Show Notes - Episode 30
SERIES: Lab Rats
EPISODE #: 30
RELEASE DATE: June 19, 2006
TITLE: How to Buy a Mac
RUN TIME: 18:49:05
HOSTS: Andy Walker and Sean Carruthers
PRODUCER: Matt Harris
EDITOR: Sean Carruthers
SOURCE: www.labrats.tv/episodes/ep30.html
NOTES:
- Sean's iBook = 2003-2006
- At Mac World in January, 2006, Apple Computer annouced the switch to Intel chips.
- PowerPC chips were topped at a Speed where it was no longer able to handle computing tasks.
- How to Purchase Your Next Mac - What do you want to do with your computer?
- If you just want to check email, browse the internet, and watch a occasional DVD, the Mac Mini would be a good choose.
- The Mac Mini is just the computer, you'll need to provide your own keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
- Intel's Core Solo is a single-core CPU, while the Core Duo is a dual-core CPU.
- See episode 25 for a dual-core demo.
- Intergrated graphics are built right onto the motherboard, and are less capable than a discrete graphics component.
- For the intermediate level and wants decent performance, the iMac is the answer.
- Has a remote control
- Equal to a Windows Media Center PC.
- Front Row software
- The iMac comes in 17-inch / 1.83GHz and 20-inch / 2GHz models, as well as custom-configured variations.
- Looking for a portable Mac solution, choose the MacBookPro or the MacBook
- MacBook comes in both black and white
- For the Black MacBook you pay a premium.
- Black MacBook also includes an extra 20GB of hard drive space.
- $150 is a small price to pay to make your Mac look more like a garden variety Windows machine.
- The MacBook and the MacBookPro both use the Intel Core Duo processor chips.
- The reason the MacBookPro is more expensive is the discrete graphics component and the larger screen.
- This pays off for professional applications where fast graphics are key, but basic tasks are just as fast on the regular MacBook.
- To Run Windows XP on your Intel Mac, you can install the BootCamp application.
- OnMac.Net shows another way to run Windows on Mac, but it's more involved setup than BootCamp.
- There's a program called Parallels, which runs Windows inside a window, while still in MacOS.
- Rosetta is the program Intel Macs use to translate the code designed to run on older G4 and G5 processors.
- Adobe Photoshop uses Rosetta at the present time.
- See Lab Rats at MacWorld 2006 in episodes 11.1 and 11.2.
- Synthetic benchmarks test CPU performance using a method most real users will never approximate.
- Majority of the applications run 2x faster than the PowerPC macs. There are a few that actully run 5x faster.
- HandBrake:
- multi-threaded DVD convertor / ripper.
- 5x faster than on the PowerPC processor.
- Andy's Book Plug - Absolute Beginners Guide to Security, Spam, Spyware, & Viruses
- Hub Canada: "Moving to Mac: Moving to ? Windows" - By: Sean Carruthers - click here.
- Sean Carruthers Forgotten Flickr Account at - click here.
CREDITS
Also Starring:
Biff
Maurice
Associate Producer:
Maurice Cacho
Theme Music by Dee Long
Title Graphics by Steve Huntriss (AKA ‘Tackie’)
Web Master:
Mike Britton
Systems Manager:
Ted Gallardo
Cameras Courtesy of:
Special Thanks To:
Craig Worden
Eileen
At a starting price of
$599US for the Mac Mini,
an Apple a day will
cost you $218,635
annually. It may keep
the doctor away, but
only because you can't
afford one any more.
Email Us At:
Show Notes by Michael Britton
(c) 2006 Labrats Media
