“With the success of Apple’s latest MacBook, the laptop market has become the very frontline of the war between Mac and PC. So that’s what we decided to concentrate on… Jason used his own MacBook – which he loves dearly,” Suzi Perry reports for The Gadget Show. “And I used my own Sony Vaio – it was brand new so I was only just getting used to it and its new Vista operating system.”
Perry reports, “For our challenge we had decided to become news reporters – using our laptops as our only means of writing our stories, editing our video, accessing our photos and then uploading the whole lot to the internet. This would be a way of really checking out their usability and capabilities.”
“We reported on a fantastically ridiculous carnival held every year in the North Italian town of Ivrea. Basically, it’s a big celebration of the town’s history and independence, but what really interested us was the fact that each days festivities culminate in a massive chaotic orange fight. Yes, you heard me right, an orange fight. Now, we thought that really was something worth reporting on,” Perry reports.
Perry reports, “When it comes down to looks and design though the Mac wins hands down… When it comes to operating systems the new layout of Vista is a very attractive look But as Jason pointed out he couldn’t help thinking he’d seen something like Vista somewhere before – on his Mac. Mac OSX operating system was the first to offer users widgets, and animated boxes and the like so it seems that what you’ve got there is actually Microsoft trying to catch up with Apple in the operating system game. Security is another bone of contention or at least it was. Mac’s are famously secure and Jason’s never had a virus, or any spyware or phishing or nothing on his Mac.”
“So, we spent 24 hours as reporters; compiling reports, shooting and editing video, processing photos, then uploading all that media onto the web. All we could use was our laptop, the software that it came with and a camcorder,” Perry reports. “The rules of the challenge – rules we actually made up ourselves – said that we each had to write a three hundred word article about the carnival with 3 accompanying pictures, and also edit a two minute film showing our experiences.”
“Using the same word processor on both machines we were unsurprisingly neck and neck and finished our articles at virtually the same time… Articles finished it was photo time and this is where we started to see a difference between PC and Mac… Because iPhoto was so easy to Jason finished his photos first and moved onto the next test. While I spent another 10 minutes putting the finishing touches to my photos,” Perry reports.
Perry reports, “My new Vista version of Windows Movie Maker recognises High Def footage which is good as I’d shot everything in full 1080i HDV. With the click of a couple of buttons you can import photos and music from other parts of your computer quite easily. The only problem with the new movie maker is it’s not that easy to actually edit with. I’d drop some footage in, try and move it around and everything would freeze which is incredibly frustrating and a complete waste of time.”
“Editing with iMovie, the Mac editing package was fantastic, it’s so simple to use. Like movie maker you drag and drop clips into the timeline and it’s even easier to get photos and music into your project as they are all stored in other parts of the iLife programme. How it beats movie maker hand down for me is, it works, everything most people would want it to do, it does,” Perry reports. “Using the built-in microphone Jason even recorded voiceover with the touch of a button… It’s this Mac ethos of everything working, and working together, that meant Jason cut my 2 minute film really, really quickly and it took me, well It took me a lot longer.”
Full article with much more, including photos and the finished articles with videos here.
MacDailyNews Take: Completely predictable results. The moral of the story? Get a Mac.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dirty Pierre le Punk” for the heads up.]
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Gadget Show is crap, but it’s a freakin’ masterpiece compared to BBC’s “Click.”
(Both traditionally Mac-hostile.)
Typical that even in a “head-to-head” competition where the Mac actually wins, they still gotta shove the FUD in there.
How about we all agree to not use car analogies anymore. Everybody agree? Okay, fine then. It’s decided.
Thanks…
No, we don’t agree.
Ever since Steve Jobs used that analogy, it’s been popular. Why? Because it is very apt to Apple’s circumstances.
MW: usually, as in people that usually complain about that analogy don’t like how apt it is!