I’m Too Mac to Go Back… And I’m Okay With That
by Rachael Berkey
This week, the world lost a visionary.
For the last decade, slim laptops cased in shiny colors and fun decals have overrun Starbucks around the world.
We walk the sidewalks, ride the subways and buses and bop along to our own beat through slender wires and earbuds connected to shiny disks of metal only slightly larger than the credit cards we used to purchase them.
Unlike so many bits of geekdom or technology, Apple was embraced by the housewife, the student, the graphic designer and the lawyer, going beyond labels like hipster (though I still get sneers and eye rolls when I gush about my love affair with a consumer product) and nerd. For all the arguments about expense or selling out or not caving to peer pressure to buy a Mac, I am spending this evening – while my Twitter and Tumblr feed explode with Steve Jobs’ memorial on Apple.com – reflecting on the stories I tell when someone asks me, with blatant skepticism, whether they are actually worth the markup.
My answer is always yes.
Thanks to Apple, AppleCare, and the customer-service model Steve Jobs helped build, I got a free computer. In April of the last semester of graduate school, my iBook crashed. I drove two hours to the closest store – and trust me I was swearing in the car – and took her to the Genius Bar.
My hard drive had crashed.
Luckily, having killed two laptops in college, I was a person who regularly backed up my information and I didn’t lose more than a few days of work. Off my laptop went to California to be repaired.
I toiled without her for ten days.
With shining eyes and a grin, I picked her up, all sparkly and healthy almost two weeks later.
Drove two hours home.
Hit the power button.
Nothing.
Got back in the car and drove another two hours, nearly in tears.
It was my last semester of graduate school and I was getting my Masters in literature. I had a lot of writing to do. I rushed back through the store and parked myself at the Genius Bar.
This was before Apple Store folks greeted you and checked you in on the “Super” iPhones at the door.
I was greeted by name: “Oh Rachael, what happened?”
“It won’t turn on.”
The genius took her back to the back room and I waited, biting my nails. Would I ever see my precious computer again? (Yes, I realize it’s a little odd to be so attached to an inanimate object.) When the genius came out almost ten minutes later, she carried not my laptop but a cardboard box with a handle.
In the course of her repairs and travels and car rides, my laptop had gained a healthy hard drive but that did little to fix the dying motherboard she still carried.There was nothing to be done for her.
Apple & the geniuses felt so bad that they gave me a brand new base-model iBook to replace her.
That’s right. BRAND NEW LAPTOP.
Did I mention they had just done a redesign? Because they had.
I opted to shell out $200 and upgrade to the better-than-base model but still. $200 for a brand new laptop.
That’s my first Apple story.
My second is actually a Steve Jobs story and I’m still waiting to see how it plays out.
If you’re a geek like me, or just a bibliophile, you may have read that there is a lawsuit out there about price-fixing and ebooks. I’m not going to summarize all the details here. It’s a big deal, though. And Apple is kind of in the middle. All because Steve Jobs decided to work with publishers to price ebooks with a mind towards the many people who work to put out one piece of literature rather than the bottom line.
To me, Steve Jobs stood up to the big box stores of the internet and said, “Hey, it’s not just the writer who puts out a book. It’s editors and agents and designers and the digital equivalents of typesetters. Selling books at drastic markdowns will drive these companies out of business.”
Obviously, I’m going to get a lot of trolling comments here about how iTunes ruined the music industry. Fine. I don’t care. The music industry is still here but I worry, as a reader and a writer, that the publishing industry would not be as lucky in the same amount of time had Jobs gone the way of others.
For every time I felt a little like Spock when I swiped from screen to screen on my iPhone, I thank you Steve Jobs. You changed the world with metal and plastic and an incredible imagination.
I’ve never been so proud as to say “I’m too Mac to go back.”
Image Credit JMak Tumblr
See more posts from Rachael
10.06.2011 |
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I love Apple products. The first computer we ever had in our home was a Macintosh, one of those clunky beige ones, and I thought it was the coolest thing in the universe. At school, I was forced to use PC’s, but they never made any sense to me. Mac was clear. Mac was precise. Mac was easy to use. Mac eventually became the standard for beauty in technology. Smooth curves, sleek design, just lovely to look at.
We had the iMac G3 (blueberry) and the Powebook G4 (which, despite the fact that I accidentally dropped it so hard that the screen is sort of disconnected from the shell of the computer, still runs perfectly), the G5, the Macbook, and the Macbook Pro. Then there are the iPods, the iPads, and soon enough, the iPhone (my very first next week!) All incredibly reliable machines that, in addition to being so freaking gorgeous, are easy to use.
Steve Jobs and his team always anticipated new ways that consumers would want to use their products. The touch screen. The magical track pad! It all seems so simple now and these products have become commonplace, but they all started with an idea and so many of these ideas came from the Apple crew.
Yes, they are more expensive than the competition, but the products last. They are durable. They don’t get viruses! AppleCare is magical. The folks at the Genius Bar are some of my favorite humans. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone in after my AC insurance has expired and the folks at the store just fixed my computer without charging me. They employ a knowledgeable and ever so patient staff that most retailers can only dream about.
I’ve turned many folks onto Macs with my enthusiasm and incessant badgering, and while some people may believe it’s a popularity (hipster) thing, it’s really just a mark of how much I believe in the product.
I have every confidence that the current Apple team and the ones to come will continue to create beautiful devices that will help the world run a little smoother, but it’s still going to be difficult to watch those keynotes without Steve. I hope he’s at peace and that he knows what an impact he had while he was alive.
Agreed! Great post.
I posted a tribute to Steve Jobs as well more like my mac timeline! http://chicswithaview.com/blog/steve-job-passes-away/
Your post hit home with me: I too was in my last semester of college (undergrad about to graduate with a degree in Graphic Design, a field where you MUST have a computer to be able to work) and my logicboard crapped out on me. It was shipped out for a week and a half, I got it back, and about 1 week later it crapped out again and I basically lost it. The woman behind the Genius Bar was the kindest woman ever & to make a long story short they ended up giving me a free computer, also after a recent redesign. I was speechless.
I was a little late hopping on the Mac train (I got my first Macbook my sophomore year of college), but I only ran into my first problem with it last month after having had it for four years. It only turned out to be a swollen battery, and since I was covered within the five-year warranty (it was too early for the battery to be acting up), I got a free battery shipped in to my local Apple store completely free of charge. Aside from that, I’ve never had any issues with my Mac (as opposed to several with my former PC laptop), and as far as I’m concerned, the old adage is totally true: “Once you go Mac…” Now I just have to start converting the rest of my family to make the official upgrade!
I’ve converted so many people at this point. It’s a little crazy.
Yay for being a converter! There needs to be more of us! I love how you called your computer a “her”. My iBook G3 is still kicking with my younger sister…he just couldn’t quite keep up with the requirements of grad school. Therefore my MacBook Pro came on the scene just 2 months ago and she’ll hopefully be around for years to come also. I’m also too Mac to go back!