A Mac user switches to Vista

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NBC VIDEO

Mac vs. Vista
MSNBC.com contributor Joe Hutsko talks about the difference between Apple's OS and Microsoft's Window's Vista.

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Music & media
Vista’s bundled Photo Gallery is better than iPhoto, which I hate because it organizes pictures by “rolls” that correspond to the date they were taken, but there’s no way to simply organize iPhoto by existing folders. Photo Gallery, however, offers the “rolls” type of organization and the ability to browse by folder. (I hope Apple puts the same ability into iPhoto in a future release; until then there’s the excellent GraphicConverter.)

On the music front, Windows Media Player is better than Apple’s iTunes at finding album information and artwork online, but it doesn’t sync with my iPod or play songs purchased from the iTunes music store. So ultimately I had to download and stick with iTunes to keep my Nano in sync with my 30 gigabytes of music copied over from my Mac.

As for another player, the Zune, which Microsoft sent for me to check out, I like it’s bigger screen and, unlike the iPod’s bundled earphones, the Zune’s stay in my ears without falling out when I run. I don’t like that the Zune has no clock feature, do like its built-in radio, and love how it syncs with TV shows recorded with Vista’s Media Center, which turns PCs into TiVo-like TV recorders.

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On that note, while the iPod and Macs can play movies and TV shows downloaded from the iTunes music store, they can’t do Vista’s TiVo-like live TV viewing and recording magic, which is fantastic for watching TV in a window while working, or full screen, later, when the work day is done.

Though add-on EyeTV devices from Elgato Systems let Macs tune in and transfer recorded programs to the iPod, the software isn’t as sophisticated or elegant as Media Center. And while Apple has introduced Apple TV, it will only show stuff bought from the iTunes store or video on your hard disk, but won’t tune into or record live TV — a far more interesting and useful feature to me. Maybe in the future?

More importantly for me is how tightly Media Center integrates with my Xbox 360 — which by the end of the year will be getting TiVo-like features itself. Getting the Vista notebook to recognize my Xbox 360 on my home network was utterly simple simple., and minutes later I was watching video, browsing pictures and listening to music via the Xbox 360 in the living room. (Though Macs can’t do this out of the box, a program called Connect360 let’s your Mac’s music and pictures from the Xbox 360 – very sweet!)

CONTINUED : Going mobile

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