Jason and Joe back at it again - Happy Thursday all! Hope everyone had great holiday weekend. We would love to have some more suggestions on blog topics so if you have something you would like us to talk on please let us know! On a non-technincal note we would like to congratulate Joe and his wife Beth on the birth of their new baby boy Asher. The Byte Ideas family just got a little bigger!

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Until now, we have done our best to avoid direct comparisons, but we have no shame in saying "I am a Mac." We’ve all seen the Mac vs. PC commercials on television. If you have been to college in the last few years you will see a campus that is littered with the flagship eggshell white and aluminum computers.

Love them or hate them, Apple has done a great job of marketing their product to a young and upcoming generation of people who appreciate a product that is simpler and more secure than the alternate. They managed to create a business built on the "cool" factor and before his death, Steve Jobs grew his company on an idea that he wanted to always push the envelope and do something that had never been done before.

This vision is what ultimately led to the mountainous ascent of Apple. Game-changing products like the iPod and the iPhone have changed the devices that the music and cellular industries use, while the MacBook Air and iMac are changing the look of the computer industry. In the past, graphic artists and recording studios used Macs almost exclusively. This created the persona of a product that only the creative/nerdy/outcast/etc. used, and constructed a large obstacle that Apple had to hurdle.

However, the IT industry has seen a rise in the overall use of Macs in every aspect of computer technology, and businesses are certainly treating them with more favor now than they were even a few years ago. For years, PCs and Windows ruled the workplace, and for the most part, they still do.  However, the biggest shift is in the laptop role. Apple laptops tend to be lighter, smaller and more robust than their PC counterparts, which makes them a very convenient tool for the road warrior, executive or field technician. But for many reasons, software has always been an issue.

It seems that people as a whole are starting to notice other applications outside of Microsoft. Google’s word processor with cloud integration is quickly gaining popularity against Word, while other operating systems like OSX and Linux are starting to gain attention over Windows. Make no mistake; I’m not saying to shred your Windows install disk in your disc shredder, only that there are finally starting to be viable choices other than Microsoft products.

Ten years ago you wouldn’t have heard of a Mac sharing files from a Windows server but today, it’s very commonplace.  File sharing with Windows, and the ability to open MS Office documents on a Mac was the main roadblock keeping them from becoming a larger player in the 1990s and early 2000s. With those roadblocks gone, you can do nearly any office task that you can do on Windows on a Mac. Apple’s slice of the business pie gets exponentially larger with each passing year.  

So, if you see kids on the sidewalk staring at their iDevices and you just see a group of zombies, just think to yourself that these same kids will soon be adults. Some will be your bosses, and others will be your lackeys, but either way, you are going to have to face the fact that these people are going to be using Apple products.

The best way to handle this change is to lovingly embrace it. Don’t become a troll to the Apple brand, but simply accept that they are now a viable option and appreciate that there is now a brand that will push Microsoft to churn out better products on a more consistent basis. Because, say what you will, but Apple’s OS is always consistent.

Talk to any of my many converts, and for every person that doesn’t like it, I have ten more that love it. It’s about the ease of use, the fact that you can count the virus threats on one hand, and my favorite part, the fact that I am writing this on a four-year-old Mac that still performs nearly (nearly) as well as it did the day I bought it. I have customers that have purchased two or even three computers in the time that I have had my one.

Yes, we spent the same amount of money overall, but I have never had to spend one to two days transferring my information or creating new settings. Saving this time is more valuable to most businesses than the money aspect. Take your business’ time back, and let your employees (who want them) have Macs.

** Tip of the week**

Because we were talking about Macs we figured we would give a Mac tip.  We are always talking about backing up. Backing up on a Mac is very easy, just go to your local Best Buy or other electronic store and pick up a 1 or 2 terabyte external HD. 

Take that drive home plug it into your Mac. Go to your System Preferences App, then click Time Machine. From there turn on time machine, then click select disk.  Select the External HD you just got. Pretty much that's it.

Now, whenever that drive is plugged in your Mac will back up to it. If you were ever to lose your hard drive or have to replace a drive, you could do a easy restore from this drive that allows you to go back to the exact state of the last backup