The Apple leap of faith

My first brush with an Apple product was way back in the early nineties when my father bought a Macintosh PowerBook 100 as his first laptop. The most enduring memory of it is that of me, my brother, sister and parents playing the laptop equivalent of Wheel of Fortune, called Phrase Craze. Spinning wheels and guessing alphabets to form words, it couldn't get simpler than that. Then there was a game which involved skinny people parachuting onto a hay stack or something of that sorts if I can vaguely remember.

But the Apple experience ended there as our first desktop at home in the mid-nineties was a Windows 95 PC which also had DOS. That introduced me to the legendary game called Allan Borders Cricket. Ah bless the creators of that game. My interaction with the PowerBook was only restricted to the games on it and also I did not know enough about computers to ever be able to pass on a judgement about a Mac vs a PC.

Fast forward to 2005 and I am looking to buy my first mp3 player. A flatmate of mine from the year before had been gifted what was the first generation iPod and could never stop raving about it. By the time I came to buying a music player, the iPod had already turned Apple's sagging fortunes around and was pretty much the rage. At that point, for a reason I cannot fathom now, I decided to buy an iRiver H10. I had decided to go deliberately against the flow and not buy an Apple iPod. I dont regret it but going back I may not have done the same again. It served me pretty well but than I outgrew the limitations of the iRiver. The biggest one being when transferring music onto it. Windows Media Player, like most Microsoft softwares, was a bitch to work with.

Time came for an upgrade and by this time it was time to go for an iPod. I chose the Touch, the first generation one as it was around 2007 that I got it. It was the first touch screen technology product I came across and it was an absolute treat to use. I have come across touch screen products from HTC, Dopod and Samsung, but none of them even comes near the ease of use of the Apple touch screen iPhone and iPod Touch. Also I would choose iTunes over WMP any day to manage my music.

Cut to 4 months back and I was growing sick and tired of Microsoft Windows in all forms (98, XP & Vista). I wanted out! The only good thing to come out of it was MS Office. The amount of times I have had to format my laptop and desktop is simply ridiculous. It sometimes begs belief how Microsoft can design a product which can be so easily hacked and screwed with by some geeks intent on raising hell. The errors, virus and security related problems had got the better of me. The only reason that kept me away from getting a Mac laptop was the fear of the unknown. How would I ever get used to another OS after using Windows for half my life!

But enough was enough and I decided to get a 13.3 inch MacBook a few weeks back. Exploring the flagship Apple store in London was like being a child in a candyshop. Around £900 later and I will never regret it. Today all I require from a PC to do for me is play music, movies, surf internet and process documents. And the Mac does that much more faster and sleeker than a Windows could ever imagine to. Pictures simply look better on a Mac. The iWorks 09 claims to look after the documents processing by offering compatabiliy with MS Office on Windows. That aspect is yet to be explored and tested. Even the way a MacBook is packaged only increases the excitement as to see what lies inside.


All said and done most Apple products out there simply offer superior design, feel, ergonomics, user interface, experience, satisfaction and a sense of style in everything they do. And you know what, the transition to the Mac only requires a few sessions and maybe a few tutorials on their website.

P.S. - My first post from a Mac!!