I never touched a Mac until I was 18 years old. I knew of their existence of course, but I didn't know anyone who owned one, and I didn't really know anything about them.

I got a job as Tech Support for an ISP, and we had a couple of Macs for testing and problem solving. They were the first generation of iMacs:

A now classic design, fitting all the components of a personal computer into one neat package. I never had to use them much, but when I did, I remember thinking that they were easy to use. If you can use Windows, you can use Mac OS.

Fast forward eight years, and I ordered my first Mac in 2006.

I'd kept up with things via the internet, played with a couple of Macs at people's houses and in the Apple store, and Landers was smitten. When the Macbook was released, I decided to get one, and I can honestly say I've never looked back. I would certainly never consider getting a Windows PC again. I do still have my old PC, but it's used as a glorified network hard-drive come media centre. It stores our music and is hooked up to the stereo.

Don't get me wrong, Macs aren't perfect. I've had a couple of problems; for example, currently my laptop's battery is not being recognised and I can only use it while it's plugged into the mains. But the fact remains that the experience of using a Mac after years of fighting with a Windows PC is a pleasure every day. I can count on one hand the number of times my Mac has crashed, and most times the problem is due to a piece of software which is promptly updated and the problem goes away.

I've had to resort to using my PC on exactly one occasion - an obscure bit of software I downloaded was in a format I had never heard of, and the only programme I could find to open it was Windows only. Not bad in 18 months of usage, in my opinion.

The best thing about Mac OS is the fact that everything just works. It's seamless. Just playing with one in the Apple store does not fully illustrate how wonderful the whole package is when you get it home, and you start actually using it. And as I said, if you've used Windows, you can use Mac OSX.

Many of the features of Vista that Microsoft trumpeted about when it was released have been in OSX for a long time. The slogan for the Vista launch was "The wow starts now!"

As far as I'm concerned, the wow started 8 years ago with OSX.

I think I've gushed enough for now. I hope I've given a good overview of my Mac experience, this blog is intended to spread the gospel of OSX and if there's anything you want to know, leave a comment and I'l do my best to answer it.

So, the iPhone is released here in Ireland on Friday. I'm quite excited, Landers and I both want one, but I was loathe to buy one from abroad and unlock it because it would be unsupported if anything went wrong. They are quite expensive, and I wouldn't want to take that risk.

There is a big ruckus going on about the so called "Paddy Tax" - the fact that things cost more here than they do elsewhere. The main gripe is that the phone itself is going to cost more than in the UK (despite costing the same as elsewhere in Europe), and the tariffs o2 are offering are rubbish compared to the UK.

The cheapest tariff on offer is €45, and you get 175 minutes, 100 texts and 1GB of data transfer per month. It doesn't matter how much you pay, you still only get the 1GB allowance for data.

The cheapest UK tariff costs about the same, but you get 500 minutes, 500 texts and unlimited data transfer (subject to a fair usage policy).

At first glance, it looks like we're getting screwed. That is, until you look at other tariffs in Ireland. Sticking with o2, to get 100 minutes, 100 texts and their 1GB data add on you have to cough up €50, so the iPhone tarrif actually saves you €5 and you even get an extra 75 minutes for your money. It's a similar story with the other mobile networks here, they all offer less inclusive minutes and texts than in the UK, and you have to pay a lot more for data transfer. The iPhone deal is not bad in a fair comparison.

I've pointed this out on several blogs, and generally I've been blasted for it. Other people seem to think that in Ireland, things should cost the same as everywhere else. I don't really get that. Our taxes are different, our income is different, our economy is different, our currency is different. I was told that my attitude is the reason that the mobile phone companies are able to charge so much; people like me let them get away with it. Well, yes, that's true. But I bet those people use mobile phones currently, so how is that different to signing up to one of the iPhone tariffs? It annoys me that the iPhone has been singled out when the problem is industry wide; the iPhone just happens to be a high-profile item.

Yes, the tariffs are pants, but only when compared to the UK. If the people moaning about the price difference looked at other things, like the cost of petrol, they might shut up. You guys in the UK are totally getting bent over with that one - even at an expensive garage, our petrol works out at about 92p per litre! It's 87p at Tesco!

In order to avoid bombarding people with my fanatical Apple ramblings on my main blog, I decided to create a new one.

Expect news, opinions and rants fairly frequently. Difficult as it may be to believe, I've restrained myself on my main blog - now, the gloves are off!

(Oh, and I'll have a play at home later and make this place look a little prettier.)