I bit ago I wrote a quick post about why I wasn’t so sure about getting the new 3G iPhone here in Canada as I have been using a hacked 2G US model for some time and all I was really missing was a data plan.

Well lots has changed since the last post… Rogers caved-in to some degree and is now offering iPhones on your old plan available at the subsidized pricing but you have to renew with a three year contract, I have even heard that some people are able to get iPhones at the $199 and $299 pricing without even getting a data plan? Rogers has also introduced a limited time offer 6GB for $30 per month data plan available for most Smart Phones including the iPhone.

So what does that mean to me? I’m sticking with my old 2G iPhone and grabbing the new 6GB data plan!! Ya I know I won’t have the built in GPS ( I already have a great turn by turn Magellan GPS in the car). And ya I know I’ll be waiting for my web pages to load up with my slow Edge based data connection. The truth is I  really am not using my data as much as I thought I would, in the past 20 days I have only used just over 20MB of data. part of this is because I was in California for four days doing the Mac Video Training Tour. I guess I must do the bulk of my iPhone browsing from home based WiFi? Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a bit of a marathon couple of weeks and I am just getting caught up. I wanted to post some updates while on the MVT Road Show but it turned out to be some very long days usually ending with getting into the hotel late and crashing.

The MVT Road Show was well worth it in the end, we met with around 20 Mac Dealers, most of them where very interested in our Quick Start Your Mac Training Video. Paul and I even managed to sell a bunch of our courses and offset most our trip costs. It’s was really great going and seeing all of these amazing people and their Mac based businesses.

Now for some of the highlights…

Day 2 we went made our way to Cupertino and of course we had to stop in at  the Apple Mothership.

Read the rest of this entry »

I haven’t really said too much about the new 3G iPhones coming out in a few days from now (July 11th). Originally I was very excited about the thought of being able to legitimately purchase and use an iPhone in Canada (along with 21 other countries) on July 11th. Unfortunately I live in Canada where we have the absolute worst Cell and Data plans in the world (Thanks Rogers/Fido!), I won’t go into the details, it’s much too depressing. In short the top end $115 plan doesn’t even get you unlimited data or even Call Display and all plans lock you into a 3 year term.

So I thought I already have an iPhone so maybe I could get onto the iPhone plan in Canada without the 3 year term in case I didn’t like it, no can do! If I want to get on the iPhone plan I have to sign a three year contract even if I don’t want the new 3G iPhone. No way I say!

Lucky for me Rogers recently announced some raw Data plans that are not too over the top compared to what we here in Canada are used to. I am trying out a 300MB for $30 plan that I simply add to my existing voice plan and I don’t have to lock into a 3 year contract. My only concern was that Rogers would pull the “Sorry your phone is not supported” card out and in the end my $30 data plan would not cover the data my non-supported iPhone used costing me 8 bazillion dollars for data. I have been monitoring my usage and I will have no problem keeping to under the 300MB cap (Going from non data to 300MB is easy to keep a leash on). I have had to pull a few teeth over at Rogers in order to find out if I am actually getting charged for my iPhone Data usage and it looks like my $30 plan is in fact working with my iPhone. For the record Rogers policy is you have to wait till the end of your billing cycle to find out how much data you have used and what you are getting charged for, that’s very convenient for them but not for us… I will keep you posted on how this plan works in the long run, I really hope Rogers makes some amendments to their iPhone plan so more people can get on board the Apple Train.

Here are some relevant links:

• Rogers iPhone Plans
• Canadian iPhone 3G plans lack unlimited data
• Early iPhone adopter on fence about new one
• www.ruinediphone.com

Well my MacBook Pro reached the 2-year-old mark and it was starting to show its age a bit, I use it near 24 hours a day, it’s always doing something… downloading, ripping, encoding, you name it! I have it set to never go to sleep.

In all that time it has never had a hiccup. The battery is in need of a replacement, it’s at about half of it’s original capacity which is not bad for a machine that has seen as much run-time as this one has.

I would actually still be using it but lately my trusty MacBook Pro has been letting me know to ease up a bit, I have been experiencing some annoying video card artifacts when I push it to the limit graphically speaking that is. This seems to only happen when I do my Screen Cast recording or other heavy duty video related work. I get these periodic and random horizontal lines in the video and as you can imagine this is not good when I am trying to record to print for my new Mac Video Training videos. It only happens when things heat up, if I start on a fairly cold Mac I can work for a while with no problems but as I said my MacBook Pro is usually working away so it stays pretty warm most of the time… Worst of all I didn’t get Apple Care which would have covered the battery and screen issue so for now resolving this issue would not be economically viable.

My previous MacBook Pro was the last generation Intel Core Duo (Not the Core 2 Duo) running at 2GHz. I had maxed it out to the 2GB of RAM limit and also upgraded the internal 80GB hard drive to a 160GB drive. The video card was an ATI Radeon with 128MB  of VRAM. My older MacBook Pro did not have a FireWire 800 port, the Dual Layer DVD burner or the 802.11n capabilities. (but rather a 1 FireWire 400, Single Layer Super Drive and 802.11b,g) Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long time since I switched to Mac but about a year ago my Mother-in-law switched back over to a Mac and so I inherited her used HP PC laptop. And until just recently it has sat lifeless on my shelf - so sad

I have been using my MacBook Pro as an iTunes server for my two Apple TV’s, I keep all my shows and movies on an AirDisk connected to an Airport Extreme all of which streams wireless throughout the house. The only downside to this is when I take my  MacBook Pro with me, so to goes the iTunes Server content which leaves my wife movie-less.

So I got an idea, PC’s can run iTunes, why not turn my aging PC laptop into an iTunes Server? And then I remembered the AirDisk my movie data was on, which on a Mac is very easy to connect to and share. An so the Googleing began… I needed to find out if/how a PC could connect to an Airport AirDisk. A few minutes later and the results where in, PC’s can connect to AirDisks too, maybe not as elegantly as a Mac does it but at least it was possible.

So this is what I did or should I say did twice because the first time I got the PC iTunes Server up and running she decided to go down about a week later virus ridden and ashamed, nothing a day and of my time and a format and reinstall couldn’t fix! No more casual surfing with PC iTunes Server for me And yes I had Virus software on it to boot! Read the rest of this entry »

There is always some great content on our S2M Forum and sometimes it warrants being placed front and center. This post from a more recent member - sirdaniel about his experiences over the first coupled of months on a Mac may help other potential Switchers jump in with both feet!

“Late last year as my aging Gateway PC began to show sings of it’s impending demise I started research on purchasing my first Mac.  I joined this and a couple of other forums and did countless hours of research online, at at local libraries, and during a couple of visits to the local Apple Store where I took some of Apple’s consumer classes.  This research ended with the purchase of my new 24″ iMac, 2.4gH 59 days ago.

What follows are some thoughts as I enter my third month of the Mac experience.  Experienced Switchers perhaps will not gain much here but for those of you still straddling the Mac/PC fence……here are my experiences. Read the rest of this entry »

Walter Mossberge writes a short but to the point Article about how Macs really don’t require much if not any housekeeping, stuff like defragmenting, spyware/adware removal and other system maintenance.

I often get asked about defragmentation on the Mac and if it is necessary, he answers the question well:

“However, the operating system has some under-the-covers features that generally obviate the need to run a defragmentation utility. In fact, Apple, which calls defragmenting a disk “optimizing” it, flatly claims, “You probably won’t need to optimize at all if you use Mac OS X.”

The only problem I have with the Article is the last question…

“Q - I have updated to a new PC. My data are on a floppy disk. There is no floppy disk drive on this new computer. How can I transfer my data?”

That’s like going into a BMW dealership and asking the salesman how you’re going to play your Tape Cassettes without a tape player?

Read the full Article

This Popular Mechanics review has been out for a few days now and has received a fair bit of attention! Are Mac users surprised… Not really, I think it’s the PC users who are finding the verdict surprising. What I like the most is the fact that Popular Mechanic is both Credible and Neutral as a tester in this debate. Many Mac vs PC test results could be said to be biased one way or the other where as the Popular Mechanic results are hard to dispute.

And so who is the winner??? Why the Mac of course.

“In both the laptop and desktop showdowns, Apple’s computers were the winners. Oddly, the big difference didn’t come in our user ratings, where we expected the famously friendly Mac interface to shine. Our respondents liked the look and feel of both operating systems but had a slight preference toward OS X. In our speed trials, however, Leopard OS trounced Vista in all-important tasks such as boot-up, shutdown and program-launch times. We even tested Vista on the Macs using Apple’s platform-switching Boot Camp software—and found that both Apple computers ran Vista faster than our PCs did.”

Popular Mechanics also said Vista was sluggish and that PC’s where not the bargain that many computer buyers believe they are getting.

Read the entire Popular Mechanics article here

Here is a common and very good question, which contact management suite should I use? Well if you haven’t purchased Office for Mac 2008 then the answer is pretty obvious, you are going to be using the Mac included contact management solution that consists of three separate programs: Mail, Address Book and iCal.

Now if you purchased Office for Mac 2008 you may just be thinking to yourself, I want to get my monies worth so I may as well use the included MS Entourage Contact management program that seems very “Outlook” like. I’d say the best thing Entourage has going for it is it’s resemblance to Outlook so it may feel a bit more comfortable to some Switchers. There in lies the trap, “Familiarity”… If “comfort or familiarity  is the main reason you are considering going with Entourage you may want to think again.

Now I don’t want to seem like an MS basher but there are some things that you will need to consider before committing to using Entourage, and by committing I mean committing because once all your email, contact lists and calendar events are imported into Entourage it’s not going to be fun having to move them over to Apple’s Mail, Address Book and iCal.

So what about getting your Outlook data over to the Mac, wouldn’t it be easier to move Outlook data into Entourage rather then Apple’s contact management solution? The short answer is it’s the same solution for both, I strongly suggest you pay the $10 to Simple Machines and use (O2M) Outlook to Mac for the heavy lifting. You will shave off hours of your time and the end result will be all your contacts, email and calendar info transferred into either Entourage or Apple Mail, Address Book and iCal - your choice.

Both the Apple and Microsoft solutions will work well and will do most of the same things so what do I suggest, I never thought you would ask? I say go with Apple all the way and here’s why. Read the rest of this entry »

David Alison, a self claimed “Mac Hater” wrote up a nice account of his first two months using a Mac. He states the Mac isn’t perfect like any piece of technology but he is finding he really likes using the Mac and in fact he doesn’t really use his Windows/Unix machines all that much anymore - “I’m having too much fun exploring my Mac and scheming to get a Mac Pro.”

Some Quotes:

“Before I got my Mac I was concerned about Right-Click mouse support. I remembered when all Mac mice were of the single button variety and it was something that seemed crazy to me, given the value of having at least 2 mouse buttons. Well, right clicking is very much available and useful on a Mac and in fact I use a 5 button Logitech mouse every day.”

“Over the last 2 months I have downloaded nearly 50 different applications and utilities, though that’s not even scratching the surface of what’s available. The range of applications is staggering and covers just about any category I could think of.”

“One of my favorite applications comes with OS X though and that’s Time Machine. Seamless hourly backups of my machine that took minutes to set up and just happens without me doing anything. I love it when computers do the work for you.”

Read David Alison’s full Article