1 post tagged “itunes”

Well the iMac arrived  2 Tuesdays ago, and life hasn't been the same since.  It is not often I can say this sort of thing but it is exactly as fun and exciting as I had hoped it would be (you know, for a computer).  Contrary to the popular "Get a Mac" commercials from Apple, I didn't automatically sit down and create a  Hollywood epic, nor record a Grammy Award winning album within seconds of pulling the thing out of the box, BUT it certainly has been very intuitive thus far, with a moderate amount of difficulty getting certain printers working (but that was more of a  "networking with a  WinXP PC" thing.  And I've been lazy, and too busy playing with various iLife programs on the Mac).

So far, my greatest surprise has been how easy it was for the Mac to see my Windows machine (and it's various shared drives).  That led to a networking revelation, and a major change to what Jenn can see on her WinXP laptop, from my downstairs computers.  I have also been impressed with how integrated all the software that comes on the Mac is with each other (ie: pulling in iTunes tracks for a slideshow in iPhoto; allowing the use of GarageBand tracks as soundtrack for use in iMovie HD; etc).  This is the exact type of "cross pollination" that I had always wished for in the Windows beasts, and never really got (autonomous programs, was the term I believe I used at one point.  In sports terms, a group of players, rather than a team).

I did go back and switch my iPod to being a Mac iPod VS a Windows iPod (as I did with Jenn's too), because frankly,

the thing just sync's up better with my Mac (doesn't hurt that the Mac has about 45 bazillion times the processor power than my 5+ year old WinXP box.  Imagine that!).  Getting the tunes back over to the iPod was time consuming, but it got them all with no problems.  Playlists and all.  Really nice to have a "jukebox" in my computer again (my Windows soundcard seems to have died, so you can only hear anything through a set of USB headphones.  Sigh).

Here's the most impressive thing of all:  we ordered the iMac on a Friday.  It was here, and ready for pickup 5 days later.  Now I realize that I didn't order anything too outrageous (increased RAM to 2 GB, and upgraded the video card to the best available), but 5 DAYS!  Wow!  They told me that they guaranteed my having it by Jan 24th (which would have been 3 days ago, a full 8 days AFTER I actually got it).  This would fall under the category of telling people something that you KNOW you can achieve, and then wowing them when you do it EVEN quicker.  Much better than the alternative (which I believe I had with my WinXP system.  No wonder those guys went out of business). 

In short, I'm happy happy happy with my choice.  Still to come, hopefully some original projects, more installation of software (Delicious Library and Parallels, you may be next), and if I can wean myself completely off the XP box, possibly switching my old box to Linux of some sort (or at least a dual boot system).  In the meantime, a happy (moderately crazy) picture of the new owner, and his new friend.