We had a post in our Forum based around how some members noticed that not all mice seemed to have the same cursor speeds, notably the included Mac Mighty Mouse seemed to be slower than other 3rd party mice even when using the Macs default System Preference software.

We found a few solutions to resolve this issue:

• Use a Terminal Command to “Turbo” or “speed up” you Mac Mighty Mouse
• If you don’t like playing around with Terminal then use MouseZoom 2.2

CreativeTechs has a couple of really good Pocket Guides to keep handy for when you might need them.

Mac OS X Shortcuts - A Tiny Guide

My Mac Won’t Start - A Tiny Guide

These guides are in PocketMod format: Here are the instructions on how to fold and use them:

Thanks to Wraith2021 for the heads-up

Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be unto all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. Luke 2:10-12

Here a few Christmas Mac downloads to help make your Mac a bit more festive just in time for Christmas:

MacLampsX will give your Mac that Christmas glow by placing a very nice boarderlike string of lights around your screen.

Snö is pretty much what the name says, snow will fall all over your desktop and where I live it may be the only snow I may see on Christmas.

X-MasTree is a Christmas tree for your Mac, great if you don’t like fire hazards and pine needles or tinsel all over your house.

Christmas Wallpaper from Vladstudio so you can decorate your Macs desktop with a unique Christmas wallpaper.

I tested all of them on a Leopard Power PC iBook and a Tiger Intel MacBook Pro and everything worked for me just fine.

“Thanks again to Wraith2021 from our Switching To Mac Forum for pointing these out for us!”

We often hear the negative stories relating to a product or servile and I don’t think this can only be applied to one specific company. Here’s an account of an Apple related issue with a rather happy ending for Amir of Austin Texas. Amir experienced a cosmetic defect on his near new 17 inch Macbook Pro and this is what happened when he took it directly into his local Apple Store for service.
Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a great visual comparison of Mac OS vs Windows OS found on gizmodo. It starts with Windows 95 vs Mac OS 7 and goes right up to Windows Vista vs Mac OS 10.5 Leopard. Kind of takes you back a bit but I think a shot of Windows 3.11 would have been nice too see also.

Another new “Get a Mac” ad, this one’s just in time for the holidays…

Well, we Canadians can finally download some sort of iTunes Store video other than Music videos and Shorts! OK the selection is a bit lacking right now but hopefully we will get some more titles soon (fingers crossed). So what about the Movies? Guess we’ll have to wait and see about that one too…

The official announcement came today from Apple:

“We’re thrilled to bring television programming to the iTunes Store in Canada in time for the holiday season,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We’re off to a great start with hit shows from CBC, CTV, Comedy Central and MTV Networks, along with the best of classic and current NHL action.”

The cost is $1.99 CAN per episode and this is what the lineup includes as of today (12.12.2007) via a snapshot of my iTunes TV show Listings.

So your not sure if you should get a Mac or a PC? One way to help you find out is by taking this short Mac or PC Computer Personality Quiz and see if your personality is more suitable to a Mac or a PC.

For each question, make sure to write down the number of the statement that is most suitable to what your own response would be. (Hint: It will be a 1 or a 2)

Question 1:

1. I’m a follower, I prefer to base my decisions on what others do and not on my own ideas. If my friends buy something, more than likely I’ll end up buying it too. Good or bad at least where all in the same boat together!
2. I like to look at the big picture and do my own research and due diligence, I prefer to try things out for myself and see if they work for me, I don’t mind doing things my own way if I feel it is a better way.

Question 2:

1. I prefer to make my purchases based on price, it’s more important that I save some money and fit into a set budget than whether or not I get exactly what I want. If I can save a buck and still have a computer that does most of what I need it to do some of the time then I really can’t ask for much more.
2. When I buy something I make sure I get what I need and want, quality is important to me even if I pay more for it. I see a purchase as an investment in something, mostly my time.

Question 3:

1. I like playing around with my computer just to see what I can do with it. I love the challenge of troubleshooting problems. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter if I actually get anything done, just as long as I learn something new.
2. When I sit down at my computer I like getting stuff done so I can get on with the rest of my daily life, you know the important stuff…

Question 4:

1. To me a computer is just a tool, it doesn’t really matter how it looks or even if any thought went into it at all. I guess the byproduct of grabbing a bunch of miscellaneous parts and slapping them together to make a computer system isn’t always going to look pretty! Did I mention beauty pageants should be judged on personality too?
2. What’s inside the computer is most important to me but I have to admit I just might be slightly influenced by appearances! If the outside matches the inside then what’s so wrong with that. Sex sells, what can I say…

Question 5:

1. I like to have a huge selection of software to choose from, that way I can test drive a bunch of the no-name titles and see which one of them sucks the least. At the end of the day it’s kinda fun seeing if any of them where actually worth the bandwidth to download. As it turns out going with the more expensive software tittle was the way to go, who would of thought??
2. I don’t have the time or the patience to weed through a bunch of junky software, I just want the one that does what it’s supposed to do and gets the job done. Here’s my credit card now give me my program!

Question 6:

1. I loves the games! The best part is the tones of money I spend trying to upgrade my entry level PC to get the best frame rates possible. I don’t even mind much when my recently purchased  $400 video card gets replaced by an even faster one, as long as I can get a few more FPS out of it then I’m in! The only problem is, with all the system modding and game playing I don’t seem to have much time for anything else… Is that the sun coming up?
2. Sure I like games, after all I try to make sure I have time for a balanced life, and when it’s gaming time I like to sit down at the couch with few good buddies, my beverage of choice in hand and my favorite console game I know won’t be out of date for years to come. It’s almost like these games where made for my system…

Question 7:

1. One thing I love is the element of surprise! Will my computer boot-up today, I wonder who sent this eCard? Hey look, my web-browser has been hijacked again, I wonder how much my Antivirus and Spyware subscription are going to cost this year… It all just warms my heart.
2. Surprise can be a good thing like when there’s a police car with its light and sirens on behind you and then he drives around you and pulls the guy in front of you over for speeding. Or you go to the drive-though window and they accidentally give you the other persons order… and it was for a family of 10 boys. Or your girlfriend tells you she is late this month and then clarifies she meant with the rent. I prefer to keep surprises and computing completely non-related, thank-you very much.

Question 8:

1. Lets get real, Windows is the end all be all operating system, why would you ever need anything else, Windows can do it all as long as you have the time, patience and willingness to coerce the myriad of programs into communicating with each other. It doesn’t really matter if the audio and video in my movie are synced up, it’s the thought that counts. Besides it’s all about the business applications. Music, Pictures, Video and Website stuff is way over rated!
2. Sure I need to do my business stuff, I got to pay for my computer somehow! I just want to make sure I can do more then work on my computer, with all this power under the hood, surely isn’t a computer meant to do more than make bold text and render pie charts. I’ve got all these photos, videos and music sitting around taking up space on my hard drive, why not do something fun and creative with it all? Hum, should I make an iMovie, a Webpage, an iDVD or a Podcast today… Did I mention a Mac can run Windows too?

Congratulations You’re Done!

• OK, now add up all your totals.
• If you scored an 8 you are clearly a PC Personality type. So sorry?
• If you scored  a 16 you are a clear Mac Personality type. Deal with it!
• If you scored somewhere in between then the one you are the closest to is your likely computer personality type.
• If you’re right in the middle (that would be 12) then average up and go with the Mac!
• If you scored below 8 or higher than 16 then you are an idiot, so get a Mac too it might just help and it comes with a really nice calculator application.
• If you are a PC person who didn’t find any amusement in this Mac or PC Computer Personality Quiz then take a breath and remember where you are… This site is called “Switching to Mac”!! Don’t worry there are lots of PC-fanboy sites that share your passion for all things Microsoft. Go and find one…

OK Mac people.. Stop fighting it and get a Mac, do it now or maybe tomorrow sometime…

Here’s a good place to start

Starting December 1st 2007  and moving forward, Switching to Mac and S2M Computer Consulting will be donating 10% of all revenue sources back to Children’s Charities.The children’s organizations may change from time to time, this information will be updated when it happens. The first donation was to the “One Laptop Per Child” cause, future donation will now go to the “Village of Hope in Zimbabwe“.

If you would also like to help out you can go directly to the Village of Hope website and show your support.