Kind of like Me.com. You pay $99.00 a year for what Google gives you for free.
At least I don't need songsmith to do my job.
I wasn't aware Google gave you 20GB of online data storage and the ability to remotely connect to my other computer at home or at work. Do they also give you top-level web hosting as well? If so, I will cancel my MobileMe and sign up right now!
Great posts! Just had to chime in, I own 7 PCs, which I tolerate but pretty much hate...the OS drives me nuts on so many levels. I also own 10 Macs, which I personally LOVE! Especially my MacPro with 30" Cinema Display, man that thing is sweet! So yes, there are uses for both...since I do use PCs, I would certainly like Microsoft to improve their OS. But I've gotta agree with the majority of posters here. PCs are cheap pieces of junk (at least the OS feels that way, unfortunately Microsoft charges a ridiculous amount for it), the Mac OS is an absolute elegant, powerful delight. Apologies to those who feel otherwise, that is simply my opinion. Cheers!
Very true. This is my biggest complaint about the current Mac lineup. Selling intentionally closed boxes inherently shortens the usable life of the computer. Macs used to have a longer serviceable life, that's simply not the case any more.
Of course none of that is relevant to the ads which are comparing laptops. In that case, closed boxes on both sides. Same parts, made in the same factories, only real differences are the OS and the price. And the Mac laptops are grossly overpriced for the components they contain. It's like OS X is a $1000 add-on.
And worth every penny! Which by the way, makes a Mac's hardware cost a complete steal for FAR superior hardware. Check out those hardware specs very carefully on that PC, and they are NOT the same hard drives, RAM, whatever that are in a Mac.
Check out that other MS Ad post for more info. Apple's Marketing Dept. would do well to archive that thread, for the many great reasons why the Mac is, and probably always will be, a better choice than anything with MS Windows on it (for the consumer and pro-sumer).
PS: If Apple ever "did" get the silly idea of letting OSX be installed on non-Apple HW... I've said before that the price should be $999.99 (for proper marketing and pricing tactics ...AND without any support whatsoever. Voluntary user and blog support only. If Win7 comes out with 64bit-Premium at ~400,00, Leopard is easily 3x worth that price-point.
I want to point out something wrong with this article. But first, let me point out that yes I am typing this on a UniBody MacBook running Leopard with iLife '09.
First, Windows "upgrades" do not cost nearly twice as much as OS X upgrades. A full version of Vista Home Premium 64-bit runs you $99.99 over at Newegg.com with free shipping.
This whole nonsense about total cost of ownership needs to finally be put to rest as well.
Apple's retail stores do not exist everywhere. I live in Southern California and the closest Apple store to me is a 75 mile round trip. So for most people in the world, the Genius bar (which has to send the machine out for repair anyway) is inaccessible. That means calling up support and having a box sent to you. The only problem is that Apple Care closes in the evening. So even if you paid $350 for that warranty for your MacBook Pro and it just happens to be passed a certain time at night, you have to wait until the next day to call in for that box to be sent out. The best part about Apple's support, however, is that if you don't have AppleCare and you're passed the 90 days, you have to pony up a credit card so they can authorize a charge of $60 just in case your problem is software and not hardware. So lets compare, shall we? With HP, Dell, etc, and the standard warranty, up to 1 year I can call in and have a box sent to me if I think something is wrong. With Apple, after 90 days on the standard warranty, I have to give up a credit card number with the possibility of being chard $60 to diagnose hardware issues. After its determined to be hardware, then they send you a box. If you live in the US and own a MacBook you better pray to whatever higher power you do or don't believe in, because its going to Flextronics for repair and I can tell you from experience that it will come back in worse shape than it went out in.
To make things even better, if you bought the extended warranty from Dell for your consumer machine, you get accidental damage coverage as well as on-site support. Someone will actually come to your house and fix your computer rather than you going to some "Genius Bar" who determines your hardware needs to be sent out for a week or more and be returned in worse condition it went out in.
Same goes for HP's business extended warranty. HP's consumer warranties offer accidental damage coverage as well as coverage for peripherals bought from the HP site.
Now lets look at other things. Let's say you're like most people and didn't buy an extended warranty. Oh, your optical drive died a year out of warranty. On most PC notebooks all you need to do is go to newegg.com, lay down $50 for a drive that will most likely be significantly upgraded from the one you had, get it, remove the battery and loosen one screw, pull the drive out, slide new one in, reverse process, done. On a MacBook? Well, if you have the non-UniBody systems, be prepared to perform full system surgery. UniBody systems are only half as difficult to work with. But thats after laying down anywhere between $150-$250 for a drive that is most likely used and not upgraded in any way.
Now lets look at cost of hardware. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220483 $1,299. Same as the UniBody MacBook but competes with the UniBody MacBook Pro at $2,499. What advantages does it have over the computer costing $1200 more? Full size ExpressCard 54, a faster GPU, a higher resolution screen, a 7200RPM HDD, 4 USB ports, 1 eSATA, HDMI, a memory card reader, a 30 day bad pixel warranty, a 2 year standard warranty on top of a 1 year accidental damage warranty.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152099 Now what does this have compared to the $2,499 MacBook Pro? Well, it does have the same processor as the $1,999 MBP, so that is a downside. But it has a 7200RPM HDD, a 1680x1050 screen, a blu-ray reader/DVD writer combo drive, full size ExpressCard, a carrying case, a faster GPU with a full 1GB of video memory, HDMI, eSATA, memory card reader, etc.
Now lets look at software. Anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, basically any types of "Security" software that you only need if you're not too bright are all free. AVG, AdAware, Comodo, etc. IT's all free for personal use. But you don't need it as long as you have a bit of common sense.
Let's look at the bundled software. iLife. Okay, let's look at iPhoto. iPhoto does have neat features that do or don't work depending on who you talk to, like Faces. But for old fashioned organizing and printing, Picassa, Windows Live Photo Gallery, HP Photosmart Express, and countless others all do an equally as good job. In fact, HP's software (free to everyone) let's you make and do all of the same neat photo book stuff as iPhoto. But you know what makes it better? You can print it on your own paper and equipment. You can literally make a book for less than half of what Apple charges, plus you can put more in it and control every aspect of the design instead of choosing Apple's pre-made pages. The best part is that none of that software costs a penny, and if they don't yet have a feature that iPhoto does, they will get it and it won't cost you $80. Not to mention the fact that none of that software is as snail slow as iPhoto. I know people that have been Mac users their entire lives that avoid iPhoto like a plague because it is so slow to import. And I agree. On my Mac it takes forever to import pictures. On my PC? I pop the memory card into the reader and the entire card is read and copied in the just a couple seconds more than it takes for iPhoto just to open and recognize the camera.
Next up is Garageband. Garageband is nothing special. When you consider the fact that you save anywhere between $500-$1200 or more by going with a PC over a Mac, you can get something like this: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...tTrackUSB.html better software than Garageband and a significantly better audio interface than what is included on any PC or Mac.
iMovie and iDVD are irrelevant. Why? Because digital video cameras come with their own video editing software. And not just cheap run of the mill junk either. I remember years ago I bought a $50 TV tuner that came with full version of their http://www.ulead.com/runme.htm software. Not crippled trialware or a then previous version. But the full working and then current version of their video editor, DVD creator, and other video related software. So it makes absolutely no sense for the average person to downgrade to iMovie and iDVD when their digital video camera most likely comes with far more powerful and equally as easy to use software.
Now let's talk about longevity. Some people say Macs last longer than PCs. How is that even remotely true? A MacBook with a Core Duo 2GHz and 2GB of RAM and Intel GMA 950 from 3 years ago is no different than a PC with the same specs from that time. How is that MacBook going to last longer? Especially when you consider the fact that the plastic MacBooks were some of the most poorly built computers ever. I know this from experience. In the year and a half from my original purchase, I went through two with a total of being out for repair for a combined total of 2 months thanks to cracking plastics. Which is funny because after the first system was replaced after several botched repairs, I barely used the second system and it still managed to get major cracking in various areas of the case.
So how does the total cost of ownership come in to play again? PCs cost less, have free equivalent software or, in the case you have to buy it, you still come out several hundred or even a thousand dollars less than a Mac that isn't even hardware equivalent. Extended warranties offer more coverage and support and, in some cases, a person is sent to YOU not the computer sent away. So, how are Macs a better value? I own a Mac. It's my third one thanks to botched repairs that were a result of poor build quality. I truly wish I could have just gotten my money back. I would have sold the UniBody MacBook I eventually ended up with if the economy hadn't tanked and nobody wanted to buy it for less than half of what it was worth.
I also want to add another thing. Upgradability. Let's say that, when USB 3.0 comes out, I want to add it to my computer. Thankfully my PC has a full size ExpressCard slot. A small card later and I have more Firewire, eSATA, and USB 3.0. Want USB 3.0 or eSATA on a Mac? Well, better hope Apple supports it first! And if they do, toss out your current system and buy a new one. Add that to your total cost of ownership. And what about the dongles? If I want to connect my MacBook to an external display I need any one of a number of dongles. If I want to connect it to my HDTV I need either a mini-DisplayPort to DVI connector with DVI to HDMI adapter or a mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adapter made by a 3rd party, as well as a mini-TOSLink to TOSLink adapter and an optical cable to get audio. That also means I don't get any of the current high end "high definition" audio formats available on blu-ray. With my notebook PC I have HDMI, its all done on one cable with support for 8 channel linear PCM over the same cable or passing the Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master HD signal to my receiver. Add that to the total cost of ownership as well.
I think the ads are pointless as well, but you can't convince me that someone who needs to run Microsoft Office and Quicken, surf the internet, and check their e-mail is getting a better deal buying a Mac. If someone's got $800 to buy a laptop they aren't going to buy a Mac, period. These people are Windows buyers no matter what. Apple has made it pretty clear they aren't interested in these people. They wouldn't build laptops with "precision aluminum unibody enclosures" if they were. I'm curious why Microsoft thinks they need to make this point.
As far as the "extra expense of software and support" - I call BS. My wife's HP Pavillion is going on three years old and its still going strong, it doesn't raid my wallet at night for extra cash. I dual boot, and I haven't had to spend an extra dime on Vista. Avira is great free antivirus software, Spybot is free, and Office only costs about $70 when you order it with a new Windows machine. 90% of still and video cameras come with free software (no one "needs" iLife, its fun if you like using it). And if people are replacing an old PC, they've probably got a bunch of software already. What the hell is there to spend a lot of money on? $700 will buy you a decent Dell or HP laptop.
As far as the Mac being trouble free? Well, mine have been for 15 years, but the Genius bar always seems to have a wait when I drop by the Apple store, so some people obviously have their issues.
So this ad campaign and all this posturing is ridiculous. If you want a Mac, buy a Mac. If you've got $1000, buy a $700 PC and save yourself a few bucks. If $1000 is a lot of money to you, spend it wisely.
Ebay (for a used "big" Mac) + MacMini (for spankin new Mac)
I want to point out something wrong with this article. But first, let me point out that yes I am typing this on a UniBody MacBook running Leopard with iLife '09.
Your working on a Mac, and trying to pump up using a Windows box. Why? Without OSX... the machine as far as I see it... as have many here posted, is almost technically, and financially worthless. In your post you even went so far as to mention FREE anti-virus, malware, phishing, firewalls, etc. etc.
THAT's the problem buddy... or at least one of them. Because if any of those Freebies isn't working, or becomes corrupted, or whatever... you will NOT be able to read ANYTHING into that machine. (Period). Until you FIX it.... re-image it... and basically waste your time, money, and nerves trying to get at those photos with that free HP software... through Windows.
I'll wait a few seconds for iPhoto to avoid that scenario. Although truthfully, I use both Aperture and Lightroom instead. For my use, iPhoto is underpowered. So I agree with ya there.
PS: I live in Germany. I also don't have a Genius bar within a reasonable distance. In fact: Dec 6 2008 the first Apple Store in Germany opened. I've been using and fixing friends, colleagues, and my Macs since 1989 here. When I say "fixing", it normally means installing new software, a hard drive, RAM... and not much else... a little bit of training.
PSS: I had a discussion with a friend that travels extensively back to the States, and he is adamant that the quality of Apple equipment that we get here in Europe (Apple assembly is in Ireland), is superior to that available in the states (mostly NJ and NY, assembly from China). Apple should maybe take a look at that in the future.
All very good points and I agree with you, even down to the fact that the ads are pointless because I believe the public already know this already. If you are economising, buy a PC. If you want bells and whistles, buy a Mac.
Quote:
As far as the Mac being trouble free? Well, mine have been for 15 years, but the Genius bar always seems to have a wait when I drop by the Apple store, so some people obviously have their issues.
My Macs haven't always been trouble free and it's great now there are Genius Bars. However yes they are free and therefore very busy, but you can book an appointment online. It's a small price to pay... I've been there with three- or four-year-old technology, well out of its warranty. They have sorted out both software and hardware issues for me in these cases. So yes I'd say it's worth sitting on a sofa in a store waiting twenty minutes to be seen during busy periods.
mosx, you come off to me very much like an astroturfist, based on your article, I mean, post. Is it possible that you're misrepresenting yourself here?
Your working on a Mac, and trying to pump up using a Windows box. Why? Without OSX... the machine as far as I see it... as have many here posted, is almost technically, and financially worthless. In your post you even went so far as to mention FREE anti-virus, malware, phishing, firewalls, etc. etc.
THAT's the problem buddy... or at least one of them. Because if any of those Freebies isn't working, or becomes corrupted, or whatever... you will NOT be able to read ANYTHING into that machine. (Period). Until you FIX it.... re-image it... and basically waste your time, money, and nerves trying to get at those photos with that free HP software... through Windows.
I'll wait a few seconds for iPhoto to avoid that scenario. Although truthfully, I use both Aperture and Lightroom instead. For my use, iPhoto is underpowered. So I agree with ya there.
PS: I live in Germany. I also don't have a Genius bar within a reasonable distance. In fact: Dec 6 2008 the first Apple Store in Germany opened. I've been using and fixing friends, colleagues, and my Macs since 1989 here. When I say "fixing", it normally means installing new software, a hard drive, RAM... and not much else... a little bit of training.
PSS: I had a discussion with a friend that travels extensively back to the States, and he is adamant that the quality of Apple equipment that we get here in Europe (Apple assembly is in Ireland), is superior to that available in the states (mostly NJ and NY, assembly from China). Apple should maybe take a look at that in the future.
What are you talking about? You act as if if the firewall in Windows goes down then your entire system is going to get taken down. That is completely and utterly untrue. With a modern Windows system, XP3 and Vista SP1, the only way a system can become compromised is if the USER downloads, installs, and runs malicious software despite multiple warnings from the browser, security software, built-in security software, and Windows itself.
I've been using Windows for the better portion of the last two decades and I have never had happen what you described. I have never seen it happen to any one either.
It's pure FUD on Apple's part.
Oh and HP Photosmart Essentials (my bad on the name) looks exactly like iPhoto as far as UI and the way it works So don't try to tell me its hard to use.
mosx, I appreciate your effort into trying to put things into perspective, but I think your posts are somewhat illogical and irrelevent.
From what you posted, it seems you have put a lot time to find better alternatives to what comes with Windows (or doesn't) to make your life better. Most people, however, don't have the patience, time or just the knowledge that better things are to be found elsewhere.
If you take a Mac, for example, from the point you turn it on for the first time in your life, you could argue that pretty much all you need is already installed and ready to be used. It is true, though, that the software that is already installed might not be the best ever in its domain, but for most people, it is ample enough and more than they need.
If you take a PC, however, you need to put that extra time and effort to find the software you need for whatever purposes you have. Unless of course "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer" (or whatever it's called) is enough for you to view pictures, or if you're happy with "Windows Media Player". Consumers are not all tech-savvy. I have seen plenty of people using those all the time.
Time is money. I'd rather spend a bit more to get something that is perhaps more complete in its content, than to look for all these crazy, better, and cheaper software alternatives hoping to make a PC just as functional as a Mac.
Actually what I think would be more accurate is to post that, comparing to the cost of a Mac, you could buy a PC. And a yearly subscription to an Anti-Virus program. And a few visits from the geek squad to reinstall your operating system twice a year to remove malware. And a piece of lint.
Meanwhile for that "little extra money upfront" I can:
continue using my Mac without worrying about losing my valuable work/memories to a virus or some idiot from geek squad reinstalling the OS without asking me about backups.
I don't really have to worry about the threat of viruses.
I don't have to pay the protection racket that is virus subs.
I can spend more of my time actually doing something productive.
I'm not permanently installing patches.
I don't have to worry about various manufacturers blaming other manufacturers hardware/components when something goes wrong.
I hope it knocks some sense into Apple, who seem to think that their customers will pay ANY price for the hardware just for the opportunity to use OS X.
Yeah, it's a good job Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes, Bentley, Rolls Royce and BMW reduced their prices dramatically to be similar to Honda, Seat, Ford, GM/Vauxhall, Nissan, Peugot and Citroen otherwise they'd be out of business...oh hang on?!?
Cheaper == higher turnover (but less profit)
Expensive == high turnover (higher profit and more room to maneuver in this economic climes)
At the end of the day the "cheap" end of the market has no room to reduce their prices as they'll start eating into their operating profit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by the_steve
The company has so much cash it's obvious that their profit margins are much higher than necessary to support R&D costs.
Without wanting to seem pedantic, isn't making as much profit as possilbe the purpose of any business?
If you want to talk "time is money", then lets talk about my experience with Apple, shall we?
I've owned a Mac for a little over 2 years now. In that time I've had 2 warranty replacements due to botched repairs thanks to bad build quality. My first Mac was my "primary" system. Within 6 months of owning it and being "babied", it managed to start to come apart in multiple areas due to heat and the optical drive failed. It took a month sending it back and forth to Apple because they failed to fix it, the optical drive ended up being in worse shape, and they scratched up every case new case they put on the system. They replaced that computer with a new one. In that time I got a new HP and that became my primary system. The Mac basically only got used to encode video every so often. It never left the desk. It had maybe 4 total hours of use every week. Yet, only a few months into owning it, the case started to fail. The classic failing at the corner where the magnetic latch touched the surface. Again, 3 more weeks of sending it back and forth until they got it right. Several months later, despite very little use, the case managed to fail in the same way as well as crack in another spot along the palmrest/top case, and it cracked in multiple spots along the bottom due to heat. Again, 3 more weeks of sending it back and forth because of Apple's inability to replace a case without scratching it up in the process. Finally, they replaced the LCD for some unknown reason, with a defective one. At that point they replaced the system with a UniBody unit.
Now if you want to talk "time is money", had my Mac been my only system, I would have been out of the game for two and a half months there. That is unacceptable.
A Mac certainly doesn't contain all I need out of the box either. I still need video conversion tools, I still need chat apps other than iChat because not everyone uses AIM, you still need things like Perian and Flip4Mac. If you're a movie buff, you need Windows because DVD Player is about as good as WinDVD 2.3 from 10 years ago.
I also want to point out that Windows Preview (for viewing pictures view Explorer (not IE)) is FAR better than the Preview app in OS X. FAR better. But Vista comes with Windows Photo Gallery which is every bit as good as iPhoto for minor editing and photo organizing and viewing.
Windows Media Player, with ffdshow, will play ANY file type and do nearly anything you want with audio. With OS X you basically have no choice but to use iTunes. On a PC, however, you have a wide variety of choices. On my PC I use Winamp. Its small, light, has Milkdrop (untouchable by any iTunes visualizer) and the sound processing engine is better than that in iTunes. On my Mac I have iTunes, Quicktime, Perian, and VLC since theres no all-in-one solution.
Quote:
I'd rather spend a bit more to get something that is perhaps more complete in its content, than to look for all these crazy, better, and cheaper software alternatives hoping to make a PC just as functional as a Mac.
My PC is far more functional than my Mac I don't need an arsenal of dongles and cables to hook it up to my HDTV. My PC does it all in one cable, where the Mac would need at least 2 different adapters and 2 different cables, each for audio and video. My PC has Firewire, unlike my UniBody MacBook. My PC also has VGA, S-Video, a card reader, fingerprint reader, fullsize ExpressCard, etc. I can get a nice little ExpressCard54 card and add Firewire 800, eSATA, and when available, USB 3.0. Can't do that on my Mac. I already use my ExpressCard slot for a TV tuner, which leaves all of my USB ports free.
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I don't have to pay the protection racket that is virus subs.
You don't on a PC either. It takes a lot of hard work on the users part to infect their system with malware these days. Plus AVG is better than the paid stuff and free.
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I'm not permanently installing patches.
It's funny you say that, because if I were to do a fresh install of OS X right now I'd be downloading over 1GB worth of updates all around. With Vista it'd be about 300MB.
Quote:
I don't have to worry about various manufacturers blaming other manufacturers hardware/components when something goes wrong.
You realize that Apple's computers are built from components made by different manufacturers, right?
Meanwhile for that "little extra money upfront" I can:
continue using my Mac without worrying about losing my valuable work/memories to a virus or some idiot from geek squad reinstalling the OS without asking me about backups.
I don't really have to worry about the threat of viruses.
I don't have to pay the protection racket that is virus subs.
I can spend more of my time actually doing something productive.
I'm not permanently installing patches.
I don't have to worry about various manufacturers blaming other manufacturers hardware/components when something goes wrong.
Is paranoia a prerequisite? I've used both platforms for 15-20 years and the above doesn't come close to describing the experience with either one.
Love the bit at the end with the edited graphic, is the author concerned enough that this ad is going to make such an impact a pointless comeback was needed. Especially one as bad as you get free support and iLife compared to paying for support and Vista/Antivirus being expensive.
Now Im from the UK so I don't know what its like over there, but Vista comes free when you buy a PC here, and you generally get antivirus to. As for support Im not sure where you go to pay for it, everyone I know either googles the problem (if they actually get one) or asks the IT guy at work who generally only knows about PC's. Plus what is iLife really worth to anyone £10-£20 maybe.
It could also be argued that Macs last longer as there to expensive to replace or repair. The iBook I'm using at the moment has lasted a good 4-5 years, although saying that it has slowed down a lot for no apparent reason, the battery is so dead if you unplug it it will go off instantly and the DVD drive broke a while ago. But the free support at the Apple store were great, they looked at my machine and gave me a price higher than a PC laptop just to replace the DVD drive.
If you want to talk "time is money", then lets talk about my experience with Apple, shall we?
I've owned a Mac for a little over 2 years now. In that time I've had 2 warranty replacements due to botched repairs thanks to bad build quality. My first Mac was my "primary" system. Within 6 months of owning it and being "babied", it managed to start to come apart in multiple areas due to heat and the optical drive failed. It took a month sending it back and forth to Apple because they failed to fix it, the optical drive ended up being in worse shape, and they scratched up every case new case they put on the system. They replaced that computer with a new one. In that time I got a new HP and that became my primary system. The Mac basically only got used to encode video every so often. It never left the desk. It had maybe 4 total hours of use every week. Yet, only a few months into owning it, the case started to fail. The classic failing at the corner where the magnetic latch touched the surface. Again, 3 more weeks of sending it back and forth until they got it right. Several months later, despite very little use, the case managed to fail in the same way as well as crack in another spot along the palmrest/top case, and it cracked in multiple spots along the bottom due to heat. Again, 3 more weeks of sending it back and forth because of Apple's inability to replace a case without scratching it up in the process. Finally, they replaced the LCD for some unknown reason, with a defective one. At that point they replaced the system with a UniBody unit.
Now if you want to talk "time is money", had my Mac been my only system, I would have been out of the game for two and a half months there. That is unacceptable.
Okay fair enough you had a bad experience, but that is by no means the norm. Most of what I said is pretty much a given when it comes to Windows. I agree, it was unacceptable. But in my 10 years of owning computers my Macs have all been way more reliable than my Windows boxes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mosx
A Mac certainly doesn't contain all I need out of the box either. I still need video conversion tools, I still need chat apps other than iChat because not everyone uses AIM, you still need things like Perian and Flip4Mac. If you're a movie buff, you need Windows because DVD Player is about as good as WinDVD 2.3 from 10 years ago.
If computers came with ALL we needed out of the box there would be no 3rd party market. So that's a stupid point to make really.
AIM is most popular in the US (Apple's primary market), where it outnumbers Windows/MSN Messenger easily. Messenger, Skype and all other chat programs are FREE, so that doesn't matter.
Perian and Flip4Mac are also free. DVD Player plays DVDs, that's it's sole purpose. What else to you want it to do? And a "Movie buff" would be watching their movies on a big ass HDTV and they probably wouldn't be watching a DVD, they'd be watching a Blu-ray on a PS3 or a Blu-ray Player.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mosx
I also want to point out that Windows Preview (for viewing pictures view Explorer (not IE)) is FAR better than the Preview app in OS X. FAR better. But Vista comes with Windows Photo Gallery which is every bit as good as iPhoto for minor editing and photo organizing and viewing.
Windows Preview can view (and make minor changes to) pictures only.
Preview can:
View and Edit Images (to a greater level than Windows Preview).
View and Modify PDF files.
Mark up and Annotate PDFs.
Windows Photo Gallery has absolutely nothing on iPhoto (except maybe 'tags').
With iPhoto you can:
Use Geo-Location Services.
Use Face Detection and Facial Recognition.
Order professionally printed photo books.
Order professionally printed cards from your photos.
Order professionally printed calendars from your photos.
Produce very professional looking slideshows with a couple of clicks and have them added to a DVD.
Easily share your photos on the internet to Facebook/Flickr/MobileMe.
Have your photos easily organised for you into logical and useful categories.
iPhoto still has vastly superior editing capabilities to Photo Gallery too. Don't underestimate the power of "skimming" either in iPhoto, it's quite useful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mosx
Windows Media Player, with ffdshow, will play ANY file type and do nearly anything you want with audio. With OS X you basically have no choice but to use iTunes.
The file type isn't really the problem, most of the time it's codecs (of which Windows is also missing a ton [otherwise why would the Klite codec packs exist]).
So what about using iTunes, it's better than WMP still. Don't forget for the "player" part there is also Quicktime, which is infinitely more capable than WMP (as long as you have the codecs).
Quote:
Originally Posted by mosx
On a PC, however, you have a wide variety of choices. On my PC I use Winamp. Its small, light, has Milkdrop (untouchable by any iTunes visualizer) and the sound processing engine is better than that in iTunes. On my Mac I have iTunes, Quicktime, Perian, and VLC since theres no all-in-one solution.
Windows doesn't have any all-in-one solution either. And besides once you've installed Perian you only really need to use Quicktime, you don't need to interact with anything else.
[QUOTE=mosx;1395949]My PC is far more functional than my Mac I don't need an arsenal of dongles and cables to hook it up to my HDTV. My PC does it all in one cable, where the Mac would need at least 2 different adapters and 2 different cables, each for audio and video. My PC has Firewire, unlike my UniBody MacBook. My PC also has VGA, S-Video, a card reader, fingerprint reader, fullsize ExpressCard, etc. I can get a nice little ExpressCard54 card and add Firewire 800, eSATA, and when available, USB 3.0. Can't do that on my Mac.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mosx
I already use my ExpressCard slot for a TV tuner, which leaves all of my USB ports free.
I've got an HDTV for watching TV on. It's more fit for the job than any computer will ever be.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mosx
You don't on a PC either. It takes a lot of hard work on the users part to infect their system with malware these days. Plus AVG is better than the paid stuff and free.
No it doesn't, for the average user (i.e. not nerdy/geeky types like us) it can be as simple as visiting a trusted site that uses legitimate advertising banners but has some nefarious adverts served to it (as was the case with MySpace) and you can be carpet bombed with a vast number of viruses/malware.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mosx
It's funny you say that, because if I were to do a fresh install of OS X right now I'd be downloading over 1GB worth of updates all around. With Vista it'd be about 300MB.
Obviously a clean install will have updates. It's not the size of the updates, but the quantity that's the problem. The 1GB of OS X updates requires 1 reboot due to it being a "Combined Update". Vista require god knows how many reboots as there are about 300 incremental updates which require reboots and won't let you do the rest until you have rebooted and then you get offered even more updates.
Comments
Kind of like Me.com. You pay $99.00 a year for what Google gives you for free.
At least I don't need songsmith to do my job.
I wasn't aware Google gave you 20GB of online data storage and the ability to remotely connect to my other computer at home or at work. Do they also give you top-level web hosting as well? If so, I will cancel my MobileMe and sign up right now!
APPLE IS TAKING YOUR MONEY AND PUTTING IT ON THE BOTTOM LINE WHILE YOU PUSH YOUR NOSE IN THE AIR AND KEEP SAYING MICROSOFT SUCKS.
Great posts on this thread until I came upon yours, troll.
Please do us all a favor and STFU!
Very true. This is my biggest complaint about the current Mac lineup. Selling intentionally closed boxes inherently shortens the usable life of the computer. Macs used to have a longer serviceable life, that's simply not the case any more.
Of course none of that is relevant to the ads which are comparing laptops. In that case, closed boxes on both sides. Same parts, made in the same factories, only real differences are the OS and the price. And the Mac laptops are grossly overpriced for the components they contain. It's like OS X is a $1000 add-on.
And worth every penny! Which by the way, makes a Mac's hardware cost a complete steal for FAR superior hardware. Check out those hardware specs very carefully on that PC, and they are NOT the same hard drives, RAM, whatever that are in a Mac.
Check out that other MS Ad post for more info. Apple's Marketing Dept. would do well to archive that thread, for the many great reasons why the Mac is, and probably always will be, a better choice than anything with MS Windows on it (for the consumer and pro-sumer).
PS: If Apple ever "did" get the silly idea of letting OSX be installed on non-Apple HW... I've said before that the price should be $999.99 (for proper marketing and pricing tactics
First, Windows "upgrades" do not cost nearly twice as much as OS X upgrades. A full version of Vista Home Premium 64-bit runs you $99.99 over at Newegg.com with free shipping.
This whole nonsense about total cost of ownership needs to finally be put to rest as well.
Apple's retail stores do not exist everywhere. I live in Southern California and the closest Apple store to me is a 75 mile round trip. So for most people in the world, the Genius bar (which has to send the machine out for repair anyway) is inaccessible. That means calling up support and having a box sent to you. The only problem is that Apple Care closes in the evening. So even if you paid $350 for that warranty for your MacBook Pro and it just happens to be passed a certain time at night, you have to wait until the next day to call in for that box to be sent out. The best part about Apple's support, however, is that if you don't have AppleCare and you're passed the 90 days, you have to pony up a credit card so they can authorize a charge of $60 just in case your problem is software and not hardware. So lets compare, shall we? With HP, Dell, etc, and the standard warranty, up to 1 year I can call in and have a box sent to me if I think something is wrong. With Apple, after 90 days on the standard warranty, I have to give up a credit card number with the possibility of being chard $60 to diagnose hardware issues. After its determined to be hardware, then they send you a box. If you live in the US and own a MacBook you better pray to whatever higher power you do or don't believe in, because its going to Flextronics for repair and I can tell you from experience that it will come back in worse shape than it went out in.
To make things even better, if you bought the extended warranty from Dell for your consumer machine, you get accidental damage coverage as well as on-site support. Someone will actually come to your house and fix your computer rather than you going to some "Genius Bar" who determines your hardware needs to be sent out for a week or more and be returned in worse condition it went out in.
Same goes for HP's business extended warranty. HP's consumer warranties offer accidental damage coverage as well as coverage for peripherals bought from the HP site.
Now lets look at other things. Let's say you're like most people and didn't buy an extended warranty. Oh, your optical drive died a year out of warranty. On most PC notebooks all you need to do is go to newegg.com, lay down $50 for a drive that will most likely be significantly upgraded from the one you had, get it, remove the battery and loosen one screw, pull the drive out, slide new one in, reverse process, done. On a MacBook? Well, if you have the non-UniBody systems, be prepared to perform full system surgery. UniBody systems are only half as difficult to work with. But thats after laying down anywhere between $150-$250 for a drive that is most likely used and not upgraded in any way.
Now lets look at cost of hardware. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220483 $1,299. Same as the UniBody MacBook but competes with the UniBody MacBook Pro at $2,499. What advantages does it have over the computer costing $1200 more? Full size ExpressCard 54, a faster GPU, a higher resolution screen, a 7200RPM HDD, 4 USB ports, 1 eSATA, HDMI, a memory card reader, a 30 day bad pixel warranty, a 2 year standard warranty on top of a 1 year accidental damage warranty.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152099 Now what does this have compared to the $2,499 MacBook Pro? Well, it does have the same processor as the $1,999 MBP, so that is a downside. But it has a 7200RPM HDD, a 1680x1050 screen, a blu-ray reader/DVD writer combo drive, full size ExpressCard, a carrying case, a faster GPU with a full 1GB of video memory, HDMI, eSATA, memory card reader, etc.
Now lets look at software. Anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, basically any types of "Security" software that you only need if you're not too bright are all free. AVG, AdAware, Comodo, etc. IT's all free for personal use. But you don't need it as long as you have a bit of common sense.
Let's look at the bundled software. iLife. Okay, let's look at iPhoto. iPhoto does have neat features that do or don't work depending on who you talk to, like Faces. But for old fashioned organizing and printing, Picassa, Windows Live Photo Gallery, HP Photosmart Express, and countless others all do an equally as good job. In fact, HP's software (free to everyone) let's you make and do all of the same neat photo book stuff as iPhoto. But you know what makes it better? You can print it on your own paper and equipment. You can literally make a book for less than half of what Apple charges, plus you can put more in it and control every aspect of the design instead of choosing Apple's pre-made pages. The best part is that none of that software costs a penny, and if they don't yet have a feature that iPhoto does, they will get it and it won't cost you $80. Not to mention the fact that none of that software is as snail slow as iPhoto. I know people that have been Mac users their entire lives that avoid iPhoto like a plague because it is so slow to import. And I agree. On my Mac it takes forever to import pictures. On my PC? I pop the memory card into the reader and the entire card is read and copied in the just a couple seconds more than it takes for iPhoto just to open and recognize the camera.
Next up is Garageband. Garageband is nothing special. When you consider the fact that you save anywhere between $500-$1200 or more by going with a PC over a Mac, you can get something like this: http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_u...tTrackUSB.html better software than Garageband and a significantly better audio interface than what is included on any PC or Mac.
iMovie and iDVD are irrelevant. Why? Because digital video cameras come with their own video editing software. And not just cheap run of the mill junk either. I remember years ago I bought a $50 TV tuner that came with full version of their http://www.ulead.com/runme.htm software. Not crippled trialware or a then previous version. But the full working and then current version of their video editor, DVD creator, and other video related software. So it makes absolutely no sense for the average person to downgrade to iMovie and iDVD when their digital video camera most likely comes with far more powerful and equally as easy to use software.
Now let's talk about longevity. Some people say Macs last longer than PCs. How is that even remotely true? A MacBook with a Core Duo 2GHz and 2GB of RAM and Intel GMA 950 from 3 years ago is no different than a PC with the same specs from that time. How is that MacBook going to last longer? Especially when you consider the fact that the plastic MacBooks were some of the most poorly built computers ever. I know this from experience. In the year and a half from my original purchase, I went through two with a total of being out for repair for a combined total of 2 months thanks to cracking plastics. Which is funny because after the first system was replaced after several botched repairs, I barely used the second system and it still managed to get major cracking in various areas of the case.
So how does the total cost of ownership come in to play again? PCs cost less, have free equivalent software or, in the case you have to buy it, you still come out several hundred or even a thousand dollars less than a Mac that isn't even hardware equivalent. Extended warranties offer more coverage and support and, in some cases, a person is sent to YOU not the computer sent away. So, how are Macs a better value? I own a Mac. It's my third one thanks to botched repairs that were a result of poor build quality. I truly wish I could have just gotten my money back. I would have sold the UniBody MacBook I eventually ended up with if the economy hadn't tanked and nobody wanted to buy it for less than half of what it was worth.
I also want to add another thing. Upgradability. Let's say that, when USB 3.0 comes out, I want to add it to my computer. Thankfully my PC has a full size ExpressCard slot. A small card later and I have more Firewire, eSATA, and USB 3.0. Want USB 3.0 or eSATA on a Mac? Well, better hope Apple supports it first! And if they do, toss out your current system and buy a new one. Add that to your total cost of ownership. And what about the dongles? If I want to connect my MacBook to an external display I need any one of a number of dongles. If I want to connect it to my HDTV I need either a mini-DisplayPort to DVI connector with DVI to HDMI adapter or a mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adapter made by a 3rd party, as well as a mini-TOSLink to TOSLink adapter and an optical cable to get audio. That also means I don't get any of the current high end "high definition" audio formats available on blu-ray. With my notebook PC I have HDMI, its all done on one cable with support for 8 channel linear PCM over the same cable or passing the Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master HD signal to my receiver. Add that to the total cost of ownership as well.
I think the ads are pointless as well, but you can't convince me that someone who needs to run Microsoft Office and Quicken, surf the internet, and check their e-mail is getting a better deal buying a Mac. If someone's got $800 to buy a laptop they aren't going to buy a Mac, period. These people are Windows buyers no matter what. Apple has made it pretty clear they aren't interested in these people. They wouldn't build laptops with "precision aluminum unibody enclosures" if they were. I'm curious why Microsoft thinks they need to make this point.
As far as the "extra expense of software and support" - I call BS. My wife's HP Pavillion is going on three years old and its still going strong, it doesn't raid my wallet at night for extra cash. I dual boot, and I haven't had to spend an extra dime on Vista. Avira is great free antivirus software, Spybot is free, and Office only costs about $70 when you order it with a new Windows machine. 90% of still and video cameras come with free software (no one "needs" iLife, its fun if you like using it). And if people are replacing an old PC, they've probably got a bunch of software already. What the hell is there to spend a lot of money on? $700 will buy you a decent Dell or HP laptop.
As far as the Mac being trouble free? Well, mine have been for 15 years, but the Genius bar always seems to have a wait when I drop by the Apple store, so some people obviously have their issues.
So this ad campaign and all this posturing is ridiculous. If you want a Mac, buy a Mac. If you've got $1000, buy a $700 PC and save yourself a few bucks. If $1000 is a lot of money to you, spend it wisely.
Ebay (for a used "big" Mac) + MacMini (for spankin new Mac)
I want to point out something wrong with this article. But first, let me point out that yes I am typing this on a UniBody MacBook running Leopard with iLife '09.
Your working on a Mac, and trying to pump up using a Windows box. Why? Without OSX... the machine as far as I see it... as have many here posted, is almost technically, and financially worthless. In your post you even went so far as to mention FREE anti-virus, malware, phishing, firewalls, etc. etc.
THAT's the problem buddy... or at least one of them. Because if any of those Freebies isn't working, or becomes corrupted, or whatever... you will NOT be able to read ANYTHING into that machine. (Period). Until you FIX it.... re-image it... and basically waste your time, money, and nerves trying to get at those photos with that free HP software... through Windows.
I'll wait a few seconds for iPhoto to avoid that scenario. Although truthfully, I use both Aperture and Lightroom instead. For my use, iPhoto is underpowered. So I agree with ya there.
PS: I live in Germany. I also don't have a Genius bar within a reasonable distance. In fact: Dec 6 2008 the first Apple Store in Germany opened. I've been using and fixing friends, colleagues, and my Macs since 1989 here. When I say "fixing", it normally means installing new software, a hard drive, RAM... and not much else... a little bit of training.
PSS: I had a discussion with a friend that travels extensively back to the States, and he is adamant that the quality of Apple equipment that we get here in Europe (Apple assembly is in Ireland), is superior to that available in the states (mostly NJ and NY, assembly from China). Apple should maybe take a look at that in the future.
Obliterated everything, except the car analogy is old, tired and utterly false.
My God, with an argument like that and all the proof you've given to back you up, you must be right.
$700 will buy you a decent Dell or HP laptop.
All very good points and I agree with you, even down to the fact that the ads are pointless because I believe the public already know this already. If you are economising, buy a PC. If you want bells and whistles, buy a Mac.
As far as the Mac being trouble free? Well, mine have been for 15 years, but the Genius bar always seems to have a wait when I drop by the Apple store, so some people obviously have their issues.
My Macs haven't always been trouble free and it's great now there are Genius Bars. However yes they are free and therefore very busy, but you can book an appointment online. It's a small price to pay... I've been there with three- or four-year-old technology, well out of its warranty. They have sorted out both software and hardware issues for me in these cases. So yes I'd say it's worth sitting on a sofa in a store waiting twenty minutes to be seen during busy periods.
I want to point out something wrong..
mosx, you come off to me very much like an astroturfist, based on your article, I mean, post. Is it possible that you're misrepresenting yourself here?
Your working on a Mac, and trying to pump up using a Windows box. Why? Without OSX... the machine as far as I see it... as have many here posted, is almost technically, and financially worthless. In your post you even went so far as to mention FREE anti-virus, malware, phishing, firewalls, etc. etc.
THAT's the problem buddy... or at least one of them. Because if any of those Freebies isn't working, or becomes corrupted, or whatever... you will NOT be able to read ANYTHING into that machine. (Period). Until you FIX it.... re-image it... and basically waste your time, money, and nerves trying to get at those photos with that free HP software... through Windows.
I'll wait a few seconds for iPhoto to avoid that scenario. Although truthfully, I use both Aperture and Lightroom instead. For my use, iPhoto is underpowered. So I agree with ya there.
PS: I live in Germany. I also don't have a Genius bar within a reasonable distance. In fact: Dec 6 2008 the first Apple Store in Germany opened. I've been using and fixing friends, colleagues, and my Macs since 1989 here. When I say "fixing", it normally means installing new software, a hard drive, RAM... and not much else... a little bit of training.
PSS: I had a discussion with a friend that travels extensively back to the States, and he is adamant that the quality of Apple equipment that we get here in Europe (Apple assembly is in Ireland), is superior to that available in the states (mostly NJ and NY, assembly from China). Apple should maybe take a look at that in the future.
What are you talking about? You act as if if the firewall in Windows goes down then your entire system is going to get taken down. That is completely and utterly untrue. With a modern Windows system, XP3 and Vista SP1, the only way a system can become compromised is if the USER downloads, installs, and runs malicious software despite multiple warnings from the browser, security software, built-in security software, and Windows itself.
I've been using Windows for the better portion of the last two decades and I have never had happen what you described. I have never seen it happen to any one either.
It's pure FUD on Apple's part.
Oh and HP Photosmart Essentials (my bad on the name) looks exactly like iPhoto as far as UI and the way it works
From what you posted, it seems you have put a lot time to find better alternatives to what comes with Windows (or doesn't) to make your life better. Most people, however, don't have the patience, time or just the knowledge that better things are to be found elsewhere.
If you take a Mac, for example, from the point you turn it on for the first time in your life, you could argue that pretty much all you need is already installed and ready to be used. It is true, though, that the software that is already installed might not be the best ever in its domain, but for most people, it is ample enough and more than they need.
If you take a PC, however, you need to put that extra time and effort to find the software you need for whatever purposes you have. Unless of course "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer" (or whatever it's called) is enough for you to view pictures, or if you're happy with "Windows Media Player". Consumers are not all tech-savvy. I have seen plenty of people using those all the time.
Time is money. I'd rather spend a bit more to get something that is perhaps more complete in its content, than to look for all these crazy, better, and cheaper software alternatives hoping to make a PC just as functional as a Mac.
I think you are a bit confused by something here....
A PC != Microsoft
Microsoft seems confused by this exact same fact too.
Actually what I think would be more accurate is to post that, comparing to the cost of a Mac, you could buy a PC. And a yearly subscription to an Anti-Virus program. And a few visits from the geek squad to reinstall your operating system twice a year to remove malware. And a piece of lint.
Meanwhile for that "little extra money upfront" I can:
I hope it knocks some sense into Apple, who seem to think that their customers will pay ANY price for the hardware just for the opportunity to use OS X.
Yeah, it's a good job Ferrari, Porsche, Mercedes, Bentley, Rolls Royce and BMW reduced their prices dramatically to be similar to Honda, Seat, Ford, GM/Vauxhall, Nissan, Peugot and Citroen otherwise they'd be out of business...oh hang on?!?
Cheaper == higher turnover (but less profit)
Expensive == high turnover (higher profit and more room to maneuver in this economic climes)
At the end of the day the "cheap" end of the market has no room to reduce their prices as they'll start eating into their operating profit.
The company has so much cash it's obvious that their profit margins are much higher than necessary to support R&D costs.
Without wanting to seem pedantic, isn't making as much profit as possilbe the purpose of any business?
I've owned a Mac for a little over 2 years now. In that time I've had 2 warranty replacements due to botched repairs thanks to bad build quality. My first Mac was my "primary" system. Within 6 months of owning it and being "babied", it managed to start to come apart in multiple areas due to heat and the optical drive failed. It took a month sending it back and forth to Apple because they failed to fix it, the optical drive ended up being in worse shape, and they scratched up every case new case they put on the system. They replaced that computer with a new one. In that time I got a new HP and that became my primary system. The Mac basically only got used to encode video every so often. It never left the desk. It had maybe 4 total hours of use every week. Yet, only a few months into owning it, the case started to fail. The classic failing at the corner where the magnetic latch touched the surface. Again, 3 more weeks of sending it back and forth until they got it right. Several months later, despite very little use, the case managed to fail in the same way as well as crack in another spot along the palmrest/top case, and it cracked in multiple spots along the bottom due to heat. Again, 3 more weeks of sending it back and forth because of Apple's inability to replace a case without scratching it up in the process. Finally, they replaced the LCD for some unknown reason, with a defective one. At that point they replaced the system with a UniBody unit.
Now if you want to talk "time is money", had my Mac been my only system, I would have been out of the game for two and a half months there. That is unacceptable.
A Mac certainly doesn't contain all I need out of the box either. I still need video conversion tools, I still need chat apps other than iChat because not everyone uses AIM, you still need things like Perian and Flip4Mac. If you're a movie buff, you need Windows because DVD Player is about as good as WinDVD 2.3 from 10 years ago.
I also want to point out that Windows Preview (for viewing pictures view Explorer (not IE)) is FAR better than the Preview app in OS X. FAR better. But Vista comes with Windows Photo Gallery which is every bit as good as iPhoto for minor editing and photo organizing and viewing.
Windows Media Player, with ffdshow, will play ANY file type and do nearly anything you want with audio. With OS X you basically have no choice but to use iTunes. On a PC, however, you have a wide variety of choices. On my PC I use Winamp. Its small, light, has Milkdrop (untouchable by any iTunes visualizer) and the sound processing engine is better than that in iTunes. On my Mac I have iTunes, Quicktime, Perian, and VLC since theres no all-in-one solution.
I'd rather spend a bit more to get something that is perhaps more complete in its content, than to look for all these crazy, better, and cheaper software alternatives hoping to make a PC just as functional as a Mac.
My PC is far more functional than my Mac
I don't have to pay the protection racket that is virus subs.
You don't on a PC either. It takes a lot of hard work on the users part to infect their system with malware these days. Plus AVG is better than the paid stuff and free.
I'm not permanently installing patches.
It's funny you say that, because if I were to do a fresh install of OS X right now I'd be downloading over 1GB worth of updates all around. With Vista it'd be about 300MB.
I don't have to worry about various manufacturers blaming other manufacturers hardware/components when something goes wrong.
You realize that Apple's computers are built from components made by different manufacturers, right?
Meanwhile for that "little extra money upfront" I can:
Is paranoia a prerequisite? I've used both platforms for 15-20 years and the above doesn't come close to describing the experience with either one.
Now Im from the UK so I don't know what its like over there, but Vista comes free when you buy a PC here, and you generally get antivirus to. As for support Im not sure where you go to pay for it, everyone I know either googles the problem (if they actually get one) or asks the IT guy at work who generally only knows about PC's. Plus what is iLife really worth to anyone £10-£20 maybe.
It could also be argued that Macs last longer as there to expensive to replace or repair. The iBook I'm using at the moment has lasted a good 4-5 years, although saying that it has slowed down a lot for no apparent reason, the battery is so dead if you unplug it it will go off instantly and the DVD drive broke a while ago. But the free support at the Apple store were great, they looked at my machine and gave me a price higher than a PC laptop just to replace the DVD drive.
HP Photosmart Essentials looks exactly like iPhoto as far as UI and the way it works
Screenshots or it didn't happen
If you want to talk "time is money", then lets talk about my experience with Apple, shall we?
I've owned a Mac for a little over 2 years now. In that time I've had 2 warranty replacements due to botched repairs thanks to bad build quality. My first Mac was my "primary" system. Within 6 months of owning it and being "babied", it managed to start to come apart in multiple areas due to heat and the optical drive failed. It took a month sending it back and forth to Apple because they failed to fix it, the optical drive ended up being in worse shape, and they scratched up every case new case they put on the system. They replaced that computer with a new one. In that time I got a new HP and that became my primary system. The Mac basically only got used to encode video every so often. It never left the desk. It had maybe 4 total hours of use every week. Yet, only a few months into owning it, the case started to fail. The classic failing at the corner where the magnetic latch touched the surface. Again, 3 more weeks of sending it back and forth until they got it right. Several months later, despite very little use, the case managed to fail in the same way as well as crack in another spot along the palmrest/top case, and it cracked in multiple spots along the bottom due to heat. Again, 3 more weeks of sending it back and forth because of Apple's inability to replace a case without scratching it up in the process. Finally, they replaced the LCD for some unknown reason, with a defective one. At that point they replaced the system with a UniBody unit.
Now if you want to talk "time is money", had my Mac been my only system, I would have been out of the game for two and a half months there. That is unacceptable.
Okay fair enough you had a bad experience, but that is by no means the norm. Most of what I said is pretty much a given when it comes to Windows. I agree, it was unacceptable. But in my 10 years of owning computers my Macs have all been way more reliable than my Windows boxes.
A Mac certainly doesn't contain all I need out of the box either. I still need video conversion tools, I still need chat apps other than iChat because not everyone uses AIM, you still need things like Perian and Flip4Mac. If you're a movie buff, you need Windows because DVD Player is about as good as WinDVD 2.3 from 10 years ago.
If computers came with ALL we needed out of the box there would be no 3rd party market. So that's a stupid point to make really.
AIM is most popular in the US (Apple's primary market), where it outnumbers Windows/MSN Messenger easily. Messenger, Skype and all other chat programs are FREE, so that doesn't matter.
Perian and Flip4Mac are also free. DVD Player plays DVDs, that's it's sole purpose. What else to you want it to do? And a "Movie buff" would be watching their movies on a big ass HDTV and they probably wouldn't be watching a DVD, they'd be watching a Blu-ray on a PS3 or a Blu-ray Player.
I also want to point out that Windows Preview (for viewing pictures view Explorer (not IE)) is FAR better than the Preview app in OS X. FAR better. But Vista comes with Windows Photo Gallery which is every bit as good as iPhoto for minor editing and photo organizing and viewing.
Windows Preview can view (and make minor changes to) pictures only.
Preview can:
- View and Edit Images (to a greater level than Windows Preview).
- View and Modify PDF files.
- Mark up and Annotate PDFs.
Windows Photo Gallery has absolutely nothing on iPhoto (except maybe 'tags').With iPhoto you can:
- Use Geo-Location Services.
- Use Face Detection and Facial Recognition.
- Order professionally printed photo books.
- Order professionally printed cards from your photos.
- Order professionally printed calendars from your photos.
- Produce very professional looking slideshows with a couple of clicks and have them added to a DVD.
- Easily share your photos on the internet to Facebook/Flickr/MobileMe.
- Have your photos easily organised for you into logical and useful categories.
iPhoto still has vastly superior editing capabilities to Photo Gallery too. Don't underestimate the power of "skimming" either in iPhoto, it's quite useful.Windows Media Player, with ffdshow, will play ANY file type and do nearly anything you want with audio. With OS X you basically have no choice but to use iTunes.
The file type isn't really the problem, most of the time it's codecs (of which Windows is also missing a ton [otherwise why would the Klite codec packs exist]).
So what about using iTunes, it's better than WMP still. Don't forget for the "player" part there is also Quicktime, which is infinitely more capable than WMP (as long as you have the codecs).
On a PC, however, you have a wide variety of choices. On my PC I use Winamp. Its small, light, has Milkdrop (untouchable by any iTunes visualizer) and the sound processing engine is better than that in iTunes. On my Mac I have iTunes, Quicktime, Perian, and VLC since theres no all-in-one solution.
Windows doesn't have any all-in-one solution either. And besides once you've installed Perian you only really need to use Quicktime, you don't need to interact with anything else.
[QUOTE=mosx;1395949]My PC is far more functional than my Mac
I already use my ExpressCard slot for a TV tuner, which leaves all of my USB ports free.
I've got an HDTV for watching TV on. It's more fit for the job than any computer will ever be.
You don't on a PC either. It takes a lot of hard work on the users part to infect their system with malware these days. Plus AVG is better than the paid stuff and free.
No it doesn't, for the average user (i.e. not nerdy/geeky types like us) it can be as simple as visiting a trusted site that uses legitimate advertising banners but has some nefarious adverts served to it (as was the case with MySpace) and you can be carpet bombed with a vast number of viruses/malware.
It's funny you say that, because if I were to do a fresh install of OS X right now I'd be downloading over 1GB worth of updates all around. With Vista it'd be about 300MB.
Obviously a clean install will have updates. It's not the size of the updates, but the quantity that's the problem. The 1GB of OS X updates requires 1 reboot due to it being a "Combined Update". Vista require god knows how many reboots as there are about 300 incremental updates which require reboots and won't let you do the rest until you have rebooted and then you get offered even more updates.
Windows Update mechanism is a joke.