The Mac Café Team

Glyn Evans (The Editor)
My name is Glyn Evans, and I own and run several web based businesses in the UK. I began my business ventures back in 2003 with Pocket PC Solutions, a web based business selling PDA case, accessories and software. As the PDA market began to decline I moved in to the UMPC market in 2006, and Pocket PC Solutions became one of the UK's leading companies importing and reselling UMPC's, however due to the increased competitive market, and limited market share of this device type I withdrew from the UMPC market at the end of 2007. Also at the end of 2007, and following a review of my business strategy I launched www.icaseshop.co.uk and www.icaseshop.eu, selling iPhone, iPod and Mac cases and accessories. You may be asking how did someone go from selling Microsoft related products to selling Apple related products, and the answer is NOT because I wanted to jump on to the Apple bandwagon, but because having bought an iBook back in 2005, I fell in love with the Mac and Apple products in general. Since owning my original iBook, I have upgraded to a MacBook, and have also bought a couple of Mac Mini's for my business, and it is because of my love of Apple products that I dreamt of selling accessories for iPods and Mac's, and in late 2007 the opportunity arose with www.icaseshop.co.uk. iCase Shop has grown from selling just a couple of iPhone cases, to a wide range of products, and I plan to continue its growth with more products. My love for Apple stuff did end with iCase Shop, as during my time of using Apple Mac's, I have migrated all my business (Pocket PC Solutions) computers to Apple Mac's, and I no longer have a Windows based computer :) Following my trials and tribulations with the migration process from Microsoft to Apple, I decided to launch justMAC to provide support and advise to anyone who wants to follow a similar path.

Why The Mac Café.
If you had read this far, then you may be wondering why I have created the The Mac Café, and the simple fact is that I wanted to created a blog about Apple related products and news. Inspired by websites like TUAW, MacUser, jkOnTheRun, UMPC Portal, iJustine, and the video podcast Mahalo Daily (available via iTunes) I wanted to create a website that sort of mixed all these sites together and produce a blog that was at least 70% video. The website name (The Mac Café) came about as I wanted to keep each video to about 5 mins, and make available to download for your iPhone or iPod to watch during your coffee break. Whilst my initial video podcasts will showcase the products I sell via www.icaseshop, I am very conscious that this site will not be a shop front for my own businesses.

Hopefully you will enjoy this site as much as I hope I will running it, and if you have any comments or suggestions, then please contact me.

Barry Ward (Contributor)
Hi, I'm Barry Ward, and I am an Apple fan. Sounds like I'm at an AA meeting doesn't it? "Welcome to Apple's Anonymous!"

The one thing that started it all, was finding out the iPods now have gapless playback with music. Even to this day, it can be hard finding such a feature in an mp3 player, when they should all do it as standard. It's no good listening to Pink Floyd when you constantly hear 2 second pauses between the tracks of an album! So I bought an iPod Nano (2nd Gen), and quickly fell in love with it and iTunes. It then got me thinking- if iTunes and iPods are this good, what are Apple's computers like?

I looked at the Apple Macs when Vista came out ('nuff said). The time then came for my wife to buy a new laptop, so I asked her if she wanted to pop into the local Apple store. We did, and she bought a MacBook there and then. Of course, I couldn't let her have one without me, so I bought one soon after. And that was it then- I was hooked!

Spring forward to today. I still own my first MacBook, but it stays at home, holding my home iTunes library (on an external drive) ready to sync/stream to my 160GB AppleTV. I now have a MacBook Pro as my personal laptop, and have replaced my Nano with a 16GB iPod Touch. Of course my wife still owns her MacBook. She is very happy with it and it suits her needs perfectly.

I have a daughter (5 years old at the time of writing), and even she likes playing with the new game app's on my Touch, and also likes being creative with Garageband. I love Garageband myself, and am on my way to completing a second album of my own instrumental compositions. I am very proud of them, as I don't consider myself a musician and had no prior experience of writing music. I also like photography (as you can tell from my picture), and own a digital SLR camera as well as a compact.

As for personal tastes, I like most types of films but mostly enjoy comedies, action, and sci-fi. I like any music except jazz, classical, and rap (if you can call it music!). I don't drink or smoke. I like to go out, but mostly on days out with the family or to restaurants. To be honest though, I get a little twitchy if I am away from my Mac for too long. Technology, and specifically anything Apple, is my main hobby. My MacBook Pro is my main source of information and communication, and if I lost it, it would be like losing the use of a limb. This is especially the case now I don't use Microsoft Windows and it's complicated UI.

I love showing off my Apple devices, and people are always wowed by them. I'm just glad I'm on the right team.

Will Brummel (Contributor)
Will Brummel is one of The Mac Café reviewers, and has provided us with the following profile:

Name: William Brummel
Age: Double Digit
Sexual Orientation: Always south
Music tastes: From A to W, Anything with a groove
Politics: Never down the pub
Favourite air guitar: Blues for Narada by Gary Moore
Current Mac equipment: 1.83GHz MacBook
Wants: iMac
Favourite saying: "Time stops everything happening at once"

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