My First Mac Convert!

Today was pretty exciting. My Aunt stopped by and said that she wanted to get a new laptop. Her 7+ year old HP portable with Windows ME (yuck!) is finally almost dead. Being the computer guru of the family she wanted my opinion. Of course, the new Mac fanatic in me reccomended that she check out the MacBook and MacBook Pro computers. She said that she had read some reviews that said that Apple produces some phenominal laptops. So she was a bit interested in Macs to begin with.

Since she had never really used a Mac I let her take my MacBook Pro for a spin. I showed her iTunes, iPhoto, Photo Booth, the Dashboard, and a few other things. She was pretty impressed at how easily I manuvered between the programs and commented on how easy everything seemed. I assured her that everything on a Mac is super simple and she'd be using it like a pro in no time.

Like most computer users she mostly surfs the internet, checks her email, writes documents with Office, and uses QuickBooks. I told her that she could easily do all that and more with a Mac. She had heard that you could use Windows programs on a Mac and wanted to know a bit about it. I filled her in on Parallels and BootCamp. I told her that I had installed Parallels thinking that I would use it all the time. But, it turns out that I only used Parallels when I first installed it to check it out. I've since had no reason to use it. I doubt she'll need it either, but said I'd install it for her if she thought it would make her feel better about the switch.

At the end of the conversation she was ready to buy a MacBook Black edition! She's my first Mac convert since becoming a switcher myself. Not only does it excite me that I'm helping spread the word about the best OS on the planet, but I'm confidant that she'll be 100% satisfied with her switch. Since she's never really used a Mac I'm sure she'll have a bit of learning to do, which I'm more than happy to help her with. Maybe I can get her to write a short series of articles about her switch for the site : )

Marware Laptop Case/Sleeve Ordered... woot!

I ordered a neoprene sleeve for my MacBook Pro today. I had to treat myself to a Valentines Day present :) I ended up not going with any of my original choices. After doing a bunch more research and reading some hands on reviews, I chose to go with the Marware Sportfolio.

The Sportfolio boasts a neoprene design, zipper guards, and a snug fit! Everything I was looking for. Additionally, the sleeve has a pocket for an iPod/mp3 player or a digital camera. The pictures on Marware's website show the Sportfolio with very nice blue accents that seem to compliment the black design nicely. I hope that the blue will match my RadTech ScreenSavrz.

I think I've made the correct choice and can't wait to get my hands on this sleeve. If its as cool as I've read it is I think I'm going to love it. Now I just need to mod (aka sew... yuck!) my backpack and put one of those laptop separators in it. I'd consider buying a specifically designed laptop backpack, but I love my Oakley pack to much to retire it (I have the original before they added the laptop compartment). Maybe I'll just give Grandma a call :)

So there I was... 3am and 7 FireFox Tabs...

This should be interesting. Last night, while I was surfing around trying to figure out what to write about I fell asleep on the couch and didn't wake up till 3am. Since I don't have a well thought out post, I'm going to write about the open FireFox tabs that I had open when I woke up!

I just love all these parody Mac ads... If you haven't seen the next one, you're in for a good laugh...

This iPhone ad is well done in my opinion. It uses a background color close to that of the iPod ads. And the art is definitely done with Apple in mind. It looks like it could have come strait out of the art department in Cupertino.

Thats the extent of my Mac ad surfing. On to the meat and potatoes.

If you're the do it yourself kind, give this a shot. An iPod charger for your bicycle, made from a hand crank charger. This is a great idea. I didn't take the time to look, but if there isn't already a commercial product similar to this, there should be. Mac users are usually pretty savvy and often hip to energy conservation.

Take your iSight camera and turn yourself into Quasimoto! Then show the world on The Mac Metamorphosis Meme. This page is dedicated to making a fool out of yourself :) I plan on getting a pic up there as soon as I take a shower, lol.

Need to know if its time to upgrade your Mac? Mactactic helps you decide. It tracks updates to the Mac line and tries to predict if a hardware update is right around the corner. I had another site similar to this, but better bookmarked at one time, but I lost the link :(

The last page I had open was the latest Applgeeks 3.0 comic.

There you go. Its my mash up of what I was reading last night before I fell asleep, lol. Enjoy your day and try not to drool on your trackpad like I did.

iEatBrainz

As you know I've been living in ID3 tag hell. You know those mp3's that you got from a friend that don't have an informative file name and the tags are completely empty? Picking through those songs one by one trying to figure the song name or artist out takes a rediculous amount of time. Of course you don't want to get rid of the songs, but you don't want to slowly figure each song out either.

Well, there is a solution!

Have you ever heard of acoustic matching? Basically all music files have an audio fingerprint. This fingerprint can then be used to identify your songs. BrainzMusic maintains a database of a huge amount of audio files. Included in this database along with the fingerprints are ID3 tags. So those unruly mp3's without tags are no longer a problem. The database won't work on 100% of your music files, but it is fairly robust and will be able to tackle most of what you throw at it.

The Mac client, iEatBrains, integrates with iTunes which is awesome. Simply load up iTunes and iEatBrains, then select the songs in question within iEatBrains. The search takes a second or two for each song. When the searching is complete you can choose from potential matches and update your iTunes library.

This is definitely a nifty tool if you're music tags are in shambles! Best of all... its FREE :)

Surge This

My electricity has been going nuts lately. Probably once every day or two I notice at least the lights dimming if not the power going out completely. This has reminded me how glad I am that I bought a slick little surge protector with my MBP. The Tripp-Lite Traveler 100Bt is about half the size of the MBP AC adapter, which is the perfect size to bring with you on the road! You always want to protect your investment from surges, but big bulky surge protectors just aren't practical to take on the road. This little guy solves that and is exactly what travelers need. The 100Bt boasts 1050 Joules surge protection, a retractable plug, two outlets to plug into, and a telephone/ethernet jack.

I really like the retractable plug. It not only decreases size, but prevents the plug from scratching anything. The button that slides the plug in and out feels a little weak though :( I read a few reviews online where peoples buttons broke off, but I have yet to experience that. I'd recommend everyone to use a surge protector any time you plug in your ac adapter. If toting around a full sized surge protector isn't possible then give the 100Bt a shot. You won't regret the $12.95 it'll run you. A big bonus is that if anything gets fried while using the 100Bt, Tripp-Lite will replace equipment up to $50,000!

ID3 Tag Hell

Sorry I haven't had anything enlightful to write lately, but I've been living in id3 tag hell :( Not taking the time to edit the data in in the songs when I ripped them proving to be a big pain in the butt. And the tags that are there are a mish mashed mess. Luckly its easy to edit id3 tags in iTunes. Taking the time to edit all the tags is a good thing. All my music will be well organized, with proper meta data, and have album art! Its pretty exciting to know that my mp3's will be in order for the first time.

I've been manually downloading my album art from Amazon. I found a script called FetchArt that automatically finds and downloads the art for you. Unfortunately, it isn't compatible with Intel Macs :( I've been told that iTunes will download album art for you through the iTunes store, but I don't have an iTunes store account yet.

I may be the only person on the face of the planet that doesn't have an iPod. My trusty iRiver iHP-140 has been kicking along like a champ for years. When it dies I'll probably replace it with a video iPod, but for now it does the job. The biggest bummer about my iHP-140 is that I can't sync it with my iTunes library. I did find an open source solution, iRiverSync 2.0. The original site is down but it can be download here. I have yet to try it yet since I'm still moving my data off my mp3 player still, but as soon as I'm finished its going to be the first thing I'm going to try. I don't know if it will work though, since it was developed for iTunes 4.7. Maybe the iTunes leprechaun will give me a bit of luck and it'll work.

Well, I hear the whip cracking, that must mean that its time to get back to importing music.

Oh, 1 last thing. Is it common for people to put the track number in the 'Title" field for id3 tags? (ie. "07 Happy Birthday" in the title field instead of just "Happy Birthday"). I have the track data in the track field and also at the beginning of the file name of the actual mp3.

Productivity ++

I don't know what it is, but it seems like I can get things done quicker with OS X. Lots of Mac users claimed that they get increased productivity on Macs vs PCs and I used to think it was a bunch of crap. But now that I'm using OS X full time I can notice a difference. I don't know if I didn't take the time to learn the key strokes in Windows, but they didn't seem very intuitive. Cut, copy, paste, alt+tab, and of course ctrl+alt+del were about the only key strokes I used.

Now that I'm actively trying to learn a new operating system I'm making a point of it to try to use keystrokes. Its making my productivity go through the roof. Which everyone knows is a big plus.

I think your atitude changes when you move to a new opperating system. Out with the old and in with the new... All the negative thoughts and reminders of bad experiences are gone. You're ready for a fresh start. Time to give something new a shot.

In rolls OS X. You're excited, amazed, and wowed. Everything is positive and because of that you're able to get things done. No more slamming your mouse when things crash or kicking your desk to retaliate against a virus. I can see why Mac users are so out spoken about loving their Macs.

If you are interested in learning a bunch of new key strokes I'd recommend the official OS X Keyboard Shortcut guide.

My MacBook Pro Arrives!

DHL pulled up today and handed me my new MBP. I was amazed at how fast it got here once I reordered it from MacConnection.com. I placed my order Jan 22nd, it shipped the following day, and then arrived on the 25th. I'm really happy with my experience with this vendor.

I savored every moment of opening the box. Apple really does a top notch job with the packaging on these laptops. I knew this machine was going to be awesome, but WOW! It is above and beyond ALL of my expectations. The incredibly sexy exterior, the jaw dropping display (glossy), and the snappiness of OS X. I couldn't have asked for more. I spent hours snooping around in the System Preferences and giving the ui a bit of a personal touch. Each time I sit down at this thing I'm just floored by it.

You don't know how hard its been writing a blog about Apple computers without actually having one :) I feel legit now, a full blown switcher. After dreaming about my MBP all night I plan on getting a bunch of pics and some more thoughts posted tomorrow. More than just, "OMG...THIS MBP OWNS!" Which is about the only way I can describe this computer in my current stage of amazement :)

More tomorrow...

Apple Gives Me The Runaround And I Save $259 On My MacBook Pro

So the saga ended today. You would think that for a $2599 laptop (I added the 160gb hard drive) Apple would work a little harder to make the sale a success, but that wasn't the case. In case you haven't been reading my blog I'll recap everything for you.

Jan 11 - I decided to switch to Mac, but didn't have a high enough limit on my credit card.
Jan 12 - I got the limit on my credit card increased and ordered my MBP
Jan 13 - Apple notified me that my shipping address didn't match my billing address. I got this fixed immediately and they said everything was ok.
Jan 14 - Sunday, Apple probably doesn't process or ship orders on Sundays.
Jan 15 - Apple emailed me and said that my credit card was declined. Credit card company said it was their fraud monitoring program and that things should be good to go now. I called Apple back and they told me that everything was now ok!
Jan 16 - I was looking forward to my MBP shipping since the online order status ship dates were 17th-19th.
Jan 17 - Another problem... Apple was undercharging my order so it couldn't get processed. Apple gave me a $20 discount to cover the undercharged amount and to make up for the delay. Phone rep said that everything was ok now.
Jan 18 - Waiting for MBP to ship, order status says everything is ok.
Jan 19 - Waiting for MBP to ship, order status says everything is ok.
Jan 20 - Waiting for MBP to ship, order status says everything is ok.
Jan 21 - Sunday, Apple probably doesn't process or ship orders on Sundays.
Jan 22 - Apple notified me at 2pm PST that there was still a problem with my order. At this point I was so fed up with the whole ordeal and just canceled my order.

After 10 days of waiting and Apple telling me 3 times that everything was in line with my order I had gotten no where. Why would the phone support people tell me 3 times that everything was all set with my order when it wasn't? Apple offered to give me the upgraded shipping for free when I told them I wanted to cancel my order, which I obviously didn't accept. I still wanted the MacBook Pro though, I just didn't want to deal with the Apple phone reps anymore.

So, I went to check out MacConnection.com. Turns out they had some amazing offers;

• $150 rebate
• FREE photo printer ($100 value)
  
• FREE carrying case ($69.88 value)
  
• FREE Parallels Desktop ($79.99 value)
  
• FREE Logitech V200 Mouse ($29.88 value)
  
• FREE Shipping on Web Orders Over $499 (PRICELESS!)
  
• No Sales Tax, which Apple had to charge since there is an Apple store in the state :(
  

So, the MBP from Apple was $2499 + $100 (160 gb hard drive) + $104 Sales tax = $2703
The same computer (minus the 160 gb hard drive) was $2499 - $150 rebate = $2344

So I saved $259 by ordering from MacConnection.com. I also went ahead and got Parallels since it was free. If I would have taken advantage of all the offers I could have gotten another $280 in savings or $539 savings total!

Now as long as MacConnection.com doesn't give me the run around Apple did I'll be one happy customer :)

Taking Things One Day At A Time...

My MBP still hasn't shipped yet, which is disappointing. I ordered the machine on the 12th, and here it is the 20th. Granted there was some problems with the machine being undercharged and not being able to ship which took a few days to take care of. But, its already been a few days since this was resolved and the machine still hasn't shipped. Is this typical? I was told that custom configured Apples take a bit longer to ship, but its only a hard drive! Had I known that it would have taken this much longer to ship I would have just bought it with the default config and replaced the hard drive myself. So, needless to say I'm a little bummed.

One article I read today however, was able to cheer me up and got me excited about making the switch again. SmokingMac.com has posted an article labeled 10 Reasons Why I Don’t Miss Windows. While reading through the list one can't help but get excited about dumping spyware, IE, and the horrible Windows Search. The author lists the Windows default ui second in his/her list. I personally don't have a beef with the Windows ui, but now that I'm thinking about it... I'm in need of a change. I've been using the same ui for the last 4-5 years, and honestly its rather boring. So bring on Mac OS X, Aqua, and all its glory! I'm ready for it... now only if my Mac would ship...

Cause For Delay

I got an email from Apple saying that there was a problem with my order. It seems that they had under charged my order by $17 and change. Since the order hadn't been paid in full they haven't shipped my order yet. After calling Apple they ended up giving me a $20 discount to cover the $17 dollars and do make up for their mistake. Its kind of a bummer that I have to wait longer for my MacBook Pro, but the $20 discount is nice :) So everything is in order and my MBP should be on the way!

So what I have for you today is Uninspiring Vista written by Erika Jonietz, Senior Editor of the MIT Technology Review. Erika claims that she was not only "...just a fan, but a champion" of Microsoft. She claimed that in years past "When I was forced to use Apple's Mac OS... I grumbled, griped, and insisted that Windows was better." Turn the page to Windows Vista and OS X Tiger. "For me, if the choice is between struggling to configure every feature and being able to boot up and get to work, at long last I choose the Mac." Claims Erika.

It seems that Mac OS X has won over may seasoned windows users. In fact, I think that the initial reviews of Vista are fueling users decisions to switch to Apple. People see the future of Windows with Vista and they don't like what they see.

Ship That Mac!

I'm hoping that my MacBook Pro will ship tomorrow :) Its supposed to ship between the 17th and the 19th, so maybe I'll get lucky! Until I get the machine I'll continue to attempt to immerse myself in the Apple community and keep everyone updated. I've been trying to be active on many forums and help people make the switch like I did.

I'm getting quit a list of ideas to write about once UPS/FedEx drops a package at my door. And each day the list gets longer and longer. Until then I don't have to much to write about.

So for the time being go check out Adrian Kingsley-Hughes blog. He received a 17" MacBook Pro from Apple to review for a few weeks. He's giving a day by day report on his experience with the machine, similar to what I will be doing except for a much longer period of time. My favorite quote of the blog, "I'm wondering if at the end of this review I'll want to buy a MacBook Pro or not." I don't see how he could not want one. So far 6 days have passed and other than his WiFi issues Adrian has been pretty impressed with the MBP. Hopefully in a week or two we Apple will have another 'switch' customer.

The Point of No Return

The deed has been done. After getting my credit card all in order this afternoon I made the 'switch'. So now I guess its the waiting game. I wonder if apple processes orders on the weekends... Anyone know? So far my experience with Apple has been great. Who would of thought? Most transactions in online stores go smoothly and so far this is no exception. I can't wait till that friendly man in brown comes a knockin on my door to deliver my new baby. If by chance he decides to have his way with my new Core 2 Duo machine he's going to be faced with one angry mofo!


In the mean time I'm going to start building a list of cool programs to load on the machine as soon as it shows up on my front steps and possibly some mods...

So far my list only includes.

• iSpazz
• FanControl
• Apple logo color replacement (similar to this mod for the G4)

If anyone has any recommendations I'd like to check them out and possibly add them to the list.

EDIT: Yesterday I talked about finding some programs well suited for 'switchers'. I was pointed to a great resource that has a huge list of great software for OS X and found another on my own.

List SOFTWARE & Freeware GUIDES for MAC (translated from Italian to English)
Flërnk: A Guide to OS X Software for Switchers
My Computer My Programs
Apps that make switching easy and worth it!

Both sites are a great place to begin a quest for good OX software. I still have plenty of time to keep researching till my MacBook Pro arrives.

Credit Goes Where Credit Is Due

So there I was... with a MacBook Pro sitting in my shopping cart on Apple.com. Then I decided that I should check the balance on my credit card to make sure that I had room for the purchase. Low and behold I hadn't even considered that I didn't have a high enough credit limit on my card! I suppose I could use my check card, but I want those damn reward points. So I'll give my credit card company a call in the morning and ask them to increase my limit.

To be so close to making the switch and being shot down is heart wrenching. Could this be a sign? Are there secret unseen supernatural forces that are attempting to prevent me from making the 'switch'? I suspect that Bill G is up to his dirty deeds again, trying to brainwash me.

At any rate, since I can't wow you with my 'switch' I'll post a 'switch' video. This is the video that Steve Job's showed during his keynote address during MWSF 2007. I'm not sure if its a new commercial or just one I haven't seen yet, but I got a chuckle out of it :)

EDIT: No clue why this video has so much space above it. If you have any idea I would love to hear from you!

Dr. SteveJobs, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Make The Switch

Why? Well, I decided to throw in the towel and buy a Mac. Today was Apple’s MacWorld Expo in San Francisco where they announced the iTV and iPhone. Both seemed pretty damn rad. But, that’s not the reason I’m switching. Honestly, I’m just ready for something new! I’ve owned one laptop, and one Apple product (the same machine… a G3 PowerBook). I’ve been a long time PC user and avid gamer for longer than I can remember. That’s enough about me, but I’ll unveil a bit more about me as the year progresses.

I’m starting this blog to document my experience with Apple and their product/services over the next 365 days… MWSF 2007 to MWSF 2008. I hope to learn a few things along the way and possibly show seasoned vets a few things as well. I’ve also wanted to play with WordPress and this gives me the chance. Anyways, thanks for reading and enjoy the ride!