Friday, October 22, 2010

What the point is about High Quality






What the Pundits Are Missing About New MacBook Air, TMO article.

I think the article says it well. The new MacBook Air, even the delightful 11-inch model, is not a netbook, despite the highly compact size. It is not, because it's not poorly built with substandard materials, and with under-sized keyboard and screen and a slow processor, which is what netbooks are.

By the way, our token critic, the lonely-wolf-crying-in-the-night, "Anonymous" or "Josie" as we sometimes endearingly call him/her, has more than once made fun of me for being excited about excellent hardware, not the least Apple's. He compares it to sexual excitement, which I guess is intended to downgrade the experience to something vaguely sordid.

Well, if he thinks sexual excitement is sordid, that's okay with me. And if he thinks that getting highly interested and excited about fine products is... I don't even know what he is hinting at... somehow wrong... then he is free to think so. I am proud to be associated with a group who cares about good tools, tools which make work and play a pleasure, rather than a constant battle with software updates and patches and conflicts and obscure files. I love products which lets you be productive four minutes after you start opening the box, instead of making you spend all Christmas day trying to whip the system into shape and do what you want.

I love and care about not only fine tools and machines, but all products of extraordinary quality, not just from Apple, but any company. Take for example the lenses and cameras made by Pentax, or the chairs made by Herman Miller, or the bags/cases made by Waterfield Designs. They clearly care about making the best products they possibly can, they care about giving their customers a superior experience every time they use their product. This is what makes the world bearable to live in. I would hate to live in a world where everybody was only competing only on price, so every product you could find was shoddy and ugly and unreliable. But I love that we have a world where in almost any field we can find the exception, something which is made with thought and care. Sure, they often cost a bit more, but they give better and longer-lasting joy.

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