Many people ask me for recommendations on a new computer and to me buying a new computer is similar to buying a car. There are so many different makes and models and price points that it can be confusing. The very first question that most people as is, "should I buy a Mac?" The short answer that I give is, "it depends."
Depends on what? It depends on what you want a computer for. It depends on how much you want to spend. It depends on what type of service you want after the sale. Let's start with the real differences between a Windows PC and a Mac.
For the most part in 2016 functionally there are very few real differences between a Windows PC and a Mac. Windows 10 and OS X El Capitan may look different and have different cores but from an end user perspective they do the same things. They both use Intel based processors and for the most part run the same types of software. Browsers, office suites, media editing, etc. The real difference is in the physical hardware and the form factors.
Obviously Apple is the only company to make Macs. That is both good and bad. The good is that all of the hardware is strictly controlled allowing for a limited ecosystem of configurations making the hardware work much better with the software than Windows. The bad is that Apple has a lock-in on the ecosystem making any like configurations much more expensive than Windows based PC. Windows obviously has many different vendors from HP to Dell and the foreign companies such as Lenovo, Acer, and Asus. They also now have their own "Microsoft" branded PC's where they are doing the design work and a third party is doing the manufacturing.
For the most part you are going to pay a 25 - 50% premium for having an Apple logo and OS X than a Windows box. The used market on Macs is completely insane with three year old Mac going for 50% of new price which in the computer world is unheard of. Most PC's are going to a recycle shop after five years and a 90% depreciation after three. I recently sold an old Mac Pro from 2006 that could not be upgraded beyond Snow Leopard (10.6) for $300. That's a 9 year old Mac that was four versions beyond current and couldn't run 64-bit software!
Why then would you want a Mac? First, there is definitely a "cool" factor that Macs have. Artists, musicians, hipsters, etc. all use Macs. I spend a lot of time in coffee shops since I work at home and I notice that these people are just running regular software, but ALL of them have Macs. I am currently writing this on a Dell laptop and everyone (~20) other people except one have Mac laptops. What are they doing? Why? The Apple logo is the reason. Windows is for corporate shills and losers! That is the marketing hype.
Let's get to the real reasons. Core: The Mac OS X is build on a Unix core while Windows has their own core. The Unix core does run better than the Windows one. Every release of Windows however narrows the gap. Microsoft made a switch a few years ago and moved their PC core software to the server core software which has better performance and reliability.
User Interface: Both were relatively consistent in their versions until Microsoft decided with Windows 8 to go to that crappy "Metro" interface. What a disaster! Calmer heads prevailed and Windows 10 (they skipped 9) turned out to be the best Windows yet. Windows seems to be more aggressive than Apple in changing UI elements. Basically the way you may have used a Mac ten years ago still applies.
Software: Windows shines here as just about every application is found for the PC. Most genres are on the Mac as well and there are specific examples of Mac only software, but for the most part they are equal. The one thing about a Mac is that with VMWare Fusion or Parallels you can run Windows under the Mac using virtualization. Yes you have to buy a license but you can do it. OS X will not work (unless you make a Hackintosh) under Windows so the reverse will not work.
Why pick one over the other? If want a good machine and use basic applications and don't want to spend a lot of money then buy a PC. If you want a rock solid experience and a great buying platform (Apple Store) and want to look cool then buy a Mac. I personally have both and use the Google platform to bridge the two. Five years ago Mac was the only way to go but now with the Microsoft Surface Pro platform and Windows 10 there is almost no gap.
One last thing. If you want an incredible browser experience only and love what Google is doing then a Chromebook might be for you. A Chromebook is basically a computer that only runs the Google Chrome OS. It boots in about 5 seconds and it is super fast for browser based apps. It cannot run anything else, period. If you are a little more adventurous then look at a Linux based system on an old PC or something like a Raspberry Pi. (Look it up a credit card sized $35 computer)
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Home Bandwidth
Part of this purpose of this blog is to educate regular people about frustrating issues with technology and how to solve them. One of the newest issues facing The Middle (middle income, middle aged, potentially middle America) is lack of bandwidth at home. Is this really an issue or is there another culprit?
The average US Internet bandwidth as measured by Akamai was 11.7 Mbps. That is well below the FCC definition of 25 Mbps for a broadband household. I believe most of this is caused by monopolistic providers (Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner) that have no financial incentive to increase. I live in Austin, Texas and as soon as Google Fiber announced they were going to build in Austin, my Time Warner speed jumped to 300 Mbps download and 25 Mbps Upload at no additional charge. Therefore the first thing to do is complain to the local governing body that regulates the service and to the providers themselves. Work with your local neighborhood group or association to try to bring a new provider into your area. However, I do not believe that bandwidth to the provider is the sole issue with home bandwidth.
To me the number one issue with home bandwidth is your wireless router. Most people that I know use either the stock router that comes with the service provider or uses a cheap Linksys or Netgear that they've had for a number of years. Over the last five years the technology in home wireless has improved dramatically coupled with the new demands on that same wireless.
Let's start with what's going on in your home. You have traditional devices like desktop and laptop computers. Next you have phones and tablets and then smart TV's and video game consoles. Now you are getting smart appliances like thermostats and cars. I have a wife and two teenage daughters and I counted around 50 devices on my home wireless and any one given time. I would say the average home probably has been 10 and 20 on the home Wi-Fi. This is only going to get worse as cellular carriers make it punitive to exceed your data cap and every new device such as refrigerators and washer and dryers are going to connect to your home network. This is called the Internet of Things (IoT) that you've seen now in TV commercials.
The two biggest hogs in your house are TV's with Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime and video game consoles such as Xbox and Playstation. It's one thing to use the bandwidth but there is no buffering especially with video games. This means that any interruption in the wireless signal causes issues with the consumption of content. Paused movies and dropped video games.
On the technology front most wireless devices work in the 2.4 GHz spectrum. This includes all the above mentioned devices as well as things such as cordless phones and remote control vehicles. The 2.4 GHz spectrum has a fairly long range and is an open spectrum for use. Even though traffic is filtered and secure there is a lot of chatter on this spectrum especially if you live in a dense area like a tight urban neighborhood or apartment building. This is like trying to find someone shining a flashlight in the dark. Easy to pick out if there are no other flashlights, but if there are hundreds of lights it takes some time to find the correct one.
The 5 Ghz spectrum is relatively new and has a shorter range than 2.4 GHz, however it can handle the new 802.11ac protocol and can handle a lot more bandwidth. The 5 GHz is much less crowded than 2.4 GHz and applications fly when connected. The key is to get a router than can support both 2.4 and 5 GHz and support guest network and have security features built in.
I recommend a mid price option such as this Asus from Amazon ( https://www.amazon.com/RT-AC66U-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC1750-Gigabit-Router/dp/B008ABOJKS/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1471368504&sr=1-3&keywords=Asus+router ) . There are many others but you need to compare features, processor, etc. These routers can get very expensive and if you are not a high end gamer then a mid-price one should be just fine. You might want to just use the one that came from the cable company and that's fine, just be prepared for buffering and dropped games.
The average US Internet bandwidth as measured by Akamai was 11.7 Mbps. That is well below the FCC definition of 25 Mbps for a broadband household. I believe most of this is caused by monopolistic providers (Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner) that have no financial incentive to increase. I live in Austin, Texas and as soon as Google Fiber announced they were going to build in Austin, my Time Warner speed jumped to 300 Mbps download and 25 Mbps Upload at no additional charge. Therefore the first thing to do is complain to the local governing body that regulates the service and to the providers themselves. Work with your local neighborhood group or association to try to bring a new provider into your area. However, I do not believe that bandwidth to the provider is the sole issue with home bandwidth.
To me the number one issue with home bandwidth is your wireless router. Most people that I know use either the stock router that comes with the service provider or uses a cheap Linksys or Netgear that they've had for a number of years. Over the last five years the technology in home wireless has improved dramatically coupled with the new demands on that same wireless.
Let's start with what's going on in your home. You have traditional devices like desktop and laptop computers. Next you have phones and tablets and then smart TV's and video game consoles. Now you are getting smart appliances like thermostats and cars. I have a wife and two teenage daughters and I counted around 50 devices on my home wireless and any one given time. I would say the average home probably has been 10 and 20 on the home Wi-Fi. This is only going to get worse as cellular carriers make it punitive to exceed your data cap and every new device such as refrigerators and washer and dryers are going to connect to your home network. This is called the Internet of Things (IoT) that you've seen now in TV commercials.
The two biggest hogs in your house are TV's with Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime and video game consoles such as Xbox and Playstation. It's one thing to use the bandwidth but there is no buffering especially with video games. This means that any interruption in the wireless signal causes issues with the consumption of content. Paused movies and dropped video games.
On the technology front most wireless devices work in the 2.4 GHz spectrum. This includes all the above mentioned devices as well as things such as cordless phones and remote control vehicles. The 2.4 GHz spectrum has a fairly long range and is an open spectrum for use. Even though traffic is filtered and secure there is a lot of chatter on this spectrum especially if you live in a dense area like a tight urban neighborhood or apartment building. This is like trying to find someone shining a flashlight in the dark. Easy to pick out if there are no other flashlights, but if there are hundreds of lights it takes some time to find the correct one.
The 5 Ghz spectrum is relatively new and has a shorter range than 2.4 GHz, however it can handle the new 802.11ac protocol and can handle a lot more bandwidth. The 5 GHz is much less crowded than 2.4 GHz and applications fly when connected. The key is to get a router than can support both 2.4 and 5 GHz and support guest network and have security features built in.
I recommend a mid price option such as this Asus from Amazon ( https://www.amazon.com/RT-AC66U-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC1750-Gigabit-Router/dp/B008ABOJKS/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1471368504&sr=1-3&keywords=Asus+router ) . There are many others but you need to compare features, processor, etc. These routers can get very expensive and if you are not a high end gamer then a mid-price one should be just fine. You might want to just use the one that came from the cable company and that's fine, just be prepared for buffering and dropped games.
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