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I converted to Mac

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
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Transylvania 90210
My PC laptop gave up the ghost and I started looking at new machines. I decided that I didn't travel with my laptop enough to consider getting another one, and I have a 26" LCD screen that works as a monitor. I don't game, so I was looking at some of the mini/slim PC machines that were in the $500-$600 range. Tigerdirect.com had some great deals on machines with a ton of RAM and hard drive space, and some speedy processors. As an outside contender, I had an eyeball on the Mac Mini. The specs on paper made it look like a lesser machine for more money. However, after a test drive in the Apple Store, I found myself liking the Mac software.

I gave it some thought and realized that for my needs, most of the PCs I was looking at were overkill. Primarily, I needed a machine to run Pro Tools, and store some photos. I do some work in Word/Excel/Access from time to time. I'm not a big web surfer and don't have a connection at home, other than my smartphone. I also thought that 500GB - 1TB of storage space was kind of dumb, since I'd likely want to keep anything over 500GB on a secondary drive, and after two years of use, my laptop had 70GB of space used up.

After a few days of toying around with the system, I'm stoked on it. It is fast enough for my needs. I really like the operating system interface. iPhoto has organized my pics better than anything I had on my PC, and the stock editing software saved some pictures that I thought were too poorly exposed to save, which I wouldn't have been able to salvage on the PC software I had.

As much as I resisted it for so long, I'm stoked on the conversion.
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
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I thought this thread was going a total different direction....

you sir, have received rep from me lately and i must spread some around before you can taste the sweetness of win again.

i figure, if i drink enough of this kool-aid, i'll own an iPhone and an iPad soon. these are the end of days. :panic:
 

AngryMetalsmith

Business is good, thanks for asking
Jun 4, 2006
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The new Mac Minis seem to be geared more toward Home theater than previous models. I have last years Mini with 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 4 GB RAM and it will run all the Adobe web design apps. I am very happy with it.
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
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Yeah, they still don't have BluRay, but the cNet reviews seem to be getting better each year. I've got the 2.4GHz Core2 Duo and 4 GB RAM (stock model). I know I could have paid less for a "more powerful" PC, but I think the premium I paid is worth it for the software and some of the smaller "nice" featuers. I'm not enough of a power user to care about some of the nits that get picked in the Mac/PC battle.

I am stoked on the Bluetooth mouse with the touch controls. It is sweet to be able to pinch and swipe on the mouse surface while sitting on the sofa and flicking through pictures on the big screen. Not quite touch-screen, but close.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
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Yeah, they still don't have BluRay, but the cNet reviews seem to be getting better each year. I've got the 2.4GHz Core2 Duo and 4 GB RAM (stock model). I know I could have paid less for a "more powerful" PC, but I think the premium I paid is worth it for the software and some of the smaller "nice" featuers. I'm not enough of a power user to care about some of the nits that get picked in the Mac/PC battle.

I am stoked on the Bluetooth mouse with the touch controls. It is sweet to be able to pinch and swipe on the mouse surface while sitting on the sofa and flicking through pictures on the big screen. Not quite touch-screen, but close.
Steve Jobs said:
I don't believe in blu-ray
:rolleyes:
 

kazlx

Patches O'Houlihan
Aug 7, 2006
6,985
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Tustin, CA
Blu-ray is on the road to being obsolete. Once you can stream movies on demand in HD quality, there won't be any need for it. I feel you on the simplicity. I have a monster PC right now and I am at the point where my next computer will probably just be a 13 or 15" Macbook. All the things that really used to hog power like editing most pics and video can be done on pretty much any newer computer along with getting on the internetz and other basic stuff. You really have to need a specific reason to have higher end computer these days.
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
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BluRay could hang around for a bit. I think there will be a place for media on a physical disc (or some sort of analog for a disc). My bud lives in Burbank and they just got high-speed in their near-the-border part of town recently, and there are more remote parts of the world than Burbank, so I'm guessing high-speed web isn't an option for everyone. There are also bands still using CDs as promo items. I'd bet there are movie makers who do the same thing: go to an indie film showing and take home a disc of the film if you with the raffle. It may not be the primary format, but still functional. If BluRay is higer def than DVD, and high-def is getting more affordable to shoot in, I can see BluRay the format of choice for that purpose.
 

buildyourown

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2004
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South Seattle
Blu-ray is on the road to being obsolete. Once you can stream movies on demand in HD quality, there won't be any need for it.

Then why are CDs or vinyl still viable? Some of us prefer to buy hard copies of things. Granted, I rip my CDs to MP3 and throw them in a box in the closet, but if I'm paying for content, god dammit, I'm going to OWN that content forever.
Macs are such a rip. I paid that same price for that same speced PC 3 yrs ago.
 

kazlx

Patches O'Houlihan
Aug 7, 2006
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Tustin, CA
Then why are CDs or vinyl still viable? Some of us prefer to buy hard copies of things. Granted, I rip my CDs to MP3 and throw them in a box in the closet, but if I'm paying for content, god dammit, I'm going to OWN that content forever.
Macs are such a rip. I paid that same price for that same speced PC 3 yrs ago.
I was being more jovail. Formats will still hang around for a while. I go over to my parents house and see all the Disney VCR tapes my mom bought with the expectation of showing them to her grandchildren...probably not going to work out so well for her, but she holds on. Can you still get vinyl, VHS tapes, etc....? Sure, but they aren't common any more. There will always be a market for physical things like a CD or DVD or Blu-Ray, but it won't neccesarily be a certain format.
 

mandown

Poopdeck Repost
Jun 1, 2004
20,130
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Transylvania 90210
Macs are such a rip. I paid that same price for that same speced PC 3 yrs ago.
I thought along those lines. However, I'd say that the bone stock software on a Mac vs. PC is stonger and you are getting software and architecture value for the money. You pay a premium for design and execution.

Sure, you can buy a bike with good geo and a pimp fork/shock setup, but if the "little things" like the contact points (grips, saddle, pedals) suck and the bearings get stressed and blown because of weak engineering, or the tires don't stick, then your "nice" rig will be a pain to ride and fail sooner.

Sure, you can engineer a custom rig to your exact specs if you have the cash. However, if you are comparing off-the shelf rigs and the "cheaper"/"faster"/"nicer" machine requires you to upgrade "little" things to get it to fit right, then you may end up paying the same amount or more after upgrades than the "expensive"/"slower" machine was off the shelf in order to get things the way you want them. Of course, some people are lucky enough or don't care enough to need upgrades and the "cheaper"/"faster" rig works just fine.
 

kazlx

Patches O'Houlihan
Aug 7, 2006
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Tustin, CA
If you could pay for something like Netflix and have access to HD or 'Blu-Ray' quality movies 24/7, for any movie you could want on demand, would you still buy a disc? All you have to do is click and watch. Why buy a disc? How could Blu-Ray not become obsolete at some point? It will go the same way as cassettes and the VCR. There will always be something that much better at some point.
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
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If you could pay for something like Netflix and have access to HD or 'Blu-Ray' quality movies 24/7, for any movie you could want on demand, would you still buy a disc? All you have to do is click and watch. Why buy a disc? How could Blu-Ray not become obsolete at some point? It will go the same way as cassettes and the VCR. There will always be something that much better at some point.
IF you could is the key phrase.
-the streaming "HD" movies that are online or via broadcast, whether its DirecTV, Dish Network, cable or Netflix, arent anywhere near the quality that you get from a BD movie....even the 1080p broadcasts from sat providers
-new release movies are usually never released via a streaming legal service since they arent collecting anywhere near the same money as they would with a disc.
-america's cable and internet providers arent able to handle anywhere near the capacity all this media needs too.

BD's are not going anywhere, anytime soon
 
Aug 3, 2002
30
0
Jacksonville:Florida
I sure am a macophile. My clamshell gave up the ghost after it was 120 degrees in PHX (now back home in FL). It was only hovering into obsolete this year. I am not so sure I like the oversimplified new macs. If I am coughin up a couple thou I want it built to spec adn last as long as my old mac. They suck a bit since going Intel.
Still..... a mac with less power does twice the same as a PC. And is simpler to use.
What will grab you is software... not a big selection of affordable software, escpecially specialty programs for animation.
 

Anders

Monkey
Mar 5, 2002
436
0
Carlsbad, CA, USA
IF you could is the key phrase.
-the streaming "HD" movies that are online or via broadcast, whether its DirecTV, Dish Network, cable or Netflix, arent anywhere near the quality that you get from a BD movie....even the 1080p broadcasts from sat providers
-new release movies are usually never released via a streaming legal service since they arent collecting anywhere near the same money as they would with a disc.
-america's cable and internet providers arent able to handle anywhere near the capacity all this media needs too.

BD's are not going anywhere, anytime soon
dont forget isp download limits. i think comcast is around 250gb a month
 

badphish

Monkey
Feb 28, 2008
294
0
Macs are such a rip. I paid that same price for that same speced PC 3 yrs ago.
You're comparing apples to oranges. I remember reading an article many years ago about the 867 MHz G4's when they first came out. It basically said this:

1. In my oversimplified opinion, the G4 is somewhere in the vicinity of around 1.6x faster than a Pentium 4 at the same clockspeed.
2. In my oversimplified opinion, the Athlon is somewhere in the vicinity of around 1.3x faster than a Pentium 4 at the same clockspeed.
3. Therefore, in my oversimplified opinion, the 867 MHz G4 appx. = 1.4 GHz Pentium 4 appx. = 1.1 GHz Athlon.
http://www.systemshootouts.org/processors.html
 

dante

Unabomber
Feb 13, 2004
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You're comparing apples to oranges. I remember reading an article many years ago about the 867 MHz G4's when they first came out. It basically said this:



http://www.systemshootouts.org/processors.html
Uh..... The only problem is that now that Apple computers come with Intel chips, you can get (and compare) the identical i5, i7, C2D, etc chipset in a PC *or* in a Mac. Now the only thing you're paying for is the OS and the name.
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
IF you could is the key phrase.
-the streaming "HD" movies that are online or via broadcast, whether its DirecTV, Dish Network, cable or Netflix, arent anywhere near the quality that you get from a BD movie....even the 1080p broadcasts from sat providers
-new release movies are usually never released via a streaming legal service since they arent collecting anywhere near the same money as they would with a disc.
-america's cable and internet providers arent able to handle anywhere near the capacity all this media needs too.

BD's are not going anywhere, anytime soon
You can store up to 50gb on a Blu-ray disc too. I do believe however that HD d/loads will take over sooner rather than later. Once you get optical fibre internet you realise having a physical copy of something is pointless.
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
You can store up to 50gb on a Blu-ray disc too. I do believe however that HD d/loads will take over sooner rather than later. Once you get optical fibre internet you realise having a physical copy of something is pointless.
correct, current consumer versions are 50gb's, but the movies and all of their extras arent filling up anywhere near it's capacity. video games come some what close.
most companies are gearing and planning for wide spread usage of downloadable content. it is inevitable.
 

buildyourown

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2004
4,832
0
South Seattle
You're comparing apples to oranges. I remember reading an article many years ago about the 867 MHz G4's when they first came out. It basically said this:



http://www.systemshootouts.org/processors.html

They're made by the same company, in the same factory, in the same country. They have the same chipsets, with the same specs. The only difference is that your software choices are limited and you paid twice as much.
 

kazlx

Patches O'Houlihan
Aug 7, 2006
6,985
1,957
Tustin, CA
most companies are gearing and planning for wide spread usage of downloadable content. it is inevitable.
You can store up to 50gb on a Blu-ray disc too. I do believe however that HD d/loads will take over sooner rather than later. Once you get optical fibre internet you realise having a physical copy of something is pointless.
That was my only point. I think that extremely high speed data is not going to take all that long. How long ago was a gig of storage space unheard of? Now I have a 32 gig phone.
 

eaterofdog

ass grabber
Sep 8, 2006
8,189
1,431
Central Florida
Good on you man. Macs are nice if you want you computer to be more like an appliance and less like an ongoing project. As you see, the included software is pretty decent too.

I don't hate PCs, a computer is a computer, but my personal computer is a Mac.
 

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
40,941
13,135
Portland, OR
I dig the Mac Mini. When I worked on touch screen interfaces at MTI, I had designed a system for my truck using a dash mounted mini and 7" retractable touch screen. I stil might get around to it some day.

MTI was looking to replace all the PC's that ran their existing displays with a Mini, but ended up with a solid state solution that was cheaper and better. But I did get to play around with them for a while.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
That was my only point. I think that extremely high speed data is not going to take all that long. How long ago was a gig of storage space unheard of? Now I have a 32 gig phone.
...and yet, even if your high speed internet was a perfect, sustained 100 Mbps, or around 12 megabytes per second - and keep in mind, that's assuming BOTH sides have this kind of bandwidth available all the time to everyone - you're still looking at an hour and fifteen minute download for that B-R disc. Assuming zero overhead, which is impossible over a WAN.

It could be argued that you can stream this media, but that's not exactly the same thing, as your 32gb phone proves - why do you need all of that internal storage when you could just stream media to your phone? Because connections aren't available everywhere and wireless connections aren't as reliable and fast as locally stored data, and you might want to take the media somewhere (e.g. airplane) where data connections aren't available.

I think high speed internet is going to substantially cut the need for physical media, but it's not just data transfer speeds that are growing - media quality, media features and thus media size is growing, too.
 

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
40,941
13,135
Portland, OR
...and yet, even if your high speed internet was a perfect, sustained 100 Mbps, or around 12 megabytes per second - and keep in mind, that's assuming BOTH sides have this kind of bandwidth available all the time to everyone - you're still looking at an hour and fifteen minute download for that B-R disc. Assuming zero overhead, which is impossible over a WAN.
Hey BV, in all your network mastery, have you done anything with WiMax? They built a crazy faraday cage in the lab at Intel before I left for testing. I know Clearwire has a lot of spots in Portland and there are a few towers here, but I haven't looked into the details.

The demo I saw was playing some X-Box game that was streaming for like 30 miles away. That was in 2006, I am guessing it's improved since then.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,570
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media blackout
until streaming media can offer everything that a BD can offer (sound and audio quality,) people will still continue buying media on discs.
and considering the lengths telecom co's go to in order to prevent improved networks (see Monticello, Minnesota and Lafayette Louisiana), don't expect the kind of infrastructure needed anytime within at least a decade.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
WiMax has pretty much been snubbed in favor of LTE.

Sprint is desperately hanging onto WiMax for their 4G networks but the tech may be at a dead end since the largest mobile carriers (Verizon and AT&T specifically) have thrown their support behind LTE.

It's still a bit of a debate in the US since Clearwire has some decent market saturation and the next generation WiMax actually has speeds to compete with LTE... but I think LTE will win out, especially because most global carriers are moving towards LTE.