiday season the year of the e-book reader. But should book lovers splurge on one just yet? 

When online mega-merchant Amazon.com unveiled the Kindle in November 2007, it defined the modern e-reader. That original e-book reader sold for $399 and had a 6-inch monochromatic screen so power-efficient that battery life was measured in days, not hours. Despite being svelter than the typical hardcover, the Kindle packed enough memory to store hundreds of digital tomes. And it had built-in wireless networking that made buying books irresistibly fast, easy, and affordable — at just $9.99 a pop for most bestsellers.

The newest Kindle's appeal is much the same as its predecessor, but it's sleeker and sports a zippier display, plus its wireless connection works outside the U.S. Multiple price cuts have brought the cost down to a relatively tempting $259. (Amazon also offers the Kindle DX, a $489 version with a jumbo 9.7-inch screen.)

For two years, the Kindle didn't face much competition. But this year's different. For one thing, Sony, which released its first digital book reader back in the BK (Before Kindle) era, now offers a full line of Readers: The $199 Pocket Edition, the $299 Touch Edition, and the company's first wireless model, the $399 Daily Edition. But the Kindle's most formidable rival to date arrived in early December, when bookstore behemoth Barnes & Noble began shipping its e-reader, the Nook.

The Nook both mimics the Kindle concept — right down to the $259 price tag — and improves on it. Books are displayed on the same 6-inch screen, but the Nook adds a flashy color touchscreen for input instead of the Kindle's odd, plasticky keyboard. And it uses the same cell-phone network, but the Nook compliments it with faster Wi-Fi networking; starting next year, you'll be able to use that Wi-Fi connection within Barnes & Noble stores to browse books in their entirety, not just sample chapters. 

The Nook lets you read books in the "ePub" format, a widely used standard for digital books that Amazon's Kindle doesn't support. It also includes LendMe, a feature that lets you loan an e-book to a friend with a Nook, or anyone who uses B&N's reader software for Windows, Macs, and iPhones.

In its initial incarnation, though, this e-reader is distinctly rough around the edges. When you "flip" its e-pages, the display updates more sluggishly than the Kindle or Sony Reader, and you need to wait while books are formatted, a step which competitors somehow skip. Plus the touchscreen interface sometimes requires more taps on your part than seem necessary. Besides, LendMe, while useful, is limited: You can loan out each book only once, for a fixed two-week period.

Barnes & Noble tells me that it's planning to polish up the Nook experience via a series of software updates, the first of which is being wirelessly delivered to its e-readers this week. But I'd hold off buying one until the updated version is delivered — which is why I don't think it's a tragedy that the device is seriously backordered (orders placed today won't ship until early February).

There are other reasons to pause before plunking down money for any current e-reader. The book business remains skittish about its digital transition, so selection is still spotty for both new titles and older ones. Most bestsellers are available, but not all, and publishers have begun delaying e-versions to protect hardcover sales. That's why memoirs from both Sarah Palin and Ted Kennedy  were postponed until Christmas day.

Will the industry come around and embrace electronic distribution? Of course, just as almost everyone in music has with the notable exceptions of the Beatles, Garth Brooks, Kid Rock, and AC/DC. But it's going to take awhile until you can just assume that any book you want to buy is available in e-form.

Postpone your e-reader purchase, and you'll also have more hardware to choose from. A startup called Plastic Logic plans to release details at January's Consumer Electronics Show about its big-screen Que, which will be sold at Barnes & Noble stores. Also coming soon is the EnTourage eDGe, a unique two-screen gadget that claims to be part e-reader, part netbook mini-laptop. And with Amazon's last major overhaul of the Kindle almost ten months old, there's a strong chance a next-generation model isn't far off.

Then there's the hottest product of 2010, which remains a persistent rumor rather than a confirmed reality: The Apple tablet. Just about everybody in the business of watching Steve Jobs' company thinks he'll release a device that resembles a giant iPod Touch — a slick gizmo with a color touchscreen that does music, movies, the Web, apps ... and e-books, one assumes. An Apple tablet wouldn't match the marathon battery life of today's dedicated readers, but it would be infinitely more versatile.

Even if the Apple tablet turns out to be a myth (or at least a late arrival) other tablets will start showing up early next year. In short, even if you're a voracious reader, there's no shame in skipping the 2009 crop of digital book readers. Bide your time a bit longer, and e-reading will only get more alluring — and it won't take long.

Harry McCracken blogs at Technologizer, his site about personal technology. He's also the former editor-in-chief of PC World.

McCracken has me convinced. I will wait to see what the year 2010 brings us in the way of E-Readers. Because of my favorable experiences with my iMac and iPhone, I will seriously consider Apple's device. However, I haven't ruled out the Kindle or another reader. 2010 should be an interesting year!

Everything Just Works on the Mac!

 
 For years I have been growing increasingly frustrated with Windows computers. (I discussed my history with computers back to the year 1980 in this post.) 

Wanting to stay in touch with my email and keep my calendar and contact information available while I'm away from my desk, I have used many various wireless Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) including Windows Mobile,  Blackberries, Palm, and other smart phones. Over the years I have used the programs, Outlook and Act! on my desktop as contact and datebook managers and attempted to synchronize the databases from those programs with whichever PDA I was using at the time. Although the devices and the software improved over the years, a single combination never really satisfied all of my needs.

Beside contacts and calendar items, there was other information that I wanted to have available on my PDA. For years, I have kept databases of business as well as other personal information that I would like to access not only at my desktop but at times I was away from my office. I found that a Blackberry was best for mobile email, but for other applications (apps,) Palm or Windows Mobile had better solutions. 

When the first iPhone appeared in June, 2007, I was extremely interested. I made several trips to AT&T stores, and spent several hours playing with the first generation iPhone. I performed a great deal of research on Apple's first combination of phone, PDA, and media device. I decided to wait.

Then, in 2008, a new and improved iPhone was released. Again, I did a lot of research, but decided to wait. Finally, in June, 2009, Apple announced its third iPhone, the 3G[S.]  I was one of the first to order one!

To make a short not-too-long story shorter, I loved it! However, synchronizing the iPhone with my Windows applications while better than my previous experiences, wasn't perfect. The more research I did, the more I was convinced that an Apple desktop computer (Mac) would be the perfect place to maintain all of my data, media, contacts, datebook, and other information. I had already been using Apple's iTunes application on my PC. It would be a simple matter to move my music over to the Mac. With an optical data cable, I could now get the benefit of music in 5.1 sound from my Logitech Z-5500 speaker system.

 So, I bought a Mac.

To replace Act! my contact-relationship management software on the PC, I bought Daylite for the Mac. I installed their iPhone App, Daylite Touch on my iPhone. What a wonderful combination! After all the years and frustrations of trying to get Act! to synch well with my Blackberries, Palms, Windows Mobile, etc, the Daylite solution was far better on so many levels.

For my various databases, I tried Bento and installed the Bento iPhone application. I imported my various databases into Bento and synched the Bento Mac and iPhone databases.  Success! That combination works far better than any of my previous PC to PDA systems. 

As well as working better, I have found that Mac software tends to be less expensive than Windows programs. Also, most if not all Mac programs have Free-Trial Versions available. Even after reading many reviews, nothing beats trying out a program for yourself before you pay for it.

 

Other Mac software that I find extremely useful are Shovebox, Acorn, and Things. Of course, it should go without saying that the Mac/iPhone combination truly excels for media applications such as music, photos, videos, and podcasts.

I still have a PC as well as the Mac at my desk. As a tax preparer, I will have to continue using a PC for professional tax preparation. I still have my personal and business accounting applications on the PC. Several other programs remain on the PC such as postage-printing with Stamps.com and my genealogy program. However, over the next couple of years, I will gradually migrate all except the tax preparation software to the Mac. I plan to use MoneyDance for my personal accounting. I haven't decided yet which business accounting software to use for my business. I am currently using Quickbooks, but will probably use MoneyWorks or MYOB on the Mac.

If anyone would like to discuss the move from Windows to Mac, please be sure to let me know. I will be happy to share the results of my research and talk about my experiences. In my opinion, the time, expense, and trouble of moving to a Mac is well worth it.

One of my PC-user friends recently asked me what I liked better about the Mac. My short answer was "everything just works on the Mac." Everything works well! A Mac doesn't require the higher maintenance time and costs of a PC! And, a Mac is fun to use!

Allen W. Forrest, December 19, 2009