Last week I began my missive on the “Apple way” of computing by examining the advantages of an integrated hardware and software solution. As I pondered more this week on “why I use a Mac”, I realized that some of the reasons I’m a “Mac head” have very little to do with processors, hard drives, megabytes, or gigahertz. Forgive me for getting a bit “esoteric” and “touchy-feely”, but this time I’m going to try to put you “in touch” with my “warm fuzzy” Mac side.

It all really started the first time I sat in front of a Mac in 1984 and pushed the “On” button. My experience with computers before the Mac was limited to the DOS-based machines in my Air Force fighter squadron, used mostly for weapons calculations and record-keeping. As you probably remember, starting up a DOS computer required a lengthy wait while the machine typed countless lines of gibberish code on the screen, finally resolving into lists (menus) of things you could then accomplish. However, when I booted the Mac for the first time, there appeared this little smiley-face computer icon. Sure, there was “computing” going on behind the smile, but the little guy seemed to say, “Hi there. I’ll be with you in a minute, and we’ll do something together”. On the rare occasion when something went wrong during start-up, the smile turned into a frown, or “Sad Mac”. In either case, there was a “personality” that I connected with.

Fast-forward almost two decades. Gone is the smiley-faced Mac startup icon, but the heart of the little guy lives on in the style and design of Mac hardware and software.

Sometimes it’s the little things. For example, this year Apple brought to market the iSight web camera and accompanying iChat software. Now, there were many webcams before iSight, but almost all were connected via USB (low bandwidth, poor picture), and generally were designed to sit on the desk next to the monitor. This resulted in a “desk’s-eye-view” of the user. The iSight, on the other hand, connects via FireWire (high bandwidth, great picture), and mounts on the monitor at eye-level. So, when you’re video-chatting with another iSight user, you make eye contact - just like real people do when they communicate. In addition, the iChat software gives you a “preview” picture of yourself, so you can see what you look like before you connect (and whether there’s adequate light, or whether your hair is combed, etc). There’s an attention to the human side of computing that I connect with.

Apple’s iPhoto application includes a Photo Book creation feature. You simply select the photos to include, choose from a selection of pre-designed templates or design your own, add text to describe the photo or situation depicted, and click a button. A few days later Grandma and Grandpa have a linen-bound, high-quality photo paper coffee table book.

Finally, there’s iDVD, Apple’s consumer DVD creation tool. iDVD comes loaded with over a dozen professionally-created themes with which to fashion the menu screen that appears at the beginning of each DVD you create. There are plenty of action themes, sport themes, and music video themes with flashy graphics and music. But the really beauty in iDVD is in the moving, emotional images and music of the more family-oriented themes. Again, there’s an attention to and connection with the human end user that makes iDVD a very special application.

Call me a “softy”, but I think that if your computer doesn’t cause you to tear up sometimes (and I don’t mean over the umpteenth crash or pop-up window or virus alert), then you’re using the wrong computer.

© 2003 Peter F. Zimowski