Tag Archive for: apple

Mac and PC

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I used Migration Assistant to move all of my applications and data from my old Mac to the new Mac. And, as expected, everything just works. The new Mac has everything from the old Mac. It took about ten hours to move all the data — roughly 300 Gigabytes — from the old machine.

Then the big test. Running Vista on the new Mac. I downloaded VMWare Fusion for the Mac. I originally intended to use Parallels except that Fusion was getting a lot of great reviews. I can see why. The easy install brought Vista up and running within 30 minutes. I have never installed a Windows operating system from scratch in such a short period of time.

I put up Vista Ultimate and I can either use it in full screen mode where it looks and acts just like a Wintel machine or I can keep it in a window just like any other Mac app.

I can finally ditch the second box in my office. I can run the few apps I still use from my PC on the Mac. The best of both worlds.

So cool. Below is a screen shot of Vista on my Mac desktop.

The Real Decision

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I had a number of readers poke me about yesterday’s post on the real decision that is at play. After all, getting a new Mac is hardly worth a long-winded perspective on decision-making frameworks. And I did get the new 3.06Ghz iMac last night. Beautiful machine. Stunning industrial design.

The real decision was obviously more significant than getting a new Mac. The real decision was whether I would run Windows on the new Mac.

In my office I currently run two PCs: a Vista machine that I use for managing my personal finances and a Mac that I use for everything else. The Mac is a great platform with two gaping holes from a software perspective: gaming and personal finance. Quicken and Money on the PC are simply head and shoulders above any Canadianized personal financial management software available on the Mac.

This new Mac is my first Intel-based machine. I can run Parallels and have Windows co-exist on the Mac with little, if any, performance degradation from my current setup. And with one less box, display, keyboard and mouse in the office.

I’m just not sure how to de-activate my current Vista license so that I can install it on the Mac. I guess I will find out. And the ability to have both platforms simultaneously available is quite appealing.

My decision has been made. I will run Windows on the Mac.

There is also another big decision that I made. More on that one next week.

Decision Making

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I had made a post on how to make decisions here. And the major decision that I have been wrestling with over the past several weeks has been made. But it was not easy. And I am still having second doubts.

Certain decisions can be made without too much risk. However, this decision was not like that. No. Not at all. And the decision does have significant consequences — potentially for years to come.

The decision was between a new camera, a new bike or a new Mac. After extensive research and many discussions, I have decided to get a new Mac. And even then, I had to decide between an iMac or a Mac Pro.

This was not an easy decision folks. But I think it is the right decision. I need to move off the Power PC platform to a contemporary Intel platform. Photoshop CS3 wants a higher performance CPU and moving up to a 24 inch 3.06GHz iMac is exactly what I need to do right now.

There was another decision that I needed to make but I will let you know about that one tomorrow.

The Power Behind Microsoft

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The world’s best laptop. Wonder if Steve Ballmer is running PowerPoint or Keynote?

Mac Versus Dell

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Since the announcement a few days back, there has been extensive media coverage of the MacBook Air, Apple’s latest notebook.

People jockey for position to take pictures of this new laptop.

Mac Air

The last time I saw so much interest in taking pictures of laptops was with Dell. They also have some hot laptops on the market.

Dell

MacBook Air

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Steve Jobs. Keynote. MacWorld 2008.

I am listening to the keynote right now as I did not have a chance to get to it earlier today. Jobs is an amazing speaker. And Apple had an incredible year last year.

Jobs could not resist quoting Ed Mendelson of PC Magazine: Leopard is “… by far the best operating system ever written for the vast majority of consumers.”

Some neat announcements: Time Capsule, Movie rentals off iTunes and my favorite, the MacBook Air.

Might be time to switch notebooks.

MacBook Air

Fastest Windows Vista Notebook

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I had to chuckle. A friend of mine passed me the results of a PC World test on the fastest notebook for Windows Vista. He knows that I have sworn off Microsoft bashing on this blog. But I think I am doing my readers a service by letting them know the results of this test.

The fastest Windows Vista notebook that PC World has tested is a Mac.

From their article:

Try that again: The fastest Windows Vista notebook we’ve tested this year–or for that matter, ever–is a Mac. Not a Dell, not a Toshiba, not even an Alienware. The $2419 (plus the price of a copy of Windows Vista, of course) MacBook Pro’s PC WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 88 beats Gateway’s E-265M by a single point, but the MacBook’s score is far more impressive simply because Apple couldn’t care less whether you run Windows.

Little wonder Apple’s stock is going through the roof. Great products, great designs. And their machines are fast. Even when they run an operating system from the dark side.

The Leopard is Loose

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Okay. So I shouldn’t be this excited about an operating system. My friends at Apple sent me an email a couple of days ago and they promised to ship me a copy of Leopard so that it arrives at my home on launch day. Launch day is tomorrow. And I received confirmation that my package shipped yesterday. On its way by Purolator.

I know what I will be doing this weekend. I can hardly wait.