The first “Apples” of my life…
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Well, I’ve decided to start the development of some iPhone applications, just for training and fun. I’ve successfully developed for Windows, J2ME, Gameboy Advanced and something also for the xbox and Playstation portable, and now it’s time to learn another planet: the MACINTOSH! When I was young, people strongly avoid Apple computer because it was poor on software side, and DOS/WIndows was the only way to stay in touch with the Information Technology. Videogames, for example, were 20 years ahead compared with Mac. Now things are radically changed, today we are in the WEB generation, therefore you can have any kind of personal computer (Windows, Linux, MacOS) or phone (Nokia, Sony, Android, iPhone, whatever) with an embedded browser powerful enough to surf on Facebook, mySpace or YouPorn 8) So nowadays, why a Mac should *NOT* be bought? Under a uncontrolled craving to save the world from the economic crisis, I’ve bought a Mac Mini with 4Gb of memory, driven by a 2.26 Ghz Intel Core 2 CPU, wireless keyboard+mouse, VGA adaptor and an iPhone 16 Gb (white): Steve Jobs was happy. Using the apple store was really easy and funny to build my customised PC while the €1184,00 (iPhone excluded) were not easy to digest 
Placed the order, checked-out and after a week the package arrives as you can see in the photo shoot behind…
At the first sight I’ve tought: “Hey, where the hell is my computer, this is only the CD-ROM part!!!” No, the Mac Mini is really small, it can be compared to a CD case, tall like a book and it’s surprisingly silent and “cold”. I was embarassed with my parents because it seems a toy instead of a productive computer. The wireless keyboard seems a long biscuit, instead, while the wireless mouse seems a huge and devasting suppository Okey, let’s get busy … unboxed the MacMini, keyboard, mouse, VGA adapter, then connected 2 cables (1 for power and 1 for mini-displayport -> VGA), connected the AC: the system is placed … 3 minutes of total time! I can’t claim that it was funny, usually the assembly is the most exciting phase of a purchase. Let’s continue … pressed the power button, switched my Samsung SyncMaster 245b to VGA mode and the system boots without problems. Keyboard and mouse pairing is straightforward and the form fill of the first time boot is minimal and easy. 
The mouse was too sensitive so I’ve configured it to a faster fashion. Time to configure the WI-FI connection for Internet … 3 steps and it was done: total time (boot + setup) 5 minutes. I’m impressed!!! Even if there are some things totally different from a Windows operating system, the migration is pretty straightforward. (There is a photo of the first boot here.) The main drawback is the keyboard, IMHO not really suitable for a developer, as you can see by the photo. is the half of a standard PC keyboard. My PC keyboard is able to sustain critical hit and butt, when I become irritable with an hostile piece of code, will the MAC keyboard survive? Despite it’s size, the MAC keyboard is confortable after all. Now is time to start development of “something”, stay tuned for next post … bye bye
Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 6:41 pm and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.