I've said for ten years that the iMac (updated now) is, while on the Apple platform perhaps considered a "home computer", full capable of most professional applications. And this gets more true with each generation. Laurie Jeffery, mentioned below, has for a couple of years now used an iMac for his main computer, and this guy is a top-pro photographer and videographer. He made the huge videos you see in the new Heathrow airport terminal five. He made those from concept through videography through final output, and so far as I know he did it on the iMac.
Laurie tells me:
I really do. A Mac pro would be much, much faster. I use one in the office in Leeds when I'm there and it flies.
But there's something beautiful about the iMac. The new one looks more so. Wonderful lines.
Sometimes, using a beautiful machine actually enhances the creative process.
I guess I can see that.
Me, I do admit I like pretty and compact products. And I admire the achievement of getting a large part of the power of a Mac Pro into an iMac, and even more into a MacBook Pro. And I'm amazed that it takes that much more size and weight to significantly go beyond what those machines can do, a Mac Pro (the tower machine) is really huge and heavy. I mean it takes a strong man just to carry it.
But for something I don't have to move around, I like the most power, and the top speed and 30-inch display (twins now), and multiple big internal disks of the Mac Pro is an addiction to me. It was so even back when it was the G5, which was noisy. The new intel machines do not even have that drawback, so that's it for me. (There was a while a few years back when I used a Powerbook or an iMac for email and web, and a PowerMac for the heavy lifting, but thankfully that's unnecessary now.)
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The new mouse sounds highly interesting. I like my Rollermouse, but I miss the sideways scrolling that the Apple Mighty Mouse had, and the new one also has multi-touch.
Admittedly it is not cheap for a mouse. I'm sure you can get a perfectly servicable mouse for less than one-fifth of the price of this one. But I want what Apple offers. And I'm not alone: in the middle of the worst depression in three generations, Apple just reported their best quarter ever!
... I have to admit I hope their bluetooth implementation has gotten better. I was not impressed with coaxing my iMac to recognized my bluetooth keyboard every time I woke up the machine last time I had a wireless keyboard.
Apple states: "Magic Mouse features a laser tracking engine that’s far more sensitive and responsive on more surfaces than traditional optical technology. That means it can track with precision on nearly every surface with no mousepad required."
I hope they are right this time, because this was exactly what they said about optical mice when they came around, and it turned out that they were much more fickly about surfaces than old time rubberball mice! If you used it on a wooden table, it wouldn't work. You'd think it would be perfect for an optical mouse because the wood has all this texture. But noooo.
There's no accounting for taste - Acer just bumped Dell out of the number two spot below HP on the list of world's top PC makers. Now, if only they could communicate with me in my own native English, I'd be a happier customer. And I'd be just delighted if their goddamned computer ran longer than 30 days without self-destructing! How an outfit like this got to be number two in the world is a complete mystery to me.
ReplyDeleteI've had the Acer TravelMate C300 for the past 5 years and haven't had a day of trouble with it! Sorry to read that you have not had the same experience! :-(
ReplyDeleteI think I will be getting a Mac, next time, though. :-)
Dell is no 3 now?? Last I heard they were uncrowned king of the world. (Admittedly that was years ago.
ReplyDeleteTCG, A Mac is a bigger outlay initially, but it has so much more included, including software, and no bits are sub-standard. They always come out at or near the top in customer-satisfaction surveys.
TCG,
ReplyDeleteI can sell you my current iMac, (which is a delightful computer in every way), very cheap.
"Cause I WANT THE NEW ONE!!!!
All the best,
Laurie.
PS. Glad you liked the image from this morning. Have you and Hannah started breathing normally again?
@ TC Girl -
ReplyDeleteI bought the new Acer Aspire desktop X3200 minitower model on the 12th of August. On the 13th of September it refused to boot up, and tests at the shop indicated that both the monitor
and the computer's hard-drive had failed. I left them at the selling dealer's for servicing.
Meanwhile, he got into a dispute with his landlord and had to move his shop to a new location. In the process of that, he gave me back the unfixed computer, to ship it myself to the Acer Repair Depot for the warranty service. I did and it just came back yesterday.
I still don't have the monitor that had been with it, as that is still somewhere in the dealer's temporary warehouse, while he completes his moving into new digs
several blocks from his former ones. Exchanging emails with Acer's Support, they asked for the monitor's serial number, so they can authorize warranty service, because it is under a 3-year warranty, with one year still to go. But our boy at the dealer's hasn't yet been able to come up with that for me, and I suspect that just maybe, he might have tossed it out during the moving.
It was an Acer 19-inch flat screen,
model AL1916W, and worked perfectly until that hard-drive died in the new X3200 it was on.
I paid $300 for it, which I now know was too much. Since then, I've bought the Acer 22-inch flat screen for my other PC, and it was only $230, so yesterday, I went back to the place where I got it, and ordered another of the same,
the Acer x223W. This is a nice monitor, and we need the wider screens now with the newer programs and their widgets and gadgets along the sides.
So I'm not too concerned about that failed 19-inch one. If it turns up, fine, if not, so be it.
But I still don't know if this repaired X3200 is going to run reliably, or die again. The hard-drive that failed in it is apparently some new design, and
evidently, they are having problems with it, and so am I.
Eolake said...
ReplyDelete"TCG, A Mac is a bigger outlay initially,"
Bigger than $2,500.00?! Seems like I paid WAY MORE for my laptop than should, legally, be "allowed"...just to have the fricken swivel/write-on screen!!
"...but it has so much more included, including software, and no bits are sub-standard."
The price I quote, above, includes Windows Professional Office and I can't remember what other software, right now.
What would you say that the initial cost of a reasonably-priced brand new Mac would cost (in dollars, please! lol!), guys?
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ReplyDeleteMacs come in many varieties, from about a grand to three grand.
ReplyDelete(I think a Mac Mini is cheaper, but that's without any monitor.)
Go to Apple.com/store/