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MC20050803.mp3 [17.4mb 38:02 64kbps]
A podcast about Macs done by a Mac geek for Mac geeks. Show 79. Apple releases the Mighty Mouse, HP discontinues iPod sales, Apple using DRM to prevent OS X Intel on non-Apple hardware, Mac OS 10.4.3 seeded to Feeder 1.2 with iTunes Podcasting support, judge stops Georgia schools purchase of 63,000 iBooks, more Apple retail store opening this weekend and Apple expands iPod Trademark to include video. More Follow-up on iPod -36 errors, using Macs in your business environment, a rant on restrictive software authentication schemes, how to uninstall Mac applications and strange tales of iTunes, converting tapes to CD. New music, Waste Another Night by My Little Radio
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Correction: I just received my new Mighty Mouse (awesome BTW) and it turns out the side buttons work by squeezing the mouse and are both assigned to the same action. So it looks like it is a 4-button and not a 5-button mouse. Listen for a full review on the next MacCast!
Another great show as always, but I just wanted to let you know that the first few seconds of audio had been cut off from the beginning of the show. No big deal, as the rest of the file played flawlessly!
Just a comment on your story about doing business on a Mac. The hurdles aren’t just psychological, dude.
I have been using QuickBooks on a PC to run my business for years. When my PC hiccuped a few months back I decided to buy a Mac for my main computer (the PC is still here, running, I just don’t use it anymore).
So I bought myself a nice G5 Mac (dual 2Ghz) and added the Mac version of QuickBooks Pro, along with the Mac version of MS Office. Thought I was all set. Wrongo.
Word and Excel work okay and handle importing doc and xls files created on the PC. Interface is sure different, but you get used to it.
QiuckBooks Pro is another story. The interface is so different as to be another app altogether. But that’s not the real issue. The Mac version of QuickBooks Pro is essentially crippleware. It has only a small fraction of the capabilities of the PC version. I found out when trying to customize my invoice form.
Not only can you not customize your invoice form like you can on the PC, when you try you end up messing up other settings in the process.
I ended up with an invoice form that looked lousy and would not print properly–it kept cutting off parts of the invoice.
If you’ve never owned an Intuit application you’re in for a big surprise if you buy one. You get almost NO support for free, even though the apps are rather expensive.
To make a long story short, in order to get my invoices to print properly, I had to spend quite a few bucks to buy support. The best deal I could get was $99 for the first month and $24 a month for each month thereafter. You can cancel it at any time, but your first (only in my case) call costs you 100 bucks.
The support tech was the source of the info regarding the reduced feature set of the Mac version of the software. I thought it was just me missing something, but no, it’s the app. The said matter of factly that the Mac version of QuickBooks Pro doesn’t have nearly the feature set of the PC version. Didn’t seem to bother him.
I told him I thought it took a lot of balls to sell crippled software at the same price as the full-featured version and charge me $100 to find that out, but it didn’t seem to bother him.
I’m sure this isn’t the only Mac version of a biz app that doesn’t equate to the PC version.
I love my Mac, BTW. I used to use Unix machines (SGI mostly) and have always loved them for their stability. OS X is pretty damned stable and also very elegant, as I would expect from the folks at Cupertino.
Have you taken a look at MYOB? http://www.myob.com/us/
I posted a message here a couple weeks ago about my HP branded iPod mini. I’ll recap in a brief way – the HP branded iPod mini was garbage. I had major troubles with the controls, the battery, etc.
I was under the distinct impression that the HP branded iPods were somehow “seconds” or iPods that didn’t exactly match up to Apple’s high standards. You know, the kind of product that would wind up in outlet stores.
I was lucky that I bought my HP mini at Costco, because they promptly refunded my money with no questions. I drove from Costco to my Apple store and I’ve been happy with my “real” iPod mini ever since. No troubles with it at all.
=) Jason
HA HA! LOL! Charlie (Merle Haggard CD copier) sounds like he’s speaking from a deep dark cave!! Was that an effect or what?!
I can understand why Adobe would want to restrict the copying of its products – the high cost must make Photoshop one of the most pirated pieces of software, but if Adobe are going to charge so much for this professional product then they should also have a professional support system. Its very easy for them to set up a 24 hr phone line to authorise re-installations. Many call centres here in the UK have moved to India and utilising those facilities would enable Adobe easily to provide 24hr support. They can’t have it both ways – big prices should fund proper support.
I am glad that I have the older version of the Adobe Creative Suite. I have installed this several times on my computer for various reasons. The last time was when I upgraded to OS 10.4 and decided to erase the hard drive and start over. I have also installed it on an external hard drive so that I could use the software at the school where I work. The school has one older G3 iBook and I am ocassionally able to use it. Calling anyone to get permission to do this would be a real pain. How much of an explanation would you have to give the 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. time you installed the software? I wonder if there is a limit that would affect inept or unfortunate users?
I am planning to buy a desktop Mac (probably a Mini) to use at work as I dislike the peecees that the school buys for us to use. Also, I checked the license for the Adobe Creative Suite. It allows me to install the software on two computers as long as they are not both used at the same time. Therefore, I will not need to buy another copy of the Adobe Creative Suite (very expensive even with the educator discount) to use it at work. I do like this about the license that Adobe grants for this software. Many software companies require you to buy two different versions. I also own several Adobe fonts, and these are licensed for up to 5 computers. I hope they never require activation on these as it would be very difficult to deal with.
I own Adobe products, no more!
To install Adobe you must type about twenty letters. Why?
To install Adobe you must type the letters blind. Why?
Reinstall, only twice. Why?
Buy overpriced Adobe products, Why?
It seems the MACCAST has no excitement. His voice is very dry & monotone. I’ve listened to a lot of shows & started to get annoyed. This is constructive criticism by the way, don’t want people think I am being rude. It has good content but the presentation could be better. It’s like AM radio!
I love AM Radio…
Hey Robert what’s your problem! You only comment on the bad parts of the MacCast! Why don’t you encourage Adam and praise him for all of the hard work and money he puts into this podcast? I understand the constructive criticism but really, I think you are being a little harsh.
Regarding the effect where burning an LP onto a CD and having the album and track names show up, I believe I heard that the site that iTunes checks that provides the album and track info (CDDB) gets that from the number of tracks and the length of each track. It then searches for a match and returns with that if it is a close enough match.