say Mu!

You, dear reader, will quickly find that I can be mercurial in my thoughts from day to day. I’m still lusting over bags and storage solutions of course, but I had a realization today. What the Apple iPad has done to me. I was just grousing about Macs as I pulled out my ThinkPad at work (considering the move from my MacBook Pro as primary laptop to the Lenovo) and how the iPhone is a crummy phone next to my Nexus One and I realized I don’t really like Apple anymore. I thought I could track it back to some nebulous date last summer, maybe when they said no to Google Voice and Google Latitude because it would cut into their relationships with other companies, or it would create competition to anything they might try to bring onto the iPhone. That irritated me, for sure. Maybe it was this November when my wife complained that her 1 yr old iPhone (a xmas present from me last year) didn’t always track right on the touch screen, I thought we could take it in but apparently she perspired on the phone in the right place and its considered a wet phone and thus warranty voided. But isn’t it either.

No, what happened, that day that I flipped over to hear the iPad announcement (yes, I cared enough to even watch the liveblogs) was that I gave up on Apple. The new device, in general, is a big “meh” for me but then how its being positioned makes it an affront to everything I believe in. Closed device, you can’t connect anything to it (unless its Apple approved and goes through their single I/O port) and you have to get any software from the internets or the Apple Store. Those two things irritated me, but then they announced their new Apple book store. Here is what continues to get to me about Apple, they create devices dependant on THEIR stores and their DRM media, you’re not doing much on your iPod without iTunes, you’re not doing much on the iPhone with the App Store, and you won’t read much on the iPad without the iBookStore.

Apple is locking everything around them, forcing you to do everything their way, and its closing down innovation for everyone else. Or rather, if you innovate, do it on your own dime. Do it with your own everything else. They, rather than Microsoft, are turning into the Anti-thesis of Google (whom I probably love too much.) I now have Microsoft AND Apple to fill my mouth with bile at their products. Great… I’m getting old and cranky.

To be fair, I still like my MacBook Pro, it is MUCH better than any Windows based laptop I’ve seen for ease of use and general ease of use. But it breaks, I’ve been through 3 of them in the last 3 years, they over heat, they bog down, they’re far from perfect. To be even more out of character, I’m scared of Chrome OS as it is a new OS that no games will play on and no apps will install on. Maybe in 5 years, maybe 10, we’ll see enough high quality cloud based apps that its exciting but for now I’m likely to stick with Apple for my laptops and Google for my Phones. At least I feel I can trust the Google Phones to move along and the MacBook Pro is as open as I need… for now. *sigh*