Apple Double Fail
I am currently sitting on an MBTA train (because I get to pick up Amber tonight :)) with nothing particular to do, and as some of the MBTA trains now have wifi (like the Dartmouth Coach though a bit slower/less reliable) and (unlike the Dartmouth Coach) they have enough leg and arm room to make using a laptop moderately comfortable (at least when they're not crowded) I might as well do the unthinkable and actually make a post.
Many of my friends (both programmers and those with no special computer interest) use and swear by Macs. I've never had much to do with them until a bit over a year ago. Since I've been working on iPhone applications the last couple summers, I've gotten to know them a little better. And I really have to admit, they do some things really well. But sometimes they just fail. I set out on the Dartmouth Coach this morning with both an iPhone and a Macbook (neither of which I own, both property of work). I had music loaded on neither, but the Dartmouth Coach has pretty good wifi, so I figured I'd just use Pandora. I took the Macbook in preference over my own netbook (an Acer Aspire One) because while it's not as ultraportable as the netbook I had a large backpack and it has a larger screen and better battery life (my biggest regret with the netbook was not springing an extra $50 for the 6-cell battery). My first thought was that I'd listen to Pandora on the iPhone. It's obviously pocket-sized and easy to use. But the Pandora website detects the iPhone Safari version (I'm not sure if there's a way to modify the string sent except by Jailbreaking or programming a custom browsing application) and directs the user to the Pandora iPhone application. On Pandora's part, this is a sound move. The iPhone has a pretty capable UI, but it's not optimal for web-browsing. An actual iPhone app is going to be smoother than running a flash app in mobile Safari. But here's the part where Apple fails. You can't download an Application without an iTunes account (I'm a developer, but I don't use the iPhone for much besides work, I don't generally need to download iPhone apps). But you can't create an iTunes account without giving Apple a credit card number. No that's just silly. I have no interest in giving Apple my credit card information to store in a massive database somewhere. I don't plan on purchasing anything from the iTunes Store (If I'm going to buy digital music I prefer Amaxon). I just want to download a free application. Do they need my credit card for that? Sure, they can do whatever they want, but the fact that they *do* do whatever they want regardless of whether it's reasonable or not is why I'm not too keen on Apple.
So then I listened to Pandora on the Macbook. Which works fine. Except what I really wanted to do was just put it in my bag or at least have it lie closed on my lap. But NO. The Apple Gods decree that you cannot close the lid without the machine going to sleep (at first I felt stupid for a while, I who am used to doing configuration mostly through /etc files was looking through a perfectly reasonable GUI menu not finding what I wanted, but then I googled it). It reminds me of the fact that I also can't turn off the internal display in favour of an external one except by closing the lid. In fairness to Apple I suppose I should mention that the nominal reason for not being able to keep the machine awake with the lid closed is due to the placement of air vents opposite the hinge. Still a royal pain though.
This was a rather pointless entry and came out a bit whinier than I intended. But someone has to be a counter to the Mac fanboys :)
Many of my friends (both programmers and those with no special computer interest) use and swear by Macs. I've never had much to do with them until a bit over a year ago. Since I've been working on iPhone applications the last couple summers, I've gotten to know them a little better. And I really have to admit, they do some things really well. But sometimes they just fail. I set out on the Dartmouth Coach this morning with both an iPhone and a Macbook (neither of which I own, both property of work). I had music loaded on neither, but the Dartmouth Coach has pretty good wifi, so I figured I'd just use Pandora. I took the Macbook in preference over my own netbook (an Acer Aspire One) because while it's not as ultraportable as the netbook I had a large backpack and it has a larger screen and better battery life (my biggest regret with the netbook was not springing an extra $50 for the 6-cell battery). My first thought was that I'd listen to Pandora on the iPhone. It's obviously pocket-sized and easy to use. But the Pandora website detects the iPhone Safari version (I'm not sure if there's a way to modify the string sent except by Jailbreaking or programming a custom browsing application) and directs the user to the Pandora iPhone application. On Pandora's part, this is a sound move. The iPhone has a pretty capable UI, but it's not optimal for web-browsing. An actual iPhone app is going to be smoother than running a flash app in mobile Safari. But here's the part where Apple fails. You can't download an Application without an iTunes account (I'm a developer, but I don't use the iPhone for much besides work, I don't generally need to download iPhone apps). But you can't create an iTunes account without giving Apple a credit card number. No that's just silly. I have no interest in giving Apple my credit card information to store in a massive database somewhere. I don't plan on purchasing anything from the iTunes Store (If I'm going to buy digital music I prefer Amaxon). I just want to download a free application. Do they need my credit card for that? Sure, they can do whatever they want, but the fact that they *do* do whatever they want regardless of whether it's reasonable or not is why I'm not too keen on Apple.
So then I listened to Pandora on the Macbook. Which works fine. Except what I really wanted to do was just put it in my bag or at least have it lie closed on my lap. But NO. The Apple Gods decree that you cannot close the lid without the machine going to sleep (at first I felt stupid for a while, I who am used to doing configuration mostly through /etc files was looking through a perfectly reasonable GUI menu not finding what I wanted, but then I googled it). It reminds me of the fact that I also can't turn off the internal display in favour of an external one except by closing the lid. In fairness to Apple I suppose I should mention that the nominal reason for not being able to keep the machine awake with the lid closed is due to the placement of air vents opposite the hinge. Still a royal pain though.
This was a rather pointless entry and came out a bit whinier than I intended. But someone has to be a counter to the Mac fanboys :)