Vista di una Mela

Okay, I am just being crazy. The title is in Italian, which means "Sight of an apple." Vista is Italian, and I was just thinking what apple was in Italian.

Anyway, after using the new Mac for a month, I have a lot of comments, both good and bad. I have tried quite many things that I didn't before, because even I have my Mac Mini, there are some programmes which cannot be installed at all on it. Now I finally have a chance the test them, including the useful Boot Camp.

Okay, please note that I am using HDR again for these photos (all because I am addicted, okay?), and I have heavily retouched them, adding grains and pin-hole camera effects. No particular reason but the fact that I haven't used Photoshop for a long time and I need some exercise to keep myself familiarized.

There is no denying about the intuitiveness of Mac OS X. The coming Leopard is going to beat its competitor Vista to the ground again. I must say that working on Mac is very easy and comfortable. Why? Because the Exposé is very useful! When I was using Mac Mini, it was not really fast even equipped with an ATI graphic card (9200), and I wouldn't have many windows on the desktop as a result. Now on the new machine I actually work a lot with different applications, and when you have tons of windows (usually 10-15, from big to small to message boxes) the Exposé function is proved to be very useful.

Another thing that amazed me is the speed. The new iMac uses mobility CPU (T7700) and I have upgraded it to have 4GB RAM. It may not be the fastest compared to other self-assembled PCs, but the loading time of the system is like instant. Usually it takes just 15-20 seconds to start up and reach the desktop, and you can just use it unlike Windows in which you see all the "coming" icons in the system tray. Such efficiency fits my daily work because even if I just want to check one email or some notes in the computer, I do not need to wait at all! Making it sleep is the same, just one press of the power button and it is done! So good!

I am not bothered much by the slim keyboard which looks like the laptop types. Indeed, I am quite impressed by how responsive it is. The Mighty Mouse is good but that ball scrolling is a bit too sensitive.

The Spotlight function is just too good to describe. I can find what I need, from what I just read from the web to what I just downloaded, it can find them out. I can even use it to jump to one song when I am listening to music! That is VERY useful!

I have installed Windows Vista on the Mac too using Boot Camp. After some days of installation it starts to be unstable again, and this time I suspect that the problem may come from the newly installed Norton Antivirus 2007. It drags down the computer speed too. Still, compared to Mac OSX, the new Windows system is not a good one. Let alone the fact that its interface is a copy of Mac, Vista does not help with anyone's workflow. It stresses on entertainment functionality but it is not easy to use at all. It lacks the intuitiveness I just mentioned. Indeed, if it is not that I need to run some programmes which requires Windows, I will not save space for such a Microsoft product.

Even that I miss the quick menu selection (I always use the Alt+key way to access menus in Windows, but Mac does not have it), I am more and more adjusted to the new system. Before I was worried about one issue that Windows is more responsive when it comes to control, but now I am all accustomed. To me, buying and using Mac are not really about chasing brand names, but the appreciation on design consideration, in both visual and functional aspects, which are related to my current job, architecture.