New and Noteworthy: Apple professional support; mini reflects the user; the floppy is dead; switching to Mac is smooth

Apple Debuts AppleCare Professional Video Support Apple announced a new for-fee support system for U.S. users focusing on its professional video applications: Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Pro HD, Motion, DVD Studio Pro, and Soundtrack. The $799/year contract provides 7-day (12 hours/day) access to special Professional Video Technical Support representatives, with unlimited support incidents. It also includes "troubleshooting for Apple hardware and for interconnectivity between your Mac or Xserve and an Xserve RAID, as well as assistance with DV, SD, and HD video input/output over FireWire." More.

iPod mini reflects owner's personality A Reuters article notes that "the iPod mini's eye-pleasing design in five metallic colors has made it a reflection of the user's personality." More.

Gates: the floppy is dead Microsoft has posted the transcript of Bill Gates' May 5 speech to the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, in which he states, "In some ways, I think this is the first time I can say that the floppy disk is dead. You know, we enjoyed the floppy disk, it was nice, it got smaller and smaller, but because of compatibility reasons, it sort of got stuck at the 1.44 megabyte level, and carrying them around, and having that big physical slot in machines, that became a real burden." Welcome to the 21st Century, Bill! More.

Switching to Mac can be surprisingly smooth A Cleveland Plain Dealer article describes a Windows user's experience with an iBook: "You've undoubtedly heard the interminable debate between Windows and Apple users. And while I'm not trying to take sides, I was thoroughly delighted with the iBook and Max OS X. The vast majority of computer users in today's world work on Windows-based machines, but I see how an Apple can become your primary computer." More.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• Security Update 2004-05-03 (#4): Kernel Panics
• More on commercial DVDs not mounting
• Odds and Ends: Apple shipping Microsoft Office 2004 to customers; iTunes "free song of the day" problem
• Utilities Updates: Apple CHUD Tools 3.5.1; USBVision 1.1; JellyfiSSH 3.1.2; more
• New and Noteworthy: eWeek: The Mac Should Stay! No, The Mac should Go!; more

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