Jeff Ventura:

What’s interesting about Windows -> Mac switchers is that they typically feel a need to vocalize their experience in one way or another. That’s pretty remarkable, because it means that somehow Apple knows how to make evangelists out of users. I’m not sure any other company on earth does it as effectively. Apple’s installed base isn’t just an installed base: it’s a field marketing department.

[...]

Aside from very specialized computing tasks, there is literally very little reason to own a dedicated Windows machine anymore. I’d proffer that for the great majority of users, a Mac would work just fine if they do a modicum of research and go into the move with an open mind and the understanding that the Mac != Windows and there will be a learning curve. After that, it’s all good.

Wherein I shamelessly plug my favorite computing platform. DealMac has a post where they put three systems in a head-to-head-to-head competition for specificationss and price. The systems? The Sony VAIO VGC-LS37E All-In-One Desktop PC, the HP TouchSmart IQ770 Desktop PC, and Apple's iMac. The verdict? The iMac comes in cheaper than both of the PCs, and it trumps them both in the specs department. Not to mention the iMac is the best-looking of the three, and you get to use the best operating system in the world, instead of Windblows Windows. So answer me again on why you'd want to use a Windows machine? Avoid the heartache, people--believe me, with a spouse insisting on bringing a new Dull in to our household, for her use, I'm well acquainted with the heartache--and just buy a Mac.

The September issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure. Former staffer, and still good friend, Raena Armitage provided us with a fun cover this month. Thanks again, Raena! If Rob didn't already have my undying friendship, well, by the power of Greyskull he has it now, managing to work our behind-the-scenes discussion of the new college football season in to this month's issue. (I confess, this is one reason why you're not seeing my iPhone review this month.) Wes covers the big story of the Mac blogosphere from last month, the outing of Fake Steve Jobs, as well as iPhone-related AT&T issues, the iMac refresh, the new Apple keyboard, the latest addition to the iWork suite, and something having to do with brandy and lobster. Regarding that last, maybe our Wes has been sniffing too much newspaper ink at work or something. Mark laments the Microsoft-blinders of myriad IT professionals, who don't quite get that not everyone uses Windows, much less Internet Explorer. And speaking of Microsoft, Mark wonders if there might not be some new measurement of time coming forth. If you've ever needed a fancy tile graphic, Lee's got the lowdown for you in this month's Photoshop For The Curious, so you can knock it out without having to resort to talking to Crunch, the neon-blue mohawked graphic designer with the spike through his cheeks who blasts emo rock from his cubicle. ATPM reader Jennifer Curry was kind enough to share some shots she took in 2004 from Australia's Great Ocean Road. These are some breathtaking views of The 12 Apostles and the London Bridge rock formations. Thanks so much, Jennifer! More and more, the swing dance hall offers naught but misery for Cortland, while Todd suffers iPhone temptation. We’re also given a handy guide to online forum denizens. Matthew explores the under-the-hood utility Cocktail, which, last time we checked, was not a Tom (Maniac) Cruise vehicle. Ed covers Curio 4.0, while Eric dives in to my feed reader of choice, NetNewsWire 3.0. ATPM's official flight deck officer, Chris Lawson, isn't suitably impressed with the radioSHARK 2, while Linus puts Snapz Pro X through its screen-capturing paces. Finally, Wes looks at the online, free-form information manager Stikkit, which doesn't even require a Mac to use, just a web browser. Preferably one which is not from The-Company-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named. (Sorry. I'm currently reading through the Potter series for the first time ever. Apparently, it's having an effect.) As usual, this issue of ATPM is available in a variety of formats to suit your wants, desires, and needs.

The August issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. In this month's Bloggable, Wes makes sure to avoid coverage of "the largest technology premiere since the launch of Windows 95", which would be the debut of the iPhone. Well, he almost avoids it, but does feature a round-up from the blogosphere concerning the WorldWide Developers Conference, the continuing chase to unmask Fake Steve Jobs, and the tale of Photoshop's birth. Mark, meanwhile, has found a great benefit in the .Mac service over what he's been getting from his local broadband provider. Paul delivers a well-rounded meal of web sites for your browsing digestion, including subway maps, fast food ads versus reality, and a digitally-reproduced manuscript of Portuguese sonnets. Part of getting to the next action in GTD is processing. This month, Ed takes a look at processing reference material, which can play an important role in exactly what action you'll choose. In the latest Photoshop for the Curious, Lee offers a resolution tutorial. (That would be screen resolution. Conflict resolution...well, that's another publication.) This month's desktop pictures are courtesy of staffer David Thompson, and feature scenery from a recent motorcycle trip through parts of Texas and Utah. Cortland finds himself in a spot of trouble with the fuzz, while Angie is paid an unexpected visit. Meanwhile, evil plans are afoot to acquire the Cortland OS. Andrew enjoys some screen time thanks to El Gato's EyeTV Hybrid, while Frank Wu offers a double-dose of MagSafe adapters--the Portable Power Station from Battery Geek, and Mikegyver's MagSafe 120w AC/DC Car/Airline Adapter--for MacBooks and MacBooks Pro. Finally, Linus finds learning fun with Travelogue 360 Paris. I kind of wish my son was older so he and I could play this game together. As usual, this issue of ATPM is available in a variety of formats for your reading pleasure.

The July issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. Ellyn kicks things off by noting how the Internet's managed to let us support our servicemen and women in ways that wouldn't have been possible in wars past. In this month's Bloggable, Wes has a round-up of posts on--what else?--the iPhone. Mike laments the pains of the tech upgrade cycle, but looks forward to what the future may bring. Mark offers his "furs thoughts" on Mac OS X Leopard, based on the information recently released at the Worldwide Developers Conference. As he looks forward, Mark also looks back, noting how old technology, while great at the time, may not be so great in the future when we need it once again. Ted returns with an ATPO of a different sort, comparing past WWDCs, as well as Apples and oranges, with today's. Lee delves in to some of the cool stuff one can do with Photoshop with layer effects, while offering the acquisition saga of his latest tech toy, a new MacBook Pro. Yours truly has an acquisition saga of his own, as I relate my tale of iPhone hunting. This month's desktop pictures are courtesy of ATPM reader Forrest Brown, and feature Crowders Mountain, North Carolina. "Uncomfortable" is the word of the day for the Cortland crew: at the office, on the dance floor, or in MySpace. No one is having a good time on this particular night, well, except for maybe Steve. Qaptain Qwerty interviews the guy waiting for One More Thing™. Linus plays around with Crossword Express, while Frank Wu puts the i-Volution Shell, a carrying case for MacBooks, through its paces. Lee's impressed with the PocketDock AV, and Paul takes Redline for a test drive, though I think we need to talk about those gas receipts he submitted for reimbursement. As always, ATPM is available in a variety of formats for your reading pleasure.

The May issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure. April showers certainly brought May flowers for Apple, notably the kind that grow from the branches of the money tree. Rob provides a rundown of Apple's latest financials in this month's Welcome. Wes has the blogosphere round-up on the latest digital rights hubbub, set off by the open letter by Steve Jobs to end DRM on music. When you're already using the coolest computing system in the world, where do you go next? If you're Mark, you start letting a robot clean your carpets. Lee takes us through Photoshop's bag of tricks concerning color, hues, saturation, gradients, and all sorts of other goodies you can tweak your photos with. In closing out her series on web accessibility, Miraz looks at the capabilities of Firefox and Opera. Matthew does some hacking on what is still my favorite Mac to have owned, the Cube, shoving a XFX GeForce 6200 graphics card into our beloved lucite box. Lee shares some great photos he snagged at the 2007 AirFest, held last month at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. And it may look like this month's Cortland is having a severe case of schizophrenia, but trust us, it hits on several plot points of importance. Miraz thinks Digital Photography Expert Techniques is pretty good, but badly missnamed, as it is about workflow after the fact of shooting photos, rather than during, the latter of which being what I would have thought from the title. Lee has a double-dose of reviews this month--I guess May turned out to be Lee Bennett theme month--looking at a pair of iPod accessories: the Dock Extender, which I am gear-lusting for; and the PocketDock Line Out USB. Chris raves about the Elevator, Griffin's replacement for the iCurve, which I used to use extensively. David uses Pando, which I've been following closely, but have not yet had a need to use. Ed closes this month's issue out with a look at Yep, billed as "iPhoto for PDFs". Personally, I store a lot of my PDFs in EagleFiler, but Yep certainly does look interesting. As always, you can read this month's ATPM online, as an offline webzine, a screen-optimized PDF, or a print-optimized PDF. We offer a variety of flavors for your consumption. Enjoy!

No, the title doesn't refer to this blog. (Though I'm trying.) It refers to the publication I'm proud to be a part of, About This Particular Macintosh, and comes from Claire Rottenberg's Quality Mac Websites:

ATPM is a professional, interesting and well-written and edited magazine. It has a large variety of content, ranging from short news bits to in-depth articles and product reviews, so there is something for everyone in each month's issue. Take a look at the latest issue and I'm sure you'll find something worthwhile in it and, like me, will become a regular reader of ATPM. Kudos to the great volunteers we have on staff at ATPM, and thank you, Claire, for the kind words.

The April issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. Chris Dudar, the staff's resident 3D artist, provides us with some great cover art this month. Good work, Chris! Wes kicks things off by noting the response from a lot of the tech crowd to Windows Vista: yawn. Those that have given a flip have turned on those who don't care for it, like Chris Pirillo, and prominent switchers think it's time for Pirillo to get a Mac. This and more in Wes's monthly blogosphere roundup. Mike notes that while it's not all all roses all the time with Macs, it still beats the alternative. Mark notes that there is scientific evidence that size does matter. For display size, you plebeians! Display size! Sheesh... Ed returns with another GTD column, focusing on the hunting/gathering aspects of information collection. Lee continues Photoshop for the Curious, this month exploring levels and curves. Miraz looks at the browser side of things when it comes to web accessibility. Chris Lawson manages to tie together Billy Madison, blogging, reviews, and business ethics, all in one tidy package. Lee provides us with this month's desktop pictures, shot in New England in 1997. In this month’s Cortland, our hero finds himself traveling to other dimensions, while persons from other dimensions travel to ours, and the Dark Lord I.T. is trying to travel to other dimensions, or our dimension, or...Heck, there’s just a lot of dimension-traveling going on this month! Matthew picks apart the open-source sound editor, Audacity, while Lawson pores over an accessory many a business traveler will want to take a look at, the Keynamics Aviator Laptop Stand. Linus plays around with Dodge That Anvil!, and Lee is less than impressed with the new HomeDock Deluxe from DLO. Ed peruses Joe Kissell's Take Control of Mac OS X Backups 2.0, a tome I heartily recommend. And the man that leads off the April issue closes it out for us, as Chris Dudar reviews the app that helped make this month's cover art, Wings3D. As always, ATPM is available in a wide range of choices for your reading pleasure.

Oh, right. The March issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available. You'd think someone on the editorial staff would be more aware... Angus decides to reward Microsoft's recent marketing efforts regarding the Zune and Vista by purchasing a brand-new 17-inch MacBook Pro. Yeah, when I first read his column, I had problems with the logic there, too, but someone informed me it has something to do with this thing called "sarcasm". In this month's Bloggable, Wes tracks the biggest news making the circuit of the Mac blogosphere, Steve Jobs' recent condemnation of DRM for music downloads. Mark has a quick hit on publishing formats, notably the resistance coming against Microsoft's Office Open XML, because the words "Microsoft" and "open" go so well together, don't they? (I like this sarcasm thing. Must note to use it more.) Lee continues his fabulous series, Photoshop for the Curious, this month walking us through color calibration. I really could use one of those monitor calibration tools. Miraz has a great column on web accessibility this month, one I can really relate to, given how I am amongst the spectacled crowd. (We also learn Miraz's age this month, and please note this was volunteered by the author; our mothers taught us well enough to know better than to ever ask that of a lady.) This month's desktop pictures are courtesy of ATPM reader Le Anne Brown, and feature the land of Tasmania (coincidentally, the home of ATPM's own Tasmanian devil, former staffer Raena Armitage). Strange things are afoot for Cortland at the swing dance-hosting lodge, which appears to be more than meets the eye. Staffer Linus Ly doffs his editorial cap for that of an artisté, introducing the ATPM readership to Qaptain Qwerty. You may notice a striking similarity between Qaptain Qwerty and the review of Art Text. As a member of the editorial team, allow me to reassure you, this is not accidental. Ed got his hands on a piece of tech that's found its way on to my personal gear lust list, the SnapScan S500M, by Fujitsu. I never thought I'd have the opportunity to write, "Ellyn lays the smack down with Smack Mahjong", but you can't pass up those opportunities when they present themselves. Finally, Lee reviews the intriguing TuneView from Keyspan: leave your iPod connected to your entertainment system, but have its screen in the palm of your hand with the TuneView remote. Sounds sweet. As always, you can enjoy About This Particular Macintosh online, or in a manner more appropriate for your reading preference.

Tired of Tetris™? No good at first-person shooter games? Want something quicker than world-building or war strategy games? Frenzic may be the answer you're looking for. A joint release from The Iconfactory and ARTIS Software, Frenzic is an addictive puzzle game that you can play solo or against others online. Jobs and company should seriously be looking at getting this game on the upcoming iPhone. Sorry, Windows users need not apply. Update, 1:00 PM CST: If you decide to register Frenzic, feel free to add me as a friend.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata, for the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

I praise Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, and I also curse it.

[...]

But after waiting five years — as in half a decade — for this thing, I think I should get something revolutionary, a PC operating system so astonishing it makes the competition look laughably primitive. The almighty Microsoft made this, right? So Vista--being released to consumers Tuesday--has to be jaw-droppingly superior, right?

Well, it's not. Vista hardly rocked my world during weeks of testing. It's a fine Windows upgrade, but it's also a shameless rip-off (and not quite the equal) of another major operating system, Apple Computer's Mac OS X.

That begs the question: Why not just use OS X?

Those upgrading from XP likely will have to get a new computer anyway because Vista doesn't work properly on most older PCs. [...] So, instead of purchasing a Windows PC, they could--and typically should--get an Apple Macintosh computer running OS X. [Emphasis in the original. --R]

The February issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure. Kudos to Lee for this month's cover art. He ran the idea by me via IM one night, I thought it was great, and Michael gave it the final thumbs-up. Our thanks to Steven Frank for playing along. In case you missed the link, you can also get the cover art as a desktop picture this month. Well, well, well, well, well. What's that? Steve Jobs announced the iPhone at Macworld Expo last month? You don't say. Why, I believe that means Wes has to eat his hat. And given how another ATPM staffer is resident in the city Wes currently calls home, I'm sure we can arrange a photo shoot of the happy event, because let's face it Wes, tasting is not the same thing as eating. I'm sure we can find a nice Rachel Ray recipe wherein we substitute the meat of choice with the hat. Perhaps former ATPM staffer and amateur chef Tom Bridge can help us out in that regard. While we hammer out all of those details, Wes does have the blogosphere's coverage of Apple's next paradigm-shifting product, as well as weigh-ins on MacHeist and MacZOT. iPhone fever has certainly set in amongst the ATPM staff, as Mike Chamberlain attests to in this month's Mac About Town. He talks about some other stuff, too. I think. Did I mention the iPhone fever settling amongst the staff? Angus takes us on a safari of the Apple landscape, including, yes, the iPhone, but oh so much more as well. We welcome Ed Eubanks to the staff as we present Next Actions, a column devoted to to using your Mac to get things done. Lee presents the third chapter in the ongoing saga of Photoshop for the Curious, with a look at the application's menus and a tutorial on getting better grayscale (viz: "black and white", even though that's really a misnomer) photos from your color pics. Chris Dudar has a beginner's guide to the UPS, and no, he's not asking what brown can do for you. Reader David Kettlewell was kind enough to share some photos from Sweden's "Little Leaf Sea" for this month's desktop pictures selection. Cortland has junior-high flashbacks after a night of swing dancing with Angie doesn't go like he planned. Meanwhile, the chameleonesque Agent Smith arrives in town, palming a familiar-looking comm device... Ellyn isn't very smitten with Arctic Quest, but David is quite taken with MoRU. Our eastern seaboard surfer, Eric, tries out NetworkLocation, while Frank Wu beats me to a review of Booq's Python XL System. Matthew wraps up this month's reviews with a look at Eltima's SWF Movie Player. I remarked to Michael that this month's issue was our most content-packed out of the past few months, and we still had four writers unable to submit this month! (Hey, we have real jobs outside of ATPM, you know?) We're both very pleased, and our thanks go out to the staff for their efforts. As usual, this issue is available in a variety of flavors for your reading pleasure.

Turly's brought out a universal version of the venerable FinderPop, now a preference pane. I found with earlier builds of the OS X version of FinderPop that I wasn't using it nearly as much as I did under OS 9, due in large part to my use of Quicksilver. However, I can still find a use for FinderPop in my workflow, and I encourage you to give it a go and see if it has a place in your workflow, too.