I’m sorry, I sort of sloughed off a review this week what with various issues. Okay, question: how many of you are Mac people? I am, and part of this week was preparing for the imminent demise of dotmac and the forced migration to iCloud. I’ve been putting it off for a while since, well, I just didn’t freaking feel like it. That, and I didn’t want to go for the expense of upgrading from Leopard to Snow Leopard to Lion (for those of you who don’t know or don’t care, those are the names of the later Mac operating systems. I suggest they put the brakes on before they have to start naming them “Seal-Point Himalayan” or something..) In any case. Apple dangled a free copy of Snow Leopard in front of me so, being one who loves the word “free”, I bit. Then I went to the App Store to upgrade to Lion. Nope. My Macbook came with only 1 gig of memory, and Lion needs at least two. Off to Amazon, where I got 4 gigs for $69 shipped free. Then off to Pioneer Hardware to buy the worlds smallest phillips head screwdriver.
This is the part where I love Apple. Replacing the memory on my Macbook was as follows: Turn off computer. Unplug power cord. Remove battery. Loosen three screws on cover. Pull levers releasing old memory chips. Put in new memory chips. Replace cover and screw in. Replace battery and power cord. Turn computer back on. Then download Lion from App Store for $29. Play Angry Birds on iPhone while Lion downloads.
Now here’s the part where Apple screws up: I signed up for iTunes when it came up, using my Yahoo email address. A year or so later when they introduced their Mac.com free email, I signed up for it, and kept it through it becoming the paid dotmac and then me.com service. The issue is that I can’t combine the two; my iPhone is linked to my .mac address and my computer is tethered to my yahoo one, and Apple hasn’t figured out a way for that to merge. Oh, and my old copy of Office isn’t supported, but I got a free copy of Libre Office, which is fine for what I need (and a great free substitute for Office or even the cheaper Mac versions)
So, just so this isn’t entirely unrelated to perfume, I wore the heck out of Aomassai while doing this (and really, kudos for Apple on the product design. I’m not terribly mechanically clever and I did it in about 10 minutes), and this past weekend I went to the party for the re-opening of ScentBar’s new location. They’ve moved about a mile or so from their old location on Beverly near Sweetzer to Beverly at Martel. The space is much larger than the old one which is nice. In the old space it seemed pretty claustrophobic to have any sort of gathering in there.
In any case, it was a nice time.
Here’s a picture of the old space to give you an idea of how small it was..
I do use some of the function keys, mostly about volume. Mostly visiting shops that insist upon having a soundtrack. Granted I’m working at home, but really, web designers, I know we’re into the new teens and people have high-speed access to the internets from home; there are people who (don’t listen IT people) visit your sites from work. So having your site blaring anything from Vivaldi to Gaga is just telling everyone on the floor that they’re not checking a spreadsheet, they’re checking your site. Which they will never do again.
A tip that several news outlets could also heed to with ads
I thank Apple for the F10 key on that one. Three quick clicks and I’m silent
..
I’ve had a MacBook Pro since about late 2009 after using PCs at work ever since they replaced the Wang. (Yeah, dating myself, and I still wear perfume from the Wang era, too.)
I’ve found it pretty intuitive and problem-free. But there IS one typically Apple quirk that drives me crazy: no delete key! (They call it Delete, but it’s the same as the Back Space key on a PC.) Yet they have a row of function keys across the top that I NEVER use – who needs hardwired screen adjustment keys?? But really it’s a beautiful machine with so much perfect design, like the wonderful touchpad.
Love the photos of the Scent Bar – lucky you to have direct access to the Shrine!
urgh… have to upgrade to the cloud here, too. hadn’t even considered that i might need more memory. guess i need to investigate. thanks for the heads up! other than this, i have enjoyed having my macbook since 2008.
not sure which perfume i’ll use to see me through the transition to the cloud. songes, maybe?
You’ll likely need it, unless you popped for more memory at the time. But really, changing is so easy..
We are recent Mac converts due to the iPhone. My husband, who is the tech-god of our house, never had much time for them but the perfect storm occurred when it became clear that Windows ‘bugginess’ and susceptibility to viruses was not a short-term problem and Mac really started it ascent via the iPhone. Now, we have 2 iPod nano’s, 2 iPhone, 1 iPad, and are currently shopping for a MacBook Air. So far iCloud has been painless by the way!
Glad you’re liking iCloud.
The MacBook Air is a nice machine.
P.S. The old G4 I retired, is now connected to the home entertainment system as an archival storage unit for all our home’s music and movies! I believe the music alone would play continuously without repeat for about 40 hours. Great system and a wonderful option as to what to do with your old Mac.
That is a great idea!
i have been a Mac fan since the beginning of time! Was upgraded at Christmas to a Mac Mini which is a nice little machine for the more budget conscious among us. Before that it was a dual processor G4, which, when I retired it, was about 15 years old, and still faster than current PCs. The other advantage I always enjoyed is that almost no one writes viruses and trojans and the like, for Mac. So I guess I am a die-hard Mac devotee! My youngest daughter was computer savvy at about 4 or 5 years old on the Mac. PCs take a little more maturity to master. As for repairability, you cant beat the Mac. Most all of them are easy to upgrade, repair, etc. in the comfort of your home. So, if I were recommending a computer to the functionally computer illiterate out there, it would most definitely be a Mac. Think different!
For those of you that didn’t know, I am loverdoll78264.
completely agree..
Come to think of it, the only Apple product that I own is an iPod. At this point, I cannot justify sinking a minimum of $1,200 on a computer. Even though my sister has a Mac, she can justify it by being in school. After 8 years of having a dumb phone, I finally went the Android/smartphone route and never going back even though the data plan that I have eats up $30 of my perfume budget every month.
I can understand that, but the laptops start at less than $1000. I bought my Macbook for about that 5 years ago and with this upgrade I fully expect 5 more years. (I plan on upgrading the hard drive to a bigger one, which is also very easy on these). My BFF has gone through two $800 Dells in that 5 years.
Just sayin’
I started on a PC, back in the 386 era then, when I worked for a design-y company, fell in love with Mac. So simple to use, for a techno-fail like me. But I lucked out in that my company peeps kept my stuff in order. Otherwise I’d probably still be on my Blueberry 🙂
Resistance is futile, with the upgrades though, innit. But the names are getting sillier. Eventually they are going to run out of cats.
New Scent Bar looks way more comfortable. As much as people love them, they couldn’t seem to help using the words “claustrophobic’, ‘hot’ , ‘tiny’ etc – this new space will allow them to focus more on the perfumes.
xo :Devil:
And put more of them out there. There was limited space at the old place even to display stuff.
Kudos to you for dealing with all that upgrading! It wears me out just to think about (tho you’re right, Apple makes some of it relatively simple, thank god). I still haven’t faced iCloud. Soon. It is so soothing to have to have the scent of a beloved perfume wafting in the background as I try to deal with computers; I keep several bottles right next to my Mac (even tho I work from home and the whole collection is only steps away) for just such emergencies. Glad the Aomassai was there to help you!
The only pain-part is the amount of time it takes. I updated 2 OS’s and hardware and the biggest wait was downloading Lion from the App store.
I’ve never tried to upgrade a PC and the idea gives me the Fantods.
PCs are a mystery to me–Macs strain my tech-poor brain enough as it is.
Pretty much. I won’t even change a flat tire.
Hi, Tom, good for you for getting that done. One thing off the list. And thanks for the photos — I never knew how tiny ScentBar was, At full capacity, not the best place for folks to be spritzing away, I can imagine.
It was very small. The new place is a lot nicer.
I am in the throes of trying to convince my parents to replace their dead PC with a Mac of some stripe. They are resisting it as if I were suggesting a visit to a death camp. You’d recommend Apple to anyone, right? Even older folks who don’t like new things and just want to do internet banking and send emails, right?
Perfume people know best about ALL matters 🙂
I would definitely recommend a Mac to them. If all they do is internet banking and email I would say get an older mac or the cheapest new one. They’re a little pricier, but in the past 12 years I’ve had 2 computers (and could still use my old iBook) as opposed to 5 PC’s at work.
Yep, that’s the kind of thing we tell them. Seems they’re going to accept our old-ish Mac Mini, demonstrating it tomorrow. Let’s hope they’re wowed by the smooth joy of it all.
Hey, I’d be wowed by the free computer..