Push media revisited, thanks to the NYT

Back in the days of slow dial-up connections I was a huge fan of Pointcast, a downloadable newspaper reader. I chose my desired selection from a range of news media and every day the programme would download the content to the reader. That way I could read the stuff on my computer without having to be online.

Then Pointcast hit all kinds of problems and disappeared. But with always-on broadband, newspapers and magazines are never more than a click away anyway, so it didn't matter so much.

So what's the point of a media reader now? The New York Times has a very handy product called The New York Times Reader that I'm trying out at the moment. It delivers all the content of the paper every day, and the cache holds seven days worth of NYT. The quality of writing and coverage of the New York Times is probably better than British papers such as The Times, The Telegraph and The Guardian - after all, the NYT is one of the world's great newspapers.

When the trial ends in 10 days or so, the critical issue for me will be the price point. The NYT Reader is a nice-to-have, not an essential. Anything less than $50 a year I'll sign up without a second thought. Anything approaching $100 will be too much.

Apple - close and getting closer

For almost 20 years I've been having my ears bent by Mac fanatics intent on converting me to the true faith. But I hated having to use a Mac (OS 9.0) when I was with Y&R in the late 90s and reverted to Windows as soon as I could.

Then the iPod came out and I relented and bought a G4 TiBook with MS Office loaded. I ended up sticking with Windows for work and using the TiBook to manage my music and digital photos - pretty kit but flimsy, with poor wireless range.

Then I had a chance to work on the iMac, digital editing with James Mairs using Final Cut Pro. So I splashed out on an Intel iMac and even an Intel MacBook Pro. But again, I ended up sticking with Windows for work and using the Macs for music and photos.

All along, I never felt comfortable enough switching to Mac for work. But having just had (another) Windows data wipe-out, this time with Vista, I've decided my next spend will be a switch to Mac. What's changed?

1) The guys at the local Apple dealer, Farpoint Developments in Bath know their products inside out and they're helpful. With any luck, that will mean much less of my time time wasted on IT DIY. Two days less a year will make it worthwhile.

2) Mac's OS-X is a lot more stable than Windows, it boots and runs faster and it doesn't leave a mess of DLLs all over the system.

3) The new iPhone finally looks like a smartphone that's usable for work and relevant to my needs - which don't include taking photos and movies

4) The new Me.com service looks like it could tie everything together in exactly the way I need. The only doubt at the moment is whether it will allow me to use my various domains as e-mail send addresses.