Felice told me she wanted an iMac.<\/p>\n
She went to the Apple Store to exchange her sound ring.\u00c2\u00a0 No, that’s not what
they call it.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s an ON STAGE!\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s round, it looks like a donut, I
call it a sound ring.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a portable speaker system for your iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you have
one of these?\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t, you’ve got to get one.\u00c2\u00a0 Makes travel SO
different.\u00c2\u00a0 You get into your room, you set up your system, you plug in your iPod
and suddenly YOU’RE HOME!\u00c2\u00a0 Your music is WITH YOU!\u00c2\u00a0 Now I recommend the
aforementioned JBL On Stage.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you want to run your speakers on batteries you’ve got to get an Altec Lansing inMotion.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if you’re rich, and you just want
portable sound in your house, you don’t want to travel with your speakers, buy
the Bose SoundDock.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the best-sounding of them all.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s the
biggest, and the most expensive.<\/p>\n
Now we’ve taken Felice’s On Stage to Vail, but she uses it a lot at home.\u00c2\u00a0
When she takes a shower.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, she mostly keeps it hooked up to her
PowerBook.\u00c2\u00a0 To provide better sound than that which emanates from the aluminum
notebook.<\/p>\n
But suddenly, the thing crapped out.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is how Felice found herself back
at the Apple Store.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s when she got a glimpse of the iMac and decided
I WANT ONE OF THOSE!<\/p>\n
I couldn’t completely understand it.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought her PowerBook was enough.\u00c2\u00a0
Did she really just want the iMac so she could send her PowerBook in for a
screen replacement, not wanting to be computer-less?\u00c2\u00a0 The PowerBook had COME with white spots, a legendary problem two years ago, which Apple makes good on, but she never returned it…not wanting to be disconnected from cyberspace.<\/p>\n
But then Felice dropped it.\u00c2\u00a0 I thought it was a whim.\u00c2\u00a0 A passing fancy.<\/p>\n
Then I read this:<\/p>\n
The Best Gizmo You Don’t Have<\/a><\/p>\n I’d been wanting to get an iSight.\u00c2\u00a0 The only problem was WHO WAS I GOING TO But then her sister went to Japan.\u00c2\u00a0 With her brother-in-law, who’s GOT an And Felice remembered me telling her about the NEW iMac, the one with the Wow, I can’t move that fast on taking a shit.\u00c2\u00a0 I was impressed.\u00c2\u00a0 And a little Then we went to Stephen’s.\u00c2\u00a0 Stephen realized he had to look hip in the Have you fucked with the video iPod?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like journeying into the future.\u00c2\u00a0 And when you listen to the Nano…\u00c2\u00a0 Not only is it deliciously small, it But Stephen couldn’t get his iSight cameras to talk to each other.\u00c2\u00a0 He wanted And it was then that we told him Felice was buying a new iMac.\u00c2\u00a0 With an But then Felice told Stephen she’d ordered a 17.<\/p>\n Stephen kicked back and said that was ridiculous.\u00c2\u00a0 That you needed the 20.<\/p>\n But REBECCA had said to get the 17.\u00c2\u00a0 Granted, Rebecca is twelve, but she had On the way home Felice quizzed me.\u00c2\u00a0 What did I think.<\/p>\n And I told her the rule of thumb was to buy as much screen real estate as you And Felice was convinced.\u00c2\u00a0 She called the Apple Store.\u00c2\u00a0 Told them she wanted MEANWHILE, Stephen is freaking out.\u00c2\u00a0 I informed him that his Nano and video So HE decided to buy an iMac.\u00c2\u00a0 He called me every day about it.<\/p>\n But a person at the store convinced him to go with a loaded Mac Mini.\u00c2\u00a0 Which Then AMY lost her iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 And ordered a video iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 When I told her it That’s Apple for you.\u00c2\u00a0 The company that eliminated the floppy.\u00c2\u00a0 That went all Turns out you can buy a USB 2.0 PCMCIA card.\u00c2\u00a0 Which Amy can slide into the Confused yet?<\/p>\n Well, you shouldn’t be too confused.\u00c2\u00a0 Last Friday the phone rang at the ANYWAY, the Apple Store called.\u00c2\u00a0 Felice’s iMac was in.<\/p>\n I met her in Century City.\u00c2\u00a0 Told her to upgrade the RAM.\u00c2\u00a0 To at least a gig.\u00c2\u00a0 She popped for AppleCare.\u00c2\u00a0 And got the free all-in-one from Epson.\u00c2\u00a0 And And then I powered off to the Saab dealer.\u00c2\u00a0 To pick up my car.<\/p>\n But that night, even though she said she was going to wait for me to set the My mind is reeling.\u00c2\u00a0 I spent all weekend in front of Felice’s computer.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s First and foremost, it’s fast.<\/p>\n No, first and foremost, you’ve got to see the SCREEN!\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no scrolling Turns out Felice installed Microsoft Office by herself.<\/p>\n I HATE Microsoft.\u00c2\u00a0 I prefer MacMail to Entourage.\u00c2\u00a0 Since it’s But there is one cool feature of Entourage.\u00c2\u00a0 In the corner of the screen, and I upgraded all the software.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is just a matter of repairing permissions Then I loaded RealPlayer and Windows Media Player.\u00c2\u00a0 Flash and ShockWave come Then I put a FireWire cable between Felice’s PowerBook and the iMac, and Then…<\/p>\n Like I said.\u00c2\u00a0 I couldn’t get away from the machine.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, at first it seems so I’m checking everything out.\u00c2\u00a0 And late last night, I picked up the remote If this doesn’t sell you…<\/p>\n Oh, it’s intuitive.\u00c2\u00a0 The controls are similar to an iPod’s.\u00c2\u00a0 You push Menu, In LARGE letters, the kind you can see across the room, I was presented with I’m starting to realize, this is not coming through.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not translating.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean I watched Steve Jobs demonstrate all this shit, but until I used it, I Fuck with it in the store, you STILL won’t get it.<\/p>\n But when it’s in your house.\u00c2\u00a0 And you’re holding the remote control.\u00c2\u00a0 And it I’m gonna buy one of the new Power Macs.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m a little pissed the screen I feel like I’ve been living in the dark ages.<\/p>\n Video conferencing is here TODAY!\u00c2\u00a0 For FREE!<\/p>\n Well, you’ve got to get the hardware.<\/p>\n I’m going to the Apple Store to buy my iSight.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s your AIM name again?<\/p>\n P.S.\u00c2\u00a0 The most fun was shooting pictures with the built-in camera.\u00c2\u00a0 In case http:\/\/www.apple.com\/imac\/<\/a><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.apple.com\/imac\/frontrow.html<\/a><\/p>\n
TALK TO?\u00c2\u00a0 After reading this I immediately e-mailed Felice and told her we
should pop for these.\u00c2\u00a0 But she wasn’t too excited.\u00c2\u00a0 She didn’t quite get it.<\/p>\n
iSight.<\/p>\n
iSight camera built in.\u00c2\u00a0 She left me a message saying she’d ORDERED IT!<\/p>\n
depressed.\u00c2\u00a0 Why didn’t she call me first?\u00c2\u00a0 So I could tell her how to
customize it?<\/p>\n
studio.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d gone to the Apple Store and purchased a Nano AND a video iPod.<\/p>\n
When you see the little movie come up, you’re mesmerized.\u00c2\u00a0 Like you’re at the
New York World’s Fair.<\/p>\n
sounds FANTASTIC!<\/p>\n
help.<\/p>\n
iSight camera BUILT-IN!<\/p>\n
a point, the dimensions are better.\u00c2\u00a0 But Stephen wasn’t buying it, you HAD to
get the bigger screen.<\/p>\n
could afford.\u00c2\u00a0 With a 20" screen you could work on two pages side by side,
two programs at once, you wouldn’t need to cycle through windows.<\/p>\n
a 20.\u00c2\u00a0 But they had no 20’s.\u00c2\u00a0 They’d just received her 17.\u00c2\u00a0 She was going to
have to wait.<\/p>\n
iPod were not FireWire-compatible.\u00c2\u00a0 And that they wouldn’t work with EITHER of
the machines in his house.<\/p>\n
I told him had a G4 chip, but he already had the keyboard, mouse and flat
panel, he could save a thousand dollars.<\/p>\n
wouldn’t work with HER computer she threatened to sell her Apple stock.<\/p>\n
USB.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t make backward-compatible machines, they just JET into the
future.\u00c2\u00a0 Frustrating you, because you’ve got to buy ALL NEW PRODUCTS!<\/p>\n
slot of her PowerBook, solving the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 But Stephen can’t do this, because
his TWELVE INCH PowerBook HAS no slot.<\/p>\n
shrink.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is not supposed to happen, he’s supposed to turn the ringers down
when I’m there.\u00c2\u00a0 And when he looked at his phone, I turned my head too.\u00c2\u00a0 And
that’s when I saw it.\u00c2\u00a0 His brand new iBook.\u00c2\u00a0 He’d gotten it a couple of weeks
back, but I hadn’t noticed it.\u00c2\u00a0 Used to seeing the Dell there, I’d stopped
looking.\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out he LOVES it.\u00c2\u00a0 And had just updated to 10.4.3 THAT DAY!\u00c2\u00a0 You see
it’s not that difficult.\u00c2\u00a0 And I showed him how to repair permissions, burning
five minutes of my own time, but you’ve got to take time out for religion.<\/p>\n
She went for a gig and a half.<\/p>\n
picked up the discounted version of Microsoft Office 2004.\u00c2\u00a0 And got ten percent off
on the whole deal.\u00c2\u00a0 As a result of her job.<\/p>\n
thing up, in my inBox was an e-mail, with the title "I Love You!", and a
picture of Felice in front of her computer.\u00c2\u00a0 Taken with Photo Booth.<\/p>\n
tough to come back to my old Mac.<\/p>\n
to see webpages.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re ALL THERE!\u00c2\u00a0 Zinio, which delivers magazine
subscriptions to your computer?\u00c2\u00a0 It works on a 20" iMac, you can see BOTH PAGES, SIDE BY SIDE!<\/p>\n
Spotlight-compliant and I can find any word in any e-mail INSTANTLY!<\/p>\n
Felice’s screen is big enough, is a tiny little window, that gives a preview
of each e-mail that comes in, when it comes in.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean THAT’S COOL!<\/p>\n
(power users do this), launching Software Update, then repairing permissions
again (once again, learn from power users).<\/p>\n
pre-installed.<\/p>\n
transferred first all her music, then all her files.\u00c2\u00a0 That might have taken,
fifteen minutes?<\/p>\n
BIG, then you look at the 15" PowerBook next to it and it seems SO SMALL!<\/p>\n
control.<\/p>\n
and then four options appear on the screen, and you scroll through Music,
Movies, Photos and DVDs.\u00c2\u00a0 I clicked on Music.<\/p>\n
easily-navigable menu choices.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean I’m sitting there with the remote
control, I go through menus akin to the iPod, and suddenly we’re listening to the
Association.\u00c2\u00a0 Which I could fast-forward through.\u00c2\u00a0 And when I used the remote
to go to Movies, the music still played.\u00c2\u00a0 It only stopped when I selected a
movie trailer.<\/p>\n
It’s another case of HAVING TO BE THERE!<\/p>\n
didn’t GET IT!<\/p>\n
all works seamlessly.\u00c2\u00a0 You get a shiteating grin on your face a mile wide.<\/p>\n
won’t have a built-in camera, not because I can’t afford to buy a separate unit,
but because I know in MONTHS, the screens WILL!<\/p>\n
you haven’t seen the demo, you click on Photo Booth, click to shoot, there’s a
countdown, the screen goes white, shining light on your face, and VOILA, a
picture is taken.\u00c2\u00a0 THEN, you can use Preview or a host of other programs to fuck
with the pictures.\u00c2\u00a0 Instantly creating all those effects pros employ in
magazines.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, some of the special effects are built right into Photo Booth!\u00c2\u00a0 I
mean talk about making it easy.\u00c2\u00a0 Are you still using a Windows machine?<\/p>\n