Skip to Content

Massively looks at the best free to play games
AOL Tech

Filed under: Switchers

Filed under: Software, Switchers

Texas bans Microsoft Vista from Government Use

We're not Microsoft Windows haters here at TUAW. In fact, Microsoft makes some very fine products for the Mac including some very useful ergonomic keyboards and some terrific mice. They also make a pretty decent suite of Office applications that many Mac owners use each and every day.

Heck, a guy even made a movie using Microsoft products, which we featured right here at TUAW. However, after seeing that the entire State of Texas has decided that Microsoft Windows Vista should not be used in any government agency, we might have to take a minute and reconsider our opinion on the giant from Redmond's flagship product.

According to Sen. Juan Hinojosa, vice chairman of the Finance Committee who proposed the ban, he did so because "of the many reports of problems with Vista." He goes on to say that:

"We are not in any way, shape or form trying to pick on Microsoft, but the problems with this particular [operating] system are known nationwide. And the XP operating system is working very well."

That's all well and good and for many of you Windows XP may, in fact, be working without problems. However, given the well-known issue with Vista, perhaps the Texas legislature is on to something? Who knows, given their current mindset, maybe they'd be interested in switching everyone in government to the Mac?

You hear that Apple, Texas needs you to give them a call.


(Thanks for the tip Melissa)

Filed under: Switchers, Features

My Dad, the Switcher: Day 140

Yesterday, Robert talked about setting up a new Mac Pro for his switcher Dad. Today, setting up Windows proves to be a bit of a headache.

When I mentioned to my best buddy Cameron that Dad was getting a Mac Pro to replace his just-months-old Mac mini, he said "Wow. He sure moves quickly when it comes to toys!"

That he does. Just three or four months ago, he had bought his Mac mini. Now here we were, installing Windows on his tricked-out refurb Mac Pro.

This was proving to be a problem. For me, mostly.

He wanted to install Windows XP Service Pack 2, which, as far as we knew, would work fine. We started Boot Camp Assistant, and printed out the instructions. We had a whole 750GB hard disk to give to Windows, so we chose it and were restarting into that purgatory of Windows Setup in DOSville.

After loading its various components ("Human Interface Parser" was our favorite), Windows Setup displayed the volumes available to install Windows, but our newly-created Boot Camp partition wasn't listed. Uh oh.

Continue readingMy Dad, the Switcher: Day 140

Filed under: Switchers, Features

My Dad, the Switcher: Day 139

Last October, Robert's dad -- a hard-core Windows developer -- bought himself a Mac mini to see what the fuss was all about. The first two installments of the series are available here. Now, we find out what's happened since.

Mom sent me an email about two weeks ago now, irritated. She said that Dad's old PC was making loud, awful noises, and it probably needed to be replaced. She said that he had been looking at new Macs all morning, after they talked about it over breakfast. She had given him the blessing of the purse-strings -- always a scary thing to give Dad -- and I gave him a call to see what he had in mind.

The fan, apparently, in Dad's old PC power supply was wearing out, and the bearings were squealing. I had an old Power Mac G4 at work that had this happen, and replacing the power supply was something I could do. I offered to do that, but Dad was already miles ahead of me, looking at the newly-released Mac Pros.

"Isn't that a little, uh, more than you need?" I asked, tentatively.

"It's not a question of need," he said jokingly, noting that his financial ship had come in with the payment of a long-overdue check from a completed project.

Dad was most interested in combining his Mac and his PC. Ever since he and I started working on the same project (which has expanded to projects, plural) he's finding that he uses the Mac more than the PC. The PC, he says, became just for email and Microsoft Office. Then, the perennial switcher question: "Do they make Office for Mac?" Yes, I said with a smile.

Continue readingMy Dad, the Switcher: Day 139

Filed under: Switchers, Ask TUAW

Ask TUAW: Recovering pictures, updating Facebook, iPhone battery life and more

Once again, it's time for another edition of Ask TUAW: the place where we try to answer all of your Mac and Apple-related questions. This week we're taking questions about recovering pictures from corrupted compact flash cards, Twitter for the iPhone, extending iPhone battery life and more.

As always, we welcome your suggestions for this week and questions for next time. Please leave your contributions in the comments for this post. When asking questions, please include which Mac and which version of OS X you're running. If you don't specify, we'll assume you're running Leopard on an Intel Mac.

Okay, let's get to it!

Nick F. asks:


I've got some pictures I need to recover from a corrupted Compact Flash card. What's the best, preferably free, software to do it on my Mac?

This is one of those questions that can get frustrating if you're a Mac user. On the Windows side, there are a few good (and free) pieces of software that can help you accomplish this task. For the Mac, you're choices are mostly limited to pay applications -- at least if you want good results. Fortunately, these pay applications are very good.

For my money, the piece of software that works best when you want to recover pictures from a bad CF or SD card is Klix ($29.95) from Joesoft. I've used it quite a bit with clients, and on my own bad cards, and each time it performed flawlessly, recovering every lost picture from the card. Other alternatives for the Mac include CardRaider ($19.95), PhotoRescue ($29.00) and Data Rescue II ($99.00).

I realize that $29.95 for a piece of software might seem like a lot to some people. But if the software is easy to use and works as advertised, I think it's a worthwhile investment in the long run. Besides, it would cost far more to go back and take those vacation pictures you lost on the card again when you could buy Klix and recover them from your bad card instead. Given that, a program like Klix is actually a bargain.

If you've got Windows running on your Mac (either through Boot Camp or virtualization) and you've had good luck with one of the tools from the other side of the fence, let us know in the comments.




Continue readingAsk TUAW: Recovering pictures, updating Facebook, iPhone battery life and more

Filed under: OS, Software, Switchers, Odds and ends, Books

Take Control of Running Windows on a Mac, Third Edition

Joe Kissell is an extraordinary Mac writer, so when he took on the task of writing the first edition of Take Control of Running Windows on a Mac a few years ago, I knew he was going to do an amazing job.

Joe has just finished writing the third edition of this book, which covers every possible method of running Windows or Windows applications on your Intel Mac. In 167 pages, he talks you through how to determine the best installation option (VMWare Fusion, Virtual Box, Parallels Desktop, or Boot Camp) and how to install both the software and Windows.

Since peripherals are sometimes problematic in a virtual environment, Joe describes how to make sure those mice, peripherals, and keyboards work happily with Windows. He describes in detail how to share files between the two operating systems, keep Windows secure, and integrate the Mac and Windows interfaces.

Joe also talks about how to acquire various versions of Windows, as well as using CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac to run many applications without purchasing Windows. The ebook sells for $10, and you can easily defray the cost by taking advantage of a 10% discount coupon for VMWare Fusion and a $5 coupon for Parallels Desktop. A print edition will be available soon.

Filed under: Humor, Switchers, Cult of Mac

Perspective, courtesy of Joy of Tech

There's a bit of a celebration/commiseration hangover here in the US of A today, with the exact taste depending on your point of view. As always, the fine duo behind the Joy of Tech comic have distilled the Internet's mood down to a four-panel screenful of truth. Regardless of your political persuasion or your technology history, it's high time for us all to reach across the aisle and recognize that we really do agree on what's important.

Aside from laughter, that is. (Is the guy with the pocket protector supposed to remind us of someone in particular?)

Thanks Snaggy & Nitrozac

Continue readingPerspective, courtesy of Joy of Tech

Filed under: Switchers, Odds and ends, Holidays

So you just got your first Mac -- now what?

All day on December 25, TUAW presents "Now What?" We've got first steps and recommendations for all the Apple gifts you (hopefully!) found under the tree today. Happy holidays! If you're a Mac veteran, send a link to this post to the switcher on your holiday list.

Merry Christmas, new Mac owner. First of all, congratulations! Welcome to the family. There's some eggnog on the table, and feel free to put your coat on the bed. Setting up your new Mac is a famously easy experience. It should take about 10 minutes, depending on the kind of Mac you bought, and where you want to put it.

Once you have your new Mac on your desk, it will take you through a short setup process to personalize your new machine. You'll choose a username, a password, and will be given the option to register your Mac and sign up for MobileMe, if you want. (You can register and sign up for MobileMe later, if you don't do it now.)

If you bought any applications along with your Mac (like Microsoft Office, for example), you can install them very easily. Just insert the disc, and either drag the application to your Applications folder (on your hard disk) or double-click the installer application. You can eject the disc when you're done by dragging it to the Trash, or pressing the eject key on your keyboard.

For Windows compatibility, get your Windows XP (SP2 or SP3) or Windows Vista disc ready, and double click the Boot Camp Assistant in the Utilities folder (it's inside your Applications folder). Boot Camp Assistant will walk you through the process of installing Windows on your Mac. It's not difficult, but it will take a little time. Once Windows is installed, you can hold down the Option key before your computer boots to choose which operating system to run, or select a permanent preference via the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences. You can read more switcher-specific tips in our Switchers category.

If you're switching to the Mac platform from the PC, I might humbly suggest you read Part 1 and Part 2 of my experience introducing my dad to the Mac. He was a hard-core PC user until he fell in love with his Mac mini.

Continue reading for a few best bets about how to extend and protect your new Mac.

Continue readingSo you just got your first Mac -- now what?

Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, Switchers, Odds and ends

Belkin's Switch-to-Mac USB Cable

Peripheral maker Belkin has taken note of the fact that a lot of people are switching to Macs. Their new Switch-to-Mac USB Cable, available in the US now for US$49.99, is designed to streamline the process of moving files from your PC running Windows XP or Vista to your Mac running Tiger or Leopard.

The cable comes with a Migration Assistant that performs a similar function to Apple's Migration Assistant -- it copies music, movies, photos, files, and Internet preferences from the PC to the Mac at USB 2.0 speeds. At the completion of the migration, the software provides a summary of all of the content that has been copied and the location of the files.

Belkin says the Switch-to-Mac USB Cable is on sale in the US now, and it will be available in Canada, Asia, Europe and Australia beginning in February, 2009.

Filed under: Switchers, Features

My Dad, the Switcher: Day 7

Last week, my previously-very-anti-Mac dad started using a Mac mini, and I wrote about his experience -- positive, to say the least. If you haven't read the story of his first day with the Mac, you might want to read that first. Yesterday, one week in, I checked in to see how he's doing.

So far, Dad has nothing but positive things to say about the Mac. Even when I asked him specifically for things he dislikes, he had to think for a second. "It's such a breath of fresh air from what I'm used to, I can't come up with anything specific that I dislike." High praise indeed from the man who doesn't like The Daily Show because of its intro music.

He also just discovered that, in Leopard, there's a little light underneath each application that tells you it's running. That was his huge discovery yesterday, and something he was proud of finding on his own.

Asked about what he does like, he mentioned the ease of application installations. He loves Dashboard widgets, and installed the MySQL Health widget that comes with the MySQL GUI tools. He did this without my help, too, which is great progress.

Continue readingMy Dad, the Switcher: Day 7

Filed under: Switchers, Features

My Dad, the Switcher: Day Zero

This is the first part of an occasional series about my Dad, who, as a long-time Windows user, decided to switch to the Mac. If you're interested in the whole story, more installments are here.

As far as database management and Windows programming is concerned, my dad is what you'd call "hard-core." He's been writing software since the 1960s, starting at Honeywell, then Hewlett Packard, eventually starting his own business. He is an expert with the HP 3000 minicomputer, which, in its day, was heavy computing iron to have lying around.

So it came as a bit of a shock when he called last week and said, "I'm ready to buy a Mac."

He and I are working on a web development project together using open-source tools. Because his workstation is set up for the Microsoft world of SQL Server and .NET, installing XAMPP was wreaking havoc with his complicated array of security software, including Norton and BitDefender. He wanted to start fresh, and work on a system without having to worry about something randomly disallowing access to port 3306. Understandable.

Continue readingMy Dad, the Switcher: Day Zero

Filed under: Switchers, TUAW Tips, Deals, Graphic Design

TUAW Tip: Adobe CS4 cross-upgrading

Like many of you, I suspect, I still have PC-using relatives that have steadfastly refused to come over to the fairer side of life (and reduce my tech support burden). One of the biggest hold-ups has been their Windows-based software investment, particularly in Adobe applications. Well, with the release of CS4 it's time for upgrades, and I have some new ammunition in the battle to get my folks switched over: Adobe's competitive cross-upgrades.

Adobe allows registered users of their Creative Suite applications to switch platforms at the standard upgrade price (e.g. cross-upgrading from Windows CS3 to Mac CS4 is the same price as a Windows CS3 to Windows CS4 upgrade). So if somebody you know is getting ready to plunk down the cash for the Windows CS4 upgrade anyway, now would be a great time to suggest that they make a complete upgrade and switch to Mac at the same time.

Adobe doesn't seem to advertise the cross-upgrades that much and they're only available when purchasing the upgrades over the phone (800-833-6687). In addition the previous Windows versions must be destroyed and certified with a Letter of Software Destruction (pdf link). Nonetheless, if you have some Windows based hold-outs now would be a great time to get them on board the Mac train.

Filed under: Switchers

Sweden's Foreign Minister calls his new Mac 'a new world'

Former Swedish Prime Minister (and now Foreign Minister) Carl Bildt has, "after much reflection, examination and discussion" decided to switch to a Mac. Welcome to the family, Carl! May we recommend your next purchase: a snazzy IKEA desk to go with your Mac?

According to the minister's website (in Swedish and English), he wonders why he waited so long to make the jump, and said "the new world is much definitely better than the old." How much of that is mangled by Google Translate I'll have to leave to the Swedish speakers among us. No word yet on whether Sweden's leading culinary celebrity uses a Mac. [Sorry, couldn't resist. -Ed.]

Bildt is not the first world leader to use a Mac: Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has a Mac connected to multiple displays (as well he should: he's on Apple's board of directors). HRH Queen Elizabeth has an iPod. Many political powerhouses have iPhones, including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who might have scored himself a black-market model.

Thanks, Gesen!

Filed under: Switchers, Mac 101

Mac 101: Using your Windows keyboard

If you switch frequently between a Mac and a PC, chances are you have to deal with a Windows keyboard from time to time. Thankfully, this can be easy with third-party utilities, or even features already built in to Mac OS X.

For most switchers, the hardest part about learning to use a new Mac is dealing with your muscle memory. For example, if you're really used to typing Control + C to copy something, Command + C means using your thumb instead of your pinky to perform the operation.

In System Preferences, you can click Keyboard and Mouse to change how your modifier keys (that is, Control, Command, Option and Caps Lock) work. Click the Keyboard tab, and then click the Modifier Keys button at the bottom of the window. You can map the Control key to the Command key (and vice versa, if you prefer) to help ease you in to Mac key commands.

Continue readingMac 101: Using your Windows keyboard

Filed under: OS, Software, Switchers, Open Source

Sun xVM VirtualBox 2 enhances the free virtualization experience

xVM Virtual BoxSun xVM VirtualBox 2.0 has arrived! We did a detailed review of VirtualBox 1.6 back in July, and now a shiny new version is available. If you want to set up a virtualization environment on your Intel Mac, but don't want to spend money on Parallels or VMWare Fusion, xVM VirtualBox 2.0 is a free and full-featured package that may fit your needs very well.

What's new in version 2.0? Mac users will see the following changes:
  • 64-bit OS guest support (only on 64-bit hosts, as one might expect)
  • New native Leopard user interface on Mac OS X hosts
  • New-version notifier
  • Guest property information interface
  • Host Interface Networking on Mac OS X hosts
  • Framework for collecting performance and resource usage data (metrics)
  • Added SATA asynchronous IO (NCQ: Native Command Queuing) when accessing raw disks/partitions (major performance gain)
A list of bug fixes can be viewed after the break. xVM VirtualBox 2.0 can be downloaded here.

Continue readingSun xVM VirtualBox 2 enhances the free virtualization experience

Filed under: Software, Switchers

Camp Tune lets you adjust your Boot Camp partition

Paragon software has made available a pre-release version of Camp Tune, a new utility for resizing your Boot Camp partition without destroying data. While the Leopard version of Disk Utility is now able to perform partition resizing, it is not able to resize a Boot Camp partition without erasing it (although you could back it up and restore it if needed). Camp Tune runs as a bootable Linux-based CD which allows you to boot your Mac and reallocate disk space between your Boot Camp and HFS+ partition.

Camp Tune for Mac is presently in pre-release and is being offered as a free download (registration required). The download is a disk image that must be burned to a CD or DVD. Needless to say, you should have a backup for both partitions before using any software of this sort.

[via Macworld]

Tip of the Day

Holding the Command key (aka the Apple key) and pressing Tab will cycle through your open applications. It's easier to Cmd-Tab if you are Copy (Cmd-C) and Pasting (Cmd-V) to and from various applications.


Follow us on Twitter!
TUAW [Cafepress]

Sponsored Links

Featured Galleries

DNC Macs
Macworld 2008 Keynote
Macworld 2008 Build-up
Google Earth for iPhone
Podcaster
AT&T Navigator Road Test
Bento for iPhone 1.0
Scrabble for iPhone
Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer Briefcase
Apple Vanity Plates
Apple booth Macworld 07
WorldVoice Radio
Quickoffice for iPhone 1.1.1
Daylite 3.9 Review
DiscPainter
Mariner Calc for iPhone
2009CupertinoBus
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
MLB.com At Bat 2009
Macworld Expo 2007 show floor
Apple Texas Hold 'Em

 

More Apple Analysis

AOL Radio TUAW on Stitcher