I’m in somewhat of an Apple phase again. What undoubtedly triggered this was the recent Macworld in San Francisco. No, let me rephrase that: it probably was the Consumer Electronics Show a week or so earlier in Las Vegas. Now, CES was definitely interesting. In mere scale it must have been stupefying and beyond imagining. 2,500 exhibitors, 150,000 visitors, booths with gadgets, hardware, software, nanotechnology, gadgets, audio, HD video, games, (did I mention gadgets?) and much, much more. 15 locations stretched as far as the eye could see, so I gather. But it left me wanting even, um, more. I got what I was after from Macworld a week later. Macworld could probably easily fit in its entirety into the Microsoft booth at CES, but it was boundlessly more appealing. The crowds seemed far more enthusiastic, Jobs’s keynote was decidedly more fascinating than Gates’s, and the new product releases made you water at the mouth.
A few days ago I browsed some PC magazine and it suddenly struck me why this whole apple subculture seems to emanate this sleek, cool careless attitude. All the Apple talk you read is always about people making beautiful things on beautiful machines, enjoying themselves, and expressing themselves creatively. PC talk, to the contrary, is all about people trying to protect themselves from every kind of malware thrown at them, trying to save their systems from crashing, and getting lost in endless tweaks and updates and patches. Apple’s latest commercial for the new Intel DualCore processor seems on the mark when it says that, for years the Intel chip has been trapped inside dull little boxes, but will now be set free. From what I’ve seen so far, this seems to be completely the case.
So do I want a Mac? I don’t think so (yet). First off, I don’t know how this would work out on the network I have for my job and would then share with a PC. Secondly, I do get the impression the standard applications you get for your Mac, take the new iLife 06, for example, are far too focused on designing homemade calendars, sending baby shower invites and keeping in touch with auntie Nell. I have no need for all that and would feel trapped on this island of feel-good-nice make-believe that Apple does seem to have incorporated in its genes. So I’ll just dabble along on my boring grey box, trying not to perform boring tasks. In the meantime, I’ll just gasp at the beauty and speed of the new MacBook Pro with iSight and the DualCore iMac both still running Apple’s ever-marvellous Aqua GUI.
