Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Why Apple makes me feel fat



I hate to say this, but after watching the latest Macworld keynote I can't help but feel inadequate at my current state of gadgetry. Don't get me wrong, the state of the union is strong. I love my curve, I love having my mac mini (aka. the batcave) connected to my tv... and god knows i love my black macbook (aka. the batmobile). But you gotta give it to the folks at Cupertino, the macbook air and wireless time capsule product are both sexy and sexy, respectively. And I can't help but feel like my current set up is already tired, wired, and unfashionable. In a word, Apple makes me feel inadequate.

To be sure, the reality distortion field may fade after a couple of days, and each of the new products and features introduced today may aver to only be incremental innovations. But just like the iphone, they are signs of things to come and how functional and yet elegant those things can be.

And it's not just about hardware. After all, most of the components featured in these products previously existed off the shelf (except maybe for that condensed c2d chip?). For example, Sony came out with an ultralite aeons ago that still provokes a Pavlovian response in me whenever I see it. The real innovation in the Macbook Air stems from the integrated multi-touch interface--a direct port from the iphone/touch's user interface.

Like the rest of you inveterate ThinkPad users, I do hate touchpads... but this takes us one step forward to true tactile interaction with your media on your computer. And you are bound to see this in a pc near you, unless Apple patented the $%#%$ out of it, in which case you'll see it, well, in a couple of years. The other innovation? Well there is the fact that you can stuff it in an inter-office mail envelope. Seriously. That's hot.

Anyway, as usual, thank you Pablo... for nothing! Seriously, it isn't bad enough that I catch myself lusting over the new ipods but you gotta bust out the new hotness only 5 months after I bought mine? At least I could sms more than one person at a time... 5 years ago.