I was converted from PC to a Mac in 2007 and I haven’t looked back. The transition took a bit of time (mostly because of my nerves and I was paranoid I’d lose all data in a big fiery mess) and I’m not sure I would have taken the plunge if not for the support and patience of my husband. Having that extra bit of motivation, or knowing you have a bit of a safety net, makes taking that leap that much easier.

I was recently approached by Macinhome to do a contest involving their services and I thought it would be a great idea. I have not used their services, nor have they paid me to write this post however I sincerely appreciate “going to the pros” when there’s an issue or if you need help. Macs are incredibly user-friendly but if coming from a Windows background there is a learning curve. I’m just hoping to pass on a bit of assistance to a reader so that they can avoid some of the headaches I endured.

Macinhome is listed on the official Certified Apple Consultants list and is locally owned and operated. They also have an arsenal of Windows pros so they’re no stranger to multiple operating systems.

They offer several services including everything from iCal tutorials, to setting you up on your Mac (going from the box, to everyday use) and helping you convert from a PC to an Apple computer.

I’m sure you could spend time trying to figure things out for yourself but having some help is always beneficial — which is why I even created a full category on my site for Mac vs PC.

The contest is for a Macinhome consultation, which will go to one reader who needs some Mac support.

Prize description:
Two hour spa treatment for your Mac, with some tutoring on getting the most from your setup – (valued at $190). An Apple-certified Macinhome consultant will visit your home to basically perform a tune up on your Mac, doing the computer equivalent of an oil change & tire rotation.

How to enter:
If you have a story about how you switched from a PC to a Mac, about why you love using a Mac, or even some of your frustrations, please share it in the comments to enter. I’ll draw a winner on Thursday, August 27th.

John comes from a proud line of Macintosh users and in 2007 he converted me into an Apple fan girl — and I haven’t looked back. Recently we needed to upgrade our arsenal (you know since having a Powerbook, Macbook, and iMac just wasn’t enough) and were on the market for a shiny new Macbook Pro for our business.

I had purchased my Macbook from one of the big box stores and I do cherish the official Apple Store experience however since we are a local company, I thought it would be best to support another Vancouver-based business with this decision. As a result when Simply Computing added me on Twitter (@Simplydotca) I took it as a sign and decided to pay them a visit at their Broadway location.

The staff at Simply Computing was friendly, courteous, and well… they’re all Mac geeks like us. They know the product (since it’s their specialty) and even while I was there an associate was talking about how he became Apple Certified for Aperture. They’re the largest independent Apple dealer in BC (with seven locations around the province) and have been in business of providing Apple products and care since 1983. In 2008 they were also awarded Apple’s Commitment to Excellence Award for outstanding service.

I ended up getting a 15″ Macbook Pro for sixty4media that will be John‘s on-the-go machine. It’s everything we knew we were getting into and more since Simply tossed in a copy of Undercover for free (which every customer gets, not just us). This software helps retrieve a stolen Macbook by tracking and locating the computer (kind of like this, but in a more intended way).

To be honest, the Simply Computing retail location on Broadway isn’t “sexy” like the Apple Store by any means, but what they lack in decor they make up for in service, customer & technical support, and product knowledge. Aside from the Vancouver location you can visit them in White Rock and Langley (I hear the Langley store in Willowbrook is pretty fancy) as well as Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops and Thompson Rivers University.

We’re very pleased with our purchase and also with the fact that should we need service on any of our Apple products, it can be taken care of expeditiously at a local location.

Disclosure: I was not paid to write this review and we paid for the Macbook

Over the last few weeks my company, sixty4media, has themed, coded, and tweaked quite a few WordPress sites (and even more over the years before we even had the company). I am often asked what I use to code or theme so here are some of the tools that make my life a whole lot easier.

MAMP
MAMP allows you to run a mini WordPress web server from your computer so that you can theme sites locally, without having them published online or on a development site.

FTP
You need a good FTP application for uploading files and images on the fly. I’m using Cyberduck right now but I’ve had many suggestions for more productive tools (and I can’t for the life of me remember the one that Tod recommended).

Smultron
For Mac OS X and Leopard
A great text editor (used for PHP files) that works nicely with Cyberduck by selecting it as your file editor under preferences. It colour-codes nicely and is very simple to use.

CSS Edit
MacRabbit – CSS Edit (for Macs only)
All in one CSS editing tool. Allows you to eyedrop colours, shows your properties in a sidebar, knows where to place brackets etc. and even auto-completes some elements. In the sidebar it also displays colours on anything that has a background colour ie. if your footer is blue, it will show up blue in the sidebar list.

WordPress Codex
This last one isn’t downloadable, the codex is an online resource for all issues, questions, and reference materials in the WordPress realm.

This has also been published on sixty4media’s blog.

Microsoft produced this to address the “I’m a Mac / I’m a PC” ads about a month ago:

Several celebrities are visible throughout the campaign, including company co-founder Bill Gates, Deepak Chopra, and Eva Longoria; Microsoft employees, including Gates, have an @windows.com e-mail address attached to their appearances to emphasize their human connection.

Two shorter ads have also appeared with a similar exploration of the theme where people in various jobs explain how they wear different kinds of suits or are not alone, again tackling what Microsoft perceives as stereotypes of the average Windows user. [Electronista]

… and then Apple responded:

For PC users who are tired of Mac users telling them how much their productivity could be improved with an Apple system (and how your computer won’t crash all the time, and your operating system won’t suck) don’t worry, Apple still only has barely 10% of the marketshare… but they are gaining momentum so the smugness will only continue.

I’ve had my MacBook since early 2007 and although switching wasn’t easy (for someone who grew up on Microsoft… and who doesn’t do well with change) I shut down my Frankenbox PC that very day and it hasn’t been fired up since.

Today Apple announced their new 13 inch MacBook and 15 inch MacBook Pro, and aside from referring you to the official “How it’s Made” video featuring Coldplay, here’s a quick rundown of some of the new MacBook’s features:

I was never really tempted by the Air but these gems are rather captivating (mouth-watering more like it). Since John’s Powerbook is almost five years old (and I was also the only one of us to get an iPhone last year), you can bet that it’ll be at the top of his Christmas list this year. Time for me to save up.

I’ve been using Firefox for about four years and they recently unleashed Firefox 3 which touts: Increased security, wicked-fast loading times, heightened security, and new UI improvements, including default themes for different operating systems and new download manager [wiki] not to mention basics like tabbed browsing and spell-checker.

I’m a fan of “add-ons” like the del.icio.us toolbar and Firebug, and I use to be all over themes although not since my days of being a Windows user have I truly tricked out any application or got a new skin for Winamp. Now it feels as awkward as peeling the backing and placing that first sticker on your pristine Macbook – some say it enhances while other say it’s simply ruined now. However, what I’m hearing lately is that the themes for Firefox 3 are pretty freakin’ cool, so I’m willing to try out a couple.

- There’s one that makes it look like you’re running Vista (if you’re on XP), and another that simulates XP (if you’re on Vista). These are also available on Kubuntu Linux.

- There’s also an XP on Vista with a green theme.

- Andy wrote about some sleek Mac-styled themes for FF3

- Pimpzilla (themed for my pleasure) is hilariously fun – and note the leopard print.

- CrystalFox Qute 1.0.3 is decent, although I like CrystalFox Modern a little more.

- From the Top Ten Firefox 3 Themes, there’s also the nicely rounded AzertyIII.

You can search for themes directly on the Firefox website and chose the advanced search properties to narrow down the results based on the version you are running.

Things to remember when looking for a theme a) is it available for the current version of the browser you are running b) is it available for MacOSX (which pertains to me anyway). If you have a favourite theme for FF3, drop a link in the comments below.

Update: Another form of customization is to change around the toolbars, giving you more browsing space. I found these tips on LifeHacker via Sameer Vasta over Twitter.

I started doing screencasts in a professional capacity last year and since then the tools have become much easier to use and I’m finding folks are really receptive to the “quick tips” I’ve been offering. As a refresher, I wrote a post last summer about Screencasting Tools and I’ve done a few WordPress tutorials using screencasts.

The latest this week have been featured on SimpleHelp, a site all about quick tips for beginners to the 733t crowd. Here are the three “How To” screencasts I produced.

You can view more on my Viddler profile or under the “My Recent Screencast” section in the sidebar of this blog.

Photo credit: Paul Hillsdon on Flickr

At 10:00am on May 24th, 2008 Vancouver’s first Apple Store will open its doors in Pacific Centre.

More info:

- Grand Opening Pacific Centre
- Apple Store Grand Opening May 34
- Apple Store Opening May 24 Pacific Centre
- Apple Store Vancouver to Open May 24
- H&M Vancouver and the Apple Store, A Match Made in Heaven
- Odds and Ends, Apple Store in Vancouver

No more ordering online, going to Future Shop where the service is less than impressive and no more driving down to Alderwood Mall to check out the latest gadgets and to oggle the geeks at the Genius Bar. Vancouver now has its very own place for Mac fan boys and girls, months earlier than expected.

On a related note, did you know that an Apple Store is one of the top places for ladies to meet the men of their dreams? No lie. The funny thing is, I didn’t read about this article in Cosmo myself, I was passed the link by a group of Vancouver’s techies this afternoon.

Hot spot: The Apple store
The draw: Most guys are natural gadget lovers, and with sales of iPods and MacBooks skyrocketing, more men than ever are stopping by Apple boutiques. The vibe at the stores is conducive to man meeting too: You can check your email among cuties, take a free workshop on anything from Photoshop to podcasting (a great opportunity to strike up a conversation), or just survey the, ahem, good-looking merchandise. (Cosmo / via: Mac.Blorge)

So while the ladies (or men) are next door at H&M picking out that outfit for clubbing on Granville later that evening keep in mind, you may not even make it as far as the bar. Mosey over to the Apple Store to check out the geeky eye candy at a workshop, the Genius bar, to book some one to one time or talk about the trouble you could get into at AppleCamp.

I sometimes find that my fingers go faster on he keyboard than my brain can spew out thoughts. I’m often auto-completing words that begin the same as a frequently typed word I’m thinking about, but in the end – they end up as typos. Example: Chick Flick becomes Chick Flickr, Dance becomes Duane. Such a thing could make for an amusing post, if left unaltered.

On a similar note, I sat down at my mother’s PC the other day and realized that over the last year my fingers had been completely retrained to use Macs. I would normally place them a certain way to open another tab in Firefox, however my left ring finger now had to extend a little further to press the CTRL button, with the “T” following it. If this isn’t the proper finger positioning per grade school keyboarding, I have no excuse aside from the fact that I taught myself to type expediently before such a class was taken.

Photo Credit: John Biehler on Flickr

Indulge my geekiness here while I share my top five basic/fave keyboard shortcuts that are conducive to speedy computing:

Okay, that was more than five, but feel free to share if you have any of your own – for Mac or PC.

Ever since Tod Maffin‘s session at Barcamp I’ve been thinking about getting me some silicone. I have a nice, white, pristine MacBook and I need to protect it somehow.

Yesterday at the Apple Store in good ol’ Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, WA I checked out some possible keyboard covers. They were clear or white and cost $29.99 USD. I brought them over to John and he said ya know, we could probably just get that stuff at Future Shop or London Drugs. Well, he was right. I walked into London Drugs this afternoon and found me a silicone cover for $17.99.

Would anyone like to help me out with my silicone issue? I’d really like a cover like John Biehler‘s, I think his is green. Hey John! Where did you get yours? I’d prefer not to buy it online… I’d just like to find a local store that has a simple keyboard (only) cover for the MacBook 13.3″. If anyone can help me out, get me a deal or supply with me one I’d fully promote the heck of out it on my site, thanks!