International Mac Podcast

Note: this post was originally published on my personal blog.

I sat down & worked it out the other day, and I’ve been a ‘switcher in waiting’ for 18 years – give or take a few days… that’s a long time, but I suppose I have spent most of it convincing myself that I ‘didn’t need one’ and they were for ‘Arty’ Types, and they didn’t do ‘Business Stuff’ and a whole heap of the kind of thoughts that Apple turned into reality with the ‘Mac & PC’ ads – both in the USA and over here in the UK.

(if you’ve never seen them a) where HAVE you been? and b) go find them on Youtube when you’re finished here, they’ll make you smile and nod understandingly too…)

So I’d be quietly hankering after a change of computer for ages – but what made me finally take the plunge, you ask?

Well a catalogue of coincidences in my case – starting with my daughter standing on the power cable of my Windows XP Laptop as she was standing up from the Sofa while holding the Laptop. You can guess the result.

Then Apple (bless ‘em) had decided to offer a 0% finance deal for 6 months timed to finish just before Steve Jobs introduced the world to the MacBook Air etc at the 2008 Macworld Expo, so I squeezed in with just 2 days to go thanks to a Mac-Mad friend (cheers Tom!) who happened to mention it during one of our fairly frequent calls where he tries to tempt me from the ‘Dark Side’ that is Windows.

A few days later, I become the owner of a spanking new Macbook (white, of course – can’t imagine why anyone would want a black one…?) and so began my journey into the world of Computing Mac Style.

After subscribing to just about every Mac related Podcast I could find & listening to lots of back episodes, I found some Kindred Spirits and lots of help – a big thank you has to go to (in no particular order) Allison Sheridan, of the NosillaCast – Victor Cajiao, of the Typical Mac User Podcast - Adam Christianson of the Maccast, Maccast Loop Live (now sadly no longer broadcast) & Mac Roundtable Podcasts and Bart Busschots, who seems to appear in an awful lot of Podcasts, but doesn’t have one of his own yet – although his Blog is superb, I hope mine becomes even half as good, in time.

After listening to these people relate their experiences etc, I was inspired to commit my own everyday thoughts & exploits to the Internet, mostly though a desire to ‘give a little back’ for the wealth of information that had been provided, and in the hope that it might be of use to someone like me – teetering on the brink of the Cliff that is Windows Vista, and finally making the decision to dive into the warm, inviting waters of OS X (pronounced ‘oh-ess-ten’ – as I soon found out!)

I’d love to hear from you, whatever stage you’re at – Switched, Pre-Switcher, Mildly Curious, Wondering what all the Fuss is about – so feel free to leave a comment, or a handy hint for those of us just starting out along the road.

Nice to have you along.