BELLAMYBUDIMAN

An earlier conversation with my Twitter friends earlier today sparked a will in me to write this entry. I think if you ever wondered why a geek like me don’t have this particular interest over BlackBerries, this could answer your curiosity. Please do mind that my opinions here are purely subjective and they contribute to the reason why I use an iPhone.

A Mac User
Well yes, first of all, I’m an avid Mac user, so I needed something that I know truthfully can sync up to my Mac without a hitch. The BlackBerry Desktop Manager was just released recently, and no, that doesn’t give me a slightest consideration on the BlackBerry back there. While syncing the BlackBerry is probably easier for Windows users (I don’t know, and I don’t even care), syncing my contacts, calendar, photos, and music to an iPhone is far more easier.

I Have No Need of BlackBerry Features
If I ever opted for the BlackBerry Bold, then what do I get? A business machine capable of delivering emails right to my fingertips anywhere anytime? Yes. An always-online messenger? Yes. Do I need them? No. Here’s the thing, I’m the kind of guy who likes to keep emails on my desktop computer, and I really hate it when an email forcefully get pushed and delivered to me at that moment when I’m outside the office. It gave me this urge to do other things while at that time, I’m probably occupied with something more important. Even when the iPhone gained itself the Push Notification, I don’t have that huge urge to use it for my emails. I prefer to check them and download them at will.

Second, I don’t chat while I’m outside. When I’m outside, here are the things that I do the most: Driving, meeting with clients, teaching, going out with my girlfriend or friends. I don’t see the necessity of having an always-online messenger there, at least for me. Yes, I occasionally check my Twitter from time to time, but that is when I want to and I don’t necessarily tweet or reply every single time. Besides, if people want to reach me, they can always find me by phone, SMS, or Twitter, if you must. But don’t give me that messaging through BBM is free and easier. Paying IDR 180k each month to even use the service is not exactly “free”. Cheaper maybe, not free.

There Isn’t an App for That on BlackBerry
The iPhone has this huge collection of apps, and I have to admit that some of them are pointless, but I never see any apps on BlackBerry that could aid me with my desktop applications. I use 1Password, Things, ShoveBox, NetNewsWire, and iBank daily on my Mac and I need them to have the same information with the one I carry in my iPhone. Because when I’m outside, my iPhone is the closest thing I have to my iMac. Taking this from a design point-of-view, since I am a designer, I never find the interface design on BlackBerry appealing or intuitive.

No Good Games on a BlackBerry
Okay, this is fairly unimportant for me, but seriously, can you name one game on a BlackBerry that has a comparable experience with the games in an iPhone? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I really don’t think so.

Touchscreen
I like touchscreens. It’s compact, it doesn’t require a stylus, and it lacks the physical hardware that wears over time. Yes, having a physical QWERTY keyboard can be easier for some people, but I have no objections typing on my iPhone’s virtual keyboard. To me, they serve the purpose better than anything similar, be it the Storm, HTC Magic, and don’t get me started with Windows Mobile.

So there we have it, why I don’t use the BlackBerry and why I have no intentions of owning one even until now. So if any of you ever asked me (or even Arleen in this matter), sorry, we’re not going to buy a BlackBerry anytime soon :) Besides, essentially, iPhones and BlackBerries are two different things. They are not comparable, you’d just have to choose which one is the right one for you. As for me, it’s still the iPhone.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-US&#038;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:0bb6a07c-c829-4562-8375-49e6693810c7&#038;showPlaylist=true&#038;from=shared" target="_new" title="Laptop Hunters $1000 – Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion">Video: Laptop Hunters $1000 – Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion</a>

I’m sure that most of you geeks would probably have seen this ad around and performed PC-Mac battles everywhere. Long story short, it’s about Lauren who’s trying to find a sub-$1000 17″ notebook and got herself a dirt-cheap HP Pavilion notebook. The ad definitely showed that Lauren tried to get an Apple notebook at first, but decided not to because their lowest end notebook would be the $999 white MacBook that doesn’t even have a 17″ screen. This concludes the ad to give out this message: Apple’s hardwares are goddamned expensive.

I do have something to say about this matter, and I’m saying this as realistically as possible, without being an Apple fanboy. I believe both companies have their own reasons to build whatever they want to build, I still believe that Windows 7 is going to be the best Windows there is and craps out Vista any day, and I’ve got my own good reasons why I am now an Apple user and stays that way. While I could agree that Apple’s products are generally more expensive at a glance, it tickles me that Microsoft is advertising against Apple not with their own products, but with any notebook that’s definitely not Microsoft’s.

Here’s the deal. Microsoft, just like Apple, is essentially a software company. Microsoft makes Windows, Apple makes Mac OS X. But Apple takes this up a notch by building good-quality products to complement their software and lock their softwares (essentially) to only their hardware. This is probably what Microsoft see as a threat to them. I have no idea why since the ones building PCs for Microsoft is not themselves. If they are worried, don’t you think actual hardware manufacturers like Lenovo, HP, and Dell should’ve been the ones that should worry with Apple’s hardwares?

Apple also did competitor-bashing advertisements with their “Get a Mac” lineup, but instead of bashing Microsoft’s hardware (which does not exist except for accessories like keyboards or mice), they did a good apple-to-apple (no pun intended) comparison by putting OS X and Windows on a head-to-head fight.

So what does this ad really shows? It shows that Microsoft is that desperate to try saving their own ass with the havoc Vista brought upon them, using an apple-to-orange comparison. Microsoft, I hope your ad agency has a real good reason for this, because this is what I think you guys should really do:

1. Fire Ballmer. If you could put someone on par and as competent as Apple’s (or probably any company in this matter) top guys, you might probably come up with something that is actually good. Personally, I wouldn’t want to buy something from a company that selected a primate to talk on keynotes. Convincing? In a mental asylum, perhaps.
2. Why don’t you stop whining and stop trying to convince people that Vista is a good consumer OS. It’s not, and I don’t think it would ever be. So instead of focusing on how to get back on Apple for their Leopard’s victory over you and lurch out pointless ads, why not focus on Windows 7 instead and give what your users really deserve for their money.
3. The least you could do is simplify your OS version lineup. Seriously. Who would fucking care that you have six different versions for Vista alone. Consumers need something simpler to choose from. Or is this just your elaborate marketing scam so that common users would give out cash for more features?
4. If you want to counter Apple’s way of getting into your nerves, then try aiming for their software, because that is exactly what they did in the first place. With this ad, it’s as if you’re telling BMW to build cheap Tata Nanos. Apple has their own market, and no matter what the prices are, people will keep buying their hardware. And they wouldn’t even care if there’s a $200 notebook to compete with their 17″ MacBook Pro.

Some time ago, I got my hopes up with Microsoft when I was trying out Windows 7. Maybe they’ve come to their senses and could bring out a good and useable OS. But seeing what their reaction is like by keeping pointless ads such as this one in production, I think I’d have my doubts back.

On the other hand, are Apple’s products that expensive? If you calculated the features, the craftsmanship, and the software that they are bundled with, I personally think it’s worth the price. Therefore, it’s not really a matter of whether people should push Apple to come up with cheap products, but it’s a matter of whether you want to buy premium products or not. I think everyone has all the rights to position their products on a certain target market.

As a techno-geek, or so I said in my personal website’s About page, I never realized that since I blogged, I never archived my personal history with computers. As far as I remember, this is how computers affected my life.

1986: The Age of XT Personal Computers
This dated way when I was 3 years old, almost 4 in fact, when I was first introduced with the term MS-DOS, piles of 5.25″ floppy disks, and the fact that computers only have puny RAMs. That was the old days. I remembered that back then CPUs are humongous and horizontally placed, with those monochrome monitors on top of them. They also electrocuted me sometimes because the casing was made from pure metal. Softwares was simple at that time, although starting them out was not. Kids nowadays don’t have to struggle with DOS command lines like we did in the old ages.

1992: The Age of AT Personal Computers
I believe it was 1992 when Dad first introduced me to Windows 3.1. And yes, I never had the chance to feel what Windows 1.0 and 2.0 was like. I remembered that I used to have this 33MHz 386DX PC, the box where we played Solitaire, Ski, and Chip’s Challenge for hours.

1995: The Age of Windows
Three years have passed, and Dad bought me a new computer, it was a Pentium 120MHz PC. This was the time when the Start button came into my life, Microsoft Plus! was the hippest thing around, and Desktop Themes are there serving as collectibles. This was also the year I started to use the Internet, and learned HTML from scratch. Back then, Netscape Composer was a divine tool for me.

2000: The Age of Windows Part II
Another five years have passed, and my computer was due for an upgrade. I took a leap from a Pentium machine to a Pentium-III machine, with 600MHz to be spoiled, and a 32MB video card do vigorous (at that time) gaming. Also in this year, I also took the leap from Windows 98, to Windows 2000, to Windows XP.

2001: A Glimpse of the Other Side
I was on the eleventh grade, and I remember that a friend of mine, Jan Knut, was the only living person I know, by the time, who owned a green iMac G3. I can’t remember if his iMac was running OS 8 or 9 by that time, but it wasn’t Windows. It was so refreshing to see a trendsetter in real life.

2002: The Age of Windows Part III
Two years have passed and it was time again for an upgrade. I moved on from a Pentium-III machine to a Pentium-IV machine, but still on a Windows XP. I moved on from a regular CRT monitor to a flat-screen CRT monitor. And I also moved on from a 20GB hard drive to an 80GB. I also had a Toshiba Portege R100, which proves to be more of a burden although it was less than 2 kilos in weight. It was simply slow.

2005: The Dawn of the Mac
Three years have passed and my PC have constantly failed itself on me every 6 months, every 4 months, and eventually every 3 months. 2005 was the time of change for me, a time where I ditched the PC for my first Mac ever. It was my iMac G5, still running healthy, even until now, and I was a real deal Mac user ever since. I remember meeting Bibin in a computer expo, purchasing the computer for USD 1.900. It was not cheap, but it’s worth it.

2006: Mobile Mac
I decided to sell my Portege and convert everything that I use into Macs. This was when I got myself my last generation 12″ iBook G4.

2008: The Mac Age
It is time for another upgrade. After three years, my iMac G5 have served me well, but with the constantly changing technology, it is obviously getting slower with newer softwares. Thus, the 24″ Intel iMac was worth the upgrade, and I’m officially a Leopard user. This was also the year I procured my iPhone.

2009: The Future
What can I predict for my future with computers? One thing for sure is to retire my old PC and replace it with a brand new Mac Mini. I would probably retire my iPhone and get a new iPhone 3G, and if I’m lucky enough, a brand new MacBook by the end of the year, and to try Snow Leopard when it came out. And even though I despise Vista, I am looking forward to try Windows 7. Who knows? Maybe it is better than Vista.