I frequently hear from friends, “I’d consider a Mac but it costs more than a PC. Doesn’t it?” My gut response has been, “Not if you compare Apples to Apples!” (no pun intended.) MacWorld recently published a comparison of comparably equipped laptops. See this article for the details. The results (prices as of 6/20/2008):

MacBook vs. Dell XPS M1330 - Mac wins by a few bucks
MacBook Air vs. Lenovo X300 - Mac wins by $1571
MacBook Pro vs. HP’s Compaq 8710w Mobile Workstation - Mac wins by $263

Just what I thought! Can you get a $400 Windows laptop from Best Buy? Sure but don’t compare it to a MacBook — they’re in different leagues. Some other considerations as stated in the article:

• Windows computers are perpetual targets for spyware and viruses. Macs are targeted, too, but not to the same degree.
• The Mac OS and Apple computers both come from the same company. While Macs
  aren’t trouble free, you’re less likely to experience as many unexplainable crashes and incompatibilities as you might on a WindowsPC.
• Apple has earned top scores from PC World readers in reliability and service.
• The Mac OS X Leopard is a clever, nimble operating system and a pleasure to use. Windows Vista is a behemoth. While not the demon it’s often made out to be, it ain’t the Mac OS, either.
• Apple laptops have thoughtful design touches, such as keyboards that illuminate automatically in dim lighting.
• There are many more laptop choices in the Windows world, and at a greater variety of price points.
• There are still plenty of software applications available for Windows only. (You can run Windows on Macs, of course, using Apple’s Boot camp, which is included in Mac OS X Leopard, or a third-party virtualization program such as Parallels Desktop for Mac

By the way, I use Parallels for two Windows apps that I use occasionally. It works great.

Yesterday, I discussed my process for converting downloaded podcast files to bookmarkable AAC files.  Here’s my process for managing my podcasts using the five star rating system.  Rating is very important to my process and I haven’t been able to figure out how to rate unconverted podcasts on my iPod.  I can do it in iTunes but I listen to them on my pod not my mac.

I use all five stars.  Most important is the first one!

• 1 Star:  Delete this podcast.  For short podcasts (less than 15 mins.) I’ll set this when I start listening.  My .Delete smart playlist is set to capture just podcasts with a rating of one star.  After my sync, I highlight all of the podcasts in that list and press Option-Delete (on the mac) to permanently delete the files.
• 2 Star:  In progress podcast.  For longer podcasts, I’ll start listening and immediately give it a 2 star rating.  I have a smart playlist that captures all 2 stars.  If I don’t finish one or get tired of it but want to come back this, I use two stars and check the list “PC - In Progress” later on.
• 3 Star:  Come back to this one for some important information.  I often listen in the car so this rating puts the podcast in a special play list so I can quickly refer to it after sync and jot down important notes.  Often, I record the name of the podcast and the time setting into a small digital recorder in my car so I can find the import spot quickly.  As I mentioned in a previous post, my ideal podcast player would let me press a button to bookmark the spot or press another button and actually record a brief note.  I usually delete these podcasts after I capture the note later.
• 4 and 5 Star:  Like or Love It so keep it.  These are the podcasts I don’t want to delete.  The do show up in a smart playlist so can remove them from the iPod but keep them in iTunes.  This works great for music podcasts, lectures and book summaries,  that I’ll listen to again.

This works great for me.  Hope it works for you!

I use iTunes (on mac) to download all of my podcasts. Most are downloaded as MP3s but I prefer to listen at high speed so I convert them to bookmarkable M4B AAC files. Doug Adams has a great AppleScript to do the trick. QuickConvert allows me to take one file or a entire playlist and convert it to most any file type, place the files in a new playlist, then delete the old posts. I especially like this process because when used on iTunes downloaded podcasts, it apparently removes the podcast tag in iTunes. This has three important results:

1. The file no longer shows up in the Podcast area of my library. That’s fine with me since I use smart playlists to find the many podcasts.
2. It allows me to rate the podcast from my iPod. It seems that iTunes podcast files can be rated in iTunes but not on the iPod. This is very important to me. I’ll describe why in another post.
3. When the pre-converted file is deleted, the Podcast download area in iTunes looses all record of the download. This is important because iTunes may think that you haven’t downloaded any podcasts recently and will stop trying. The solution? Another one of Doug’s scripts: Update Expired Podcasts.

I use a combination of scripts, smart playlists and ratings to manage the dozens of podcasts I download each week. Keep reading to find out how (and why).

Read the rest of this entry »

Shortly after switching to mac, I bought 1Password to manage all of my passwords.  I had been using Roboform on the PC so I was pleased that 1Password allowed me to export all of the passwords from Roboform then import into 1Password.  Piece of cake.    Speaking of cake, today is Dave Teare’s birthday!  He’s the co-author of 1Password and to celebrate his birthday, he’s offering the program at a substantial discount.  Act fast.  His birthday only lasts one day!  Here’s the information:  http://agilefolks.com/s/15083762e

Here’s a brilliant idea. PaperCDCase.com let’s you enter a list of 28 song titles and create a printable paper cd case complete with folding instructions.  Better yet, if you use iTunes on a Mac install this script from Doug’s Scripts and automatically send the contents of a playlist to the CD case maker.  Glad I switched to Mac or I’d be typing in those playlists!

Here’s a PDF of my first case.  Sample CD Case

Lifehacker recently posted a list of great add-ons for iTunes.  I’ve tried a few and there are a couple on the list that I plan to try primarily for controlling playback.  A couple of my favorites are missing from the list:

• Markable for creating audiobooks from MP3 or audio CDs (Windows)
• Audiobook Builder from Splasm (Mac)
• AppleScript and Doug’s Scripts to automate just about anything in iTunes (Mac)

More posts on Audiobook Builder and some of my favorite AppleScripts coming soon.

Powered by ScribeFire.

As a long-time Windows user, I’d frequently use the Print Screen key to capture screen shots to insert into emails or Word docs.  Hey, there’s no Print Screen key on the Mac keyboard! With a little help from “The Unofficial Apple Weblog” I learned that the Mac has improved on the concept.   Here’s how…Press Command + Shift + 4 and a little cross-hair icon will appear on the screen.  Move it to one corner of the area that should be captured.  Hold down the mouse button and stretch across the entire area to be captured.  Release the button and a PNG of that area will be dropped on the desktop named Picture 1 (or 2, etc.).  Drag and drop this into your document.  Pretty cool.  In Windows, I could use Print Screen to capture the entire screen or Ctrl-Print Screen to capture the active dialog box.  Anything more required a special program like Snag-It.  As mentioned, it appears the file format is PNG though the article referenced above (from 2005) says PDF.  I’m using Leopard so that could make a difference.

When my mom’s Dell laptop died four or five months ago, I suggested she switch to a Mac.  Since I was her PC tech support, I suggested she buy two MacBook Pro machines: one for her and one for her tech support.  She bought one but promised I could borrow it anytime!

A week ago I “elfed” my family (courtesy of Office Max) but unfortunately, my wife’s Gateway PIII was too slow to run the animation.  In fact, her PC was so slow it would take several minutes just load e-mail.  Time for a mac in the family.  On Christmas morning she unwrapped a sleek new 20″ iMac.  I was jealous (even though I got it for her!)

Later that day my parents surprised me with a gift certificate for my very own Mac!  (How generous!)  So instead of hitting the stores in search of 1/2 price holiday bargains, mom and I went to the Apple store on December 26.  I came home with a beautiful Mac Pro with a wide screen 23″ display.  I’m in heaven.

As I migrate the switch to Mac, I’ll document some of my findings here.  Thanks mom and dad.  I’ll try to learn fast so you’ll be proud!