Unabashedly.
Unapologeticly.
Unrepentantly.
Unwaveringly.
When I was younger, I used to get into long debates, and enjoyed the tit for tat fight of
“Mac vs. PC.” But as I got older, I tired of that. I no longer debate with PC-lovers, because I am absolutely certain there’s nothing they can do to change my mind, and equally sure there’s nothing I can do to change theirs.In fact, I have come to believe that your choice of computer is a bit like your choice of religion, and that debating someone about it is usually just as pointless. I happen to believe my religion is the best one, at least for me. I also happen to believe my computer is the best one too. I am sure your situation is similar. That doesn’t prevent me from waxing eloquently about both, though. I’ve just come to realize that getting defensive about either is a little pointless.
Two seminal events happen back in January in the separate universes of Mac and PC:
About two weeks ago, Apple announced the long awaited, and much coveted,
Last week, Microsoft unveiled “Vista,” its new operating system.
Both are touchtone events in the lives of both companies. But, I believe that long after Vista is forgotten we’ll recall the iPhone announcement as something that truly changed an industry.
That doesn’t mean I’m out to slam Vista. Frankly, I don’t know much about Vista. And, perhaps even more discouragingly for Microsoft, I don’t
care about Vista. From what I’ve heard, it functions remarkably like OSX, which is really funny since Vista’s marketing slogan seems to be “The Wow Starts Now.”Actually,
the “Wow” has been around for close to a decade.Truth is, computer users have been saying “Wow!” all month. But not about Vista. They’ve been saying it about the iPhone. What a cool device this is going to be! And while Vista may excite folks for a month or so (until the security breaches are uncovered) the iPhone has the possibility of literally revolutionizing the cell phone for years to come. So far, from what I’ve heard, there is nothing in Vista that will be nearly so revolutionary.
Think that’s too over the top? Think I’m too much of a “homer?”
Well, I will only point out that Apple had done this not once, but twice, before. Twice in their corporate history, their innovations have not just tinkered with a product, but have literally
changed the product itself. First, they did it with the personal computer. Then, they did it with the mp3 player. Soon, by all accounts, they’ll do it with the cell phone. Look out everybody, here comes iPhone. And it’s going to be a killer.
Worse Than Vacation Pictures: I Now Describe My Personal Computer History
(Yes, That’s a play on words. And, yes, there’s a point to this…)

The really funny thing is how, throughout its existence, people have predicted Apple’s demise. When Microsoft won the lawsuit that preserved the right to sell Windoze, people said it would bury Apple.
It didn’t.

It didn’t.

It didn’t.

It didn’t.
(Are you detecting the pattern yet?)
Bet You’ve Got an iPod, Don’t You?
Apple now has 70 percent of the legal music download market. Apple has sold millions and millions of iPods; 21 million in the last fiscal quarter alone. This BTW, being the same quarter that Microsoft introduced the Zune. That’s right, not only did the Zune not sell well in its first quarter, but the iPod sold better than ever.
Not only that, but Apple sold more computers during that same fiscal quarter too. By some accounts, their share of the computer market has come up four points over the past ten years; a span that saw virtually every other computer manufacturer LOSE market share.
So, funny thing? Nobody talks about Apple going under anymore!!!
In fact, more and more people are giving Macs a chance. Based on their experience of the iPod, they assume (correctly) that Macs might be just as easy to use. And, mark my word, there will be more of these users coming in the years to come. A completely non-scientific study of my daughter’s nine-year-old friends reveals that eighty percent of them have iPods. I bet if you asked around among your friends, you’d find the same thing.
Some of the millions of kids toting around iPods will grow up to be Mac users, mark my word.
In the past few years, Apple made another bold move and changed over to the Intel chips in all their Macs. This means that anybody who just
has to have Windoze in order to live, can now run it on their Mac –no problem– side by side with OSX.Throughout its history, Windoze has copied both the use of the mouse and the easy-to-use GUI that Apple created. But the Mac OS was the original. And it’s still the best. People ARE switching to Macs. And once they use one for a while, they’re finally admitting what I’ve said for years:
Macs are better.She Used to Love the View, But Now It’s Overbuilt
But, what do I know? I’m a Koolaid drinker. So, perhaps you’d be more intrigued to hear it from Erika Jonietz.

First, she establishes her bonafides as a Microsoft Windows Koolaid drinker:
“For most of the last two decades, I have been a Microsoft apologist. I mean, not merely a contented user of the company’s operating systems and software, not just a fan, but a champion. I have insisted that MS-DOS wasn’t hard to use (once you got used to it), that Windows 3.1 was the greatest innovation in desktop operating systems, that Word was in fact superior to WordPerfect, and that Windows XP was, quite simply, “it.” When I was forced to use Apple’s Mac OS (versions 7.6 through 9.2) for a series of jobs, I grumbled, griped, and insisted that Windows was better…Yet my adoration wasn’t entirely logical; I knew from experience, for example, that Mac crashes were easier to recover from than the infamous Blue Screen of Death. At the heart of it all, I was simply more used to Windows. Even when I finally bought a Mac three years ago, it was solely to meet the computing requirements of some of the publications I worked with. I turned it on only when I had to, sticking to my Windows computer for everyday tasks….
So you might think I would be predisposed to love Vista, Microsoft’s newest version of Windows, which was scheduled to be released to consumers at the end of January. And indeed, I leaped at the opportunity to review it. I couldn’t wait to finally see and use the long-delayed operating system that I had been reading and writing about for more than three years. Regardless of widespread skepticism, I was confident that Vista would dazzle me, and I looked forward to saying so in print.
Ironically, playing around with Vista for more than a month has done what years of experience and exhortations from Mac-loving friends could not: it has converted me into a Mac fan.”
Jonietz is honest enough to admit what I said before, that Vista is not really “new”:
Jonietz also says Vista is a “memory hog.”
“Although my computer meets the minimum requirements of a “Vista Premium Ready PC,” with one gigabyte of RAM, I could run only a few °©simple programs, such as a Web browser and word processor, without running out of memory. I couldn’t even watch a movie: Windows Media Player could read the contents of the DVD, but there wasn’t enough memory to actually play it. In short, you need a hell of a computer just to run this OS.”
And, she found that many of her peripherals didn’t work either, and that she and many others will probably be forced to buy brand new ones:
She concludes with this conversion experience:
For those of you who know nothing about Macs, I know this last line seems like gloating. But Jonietz explains how she comes to this conclusion:
And my deepest-seated reasons for preferring Windows PCs–more computing power for the money and greater software availability–have evaporated in the last year. Apple’s decision to use the same Intel chips found in Windows machines has changed everything. Users can now run OS X and Windows on the same computer; with third-party software such as Parallels Desktop, you don’t even need to reboot to switch back and forth. The chip swap also makes it possible to compare prices directly. I recently used the Apple and Dell websites to price comparable desktops and laptops; they were $100 apart or less in each case.”
But enough about Vista. As I said, I haven’t really been thinking much about it. Really. Strangely, I don’t think many other people have been either.
Meet the Phone of Your Future

Chicago Sun Times says: “You Could Call the iPhone Perfect”
PC Magazine (A Windows Publication) says: “A day after Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple iPhone during his MacWorld keynote on Tuesday morning, I actually got my hands on one. For all of ten minutes. Ten minutes isn’t much, but I can safely say that the iPhone is even more impressive than it appeared during the Jobs keyote. And that’s saying something.”
I am eagerly awaiting the iPhone. I want to get one. Unfortunately, because I washed my Treo 600 with my underwear the other day, I found myself in need of a new phone right now. (note to self and others: cell phones don’t wash)
So, I had to go back to Sprint and get an upgrade. Got the new Treo 700. And it’s a VERY cool device.
But I can tell you that the iPhone will be better. If you haven’t really looked into it yet, and don’t want to watch Steve Job’s whole MacWorld keynote, check out this story from CBS News for a cool visual sample:
It’s phone…it’s an internet device…it’s a personal organizer…it’s an iPod.
Six months from now people will start flocking to replace their phones and iPods with the all-in-one iPhone. iPhone will run OSX, and have a full feature web browser. It will be a full-function iPod too.
This thing is going to be HUGE. It will transform phones. Mark my word.
I only have one major concern (that I am sure Apple will fix) and one minor one (that may just be my own ignorance). The first is that the initial iPhones will only be available in four and eight gigabytes models. But for someone like me, who assumes they’ll be replacing their iPod when they get one, that’s about twenty-to-forty gigs too small. My hunch is that, like the history of iPod itself, the storage space in these babies will explode over time.
The second concern is minor, and may already be taken care of. At this price range (and, no, they are not the most expensive phones out there!), a lot of the initial buyers will be switching over from other smartphones. They will want to be sure that the “personal organizer” functions of iPhone are top notch.
Apple has not really talked up the iCal functionality of iPhone. That surprises me a little. Along with lots of iPod/iPhoto storage space, the personal organizer side of the phone will be a necessity for me, and I’ll want it to be every bit as great at the Treo/Palm world. My hunch is: it already is, but Apple is simply playing up the cooler side of the iPhone design in this initial release.
One of the things I’ve been noting is how people talk about Apple verses how they talk about Microsoft these days. I’m talking “Zeitgeist” here…not statistics or stock prices…but what is the culture says….
First, I offer this video from Conan O’Brien about iPhone:
Then, there’s this skit from Saturday Night Live:
What’s fun about both these is that they don’t make fun of Apple for pathetic or clunky products. They make fun of Apple for products for being ridiculously, almost inconceivably, good. And the reason these “bits” are funny is because we recognize the underlying truth that Apple products ARE a amazing. They just
might invent an iPhone you can keep a kajillion contacts in!So, while I suppose folks will slowly and begrudgingly migrate to Vista, get ready for the iPhone. It’s really going to shake things up. Apple has done it before, and they’ve done it again.