Friday, January 21, 2005
Waiting for upcoming Apple products: the future is now (almost)
So it's eight o'clock on a Friday night and I'm already in bed. What am I, an old man now? No, it's just been a long week. And by "long" I don't mean "bad" or "difficult" or "trying"...I just mean busy days with not enough sleep in between. So as I sit here practicing my typing skills in the dark, I can't help but think of just how much I'm going to enjoy one of the signature features of my next Apple laptop: the built-in backlit keyboard. Oh, and the G5 processor will be a nice little addition as well.
But at the same time, I can't help but think of just what a great value my current Apple laptop turned out to be. I mean, it's not supposed to be possible. You're not supposed to be able to pick up a nearly two-year-old laptop, push it to its limits just the same as if it were a brand new current-model machine, and still get results, but that's exactly what's happened here. This puppy just keep cranking away, just like I need it to, just like I've come to expect from Macintosh computers. It doesn't know that it's not supposed to still be relevant, so I'm certainly not going to be the one to tell it.
I had someone ask me the other day, someone who didn't know much of anything about Macs and their specs, how Macs compare to PCs in terms of staying relevant as they age. And the answer is a simple one: Macs stay relevant, PCs don't. You can own a Mac that's two, four, five years old, and by adding nothing more than a RAM upgrade and the current operating system, keep it relevant and use it for real productivity. Now, obviously, a four year old machine isn't going to hold a candle to today's hardware in terms of the speed at which it can accomplish things, but if you have a Mac, then at least it can still accomplish things. Show me a Windows PC that comes within a country mile of still being considered a relevant machine. And that's even after its owner has spent hundreds on adding the kinds of "forward-thinking" hardware components that Macs have standard with for years.
In fact, if not for the fact that I push my Mac to such extremes in terms of processing power, I might not be in that much of a hurry to move on to a next-generation PowerBook at all. Nothing wrong with a little Titanium in your life, right? But the G5 PowerBook calls, so if and when it finally comes into existence, it shall be mine.
I ordered iWork today from the online Apple Store. I thought about going and picking it up during tomorrow morning's melee, but it came back to that "it's been a long week" thing, and then I even lost my motivation to drive up there and pick it up at all. So I did the lazy thing and ordered it, and it should arrive sometime next week, and I can't wait to dive in. The only thing better than a new version of Keynote is an entirely new word processor. Or maybe it's the other way around. We'll end up seeing soon enough. I, for one, expect to be every bit as pleasantly surprised the first time I sit down to use Pages, as I was a few years ago when I first sat down to use Keynote.
Funny little story about that last part there: when I bought Keynote way back when, I stopped on the way home to get my car's oil changed, and while I was waiting I sat down and began to read the 100 page Keynote manual that came in the box. My first though was "hoo boy, 100 page manual, must be overly complicated." But when I got home and fired it up and began playing with it, I realized that the software was so self-explanatory that I never once cracked that manual again. Not as I learned how to use it, not as I taught schoolteachers how to use it, not as I taught third, fourth, and fifth graders how to use it.
All software should be so auto-intuitive that you can teach a room full of people how to use it off the top of your head.
I wish all software was made by Apple.
Okay, not all of it. Just the important stuff.
You know, come to think of it, for the most part, it is.
Bedtime.
So it's eight o'clock on a Friday night and I'm already in bed. What am I, an old man now? No, it's just been a long week. And by "long" I don't mean "bad" or "difficult" or "trying"...I just mean busy days with not enough sleep in between. So as I sit here practicing my typing skills in the dark, I can't help but think of just how much I'm going to enjoy one of the signature features of my next Apple laptop: the built-in backlit keyboard. Oh, and the G5 processor will be a nice little addition as well.
But at the same time, I can't help but think of just what a great value my current Apple laptop turned out to be. I mean, it's not supposed to be possible. You're not supposed to be able to pick up a nearly two-year-old laptop, push it to its limits just the same as if it were a brand new current-model machine, and still get results, but that's exactly what's happened here. This puppy just keep cranking away, just like I need it to, just like I've come to expect from Macintosh computers. It doesn't know that it's not supposed to still be relevant, so I'm certainly not going to be the one to tell it.
I had someone ask me the other day, someone who didn't know much of anything about Macs and their specs, how Macs compare to PCs in terms of staying relevant as they age. And the answer is a simple one: Macs stay relevant, PCs don't. You can own a Mac that's two, four, five years old, and by adding nothing more than a RAM upgrade and the current operating system, keep it relevant and use it for real productivity. Now, obviously, a four year old machine isn't going to hold a candle to today's hardware in terms of the speed at which it can accomplish things, but if you have a Mac, then at least it can still accomplish things. Show me a Windows PC that comes within a country mile of still being considered a relevant machine. And that's even after its owner has spent hundreds on adding the kinds of "forward-thinking" hardware components that Macs have standard with for years.
In fact, if not for the fact that I push my Mac to such extremes in terms of processing power, I might not be in that much of a hurry to move on to a next-generation PowerBook at all. Nothing wrong with a little Titanium in your life, right? But the G5 PowerBook calls, so if and when it finally comes into existence, it shall be mine.
I ordered iWork today from the online Apple Store. I thought about going and picking it up during tomorrow morning's melee, but it came back to that "it's been a long week" thing, and then I even lost my motivation to drive up there and pick it up at all. So I did the lazy thing and ordered it, and it should arrive sometime next week, and I can't wait to dive in. The only thing better than a new version of Keynote is an entirely new word processor. Or maybe it's the other way around. We'll end up seeing soon enough. I, for one, expect to be every bit as pleasantly surprised the first time I sit down to use Pages, as I was a few years ago when I first sat down to use Keynote.
Funny little story about that last part there: when I bought Keynote way back when, I stopped on the way home to get my car's oil changed, and while I was waiting I sat down and began to read the 100 page Keynote manual that came in the box. My first though was "hoo boy, 100 page manual, must be overly complicated." But when I got home and fired it up and began playing with it, I realized that the software was so self-explanatory that I never once cracked that manual again. Not as I learned how to use it, not as I taught schoolteachers how to use it, not as I taught third, fourth, and fifth graders how to use it.
All software should be so auto-intuitive that you can teach a room full of people how to use it off the top of your head.
I wish all software was made by Apple.
Okay, not all of it. Just the important stuff.
You know, come to think of it, for the most part, it is.
Bedtime.
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