I Heart My Mac

Wow, long time since I've posted here. Seriously wonder if anyone will even read this, but I'm bored at school, so here we go!

Alright, so I got a MacBook back in late August, and I have come to love it to death. I seriously think it's one of the best things I've ever spent money on. The design is simply beautiful, the display is sharp, and the OS does what I want it to do: work. I'm very demanding of the technology I use, and one thing I really began to hate about Windows was how needy the damn thing was. A dialog:


Me: Windows, I just downloaded Bleach 134 and want to watch it.

Windows: Okay, no prob! Oh, wait, need you to do a few things first.

Me: (sigh) What now?

Windows: Well, some updates came out today, and I've downloaded them for you already, but I need you to tell me I can install them. I also noticed that you moved a ton of files around over the weekend, so I could use a good defrag.

Me: Okay, that's it?

Windows: Well . . . I also noticed that AVG is out of date, so you need to update it. You also haven't run it in a few weeks, so I suggest you do that. Ad-Aware is also out of date, and it's been three months since you ran that, so you should do the same for Ad-Aware as well.

Me: God dammit, Windows, just play the video.

Windows: Alright, but if I crash in the middle of it, don't say I didn't warn you.


That's pretty much how I felt using my Windows machine after a while. I want to do something, but I have to do something for Windows first. I believe in equivalent exchange, but my hardware is my bitch, so it needs to do what I tell it to, and only ask me for something now and then, not every god damn day.

With that, here's a nifty little list of things I love about my Mac so far:

1) Updating. This only happens now and then, and so far has only required me to restart my machine maybe three or four times over a series of about 10 updates, maybe. Usually the updates can be installed without requiring a restart, which is awesome. If they do require a restart, and I say I'll get to it later, OS X says okay, and doesn't pester me to restart every hour on the hour.

2) No need for anti-virus. Seriously, I don't have any anti-virus software running on my Mac, and it's awesome. One less thing to update, one less thing to remember to run on a regular basis, and one less thing hogging system resources in the background. iTunes and Firefox do that enough.

3) GUI. Holy crap, the OS is beautiful. I thought things looked good with Tiger, but after upgrading to Leopard it just got prettier. Everything has sharp lines, text is very legible, and overall the screen is a joy to look at. It's also very simple, so my tasks come forward and the OS sort of slips into the background. I have ADHD, so that's a good thing.

4) The little things. For example: Quick Look. Holy crap I don't know how I lived without this feature. Want to know if the notes I'm looking at are the ones I need to open? Select them, hit the space bar, and boom! Instant preview, in full screen if I want it! I can scroll through documents, preview images and Keynote presentations, and even preview audio and video files with it, all without opening them in their default applications.

5) Lets me be creative. I've been using Apple's iLife and iWork 08 suites for several months now, and I don't think I can go back to anything else, at least not willingly. I wanted to make a video of clips from Japanese music videos to use in a presentation I had to give. After transcoding the video files to .mov, I imported the ones I wanted to use into iMovie 08, clipped them, arranged them, added text bumpers with artist and song info to the clips, fade transitions between them, and exported them for use in Keynote. All of this took less than 30 minutes, not counting the time it took to transcode the video files. I also plan on making a wedding album of pictures for my brother and his fiance with iPhoto which lets me not only arrange them, but also send them to Apple to be printed up in a hardbound book. Why? Because I can, that's why.

6) Lets me be a control freak. I love how Keynote lets me control pretty much EVERYTHING in the presentation, and make things happen exactly the way I want them to. I wanted to label the islands of Japan for the previously mentioned presentation, and I was able to have the text appear atop each island, then move in an arc to a more open space on the slide. Keynote also lets me remove annoying backgrounds from images with an instant alpha feature, and I can also add nifty borders to images (my favorite is the torn edges one). Best feature, though? The alignment features. Move an object around, and orange lines pop up when something is aligned in an orderly, flush position with other objects on the slide. I've always been a neat freak with my presentations, and this lets me make sure everything is organized nice and neatly.

7) The, "so you don't have to," attitude of the software and hardware. I love how if I get an invite to something in my e-mail, Mail is smart enough to recognize dates and times, even if it says something like, "next Friday at noon," then lets me click on the text to open iCal to the correct date and time, and add the event. Does the same thing for contact info as well. The above mentioned alignment feature of Keynote is another example. I also love how I can connect the CRT on my desk at home for a dual display setup, and my Mac automagically recognizes when I plug it in, and switches to extended display mode, unlike Windows, which required me to manually change the settings unless it was booted with the display already connected. Every external device I've plugged into my Mac has also just worked for me. A computer that just works with your stuff and lets you get to work, no muss no fuss? Fuck yes.

For any Mac users that read this, what're your favorite things about working on a Mac?