Mike Asks if Apple Holds the Key…

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Mike Asks if Apple Holds the Key…

Posted on 13 March 2007 by Judie Stanford

Normally I enjoy reading Mike Cane’s blog because I like his ranting style. He goes off on companies and products with absolutely no regard as to who they are or who their fan base might be, but rather how they make him feel when their products don’t work as advertised or when the user experience isn’t what he expected.

Although I tend to fondly think of him as�the crusty curmudgeon in the neighborhood (the one that is fun to watch when he is jumping up and down in the front lawn cussing at the kids nearby),�I like the fact that even when Mike is on a particular tear, he never seems to intentionally�try to hurt or pick on�a particular person.

Mike is opinionated, but he is not a bully…and I like that.

Yeah, yeah…Mike�can be�predictable when you start reading his posts: he loves the band Girls Don’t Cry (he’s even given them their own category on his site for goodness sakes), he is pretty darn disappointed with the Nokia 770 (and it looks like the N800 has let him down, too), he has ongoing issues with Palm�(although he seems to like his LifeDrive 90% of the time), he is drooling over the�upcoming iPhone, and even though he writes about tech on his blog – he is quick to say “Let�s get this straight once again: This is not a tech blog. I�m not looking to suck up to anyone, least of all any f*&@#g corporation, large or small.”

Oh yeah, and he cusses. A lot.

So anyway, Mike sent me a link this morning�with his latest article, titled “Does Apple Hold the Key to Breaking Open Computing Everywhere?” This is more about what might happen if Apple were to release�their rumored sub notebook computer, and I don’t want to spoil the surprise because it is a really good and thought-provoking article, but I do want to point out this interesting paragraph, where�Mike said:

So something else is happening here. I think people connect with a MacBook � with Apple products in general � in a way they don�t, even can�t, connect with Windows notebooks or other non-Apple devices. I think that connection is emotional. And it�s not emotional in the way the Apple bashers believe it is: �Oh, look at him with his MacBook. He just thinks he�s so cool. If he wasn�t so concerned with appearing cool, he�d have a less-expensive Windows notebook. All really smart people do.� It�s not about the emotions of the user. It�s about the emotional content of the device itself.“

While�I think I connect pretty darn well with my Tablet PC, I can understand what Mike is talking about because I have seen cult-of-Mac users in action…they all have the same spiked-Kool-Aid-eye-glaze that is noticeable from 20 feet. Okay, I’m teasing! Don’t send the hate mail! ha ha!

You can�read Mike’s full article here. I’d love to hear what you think about it.

This post was written by:

Judie Stanford - who has written 1699 posts on Gear Diary.

I started Gear Diary on September 30, 2006, and my goal was that this not be an easily labeled site. We all have gear that we use daily – some of it electronic and some of it organic. I think it is fascinating to explore the equipment that makes our lives easier, more entertaining, more productive, and more manageable. My hope is that Gear Diary visitors will find this site to be a comfortable and friendly place to discuss interesting topics – and not only those that are tech related, as well as a location to discover various types of gear – whatever that term may end up implying – that they never knew existed. My specialty is in-depth reviews written in a layman’s terms, because everyone can understand technology, sometimes it just takes a little translating. +Judie Stanford

Contact the author

http://www.slashgear.com/ Chris Davies
I am *so* crushing on Mike Cane at the moment. He rawks my sawks.
http://www.geardiary.com Judie Hughes
Why Chris, you sound like a Cane-groupie!
http://www.slashgear.com/ Chris Davies
Oh that’s me! I view him as my grumpy uncle.
ctmagnus
As far as connection goes, I caught myself giving my XPS M1210 a hug a few weeks ago!
(But, to put things in perspective, that was shortly after using my crusty, crotchety, curmudgeonly, old Tecra M4 that tends to to things solely to p!ss me off.)
http://palmdiscovery.net maceyr
Interesting description of Mike Cane as the “crusty curmudgeon in the neighborhood (the one that is fun to watch when he is jumping up and down in the front lawn cussing at the kids nearby)”. That’s quite a thought.
I do enjoy *some* of his editorial. I don’t care about his Girls Don’t Cry posts and some of his ranting on other things. I do have to agree that he’s got a lot of you know what to say what he thinks without any regard.
He does offer some interesting opinions from time to time and mainly the reason why I keep skimming for stuff I may find interesting.
http://www.geardiary.com Douglas Moran
Naw, I don’t agree with him.
I mean, I think he’s right in that Apple is trying to change their image; he’s spot-on there. But I don’t think Apple folks get all googly-eyed because Apple=fun; I think it’s usability and design. Here’s the thing:
I have a Computer Science degree, about 10 years experience doing UNIX system administration, about 10 years on Windows PCs, I’ve been doing hard-core technical documentation on everything from high-level multi-processor graphical FORTRAN compilers to the text you see in those system wizard pop-ups. I’m a nerd, baby. And even *I* have trouble installing Windows software sometimes, or getting my wifi network to run right, or installing a new modem at home, or networking my printer to my wireless network. *And I write the documents that tell you how to do it!* I mean, I’m the guy who reviewed “Geek Squad.” Don’t you think *I* should be the *last* guy to call “Geek Squad?”
This is what Windows has wrought. Windows is bloated, overly-complex, a memory-hog, user-unfriendly . . . we all know what it’s like. On the other hand, you turn on an Apple system, and the durn thing *works*. You try to do things by poking around a bit, and you *can figure it out*. You make mistakes, *nothing bad happens*. Your printer doesn’t burst into flame; no blue screens of death; your wife doesn’t start cursing because you accidentally deleted all the pictures of the kids in the photos directory. The hardware looks nice, the software looks nice, and all the little pieces play nicely together. You buy an iPod and plug it in, *it installs the software for you*. Etc. My 65 year-old step-mother bought a Mac, turned it on, and the next thing you know she was downloading “Bookworm” and web surfing. My Mom bought a Windows box, and had to have one of her coworkers help her set it up for her.
And that’s what I think the difference is. You don’t see guys with C.S. degrees and years of sysmom experience cursing their Macs because they got their third blue screen of death this week. Apple systems work. And they’re pretty. And the software’s pretty, too. Some of it drives me insane: the one-button mouse, the prices (my GOD, the prices!), the way those roll-over icons work . . . but they’re better systems, durn it.
That’s what ol’ Doug thinks, anyway. At 1 a.m.