Switching from PC to Mac and back

We live in a cross-platform world. Windows-powered PCs still dominate in the workplace, but Macs have captured substantial market share and even greater mind share among the affluent and well connected.
As I explained two weeks ago, I’m running a PC and a Mac side by side as part of a long-term commitment to developing more expertise in Apple’s platform and, along the way, helping my readers bridge the Mac-PC gap more smoothly.
So far, it’s been a mostly delightful, if occasionally challenging experience. Although I’ve owned a Mac for several years, I’ve probably used this one more in the past two weeks than I have in the past six months combined. In this post, I’ll share three of the lessons I’ve learned from switching between platforms, including insights about old habits, new hardware, and the joys of cross-platform software and services.
The software that has made this setup possible for me is an open-source package called Synergy, which allows two or more computers (running Windows, OS X, or Linux) to share a single keyboard and mouse. I finally broke down and spent some quality RTFM time with the program’s documentation, a process that gave me a series of small headaches but solved a few bigger ones.
The Synergy software has an unfortunate interaction with Internet Explorer. When Synergy is running, it causes the New Tab button in Internet Explorer to stop working in some circumstances and can even temporarily freeze IE. I first encountered these symptoms a week or so ago and I assumed it was a bug in Internet Explorer 9, but the problems persisted even after I uninstalled the IE9 beta and went back to IE8 on Windows 7.

After much troubleshooting, including resetting IE to its default configuration and uninstalling every add-on, I finally concluded that the Synergy software was to blame. This Stack Overflow thread confirmed that I’m not the only person experiencing this issue, and it also offered what appears so far to be an effective workaround—running Synergy as a standard user rather than as a system service.
I’ve made a conscious effort to spend roughly half my time in each OS over the past two weeks, a task made easier now that Office 2011 for Mac is finally released and available through TechNet.
Overall, I find more similarities than differences between PCs and Macs these days. Both Windows 7 and OS X Snow Leopard are mature, highly usable operating systems with an ample selection of quality third-party software and hardware to choose from. Aside from a few PC-only features like Blu-ray playback and built-in support for TV tuner hardware, I haven’t found any task that I can’t accomplish on either platform. The difference is the degree of difficulty, which varies depending on your experience and personal preferences.
I suspect a lot of my readers can relate to what I’m trying to do here. If you use Windows at the office and a Mac at home, you know what I’m talking about. If you have a desktop PC running Windows 7 and a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air running OS X, you’ve probably run into some of the same issues I have.
On the next three pages, I call out the three biggest lessons I’ve learned along the way.
Page 2: The keyboard is the biggest pain point. Nagging inconsistencies in basic keyboard operation have been, without question, my greatest source of frustration as I’ve switched between PCs and Macs. It’s a little like learning a new language.
Page 3: Cross-platform tools and services are a blessing. It helps immensely to have some tools that look and act the same in both places. Here are some of the tools I’ve found indispensable so far.
Page 4: Hardware matters. There’s no question that a Mac is easier to maintain than an equivalent PC. But a lot of that simplicity comes as a direct result of a lack of choices. Here’s how I’m resolving those trade-offs.

By Ed Bott

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The Inevitability of the Apple SIM Card

There has been an assortment of news concerning iOS updates, jailbreaks and carrier hacks recently. To make sense of it all, you have to put yourself in the other people's shoes. Personally, sandals are preferred, so allow me to flop around.
Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) new iPhone 5, expected out June of 2011, won't have one piece of gear that's common in other phones: a subscriber identity module (SIM) card.
This was big news for several phone carriers, particularly in the UK and Europe, who worried that SIM cards would give users more versatility and provide a medium for SIM-based applications and features. There is a long list of digital equipment that utilizes this technology already.
If it integrates SIM card technology into the iPhone 5, Apple would be limiting the power of the carriers, essentially telling them their relationship is not all that needed for promotion, anyway.
Coloring Inside the Lines
On the other end of the spectrum, the latest release of the iPhone operating system (iOS 4.2.1) took the iPhone Dev Team about 24 hours to jailbreak, which means for the iPhone 3G and 3GS, "restrictions" are nothing more than small hurdles if you simply shell out some cash or do some research to accomplish the feat yourself.
Even though carriers know this, they are banking on the fact that people are lazy and/or don't like to break the rules. Even though it is perfectly legal, some people don't like to venture outside of the parameters set by Apple and others. Or perhaps they have the money to pay whatever and don't really care one way or the other. The above thought processes are in clear opposition to my day-to-day life, but they're the reality for many.
What people don't know can clearly hurt them. As someone who has been traveling recently, I discovered the Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Voice app is a great way to make calls internationally without spending crazy amounts of money. The alternatives for people in regard to the carriers they use are abundant.
Back to focus -- Apple does not need a partnership with any certain carrier. This is not to say the company wants to burn bridges, but it is fully aware of the options at hand for any users who want to reach their hack goals, so by not simply opening up the floodgates, Apple is basically telling carriers, "You are welcome, (insert insult here)."
The European Way
The threats by European phone networks to stop subsidizing the cost of the iPhone if Apple should continue with the plan no doubt played a role in the decision to stop (delay) the SIM card.
Europeans treat their phones a bit different than those in the United States, sometimes owning multiple phones and often switching out cards with other phones.
Should American customers pay for European control? The United States is moving to LTE 4G networks, and a programmable SIM card is the way to go. The programmable SIM card opens up competition and, as a result, will bring down some of the outrageous costs that currently exist.
According to U.S. antitrust laws, companies can not impede on innovation that would threaten their current leverage. Essentially, the programmable SIM card is inevitable, and the current decision will be reversed by Apple because long-term, it will be best for Apple and the consumer -- and legally, it should be allowed without strong-arm tactics.
Large corporate overlords flexing their proverbial muscles at the expense of consumers is hardly a new concept, but in this case, it should not last for long.

By Jesse Herman
MacNewsWorld

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