It’ll only be a short post, I promise!

In my ‘family’, I have two Macs – a Core 2 Duo white iMac, and a Core 2 Duo 15″ MacBook Pro. Not five Macs. Not one Mac. Two Macs!

So almost any time a new piece of software comes out from Apple — for example, OS X Leopard, or a new edition of iLife, iWork etc — it will always sell in two versions: a single license (the cheap one), and a ‘Family Pack’ of five licenses, which is usually about A$100 more.

You get the picture: annoyingly, the single license edition won’t install on both my machines, and the five-license version packs too many.

So instead of paying A$158 for a new version of Apple’s beautiful, wonderful OS X operating system (which is a brilliant price for one user), I have to shell out A$249. Now, by Microsoft Windows standards, this is tiny — but I’ve got used to paying less for more with Apple. That’s the way they make you think after a while.

The only exception to this that I’ve seen is Aperture, which is just great. Apple’s pro apps pack a license for a desktop Mac and a portable Mac, which is very smart.

But, for reasons that defy me, Apple — and most other software vendors for Macs or PCs — never do a two- or three-license edition.

Because no matter how much Steve tries to con me into buying three extra Macs, it probably won’t happen in the near future.

Here in Australia, an approximate total of A$298 will buy you a terribly advanced image editor and manager, and all the online image publication you could want. If you have a Mac.

I am speaking of the recently upgraded Apple Aperture photography program — aptly named Aperture 2 — which builds upon the standard iPhoto app with far more sophisticated editing tools and quick and easy management of often massive photo libraries. This retails at just A$268 — which is a bargain — as apposed to around A$450 for its inferior predecessor, Aperture 1.

On the cheaper side, retailing for around A$30 (the US price v market fluctuates), is a Flickr Pro account — most tech enthusiasts know of Flickr, a free online photo storage/sharing tool that allows users to upload their photos to a central account on the Flickr (flickr.com) website. Since it was bought by Yahoo a year or two back its services have been enhanced and refined and even a free account allows users to store, share, publicise and even perform basic editing of their photos.

However users can also upgrade to a Pro account, which allows unlimited monthly uploads (as apposed to 100mb/month for a free account), and unlimited total storage. Basically, these are the only real long-term benefits — but trust me, if you are constantly uploading shots (I use my account for my proper blog, TB Tech News+Blog (see blogroll)), then a Pro account will be a godsend.

Straight after I installed Aperture 2 a few weeks ago, I found an excellent plugin for my Aperture version that allowed direct export to my Flickr account, which was totally compatible with my existing title, caption and keyword (this was a bit niggly though) setup which I had done in Aperture itself. This plugin was available through Flickr’s site; I can’t find the link now, but make sure you look hard).

So within a matter of minutes of shooting off a few pictures of whatever gadget I’m reviewing at that point, the images are cropped, edited, and on my Flickr account (flickr.com/photos/tbtechphotos).

If you’re a Mac user, and a keen photographer, like myself, and you have about A$300 to burn, then use it on this. You won’t regret it.

Link: Apple > Aperture 2

Link: Flickr

The date is May 2007, and I’m absolutely rapt as I take home a 2.16GHz, 15″ MacBook Pro, a 20″ white iMac — and a smart new Case Logic 15″ case.

Now, the said ‘case’ worked pretty well for about a year. When I say ‘pretty well’, I mean, my laptop hasn’t been killed while riding in the case. I’ve dropped it in the case a few times and the protection has been good. Also, there’s more than enough space in there for all my accessories — power cables, display adapters, iPod, its dock, magazines, papers, money, phones — it’s really roomy. And at the time A$129 seemed like a pretty good price for these virtues.

But then the problems come – firstly the case itself is very heavy, and adding a 2.6kg notebook and probably 300g worth of extra gadgets meant that this pack came in at around 3kg, which is too much for school/work. Then it was way too bulky; the styling was way off, all black; the (black) metal scratched off; and finally, the zips broke.

The main laptop compartment zips stayed intact — luckily. But the main accessory compartment zip seam completely snapped and left this area flapping open when it re-broke after being fixed, time and again.

A pretty random post, yeah. It was really a round-about way of telling you guys that I’ve gone and bought an absolutely gorgeous (yes, I said that word.) Toffee MacBook Pro-specific case. It’s the same as in this image (http://toffee.com.au/products/categories/2/10.jpg) but that’s not me.

Perhaps Australian-made leather will last longer than Chinese fabric-rubbish. I bloody well hope so.

Whenever I need to review a new device for my more sane blog (tbtechblog.blogspot.com), I go through this process (as if we had never reviewed something from this particular company before. Let the company be HP).

1) Contact HP’s internal media department;

2) We are referred to their ‘personal relations’, or PR, company who manage annoying journalists like me for them;

3) PR company establishes a professional relationship, with printed agreements, with us.

4) We establish a delivery and pickup date for the first device we will review from them;

5) The product is delivered and picked up as specified.

It’s always on that pesky fourth step that they falter. Between steps three and four, I have set a clear date that we would like the upcoming device to be dropped off and picked up; however, they always come back with a starkly different date as if we never told them anything at all.

After a few frantic emails from me to re-arrange a time which is suitable for us, not them (because they have all week in which they can deliver anything), they often make an excuse such as ‘Oh, sorry, didn’t see your prior email’ or, ‘I wasn’t thinking about what you’d told me previously.’.

To which, I can only be forgiving and kind. I can’t blow my head off at these people – or goodbye ‘that company’. And although I realise their busy, with tens of journalists leeching off them for the latest gear – but surely a nice tracking system could be used to keep track of the dates that we as time-constrained journos have already told them.

A question I am currently pondering is: how can Apple charge A$109 for its new generation of wireless (Bluetooth 2.0) keyboard, which has no number pad, no extra USB ports and none of that magical Apple illumination?

As a bit of background information, this new keyboard is a solid brick of aluminium. It’s something of a very, very thin German tank. It has the spaced-apart keys of the MacBook and the aluminium of the MacBook Pro; all in all, it is a looker.

Actually, I’ve figured it out. The wireless keyboard brainwashes you. Today I walked very knowingly into Sydney’s King Street Next Byte (we still have no real Apple store, although today I saw 71 King Street [our first Apple Retail Store]’s glass facade!) and picked up my very own BT ‘board… and shelled out the A$109 in cash, without complaint, and with a blank smile on my face as I blindly paid the cashier for what is just another Apple goodie that I probably could do without, but like and will pay for, like so many other Mac fans, nonetheless.

Although I have no bluetooth Mighty Mouse (mice?), because I have an immense dislike of their feel, I now have a great wireless desk. And typing on this thing justifies the price. It’s a dream.

Now… where’s that Bluetooth iPod Universal Dock?

(PS, shots of the new keyboard will be up on my Flickr tomorrow - flickr.com/photos/tbtechphotos)

In September of 2007, the iPod touch was launched in Australia.

Although it was then only available in 8 and 16 gigabyte models, the 16gb version took its sweet time reaching Oz; however, I was captivated by the touch and ended up plonking A$419 for a measly 8gb variant.

It’s been a dream so far; it has stayed relatively scratch-resistant and I’ve only used about 3gb in songs, photos and one episode of The West Wing, which is a political drama that everyone should watch. I have used it to the best of its abilities – in fact, I may use it more to check my emails and RSS subscriptions around the house than as an awesome multimedia device.

However; the 8gb has proven to be the ‘underdog’ in terms of capacity v. popularity; both models were reduced in price only a few months after their release, and now the 16gb model retails for just (I use this in a rather skeptical tone) A$499, which is now only A$100 more than the 8gb model. It proves to be a better deal for most.

However the release of the 32gb touch (and 16gb iPhone, for the US and Europe) at Macworld in January has rendered the 8gb sitting on the shelves. The 16gb model is now the ‘cheap’, popular, and well-known model, and the 32gb touch (at a whopping A$629) is now the flagship iPod – more of a ‘dream’ than a reality for most.

So the 8gb is probably a bit lonely. And really unneeded. So, in a very Apple-like, iPhone 4gb-like way, it’ll probably be killed, leaving me with an old relic that is really only six or seven months old. Great! But before Apple can do this, they’ll need to lower the 16gb price to A$399 and the 32gb price to A$499; perhaps a 64gb is on the way for that A$629 pricepoint… but maybe not.

It’s difficult to realise the utter dissatisfaction that Vista produces until you actually use it in your personal environment for extended periods. Dissatisfaction quickly turns to annoyance, annoyance to realisation, realisation to anger, anger to rage and rage to a smashed desktop/laptop which although looks nice runs one of the most flawed pieces of core software available.

Before you say, “you’re not qualified to talk like that”, actually, I am. As well as being a Microsoft Partner, I am legally allowed on behalf of Microsoft to advise small businesses on mobile technology and I’m a certified Windows Vista Advisor, so I know exactly what I’m talking about here. I’ve used two iterations of Vista, and that was enough.

Home Premium came first and that was actually livable. Although it’s buggy and slow, the ‘glamourous’ looks of the new O.S. and enhancements like Media Centre are nice. But overall it was still disappointing. I’ve saved most of my rant of Vista Business. Oh. My. God. What utter crap! Right now, this is an unworthy successor to Windows XP Professional, which, by Service Pack 2, was a stable, pretty easy to use, advanced-networking-ready client that suited 80% of the world’s computer users. Primarily, I’m a Mac user, but the virtues of XP Pro are clear. When Microsoft officially stops selling this operating system, it will be a tragedy. A travesty, even.

Vista should still be in beta; it just doesn’t work properly and businesses will regret using it. I don’t exactly regret advising a local finance firm to buy five new A$2800 Sony VAIO notebooks with Vista Business on them – hey, the OEMs hardly support XP anymore. Vista Home Basic offers far too little at far too high a price; Vista Ultimate offers far too much at a totally ridiculous pricetag – about A$750, I think.

So if you possibly can, buy Windows XP Professional for that new computer of yours. Vista can wait a year or two before it can be widely accepted – Vista SP1 is out now, but I’ve heard that it changes little. It still needs to mature.

Oh: I definitely don’t want a Mac / PC war here – but you should seriously consider a Mac. It really could suit you. And when the time comes to upgrade your O.S., it’ll actually make your computer faster. And it doesn’t cost A$750 – it costs A$158 with more features than Microsoft’s Ultimate incarnation of Vista. For some non-biased tech news and views, hit up tbtechblog.blogspot.com – a professional blog that I edit and write for.

No, this isn’t WordPress’ default first post. I deleted that. This is my own.   

What shall I use this blog for? I am really not sure at the moment. All I know is that I’m joining a group which already contains two of my friends who already jumped on the WordPress bandwagon for a personal blog; my colleague (and good listener) Tom (tomwilkins.wordpress.com) and of course Jamie (jopriest.wordpress.com) – a rather new acquaintance but someone who I find very, very interesting and who really cares and will contemplate even the simplest of matters.  

So there you go – a bit of a rant about two of my buds. Don’t worry, Will; you’ll get a mention later on. The same for everyone else.  

Of course, I also write, edit and manage an Australian tech blog – you can find that at tbtechblog.blogger.com – I am considering moving it to WordPress, but we’ve (me and my bestie Will) spent so much time perfecting the look that I’m hesitant to make a change. But go over there, have a look, and subscribe. Don’t be afraid to comment here but any malicious, overly nasty or just plain offensive comments will be removed. So really there’s no point in saying something stupid. So yeah! Check back soon.