aicul,
I found what you mentioned on the apple site. Below is what I wrote. I typically don't do things like this but this is an exception. My enthusiasm has created a monster!!
My wife and I have been PC users since I bought my first PC for college in 1994. It worked fine for about 5 years until we bought our second PC in 1999. This PC was recently replaced with our new 17" iMac 1.8 G5.
A few years ago, when OS X was released, I started reading more and more about the functionality and integration of the Mac and got interested. I have a digital camcorder that I have had for nearly 6 years and have had digital cameras during that time as well. Editing video on my pc was a nightmare. After doing it one time in XP I refused to ever do it again. Photo editing was not a pleasure and always left us paranoid that we could ruin one of our pictures if we made changes then the computer locked up or something else happened.
The day that iTunes for Windows was released I downloaded it. Even in the Windows environment, it just worked.
For Christmas '04, my wife bought me the 20g iPod. We both love having our entire CD collection with us when we are away from the house. I commute about 120 miles round trip each day and love being able to listen to music, books and podcasts.
When the mini was introduced, I knew it was finally time to switch.
Even though we ended up buying the iMac over the mini it is because I wanted to start editing the nearly 100 hours of digital videos I have shot over the past 6 years and felt it would be a better fit for what we were going to use it for.
On to the applications in Panther.
We love iLife 05.
My wife is no longer concerned about doing simple edits to photos because in iPhoto you can always revert back to the original. She enjoys scrapbooking and the iMac makes it easy for her to take pictures, plug the camera up, import the pictures into iPhoto (automatically) and edit them THEN click print and there they are. Before I would do all that for her because it was more complicated in XP.
I love the integration with .mac. Even though I am using the trial I will upgrade when the trial is over. Amy can send an iCard and it is easy because our address book is synced with .mac and it is nice knowing that some of our important information is backed up on our iDisk. She is also able to easily publish photos to share with the family using iPhoto and .mac. Just a few mouse clicks and she is a web publisher.
Video editing is fun. I am finally able to use my camcorder like it is meant to be used. After 6 years, I have finally created our honeymoon video. We had forgotten many of things we had seen, enjoyed and experienced while on our honeymoon in the UK. Everything is so well integrated. I can use photos in my movies, add the Ken Burns effect, add music from my iTunes library and then send it to iDVD where the included templates are great. I can do all of this and I did't even have to read a book!
I love being able to remove an application by simply dragging its icon from the applications folder to the trash can. No more Start, Control Panel, Add/Remove programs. Just drag and I am done. It just makes sense.
I think it is genius that I can print a document by dragging it to my printer icon on the dock. I don't even have to open the document.
My wife has never really used the computer much in the past because it never seemed to work. The Mac is different. She likes sending iCards and has even created a page with photos on the web to share with the family(easy to do with .mac and iPhoto). We have never used a calendar before but now we both use iCal.
The stability of the OS is amazing. I had nearly 20 applications running and it never studdered. I had iTunes playing, was watching a DVD, had Word, Excel, Powerpoint, AppleWorks, Safari, Internet Explorer, Mail, Firefox, iPhoto, iCal, Address Book and a few others all open at the same time. Not a problem. Not a studder. It just worked. Expose was awesome. I could see all these apps at one time. I have only rebooted two times. Once when it did the initial software update and once when I added more RAM.
It was funny because the other day my wife was needing her brother's mobile phone number. She just picked up the iPod and looked in Contacts and got it because it all syncs with the iMac. In the past she would have had to dig out the old paper address book or call her mother to get the number. Not any more.
I could continue on and on. Long story short. It works and we love it. We will most likely never buy another Windows box again. My wife is wanting a mini now for herself to go in her scrapbooking room.
Thanks.
