Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Why I Love Macs...

About 9 months ago I officially became a Mac guy.  It was then that I dumped my dying Gateway laptop and joined the 21st century with a Mac PowerBook.  My buddy and partner in crime over here at St. Mark, Seth Bartlette, a recent Mac convert at the time, was very instrumental in my exodus from the world of PCs to the Mac world.  I had often heard that once you go Mac, you never go back.  So true...

Here are a few reasons why I love my Mac:

1) Compatibility.  All of the Mac programs, such as iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, etc. are all seamlessly linked together, allowing me to work across several programs at once with ease.  Macs are also highly compatible with other non-Mac programs and devices.

2) Wireless Capabilities.  The minute I enter an area with a wireless network, my Mac recognizes it and connects.  

3) Widgets.  These make it easy to keep up on the weather, sports scores, etc.

4) Spaces.  When I get working on several things at once, spaces allows me to use 4 full desktops.  With my PowerBook currently hooked up with an external monitor, my Spaces double, giving me the capability to use 8 desktops at once.  I can't imagine ever needing 8 desktops, but it's still cool to know that if I need them, they're there!

5) Design.  Macs just look cool...enough said.

6) Parallels.  With this program I can still run necessary Microsoft programs like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on my Mac.

7) Garage Band.  This program allows you to mix your own sweet tunes or even record yourself.  We've started recording our youth services--both the messages and worship--with Garage Band.

8) Graphics.  Macs are well known for their creative capabilities with graphic design.  I don't know how to do any of that stuff yet, but I can imagine how cool it would be if I did!

9) Keynote.  The Mac version of PowerPoint...only better!

10) Time Machine.  I saved this one for last because this is my new favorite reason why I love Macs.  A brief story will best explain my love for Time Machine.

Basically, Time Machine works as a back-up for my entire computer.  My Time Machine is connected to my 500 GB external hard drive.  Every hour, on the hour, Time Machine more or less takes a snapshot of my entire hard drive and saves it.  Now, say for instance I've been working on a project since March of last year.  I've made countless changes along the way, but here in February I decide that I would like to see the project exactly as it was on November 7, 2007 at 1:00pm.  I simply click on the project and then open Time Machine.  Then, as pictured below, Time Machine would allow me to go back to the project as it was at that very moment several months ago.  Very cool...

Well, this whole concept became even more valuable to me last week.  As I was uploading my pictures and videos from India, I suddenly received a notice that I had mistakenly maxed out my internal hard drive.  Before I could stop the upload, my hard drive crashed, losing EVERYTHING.  You'd think that this would cause me to hate Macs, but this is where Time Machine comes in.  I was able to simply go back and restore my entire hard drive just the way it had been merely an hour before the crash.  Literally everything, from all my documents all the way down to my desktop picture and screensaver were exactly the way they had been before.

The Bottom Line: I love Time Machine, and I love Macs even more!

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