This is likely to be the last "Year that was" from me, with NZMac.com and NZiPhone.com up for sale. Looking back on last year's post (see here) I was about to start numerous days of writing to finish my Masters (all done!) and after that, I'm pleased to report I finally got the proper holiday I had been hoping for. Of course my trip to the UK included a few visits to Apple stores in London. Unfortunately I let myself down by stating in last year's post that I would commit to more podcasts and reviews this year, when in fact that didn't happen. Sorry.

I have to stress that I'm writing this as I see the news come in about the iPad. Some of the things I might comment on may be due to the fact that I haven't researched enough. I'm really impressed by the iPad, disappointed also...and a bit surprised. I'll start with the disappointment. Adobe Flash. It's evident Apple's out to make sure that Flash isn't part of their platforms these days. Regardless of what sort of processor this thing has, it could, I speculate, handle Flash easily.

Surprise? No forward facing camera (oh, and no multitasking). I was sure a camera was a certainty. Why? Well this thing is going to be an absolute gem for the education sector, and a forward facing camera would make a superb device to give to kids to go off and hold video conferences...or heck, call back to the teacher whilst they are out and about surveying students in school, etc. I could have even seen myself telling my folks to ditch their Mac mini in favour of an iPad, but not now. The second surprise...where does this leave apps versus applications? I'll expand on this a bit more later.

The good news is that it looks amazing...and Apple have yet again shown that when the produce a product they think of it holistically...the whole concept for them isn't just the iPad, but everything that surrounds it...how to buy music, how to buy books, how to view them just looks amazing...and the fact that they have tied them back into the iPhone OS is clever. Just watch how beautiful the user interface is in the Apple videos on the product.....absolutely stunning.

2009 for me will be forever linked to two non-Mac and non-iPhone related things, study and illness. I won't bore you with details of the latter, other than to say it's not been a fun year (nothing life threatening)....and that it impacted both on my study and my attention to NZMac.com and NZiPhone.com, which had to come last on my list of priorities. I am hopeful that as I finally conclude my Master of Education at the end of January 2010 (woohoo!!), that I might also be able to look forward to healthier times...and finally, a proper holiday!! Even more so, I'll finally be able to have my evenings study free (yes, no doctorate is planned for a looooong time!), and whilst I am intending to go to full-time at the University (I currently work 4 days a week) there should be a lot more time to devote to NZMac.com and NZiPhone.com....and I can't wait. But hey, I did manage to get a few things done, include completely relaunch NZiPhone.com this year!

With my evenings free(ish), I hope to be able to commit to things more things like regular podcasts, blogging and more reviews (it's a shame that some companies will let me review a product, but when I decline, aren't prepared to open the offer up to one of you) and generally spend more time on the content side of the sites than I have been unable to in the past 12 months.

Speaking of podcasts, I do need to give a huge shout out to Darryn Lowe (Lowededwookie) and David Duvall (DavidNZ) who not only revived the NZMac.com podcasts, but often willingly participated in a session without me. It was fantastic to know that they and other site users were willing to do this and it was absolutely amazing to receive the podcasts and have a listen to them. I hope that people might join in over the coming year and that we can have more regular sessions from now on. Thanks guys...your contribution this year has been invaluable, both in the podcasts and elsewhere.

So, a Mac miracle happened recently. Not that any of you would have noticed, as it was a family miracle and not one broadcast across the net. My eldest brother after years of using a PC, decided to buy not one Mac, but two. To me, after years of using Macs and going on about how great they are...it was pleasing to know that he...well, never listened to a word I said.

This is because I should point out that his email contained two gems of info. One, that friends had been convincing him to buy a Mac. And two, he was really worried because he had all these M$ Office docs and what the heck was he going to do with those!?

At that point, I introduced my head briefly to the same wall I had been banging against for years, then realised...as I often have, that you simply can't win. I didn't feel like I had failed in preaching to convertees (those that I try to convert), because they simply don't know they need to be converted.

Someone's not doing their maths right!! Or if it was someone in the States that did this...they're not doing their 'math' right!

In this news item....http://www.nzmac.com/news/apple/apple-introduces-ilife-09.html, site user Whitty and I have been having a chat. I confess I didn't really think much of the issue of price until I went and did some hunting around about previous versions of iLife and iWork and the exchange rate at the time....so well done Whitty. I knew that times are tough, but Apple's not playing fair.

August 07
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US Price for iLife '08 and iWork'08 is $79 each
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/08/07ilife08.html
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/08/07iwork08.html

At the time, $1 NZD = $0.7608157438 USD (thanks to http://www.xe.com). That works out at $103.84 NZD based on the exchange rate at the time.

The items go on sale at the time for $109 NZ...so a reasonable conversion

http://www.apple.com/nz/pr/library/2007/08/07ilife08.html
http://www.apple.com/nz/pr/library/2007/08/07iwork08.html

January 09
=======
US once again get either bundle of apps for $79 USD....
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/01/06ilife.html
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/01/06iwork.html

Today, $1 NZD = $0.595880 USD.

That works out at $132.58 NZD for the product at today's exchange rate.

I've been thinking about what to write for this summary of the NZMac.com 2004 year for some time. I had convinced myself that I'd be writing an article about what a quiet year it was. But then I looked back.

Thanks to the great Apple History site, flicking through issues of NZ Macguide and the pages of this site and forum, I realised that 2004 wasn't as quiet a year for Apple (or for me for that matter) that I had been telling myself. It was just a long, long year...with a noticeable breather in the middle when Apple admitted delays in a new iMac (that finally came out as the new iMac G5) but there were certainly as many interesting events as we had seen in previous years.

I had no intention of writing a piece about the Apple Roadshow, other than the report that you see on elsewhere. But having taken a days leave from work to travel down to Wellington and having had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people that knew about the site, the two questions I seem to have been asked the most have been "What did you think?" and "Was the trip worth it?". So here goes...

A show of hands near the beginning of the Wellington presentation revealed that there were very few people in the audience who weren't using Macs. While it was great to see those few hands go up (and I welcome PC and other users to the presentations) it meant that in many respects, it was a case of preaching to the converted. In that respect, I'd suggest the presentations need a bit of tweaking.

So what can be done? Well, there's two approaches, which I guess again look at what and who Apple are trying to cater for. I think their response to that would be that they are trying to cater for everyone. In many respects, PC users weren't there because although I saw an ad for the Roadshow in the Dominion the day before (did it appear any other time?) the ad didn't really do enough to let PC users into what they might see and why we wanted them there. And did the presentation really provide enough encouragement for them to Switch? I'm not sure. It certainly touched on some areas (the number of apps available under OSX, the fact that you can connect via SMB to a PC) but was that enough?

As the owner of a site dedicated to Mac users, you'd think that I spend all my time convincing friends to buy Mac. Well, I'd love to say that that's true, but more often than not, I end up helping them choose the right PC for their needs.

"Traitor!" I hear you scream? Well, it's never a pleasant experience, but for friends that are first-time purchasers, trying to explain the difference between what we all see as the "Mac experience" and using a PC just doesn't work. Believe it or not, people sometimes aren't even familiar with what an operating system is and that there is in fact more than one. Unfortunately instead, it often boils down to cost. And despite the heated arguments over Return on Investment, resale value and more, it finally comes to the point where I either help them with a PC purchase or don't help them at all.

They see that for a lot less dollars and daily adverts in the national papers, they can get a get a great PC with a lot of extra equipment bundled with it. Despite pleas, despite sobbing and despite the "you'll live to regret it" comments coming from me incessantly, a purchase is made. So what pleasure do I derive from helping these friends? Well, there's a time factor involved. You have to be patient, but pay-off comes in the smug look you can give them 12 to 24 months down the track when you say "I did try to warn you".