After 4 years of very faithful service I am retiring the first Mac Book Pro I purchased, its on its way out and I would rather transfer all my files before it gives up the ghost, been out of warranty for a while now.

I know there is the whole PC vs Apple war thing that can be argued indefinitely, I can only tell you what I know. Up to that point in my life, every computer I had purchased was a PC and I had been working on them for years. There are some great things about PCs, don’t get me wrong, like cost. PCs are much more affordable, software is easy to get for any program, etc. If someone needs a basic computer for word processing, editing, emails, etc get a PC and save a bundle. In fact, will have to buy a small notebook PC here soon.

But there were a few things that absolutely drove me nuts about PC’s:

1. All the crashing while editing videos. I had to save the project literally every 1-2 minutes to make sure I could start again once it crashed.

2. All the software patches and security updates that had to be continually installed drove me nuts.

3. The pop ups were out of control. I couldn’t surf the internet without a pop up or security warning.

4. I had lost everything on my hard drive twice to viruses.

While Mac’s were expensive, I had only heard wonderful things about them and decided to take the plunge. In fact, the first one I bought was refurbished, and it gave me all kinds of issues, but Apple replaced it with a brand-new one and holy cow- it was AWESOME.

I am not saying that Macs are not without their problems. My Mac Book still crashes occasionally when editing (about 1-2 times a week). There are still updates and there seem to be more viruses out there specifically attacking Macs. I melted the motherboard, get this…three different times- but each time it was replaced by Apple at no extra charge because it was covered with Apple Care (their 3 year warranty that you have to purchase for about $350).

If you are a photographer or video editor, I would absolutely recommend a Mac and Apple Care without question.

That little laptop has produced over 11 DVD projects, edited countless photos, designed several products, websites, apps, fulfilled all kinds of marketing projects, in addition to all the emails, books, and everything else I have done. After my blog, it was without question the best investment I made for my business.

My new Mac Book Pro should be arriving tomorrow, and I long debated about whether to go with a Solid State Media hard drive or not. Solid State Media drives have been around for a while, and they have some really great advantages. They are also really, really expensive, but for someone who works on a Mac Book every single day, I decided to get the very fastest processor, as much RAM as possible, and also the solid state hard drive. I plan to use it for another 3-4 years, and expect that investment to pay for itself over again in the coming years.

There also used to be a problem with the capacity of these guys, but Apple can install them with 500GB drives. I suspect that with time, they will become cheaper and the capacity will increase as more people buy them.

What are the advantages of Solid State Hard Drives?

1. No moving parts (I am hoping this will help to a degree with the overheating I usually experience)
2. Faster drive access- meaning the start up time is literally a few seconds as compared to 1-2 minutes for the older spinning hard drives. I hate waiting to get going in the morning.
3. Faster read and write speeds- I hear this is a HUGE benefit for photo and video editing. Anything I can do to speed up workflow, I am all for it.
4. Greater durability
5. Silent- This is critically important when I am recording audio.
6. The way files are written are different. There is no lag as the hard drive fills up.
7. Fewer mechanical breakdowns (no moving parts).

I am really looking forward to testing it out and seeing what the functional differences are. I will keep you guys posted.

After 4 years of very faithful service I am retiring the first Mac Book Pro I purchased, its on its way out and I would rather transfer all my files before it gives up the ghost, been out of warranty for a while now.

I know there is the whole PC vs Apple war thing that can be argued indefinitely, I can only tell you what I know. Up to that point in my life, every computer I had purchased was a PC and I had been working on them for years. There are some great things about PCs, don’t get me wrong, like cost. PCs are much more affordable, software is easy to get for any program, etc. If someone needs a basic computer for word processing, editing, emails, etc get a PC and save a bundle. In fact, will have to buy a small notebook PC here soon.

But there were a few things that absolutely drove me nuts about PC’s:

1. All the crashing while editing videos. I had to save the project literally every 1-2 minutes to make sure I could start again once it crashed.

2. All the software patches and security updates that had to be continually installed drove me nuts.

3. The pop ups were out of control. I couldn’t surf the internet without a pop up or security warning.

4. I had lost everything on my hard drive twice to viruses.

While Mac’s were expensive, I had only heard wonderful things about them and decided to take the plunge. In fact, the first one I bought was refurbished, and it gave me all kinds of issues, but Apple replaced it with a brand-new one and holy cow- it was AWESOME.

I am not saying that Macs are not without their problems. My Mac Book still crashes occasionally when editing (about 1-2 times a week). There are still updates and there seem to be more viruses out there specifically attacking Macs. I melted the motherboard, get this…three different times- but each time it was replaced by Apple at no extra charge because it was covered with Apple Care (their 3 year warranty that you have to purchase for about $350).

If you are a photographer or video editor, I would absolutely recommend a Mac and Apple Care without question.

That little laptop has produced over 11 DVD projects, edited countless photos, designed several products, websites, apps, fulfilled all kinds of marketing projects, in addition to all the emails, books, and everything else I have done. After my blog, it was without question the best investment I made for my business.

My new Mac Book Pro should be arriving tomorrow, and I long debated about whether to go with a Solid State Media hard drive or not. Solid State Media drives have been around for a while, and they have some really great advantages. They are also really, really expensive, but for someone who works on a Mac Book every single day, I decided to get the very fastest processor, as much RAM as possible, and also the solid state hard drive. I plan to use it for another 3-4 years, and expect that investment to pay for itself over again in the coming years.

There also used to be a problem with the capacity of these guys, but Apple can install them with 500GB drives. I suspect that with time, they will become cheaper and the capacity will increase as more people buy them.

What are the advantages of Solid State Hard Drives?

1. No moving parts (I am hoping this will help to a degree with the overheating I usually experience)
2. Faster drive access- meaning the start up time is literally a few seconds as compared to 1-2 minutes for the older spinning hard drives. I hate waiting to get going in the morning.
3. Faster read and write speeds- I hear this is a HUGE benefit for photo and video editing. Anything I can do to speed up workflow, I am all for it.
4. Greater durability
5. Silent- This is critically important when I am recording audio.
6. The way files are written are different. There is no lag as the hard drive fills up.
7. Fewer mechanical breakdowns (no moving parts).

I am really looking forward to testing it out and seeing what the functional differences are. I will keep you guys posted.