Apple Fanboys Rejoice: Lots of New Goodies

The new iPhone operating system,
from CultOfMac

Apple released a whole bunch of news about their product lines this week, sending the Cult of Mac (which is overdue for a name change) into a quivering puddle of mess. I'm primarily a PC and Android user, so I can mostly just roll my eyes, but I also have a MacBook Pro as my laptop, so I can also wonder what the new OS X 10.9 "Mavericks" has in store for me. Provided it will run on my not brand-new system. And what's up with Mavericks? All of the previous releases have been named after cats. They couldn't think of a better cat than a Mountain Lion?

Anyway, the iWorld will be abuzz for a few weeks, taking the thunder away from the new Android phones, and the new upgrade to Windows 8.  It's just hard to read about it all, if you're brave and enter the comments sections of any of the Apple news sites. Apple fans are insufferably "superior," much of the time, and they've inspired a bunch of backlash from "fandroids" and PC fans. It can be entertaining, but it's kind of stupid. By now, you can buy an awesome phone and a very cool computer for any platform. Personal preference shouldn't have an attitude.

That said, I think the new iPhone interface, iOS 7, looks kind of cartoony. The aim is "flat," which seems to be the new thing for everybody. Dropping excessive gradients, shadows, lens flares and the like makes for a cleaner look. And Apple didn't go completely stark. But I'm not sure this sets itself too far away from Samsung, itself saddled with some cartoonish icons. And as an Android user, I still don't like the iOS default app tray start screen. I much prefer having a start screen, with the clock, weather, frequently used apps. I wonder if iOS 7 allows that kind of modification?

Anyway, for the most part I don't really care, so here's where you go if you do care:

Cult of Mac

Or here, if you want a little less slobber: MSN

How Do I Justify Buying an iPad?

All my phones, from 1995 to 2013

I have too many screens in my life. I spend all day at work with my PC's 22" flat panel screen a foot from my face. While there, I frequently check my Android phone for things. I spend roughly 9 hours all said, and I head home. In the car, I have a stereo/backup camera screen in the car, which interfaces with my phone if I want it to. When I get home, I plug my Android phone into the USB cable to my desktop PC with its 23" screen. But I don't turn the PC on when I get home.

If I have sufficient motivation, I may go for a 3-4 mile walk, in which case, I'll unplug that phone, and pop in some earphones for my walk, periodically checking the screen for mail, messages, and to change what I'm listening to. Back home at last, I put the phone back on the PC to charge, get cleaned up, and head to the family room, where I have a 60" DLP HDTV. Off to one side, is my MacBook Pro 15", which will migrate to my lap, to the arm of the couch and back again for as long as I watch whatever I have on the big TV.

This screen lost its marbles last month, so I upgraded
to a newer MacBook Pro

I may make dinner with the big TV running in the background, or maybe take a brief break from screens while I prepare the meal. But more often than not, I'll take my dinner plate into my office, and put it in front of the PC screen. I'll usually turn on the 20" flat panel desk HDTV. I will then spend an obscene amount of time with two screens, maybe three if you count the times I check on the phone. 

You'd think that when I head to the john, I'd be free of screens. But no. I have a  cheapie Andoid 4.0 tablet, bought mostly as a reader, and I'll sometimes take it to the loo to play Scramble or Words With Friends. But because the tablet is so slow, I'm more likely to just take the phone in there for the same purpose. Through all of this time at home, The Other Half is using his own screens (if not sharing mine), and will sit in his own office on his 21" flat panel on his PC,  or lay in bed, watching the 39" HDTV we have in there.

The screen in my car

Doesn't this amount to a less functional version
of my MacBook Pro?

Whew! That's a long way to go to illustrate the absurd amount of time we spend (well, me mostly) with 1, 2 or 3 screens going. In fact, it is a rare moment when I don't have one nearby. In a few weeks, I will be upgrading my phone (a near antique 2010 Evo) for either the HTC One or the Samsung Galaxy S4, either way a 5" screen. I've already upgraded the MacBook, and will shortly be giving The Other Half my i5 PC, and upgrading to Windows 8 in my office.

So, really. How can I justify buying an iPad? I'm never away from a screen, or computing device. And while an iPad would undoubtedly take up less room than my MacBook Pro, I use that puppy. I'm a touch-typist, and use graphics  programs,  both things better suited to a full-fledged computer. Whichever new phone I get,  its near-tablet size will be much larger than my current phone. Other than "I want one," what possible justification do I have for getting an iPad?

Does "because I want one" justify spending hundreds of dollars for a toy? I'll give Apple this much: they have a talent for inventing expensive items you never needed, but really, really want.

The Mac Experiment, Continued: The Cult of Mac is Trying to Convert Me. . .

No, nobody knocked on my door. They didn't stick a pamphlet in my door, or hang a tract on my gate. But the Apple Cult is working its magic on me. It's a slow creep, and it's taken 2-1/2 years, but I have to say, I'm at least partially in their thrall this week.

Last week was a different story--as I related here at the time--when my second (admittedly used) Macintosh laptop experienced a useability problem. My first try at the iUniverse was a PowerBook G4 that was insufferably and unusably slow. My second was a decent MacBook Pro (first generation), that had a video card meltdown. I was essentially the victim of an unrealized, and too late recall. And so, my little experiment in dabbling in the OS X side of things--while keeping my PC/Windows 7 main system--had experienced its second major roadblock.

Noooooooooooo!

The first time, I got my used Mac at 5+ years old, and for $300. The second time, I sold the old (plus some other computer equipment), and paid $650ish for an almost 4 year old system, almost breaking even overall price-wise. The third time, I was faced with a $550 repair, and instead bought a third Mac in less than 3 years for $860. This one is 3-3/4 years old refurb, and when you do the math of what it would have cost to fix the old one, plus the $200 I sold the broken one for, I actually came close to breaking even again, and got a newer/better computer.

How much better? Oh-so-much better! I didn't know what I did not know, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld. While my first-gen MacBook Pro was plenty useable before its "little problem," it wasn't a) as pretty as this newer one, nor b) as all-around better. I love the keyboard. I love the screen. I love the way the aluminum case looks. It is faster at almost everything. Setting it up right out of the box--and I'm a PC guy used to tweaking and fiddling for hours--was nearly effortless. Though I'm only moderately familiar with where and how to set up Mac stuff, I got all of my info entered and done within minutes. But that's not all.

My software isn't this obscure, but it seems
as unlikely to work on a Mac.

This system came with "Parallels" and Windows 7 installed and ready to go. I use a particular kind of software for my sign graphics business that is PC only. It couldn't possibly work on my Mac, right? Not even with emulation software. Wrong! It runs, and runs perfectly. I was able to copy all of my system files to a USB thumb drive, copy them over and set them up in no time. I was only hindered by the download time for the software, and that was only because I didn't feel like moving from one end of the house to the end my wireless router is in.

Next, I went back to my PC, to get my (very cumbersome, very unintuitive) iOmega Cloud Drive to communicate with the Mac. This is not a PC problem but an iOmega problem (which is now apparently Lenovo EMC's problem, since they've changed hands). Still, once I got the info sent to the Mac, it was smooth sailing. Bada-bing, bada-boom. And the icing on the cake? When I went to set up the MacBook Pro to my wireless all-in-one Lexmark printer? No joke, done in 10 seconds flat.

So now--as long as I'm thinking ahead and take the special USB fob my graphics software needs--I can travel with my MacBook Pro to anywhere in the world, access my files from my home cloud drive, and through Windows 7 work on any of my projects for either of my jobs! I'll never be free from work again! Yay?

Okay, I don't love my Mac this much. . .

Bottom line, this was the easiest setup of any computer ever in my career as "guru." How long until I'm as proficient on the Mac side as I am on the PC side? Soon, I hope. But it's the hardware side that worries me. While it's fair to say that all laptops are a challenge if something goes wrong with the hardware, I'm finding that Macs don't age particularly gracefully, and that Apple kind of washes their hands of them at a fairly young age (the hipster "genius" with the lensless glasses at the Apple Store barely disguised his contempt for my 5-year-old ailing Mac).  So it's not all unicorns and rainbows. Still, I'm impressed, and I have a smile on my face when I use my new(ish) Mac!

My Newer (But Still Old) MacBook Pro

Right in the middle of Christmas shopping, and other holiday obligations, I developed an obsession with replacing my decrepit first Mac, an old PowerBook G4 15. It was in its day--January 2005--a top of the line machine. But bargain basement PCs of the same era could run rings around it. The whole point of getting a Mac laptop was to learn it, particularly the Adobe suite of graphics software. With the PowerBook's slowness, it just wasn't possible.

Yes, Travis, this is the one I got. Yours is better. Got it.

So, I was on a quest. I didn't want a $1000 - $2500 system, especially not so recently after my $800 PC purchase. So, my eBay quest was for a MacBook Pro before the redesign of late 2008. Those are insanely  expensive for used computers. So, the target window was 2006-2008. I lost several sales, and was relieved when I started to notice the processor speeds. But I got a little obsessed, and put a bid on one with everything I wanted, but had a few flaws.

I panicked when nobody bid against me in the waning minutes of the auction. But once it sunk in that I'd won it, I made a plan. I posted my old Mac, my old PC laptop and some software on eBay, and they ended up selling for almost the same amount as what I paid. Wonderful. I tracked the shipment, and was dismayed when it arrived in Las Vegas on Friday night, but would not arrive until Monday.

But now it's Monday! My computer arrived and, a) the flaws in the finish were much less objectionable than they'd appeared in the photo, b) the computer is much, much faster than the old one, c) the computer has much more software on it than advertised, d) the power cable was brand new, and gleaming white, and e) it has un-advertised flaw: some bright-spots in the display that look like eyeball floaters.

I think I'll get used to  them, but it's slightly irritating. It is outweighed though, by the improvement over the old one! Here I am, blogging. That was nearly impossible with the old one. Should even an aging top-of-the-line Mac fail at blogging? Well, what a difference three years makes, I guess. It makes me wonder though, if this one will become a doorstop in three more years. Guess I'll find out.

SIDEBAR: This is an aside to any Cult of Mac-ers out there. My quest for a new(er) Mac was very, very illuminating. It would seem that Macs are not immune to problems. In fact, the number of damaged, broken, troubled used Macs for sale online is higher than the good ones. Screen troubles, drive troubles, clasp troubles, battery troubles, "for parts only". . . Apple's dirty secret is out! Not only that, their users have a habit of denting, breaking and just basically knocking the crap out of their computers!  And then they want the frickin' moon when it comes to resale value!

And then there was my attempt to make a CD-backup of Lion after I installed it. I went to several sites, all of which told me to find the Lion Installer program. Which doesn't exist. This process is--so far--exactly like trying to do a similar thing on a PC. Except, on a PC I generally know what to do!