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Let us know what you think about your Mac, MacFormat and everything Apple Lion in the clouds
A few weeks ago I received notification from Apple that my MobileMe account will be extended for another 12 months, free of charge (very generous of them) before it disappears into cyberspace, never to be seen again. But, the thing is, I like my MobileMe. I have a .mac email account independent of my ISP. I can sync my diaries, calendars and mail on iPod, iPhone and iPad, and I can share my favourite photos with family and friends on my gallery. Steve Jobs thinks this was not Apple’s finest hour, and that I shall be much happier
with my head in the iCloud. Apple has spent the last 20 years creating the most userfriendly operating system on some of the most beautifully designed hardware in the
We’re waiting for the launch of iCloud with as much excitement as you are!
business. But compared with its apparently unsuccessful MobileMe project, the download-only launch of Lion is not merely ‘not their finest hour’, but their worst ever. Apple needs to get its head out of the clouds, and realise that many of its loyal customers have their feet firmly planted on the ground, tethered by copperwire broadband to pedestrian download speeds. Before Apple finally moves into its brand-new curved glass Cupertino doughnut, and looks out on its beautiful Apricot orchard, it might reflect on the fact Apricot is a defunct brand,
which once upon a time displayed great design and creativity, just like Apple, but lost its way. Any aeroplane pilot will tell them that flying in cloud can be disorientating, and that the best thing to do is to drop below it to get back on course. Good advice is plentiful, good sense apparently not quite so. Let’s just hope Apple realises the error of its ways before my 12-month extended MobileMe account expires. Digby Harper
MacFormat replies: Well, we’d say don’t write off Apple’s iCloud before it’s even launched, Digby.
star letter / Core i7 iMac vs 8 Core Mac Pro Well, thanks Apple for adding the Thunderbolt interface to the new iMac. As a long-time hobbyist video editor, the choice has always been clear that the Pro is the way to go. With the introduction of the Thunderbolt port the iMac Core i7 is now surely a contender for semi-pro video editing, as previously the upgrade limitations of an all-in-one device have always nixed hard drive expansion. With FireWire the best current choice for video capture (scratch drives) we also needed to consider that the iMac has only one FireWire 800 port. There is an issue with daisy-chaining such devices if you happen to have a
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DV camcorder. I’m now waiting in anticipation for any test results of video editing performance with Thunderbolt external drives. David F
MacFormat replies: With each processor upgrade the iMac has been getting so powerful that it’s starting to rival the Mac Pro as perfectly suitable for most ‘pro’ tasks. Now it’s got a Thunderbolt port we think a lot more video professionals will think of it as a serious computer. We’re still waiting to get a Thunderbolt drive into the office to test – the
September 2011
Pegasus RAID Storage with Thunderbolt seems to have just slipped past our deadline to make it into this issue, but we hope to get it into the next. Regarding FireWire, don’t forget that you can get a FireWire 800 adapter for a Thunderbolt port and connect a FireWire device in that way.
star letter Email all your letters to us at macformat@ futurenet.com If yours gets picked as the MacFormat Star Letter, you’ll be sent a fantastic EyeTV Hybrid. It comes with analog and digital tuners, so you can use it to put TV on your Mac wherever you are in the country!
With its Thunderbolt port the new iMac is a serious contender for video.