Will Vista Be Ready for Prime Time?
There's no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.
Here are a few questions about computers I've received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about Microsoft Vista, family-tree Web sites and utilities that allow the use of Mac iPods on PCs.
Q: You recommend waiting to buy a new PC until the new Windows Vista arrives in January. But isn't it a bad idea to use the first version of a major new program, especially from Microsoft? Should we be concerned that Vista will be "not quite ready for prime time" even when it is released early next year?
A: It's true that Microsoft has a bad record with "Version 1.0" software, and that, too often, it takes a couple of revisions for the company to get things right. Vista might follow the same pattern. But Vista has been worked on for five years, and has undergone extensive beta testing. I suspect that, if there are problems, they will mainly be with third-party companies that may not have their software and hardware updated and ready to work with Vista. This is especially true for software called "drivers," which is needed to make various peripheral hardware, like printers, work with a new operating system.
My guess is most with common software and hardware will find that Vista will work fine. But if you are concerned about it, and you must buy a PC soon, you could always buy a Windows XP model and upgrade to Vista later. The downside of this is that upgrading can be tricky and may result in a botched installation, compared with simply buying a PC on which Vista has been installed at the factory. That's why I suggested waiting for Vista. I will have a full review of the final version of Vista when it's available, and will let you know then if I think it's ready.
Q: Do any of the family-tree Web sites or software packages allow different family members to update a common family tree? It seems they are all designed for one individual's control and maintenance. A joint effort would enable families to eliminate or minimize redundant efforts.
A: The Web site ancestry.com has a feature that allows you to collaborate with others whose family trees overlap with your own -- through common relatives. You can share trees, and even merge them.
Q: I recently purchased a Windows PC to replace my iMac. I've learned to my horror that I can't simply plug my Mac-formatted iPod into the PC's iTunes software. I understand that there are some utilities out there, like XPlay 2, that will allow me to use the Mac iPod on a PC. Are there any drawbacks with these utilities? Is there an alternative?
A: All iPods come from the factory with their internal disk drives or memory formatted for Windows, because most iPod buyers use Windows. If a new iPod is first plugged into a Mac, however, it gets automatically formatted as a Mac drive, to make it work more efficiently. But Windows computers can't read Mac-formatted disks -- including the disks inside iPods that have been formatted for the Mac.
MediaFour's XPlay 2 (
www.mediafour.com) software for Windows solves this, and it has worked fine in my tests as a way to read a Mac-formatted iPod on a Windows PC. But it doesn't support video, and it's more cumbersome than iTunes. Also, you would need to use the Windows version of iTunes to buy songs from the iTunes Store. A better solution might be to just reformat your iPod for Windows, and then you can use it normally through the Windows version of iTunes, without needing XPlay or any other special software. Note that reformatting will wipe out the contents of your iPod, so it's essential that all your music and videos be first moved to your new Windows machine and imported into iTunes there. Then, you can simply use iTunes to re-load all your stuff onto the iPod after it's been reformatted.
To reformat your iPod, make sure the Windows version of iTunes 7.0 is installed, and then plug the iPod into the Windows PC. You should get an alert saying that "iTunes has detected a Macintosh-formatted iPod" and advising you that you must "restore this iPod before you can use it on Windows." Click OK, and then click the "Restore" button in iTunes, which appears in the screen that is shown when you select the iPod from the list at the left.
Windows Vista准备好了吗？
在我们大多数人拥有的大件电器中，再没有什么比个人电脑更令人费解、更变幻莫测的了。每个人或许都有些关于电脑的问题，而《莫博士信箱》将为您提供帮助。
本周我将回答读者有关微软Vista操作系统、家谱网站以及把Mac格式的iPod格式化成Windows格式的问题。
问：你曾建议在Windows Vista明年1月上市后再购买新电脑。但是，你难道不觉得使用重要软件的第一个版本并不是什么好事？出自微软(Microsoft)的软件更是如此。尽管Vista要等到明年年初才上市，我们难道不该为它尚未准备好接受大众的考验而感到担忧吗？
答：微软各类软件的“1.0”版本确实总是表现欠佳，而且公司往往需要经过数次修改才能解决这些问题。Vista或许也不例外。但是，微软已花费了五年的时间研发Vista，而且对它进行了大量Beta测试。我认为，如果发生问题的话，主要是第三方公司没有更新其硬件及软件，尚未做好在Vista上运行的准备工作。那些被称为“驱动”的软件更是如此，因为打印机等外设必须通过这些驱动程序才能在新的操作系统下运行。
我猜想使用通用软件和硬件的大多数用户都会觉得Vista运行得还不错。但是如果你很担心这个问题，而且必须尽快购买一台电脑的话，你可以购买一台Windows XP电脑，以后再升级至Vista。与购买一台预装了Vista的电脑相比，这种做法的不足之处是升级操作很复杂，而且可能需要进行多次修补安装。这也是我建议等待Vista的原因。在能够获得Vista后我会对它的最终版本进行全面的评论。如果我认为它没有问题，我会告诉你的。
问：现在，很多家谱网站的设计只允许一名家庭成员来进行家谱的控制和维护。在此类网站或软件产品中，有没有允许不同的家庭成员来共同更新家谱的呢？家人的共同努力可以消除重复劳动或者将其降至最低。
答：ancestry.com网站有一个此类功能。如果你和其他用户有共同的亲属，你们各自的家谱因此而重合，这个网站可以让你们共同合作，共享家谱，甚至是合并家谱。
问：我最近买了一台Windows电脑来替换iMac。我听说，不能把Mac格式的iPod插入装有iTunes软件的Windows电脑。我知道XPlay 2等软件可以让我在新电脑上使用Mac iPod。但是这些软件有什么缺点吗？还有什么其他解决方法吗？
答：所有iPod在出厂时，它们的内部磁盘驱动或记忆卡被格式化成Windows格式，因为大多数iPod购买者都使用Windows操作系统。不过，如果一个全新的iPod先被插入Mac电脑，它就会自动格式化成Mac格式，以使它更加有效率地运行。但是Windows电脑无法读取Mac格式的磁盘，包括被格式化成Mac格式的iPod。
MediaFour的XPlay 2软件(
www.mediafour.com)可以解决这个问题，而且在我对它的多次测试中，它在使Windows电脑读取Mac格式的iPod方面运行的很好。但是，XPlay 2并不支持视频，而且在操作上比iTunes更繁琐。此外，你还需要使用Windows版本的iTunes从iTunes商店购买歌曲。因此，更好的解决方法是将你的iPod重新格式化为Windows格式，那样的话，你无需XPlay及其他任何软件的辅助就可以正常使用Windows版本的iTunes了。要注意的是，重新格式化iPod的操作会清除它里面的所有内容，因此你有必要将iPod中所有音乐及视频文件先移至Windows电脑上，并输入iTunes中。在iPod重新格式化后，再把所有的内容从iTunes载入iPod。
在重新格式化iPod之前，要确保你的新电脑安装了Windows版本的iTunes 7.0。然后再将iPod插入电脑，这时你的电脑屏幕上会弹出一条警告信息“iTunes发现一个Macintosh格式的iPod”，并且它会建议“在Windows上使用它之前必须恢复iPod”，点击“是”。之后从iTunes屏幕左边的列表中选择iPod，“恢复”(Restore)按钮就会出现在屏幕上，点击这个按钮就可以了。
Walter S. Mossberg
