Entries Tagged 'Questions' ↓

by Elliot Vos

With less than twenty-four hours before the launch of iPhone 3G, the hype is out of control. Lines are forming, Twitter is abuzz, the big three tech columnists have reviewed it, and bloggers can’t stop writing about it. The level of hysteria about this product which promises “Phone, iPod, and Internet in one fast 3G device” is intense. I’ve got my game plan down for tomorrow, and if all goes well, I will be a proud owner of another Apple product by the end of the day. And I am definitely pumped for it all; I’m eating up all of the hype.

Why all of this obsession over a phone? Continue reading →

By Elliot Vos

Mac fan(atic)s get slammed all the time for their nigh-unwavering devotion to Apple and Steve Jobs. Many of them even embrace (more or less jokingly) the accusations they receive of treating Steve Jobs as a deity. I could go into all of the reasons for this, but I am afraid that I would quickly start rationalizing and becoming defensive, as I have been accused of being a “Mac Fanboy” myself.

I chuckle, then, but usually try to restrain myself from pointing my finger back at the “fanboys” of other products or companies. They may be more or less obnoxious (usually depending on how little or much you agree with them), and they may not place a single person on a pedestal like people do with Apple’s CEO, but there are people out there who are as devoted to Microsoft, Google or some brand of Linux as many Mac fanboys are to Apple. You know you’ve seen them. You may have unsuccessfully tried to reason with them. Chances are quite likely that some of you are even becoming defensive right now, constructing “At least I don’t…” rationalizations in your mind to post in the comments. But before you get too up-in-arms, I am not here to blast anyone for irrational fanboy-ism.

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By Elliot Vos

A bit over a month ago now, I read an article in my school’s weekly magazine which questioned how Apple, Inc. could be rapidly increasing its market share in computers in the college sector. The author cited how many Macs he saw on campus, and then pondered whether these students and faculty “really understand the implications of switching to a Mac.”

I read on to see what the author thought these “implications” were. I was slightly ashamed of my school’s publication when I discovered that the author had researched the situation rather shallowly. Instead of gathering opinions from Mac users about why they chose to purchase their machines, he simply stated a few of the prevalent gripes from Windows users that had not spent much time (if any) in front of a Mac –there is not much software available for Mac, you are not allowed to install OS X on a non-Apple computer, and a PC with an equivalent configuration is much cheaper. Benefits mentioned were limited to OS X’s UNIX foundation, fewer viruses, and the ability to run Windows if so desired.

I could write an entire article rebutting every point, but I won’t belabor a topic that has been discussed ad nauseam on the Internet already. There were a couple of other things which bothered me, though, which I will discuss.

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