Belkin makes PC-to-Mac switch even easier
Belkin's new $50 cable aims to make the PC-to-Mac move even easier.
(Credit: Belkin)Back in 2006, Microsoft was only too happy to tout a cable from Belkin that made it easier to move from XP to Vista. It even gave away the devices as part of its CES press kits.
However, a new twist on that cable is likely to get a far chillier reception in Redmond.
While Belkin's original USB cable--the Easy Transfer Cable--was aimed at moving from XP to Vista, its latest product is aimed at those moving to a Mac.
The $50 Switch-to-Mac cable "automatically moves your music, movies, photos, files, and Internet preferences" from a Windows machine over to a shiny new Mac. It works with either XP or Vista on the PC side and either Tiger or Leopard on the Mac as far as Macs go.
There's obviously other ways to move files and make the switch, but if this cable works as smoothly as the XP-to-Vista one did, it's likely to make life easier for switchers.
As for Microsoft, it declined to comment on Belkin's announcement.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
Or is that the Mac itself?
I kid, I kid!
* Those of us who don't know how a real computer works, have an IQ of less than 80, and don't care to learn anything new or gain any knowledge and will buy a computer based on how pretty the GUI and casing looks.
I kid, I kid! Even Mac OS X has a learning curve.
Also, what in the world are you "learning" or "gaining knowledge" from using Windows? How to fix it? The only people who "gain knowledge" (I'm going to assume you mean useful knowledge) from using a computer are IT people. I sit at a computer all day and there's nothing about Windows that helps me gain knowledge. I can read articles and do research on the internet just as easily (if not more so) on a Mac as I can on a Windows box, that's just got to be one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever seen.
However, I've got something for ya, if you want to learn stuff for the sake of learning stuff fire up Terminal on the Mac - it's a UNIX shell, vastly superior to the command window in Windows.
You know what, possible someone can invent Web technology and use Broadband speeds to transfer data files over the web for $20 and it will be cheaper and faster than the USB 2.0 data cable. Hook up the PC, run the web software, back up all your data. Trade it in for a Macintosh hook it up to broadband and then log in and download your data collection then delete it off their server or pay for them to keep backups for you. I'm just saying, it sounds like a very good Dotcom Business Plan. :)
Not to mention with providers like Comcast capping total data nowadays.....
How about a mac to pc cable, lol.
Nuf said.
LOL!
Or, the easiest solution of all: let Apple do it for you. They offer that as a FREE service when you buy a new Macintosh!
My last install...only Linux installed without a hitch. XP and Vista both had (and still have) issues.
/rant
Seriously, though, what you're talking about is a matter of taste, and there's no arguing taste. Me, I've always found the Mac OS austere and decidedly UNinutitive. I like being able to access pretty much anything I want on any Windows setup with exactly two clicks, files or apps. I also like apps that close when you tell them to, i.e. you close the window, the app goes away. That's a thoughtful OS to me, and effectively executed besides.
I have never quiet understood the failure of Apple (or MS) to handle cross platform transfers better!
For those who are not affraid to transfer the files themselves this could be a time saver.
As for a Macintosh or Windows computer
Keep in mind the purpose of the Mac/intosh was to be more simple. The reason why people purchase a computer in the past was to help simplify their lives, writing letters (replaced by email or instant messaging) banking online instead of standing in a line. and the many more reasons people use computers today. The Mac wasn't created because we weren't smart trust me there are a lot of intelligent people that use Mac. They buy em because of more then just being a cool computer. If you like tinkering with a computer and just digging into it. By all means buy a PC with Windows. And these days Microsoft is getting better at making them more user friendly.
The Mac has always been a simplified computer that does what you want it to do and gets out of your way. A person should never have to figure a bunch of dos commands or any command or tell the computer where a driver is so that it works. True pc's with Windows have come a long way. But the Mac was never marketed as a computer for geeks to break open figure out how it ticks instead you turn it on and use it and you move on.
I work in an office with both Mac and Windows. I don't have to run every five mintues to a Mac user and fix something. Keep in mind computers are to help organize and simplify. So, if I don't have an i.q. over 80 at least when I turn my computer on I don't have to worry if something is not going to work or if I remember to install a driver before or after I plug a camera or other device in.
If the Mac was such a stupid peoples computer why does Microsoft try to make Windows much more like the Mac? And trust me I rather use Unix under the hood then any OS Microsoft puts out... Vista, was and is a huge disappointment.
Nonsense...thats all I can say, get in the real world.
I'm sorry, but if you need this cable, then perhaps you shouldn't have computer in the first place.
In the past some writers use to use sex to gain public attention...I guess this is your version of it! Move on please...it is getting old and you do want people to read your articles don't you???
She knew this will grab some eyes from some people that cannot stand a switching of platform.
For good of for bad.
As I said earlier, it's pretty clear here who makes their computing choices based on maturity and intelligence, and who makes theirs based on emotions.
And while I'm typing this, I'm also installing software, rendering out about 5 minutes of video to DVD, IM'ing, surfing the internet...... all on a quad-core PC running Windows XP. I like to multi-task :)
- by nicmart November 14, 2008 5:27 PM PST
- Given that Apple has removed Firewire -- and therefore the target disc mode option -- from some new laptops, it is now easier to move from Windows to Mac than from Macs (sans Firewire) to Mac.
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