Mac Vs PC, the heated debate among nerds alike

In the personal computing world the most asked and heated debate ever has to be the debate if a Mac is better than a PC and vice versa. So to clear this old debate up I have researched the pros and cons of both the PC and Mac (I have tried to make this as unbiased as I can, MAC FTW!)

Innovation as shown above

Having taken a look at the low market shares of Apple, we can see generally the Mac does not sell as well as a Windows PC however this is just the game plan Apple have in mind of creating high quality machines and technology and generally don’t aspire to create “low end” machines in which some Windows machines hold. If you were to simplify this sentence it would read “The PC is generally your everyday (in personal experience not reliable) Toyota Yaris let’s say, and the Mac is the super shiny highly adored Bugatti Veyron.” To go even deeper into simplicity, the more money you pay the better quality.

The Mac design is something of true beauty to a nerd (like me!). Thin, lightweight and generally just works. Compare this to a Windows PC designed by a scribble on a piece of paper and the rest from there off the top of an average Joe’s brain. The PC never seems to excite or explore. They’re bulky and have poor design and cheap fiddly plastic parts. Apple seems to innovate and look at the small points and think “How could we make this better for our consumers?” They introduced the MagSafe power adapter which brought the costs of tripping over laptop chargers less costly and safer and many other little things that add up to make the Mac the greatest piece of personal computing available today.

The speed and the layout of OSX is just a pleasure to use, everything just works out of the box and no need to install drivers and no need to go round uninstalling software that you wouldn’t use given to you by the manufacturer (Mac 100 – PC 0). Little enough to say no activation technology on a Mac which is generally Microsoft’s excuse for “Bill Gates to scrape every last penny from your bank account, piggy bank and the secret fund you have hidden from your wife between the books in the book shelf” into his pocket. 

I tried to make this as unbiased as I could, but there’s nothing nice about the PC!

Satellite Internet Technology And What It Means To You

If you live in a rural region, one of the most reliable ways to get internet service is through satellite broadband.  This differs from mobile broadband which operates by using a wireless card plugged into a USB port on your computer and an existing cellular tower.  With satellite service, you are using actual satellites located thousands of miles above the earth’s surface as well as a satellite dish and modem connected to your computer.  

Satellite broadband connections are some of the most tried and true methods of getting on the internet while living outside a metropolitan area.  While there are both good and not so good points, the overall aspect of satellite broadband is getting better, mainly thanks to lower rates as companies try to keep up with other broadband providers.  In addition, using satellite broadband connections allow users to have instant access at any time and you can also make a connection on a mobile device such as a laptop as well.  

 

 

However, there are some aspects of satellite internet connections that consumers need to be aware of.  One is that the service suffers from high latency.  This is due to the great distance that the signal must travel.   Satellite broadband connections rely on geostationary satellites in orbit above the equator at an altitude of almost 23,000 miles.  Even though the signal is traveling at the speed of light which is 186,000 miles per second the distance is still significant.  In fact, the signal will have to make a several thousand mile round trip and as a result the signal delay can be as much as 500 to 900 milliseconds.  While this is not noticeable when doing normal web surfing or emailing, it creates an issue when trying to participate in live interactive games or instant messaging.  Some games are still able to be played, but there will be that slight delay of half a second or more.  
One way around this issue is to use a company that has medium earth orbit or low earth orbit satellites.  These are not as high and therefore do not have as great of delays.  Current systems using Globalstar and Iridium satellites have a delay of only 40 milliseconds round trip which is considerably better than the delay with a geostationary satellite.  However, these satellite services are designed primarily for commercial use.  For residential use you can use WildBlue.  There are even plans for more satellite launches in both 2012 and 2015 that could cut the latency as low as 7 milliseconds for satellite broadband connections.  
 

In addition, consumers need to be aware that satellite broadband connections are subject to atmospheric conditions such as sunspots and even rain.  These two events will result in the signal being subjected to fading in and out.  Drop outs can also happen if you are using the signal on the go such as in a mobile laptop.  In addition, consumers must have a clear shot to the south as that is the direction the satellite dish must face as the satellites themselves are above the equator.

 
In all, satellite is well established and a dependable way to access the internet while in the country.  
This post was written by MyBlueDish.com.  MyBlueDish.com is the best place to get resourceful information about satellite internet service.

Blackberry vs iPhone

With RIM and Apple increasingly becoming two of the biggest mobile phone giants around now with over 30million people worldwide owning a BlackBerry handset and over 73.5million iPhones sold at the end of 2010. But ideally which one is the best? I have been studying the BlackBerry Torch and Apple’s latest iPhone 4 in different categories and here are the results.

The Screen

From first glance the iPhones screen wins straight away. With more pixels than the human eye can distinguish at 640x960 you can see why the iPhone wins this round of a fight from the two phone giants. The BlackBerry isn’t fully dismissed; it still has a crisp and high quality bright 360x480 pixel screen.

Power

In the past some BlackBerrys processing power hasn’t always been up to scratch and at some points ran at a snail’s pace.  This is clearly a different story with the BlackBerry Torch, it handles multitasking smoothly without the need of an enhanced processor. The BlackBerry Torch really does shine in this category compared to the iPhone 4’s 1GHZ processor which lacks memory management making multitasking somewhat sluggish.

Web Browser

With the iPhone 4 running Apple’s own Safari web browser you’d expect the same high quality as you’d get on your Mac at home or PC running the desktop version of Safari however we feel the BlackBerry’s new and improved Webkit browser does the job on a better scale. The Webkit browser just renders the websites much better and the tabbed browsing is just superior to Apple’s safari.

Apps

Previous iPhone owners will know that Apple’s App Store is blooming with apps free and paid for at a reasonable price beating BlackBerry’s App World with a limited range of apps with generally high prices and limited generally to business based apps. To RIM there is always time to improve with the release of APIs for developers coming soon.

Keyboard

Everything in this day in age is made of touchscreen technology. Somehow I feel it just doesn’t always work, for instance its winter you’re wearing gloves and you receive a text, you take out your iPhone for example to read the text although the touchscreen will not work with your glove still on, this means you have to then take your glove off and risk your once toasty fingers to read a text. The BlackBerry Torch however has the best of both worlds, an optional touchscreen keyboard or a physical form QWERTY slide down keyboard for ease of use. Touchscreens can take some time to get used where as physical form just works straight away.

Operating System

Both phones have a powerful easy to use OS, the current IOS4 for iPhone is a vast improvement on previous versions of IOS adding multitasking and universal inbox support. RIM has already supported some of these elements so in their OS they have made the BlackBerry experience a bit more user friendly and a universal search tool to compete with Apple’s Spotlight search support.

Memory

Apple have still not realised that people are always going to want to expand the memory on their device for pictures, music and more forms of media. The iPhone still possesses no form of memory expansion like a microSD slot. The BlackBerry therefor wins this battle with microSD support currently supporting up to 32GB memory cards and even more when higher capacity cards become available.

Camera

The iPhone 4 boasts a 5 megapixel HD camera and also a secondary camera for use with Apple’s FaceTime video calling facility making this clearly the overall winner. The BlackBerry also has a 5 megapixel camera but doesn’t record videos in 720p HD, although the BlackBerry image quality has always been great the iPhone just has the crisper edge.

Battery Life

The battery life of a BlackBerry has always been excellent thanks to its in house data management system running efficiently, however Apple have improved with the latest iPhone on battery life but it still doesn’t come close to the mark of the stamina of a BlackBerry.

Overall

To tie it all up if you’re looking for a stylish and practical phone the iPhone 4 is for you. It’s easy to use and the HD recording facility is great to capture them memories on the move. If you’re looking for an all-round performer and great physical form QWERTY keyboard the BlackBerry is for you, with memory expansion and smooth multi-tasking. They’re both winners but at the end of the day it’s what suites the user.