[Opinion] Apple Mac's vs Windows-based PC's

Surely I'm not the only one who has noticed, but it seems that some people think the Mac vs PC war is still on. Really the war should have been put to rest the second Apple began using Intel processors to power it's machines. At that point Mac's used the same architecture as PC's and therefore making the software compatibility issue explode into possibilities.

All of a sudden Mac's could run Windows, right out of the box no less. Now you can easily swap to either operating system of your choice Mac OS or Windows to do it all! Some might think its because Windows is a better OS because it will support all the different hardware in a PC as Mac OS will not. However designing an OS to run on certified, good to go hardware doesn't make Apple foolish, it just means they are concerned with quality and not satisfied with their OS crashing due to driver incompatibilities.

Software was the real reason that divided the industry. It goes back to the same issue with VHS and BetaMAX. VHS was cheaper, and like it PCs sold more units. Since more people had them, more people programmed on and for them. Games and office applications thrived on the cheaper machines.

Apple products, being expensive, yet stable often ran critical systems or creative software. In the past, if you wanted to record music or video editing, the defacto software was found on the Mac's.

Anyway enough of the explanation. Apple Mac computers now run Intel chips and software that was written for Windows is now being ported over for Mac OS X. Apple conceded to their use of the IBM processor, to the more common Intel chip.

Apple products still to this day retain the quality if not improve to it with their market share. The Mac's can run Windows and it's software. And if that wasn't enough, companies like Valve Corporation have just recently ported their Steam product and more and more games that are featured on it over to the make every day.

The Apple Tax! That is all you are paying the extra money for, right? Just to fill Steve's pockets? Absolutely not! If you have ever had a problem and had to call a PC manufacturer and jump through through the hoops and wait and wait on hold to talk to someone that you can barely understand only to maybe fix the issue without their go-to-answer of "reload the computer back with the factory cd", losing all your pictures, documents and stolen music (gasp!), know exactly what i'm talking about. You will be hard pressed to find people that have dealt with Apple customer support and not so shocked that they were treated with respect, but that Apple did everything in their power to actually fix the issue. I have 3 stories of my personal experiences. One of my coworkers was having an issue with his MacBook (Pro). He called Apple and explained the problem and while over hearing him talk, he was quite happy with whatever they had been telling him before a solution was come to. This was around 10 am, and by the next afternoon, a box was sitting in our office. The contents was another box with Apple's logo on it and was form fitted to fit his MacBook. The postage was paid both ways and he sent it down to the mail room. Two days later, the MacBook was returned, working and clean! Yes, Apple had cleaned the machine or so it appeared. The smudges from his kids hands were missing from the screen. The gunk that builds on a keyboard was removed. Yes, you pay for quality parts. Yes, you pay for quality service. Yes, you get what you pay for!

All that to say is, that I don't really care which computer you think is so great. Apple makes a quality product in it's OS and hardware they place in their Mac's so how bout the "PC Fan-boys" respect that and quit trying to trash talk the Mac's. Most of the PC's on the market contain nothing but inferior hardware and even worse software. If you prefer your Dell over a Mac; great, fine, good for you. Then it is your preference and not because it's so much better, because a statement like that is ignorant and foolish. The only people that are cheering for your are the people that are ignorant to the facts also.

I have spent over 10 years working on PCs (loaded with Windows 95-Seven) and 2 years working with my Intel-based MacBook Pro. Given the choice, i would never use a PC by another vendor again, unless i needed a cheap box to use a maybe a media server for my home. My computer doesn't crash. It doesn't get viruses or spyware. It just works.

Of course i am open to hear arguments on anything i have said and will be glad to concede my points if proven wrong. Good luck with that.

{Review] Goodreader for iOS

One of the best investments I have made app-wise that I have made for my iPad & iPhone is Goodreader. It is a file viewer for both platforms. But it is so much more! I use it to view or download for offline viewing my Google Docs, Webdav (my website files) & Dropbox storage space. This is great for getting files onto my iPad, and since we can't use the storage space the only way to do this practically. I often uses this at work when I don't want to tote my laptop to a meeting but still need documents to be accessible.

I look forward to be able to use the storage space on my idevices one day, but until then, this is the best solution I have found and in case I didn't mention it before, it was only $.99! Great buy!