The old year has come and gone past, and this was a post I was supposed to do before it ended! But well, better late than never. Long post again, so in multiple parts. Starting with my toys!<\/p>\n
Panasonic HDC-TM700 Camcorder<\/a> (Win)<\/span>:<\/strong> I picked up the HDC-TM700 to replace the not very old SD20 HD video camcorders, and almost 8 months after the fact, Ling still marvels at how much clearer, smoother and sharper are the videos that the TM700 is capable of compared to our older HD camcorder. We\u2019ve put it through pretty heavy use this year; one long trip to Boston, one trip to Japan, and literally hundreds of videos of Hannah. All tremendously precious memories that we\u2019ve been able to keep. The only one downer is that this camcorder is now available for much cheaper today than what I paid for. Oh well.:(<\/p>\n Dell XPS Studio 16<\/a> <\/strong>(Win)<\/strong><\/span>: A later in the year purchase. I like the MacBook Pro in terms of its build quality, but a fear I had upon its purchase turned prophetic: I never liked the Mac OS before, and after using it on the MacBook Pro, dislike it even more now. It\u2019s limiting and its UI condescending. Granted it works great for some, but it just didn\u2019t for me. People still find it strange that I always dual-boot the MBP into Windows and hardly touch the Mac OS at all. Incidentally, a colleague at work \u2013 who has years of development experience under his belt \u2013 just acquired the same MBP and said exactly the same thing so it\u2019s not just me.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t help as well that the fruit company today while commercially successful is fast becoming an increasingly disliked technology enterprise through its high-handed business actions<\/a>. So, while the Dell XPS Studio is a less aesthetically pleasing machine, its Windows 7 operating system does a more than adequate job of providing an attractive UI that doesn\u2019t make me feel like an idiot. I\u2019ve used it more now in the last 2 months as a work replacement machine than I ever did with the Macbook Pro over a year.<\/p>\n