Hasta La Gadget! Page not found

Mar 10

CyberNotes: MacBook Pro Update…

This article was written on June 09, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft/Mac Monday

It has now been over a month since Ryan and I purchased our first ever Mac computers. After about a week we gave you our first impressions and mentioned a few things that we liked and other things that were taking some time to get used to. Now that we’ve had some more time to get familiar with our new purchases, we decided to give you an update.

When we gave our first impressions at the end of April, we mentioned that there were lots of things that were taking time to get used to. We’ve managed to get used to just about everything, but there are still things that are taking some time, and we also found that there are some Windows only applications we really miss.

Applications we miss…

While we’ve come across some applications that are great on the Mac’s, there are three programs we used on a daily basis in Windows that we really miss. The Mac alternatives are available, but they jut aren’t up to the quality of these applications:

Windows Photo Gallery
Windows Live Writer
Microsoft Office 2007

We tend to take a lot of pictures and it was always nice to manage and go through them in Windows Photo Gallery. I’ve already mentioned my complaints with iPhoto and while it’s nice, it just doesn’t compare to Windows Photo Gallery.

Windows Live Writer is another application we used every single day. At this point we’re bouncing between blogging clients for the Mac to try and find one that can offer us a majority of what Windows Live Writer did. It seems like Ecto will be the best solution for us, but we’ve come across a handful of bugs that make it frustrating to use at times.

We’ve heard people say on occasion that they felt as though Microsoft did a better job with Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac but we beg to differ. Microsoft Office 2007 is simply amazing and I’d love if they would have been able to come up with something similar for Macs. After trying both Office and iWork (by Apple), we found that while iWork’s interface is much better than Office for Mac, they don’t have nearly the set of features that Office does. If you’re a power user (like we are) and you like to build complex spreadsheets, you’ll find the drawbacks pretty quickly while using iWork.

Gadgets, Feedreader, Time Machine, and more…

While we used gadgets in the Vista gadget sidebar, we have found that we use gadgets on the Mac more. The overall quality of gadgets that are available seem to be superior from what Vista currently has available, and we like the set-up for using them on a Mac better as well.

Another important aspect to our daily computer experience is the feed reader. We go through hundreds of news items on a daily basis and previously we were using a desktop feed reader called FeedDemon. When we got the Macs we had to decide if we wanted to use something web-based like Google Reader or start using NetNewsWire. We went with the later and found that while it’s simple and doesn’t have as many features as FeedDemon, we like it better. It opens quick, looks good, and flows with the operating system.

One thing we haven’t had to take advantage of yet, but will be nice if we have to is Time Machine back-ups. Time Machine is something we use, it’s simple to set-up, and we’re grateful to have it. While we haven’t had to use it yet,it’s nice to know that we can do a full system restore from it if need be which is reassuring knowing our past history with hard drive failures.

iChat, Transitions, and Keyboard…

iChat comes with all Mac computers and while we did a comparison of iChat and Windows Live Messenger previously, one thing I forgot to mention was a feature called Bonjour. It’s built right-in to iChat and works with computers only on your network. It allows anybody who has the feature enabled to talk with others on the same network.

For example, both Ryan and I have Bonjour enabled and because we’re on the same network, we can talk to each other without being logged in to any other account. We just started using this during the day when we want to send links back and forth to each other but don’t want to be interrupted by other friends. Alternatively you could create a separate account, but this works out nicely because setting it up is as easy as checking one box. It immediately picked-up the people on the network.

One of the biggest things we’ve noticed that Apple focuses a lot on is transitions – like transitioning into Expose’ and Spaces. Everything is always a very smooth transition and it really enhances the user experience.

Keyboard, Screen, and the Power Cord…

The backlit keyboard on our MacBook Pro’s is great, especially for when you’re working in a room that doesn’t have a whole lot of lighting. Just in general, the keyboard has a nice feel to it. We have also gotten used to the two-finger scrolling which is actually really nice too. Now when we end-up using a Windows Laptop, we go to use two fingers to scroll and it just doesn’t feel right not to have it. The two-finger tap for right clicking is also nice, although we still do miss not having a right-click mouse button.

One feature that doesn’t get mentioned very often but enhances the experience is the auto-dim feature on the screen. It auto-adjusts based upon how bright the room is in which helps you conserve on battery power. You can still manually adjust it if you’d like, which is nice as well.

Who would have thought that a power cord could be so nice? It’s magnetic which means you don’t have to worry about your computer getting yanked around if someone happens to step or trip over the cord. It’s a nice touch.

What we’re still getting used to…

We’ve managed to get used to a lot of the little things that were annoying in the beginning like using the command key for shortcuts instead of the control key, but there are still a few things that are taking time. Our big complaints:

No memory card slot
Only 2 USB Ports

Both of the things listed above were features we had on our last laptops and so not having them is disappointing. We’ve grown accustomed to four USB ports and surprisingly used them all. Now there are only two because Apple felt the need to put an excessive amount of FireWire ports on the computer that many things don’t support. Even our iPhone came with only a USB cable.

We also miss just pressing the Windows key to perform a search, although overall, the spotlight interface is a little nicer than that of the Windows Start Menu.

Wrapping it up…

All in all, getting used to a Mac computer wasn’t as difficult as we thought it would be. After the first week or so, most of the things we were struggling to get used to weren’t an issue anymore. And because we can either use Boot Camp or Parallels (of course there are other options as well) to use Windows, we don’t have one complaint about making the switch to Apple computers.

Oct 17

CyberNotes: Apple Front Row vs. Windows Media Center

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article was written on May 12, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft/Mac Monday

Today we’re taking a look at Apple’s Front Row vs. Windows Media Center. We’re not really sure if Front Row can be compared to Media Center because right now, they serve different purposes. Front Row is more of an interface for controlling the media already on your computer while Media Center will do that in addition to recording television shows. They’re both media hubs though, so we thought it would be interesting to see how they compared.

Before we dive in, we thought we’d first mention the fact that while we may be using MacBook Pro computers for our everyday use, we do have a PC dedicated to running Vista’s Media Center. It has 3 tuners and enables us to record 3 shows simultaneously, and was one of the best investments we’ve made.

Front Row Background

Front Row is an application for Apple computers that is similar in some aspects to Windows Media Center. The first time it was announced was back on October 12, 2005. It now comes shipped on all new Mac computers.

Media Center Background

Windows Media Center originally debuted in 2002 for Windows XP. Now it comes with Windows Vista Ultimate and Home Premium versions of Windows Vista.

Front Row Features

One thing that Apple did really well with Front Row is transitions. These transitions start the moment you open up Front Row because it nicely fades-in to display the menu. Their interface is nice, but I noticed it’s missing a few things. First I should say that a lot of people use the Apple Remote to navigate Front Row, but for people who don’t want to use the remote, they’re stuck using a keyboard. There’s not a way (that we know of) to use the mouse which is pretty inconvenient. Navigation with a keyboard is a little more difficult, and you’ll end up using the Escape key frequently.

The biggest downside to Front Row if we’re comparing it to Windows Media Center is that there is no way to watch or record live TV.

Content that you can access via Front Row include:

Movies – view movies stored in your iTunes library or in a user’s movies folder/ also option to download and play movie trailers
TV Shows – any you’ve download from iTunes will be displayed
Music – music is pulled from your iTunes music library/ includes option to listen to a preview of the top songs on iTunes
Podcasts – allows you to play podcasts that you are subscribed to, right from Front Row
Photos – pulls in photos you have saved in your iPhoto library
DVD (if there is a DVD in the drive)

Overall Front Row is nicest for watching movie trailers or maybe listening to your music but really it’s just a remote-friendly, fancy interface for iTunes. If they’d allow you to rent movies from iTunes via Front Row, that would be fantastic, but they don’t. They also don’t allow you to watch YouTube videos from there which is something that can be done on Media Center through an add-on, or even using Apple TV.

Media Center Features

One of Media Center’s best features is the interface. Microsoft really did a fantastic job here. Another thing they did a great job with is packing a lot of features in under the hood. Not only does it come loaded with a bunch of features, but there are many add-ons that give you even more features like commercial skip and WebGuide which we’ve mentioned before. To Apple’s defense, because they don’t provide a way to record and watch live TV, there’s really no need for add-ons like commercial skip.

Another awesome thing about Media Center is that they’ve got quite the community surrounding it. There’s a website at www.thegreenbutton.com where you’ll find thousands upon thousands of people who are there to post and answer questions. There are even members who work on the Media Center Team that will stop by to help answer questions. While Apple does have a developing community out there, a lot of them are for Mac computers in general and not specific to Front Row.

Features:

Record and playback TV
Music – listen to songs from your library
Radio (some TV tuners support FM radio)
Video – have videos on your computer? Watch them from Media Center
Pictures – flip through your picture library
Sports – keep up with games in progress or ones that have ended
and more…

Unlike Front Row, users are able to navigate through Windows Media Center using a mouse, and in fact, when they use a mouse or a keyboard, other navigational buttons appear on screen to make it a little easier.

Conclusion

If we were asked to decide which was better, Front Row or Windows Media Center, without question we’d choose Windows Media Center. This is one of those things that Microsoft really has done a great job with in multiple aspects. Maybe Apple will “borrow” a few of their ideas to improve Front Row in the future?

While Windows Media Center may be superior, it also depends on what you’re looking to do. If you don’t have a tuner card and you don’t have any intentions of getting one for your computer, there’s no reason why you can’t get most of the same functionality out of Front Row as you would with Media Center.

Those of you looking for a nice way to manage your media, graphically both applications look nice and get the job done. If you’re looking to record TV, Media Center is the only way to go. So now our question for you is, do you think Apple will go the route of recording television, or will doing so distract people buying episodes of TV shows from iTunes which ends-up bringing in money?

Hasta La Gadget!