Macalicious

I’ve gone and become a tech-head again! Sitting inside in front of the computer for the entire month of August will do that to you. I have lived with computers for most of my life and always been quite proud that I have professional knowledge in most areas of computing and the internet. This has meant fixing more computers than I can count, or setting up websites and solving windows issues for friends and relatives. In recent years, particularly now that my main interest has gone from technology into creative arts, I’ve realised what a pain computers really can be. I don’t mind helping out a friend in need but how about if computers just worked and we didn’t have to look at hardware conflicts, windows errors, viruses and browser compatibility. As much as I enjoy technology I don’t want to spend my time trouble shooting anymore.

So recently I’ve been fascinated by the Mac. I tested an iMac at my friend’s house and can’t get enough of it. I’ve always known that Mac are great for multimedia but when I was younger I saw Mac users as a bit dumb for going with a computer that only had one mouse button and I couldn’t play around with the hardware or software as much as I would have liked to. Great thing is Mac’s just work the way they are supposed to. I’ve spoken to a few friends that own them and they are all extremely happy, rarely they have any problems with them (note: I don’t get phone calls from my Mac friends about needing help). There is a myth that Mac’s can’t get infected with viruses, so I wanted to do a bit of reserach on this. I found out that the first Mac virus was discovered in 2006, and there are very few of them around. Mac is gaining in popularity so the security threats will definately increase on Mac’s but there are already a dozen virus scanners out there for it.

I was thinking how this whole Mac revolution started and how my mind set has changed. So here is my list of cool products:

1. iPod and iTunes
   Not the first MP3 player or MP3 software, but probably the slickest looking and best TV ads. Had us all hooked instantly. “You got an MP3 player? Yeah, I got an iPod!”. I love my iPod, and couldn’t really be bothered going to a different brand even though I know there are hundreds of multimedia players out there that are just as good or better.
2.  Safari
   The browser native to Mac got released on PC and I love it. I have had no issues with it… compared to another native browser included with Windows. It’s my default browser, even though I run Internet Explorer, Firefox as well as the new Google Chrome BETA for website testing.
3. iPhone and iPod Touch
   You have to admit, these are just too cool. I want to upgrade my iPod Video for an iPod Touch! I’ve seen my friends with iPhone’s and they are a real tech-toy, but I’m not ready to buy one yet. I’m currently looking for a phone that has a 5Mpixel camera with built-in flash. So maybe next iPhone model?
4. MobileMe
   This week I signed up for a free trial of Apple’s new MobileMe service. You get email, calendar, contacts etc. Similar to Windows Live or Outlook, just looks nicer. Easily synchronises everything with your Mac, iPod Touch, iPhone, or even with your PC using Outlook or similar software.
5. iMac and MacBook
   All new Mac computers are now built using Intel based hardware and OS X is based on Unix source code. So today a Mac is really just a very hot looking PC with less problems. There are very few compatibility issues left between Mac’s and PC’s these days. You can even run Windows on a Mac if you want… but you’ll still have all the same Microsoft issues

What really has me sold on getting a Mac though is just out of vanity. I’m a visual person and every Apple product is designed to be sexy as hell. Simple, shiny, and slick. Next year I’m making the big step and moving to Mac.

Google takin’ it 2 da Streets!

I was reading a story the other day on Courier Mail (Brisbane, Australia) about the new Street View feature on Google Maps. If you want to read the whole article, click here. In short it gives you a 3D walk through of city streets all over the world. At the moment it is mostly the United States, Australia, and some asian and european cities that are available.

I thought this was unreal, had me really excited. When Google Earth and Google Maps first came out it made the entire world’s geography easily accessible to anyone with a reasonable internet connection. And now we can walk through cities in other countries without even visiting them.

Nostalgia set in, so first thing I had to do with the new Street View feature was to visit Kangaroo Point in Brisbane and walk around my old neighbourhood. The first thing I noticed was that the hotel across the road from KFC and McDonald’s wasn’t there yet. So the photos from the Street View feature must therefore be pretty old. That got me even more curious so I walked over to my old house and had a look in the backyard. Pleasently surprised, I’m sitting here in Sweden, and can see my old car which I sold last year, and my housemate Michelle’s car, standing in the back driveway of our old home in Kangaroo Point

Talk about travelling back in time. On another note, I’ve been watching back to back episodes of Heroes! I think Hiro Nakamura should use Google Street View as a reference for his time travelling