I’m not particularly attached to any brand of hardware – it doesn’t matter to me whether it was made by Dell, HP, Apple or the computer store down the street, it’s just a tool – as long as it works, I don’t care who made it (with the exception of companies that use slave/child labor or harm animals in the making of their products).

Of course, I’ve gotten plenty of ribbing from my Graphic Designer friends (and non designer friends too) about not working on a Mac. Hey, I learned how to use a computer on a Mac, my first computer was a Mac (I’m NOT going to tell you how long ago) – I’m certainly not anti-Mac. The truth is – I just didn’t see the need to spend the extra $$$.

I finally decided to make the switch for these reasons:

1. I wanted to buy the new Adobe CS3 software, and because it costs so much (nearly as much as the notebook!) it was better to make the decision to switch to a Mac before purchasing that software for my PC and having to buy it again.
2. I have an iPhone, which I hope (because it is an Apple product) will communicate easier with the MacBook.
3. There is now a more dependable way to run the Windows OS (using VMware Fusion) to allow me to run the PC only programs that I can’t live without.
4. I wanted a 15″ notebook for portability, the new MacBooks can accept 4gb of RAM, so they have enough power to do what I need, and they have dual DVI built in so I can use my 30″ Dell monitor.
5. It’s pretty (I’m only sort of kidding here – what’s not to love about the clean design and the beautiful OS?).

So, here I am – with my new MacBook, and I’m as excited as a kid on Christmas morning! Because it seems like the thing to do (as a photographer and an excited child), I’ve photographed un-boxing my new toy. Like you haven’t seen this a million times on the web ;)

Here a SimpleViewer Flash gallery should be displayed. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.

I went to Amazon right away (January 2nd) and bought the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit to go with it. I bought the shoe pouch to hold the sensor instead of buying the Nike shoe that allows you to put the sensor in the sole because as much as I like buying new stuff – the shoes weren’t any better than the $100+ shoes I already had (mind you, the ones in the photo are not those $$ shoes anymore).

The case you see on the Nano in the photo is an Agent 18 Shock kit that I got at Target after a lot of looking around and I have to say I’m thrilled with it. I wanted something that you could see the Red Nano through (I mean, why have a cool color iPod if you can’t see it?!), and I needed to have something that would allow the Nike+ receiver to plug into the bottom of the Nano. The shock kit has removable rubber ends, so this works really great. However, I must caution you – if you have cats…the rubber ends are irresistible and they WILL get chewed up if you leave them out. Oh, and Agent 18 WILL NOT replace them for you – they thought it was funny, but alas would not help me out except to tell me that replacement caps would be for sale soon.

I’m not very consistent with my walking/running these days – when I first got the set up I was going every day! So, now that I’ve been trying to get back on track with a regular schedule I have been having trouble with the Nike+ sport kit not correctly tracking my time and distance.

The coolest part (for me) of using the sport kit is the motivational aspect. I’ve been listening to music on my walks since Sony made their first Walkman – so the music is of course motivational, but the Nike+ has spoken feedback, and gives me proof that I’ve accomplished something. By proof I’m talking about the Nike+ website that uploads your latest runs when you sync your iPod with iTunes. It tracks how far you went, how long it took you and how many calories you’ve burned. You can set up routes on a map (powered by Google) for your runs, and assign your run to the correct route, you can set challenges for yourself and have friends join in challenges as well (I just got my mom a Nano & Nike+ set up….we have to get our challenge going!). You can also see in the side column that Nike+ has widgets that you can add to your blog…very cool.

Recently, the motivational aspect became de-motivational – the darned thing was miscalculating. It was saying that after 51 minutes of walking I had only gone .76 of a mile. Now, I know I’m not the fastest walker/runner – but this was definitely way off! It took me months to figure it out….I had moved the sensor to another shoe and had put it in UPSIDE-DOWN! Geeze. Ok, so – if you’ve come across this post because you’re trying to figure out why yours has stopped working correctly – make sure that the flat side of the sensor is facing up! :)

So…after all that, I’m back on track today. Yes I’m declaring my intentions to the world (this is a Weight Watchers “tool” for helping you to stick to your goals) . Mom and I made a little pact last night that we would both walk 3x this week at least 30 minutes. I figured, I can do that….and so I did. Just check my little widget. ;)