I am so tempted to get an iPad for e-books if nothing else. I have to get rid of the vast majority of my books (thousands) to downsize from a house to an apartment. In the future, it would be nice if my home library acquisitions could be in electronic form for the sake of floor space.

So here's an amusing story for all you Macheads:

Jack got the new iPhone4 for me for my birthday yesterday. Cool, right? I was all excited to start using it but when I plugged it in to update it, it informed me that I had to upgrade my version of iTunes to be able to use my phone.

I hit the little "software update" thing and it kept saying "no new updates found". :|

Eventually, after a little research I discovered that in order to update my iTunes to 10, that I would have to upgrade Safari.

Tried to upgrade Safari and was informed that I had to upgrade my entire OS! I was still running Leopard 10.2 :)

So after overnighting the Snow Leopard disk to myself, a 4 hour backup, and 3 different downloads, I'm finally able to use my iPhone! WEEEEE!

I'm still nearly stuck in the stone age with a narcoleptic ipod photo and a hp ipod with the hiccups. My nano is 2nd gen and for some reason my click wheel sticks. But I have found one nicety if I want a newer model check the refurbished area on the iStore. You can buy new previous gen models for cutrate prices. I'm also considering the refurbished 8 gig iPod Touch. Only $99 what a deal.

While I like my iPad for many things - reading is not one of them. This is particularly true if you're a voracious reader. I have a Kindle for reading and that goes with me everywhere. It's way cheaper and super light/easy to hold for hours. Sometimes a dedicated device is a better option. :)

Joining the iPod revolution... all over again....
 

I've had an iPod nano for several years now. I just ran out of room on it for all my music, so got some $$ for my birthday and ordered the black 160gb iPod classic (most recent generation).

I cannot WAIT to transfer all of my audio tapes, LP's and CD's to digital format. I was (still am) a huge Genesis fan back in my teen years and have lots and lots and lots of stuff to archive before the stuff gets too old to transfer..... Also splurged a little and got myself a copy of Roxio Creator Pro 2011 so I can do all kinds of neat things including audio and video editing (which will work great now I have a digital camera that shoots video in stereo).

Any of you do all these neat things for a hobby?

If so, can you please point me in the right direction as to the right kind of cord I am going to need to plug into my stereo on one end and my computer's USB drive on the other end?

Thanks! I am really excited about this and can't wait to start....it really sounds cool!

Dressy

Dressy! This sounds like a fun project!

I, too, LOVE me some Genesis and if it's on a record with a few crackly scratches? Even better!

I know there are turntable/cassette combos out there that will transfer your digital for you for the best sound quality (this is the one I like: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Ion-TTUSB-Turntable-USB-Record/dp/B000BUEMOO"]http://www.amazon.com/Ion-TTUSB-Turntable-USB-Record/dp/B000BUEMOO[/ame]) but I believe you can use a regular headphone cable on your "output" jack on your turntable or tuner and plug it directly to your "input" jack on your laptop.

Then you can use a program like Audacity (FREE!) http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ to read the music into your system.

You will probably have to play with it a bit to get the sound quality where you want it but it's fairly easy.

Sounds like a FUN project!

why not get a Nook? it's cheaper and offers color. I love ebook and bought a Kindle but sent it back. I have Kindle for my mini pc and like it a lot. I want Ipad. I have an Iphone 4 and love love love it

I've never used it but used it's predecessors, FileMaker. They are usually pretty straightforward and easy. This should be fine for more home/Small Business needs but if the intent is to have 1,000,000 transactions as second it might be a bit of a lightweight.

Personally, I prefer MySQL instead (through the use of LAMP -- Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP)

I am having Mac envy I had a unibody clamshell mac that a friend gave me. It suffered a horrible death and I am now in Mac withdrawl.

I am a complete Mac fiend. At home I run a 2 yr. old Mac Pro that I brought up to 12 gigs of RAM. That baby is my third Mac since 1998. I, also have a 3G/WiFi iPad that I carry with me all the time. It is a fabulous piece of technology, that I would recommend to anyone. The new iPad is even better it seems. More memory, faster graphics, bigger flash drive, both a video and still camera.

I have to use PCs at work. They are just not the same as Macs. Apple's OSX is a much superior OS than anything Microsoft has come up with, IMO, based on my experience with both systems.

Regarding Bento, I don't use it because it isn't a program I need. The reviews on it seem to be quite decent, however. If I needed a database program, I would probably choose Bento because the reviews have been so good. Hope that helps.

It is possible to run Windows & PC apps on the newer Macs with Intel chips & the Unix based OS X on board. There is specific software for this. 'Course, the problem is still with Windows, but....

I just got an Ipod. Still foguring it out! :)

Get my company's software, Fusion. This avoids having to partition one's hard drive and you can still run those weird Windows apps as needed. :cheesy:

I do not get anything for promoting it here other than the satisfaction of knowing that it works well (fast! Heck, my former WinXP image/VM runs faster on my Mac than it did my PC) and leaves you with flexibility to do things. :)

Incubus: you may want to look into Open Office, a nice, open source alternative to MS Office.

Definitely recommend open office for macs. It is excellent far better in ways to MS Office.