A long time ago, in a country far, far away, I made a significant investment in Apple hardware. At the time, as a technical illustrator, typographer and editor of an online Apple journal called eZone, it was the required thing to do. It was also an expensive and somewhat risky thing to do. It was 1995, and as far as the world at large was concerned, Apple was in its death-throes - Microsoft had Windows 95 on the boil and a little company called Netscape was threatening to do away with the OS all together. The future of publishing was the CD-ROM and the word 'Google' was a seldom used numeric definition.
But I was young, had a financial backer and was very busy making cool things. Creatively, they were exciting times. My main source of news was Wired magazine and I was young enough to believe the hype.
Several years later all that had changed. It was 2001 and I was working in a completely different (well almost) field - Visual Effects & 3D - which required me to make a near total conversion to the PC & Unix platforms. Apple had totally lost its grip on the design market. It didn't make any sense to pay a premium to use software tools that functioned just as well on 'the other side'. I was finally able to work with the leading software in the field and was no longer suffering from the restrictions of a marginalized platform. My Apple laptop had become a music player in the corner of the studio.
Fast forward to 2007. Apple had bounced back big time and was once again the darling of the technology world, with iMacs, iPods, Intel based hardware and rumors of a super-cool phone on the horizon.
That winter as I was traveling to the USA, the only laptop I had available to me was my trusty Apple 'Wall Street' power-book. It was 8 years old, but the display was as beautiful as the day it was bought and whilst it was a little short on disk space, it was still perfectly suited for business tasks and simple graphics work. It even had wi-fi.
Unfortunately, somewhere on my travels the power supply died. At the suggestion of an old mac-head friend, I visited an Apple store when I arrived in the USA to see if I could find a replacement. Sure they hadn't sold that model for years, but it had been extremely popular in its day and we figured they'd still have a power supply lying around somewhere. I mean, if you bought a car (or even a cooker) from one of the world's leading manufacturers, you'd still be able to get a part 8 years later. right?
Wrong. I was literally laughed out of the shop. The Apple store staff, decked out in white, surrounded by their spaceship inspired silver furnishings and wafer-thin, platinum laptops & iPods treated me with contempt. Of course they couldn't help me! That was the technology of the last century. Was I out of my mind?
I was not happy. Back in the nineties I was an Apple flag waver. When everyone else was getting ready for the reading of the will, I was trying to convince the world that the future was still being invented in Cuppertino. Not only had I spent hard earned cash on their technology, but I'd run a publication that had championed their products. At one time, we were linked on the Apple home page. In my dusty cellars I had at least 3 generations of pre-OSX mac hardware including Apple monitors and screens.
The exact short phrase I used when I left the store can't be written here, but one of the two words was 'Wankers'.
But strangely enough, I didn't become an apple hater, like so many are. Instead, it made me realise that all companies are effectively the same. Microsoft, Apple, Google, Adobe, AutoDesk. They don't care about you. They are only in this for financial gain. You're a fool if you think it's any other way.
Think different? Don't be Evil? Where do you want to go today? Its all BS.
This realization - all be it somewhat late in life - was quite liberating. It gave me the ability to see technology in a very objective manner. Not just in terms of its technical specification, but also with regards to what it is used for and the effect it has on its users, their work and their environment.
That objectivity has allowed me to make more sensible purchases and not get swept along with the hype. Which turned out to be quite useful when I went to live in Japan. Technological mecca. But I survived the experience without succumbing to my inner nerd. Apart from my PS3 console I did not get sucked in to buying more new tech! My iPod touch was purchased second hand, and only when my 6 year old palm pilot passed on to the big newton in the sky.
So that brings us to the present day.
It's April 2010. I've just spent 18 months living in Japan and I'm now on holiday in the USA for a few weeks. The iPad is here. One of the most hyped pieces of technology the world has seen so far. The internet is humming with talk about it, its been on the news, people are either queuing up in the streets for it or spitting venom on those who are. Even people who pre-ordered them had to wait and outside the USA they not even on sale.
I've decided I'm going to get one. I'll explain why in the next post. But I'm going to approach this as objectively as I can and whilst I do it, I'm going to try and chronicle everything.
Here we go, once more into the breach my friends...
NEXT: 02 - Why do I want an iPad?
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