New MacBook Pro User. Wow!

[Kingsmuse]

I've been using Front Row since 2007, on a Mac mini before they went to core2duo processors. I'm not sure what King Hal means that it's a "dog". Compared to what exactly? It has always worked fine for us, from our first mini to our current iMac.

Compared to this..

Plex - A Complete Media Solution

Honestly I haven`t used Front Row much.
I started tinkering with it when I set my Mac Mini up as a media center and while trying to find a work around for some problem or other with getting Front Row to stream my content I found Plex.

It will stream content from any computer in my house to my media center.
Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Pandora, and tons of other media channels.

Very cool application.

They have an iPad app in the app store that turns your iPad, iPhone, or iPod into a remote for Plex.

I love it.

 

[xune]

Thanks for the link- Between Front Row and Apple TV, i believe my media needs are covered, but I'll check it out

 

[DaveSt]

If Microsoft was smart they`d narrow their efforts to developing software/cloudware for Mac OS, Chrome and Android.

That is a curious statement. Would that really be the smart move for MS? The business world runs on Windows software, for better or worse. I don't see the business world moving to OS X (or the other desktop alternative, Linux) any time in the near or distant future mainly because the software support simply isn't there. I don't think Apple has ever really tried to make a serious push at the business environment anyhow.

What MS should be doing is trying to ease the transition from XP to Windows 7 in the corporate environment. Windows XP is so ingrained in so many companies it is darned near impossible to make the move to a newer (and vastly better) Windows 7.

 

[Superbike81]

The military is just now upgrading from Windows XP to Vista. Horrible idea in my opinion, but it's not my decision to make.

 

[Digikid]

The military is just now upgrading from Windows XP to Vista. Horrible idea in my opinion, but it's not my decision to make.

If they are actually as smart as they think they are they would use LINUX. LOL!!!!

 

[Superbike81]

The military is just now upgrading from Windows XP to Vista. Horrible idea in my opinion, but it's not my decision to make.

If they are actually as smart as they think they are they would use LINUX. LOL!!!!

LOL most people in the military aren't even smart enough to figure out Winxows.

 

[Kingsmuse]

What MS should be doing is trying to ease the transition from XP to Windows 7 in the corporate environment. Windows XP is so ingrained in so many companies it is darned near impossible to make the move to a newer (and vastly better) Windows 7.

What is the reason for this problem?

I believe it`s because Vista was such a serious dog of an OS that most businesses refused to move to it after XP.

Now that MS has a "workable" OS in Windows 7 the corporate world is finally rushing to make the upgrades they have been refusing since Vista.

Microsofts recent surge in sales is almost entirely due to this the need and ability of business to upgrade from XP after years and years of refusing Vista for good reason.

I myself haven`t touched my office PC in over a year.
I`ve moved everything to my Macbook and work off of it solely simply because of ease of use in comparison to Windows systems.

 

[DaveSt]

The problems I see in the industry I work in is that hardware level support in moving from a 32 to 64 bit OS is problematic at best. Even staying at the 32bit level, the driver implementations are vastly different between XP and Vista/Win7 (which is necessary yet painful). If you are working with highly specialized industrial equipment (for example) that has been in the field for years, the chances of getting 64bit driver support are just about nil. No matter how good the OS is that is going to be a problem. The same types of problems exist on the software side. The software suppliers aren't going to put the resources into 64bit versions of their highly specialized software until the users all start moving to a new OS. The users aren't going to move to a new OS until the developers release new versions of the software. It is a standoff.

Personally, I think brilliant marketing from Apple was Vista's biggest problem. After service pack 1 was released I thought it was a pretty decent OS, although Windows 7 certainly is leaps and bounds better. I don't think performance issues are what kept businesses away from Vista. It all comes down down a seamless upgrade and as far as I can see that just doesn't exist, especially when moving from an OS that has been in service for 10 years now.

 

[Digikid]

What MS should be doing is trying to ease the transition from XP to Windows 7 in the corporate environment. Windows XP is so ingrained in so many companies it is darned near impossible to make the move to a newer (and vastly better) Windows 7.

What is the reason for this problem?

I believe it`s because Vista was such a serious dog of an OS that most businesses refused to move to it after XP.

Now that MS has a "workable" OS in Windows 7 the corporate world is finally rushing to make the upgrades they have been refusing since Vista.

Microsofts recent surge in sales is almost entirely due to this the need and ability of business to upgrade from XP after years and years of refusing Vista for good reason.

I myself haven`t touched my office PC in over a year.
I`ve moved everything to my Macbook and work off of it solely simply because of ease of use in comparison to Windows systems.

I know that this is Off Topic here but I must clear up this gross statement of yours that is completely false.

There was nothing wrong with Vista. It was a good OS and it was not slow or a "dog" as you put it at all. Get your facts straight.

Mind you Windows 7 is better...all successors are better in some way or other but Vista was no slouch.

I hate these so called "PC Know its" that think they know so much but know so little.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled topic.

 

[Superbike81]

Was able to do a side by side comparison to a stock MacBook Pro 13" vs my SSD upgraded model. Computers were identical other than the SSD in mine, and wow, the difference was huge for opening programs and boot time. Waking up from sleep was no different though. Loading something as simple as iTunes took 3-4 seconds on the stock MBP, where mine loaded it in less than 1 second. So glad I upgraded the hard drive.

 

[DaveSt]

I think on any system moving to a SSD is one of the easiest yet most impressive upgrades available right now. I recently upgraded my desktop PC to a Sandforce 2 based SSD and the difference was night and day. I imagine the difference in a laptop is even more noticeable, as many laptops sacrifice a little bit of speed for power savings in the hard drive department.

 

[Digikid]

Was able to do a side by side comparison to a stock MacBook Pro 13" vs my SSD upgraded model. Computers were identical other than the SSD in mine, and wow, the difference was huge for opening programs and boot time. Waking up from sleep was no different though. Loading something as simple as iTunes took 3-4 seconds on the stock MBP, where mine loaded it in less than 1 second. So glad I upgraded the hard drive.

Upgrading to a Solid State Drive is the absolute MUST for laptop owners IMHO. Sure they are smallish in size but if you want storage then carry around a couple SD cards of USB Flash Drives. Problem solved.

 

[Superbike81]

Yeah, all I did is took the normal 250GB hard drive that it came with and bought a $10 mini USB-powered enclosure for it. Space problem solved.

 

[Superbike81]

Got Microsoft Office 2011 through my work for $9.99. Installed it today and I really like it on OSX, feels the same. Love the Remote Desktop client, can control my Windows desktop from my MBP. It works much better than controlling it from the iPad which is what I was doing sometimes before. Everything responds much quicker, and is easier to use because of the trackpad and real mouse buttons.