My love and hate relationship with Apple and Windows.

Apple Loves:

1)  The interface is clean, simple, not a lot of unnecessary features.  This usually translates to time saved working rather than hunting for apps.

2)  I think Bonjour is a better networking protocol.  I have far less stability problems connecting to share drives in and out of my macbook pro.  Connecting to a SAMBA linux server has also been much more stable and permanent for me.

3)  File handling seems to be more efficient and fast.  Example:  When using Lightroom, browsing my photos tend to be faster and smoother.  There is less wait time.

4)  They do try to be innovating as much as possible.

5) The hardware is nice to look at.  Unique, and very different from what anyone else is doing.


Apple Hates:

1)  Expensive hardware of course.

2)  Software updates are too infrequent.  I would like to see stability, security, and performance issues fixed faster.  I'm okay with monthly or weekly updates for these things. Lion needs some serious updates and Final Cut Pro X, well that is a whole different subject.  Updates were promised 2-3 months ago for this summer, and here we are at September 17rd.

3)  This one is macbook pro specific, but the edges of the casing are amazingly sharp.  Skin on my thumb has worn off from this.

4)  Sometimes they try to make a big deal about nothing...examples

• Live demos that feature cheesy webcam graphics, that any web cam vendor has been doing for the last 10 years.
• Promoting updates for the delivered calendar and mail software.  Boring.. I don't use these anyway.  
• Making a big deal about full screen applications.  This isn't rocket science, Windows has had this feature for years.  I don't use it in Windows and don't plan to use it Lion.
• iPhoto.. there is so much better out there than this.  

5)  I tend to always be doing storage management in my Apple environment.  I have a laptop that has a 500 gb main disk.  I quickly had to purchase additional portable drives to maintain my photo and video needs.  Working from share drives in an Apple environment is difficult to mostly unusesable for applications such as FCPX.  I feel constrained from this all the time.  Unless you get a Mac Pro Desktop, which is somewhat dated now, I think you will always be storage challenged.

6)  Somewhat of a false sense of security.  Just because the OS X platform doesn't have a lot of security breaches doesn't mean it couldn't.  Less is publicly written about virus' on mac because less people have mac's.


Windows Loves:

1. Lots of software and hardware devices and components available for it.  Lots of good freeware, such as Cobian Backup, which I love. 
2. Windows 7 is generally a good stable operating system, even though I'm through some challenges with it lately.
3. My use of storage is not generally limited on my boot operating system or other drives. 
4. You generally know what to expect and the usability is high.
5. They seem to have their security methods correct as far as reacting quickly to a security hole, fixing it, and releasing the patch.

Windows Hates:

1)  Slow to innovate and expand functionality.  Where is the Windows version of Airplay?
2)  When things go wrong they can go very wrong.  I went through 2 months of crashing twice a day and couldn't figure out what the issue was.
3)  Windows search is useless
4)  Finding your programs can be difficult if you have a lot of them.
5)  Diagnose performance issues is terrible.
6)  I can't do inplace upgrades of software.  I typically have to download a version, click the install file, shut down the old version, let it update, and then often have to do reboot.  This is tedious.  I would prefer appstore style updates.

Viewing magazines on an Ipad

I love viewing magazines on my iPad.  Having the ability to have all of them in one spot and not in a pile in the corner of your house is a great thing.  The problems with the success of magazines on iPad have been the following:

1)  The software to view the magazines isn't standardized and generally is really bad code.

2)  Navigation isn't uniform between magazine brands.

3)  It is difficult to find a magazine in the App Store. This needs to be centralized further.  ( I read IOS 5 may help with this.)

4)  I don't want sound and video in my magazine.

5)  Pricing is odd.  Some give free samples before you buy, other allow single magazine purchases, others require a full year subscription before I can see any content.

6)  There isn't any easy way to archive an old magazine.

Here is a video I did on it:  http://youtu.be/UguAtDjk8q4

http://youtu.be/UguAtDjk8q4

My Top Apple iPad applications

Like many of you I'm loving everything Apple lately, specifically the IOS mobile operating system.  There are so many great applications for these devices.  Let's get to it, what do I consider the best..  All of these applications I use to some extent:

Most amazing / must have applications, best of the best:

• FlickStackr - If you love photos and use Flickr, this application is better than the actual Flickr website.  Its a minimal fee in the app store, but it is very worth it.  
• Air Video - This app allows me to watch movies and tv that I have on different computers in my house.  My video's I've burnt, even Windows Media Center files.  Again amazing app.
• Zite - A news and article consolidator.  Love it.
• Denon Remote App  - If you have a Denon stereo you can control everything from this.  Check if there is an app for your brand.
• Netflix  - self explanatory if you are a Netflix subscriber.  "It just works"
• Echofon - If you are on Twitter I find this application very helpful in managing multiple accounts.
• The Economist- I consider this magazine application the benchmark that all other magazines apps should strive to be. 
• USA Today - Simple, nice looking, newspaper app.
• Magazines - I think magazines in general are the killer app for iPads.  Simple, no tree killing, have severall magazines all on your device.. easy to travel with.
• PhotoSync - Awesome app for wirelessly downloading your photos and videos from your ipad or iPhone.  It works better than any tool provided by Apple.

Other good stuff:

• Mail - Yes this is the standard email program with the iPad.  I'm a big fan of simplicity and design.
• Youtube - Combine this app with Airplay and an apple tv and its pure awesomeness.
• Google Search  -  "It just works"
• Evernote - Simple note and image cloud service for all of your devices.
• Imo.im - Instant message program for all of your accounts.
• Instagram - Photography app.  Its just fun and I love how it connects and shares to all my other accounts.  
• Tumblr - Simple picture / /video blog.  Day in the life content.  Again simple to share to.  Fun to browse other popular photos.
• Books - Yep just the standard book program from Apple.  I use to read a number of PDF product manuals.
• Amazon.com - If your looking to buy something this is pretty simple.  Plus I like using the "wish list" feature as I can do some fairly frequent price checking.
• Dropbox - Good for sharing files with other computers, such as product manuals.
• iNet - Scans my network, helps with triaging computer issues.
• Pandora - LIsten to you channel of music.
• Gararge Band - I have no musical skills but I've had lots of fun with this app.
• iMovie - When you first download the app and start playing with it you think that it sucks, but once you actually have a real project to put together, it moves from sucks to "hey that was actually pretty handy and the results look nice".  The limitation with this app on the Ipad is that the iPad camera really isn't any good.  
• PS Express - Photo edits before sharing.
• RDP & VNC  - Tech utilities to work on my other computers. The surprisingly work well.
• Skype - I would have this in the awesome list above if the camera on the iPad was better.  This is better than Apple's Facetime.
• Speedtest - Simple app to test my internet connection speed.

Not mentioned because these services are so popular, but they really don't have an iPad app.

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So what are you favorite iPad / iOS applications?

Reading Magazines on the iPad

I did this video as I really love reading magazines on the Apple iPad. I think its an under marketed feature of the device. Images and text show up amazing well and they are simple to page through.


Advantages: 1) Ease of use 2) organization (don't have a pile of magazines in your house 3)archive your magazines longer 3) awesome visuals 4) If you a print subscriber many magazine vendors give you the ipad edition for free.

Disadvantages: 1) Its difficult to find magazines in the Apple Store 2) Not all magazines have the same navigation 3) Some magazine can become to gimmicky 4) individual magazines can be expensive.