Why a Mac and no more Windoze

If you haven't noticed, my life changed permanently on Oct. 11, 2007.  That was the day I went into the Oklahoma City Mall's Apple Store and walked out with my MacBook Pro 17 inch and two iPhones, one for me, and one for Kari. 

In June of this year, I changed Kari's life forever as well.  I bought her a MacBook. 

Life is much different now for both of us.

Why am I so into my MacBook Pro 17 inch?  Simple. It works better than any computer I've ever had, and I can do more with it than any other computer I've ever had.  Period.

What exactly does that mean?

iLife 08

With the computer came iLife 08. A series of programs from Apple that are great from the second you turn on the computer.  You get iMovie, iWeb, iDVD and Garage Band in the bundle. I use each of these programs all the time.  When my dad went to his first One-to-One training a few weeks ago, at his young age of 63, he made his first home movie and edited it with special effects and type. Tell me when your mom or dad did that on their PC. I won't wait. Oh yeah, while dad was building his first movie in his first hour of class, they also jumped over into Garage Band, created a track that they then dropped into his first iMovie.  Go head, PC junkies, tell me the last time you did that. 

Mail

The mail program in Mac has been great.  With my machine I got the .Mac program that's progressed into MobileMe. I was hesitant to get it at first and didn't get the $30 off when I bought it.  That was a mistake.  The program works seamlessly with my iPhone and Mac.  My calendars stay synced and because of Kari also having MobileMe for her MacBook and iPhone, I also have her calendars that I subscribe to.  Now I don't have a reason for not knowing her schedule, too.  It's been great.

Final Cut Express

I know there likely are a few hardcore PC types reading this saying, ah, we can do that on a PC, but here's where the road parts.  Final Cut Express is the movie making program they use in Hollywood.  For the major studios they're using the $2,000 version called Final Cut Studio.  But FCE does what I need it to do.  We made a homemade movie with greenscreen capabilities in January and February of 2008 when I'd only been getting One-to-One training for a month or so.  You can watch it here.  I'll laugh at you OUTLOUD if you tell me you can do the same thing on a PC with such ease.  So don't go there.

Photoshop Elements 6

I know, there is a PC version 7, but seriously, I'm doing things with PSE that I could only have dreamed about before October 2007.  And what I create in PSE I can move into FCE and integrate into my movie projects.  Again, you can't do this with a PC.

Adobe Bridge

With my Nikon D-40, I import my pictures into Adobe Bridge before pulling them into PSE for some cool editing.  The Nikon does RAW formatting for pictures, giving me even more options to use in editing my pictures. 

iWork

I love Keynote, the Mac version of PowerPoint.  Why?  Cos it runs circles around MS PPT.  Apple created Keynote so that Steve Jobs could display what he was talking about in his annual keynote speeches. (That's why it's called Keynote...)  And so it has a lot of bells and whistles.  Things that ppt can only dream about.  And, if you have to do a Keynote that's used in PPT, you just save it in a format PPT can read. 

Pages in iWork also offers many options, like doing layouts that you can only dream about doing in MS Word, and particularly if you don't have the funds to shell out for Quark Express or InDesign. 

iTunes 8

The cool thing that also comes with iTunes 8 is that you can also drop your audio media into your Keynote, FCE, and iMovie projects.  The new Genius settings in iTunes 8 have proven to be pretty cool.  When you're playing one song in your library, it suggests what you might want to play next.  And it also suggests what songs out there on the Net you might select to compliment your library.  It's changing the whole listening experience. 

iChat

This has been a cool addition.  Because the Mac has a built in camera, you can link up with your mom or dad on their Mac--Did I mention I got my mom to get her own MacBook in August, and my dad got his own in October?--we can all link up in iChat and see each other.  Also, if they're having issues with learning how to run their machine, they can give me full screen access to their machine and I can help them fix it....

Art Text 2

This was a good addition my friend Eric, the head of One-to-One training at NorthPark Center in Dallas recommended for things like creating Logo Type, logos, and just text to drop into FCE and PSE documents.  It was only about $40 and does some really professional looking types.  I love this program.

Handbrake and MacTheRipper

Ever have video on a DVD you want to re-edit, like a family home movie your dad got put onto DVD?  This is the program of choice to get it off the DVD and into iMovie or FCE.  If you want to run the risk of the feds coming crashing in your door, you can also take the DVDs you've bought from the store and copy them and make copies, too.  But I assure you, that isn't happening in my house. 

RapidWeaver

This is another great Web building program for someone who doesn't have the extra funds to go out and get Dreamweaver.  Nor the time to learn all the coding it takes to run it.  I've enjoyed this program and you can download multiple templates that give you the opportunity to have some specialized looks.

Spaces

This is just plain cool and one of my favorite aspects of Leopard OS X.  With spaces, you can set up different screen areas of your computer and interchange them as you work.  Say you're working on a movie in Final Cut Express but need to build a background in Photoshop Elements and don't want all the clutter on your screen.  It's easy.  You can either click the Spaces icon at the bottom of your screen, or simply press the Command Key (the one with the apple on it) and the Tab key and then choose which icon you want.  The computer then takes you to a screen where the program you desire is the only thing you see on your screen.  That way you don't have to minimize screen after screen to get to where you want. 

Flickr

And then there is also a special program for uploading my photo libraries from Flickr. 

Memory

My 17 inch from Oct. 2007 had 160 gigs of memory.   At this writing I have about 40 left.  I hate going much lower than that.  So what did my dear wife get me a few weeks ago?  A WD 320 Gig 400 Firewire portable hard drive.  I keep all my photo libraries over there.  I'm considering putting my 50 gigs worth of iTunes music over there, too.  The new MacBook Pros have 250 or 320 gigs of memory built in.  That helps when you're working in digital video.  A lot.

Airport Express

This was a great tool for $99.  From the 2wire router we have through DSL at home, I plugged one wire into the AE and the other into the router.  Kari then plugged her high-grade photo printer into it and viola, we can now print to that printer from anywhere in the house.  If you hook a pair of speakers up to the AE, you can  also listen to your iTunes songs even when your Mac is downstairs and in the den. 

The New MacBook Touchpads

The best way to learn about these is to just go into the store and ask a sales person to show you the three finger and four finger techniques for using the new MacBook touchpads.  You're mouth will drop open, so if you have false teeth, beware.  You'll need to be ready to catch them.

One-to-One

For $99 a year, you can get yourself or child or spouse the best gift of knowledge you can ever get them for less than a hundred bucks.  With One-to-One, you get an hour-long training class at the Apple Store with a creative genius.  They can teach you how to use iMovie, Garage Band, iDVD, etc. or you an push them and get them to teach you about Final Cut Express, Aperture, etc.  There is no other place I know of where you can learn so much for that little for that long.  I've often said that my One-to-One Christmas gift last year was the best gift I'd ever received.  It still is.  And because December is so busy in store, Apple's given me an extra month through January, so 13 months of free classes. 

My world now is much different than it was in October 2007.  This year I've made some great video projects.  I made one for 250 or so reporters from around the country who were headed to Chicago to attend the Education Writers Association annual conference.  The video featured the camp directors of the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camps and the special things more than 1,500 kids from around the country did this summer across America.  We made another version to provide to the ExxonMobil shareholders at their annual meeting in May.  Yes, movies I learned how to make beginning in December were on display nationally as early as April and again in May.

In July, I made another movie featuring the ExxonMobil Green Team summer internship program.  The movie was 12 minutes long and the kids in the program got a great summary of their two-months in Dallas working this summer. 

Now I'm on a quest to get a Mac for each of my seven kids so we can launch the Web site GrowingUpMac.com or .org.  With what I now know and can teach my kids, the future is wide open for them.  Add to that a program called Maya by Autodesk, where my kids can learn how to make their own Role Playing Games and we're really onto something.

So on this Cyber Monday when you're thinking about what to get your kids that they will use and appreciate likely for their entire lives, you need look no further than apple.com.

I don't get paid by Apple for saying this.  I believe it with all of my heart.  Seriously. 

Comments

[Kelly]

i finally got a macbook last year. it's just the basic, bottom of the line macbook, but i LOVE it!!! once you go mac you'll never go back!

[Jason Smart]

You are right on so many points here. If I may suggest one thing though. If you have a Nikon D-40 you absolutely must try (there is a 30 day free trial), and I think you will buy, Aperture 2. It is well worth the $200 (approx). Even if you're not a Pro photographer, if you shoot in RAW, Aperture has great RAW editing features that you cannot ignore. Not only that, the organisational features are a knockout as well.
Adobe has LightRoom which is a similar product for Mac and PC, but I found Aperture much more intuitive and powerful.
I did the Aperture course at the Apple Store in Sydney (for free!). I bought the software and I'm loving it!

[iGoByDoc]

OK, after reading this I want a Mac even more. Me and my PC have not been getting along for a while now... and I think it is time for an upgrade.

May not be until after the first of the year, but it is on my own personal gift list.

I wish the new MacBook Pro was available in 17", so I may wait for that.

- Doc

[Voice of bitter experience]

Apple do make the best PCs but they cannot yet walk on water, so particularly if you are getting a laptop, or if your Mac is going to earn its keep, do buy the Applecare extended warranty.

Then you may enjoy your lovely bauble without worries for the future.

[Sean]

I have "converted" nearly 50 people to Macs so far, and not one has returned to the PC side. Every one of them thanks me endlessly for talking them into buying a Mac. They were simply tired of the same old story with their PC's. They all thought they were getting a great deal when they bought their $500 PC, but soon learned they got what they paid for.......a toaster that happened to run Windoze.

[tomcat]

Memory? You have 320 gigs of hard drive space not memory also called RAM ;)

[Partners in Grime]

To get a new ending, you have to tell a different story. I'm glad you did. :)