While I did have a (very) brief affair with a Macintosh back in the 90’s, I was never really an Apple fan or fanatic, despite the company’s many innovations and rather, er… obsessed user base. I liked the design of their products and their ad campaigns were amazingly clever and clearly made to grab one’s attention. But for me, most marketing flies in one ear and right out the other because I’m all about the end result of all those billions spent and frankly speaking, prefer products where I as the end user have total control over how I interact with them. When the iPod was released, it baffled me because I knew digital music would never sound as good as vinyl or even the few steps down CD’s did. Nevertheless, people sheeped right on up to the bar and made the player a superb success for Apple, changing the way we bought music probably forever, and for the worse some would say. Why buy an album meant to be heard in its entirety when you could pick and choose songs you like and play them OUT OF ORDER, thus destroying any actual meaning their creators intended? Eh, no big deal, right? It’s ONLY music, right?

And don’t even get me started on not being able to change your own damn batteries… Continue reading →