Mac OS X Lion – Have you upgraded?

July 28, 2011 by John Dilbeck · 9 Comments
Filed under: Apple Computer, Mac OS X, Macintosh, iCloud, iOS, iPad

This article is for my fellow Macintosh users and may not be of any interest to you if you don’t have a Mac or plan to buy one.

Mac OS X Lion

On July 21, 2011, Apple announced, “Lion Downloads Top One Million in First Day.”

The announcement went on to say, “Apple® today announced that in just one day, over one million users bought and downloaded Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system.”

I’ve been reading about Lion for some time and I recently watched, for the third time, the video of the June 6, 2011 keynote presentation at the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC).

Since then, I’ve read everything I can find concerning news and reviews of Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud. This fall, we’re going to see an incredible leap forward in utility and ease of use for Apple products — if it all works well.

Graphic of the Mac App Store showing OS X Lion

Purchase Mac OS X from the Mac App Store

For the first time ever, the newest version of Mac OS X 10.7, called Lion, was released as a download from the new Mac App Store. Traditionally, new versions of Mac OS X have cost $129.00 and could be installed on one computer. With the release of Lion, the price was dropped to $29.00 and it can be installed — legally — on all computers in the household that have the same Apple ID. In my case, that’s two computers, so that means it’ll cost $29.00, instead of $238, to upgrade to Lion.

Caution! Warning! Be Aware!

This is a major upgrade to Mac OS X and you need to do a few things before impulsively installing the upgrade.

There are a few things you need to know before upgrading to Lion.

Apple says this:

Step 1:
Make sure your Mac can run Lion.
Your Mac must have an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor to run Lion. Find out if your current Mac has one of these processors by clicking the Apple icon at the top left of your screen, then choosing About This Mac.

Step 2:
Make sure you have the latest version of Snow Leopard.
Get up to date with the latest version of OS X Snow Leopard to purchase OS X Lion from the Mac App Store. If you have Snow Leopard, click the Apple icon and choose Software Update to install Snow Leopard v10.6.8, the latest version.

Step 3:
Download OS X Lion from the Mac App Store.

Your system also needs at least 7 GB of available disk space and a minimum of 2 GB of RAM.

You should also be aware that many older applications written for PowerPC processors worked in Mac OS X version 1.6.x Snow Leopard, using emulation software called Rosetta. None of those applications will work with Lion. This includes a large number of popular applications such as older versions of Photoshop, Quicken, Quickbooks, Microsoft Office, and many others. If you use these applications, you should check with their manufacturers to see if there is an upgrade path to versions that will work with Lion. Upgrading your software may be expensive, so you may want to consider alternatives.

A few examples of alternative applications

I bought professional-level software decades ago and have been using it until now. With the change to Lion, many of the apps will no longer work, and I decided not to pursue the upgrade path (and expense) offered by the original vendors. So, I went looking for alternatives.

For decades I’ve done my business accounting with QuickBooks. Rather than upgrade, I’ve switched to a cloud-based accounting system called Kashoo. It is accessible via browser, so it can be used by Windows and Mac users (and others) as long as you use a compatible browser. I use Safari and it works fine.

They recently released an app that is supposed to be a free, stand-alone accounting system that runs on iPad (not iPhone or iPod). It is also said to interface with the online version of Kashoo. I have not tried it, but I plan to get the app as soon as I buy an iPad. I won’t recommend it until I try it, but you can read about it: Kashoo Accounting – Kashoo, Inc.

I’ve replaced Photoshop with a nice application called Pixelmator, from the Pixelmator Team. It does everything I did in Photoshop at a fraction of the price. It is developed specifically for Mac OS X and takes advantage of many operating system features not available in other photo and image editing software. I’ve been using it for months and it has performed flawlessly (except for about a week when they released the upgrade for Lion and it quit working on Snow Leopard — this has been fixed and the current version runs on both).

I haven’t used Microsoft Office for nearly 20 years. Until last year, I’ve been using OpenOffice and then changed to NeoOffice (a version that has been adapted for Macs). Last year, I started using Apple’s products, instead. For word processing and desktop publishing, I use Pages, from Apple®. For spreadsheets, I use Numbers, from Apple®. For presentations, I use Keynote, from Apple®. All of them do everything I need and more.

There are other applications that won’t work on Lion and there are a many alternatives. I’ll stop here. These are the products that I use in my business and I rely on them.

Learn more about Lion

You can learn more about OS X Lion – Apple® in the Mac App Store.

Bleeding Edge of Technology

I’ve been using Macintosh computers since 1984, when they were first introduced. In my youth, I lived on the leading edge of technology (as it pertains to Macs) and would upgrade as soon as a new version of the operating system was available and I would buy and install new applications as soon as possible.

Later, I joined the Apple developer program and had access to beta releases of the software. That’s when I moved from the leading edge of technology to the bleeding edge.

As is usual with most beta software, there are bugs that haven’t been found and squashed, yet. (While this is true in all software, it’s a bigger problem in beta software that is not ready for general release and use.)

Over the years, I got burned a few times by installing pre-release software on the computers I depended upon for earning a living. Sometimes a new install would necessitate days of problem solving before the system became stable, again.

Wiser as I age

I like to imagine that I’ve learned from my experiences and have gotten wiser.

(The truth may be that I’ve gotten lazier and don’t want to deal with unnecessary problems.)

So, as much as I want to go ahead and purchase Lion and install it on my business computers, I’m taking a short “wait and see” look at what others are experiencing.

I’m reading many, many glowing reports of how easy the installation process is and how well the new system works. I’m also finding a lesser number of reports of the system not recognizing a hard disk, errors with disk partitions, application compatibility problems, and other assorted problems associated with upgrading to a new major operating system version.

For the last 15 years, I have waited to upgrade to major releases of operating systems or applications until the first maintenance “bug squashing” update. So, that means that I would rather wait to install version 10.7.1 rather than 10.7.

I’m tingling all over

I want to learn this new system and put it to work as soon as possible, because I want to be up to speed and ready when iOS 5 and iCloud are released in a few weeks.

So, even though the rational, logical voices in my head are saying things like, “be patient,” and “it’ll be better if you wait,” the exuberant, passionate voices are screaming, “DO IT! DO IT NOW!”

As I see that the reports are mostly that the installation went very well and people are loving the new OS, I’m paying more attention to the voices that are screaming at me to do the upgrade now.

Have you upgraded? How did it go for you?

So, I’m seeking your advice and reviews. (Thank you very much, in advance!)

Have you already purchased and installed OS X Lion?

How did it go for you?

If you were a voice in my head, what would you be whispering or screaming?

(Keep it clean now, there may be children and immature adults reading this.)

Act on your dream!

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Tags: Apple, Mac App Store, Mac OS X, Macintosh, operating system, upgrade

The Beatles are now on iTunes

November 17, 2010 by John Dilbeck · 2 Comments
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Apple Computer, Music

After fighting for decades over the “Apple” name, Apple Computer and Apple Records came to an agreement that was announced on Tuesday, November 16, 2010. Now, you can purchase songs by The Beatles on iTunes, and I’ll be buying some and adding others to my wish list.

Whether you want to buy the complete boxed set (for less than $200) or want to pick and choose your favorites (at $1.29 each), there’s something there for just about every music lover.

I was looking through their albums this morning and remembered that I never bought an album from The Beatles where I liked every song, but some of the songs I love (like Rocky Racoon) aren’t very well known.

Now, I can go to iTunes and buy one song or several, when the mood strikes me. Over time, I can build a library of my favorites without having to pay for the songs I don’t like.

However, I may buy a couple of albums, even when they include some songs I don’t like, because the cost of buying the whole album is less than buying just the songs I like.

That’s the beauty of this deal. Now we can buy our favorite songs by The Beatles in just the way we want: by song, by album, or get the entire collection.

There’s going to be a new playlist on my iPod when I get around to doing it.

What are you waiting for? Check it out as soon as you can.
The Beatles. The band that changed everything, now on iTunes!

(By the way, if you’re an affiliate marketer, iTunes and the App store are available on LinkShare. You can earn commissions by promoting hundreds of outstanding businesses if you join LinkShare. You’ll have to be approved by the individual businesses, of course.)

(Click the button to learn more and to sign up as a LinkShare affiliate.)

And, while we’re thinking of The Beatles, there are several excellent posters of them available from art.com:

I was listening to songs this morning that I haven’t heard in decades. I really enjoy some of their music.

The Beatles — welcome to iTunes!

Tags: Apple Computer, Apple Records, iTunes, music, songs, The Beatles

iPad is incredible – Apple has done it again!

January 28, 2010 by John Dilbeck · 16 Comments
Filed under: Apple Computer, Opinions

I’ve been a fan of Apple and the Macintosh for a long, long time.

But, I’m not much of a fan of mobile computers, devices, or phones.

I don’t have a cell phone and don’t want one.

I like listening to music on my Mac using iTunes, but I’ve never wanted an iPod. In fact, when I won an iPod years ago, I gave it to my grandkids.

So, with that in mind, I haven’t been paying much attention to all the hype about the new Apple tablet computer that was going to be introduced.

I didn’t even pay much attention yesterday when it was announced.

Today, however, I had some free time and decided to learn something about the new Apple iPad.

I watched the Keynote Speech where Steve Jobs introduced the iPad and I was hooked.

This is the first time I’ve been excited about a new product in a long, long time.

The last time I felt this way was when I was given a sneak peek at the original Macintosh. This was back when all computers were basically text oriented and I saw how easy it was to create and include graphics in documents.

My first thought was, “I gotta get me one of these!”

So, I ordered my first Macintosh about two weeks before they were introduced and got one of the first ones that was shipped to Arizona, where I was living at the time.

Over the years, I have bought several Macs and I’ve enjoyed every one of them. I know, without a doubt, that I made the right choice when I took the Macintosh route.

I haven’t felt that feeling of excitement and admiration again until a few minutes ago.

After watching the keynote speech and the iPad video, I have that same feeling, “I gotta get me one of these!”

Most of my daily work involves browsing the web and dealing with email. The iPad looks like it will handle both of those tasks with ease and panache.

However, even though the touch-screen keyboard (in horizontal mode) looks like it would be usable, I’m so used to touch typing on a keyboard that I just don’t think I would be interested in doing much typing that way.

When I saw the keyboard dock for the iPad, that made a huge difference.

I’ll still do most of my typing on my desktop Mac, but I think that keyboard dock will make the iPad much more usable for a variety of people.

What clinched the deal was the price.

The base model iPad will be introduced in a couple of months for only $499 and it comes with 16 GB of flash memory. Two other models are available for $599 (32 GB) and $699 (64 GB).

There will be three models that have 3G included, but I’m not interested in those. The base models with WiFi will do all I would be interested in doing.

The iPad will run most of the 140,000 applications that have been developed for the iPhone and IPod Touch, but there are advantages for users that will entice developers to modify their apps or build new ones using the iPad SDK.

Personally, I’m not interested in most of those applications and never will be. I do the majority of my work using a web browser and email client, and the rest is graphics, working with photos, accounting, spreadsheets, and word processing. The new iWork versions of Numbers and Pages look great (especially since they only cost $9.99), so I’m sure I’ll buy and use them.

Many years ago, I decided to quit living on the bleeding edge of technology where you take risks with hardware and software with undiscovered bugs, high introductory prices, and other disadvantages. Since then, I’ve never bought a 1.0 version of any product and my life has been easier.

This time, however, I really want to get my hands on a brand new iPad as soon as I can.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited about a new product, and it has taken me completely by surprise. I did not expect to be interested, at all, in the iPad.

What about you?

Have you watched the video and/or keynote speech? What do you think about the iPad. Is this something you would be interested in owning and using?

Act on your dream!

Tags: Apple, iPad