how cool is apple?

[Andy]

so, today i received my g5 powermac and 30" display. i'm going to write my experiences from first sight of the boxes to when i was first able to edit a photograph in photoshop.

i'm a pc user for the past 20 years. haven't touched an apple since college days.

first of all, even their boxes look way cool :D and their packaging is secure, elegant, and flawless.
http://williams.smugmug.com/photos/14574715-M.jpg

http://williams.smugmug.com/photos/14574717-M.jpg

http://williams.smugmug.com/photos/14574753-M.jpg

ok so, the first thing i needed to do was to install the extra ram i bought from crucial.com ... it was a cinch! took maybe four minutes tops.

http://williams.smugmug.com/photos/14574718-M.jpg

the machine opens like some sort of spybox - secret compartment style :D the fit and finish of the apple is amazing. truly. every detail is like a work of art.

http://williams.smugmug.com/photos/14574719-M.jpg

installing the ram literally took about 10 seconds per dimm. the box was closed up again in abuot four minutes. and i'm not kidding :deal

edit: idiot that i am, i had thought that i had the dimms in fully ... and spent the next hour wondering why the computer wouldn't recognize the extra ram. problem solved, after *really* pushing hard to get the dimms seated properly. you have to push very firmly, until the clips on the sides actually snap back into place. i'd say that it's more force than one would expect to have to use, that's why i thought it was done right the first time. anyhow, hopefully this'll be helpful to the next upgrader :D

http://williams.smugmug.com/photos/14574721-M.jpg

at this point, i plugged in the cpu, and display. even the plugs fit flush into the cpu! a design marvel! popped in the usb cords for the keyboard, mouse, and pushed the power button. typed in my name, isp info, etc, and then the mac was nice enough to tell me it had updates available from apple, would i want them? sure! two minutes for that. took me a minute to figure out how to open the optical drive door (had to actually rtfm!)...popped in my ps cs disc, installed it, and voila!

http://williams.smugmug.com/photos/14575491-L.jpg

on the screen is a 1Ds Mark II image in photoshop, at 42.6% size, leaving room for my tool palletes. wow. what a joy! the size in inches is 21" by 14"! i'm truly in heaven.

(ps: i'll pay off fish's $1 debt to dave if anyone can find the smugmug product in this pic :deal )

now, i have no clue about this system, so i have some learning to do :lol3 but i'll say this: i'm impressed as hell with the design and simplicity of setup, and ease of use already!

congratulations to apple on a fine piece of engineering. :clap :clap :clap

and, a big thank you to the dgrinners helped me part with my money :lol3

enjoy (a new digital darkroom) photography,

[pathfinder]

My computer desk is NEVER that clean and uncluttered!!

Welcome aboard Andy. Fish and I are both recent switchers from wintel also. I can relate completely to what you are saying about the Apple experience. They update your machine as soon as you go online. Cool.

My wintel HP laptop recently was updated ( security stuff) by Msft and as a result, I have had to format the drive to return it to function and reinstall all the software, and of course that means calling Msft and reactivating XP and then reinstalling Photoshop CS and reactivating it again. Over 6 hours getting the thing working again!! Needless to say, a Powerbook is on my shopping list before I come to Yosemite.

Enjoy your new MAC!

[Andy]

My computer desk is NEVER that clean and uncluttered!!

Welcome aboard Andy. Fish and I are both recent switchers from wintel also. I can relate completely to what you are saying about the Apple experience. They update your machine as soon as you go online. Cool.

My wintel HP laptop recently was updated ( security stuff) by Msft and as a result, I have had to format the drive to return it to function and reinstall all the software, and of course that means calling Msft and reactivating XP and then reinstalling Photoshop CS and reactivating it again. Over 6 hours getting the thing working again!! Needless to say, a Powerbook is on my shopping list before I come to Yosemite.

Enjoy your new MAC!

thanks pf :D

man this is so freakin' cool! i'm all tricked out now. and, the wife is actually happy, becuase while i'm out shooting she can use the 30" display to watch her sting dvds :lol3

when i was installing the keyboard, i thought: dang, the usb cord is only 3' long... not nearly long enough to go behind my desk and back to the cpu... well, i looked around, and sure enough, apple thoughtfully put in an extender cord for usb... man, they think of everything!

[Dee]

to be able to quickly install RAM yourself... almost plug and play and you've got a fun computer?

I think you are going to enjoy your Mac quite a bit! Just stay flexible and in a month it will all be second nature to you!

Yes, nice cinema screen to watch DVDs on..... sweet!

Congrats and enjoy. I'm jealous! I only have a G3 Blue and White 300 Mac!

But I remember when we unpacked the boxes and set it up! Of course it wasn't my first Mac, that was an Apple IIe!

[pathfinder]

thanks pf :D

man this is so freakin' cool! i'm all tricked out now. and, the wife is actually happy, becuase while i'm out shooting she can use the 30" display to watch her sting dvds :lol3

when i was installing the keyboard, i thought: dang, the usb cord is only 3' long... not nearly long enough to go behind my desk and back to the cpu... well, i looked around, and sure enough, apple thoughtfully put in an extender cord for usb... man, they think of everything!


I think you won't need the extender cord Andy, because you can plug the keyboard into the USB jack on the back of the LCD display. The included cord should easily be long enough. You do not need to get to the back of the tower to plug in the keyboard.

[Andy]

I think you won't need the extender cord Andy, because you can plug the keyboard into the USB jack on the back of the LCD display. The included cord should easily be long enough. You do not need to get to the back of the tower to plug in the keyboard.

thanks pathfinder :thumb

[Andy]

the system isn't recognizing the crucial ram i installed.

i've installed it properly - even tried reseating all of the ram chips to be sure.

the ram is the accurate ram for g5, it's from crucial. i've installed it in pairs, according to the instructions in the book.

i've tried cold boot with cmd-option-p-r keys held down (per apple site) and it still isn't being recognized.

any help from you guys?

[fish]

Congrats on the new mac. Yeah, they're sweet, alright. The best part is yet to come, when you finally realize you're spending your time being productive and having fun, instead of trying to figure out why your internet connection isn't working, or why your browser is getting hijacked.

Welcome to UNIX. :)



on the crucial ram...i dunno. how do you know it isn't being recognized? did you look in "about this mac"? what you may try doing is backing out all the crucial ram, then rebooting and make sure that it recognizes the stock ram. Then, add the new ram in pairs, rebooting each time to see when it chokes. Make sure the ram is completely seated too. Oh, make sure you touch the power supply prior to touching the ram, so you can discharge any static charge you've got built up.

[Andy]

Congrats on the new mac. Yeah, they're sweet, alright. The best part is yet to come, when you finally realize you're spending your time being productive and having fun, instead of trying to figure out why your internet connection isn't working, or why your browser is getting hijacked.

Welcome to UNIX. :)



on the crucial ram...i dunno. how do you know it isn't being recognized? did you look in "about this mac"? what you may try doing is backing out all the crucial ram, then rebooting and make sure that it recognizes the stock ram. Then, add the new ram in pairs, rebooting each time to see when it chokes. Make sure the ram is completely seated too. Oh, make sure you touch the power supply prior to touching the ram, so you can discharge any static charge you've got built up.

did all that. you guys sold me down the river .... :scratch

[pathfinder]

the system isn't recognizing the crucial ram i installed.

i've installed it properly - even tried reseating all of the ram chips to be sure.

the ram is the accurate ram for g5, it's from crucial. i've installed it in pairs, according to the instructions in the book.

i've tried cold boot with cmd-option-p-r keys held down (per apple site) and it still isn't being recognized.

any help from you guys?

Bummer! When you mouse over the little Apple symbol in the upper left corner of your screen and click on "about this MAC" how much RAM is listed in the system? How much RAM did APple install and how much did you add? Were they all 512 Mgbt dimms or are they different in size?

I thought from the picture you were up and running? If the RAM is the correct type ( and you're sure it meets Apple's criteria) I think you might ask crucial why it is not being recognized. Does it have the correct latency parameters etc? It should be just plug and play. I have never had RAM not be recognized by the motherboards when I upgraded RAM - I just had a thought - Is the crucial ram exactly the same as the RAM apple installed?

[fish]

did all that. you guys sold me down the river .... :scratch

hey now...i didn't say anything about crucial ram, so don't blame me. I just pestered you to buy the mac.

[Andy]

Bummer! When you mouse over the little Apple symbol in the upper left corner of your screen and click on "about this MAC" how much RAM is listed in the system? How much RAM did APple install and how much did you add? Were they all 512 Mgbt dimms or are they different in size?

I thought from the picture you were up and running? If the RAM is the correct type ( and you're sure it meets Apple's criteria) I think you might ask crucial why it is not being recognized. Does it have the correct latency parameters etc? It should be just plug and play. I have never had RAM not be recognized by the motherboards when I upgraded RAM - I just had a thought - Is the crucial ram exactly the same as the RAM apple installed?

yes to everything. i've installed plenty of ram, so i'm fairly familiar with this. the ram is guaranteed from crucial to work with the g5. of course, all 6 dimms could be s.o.l., but that's unlikely.

i'm up and running, but only on the 512 that the system came with from apple.

[Andy]

hey now...i didn't say anything about crucial ram, so don't blame me. I just pestered you to buy the mac.

:flip :nono youse all are responsible :lol3

hey, i'm sure this'll get licked one way or another.

[pathfinder]

hey now...i didn't say anything about crucial ram, so don't blame me. I just pestered you to buy the mac.

And I bought all 4 Gb of RAM from Apple just so I KNEW it would work.....This will probably work out. I just wonder if the ram is the correct ram as specified by Apple. I have bought RAM from Crucial many times without incident so I think they are ok, but.....

And - go to page 47 of the manual about installing RAM in the dual 2.5 MAC. They are VERY explicit about the type of RAM non parity, NECC, unbuffered and must meet JEDEC specification. The SPD - serial presence detect- must be correctly programmed - Page 47.

[fish]

hey, i'm sure this'll get licked one way or another.

Maybe it would work if you kept yer dang tongue in yer mouth? :dunno

[wxwax]

The thing I like about Macs is their ease of use. Pure plug and play, while those Windbloz wretches are struggling to get hooked-up running.


:bad

[GREAPER]

(ps: i'll pay off fish's $1 debt to dave if anyone can find the smugmug product in this pic :deal )

My money is on the coaster under the coffee cup....
:deal

[gregneil]

If you're still having trouble with the RAM, I'd recommend taking the Apple RAM modules and installing them in different slots. (move the top module up one slot, move the bottom module down one slot.) Just to make sure it's not the logic board that's not recognizing the RAM.

Apple RAM slots on the G5 do need a pretty decent push to get them to snap. And just to clarify, they do need to be installed in pairs, meaning one in the top bay of RAM slots, the other in the equivalent (mirrored) bottom bay of RAM slots.

My guess is that you think you have them snapped in all the way, but you really don't. I find it's easiest to install RAM in a G5 with the computer on it's back instead of standing up...

Hope this helps. Typically if you have the wrong RAM, you'll run into serious system issues, including not booting at all. So if it's booting and running normally while you think you have the RAM in there, perhaps it's not really all the way in there. Good luck...

[Andy]

And I bought all 4 Gb of RAM from Apple just so I KNEW it would work.....This will probably work out. I just wonder if the ram is the correct ram as specified by Apple. I have bought RAM from Crucial many times without incident so I think they are ok, but.....

And - go to page 47 of the manual about installing RAM in the dual 2.5 MAC. They are VERY explicit about the type of RAM non parity, NECC, unbuffered and must meet JEDEC specification. The SPD - serial presence detect- must be correctly programmed - Page 47.


pf, i've done all that. i've installed plenty of ram before, so i'm familiar with the situation.... and i ordered from crucial because they guarantee the ram is compatible. and i double checked the invoice and the dimms.

sigh.

[gus]

My money is on the coaster under the coffee cup....
:deal
Black SM sweater is my shot...

[Andy]

The thing I like about Macs is their ease of use. Pure plug and play, while those Windbloz wretches are struggling to get hooked-up running.


:bad

:flip thanks for your support you waxed wonder :lol3

sigh

[wxwax]

:flip thanks for your support you waxed wonder :lol3

sigh
I hope you get it worked out soon, Andy, that's one heck of a monitor. Sweet looking rig, in fact.

Past your bedtime, isn't it?

[pathfinder]

pf, i've done all that. i've installed plenty of ram before, so i'm familiar with the situation.... and i ordered from crucial because they guarantee the ram is compatible. and i double checked the invoice and the dimms.

sigh.
So you have 2 256Mgb dimms from Apple and 6 512Mbt dimms from Crucial? What happens if you leave out the 256 Mgb dimms - will the system boot or just not light up at all?

[pathfinder]

I hope you get it worked out soon, Andy, that's one heck of a monitor. Sweet looking rig, in fact.

Past your bedtime, isn't it?


Waxy - quit heckling and go to bed! :rofl :rofl

[Andy]

Waxy - quit heckling and go to bed! :rofl :rofl

he's a putz when he wants to be :D

:lol3

[Andy]

it was just user error. boy, you *really* have to push those dimms in hard! i wasn't seating them properly, that's all.

piece o' cake.

now, will everyone join me in telling sid to

stuff it!

:lol3

thanks guys. and especially greg, for coming thru with the fix :D i'm in 3.5gb of ram heaven.

If you're still having trouble with the RAM, I'd recommend taking the Apple RAM modules and installing them in different slots. (move the top module up one slot, move the bottom module down one slot.) Just to make sure it's not the logic board that's not recognizing the RAM.

Apple RAM slots on the G5 do need a pretty decent push to get them to snap. And just to clarify, they do need to be installed in pairs, meaning one in the top bay of RAM slots, the other in the equivalent (mirrored) bottom bay of RAM slots.

My guess is that you think you have them snapped in all the way, but you really don't. I find it's easiest to install RAM in a G5 with the computer on it's back instead of standing up...

Hope this helps. Typically if you have the wrong RAM, you'll run into serious system issues, including not booting at all. So if it's booting and running normally while you think you have the RAM in there, perhaps it's not really all the way in there. Good luck...

[DavidTO]

If you're still having trouble with the RAM, I'd recommend taking the Apple RAM modules and installing them in different slots. (move the top module up one slot, move the bottom module down one slot.) Just to make sure it's not the logic board that's not recognizing the RAM.

Apple RAM slots on the G5 do need a pretty decent push to get them to snap. And just to clarify, they do need to be installed in pairs, meaning one in the top bay of RAM slots, the other in the equivalent (mirrored) bottom bay of RAM slots.

My guess is that you think you have them snapped in all the way, but you really don't. I find it's easiest to install RAM in a G5 with the computer on it's back instead of standing up...

Hope this helps. Typically if you have the wrong RAM, you'll run into serious system issues, including not booting at all. So if it's booting and running normally while you think you have the RAM in there, perhaps it's not really all the way in there. Good luck...

This sounds right on to me. It really takes a good hard push to get that ram to seat in the G5.

EDIT: looks like I didn't post fast enough to keep up with Andy! Great, you got it fixed.

[gregneil]

sweet. glad to hear it. I have a bit of an edge here... I troubleshoot Macs for a living. :)

[dkapp]

Congrats on the new gear.

Here is my guess on smugmug swag:

It's the Coaster! (http://www.smugmug.com/prints/photo-coasters)

Wooo hooo...I'm Free at last :clap :clap :clap

Dave

[Andy]

I hope you get it worked out soon, Andy, that's one heck of a monitor. Sweet looking rig, in fact.

Past your bedtime, isn't it?

waaaay past! i'm off soon. i'll say g'nite to ya over in j.m. :D

[Andy]

Congrats on the new gear.

Here is my guess on smugmug swag:

It's the Coaster! (http://www.smugmug.com/prints/photo-coasters)

Wooo hooo...I'm Free at last :clap :clap :clap

Dave

sorry, dave... greaper beat you to it :lol3 check p1

[pathfinder]

sweet. glad to hear it. I have a bit of an edge here... I troubleshoot Macs for a living. :)

He told us he had the RAM fully seated so we took him at is word!! :D :D

Glad all is well Andy. When I got my MAC the door for the SuperDrive would not open so when I called Apple tech the kid said " Yeah, they do that sometime - just unlatch the latches inside the case and then relatch them." and he was right - fixed it just fine.

Enjoy your new MAC - you're gonna love it - I know it for sure!

[Andy]

He told us he had the RAM fully seated so we took him at is word!! :D :D

Glad all is well Andy. When I got my MAC the door for the SuperDrive would not open so when I called Apple tech the kid said " Yeah, they do that sometime - just unlatch the latches inside the case and then relatch them." and he was right - fixed it just fine.

Enjoy your new MAC - you're gonna love it - I know it for sure!

i couldn't figger out the door, had to rtfm and then saw that there's a key for it on the keyboard :lol3

thanks pf :D

[pathfinder]

i couldn't figger out the door, had to rtfm and then saw that there's a key for it on the keyboard :lol3

thanks pf :D

No problem boss - Just glad you're up and running. Looking forward to your new leap in productivity :clap I'm going to go night night.

[dkapp]

Don't forget to download & install the MultiProcessor support for Photoshop.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23366

Dave

[Andy]

that test that we looked at in this thread? (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=4564&page=6&pp=20). my time was 19 seconds. holy smokes batman!

[Andy]

Don't forget to download & install the MultiProcessor support for Photoshop.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23366

Dave

done, dave.. thanks very much for the reminder.

[DavidTO]

hopefully this'll be helpful to the next upgrader :D



Way to go, Andy. Already using the proper lingo. Upgrading, not switching. Right on.

[Andy]

Way to go, Andy. Already using the proper lingo. Upgrading, not switching. Right on.

http://williams.smugmug.com/photos/14326051-L.gif :lol3

[luckyrwe]

It's like upgrading from VHS to Betamax. You get a product from a company with all the technically superior people in R&D instead of in Marketing.

[Andy]

here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/technology/circuits/27appl.html?oref=login

[gus]

here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/technology/circuits/27appl.html?oref=login
ahhhh...thanks for the opportunity for me to be a 55 year old woman from Equatorial Guinea, whom is an architect in an energy utilities & earns $90K/year andy.

Even for a moment i dont think i will find anything in my day today that will make me wonder about a mudbrick roof line quite so much.

[Andy]

ahhhh...thanks for the opportunity for me to be a 55 year old woman from Equatorial Guinea, whom is an architect in an energy utilities & earns $90K/year andy.

Even for a moment i dont think i will find anything in my day today that will make me wonder about a mudbrick roof line quite so much.

:: w h o o s h :: (sound of your post going over my head :lol3 )

[gus]

:: w h o o s h :: (sound of your post going over my head :lol3 )Cant see the post...had to fill out online question form.

[Andy]

Cant see the post...had to fill out online question form.

fixed:

They're Off to See the Wizards
By KATIE HAFNER

SAN FRANCISCO

IT was just past noon on a recent weekday at the Apple Store here, and the Genius Bar was buzzing.

At one end of the 40-foot maple counter, a cherub-faced Genius in a black T-shirt spoke soothingly to a middle-aged customer whose iPod kept erasing songs. After a few minutes of probing, the Genius announced his diagnosis: the firmware needed updating. Then he showed the man how to do it.

At the other end of the bar, another amiable Genius - Apple's term for its in-store technical support staff - greeted a couple who had arrived with an ailing PowerBook. "Hey, what's going on?" he said, and got down to work.

In an age when human help of any kind is hard to come by, the eight or nine Geniuses on duty at any given time here are a welcome anomaly.

In fact, go to any of the 102 Apple-owned retail stores in the world and - if you are willing to wait - you will be treated to what is an increasingly rare service: free face-to-face technical support.

The walk-up assistance has existed since the first Apple Store opened in 2001, in Washington. Over the years, as the concept gained momentum, the bars have become what Ron Johnson, Apple's senior vice president for retailing, calls the soul of the stores.

"It's the part of the store that people connect to emotionally more than any other," Mr. Johnson said.

For the first few years, there was general mayhem around the Genius Bars. Customers would stand four or five deep, broken gadgets in hand, waiting to speak to an expert. Now there is an online system for scheduling free, same-day appointments. And for $100 a year, customers can schedule appointments up to a week in advance with the expert of their choice.

But there can still be long waits. Just after Christmas, for instance, at the Apple Store in SoHo in New York, by 10 a.m. the earliest appointment that could be had was at 4 p.m. People left and came back, or sat for hours, reading, talking on their cellphones or milling about the store.

The San Francisco store, like all the others, has instituted a pager system for those who show up when all the experts are busy, like the man on this day who lugged his iMac to the bar, hoisted over his shoulder like a recalcitrant child. He took a pager and joined a dozen or so others waiting for help.

The concept of a bar came to Mr. Johnson one night when he was thinking about the kind of environment Apple wanted to create in its stores. He said he was inspired by Four Seasons, the Ritz-Carlton and other hotels where service is paramount.

"We believed you had to bring the people dimension back into retail," said Mr. Johnson, who joined Apple five years ago after 15 years at Target. "We thought, What about giving tech support that's as welcoming as the bar at the Ritz?"

Tim Bajarin, principal analyst at Creative Strategies, a high-tech consulting firm in Campbell, Calif., said Apple's strategy was sound. "It's all part of a sales process," he said. "They have these guys who are extremely articulate answering customers' questions, which is key not only to the sales process, but the support afterwards."

Other computer retail stores have technical support counters, too. A few, like CompUSA and Best Buy, even have traveling teams of tech support staff who make house calls. But those services are not free.

Further, Mr. Bajarin said, the wider spectrum of problems encountered at other stores dilutes the quality of service.

"A Best Buy could be handling not just H-P, but Gateway and Epson and whatever else they have in the store," he said. "These guys running the Genius Bars are extremely well trained around a single platform."

Hiring those Geniuses - the label was Mr. Johnson's idea, too - is not difficult. He said that when the company advertises for an opening, an average of 50 people apply within 24 hours. For the most part, the applicants already have extensive technical knowledge. Apple provides eight weeks of training, four weeks at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., and another four weeks at the store.

Mr. Johnson said an initial concern was that the people hired would be geeky, lacking the social skills for a job that calls for continuous interaction with strangers. But he soon found that more often than not, the employees were well-socialized young people who happened to know a lot about computers.

Each employee has an area of expertise - digital photography, say, or the Windows operating system. And they aren't too proud to call on colleagues for help.

"I borrow others' brain cells all the time," said Diana Souverbielle, an employee in the San Francisco store, who confessed to knowing "just enough about Windows to get in trouble."

David Marcantonio, 25, who diagnosed the firmware problem, is the resident iPod expert at the San Francisco store. Mr. Marcantonio, who studied criminology in college and has been fluent in most things Apple since age 14, stands out from his co-workers because his T-shirt reads iPod Genius.

"It's a bull's-eye," Mr. Marcantonio said of the shirt. Half of the customers at the Genius Bar these days have iPod-related problems.

Sometimes the public misunderstands the purpose of the Genius Bar, mistaking it for a think tank or an intellectual sounding board. David Isom, 29, who decided to defer a legal career in favor of a stint at the bar, said a man came in recently to discuss an idea he had for a solar-powered subway system. "He had technical questions, and he wanted to pitch it to us," Mr. Isom said. "I know nothing about solar power."

Indeed, they are humble experts. When confronted by a thorny problem on the fringe of their expertise, they might conduct a Google search to consult sources that are "not necessarily endorsed by Apple," Mr. Isom said.

And the experience of one customer whose keyboard had a sticky "e," which was cured by Ms. Souverbielle's mere touch, suggests that the experts might even have healing powers. Ms. Souverbielle declared that it was merely a coincidence.

Invariably in their 20's and 30's, and predominantly male, Apple's experts do keep lofty company. Behind each bar is a screen with a rotating display of quotations from half a dozen better-known intellectual luminaries, like Leonardo da Vinci ("The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding") and Michelangelo ("If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem wonderful at all").

But could Michelangelo have executed a clean startup from an external drive on a PowerBook G4?

Could Leonardo have restored the video on Joe Montana's iBook?

That task was performed by Chris Tichenor, a 24-year-old Genius in San Francisco. No matter that the concierge mistakenly entered Mr. Montana, the famous quarterback, into the appointment queue as Steve Young, Mr. Montana's successor on the San Francisco 49ers. "He didn't seem to mind," Mr. Tichenor said.

By Mr. Johnson's estimate, each of the company's 500 experts handles some 200 customers a week, taking as long as is needed to solve each problem.

The stores in general and the Genius Bars in particular have been credited with creating a halo effect for Apple. The iPod owners who own PC's and go to the unrelentingly chic stores for an expert's help are often seduced by Apple's self-conscious hipness.

Paula Mauro, who lives in New York and recently spent several hours at the Genius Bar in the SoHo store, got that message when getting help with iPod-to-PC communication. As she sat at the bar with her 10-year-old son, William, who aspires to Macintosh ownership, it became evident to her that synching an iPod to a Macintosh computer is relatively seamless, while her three-year-old PC posed no end of technical challenges.

"The next computer I buy is going to be a Mac," she said.

The Geniuses are patient even when people show up with problems that only a technophobe could create. Mr. Isom said people have come to him with an iPod that they insisted was dead - until Mr. Isom showed them that they had pushed the Hold switch, which inactivates the iPod's buttons, mainly so that it cannot be turned on or off inadvertently.

If a problem can be solved on the spot, the Genius may disappear into the back and re-emerge with a piece of equipment restored to health. Broken iPods are often replaced at no cost, Mr. Marcantonio said, because if the warranty applies, the easiest thing to do is to hand the customer a new one.

In some ways, this has little to do with keen technical knowledge and a lot to do with astute customer service.

The experience of Cecilia Joyce, a marathon runner who claims to be unable to live without her iPod, is a recent case in point. Ms. Joyce's iPod is packed with music like Boy George's rendition of "The Girl From Ipanema," which inspires her to run longer, sometimes even faster.

When her iPod's battery stopped holding a charge, Ms. Joyce went straight to the Genius Bar in San Francisco. She apologized to Mr. Marcantonio for having bought the device at a different Apple Store. Unfazed by this mundane detail, and without further ado, he gave Ms. Joyce a new iPod.

Were it not for the Genius Bar, Ms. Joyce might have gone an untenable two weeks without a device, the amount of time it could have taken to send it to be repaired or replaced.

Soon after the elated Ms. Joyce left, Mr. Marcantonio glanced down at his computer to see what troubled device was coming next. "Oh, it's an iPod Shuffle - this is going to be interesting," he said, delighted by his first encounter with the tiny new flash-based iPod.

Mr. Marcantonio picked up the white plastic stick and gave its miniature controls a quick poke.

Unlike the clerk in the Monty Python dead parrot skit, who refuses to concede that the bird he sold to a customer was in fact deceased, Mr. Marcantonio knows a dead iPod Shuffle when he sees one. The solution: give the customer a new one.

Genius.

[3rdPlanetPhotography]

Well I must say that I'm a Software Developer on the IBM side of the world and for business applications it cannot be beat.

HOWEVER!!!!!, and there's always a however.
:lynn

I must stick my tail between my legs and admit that the Apple rivals the IBM in just about ALL graphic situations. Now to be honest I have very little experience with any apple equipment but I have friends that are Graphics Artists and they'll choose an Apple over IBM for that kind of work.

Just my 1.5 cents.

kc7dji

[luckyrwe]

Apple question:

Will getting the 17" Powerbook G4 with 2GB of RAM be sufficient or is it a waste of money and I should wait for something else?

[Andy]

Apple question:

Will getting the 17" Powerbook G4 with 2GB of RAM be sufficient or is it a waste of money and I should wait for something else?

sufficient for what? photoshop? well sure, for traveling and field work, i run photoshop on a 15" pb g4, 1.5gb ram and with 1.67mhz proc, and 80gig 5400 hd. it's fast enough...

but when you say sufficient, you're not comparing it to anything, nor are you saying what you have now, or what your performance desires are... so, tell us more lucky and we can help :deal

[wxwax]

Apple question:

Will getting the 17" Powerbook G4 with 2GB of RAM be sufficient or is it a waste of money and I should wait for something else?
Sufficient for what?

[luckyrwe]

Well I use PhotoShop and a few other photo programs, it seems each one does one thing great but not all things great. I heard iPhoto did all things great.

Well let's see. I would use it for photos 99% of the time. I need to burn DVDs, run photoshop and edit 3-4 images at once, print to a plotter, and catalog images. That's about it. I am debating getting only 1GB of RAM since it cuts $500 off.

[Andy]

Sufficient for what?

i believe, sid, someone once said something about "great minds think alike" :lol3

[Andy]

Well I use PhotoShop and a few other photo programs, it seems each one does one thing great but not all things great. I heard iPhoto did all things great.

Well let's see. I would use it for photos 99% of the time. I need to burn DVDs, run photoshop and edit 3-4 images at once, print to a plotter, and catalog images. That's about it. I am debating getting only 1GB of RAM since it cuts $500 off.

you should be fine. load up the ram, though. buy it from crucial.com and save approx half or more over apple's price. and it takes all of 30 seconds to plug in the sodimms. :deal

[luckyrwe]

you should be fine. load up the ram, though. buy it from crucial.com and save approx half or more over apple's price. and it takes all of 30 seconds to plug in the sodimms. :deal
Okay, I'll order it with 32MB of RAM. :):

[wxwax]

i believe, sid, someone once said something about "great minds think alike" :lol3
My sister used to say "jinx you owe me a coke" and then she'd start counting how many Cokes I owed her until one day I dropped a case of beer on her head and now she has trouble speaking, let alone counting.

Oh, sorry, wrong topic.

[wxwax]

y and it takes all of 30 seconds to plug in the sodimms. :deal
Even in a laptop?

[luckyrwe]

Er, one more question. What about battery life?

[luckyrwe]

Even in a laptop?
I think it is faster in a laptop. One cover comes off and there is the slot. In my desktop you have to remove the entire case, move wires, maybe move a drive or a card...it can be a mess.

[wxwax]

Ah, OK den.

[Andy]

Even in a laptop?

ok ok ok

maybe it takes two minutes. it takes a day, if you don't have a tiny phillips-head screwdriver, the kind you need to say, repair eyeglasses :lol3

[DavidTO]

I heard iPhoto did all things great.
.

You heard wrong. Great for beginners, fine for intermediates, a novelty for the advanced (order books, prints, maybe, but not as your main app).