I have definitely decided: the iPhone is amazing. The whole "smart phone" concept took a lot of selling for me, because I really just wanted a phone to be, well, a phone. But I didn't have the first clue about how absolutely useful it would to have the rest of the features all in the same device. Keeping organized has never been so easy! Most useful for forgetful me is that little ding going off to let me know about a meeting or appointment (that, of course, I'd forgotten all about). It's my camera, my alarm clock, my calendar, my entertainment (Wurdle, anyone?), my contact manager, my calculator, my email reader (in a pinch), my text messager (usually from family), my iPod (which I use mostly when working out) and yes, my phone. And all of that inside such a tiny device! It does much more besides, but those are the ones I've been using it for. The $30 extra a month was a bitter pill to swallow, but I think over all it has very worth while.And I'm absolutely in love my MacBook again - I upped my RAM the other day (and Cindi's on the iBook). WOW. It needed that. I'm at 4 gigs now, and it is flying - even in Parallels. Why do I have to use Parallels, you ask. Only one reason: Lutheran Service Builder. With the publication of the Mac engine for Libronix, I've migrated both Luther's Works and Concordia over to the Mac side and the program has worked flawlessly for me. If only Builder came in a Mac build! Pr. McCain tells me it would be too costly. Sigh. So for the meantime, I've got Parallels up and running and I've basically been able to leave it on constantly - the speed penalty for having it open is entirely gone now. Sweet indeed!
Okay, enough Geeky nonsense. Except for one final word: Apple, you are amazing!
Amen and amen on both counts. I have an iPhone and a MacBook Pro. I love them both. No one will convince me otherwise. I'm glad to know you are a Mac Man. Enjoy.
ReplyDeleteWhat else could I be? :)
ReplyDeleteAre you Slovak?
I know this runs against everything that it means to be a confessional Lutheran in the modern world, at least as represented by your good self, Pr. Cwirla, Pr. McCain and others, but...
ReplyDeleteI can do all I need to do and what you can do (including your entire list of perks of the admittedly good-looking iPhone)with my Nokia E71, for a fraction of the cost. And while it isn't half as sexy, for a run-of-the-mill computer end user, Ubuntu serves me extremely well. Sexy it ain't in the Apple sense, but I would be loathe to spend the massive premium for what is mostly eye-candy in the Apple family.
Go on, hurl abuse / scorn / pity at me. I'll just say, "Value for money."
Ubuntu serves me extremely well
ReplyDeleteWe're all very happy for you.
Ubuntu serves me extremely well
ReplyDeleteWe're all very happy for you.
Gee, thanks! I'm happy for you, too. ;-)
And don't get me wrong, if you want to donate a MacToaster or iKettle any other beautiful piece of electonics, I will be extremely grateful and, perhaps, even become a convert. But pay for the stuff -- over my bank manager's body!
The only people who think that a Macintosh, compared apple-to-apple, to a truly identical/equivalent piece of PC hardware, is "massively" more expensive, simply, and forgive me here, but they just do not know what they are talking about.
ReplyDeleteI never mind anyone preferring PC to Mac. That's fine, but it does irritate me when the reasons given are based on simple errors of fact.
Does a person pay a "premium" for the Mac OS? Of course! Can you spend hours tinkering around with Linux or Ubuntu or whatever, if you choose? Sure you can. Everyone has to have a hobby.
I would guess that I'm a Mac lover who has been forced by circumstances to use a PC more so than the vast majority of PC users who have used Macs. I'm not objective in my opinons, to be sure, but I come at this with a considerable amount of experience, with a foot in both worlds, for a wide variety of reasons.
The Apple approach to personal computing "fits" with the way I think, communicate, and experience life. The PC never has.
The argument that you get more "value for the money" if you use PC equipment is baloney, sliced very thick. It just isn't true.
Just to clarify I know many PC fans and they seem like very nice people. Nothing personal.
ReplyDelete: )
Pastor MacCain, your point is well made and sounds perfectly fair. Apart from the fact that I don't need to spend time tinkering around with my Ubuntu, my only question would be whether the added beauty of the Mac really is worth the extra pennies, given that most people's computer use stretches little beyond what I can do on my phone: word processing, e-mailing and web browsing. But it's probably not worth arguing over.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, and despite my protestations here and elsewhere, I have to confess that I find Apple fans to be an inspiration.
Whatever the merits and demerits of the arguments, one thing is sure: Apple users are annoyingly evangelistic. Witness this post and comments. They believe that they have found something truly wonderful, and if only everyone else had it, how much happier everyone would be. Nobody is paying them to do it; there is no benefit to them in doing it; it's simply the case of a heart overflowing with the joys of Apple ownership.
Which is precisely the way the Gospel works. It never parks itself in the heart of the believer. Once you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, nobody in their right minds will keep quiet about it while their neigbours are troughing it in the muck on offer from the world, flesh and the devil.
More Christians need to experience the Gospel equivalent of Apple Inc. customer satisfaction, for that is the best chance of a genuine Evangelium Explosion.
Ooh, I feel a blog coming on...
All this Mac vs PC is in good fun, of course. Both are simply tools.
ReplyDeleteIn truth, mine is a mixed house. My wife uses a Dell on Windows; I have used Macs since 1984 and that seminal Super Bowl commercial. I find the Macs seamless integration of functionality and its beautiful design to be worth the money. My Macs have all been long-lived, robust machines and I've always thought that I got my money's worth from them. With few exceptions, Macs are not only well designed, they are well built from good components that are well-speced to run the software.
I think PC users, especially those running Ubuntu, probably have a better understanding of their operating systems and how their software works. I pretty much run my Macs the way I drive my cars. I don't know much about how they work, but I know how to drive them to my desired destination.
I think Mac users tend to be somewhat more dependent on the user interface than PC users are, but that is not without good reason.
A Ford pick-up and a Ferrari Testarosa will both get you from A to B. One will do it in style, the other will also do some work. (See, I can poke fun in the other direction too!)
For a great article, though dated, by Umberto Eco on PC vs Mac, see: http://www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_mac_vs_pc.html