iPhone, iPod, iMe

Quote of the day:
“All the smiling television faces blend to make a shimmering suit that might hold you.”
--Mary Gaitskill

Quote of the day no. 2:
“This is the next step in not accepting poor design any longer.”
--David Myers, executive chef of Food Arts Group in Los Angeles.

Myers was talking about Apple’s just-announced iPhone, which has caused a surge in Apple’s stock and lots of chatter about the future of cell phone devices and whether Apple will make much of an impact. He is suggesting that the iPhone will make an impact, even if it is only another step in bringing good design into our daily lives.

I have a confession. I am an Apple fanatic. More accurately I would classify myself a bit shy of “fanatic,” but others have suggested I drop the “bit shy” facade and come clean.

For 23 years I was a tried-and-true Windows guy, at home at at various workplaces. But after getting some advice from a software engineer whose judgment I trust, I bought an iBook two years ago. I will never go back.

When I heard the sometimes-irrational rhapsodizing of Apple people for years, I was tempted but very skeptical. I knew that my PC could do all the same things, and was just as good, and cheaper. Yet once I started using the iBook--and all the associated “i’s”: iTunes, iPod, iPhoto, iWork--I began to know what the fanaticism was about.

Simply put, Apple products are designed with actual, living human beings in mind. The goal is not to adapt a machine to be useful to me, but to begin the design process with human DNA, not silicon. It’s a bit like the difference between buying a suit off the rack and having one made in the exact fabric and fit for a real human body.

It’s clear with everything I do--little things as well as big things--that my needs and interests have taken precedence over the machine’s. Here are three “little” things I love. If you’re an Apple user, you may find yourself nodding as you read this.

First, I open the iBook with one hand and it instantaneously wakes up and is ready to use. I close it with one hand and it goes to sleep. Second, all the inputs and outputs are on the left side. Whenever I need to hook something up, I turn my head slightly to the left and slide the connection in with my left hand. Third, the AC adapter is a white square the size of a deck of cards and plugs directly into the wall if you’re fairly close to an outlet. An extension cord is supplied for longer distances. But I rarely use the AC when I’m working, because the battery lasts four hours or more on a charge.

I know I’m already past three things, but the AC adapter also has those little built-in wings that you can fold out to easily wind up your cord. That’s just way cool.

Those of you who are in PC land--maybe you’re stuck there--thanks for reading this far. Some of you might be saying to yourself, well my laptop also has long battery life, or a similar arrangement of inputs/outputs, or whatever. Your manufacturer is likely copying Apple.

Which is the point. It seems that all other computer (and phone and MP3) manufacturers design a device and then add convenience or styling features. My favorite is the attempt to do away with the beige box. Instead, let’s have a grey box, or a titanium box. Let’s put a curvy design on it and maybe a racing stripe.

For Apple, convenience or styling features are not added on. The device itself is a convenience and styling feature. Most computer (and phone) users will continue not to care about this, evidently caring much more about the design of their refrigerator, which they are neither carrying with them nor sitting behind and looking at for hours a day.

Yet there is a small and steadily-growing segment of the population who do care, which means Apple will continue to thrive.

And even though I find cell phones annoying, I will be buying an iPhone.