In the articles that accompany this column I’m going to be writing about digital “convergence” and the Windows XP Media Center Edition PC. If you are a Mac user (or not), you may find yourself wondering why there is no Media Center Edition Macintosh. After all, you’ve heard me singing the praises of the Mac as a multimedia platform. You’ve read my glowing reviews of the Mac’s iLife suite of “digital lifestyle” applications. The iPod is selling like hotcakes (somebody email me with where that simile came from). You can stream music from your computer to your stereo with Airport Express. So, why no Media Center Edition Mac?

One possible answer comes from the mind of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. He said of his approach to convergence (and I paraphrase), “When you sit down at the computer, you turn your mind on. When you sit down at the TV, you turn your mind off”.

I know, I know. PBS. Discovery Channel. Home Shopping Network (just kidding). Some people claim they can accomplish meaningful tasks on the computer while watching “Sex and the City” in a tiny window in the corner of their screen. I can’t.

Having watched Apple with interest since 1984, and especially since the “rebirth” of the company upon Steve Jobs’ return, I think Apple does approach the human-computer “relationship” differently. I’m not talking about hardware and operating systems. I’m talking about us, the end users.

I just looked up a current movie show time via the MSN and Hollywood.com web sites. While putting in my zip code and reading the displayed results, I had to visually maneuver around ads for such movie-related things like the U.S. Army, Kleenex (for chick-flicks, I guess), and designer-brand handbags. Why? I can see having ads for the films now playing, or for coming attractions, but Kleenex?

I then looked up a movie show time with Apple’s Sherlock application (an internet information aggregator). I was presented with a list of current movies and times, a brief synopsis, an image of the movie poster, a movie trailer that played automatically, and a link to get directions to the theater.

No advertising (other than the movie information, which I asked for). How refreshing. For next time, ask yourself, “Are you using your computer, or is your computer using you?”

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski