Apple Mac Laptops for Home
By now many of you know that Apple Mac laptops are part of my daily life. I truly cannot function without one. I use my iPod touch as PDA, sync my calendars and contacts with mobileme.com and basically try and stay completely organized, if that is at all possible.
I truly love Apple.
But, there is always a but, isn’t there? I do find all of that technology to be pricey. Recently I have had discussions with others as to whether Mac computers are the right choices for kids. I certainly find them easier to use than the dreaded Microsoft Windows (is Vista a bad word now?). And honestly, I think their usability is unsurpassed.
The hesitation is the cost. Computers at WalMart like the Toshiba laptops are equally powerful yet only cost half as much. And yes they run the dreaded Windows Vista Home Premium or Basic. And also, many schools also run Microsoft operating systems – so having cheap computers at home that run programs used at school seems like a no brainer.
However, having made the switch to Mac – it is really hard to go back. And even if I would not be the one to use the Vista platform, I would be called upon (often, I’m sure) to troubleshoot. And I can say that I have distanced myself quickly from everything that doesn’t run the Mac OS.
So tell me, do you have Apple Mac laptops for your kids or have you opted for Windows? And do your kids drool, as mine do, every time you pass a Mac Store? I wish there was an easy answer!
Orange “Other” Bar on iPod
If you use an iPod with your Apple Mac laptops then you know what I am talking about.
That pesky orange “other” bar that shows up when you sync. Still don’t know what I mean?
When you sync your iPod with your computer a bar shows up at the bottom of your iTunes window that tells you how much available space you have on your device. This bar is multi colored. Music takes up some space, movies takes some more, applications is yet another chunk (if you use the iPod Touch), photos have their own color, and then that mysterious “other” piece that is colored orange.
What is this other? I really have no clue. And it was never an issue or problem for me because it didn’t take up much space.
That is – until I really started working with my iPhoto library. Of course these kinds of things are never apparent right away.
I had had a busy week on my Mac, updating to newer versions of iTunes and whatever else. I also started reading iPhoto ‘08: The Missing Manual
So, I started creating new events in iPhoto, splitting up old ones, and rearranging the pictures in my entire library which is about 7,000 photos strong.
At some point after this busy week, I synced up my 16GB iPod Touch – and my orange other bar occupied about 3GB of space.
Now I hate these kind of scratch your head moments. I never really noticed the orange bar before. Did it always take up this much space? No, it couldn’t have – I would have noticed it then, wouldn’t I have? Hmmm. Did the software cause the problem? Is there a problem? Maybe a new app, calendar or contact data? What could it be?
On top of that, the iPod Touch seemed a bit sluggish. Nothing I could put my finger on though. The programs seemed a little slow to launch. How do I call customer service on that one? What do I ask?
Up until this point, I had always synced up my entire iPhoto library onto my iPod Touch using Apple Mac laptops. But everything was split up by album. Before I noticed the large other portion I switched to syncing photos by event. Now that I had added all of these events maybe the organization structure of the events was taking up space.
So, I removed all of my photos from my iPod Touch. And what do you know – most of the orange “other” disappeared. Poof!
Now I know that in my case the other was related to iPhoto.
I have not added pictures back onto my device yet. While it was nice to have the whole library at my fingertips - I rarely used it. Once I finish working with my iPhoto library, I will sync up only the events that I need – maybe the most current ones, and see if that doesn’t solve the other problem.
I will let you know what I find out. Does anyone else out there have a problematic other bar and a solution as well?