Confessions Of a Mac Switcher

I must confess to never having owned an iPod, nor any other MP3 player. But last month good friends of mine finally took pity and gave me the best present ever – an iPod touch. Apart from the to-be-expected “0ohs” and “Aahs” over its sleek design and cool built-in applications, it has really been a joy of discovery to find out its many uses.

The first thing you’ll be asked when you plug into iTunes is whether you want to purchase the latest upgrade through the iTunes Store. In my case it was worth the extra money as the upgraded software included the ability to connect to Microsoft Outlook at my workplace, allowing me to track email on my iPod anywhere I go within Wi-Fi range at my college campus. My Outlook calendar also magically synced to my iPod calendar at the same time this mail account was configured.

The thing I’ve enjoyed most about this device is the ability to upload holiday photos and movies via iTunes to show colleagues and friends.  Expect more “0ohs” and “Aahs” when you pinch the screen to zoom in or out, pan an image, or when you initiate photo viewing in slideshow mode.

However, be warned that uploading movies to your Touch may first require you to convert them into a format compatible with an iPod. This is quickly done if you have Quicktime Pro: First open it in Quicktime and choose File > Export.  Then, from the Export dropdown menu, select the Movie to iPod option. Formatting will automatically commence.

The Wi-Fi enabled Safari Web browser is great for checking RSS feeds. No more downtime for me in long drawn out meetings - talk about multitasking. By default the search engine is Google, but can be changed to Yahoo via the Settings application.

Another word of advice: If you keep Wi-Fi permanently switched on, you’ll quickly drain the battery - requiring a recharge every day. To avoid this, go to Settings > Wi-Fi and switch the Wi-Fi option to Off when not checking email or surfing the Web. Simply reverse this procedure when you wish to reconnect to Wi-Fi again.

And let’s not forget the multitude of iPod touch applications that can be downloaded from the iTunes store (many of them free of charge). This is what makes this device truly great; each day cool applications are being devised that extend your iPod touch into an even better personal digital assistant than it already is.

by Brian Nielsen

يجب ان اعترف بانني لم امتلك ايبود قط او حتي مشغل MP3 ولكن الشهر الماضي احد اصدقائي الاعزاء اعطاني افضل هدية حصلت عليها علي الاطلاق الا وهي جهاز ايبود تاتش المثير للاعجاب بسبب التصميم الجذاب و التطبيقات الموجودة بة و بطبيعة الحال كان اكتشاف الاستخدامات المتعددة للجهاز متعة ما بعدها متعة.
اول سؤال سوف يطرح عليك عندما تفتح برنامج ايتيونز هو اذا ما كنت ترغب في شراء احدث التعديلات من متجر ايتيونز و بالفعل لم اتردد في ذلك حيث ان التحديث الذي اجريتة يشمل امكانية الربط ببرنامج ميكروسوفت اوت لوك الخاص بمكان عملي مما سمح لي بالاطلاع علي بريدي الاليكروني عن طريق الايبود في كل مكان ذهبت الية مغطي بواي فاي (Wi-Fi) كما ان تقويم برنامج اوت لوك توافق مع تقويم جهازي الايبود في نفس اللحظة التي تم التعرف فيها علي الحساب.
الميزة التي تمتعت بها كثيراً هي امكانية تحميل صور و افلام العطلات التي قمت بتصويرها عن طريق برنامج ايتيونز لكي يراها اصدقائي و بالطبع يمكنك تخيل صيحات الاعجاب التي تصدر من الاخرين كلما قمت بتكبير او تصغير الصور او حتي عرضها تتابعياً (slide show).
يجب ان تعلم ان تحميل الافلام علي الايبود قد يتطلب تغيرها الي نمط اخر متعارف علية من قبل ايبود، الامر يتم بمنتهي السهولة اذا كنت تستخدم برنامج (Quicktime Pro)، كل ما عليك فعلة هو فتح Quicktime Pro و اختيار File ثم Export بعد ذلك اختر  Movie to iPod من قائمة Export المنسدلة عندها سيتم تغيير  النمط اوتوماتيكياً
برنامج سفاري لتصفح الانترنت يوفر خاصية عظيمة لتفقد مواقع RSS (احدث التغيرات) مما يوقف اهدار الوقت اثناء اجتماعات العمل.
محرك البحث مضبوط تلقائياً علي موقع Google ولكنك تستطيع تغييرة الي Yahoo من خاصية Settings.
شيء  اخر يجب ان تعلمة و هو ان ابقائك علي Wi-Fi مفتوحاً دائماً يسبب ضعف البطارية و يتطلب شحن الجهاز كل يوم و لكي تتجنب ذلك اذهب الي Settings ثم Wi-Fi ثم اختر خاصية اغلاق الواي فاي عندما تكون لا تتصفح الانترنت او تتفقد بريدك الإلكتروني، و لكي تتصل مجدداً بالانترنت اعكس ما قمت بة.
يجب ان لا ننسي التطبيقات المتعددة التي يمكن تحميلها علي الايبود من خلال متجر ايتيونز- الغالبية العظمي منها مجانية - مما يجعل هذا الجهاز بحق رائع حيث ان هناك دائماً الجديد كل يوم مما يحسن اداء الايبود لكي يصبح مساعدك الشخصي الإلكتروني.
ياللعجب !!! هل ذكرت انكم تستطيعون الاستماع الي الموسيقي عن طريق الايبود؟

Confessions of a Mac Beginner

When I started using Macs the concept of “switcher” didn’t exist. It was back in 1986 – yes, I’m showing my age here – and I was working for the summer at a factory. I was in high school and studied electrical engineering and I had managed to get a nice summer gig basically sitting in an office, playing with a PC, and doing some programming. My main job was doing some customization to one of their databases and it was on one of those plain, beige PCs and this was pre-Windows days so it was just text-based DOS all the way. That job was a really good experience and I learned a lot but the best part of that whole summer was that I started using a Mac.

At the office there was a Mac Plus collecting dust in a corner. It was just sitting there, next to an ImageWriter printer, and I don’t think anyone used it all summer that I can remember at least. I’d never used a Mac but I turned it on one day, checked out the manuals, and started using MacWrite and MacPaint all day long, printed my creations on the ImageWriter, and played long hours of Dark Castle. I still remember what the bats sounded likewhen you hit them with the rocks.

After a little time I even started programming the Mac. There was some Pascal version on it and that was so exciting, making the Mac Plus do different things. So I wasn’t a Switcher really, I was a Beginner. Some time after the Mac Plus experience I bought my first Mac, a IIcx, and it’s not really stopped since then with the Macs. Back then, DOS was amazing to me, the things I could make that computer do. But the Mac was just in another league. For the recent switchers, try to imagine a small 9-inch black and white display (512×384 pixels) and booting and running from one floppy drive. What was so different was the whole experience. Apple seemed to care about every little detail, they seemed to want to make it fun and creative to use a computer.

So that was my story of how I started using a Mac. Now tell us yours. Email it to 
contact@emiratesmac.com.

By Magnus Nystedt

Confessions of a Mac Switcher

Since music is such an important part of our lives, it’s only natural that iTunes figures largely in Apple’s suite of digital lifestyle applications.

Being the main interface to iPods, iTunes seems to pervade the lives of a Mac user (and many PC users nowadays); providing useful links to places such as “iPod Help” and “iPod Service and Support”, and connecting to the iTunes Music Store - the top music download store.

The first thing a switcher notices is its simple interface, making it easy to filter songs or create playlists to play songs in a certain order.

I especially like the counter at the top of the iTunes interface, telling you how far into the song you are, and how much longer you have to listen to that specific song.
Transferring music to your iTunes player is easy as well. If you insert a CD, the iTunes picks it up and asks if you’d like to import it. If you ever move the music to another folder, iTunes alerts you that it’s not in the same spot and asks you to browse for it.
Another nice feature of iTunes is “Coverflow”, which looks sweet when you’re browsing a collection of albums. However, this depends on how much cover art you have in your collection, and I find it frustrating that iTunes makes you sign in to get cover art. I can only conclude this is done as a means of keeping track of what music has been legitimately downloaded from the iTunes store. Windows Media Player (WMP), by constrast, can’t connect to an iPod or to the iTunes Music Store. However, WMP does allow you to transfer music to more portable devices than iTunes, and WMP users have their choice of several music stores - unlike the “one-store” option of iTunes.

However, it seems counter-productive to engage in an iTunes vs Windows Media Player debate; Both these players achieve their particular purpose well. The Windows switcher will soon come to recognize that the greatest strength of iTunes is its flawless integration with the other iLife applications.

Want to add a soundtrack from iTunes to your video project using iMovie? Easily done by clicking on iTunes in the media library. How about adding an audio message to an iWeb site page? No problem - After producing a podcast episode in Garageband you can save it in your iTunes library and drag it from this library onto the iWeb page.

iLife is about organizing your digital photos, music and movies, and creating something new from this collected information to showcase to friends and family. iTunes’ contribution to this process is certain to be recognized by the Windows switcher as integral. Besides, where else would you go to upload music to your iPod?

by Brian Nielsen

Confessions of a Mac Switcher

iLife – It’s taken me a while as a Windows switcher, but I’m finally starting to get it. Simply put, the concept behind iLife applications is that digital media organization and editing should be so easy to carry out that you can imagine your non-technical mother or father doing so with iLife, without being daunted by the complexity of the task.
I now understand the awesome power iPhoto and iMovie deliver to the amateur photographer/movie editor. They might not be as all encompassing as professional media editors such as Photoshop or Final Cut Pro, but their beauty lies in the ability to perform the bulk of digital media editing needs that any amateur photographer/home movie-maker would require.

In the last issue, I described how iPhoto comes with editing controls - similar to what you see in Photoshop, with which to adjust shadow, contrast, highlight and noise reduction, and the ability to copy and paste corrections to other images. These features make iPhoto valuable to even serious amateur photographers.

Likewise, iMovie ’08 must be appreciated by the serious amateur movie editor, as it comes complete with quick and simple ways to alter your footage: You can crop the video or adjust the color or exposure as you would a photo in iPhoto, and select and trim footage effortlessly. Titles can also be added to an iMovie project and the fonts altered to your taste, and transitions applied manually between two scenes or automatically to all scene changes in an entire iMovie project.

Another major feature is its sharing capability: In addition to being able to publish to your own iTunes Library in a variety of sizes, you can also publish to the new .Mac Web Galleries and to YouTube (publishing to YouTube can be achieved in less than four clicks). You’re also provided the option of exporting your movie in four different sizes: Tiny, Mobile, Medium, and Large – depending on the viewing device: iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, or Computer.

Want to add audio or still photos to your movie? iMovie allows you to easily bring in music from your iTunes library or via GarageBand and add the audio as background music or sound effects. You can also bring in stills and video from iPhoto to add to your iMovie project.

One criticism I have is that the default option to export from iMovie to iDVD now involves compressing your movie twice: iMovie first turns the video into MPEG4, and then iDVD converts that to MPEG2, a process that reduces quality. To maintain the highest quality, you’ll have to use iMovie’s “Export Using QuickTime” option to convert the content to a DV file, and then drag it into iDVD – a process that is unintuitive and clumsy.

Windows switchers shouldn’t consider iMovie ‘08 as a competitor to Windows leaders like Pinnacle Studio or Ulead VideoStudio – the equivalent to Apple’s Final Cut Express. However, iMovie ‘08 is much faster and easier to use than those products and, as an entry-level video-editing program, it is far superior to Windows Movie Maker.

by Brian Nielsen

Confessions of a Mac Switcher

I am now two months into my conversion as a Mac switcher, and in this article I hope to share some of the discoveries I’ve made regarding both iPhoto and the Dock.
I’ll start first with the Dock, which essentially consists of a series of minimized icons sitting at the bottom of your desktop window, which act to provide a convenient shortcut to opening applications, documents and folders.
A switcher must first understand that the Dock is divided into two parts: a left and right side, distinguished by a faint dotted line that sits between the application icons and the trash can. Applications sit on the left side of this dotted line, and new applications can be added permanently to the dock by simply dragging them from the Finder.
So what goes on the right side of the Dock’s dotted line? The answer is folders called ‘Stacks’ and minimized windows of running applications. A ‘stack’ is a folder full of items that you’ve dragged into the dock, which can display in unique ways – i.e. individual files can be made to display as a grid, a fan, or as a list.
One very nice feature of the Dock is that you can open documents by simply dragging a file onto an application’s icon.
Although the above explanation of the Dock’s main functionality may appear obvious to a seasoned Mac user, it does provide a challenge to a switcher, who is more familiar with working with applications and documents in Windows XP through the Taskbar.
In Windows XP, application icons stored in the Taskbar are used solely for document launching purposes. Once an application is launched from the Start > Programs menu, taskbar buttons appear for each open document in that application. Once all the documents of a specific application are closed, the application quits. In this regard it can be claimed that the Windows Taskbar is “document-based”, whereas the Mac OS X Dock is more “application-based”.
For a switcher, the taskbar is sure to be missed, because it still makes a lot of sense. You can immediately see what applications and documents are currently running, whereas the Dock mixes applications that are running with applications that are launchable. Also, multiple instances of applications are instantly apparent in the Taskbar, but not in the Dock.
Regardless of these different points of departure regarding design, the Dock and the Windows Taskbar equally achieve their designed purpose: to provide the user with an efficient (though quite different) method of working with applications and documents.

Now let’s turn to iPhoto, the first of the iLife suite of applications that I’ve had a chance to use. It’s best to think of iPhoto as both a photo management and photo editing application. I would first warn any switcher that its usage is not very intuitive, and can be very frustrating if you attempt a trial-and-error approach to learning it. However, using a methodical approach is sure to yield quick mastery over its rich features.
The iPhoto Help menu is a great place to begin such methodical training, as it presents information under categories of functionality (i.e. importing and organizing photos, viewing and editing images, and sharing photos electronically and in print). Video tutorials can also be accessed through this iPhoto Help menu.
As an amateur photographer who deals mainly with holiday snapshots, I think iPhoto is great. To begin with, it offers the ability to preview thumbnails before selecting photos for import, and allows me the option of importing only those photos I have selected.
Switchers should try not to get too bogged down over understanding the concept of “Events”. Basically, in an attempt to mimic the natural way we organize things in our lives (i.e. according to time or happenings), iPhoto auto-splits imported photos into the iPhoto library by date - depending on the preferences you’ve chosen. For example, if you imported wedding photos and birthday photos with the one-day event option selected in preferences, iPhoto would auto-split your photos into two different events - because each event had occurred on two separate days. However, if you don’t like the results of this auto-splitting, you can easily unite images into one event by Command + clicking two or more events > Events Menu > Merge Events.
You can also place chosen photos from one or more Events into a photo album. When you find you have too many albums, you can further organize these albums into folders so that the library source pane remains manageable. You may also create slideshows, books, calendars, and cards directly from your photos, without first creating an album. Switchers need to be aware that there are two types of slideshows: The first is a quick slideshow that offers parameters such as speed, image transition style, and the information to be displayed (e.g. title, date, etc.). The second is a slideshow project in which you can adjust the speed at which each individual image changes, apply a Ken Burns effect to each photo in the slideshow’s album, and adjust music settings. A word of warning - make sure no images are selected when you click on a slideshow icon or you’ll end up with a one-image sideshow!
One of the coolest things in iPhoto is the ability to export a slideshow to a Quicktime movie, which can then be burned to CD or DVD. All music and effects created within a slideshow project will also be exported along with the images as a Quicktime movie, which is a shareable format amongst both PC and Mac users.
iPhoto also comes equipped with a good range of photo editing tools that allow you to carry out both basic and advanced modifications to photos. Basic photo modifications include such things as cropping, straightening, red-eye correction, retouching to remove blemishes etc. You also have the ability to apply and combine several effects to photos, and the “Revert to original” command enables you to go back to a photo’s original state at any time – freeing you to experiment.
Advanced photo editing in iPhoto includes the ability to adjust levels and mid tones, and to attempt to correct levels of exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, sharpness and noise. A great time saver you’ll appreciate is the ability to copy-paste image setting adjustments to other photos shot at the same time under similar lighting conditions.
For the more advanced photographer requiring certain image functions beyond the scope of iPhoto, you can launch an external editor like Photoshop through iPhoto. However you must first set this up in your preferences.
So there you have it. In two months I think I’ve come a long way as a switcher. I now have a reasonable understanding of the essential features and file structure of my Mac, and have learnt to use one of its most commonly-used iLife applications - iPhoto. In my next article I hope to share with you new discoveries regarding another iLife application - iMovie, and also to report my attempts at using Exposé and Spaces.

by Brian Nielsen

Confessions of a Mac Switcher

Well I’m now a one-month veteran as a user of Mac OS X. There is so much that a Windows-to-Mac switcher needs to initially absorb. In this article I will focus on some of the main differences and concepts that a switcher must adapt to, but will limit my discussion mainly to two inbuilt applications of OS X: the Finder and Spotlight. It is important at the outset that the reader understands that any comparisons I make are between Mac OS X and Windows XP systems.
One of the most noticeable differences I have found as a Windows-to-Mac switcher is that contextual menus that were available to me on a Windows computer by right clicking the mouse are accessed on a Mac by holding Ctrl while pressing the mouse. I later discovered, however, that this same right-clicking functionality does exist on my Mac mouse, but only after first configuring the primary and secondary mouse buttons (Apple Menu > Systems Preferences > Keyboard and Mouse > Highlight “Mouse” tab > Select left side of mouse as primary and right side as secondary - or vice versa if you are a left-handed user).
Another thing a switcher must come to terms with is that the Ctrl key is not used in copy/paste keyboard shortcuts on a Mac (i.e. copy is Command + C). While this is initially frustrating, you soon realize how much more efficient it is to simply slide your thumb left or right of the space key to the command key to carry out cut/paste actions.
One of the first things that I would encourage any switcher to do is learn about the Finder. Although the name suggests it is an application that finds things, it’s much more: It not only enables viewing of folders in different views (i.e. Icon, List, Column and Cover Flow views), but also enables items within a window to be sorted and grouped by various criteria (e.g. kind of file, date, item name etc.). The Finder’s sidebar also holds shortcuts to locations on the user’s system.

One cool feature of the Finder is the ability to preview files using Quick Look (Select item > File menu > Quick Look, or just click on an icon and press the spacebar). This allows you to preview files as a thumbnail image if it is an image, or as small version of a text document that you can resize if need be.
Another cool feature of Mac OS X is spring-loaded folders. Instead of clicking folder upon folder to place an item deep within the hard drive hierarchy, you can simply drag the item over to the first folder in the hierarchy and the folder will spring open, revealing its contents. Drag the item to the next folder in the hierarchy, and so on, and each subsequent folder will continue to spring open – until you reach the final destination folder in which you wish to place the particular item.
I was initially surprised to find that unlike Windows, file extensions are not shown by default in a Mac. To view these go to Finder menu > Preferences > Advanced Tab (Select “Show all file extensions”).
A common mistake I repeatedly make as a Windows-to-Mac switcher is the tendency to click on the furthermost clear button in the upper-right corner of the Finder window in an attempt to close it – this action closes the side bar and tool bar. However, simply clicking this clear button again will return Finder to its original view.
A nice security feature that a switcher will appreciate is the ability to empty trash in a way that deleted documents can never again be recovered by a third party utility. This is done because Finder menu > Secure Empty Trash erases that part of the hard drive containing the file.
A switcher is sure to be confused by the term “Alias,” which is the Mac version of a Windows “Shortcut”. Although both are methods of creating a file that is a link to an item elsewhere in the file system, the OS X creation method is much more powerful than that used by Windows XP for the following reason:
Because XP shortcuts reference both the name and the file path, shortcut links will break if you move or rename the original item. This can cause delays while XP tries to relocate the linked item. In OS X, however, each file in the file system is given a unique ID number. This prevents broken links from ever being created; regardless of whether an item has been moved or renamed.
The switcher is sure to appreciate the power of Spotlight, which is an amazing search application because search scans are based on metadata, meaning that even if the search term appears as a word within a file, it will still show as a search result. Another nice aspect is that Spotlight is always available, no matter what application is open, and can be accessed by clicking on the magnifying icon the top of the desktop screen.
I absolutely love the ability to do so much within Spotlight: launch applications, look-up definitions or synonyms of words, Wikipedia entries related to the search term, or even perform arithmetic calculations. It even interprets the type of search info. that a switcher might be looking for. For example, Macs use the term “Background” for what Windows users call “Wallpaper “ – if a switcher were to type the term “Wallpaper”, Spotlight would associate these two terms and come up with “Change Background” as a result.
Another really sweet feature is the ability to click “Show All” to show results in a Finder-like window. This then allows you to further narrow searches by clicking search menu options at the top (e.g. by contents or by file name) This search can be even further narrowed by pressing the plus button to add a new condition (e.g. Kind is PDF AND Name matches Shuffle). These are some very powerful search functions, and are sure to be appreciated by the switcher who will soon realize the limitations of XP’s built-in search, which works fine for simple searching but is severely limited and much slower in comparison to Spotlight.
There is so much many more cool features I could add to those already mentioned concerning Finder and Spotlight – each of which is sure to surprise and delight a switcher. In my next article I hope to touch on my discoveries regarding the Dock, File Sharing, and iLife applications. There is still so much to learn, and such little time!

by Brian Nielsen

Confessions of a Mac Switcher

I have finally made a “backward conversion” to becoming a Mac user. I say “backward conversion” because the first computer I ever bought was a Mac (a Macintosh Perfora in 1996). However, because my workplace provided me with a free Windows PC and free software, and because a lot more software back then was being written extensively for Windows, I finally abandoned my Mac in favour of Windows 98. So why have I recently converted back?
My reasons seem to boil down to one thing in particular – I have slowly been won over by being constantly wowed by the cool things being done by the Mac-using colleague who sits next to me at work. I was amazed as he demonstrated things like Exposé and how the Dock works, its compatibility with MS Office documents, and the immediate sleeping & waking modes of his notebook.
One day I asked this colleague to explain the fundamental difference between Mac and Windows mentality. He proceeded to unplug his Mac laptop and turn it upside down, and did the same with my Dell laptop. He asked me, “What do you see at the bottom of these two laptops?” The difference was immediately obvious: the bottom of the Mac was sleek and flat, while the Dell contained a multitude of clutter (docking connector, fan intake, hard drive access etc.). My colleague, an avid Apple user, went on to explain, “The basic difference in mentality is that Apple begins its production process with the finished Mac design, and then challenges its engineers to fit the workings of the computer within this design. Microsoft, however, does this in the opposite direction: ultimately resulting in the Windows engineer demanding that the finished computer design be fitted around the workings of the computer.”
If this is true, and so far I have little reason to doubt it judging from the attention to detail that Apple puts into its products, it is truly amazing. It also explains why almost every person I know involved in graphic art or web design extensively uses a Mac; Apple seems to better appreciate design.
I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that Mac software is now being developed with native Intel support. Since web and graphic design are part of my job description, I am very happy to know that a Mac version of Adobe CS3 software is available. An added benefit is that all Macs using Mac OS X ship with the application suite iLife (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and iWeb) enabling me to create, organize, view and publish digital content such as pictures, movies, music, and web pages.
An important factor in me changing back to a Mac has been the realization that Macs run Microsoft Office, with all the features and shortcuts that I’ve grown accustomed to using with the Windows version of Office. Another important realization has been that, if I ever wish to, I can always install Virtual Machine software; enabling me to run multiple operating systems on my Mac.
So, I finally made the switch last week by buying my friend’s secondhand iMac (he’s upgrading to a Mac Pro). Incidentally, I’ve heard that an added advantage of owning a Mac is that you can get a higher resale price than if you were selling a Windows machine of comparable specifications.
I’m not going to pretend that my transition back to a Mac will be without its problems. And I hope to document some of these for readers over the next few issues of Shuffle – so hold on folks, it could be a bumpy ride!
by Brian Nielsen

Switcher Interview

Name: Sumudu Gunaratne
Job: Airline Manager
Mac: iMac 17-inch Intel
Switch date: March 8, 2006

Q: Why did you switch?
A: A friend at work had talked to me briefly about Mac Mini and so I fancied the idea of trying some thing new and different. So one evening I went over to Apple Store in Ibn Battuta Mall and bought my self a iMac.

Q: How did you find the Mac to start with?
A: Setting up was a piece of cake ! Just taking my iMac out of the box and connected the keyboard & Mouse. Once powered it up and turned on the’ fashionable & sexy thing’ for the first time, I was taken through the Mac OS X set up process to set up my user account painlessly. Plugging up my ADSL router, automatically detected router’s settings and configured itself to hook on to internet.

Q: What were the best things about it?
A: Simply, it’s a sleek, lovely and beautiful looking machine with an innovative OS. It has always been a pleasure and fun to work on my iMac. You got everything (software) you’d need coming with it for your family computing and home entertainment & stuff.

Q: What did you find difficult?
A: Well, in the beginning, it was mainly to get used to keyboard short cuts and that was it!

Q: Do you still use WIndows at all?
A: I have been using Mac for all my computing needs at home, including my nine year old daughter Stephanie. I don’t have PCs at home. However, at work; yes I use windows.

Q: Would you ever switch back?
A: I’ve been a home PC user since mid 90’s and discovered the Mac only last year and I wish it had been a much earlier; so I don’t think I’d go back.

Q: What would your advice be for other Windows users considering switching?
A: Just go for it ! I’ve had my lovely iMac since March last year and in the beginning I purchased and installed antivirus software, because of my unpleasant experiences with Windows previously. With Mac, I can’t believe no viruses, no trojans, no adware and no spyware. I think, this alone should be reason enough to switch from Windows to Mac!

Switcher Interview

Name: Klaus Lovgreen
Job: CEO
Mac: iMac and Macbook Pro
Date you bought it: October 2006 and January 2007 respectively

Q: Why did you switch? What triggered the decision?
A: I was impressed with the design and was fed up with Windows always hanging. The fact that the new Macs were able to run Windows gave me the comfort to switch as I could just run Windows if I needed it.

Q: How did you find the Mac to start with?
A: Very easy and intuitive to use - I faced no problems at all.

Q: What were the best things about it?
A: It generally just works and you can focus on what you are trying to do on your machine instead of spending a lot of time figuring out why something is not working and patching.

Q: What did you find difficult?
A: Converting all media to Mac friendly formats - not really difficult - but time consuming.

Q: Do you still use Windows at all?
A: Not unless I really have to - which has been a while now

Q: Would you ever switch back?
A: Not unless Apple suddenly loses it completely or Windows dramatically outperforms OSX - both scenarios highly unlikely.

Q: What would your advice be for other Windows users considering switching?
A: Just try it out - and if you are not impressed with OS X at least you will have a really pretty Windows box running it better than most PCs.

Switcher Interview

Name: Kirstie Hepburn
Job: PR & Events
Mac: MacBook Pro Core Duo
Switch date: Spring 2006

Q: Why did you switch?
A: I started as a Mac user at my first job at one of the Mirror Group’s newspapers. I had never really used a PC before that, and used a Mac solidly for 6 years. I only started using a PC when I left journalism in 2002. When I started, Macs were causing something of a revolution in the newspaper industry by replacing the old forms of printing, where letters were literally cut out and pasted on to the page. In those days, Macs were the indisputed tool of choice for design work, while people who didn’t need the publishing tools were encouraged to stick to PCs as you got more for your money and they were easier to fix. I made the decision to switch back less than a year ago. The addition of Powerpoint and Excel was a huge plus for me, while I had always been a fan of the designs. I bought a 15-inch MacBook Pro in June last year. I have always maintained that you are born a Mac or a PC person; my experiences haven’t altered that thought at all.

Q: How did you find the Mac to start with?
A: It was like riding a bike - the operating system is much more intuitive for me. It is perfect for my work, and the software and tools package works very well for me. I am looking at upgrading the RAM though: I always have a number of different programs on the go, and I am finding that the Mac is struggling a little. I was warned before I bought it that I should upgrade the RAM, but I didn’t listen!

Q: What were the best things about it?
A: The operating system and general stability, while its extreme good looks are a given!

Q: What did you find difficult?
A: There are still occasions where marketing material we have prepared does not translate or open into OSX. When we were doing pre-launch testing for a new website, there were a number of glitches that only appeared on the Mac. However, in the long run, it has been turned into a positive as we conduct much more rigorous testing in advance on both PC and Mac.

Q: Do you still use Windows at all?
A: Not on the Mac though it has the dual boot ability. I still keep my old laptop (Sony VAIO) at home, but it is only used for surfing the internet.

Q: Would you ever switch back?
A: No, I don’t think so.

Q: What would your advice be for other Windows users considering switching?
A: Make a list of what it is you need your computer to do. Chances are, a Mac will fulfil everything on that list. Also bear in mind the major saving in downtime because Macs are so less susceptible to viruses.

by istara

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