Those of you who discuss technology with me on a regular basis know that this has been brewing for quite some time, but I have officially forsaken Apple software and hardware. I know I will get a lot of questions from people who I have helped switch over to Apple in the past, so I am writing this now before the word gets out. Hopefully, I can just refer people to this post when they ask, which will save me from having to repeat myself on a regular basis.
There has been a steady collection of little annoyances that have built up over the past few years, to the point I'm just not willing to deal with them anymore. I'll summarize these down to the big issues to spare you from an exhausting (yes, I meant to choose that word) list of nitpicks. I do recognize that the issues are not all important to the average user, so I'm not necessarily recommending that people follow my lead here... this is just to answer the inevitable questions.
Software
Apple apparently has some of the worst programmers in the industry. How they could have taken something that was so well-built under Avie Tevanian's guard and turned it into the buggiest OS this side of beta Linux builds is beyond me. I suppose they pulled all the programmers with any real chops off their projects and put them on the iPhone OS, leaving all the interns to work on OS X and the desktop software. Life was pretty good with OS X 10.3, despite a few bugs here and there. With 10.4, things got a little worse, but the OS was still mostly tolerable. With 10.5, I started referring to it as Mac OS X Vista. Seriously, on this MacBook Pro, it was terrible. I tried hanging on for a few revisions and finally had to go back to 10.4, only to face the keyboard bugs all over again. When 10.6 came out, I thought everything would be solved... they did promise, right? So much for that. 10.6.1 didn't solve a single one of the problems I was facing either. 10.6.2 came out, all the SD card reader problems persisted, the keyboard bugs reappeared, and I finally gave up. I installed Ubuntu Linux and Windows 7 alongside OS X and have been happy in Linux ever since. When 10.6.3 came out, I updated, spent a few hours with it to give it one last chance, but after having to do a hard power down within 3 hours, I had seen enough. I'll keep it around for the occasions when my open source tools aren't getting the same results as Adobe CS3, but I have not missed it much at all. To think that I am experiencing fewer bugs and daily annoyances on a free, open source operating system that supports hundreds of thousands of hardware configurations says a lot about Apple software quality. They only have to support a few hundred hardware configurations, which they know inside and out, and they can't even get that much right?!
Security
I have been telling people for years not to run antivirus software on OS X. I still believe that the problem will never be widespread on OS X to the extent that it is on Windows, even if OS X does get significant market share. However, in the past few years, there have been so many serious security flaws in Apple software that I fear for the average user. It is only a matter of time before a major exploit hits the wild that will likely result in Apple users having a significant portion of their private info stolen. I am now having to recommend that people not use Safari if they care at all about their system security. This is exactly the kind of thing that led me to flee Windows back in the day before the problem exploded.
Hardware
I never liked the fact that all Apple's hardware solutions were proprietary, even at the time I switched. I had decided, though, that I would just make that compromise to avoid the other nuisances I was looking forward to with the coming release of Windows XP. I managed to put all this aside to the point of liking Apple hardware design and just accepting that a complete solution requires compromises. As the epidemic hardware problems began cropping up, though, the compromise was becoming rather annoying. Having to waste almost 2 hours tearing apart and rebuilding iBooks for people when the hard drives failed got old fast. Meanwhile, I could change a hard drive in a Dell in literally 5 minutes. The first time I had to pull a hard drive out of a dead iMac G5 Rev. 2 was when the frustration grew to anger. From that point on, each successive computer design became more and more ridiculous to change hard drives in. Changing the drive in MacBook Pros, trying desperately not to bend the flimsy aluminum top half of the body was where my anger finally grew to hatred. This has been festering for a few years now. The cracked glass on my original iPhone, the design of the aluminum iMac where the hard drive is just not worth the effort of getting to, the cheap plastic on the white MacBook that falls apart and stains, the graphics chip problems of many MacBook Pros, and the list goes on. All little thorns in my sides. So remind me one more time why we are paying such a high price for Apple hardware? I thought it was supposed to be for quality?
Servers
Well, I just hit my last straw last week. We have an XServe at work which has been collecting dust for over a year. I recommended against buying it originally, but the previous Director of IT before me ignored my pleas. When I took over, I switched things over to Linux servers, which are better in every way than OS X Server in mixed environments. In a Mac-only environment, the XServe has a home. In a mixed environment, it is an albatross. Well, we had some hardware issues after a really nasty lightning strike, so I decided to try and repurpose the old XServe. I quickly discovered that the XServe's EFI does not contain BIOS emulation like the other Intel machines... meaning that running Windows or Linux on it is more trouble than it is worth. I thought about giving OS X Server one last chance... to do a very simple task... basic file-sharing. I knew better, but I needed another machine, so I tried anyway. After trying a solid state drive in it, then a new 1TB hard drive, I did some searching to find out why they might not be working... and I discovered that Apple has designed the XServe to ignore drives that do not have Apple's custom firmware on them. So, if a drive dies, there's no option to run to Best Buy and pick up a replacement in an emergency, and there is no option to pick the brand and model of drive you want to use for performance and reliability. Instead, you have to pay Apple triple the going rate for a drive and just hope that they are using a good brand and model of drive. Some people may think I am over-reacting. "Just buy a spare and keep it around for the day something fails", they'll say. They just don't get it. After all that, the file-sharing didn't play as nicely with Windows 7 as the file sharing I am running on our Linux file server.
Lock-in
In the past, the DRM on songs purchased through iTunes didn't bother me... I thought I'd be using iTunes forever. Then they started releasing DRM-free versions of everything and I thought all would be well. I sucked it up and paid the extra $.30 per song to get the new versions as they came out. Somewhere along the line, iTunes stopped telling me when the DRM-free versions of my songs were released. When I had reached the point where I was ready to move on from Apple's ecosystem, I went looking to see what the deal was with these songs... only to discover that they had, in fact, been updated. I was never notified, but no problem, I'd just upgrade them now... ummmmmmmm, where is the upgrade buttom in the iTunes Store? Yes, this little convenience disappeared and now I couldn't just pay $.30 per song to get the "plus" versions of these remaining songs. I'd have to buy them again... so I spent many hours having to do manual conversions of everything to DRM-free songs. Sigh.
Slave devices
As a techno-geek, I just got to the point where I could no longer tolerate having devices that were "attached" to a computer, much less a single computer. If you use an iPod, iPhone, or iPad, you know what I am referring to... "This device is already being synced with another computer. Would you like to delete everything and start syncing it to this computer?" This one really makes me want to punch someone at Apple. What year is this? Did I just have a weird dream? Are we still in the late 90s? Or maybe it is actually 1984? Here's a clue Apple: many people have more than 1 computer. As nice a device as the iPad may be, I will never even consider one for this very reason. I don't want devices that are tied to a computer, nor will I recommend them except in very narrow cases where I know the person has a single computer and isn't likely to stop using iTunes. With the other phones I have had since the iPhone, a Nokia E71x and now an android-based Samsung Moment, I never need to connect them to a computer. I can go to librivox.org and download the next chapter of whatever audio book I am in the middle of, while on the go, without having to wait until I get home to "sync" it to a computer. Thanks to Google Listen, I always have the latest episodes of my podcasts and don't have to plan ahead before leaving the house. It's great. Yes, I know there are workarounds to get the same end-results on the iPhone, but they are cludgy and frustrating. I guess this is Apple's desperate attempt to keep people buying computers in a world where they are becoming increasingly less necessary. It just annoys me to no end. They may come around at some point, but I'm not waiting.
Conclusions
While these are just a few of the many reasons I have lost my patience with Apple, I think this list makes the point that I'm not just leaving the Apple world on a single issue or because I'm just having a bad day. This has been growing, and, for the ways I want to use computers and devices, Linux and android are making me happy in all the places Mac OS X and iPhone were driving me crazy. When I replace the current hardware I am stuck with, rest assured it will be PC hardware and not Apple. I like my Acer netbook and it is tough as nails, which is more than I can say for the MacBook Pro I am running a triple-boot setup on. Granted, I'm not not about to replace my full-sized laptop with that little netbook, but at least I know that it is possible to find decent PC hardware that will last as long or longer than Apple's when this thing dies.
Again, I'm not saying everyone else should bail on their Apple products. I don't expect most of you to whom I have recommended Apple in the past to switch to Linux. Linux has improved to the point that a lot of you probably could, but I am enough of a pragmatist to admit you're probably better off where you are... for now. I can safely say that Windows 7 is not any more buggy than OS X at this point from my experience of running both extensively at work. The only real advantage OS X has over Windows 7 anymore is the lack of constant virus issues. Microsoft is actually making some progress in this area, and with the 64 bit version of Windows 7, coupled with the free Microsoft Security Essentials, and running as a Standard user, the situation is at least manageable. Those who switched to Apple to get away from the virus problem, though, may as well stay there... for now.
In the world of technology, nothing is sacred, and nothing is perfect. Each of us has different levels of tolerance dealing with the annoyances inherent in the solutions we are stuck with. For me, Apple was stabbing a knife in every pain point I have. Linux is only cutting in a few areas, so it wins for me. I am a realist, and will still probably recommend Apple machines to many people, just not to tech-savvy people who care about these issues. At this point, I am even recommending some Windows users just stay where they are and get a new machine with Windows 7 64 bit. To those of you who know me well, that should say a lot about how things have changed in the past 5 years in Apple's ecosystem. We'll see what the next 5 years brings, but I'm seeing a lot of Linux in the forecast.
Todd Russell
May 24, 2010
May 24, 2010
May 23, 2010
Apple's Requiem: A Prosumer's Lament
[Update: This was written in 2007 before the release of OS X 10.5 Leopard, before the release of the MacBook Air, and soon after the release of the original iPhone and iPod Touch. Most of what I predicted basically came true in terms of quality and the focus on the average consumer. Since then, I have moved on to Linux as my primary OS, an android phone instead of the iPhone, and I am no longer recommending Apple computers to PC users. OS X got progressively more buggy with Leopard and Snow Leopard to the point I could no longer tolerate it. Then there are the technical issues in OS X such as the terrible decisions made in regard to the file system. Meanwhile, android is getting progressively better than the iPhone with every update and Windows 7 (despite the fact that viruses are still an issue) is the best version of Windows to date and I find it no more buggy than OS X. Given the growing list of security vulnerabilities in every piece of software Apple codes, it is only a matter of time before malware becomes a real issue. While my post is dated at this point, I still find it interesting for historical context.]
While many people have been complaining about some of Apple's recent decisions and hardware issues (iPhone, iPod Touch, and aluminum iMac for a chronological reference point), I have yet to see anyone label these as the obvious progression of a trend that has been evolving at Apple for the last few years. This trend is the slow and steady driving away of what I refer to as Prosumers. We Prosumers are the hobbyists, the early adopters of new hardware, the computer geeks, and the unofficial support technicians of friends and families. We are the ones who write reviews, who lead user groups, and whose opinions people seek when deciding what to buy. What Apple seems to have forgotten, though, is that we are essential to Apple's success, and they are driving us away.
I switched to the Mac back in 2001 because I saw the direction Microsoft was going with XP and activation, and I was tired of the way they abused their customers through pointless upgrades at high prices. My previous experiences with Macs were limited and had not been very good, but Linux was still very rough for desktop use, so what other choice did I have? I ended up falling in love with OS X (10.0.4 at the time). I also fell in love with Apple's hardware designs and their general reliability. Since then, I have recommended Apple to many people and have personally converted at least (I've lost count) 10 families, 5 individuals, and 2 businesses to the Mac platform. This has equated to many machines purchased from Apple... and all because people trusted my word, were convinced by my passion, and knew they'd have me to help them when there were problems.
Despite my love for Apple, though, the passion is fading fast. Their focus has been turning completely toward the average consumer and I am beginning to feel as if I'm losing my place in the Apple ecosystem. I will admit outright that I understand why Apple's attention has focused on the consumer. They are the ones who have spent all the money that has propelled Apple to newfound success over the last few years. They are also the ones most desperately in need of simple solutions such as Apple offers. It is good that Apple is fulfilling this need. Unfortunately, though, Apple has been neglecting those of us who convinced those average consumers to spend the money that got them to their current growth rates, and they are on the verge of losing many of us.
The first reason is the lack of variety in hardware. Apple has often maintained models that fulfill the needs of us Prosumers. The G4 towers, in particular, struck a good balance of practicality, elegance, and expandability. They were easy to get into for hard drive swaps and RAM upgrades. There were enough PCI slots to upgrade them at will. They were not perfect, but they satisfied us enough and were even good for doing some crazy hardware mods. In the laptop realm, the 12” PowerBook was the Prosumer's dream. Granted, there was no PCMCIA slot, which limited upgrades, but the portability of it (while still possessing enough graphics horsepower to do some real work), more than made up for the trade-offs for those of use who live and die by our portable machines. I would wager that this model sold less than any other Apple laptop in production during its time, but it gave us Prosumers something to fill our niche needs. Then there's the Mac mini. Niche? Absolutely. Low sales numbers? I'd be willing to bet on it. Beloved by Prosumers? More so than any other specialty machine in recent years. Just check the internet for all the crazy hacks that fellow geeks have built with these things. I'm sure the bean counters at Apple keep suggesting this product get the axe. It was rumored to happen just recently, but has seen at least one last revision. I hope that someone at Apple is wise enough to see the value of this machine beyond its apparent fiscal viability, though. There are other classics, like the Cube, of course.
If you look at Apple's current lineup, though, it starts to become obvious that the willingness to satisfy the niche is evaporating. We still have the mini, but, beyond that, there is really nothing for us geeky Prosumers to get excited about.
The Mac Pro? While very expandable and customizable, the thing is a monstrosity. It is way too big to be practical and way too expensive for those of us who have other gadgets and hobbies to spend money on. They call it the Pro, and that is precisely who this machine is good for: graphics, audio, and video professionals... and not too many others.
The iMac? Yes, it looks beautiful, but they have proven with this model that they are willing to throw practicality out the window for the sake of consumer glitz. Prosumers like to upgrade their own hard drives, to experiment with their hardware, and to add upgrades from time to time. It is a foregone conclusion that expansion is out with all-in-one machines, but Apple's design decision with the new Aluminum iMac is madness!!! You can't even get to the hard drive without special suction cups to remove the glass from the front, and a clean room environment to avoid getting dust inside the glass when you put it back together. This is similar to the idiocy that went into the 2nd and later revisions of the G5 iMacs. I had to take one apart recently to get a hard drive out for someone because it had the bad capacitor problem and would not boot. I almost gave up three times in this process. Just as a point of reference, I have torn down and rebuilt about a dozen iBooks, as well as my 12” PowerBook. This is no small task. Yet the G5 iMac was such a nightmare to get into that I didn't want to do it. With the new ones, this problem is only worse. I cannot recommend these machines in good conscience to anyone. Hard drives fail. They will have to ship them to Apple WHEN their drives fail. Madness, I say. This exhibits to me a deeper madness that is setting in at Apple, which troubles me greatly. Do not get me wrong, I have long extolled the beauty of Apple design. I have a very strong appreciation for the philosophy that EVERY detail is important and that having an integrated whole is a sign of beauty and order. However, this philosophy has been pushed to an extreme at Apple lately, and all practicality has been sacrificed in the process. I predict that the new hardware designs of the other models when they come out will be just as offensive in this regard. I hope to be proven wrong, but the iMac is such a magnanimous affront to the balance between practicality and beauty that the G4 towers represented, that I cannot trust their decisions until I see them. In fact, I had been looking forward to the rumored slimline notebook Apple is working on. Further rumors and the evidence of the iMac, though, have caused me to lose interest. The screen will be too big, the machine will be too fragile due to its aluminum casing, and I fully expect them to drop ethernet and other ports for the sake of making it beautiful... in the process making it useless to those of us who miss the 12” PowerBook and would like something even smaller. They could still prove me wrong, but the evidence at this point is that they will not. [Update: I was wrong about the casing since they introduced the unibody design, which helped solve the denting problem, but I was pretty close in my other predictions.]
The MacBook? A very close contender. It is, in my mind, Apple's best overall design at the moment, but there are several flaws which make it a complete non-option for us Prosumers. First is the video hardware. It is perfectly fine for most people and probably even overkill. It is not enough to run Final Cut Express, though. Keep in mind that many Prosumers use our machines to make additional income through side work or hobbies. Not being able to run an advanced video editor means we can't even consider it as an option. As far as I am concerned, the screen is still too big on this machine to make it as portable as we need it for great mobility. Then there are the hardware problems. This model has been riddled with manufacturing problems from day one of its existence. I am not sure if the design is the problem or that Apple is using cheap manufacturing, but it makes it hard for me to recommend this machine to people now that there have been several known and widespread hardware problems.
The MacBook Pro? Let me start by saying that my place of employment bought me one of these latest models (the LED screen model) to use as my work machine, and it is a huge part of the reason I am writing this letter. I literally hate this machine. There are so many bad decisions built into this machine, and such poor quality in the build, that I am disgusted with it and often consider turning it in and telling them to pass it on to someone else. The screen on this thing is not well-designed. I was looking forward to LED screens, but they did not use a true Matte finish on the glass, so the light waves do not diffuse. To put that in simpler terms, the light waves come directly out of the screen and do not spread out in multiple directions. Yes, this is bright, and it looks pretty good... if you are looking perfectly perpendicularly at the screen. However, if you get off-angle at all, you will see a strong yellow cast to everything. Why? Well, they used cheap LEDs with a blue tint, and then apply a ColorSync profile that adds yellow back into the mix to balance the colors. If you view the screen at an angle, though, the colors do not mix properly and everything looks yellow tinted. This makes it impossible to do graphics work unless you set up a perfect environment. This also means you cannot do real work while using the thing on your lap, because the screen does not tilt back far enough to get a good perpendicular view. When I have had several people huddled around me, I have to apologize and explain why the colors do not look right to them. This is rather embarrassing to someone who is known as an Apple evangelist. The keyboard on the MacBook Pro is worse than the screen. I absolutely loved the keyboard on my 12” PowerBook. I was expecting the same one on this MacBook Pro. The key caps are the same, but the important parts, the key switches, are TERRIBLE. They are entirely too stiff and I find myself constantly having to spellcheck everything I type for missing letters since I often fail to hammer the key hard enough to register the keystroke. I had also been excited about the backlighting... until I tried to use it. Why doesn't it work like the screen? I like the ability to use the brightness keys to choose a static brightness level for the screen. The keyboard, however, does not allow you to turn off the ambient light sensors. The practical effect of this is that the backlighting is constantly changing brightness and turning on and off. It is terribly annoying. I installed a hack that would keep the backlight at a set level, but it was very buggy and I ended up having to just turn off the backlighting and leave it off for good. As I mentioned, the screen does not tilt back far enough for those of us who spend hours using our machines on our laps in our favorite chairs. The trackpad is not very precise and I find it annoying when I am stuck trying to do image editing without a mouse. Then there are the build quality issues: outer screen case warping for no reason that leaves a gap in one corner when the lid is closed, cheaply put together plastic trim ring that has too much play above the optical drive, a shoddy optical drive that has problems with discs burned in a G4 iBook as well as making a terrible racket when it is burning, and the aforementioned problems with the sensors and LCD. The wireless network performance is horrendous when benchmarked against older Apple laptops and is not fast enough regardless of signal strength. Finally, there have been so many bugs that I have had to reboot this machine more times in the two months I've had it than I rebooted the 12” PowerBook in two years. Is the Intel version of OS X really this buggy, or is the motherboard in this thing just a hodge-podge of barely supported cheap bits? [Update: I still hate this thing and have been considering trading it for an equivalent PC laptop because running Linux and Windows on this Apple hardware is a bit of a nuisance, and I just can't use OS X any more as a daily operating system. Also, the graphics card went out, requiring a motherboard replacement in less than 3 years]
The Mac mini is the only saving grace in Apple's lineup right now. Granted, it does not fill all the needs of the Prosumer, but it at least gives us something to use for projects and has been the only model in recent memory that has not exhibited widespread hardware problems of one sort or another.
And this brings me to another growing problem: manufacturing. As Prosumers, we understand the value in paying more and getting what you pay for. As I said earlier, we use our tools to make money or practice our hobbies. For this, we understand the value of having good quality that we can rely on and we are willing to pay the premium... knowing that it always pays off in the end. This used to be the philosophy of the Apple we knew and loved. I have a G4 Cube running 24/7 as a backup server. It is 7 years old. It works perfectly and runs for months at a time without being rebooted. When it was introduced, it was pricey, but it has lasted. In comparison, the guy who bought the the G5 iMac I pulled the hard drive out of paid hundreds of dollars more for his machine, and it only lasted about a year and a half. There have been numerous failures among Apple's all-in-one machines over the last few years, and some of the people I advised to buy these have suffered from it. The G5 PowerMacs have started to leak their coolant, ruining the motherboards. The plastic on the MacBooks has started discoloring and cracking for no reason. MacBook Pros have had problems with RAM, Airport, and improper application of thermal paste on processors. The number of people I know who have had to do without their machines for weeks at a time while they wait for repairs that only Apple can make due to the proprietary nature of the parts supply is growing rapidly. It has started to make me feel guilty for advising these people to make the purchases they did.
Why is this happening? My theory is that Apple got tired of PC people complaining that Macs were so expensive. To combat that, they decided to cut prices. In order to cut prices, they had to move away from their former manufacturing plants, and hand it all over to the Chinese. This MacBook Pro I am typing on shipped straight from China to here. Yes, it cost less than a comparable PowerBook would have cost a few years ago, but at what cost to reliability? We Prosumers were never happy about those high prices, but at least we were comforted in the fact that we were buying a machine that should last us 5 years of solid use, followed by 5 more of other useful duties (like my backup Cube). Presently, it does not appear that any of these machines will last even 3 or 4 years. Apple wanted to compete on price, but the price they paid to do so has taken a heavy toll on the loyalty of those of us who have advised people to buy Apple hardware for its reliability. If Apple continues using the same Chinese manufacturing that its PC competitors use, how can we expect the overall quality to be any better? And how can I , in good conscience, recommend someone spend more for a machine on the perception of higher quality when the reality is that the quality is now no longer likely to be much better than the $750 PC? We Prosumers would much prefer a return to higher prices, as long as it means a concurrent return to higher quality and reliability. Very often, our livelihoods depend on these machines. We do not have time for extended downtime.
So, that sums up the hardware selection and build problems, but there are other ways Apple is driving away the Prosumers. Look at the iPod Touch. It could have been the Prosumer's dream machine. Instead, they made some really terrible decisions and left out all the features that make the iPhone so good... the speakers and volume control, by extension of that the ability to have alarms in iCal, the ability to add events to iCal, and the camera. Instead of being a tool, it is merely a glitzy plaything. It is the technological equivalent of the sugar water Steve Jobs chided Scully into leaving behind so that he could change the world... the Touch is nothing that changes the world, just something to satisfy people's need for more. To add insult to injury, the build quality of these is pathetic. The screens are terrible from all the accounts I have read and this makes them useless for the one thing they seem to be intended for: video.
The last trend I want to point out is the terrible software QA we have seen lately. Mac OS X 10.4.9 and 10.4.10 have been the buggiest releases of OS X I can remember suffering through since 10.0.4. The Finder is so crash-prone that I am starting to feel like I am using Windows. Just the other day, I was connected to my Cube here at home. I forgot to disconnect before putting the MacBook Pro to sleep. When I got to work, I noticed this and clicked the disconnect icon, expecting to watch the beach ball for one whole minute before I could do anything. Instead, I waited five minutes before giving up and doing a forced power down. The subsequent reboot, reopening of all my apps and browser tabs, and trying to remember where I left off on other stuff I had open cost me about a half hour of frustration. Why can't they fix this?! Did they outsource the coding to Microsoft? Wireless transfer rates have been pathetic on Intel Macs and I assume this is driver related. Other Finder bugs and app crashes have become more routine. To add salt to the wound, I used my old 1.33GHz 12” PowerBook to do some DVD burning recently, and realized that, despite the multiple times faster processor in this MacBook Pro, it doesn't feel much faster for most routine tasks, and even slower in some. The only place it is obviously faster is in video encoding. Unless they can get better speed out of these machines for GUI tasks and general usage, why are we enduring the bugginess of OS X on Intel? If I didn't loathe the prospect of having to use 2 laptops on a daily basis, I'd go back to my 12” PowerBook for all my personal usage. If it were not for my need to use Final Cut Express and Live Type, I'd probably turn this one in and just request them pay me a small stipend for using a personal machine as my work machine. [Update: QA at Apple has only gotten worse, not better, and 10.5 and 10.6 have been terrible in terms of stability and bugginess. Speed has improved under 10.6, except when the Finder starts locking up and requires a hard-power-down, which you have also experienced on numerous occasions if you use USB SD card readers extensively.]
Software QA for many of their other products (don't even get me started on iLife) has also been fairly abysmal over the last few years. It often feels as if they are taking the Microsoft approach to software development, where they release software when it is 90% done and rely on the crash reports of the users to make up the last 10%. I'll say it again... we Prosumers use our machines as a vital part of our livelihoods. We cannot tolerate a broken production workflow and hours of lost time because Apple decided to update QuickTime to support some fluffy feature that got added to iTunes without proper testing. If I could have back all the hours I've wasted cleaning up after Apple updates and working around bugs, I could earn enough money in those hours to buy a machine or two.
The whole thing is just starting to build a lot of frustration in me. I feel like there is no longer room for people like me in the Apple ecosystem. This ecosystem I once loved for its great tools and variety of choice is leaving me with no option for hardware that I actually like and want to use. Meanwhile, I continue to see small PC laptops and specialty machines like the Sony UX and I can only drool over them since OS X only runs on Apple hardware.
This is starting to feel like a relationship going sour. It is still in that stage of denial, where you hope you are just going through a dry spell and the other person is not really trying to push you away... but the feeling lingers.
It is sad that we Prosumers should ever feel left out here in Apple land. I can assure you that we are a large part of the reason for Apple's growing momentum. All those people who asked us what they should buy, all those favorable blog posts, all the free hours of tech support we have given to Mac newbies, and all the times we have sworn by the hardware we used and loved have all contributed to people being willing to try a Mac despite their fears. We helped them through the switch, then they told others. Without us, I do not believe Apple would be gaining steam right now. By way of illustration, I've never met anyone who said they bought a new Mac because the “Mac Guy” made the “PC Guy” look like a fool in a commercial.
If Apple loses our enthusiasm, who will assure these people they are making the right choice? Who will coach them through migrating their data off their old PCs? Who will praise the lesser known virtues of the Mac OS that make it so powerful? [Update: Recently, two different people who were planning to buy Macs changed their minds after discussing with me what they were going to primarily use their machines for. The benefits that still remain, fewer in number with every update, no longer justify the price difference to most people.]
So, how can Apple prevent driving us away? The answer is not as simple as they'd like. They will need to start by taking us seriously again when making decisions about what hardware and software to provide. True, we make up a very small percentage of all purchases, but having us around helps build peripheral sales. Remember all those people I mentioned having converted? I didn't buy those machines, but they would still be using Windows PCs if they had not known I'd be there to help them through the switch. I would wager that each Apple Prosumer wields similar influence on the purchasing decisions of others. If there is not a single piece of hardware for us to get excited about, why should we spend a premium price on something that is a compromise for us? We are the kind of users who are perfectly comfortable making the switch to Linux because it will run on that really cool Sony handheld computer. Apple needs to keep this in mind. It needs to listen to what we want in our hardware and software, and try to meet those needs. Granted, the specialty hardware will not sell much, but they can take the R&D money out of the marketing budget, because, if they keep us happy and give us products to get really excited about, we will share our enthusiasm with others, and that word of mouth will be hundreds of times more powerful than another Mac vs. PC commercial in bringing switchers over. There is a very high, yet intangible, value to Apple to have us around and enthusiastic. When we lose our enthusiasm, as I am starting to, we are less willing to recommend someone buy an Apple. Just the other day, a long time Mac user was asking me what to buy when his PowerBook G3 finally dies (it is on its last legs after 7+ years of faithful service). In the past, I would have been quick to recommend one model or another for his needs. Instead, I half-heartedly mentioned the MacBook, but followed it up with a warning that it will not last as long as his PowerBook has because the Chinese manufacturing is much shoddier than the old manufacturing. I even had to say that there was not a single model of Apple hardware I could confidently recommend for reliability except for the Mac mini, but that model would not meet his needs. It was a sad day for me to have to admit that if he buys another Apple, it won't really last longer than the HP laptop he bought his wife. [Update: Every person I know who bought the white MaBooks or the pre-unibody MacBook Pros have had one significant hardware problem or another, in most cases requiring Apple to send the machine off for repairs.]
That's when I realized that something has to change. Come on Apple, give us something to brag about again. We love beauty, but not at the complete sacrifice of practicality and ease of repair. We love lightweight, but not at the complete sacrifice of expandability. We want to see some more great designs like those of the past that struck a balance between beauty and usefulness. We want to be able to replace our own hard drives without having to send our machines in.
We need the Apple of old, which fights for us and defies the trends in the industry that prevent progress and take us for granted. I do not know if you have any official “devil's advocates” in your teams or not, but you need some. You need people who will be able to see the practical consequences of every design decision and point out the potential flaws before they happen. You need someone who can see clearly what details of a product will annoy customers, and who will point these out to the engineers and software design people without the fear of hurting feelings. You need more critical thinking. How did no one challenge the iMac and the fact that practically no one would be able to change their own hard drive? How did no one point out that removing the ability to add calendar events on the iPod Touch would cause way more ill-will than such a decision would ever be worth monetarily (assuming this decision was made to protect the iPhone)? With better critics working in these areas, you could prevent a lot of anger and frustration. Hire me, I'll do it. I have the critical thinking skills needed for the job. Hire anyone. Just please do something before we Prosumers lose all our enthusiasm and start considering the limitations of running Linux just so we can have better options in hardware (note to all Linux fans: yes, I stay up-to-date with latest releases of several distros... I am speaking from experience strictly concerning desktop use so don't bother trying to recommend distros to try). Save us from having to half-heartedly recommend the MacBook to people, not because it is the right option for them but because it is the only option available to them if they want to use OS X. And if you are not willing to do this, please license OS X to companies who will. You've been our champions all these years, please do not abandon us to the pain of having to run Photoshop 7 in Wine on Linux, using gimpy fonts, having to abandon iTunes, and having to live through the Linux version of Firefox. We really do not want to go down this path... please don't make us. [Update: Linux on laptops has improved dramatically since I wrote this, Gimp is now usable enough that I can mostly do without Photoshop, and Google released the Chrome Browser, sparing me the pain and suffering of dealing with Firefox's slide into irrelevance. I am the happiest I've been in computer land in the last few years with the two most recent releases of Ubuntu - 9.10 and 10.04]
Todd Russell
October 7, 2007
While many people have been complaining about some of Apple's recent decisions and hardware issues (iPhone, iPod Touch, and aluminum iMac for a chronological reference point), I have yet to see anyone label these as the obvious progression of a trend that has been evolving at Apple for the last few years. This trend is the slow and steady driving away of what I refer to as Prosumers. We Prosumers are the hobbyists, the early adopters of new hardware, the computer geeks, and the unofficial support technicians of friends and families. We are the ones who write reviews, who lead user groups, and whose opinions people seek when deciding what to buy. What Apple seems to have forgotten, though, is that we are essential to Apple's success, and they are driving us away.
I switched to the Mac back in 2001 because I saw the direction Microsoft was going with XP and activation, and I was tired of the way they abused their customers through pointless upgrades at high prices. My previous experiences with Macs were limited and had not been very good, but Linux was still very rough for desktop use, so what other choice did I have? I ended up falling in love with OS X (10.0.4 at the time). I also fell in love with Apple's hardware designs and their general reliability. Since then, I have recommended Apple to many people and have personally converted at least (I've lost count) 10 families, 5 individuals, and 2 businesses to the Mac platform. This has equated to many machines purchased from Apple... and all because people trusted my word, were convinced by my passion, and knew they'd have me to help them when there were problems.
Despite my love for Apple, though, the passion is fading fast. Their focus has been turning completely toward the average consumer and I am beginning to feel as if I'm losing my place in the Apple ecosystem. I will admit outright that I understand why Apple's attention has focused on the consumer. They are the ones who have spent all the money that has propelled Apple to newfound success over the last few years. They are also the ones most desperately in need of simple solutions such as Apple offers. It is good that Apple is fulfilling this need. Unfortunately, though, Apple has been neglecting those of us who convinced those average consumers to spend the money that got them to their current growth rates, and they are on the verge of losing many of us.
The first reason is the lack of variety in hardware. Apple has often maintained models that fulfill the needs of us Prosumers. The G4 towers, in particular, struck a good balance of practicality, elegance, and expandability. They were easy to get into for hard drive swaps and RAM upgrades. There were enough PCI slots to upgrade them at will. They were not perfect, but they satisfied us enough and were even good for doing some crazy hardware mods. In the laptop realm, the 12” PowerBook was the Prosumer's dream. Granted, there was no PCMCIA slot, which limited upgrades, but the portability of it (while still possessing enough graphics horsepower to do some real work), more than made up for the trade-offs for those of use who live and die by our portable machines. I would wager that this model sold less than any other Apple laptop in production during its time, but it gave us Prosumers something to fill our niche needs. Then there's the Mac mini. Niche? Absolutely. Low sales numbers? I'd be willing to bet on it. Beloved by Prosumers? More so than any other specialty machine in recent years. Just check the internet for all the crazy hacks that fellow geeks have built with these things. I'm sure the bean counters at Apple keep suggesting this product get the axe. It was rumored to happen just recently, but has seen at least one last revision. I hope that someone at Apple is wise enough to see the value of this machine beyond its apparent fiscal viability, though. There are other classics, like the Cube, of course.
If you look at Apple's current lineup, though, it starts to become obvious that the willingness to satisfy the niche is evaporating. We still have the mini, but, beyond that, there is really nothing for us geeky Prosumers to get excited about.
The Mac Pro? While very expandable and customizable, the thing is a monstrosity. It is way too big to be practical and way too expensive for those of us who have other gadgets and hobbies to spend money on. They call it the Pro, and that is precisely who this machine is good for: graphics, audio, and video professionals... and not too many others.
The iMac? Yes, it looks beautiful, but they have proven with this model that they are willing to throw practicality out the window for the sake of consumer glitz. Prosumers like to upgrade their own hard drives, to experiment with their hardware, and to add upgrades from time to time. It is a foregone conclusion that expansion is out with all-in-one machines, but Apple's design decision with the new Aluminum iMac is madness!!! You can't even get to the hard drive without special suction cups to remove the glass from the front, and a clean room environment to avoid getting dust inside the glass when you put it back together. This is similar to the idiocy that went into the 2nd and later revisions of the G5 iMacs. I had to take one apart recently to get a hard drive out for someone because it had the bad capacitor problem and would not boot. I almost gave up three times in this process. Just as a point of reference, I have torn down and rebuilt about a dozen iBooks, as well as my 12” PowerBook. This is no small task. Yet the G5 iMac was such a nightmare to get into that I didn't want to do it. With the new ones, this problem is only worse. I cannot recommend these machines in good conscience to anyone. Hard drives fail. They will have to ship them to Apple WHEN their drives fail. Madness, I say. This exhibits to me a deeper madness that is setting in at Apple, which troubles me greatly. Do not get me wrong, I have long extolled the beauty of Apple design. I have a very strong appreciation for the philosophy that EVERY detail is important and that having an integrated whole is a sign of beauty and order. However, this philosophy has been pushed to an extreme at Apple lately, and all practicality has been sacrificed in the process. I predict that the new hardware designs of the other models when they come out will be just as offensive in this regard. I hope to be proven wrong, but the iMac is such a magnanimous affront to the balance between practicality and beauty that the G4 towers represented, that I cannot trust their decisions until I see them. In fact, I had been looking forward to the rumored slimline notebook Apple is working on. Further rumors and the evidence of the iMac, though, have caused me to lose interest. The screen will be too big, the machine will be too fragile due to its aluminum casing, and I fully expect them to drop ethernet and other ports for the sake of making it beautiful... in the process making it useless to those of us who miss the 12” PowerBook and would like something even smaller. They could still prove me wrong, but the evidence at this point is that they will not. [Update: I was wrong about the casing since they introduced the unibody design, which helped solve the denting problem, but I was pretty close in my other predictions.]
The MacBook? A very close contender. It is, in my mind, Apple's best overall design at the moment, but there are several flaws which make it a complete non-option for us Prosumers. First is the video hardware. It is perfectly fine for most people and probably even overkill. It is not enough to run Final Cut Express, though. Keep in mind that many Prosumers use our machines to make additional income through side work or hobbies. Not being able to run an advanced video editor means we can't even consider it as an option. As far as I am concerned, the screen is still too big on this machine to make it as portable as we need it for great mobility. Then there are the hardware problems. This model has been riddled with manufacturing problems from day one of its existence. I am not sure if the design is the problem or that Apple is using cheap manufacturing, but it makes it hard for me to recommend this machine to people now that there have been several known and widespread hardware problems.
The MacBook Pro? Let me start by saying that my place of employment bought me one of these latest models (the LED screen model) to use as my work machine, and it is a huge part of the reason I am writing this letter. I literally hate this machine. There are so many bad decisions built into this machine, and such poor quality in the build, that I am disgusted with it and often consider turning it in and telling them to pass it on to someone else. The screen on this thing is not well-designed. I was looking forward to LED screens, but they did not use a true Matte finish on the glass, so the light waves do not diffuse. To put that in simpler terms, the light waves come directly out of the screen and do not spread out in multiple directions. Yes, this is bright, and it looks pretty good... if you are looking perfectly perpendicularly at the screen. However, if you get off-angle at all, you will see a strong yellow cast to everything. Why? Well, they used cheap LEDs with a blue tint, and then apply a ColorSync profile that adds yellow back into the mix to balance the colors. If you view the screen at an angle, though, the colors do not mix properly and everything looks yellow tinted. This makes it impossible to do graphics work unless you set up a perfect environment. This also means you cannot do real work while using the thing on your lap, because the screen does not tilt back far enough to get a good perpendicular view. When I have had several people huddled around me, I have to apologize and explain why the colors do not look right to them. This is rather embarrassing to someone who is known as an Apple evangelist. The keyboard on the MacBook Pro is worse than the screen. I absolutely loved the keyboard on my 12” PowerBook. I was expecting the same one on this MacBook Pro. The key caps are the same, but the important parts, the key switches, are TERRIBLE. They are entirely too stiff and I find myself constantly having to spellcheck everything I type for missing letters since I often fail to hammer the key hard enough to register the keystroke. I had also been excited about the backlighting... until I tried to use it. Why doesn't it work like the screen? I like the ability to use the brightness keys to choose a static brightness level for the screen. The keyboard, however, does not allow you to turn off the ambient light sensors. The practical effect of this is that the backlighting is constantly changing brightness and turning on and off. It is terribly annoying. I installed a hack that would keep the backlight at a set level, but it was very buggy and I ended up having to just turn off the backlighting and leave it off for good. As I mentioned, the screen does not tilt back far enough for those of us who spend hours using our machines on our laps in our favorite chairs. The trackpad is not very precise and I find it annoying when I am stuck trying to do image editing without a mouse. Then there are the build quality issues: outer screen case warping for no reason that leaves a gap in one corner when the lid is closed, cheaply put together plastic trim ring that has too much play above the optical drive, a shoddy optical drive that has problems with discs burned in a G4 iBook as well as making a terrible racket when it is burning, and the aforementioned problems with the sensors and LCD. The wireless network performance is horrendous when benchmarked against older Apple laptops and is not fast enough regardless of signal strength. Finally, there have been so many bugs that I have had to reboot this machine more times in the two months I've had it than I rebooted the 12” PowerBook in two years. Is the Intel version of OS X really this buggy, or is the motherboard in this thing just a hodge-podge of barely supported cheap bits? [Update: I still hate this thing and have been considering trading it for an equivalent PC laptop because running Linux and Windows on this Apple hardware is a bit of a nuisance, and I just can't use OS X any more as a daily operating system. Also, the graphics card went out, requiring a motherboard replacement in less than 3 years]
The Mac mini is the only saving grace in Apple's lineup right now. Granted, it does not fill all the needs of the Prosumer, but it at least gives us something to use for projects and has been the only model in recent memory that has not exhibited widespread hardware problems of one sort or another.
And this brings me to another growing problem: manufacturing. As Prosumers, we understand the value in paying more and getting what you pay for. As I said earlier, we use our tools to make money or practice our hobbies. For this, we understand the value of having good quality that we can rely on and we are willing to pay the premium... knowing that it always pays off in the end. This used to be the philosophy of the Apple we knew and loved. I have a G4 Cube running 24/7 as a backup server. It is 7 years old. It works perfectly and runs for months at a time without being rebooted. When it was introduced, it was pricey, but it has lasted. In comparison, the guy who bought the the G5 iMac I pulled the hard drive out of paid hundreds of dollars more for his machine, and it only lasted about a year and a half. There have been numerous failures among Apple's all-in-one machines over the last few years, and some of the people I advised to buy these have suffered from it. The G5 PowerMacs have started to leak their coolant, ruining the motherboards. The plastic on the MacBooks has started discoloring and cracking for no reason. MacBook Pros have had problems with RAM, Airport, and improper application of thermal paste on processors. The number of people I know who have had to do without their machines for weeks at a time while they wait for repairs that only Apple can make due to the proprietary nature of the parts supply is growing rapidly. It has started to make me feel guilty for advising these people to make the purchases they did.
Why is this happening? My theory is that Apple got tired of PC people complaining that Macs were so expensive. To combat that, they decided to cut prices. In order to cut prices, they had to move away from their former manufacturing plants, and hand it all over to the Chinese. This MacBook Pro I am typing on shipped straight from China to here. Yes, it cost less than a comparable PowerBook would have cost a few years ago, but at what cost to reliability? We Prosumers were never happy about those high prices, but at least we were comforted in the fact that we were buying a machine that should last us 5 years of solid use, followed by 5 more of other useful duties (like my backup Cube). Presently, it does not appear that any of these machines will last even 3 or 4 years. Apple wanted to compete on price, but the price they paid to do so has taken a heavy toll on the loyalty of those of us who have advised people to buy Apple hardware for its reliability. If Apple continues using the same Chinese manufacturing that its PC competitors use, how can we expect the overall quality to be any better? And how can I , in good conscience, recommend someone spend more for a machine on the perception of higher quality when the reality is that the quality is now no longer likely to be much better than the $750 PC? We Prosumers would much prefer a return to higher prices, as long as it means a concurrent return to higher quality and reliability. Very often, our livelihoods depend on these machines. We do not have time for extended downtime.
So, that sums up the hardware selection and build problems, but there are other ways Apple is driving away the Prosumers. Look at the iPod Touch. It could have been the Prosumer's dream machine. Instead, they made some really terrible decisions and left out all the features that make the iPhone so good... the speakers and volume control, by extension of that the ability to have alarms in iCal, the ability to add events to iCal, and the camera. Instead of being a tool, it is merely a glitzy plaything. It is the technological equivalent of the sugar water Steve Jobs chided Scully into leaving behind so that he could change the world... the Touch is nothing that changes the world, just something to satisfy people's need for more. To add insult to injury, the build quality of these is pathetic. The screens are terrible from all the accounts I have read and this makes them useless for the one thing they seem to be intended for: video.
The last trend I want to point out is the terrible software QA we have seen lately. Mac OS X 10.4.9 and 10.4.10 have been the buggiest releases of OS X I can remember suffering through since 10.0.4. The Finder is so crash-prone that I am starting to feel like I am using Windows. Just the other day, I was connected to my Cube here at home. I forgot to disconnect before putting the MacBook Pro to sleep. When I got to work, I noticed this and clicked the disconnect icon, expecting to watch the beach ball for one whole minute before I could do anything. Instead, I waited five minutes before giving up and doing a forced power down. The subsequent reboot, reopening of all my apps and browser tabs, and trying to remember where I left off on other stuff I had open cost me about a half hour of frustration. Why can't they fix this?! Did they outsource the coding to Microsoft? Wireless transfer rates have been pathetic on Intel Macs and I assume this is driver related. Other Finder bugs and app crashes have become more routine. To add salt to the wound, I used my old 1.33GHz 12” PowerBook to do some DVD burning recently, and realized that, despite the multiple times faster processor in this MacBook Pro, it doesn't feel much faster for most routine tasks, and even slower in some. The only place it is obviously faster is in video encoding. Unless they can get better speed out of these machines for GUI tasks and general usage, why are we enduring the bugginess of OS X on Intel? If I didn't loathe the prospect of having to use 2 laptops on a daily basis, I'd go back to my 12” PowerBook for all my personal usage. If it were not for my need to use Final Cut Express and Live Type, I'd probably turn this one in and just request them pay me a small stipend for using a personal machine as my work machine. [Update: QA at Apple has only gotten worse, not better, and 10.5 and 10.6 have been terrible in terms of stability and bugginess. Speed has improved under 10.6, except when the Finder starts locking up and requires a hard-power-down, which you have also experienced on numerous occasions if you use USB SD card readers extensively.]
Software QA for many of their other products (don't even get me started on iLife) has also been fairly abysmal over the last few years. It often feels as if they are taking the Microsoft approach to software development, where they release software when it is 90% done and rely on the crash reports of the users to make up the last 10%. I'll say it again... we Prosumers use our machines as a vital part of our livelihoods. We cannot tolerate a broken production workflow and hours of lost time because Apple decided to update QuickTime to support some fluffy feature that got added to iTunes without proper testing. If I could have back all the hours I've wasted cleaning up after Apple updates and working around bugs, I could earn enough money in those hours to buy a machine or two.
The whole thing is just starting to build a lot of frustration in me. I feel like there is no longer room for people like me in the Apple ecosystem. This ecosystem I once loved for its great tools and variety of choice is leaving me with no option for hardware that I actually like and want to use. Meanwhile, I continue to see small PC laptops and specialty machines like the Sony UX and I can only drool over them since OS X only runs on Apple hardware.
This is starting to feel like a relationship going sour. It is still in that stage of denial, where you hope you are just going through a dry spell and the other person is not really trying to push you away... but the feeling lingers.
It is sad that we Prosumers should ever feel left out here in Apple land. I can assure you that we are a large part of the reason for Apple's growing momentum. All those people who asked us what they should buy, all those favorable blog posts, all the free hours of tech support we have given to Mac newbies, and all the times we have sworn by the hardware we used and loved have all contributed to people being willing to try a Mac despite their fears. We helped them through the switch, then they told others. Without us, I do not believe Apple would be gaining steam right now. By way of illustration, I've never met anyone who said they bought a new Mac because the “Mac Guy” made the “PC Guy” look like a fool in a commercial.
If Apple loses our enthusiasm, who will assure these people they are making the right choice? Who will coach them through migrating their data off their old PCs? Who will praise the lesser known virtues of the Mac OS that make it so powerful? [Update: Recently, two different people who were planning to buy Macs changed their minds after discussing with me what they were going to primarily use their machines for. The benefits that still remain, fewer in number with every update, no longer justify the price difference to most people.]
So, how can Apple prevent driving us away? The answer is not as simple as they'd like. They will need to start by taking us seriously again when making decisions about what hardware and software to provide. True, we make up a very small percentage of all purchases, but having us around helps build peripheral sales. Remember all those people I mentioned having converted? I didn't buy those machines, but they would still be using Windows PCs if they had not known I'd be there to help them through the switch. I would wager that each Apple Prosumer wields similar influence on the purchasing decisions of others. If there is not a single piece of hardware for us to get excited about, why should we spend a premium price on something that is a compromise for us? We are the kind of users who are perfectly comfortable making the switch to Linux because it will run on that really cool Sony handheld computer. Apple needs to keep this in mind. It needs to listen to what we want in our hardware and software, and try to meet those needs. Granted, the specialty hardware will not sell much, but they can take the R&D money out of the marketing budget, because, if they keep us happy and give us products to get really excited about, we will share our enthusiasm with others, and that word of mouth will be hundreds of times more powerful than another Mac vs. PC commercial in bringing switchers over. There is a very high, yet intangible, value to Apple to have us around and enthusiastic. When we lose our enthusiasm, as I am starting to, we are less willing to recommend someone buy an Apple. Just the other day, a long time Mac user was asking me what to buy when his PowerBook G3 finally dies (it is on its last legs after 7+ years of faithful service). In the past, I would have been quick to recommend one model or another for his needs. Instead, I half-heartedly mentioned the MacBook, but followed it up with a warning that it will not last as long as his PowerBook has because the Chinese manufacturing is much shoddier than the old manufacturing. I even had to say that there was not a single model of Apple hardware I could confidently recommend for reliability except for the Mac mini, but that model would not meet his needs. It was a sad day for me to have to admit that if he buys another Apple, it won't really last longer than the HP laptop he bought his wife. [Update: Every person I know who bought the white MaBooks or the pre-unibody MacBook Pros have had one significant hardware problem or another, in most cases requiring Apple to send the machine off for repairs.]
That's when I realized that something has to change. Come on Apple, give us something to brag about again. We love beauty, but not at the complete sacrifice of practicality and ease of repair. We love lightweight, but not at the complete sacrifice of expandability. We want to see some more great designs like those of the past that struck a balance between beauty and usefulness. We want to be able to replace our own hard drives without having to send our machines in.
We need the Apple of old, which fights for us and defies the trends in the industry that prevent progress and take us for granted. I do not know if you have any official “devil's advocates” in your teams or not, but you need some. You need people who will be able to see the practical consequences of every design decision and point out the potential flaws before they happen. You need someone who can see clearly what details of a product will annoy customers, and who will point these out to the engineers and software design people without the fear of hurting feelings. You need more critical thinking. How did no one challenge the iMac and the fact that practically no one would be able to change their own hard drive? How did no one point out that removing the ability to add calendar events on the iPod Touch would cause way more ill-will than such a decision would ever be worth monetarily (assuming this decision was made to protect the iPhone)? With better critics working in these areas, you could prevent a lot of anger and frustration. Hire me, I'll do it. I have the critical thinking skills needed for the job. Hire anyone. Just please do something before we Prosumers lose all our enthusiasm and start considering the limitations of running Linux just so we can have better options in hardware (note to all Linux fans: yes, I stay up-to-date with latest releases of several distros... I am speaking from experience strictly concerning desktop use so don't bother trying to recommend distros to try). Save us from having to half-heartedly recommend the MacBook to people, not because it is the right option for them but because it is the only option available to them if they want to use OS X. And if you are not willing to do this, please license OS X to companies who will. You've been our champions all these years, please do not abandon us to the pain of having to run Photoshop 7 in Wine on Linux, using gimpy fonts, having to abandon iTunes, and having to live through the Linux version of Firefox. We really do not want to go down this path... please don't make us. [Update: Linux on laptops has improved dramatically since I wrote this, Gimp is now usable enough that I can mostly do without Photoshop, and Google released the Chrome Browser, sparing me the pain and suffering of dealing with Firefox's slide into irrelevance. I am the happiest I've been in computer land in the last few years with the two most recent releases of Ubuntu - 9.10 and 10.04]
Todd Russell
October 7, 2007
Review: Why I love my Acer Aspire One
[Update: Since writing this review, I have been using Ubuntu Linux Netbook Edition on it and have found it to be even more useful, although with reduced battery life. Aside from the minor issues of the right SD card slot not working, and the machine locking up if I attempt to sleep it with an SD card in the left slot it works great and I still love it. With Ubuntu, it has improved in almost every area mentioned below and I have also added 1GB of RAM, which allows me to boost performance a little by not using swap.]
There are other reviews of the Aspire One out there, so I won't treat this as a basic review, but will focus specifically on how well it works for the way I intend to use it. Let's start on the positive side.
Size: Well, this size is about as perfect as it could be without some irredeemable compromises for a machine to do real work on. It is not quite small enough to fit in a cargo pocket, but I can accept that now that I have had it for over a week. It is small enough that I have been able to carry it around without a laptop bag. I even discovered that it fits perfectly into the glove compartment in my car. At just over 2 pounds, carrying it in hand is actually preferable to having a bag slinging around at my side. The footprint of it is small enough that I am able to set it up next to my MacBook Pro at work on the edge of the desk, or in front of my monitor at home. When it is closed up, it can be set darn near anywhere until its next use. And yes, it passes the "use in the bathroom" test. While it would seem nice to be even a tad smaller, now that I have used it, I realize that getting any smaller would make it so much less useful than it is because the keyboard is awesome. I am able to type at nearly full speed on this keyboard because it is just big enough to not throw me off.
Keyboard: Speaking of the keyboard, the action on the keys is great and the keyboard is mounted firmly, giving it a good, solid feel as opposed to the squishy feel that people complain of on the other brands' netbooks. The biggest advantage, though, is that it has a REAL right Shift key, making the typing at near full speed possible. The little Shift key on the other brands just doesn't cut it for real typing from what I hear. Arrow key placement is also very good, and the inclusion of the F keys makes it possible to have easy sleep, mute, and monitor toggling. Lastly, the Home key in place of the Windows key is very useful since Acer programmed it to hide all windows and take you to the desktop. I also discovered that the keyboard has a good design for resilience when a friend knocked over his coffee nearby, sending several splashes of coffee onto the keyboard. With a napkin, I soaked up as much as I could, then let it sit overnight before restoring power to it. All the keys are working fine.
Trackpad: I thought the trackpad would be a complaint since the buttons are on either side, but the more I use it, the better I like it. I will admit that the buttons are stiff and loud (which is embarrassing when you try to sneak in a refresh of Gmail while sitting in a meeting). This actually caused me to reconsider trackpad tapping. For the record, I have always hated trackpad tapping due to the inevitable accidental clicks. So, I have always turned it off on any trackpad I was going to use for any period of time beyond helping someone with their new machine. I turned it back on, though, and adjusted the timing a little with the settings slider, and now it is perfect. No accidental clicks yet, and this has enabled silent use of the trackpad in meetings. Bonus. After using it for a week, the surface began to smooth a little and the feel is great now. There is also a handy slider to change trackpad sensitivity, which allowed me to get it just right for my fingers.
Screen: The screen seems to use led backlighting since it has a slight blue tint to it and because if I thump the side of the screen, I do not see the waver that is normal with standard backlighting. This is good, if so, as that means longer life and lower power drain. The vertical viewing angle on this is roughly equivalent to most other laptop screens, but the horizontal viewing angle is amazing at almost 180 degrees. The horizontal viewing angle is one of the best, if not the best, I've ever seen.
Hibernate: Hibernate actually works! Still not as good as a Mac, but better than what I expected based on my experience with PC laptops in general and linux laptops in particular. It takes about 15 seconds from hitting the power button to the point it is scanning for wifi signals again. Not bad. I carry it around everywhere in hibernate, just like I have always done with my Macs.
Wifi: Works great and has a good network connection manager that does a good job of switching to new networks when availability changes. It is miles better than what I have experienced from linux wifi in the past. There is one caveat mentioned below in the cons.
Speed: Despite the limited 512 RAM and slow SSD drive, the thing is surprisingly fast for most tasks. Opera browsing and OpenOffice loading blow the doors off my old G4 Powerbook. I really did not expect it to be as fast as it is. I am happy with the speed and may not even bother with the RAM upgrade.
Linpus Linux: While it can be a little restricting to an advanced user, I am finding myself resisting the temptation to switch the desktop to advanced mode. I am enjoying the simplified GUI as it makes it quicker to launch apps than a typical menu-driven desktop environment. Besides, one of the reasons for getting this was to advertise it to friends and family who I am trying to convince to stop using Windows. Having a simple GUI is a nice way to grab their interest. I think both Microsoft and Apple underestimate the demand for a truly simple to use computer. This is getting really close.
Battery: I am pleasantly surprised to find the battery lasting between 2.5 and 3 hours, which is what I had hoped for but not expected. This is a 2200maH battery, so when I get the 5500maH, that should equate to roughly 7 hours of battery. I have waited for that day for too many years. Now, if Acer would get off their butts and release the darn thing instead of just talking about it. With the retired 2200 as a backup, I'll be able to get roughly 10 hours of mobility. Awesome.
Speakers: Wow... no way no how did I expect something this small to have speakers that are as loud as these. They sound pretty decent too, considering the size. Perfect for pandora.com.
LVM card slot: The left SD card slot on the machine can be pooled together with the internal storage to create a bigger "drive". Not sure if I will use it, but the idea is pretty cool.
Fun: With all these factors combined, the machine becomes fun to use... almost addictive. I find myself wanting to carry it around with me everywhere and doing more reading than normal just to have the excuse to use it. It's been a while since I could say that about a machine.
- - - - - - -
Cons
- - - - - - -
Balance: Not a major con, but it can be a little back heavy if the screen is tilted too far. This is ONLY an issue when using it propped on a leg or in a hand. As long as it is on a flat surface, tilting the screen all the way back does not cause the machine to become unbalanced.
Wifi crashes: Sometimes, after waking from hibernate, the wifi driver will crash, preventing connections to wifi. A reboot, which only takes about 60 seconds, will fix it, but the quicker fix is to simply turn off the wifi card using the physical switch on the front-right of the machine, then turning it back on.
Updating: After running my first Live Update of the system, the Network Manager lost all my saved networks that I had recreated. It's not a huge ordeal for me to recreate them, but it makes me wonder what else got set back to default without my noticing. Speaking of defaults, I have found that some GUI tweaks, like adding a location to the left sidebar in the file manager, disappear after a reboot with a return to the factory default setting. There is surely a way to make it keep changes like this, but I haven't had time to dig that deep yet.
Right SD card slot: I just discovered the other night that the right slot is not deep enough for a card to go all the way into the body of the laptop, and leaves about a third of an inch of the card still sticking out. This is not the end of the world or anything, but it would have been nice to have the card all the way in, especially when carrying it around by hand rather than in a bag. As it is, the amount of the card that sticks out is not enough to create enough leverage to break the card unless you dropped it right on the card from several feet, and even then it might survive. Having been schooled by Apple design, though, this just bothers me a little on principle.
High gloss: High gloss plastic makes for ugly fingerprint smears. Not a big deal, but for someone with Aspberger's this can cause undue amounts of wiping with shirt tails. The plastic around the screen is high gloss, too, and can be reflective, making for ADD distractions depending on what is going on behind you. The screen is high gloss as well, but it is not bothering me due to the brightness of the screen, so that is good.
External resolution: Using the default external monitor port, Acer's screen manager will still use 1024x600 even if you switch to using only the external monitor. There is a quick hack which amounts to running the terminal command:
xrandr -s 1024x768
You could choose another resolution if so desired, but I have used this and it works fine. Of course, you have to remember to run it again and set it back to 1024x600 before switching back to the internal, but I can live with this for now. Hopefully Acer will update that in a software update.
Power brick: To be fair, Acer's brick is very small and includes a velcro strap for wrapping the cords together to try and manage the mess. Really, this con is leveled against the PC world more so than the Aspire One's brick specifically. I am spoiled by Apple's power bricks that roll up nice and neat, so I hate the way the PC industry does laptop bricks. The cables are a mess during transport. Oh well, can't win them all.
Got root?: It is entirely too easy to get root access on one of these if you have it in your hands. The sudo timeout is set too high, so all you have to do is reboot, open a terminal, and type "sudo -s". Bingo... what would you like to delete today? Or, simply click the network manager icon in the taskbar, disconnect and reconnect the network, then open a terminal and run the command. From a security standpoint, I'll agree that if someone malicious has your machine it is toast. In this case, though, even a prankster or a friend can quickly get root, so you better trust anyone you hand this over to for "trying it out".
- - - - - - - -
Final thoughts
- - - - - - - -
This machine is actually becoming my main machine, although I did not expect it to. The portability covers the minor faults, leaving the whole picture a very positive experience. The first thing I did was install Opera, then edit the desktop config file to show launchers for Opera and the terminal, and that makes life with the Aspire happy. The default Firefox was fine, but I love Opera. Anything I can run the full Opera on is fine by me.
Considering the current retail price is down to $329 (I ended up getting mine for $309 at Circuit City on sale!), this is the netbook to beat. No other netbook in this price range has a real right Shift key, and that is really the killer feature when compared to others. I feel like the addition of the 5500maH battery will finally give me the piece of hardware I waited many years for Apple to make. Well, I certainly am not waiting anymore and am happy with what I have. I can also easily recommend this to first-time linux users as a way to get their feet wet with minimal risk. After all, they could install Windows or OS X if they just couldn't stand linux. If they give it a chance, though, I am sure they will be happy with it for the uses it is designed for. If they basically just want something to get on the internet with, this will meet their needs and keep them safe from viruses since it is running linux. Score a win for Acer.
Todd Russell
September 12, 2008
There are other reviews of the Aspire One out there, so I won't treat this as a basic review, but will focus specifically on how well it works for the way I intend to use it. Let's start on the positive side.
Keyboard: Speaking of the keyboard, the action on the keys is great and the keyboard is mounted firmly, giving it a good, solid feel as opposed to the squishy feel that people complain of on the other brands' netbooks. The biggest advantage, though, is that it has a REAL right Shift key, making the typing at near full speed possible. The little Shift key on the other brands just doesn't cut it for real typing from what I hear. Arrow key placement is also very good, and the inclusion of the F keys makes it possible to have easy sleep, mute, and monitor toggling. Lastly, the Home key in place of the Windows key is very useful since Acer programmed it to hide all windows and take you to the desktop. I also discovered that the keyboard has a good design for resilience when a friend knocked over his coffee nearby, sending several splashes of coffee onto the keyboard. With a napkin, I soaked up as much as I could, then let it sit overnight before restoring power to it. All the keys are working fine.
Trackpad: I thought the trackpad would be a complaint since the buttons are on either side, but the more I use it, the better I like it. I will admit that the buttons are stiff and loud (which is embarrassing when you try to sneak in a refresh of Gmail while sitting in a meeting). This actually caused me to reconsider trackpad tapping. For the record, I have always hated trackpad tapping due to the inevitable accidental clicks. So, I have always turned it off on any trackpad I was going to use for any period of time beyond helping someone with their new machine. I turned it back on, though, and adjusted the timing a little with the settings slider, and now it is perfect. No accidental clicks yet, and this has enabled silent use of the trackpad in meetings. Bonus. After using it for a week, the surface began to smooth a little and the feel is great now. There is also a handy slider to change trackpad sensitivity, which allowed me to get it just right for my fingers.
Screen: The screen seems to use led backlighting since it has a slight blue tint to it and because if I thump the side of the screen, I do not see the waver that is normal with standard backlighting. This is good, if so, as that means longer life and lower power drain. The vertical viewing angle on this is roughly equivalent to most other laptop screens, but the horizontal viewing angle is amazing at almost 180 degrees. The horizontal viewing angle is one of the best, if not the best, I've ever seen.
Hibernate: Hibernate actually works! Still not as good as a Mac, but better than what I expected based on my experience with PC laptops in general and linux laptops in particular. It takes about 15 seconds from hitting the power button to the point it is scanning for wifi signals again. Not bad. I carry it around everywhere in hibernate, just like I have always done with my Macs.
Wifi: Works great and has a good network connection manager that does a good job of switching to new networks when availability changes. It is miles better than what I have experienced from linux wifi in the past. There is one caveat mentioned below in the cons.
Speed: Despite the limited 512 RAM and slow SSD drive, the thing is surprisingly fast for most tasks. Opera browsing and OpenOffice loading blow the doors off my old G4 Powerbook. I really did not expect it to be as fast as it is. I am happy with the speed and may not even bother with the RAM upgrade.
Linpus Linux: While it can be a little restricting to an advanced user, I am finding myself resisting the temptation to switch the desktop to advanced mode. I am enjoying the simplified GUI as it makes it quicker to launch apps than a typical menu-driven desktop environment. Besides, one of the reasons for getting this was to advertise it to friends and family who I am trying to convince to stop using Windows. Having a simple GUI is a nice way to grab their interest. I think both Microsoft and Apple underestimate the demand for a truly simple to use computer. This is getting really close.
Battery: I am pleasantly surprised to find the battery lasting between 2.5 and 3 hours, which is what I had hoped for but not expected. This is a 2200maH battery, so when I get the 5500maH, that should equate to roughly 7 hours of battery. I have waited for that day for too many years. Now, if Acer would get off their butts and release the darn thing instead of just talking about it. With the retired 2200 as a backup, I'll be able to get roughly 10 hours of mobility. Awesome.
Speakers: Wow... no way no how did I expect something this small to have speakers that are as loud as these. They sound pretty decent too, considering the size. Perfect for pandora.com.
LVM card slot: The left SD card slot on the machine can be pooled together with the internal storage to create a bigger "drive". Not sure if I will use it, but the idea is pretty cool.
Fun: With all these factors combined, the machine becomes fun to use... almost addictive. I find myself wanting to carry it around with me everywhere and doing more reading than normal just to have the excuse to use it. It's been a while since I could say that about a machine.
- - - - - - -
Cons
- - - - - - -
Balance: Not a major con, but it can be a little back heavy if the screen is tilted too far. This is ONLY an issue when using it propped on a leg or in a hand. As long as it is on a flat surface, tilting the screen all the way back does not cause the machine to become unbalanced.
Wifi crashes: Sometimes, after waking from hibernate, the wifi driver will crash, preventing connections to wifi. A reboot, which only takes about 60 seconds, will fix it, but the quicker fix is to simply turn off the wifi card using the physical switch on the front-right of the machine, then turning it back on.
Updating: After running my first Live Update of the system, the Network Manager lost all my saved networks that I had recreated. It's not a huge ordeal for me to recreate them, but it makes me wonder what else got set back to default without my noticing. Speaking of defaults, I have found that some GUI tweaks, like adding a location to the left sidebar in the file manager, disappear after a reboot with a return to the factory default setting. There is surely a way to make it keep changes like this, but I haven't had time to dig that deep yet.
Right SD card slot: I just discovered the other night that the right slot is not deep enough for a card to go all the way into the body of the laptop, and leaves about a third of an inch of the card still sticking out. This is not the end of the world or anything, but it would have been nice to have the card all the way in, especially when carrying it around by hand rather than in a bag. As it is, the amount of the card that sticks out is not enough to create enough leverage to break the card unless you dropped it right on the card from several feet, and even then it might survive. Having been schooled by Apple design, though, this just bothers me a little on principle.
High gloss: High gloss plastic makes for ugly fingerprint smears. Not a big deal, but for someone with Aspberger's this can cause undue amounts of wiping with shirt tails. The plastic around the screen is high gloss, too, and can be reflective, making for ADD distractions depending on what is going on behind you. The screen is high gloss as well, but it is not bothering me due to the brightness of the screen, so that is good.
External resolution: Using the default external monitor port, Acer's screen manager will still use 1024x600 even if you switch to using only the external monitor. There is a quick hack which amounts to running the terminal command:
xrandr -s 1024x768
You could choose another resolution if so desired, but I have used this and it works fine. Of course, you have to remember to run it again and set it back to 1024x600 before switching back to the internal, but I can live with this for now. Hopefully Acer will update that in a software update.
Power brick: To be fair, Acer's brick is very small and includes a velcro strap for wrapping the cords together to try and manage the mess. Really, this con is leveled against the PC world more so than the Aspire One's brick specifically. I am spoiled by Apple's power bricks that roll up nice and neat, so I hate the way the PC industry does laptop bricks. The cables are a mess during transport. Oh well, can't win them all.
Got root?: It is entirely too easy to get root access on one of these if you have it in your hands. The sudo timeout is set too high, so all you have to do is reboot, open a terminal, and type "sudo -s". Bingo... what would you like to delete today? Or, simply click the network manager icon in the taskbar, disconnect and reconnect the network, then open a terminal and run the command. From a security standpoint, I'll agree that if someone malicious has your machine it is toast. In this case, though, even a prankster or a friend can quickly get root, so you better trust anyone you hand this over to for "trying it out".
- - - - - - - -
Final thoughts
- - - - - - - -
This machine is actually becoming my main machine, although I did not expect it to. The portability covers the minor faults, leaving the whole picture a very positive experience. The first thing I did was install Opera, then edit the desktop config file to show launchers for Opera and the terminal, and that makes life with the Aspire happy. The default Firefox was fine, but I love Opera. Anything I can run the full Opera on is fine by me.
Considering the current retail price is down to $329 (I ended up getting mine for $309 at Circuit City on sale!), this is the netbook to beat. No other netbook in this price range has a real right Shift key, and that is really the killer feature when compared to others. I feel like the addition of the 5500maH battery will finally give me the piece of hardware I waited many years for Apple to make. Well, I certainly am not waiting anymore and am happy with what I have. I can also easily recommend this to first-time linux users as a way to get their feet wet with minimal risk. After all, they could install Windows or OS X if they just couldn't stand linux. If they give it a chance, though, I am sure they will be happy with it for the uses it is designed for. If they basically just want something to get on the internet with, this will meet their needs and keep them safe from viruses since it is running linux. Score a win for Acer.
Todd Russell
September 12, 2008
May 3, 2010
Review: The Book of Eli
I don't know why, but I just love apocalyptic / post-apocalyptic movies and literature. Some of my favorite movies fall in this category, and I tend to be very lenient toward the genre as a whole when judging individual works. Needless to say, then, I was excited to see The Book of Eli after hearing comments from friends. After having seen it, I'm finding it hard to let my traditional leniency win over my one big gripe, though. If you haven't seen this movie yet and you don't want to have the ending revelation spoiled for you, do not read past this paragraph until after you watch it. Let me assure you, though, the revelation was pretty lame, and I now wish someone had spoiled it for me beforehand so I could have just pretended that wasn't part of the movie.
Admittedly, the movie was pretty brutal in its portrayal of what life would be like in a post-nuclear world. It did have a resonance of truth to it, though, and certainly seemed more authentic a vision than the world of Mad Max. The main character, Eli, is believable enough, despite his unexplained ability to take down a crowd with a sword without suffering so much as a scratch. He's a dead-eye marksman with a firearm and pretty sweet with a bow and arrow as well. These are just 3 reasons why the revelation is so ridiculous. Blind? Really? Come on, folks, you can do better than that.
I appreciate a plot twist as much as the next guy. I remember the "Aha!" moments in The Usual Suspects and Sixth Sense. They left me thinking, "Brilliant! That explains everything!" The Book of Eli, on the other hand, left me thinking, "Hey, you lied to me!" The script tried so hard to disguise his blindness that they actually put in countersigns like those listed above that no blind person in a million years could ever pull off. Only with divine intervention could such feats be possible, but they don't ever give any real indication that he is being guarded and guided by the hand of God. True, he tells the girl that he heard a voice and followed it, but that is as close as we get to any kind of explanation along those lines, and there is nothing in the script to concretely back that up.
The really ridiculous part of it all is that they could have just left out the blind revelation and the movie would have been an entertaining post-apocalyptic movie without it. Instead, they drop this bombshell that is so unbelievable that it spoils the entire movie for me. Had there been some obvious (in hindsight) setup, I might not be so disappointed, but the only real hint I can remember was the scene where he holds the iPod up to his ear and tries to turn it on when the battery is dead. If I watch it again, I'm sure I will spot some other subtle hints, but a revelation like this has to immediately bring to the mind of the viewer a lot of scenes to make it believable.
I appreciate the effort to make an interesting script, but I just can't get behind this movie after feeling lied to. Come on Hollywood, you must have better writers than this?
Admittedly, the movie was pretty brutal in its portrayal of what life would be like in a post-nuclear world. It did have a resonance of truth to it, though, and certainly seemed more authentic a vision than the world of Mad Max. The main character, Eli, is believable enough, despite his unexplained ability to take down a crowd with a sword without suffering so much as a scratch. He's a dead-eye marksman with a firearm and pretty sweet with a bow and arrow as well. These are just 3 reasons why the revelation is so ridiculous. Blind? Really? Come on, folks, you can do better than that.
I appreciate a plot twist as much as the next guy. I remember the "Aha!" moments in The Usual Suspects and Sixth Sense. They left me thinking, "Brilliant! That explains everything!" The Book of Eli, on the other hand, left me thinking, "Hey, you lied to me!" The script tried so hard to disguise his blindness that they actually put in countersigns like those listed above that no blind person in a million years could ever pull off. Only with divine intervention could such feats be possible, but they don't ever give any real indication that he is being guarded and guided by the hand of God. True, he tells the girl that he heard a voice and followed it, but that is as close as we get to any kind of explanation along those lines, and there is nothing in the script to concretely back that up.
The really ridiculous part of it all is that they could have just left out the blind revelation and the movie would have been an entertaining post-apocalyptic movie without it. Instead, they drop this bombshell that is so unbelievable that it spoils the entire movie for me. Had there been some obvious (in hindsight) setup, I might not be so disappointed, but the only real hint I can remember was the scene where he holds the iPod up to his ear and tries to turn it on when the battery is dead. If I watch it again, I'm sure I will spot some other subtle hints, but a revelation like this has to immediately bring to the mind of the viewer a lot of scenes to make it believable.
I appreciate the effort to make an interesting script, but I just can't get behind this movie after feeling lied to. Come on Hollywood, you must have better writers than this?
WWGS?: Baby growing
A call from the womb, perhaps?
Hey Todd, This is baby growing. You did tell me to give you a call because I got a computer problem in you knew you could help me with it. I got your cellphone. I'll call you a little bit later on your cellphone and tell you about it. In case you do wanna call me back. My number is [number withheld] Hey thanks a lot. Bye.
WWGS?: Women bone
Wait, huh? Are you sure they sell that?
... I want to see if I could if you made it to springs of life yet cos i really i don't know if I have enough we. Christy give me Citi quick or C and then I want to see if you could go by sunshine garden to get some women bone for me, so I will try to call you can. Love you bye.
WWGS?: Dudette to your boot screen
It's dudette to my boot screen... sooooo, is that a good thing?
Hi, this is john Calling from the Apple store for Todd about your computer in the computer testing fine right now. It's a it's not exiting any of the symptoms you described so and it path. All of our testing, so I'm gonna get this to be set up to. Ready for Pickup, I rebooted it multiple times and it's dudette to your your boot screen every single time. So all you need to do is come in with your photo I. D to come and get it and if you have any questions number is [number withheld] extension 5. If you have any specific concerns about the computer itself. Please do make another appointment Apple, dot, com slash like side shopping center, okay. Have a great day. Bye bye.
WWGS?: Coming to terrible?
Here's a real doozy from the Google transcription engine. I don't know about you, but I always like "coming to terrible". It's so much fun. :D
Hey James, It's 2:15 and I'm wondering how I get exempted typical images. Let me know that google imagined the pictures that are coming to terrible. So image. If you have any insight. I love you bye.
WWGS?: I'm believes
That's right, I'm believes... to the E Friday straight, yo! Here's another Google transcription classic for your viewing pleasure.
Hey Todd. It's versaLock. I think you said you needed information on your investment account, I think you said you needed a ride at check. I'm believes. Anyhow, let me see if I can get you may be some information on that. I'm not really sure if you want me to leave this on your cellphone, or not, but I'll get it. I'll call you back and I'll leave it so just you know. Keep me posted. Okey dokey. Talk to you later. By the way you have $[censored] in your money market okay. [censored] bucks. Okey dokey that says it the E Friday straight. Okey dokey. Call me if you need me. Bye.
WWGS?: You get the happy
Get the happy, okay, I'm right on it.
Hey Todd, [name withheld] spots almost noon on Tuesday. I've got a computer here at the home is a desktop you machines. He was that you know. Hi week. I don't know 5 years old so it's it was running for me in the ended up getting a new H. P and I will come on now. We will start it was working in Creek. Good luck. Kind of all, could you know West course, but I've got a recovery gaskin in the and and I'm on a through the whole deal. Yeah, so if you could you get the happy give me a call back. I'm going the rose today. I can. I can run it by your house. So whatever, it's not working. I don't make it work and I'm grateful for just a trash up. This will put that in the trash, so. Anyway, give me a call back.
WWGS?
WWGS? Before you will understand the phrase, I must explain. I have been using Google Voice (previously GrandCentral) for a while now and I absolutely love it. It has made my life so much easier. Since I am still stuck with AT&T Wireless at the time of this writing (not for much longer, though), Google Voice is priceless. I have my Google Voice number set to ring my office phone and cellphone during the day, and the home number and cellphone in the evenings. During the day, my cellphone is basically a PDA since I can't get any AT&T reception at all in my office. As long as people call my Google Voice number, though, they will still reach me because I can answer the call on my office phone. Brilliant.
One of the features I like about Google Voice is that it will transcribe every voice mail to text and send it to me by email and SMS. Often, I can glance at this to see what the message was about and avoid having to dial in and listen. I love this.
However, sometimes (perhaps that should be most of the time) the transcription is so far off that it can only be considered comic relief in a busy day. I'm cool with that; I can use a good laugh every now and then in my line of work. Seriously, these transcriptions are often just ridiculous.
This isn't Google's fault, though. Think of what they are stuck working with... a recording that is made through a cheap cellphone mic (most of which are terrible), then sent over pathetic cell signals that often drop bits and pieces of the audio to fit the weak bandwidth, and even with background noise and interference in the mix. Given the poor quality of most voice mail recordings, it is probably a small miracle that Google's transcription engine gets as close as it does. Perhaps as networks improve, this will become more reliable.
Until then, though, we have this section of my site, labeled WWGS for What Would Google Say, where I will post the ones that make me laugh out loud so that you can enjoy the hilarity. I've been saving the good ones to give myself a buffer so I could have enough to keep a consistent schedule of posting at least a few a week. So, if you like these, you'll probably want to subscribe to site changes to get alerts when I post new ones. Enjoy!
Peace,
Todd
One of the features I like about Google Voice is that it will transcribe every voice mail to text and send it to me by email and SMS. Often, I can glance at this to see what the message was about and avoid having to dial in and listen. I love this.
However, sometimes (perhaps that should be most of the time) the transcription is so far off that it can only be considered comic relief in a busy day. I'm cool with that; I can use a good laugh every now and then in my line of work. Seriously, these transcriptions are often just ridiculous.
This isn't Google's fault, though. Think of what they are stuck working with... a recording that is made through a cheap cellphone mic (most of which are terrible), then sent over pathetic cell signals that often drop bits and pieces of the audio to fit the weak bandwidth, and even with background noise and interference in the mix. Given the poor quality of most voice mail recordings, it is probably a small miracle that Google's transcription engine gets as close as it does. Perhaps as networks improve, this will become more reliable.
Until then, though, we have this section of my site, labeled WWGS for What Would Google Say, where I will post the ones that make me laugh out loud so that you can enjoy the hilarity. I've been saving the good ones to give myself a buffer so I could have enough to keep a consistent schedule of posting at least a few a week. So, if you like these, you'll probably want to subscribe to site changes to get alerts when I post new ones. Enjoy!
Peace,
Todd
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