My Mac Dreams About to Come True?
I was completely taken aback by something my wife said this evening: “Wanna buy a Mac?”
(To know why this is so surprising, you need to understand that my wife is the type who usually stops listening whenever anything even remotely related to computing crops up in conversation.)
What’s more, she was even making specific suggestions. “The eMac is a pretty good deal,” she said, “and I think you can even get one that allows you to burn DVDs…”
Picture me, flat on my back, on the floor—because that’s exactly what I was, floored by this unexpected proposal. Apparently the idea struck her when she saw a Mac advertisement on the same page as this news story:
Microsoft warns of a score of security holes
Microsoft released on Tuesday fixes that cover at least 20 Windows flaws, several of which could make versions of the operating system vulnerable to new worms or viruses.
If you ask me, this sort of thing is not really news (when isn’t Microsoft releasing critical patches by the truckload?), but why look a gift horse in the mouth, right?
Although I was never a big fan of Macs in the past, OS X really changed everything. Combining UNIX reliability with Apple’s ease of use was a real triumph. I’ve been longing for one ever since.
Anyway, now that I’m seriously looking into buying a Mac, I need to tap all of my Mac-using friends for advice. For example, how useful is AppleCare? Are the .Mac services worth paying for? I can probably do without the AirMac Extreme card and the internal Bluetooth module, right? These things aside, what are the must-have software titles and other accoutrements that no self-respecting Mac user should be without?
Oh, and while you’re at it, ply me with assurances that Mac OS upgrades are not as perilous as Zeldman makes them seem.
Okay, now here I am, a few days later, finding myself egging you on to buy something from a company that I like. There’s a little light irony for you.
And don’t mention to your wife that they just the other day found the very first potential trojan horse for the Mac. It’s not even a real virus, just a proof that such a virus is possible (using an MP3 file as cover), and Apple is on the case to prevent it from being a threat. But still, one virus… versus 60,000… it’s still no contest at all. Never have run antivirus on OS X, don’t plan to soon.
I don’t know too much about AppleCare outside the usual warrantee period, and Apple is usually very good about that--they have the highest tech support ratings in the business that I know of. And there’s an Apple store in Ginza now… In the past, I’ve had Apple repair things for free even when a bit out of warranty, for example, and they usually do a very good job of what they’re doing. I think AppleCare is to extend the normal warranty, yes? The thing is, one of the reasons you pay a little more for the Mac is because it is built well, and doesn’t crap out as much as dirt-cheap PCs.
I also presume your wife thought of the eMac because they just came out with the new $1000 Superdrive model with a 1.25 GHz G4, right? Should be a sweet little machine, and I always did like the clarity of a CRT, to be honest.
The .Mac services are based around Mac email and web pages, which have a few nice features--but their extra software might be good if the new MP3 virus type has you a bit worried, they have the MacAfee antivirus service in there. Otherwise, there’s not really too much in that IMHO. Good for green beginners, but you don’t qualify as that by a long shot.
WiFi seems an odd choice for a desktop all-in-one; I would only get it if you have no other way of getting the Ethernet cable to the place where you want to keep the eMac.
Something you will want to purchase: a two-button mouse, because Apple doesn’t have that. Bluetooth is good only if you have a special need for a wireless mouse or keyboard, or if you hate using wires to sync your Mac with your PDA (I’d like to include cell phones in that, but Japanese cell phones seem devoid of Bluetooth options).
Other good points about the eMac for you: OS X is really easy to use, and fun quite often; the Firewire, Superdrive, and iLife software package will be great for making home movie DVDs; and USB 2.0 (finally, on the Mac) will let you use most of the new peripherals today, should you need to.
And then there are the many, many other reasons to get a Mac, but I am probably already making you roll your eyes....
Thanks for the comments, Luis.
I also presume your wife thought of the eMac because they just came out with the new $1000 Superdrive model with a 1.25 GHz G4, right?
Well, I’m sure it was the price, not the specs, that caught her attention, but yes, that was the one she pointed to.
In particular, my wife is starting to recognize that our existing computers are not very well suited to the things she would like to do, like making DVDs of family events to send to relatives and friends. That’s just not something you can do with 1997-era hardware, which is what we’ve got now.
And then there are the many, many other reasons to get a Mac, but I am probably already making you roll your eyes....
You’re joking, right? I can talk about this stuff all day (and frequently do)!
So, fill me in on your favorite applications. (I enjoyed your recent post on Ecto, by the way.)
Hey, congrats
Here is a little info. The air extreme card is as you say not very necessary for a stationary machine. If you were buying a laptop, I’d definitely recommend it. AppleCare: I’ve purchased it everytime, but I have yet to use it. I remember you were talking about getting ATOK before, but let me warn you don’t get it for the mac, it’ll screw things up on anything but a Japanese system which is a shame and kind of outrageous since multilingual ability is one of macs biggest strengths.
Favorite apps:
You’ll immediately want to download launchbar
FTP: transmit
Word Documents: There is a mac version of AbiWord now
Mail and Internet: For me Thunderbird and Firefox
I’ll also hook you up with some other stuff, just keep it on the down low
Oh yeah, and JEDict worth paying for, especially for translator type dudes like you and me. Though you probably read Japanese with no need for a dictionary.
I prefer Eudora for email, paying the $40 to get the full version. The spam filter works well, it’s highly customizable, the windows can be laid out any way you want the, the search engine is fantastic, and so on. It even has powerful stats. It depends on how you like your email, but it is exactly what I like and want.
As for languages, it’s all built-in. You and your wife can each have a user account, and each can be set to your language. Unlike Windows, in which the OS works in one language ONLY, OS X can switch languages for the OS (which includes menus, dialog boxes, alerts, etc.)--15 languages, 14 if you don’t include Simplified Chinese. For inline typing and editing, many dozen languages.
Then there’s VLC (VideoLan, at http://www.videolan.org/), which plays just about any video file, sometimes even better than can be played on a Windows PC. A must-have.
Another little good app (though it is a Classic App) is MacJDic, the Mac version of EDICT, the free, open-source J-E, E-J, Kanji Dictionary. (By the way, I made the icon for it.) You can find it at: http://www.boingo.org/dan/software/MacJDic.html
You’ll want to pay for and get Toast 6, and Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.
The Reason I didn’t use Eudora, is it didn’t handle secrure IMAP connections when I tried it. or at least I think that was it. It didn’t have something that I wanted. With Thunderbird I have the same setup and interface on my Mac and FreeBSD machines, and even on my Windows web testing box (which incidentally started smelling like burning rubber a couple of days, and has been shutdown until I can look into it).
Oh, for video I definitely recommend mplayer above anything I’ve tried. Like videoLAN is plays about anything, and I think they are both unix based originally. They may even use the same codecs.
JEDict that I mentioned earlier is for MacOsX and is also based on EDICT. It even lets you draw in kanji as a method of looking them up if nothing else works for you. (That is why I wanted ATOK, but that was not to be)
UltraBob:
I just downloaded JEDict. Wow. I wish I’d known about this one earlier!
What’s the benefit of ATOK, by the way?
Also, I’m not familiar with the full advantages of using IMAP; what are they?
Thanks!
Yeah JEDict is great isn’t it? The developer is a little gruff when you ask him if there might be the possibility of a windows version
, but other than that the software is great.
There were four benefits to ATOK that convinced be to buy it, but let me restate that it absolutely doesn’t work unless your menus are set to Japanese, and the company prints on the box that they won’t support it on non Japanese systems.
1) The ability to draw in kanjis to enter them if you don’t know the reading
2) multiple kanji choice dictionaries for different usages: e.g. Formal business, casual spoken style, etc.
3) Intelligent learning of the users common kanji choices and the reordering of them subsequently to make the system as nice to use as possible. (I’m not sure if Mac OS X reorders kanji in the list based on previous choices, but I know that Windows does to some degree. The advantage to ATOK here is that it takers prior words into account when making the list)
4) Intelligent henkan choices based on context
As a user of multiple computers, you should absolutely be using IMAP. With IMAP your e-mails along with their read and replied status, etc. is stored on the server, so no matter which machine you access your account from your e-mail list is the same. I started running my own mail server about 8 months ago or so, and it was the first time I had IMAP mail available to me. I will never go back, it is night and day.
MAC! MAC! MAC!
You really did marry a darn fine woman
Shhh…don’t tell my wife.
Mac OS X vulnerable to one-two combo attack
Post a comment
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.