Oh I love my new Mac! Why did I wait so long. Well, the fact that I have two virtually new computers could probably be one reason…but the headaches just didn’t justify the continued support of the PC based system. No, I am a convert.
I’ve hit a few snags. My Creative Zen Vision won’t run the same way, the software is only PC based, but it still recognizes the unit as a portable drive and I can drag and drop video and images etc on to it and off of it. So that’s OK.
My Pharos iGPS-500 data logger won’t connect with the USB dongle no matter how hard I try. I have read that the bluetooth adapter works well with it and overcomes the serial port issue. So that is on order. It actually provides other benefits while on the road too…like the elimination of a cable snaking around the vehicle.
On the software side of things.
I have replaced OneNote with Circus Ponies Notebook. Not exactly the same, but pretty darned close. http://www.circusponies.com/
I replaced Adobe Contribute (which would run on the Mac but is a bit more than I needed) with MarsEdit. http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/
With a bit of tweaking (installing an OpenFire server protocol) I managed to get iChat to speak with my gmail and MSN messenger contacts. That was a bit of work, but there is a fantastic link to walk you through it here http://blog.toonetown.com/2007/12/10-steps-to-multi-protocol-ichat.html
I managed to pull all of my Outlook mail, contacts and calendar entries into Apple Mail using O2M. For $10 is was worth the money and worked effortlessly for both my account and the other half’s. http://www.littlemachines.com/
The only issue I still have from a software perspective is my navigational program. I used Fugawi for all my marine charts and was using SoftMap for the topographical maps and Streets and Trips for on the road navigation. Additionally I was using Trips and Pics for geotagging my photos EXIF data. None of these will run on a Mac unless I install Windows underneath…and that defeats the purpose of the switch…and then there is the issue that they all need the CPS logger to run…which it won’t…yet..
I have found a couple of programs that might do for the Marine charts. GPSNavX and MacENC (http://www.gpsnavx.com/) are supposed to work with the charts I have, but I am still having the issue with the GPS being recognized. I’m hoping that when the bluetooth piece comes that might overcome that issue and I will be able to settle on one or the other.
RouteBuddy (http://www.routebuddy.com/) seems to be a substitute for Streets and trips…but pricey!
Jetphoto (http://www.jetphotosoft.com) will do what Trips and Pics did…and a whole lot more if, again, I can get it to see my GPS, which currently it will not.
Haven’t yet found a substitute for SoftMap, but that was more of a novelty anyway….but it would be nice to get it working. It seems like GPSy Pro (http://www.gpsy.com/pro/) might do the trick…will have to try it out to see.
Not bad really…all things considered…