MyTech

Apple has finally wised up to the economy and has rolled out affordable versions of the iMac, the Mac Mini, and MacPro.

The Mac Mini could end up being a TV box killer, especially with the space and CPU. Unlike the AppleTV, you can have your iTunes, and Hulu, too. But it's the iMac that interests me. My computers are getting borderline too old, especially since neither of my laptops will work with the new version of the Mac OS that will be releasing some time this year.

Now, I just have to convince you all to buy a LOT of my books so I can get one.

Last week I made the switch from NeoOffice to OpenOffice for Aqua on the Mac.

I'm impressed with the overall appearance of the application, and the functionality. Most importantly, I was able to process Word documents with templates without problems and without loss of functionality.

The application is very fast and responsive on my PowerPC laptops, and from what I've read elsewhere, it's actually better on the Intel-based machines. It doesn't have the lag that I've found with newer versions of NeoOffice when clicking on a menu item and the menu contents displaying. Nor does it seem to absorb as much of the machine's resources.

I can open and work on several different types of documents, at the same time, and not have performance or stability problems. Overall, it's quite efficient, as well as including all the features most, if not all, of us need from an office toolset.

OpenOffice includes the following tools:

• A fully featured text document editor, including support for both macros and templates, as well as all features necessary for sophisticated document creation and management. You can also track and show changes, as well as autocorrect and format, embed tables and images, add a media player, and incorporate a bibliography database.
• A spreadsheet tool that provides any number of formatting capabilities, simple to use chart creators, all the spreadsheet functions you need and want, and some interesting Scenario and Solver tools I haven't had a chance to explore.
• A presentation tool with templates that can incorporate any number of graphics and themes, providing slideshows, the ability to package the presentation— the usual presentation software suspects.
• A database creation tool that also uses ODBC and JDBC to connect to an existing database, either remotely or locally.
• A drawing tool that provides a good deal of functionality in order to create nice looking illustrations.

The application is still in candidate release status, so you may want to wait until the finished release. However, if you're a Mac user, with either a PowerPC or Intel-based machine, give the application serious consideration.

Did I happen to mention it's open source?

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I just finished Eureka, in HD, on my TV. The shows are expensive, yes, but they're quite lovely. The show was free, as are several other shows in Apple's rollout of HD quality TV shows to go along with the movies. I know that several Battlestar Galactica fans are going to be happy that the first show of this season is also free in HD.

NBC is back with iTunes. I had a feeling the companies would kiss and make up. You can still get the shows like Eureka and BG at Hulu, but the quality just doesn't compare. I figure I save the bucks by not having cable, UVerse, or the like—I'll just get my shows ala cart.

I was a little disappointed today that the Apple show didn't roll out any new computers. I had my heart set on getting a decent deal on a late model iMac or Macbook Pro. Now, I'll have to wait and see what Apple rolls out in the Spring, and make do with what I have.

I may be doing it wrong, but I didn't like the iTunes "Genius" at all. It kept pushing songs at me to buy. To me, that's an annoyance, not a feature.

My iPod is still working, so wasn't interested in the rest of the show. Sacrilege! Not want the Apple eye and ear candy!? I must be tired. However, I am glad that Apple is finally taking some of the "green" stuff to heart.

I did get the Genius to output several playlists. I'll load them into my iPod tomorrow, and see how it did. Still, the ads for songs to buy are irritating.

Per Dave in comments, recommendation sidebar can be collapsed out of view. Much better.

When you download one of the HD TV shows, you also get the SD quality show. I have to wonder if this isn't a direct shot at Amazon, which provides both the larger show for your TV and a mobile device version. Regardless, it would be nice if Apple provided an option to turn this off.

It would also be nice if Apple provided Amazon's digital media storage, so that you don't have to keep copies of the movies and TVs on your own external drives.

Lastly, this forum thread states that the HD tv shows are only in 853x480 resolution, but that sounds like the SD show. I have noticed that you can't seem to buy the HD quality shows directly via AppleTV, but only through iTunes. I haven't checked today to see if this has changed.

I'm only interested in purchasing shows for two series, so I'm not going to be adding overly to Apple's coffers by going hog wild on HD TV shows. Well, unless Dr. Who also comes out with HD quality.

And according to this thread there is confusion about which version a person is buying. I noticed that the AppleTV lineup doesn't seem to be keeping pace with the new iTunes rollout.

It does seem like you can only get the HD shows on your iTunes, and then sync them up with the AppleTV. Rather a pain, that. That's an unusually clunky move on Apple's part. I wonder if this is a signal that Apple is becoming indifferent to the AppleTV?