Not that I mind. I've made known my feelings on the cult of Apple and how much I DON'T want to be apart of it.
That's not to say that I have never been tempted but at every point when my resistance grows weak, other manufacturers come up with a product that make me forget the allure of any and all Apple products.
I really don't get my disdain for Apple. It's not like I don't like the stuff they come up with. They're very innovative and very good. I guess it stems from my own personal feelings of not wanting to be told that you're in with the cool set if you go Mac or own an iPod/iTouch/iPhone/iPad. I don't particularly know what that says about me but it seems like I don't want to be cool, LOL.
Anyways, I wasn't succumbing to the siren calls of the iPhone (I'm looking into an android phone as my next mobile purchase) nor the iPad, which I've played with cos my bandwagon-y sister owns one (I was totally prepared to go the opposite direcion and get the HP Slate before HP shelved the concept) but was about to seriously invest in a Macbook.
I had just read a news article that talked about Google HQ banning Windows OS due to the hacking debacle a coupla weeks ago and it finally spurred me into really giving a thought to switching my personal OS. Let's face it, as much as Mac wants to get us all onboard, the OS market is still predominantly Windows as is my entire working environment so it's not like I'm ditching windows for good. And I'm not a complete Windows hag, I used to be a very vocal user of Linux. But that was in my spirited OSS days. Now, I'm just too lazy to fight the Windows tide, it's just easier cos the majority of software runs pretty much seamlessly on a Windows platform. I just got tired of having manually mount/unmount external storage and finding drivers was a chore. It could all be sooooo much easier these days but I wouldn't know, my Red Hat days ended the day I started working for this company. And I did get to play around with Mac's Jaguar that I liked but didn't love.
So, anyways, Google banning Windows really got me to re-evaluate. I figured I should really explore my tech choices and after a couple of days thinking about it, I came to the decision that I will save up for the highest spec Macbook Air. Yes, when I wanna do some tech upheaval, I usually like to go all out. After deciding this, I was feeling just ambivalent, it's not like a life-changing thing or anything. Then I remembered a plug piece on the Lenovo Ideapad I saw in the Indonesian Cosmopolitan mag I was reading at the hotel lobby. It was a tablet/netbook hybrid and I thought it was a great concept.
I ended up googling it and though the reviews for the Ideapad S10 were less than favourable, the Ideapad U1, however, is creating waves. The difference between the S series and the U series is that the screen on the U1 can be popped out AND runs on a standalone processor seperate from when it's hinged onto the dock. It's basically 2 seperate devices in one, running two seperate processors on two different OS. When it's in notebook form, it runs on the Windows 7 platform, which I've only heard mainly good things about, with an Intel Core 2 Duo SU 4100 processor; and when it's popped out like a tablet, it runs Linux and has a speedily efficient Qualcomm ARM 1Ghz Snapdragon processor. How is THAT not cool? And for an estimated price of USD999.10, it's waaaay less than the highest spec Macbook Air I was planning on getting which would have cost me USD1800 at most.
Of course, it's all early stages right now as the Ideapad U1 hasn't even been released (tentative release date was June 1st - which has come and gone - but I haven't seen any news confirming that as yet) but after the initial reviews come in and if they're good/great, I would definitely go this way instead. If the reviews are lacklustre, perhaps only then will I become bandwagon-y and join the Mac pod people. Hey, even Lee DeWyze stating he's unequivocally a Mac guy can't 100% convince me to switch however hard I'm crushing on him. And I am. Crushing hard, that is, however embarassing it is to admit. I heard his version of Beautiful Day on the local radio station here today for the first time and I practically went giddy with excitement. My colleagues think I'm nuts. I'm just glad they don't know why I'm acting all teenager-y :)
UPDATE (03/06/2010):
Perhaps fate is just screwing around with me :) Practically every product that's been deemed an Apple product killer that I've wanted ends up (a) not living up to the so-called hype - i.e: N97 which I love anyways cos I don't care for the touch screen superiority of the iPhone (b) killed/shelved because the concept can't realistically be turned into production - i.e: HP Slate and now....the Lenovo Ideapad U1. LOL. I hate how I blogged about it and right after I get smacked right in the face with egg :D Anyways, to be fair, they are pushing back the release to the end of the year cos they decided to go a different route on the OS. I'm not sure if it's either the windows platform or the linux platform that's causing the redirection but well, that gives me more time to mull over the Macbook Air. Maybe it's just time I became a convert already :)
That's not to say that I have never been tempted but at every point when my resistance grows weak, other manufacturers come up with a product that make me forget the allure of any and all Apple products.
I really don't get my disdain for Apple. It's not like I don't like the stuff they come up with. They're very innovative and very good. I guess it stems from my own personal feelings of not wanting to be told that you're in with the cool set if you go Mac or own an iPod/iTouch/iPhone/iPad. I don't particularly know what that says about me but it seems like I don't want to be cool, LOL.
Anyways, I wasn't succumbing to the siren calls of the iPhone (I'm looking into an android phone as my next mobile purchase) nor the iPad, which I've played with cos my bandwagon-y sister owns one (I was totally prepared to go the opposite direcion and get the HP Slate before HP shelved the concept) but was about to seriously invest in a Macbook.
I had just read a news article that talked about Google HQ banning Windows OS due to the hacking debacle a coupla weeks ago and it finally spurred me into really giving a thought to switching my personal OS. Let's face it, as much as Mac wants to get us all onboard, the OS market is still predominantly Windows as is my entire working environment so it's not like I'm ditching windows for good. And I'm not a complete Windows hag, I used to be a very vocal user of Linux. But that was in my spirited OSS days. Now, I'm just too lazy to fight the Windows tide, it's just easier cos the majority of software runs pretty much seamlessly on a Windows platform. I just got tired of having manually mount/unmount external storage and finding drivers was a chore. It could all be sooooo much easier these days but I wouldn't know, my Red Hat days ended the day I started working for this company. And I did get to play around with Mac's Jaguar that I liked but didn't love.
So, anyways, Google banning Windows really got me to re-evaluate. I figured I should really explore my tech choices and after a couple of days thinking about it, I came to the decision that I will save up for the highest spec Macbook Air. Yes, when I wanna do some tech upheaval, I usually like to go all out. After deciding this, I was feeling just ambivalent, it's not like a life-changing thing or anything. Then I remembered a plug piece on the Lenovo Ideapad I saw in the Indonesian Cosmopolitan mag I was reading at the hotel lobby. It was a tablet/netbook hybrid and I thought it was a great concept.
I ended up googling it and though the reviews for the Ideapad S10 were less than favourable, the Ideapad U1, however, is creating waves. The difference between the S series and the U series is that the screen on the U1 can be popped out AND runs on a standalone processor seperate from when it's hinged onto the dock. It's basically 2 seperate devices in one, running two seperate processors on two different OS. When it's in notebook form, it runs on the Windows 7 platform, which I've only heard mainly good things about, with an Intel Core 2 Duo SU 4100 processor; and when it's popped out like a tablet, it runs Linux and has a speedily efficient Qualcomm ARM 1Ghz Snapdragon processor. How is THAT not cool? And for an estimated price of USD999.10, it's waaaay less than the highest spec Macbook Air I was planning on getting which would have cost me USD1800 at most.
Of course, it's all early stages right now as the Ideapad U1 hasn't even been released (tentative release date was June 1st - which has come and gone - but I haven't seen any news confirming that as yet) but after the initial reviews come in and if they're good/great, I would definitely go this way instead. If the reviews are lacklustre, perhaps only then will I become bandwagon-y and join the Mac pod people. Hey, even Lee DeWyze stating he's unequivocally a Mac guy can't 100% convince me to switch however hard I'm crushing on him. And I am. Crushing hard, that is, however embarassing it is to admit. I heard his version of Beautiful Day on the local radio station here today for the first time and I practically went giddy with excitement. My colleagues think I'm nuts. I'm just glad they don't know why I'm acting all teenager-y :)
UPDATE (03/06/2010):
Perhaps fate is just screwing around with me :) Practically every product that's been deemed an Apple product killer that I've wanted ends up (a) not living up to the so-called hype - i.e: N97 which I love anyways cos I don't care for the touch screen superiority of the iPhone (b) killed/shelved because the concept can't realistically be turned into production - i.e: HP Slate and now....the Lenovo Ideapad U1. LOL. I hate how I blogged about it and right after I get smacked right in the face with egg :D Anyways, to be fair, they are pushing back the release to the end of the year cos they decided to go a different route on the OS. I'm not sure if it's either the windows platform or the linux platform that's causing the redirection but well, that gives me more time to mull over the Macbook Air. Maybe it's just time I became a convert already :)
