Veronica Belmont is the host of Mahalo Daily, a new video podcast about everything and anything. She is also a huge Mac fan. Although her love of gaming and all things geek goes back to childhood, her love affair with Macs didn’t begin until college.
“I’ve always been kind of a geek. I grew up playing tons of video games,” she said.
“I’m a Mac gamer, which is kind of a rare breed,” she said. She plays World of Warcraft, Civilization, Age of Empires, and games from Aspyr. But gaming isn’t the only thing she uses her MacBook Pro for.
While attending Emerson College and studying audio production and new media, it quickly became clear that she needed a Mac.
“I decided to make the switch finally after seeing all of my friends who were enjoying their Macs very much, so I went all out and got a top of the line G5,” Belmont said.
That first Mac she owned was a dual G5 tower, which she used throughout her time at Emerson where she was doing a lot of audio and video editing.
Soon, mobility became much more important so she traded in the tower for her current MacBook Pro.
“I can’t believe that I ever didn’t have a laptop. I can’t even fathom not being able to pick it up and take it with me. I go everywhere with it,” she said.
“I enjoy working on computers. I enjoy Internet culture,” she said. Which has made working in new media very natural for Belmont. Professionally, she began her career in new media at CNet in the Fall of 2004, after graduating from Emerson. She spent almost 3 years there, until recently, when she joined Mahalo.
“When I started working at Mahalo, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that they use Macs exclusively at the office.”
She keeps her Mac by her side at all times because, “It’s my main tool of communication, obviously.”
“I have anxiety dreams that I’ve gone to the airport and forgotten my laptop. You know how some people have those dreams where they’re in high school and they’re naked, mine, I’m at the airport with no laptop,” she jokes.
“I’m not a big phone talker, I’m really really attached to email at all times,” she said.
Currently, she uses it as her primary workspace, since she works remotely from her office. She’s in San Francisco, while Mahalo is in Santa Monica.
When it comes to software, she’s serious about what she likes.
“I’m constantly finding new stuff. I’m always deleting apps and adding new ones and trying new stuff,” she said.
“It’s hard to find the right combination for you,” she said of locating the perfect software applications for each individual. But for Belmont, she’s found the right combination for her. She’s a big fan of Colloquy, which she uses to chat in IRC. She uses Flock as her web browser, and for audio editing, she likes Audacity, but is trying out Sound Studio from Freeverse. Finally, for editing photos she uses Pixelmator, but she still uses iPhoto for organizing photos.
It’s not just the apps she likes, however.
“The ease of use and the interface. It suits my personality more than a PC does,” she said.
“I find Macs to be very whimsical, like the Dock and the genie effect. Little details like that make me happy,” she said.
And if ease of use, good looks, and whimsical details weren’t enough to spread the love of all things Mac, “They last a long time, they’re good,” she said.
She sold her G5 tower to a former coworker who is still using it for video editing.
“Especially since you can upgrade them so easily, give them more RAM and stuff, it lasts a long time,” she said.
Belmont isn’t the only Mac fan she knows.
“Yeah, almost all of my friends are Mac users actually, even my non-techie friends have Macs now,” she said.
Describing living in San Francisco she notes, “You go into the coffee shop and there’s 20 MacBook Pros, a couple MacBooks and the really depressed looking ThinkPad.”
Belmont adds, “Everyone I know professionally and even non-professionally are using Macs these days. I guess it’s just the crew I roll with.”
But her MacBook Pro isn’t the only Apple product Belmont owns and loves.
“I can’t imagine a time before my iPhone,” she said.
Although she’s not a big phone talker, she likes being connected to the world. After using smart phones in the past, she discovered that, “they just don’t work the way I want them to.”
Having survived smart phone trial and error, Belmont now says that “I know the iPhone isn’t the most heavily featured phone, but it does everything I need it to do, really, really well.”
Someday, she’d love it to be 3G, have GPS and do video recording, but for now she’s quite happy with what she has. For awhile she had an NES emulator and really got into Tap Tap Revolution. Belmont also really likes the new Google on iPhone and listens to some of her 20G of music in iTunes. When not talking, web browsing, or listening to music, she also takes movies and podcasts on the go.
“I’ve started enjoying using a cell phone since I have an iPhone.”
Gary, Jay, and Will talk about the expanding marke tshare of Macs, Google’s new iPhone interface, and cool Apple holiday gifts.
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Ajit Anthony Prem is a filmmaker and Mac enthusiast, despite the fact that he didn’t touch a Mac or start making films until college.
Prem began taking film classes while pursuing a business degree at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York. It was with the encouragement of his teachers that he decided to change majors and become a filmmaker.
“I always wanted to do something creative. I would have loved to have been an actor. That would have been great.”
As Prem puts it, “An Indian guy in America, it just seemed so far out.”
So, behind the camera is where Prem became comfortable and was introduced to Macs.
Prem was hired as an assistant video editor during college, when he began using Edit DV software.
“A one time experience was all I needed to believe in that level of technology.”
After that job, Prem was hooked.
“When I got my computer after college, I got a Mac.” It was a 450 Mhz G4.
“It came with Classic, which I still love,” Prem adds.
Then and now, Prem utilizes the vast video editing capabilities of Macs and the available software.
Prem is currently working as both a filmmaker and video editor in North Carolina. He relocated there after spending fifteen years in New York. Prior to that, Prem spent the first fourteen years of his life in India, where he used computers but no Macs.
His current interests in filmmaking and video blogging stem directly from his use of Macs.
“If it wasn’t for that G5 at that moment in my life, I probably wouldn’t have got into videoblogging.”
Squigglebooth.com is where Prem currently videoblogs.
“The idea for Squigglebooth was a videoblog for me and my friends,” says Prem. It was designed to allow people who share the same creative passion to feature their work.
“It wasn’t meant to be just a videoblog for Ajit, it was meant to be a videoblog for a community of people,” Prem notes.
But over time Squigglebooth.com has become more of a personal project for Prem.
“It’s a portfolio of my imagination,” he said. Prem has utilized Squigglebooth.com to showcase his personal projects which have led to more professional opportunities as well, and all in thanks to his Mac.
“I wouldn’t have been remotely interested in half the things in regards to technology, especially in regards to blogging or video blogging if it wasn’t for my Mac.”
Prem adds, “You become a geek after awhile. Stuff I never had a curiosity for, now I do.”
“Mac culture tends to lead you that way, to kind of know more about your computer, know about how the computer runs and why it does the things it does,” said Prem. Since discovering more about Macs and how they operate, Prem has become a bit of a Mac evangelist himself.
“My school, the whole communications department was a PC department and I got that switched over to Mac. They weren’t too far behind. They just needed the extra push to really go there. They got a whole bunch of G5s,” Prem said about St. Francis College’s Communications Department.
Prem boasts, “Every friend I have, I’ve switched to Mac in one way or another.”
Incorporating Macs into his life, Ajit Anthony Prem has completely changed the direction of his life. First with the decision to become a filmmaker and then as his interest in videoblogging grew. Overall, Prem has few regrets.
About being a filmmaker, Prem said, “I wish I was one of those kids that made films when I was like 10 years old, that would have been great.”
But now, filmmaking and using a Mac go hand in hand for Prem who seems poised for further growth in his creative endeavors as Squigglebooth.com has gotten more media attention. Prem thinks the future looks bright for Apple too.
“I’m very positive about where Mac is headed,” he said. When he first began using Macs, “People thought you were kind of crazy for having a Mac system.”
But more recently Prem has noticed that changing.
“We should really celebrate this great decade,” Prem said as he reflects on the successful run Apple has had in increasing sales and the impact of devices such as iPods and iPhones. He believes people have developed an envy of those who can use Macs and PCs.
“It’s great that we’ve lived in this beautiful Mac period.”
Gary, Jay, and Will talk about the new look for Apple Stores, working at the Genius Bar, unlocked iPhones in Europe, the early release of the iPhone SDK, and Steve Jobs on top of a list at Fortune magazine.
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The Using Mac Blog has a nicely-compiled list of keyboard shortcuts for different parts of Leopard.
Just read an interesting blog post from Bill Clementson’s Blog. His 2-year-old PowerBook had a bad line in it and Apple didn’t have a replacement ready to go. So they just gave him a new MacBook Pro.
