Just another Mac guy

My MacBook Pro was starting to exhibit weird display issues, so our Certified Apple Repair guy suggested it might be the NVIDIA graphics processor issue. Sure enough, a quick trip to my local Genius Bar confirmed the diagnosis. The geniuses swapped out the motherboard overnight at no cost.

As I was finishing the paperwork, I glanced at the “for internal Apple use only” checklist they fill out after doing repairs, and was amused to note an item among things like “Removed all test software” that said “Polished Apple logo.” Of course it was checked as having been completed.

No wonder Apple’s customer service is always among the highest in the industry.

Rob Pegorano in today’s Washington Post

The only big exception to this pattern of neglect comes from Apple: the Mail program it ships with Mac OS X. With each new version of OS X, Mail has gained useful features.

I used to go on insufferably about how much I loved XM radio, but with the homogenization caused by the Sirius merger last year I’m less of a fan. Don’t get me wrong, I still listen every day and enjoy the commercial-free music that’s a pretty good deal at $15/month, but most of the playlists have become as predictable and repetitive as regular FM. SiriusXM is simply FM without commercials. I guess the majority of listeners prefer the familiarity of repetition, but variety and discovery is what made XM better than Sirius; it’s what made XM special.

Slacker is a terrific alternative, with an enormous library and creatively programmed stations whose deejays actively participate in user forums. The only problem is it’s not as easy to listen to in the car, and that is why I still subscribe to XM.

The one losing my business is Apple, as I can’t remember the last time I actually bought anything from iTunes. While I enjoy having a music collection, downloading and owning songs has become far less important to me. Given the huge amount of music legally available both through the Internet and satellite, it’s is a great time to be a music fan.

I had previously commented on the options for streaming XM Radio on Macintosh, and another contender has appeared.

Pulsar from Rogue Amoeba is a $15 Macintosh application that you can get free if you’ve purchased any of their other products.

Works well functionally, but the interface uses very large fonts and graphics that cannot be changed. It provides an easy method of choosing favorite stations and viewing only those selections, but it would be nice to modify font sizes and remove graphics from favorites view as you can with the full station listing.

Still waiting for the iPhone version of StarPlayr, and their StarLightXM for Mac is donation ware, but Pulsar is a nice alternative.

It’s great to see competition in this space, although I’m not sure how things will shake out. Sirius XM is raising the streaming price from free to $4/month, albeit with a higher quality bit rate, and there is healthy competition in stream providers, Slacker being a great alternative.

I still like having an actual satellite radio in my car rather than going to the expense of installing a radio with an iPod interface and fumbling with my iPhone in order to stream from the Internet, but who knows how long Sirius XM will survive.