As computers become more and more prevalent in our world, more and more business are relying on computers to completely run and maintain records for their business. While Windows and PCs have previously dominated business offices and company with their computers, many are switching to Macbooks for personal and business use. But how easy is it to switch over from Windows or PC to your Macbooks? What are the snags and hold ups that might occur when trying to make the transition?

Over the next few weeks, we’ll take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of moving your business to the Mac. We’ll examine different software and tools that can make it easier or harder, and gain insight and input from you, the reader.

One of the biggest differences between Macs and PCs, especially in relationship to business, is the operating system. PCs use the world-wide familiar Windows Operating system, while Macs use a new and innovative, Leopard OS X. Many other posts on this site talk extensively about Leopard OS X, but in relationship to you and your business, how different are the operating systems?  Apple has delivered more than a thousand new features in Leopard OS X over the last seven years and is working to improve performance and there is talk about launching an operating system known as OS X Snow Leopard.

There are important questions to ask when considering moving your business to a Mac. What do you use your computer for in your business? Internet surfing, email, purchasing, record keeping, account information, payroll ? Are the employees in your company computer literate enough to make the transition with you? How much training will it take? What software is available and how much will it cost? Would a move to a Mac pay off in the long run? We will explore these questions and others in the next few weeks.

Part of our research and discussion will involve you, the reader. Gaining insight and input from you will be pivotal to our exploration. Have you attempted to move your business over? What did you experience? What were some of the more difficult issues and how did Mac make the transition easier? Your input is needed and valued.

Check out a guided tour and learn more about the basic operating system of the Macs at Apple and in the upcoming days and weeks we will launch an investigating into the realistic idea of taking your business to the macs!

Today is the big day. At the end of the day we will hopefully know who our next President elect will be. Want to be able to track the election from your Mac with quick access? Apple is offering a widget application that allows you to track the elections both national and statewide from your widget application on your mac. Elections 1.0 gives you the ability to monitor todays polls and voting information, as well as have access to websites and news information nationwide.

On the widget, you can select information about elections, polls, debates, tools and even track your votes in comparison to the rest of your state and country. My personal favorite application in the widget and one that will be most useful today is the ‘Electoral Map Resource’ that gives you insight into the electoral process and how things are shaping up throughout the day.

The widget costs $0.99 and can be downloaded in iTunes formatm. It gives you an opportunity to stay informed and discuss election results throughout the day and the upcoming weeks and months as our nation and states undergo dramatic (and hopefully positive) change.

With Christmas coming and Apple hitting marketing hard, choosing an iPod that’s right for you or for your loved one can be a difficult task. I for one am a fan of the iPod Nano, its exceptional simplicity and sleekness and its new Genius features, creating a playlist of my most favorite songs.

But if you’re looking to make a first-time iPod purchase or pick one up for a friend or loved one. Here are some questions to ask:

1. How many songs do you have in your playlist?

-If you’re new to iTunes or have a limited amount of songs, try the iPod Nano. Its got a great selection of colors for those of you who want to make a fashion statement. Also, the accelerometer allows you to shuffle your music with a shake. The iPod Nano is available in 8GB and 16GB; 2,000 and 4,000 songs respectively.

-If you’re wanting to carry your library wherever you go, there is no comparison to the iPod Classic. With 120GB of storage, it can hold up to 30,000 songs. Great for long trips or if you don’t have access often to your iTunes library, having everything you could want and need on your iPod can be extremely helpful. $249 can be a little spendy, but a good investment.

2. Where and how often are you going to listen to your music?

-Do you only listen to music when working out? if so, then the iPod shuffle is for you. Clip the player to your sleeve and load the 1GB shuffle, with a 500 song capacity, easily with iTunes. You can run on the treadmill or in your neighborhood and hear your favorite songs. Makes a great Christmas gift for a cost of only $49.

3. Are you going to JUST listen to music, or watch videos and play games too?

-The iPod Touch is your best option for videos and games on your iPod. Its has a Mult-touch display and 3D graphics, enhancing a gaming experience and gives good clarity for watching videos.

Hopefully these guidelines and questions help bring you to a decision. An iPod can be a great gift for a friend or family member around the holidays.

Extra Tip: Consider getting a service plan or extended warranty with your iPod, simply because they are carried around and you are downloading lots of songs, videos, etc. In case something goes wrong, you’re covered.

Leave comments or questions below about other considerations when purchasing an iPod.

With the buzz of last weeks event still electrifying the Apple stock and market, how will Apple adjust to the recession and cut in stock? I’m going to have to agree with my fellow blogger, Henry Blodget, who states that Apple Won’t Get Crushed By The Recession.

The new MBP and other products launched within the last few months have took into account the market and economy, while still maintaining the elegance and superior performance that Apple offers. They have been able to effectively balance the, ” magical halo of quality and cool” that Blodget mentions, while still lowering prices to a reasonable rate for those interested in purchasing a Mac for the first time or buying the new, sleek MBP with its innovative features. Blodget says:

• A $1,000 laptop is not really much more expensive than an $800 laptop, especially for a product that should last a few years. Apple will never win over the folks who choose purely on price anyway, so it would be dumb for it to sacrifice its premium positioning to try.

 

• The $200 iPhone has much of the functionality that many people once looked to laptops for, and some potential buyers of $500-$800 laptop will opt for that instead. Apple’s iPhone, moreover, is still the highest quality product in the market, so no one who buys it will ever feel like they’re settling for less.

I agree with Blodget’s reasoning, but still, there were many who were disappointed with the event and were hoping that Apple would lower their prices a little more in order for those struggling in a recession to be able to purchase a new Mac.

So while Apple is far from ‘taking a hit’ in the current recession, though everyone will see a cut in stock and lowering in profit margin and purchasing, Apple will still be just find and continue to excel as the leader in innovative and user-friendly, cutting edge technology.

But I can’t help but wonder, will Apple ever make their products, like the iPhone, available at a lower price or keep it just out of reach for the average joe in order to maintain its mystical and superior quality status?

I sat down and tracked the “spotlight turns to note books” event at Apple from Engadget this morning and wanted to share and discuss some of my initial, real-time thoughts.

10:00AM: Tim Cook opened the event with a quarterly report of growing at “2/3x the market growth”.

Cook gave five reasons why Macs are continuing to grow and be successful…

1. Better computers

2. Better software

3. Compatability

4. Vista

5. Marketing

10:06AM: Something that excited me. Apple stores launching around the world: Sydney and Beijing…near and dear to my heart having lived and taught in China.

10:09AM: Macs in major universities…I’ve noticed at the graduate school I attend how much Macs are a part of our classrooms, but I still see plenty of PCs in my school. I wondered if the university classroom picture they showed of all the students with their Macs was an advertisement scheme, then I remembered that its Apple, and everything is an advertisement scheme!

10:11AM: Jony Ives out talking about new ways to build notebooks. The tension and excitment is building!

10:16AM: More discussion about internal design. My excitement is tiring! And what does the word ‘anodize’ mean?

10:17AM: Enter Steve Jobs…now the excitement is back!

10:20AM: Enter ‘Multi-touch glass trackpad’…a rumor confirmed.

10:22AM: THE NEW MACBOOK PRO!!! A beautiful crescendo of technology and innovation to the introduction of their new Macbook Pro.

10:23AM: Aspects of the New Macbook: Multi-touch glass trackpad, LED-backlit display, Precision aluminum unibody enclosure, Backlight keyboard, Sudden motion sensor and more.

10:25AM: precision unibody enclosure…half of the major structural parts yet a more rigid and firm construction. Hope for a lighter, yet more stable MacBook. Brick rumor confirmed.

10:29AM: New 9600M GT, 32 graphics core and 9400 integrated graphics included in Macbook. Nice job of piecing it all together Steve!

10:30AM: “So let’s get back to this mini display port — we can drive any display we could before, but at a fraction of the size — we’re building this into everything we make. This will also be the first MBP that we offer SSD on, and you can access the drives from underneath the battery.” Not sure what all those acronyms mean, but the mini display port sorts like a smooth touch.

10:32AM: New prices on MBP…$1999, 15.4 inch display, 2.4GHz Core 2 Du of DDR3 RAM, NIVDIA 9400 and 9600. Next step up at $2499. Decent pricing for the specs given.

10:34AM: Check out GreenGlancy for some insight on the new Epeat gold rating of the MBP.

10:35AM: And you only have to wait until November for a new MBP. Why not say, “a few weeks”?

10:37AM: I’m disappointed that the rumored macbook was going to be $899 and instead is a 24-inch LED backlit display. Still, if you’re looking for a home computer, this is a viable option.

10:39AM: Wait a minute…for $100 more those options ARE available in the MacBook line: glass trackpad, 5 hours of battery life. Lowering the price by $100 from $1099 to $999. Is it enough? Maybe not low enough!

10:42AM: “$1299 for the new MacBook 13.3-inch display, 2GHz Core 2 Duo… that’s $700 more affordable for these Pro features.” Nice move Steve, emphasize the $700 drop rather than the $100 one.

10:44AM: “So we think this will be a huge success.” Will be interesting to see if the market and economy effects their projected success and if the changes in innovative technology are enough.

10:45AM: While zoning out over the process of construction again, a colleague reminded me of the education discount that could be applied to the $999 MBP. Might be enough to convince my wife…

10:51AM: Trackpad orientation…Apple’s new way of confusing first time Mac users, albeit a cool new mouse and operations concept.

10:53AM: Nice to hear that Steve’s blood pressure is down.

10:54AM: Q & A session…side stepping, waiting for Blu-Ray to take off more. Good move on Apple’s part not to lock into a fastly changing and unreliable Media Technology World.

Well, there you have it…some rumors confirmed and some new innovations and new products from Apple. It’ll be interesting to watch the Apple market and see if the new $999 MBP can drive some more wavering college students over to Macs and flood universities and dorm rooms with macusers.

Check back this week as we take apart each of the new options and innovations from the Notebook event including the trackpad, new MBP, the unibody enclosure and the $899 Backlight display.w

This morning on the west coast Steve Jobs and Apple will present more updates and innovative details to their Notebook collection. Rumors have been flying left and right and there is even the talk of an $800 notebook that may be released. According to other sources, however, “it seems the $899 product (K29, MB382LL/A) that has appeared on Apple’s product lists is likely an LED Apple Cinema Display and not a low-end MacBook.”

The same site, however, states that, “If Apple does introduce a $899 low end MacBook, analyst research suggests that it will increase the addressable notebook market by nearly 50% in terms of revenue”.

Whichever might be coming around the corner, its clear that this event will be interesting to follow in light of Wall Street and our current economic state. Will Jobs and Apple try to make their notebooks more accessible and lower prices, or continue to plug along and keep prices the same? What are their new innovations and how will they affect the Apple Notebooks?

Gizmodo.com, Engadget.com, ArsTechnica, Macworld have live keynote coverage and we’ll be updating later today with information about the presentation. Check back this week as we discuss the changes and updates to Apple Notebooks at TweakOSX.

I’m looking into backing up my the information on my Mac since recently going through the scare of losing information or having my mac crash on me. I began looking around for an external hard drive and wanted to find a one-time purchase for as cheap as possible.

So with my newly pledged loyalty to Apple, I went over to the Apple store and checked out their external hard drive options. The first thing that pops up in the search engine is the wireless Time Capsules that Mac is selling. The 500 GB is going for $299.00 and the 1TB for $499.00. Since I cannot afford, nor do I need a wireless external hard drive, I proceeded farther down and locked onto the LaCie 1TB d2 Quadra Hard Disk
for $279.95.

But as I strayed away from the Apple Store and looked at NewEgg, I found a Lacie Design 301304U 1TB 7200 RPM USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for $149.99. This seemed to be a similar product for a staggeringly cheaper price. I read the reviews and some did say that it could get hot after two hours and the usb cable is short, but those inconvenienes are worth the $130 different between the Apple Store Lacie product and the NewEgg product. There was also an obvious difference in between the d2 Quadra and the 301304U naming of the external hard drives, though it was difficult to know exactly what those differences were.

I’m wondering, what’s the difference and are the differences relevant for a guy like me that just needs to back up basic photos, videos and documents? Do I even need a 1TB external hard drive or should I just get for 500GB? I would appreciate any guidance or advice as I search for something to back up my information.

Growing up as a little boy, one of the favorite parts of my year was watching the Wimbledon Tennis Championship. For those of you who don’t know, it is a professional event held in London, England every year. A tournament steeped in deep tradition and history and it never disappoints. It is one of the reasons why I loved playing tennis so much growing up and still enjoy going out to the courts every once in a while now.

I was thrilled when the Wii system came out and it the Wii Sports game, as well as Mario and Sonic Olympics’ both came with tennis and ping pong respectively! Finally, a chance to practice my game in those cold, rainy winter months!

The great thing about the Wii is that you can play it sitting down and barely move the Wii Controller, or you can take the innovative opportunity to play interactively with the system and stand up, move around, and, in the case of Wii Tennis, actually practice your strokes! Wii Tennis could be the next training ground for a Wimbledon or Olympic Champion!

Though the Wii has been around for a while and I’ve had my system for six months or so, I feel a new sense of excitement and anticipation now when I turn on my console with friends and we get pretty intense in our Wii Tennis and Ping Pong competitions!

Yesterday while I was working on a project in iMovie, I received a warning that my disk drive was getting too full, which apparently then prompted iMovie to trash and empty the project I was working on. Stunned and shocked, I sat there in disappointed amazement, wondering how my project had been erased by my Mac right before my very eyes.

While I am still pondering what happened to my project, I embarked on cleaning up the disk drive on my Mac. I realized that I had a ton of files in Pages, Numbers and others that were out of date and that I didn’t need. ‘Finder’ was a great place to go to easily drag unwanted documents and other items into the trash bin to free up space. I was able to quickly free up space and feel a little better about operating and working on projects without them disappearing. The ‘Mac Help’ section in Finder also had some great tips on how to clean up and increase space on your hard disk:

Increasing available space on your hard disk

-Delete items you don’t need by dragging them to the Trash and choosing Finder > Empty Trash.
-Move files you don’t often use to an external disk drive, such as a FireWire disk drive. Once the files are transferred, you can delete the copies on your computer.
-Compress large folders into smaller archives (such as .dmg or .zip files).
-Store files on disks, CDs, or DVDs instead of on your hard disk.
-Remove languages you don’t need from applications. You can remove languages in the Application’s Get Info window. Select the application in the Finder and choose File menu > Get Info, then select the unwanted languages and click Remove.

If you have other ideas on how to clean up and increase space on your hard drive, or if you know where my iMovie project might have gone off to or why that might have happened, leave a comment below.

One of my wife’s favorite features on our MacBook is Photo Booth. We’ve spent hours of laughter and fun on this application with friends and with each other. While we’ve learned the basic programs of Photo Booth, i.e. how to take pictures, how to add effects, etc. we know that with all Mac applications, there’s got to be more that this application can do.

I found a great tip at Tekzilla which reveals that if you hit the shift key when clicking on ‘take picture’ then you eliminate the flash when the picture is taken. Furthermore, if you want to take the picture immediately without the countdown, hit the option button and get an instant pic.

While I know that Photo Booth is a relatively simple program that provides hours of entertainment (at least for my wife) are there any other intricacies or tips that I don’t know about?

Please leave a comment if you here or know of anything that could improve my Photo Booth experience.