Apple's latest computer gives a taste of life in the fast l...

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Category: Reviews
Link: Apple's latest computer gives a taste of life in the fast lane (http://www.macbytes.com/link.php?sid=20060223195515)
Description:: Once you've driven a Ferrari, it's hard to go back to your Toyota Corolla.

Posted on MacBytes.com (http://www.macbytes.com)
Approved by Mudbug

[winmacguy]

Quite a good review overall. Peter Nowak (Canadian) writes some good articles at the Herald.
Edit:
(If this article gets too many hits they may charge for the next one like the Herald now does for the Mac related articles that Peter Griffin sometimes writes ;) )

[kretzy]

Agreed, a fairly praising review. Perhaps there should have been some mention of the few Rosetta issues floating about, but no big deal.

[aquajet]

Generally, a good review. However, the author's comments about "PC compatibility" are quite vague. Okay, so Skype doesn't support video. What other compatibility issues exist?

[PlaceofDis]

i can play a song in iTunes and play a MPEG with audio at the same time.

other than that its a good article.

[kev0476]

I Noticed how he said it cost 3000 Dollars? I am lost.

[PlaceofDis]

I Noticed how he said it cost 3000 Dollars? I am lost.

its an article from NZ.

[freiheit]

its an article from NZ.

Or he got really ripped off at the Apple store. :)

[decksnap]

A good article... I don't know. Positive? Yes. I am able to play four mpeg clips simultaneously on my old G4 450mhz. Guess it just depends which clips. It can also play sound from mutiple sources at the same time. Maybe it's his first mac and he's not used to such things.

[dontmatter]

i can play a song in iTunes and play a MPEG with audio at the same time.

other than that its a good article.

yeah, he's kinda lax in a few ways. Casual language, fine. but dual processors have nothing to do with the ability to play sound from different sources simultaneously, and... is that not possible on windows PCs? if you listen to music do you not hear your IM program?

[plinkoman]

my powerbook can play 4 video clips simultaneously with no drop in performance, and can play from multiple audio sources...

and for that matter, my pc can do some of that too...

[winmacguy]

its an article from NZ.
NZ dollar currently buys 69c US + a lot of Apple margin ;)

[winmacguy]

A good article... I don't know. Positive? Yes. I am able to play four mpeg clips simultaneously on my old G4 450mhz. Guess it just depends which clips. It can also play sound from mutiple sources at the same time. Maybe it's his first mac and he's not used to such things.

I'm not sure if he is used to actually using Macs (for the finer points) although they have enough of them sprinkled through the Herald offices. I would say that in Peter's defense that for the average uninitiated PC user who is reading the article that the ability to play 4 mpg clips simultaneously might actually sound quite good(no pun intended), and that he knows enough about how to use one to write a favourable review which is more than I can say for some journos around the world.

Here is a link to email him your favourable comments about his articlehttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/author/email.cfm?a_id=222

[Pyrix]

"Incidentally - the double processors also allow the iMac to play sound from two sources simultaneously. I had sound on a video going and an iTunes song playing at the same time. Not that there's really a practical use for this, but it's neat nonetheless."

!?!?!?!?!!!!!! :confused:

Since when has the number of audio sources had anything to do with the number of processors? My Pismo can play audio from two sources. My first PC could, as soon as we upgraded the sound card... :confused:

[j_maddison]

Generally, a good review. However, the author's comments about "PC compatibility" are quite vague. Okay, so Skype doesn't support video. What other compatibility issues exist?


Pretty much all IM clients are rubbish on the Mac. I personally don't know anyone who doesn't use an IM client. At the moment none of them would consider switching to a Mac purely because the app they use the most is just dire on the Mac. I'm talking about video support and the fact that AIM, ICQ, MSN, and YM are all very lame on the Mac. Before anyone mentions iChat; iChat is great if you have friends who are using Macs, but pretty poor if you want to do anything apart from a basic text chat to PC users.

I personally think good IM support would help improve the amount of people who take the Mac platform seriously as an alternative.

Jason

[whooleytoo]

i can play a song in iTunes and play a MPEG with audio at the same time.

other than that its a good article.

True. A very positive particle, but not exactly the biting technical, constructive criticism of Arstechnica!