Let’s make this clear…even though I went cross-platform nearly two years ago and stopped drinking the kool-aid I still considered myself a big fan of [Apple](http://www.apple.com) and its products. My attitude is “best tool for the job” and for many things, Mac OS X is the best tool.

When my iPod was only a lowly shuffle and I was still running Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, I lost interest in many of the mac sites and magazines. After you flipped through all the Tiger and iPod stuff, there wasn’t much to talk about. I let my [Macworld](http://www.macworld.com) subscription lapse and I barely pay attention to [MacAddict](http://www.macaddict.com) when it arrives.

Yesterday I had time to kill at the train station so I picked up the latest [Macworld](http://www.macworld.com) magazine for the first time in about a year. It’s still a shadow of its former self but it was a pretty good read now that I’m actually using the software it’s talking about.

But for subscribing, I still prefer the PC magazines ([PCWorld](http://www.pcworld.com), [PCMagazine](http://www.pcmagazine.com), [Computer Shopper](http://www.computershopper.com), etc.) Why? It’s not because I prefer Windows over Mac, it’s because the PC magazines don’t fly exclusively in their own orbit. If something is better or cooler on a Mac, they say so. Honest! Those magazines are thicker and get more ads because it’s about the technology and the task first, then platform second. Mac magazines look at it the other way around…if it runs on a Mac or thinks about running on the Mac we’re going to talk about it and report on it…then we’ll figure out if it’s something worth talking about or reporting about. I find that gets old fast. Because there are thousands and thousands of technologies and products in the general PC world, the PC magazines are more selective. I find their stories to be more balanced and researched than similar angles taken on the Mac side.

Now mind you, every PC magazine spends as much time talking about what’s wrong as anything else. That gets old too. Articles on how to avoid viruses, spyware, problems, bugs, strange things, etc. are predominant…while the Mac magazines are usually just happy to be there. The reviews are honest and kind of balanced, but nearly everything in the feature articles are **AWESOME** as long as they have that little piece of fruit on it. The headline of the December issue is typical…“44 Gadgets *Every* Mac User Will Love…” Why must I love something simply because I have a Mac and the gadget works with it?

Tags: Adobe, Macworld Magazine