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Now for the Con’s, although they are minor.

1. The dual video cards seem a bit gimmicky. Okay, I’m glad for the dedicated card when running Adobe CS4 apps, but really, I could live with the performance of the onboard card. The dedicated video card also sucks battery and heats the laptop up considerably, almost alarmingly hot. Running the onboard video there is almost no discernible heat. The biggest annoyance is that you have to close everything and log out every time you want to switch cards. Because of the heat and battery issue, I’ve found myself just living with the onboard video. It’s not worth the hassle to log out and change it.

2. It’s a BIG HONKING laptop, almost as big as the 17″. If it was an inch narrower it would be the very definition of perfection. It barely fits in the laptop sleeve of my gigantic Patagonia Half Mass bag and it’s girth makes it a little cumbersome and unwieldy to pick up and move around or use on one’s lap. I would have happily gone for the 13″ model if I could have gotten the same performance specs.

I sell and repair computers for a living and this is hands-down the best laptop on the market for my specific needs. While I paid a premium I feel it was a good value. Average users would do well with the MacBook or 13″ MBP. Nothing in the PC laptop world even comes close. That being said, this review is specific to my needs for a laptop. A desktop is a completely different beast and my desktop workstation still runs Windows XP Pro.

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I like the keyboard on this unibody macbook pro as compared to the old one but really don’t know why–perhaps it is a perosnal preference. it is backlighted but so was my old one.

tech support at apple is superb, another reason i will never consider anything but apple. and if you have an apple store near you, you can get one to one personal training for a little less than $2 per week. in addition, they offer free classes to adults and children. you learn so much that you are finally able to take advantage of the features your computer can do without being a computer whiz.

the new version of the operating system, called snow leopard, will be out sometime in sept. if you buy a system now with the old version, you can upgrade with apple for $9.95.

the graphics card is very good in this machine, however, i am not much of a gamer so i don’t really reap the benefits of that. but it is a dedicated card so it has great potential for those that would utilize it.

another awesome thing about this computer is that the bettery last 7 hours or so. at times, mine has lasted longer. it depends, i guess on what you are doing. and, even with the better battery, i think this computer weighs less.

if you are debating on whether or not to switch to apple, all i can say is that i am extremely grateful i did and so is everyone else i know that made the switch. one of the things i like, in addition to the ease of use of programs and the seemless integration is that there are no virus programs to run that slow the computer down tremendously. in addition, my old mac book pro ran as fast on the last day as the first and i am anticipating the same for this. unlike my windows laptops that got progressively slower as time went on. another great thing about apple is the seemless backup of files that it will do automatically for you. you don’t have to figure anything out. jut let it do its job and if you ever lose all of your data, you will have a back up to restore your computer. That in itself can be worth tons of money. i know you can do this on windows machines, but it takes knowledge and effort–something i never seemed to posses when it came to computers.

one thing that i don’t like is that the plug is hooked to the computer via a magnet. it is suppose to be safer so that it will unplug easily if someone snags it. that way it doesn’t drag the computer to the floor. for me, i find it a little annoying because it can become unplugged easily. minor detail but it is a little irritating. if i could change one thing it would be that you have an option of which plug you wanted.

another thing that is different about the unibody macbook pros is that you can get a 13 inch with a full keyboard if you want. when i bought my last one, the 13 inch had a weird keyboard and as a typist, i couldn’t even consider that size. i still chose the 15 inch because that is what i wanted, but now i can also purchase a 13 inch for my children rather than buying them the 15 inch.

one thing that the mac store employees recommended to me rather than getting a desktop was to get the 13 inch laptop for my kids and use my existing desktop monitor, hook up the lap top, add a keyboard and mouse if desired, and use that as a desktop. but you could always have the portability of a laptop if you ever needed it. i haven’t done that yet, but that is going to be my next apple purchase.

It took me over a year to decide to switch to mac. It was a very tough decision for me. change is hard. i didn’t know if i could do everything i wanted on the mac. i have never regretted it once. and if you are one of those rare users that has an application that can only be used in windows, you can use the program preloaded on the macbook pro or buy another program so that you can run your application–its like 2 computers in one. one caution, however, whatever portion of the computer you dedicate to windows is subject to viruses so you will have to run an antivirus on that portion. for me, i have found no need to use any windows application. and i even found that i work is much better than ms office in my opinion. but if you are partial to ms office, you can purchase a mac version.

Good luck with your decision and purchase. if you buy any of these macbook pros, you will be happy.

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Here are some benefits:

+ Beautiful 15″ widescreen display. I’m coming from a 17″ PC, and since the display was a bit more squared, I don’t feel that the screen size decrease is too noticeable

+ Much lighter than PC. At 5.5 lbs, it’s easier to carry around than similarly sized PC’s

+ Super fast power up and power off. I would say it takes between 30-40 seconds to power on, and less than 10 seconds to shut down- outstanding

+ Robust battery life. It’s rated at 7 hours. This time will vary depending on your usage, but it’s about right if you don’t jack the brightness and surf too heavily

+ Refined, gestured trackpad. If you want to scroll, just swipe with two fingers- to select options or webpages, a single tap on the trackpad will accomplish this. Also nice is the ability to zoom webpages a la ipod touch/iphone pinching. I wish you could save a zoom setting to default on Safari though

+ No crashes, except for internet surfing (more on that later)

+ Love the preinstalled iPhoto application it comes with to view and edit photos

+ No problems with spyware, viruses, or crappy, obtrusive antispyware (i.e. Trend Micro) to combat it

+ Outstanding customer support (and I’ve used them a lot so far!)

And now for the not so good:

- If you want word processing/spreadsheet functionality, you’re pretty much stuck with plunking down $100 for Microsoft Office. You could use alternatives like iWork, but with most people using the Office standard, it makes sense for compatibility purposes. No generic preinstalled word processing software, Apple?

- The learning curve (if you’re a long-time PC user). The menus and interface that Macs use are pretty well laid out, but it’s a pain to relearn where some items are. Example, you’re in Mail and you’d like to add an email folder. The solution? Select “New Mailbox.” I’m sure most PC users were scratching their heads with that solution

- There’s no “maximize” function on the windows. It will save your settings once you resize everything, but if you want a window to take up the screen, you’ll be doing some manual dragging to get them the way you want

- Not enough ports. Here’s an example. Let’s say you have a usb mouse, you’re listening to iTunes from your iPod, and you’re saving backup data to a USB drive as you’re working in MS Word. Well, that’s one too many usb apps, so you’ll have to constantly unplug everything to accommodate your needs

- No number pad. Now I realize this does not affect a large percentage of users, but I’m a finance guy, and work in Excel a lot. Not putting a number pad on the keyboard is reasonable, but what is not reasonable, is offering no first/third party solutions for a USB/Bluetooth numpad. Props to anyone that can find such an accessory

- A bit tricky to port your iTunes media from PC to Mac. You’ll be contacting support on this one, trust me

- Too many extra charges from Apple. $350 for 3 years of support, $99 per year of storage backup. Considering what we’re paying for Macbooks, you’d think Apple would cut us a break on some of the “extras”

- Here’s my biggest gripe. I have had SERIOUS stability issues with my Macbook and 2Wire DSL AT&T modem/router working together. I originally had a problem with Airport dropping my signal (fixed it with a Google search). Then, I had numerous problems with “Broadband Link Not Established Errors” from my 2Wire modem. Again, I was able to find a posting online which allowed my to turn 2Wire notification messages off, resolving this. So after numerous Google searches, and tech support from Apple and AT&T, my internet is pretty stable, but still not great. I’m still having issues where common websites will not load without stopping the request and clicking the reload button. Some users have had these stability issues resolved by purchasing the Airport Extreme Router, but at $179, this is not a cheap solution. I’ve had none of these internet problems running other devices from 2Wire. I’m not sure who is at fault, but my gut tells me that Apple did not go out of their way to make their Macbooks overly friendly with 2Wire’s network. I feel like Apple should send me a partial rebate for all the hard research I’ve put in to get a stable connection

So is it worth it to switch to Mac? In a word, yes. Although they’re certainly more expensive, 13″ models are available at $1,200 which provide decent value. New Mac users will certainly notice an increased level of refinement and simplicity when they make the switch. Overall, a very nice laptop that would easily merit a 5 star rating, if not for the terrible 2Wire compatibility issues.

8/5/09 update:

My 2Wire modem continued to error out and reset itself while surfing webpages. The DSL and Internet lights would flash red, and my internet would disconnect for 20 seconds every time this happened. I finally found a solution to this problem. Not thrilled about the extra $89, but my internet experience is finally stable. The product I picked up is the D-Link ADSL2/2+ Modem/Wireless Router combo. I also reviewed this product on Amazon.

The D-Link is highly recommended for AT&T DSL users with Mac/2Wire compatibility issues.

Rating:

Going to try to keep this review short, but sweet.

I’ve had it for about 9 months now, basically since the Unibody MBP’s came out. First, the construction is just outstanding. The solidness of the enclosure makes the whole thing feel sturdy and basically indestructible. In 9 months, I have treated it like I treat all my equipment – I use it thoroughly without too much concern for cosmetics – and there is not a single scratch or sign of wear on the entire machine. The thing still looks new, after 9 months – that’s how durable it is. Incredible.

The speed and responsiveness and stability of the computer itself is excellent. I’m a programmer and photographer, so I take it to the max every time I use the computer, and I expect a lot of it. With 4 GB of RAM it’s never sluggish and handles everything better than any computer I’ve ever owned.

Graphics and gaming performance is surprisingly good with the 2nd dedicated Nvidia 8600 video card. I dual boot to Windows XP (however reluctantly) and it works great.

I don’t even need to talk about the software, hopefully you know all about it by now. OSX is truly awesome, especially for programmers. It’s so refreshing to have a real operating system where you can pop open a real console and still have a nice graphical interface on top of it. The OS is a matched pair with the quality of the hardware.

In short, this is a seriously great machine. I’m no Mac fanboy – I run Windows, Linux, Mac, whatever – but I’m very impressed with the quality and especially the construction and build durability. It’s honestly at a level above any other laptop, it’s a pretty stunning difference. If it is more expensive, it will make up for it in longevity and resale value alone. Definitely worth it.

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This loss of data & photos has left me frustrated. I’m also stunned since I’ve never had problems with any Apple product I’ve bought before. I did not find anything in the upgrade instructions that indicated that lost of data and pictures was possible.

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I love the new features of iMovie… especially the image stabilization. I think if you take your time to understand how the application works you’ll find it a great editor. My one complaint is there is still no direct export of HD video to YouTube, only standard resolution, so the process of getting HD videos up requires an export and manual upload.

The new features of iPhoto are great… especially the face recognition. The goodies in iPhoto really impressed me. Until I got ’09, I managed my photos manually into folders etc. on my drive and used different applications for editing/exporting them. Now I’ve moved my entire library (20+ years of photos) into iPhoto confidently. I love the fact that I can get things up to Facebook directly through iPhoto. Great touch!

By far my favorite feature of the new iWeb is the ability to publish to more than just MobileMe. I use iWeb to edit my son’s website but have my own host and domain. In the past I had to publish to a folder then use a separate FTP app to upload the site. This meant I had to upload the entire thing or manually chose the items that had changed each time. Having iWeb manage the publishing of the site to the FTP server I use is a big time saver! Plus… they’ve finally added the ability to manage multiple sites… no more having to launch manually from the site’s folder. I haven’t played with the new Facebook feature yet but I think it’s something I’ll be trying out with the next update to my son’s site.

Though I have yet to try it out, the new one-step DVD feature of iDVD sounds pretty cool. I can’t review on it though so that’s all I’m saying.

All in all I think iLife ’09 is a great update to the previous versions. If you’ve never used iLife… try it now! iLife ’09 is a sure way to get hooked on the apps that apple has given us to make life a little easier to organize and a lot more fun to show off!

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The biggest problem is how iPhoto 09 is than iPhoto 08. I have about 10,000 photos and the beachball cursor spins up each time I try to open up an event or go to an album. Random slideshows are a pain to do now – select all the photos, click on the play button, select music, select shuffle photos (for random pictures), wait a while for something to happen. The “use as default” button doesn’t stick either so I have no idea what that should do. Takes quite a long time to stop the slideshow too. I have the a 2009 Macbook which should be able to handle iPhoto.

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However, one weekend I decided to visit the nearest Apple Retail Store and check out the newly released models. My decision was mostly influenced by the reduced prices and increased battery life.

After some debating over buying the older model for same price or getting the latest one we settled on the newest mid end $1999 model with 2 GPUs. As is common I got a very nice resale price for my older MacBook Pro as it had AppleCare.

This generation is an all around improvement over the past generation unless you happen to be using ExpressCard on 15″ model that is. In our case we never used the ExpressCard after attempting to use a eSATA card that did not work really well. And we have a few SD Cards that we figure we can easily use.

So on to the specific improvements over its predecessor -

1) Battery Life – I was very doubtful that the battery would last any longer than 4 hours at the maximum but was pleasantly surprised to find that for surfing/email type and the occasional CNN/Youtube flash videos getting 6+ hours was quite easy.

2) Prices – No doubt prices are the most reasonable Apple laptops have ever had. If you have no need for the dual GPU you can get the $1699 model which comes with a respectable 2.53Ghz Processor, 4GB RAM and a very capable 9400M GPU.

3) Operating Temperature – I have owned my share of laptops (Apple and non-Apple) and I have to say this one is the coolest – it never gets too warm and I can use it on my lap all the times – even encoding videos using the HandBrake application did not make it uncomfortably hot. However if I switch it to use the 9600M GPU it gets warmer even on regular use. It also runs very quiet – the fans may be coming on but I never notice.

Initially there was a lot of furor over Apple’s downgrade of the Serial-ATA interface speed (used to transfer data to and from the hard disk) to 1.5Gbps but Apple quickly restored the speeds to 3Gbps – I do not however notice any difference with the 5400RPM hard disk.

About the display – it is gorgeous and colors are vibrant. I had the opportunity to use a calibrated color profile to make it look even better. However I find the display to be a little too much reflective but I am coming from almost always using matte display so I figure it’s a matter of getting used to it.

Apple’s use of Mini DisplayPort is ahead of its time – not many displays support it and so I had to buy a $30 DVI adapter – not a big problem but Apple should at the very least re-start bundling the adapter with the Pro machines. Also, another USB port in lieu of the SD Card Reader would be quite welcome – people can use the SD Card Reader for only SD Cards, but a USB port can be used for SD Cards as well as other peripherals.

That said, this generation is overall a very nice improvement – the great battery life itself is enough to convince one to upgrade.

[ Edited to add some findings after extensive use ]

After using it for a few months, I find a handful of things moderately annoying about this laptop -

1) The positioning of USB ports – both USB ports are on one side of the laptop and they are far too closely positioned to use both at once. For example I found I could not attach my Sandisk USB thumb drive and anything else at a time. And I don’t have any irregular/unusual devices. They should really go back to having the ports on two sides or at least position them a bit more apart.

2) The Lid of the laptop is loose – this was known to me before but I never thought it would become annoying. I don’t routinely use the laptop in bed but whenever I do it’s annoying.

3) The amount of RAM Apple advertises (4GB) is not actually entirely usable – only 3.75GB is. So you lose 256Mb of RAM for the dual GPU.

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To me, the ability to stream content directly from the desktop to one’s widescreen TV via the Apple TV is what sets the Apple TV apart from other source devices such as DVD players. Further, being able to purchase content directly from the iTunes store, even in HD format, adds to the capability of this unit. I have “bought in” to the whole Apple music and video concept, and those of us who have done so will quickly see that the Apple TV is made for us. The Apple TV interface is a great way to browse the iTunes store for movies or whatnot; I personally prefer doing it that way as opposed to accessing the store on my desktop computer.

But even for those who eschew the iTunes store, the Apple TV is terrific if you have other videos such as legally ripped archival MP4 files of movies purchased on DVD, for example. I also enjoy watching History and Military Channel video podcasts, which can be downloaded for free from the iTunes store onto iTunes and then enjoyed on the big screen via the Apple TV unit.

It appears that I am more impressed with the Apple TV unit than many of the other reviewers. The unit is small, elegant, and attractive. Smaller than a DVD player, it does far more and it does it in a much more elegant manner, i.e. all of your content is accessible via the Apple TV menus without hassling with individual DVD disks. The cost is similar to a high-end DVD player. I frankly think that DVDs are rapidly becoming obsolete and that direct digital electronic downloads are the future, but I digress. The unit has wonderful screensaver capability, in sharp contrast to my two DVD players, and various other nice touches. It is great for a full-screen display of photographs. (I am an avid digital photographer, so I in particular appreciate this.) It is very pleasant (great ambiance for parties) to put on a slide show of one’s digital photographs, and stream a music playlist to accompany the slide show. Very cool.

Installation was essentially effortless. The unit immediately recognized my wireless network, and accepted the WEP code. My main desktop computer immediately recognized the Apple TV and offered to synch. The Apple TV immediately offered to upgrade its internal operating software over the internet and did so. Even before synching, my entire video content was available on my widescreen TV through the Apple TV via WiFi streaming. I was watching a movie from my iTunes library within minutes. Incredible.

Like all Apple products, the Apple TV is beautifully made, and nicely packaged. I wish that more American companies focused on quality the way Apple does.

I agree with other reviewers that the remote for the Apple TV is kind of small and minimalist for what is destined to become the centerpiece of my video library. Strangely, the remote does not even include a volume control. (You can program many third-party remotes to control the Apple TV and I will probably end up going that route although I have not yet done so.) Hilariously, there is an iPhone app that allows one’s iPhone to act as a substitute remote (“Remote”) and it is not at all bad. And it is odd how the Apple TV does not even have an “off” switch. These issues are minor, keep the cost down, and perhaps even add to the simple elegance of the unit.

The wireless streaming is what really sets this unit apart, but there is much else to like about it as well. Apple seems to have a clear vision of the future of digital content, and the Apple TV seems to be ideally situated to capitalize on this vision.

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The following review covers the new features added in iLife ’09 that weren’t in iLife ’08. There are a lot of new features, and I’ll update my review after I spend time with each one.

iPhoto ’09

FACE RECOGNITION: My iPhoto library is relatively small at 14,000 photos, most of which feature friends and family. Because I’m a bit OCD, with iPhoto ’08, I took the time to label all the photos with the names of the people contained in each picture. I did this by writing the person’s name in the “Key Words” field of each photo. For a variety of reasons, my iPhoto library is much more valuable and useful to me when they are properly labeled with people’s names. As such, I was intrigued by the face recognition feature of iPhoto ’09. After allowing iPhoto ’09 to scan my library of photos for faces (which took about 3 hours), I spent a handful of hours training iPhoto to know what everyone’s faces look like. This process (if you know how to do it) is indeed easier than the old way (of me typing in people’s names in the “key words” field under each photo). The facial recognition is pretty good, or maybe very good. The problem I’ve discovered is that facial recognition is never going to be perfect. Indeed some of the best photos have friends or family with their backs turned to the camera, or whatever, so facial recognition doesn’t notice them. If I were to rely solely on the facial recognition in iPhoto ’09, I would fail to properly label all my pictures … I’d miss some really really good pictures. Then, months later, when I’m looking for a photo with my friend Sam, I won’t be able to find certain photos, because it was never properly labeled with his name. Long story short, I won’t be using the facial recognition feature. Instead, I’m going to continue to mark all my photos with names in the “key words” field of each photo. Note also, the facial recognition feature cannot find the face of my parents’ Dalmatian dog.

PRINTED BOOKS (MAPS FEATURE): the printed books that I’ve created with iPhoto ’08 are amazing. I’ve had several people say, “I’ve gotta get a mac” when they see the books I’ve made. And, a few months ago, Apple announced that the pictures in the printed books are going to be even higher-res (haven’t had a chance to print a book since the announcement), so the books should look even better now. A new feature in iPhoto ’09 is the ability to add custom maps to your books. For instance, I created a book with a map showing a travel line from NYC-Helsinki-Warsaw-Cracow-Budapest-Vienna-Prague. The map looks awesome (see photo uploaded to amazon). Printed books make the perfect gift or coffee table book. (TIP: after you create the map, right-click on the map for additional advanced options (e.g., changing the connecting lines from _curved_ lines to _straight_ lines). Criticism: while the large-scale maps (i.e., big city to big city to big city) look great, zoomed-in maps (i.e., of an individual city or town) have no detail. (See the photo uploaded to amazon of my map of Warsaw, Poland). Hopefully they’ll fix this.

GEOTAGGING: this feature is so cool and totally belongs within iPhoto. Years from now, when all the cameras have GPS built inside, it is going to be so convenient to have this metadata attached to photos. That being said, I cannot imaging spending the time to label my 14,000 photos that don’t currently have that data. I did buy the “Amod AGL3080 GPS Data Logger,” to carry with me on trips so that I can add GPS data to new pictures I take. I haven’t had a chance to use it yet. Update: I’ve had a chance to manually geotag some pictures (e.g., this batch of photos is “Warsaw, Poland”). It’s pretty easy to tag photos. That being said, there’s really nothing amazing about having geotagged photos. Hopefully future iterations of iLife will make use of having geotagged photos and movies (e.g., smart slide shows or movies that automatically include maps that zoom into pictures, or something).

GarageBand ’09

MUSIC LESSONS: this is the most exciting part of iLife ’09 for me. These lessons look _better than real lessons_. Seriously, better than live lessons with a real human. I started the guitar lessons a week ago, and I just love them. I can do the lesson over and over, at my own pace. Apple really slammed this one out of the park. I can’t wait until I get good enough to use one of the $5 artist lessons. Note: there are 9 free introductory piano lessons, and 9 free introductory guitar lessons (the lessons feature an acoustic guitar, but they appear to be useful for learning both acoustic and electric guitar … same principles). Note: Garageband includes a tuner, so that you can tune your guitar via your mac’s microphone. Well, it sucks and is nearly useless. (I’m using my iMac’s built-in microphone). I’m glad I bought this tuner: Korg GA-30 Ultra Compact Guitar and Bass Tuner (it works for both my electric and acoustic guitar).

I’ll update the review when I’ve had a chance to use the 1-2 dozen new features that are important to me.

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Two of my friends who are also professional editors pleaded with me to try a Mac Pro. I was reluctant, partially because I wasn’t at all familiar with Macs, and partially because I wasn’t sure I wanted to learn a new operating system. But, I did decide to take a risk and bought a quad-core Mac Pro with 8gb of memory and an additional WD Veciloraptor 10,000 rpm hard drive. It was the best decision I ever made. The operating system was incredibly easy to learn. And the stability of the machine even under great stress is unbelievable. I never knew anything this good was available. And even with the learning curve, I’m well on my way to finishing my project.

Are Macs more expensive? Yes and no. If you compare them to consumer-grade PCs, they are. (I spent more than $1,000 more on my Mac Pro than I had on the DEel 435T.) But they aren’t consumer-grade. The construction of my Mac Pro is unlike any consumer product you’re likely to have seen. The case is beautifully machined, with no internal wires. It takes about a minute to swap hard drives. Overall, it exudes quality and actually exceeds the quality of Dell or HP pro workstations, and it’s priced about the same. Additional software costs about the same, but the programs that are included with the Mac are mostly better than included with Windows. Conclusion: if you use your computer for serious work and can’t afford to fight your computer, the additional cost, if any, is certainly worth it.

Is it perfect? No. I wish it came with more USB ports and a multi-card reader and an illuminated keyboard. (All are available as accessories.) I also wish it had six memory slots (it has four.)

Bottom line: I love this computer and I can’t imagine ever buying another Windows machine.

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I was surprised to find out how much of a sausage-factory Apple was. It turns out that great companies build great, innovative product in some ugly ways and that great companies make lots of mistakes on their way to success.

I was reading Mark Benioff’s [...] book entitled “Inside The Cloud” at the same time and the thing that struck me in reading them side-by-side was how gutsy the founders of Apple and [...] were. Truly great companies take truly great risks. It is near impossible to build a great company without taking great risks.

The last chapter (epilogue) was particularly good. The author of the book is Michael Moritz, one of the world’s best VC’s. So, it was useful to see his big picture view of the company from 20 years later with lots and lots of experience under his belt.

Ironically, I took notes in my iPhone while reading the book and had about 20 takeaways on how I might manage my company better based on what I read.

The first chapter of the book and the last several chapters are fantastic. The middle chapters were just okay…if you are pressed for time, read the first chapter and then read the second half of the book.

Michael — Thank you for doing a great job on this book and for being a major engine of our country’s economic success.

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Caveats: It does run hot. The video used to lag, but this seems much better with the latest releases of the OS. The GUI can stick and then jump – so you click 3 times with no effect and then it jumps the 3 positions, etc. The remote control is a pain when typing passwords or searching youtube, etc.

If you have an iPhone (I think iPod Touch also) you can use the Remote Application to control your Apple TV (or iTunes) from your iPhone. It’s great and much better than the remote that comes with the Apple TV.

I highly recommend a direct 100 Mb ethernet connection or 802.11n. Do not use this product with 802.11g or slower.

Don’t bother with the 40GB version. It’s just too small. You’ll wish you had the 160GB. The 40GB is only good if you don’t buy content – only rent movies. But watch out – if you keep you music on it, you’ll want more space.

The Apple TV is great even just as a music jukebox! Even if you don’t use it for video. We use it all the time for music. It’s easier than hooking up an iPod and having to pick up the iPod to change songs, etc. The GUI on the HDTV screen is so much better. I looked at similar MP3 components for audio only – this was cheaper and had a far superior GUI. It is so easy to use that my wife can do it (she is not technology savvy).

The other great thing is that software updates are free and come automatically over the internet. New features and fixes!

Bottom line: There is no other product like it on the market in terms of cost, intuitive interface, quality, and features.

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I own a Mac mini 1.66Ghz Core Duo with 2GB of RAM that shipped with iLife 06 (I skipped the 08 upgrade) . Even by the standards of 2007 it wasn’t a barn burner. I have become aquainted with iLife 09 (hereafter IL9) and here are my thoughts.

iMovie 09 (IM9) – This is the second version of what has become a hot button issue for many users. My computer shipped with iMovie 06 aka iMovie HD and I have tried to edit some video in it. The anger comes from the fact that Apple scrapped iMovie HD for new application called iMovie 08. The problem was that iMovie 08 was such a radical departure from iMovie HD and it had much less features. The uproar was so loud Apple capitulated and allowed iMovie HD to be downloaded separately. Now we have the second generation of this new movie editing application and the iMovie HD fans are back with a vengeance but are they justified again? I do not believe so and here’s why.

Apple switched to a whole new video app for reasons that we can only guess but I’d surmise that they felt that iMovie HD had grown too complex with plugins and time lines and audio editing features that are truly best served in a higher end application like Final Cut Express. They decided to go back to the roots. iMovie 08 would be a video app for people that only need to edit every now an then or total newbies.

They have succeeded. iMovie ’09 rectify’s most of the issues i’ve seen that actually hampered the ability to edit video easily. It supports chapter markers for easy DVD creation in iDVD. The audio editing is improved (you can keep just the audio from a clip or just the video easily). The speed of this app is superb. Where as you had to render some effects and whatnot in iMovie HD in IM9 almost everything happens in realtime. I found this kept me in a creative mode where I could try out different titles or transitions very quickly and find something I liked. Here’s a feature that you’re going to love and use. Apple has taken a feature from their pro video software that analyzes your video and then takes a majority of the camera shake out. It really works provided your were shaking the camera like a tambourine. This feature alone will save those shots that you thought you lost because your hand was unsteady. It does require some hefty processing so it’s one of the features that isn’t “instant” and you can control how much shake gets removed. You can now edit with precision and you have many more editing choices. Want picture in picture? It’s easy. Editing in iMovie 09 is basically dragging clips around and choosing the ideal text and transition. The new templates are very nice and of course integration with your iTunes music, and your iPhoto pictures is a sidebar away. I’d like to see Apple re-implement plugins because 3rd party developers can do amazing things and I want them to but for now iMovie 09 is likely going to be a nice app for tossing together something appealing.

iPhoto – Is certainly not as much of a hot button issue. The new iPhoto makes a big deal out of Faces and Places. With Faces you are supposed to be able to tag your friends and family and the software looks for facial features and groups them together. In practice I’ve found this to be rather iffy. It works well if you’ve framed someone’s face in a good straight on shot but it can get lost with more obscure photos. Surprisingly it does work on some pets. I imagine that it will improve over time but honestly even a human sometimes can err in doing the same task. Places is a godsend for those who travel. It allows you to pinpoint where you were during a photo via your longitude and latitude co-ordinates. Now there are cameras that will put this information right into the metadata of the photo you take but they are still pretty rare. I expect that in a couple of years all but the most inexpensive cameras will do Geo tagging. Fear not! You can manually tag your photos in bunches. That Greece trip you took last summer is easy to tag. Once you’ve accumulated your geo tagging data you can view a Google Earth map right from within iPhoto and there are pinpoint detailing everywhere you’ve taken photos. At any time you can double click a pinpoint and the photos assigned to that location are displayed. This is yet another way to look at your photos! Here’s another feature …if you use Facebook you can upload photos right from within iPhoto. Facebook fans are always adding tag info to their friends photos. If you upload say a photo of you and other people to Facebook and someone tags their their photo, iPhoto will sync that tag information back to your library. There’s more to iPhoto but these are some of the salient features. My wish is that the Flickr export options grow to have more controls and I’d love to see iPhoto find a way to edit image files without creating a copy.

iWeb – You know you want to make your own website or blog. iWeb is Apple’s easy web page application. It’s first two versions only allowed you to use it with .Mac (now MobileMe) that’s changed now. iWeb supports FTP which means you can use it to create a web page for just about any web service provider. It comes with some handly drag n drop widgets that allow you to add an RSS feed or countdown or html snippet. IMO it’s worthy of usage by people who don’t have MobileMe accounts. Also they’ve modified it so that you don’t have to publish the whole page for just a few changes which saves time by not sending a bunch of superfluous data. It’s not an earth shaking update but we’re on the right road here now.

GarageBand- this is a very misunderstood app. Many people feel it’s an app for musicians and if they are not musically inclined they don’t use it. Garage Band is a multifaceted tool. Not only can you play music into it via a midi keyboard or guitar (through an interface) but it comes with a huge collection of Apple Loops. These loops are smart. You can drag these audio building blocks to create tracks that always follow the same musical key and timing “automagically”. I have no piano or guitar but i’m able to use GarageBand to provide music or sound effects for my video and if I had a microphone I’d be able to create audio or video podcasts. The new features in GB are built in training. If you want to learn piano or guitar there are 8 free lessons that you can download. These include video tutorials that allow you to play along and even record yourself. You get to see fingerings and slow the music down to grasp the licks. If these can spur even one hundred people to pick up an instrument it will have been well worth it. You can even download Artist series videos for $5. You want Norah Jones to teach you a little piano? Not a problem. If you’re a guitar player then GB has you grinning from ear to ear. Apple has reworked the guitar simulations and GB can turn your electric guitar into whatever you want via multiple amp simulation and stomp box simulations. I’ve heard from professional musicians that these effects and simulations are superior to Apples Pro music apps. I’m eyeballing an acoustic/electric for some fun. Even if you don’t plan on learning an instrument GB can be an asset to you if you get curious.

iDVD- Sadly iDVD has not had any changes. Apple is no longer investing in what they feel is a format in the autumn of its existence as a distribution format for computers.

There are some caveats here. If you have a PowerPC processor there are going to be features that you don’t have full access to. There will be slow downs. iLife 09 really wants an Intel processor and dual cores at that. If you have these requirements and hopefully more than 1GB of RAM I’d say you can get a lot of value out of iLife . Remember it is a consumer oriented package yet you will hear complaints about missing features that are best reserved for higher end packages. Rest assured in knowing that GarageBand files upgrade to Logic and iPhoto information upgrades to Aperture. Apple generally builds bridges to the next step up application.

Don’t let anyone tell you what’s important to you or what’s worth buying. I’m still learning new things about iLife every day. It is far from mediocre in my opinion.

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The mac mini is a nice little package that would be a perfect starter for a reasonable price ($550) So I bought one, and now… I prefer my low powered Mac Mini over my Desktop with the Quad Core, 3TB of HD storage, X-Fi audio, Bluray and DVD Burner drives. My desktop PC and Mac mini live together now, I love the fact that the mini is dead silent and uses about 14W of power versus 600W off my monster PC. MS office 2008 for mac is so much easier to use than Office 2007 in PCs. All the mac versions of my programs (firefox, bittorrent, email, Word processing, etc) are so much more stable than in my PCs. I use my mac mini for all my papers, homework, research and media (apple’s strengths) And my PC does all my Video encoding, Bluray, document scanning.editing, movies, and network stuff. I have to admit, i do not like the lack of programs for mac for DVD copying and format encoding out there, not to mention no Blue RAY!!! But then, few people use that stuff anyway. The bluetooth 2.1 is great with printers (i have a canon mx860 with a bluetooth dongle), the Wireless N has impressive range. I do recommend geting the apple aluminum keyboard because its just one of the best keyboards ive ever used not to mention It has all the mac command keys. I use a notebook PC mouse, and it works just great

I did have to upgrade my mini just a tiny bit, cause I felt the 2GB of DDR3 mem was handicapping the system, I snagged a $49 single Patriot Memory 2GB DDR3 chip and replaced one of the DIMMS in the mac mini. IF you are a novice in computer upgrading, you can do it but be so carefull and slow doing it. All you need is a 3in putty knife and a 00 phillips screwdriver. You can find the video how to upgrade the mac mini Memory and HD on youtube.

Even at only 3GB of memory, my mac mini blazes and renders internet browsing and MS office 2008 faster than my uber-PC with 6GB of DDR2 RAM. Technical jargon for techies: The mac mini comes with a Fujitsu HD. Im not a fan of fujitsu, but the drive apple uses has a long and reputable and dependable record. The tech specs are not bad, Averages 65-75 MB/s transfers with about a 79 MB burst. ITs a 5400rpm drive. It works and is dependable, but i needed something more.

I strapped a Hitachi 7200rpm 16MB 500GB 7K500 HD disk and now my mac mini howels!!! It does DVD copying, torrenting, P2Ping, video and photo editing like crazy! Right now only hitachi makes the most reliable, quiet, and speedy 7200 NB hard drives 320GB or better. I would have rather dropped a 500 or 540 WD black Notebook drive, but they dont exist yet. The 2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo is no slouch, it does the work. The 2.53 Model is awesome and probably cut off a few seconds on your mp3 encodings, but if ur about seconds u wouldnt be getting a mac mini! If you are big into CPU intensive stuff like Film and audio editing, you probably should have got a iMAC or Mac PRO tower for double or quadruble the price.

IN the end, the base mac mini is a entry computer. The late 2009 base model is for people who are on a budget and what to make the jump to mac, this is a great offering thanks to the recent upgrades apple did this year. It saves power, it uses your existing mouse and keyboard, and you can really use it for all kinds of things. If you have some computer savvy in upgrading, I suggest getting this model and use the savings to get a memory upgrade. Dont worry about mixing memory chips. the mini will compensate. I spent 100 dollars in upgrade parts, bringing my total to $650. IF you are not so computer upgrader happy, this unit will do the job. You wont feel any problems unless you surf the net, use office 2008, play itunes, while copying DVDs. If you are a massive multi tasker, get the 2.53 Ghz Mac mini with 4GB and a 320 HD for an extra 200.

This is a great buy, dont hesitate. You will not be sorry. I’ve had mine for 2 weeks, and its has not been off since then. It goes on sleep mode automatically when its idle and autowakes up with me!

Get this mini

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I finally decided to make a clean break from windows and purchased the dual quad core 2.26 Ghz Mac Pro. Since the stock 6 GB of RAM wasn’t enough, I dropped in 12 GB of aftermarket RAM and Apples 4870 card plus 3 1 TB drives. FINALLY!! A system that I could get stuff done with!

The Nehalam processors are a gigantic leap forward over the older architecture. AMD has been putting the memory controller on the CPU die for a few years and Intel finally followed suit with incredible results. Memory bandwidth is substantially increased and if you add RAM in “threes”, you’ll be able to use all three memory channels for each core. If you need more RAM, you can always add a fourth module, but you’ll fall back to dual-channel operation. This won’t be an issue usually unless you run applications that saturate the memory bus.

The Mac Pro has three available drive bays that are extremely easy to add drives into. It’s a matter of just positioning the drive sled on the bottom of the SATA drive and attaching the four captive screws. There’s a nice rubber washer there to help reduce vibration and transmitted noise. A very nice touch. There are no cables between the drive and motherboard. They simply slide into a socket on the motherboard and the inside of the system remains very clean looking.

Upgrading memory was simple. After powering down the system and opening the case, there are two clips to flip and the CPU and memory tray at the bottom of the system slides out for simple replacement. No more busted knuckles!

The video card that came with the system was fine for nearly any use, but I needed to have something faster for the 3D work I do, so I found out that replacing the stock card was also very easy. There is a retention bar that slides out of the way by pushing a button on the card guide and a couple of thumb screws to remove, but it’s far easier to replace the card on this system than any PC I’ve ever worked on before.

After all of my upgrades, I was astonished to find how quiet the Mac Pro is. I’d gotten used to the loud whine of my Windows systems and for a few days, I’d have to look down at the Mac to see if it was running. It’s pleasant to be able to listen to music again and not fans and hard drives.

Apple’s included sufficient ports for USB and Firewire, but you’ll have to use have to use FW800-400 adapters if you want to attach FW 400 devices to the Mac.

This was a substantial investment, but the rewards are also substantial. My render times are greatly reduced and when Snow Leopard is released, I expect to see even bigger improvements in system performance.

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A must read for fans of business books or pop culture or tech history or just interesting books in general!

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One complaint I did have with my old Mac mini was that it was a pain to configure my internet connection. The internet setup for this new model is simply plug and play. Absolutely no configuration is needed if your plugging in an Ethernet cable, whether it’s hooked up to a router or not.

I basically only use my Mac Mini for the Internet, downloading music and video for my Ipod, digital picture storage, and occasionally typing and printing a paper. If that’s all your going to use it for and your sick of all the viruses and hidden internet files that slow down your computer when you use a PC, then buy this entry level Mac Mini.