Would I Buy A Mac?

Would I buy a Mac?

Absolutely! Surprised?

Apple has really made a lot of strides over the last few years.

1) Their new Operating System (well, it's a few years old now) is based on FreeBSD, which is a unix-like operating system. This means that it is incredibly stable and secure. The problem with the unix-like operating systems (Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, etc) is that their user-interfaces leave a lot to be desired. They aren't something that most computer novices would be very comfortable with. Apple has taken their really, really good UI and put it on top of a unix system. This is great because it's easy to use, very robust, secure, and stable. Also, everything is now built pretty much on open standards like TCP/IP instead of old proprietary protocols like appletalk.

2) iPod. What else do I need to say? iPods rock. They are the very best music player on the market. But did you know that you can play video on them? Carry around your digital photo collection? Backup important files from your PC. With the new iLife (see below) I can add pictures to my Mac and have them automatically sent to my friend's iPods. How sweet is that? Add new pics of the kids to the Mac and they magically appear on grandma's mac and her iPod too.

3) iLife is a suite of applications for editing home videos, recording a podcast, creating webpages, sending email, etc. There are lots of options here for the PC as well. However, the Apple apps are really simple to use and are all integrated with one another. Not too mention the iPod integration.

4) The hardware. Apple recently announced a new iMac that uses an Intel processor. This is cool because it's much faster than the old machines, plus the new Macs are essentially running on the same type of hardware that you buy from Dell or HP or whoever. But the iMac is all inclusive. No wires required except for your power cable. Wireless ethernet, bluetooth, speakers, and monitor all built in. The monitor, by the way, is a 17" or 20" High Definition display. It blows most other PC displays out of the water.

Everything I've mentioned above is included in the price of the unit... $1299 for the 17 inch model or $1699 for the 20 inch model. OK, it doesn't include the iPod, but the integration is built in. It's really a good value for what you get.

Of course, then there is Aperture and Final Cut Pro. Aperture is probably the best photo editing software available today. It allows you to edit the raw image as seen by the ccd on yor camera. So, you can adjust lighting, exposure, etc AFTER you physically take the picture. It's spendy at $499, but if you are going to spend $1300 on a nice Nikon D70 (hint hint John and Jenn) why not spend another $500 and be able to really use the thing to it's potential. Final Cut Pro and Shake are Apple's professional video editing suite. If they were good enough to make "King Kong" they are probably good enough to edit your home movies.

Do I think you should throw away your PCs and jump ship for Apple? No. PCs are great. I love them. You can do just about anything you want to with them. However, if I were looking at a new PC today, I'd most likely buy a new iMac.