ReBoot – “Why I like my iMac and Why You Should Get One…”

When it comes to computers I am always a bit hard on the technology. I believe that computers are tools and should function as such. When I pick up my hammer I know I will hit a nail perfectly each and every time. That is the whole point of tools. Computers should be no different!

I was always skeptically about transitioning to Apple but my former boss talked me into it. He was a techie and spent his money wisely. So when he moved over to an iMac I knew it was not something he did lightly. So his reasons were sound.  At the time, I had this water-cooled behemoth of a PC geared towards gamers. Mind you I was not a gamer but the power it packed was something I though I needed. I didn’t. In fact I started to have problems with it a year later. My RAID failed and I sprung a leak in my cooling system. Needless to say I was pretty annoyed. I decided this Mac thing was something I should explore.

A year later I bought my Intel based iMac. I never looked back. I have had my iMac for about 3 years now and it is still going strong. During this time, it has only crashed on me twice and it was just a mater of restarting to get it back online. All my apps work without fail. I have the occasional beach ball spin a little longer than normal when opening up Office. But I chalk that up to MS. I spend more time surfing the web now than I did before. Safari is a much better browser than IE. But the biggest advantage of using a Mac is to be able to add an organize pictures and do home movies with it. This is great feature, one my family thoroughly enjoys watching the fruits of my labor.

Over the last few years I have upgraded my OS twice. It had to be the smoothest upgrade I have ever done. No need to reformat my hard drive and download several fixes/service packs afterwards. And my iMac has not lost any performance. That is exactly what and upgrade should be. To me an iMac means ‘user friendly’.

Will I buy an iMac in he future? I most definitely will. But right now I very happy with my 3-year-old iMac. It still operates just as fast – like the first day I got it.

My Affair with My iPhone

It has been a year since I have been having an affair with my phone – my iPhone. I have been using cellphones since the mid 90s. I remember when battery life was nonexistent and they weighed more than most toasters. My how technology has changed…

I was in the market for a phone since I moved to an iMac two years ago. A phone that I was able to synch my contacts and calendar with – reliably. This has always been a unicorn among cellphones. How do you get your information on a mobile platform and be able to synch successfully each time.

I was able to accomplish this through the iPhone. I migrated my contacts and calendar to Microsoft’s Entourage. I am not wild about Entourage but it does the job I want. 

The iPhone has become more then my cellphone. It has become my mobile assistant. I use it to check my email. Yes I check all my email automatically every 15 minutes. I need real time gratification.

I am not big on purchasing apps from the store because I get bored pretty easily but there are a few free apps that have become indispensable. 

All Wall Street types should have the Bloomberg app. It keeps me up-to-date on financial news. The Wall Street Journal is also another great app for news.

Google maps has been great in finding my way around. I stopped using my bigger GPS device because it has become easier to use the iPhone. 

With the new OS, Apple has made the device faster and battery life last longer. I now get a full day of usage before I have to plug in. Kudos to Apple for listening to their customers.

The only issue I have with the phone is typing. My fingers seem a touch to big to type. So I am constantly retyping. I could only imagine what other people with larger fingers must go through.

Any forward thinking professional should get one. Trust me, within the first week you cannot live without your iPhone. 

Don’t tell my wife – but my iPhone and I are going out to dinner tonight. 😉