Well, it had to be done.

Two years later, and still going strong! What started out as a diary of a Linux-to-Mac switcher has gradually evolved into a general blog about using Macs day-to-day.

I must say, I’m thoroughly enjoying writing this blog and, judging by the number of readers, you’re enjoying reading it too! I’d like to say big thank you to everyone who has read and commented on my ramblings over the last couple of years. Having such a good audience really makes writing this blog worthwhile.

It looks like the most popular topics are the software reviews and Mac tips, so I’ll continue to produce more of these in the coming months.

If you have any topics you’d like to see covered in this blog, please write and let me know! You can contact me (Matt) via the ELATED.com contact form, or simply post your comments below. I’d love to hear your suggestions!

According to the Apple PR machine, the iTunes Store recently became the #1 music retailer in the US. I’m not sure what their ranking is based on, but it’s certainly not on the size of their catalogue.

A Kink in the system?

For example, I fancied buying some Kinks music this morning. I took a look at amazon.co.uk, where I found a couple of well known “best of”s: The Ultimate Collection (4.5 stars, sales rank: 2,334), and You Really Got Me: the Best of the Kinks (5 stars, sales rank: 643). Both contain all their well-known singles and then some, making them essential purchases. Amazon also has The Village Green Preservation Society (5 stars, sales rank: 2,490) in stock - arguably one of Ray & co’s finest albums.

None of these albums is available on the Australian iTunes Store. Instead, a search for The Kinks reveals such well known (not!) albums as Everybody’s in Show-Biz (3 stars, sales rank: 201,108), Low Budget (not rated, sales rank: a mighty 540,642), and A Soap Opera (not rated, sales rank: 512,616), which Rolling Stone reviewed by saying, “Musically, there isn’t one really striking melody on the album”. In all, Amazon features 530 products by The Kinks (admittedly many are duplicates, but that’s still a lot). iTunes features (drum roll…) 30.

Really incredible (to quote Steve Jobs). Guess I’ll be buying my Kinks music from Amazon then.

Laughable

That experience really got me going (sorry), so I tried another act: The Divine Comedy. Unquestionably, Neil Hannon’s finest output includes Casanova (5 stars, sales rank: 36,912) and Promenade (5 stars, sales rank: 103,104). Amazon also stocks the very respectable “best of” album, A Secret History (4.5 stars, sales rank: 1,159). Guess which of these masterpieces is available on iTunes? That’s right - none of them. Instead we get treated to just 2 of The Divine Comedy’s 10 albums, as well as 6 identical copies of Diva Lady, a single.

Well, whaddaya know? Amazon wins again. It lists 167 products by The Divine Comedy. iTunes lists 20 (and most of those are duplicates).

I could go on:

• Aphex Twin (amazon.co.uk: at least 9 albums; iTunes: 2 albums)
• Frank Zappa (amazon.co.uk: practically all of Zappa’s 80-odd albums; iTunes: 1 album)
• Decoder Ring (Despite being an Aussie band, amazon.co.uk carries more of their albums than the Aussie iTunes Store)
• Engineers (great band, simply not available on the Aussie iTunes Store at all)

…but I’d be here all week.

Now admittedly, most huge artists (with notable exceptions like The Kinks above) are well represented on iTunes. But venture even slightly into the realm of alternative music, and you discover that iTunes is a musical desert. What makes this all the more incredible is that Amazon is selling physical goods, whereas iTunes’ catalogue should be limited only by Apple’s hard drive space.

Maybe I have eclectic tastes - who knows? - but in the last year I’ve only once thought, “I fancy buying that album!”, gone to the iTunes Store, and actually found it.

Down Under doldrums

This dearth of decent music is partly because I’m in Australia, so I have to buy from the sparsely-stocked Australian iTunes Store. (Australians always seem to get a raw deal when it comes to choice.) However, the US and UK stores have the same measly 1 Zappa album, and the US store has the same miserable Kinks collection (anything to do with them being banned from the US in the sixties?!), though the UK store is better on the Kinks front. Anyway, why shouldn’t I be able to buy music from the US or the UK store? The Internet is supposed to be global, right? I can buy from amazon.co.uk, so why not from the UK iTunes Store? For that matter I can buy all this music on CD in an Australian record store, so why not on the Australian iTunes Store?

If this is the future of music retailing, please bring back the past!

Happy New Year to you! Yes I’ve been bad - I haven’t updated this blog in months. The reason? Well, the theme of the blog was “switching from Linux to Mac”. And I’ve switched now. It was easy, and I prefer the Mac. That’s it. So there hasn’t been much to write about really.

Therefore I’ve decided to repurpose this blog into a more general one about Macs and Apple. This means I can cover more topics than just “what’s it like switching from Linux to Mac”. Which hopefully means I can update more often, and give you something interesting to read more than once every three months!

I’ll be talking about my experiences of using my iMac both at work and at play; talking about and reviewing any cool new Mac software I’ve discovered; commenting on up-and-coming Apple news - that sort of stuff. It could all be frightfully dull, or it could be the most exciting Apple blog ever. Who the hell knows. We’ll find out soon enough.

Whatever happens, thanks for tagging along for the ride - it’s good to know ya.

This is what happened in my first few hours of Mac ownership…

Unpacking it was of course very exciting, and I was impressed with the way the whole thing is packaged. It feels like you’ve bought a high quality piece of gear the moment you open the box.

I was surprised at how small the Apple Remote is. Good job it attaches magnetically to the side of the iMac or I might lose it! They could have made the keyboard cable a bit longer though. I have one of those desks with a keyboard tray which means the cable has to go over the top of the desk to the Mac, rather than behind the desk and back round. It’s not too bad in practice though.

Problem #1 was pretty funny - I couldn’t work out how to turn it on! So much for the Mac being a paragon of ease-of-use. After 5 minutes of looking round the side and back, and pressing random keys on the keyboard (I’d heard you could power on Macs this way), I eventually had to give in and read the manual. I don’t know how I missed that power button at the back!

(more…)

Haven’t posted in a few days. That’s because my nice shiny new iMac turned up on Wednesday (about a week early) and I’ve been playing with it! It’s very nice indeed and, apart from a few minor quirks and oddities, on the whole I’m very happy with it. It still feels quite new and mysterious though.

The funniest moment was when I had it all plugged in, but couldn’t work out how to turn it on! I must have spent 5 minutes looking for the power button, and I’m ashamed to say I had to read the manual in the end to find it! :-/

I’ll be posting more detailed first impressions in the next day or so, but for now here are the obligatory photos of me unpacking it and setting it up.

Just placed my order for the Mac at the Apple Store. Here’s what I ordered:

• iMac 20″ Intel Core Duo 2.0GHz (Big screen for watching movies on!)
• 250GB hard drive (I struggle to fill my current 40GB drive with stuff, and the 500GB ones are noisier apparently)
• 256MB video RAM (games are gonna require it in a year or two)
• 1GB RAM (1×1GB stick) - figured I’d get a second stick elsewhere and save my $$$!
• Oh and AppleCare. Just in case the thing blows up 12 months and 1 day after I bought it.

It’s going to take a little over 2 weeks to turn up. I was a bit irritated that the store implies “5-7 business days” but then they sneakily add on 2-4 delivery days at the time you place your order. Ah well. Maybe it’ll arrive a bit sooner!

Now I’m playing the waiting game…

Welcome to my blog. This is my first blog ever. (New, exciting!)

I am about to “switch”(TM) to using a Mac - in fact, buying a Mac - for the first time. (New, even more exciting!)

This blog will record my progress in the strange new Mac world over time. I’ll be covering:

• my reasons for switching
• choosing a Mac
• actually buying the thing
• first impressions
• my ongoing experiences with my Mac
• problems and hair-tearing-out situations (this should fill up most of the blog ;))
• the final verdict. Will I grow to love the Mac way of life, or will I be flogging the Mac on eBay in 6 months?

Time will tell…