Tuesday, January 11, 2005
What Apple did right yesterday
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of all this is that, with the singular exception of one of the biggest blunders in the company's history, Apple actually launched some rather nifty products yesterday. While I was expecting Keynote 2.0 to be my favorite, it turns out that Pages is a really nice surprise. I tuned into the iWork demo specifically to see a demo of the new Keynote, but instead I found Phil Schiller showing off Pages and figured I'd see what it was all about. I really wasn't expecting much (after all, it's just a word processor), but as soon as I head the words that Pages was designed by the Keynote team, I knew we were in business. I've spent the past couple of years saying that Apple should model all of its conusmer-level productivity apps after Keynote, but it never occurred to me that they'd actually do it.
The thing about word processors is that while Microsoft Word does promise some vaguely nice-sounding features, in reality they're all so botched that they're little more than a hindrance. I've stuck with the aging and simplistic AppleWorks 6.2 because when I set out to create a document, I'm not looking for the wresting match that Word always manages to provide. In my life I've never seen app that is so sure it's right and you're wrong that it'll repeatedly override your every move if necessary in order to prove that it knows what you're trying to do better than you do. The result, of course, is that fighting off Word's tools in order to a simple document on a blank page is difficult enough, and trying to actually use those tools to create something complex is almost a surreal experience. But, at least from the little Schiller demo, Pages appears to be the polar opposite.
Granted, it was only a demo. One thing I learned rather quickly when demo-ing just how easy apps like iPhoto are, is that the person you're showing off to will usually just assume that you're proficient at that app because either A) you've spent a lot of time with it, or B) you're just a computer whiz in general. Before long, my demos usually involved looking for an audience member whom everyone in the room knew was just a "regular" user, and then prodding them into showing off the software (which they'd never before used), just by telling each step to do as they did it. So I've learned that just because Jobs or Schiller can get up and make a piece of software look intuitive, powerful, and effortless, doesn't mean it is. I mean, Windows usually looks sort of effortless when Bill Gates does demos, but that's just because he's the only person on earth who actually understands the rationale for why things are the way they on that platform. So when it comes to Pages, I'll have to withhold final judgment until January 22nd. Yeah, I'll be buying it the day it comes out.
iLife '05, on the other hand, I'll hold off on. Don't get me wrong, it looks fantastic. I glanced at some of the iPhoto 5.0 stuff, and I have to say that it got me pretty excited, considering that I don't even own a digital camera. But since I'll likely be buying a new Mac before the year is over, I'll probably just wait and get iLife '05 for free with it. That is, unless I end up doing some kind of major multimedia project between then and now, in which case all bets are off.
Tiger, though, will be tough one to solve. If I'm lucky, it'll come out before I buy my new Mac. But if not, I'll have to decide whether to plunk down the requisite $129 just so I can install it on a machine that I'll likely be getting rid of before long. That doesn't make a lot of sense, seeing as how neither of Tiger's catchy features, Spotlight or Dashboard, are doing much in the way of exciting me. But today's demo showed me a couple of little things that might make the early plunge worthwhile after all. The thing that really hit me was the ability to send photos straight from Mail to your iPhoto library with no effort. It's one of those things that never occurred to you, but then you see it demoed and you decide that it should have been there all along. If it's a sign of what's to come with Tiger, then I might not end up being able to wait after all. We'll see.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of all this is that, with the singular exception of one of the biggest blunders in the company's history, Apple actually launched some rather nifty products yesterday. While I was expecting Keynote 2.0 to be my favorite, it turns out that Pages is a really nice surprise. I tuned into the iWork demo specifically to see a demo of the new Keynote, but instead I found Phil Schiller showing off Pages and figured I'd see what it was all about. I really wasn't expecting much (after all, it's just a word processor), but as soon as I head the words that Pages was designed by the Keynote team, I knew we were in business. I've spent the past couple of years saying that Apple should model all of its conusmer-level productivity apps after Keynote, but it never occurred to me that they'd actually do it.
The thing about word processors is that while Microsoft Word does promise some vaguely nice-sounding features, in reality they're all so botched that they're little more than a hindrance. I've stuck with the aging and simplistic AppleWorks 6.2 because when I set out to create a document, I'm not looking for the wresting match that Word always manages to provide. In my life I've never seen app that is so sure it's right and you're wrong that it'll repeatedly override your every move if necessary in order to prove that it knows what you're trying to do better than you do. The result, of course, is that fighting off Word's tools in order to a simple document on a blank page is difficult enough, and trying to actually use those tools to create something complex is almost a surreal experience. But, at least from the little Schiller demo, Pages appears to be the polar opposite.
Granted, it was only a demo. One thing I learned rather quickly when demo-ing just how easy apps like iPhoto are, is that the person you're showing off to will usually just assume that you're proficient at that app because either A) you've spent a lot of time with it, or B) you're just a computer whiz in general. Before long, my demos usually involved looking for an audience member whom everyone in the room knew was just a "regular" user, and then prodding them into showing off the software (which they'd never before used), just by telling each step to do as they did it. So I've learned that just because Jobs or Schiller can get up and make a piece of software look intuitive, powerful, and effortless, doesn't mean it is. I mean, Windows usually looks sort of effortless when Bill Gates does demos, but that's just because he's the only person on earth who actually understands the rationale for why things are the way they on that platform. So when it comes to Pages, I'll have to withhold final judgment until January 22nd. Yeah, I'll be buying it the day it comes out.
iLife '05, on the other hand, I'll hold off on. Don't get me wrong, it looks fantastic. I glanced at some of the iPhoto 5.0 stuff, and I have to say that it got me pretty excited, considering that I don't even own a digital camera. But since I'll likely be buying a new Mac before the year is over, I'll probably just wait and get iLife '05 for free with it. That is, unless I end up doing some kind of major multimedia project between then and now, in which case all bets are off.
Tiger, though, will be tough one to solve. If I'm lucky, it'll come out before I buy my new Mac. But if not, I'll have to decide whether to plunk down the requisite $129 just so I can install it on a machine that I'll likely be getting rid of before long. That doesn't make a lot of sense, seeing as how neither of Tiger's catchy features, Spotlight or Dashboard, are doing much in the way of exciting me. But today's demo showed me a couple of little things that might make the early plunge worthwhile after all. The thing that really hit me was the ability to send photos straight from Mail to your iPhoto library with no effort. It's one of those things that never occurred to you, but then you see it demoed and you decide that it should have been there all along. If it's a sign of what's to come with Tiger, then I might not end up being able to wait after all. We'll see.
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