W W W W WoW!

I play WoW, that’s right, World of Warcraft. Oddly enough it has become one form of bonding time my girlfriend and I use. We both spend a couple hours each night playing together questing and killing. I’ve mentioned the game in a few posts and replies to comments I get on this site. My recent conversation with someone new to the game sparked me to write about the game in more detail on here. I am by no means an expert on the game and I am sure I still do stuff wrong all the time. I don’t go into all the deep lore and I don’t know all the acronyms for places or all the crazy ins and outs of the game.

I currently have two main characters I use. “But Jason, you can only have one main and the other is an Alt.” Let me explain. I have a lvl 42 horde character that I played with my girlfriend starting at the end of 2007. At the end of January I began to play an Alliance character on a server my friend from Tae Kwon Do is on. I say this to make a point. Get on a server someone who know is on with a high level character. This makes getting into the social aspect of the game so much easier. Knowing people ahead of time in a new place just makes life easier. You’ll get some quests in instances pretty early in the game, before lvl 15 most likely. Knowing people will help you form a group faster or help you find a lvl 70 that can drag you through the instance to collect XP and awesome item drops.

Before making a character, make sure you know which type of server you are getting into: PVP, PVE, or RP. On a PVP server, a player of the opposing side can walk up and gank you or kill you. You’ll then have to find your corpse and continue and this can happen at anytime. In PVE,  The game is insanely huge and you can virtually explore and entire continent without ever seeing a load screen. If you want to really see the beauty of the game, I suggest playing an alliance character. Their areas are really lush and gorgeous; very welcoming. A main horde area is The Barrens which as you can imagine is pretty barren. But it’s really up to you.

Play the game, make friends, and just be in awe at the sheer size of the game. And if you have an older computer (about 3-4 years old) you can play the game. Check it out. You’d think I’m the last one to the game with such a primitive post on a game with 10+million subscribers. Just trying to get people playing. Available for PC and Mac.

The Last Minute MacBook Pro?

Tuesday February 19th brought us a couple surprises. One of which was the $49 iPod Shuffle with a soon to be released 2GB version for $69. I have an iPod Video, an iPhone and a 1GB shuffle and I have always said, the shuffle is by far Apple’s best iPod, especially if you’re on the go. I wear mine to the gym all the time and you can barely tell you’re wearing it. It won very high marks for me when I ran it through the wash and once it dried and charged, worked perfectly. If it broke or I lost it, I wouldn’t hesitate to replace it immediately especially at twice the space for $69. The other release today was Xsan 2 which I know absolutely nothing about so I’m not going to pretend to be excited or disappointed about this.

What wasn’t a surprise today was the total lack of new MacBook Pros. It seems like our last chance for a soon release will be Next Tuesday February 26th…IF there is an event. An event is a more likely place to announce new MBP’s than a news feed. If it doesn’t happen next week…I have absolutely no idea or hope left for us until WWDC. There is some concern now, we won’t see an update until summer when Intel releases their Montevina processors. This is something I hypothesized about before with the Penryn only being a stop-gap until then if it ever does get released. 

So what’s another week, right? Well if it doesn’t happen are you going to wait? Are you going to even switch to PC….blasphemy I know. Towards the end of 2007, people began to wonder if 2008 would be the year Apple fans would turn on their beloved company. Pitchfork march on 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino anyone?

Another Tuesday, No MacBook Pro

The Apple store went down again yesterday, Tuesday February 5, 2008…but only in the US and Canada. Many people thought we might just get the new MacBook Pro but what we did get was a 16GB iPhone and a 32GB iPod Touch. Until the store goes down across the world, there will be no MacBook Pro update so keep your fingers crossed for a worldwide Internet inconvenience. So what does all this mean?

Well, with the iPhone SDK coming out this month, people will need more space for apps, although I think and hope the 4GB will continue to do its job. Most 3rd party apps now are rarely over 1MB. Either way, the whole ordeal is not greasing my gears. What’s confusing is, why this couldn’t have been announced 3 weeks ago at MacWorld. It’s such a small bump that it could have been a top headline in the keynote and wouldn’t have outshined the MacBook Air? Maybe it wasn’t ready? Neither was AppleTV Take 2, and it’s still not ready.

The status of the MacBook Pro leaves us with more confusion. The Penryn chips are available and being shipped for other notebooks from other companies so why not for Apple’s notebook lineup? Well according to Intel’s roadmap, the Montevina chips are due in Q2 which would put the release beginning in March but for Apple more around NAB or WWDC. Remember the iPhone was released at the VERY end of Q2 of ‘07. By then this would qualify for a total overhaul of the system, but the possibility does arise that Apple will release a Penryn MacBook Pro only as a stopgap until the Montevina, kinda how the Intel Core Duo was before the Intel Core 2 Duo. It simply made the transition happen sooner.

In the end, if Apple does release a Penryn model anytime soon without overhauling other areas, it will be quickly outdone by the Montevina. So if you see a Penryn MacBook Pro soon without any other changes, just wait until NAB or WWDC, if you can. I’ll give it my best shot. So far Apple has released updates every Tuesday of this year. Mac Pro, Macbook Air, pink iPod, application updates, and iPhone/iPod touch updates. Time will have to creep up on the MacBook Pro eventually if Apple keeps up this pace. Of course 10.5.2 will be out before then as well.

MacBook Pro Update 2008

Many people have claimed this was the MacWorld keynote with the least amount of surprises…i.e. none. Everyone pretty much knew what was going to happen. When this happens, however, it is much easier to look over what was expected that didn’t happen, e.g. 3G iPhone, Leopard 10.5.2, and updates to already existing Apple computers. TUAW and Engadget aren’t reporting on what was missing. This would make Steve Jobs look like a disappointment.

It seems the largest group of people completely left out of the keynote were those of us who already use Apple computers: MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini. The iMac saw a complete design overhaul in August but a speed bump with the new Penryn chips should have been expected as well. Apple completely left us in the cold by offering us nothing. We should have at least seen speed bumps for most of the lines and/or pricedrops.
So what does this mean now for the MacBook Pro which hasn’t seen a real update since June ‘07 and what would I like to see? (A lot of this can be applied to the other systems as well, but the MacBook Pro has really been pushed aside as of late). Well since we didn’t even get a speed bump, Apple fans should demand a total overhaul of the MacBook Pro which includes a switch to the Intel Penryn chips at 2.4, 2.6 and 2.8Ghz unless other speeds have been attained since these were announced last fall.

But as I said, a speed bump won’t cut it. All MacBook pros should ship with a 256mb video card standard with higher resolution LED displays (please keep the matte and glossy options). And the one thing I think the MacBook Air can deliver is the multitouch trackpad. I understand a lot of professionals might not use it but it’s a pretty neat feature (especially when web browsing) that should be standard, even implemented last Tuesday. For god sakes, please don’t implement the MacBook/MacBook Air keyboard into the MBP especially with the black keys. 160GB HD should be the bare minimum. 2GB RAM standard as is now in all models.

And what the MacBook Pro line needs the most is a 12″ model. I don’t think it will happen but the lineup needs it and Apple and Intel proved they can make a small computer. Make it 2.1 and 2.4Ghz Penryn 128MB video card with a superdrive and widescreen LED monitor.

How much for all this? Aside from the 12″ everything stays the same price. The MBP line hasn’t even dropped in price since June and we all know how quickly the cost of computer parts declines so all this new stuff should come at no extra cost to the original release of the current configuration.

I’m really curious to hear what you want in your next MBP or MacBook. Apple really left us all in the dark and I think we’re owed something incredible. Perhaps you think my specs are too lame. Let me know!

UPDATE: According to Engadget it looks like we’re going to be waiting until May at least for the new Montevina chips to roll out, rumored to be the next chipset for use in the MacBook Pro. While that is insanely depressing, it gives us time to make it clear what we expect to see and so far it’s nothing that can’t easily be done in 4 months time. 7200RPM drives standard was a great suggestion I just received. So keep your old G4 Powerbooks up and running for another few months.

UPDATE 2: Jaye brought up a really good feature to have on the new MBP: Be able to easily add new RAM. I’m going to take it one step further and say RAM and hard drives should be easily replaced by the user. Apple makes great notebooks but there has always been some bitch of a deal when it comes to adding RAM and/or replacing the HD. Both should be easily accomplished tasks with the new MacBook Pro. My G4 Powerbook has really easy RAM installs but I am not going to even begin to try to replace the HD. Although I have no experience, I hear changing the current MacBook hard drive is really easy. God knows you can’t personally swap out the RAM or HD easily at all in the MacBook Air.

UPDATE 3: After talking with some people, I have changed my stance on the spaced keyboard found in the MacBook Air and MacBook. Apparently a lot of people like it and they can actually type faster with it. And since it is the only system without the new layout, I think it’s safe to say that it will happen with the MacBook Pro update. Keep the suggestions coming, there are a lot of great ideas in the comments section.

Worst…MacWorld Keynote…Ever…

I’m sure and I hope I’m not the only person using that title. But I just spent 2 hours monitoring the updates for MacWorld 08 keynote. We can look at this two ways, Apple let us down or we, the readers and users, built our hopes up too high. I’m inclined to fault Apple here not for creating hype but more because we were due in for certain things this time around: 10.5.2 update and hardware refreshes across the entire notebook line along with the Mac Mini.

A huge problem with Apple is they rarely if ever do price drops until a hardware refresh comes along. We have heard nothing about MacBook Pros or even the MacBook since last August. It has been just as long if not longer for the Mac Mini as well which has pretty much disappeared from my nearby Apple store. Today’s discussion focused on 4 things: iPhone/iTouch, Apple TV, Time Capsule, and the MacBook Air. If you don’t know what the deal on each of these is, I’m sure you can find articles all over the place about them. But I will touch on the Apple TV.

If Apple thinks the only problems with the TV were that you had to sync it with a computer and it didn’t have movie rentals, they are flat out wrong. That thing is still junk that no one cares about. I still hold the Mac Mini as the true Apple TV. That’s the route they should have gone with a $200 price drop, or keep it the same price with extra specs like a Blue-Ray/DVD player.

Upon browsing and contributing to comment sections on other sites, it seems a LOT of people were ready to throw down today for the new MacBook Pro including this guy. The new trackpad for the MacBook Air is awesome and would have worked perfectly and easily with any other notebooks but it wasn’t mentioned. Many people have speculated this might be the year Apple’s fans turn on the company they love and adore. It looks like the investors are leading the way with a current drop of 12% at the time of writing.

I really hope Steve Jobs is hiding in a corner somewhere. Apple doesn’t have to but personally, I feel they need to make some changes in the next couple weeks to their notebook line and Mac Mini. This was just awful. Way to drop the ball Apple, 5 months with no announcements and this is the best they can do.

OS X Leopard vs Windows Vista: Fight!! (Part 2)

Hopefully you had a chance to see the first half of this piece which I showed off some of the visual differences of Apple’s newly released operating system and Microsoft’s recent OS release, Windows Vista. I now want to take a look at some of the features both operating systems have and the different ways they are implemented.

Disclaimer: I have been unable to find a screen grab tool for Windows that allows me to set a timed exposure so I have been unable to grab screens of Flip 3D or the Alt+Tab program selector. If you know of one, please let me know and I will edit this post ASAP.

FLIP 3D and Expose:

Flip 3D, found in Windows Vista, is a really interesting concept but I just don’t think it feels right. It’s more of an offset rolodex than a 3D representation of the windows you have open. It runs fairly smoothly and mapping it to the Ctrl+Tab function was a smart idea on Microsoft’s part. Including the desktop in Flip 3D was also a really smart idea to let you easily get back to it without having to minimize windows or click the “show desktop” icon in quicklaunch if you have it enabled.

Above is Apple’s expose, which actually isn’t new at all to OS X and can be found in previous generations and it has remained relatively unchanged in Leopard. Expose can be activated by a keystroke, a mapped button on the mouse, or through the use of “hot corners.” There are two expose activations: one is for ALL windows and another is for only the windows within a particular program like you have multiple Firefox windows open. Once activated you simply hover your mouse over the window you like and click it. Expose then sweeps aside and the window you clicked becomes the main window. Really smooth and you can have as many windows as you want on the screen, they will just be smaller which is something you don’t have to worry about in Flip 3D.

I also want to talk about Apple’s Cmd+tab feature which is the same function as Windows Alt+Tab.

People who love this feature in Windows, you have to tip your hat to Apple on this one since it is an Apple invention. However, I do like the windows version better because Apple only lets you select programs whereas the Windows version cycles through ALL available windows. Apple uses expose to cover this feature. If you’re anything like me, however, you’ve become good at counting how mane “tabs” until the next window and can do it without looking.

FILE MANAGEMENT

I already talked about the look of file icons between the two operating systems and felt the folder look in Leopard was a step backwards. Granted the icons are all uniform, but they don’t pop like the ones on Vista. Let’s take a look at how each OS enables you to browse the files.

Windows Vista

Even though I don’t have pictures of all the settings, nothing has really changed from XP to Vista except for live thumbnails which is a VERY welcome change instead of the standard .doc icon or picture icon. But you still have list, details, icons, thumbnails etc. The browser on the left hand side is also much more welcome than the one in XP. Cleaner and easier to get where you want.

OS X Leopard

With Leopard, Apple took a page from the iTunes book and added Coverflow. Some have even said Leopard should have been called OS X iTunes since most of the visual changes are from iTunes.

Just like Coverflow in iTunes allows you to see album art for music, in the Finder it allows you to see live details of the file or folder you are on. Just browse left and right and the icons rotate in that direction. If you want to take a close look at the file you are on without having to open the program just hit spacebar to activate Quicklook.

Quicklook brings the file to the foreground of your desktop and allows you to browse it without even having to open the program it was created in. The address book is a poor example but if this were a .pdf or a word document, I could browse and read the file without having to open Preview or a text editor. Thanks to this feature. I have found papers I wrote in college with an entire 2 sentences on them that were just wasting space.

WIRELESS AND NETWORKING

Both OS X and Windows support wireless Internet and Bluetooth. It would be crazy not to in this day and age. It’s just a matter of how easy it is to manually set up these devices. Both operating systems picked up my wireless router fairly easily, but what if I need to manually get into the device properties.

Windows Vista

Even though a lot of the settings are easier to configure than before, there is still the feel and look of “you’re connected and you really shouldn’t be messing with this.” The diagram at the top is a nice touch as a way to explain the flow of information, but if it weren’t for Leopard, I wouldn’t complain about this, but all you get is wireless options in this window.

Bluetooth preferences in Vista still have that “device manager” look to them. If you’ve never messed around with device manager, I doubt you’re going to know you’re way around this window either.

OS X Leopard

Previously, with OS X 10.4 Tiger, you only had access to Internet options through Ethernet and Ariport. With Leopard, everything is right where you need it. Open up Network preferences and you’re there and it even includes FireWire with the option to add other devices and I assume USB would be one of them.

While there is still a little to be desired with the Bluetooth setup in Leopard, it’s light years beyond what Tiger did. For Leopard all you have to do is make sure your Bluetooth is turned on for your device and your computer and just click “Set Up New Device,” and you’re set.

Note: Even though it will recognize the iPhone, there is still no ability to use the iPhone to control the computer for front row, iTunes or anything. I haven’t tried it in Windows, but I doubt there is much use in Vista either.

A SOLO FEATURE OF VISTA

I cannot stand desktop clutter. I want as few things as possible on my desktop which is one of the reasons I switched to Apple. Even though the clutter sucked, it was much easier to use as program navigation than the Start menu. As I stated, I primarily installed Vista so I could game and I thoroughly like the way games are enabled in the start menu. Everything gets its only little neat window.

And thanks to the system rating, I now want a faster HD because it’s the only thing keeping me from a 5.9. Otherwise, all my games are within a click away. (If you have any game suggestions by the way let me know). I suppose with Leopard, I could create a stack for my games, but there aren’t a slew of games for Mac yet so as long as Aspyr keeps screwing up.

That just about covered everything I wanted to show you between the two operating systems. I firmly believe it would be a hands down win for Leopard if it weren’t for the lack of gaming. However, in the OS shootout, OS X Leopard does come out on top. Both operating systems have a lot in store for them in the future but the future is sooner for Leopard then Vista.

A Final Note: Leopard 10.5.1 has been released for update and Vista SP1 beta has been previewed.

Whoever is at Fault, Fix It: Where is My RAM?

Many people have been making “the switch” from PC to Mac. Over 50% of Apple computers bought were by first time buyers. For the first time ever, Intel Macs occupy a larger market share than PowerPC Macs. While there are many reasons to make the switch, one of the biggest if not THE biggest reason is you can dual boot OS X and Windows on Intel Macs. With Leopard, Apple is fully supporting Bootcamp, their software to install Windows.

There are many reasons to dual boot such as programs that will only run in Windows to the lack of gaming support for Apple computers. I personally installed Vista to be able to play games on my Mac Pro, Apple’s powerhouse computer. I want to play games like Gears of War, Bioshock, and Crysis. For the upgrade to Leopard and to game in Windows, I installed an extra 2GB of RAM in my system to make a total of 3GB. Here is what I get:

OS X recognizes 3GB of RAM. Sweet, yay, fine.

If you take a close look, Windows Vista only sees 2GB of RAM. For games like Bioshock requesting 2GB of RAM and Crysis 1.5GB, those of us using a Mac Pro are left almost in the dark. Granted Gears of War runs pretty well cranked up but the computer is at its limits with the failure to recognize the other 1GB along with Vista hogging resources in the background.

There are a few forums that discuss the problem but neither Apple nor Microsoft is coming out to say what the problem is. It appears to be an Apple problem with the Mac Pro because those with PC’s can see over 3GB of RAM. Could it be because the RAM is held on 2 separate trays? Or is it a problem with Bootcamp? I haven’t seen reports of other Apple computer lines having this problem. So what’s going on Apple? Where is the fix or are you unwilling to identify this as an actual problem? Someone needs to step it up.

OS X Leopard vs Windows Vista: FIGHT!!! (Part 1)

As of the end of last week, I have been dual booting my Mac Pro with Windows Vista Business edition. My primary reason for doing so was gaming since, as we all know, there is little support for gaming on the Mac. Now that I’ve had a little time with Vista and Leopard, I want to give you my opinion on the two operating systems. If you have read any of my previous posts, you may be quick to think I’m an Apple fan boy, but you have to remember I was primarily a Windows user until January of this year and a vigilant defender of the OS until then as well.

Both Leopard and Vista were released in 2007 about 10 months apart, Leopard being the most recent release of only a few weeks. Both are clean installs, not upgrades, and neither of them have received a major update. Leopard 10.5.1 was seeded to developers last week and Service Pack 1 is due out for Vista hopefully in January of 2008. Until then, we might as well take what we can get.

BOOT TIMES:

Windows Vista	60 Seconds
OS X Leopard	22 Seconds

While this is pretty quick for Windows, it’s nothing compared to 22 seconds for OS X. I even took 5 seconds off for the time it took to type my password into Windows. As experience tells us, as more and more stuff finds its way onto the operating systems, these times will slow down.

SYSTEM USAGE:

Windows Vista
OS X Leopard

You’ll have to maximize these pictures. Vista is using about 660MB of RAM whereas the Leopard system is using 390MB and Adium and Firefox are making up the 455MB after 5 hours of usage. It’s hard to say who wins here because the Vista RAM meter isn’t broken up per application or system resource and OS X has been on for 5 hours. (I’ll provide an update to OS X RAM usage soon).

Both computers recognize 4CPU’s and the only thing I am actively doing at each time is taking a picture. Vista is using 2, 3, 0, and 8% of processors while Leopard is using 0% across the board. While I am sure it’s not perfectly 0%, Leopard does a much better job of throttling and processor distribution than Vista and I still can’t for the life of me figure out what Vista is trying to read from my HD half the time. Even when it puts the monitor to sleep, it begins grinding away. And again…only 2GB of RAM being recognized in Vista. If you look at the Leopard stats, you can see I have 3GB in the machine. I’m really eager to find what the cause of this is. It’s looking like a Mac Pro issues but hopefully an update will come along from either Microsoft or Apple.

Although not really easy to tell what the hard drive footprint of each OS is, Leopard was about a 6GB install when I got rid of the language packs and printer drivers and Vista was around 10GB. I used to installed Windows 98 between 350 and 400MB. My how things have changed.

VISUALS:

Windows Vista

OS X Leopard

Vista came with some extremely high resolution back ground that I think are gorgeous. I’m using a different one than you see here. Apple comes with some backgrounds but prefer to leave most of that process up to you. I do like the new visual stylings of folder icons in Vista better, but it’s impossible for Vista to match the look and ingenuity of Coverflow and Quicklook (pictures coming). (Keep in mind for both drop shadows, the alpha layer doesn’t show up in screen shots and will appear MUCH lighter on the desktop).

Since I am a visual person, I find the transparent windows in Vista a welcome pleasure over the Fisher Price stock look of XP (Green and Blue bubble theme…blech!). It doesn’t assist me in knowing what window I am on, but it is a nice look. I switched back to a classic theme for a short time, but instantly went back to Vista stock.

GADGETS AND WIDGETS

Gadgets for Vista

Widgets for OS X

These are strictly a matter of personal preference visually and some people have complained they don’t like hitting a button to bring up widgets in OS X. OS X users would complain having Gadgets on top of apps all the time would be a problem and as far as I know, there isn’t an easy way in Windows to map Gadgets to a mouse button. However, Windows offers a much easier way to shut down Gadgets than OS X does to shut down Widgets. I find Widgets to be much more convenient and practical. The stats and screen grab widgets are by far much easier to use in OS X and are overall much easier to access with a mouse wheel click.

TASKBAR AND THE DOCK

The taskbar in Windows and the dock in OSX serve two completely different purposes. Except for quicklaunch, the taskbar is for programs you have open whereas the dock is for easy access to your most used programs and ones you are presently using.

Taskbar

The Dock

Both look pretty good, can be hidden, and both can show previews of what you’re looking at presently. However, the dock is a lot more functional. Everything you need as soon as you need it and with the inclusion of stacks, the clutter can be reduced even more while adding new functionality. Getting to everything you need in Windows is still a series of steps, although made a little more convenient by the new program menu in Vista.

CONTINUE to the next part in the OS saga when I get more in depth with the operating systems to see how they handle stuff like wireless, Bluetooth, system restores, etc.

If there is anything you would like to specifically know the differences of, please post in the comments and I will do whatever I can to answer your questions.

Windows Vista: A Quick Review

The System

Processor	2xIntel Xeon 5150 Dual Core 2.66GHz (4CPUs)
RAM	3GB DDR PC5300 667MHz
Video	ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB Ram
Hard Drive	Maxtor 140GB Partition

For anyone not keeping up, this is actually an Apple computer which I used bootcamp to install Windows Vista. I did a clean install of Windows Vista Business edition. Keep in mind bootcamp is NOT emulation software. It turns the computer into a full-fledged Windows machine. The two operating systems never interact. Vista Business edition is missing features mostly related to entertainment. Heaven forbid if I can’t make high def movies in Vista. I do, after all, have OSX running on the other side. Let’s get on with it shall we?

This is by far the easiest installation of Windows I have ever done. Excluding the time to set up bootcamp, it clocked in at just under 1 hour and I had to do very little in between. As soon as Windows installed and I added the Apple drivers for video card and keyboard support, I did a Windows update. It was so nice to not have to restart between every single update per Windows XP. However a restart for Windows still takes forever. I’ll have exact time for you in the near future. It is nice how the desktop loads in the background and everything is ready to go once it’s presented to you unlike having to watch individual parts load like in previous iterations.

I’ll dive more into this later when I launch my Vista and Leopard comparison, but Vista does look pretty for the most part. Although Flip 3D is by no means 3D. It’s like taking a few pieces of paper and offsetting them to see what’s written on each one. It could easily look a lot better though OpenGL, but the window designs are nice. I will be sticking with the stock theme instead of reverting back to a Window Classic look.

Big red flag coming up: Check my system stats again…3 Gigs of RAM. Under my system info in Vista…2Gigs of RAM, whaaaaaat? After scouring some forums, it appears the 32bit version of Vista only supports 2GB RAM. I hope this is something remedied in Service Pack 1. I found this in a mac forum to be exact so if you’re a PC user and do not have this issue, let me know. With games having a 1GB minimum these days and Vista occupying 600MB to run, things could get a little choppy over time.

Most annoying part of Windows Vista, all the permission Windows needed to do anything…ANYTHING! I understand this is to protect people from themselves, but if you’re so prone to problems like this you probably shouldn’t be using a computer in the first place.

Stability-wise, I was able to stop and switch between Gears of War and Civilization IV pretty easily without too much of a performance hit. Speaking of performance, I did add the system info gadget. When I installed XP through bootcamp, XP only saw 1 of my 4 CPU’s. Thank god Vista sees them all. However, it does a really poor job of distributing the work across the CPU’s. One will shoot up to 100% while others remain quiet. The Maxtor HD I have is extremely loud in the first place, but I will be doing nothing in Windows, and it will still be searching for something for minutes on end so I don’t know what it’s trying to find.

Windows Vista is definitely a visual departure from previous versions, but the underlying principle is still the same for how you move around. A few more bells and whistles while moving some stuff around that I’m having trouble finding. The new Start menu is a nice touch removing the annoying scroll lists of program files. How it maintains the games in a file is a neat idea but when I was trying to explain to my girlfriend about how to load Civ IV, I stopped and said forget it. It’s definitely not set up for someone new to Windows. I’m sure the folder can be moved but it shouldn’t have to be.

I am looking forward to Service Pack 1, assuming Apple says it’s ok to go ahead with the install. Hopefully it will take care of the RAM issue and CPU throttling. So a little longer than a short review but now I can bring my Leopard and Vista comparison to you.

Prepare Yourself: Leopard vs Vista (Coming Soon)

    VS

I recently installed Windows Vista on my Mac Pro and will soon be bringing you my comparison of the two. It should be really fair since both are recent fresh installs, not upgrades, running on the exact same machine. I’ll be looking at:

1. Ease of Installation
2. Load Times
3. Visual Presentation
4. Widgets and Gadgets
5. Time Machine and System Restore
6. Expose and Flip 3D
7. System Loads
8. And More!!

So stay tuned!