I feel almost the same about Steve Jobs retiring from Apple as I felt when Mayor Richard M. Daley announced he’d had enough. I truly appreciate his many years of service, but I’m happy to see him leave.
I’ve been an “Apple guy” for a long time. I was attracted by its elegant designs and its renegade status as a solidly reliable alternative to the big, bad, clunky, reboot-every-hour Microsoft machines.
My wife and I now own an iMac, two iPods, two iPhones, two iPads (both with Apple wireless keyboards), an Airport Extreme Base Station and two Macbook Air laptops. We have spent serious dollars with Apple over the years.
To say that I have reveled in my all-Mac status would be an understatement. I’ve taken pride in belonging to an “elite” club. We weren’t part of that gigantic herd of sheep trapped in their cheapo, unreliable Bill Gates worlds. And we have style, man. I’ve always enjoyed the gasps of amazement when I pulled my paper-thin, stainless steel laptop out of my briefcase at the Statehouse or a political event.
And I absolutely love looking for new ways to use my iPhone to augment my political coverage for my blog and political newsletter, Capitol Fax.
For instance, I bought a tiny directional microphone that plugs into my iPhone’s headset jack, hugely improving the audio quality of news videos I post at my website.
I even bought an iPhone case that doubles as a sort of camera tripod. I found an Internet program (ScribbleLive) which allows me to easily live-blog with my iPhone when I’m away from my office. And I stumbled across a program, which I haven’t used yet, to allow my iPhone to post live videos on my website.
That little device has allowed me to become a one-man multimedia news network for Illinois politics. I’m doing things now with my iPhone that I could only dream about just a few short years ago.
But lately I’ve felt trapped, and I’ve thought about leaving.
There are still far too many files and programs that I can’t open or run on my iMac. And some of the Apple versions of Microsoft programs aren’t yet up to snuff.
The iPad isn’t really useful to me except as an overpriced news and book reader. I have the MLB Network, so I can watch baseball games for hours on end, but the iPad viewing options are way too limited. Neither the iPad nor the iPhone has nearly enough memory, and Jobs’ longtime hatred of all things Adobe means that flash programs don’t work on the devices. The Safari browsers on both devices leave a lot to be desired, and don’t get me started about AT&T.
Jobs also has the maddening habit of treating what can be accessed on his portable products almost like Thomas Edison once did with his newfangled phonograph. Edison had a monopoly on both his player and the cylinders that contained the music. He personally chose which artists to record. If your musical tastes differed from Tom’s, well, you were out of luck.
Jobs isn’t that bizarre, but he has certainly been a control freak when it comes to the apps that can be sold in his online store.
I hope Tim Cook, who has taken the helm at Apple, won’t bring the same baggage to the company that Jobs did and will open it up to even more innovation. If he doesn’t, I probably will be leaving. I’m just tired of having my choices limited by a benevolent dictator.
Thanks for everything, Steve. Really, I mean it. And I hope you live a long, healthy life. But thanks for retiring, too.
- Ray del Camino - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 9:45 am:
Rich, you could try to retreat to WindowsWorld, but you’d be back . . .
- El Conquistador - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 10:04 am:
Rich - What microphone are you using? I’m looking for something similar. Thanks.
- CircularFiringSquad - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 10:07 am:
So do you get a million free Itunes downloads for the b%*&*&%*&*b?
We guess we should all feel blessed for being able to help you fill your Ibrain with the nonsense that lets you fill your Ibankaccount with millions
We got a headache
Let’s move on to the music
- Nuance - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 10:10 am:
Rich, one of the reasons that the Microsoft platforms can have a higher level of instability is due to them serving a more “open” environment than Apple. From a technical perspective the more closed a platform is the more likely it will be stable but you only get the functionality that is allowed.
I use both and there are certainly trade-offs both ways.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 10:19 am:
El Conquistador, I’m using this one… http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/cee3/
- Anonymous - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 10:32 am:
Microsoft platforms have been really stable lately. Windows 7 is rock solid, especially the x64 version. And Windows Phone 7 looks pretty decent too. When my contract is up, I will likely be getting one.
Any instability usually comes from people installing stuff from websites with flashing pictures.
- Retired Non-Union Guy - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 10:48 am:
Try using Firefox as your browser; they have an OS X version
- El Conquistador - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 10:48 am:
Thanks Rich. I had seen that one but was doubtful of the quality given the price. I’ll give it a try.
- Levois - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 10:54 am:
Nobody likes AT&T. And I also recently bought an iPad and yeah there are limits to what programs can be used it on. the iPad is totally closed and instead of pages & numbers I would rather use MS Word & Excel. Apple needs to open up a little bit. But Jobs certainly has created products that have changed the world!
- Liberty First - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 10:55 am:
Windows is hardly an open media environment. Macs are pricey but worth the value with ease of maintenance and use. The only files you shouldn’t be able to open on the Mac would require the purchase of software for the Windows machine as well.
- Liberty First - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 10:59 am:
Levois, Word and Excel are 100% compatible with the Mac. The mac and windows versions use the same file type for MS Office products.
- Liberty First - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 11:02 am:
To clarify — The ipad is not a Macintosh it is an Apple iPad - it is not intended to replace a laptop. Apple doesn’t prevent Microsoft or anyone from developing software for the iPad. You do have to follow the software standards.
- Cincinnatus - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 11:15 am:
An oddity, I’m a hard core Republican and have been using Macs… since 1984. Hopefully the creative vision brought by Jobs lives on at Apple.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 11:21 am:
Nerds.
- Levois - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 11:25 am:
My understanding is that if I wanted certain applications on the iPad I can only go through Apple’s App store. So perhaps if word and excel is available thru the App store then there should be no problem. If I was dealing with a Mac then i can upload MS Office for Apple OS with no problem at all. Hopefully.
- 3rd Generation Chicago Native - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 11:42 am:
Even though Steve Jobs is retiring, but still chairman of the Board, which will still keep him busy and he will still have input into Apple, I am sure he will be around doing other things, and have more time to focus on them.
Most people have Microsoft/Windows based equipment and programs, because most schools have Microsoft/Windows based equipment/programs due to budgets. So most transition to Windows based equipment and programs from school. Most businesses use Microsoft based equipment/programs due to budgets. It’s all about money and not quality.
Sprint is to get the Iphones in October. I know people with Sprint and having better service than AT&T and of course their unlimited plans may put them in a good position against AT&T. Right now AT&T is pretty pricey compared to Sprint.
You mention the former recent Mayor Daley, but it didn’t take him long to find another position, rather positions, now professor at University of Chicago, and Council in a law firm.
- Lady - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 12:03 pm:
I couldn’t agree more with you Rich. I’m switching back to microsoft. Done with Apple
- Dirt Digger - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 1:28 pm:
I find your description of Apple devotees to not “part of that gigantic herd of sheep” to be highly questionable.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 1:32 pm:
===Try using Firefox as your browser;===
The problem has been that you can’t do multitasking with somebody else’s browser.
- Dirt Digger - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 1:35 pm:
Seriously though the differences between Apple/Microsoft/Google depend completely on what you are looking for. Apple is ahead on music and multimedia; Google is exceptional in cloud productivity (I’ve been using google apps for my work for a year with great results), Microsoft is great for desktop-oriented work.
I wouldn’t say any of them are universally preferable or not. It just depends on what you are looking for.
- Matt - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 1:43 pm:
Awww Rich. This column and your devotion make me sad. I’m a PC guy through and through although I do enjoy my iPhone.
The way I see it? Macs are much more expensive, and you are paying for style, brand, and ease of use. There is no doubt you can get a more powerful PC for several hundred dollars less than a comparable Mac.
The thing is Macs come user ready, and that’s about it. Little room for tweaking or customization.
PCs come as a bloaty inneficient junk filled mess. BUT with an hour or two of the simplest work, all easily found on google, you can tweak and optimize everything to perfection. Now, anything a Mac can do a properly tuned PC can do better, from work to play to visual experience.
And at literally half the price. My laptop was $1000 but would have cost over $2000 if those parts were encased in the pearly white of Mac.
- JimF - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 1:52 pm:
Rich,
When you say no multi-tasking I assume you mean the iPad. Because, on my MacBook I sometimes have Safari, Firefox and Chrome all running together along with Open Office, Evernote, Omni-outliner and one or two more. And they play well together.
- JimF - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 1:55 pm:
It is in the area of phones that I stay away from Apple. I do think the iPhone is a nice device but much prefer the succession of Android devices I have had over the years. I am only concerned that ATT is buying my carrier T-Mobile.
- Brandt Hardin - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 2:58 pm:
Jobs is done but left his mark on every corner of wireless technology. It only leaves us asking who won the war between the two titans of modern computer technology? Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates / Apple vs. Microsoft– check out my rendering of an epic match-up of their cyborg selves on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/08/end-of-era-steve-jobs.html
- Snj - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 3:13 pm:
Heh…no offense but mayor Daley was no Steve Jobs in my book.
- Earnest - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 3:47 pm:
Try Ubuntu or some other Linux distribution before you go back to Windows. Libre Office doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Microsoft Office but it gets the job done. I love the idea of Apple I wouldn’t buy the products because it seems like too much of a closed system.
- Ted - Friday, Aug 26, 11 @ 9:29 pm:
Wow. You took what I thought and put it into comprehensible words. I live and work with an iPhone but my business runs on Windows, unfortunately. Good job crafting the words, Rich.