More Mac Mini

Having used my Mac Mini for almost 4 weeks I have noticed some failings with it, but these are simple issues that Apple can easily address.

Firstly the Mac does not come with a full blown word processing application - on a PC you either get Microsoft Works, Word or Office. Apple provide you with a 30 day trial of Office Mac and iWork.

Secondly you cannot change the look and feel - you are stuck with a white background with black text, and either grey or blue highlighting. On a PC, you get a choice of colour schemes - Blue, Olive Green and Silver

Thirdly the inbuilt chat software - iChat does not work with a USB webcam and needs you to use an Apple iSight camera, which at £99 is expensive.

Finally there is no way of playing Windows Media Audio or Video files on an Intel Mac easily - Microsoft have not released Windows Media Player for an Intel Mac, and have made Windows Media Player 9 the final one for the Mac, so while Windows PC users have Windows Media Player 11 the Mac won't see that. Luckily Microsoft have allowed a software house Flip4Mac to create plugins for Quick Time so that can play Windows Media Files - which they have done for PowerPC Macs

All of these are simple issues that Apple can address to make the Mac even better. I can understand not providing an Office Suite with the Mac as that brings the cost down - after all not everyone wants to spend £329 on Office Mac, and I suspect that the Windows Media Player problem will be fixed ASAP. I think the reason that only the iSight camera works with iChat is probably because many of their machines have an iSight camera built in, and many other WebCam makers do not provide MAC drivers. Customisation of the OS look is not so important, but would be nice to have.

I still think the Apple Mac is a fantastic machine, and I wouldn't go back to PC's at all, I certainly don't miss the crashes, the constant updates, just to keep the machine secure etc. Apple are on to a winner, and I think they will increase their market share.

Podcast

I have started my own online podcast, as having a Mac makes it so easy to record a podcast, using the built in Garage Band software. You can hear my podcast at my website www.jonzosplace.co.uk or subscribe to it in iTunes at http://jonzosplace.downingsnet.co.uk/podcast.xml If you hear the blog via my website you will need a software package capable of playing m4a files, such as iTunes.

I have planned for my podcast to be an audio version of my blog, but also adding exclusive entries that you won't find on my blog.