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iMac the Gold Standard of PCs

We’ve been testing this new iMac, and our verdict is that it’s the gold standard of desktop PCs. To put it simply: No desktop offered by Dell or Hewlett-Packard or Sony or Gateway can match the new iMac G5’s combination of power, elegance, simplicity, ease of use, built-in software, stability and security. From setup to performing the most intense tasks, it’s a pleasure to use. And, contrary to common misconceptions, this Mac is competitively priced, when compared with comparably equipped midrange Windows PCs; and it handles all common Windows files, as well as the Internet and email, with aplomb.

WSJ.com

I know Walt Mossberg is a Mac fan, but the above slice from his latest piece really says quite a bit.

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Moving Mail from Outlook to Entourage – (or any Mac email program)

I am currently in the process of moving to a Mac at work (yes!) and my main concern in the switch was moving all my email from Outlook.  If you don’t know already (though you might expect) Outlook uses a proprietary format called .PST.  There is no obvious way to just migrate the messages and your folders to another system… at least on the surface.  Turns out there are actually a few ways, but by far the easiest was this simple guide at Riches Communications.

The basics are as follows…

  • Install Mozilla (Full version with email) or Thunderbird on your PC.
  • Import Mail from Outlook (Tools / Import)
  • On my machine this took about 30 minutes.  I have a few GB of email with plenty of attachments included courtesy of a boatload of work projects.
  • From here, I would really recommend you read the article as the visuals are probably simpler to understand than my description, but basically you just rename each folder with an extension of .mbox.
    • Mozilla uses the standard .mbox format which can then easily be imported into the email program of your choice.  I actually have to use Entourage, though this absolutely works in Mail.app and certainly Thunderbird (which probably does not require the renaming).  Entourage incidentally uses a proprietary message store as well, but can at least handle the standards on import.
  • All you need to do with your renamed folders is drag them to Entourage which asks if you want to import (yes) and brings the mail to the local folders. 

    • As I mentioned I had a lot of mail so this took a while as you have to repeat the import loop for each folder and you can only import one at a time.  Other than time and the manual nature of this process it’s actually quite painless and totally works.  I imported all my mail to my personal PowerBook at home and burned the mail database to a DVD so I can easily import it today on my new machine at the office.

    I think it’s interesting to note that you can’t actually import your mail (with all your folders) into Outlook Express!  It will import some of your mail – actually just the inbox which leaves you hanging since most people do not maintain all their mail in a single folder.

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    Mac Mini Reborn as Media Center?

    Apple’s Mac mini will be reborn as the digital hub centerpiece it was originally conceived to be, Think Secret sources have disclosed. The new Mac mini project, code-named Kaleidoscope, will feature an Intel processor and include both Front Row 2.0 and TiVo-like DVR functionality.

    Think Secret

    While just a rumor for now, this is a very exciting thing to consider as the essential pieces are in place.  I saw this possibility almost a year ago and still believe that the Mini and certainly the future Intel-based version holds a serious amount of potential for the living room.

    In my quick tests of Front Row on a mini in our kitchen it’s a nice starting point.  The missing pieces are clear — DVR capabilities and developer extensibility.  Of course there is some UI tweaking to be done as well, though that type of stuff is less of an issue from stopping the roll of an Apple based media center.  As you might recall Apple hired the CEO away from ElGato to run Apple Germany, and ElGato is the current leader in both Mac-based DVR systems as well as UPnP support through their various technologies.

    Apple could seriously shock the system with a solid media center product.  They possess the indisputable capabilities to make the complex simple and there is a clear need for such a thing if you look at the current space.  An integrated platform with access to premium content, TV and your own collected media, all simple to use in a system that just works… sign me up!

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    A Day in the Life … Nokia N90

    So today was my first real day of use with the N90 and I definitely like it – a lot!

    I spent some quality time this am with Hannah, playing and snapping some photos as well as  a video or two, which I was able to transmit via bluetooth to my PowerBook from the family room to the kitchen.  During a free moment later on, I was able to attach the files to an email and send out to my parents who were quite happy to get an extra dose of their granddaughter.

    My weekends are usually spent like most working types running errands and today was no different.  As I had noted last night I had paired the N90 with the car, and I was very pleasantly pleased to see (and hear) how well it worked.  My usual phone, the BlackBerry 7100T is quite finiky pairing with devices and requires a high degree of hands-on adjustment in order to work with either the car, or a handsfree handset.  The N90, simply worked — as long as I maintained state with the vehicle.  If you walk away while the car is on, you lose the pairing and have to either manually activate it or restart the car.  I really liked returning to the car from an errand and knowing that my phone and car were waiting and ready for calls …

    I took a whole series of images which show off both the good and bad of the camera.  In general it’s quite good – certainly the best camera phone I’ve ever used, but clearly not my Nikon D70S.  It is an all in one, which makes it really great though.  I know that as long as I have the phone (I always have a phone) I have a reliable camera that can take both still and video images worth keeping.  There are some expected issues – dull flash in lower light, flaring from tougher light sources and a slow shutter, which offers a delay.  The delay is most present in my blurred images as I was either moving or shooting a slightly moving target.

    I took a quick video as well – which you can see here. (vimeo link)

    I uploaded all of today’s images through the Lifeblog application which is very cool and quite simple to use.  I’d like to see a way to upload a full album of images at once, rather than the one-off method I used.  I have not tried taking the memory card out yet and just using a card reader, though I would probably do that next time with for more than a few images.  This is really just due to repitition, rather than difficulty.

    Speaking of difficulty… The N90 is repeatedly having issues playing back video I capture due to a low memory error.  I think this is due to applications running in the background, but for the life of me can’t quite figure it out yet.  This is a killer and needs to be remedied.  I love capturing the clips, but I also want to be able to review on the go, rather than having to rely on a computer to beam back…

    More to come…

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    Nokia N90 in Hand!

    http://www.atmasphere.net/images/Nokia_N90_PR.jpg
    I received a Nokia N90 to play with this weekend and I am working through the new device like any good gadget geek.
    The one thing that is really pissing me off, is an Apple thing, not a Nokia issue and that is that I cannot trick iSync to work with my phone so I cannot sync my contacts and calendar over… something I seriously want to work. I’ve read and tried the Mac OSX Hints page a few times and tried a reboot, but something is clearly not working.

    Otherwise it seems like a very impressive unit. I’ve never owned a Nokia phone, so the UI is taking a bit to adjust, but I can immediately tell this is a VERY well thought out phone. You can customize it to sound or look like anything you need / want and you can easily install and move applications through the menus as well which is a nice bonus since you can clearly hold a ton of stuff.

    I’ve only made one call so far — to voicemail and listened to some messages on speaker-phone which were left by my 2 yr. old daughter – the call was clear and the form factor feels natural in your hand and on your head.

    I am (bluetooth) paired with my laptop for data usage and file transfer, as well as a bluetooth headset and and the car so I can be handsfree and safe while on the go.

    The N90 if you don’t know is the N-Series phone that is designed for photo and video capture. There is a 2MB camera inside with Carl Zeiss Optics. Instead of installing Lifeblog on my computer, I’ve chosen to add Flickr as my lifeblog destination which is very cool. I’ve only uploaded one shot from the N90 for now, but I can see this being very handy once I’ve really begun to dive deeper into moblogging with the device. I really miss the camera from my Treo, and this blows that away. My work-issued blackberry is all business and has no fun built-in at all.

    One thing to note, this is no RAZR in size. It’s substantial, but given what it does, I think the size is both comfortable and appropriate. The construction feels solid and the phone feels great in my hand in both phone and camera modes (of which there are 4 true modes). I’ll be sure to continue to post as I become more of an expert on Nokia and more specifically the N90. If you are reading and have some questions (it’s a bit hard to find around I know), please post and I’ll be sure to answer in the thread or possibly a new post if it’s a big enough topic.

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    Thanksgiving Snow Day

    I woke up this Thanksgiving morning to the first snow of the year!

    This is our very first snow here at the new house and we are probably due for quite a bit this year in Westchester County. It’s hard to tell exactly how much has fallen, but it’s definitely a few inches with some more snow still falling in the trees. One thing is for certain, it’s absolutely beautiful. Having just moved from the city, it’s nice to know we won’t be seeing any black soot collecting on the surface as the day goes one.

    Happy Turkey Day Everyone!

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    Dell to roll with AMD

    First it was discovered that Dell is selling AMD processors online. Then Dell made public noises about rolling out AMD servers. Now, the other shoe has dropped: Forbes is reporting that Dell will indeed sell a broad range of AMD systems.

    ars technica

    I think Dell is legitimately running scared.  They are getting killed in servers – especially with the lacking Xeon delivery from Intel this Quarter.  Their earnings fell nicely in the past Q as well…

    Michael Dell has publically stated he’d be very interested in building an OSX86 machine if Apple would license to him, though I can’t imagine that ever happening given the opposite approach to basic aesthetics the two companies have (GM vs. BMW).  (even given my previous post on licensing)

    Of interest… Only a few years back (1997) Michael Dell suggested Apple shut down and give the money back to shareholders

    The rumor mill is brewing pretty hard on what Apple’s first Intel products might be.  If they were to come out with a low-end / low price system they would make a VERY attractive machine to an existing massive base of PC users.  There is no reason why any Intel powered Mac can’t do everything you need – running the superior OSX while retaining the option of flipping back to a Windows app you might not have a replacement for on Mac.  If low end is not first, it will definitely arrive before Vista… If the take rate on the new Macs is big (and I’d bet it will be significant) Microsoft will be next in line to try and maneuver… As if Google was not enough of a problem.

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    Dvorak on the future of PC Marketshare

    I was just listening to the latest this WEEK in TECH podcast and found myself really thinking about John Dvorak’s final thought on the logical future of the PC.  He feels and I agree, it’s bound to be Linux on the server, OSX86 (Apple) running on the desktop with Microsoft controlling the office applications.

    This of course all depends on a related POV which would have Apple both building systems and licensing the operating system.  The view is that Apple would be able to at minimum maintain their market share for hardware, if not grow it… not too mention all the new sales from the more mass makers.

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    TiVo to transfer to iPod and PSP

    When I read the news on TiVo today I have to confess, I was interested in having one again…

    I don’t own a 5G iPod, but I do have a PSP and having an easy system to get video recorded and transfered for portability is quite attractive. I would consider a unique cable box just for this purpose in the house even without HD, since it’s not going to be an HD viewing anyway while mobile.

    Damn you TiVo… I’d already written you off.

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    Google Analytics… Lacking

    When I first heard about Google Analytics, I was very psyched to check it out, but as of yet I have absolutely nothing to report but disappointment.

    Since installing days ago, I’ve been checking back to see when my 12-hour delay would expire and data would start rolling in… It’s been over 3 days and I’ve seen nothing.  Today when I logged in I was redirected to the Google homepage after submitting my password.  Um, what the hell is that?

    I know the Web 2.0 loves to launch beta software, but Urchin existed before Google… why does this simply not work now? Fix it or kill it.

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    MCE to get CableCard… for Holiday 2006

    Microsoft Corp. and Cable Television Laboratories Inc. (CableLabs®) today announced they have reached an agreement that will allow Microsoft and PC manufacturers to bring to market digital-cable-ready Windows® Media Center-based PCs in the holiday 2006 time frame. [eHomeUpgrade]

    While this is great news for people hooked on MCE, I don’t really understand why this announcement is coming out now. This is AT LEAST a year away.

    If I am in the market for an HTPC, should I wait now? Vista arrives at the same time basically and that will likely be a heck of an upgrade to handle on it’s own. One of the main hopes for OEMs around the globe (including Intel and AMD) is that we’ll all race out for a new machine (finally) since there will be a need to support a major new OS launch.

    Don’t forget Microsoft does not make the PC, so they’ll have to make their own release dates in order for their hardware partners to consider getting product to retail.

    Back to this PR… It does not even say MCE is a limitation. I suppose this means that when it eventually arrives, BeyondTV, Sage and others will also be able to take advantage. Thats’ cool. An even playing field and good consumer choice.

    So, why announce today? Just more from Microsoft this week? Apple had a good few weeks and now it’s time for Redmond? Maybe this is just a view into the roadmap and that’s good to know as an enthusiast… at least you know the platform has a committed future.

    My real hope though is that Apple delivers in 2006 with a real digital home strategy that takes the initial work done with Front Row and refines the media center universe into a friendly and simple place for the consumer.

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    In2TV? AOL has your fix

    With each day the future of TV gets brighter… The content may not be directly from Primetime, but it’s quality stuff and is a major move from a major player – AOL Time Warner.  They’ve clearly been thinking about how to manage things across divisions and have a plan to appease the DVD release teams as well as the online groups.  Is this actually corporate synergy from within AOLTW?

    The company will offer a changing selection of several hundred episodes each month, rather than providing continuous access to all the episodes in a series, Mr. Frankel said, so as not to cannibalize potential DVD sales of old TV shows.

    And in the future, when Warner negotiates with cable networks to syndicate popular programs, Mr. Frankel said, the price will be higher if the network wants it kept off the Internet.

    For AOL, the In2TV deal is part of a broad strategy to create a range of video offerings to attract people to its free AOL.com portal. It already offers some video news and sports programs from CBS News, ABC and CNN.

    …

    AOL will offer a version of the service meant to be watched on a television set connected to a Windows Media Center PC, and it is exploring a similar arrangement to link the Internet programming to television through TiVo video recorders.

    For those who want to watch on a big screen, AOL is introducing optional technology that it says will produce a DVD-quality picture. Even with a broadband connection, most Internet video looks grainy at full width on a computer monitor, let alone a big TV set. The new option, called AOL Hi-Q, will require the downloading once of special software, and the program may not start for several minutes, depending on the speed of the users’ connection.

    There is a catch. To use the technology, viewers will have to agree to participate in a special file-sharing network. This approach helps AOL reduce the cost of distributing-high quality video files by passing portions of the video files from one user’s computer to another. AOL says that since it will control the network, it can protect users from the sorts of viruses and spyware that infect other peer-to-peer systems.

    AOL is using file-sharing technology from Kontiki, a Silicon Valley company providing a similar system to the ambitious Internet video program of the BBC.  [New York Times]

    I had previously suggested the use of P2P networks like Bit Torrent and Kontiki as a way to better ease distribution against demand it looks like AOL is rolling this out to deliver a higher quality buffered stream!!  I look forward to giving this a shot as it becomes live… assuming of course it’s not some Windows IE only BS like what Viacom has been offering with MTV, VH1 and Comedy Central. 

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    Google Analytics

    Google Analytics will let Web site owners see exactly where visitors to their site are coming from, what links on the site are getting the most traffic, what pages visitors are viewing, how long people stay on the site, which products on merchant sites are being sold and where people give up in multistep checkout processes, said Paul Muret, an engineering director at Google and one of the founders of Urchin.

    CNET News.com

    SiteMeter and StatCounter can’t possibly be happy about this – nor can the perenial favorite Web Trends (which has always sucked in my book).  What was once a $199/mo service ($495 before Google’s acquisition of Urchin) is now free!  This will certainly shake the stats world a bit… I am looking forward to adding it to my own site to see how it works.


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    A small step towards fixing things

    Today I installed my first electrical work at home.  I had never had the opportunity to try or to really have an interest, but thanks to a tip from my dad, I checked into Home Depot and picked up a few new light switches so I could enable an auto-timer on some outside lights.

    I was surprised by how easy the job was.  The only issue is the relative fear relating to whether in fact you have the power off as you reach grab hold of the wires in order to disconnect and re-attached the lines on the new switch.  All clear here and I now have 2 new switches installed and programmed for exterior lights!

    Of course, now my wife looks around at all the light fixtures we have lying around waiting to be installed wondering whether I’ll be the one or whether our electrician will be coming back to handle… yeah I think it’s the electrician on the bigger stuff.  It’s in our contract from when we closed so at least I have a good excuse there.

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    Dell going for Style trying to beat Apple

    Dell is trying to spice up its image–and turn around lagging sales growth–by shaking Apple Computer’s hold on hipness, but it may be tough to match its smaller rival’s flair.

    CNET News.com

    If you choose to read the rest of the story, you’ll note that Dell thinks the answer lies in their XPS line of computers which was recently relaunched as a higher end PC – not quite Sony Qualia type of line.

    Dell XPS systems are among the more ugly attempts at design on computers in a long time in this user’s humble opinion.  They have unncessary curves and details simply for some kind of impact. 

    If I compare Dell to Apple on any system, I can see minimal precision (sleek) with over-designed bulk (nasty).  Add Windows to the mix, and I’ll buy an Apple any time.

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