No longer are Macintosh users the "dirty little secret" on The University of Memphis campus. That's due to a new student organization called Tiger Mac.
Tiger Mac is a new group designed with Mac and iPod users in mind. The organization is gearing up to begin its first semester at The U of M.
"The average person can use a Mac, but they are a little more geared for people with more of a direct purpose in mind such as music, movies and design," said Rashad Lynch, a senior history major.
According to Matt Goad, a senior communications major, Tiger Mac is a community organization.
"This group was designed for members to be able to show others how to use a Mac," he said. "We want people in this organization to able to showcase their work. We haven't finished planning out the meeting, but we will have our meetings in rooms with projector screens so we can show various students' work."
According to a survey by Consumer Reports, only 20 percent of Mac users reported a virus had affected their machines in the past two years.
"The big advantage that Macs have over the PC is security," Goad said.
Many Mac users also prefer the programs that the Mac operating system offers.
Tiger Mac organizers want to make this organization useful to all people on campus.
"I am a new Mac user and I don't know how to do anything on it," said Gwynn Bradley, vice president of Tiger Mac.
Most people only use the functions that they understand, but there are hundreds of uses for many of the Mac programs.
According to Goad, self-proclaimed "Mac expert", the PC has many programs that aren't very useful and only take up space on hard drives.
"I love the iLife suite," Goad said. "The programs are very useful. It comes with iTunes, iMovie and iPhoto. Most people don't know everything that you can do with these programs, but if they come to the meeting we will teach them."
How to effectively use podcasts will also be addressed in the meetings. A podcast is a method of publishing files to the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new files automatically by subscription.
Bradley said many colleges and universities offer podcasts of class lectures, but The U of M is not one of them - yet.
"Tiger Mac is working with U of M professors to offer podcasts," she said.
The organization has had some trouble getting started, but Goad believes there will be a meeting sometime in October.
"We have been having a couple problems," Bradley said. "We do have an info table set up in the Tiger Den all this week from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. for people who want further information about the organization."
