[willed]

So over the last two weeks four of my friends have bought an iPod, (3 x 40G, 1 x 20G) and one of those also got a Mac Mini as well (which is a great little machine!). My Dad is going to switch, having been won over by my iBook and iPod with little persuasion from me - I just answer questions he asks. Everyone's talking about Apple stuff at the moment, not just iPods but the computers as well. Is this just in my little corner of the world or is everyone else noticing this too? I think the Mac Mini may have been exactly the right move for Apple.

[mitchell_pgh]

My buddy purchased a Mac mini, but the real question is... will he buy another Mac in a few years. He is having difficulties accepting OS X. He wants it to act more like Windows XP. He constantly is saying stuff like "Macs are dumb" "Apple is stupid" etc. etc. I know he is joking around, but it gets annoying at times.

[willed]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
My buddy purchased a Mac mini, but the real question is... will he buy another Mac in a few years. He is having difficulties accepting OS X. He wants it to act more like Windows XP. He constantly is saying stuff like "Macs are dumb" "Apple is stupid" etc. etc. I know he is joking around, but it gets annoying at times.

My friend who bought the Mac Mini is studying music, and he's had a great time playing with GarageBand. He was also impressed by Exposé (who isn't?) He migrated from Win 98 so I think he's just glad not to be using that any more!

[pooka]

Biggest turn offs I've been hearing are:

1. No Games or very poor game performance (I know.. I know.. No biggie. We all know)

2. Poor web browsing experience. Various sites being too slow. Load times, scrolling, compatibility, etc.

I think number 2 is a serious issue. I'm not looking to start a flame fest about why web developers suck for using flash, IE specific code or how quickly your dual 2.5 G5 parses ESPN's index page. I've just seen too many people pissed off after purchasing a brand new $2000 computer and then get the impression that the $500, 3 year old Dell Dimension it's replacing could mop the floor with the mac's ass.

Cue spyware and virus posts..

Again. Just some common issues I've noticed when trying to convert PC users.

edit:

Oh. Porn. Lots of porn is now encoded in Windows Media. The mac port sucks.

[Sherwin]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
My buddy purchased a Mac mini, but the real question is... will he buy another Mac in a few years. He is having difficulties accepting OS X. He wants it to act more like Windows XP. He constantly is saying stuff like "Macs are dumb" "Apple is stupid" etc. etc. I know he is joking around, but it gets annoying at times.

Show him the Terminal and AppleScript - then see how dumb he thinks it is.

[typoon]

Originally posted by willed:
So over the last two weeks four of my friends have bought an iPod, (3 x 40G, 1 x 20G) and one of those also got a Mac Mini as well (which is a great little machine!). My Dad is going to switch, having been won over by my iBook and iPod with little persuasion from me - I just answer questions he asks. Everyone's talking about Apple stuff at the moment, not just iPods but the computers as well. Is this just in my little corner of the world or is everyone else noticing this too? I think the Mac Mini may have been exactly the right move for Apple.

I don't think it's just you. I've seen it quite a bit here as well. With the Mac mini it's almost a no brainer to get a Mac now.

[CRASH HARDDRIVE]

I think there’s no doubt the Mac Mini alone will lead to increased Mac sales. Just gauging by my own anecdotal experience, interest in the Mac Mini among people I’ve met who aren’t already Mac loyalists is the greatest I’ve seen with any Mac in recent years. It’s a machine that appeals to people who don’t quite want every aspect of their computer dictated to them by committee (IE: they can choose their own monitor and needed accessories- seen as a minus for some, but a major plus for others) and who want something small enough to be portable, (great for students for one) and something other than a Windows PC.

It’s also priced well for people who’ve been getting by with an older desktop Mac for years, and have been waiting to jump in and get a newer machine. Apple hadn’t made a desktop that fit this bill for ages.

I’d say the Mini was definitely the right move at the right time for Apple.

My personal gripes with it- the power button’s unfortunate location in the back prevents it from being used as a media appliance as neatly as it could be. I would love to get one as a media device, but can’t locate it where I want and readily access the back, so no go.

Also, I wish Apple would figure some way to make a second iteration just that much bigger to accommodate full-size, full-speed, full capacity SATA hard drives. The laptop form factor is a big minus for more tech and performance minded people. I personally can live with the less than *perfect* graphics and the G4 far more than the extremely limiting internal storage.

But all these issues aside, the Mini is perfect for people that don’t care about such things and just want their first Mac, or to finally replace an older Mac.

Also, I predict the iPod Shuffle is going to storm the world. Again anecdotal, but I’ve noticed that interest in personal MP3 players is on the rise lately. The other day I was at Frys electronics, and Creative Labs had set up it’s own internal booth, with a team of sales people hawking their low-end MP3 players to a crowd of people. Their models all offer about half the capacity for the same price or more than Apple’s offerings, the only plus being small screens. It seemed to me the effort was part of a larger push to dump their lower end offerings before the Shuffle kills them off. If/when Apple gets the Shuffle into the mass consumer market, it’s going to kill off a lot of the lesser MP3 players for certain. 'iPod' has become synonymous with the highest quality of portable MP3 player even beyond the Apple brand.

[hayesk]

I have a friend who wants a mini to do video editing for his upcoming babies. His wife, who is not a computer expert, and only uses a computer for web surfing and email, is a Mac-hater. He pressed her for reasons, and she admitted to not having any, but she still hates it.

The only thing I worry about is having to hear her complain when web browsing is slower than she's used to. Although they do have an old PC and I don't know what speed that is.

I suggested keeping the PC, but my friend said nope, if he goes Mac, he wants it to do everything and he wants to get rid of the PC.

[wdlove]

I find my local Apple Store busy with customers at the check out counter. Have figured that's a good sign.

[cjrivera]

Originally posted by hayesk:
I have a friend who wants a mini to do video editing for his upcoming babies. His wife, who is not a computer expert, and only uses a computer for web surfing and email, is a Mac-hater. He pressed her for reasons, and she admitted to not having any, but she still hates it.

The only thing I worry about is having to hear her complain when web browsing is slower than she's used to. Although they do have an old PC and I don't know what speed that is.

I suggested keeping the PC, but my friend said nope, if he goes Mac, he wants it to do everything and he wants to get rid of the PC.

Make a quick iDVD of their "baby" for them. Google a bunch of baby pics from the web and make a video picture book and see if you can find someone else to film their kids with a DV camcorder and make a cute iMovie to show. The finished product might convince the mom how easy it is to make videos on a mac. You could also show them a .mac homepage of kids and how easy it would be to share all the good "baby pictures and videos" with family and friends.

[turtle777]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
He is having difficulties accepting OS X. He wants it to act more like Windows XP.

Maybe you can install a cron job that freezes up his computer on a regular basis and show a picture of the bluescreen of death

-t

[Sherwin]

Originally posted by turtle777:
Maybe you can install a cron job that freezes up his computer on a regular basis and show a picture of the bluescreen of death

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by turtle777:
Maybe you can install a cron job that freezes up his computer on a regular basis and show a picture of the bluescreen of death

-t

Hmmm... looks like I fixed my friends main issue, I didn't need to use cron, I just set the desktop image as the blue screen of death, unplugged his mouse and keyboard and give a 1-900 number for India.

[turtle777]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
Hmmm... looks like I fixed my friends main issue, I didn't need to use cron, I just set the desktop image as the blue screen of death, unplugged his mouse and keyboard and give a 1-900 number for India.

You are a TRUE friend

-t

[malvolio]

Originally posted by pooka:
Oh. Porn. Lots of porn is now encoded in Windows Media. The mac port sucks.

Only the cr@p stuff is in WMV format. The good stuff is all DivX, easily playable in QuickTime.

[sworthy]

Originally posted by pooka:
Biggest turn offs I've been hearing are:
2. Poor web browsing experience. Various sites being too slow. Load times, scrolling, compatibility, etc.

I think number 2 is a serious issue. I'm not looking to start a flame fest about why web developers suck for using flash, IE specific code or how quickly your dual 2.5 G5 parses ESPN's index page.

This is HUGE. I'm a diehard mac fan, and it's ridiculous that I'm considering having to buy vpc or a low end dell just for a few web sites. Applying to law schools has been annoying because I have to go over to a friend's house just to use his computer to fill out the online application. Again, this wasn't a problem with all of the applications, just ~25%.

I know it's not Apple's fault, IE code etc, but something has to happen if I can't do basic things on the web.

[turtle777]

Originally posted by sworthy:
but something has to happen if I can't do basic things on the web.

Something is happening, it's called Mozilla / Firefox.

-t

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by sworthy:
This is HUGE. I'm a diehard mac fan, and it's ridiculous that I'm considering having to buy vpc or a low end dell just for a few web sites. Applying to law schools has been annoying because I have to go over to a friend's house just to use his computer to fill out the online application. Again, this wasn't a problem with all of the applications, just ~25%.

I know it's not Apple's fault, IE code etc, but something has to happen if I can't do basic things on the web.

If it's an IE-only site... IE for Mac doesn't work?

P.S. I use Safari on my Mac, with Firefox as a backup, and I use Firefox exclusively on my PC.

[sworthy]

nope. IE for mac, firefox and safari don't work. I know firefox is gaining share, but that doesn't do anything *now*. It's hard to convince people that something might be fixed, eventually.

Because of this I don't know if I can fully recommend macs unless someone has access to a pc as well.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by sworthy:
nope. IE for mac, firefox and safari don't work. I know firefox is gaining share, but that doesn't do anything *now*. It's hard to convince people that something might be fixed, eventually.

Because of this I don't know if I can fully recommend macs unless someone has access to a pc as well.

I guess it really depends on the sites.

I NEVER use Internet Explorer, even on Windows, unless it's a locked down computer which won't let me install Firefox.

The sites I go to work fine. Furthermore I often recommend Macs to friends, and I haven't heard any significant complaints about browsing.

And strangely enough, I'm one of the few people here who actually likes Internet Explorer. I just like Firefox and Safari better.

[sworthy]

I'm not saying it's a huge deal - I think I've only run into a few of those sites in the 2 years that I've switched. It's just that being able to use those sites has either been critical, or at least important. Having a mac can be a big drawback in those cases, but I'll gladly have that problem instead of viruses, etc. It just sucks that I have to deal with it at all.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by sworthy:
I'm not saying it's a huge deal - I think I've only run into a few of those sites in the 2 years that I've switched. It's just that being able to use those sites has either been critical, or at least important. Having a mac can be a big drawback in those cases, but I'll gladly have that problem instead of viruses, etc. It just sucks that I have to deal with it at all.

It was a problem for me a couple years back. But recently it hasn't been an issue for me fortunately.

[willed]

Originally posted by sworthy:
I'm not saying it's a huge deal - I think I've only run into a few of those sites in the 2 years that I've switched. It's just that being able to use those sites has either been critical, or at least important. Having a mac can be a big drawback in those cases, but I'll gladly have that problem instead of viruses, etc. It just sucks that I have to deal with it at all.

It is annoying. My Internet Banking has recently stopped working with all Mac browsers, as has the BBC Radio Player. These would both work fine I'm sure if I had Windows.

[Superchicken]

Install pithhelmet and have it disable adds that speeds things up a lot.

[Sherwin]

Originally posted by willed:
It is annoying. My Internet Banking has recently stopped working with all Mac browsers

Which bank dude?

[willed]

Originally posted by Sherwin:
Which bank dude?

HSBC. I wrote to them and spoke to them on the phone and they said they'd look into it great. That was a couple of months ago now.

[JohnSmithXTREME]

Originally posted by willed:
HSBC. I wrote to them and spoke to them on the phone and they said they'd look into it great. That was a couple of months ago now.

I use extended preferences with Camino that tells websites I have IE for Windows. Would that not work for you?

[cc_foo]

I just set up a mini for the in-laws. I took away their Windows 98 Pentium 1 machine. Hahaha.

I did a 1GB upgrade at home, and also installed iLife 05, Office, an iSight, and Firefox as the default browser. My reasoning is that FireFox is much more compatible and faster than Safari (IMHO). They won't know about Safari being Apple's browser, unless they look around their HD.

I use HSBC in Australia, and Mac Firefox has always worked with their Internet banking.

They love the iSight too.

[juanvaldes]

Originally posted by CRASH HARDDRIVE:
The other day I was at Frys electronics, and Creative Labs had set up it’s own internal booth, with a team of sales people hawking their low-end MP3 players to a crowd of people.

I saw the same but no employees and no crowed. Hell it was even darker where they setup shop.

[willed]

Originally posted by JohnSmithXTREME:
I use extended preferences with Camino that tells websites I have IE for Windows. Would that not work for you?

I use a similar tool for Safari but it doesn't work. Perhaps HSBC works with the latest version of Safari, but with MacOS 10.2.8 I can't get that version

[misnomer]

Originally posted by cjrivera:
Google a bunch of baby pics from the web and make a video picture book and see if you can find someone else to film their kids with a DV camcorder and make a cute iMovie to show. The finished product might convince the mom how easy it is to make videos on a mac.

Wouldn't it be actually better to demo the process in front of them? I mean if you do all the work and only then come over to play the finished video, how will they be able to compare the experience to doing the it with Photo Story 3 under XP?

[Sherwin]

Originally posted by willed:
I use a similar tool for Safari but it doesn't work. Perhaps HSBC works with the latest version of Safari, but with MacOS 10.2.8 I can't get that version

I know what you're saying here, as I can't get PithHelmet to work either.

As far as the bank access goes, I don't know about HSBC. However, I had a similar problem with Lloyds. I'll relate the story just in case it helps you.

I ran into intermittent problems with their web site. Most days I couldn't get past the index page. So I phoned their help desk, who couldn't figure out what the problem was. I was getting quite irate that I had to use a Windows machine for banking - didn't like it at all.

Anyways, for some other reason I changed my internal network setup then happened to try again - it's been working 100% of the time ever since. I've no idea why it solved the problem, but it did.

I was going: Internet - router - Airport - Mac.
Now I'm going: Internet - router - wired switch - Mac.

Maybe if you're running Airport you should try it without? Try straight into your router?
Otherwise, just get onto their help desk, if they have one.

I'm getting HSBC's index page and the personal account log-in page on 10.2.8 if that's any help to you.

[misnomer]

BTW, if you do go with the slideshow video demo, there's some easy ways to trip up PhotoStory to make it look bad in the comparison. Don't let it autocrop, autoredeye reduction, auto create all the transitions, etc as that will make it seem super fast and easy to get to the finished product. Instead of having it autogenerate royalty free music to fit the compilation length, click to use preexisting music. Then don't use a WAV file or WMA music but try a bunch of mp3s. Its mp3 importer is very picky about what kinds of mp3s it can handle so that's a good way to crash the whole thing. Finally if that didn't kill it have it render a pretty high resolution movie and if they don't have a newer system, like a 1.6GHz P4 or above, when you playback the video it should appear to be choppy and the sound will cut in and out as the playback is very processor intensive.

[Mastrap]

Originally posted by willed:
It is annoying. My Internet Banking has recently stopped working with all Mac browsers, as has the BBC Radio Player.

Sorry to hear that will, but I (business) bank with HSBC with no problems and the BBC works fine for me too. This is in Safari, connected to the net via a D-Link wireless router on a cable connection.


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