Apple it has been a whole year now

It was a year ago last June when I ordered my last Apple computer.  The post I wrote about it, The Genius of Apple, clearly showed how enthralled I was with Apple technology.

I went on to have some trouble with the MacBook and wrote the post, The Revenge of Steve Jobs.  I eventually sent the MacBook back for repairs.  When it came back, I upgraded the memory, and it has remained relatively bullet proof.

In fact I wrote a post, Surviving, maybe even thriving with my Mac, which was about my success at using a Mac while I work at becoming a Realtor® on North Carolina's Southern Outer Banks.

Now I will admit to using either my Dell or one of the Dells at the office to access Carteret County's GIS System which requires Internet Explorer.  Of course the people in our office will tell you that the GIS system doesn't work very well even on Windows.  I also have to print my real estate forms using Windows.

Considering how slow the real estate business is these days, I do not have to worry about that very much.

I have not seen an Apple product which has really excited me since I bought my MacBook.  I would eventually like to replace my dual G5 which I bought in December 2004, but I am in no rush and Apple's desktops are still a little pricey for my taste, and I don't like the current iMacs.

I have not seen an iPhone.  We live a little on the edge of the technology world.  Still I doubt that I am going to get very excited about an iPhone since cell phone reception is already pretty bad at my house with my Cingular account.  I have to walk to the front of our house to get a cell phone call.  I might like the technology that lets me use my wireless as a backup connection for my cell phone.

If the iPhone were a better camera, I might get excited but for now my current camera and phone combo will do.  I don't need just a basic camera for the photography that I do. I spent a long time finding a good camera for real estate.

I am wondering it the next release of the OS will be the point where I buy a new computer, but I have not seen anything to make me want to move to Leopard.

I have all the applications that I need.  I am still happily using my old version of Photoshop since I do not want to pay the steep tariff for a new copy of the Intel version.

Rapid Weaver has turned out to be a great way of doing Podcasts.

I am kind of a lost at what I need in new technology.  All my printers are working well.  None of my computers have died and that includes my two Dells.  I even managed to get my Epson 4000 that I use for big prints going again.

There is actually more technology out there now than I can use, and I use a lot from Typepad to Google Analytics. Maybe we're headed for a web driven world.

I wonder if I am becoming someone who is burnt out on technology or if technology just hasn't served up anything that I need or which can make a meaningful difference in the way I work. 

All the fancy ways to find files have been of little use to me.  They certainly haven't changed the way that I work. Our office still has to generate a ton of paper.

Video iChats have turned out to be a non-starter and web driven blogging software has become the desktop publishing tool of this decade.  I can pretty well put up whatever pictures and text that I want, no matter what kind of computer I use.

I would argue that photo manipulation is still easier on a Mac, but my argument would not have a lot of validity since I haven't tried Vista.

Even making movie DVDs has turned out to be something that I can do relatively easily with my current Macs.  Yet it is something I don't need to do very often. 

I recently did a trial movie of home that I have listed, but I doubt that is going to be the trick that pulls the real estate buyers out of the woodwork.

It ended up being fairly easy.  I have to go over and do some new video to get rid of some of the background noise, but I don't need a new computer to do that.

I might get interested in a new HD movie camera well before I get interested in a new computer.

Maybe I am completely wrong and just as isolated in my technology deprived world as I made Steve Jobs in my  Steve's Nightmare site,  but I am sitting on the sidelines waiting to be wowed as I once was when I first saw Steve draw a circle on the original Mac with a mouse.

When I took a stop watch to address labels printing for the first time on my Epson MX-80 hooked to an Apple II+, that was an advance.  Now people want us to hand address cards because it might give them more of a chance of being read before being trashed.  We're going backwards. Has technology become counter-productive?

We can now generate so much paper that people have to go back to handwriting stuff to get it considered?

We have seen the enemy, it is us and our computers.

I can remember my first computer generated newsletter taking a matter of hours compared to days.  It saved me a tremendous amount of time.

I guess I am waiting for the next revolution.  Maybe it is the iPhone to some people, but I think that wave has missed me.

Maybe I am just a recovering Apple technology addict.  Then again maybe I have moved on to the web and I do not need a particular computer or more technology as much as I did in the past.

The real check point will be if I can resist Leopard or if I come up with a thinly veiled reason for buying it.

Steve, I have been rooting for you, wow me with a new iPhoto or something.

Comments

[David H Dennis]

I would think that for a real estate agent the ability to check out new listings and other stuff on the web during those boring, often customer-free open houses would be of value. (I was last involved in real estate during relative boom times but I still remember agents sitting in open houses for hours without many visitors).

The iPhone, of course, does that better than any other device on the planet.

I'm sure I'll keep on buying new Apple computers and the like but I do understand what you mean - most people barely begin to scratch the surface of the potential of what they already have.

The iPhone looks like it might be a much-needed distraction for most people who have a few extra bucks and the desire to check out something new. If I were you, I'd probably take a look.

D

[Robert]

I'm planning on a new Mac myself ... after 6+ years! Don't worry about keeping up by getting a new Mac so soon. I would think that next year you'll see more technology packaged with the next generation Intel processors at 45 nm. The next suite of software updates may also have some features of interest. Remember, the resale value will hold very well for 3 years. That will ease the price issue.

[ocracokewaves]

Interestingly, open houses seem to have fallen into disfavor. People spend more time doing virtual tours than do open houses.

http://coastalnc.org/126whiteheronlane/View_Tour

I can only remember three open houses done in our office in the last six months, and I wasn't involved in either of them.

I did go to one a couple of months ago with my wife. The agent was asleep in a chair. I saw the whole house before she woke up when my wife opened a cabinet.

In two of the three open houses that our office did, both of which were spec houses, wireless internet connectivity was available so the agents took their laptops.

I am sure I will look at the iPhone, but I doubt I will be interested until a few of the bugs are gone.

[mo]

it seems you are new to the macworld.

most apple owners don't buy new computers every year, like those who own windows machines...so get used to it.

and why don't you try using bootcamp on your macbook, i think it would handle internet explorer and your print issues.

the problem with being a mac owner is that you eventually get used to using great software, if you want to wow yourself go try to use whatever movie making software came on that dell, then sit down and use imovie... or the same with iphoto.

[ocracokewaves]

Actually I worked for Apple for nearly twenty years and before that sold Apple products so I was used to getting new technology each year.

With a computing stable of three Apple desktops and two laptops along with a Dell desktop and laptop, it seemed like we were replacing a computer each year.

This is the first year that hasn't happened.

As to bootcamp. I haven't tried it but I have plenty of experience on dual boot situations with Linux and Windows and Linux and Mac.

It's much easier just to switch to another machine.

If Apple would get serious and negotiate an OEM Windows license, I would use Parallels product more frequently but I doubt that is going to happen.