The Mac

The first Macbook I purchased in 2005 while traveling. Up till then, all computers I had felt 'slow' after about three years. This was by no means super fast by the time it eventually died six years later (after surviving two years traveling around the world in the back of a rucksack!), it still felt 'smooth'. 'I Got It' after purchasing this, even if I did have to spend a bit of time adjusting to a new operating system.

"The secret was always in Steve’s sense of the aesthetic. People and rivals who thought Apple’s products were a triumph of design over substance just didn’t get it. They get it now of course and fall over themselves to replicate the astounding detailing, bevelling, gleam, glide and sheer beauty of these products. Or of course they hate them and think anyone who uses them is a poser who doesn’t know their tech and has more money than sense."

Have to acknowledge the 30 year anniversary of the Mac which occurred on Friday last. I'm now on my second Macbook in seven/eight years and a full convert. They're one of those things you buy, your friends all think you're crazy for not buying a cheap Windows laptop (or even an expensive one), and yet, there is just a better style and usability to them (and that's without going into neat integration tricks between their products such as the Apple TV.....). There's usually enough shown to you to give you the feeling of control over your device, but most of the inner workings hidden away just doing their thing to help you get the job done. We all don't need to know the full workings of our car and dashboard - windows attempts to give you every knob to control everything from suspension height to wheel pressure to fuel intake levels to air intake, whereas an Apple tries to just give you a steering wheel, pedals and a gearstick, all in style. The iPad makes the gearstick semi-automatic and have parking assist (or some crude analogy like that :). My vehicle needs to get me to my destination in as much as ease as possible, my computer is no different.

Their phones are no different (and Android/windows phone fall into these categories too) - 'old' smartphones showed all the workings, weren't very friendly. The iPhone made it all friendly. and not to mention integrated almost everything from this advert from 1991* into a device that a person of almost any age can work out on their own without instruction.

Amazing to think that every other Personal Computer manufacturer has now exited the business, and Apple is now one of the largest companies in the world. How times change.

*Hat Tip to DaringFireball for linking to that great advert