I was listening to the latest Feedburner podcast today and found that a comment by one of the Feedburner vice presidents struck a chord. He was saying how he was continually having to explain things such as feeds and even what a subscriber is. He went on to say that if fairly tech-savvy people found things difficult to grasp, how much harder must it be for the rest of the population, who may never heard of podcasts, let alone RSS feeds.
It got me thinking about the challenge of getting to grips with the complexity of the the things we handle in our everyday lives. I'm currently surrounded by idiot's guides to blogging, video editing, Photoshop and a stack of other things. I've just about figured out my new Sony Ericsson K800i phone. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy learning new things - blogging, producing a video - but I can see why people find it all intimidating, when a mobile phone instruction manual runs to a hundred pages. And that is just one device. No wonder we barely touch the potential of all our gadgets and applications.
The other challenge is working out how to put things right when it all goes pear shaped. Cutting edge technology is wonderful when it works, but leaves us frustrated and stressed when it throws a wobbly. As Microsoft Windows is prone to. It leaves me asking the big question is: should I consider a Mac for my next computer, or will Vista prove at last that Windows can be reliable?
Yes, you should consider a Mac. The new Macs come with a whole suite of integrated software (iLife 6), which is especially targeted to people who want to work with multimedia (photos, music creation and management, video, dvd). I also use Microsoft Office for Mac on mine and it is compatible with the PC version.
You'll almost never need to worry about installing drivers to get things working. No worry about a virus affecting your Mac or spying on your online banking.
With a new Mac you get a beautiful, fun and useful computer which can also run Windows XP or Vista.
There really is no reason to buy a PC, since with Macs you can now get the best of worlds (Linux, Mac OS, Windows operating systems), whereas a PC can not run Mac OS.
The old argument that a Mac is expensive is not true. If you compare the same technical specifications at DELL, you'll find the Mac is cheaper. Only bare bones PCs (or heavily discounted PCs) remain cheaper, but you pay for what you get.
There is a great Mac online community which will help you answer any question you may have.
(The K800i works fine together with a Mac.)
Posted by: swissfondue | October 30, 2006 at 02:33 PM
Thanks, swissfondue, for your thoughts. I'll certainly give a Mac serious consideration.
Posted by: Rob Skinner | October 30, 2006 at 08:11 PM