Tim, Our Friendly Personal Shopper

On Friday afternoon, my husband and I figured out that if we went to one of the Apple Store’s nearby, we could also take care of an errand that needed to be done while we were out. Since I was dying to look at the Macs anyway, and this was an extremely convenient plan, I booked us a Personal Shopper appointment at the Apple Store for that Monday afternoon.

We arrived with just moments to spare (we don’t know that mall very well, and ended up walking 2/3 of the way around it before we got to the store), but we had a hard time finding the concierge. We had this problem at the last Apple Store we went to, so we walked back to the Genius Bar since that seemed like the likely place to find a guy to help us. Almost all the Apple Store people were busy helping people, which was interesting on a random Monday afternoon. Anyway, we found someone after a few minutes, and went to look at the MacBook Pros. We’re still trying to decide between the 13″ and the 15″. I personally want a 15″, but hubby has not been sure. I use my computer for more graphic intensive stuff, whereas, he’s much more into the word processing/email type stuff. I think it would work, especially since he’s more likely to bring it to class than I am. We found the 15″ and the 17″ (man the 17″ looks monsterous) and after a few moments, we were introduced to Tim.

Tim was approximately 8 feet tall and 100 lbs, but had a very friendly face and we stood around chatting for a while, so he could get a feel for what we are looking for. I had mentioned when I made the appointment that we are PC people, but that we’re really interested in the Mac line. He asked if we had any experience, and really, I don’t have much beyond figuring out how to use a Mac at school so I could use the less crowded side of the computer labs on campus. My husband, R, uses a Mac for the website at work, and so has much more experience with it. Still, his use is very focused on iWeb, and not so much on what he would be using a home computer for.

So, we sat down, actually at an iMac, because it’s easier to show us at the iMac, and also, the iMac had chairs. Anyway, he started showing us programs. First was iPhoto. Thinking about it afterward, I’m not sure he showed us all the features of iPhoto, but it was definitely enough to show us that the program is powerful and has some great features – in a program that feels much more finished than anything Windows comes with. Next up, iMovie. Now, we don’t have a video camera at the moment, but he showed us another cool add-on (for $100) – a device that converts VHS to digital, meaning we could use it on iMovie. This could be really exciting, as so many of my family videos are stuck in VHS and need to turned over. The only real problem is that we need a video machine that plays PAL tapes that doesn’t cost the earth.  So we’ll see how that goes. But I’d love to get all of those videos converted into a format that actually can be played! I’m sure eventually we’ll just have to keep transfering and transfering, but it’s worth it, I think to have nice videos of all that stuff. We goofed around with Garageband for a little bit, and then he showed us Pages (which R had used before a little for work) and Keynote, which looks like fun for presentations at school.

However, we run into a little dilema when we consider whether to get iWorks or Office. iWorks clearly looks great, but I’m not sure if I’ll need Office for school. Who knows. Ugh. I don’t even want to think about it right now!

Anyway, we looked through all of that, and then we tried to set it up for Hebrew. It was at this point he started asking questions about us being Jewish, and that’s when he said “OH! So that’s why the store is so busy on Sundays!” Since the store is in a heavily Jewish area, this made us really giggle. Anyway, between the three of us, we trial and errored our way to figuring out how to do Hebrew. The computers at the store are programmed so that they don’t store any changes after you log out, so we couldn’t get the full functionality, but the parts that worked worked as well as Hebrew in Windows. It’s a tough one because of the right to left thing, but we’ll see how it goes.

It was at about this point that we moved back over to the laptops to try to work out size. He took us to the 15″ and the 13″ to try and showed us the amazing touchpad on the MacBook Pro. I think the amazing thing about them was that if I didn’t look at the touchpad I didn’t notice it didn’t have buttons, but I got a much bigger area to move on, and it could tell all kinsd of things to do with just a few fingers. We played with expose and spaces, and it was a good time.

By this point, Tim had spent almost two hours with us. He wrote down what our cost would be (we get the education discount) of the various things we were interested in on the back of his card, and we bid farewell to Tim.

I’m hoping we get our new Mac laptops soon!

The Apple Store Personal Shopper

Stay tuned, we had an amazing visit today! I am looking forward to telling all about it!

3 – Why a Mac now?

As I mentioned last post,  I am currently writing this blog on several PCs that I have access to, most frequently the Dell that I got from my parents for a college graduation gift. As with my last Dell, it worked pretty well for about two and a half years, and then I started to have to do or buy things to prolong its life. First, it was an external hard drive. My computer seems to have been meant for an age before tons of music files, and ready access to large image files (from my camera, etc), all the time. Our wedding pictures were digital, as were all of our pictures from post-college traveling, and I just ran out of room, especially when I started to try to do digital scrapbooking. So, the first purchase became an external hard drive, which wasn’t that big of a deal. And then I upgraded the memory, because things were sloooow. Then, I decided to do a system restore because things were starting to seem mighty unstable. That actually worked really well for me, but then, I started with the fan issue, so I got a cooling pad. I feel like I keep having to put the computer onto more and more life support.

Hubby’s computer is a different matter. He doesn’t play games, he doesn’t do digital photo editing or scrapbooking. However, he does use his computer for a lot of projects and work related things and has gotten a virus THREE SEPARATE TIMES from his work email. After the second time, he tried to cut down checking on his work email, but that really didn’t work for him at all. The first two times he had to do a full system restore. The third time we managed to get through the virus removal without having to do the system restore, but things are not looking great.  Since we came home from the Apple Store, the computer has been running really badly, and we are now out of the Dell tech support. I am considering just doing another system restore, since he backed up the computer when it started going funny.

The long and the short of it? I am hoping to get a computer that lasts better and that doesn’t cause as much frustration. Now, clearly, any piece of equipment can cause trouble, but I’m hoping that this one will be a good move for us.

2 – Fates and Friends

So, how do you get from walking out the Apple Store with this idea that it’s good to check whether your favorite game is compatible to writing a blog about the process of switching from a PC to a Mac?

Full disclosure: I’m writing on my old Dell as we speak. More on that later.

Anyway, we got home that evening and it was like everyone was talking about getting a Mac. I went onto one of the message boards I moderate, and everyone was talking about their frustrations with their PCs and their desire to try a Mac. My husband had told me on the way home from the store about how he really enjoyed using his Mac at work and that it was really stable, and so many of his interns at work also have Macs. It was very interesting to hear.

Of course, my first concern, seeing as we are planning on going to Grad School starting in Fall 2010 (hopefully), was cost. So, being the most familiar with the Dell website, I took a long hard look at the various Mac components and then worked up a few comparisons on the Dell website. I compared the Macs to the high end computers, because especially when you get to the 17″ MacBook Pro, I had the idea that it’s a high-end laptop. In the end, the cost ended up being just a little bit more than the Dells. Of course, the question remained about whether the Macs would be worth the extra money.

A friend of mine had done a quick survey of her friends with Macs, and it turned out that they had all had their Macs for between 3 and 5 years and were not looking to replace them. My husband did the same sort of survey with his two interns that he saw on the Monday following our trip to the Apple Store. One had switched to Mac six year ago. And still had the original Mac. He was now planning to replace his laptop, since he could not update it anymore, since it was a pre-Intel laptop. Still, according to him, the system ran well. The other intern had switched only the year previously when she began Grad School, and she loved her MacBook Pro. And she said that the switch hadn’t been that hard for her.

Lots to think about,  and more to come.

1 – The Stars Begin to Align

One recent, chilly, snowy Sunday, my husband and I decided to take a trip to a local Apple Store. We needed to get my new iPod  looked at, since there seemed to be something wrong with the volume control. The volume would not go down far enough for it to be comfortable to wear my earphones.

So, we parked at the mall, and walked, bundled up, through the mall. Whoever decided open-air malls were okay in places where it is common to get snow and single-digit temperatures clearly had never tried to go to one in the middle of winter. Anyway, we accomplished our few other errands of the day, and found the Apple Store, conveniently located the farthest away from our car. Since we had never been there (or any other Apple Store, to be fair), we didn’t know exactly where it was in the more, or exactly how to get there.

In any case, we arrived at a store very full with people. It was amazing and a little disorienting. We found someone to talk to about the iPod, and she checked out the earphones to be sure that there was an issue. At this point, I was not convinced that it was just my ears – I have a reputation for sensitive hearing, and maybe the iPods were designed for those among us already with hearing damage. What do I know? It’s my first iPod! She confirmed that this was, indeed, a problem, and then helped schedule us for a Genius Bar appointment.

I have since read that the Genius Bar can sometimes be a disapointment. I did not experience anything like that.

We had to wait about an hour for our appointment, and since we didn’t have any place to rush off to, we braved the cold once more, got a snack in the small food court area, took advantage of the Victoria’s Secret Semi Annual Sale (it was right nearby the store!) and then went back for our appointment. Following instructions, we checked in with the concierge, who said that she made a description of what I was wearing so that my Genius could find me and to just feel free to wander around until he was ready, since we were a few minutes early (also as instructed).

I think since we were there for an iPod issue, we decided to go and look at the iPods, even though we have no desire, at this moment, for a second one. Wandering around some more, we found a MacBook Pro to play with. This was not our moment of great conversion, but it definitely played a part. I am technophile and I love the smell of new gadgets in the morning. It’s a beautiful thing. I think it comes from having a computer programmer for an uncle, and PCs in the house since before I can remember. And I was little in the eighties, so a home computer was pretty rare then, especially where we were living.  So, as much as I’m showing my husband the iPhoto software with an eye to explaining how Blurb software can do basically the same thing, I love the idea of a new gadget.

I am also a people watcher, and I had two great people watching experiences in the store. The first happened at this point, right before our Genius Bar appointment. An older lady, perhaps in her late sixties or early seventies, was getting help syncing her iPhone or iPod Touch (I couldn’t tell from where I was sitting) from a Genius. This would not have been as significant, except that the computer she was syncing it to was a Dell Inspiron, about the same vintage as the one I’m writing on now, and they were happily giving her tech suppor for her iPod/iPhone for it. Granted, she would be more likely to continue to be a customer if she could actually use the product, but it was really nice to see. And she was so happy to be able to get it synced finally.

At that point, our genius arrived and I explained to him the problem and he spent three seconds adjusting the setting and it worked beautifully. He said that if I had the problem again, I should just adjust that until it came right. For whatever reason, mine had been set to waaaaay down, which was apparently all wrong. I have no idea why, or how it got to be set that way, but it might have been while I was playing with the setting when I first got it. However, with the iPod all fixed, we let him go on his way, and then went over to see the iPod accessories. I was hoping to find a case (which I didn’t – I ordered one through this Etsy store).  As we were looking at the gadgets though, another Genius (or employee…are they all Geniuses?), came over to us and asked about our interest in cases etc.

At the end of the conversation, my husband asks the fateful question:

“So, tell me about your computers. We’re going to be in the market for new ones soon. Not now though, so don’t feel too much pressure.”

And so it began.

Although we are a laptop family, he took us to the iMac section because we weren’t looking seriously. It was impressive. It just was. First, there was the family on the other side of the table from us – two blonde haired little girls of about 6 and 8 showing their mom how to use Photobooth and giggling their heads off together. It was very cute to watch, and I was impressed at how well they learned the software in such a short amount of time. Second, the Magic Mouse, which I realized later is very similar to the Trackpad on the Macbooks was amazing. I loved the similarity in functioning to the iPhone, since so much of that technology was impressive to begin with. It was a pretty short demo, considering.

However, it might have been enough. At the time, I wasn’t seriously considering a Mac. Or at least, I thought I wasn’t. I should have known something was up when I only left the Apple Store after double checking that the Sims 3 (also known as the only computer game I play ever) was compatible with the Mac.